We Clean Up Pretty Good...

Look at those fancy young'ins!  We'll have these suits on in the near future for little Calebbers First Communion Baptism.  I screwed that up...  his First Communion is still a couple of years off.

In Memory of Frank

The last time I posted anything, I put up a single photo of my brother-in-law, Frank Brunnette. He passed away on the evening of March 15th after a short, yet hard-fought battle with leukemia. 

I was in no shape at the time to write anything else about him or the situation that my sister Doris suddenly found herself in.

However, to not say something more about the man would be a great disservice to him.

First of all, he was a fantastic hubby to my sis (he ironed quilting fabric for her!!!). From what I could tell in the short time that I knew him, he was a great dad to his two daughters. He was a very proud Grandpa and, as a witness in front of God, he was a wonderful uncle to Robby and Caleb. 

Sadly, after going back thru photos looking for various situations where I knew he was around, I realized that we didn't have many photos of him.  Turns out that at birthday parties for the boys, while he was always there, he was usually in the background of photos.  

Family photos where a whole pile of the extended Schmitz family were together, he tends to be in the back row with Doris.

That just speaks to his unassuming, quiet and gentle spirit and being perfectly happy NOT being the center of attention.  

He was a great guy and will live on in memories as just that!

On my sisters wedding day.  Frank with his mom, Harriet (sorry if the spelling is wrong!).

One of our family nights here at our house.  The boys, along with cousins Sam and Jonah, were out in the back yard rolling down the hill.

This was an early in the relationship Thanksgiving out at my brothers house in Dexter Iowa.  It's a bit fuzzy because... you guessed it, Doris and Frank were in the back row and so once I blew the photo up a bit, it got a bit fuzzy.

Uncle Frank and Uncle Derek trading stories.

I believe this was back in early 2008 and it was taken at the Chuck E. Cheese.

This was Robby's 5th birthday party. We had a Wii bowling tournament.  This is Frank and my niece Leah competing in a wicked battle!

Taken at the 2010 Jammin' For Jesus at our worship center, Lutheran Church of the Cross.  I was playing in one of the bands that day so Frank and Doris came out to witness (get it?  Bad joke, I know...) They had face painters there and Robby got painted up like a tiger and was climbing all over his Uncle Frank that day!  I'm not sure how enjoyed it more but Rob got a little giddy when he saw this picture!

Great photo of Frank's personality...

This was taken at the Dwight Yoakam concert last July and is my favorite picture of him!  I much enjoyed having him there as he played mandolin, banjo, and guitar.  I would glance over at him after a good guitar solo and he'd have that little sly grin on his face that I'll never forget.

Back in June of 2007, Frank took Doris to see his favorite singer/songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids.  

In January, prior to Frank falling ill, Gordon announced tour dates and March 21st saw him returning to the Paramount Theater.  Doris suggested in an email to me earlier in the week that we should maybe road trip to the show in honor of Frank, so we did just that. 

It was a great show, a great trip and an overall great time. We told stories, laughed, cried and peeled thru piles & piles of kleenex.  I hope my sister enjoyed at least 1/10th as much as I did. 

As another example of the strange dichotomy of life,  I wish that Frank was able to go along with us,  however, if he were still here, I probably wouldn't have been along and I wouldn't trade that time Friday night with my sister for anything.

Life is indeed strange...

I apologize for the disjointed post...  I have tons of stuff that I want to say but when I sat down to write the post, I found myself completely clueless on how to say it.

Goodbye, My Friend

Randomness...

Greetings and salutations! 

I was going through cameras this morning in an effort to get the memory cards of the boys' cameras cleaned off so they can take them up to Crystal Lake next week with Aunt Molly as they visit Grandma & Grandpa's house.

As usual, I found pictures that I did not know existed.  The reason for that is generally because Caleb will sporadically run around the house with a camera, his own or anybody else's, and "sneak photograph" people.  

So that was some of the pictures.  There were a few photos that mom took this week of the boys prior to going to school because Robby had pajama day.  Some Caleb selfies (of course) and one of Caleb in HIS new chair with a snuggling beast near by.

I really have nothing much to say and I'm procrastinating on writing the last vacation post which is Harpers Ferry Part II.  I have about 15 weeks before we leave on vacation for this year, so what's the rush?  Right?

 

This was Robby on pajama day.  That is an old shirt of mom's, hence the flowers, that he wears to bed sometimes.  He wanted to look crazy so he wore the flower shirt with the plaid pants a'la something his Daddy may (or may not) have done back in the day.  As it turns out, the neck is a little stretched out on it so he wore his jacket at school most of the day.  Can't have that little girl who wants to hold his hand seeing his chest, ya know?!

This is little Calebber McCheese on that same day.  Not sure what his day was as they were celebrating two weeks of Dr. Seuss related schmutz so he was to wear specific things on certain days.  This may have been Daisy Head Maizy day. What does this outfit have to do with her?  Not sure... could be that the clovers represent flowers or that little Maizy really liked Rock n' Roll music and loud guitars...  I think that was in the sequel.

This is RongBo this morning playing with his loom.  He's been going for over an hour now, singing most of the time.  Delightful.

As if I need to label it...  a Calebber selfie.

Caleb in his new chair with a snuggling beast nearby.  I predict that he grows up to be a vet...  I'm just putting that out there.

And another photo that I had not seen from Robby's camera.  This was taken back about Christmas time and I liked it, so here it is.

That's about all for now.  Have a fine weekend and don't do anything that I wouldn't do.

