New Year's

Well, it is another New Year's Eve. I am not really going to be sorry to see 2009 go. Many good things happened in 2009 like our little Aidan and getting to know Max when he lived with us for 7 months. Looking forward to 2010 we have much to be thankful for. .. a family that loves to spend time together, little guys that are growing up at the speed of light and whatever new adventures that have yet to be discovered.

Looking back, there was some sadness... beginning with the sudden and surprising death of Fran's mother. Then Thomas died in May. Oh what a loss his family (I count myself among them) and community have suffered. I have never met one like him before or since. His giving spirit and genuine desire to care for others was an inspiration for the decade plus that I was privileged to know him. He lived life as fully as possible and now is living in eternity soon to be reunited with all of us that loved him! Moving on in the losses was probably the biggest life changer for my family... Jeannine's death. Happy Birthday to you today you would have been 80. A second mother all of my life and I have realized in many ways she became my mother in the last few years as I dealt with the dementia and aging of my own mother. Miss you here on this earth!!!

We can't forget our celebrations... the most notable came in August and September with Aidan being born on August 20th and then Gma turning 80 and cruising in September to celebrate her 80th. Gma showed us how good 80 can look!! She had a great time. We all did on that cruise!! We saw places we had been to before and a couple of places we had never been before that trip. It was a great time of family and fun.

Speaking of fun... what a joy it has been to get to know our new addition to the family... Aidan Charles. He entered this world just a week before Gma's 80th and just two days before his daddy's 27th.

He is a giggler only as of now, nothing comes out when he giggles and of course he has no teeth. He is a jolly little Santa type (he is kind of rolly polly). I wonder if the giggle will be as charming with teeth?!?

I look forward to the next year as we celebrate many new adventures with our little guys!! Aidan will probably take his first steps in 2010 and Drewman will be 4 in a few short weeks! I can hardly believe how much he is growing up!!

We will also be celebrating friendships as our friends from Australia will be here in the summer and will be taking a cruise with us out of Baltimore and a graduation celebration with another group of friends on the same trip.

Here's hoping that 2010 is full of celebrations!!!

Sunday-- Christmas vacation for AKS, inc (cont'd)

Sunday begins with a trek to take Don to work. Then it is off to gather the fam. together to visit a friend who lives near Chicago but not exactly in Chicago. Cracker Barrel, a favorite of everyone in this family. It has snowed for the last two days and continues to snow but the streets are surprisingly good-- Chicago actually cleans their streets!! Now that is a novel idea. However, Indiana where we went for lunch apparently takes lessons from Ohio. Not the best roads. After some 40 or so conversations about the topic, gma decides to join us (she didn't have a choice but she didn't know that). She knows Sue and besides, leave her alone without a phone in Don's apartment while I was in another state??? I don't think so! Good brunch and then back to the apartment because of course, no one can get their luggage closed for the trip home tonight. Re-pack and re-pack a couple more times and then decide to leave a couple of things for Don to bring to us later.


7:00 p.m. Time to start getting everyone moving to the train station. Once there the marathon begins. No outside help and no place to park at the Amtrak station. So, Don circles the joint with Gma in the care while Adam and I run in and attempt to check the baggage... GREAT... a line!!! Don isn't picking up his phone... now what to do... OK, here goes... leave Adam in line with the bags and run outside to get gma. This shouldn't be difficult, after all we left some things for Don to bring back to us. Wrong!! I did manage to get everything we had left and the wheelchair and gma but looked like a pack mule when I was running back into the train station. I am glad Don DID NOT have a camera. We made it to get the bags checked in just under the wire. They weren't as particular as usual since there were so many people trying to check in at one time. Once we made it to the gate, it was a bit easier. They gave us a number but didn't tell us what that was for. So, when they called us for the red cap, I said "Is that us?" and the attendant said "YES!!!!!!!!!!!" I said, "well you didn't tell me what the number was for". We did make it on the train and managed to get three seats together or at least close. The adventure doesn't end there but we had great icy roads that greeted us in Toledo and continued for the whole 3 1/2 hour adventure back to Columbus. I was a bit beat on Monday but survived it.

