First text, then pictures, now this

I can't believe how far we've come. In the olden days, all you really could do was write stuff down in a journal, throwing them into a storage trunk when you were done, and then hope like crazy that someday when you were dead and gone your grand children would find your journals, marvel at your creativity and insight, and publish a book using your material. How splendid that I don't have to wait that long. BEHOLD! Written stuff ...and video stuff so I don't have to write that much.

The video above is Marylin baking cookies with Kathy in 2004 (I'm pretty sure). It's also on You Tube ...check it ... Marylin making cookies.

So Much to Blog

A ho-hum, mundane, long summer suddenly is bristling with activity. Among the things I want to blog about are my (Crazy) Aunt Geri's passing, my family vacation, my youngest daughter being used in promotional items, and Jimmy.

Dream Vacation, revisited

I won money. I won't say how much, but who will argue with free money? You may remember I entered an essay, 150 words or less, regarding my dream vacation (that post is the post just previous to this one). And lo' and behold (how I've longed to use "lo' and behold" on my blog) ...I won. Hooray for me!

I'm definitely going to be entering more essay-related contests.

Dream Vacation

Keep your finger's crossed that this 150-words-or-less essay wins my family a trip. Entrants were asked to describe their dream vacation and the best essay wins their "dream."

If you had asked me 4 years ago about my dream vacation, I would’ve said, “running with the bulls in Italy.” Or maybe I’d have said, “Seeing the Great Wall of Russia.” Like George Bailey, my only limits were the size (and accuracy) of the dreams I could dream. But now, with three kids under 5, my dream vacation has changed. With each viewing of Cinderella, Finding Nemo, Snow White, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, my dreams of kayaking through Great Britain’s mighty rainforests are no longer the important dreams. Instead, the possibility of meeting Mickey Mouse, of having breakfast with Donald Duck and Goofy, and of watching fireworks explode above the Magic Kingdom have become the vacations of my dreams. My children’s dreams have become my dreams. What was it Jiminy Cricket used to say? “When you wish upon a star…?” Yes. Your vacation dreams come true.

The Other Birthday Boy

As I mentioned just one post earlier, the other birthday boy, my Dad, and Grandma Sally, went to see the Kieth Urban-Faith Hill concert.

That last sentence needs more commas.

A radio station took their picture. Hee haw! Or is it "yee haw!" Whichever, my Dad had fun - even without a thunder & lightning storm every 20 minutes and giant animatronic animals everywhere.

Birthdays

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays. Four in the last two weeks. It's a fun part of the year. Normally there probably wouldn't be so much hoopla around two of them, but there was something in the air this year.

My nephew turned 3. His birthday is on the 4th of July, so we all get together for fireworks and grilling out at my brother's place, and why not have some cake, too. The cake was good ...it was made entirely of ice cream sandwiches. It's true.

Let's see. Who else? Oh, yes. Me! I turned 34. Ya know, I'm still in the 18-34 age cell demographic, so I'm listening to all the rock music I can, watching MTV alot, and saying "rad" and "tubular" as much as I can because, well, next year I'll be an Adult 35+ and those people don't talk like that. It was a great day full of family cooked breakfasts, presents, and was capped off by everyone - brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, wives, nieces, and nephews - joining me for dinner at Rainforest Cafe. What a day! I would bet not every birthday boy who turns 34 gets as much fan fair. I loved it. My Dad turned 63 but opted to go see a concert with Grandma Sally. Probably a better choice.

I'm sure 18 year olds say "tubular", right?

Most notable however was Dana, my kid sis, who turned 30. She's a thirty-something, now. I feel like I can relate to her better now that she's a bit older. Her husband threw her a wild, crazy, thirtieth birthday blowout! It was awesome. J-Lo and Kid Rock were there. Or maybe it was all her friends and family and their kids and it was just a "really nice time." Whatever it was, it was nice and I had fun. I made her a CD full of music from her 30 years on this planet. I'm kinda proud of it. The CD cover is included her, as well as the liner notes and track listing. Please to enjoy.

1. Three's Company Theme Song
2. Dancing Queen, ABBA
3. Go Your Own Way, Fleetwood Mac
   
4. London Calling, The Clash
   
5. Star Wars Cantina Song, John Williams (I assume)
   
6. Step By Step, NKOTB
   
7. Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles
   
8. I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Whitney Houston
   
9. Livin' On a Prayer, Bon Jovi
   
10. I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston
    
11. James Brown Is Dead
12. Can't Touch This, MC Hammer
    
13. This is How We Do It, Montell Jordan
    
14. The Freshman, The Verve Pipe
15. MMMBop, Hansen
16. A Moment Like This, Kelly Clarkson
17. How Do I Live, Leann Rimes
18. Lose Yourself, Eminem
    
19. Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5
20. Girlfriend, Avril Lavigne

And the liner notes... included here for your reading pleasure and for my memory book. Blog to you soon!