Vacation - Post #13, Harpers Ferry Pt.1

I'll have to break this one into two parts because I was so enamored with the place (Harpers Ferry, that is), and quite frankly, still am.  It may have had to do with the fact that it was about as perfect as a weather day as you could ask for, we're in the mountains/valley with friends, learning about a fascinating part of our Nations history, but it was also a little bitter sweet in that as soon as we get back in the car, we're heading for Iowa.

Wrap all of that into one bundle of emotions and it was a powerful day.

This is part of the railroad that John Brown and his very small army of rebels had intercepted and, according to the history of the events, he probably errored in letting the train/engineer carry on only to inform others down the line that an insurrection was taking place in Harpers Ferry.  Me?  I found the construction of a raised railroad absolutely fascinating, if not beautiful, and contemplated how it would withstand passing trains at various speeds, with different winds and so on, without collapsing.  I'm still intrigued.

Again with the raised rail.

This, the photo below and the two of the train tracks above are all simply from the parking lot where the bus that takes you down into the valley drops you off.  We had not even made it into Harpers Ferry proper yet and I'm amazed by the beauty of it all.

This is looking towards the downtown area where the "John Brown action" took place so many years before.  The church up on the bluff is the St. Peters Catholic Church.

Shot of the downtown area.  Need to tie up your horse?  No problem!

Need to get up to your third story apartment after a night on the town?  A little problem!!

More downtown.

And still more.  They building at the end of the block is the hotel where shots were fired by the locals who were waging their own battle against John Brown and associates who they did not like raiding of their town.

The four cutest varmints in the city that day!!  Possibly ever!

Sadly, too much time has passed for me to remember what this particular site of ruins is/was.  I tried zooming in on the sign posted there but it pixelated before I could read it...

This is the engine house that is commonly known as John Browns Fort.  Probably not a great place to hide but it was probably not a wonderfly thought out mission to begin with. 

This is looking straight up Potomac St. from John Browns Fort.  There was some death that took place at this intersection.  Just behind that telephone pole in the left of the photo, you can see a concrete marker for something... what was it?  I think it marks the site of the actual armory that was raided but I'm not sure.  I've searched for maps and documentation of the crazy thing and I cannot find it. I'm a little stunned at how well Gettysburg and all of the monuments there are documented but that Harpers Ferry does not seem to get the same treatment.  Would Gettysburg have happened the way it did, if not for the raid on Harpers Ferry?  It's some good reading if you care to start digging!

More "downtown", this as we're heading up High St.

One way to get to St. Peters should your legs be feeling strong!

So that's part one of our photos of a fantastic day.  

At this point in our trip, we were just about ready to enjoy lunch at a fine little restuarant.  I do recall that some find food was had and I had a wonderful barley wine to go with my meal!  Should have taken a picture of the bottle as I cannot recall the brewery that produced my tipple of the day.

A Little School Humor

We, as any parents of youngin's will tell you, get PILES of papers home from school nearly every day and surely every week. 

Most of the time you flip thru them, pick out a thing or two that you know you need to work on and then move on with a whole lot of recycling.

This week though, we got not one, but two jems out of Robby's papers.  

 

On the "Anger Meter", the kids were supposed to read thru the list of things and rate how much they bother them.  In the spot for "Other:" at the bottom, was jem #1.  Robby wrote, "My brother messed up my Wii football game and benched Kyle Orton" and proceeded to grade that incident as a 5, for "it made him furious".  Funny?  I certainly think so.  Also somewhat telling is that he graded getting teased for a haircut at a 1.  Seems fitting since he has long hair and gets called a girl quite often.

Then for his math papers.  Robby has a girl that he is EXTREMELY competitive with.  They race thru stuff to try to be the first one done.  They're both smart and usually don't miss more than 1 on anything, if they miss any at all.  However, sometimes due to the racing, you get stuff like the paper above.  Rob missed the three easiest on the paper, I presume due to racing his nemesis, and the teacher wrote, "Skipping the easy ones?".  Golden!!

Now, get back to your day!

Happy Birthday Robby!

It's birthday time at the Schmitz House! 

Robert James Schmitz is, unbelievably, turning 9 years old!!  Daddy and Robby had a slumber party in the basement last night, woke up with some bacon, eggs and coffee and then opened his cards and gifts.

Pretty low key which is likely not what he truly wanted, but sometimes that's just the way it goes.

Here's the lads after Robby opened Caleb's gift.  Calebber wanted to buy his bro some new football gloves and that's exactly what he did.  Robby was quite happy.

This was a gift from mom & dad.  The boys hair is long and so, falls in his eyes when trying to catch balls.  He had been wearing a buff so much that it was causing some irritation behind the ears.  We got him a skull cap that breaths a little more.

And one of those shirts that has a special name that I don't know.  It's a soft material, which Rob is somewhat fanatical for, and he's currently wearing it underneath his Aaron Rodgers jersey.

And from our friends in Washington, D.C., the Gonsalves, he got the "Oh Yuck" encyclopedia.  The subtitle "The Encyclopedia Of Everything Nasty" should give you some idea.  After just briefly thumbing thru it, it looks very science-y and I think will be something that he's telling mom and dad about for a long time.

Robby picked Red Lobster for his birthday dinner so Aunt Molly went along with us and he got her presents then.  Two books, one of which is somewhat similar to the above, titled, "The Klutz Book Of Brilliantly Ridiculous Inventions".  He and his brother were getting some good giggles out of it last night.

What's next?

Caleb has a birthday party from his class today at noon and I think Robby and daddy might use that time to start watching the Star Wars dual Trilogy's together.   I think I was 8 when I saw the first Star Wars movie so his indoctrination into the series is about right on time.