Other Ohio Highlights

Mike climbed the big birch tree in the front yard to trim some branches for my dad. I was a little uneasy as I watched him wield the chain saw while in some precarious positions in the tree. It helped to know that he had previously survived a storey and a half fall with only a broken arm and leg. He wasn't quite that high this time.

While at the thrift store looking for a sweater for my brother in Uruguay (finding a sweater in July is a challenge), we happened upon quite a treasure. My dad found a biking jersey with fun bright colors and immediately put it on. (He wanted to wear it golfing. His friends tease him about wearing wrinkly shirts, so he told them that next time he would wear something that only showed his "natural wrinkles.") When we realized there were over twenty matching jerseys (for only $1.50 each) we decided everyone in the family needed one.

Pictured below are all the present members of the family sporting the jerseys (there weren't any J-sized jerseys). We have extras for the rest of the family as well.

My mom helped us with a little service project for the Newborn ICU/Bereavement Group. We made little gowns for babies who are stillborn or die soon after birth. In many cases, families have nothing prepared when they find themselves in the hospital with an early or complicated delivery. When our little Lily was stillborn, the hospital bereavement specialist dressed Lily and swaddled her in a little blanket. She also made hand and footprints and plaster hand and foot molds. She put all of these things, along with her hospital bracelets and a poetry book into a nice box for us to take home. We have wanted to do something to give back to the program and figured with my mom's creative genius we could. We had a hard time finding the fabric (T-shirt knit, what onesies are made of) in appropriate colors and patterns, but my mom finally found some adult nightgowns with fabric we wanted. We were able to get about eight infant gowns out of each nightgown. I thought I would be able to do the sewing once my mom figured the pattern out, but it turned out to be quite difficult to work with the fabric, especially on such a small scale, so I let my mom work her wonders. Here's a picture of one of the gowns, along with my hand to show you how tiny the gowns are.