The year was 1977 and the country had just finished celebrating its bicentennial. Three’s Company made its television debut, Fleetwood Mac released their quintessential album, “Rumours,” ABBA was taking the U.S. by storm, Jimmy Carter was President, and The Clash and The Sex Pistols were launching the British punk invasion. Star Wars was playing at the local cinemaplex and an entire generation longed to go far, far away and see the band at the Tatooine cantina. And on June 29^th, Dana Kowalewski was born to Bill and Mary Lou in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

10 years later. 1987. MTV was the new music trade, a launching pad for a new breed of look-good pop stars like New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany. You wore leg warmers. You did. Gas was .89cents. Your hair was feathered and permed. We said things like, “awesome,” and, “tubular.” We may not have actually said, “tubular.” But we did enjoy watching Cheers – the #1 show on TV that year, and we all were “walkin’ like Egyptians” and “living on prayers.”

For a good part of the next decade, you spent your time dancing. The Dana Kowalewski of Sterling Heights became the Dana Kowalewski of Kentwood. And it was in Kentwood that life really started taking off. You turned 16, got your license, and no doubt drove all over Grand Rapids singing Whitney Houston’s smash hit, “I Will Always Love You.” Your brother often borrowed your “James Brown is Dead” CD for DJing at his frat parties up at MSU – this was before the days of burning a copy for people. And I’ll bet you and your dance team friends thought that Montell Jordan wrote “This is How We Do It,” just for you. You probably wore a flannel shirt or two – you definitely wore legwarmers. You watched Blossom and Friends on TV.

Can’t touch this.

You may not know this, but Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman’ was written and performed at MSU frat parties, The Riv, and Rick’s during your freshman year in high school. Years later, coincidentally, when you were a freshman at MSU, it was released and rose to #1 on the billboard charts nationwide. If this song never really meant anything to you …well, it should, darn it. Two freshman years, one “Freshman” song. Crazy, huh? I’m sure there were many musical memories from college, but I’ll bet no song better captures those college years than Hanson’s “MmmBop.” Included for your pleasure.

College, college, college. Graduation, student teaching, actual teaching, falling in love, etc, etc. All of which lead to “true love” with some Italian dude from Down River. All of which lead to marriage. Interestingly enough, you wore legwarmers at your wedding, too. 2002, the year you were married, you and Trent danced to Leann Rimes’ “How Do I Live.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. American Idol emerged as the driving musical voice of this new generation and gave us Clarkson’s immortal classic, “A Moment like This.” We “lost ourselves” in Eminem’s Oscar winning rap anthem. Survivor was the #1 show on TV, and I think you had a kid or something, too.

What now? 30 years have come and gone. Today, we listen to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Maroon 5’s “Makes Me Wonder” and we wonder …which of these songs will be on your 40^th birthday CD? We will never forget dancing to them at your Super Sweet Thirty party and how you looked in those legwarmers.

Happy Birthday, sis! I can’t wait to make another CD in another 10 years.

Love,

Don, Kathy, Marylin, Ada, and Jimmy

Summering

Time flies. Fireworks fly. My heart soars.

My baby Ada is now 9 months old. Ahem ...to say she's fat and happy is an understatement. Kathy just came from her 9-month check-up. Drum roll . . . 21 lbs, 14oz. 90th percentile. Marylin was 14 lbs at her 9-month check-up, so let's just say that Ada is a Marylin-and-a-half. I find it all quite amusing, actually, and I'm just happy she's healthy. Ada really is the easiest baby. She's crawling. Pulling herself up on things and trying to stand. This is months ahead of either Jimmy or Marylin. She's ready to start runnin' with the big kids.

Speaking of big kids, my li'l sis is suddenly a big kid. Dana left the world of twentysomethings and joined us thirtysomethings. Trent threw her a party last weekend and it was fun. I mad her a mix CD full of 30-years worth of musical memories. I hope she has as much fun listening to it as I did making it. The picture to the left are all the cousins watching Cars and getting ready for bed.

Marylin turned 4. Ada is 9 months. We learned that Dave & Melissa are adding to the family and the cousin-count. And Vito turned 3. Yankee Doodle Vito really lucks out because the entire country lights fireworks in his honor ...as we did again at Dave & Melissa's for the 4th. As you can see, the kids were half-scared, half-thrilled.

Vegas 2007

Another year and another set of great memories from Vegas. It was a vacation we had been looking forward to for months and it did not disappoint.

I'm pretty sure, even with all the mayhem that comes with 3 grandkids under the age of 4 staying in their 2 bedroom condo, that Grandma Lenny and Grandpa Jimmy had a good time, too.

The kids only took the first two days to adjust to the time-change. Ada handled it the best and did nothing to change my opinion of her as the best baby ever. As I said to Kathy on the plane ride out, "a well trained St. Bernard could babysit Ada."

Some highlights of the week included daily trips to the condo's pool. I'd say we swam 5 out of the 8 days, even though the weather was rather cool when we were there. Of course, it was in the 90s the entire week before we got to Vegas and immediately following our departure, but we've just come to accept that as our Vegas fate. Honestly, I'm not complaining, but it only rains 10 days every year in Vegas and Grandma and Grandpa rarely see clouds - they say. But everytime we go, we have at least one day of rain and this time we had multiple overcast days.

