Dad's Retirement Weekend

We spent a wonderful weekend in Wisconsin celebrating my Dad and his retirement.  It was a BUSY weekend full of fun activities and family time.  Of course, it went by much too fast!  We left here about 5:00 pm Thursday and arrived in WI about 11:00 pm.  Of all that time spent on the road, Jeremiah slept approximately 1 hour!  Sheesh!  So he started off the weekend tired!  And there was no rest for the weary the remainder of the time we were there.

Jeremiah was excited to see his cousin Josie again.  They had so much fun playing together this weekend!

Friday morning we went over to Brookfield Christian School to see the program/parade that the students and teachers performed for my Dad.  It was so great! 

Dad's baby years-- Preschoolers dressed up as babies, pushing strollers.  Adorable!

Dad's growing up years

Bob Wiers: The College Years

First job at Racine Christian School

Can't mention Racine without having some Kringle (which Dad and Mom each have in hand)!

The marriage and family years (this would be the point at which I came along!).

The Calvin Christian School in Escondido, CA years-- woohoo!  Life was just a party at the beach all the time!  Seriously.

 A tribute to Dad's love of baseball.

And the Brookfield Christian School years.

This picture is hilarious-- we have always joked about Dad getting the school mail.  Every. Single. Day.  Except Sunday.  So this student carrying a stack of "school mail" was just perfect!

And then the retirement years-- yes, that is a picture of my Dad on a motorcycle.  I am SURE that will be his first post-retirement purchase.

Josie wasn't too sure about the picture of young Grandpa!

After the program, we headed out to the playground to let Jeremiah and Josie run around.  J went with Auntie Abby to check out the geese (because Mommy refused to.  Geese bite, you know.)

Friday afternoon while the little ones napped, Ben, Matt, Abby, Adam and I went for a Beer-History Tour at the Pabst Brewery.

Ben took a seat at the desk in Captain Pabst's office (he was a steamboat captain, FYI).

 It was a great tour-- very informational, funny, and you don't go home thirsty!

It was so much fun to watch Jeremiah and Josie interact and play together (it had been almost a year since they had seen each other in person!).  Here they are having some iPad fun.

 Yes, Jeremiah has several of Josie's hair barrettes in his hair.

 Friday night was the big program/open house for my Dad's retirement at my parents' church.  It was a really nice evening, and the program portion was very funny at times, and also very touching.  It's easy to see how many lives (students, teachers, parents, etc) my Dad has touched in his many years at various schools.  Also, it is very evident that he is known for "being nice." :)

Phew!  That was a busy day!  But no, we did not rest!  Our family was given tickets to the Brewers/Cubs game on Saturday, and we also got to go to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event before the game.  So we were at Miller Park by 9:00 am!

Jeremiah was a little antsy during this part of the day.  A cereal bar helped a little bit.

We heard Corey Hart and a few of the other Brewers players, as well as the manager, speak about their faith.  It was very cool!

 Yes.  Corey Hart looks exactly like my brother Matt.  Except with a beard.

 And we won an autographed devotional book!

After the FCA event, we had some time to kill before the game started.  So, we headed to the playground in Miller Park!  J and J had the run of the place for almost an hour!

That (along with 2 late nights in a row) must have worn Jeremiah out!  After lunch, while we were waiting in line to buy some peanuts, he fell asleep on my shoulder and proceeded to sleep through the first 4 innings of the game!  I'm not going to lie-- it was awesome.  We never would have made it to the 8th inning if he hadn't slept!

It was a great game-- we even got to see a grand slam!  And of course, the kids loved when Bernie went down the slide!  Although, Jeremiah must have been a bit scared of Bernie because a few times over the course of the weekend he said, "Bernie won't get me?"  I guess he is kinda creepy looking.

Saturday night we threw J and J in the tub together-- they thought that was hilarious!

