Currently Reading I'll Hold You in Heaven By Jack W. Hayford see related

To Sam, "God hears," who left us on January 10, 2008 at 8 weeks' gestation.

Nobody Knew You
Nobody knew you
"Sorry about the miscarriage dear,
but you couldn't have been very far along."
...existed.
 
Nobody knew you
"It's not as though you lost an actual person."
...were real
 
Nobody knew you
"Well, it probably wasn't a viable fetus.
It's all for the best."
...were perfect.
 
Nobody knew you
"You can always have another!"
...were unique.
 
Nobody knew you
"You already have a beautiful child. Be happy!"
...were loved for yourself.
 
Nobody knew you
...but us.
 
And we will always remember
...You.
- by Jan Cosby

Poem that comes with the Reunion necklace I am ordering:

Since heaven has become your home
I sometimes feel that I'm alone;
And though we now are far apart
You hold a big piece of my heart
I never knew how much I'd grieve
When it was time for you to leave
Or just how much my heart would ache
From that one fragment you would take
God let this tiny hole remain,
Reminding me we'd meet again
And one day all the pain will cease
When He restores this missing piece
For Jesus heals each tiny part
That holds your memory in my heart

We'll love you forever, we'll like you for always.  As long as we're living, our baby you'll be.

Currently Reading And Ladies of the Club By Helen Hooven Santmyer see related

Back to school pictures.

Mr. Cool wearing his signature look:

 My big kindergarten girl *sniff*:

Siblings-turned-schoolmates:

Best buddies:

The gang at the bus stop (our house):

Here comes the bus -- look how excited Megan is!

All aboard!

And finally, Zach took my first-day-of-school picture on my first day of preschool:

Currently Reading And Ladies of the Club By Helen Hooven Santmyer see related

First day of preschool was a mixed bag.

Currently Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation By Lynne Truss see related

The kids are so excited about school starting!

Zach woke up thinking today was Wednesday and that school starts tomorrow.  He groaned when I told him it was only Tuesday!  He can't wait to see what Mr. P's class is like and how it will be actually going in to class with friends for the first time.  Megan is so excited that she gets to eat lunch her very first day and that they're having chicken nuggets and green beans! 

I'm so happy for them.  I hope they have as great a year as we're anticipating.  I hope it goes okay for me, too.  I'll have my job at the preschool Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have my application in to sub both in the school libraries and the classroom at any of the elementary schools on the other days.  I'll probably be giving up transcription and the doctor's office altogether if I get plenty of subbing, but I'll hang onto them for now until I see how things go. 

It's hard to let go of this way of being that I've enjoyed so much.  I'll miss having a small child around me most of the time (I say as I prepare to teach two classes of 14 three-year-olds -- but of course it's different from being with my own).  Being pretty much a stay-at-home mom has been the best time of my adult life so far and the happiest I've been.  I'm trying to keep in mind the story from my grandmother's funeral about the woman who told, as each phase with her children passed, that it could never get any better than right now, and it always did because of the lessons she taught her children along the way.  I'm sure that's the way it will prove to be for me, too, it's just hard to see it from here. 

Vacation to da UP

This was an amazing spot we found geocaching.  It was called "A Wall of Falls." The water ran down in little streams.  It was like being in the mountains and just beautiful!

Glass-bottom boat tour of the shipwrecks:

Zach on deck -- I LOVE this picture!

They pointed out an eagle's nest to us from the boat -- you can make out the bald eagle up there.  A lovely sight to behold:

Friends the kids made while waiting for the boat.  The golden retriever (Rip) loved jumping in the water after his toy and kept bringing it back to the kids to throw (with the owner's permission, of course).  The German shephard (Jedi) was not so sure about jumping in, but he loved the toy and kept trying to take it away before it went into the water:

Another very cool place we found geocaching.  The water dropped off beyond this wall of rocks, and Zach loved jumping in.  It reminded me of cliff divers. The whole spot looked like Grand Cayman or something.

I'm thinking this is from our canoe when we paddled out to Pictured Rocks, just before my camera stopped working.  We were able to go right up to the rocks and see them in fantastic detail.  It was amazing!

This is Miner's Castle, from our canoe:

This is a free roadside park we stumbled across, called Lakenenland.  Tom Lakenen created these amazing junk art pieces and put them up at this park.  There was a place to make a donation at the end, and it was well worth it!

This is Miner's Castle from the lookout.  You can see some people swimming down there into the little caves.  We did try that when we took the canoe out, but we couldn't find a good place to land -- our canoe isn't flat enough. 

Lake Superior at sunset is a breathtaking sight.  This was from our camp site:

Look how clear that water is!  You can also see by the kids' faces how very cold it is -- that's why it's so amazingly clear.  Algae and seaweed can't grow there, which the kids like.  It really wasn't as cold this time around as it has been other times.  It's been hot with very little rain to stir up the deep water.

Our beach at the campground. That's Grand Island back there, and we did paddle out there in the canoe one day, some of the roughest canoeing we've ever done.  We didn't tip, though!

The kids made great friends with this brother and sister, an 11- and 4-year-old.  Any time we were at the campground, they were playing together:

This is what a typical geocaching discovery looks like:

Another geocache showing a beuatiful view of Munising, with Megan holding the GPS.  We had walked about 2 miles up a lot of steep hills, and it was very hot and very dusty.  We were wiped out.

Another waterfall we found while geocaching:

Not sure why Megan looks so scared here -- she was just being silly:

The silly Leiters:

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