Much to our surprise, Marylin put on her swimmies and jumped right in the pool, swiming all by herself. Much to our chagrin, the floaty-vest we bought for Jimmy didn't float. Oh, well. Next year.

Grandma and Grandpa played the role of well-trained-St.-Bernard and we took Marylin and Jimmy on daily adventures. Although Vegas doesn't actively market it, there really is a great deal of things to do with your family. Highlights included the lion habitat at the MGM, the lions and dolphins at The Mirage, the M&M store on the strip, the midway at the Excaliber (which looks like Disney's Magic Kingdom to my kids, and that was good enough), the Ethel M Factory Tour, and the aquarium at Mandalay Bay.

As always, there was dining out. Our new favorite buffet is at South Point. We ate there twice. Also good was a Mexican restaurant at Mandalay Bay. Otherwise it was ham sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and pancakes back at the condo. And really, who could complain about that?

Grandma and Grandpa also happen to live right along a flight path so we're able to watch airplanes landing from sun-up to sun-down, and for a 2 1/2 year old (and even the 4 year old), this is the best show in town. Grandma and Grandpa's sun porch made the perfect plane-watching outpost.

I'm going to guess that Grandma doesn't typically build forts with all the pillows in the condo, spread toys from one end of the family room to the other, and she probably doesn't watch The Backyardigans and The Wiggles. So, I'm also going to guess that Grandma slept for two straight days after we left. But while we there, she had more than her fair share of floor exercises, games, coloring, Playdough, and children's videos. If she dared seek respite, Jimmy would go running and asking "where hama Lenny" (translation: Where's Grandma Lenny?)

And, even better, on the very last night in Vegas, yours truly was chosen to stay in with the kids while Jimmy, Lenny, and Kathy went to the casino one-last-time, and let's just say Kathy hit enough to pay for the entire trip, again. Woo hoo! Viva Las Vegas.

A Week in the Life

I'm reading a book called "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog." As you can see from the infrequent posts, I lack for motivation some times. It suggested I take pictures of everything and anything for a week and see what inspires me. The pictures I took this week reminded me of all the little things that happen every day all around us ...and it made me wonder if we truly appreciate them all. Its like the old saying goes ...sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses.

Here are my roses.

Jimmy loves puzzles. Jimmy loves his sister - sometimes too much. He tries to treat Ada like a stuffed animal, but we know its only because he loves her SOOOOO much. He also loves his cousins. A big highlight of last week was the arrival of cousins Jeremiah and Amanda - and of course Uncle Dick and Aunt Isabel, but they weren't nearly as exciting to Jimmy and Marylin as their cousins. If you wanna see hyper kids, bring a 12 and 14 year old cousin around. Jimmy and Marylin were bouncing off the walls. Luckily I got to go to the Pistons game with them and Kathy was left with Jimmy, Marylin and Ada for bedtime. Phew!

Jimmy and Marylin love our birdfeeders. The feeders sit right outside our kitchen window, so its like they have a big screen TV to watch during every meal. Most times we can't keep them in their seats because they prefer a birds eye view (is that a pun?)! The J & M show also have given up on Mom and Dad building them forts, so they've taken matters into their own hands. To the right you'll see a pillow fort courtesy of J & M Construction.


Oh, yes. That other kid. Ada. Good gal. Lots of smiles. Sometimes I really have to lecture her about doing more blog-worthy stuff. Eating solids, holding toys, and lifting her head up ...well ...been there done that. But, for the record, this is what she's doing at 6 months: rolling across rooms, sleeping through the night, waving, trying to crawl, laughing, and reading the newspaper.

In case you can't tell from these pictures, its finally Spring and Easter is here. The neighborhood Easter Egg hunt should be featured in "An Inconvenient Truth, Part II." Ridiculous. We didn't know if the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus would show up.



Here's that other kid I keep mentioning ...Ada. At the mall with the Easter Bunny. After the mall, Kathy and the kids visited my office. Jimmy worked the phones and closed some big deals. A natural salesman. Marylin mostly daydreamed and looked out the window at the cars. We have an appointment with her guidance counselor this week. Jimmy did say he'd give her a weekly allowance as long as she was trying to find work. He's a good kid.

Jimmy and Marylin were kind enough to set the table for Easter and then do a dry run of Easter brunch. They set and blocked the entire day featuring their "buddies." The next day came off without a hitch thanks to their pre-planning efforts.

And every Easter, Marylin kinda double dips. Candy and an Easter surprise in the morning, then Birthday presents and cake that afternoon. Aunt Dana hit another homerun with an incredible Strawberry Shortcake cake. The kids ate cake and ice cream and more ice cream. A milestone was reached ...Barbies officially became a toy in our home. Things will never be the same. Uncle/Grandpa Jerry really liked the new train cars and Ada Louisa. Aunt/Grandma 'Nise was more than happy to help feed Ada. And the rest of the shots just capture another great Easter-slash-Birthday. Oh, and Uncle Dave debuted a new, longer hair-do.

I guess I kinda ended up tellin' ya what I "ate for lunch" after all. Oh, and sorry for the lack of photo compression ...I'll figure it out one of these days.