Relationships-The Last Few Days

It has been a busy last few days.  My grandson, Gabriel turned 4 years old on Thursday, October 4.  My daughter brought him over in the early evening and we gave him a huge box of Lincoln Logs.  My wife, Dale and I  put all of the buildings together just like the instructions showed us to do and we had the western village all proudly displayed.  It took him about 30 seconds to destroy them all as that is what 4 year old boys do.  So we spent some time rebuilding them and he would tear them apart.  I must tell you that he would help us build them before he tore them apart.  We bought 2 sets of Lincoln Logs so they could step on them at his house also.

The next event was that my youngest brother, Jay visited us this weekend.  He had graduated 25 years ago from Pharmacy School at NDSU and a number of his classmates from that year and several years prior and after 1982 attended.  He was in the Pharmacy fraternity and he was surprised to find that the chapter had shrunk to 11 members and all of them were women.  The organization had gone co-ed several years after he graduated as the number of men was less than half of the enrollees in pharmacy programs nationwide.   I will have to say that he wasn't disappointed that  they were all women but  he was sad to see that there were only 5 people living the the "house."   It had not been updated since he left either as the shrinking membership doesn't allow for any money to be spent on redecorating.

We got to visit for awhile as we attended the Homecoming parade with him.  We took Gabriel with us and it doesn't hurt to have a cute little 4 year old as they throw handfuls of candy at him.  We had a small shopping bag to take home and we left it at his house.  Jay left this morning so we didn't get to visit as much as I would have liked but it was good to see him.

The last big event today is that it is my daughter, Erin's, birthday today.  As I write this, 27 years and 2 hours ago, she was born and I can't put into words the experience that was for me.  We had waited and tried for several years before she was given to us.  She is such a blessing to us but I'll admit that it always hasn't been the case.  There were several years when she was a teenager that were not pleasant at all.  If you think the worst case scenario about a girl's teenage years, we would be standing in the middle of the class picture but that is another story.  She has grown into a responsible adult and cares for her child very well.  She is a single parent but she and Gabriel's father have agreed that Gabriel's welfare comes before theirs and it works out quite well. 

It was a busy weekend but one I will remember for a long time.

Jerry