Then Sunday was Mother's Day!  It was very nice for all of us Wiers siblings to be able to be with our mom on this day-- we have not all been together with her on Mother's Day since 1995!  I think she liked it.  My hubby did a nice job of spoiling me on Mother's Day also, just a bit early before we left for WI with a new ring, cards, and flowers. :)

We enjoyed a nice church service at my parents' church, and then a family lunch at Panera before we started going our separate ways.  Ben left for Chicago, we headed out for Iowa, Abby and Neil took off for Chicago, and Matt and Josie left Sunday night for California. 

WOW.  It was quite a whirlwind weekend, and went by way too fast!  It was so nice to be with my family and celebrate my Dad's wonderful career (45 years!) in Christian education.  Quite an accomplishment!  We love you Dad-- so glad we could be there to help celebrate with you!  Jeremiah is looking forward to many more visits now that you will have so much free time on your hands! :)

JW Landscaping

Adam and I have decided that a job in the landscaping field is in Jeremiah's future. Seriously, this kid's love of all things related to lawn mowing is almost to the point of obsession! And well, Mommy and Daddy apparently just want to fuel this obsession.

You see, a few weeks ago when Gramma and Grampa Wiers bought J a brand new "just like Daddy" lawnmower, we also spotted a weed trimmer that we knew J would LOVE. With no present-buying holidays in sight, we decided to just buy it for him because we knew how much he would love it. Does that make him spoiled? I justify it by saying that it's not like J was begging and begging and begging for this thing. He didn't even hardly see it when we were at Toys 'R' Us because he was so enamored with the lawnmower at the time. He didn't even know it existed! But, the poor kid has been walking around the yard for weeks pretending that a ladybug on a stick (that was stuck in the rocks on the side of our house, left from the previous house-owners) was a trimmer! Have you seen the infomercial for that super-awesome trimmer with the flower guard thing? I had not. Until last Saturday, and J saw it too and has been convinced we needed to buy one. So, people, the kid needed a trimmer in order for his life to be complete. So he's not spoiled, okay? Just go with it.

He's a natural, don't you think? While he was doing this, he said, "It's my job." Check out THIS VIDEO if you want to see Jeremiah a wee bit excited about his new trimmer. AND, you will see him in action. We are thinking of hiring him out this summer, if anyone is interested!

Also, in case you are wondering, yes he did throw a RAGING fit when we had to come in for a bath and bed. WOW. Finally he calmed down long enough to give the trimmer and mower a kiss good-night, and is fast asleep (probably dreaming about his brand new trimmer)! :)

Looking Up

Please don't think that I have been wallowing in sadness and self-pity for the past week and a half! Things are looking up, and life is moving on. I am by no means "over it" like I thought I was, but I think that I am taking steps to move forward, if that's possible. I know I won't ever forget, but with time things will get easier. So, I choose to look up-- to God, and trust in Him, and His will for our lives (this is easier some days than others). And I choose to enjoy the moments with my sweet boy-- he brings us so much joy!

We celebrated Easter last week. We enjoyed a wonderful church service (I managed to hold it together, even though we sang 2 of my favorite songs-- "Glorious Day" and "In Christ Alone") and then had brunch at Ruby Tuesday's (or Ruby Sunday, as J refers to it).


Being silly for the camera. And yes, he has 2 doughnut holes, shredded cheese, and a grape on his plate.

But what's Easter without ham?


After J's nap, we did a little Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard. Warning: The video includes shakey camera work by mommy AND the lens was dirty, too.

And after that, Daddy mowed! It was the perfect day in Jeremiah's eyes! :)


Then this past Thursday, Gramma and Grampa Wiers came for a long weekend visit! They spent the day with Jeremiah on Friday, and of course, J loved it. And after spending one day with Jeremiah, Gramma and Grampa felt as though he was in dire need of a new lawn mower (apparently they felt that the one I bought last summer for $2.50 at Walgreens was not going to make it through the summer. Oh, and it's broken). So, after dinner, we were off to Toys 'R' Us. After much searching, we found the mower of Jeremiah's dreams!

Complete with mower sounds and a string thingy to pull "just like daddy"!

SO happy!

On Saturday morning we spent some time at the Blank Park Zoo.

I love the kangaroo area-- they are just hopping around as you walk by on the path. They could totally hop right up to you if they want to! But they don't.

