In like a lamb out like a lion …

Another whirlwind few weeks.  

Jimmy was home on spring break and worked his tail off with law school wait list final details, homework, prep for Teach for America interviews and writing a paper for the Naval Academy conference in 2 weeks. We made all his favorite food and he saw all his friends plus went to church for al Easter prep/services.  Played drums and guitar, cuddled with the dogs and kept us company. All in all, a good week.  The next 7 weeks will be fun, exciting, stressful, and anxiety ridden. Waiting to hear back from Notre Dame, 2 hours interview and mock classroom teaching with Teach for America,  5 baseball games to call, a law firm interview, the undergrad Naval Academy Policy Conference, the last few weeks with his friends, graduation prep, finals, etc.... Hoping he finds a way to be in the moment, enjoy this time, and know that all and only good is coming his way.

We managed to get all 3 kids home on Easter for a take out lunch from Sichun, Kay's favorite place to get Pho. We also took the boys and Jim/Jen Fellows to Cossettas to celebrate Jam's birthday. So fun to have everyone together.

It snowed. A lot. 15 inches in a week, which over doubled the amount of snow we got all winter. We need it! But, it made for a messy week.

Melissa and Andre (big neighbors) got a new dog, Lola!

Our garage is famous not that Kevin Doran (newscaster) came to our St Pats Party - you never know who will be at one of our parties!! 

We went to The Parkway, our favorite place to see music, to see Steve Forbert and ran into Mike and Frankie! This is notable because they live outside Waterloo Canada and, yes, came here just to see the show! (oh, and their oldest Dan is in his final year of law school at St Thomas and just had a birthday plus Frankie is on her way to Spokane for a conference) ... it was a huge surprise and such a blessing to see them there!

We are doing Veg April and Tracy has a list of 28 recipes, some old, some new, to try. Wish us luck!

Sending you all love, peace, sleep, health, snuggles, dogs, good food, great friends, family and all that we have...

xoxoxo

TT

 

Time races in to St Pats Day!

 Honest to god, it feels like every day is rather dull and normal and then all of a sudden a full month has gone by! Here are the highlights...including the 21st annual St Pats Day Parade, its of legal age and showed off this year!

A few updates....

Tom is good, smoked 42lb's of pork for the party and we ran out! we also ran out of plates, buns and coleslaw...so it goes, so it goes.

Kay has had a rough month, developed bronchitis and ended up in the ER twice with a bronchitis induced asthma attack. One was at 3:00am, she drove to our house and we called 911 since she couldn't breath. The other was a week later (and a week into meds...) and Tom took her straight from work to the ER, they admitted her overnight and now she is on a complicated 21 med cycle to try and knock this. It was scary but she was a trouper and I'm very proud of how she didnt panic and it didnt send her into a tail spin. If anything she was pissed she had to miss work!

Billy had an amazing spring break in Seattle and his photos are unbelievable. Of course, his favorite part was the all day hike, but they also saw multiple museums, went thrifting and wandered around Pikes Market

Jimmy has had a slight change in strategy for law school, he's wait listed at Norte Dame and Berkley so now he's going to hold out for ND. Now is the time to get in alumni letters of rec and boy did he score a big one, see photo below. He also won French Honor Society and Homeland Security Honor Society. Not to mention a $1k scholarship for this last year of football (not clear how that will work since all the bills are paid but... still meaningful to be recognized!)

Tracy is adapting to her new job and is loving it. Lots of moving around and being in the moment. Needing to retrain my brain!

The dogs are the dogs. Silly and lovable.

Big hugs to all of you!

TTJKB

Slicing pork

Badgers won the BiG 10 by 1 in overtime, Grandpa was over the moon!

Our grand marshalls, Shirley E and her new husband Steve

Only 363 days until St Pats Day! 

Jack G made his presence known and is lobbying to be grand marshal next year

Favorite math day of the year! 3/14

The People Brothers Band was incredible at the Dakota...opened for... 

Mae Simpson Band, what a show!! 

Yes, I was nervous that the fire truck showed up to our party but then they told me Tom invited them! The kids were thrilled! 

Unbelievable Letter of Rec to ND 

He had no idea who Andy Wharhol is but liked the shirt, good taste 

His favorite photo of the trip to Seattle 

Recognize anyone on the poster, giving a WTA kid a head shot! Ha!! 

February is a blur!!

 February is a blur and SUPER random. Our month, so far, in photos.

Billy had his friend over to build a funeral pyre to pay tribute to his halloween costumes... Creeper from mind craft and BMO from adventure land. I'm sure his roommate was tired of seeing a 5'6" Creeper in his dorm room

Grandpa's knee is healing amazingly well! He's back to driving and only using a cane. We have amazing genes.

Kay brought us treats for Valentine's day, they were SO good plus we got really sweet texts from Billy (Love you to the moon and back) and Jimmy (love you too... still deciding on law school ...)

Wendy and Tracy watched the Cross Country skiing world cup at Uteplis and it was so cool/close you could here them announcing it at Theo Worth when you stepped outside. Jessie Diggins took 3rd!!

Rat break out happened and Jimmy's Rats love him! He was a good Dyke, took care of them and really cared about their experience.

He voted in the primary, I don't even want to ask for who...

Tom went striped bass fishing in Texas with the crew of 35 years - it was cold (38) and they raked in a haul! 

Trouble

It warmed up beyond comprehension and now its tic season. urge....

We took advantage of the warm weather to have the 1st neighborhood bonfire of the season!

Tracy started work ~!  9-4 M-F .. no cell phones, no computers ... all hands on. SOOOO different and so far, loving it! 3 min walk to work.

We watched The Taste of Things which inspired Tom to make a new recipe. SOOO good basically seafood pot pie in a pastry puff

We hacked into Grandma's 23 & me and found out that we are mostly north French/soutwest German, Danish and Irish.  Plus, .2% from Kerala. So...random. We talked Grandpa into doing it to so...stay tuned

One of Billy's former teammates made the Olympics!! Congratulations Alasan!!

COVID style V-Day, yes, Tom had COVID. Again....Stupid 2nd graders...

Finally got snow and it was gorgeous!