The Kassel Family Project Life 365

While I was at my Mom’s Group, Andy and the kids played outside for a while.  I got home to find driveway art!  Among the many designs were ice cream cones, a pirate ship, and Laura’s writing.  This was one of my favorites.

Andy loves October because he loves the different Pumpkin Beers.  O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer is one of his favorites.  It is usually gone from stores by Halloween.  Today, Laura and I went to Hy-Vee after I picked her up from school.  One of the shopping objectives was beer for Andy.  Standing at the cooler after picking out Samuel Adams Light, I said to Laura, “What else should we get Daddy?”  She responded with, “Mommy, it’s the Pumpkin Beer Daddy loves.  Get that!  Get that!”  I turn to the other set of coolers, which is a wall of many, many kinds of six-pack beers.  I didn’t see the O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer anywhere.  So, Laura starts pointing to it.  We start walking down and, sure enough, there it was.  How in the world she picked it out from all those beers, I’ll never know!  Daddy was one mighty happy man when he saw it!

Andy picked Laura up from school today and took her back to his office.  She drew this picture with a pink highlighter.  Note that the highlighter *had* to be pink (Me thinks our beautiful daughter likes pink).

Every Wednesday, the Gymnastics Express bus comes to John’s daycare.  The kids get a private gymnastics/sports lesson for 30 minutes.  This week, they did “some Nastics and Golf” (or at least that is what John said).  At the end of each session, the kids get a stamp on their hands.  It is something different every week.  This week’s stamp was an airplane and John was especially proud!

Yesterday, after I took John to get his ear rechecked, I stopped at Rolling Hills Veterinary Hospital to pick up Oscar’s remains.  It turned out to be a much harder experience than I thought it would be.  Originally, I had asked Andy to go and pick him up because I didn’t think I could do that.  Well, since I was already over on that side of town and the Vet’s office is on the way, I did it.  I saw the beautiful box and the paw print and the tears were in my eyes again.

Oh, how I miss my beautiful, furry friend.  I’ve had many other cats in my life and none of them have quite touched me the way Oscar did.  Oscar always seemed to know exactly when I needed some love and attention even when I didn’t realize it.  What I wouldn’t give to pick him up, flip him over, and watch him slowly stretch into an upside-down arc as I balanced him on his back just one more time.  For 14 years, he has always been here and it’s just so hard not seeing him.  I actually caught myself looking for him as I gave Newman some treats.  I stopped when I saw the box on the counter and again tears came to my eyes.  I know every day will be a bit easier and that we made the right decision.  I just wish my heart could agree with my head.

I stayed home from work today because I wasn’t feeling well.  Despite that, I did find a bit of ambition.  I ended up baking the three pie pumpkins that we had and turning them into pumpkin puree.  I now have three 2-cup bags and two 1-cup bags of pumpkin puree in our freezer.  Fresh Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Muffins, and Pumpkin Brownies (this year’s experiment) here I come!

Every year as we put up our Christmas tree, we tell the kids about some of the ornaments and where they came from.  Laura gets a kick out of seeing some of my ornaments from when I was little and hearing the stories about the ornaments.  So, last year, Andy and I started a new Christmas tradition with the kids.  Every year, they will pick out a new ornament for our tree.  Someday, I will dig through my substantial amount of Christmas decorations and gather all the ornaments together to pass on to them.  Hopefully, one day, they will be describing to their kids where each ornament came from.

This year, the ornaments came from a stand in the mall.  They were both so excited that they got to choose their own ornament and that they also got to have their names written on them.  They took about 15 minutes to find just the “right” ornament and then both stared quietly and intently as the clerk added their names.

Laura chose a unicorn.

John chose a train.