A Few Photos and a Story or Two

Susan is working date night this evening at the clubhouse, Gavin's at work and Hannah's sleeping over at Sarah's house. I find myself dinking around on the computer and looking at photos.

Here's an old photo, taken in the summer of 2000 - I think. Erick and Hannah are sitting on the front steps of Bill and Marisue's home on Drexmore Road in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The other children with them are TJ, Rachel and Christian Heist. That was the summer that we moved back to Cleveland from Grayslake, Illinois. We had put our house on the market in June or July, hoping to sell it before the school year started. After a week or two of no offers, Marisue and Bill graciously offered their home to us during the transition. So, we packed everyone up and moved into Drexmore, enrolling the kids in school: Erick and Hannah at Boulevard Elementary and Gavin at Woodbury. In December our home finally sold and we were able to purchase our new home at 3316 Aberdeen Road in Shaker.

In the four or five months we lived on Drexmore, we enjoyed meshing our families together. Here's a photo of Gavin getting his pumpkin ready to carve that October. My apologies to all of the children for showing these photos; they were so cute I just had to share. Other memories that stick out that fall were picking apples and making apple betty. Marisue loved apple betty and would often sneak down in the middle of the night to grab a spoonful or two. After about the third time I made, she told me that I had to stop. Her waistline couldn't take another tray. Ah good times.

Speaking of good times. This last photo is current. Sadie had her first bath a few weeks ago. She's growing so fast, I can hardly believe how little she was just a few weeks. For the record she loved the bath. Splashing around and playing with the suds. Tonight it snowed, a wet heavy snow. Sadie had a great time outside chasing snow flakes and generally being a little nut. I think she's about 55-60 pounds now and five months old. A little large for a lap dog, but don't tell her that. I hear Susan pulling in the driveway, so I'm going to sign off now.