Saturday-- family Christmas vacation continued

Today is pretty uneventful. We will have a late dinner with another friend (I had no idea I knew so many people in Chicago!). She is actually family of some of our extended family. Lottie will be 83 years young this year. She is a little German lady with a little German personality. She worked hard all of her life, first making contact lenses and then as a waitress at the Marshall Field upscale restaurant in Chicago. She only retired about 4 years ago. Dinner was spectacular as always and then the clean up adventure. Well, actually there was no clean up to it because there was no hot water in Don's apartment... again. We decided to wait until Sunday to clean up. We spent the evening watching a Golden Girls marathon on TV and listening to stories from Lottie about her family and her life. She has lead one interesting life! After returning Lottie home, we walked the COLD 1/2 mile from where we parked the car and spent the rest of the evening attempting to warm up.

Christmas vacation-- better than Clark Griswold's anytime

Did you know Smore's are not just for camping anymore?!? I had no idea until Christmas day when we were invited to a friend's house to celebrate with their family. I am certain that at least a couple of members of this party had NEVER been on a camping trip before. However, when it came time to eat dessert we had... you guessed it-- Smore's. I could not imagine what we were going to use to roast marshmallows but in came mom and friend followed by three children under age 7 and mom pulled out little sticks to put the marshmallows on to roast in their fireplace!! It was a toasty experience :)

Christmas time was a blast

Well, aks, inc. WAS off to a good start. We planned to be in BG by about 3:30...then the Adam dude realized he couldn't get his schedule so off to a detour to Kroger's. Once inside the K store we discovered it wasn't just the parking lot that was a madhouse! Kroger still didn't have a schedule ready (after all, why would we want our people to know when they need to be at work) so off we went to Bowling Green with plans to go to Chicago on Christmas day.
We spent the evening enjoying a very excited Drew as he waited for the appearance of Santa. For the first time he realized all the fun that Christmas had to offer. We would have loved to be able to join his Christmas morning excitement. Next year Aidan will join in the Christmas excitement but for now, he is content to sit and giggle on my lap or grandma's. Andy and Holliday will have a fun time with two boys from now on. They are enjoying it now that life with an infant is a bit more manageable. It was good to spend time together for Christmas. Church as a family on Christmas eve is one of our most important traditions.
AKS, inc had a different type of adventure to embark upon for Christmas day though. Early in the morning before the sun was up, we were attempting to make a 6:15 a.m. train to Chicago. Grandma was so confused. She thought she was going on a bus and then she didn't know where we were going. It is just a tough thing to do to clear the cobwebs from upstairs these days.
Once we were finally aboard, I thought "Great 4 hours to sleep and that leaves 1/2 hour to gather everyone and everything together!!" Oh, but little did I know... Chatty Kathy followed me to my seat and sat next to me chattering for almost4 hours. I had no idea grandma had so much to say at that hour of the morning :) We talked about the bus and where were we going to end up?!? We talked about the fact that this bus was a train and it was headed for Chicago. We talked some more about what we were doing for Christmas and when was Christmas anyway?? Then when Chatty Kathy went to sleep for a few minutes, a very tired AKS was settling in with eye pillow and everything to take a short snooze. Oh it was some good sleep... for about 15 minutes. Suddenly a thud on my arm and then another followed by "mam, mam" "here is a pillow for you." OK if I was looking for a pillow, someone forgot to tell my sleepy eyes this as they were already closed!! Well, goodbye sleep because Mr. Porter, sir managed to wake up Chatty Kathy too!! Thus begins another round of where is this bus taking us?
The "trainbus" landed us in the Chicago Union Station right on schedule. We were eager to detrain but refrained until most people were off since we make a train of our own and it is a slow one. Besides, by the time I retrieved the wheelchair which was rows behind us when everyone was exiting the train ahead of us, last place for detraining was our only option. Not a problem, then we can be a slow train of our own. Grandma on her feet and attempting to put coat on and keep oxygen tubing tangling to a minimum.
Well, that was fun. We are now "detrained". A porter appears and says she will call a redcap because we can't get the wheelchair up the stairs until they pick us up. So, we wait... and we are still waiting... and we are still waiting...finally, the porter comes off the train with her luggage in hand. She says, "I'm just going up here to speed that red cap up". I can only think...maybe we will still be standing there when the train leaves again at 9 p.m. Finally, a beep and another beep and there is a cart in sight... he pulls up beside me, stops but wait his cart is full. He says, "I'll be right back". Hmmm. I think I have heard this somewhere... 15 more minutes go by "Is that another beep beep?" Why yes it is... he drives past but this time turns around and comes back to us. We load all of our STUFF onto the cart and I wonder if there will be room for us. Sure enough, we all fit with our stuff. Off to baggage claim. There is the whole crew of people from our train and baggage hasn't started rolling out yet... maybe it wasn't quite as long as I thought. Baggage retrieved without a hitch!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!! to us :)