"Hi, Kangawoos!"


Anyone else creeped out by this pic? At the time, I thought it was cute. Now it just looks like a crazed kangaroo is about to snatch my unsuspecting baby. Yikes.


What the heck are these goats doing?

Daddy let me feed them!


At the playground...



"Mommy, the geese are honking!"


Saturday night, Gramma and Grampa offered to babysit so Adam and I could actually go on a date! It has been awhile, so we didn't hesitate to take them up on their offer. :) After church and a Panera lunch on Sunday, Gramma and Grampa headed back to Wisconsin. Jeremiah is already excited for when we will be going there to see them in a few weeks! He wanted to go to "asconsin" very badly!

Thanks for everything Mom and Dad-- it was great to have you here!

"Over it"

So, I know this blog is mainly to show off the star of our family, Jeremiah. But, I've decided to put this out there, too. I thought I was over this, dealt with it, moved on, etc. Apparently not.

I had a miscarriage last August. I was about 6.5 weeks along, and it happened during my first week of school (pretty much the worst week of my life). It was hard then. It was hard to go to school and pretend that nothing was wrong (since only my superintendent knew-- and I only told her because I asked to get out of some meetings one day to go have an ultrasound because I had been bleeding). Still to this day, no one else at school knows what I was really dealing with that first week of school. I got very good at putting on my "happy face" and pretending everything was "fine." Slowly things got better and I felt like I had grieved, dealt with the miscarriage, etc. Every once in awhile I would be reminded and would feel sad again, but it was easy enough to just pretend everything was okay.

What I did not expect was to go through another grieving process in the past week. You see, if I had not miscarried, our baby would have been due soon. My dear friend and I found out that we were pregnant at around the same time-- we even talked about having a party to reveal the genders of our babies! But, that was not to be. My pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in late August. And she just delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy. And that is hard for me. Harder than I expected it to be. I honestly did not expect to feel this way again-- almost like I am going through the miscarriage again! I thought I would, at the very least, be able to put on my "happy face" and go visit them in the hospital and hold that brand new precious little babe. And the more I thought about it, the more I knew that I couldn't. I was not going to be able to go to the maternity floor of the hospital. I was not going to be able to hold that new little one. I would have been an absolute mess. And actually, I was (but thankfully, within the confines of our home). All day yesterday. Thankfully I got to spend the day with my favorite little guy, so that offered some distraction. But, not enough.

I began to not only feel sad for myself and Adam, but I also began to feel like a horrible friend-- that I could not get past this in order to go and share in their joy and excitement. I wanted to. I wanted more than anything, for this to not bother me so much! But, it did. I am SO happy for our friends who are reveling in the happiness and excitement of their new little family of 4. Really, I am. But I am also mourning what should have been for our little family, which is still 3.

I was able to spend some time with some fabulous friends this weekend-- they shared in my sadness and helped me talk through some things. And of course, distracted me with lots of laughs, good coffee, and food! :) So thankful that God has provided people like that in my life (not to mention my sweet little boy who says, "Wuv you, Mommy" and my dear husband who hugs me when I cry on his shoulder).

Anyway, I am hoping that by getting this out, it will be therapeutic. I am slowly learning that bottling things up is NOT the best way to deal with things (because eventually it's going to come out... and when it does, it ain't going to be pretty). Not sure how many of my 5 readers have known about my miscarriage. But please don't think I am saying "poor, pitiful me" and feeling sorry for myself about this miscarriage. People I know have been through much worse, so I'm not asking for pity or whatever. I know that there are MUCH more horrible things to go through than this. I'm just trying to get my feelings straight and sort things out in my mind and in my heart.

My friend Stephanie has this verse on a plaque:
"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..." Psalm 37:7

I am trying to wait patiently. Trying to understand God's purpose in all of this, trying to be okay with the fact that I may never understand. If you know me, then you know that me and "patience" aren't good friends. I'm not good at it. Perhaps that is part of God's purpose here? I can only speculate, as I feel like I have had many lessons of patience in my life-- why one more? Who knows. God knows, and I am trying to take comfort in that.