Texas

We just finished the trek to Texas. Tilly, Xavier, and I are going to set up camp here for a while with my parents who are also moving, from Baton Rouge, LA. I'm going to try to take some pictures soon of the kids and the new home and post them. I promise to be better about updates. :)

Aimee came here three times. The first time, I had just torn my ACL in my knee while I was at UD, so I wasn't able to show her around the city. She was disappointed-- Aimee always felt that there were things that needed to be done, and there should never be any excuses to avoid them. We are all called to sacrifice. She was tough. :)

The second time, she was sick with the cold-- but I had set up my apartment for the "proposal." Hundreds of flowers on the porch, baked the bread for our sandwiches even. She arrived, beautiful and as cute as ever, and it was just wonderful! She didn't hesitate for a second when I asked, didn't even look at the ring-- she just smiled at me and said "yes."

The third time, we came for Dr. Louise's 90th birthday. It was a great time, especially since it was the first time we had to hustle to catch the plane, organize the kids, etc. We did such a great job. I really miss the way we worked together. We were great, and we were capable of great things together.

I still miss her so much.

Along the Row

One of Aimee's friends contacted me today about the reading of a poem Aimee had recorded while she worked at the archives department at Tufts. It's called "Along the Row" by John Holmes:

http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/holmes/world/row/row.html


Along the Row

The bell rang from the Chapel while we walked.
Oh, where are autumn days and nights like these!
I showed my friend the tower above the hill,
And Capen Path, Ballou between the trees.

A gate in the fence showed faintly in the dusk.
In East and West the lights began to shine.
A group of men passed by and called "Hullo-"
My heart sang, and I thought, "My college- mine!"

The Row in autumn twilight! Tall dark trees
Leaned kindly over us. We talked of games,
But I remembered old familiar friends,
And I was silent, thinking of old names.

The men who walked the Row before my time
Were by my side, good ghosts my heart awoke-
While I must show my friend the tennis court,
The newest hall for men, the gym. He spoke:

"How you must love this place!" My heart stood still
And ached to think how much I love this Hill.

April 23rd, 2009

Happy birthday, honey.

St. Paddy's 2009

The Leprechaun must have had a hole in his pot-- pennies were spilt all over the front walkway this morning. Good thing Xavier and Tilly were there to pick them up.

Bonus Pictures

We had given my mother our old digital camera last year but never gave her the cables or instructions to get it up and running. So while I was helping her with it, I discovered some photos from Thanksgiving 2007 still on the camera. I thought I'd post those.

Trip to Louisiana

We found a great deal on tickets to Baton Rouge, so we flew down to visit my mom. The kids and I had a fantastic time: we got to see LSU's Mike the Tiger, we went to the zoo, we went crawfishin' in the local ditches, we played at the park, we collected gumballs in the front yard, and much, much more .... (see if you can spot the crawfish in the 4th pic)

Aimee always wanted us to come back to visit, but we never had the time, etc. She was here once-- right after I proposed to her in Texas in 2002. We drove down here and had a great time. I can remember us going to Alligator Bayou. We wanted to take a canoe out on the swamps, and I asked if there were any gators out there. The lady at the rental booth said "Yeah!" and Aimee said "Yeah!" and I, of course, said "No!" But we went anyway. She was so excited at the chance of fending alligators off with our oars, but fortunately we didn't see any. Needless to say, Aimee was disappointed. But we still had a great time.