Goodbye, 2024

As we come up on the end of the year and the first anniversary of my mom's passing, I'm filled with mixed emotions. Compared to this time last year, I'm not filled with overwhelming sadness. It's tapered into a dull ache, but I miss her every day. We learned we can get through golf and football seasons without her. We learned she has no pull in the afterlife (yet), since none of the teams she would cheer on hardest won any championships. We are constantly reminded of how much she did for us now that she's gone. And we're still shocked cancer took her so fast. I don't think we'll ever come to terms with that.

As for the second half of our year, July saw both kids have sports success. Felix's baseball team went pretty deep in the Legion regional tournament. Iris's club softball team went to Indiana for a world series tournament and made it to Saturday play. She tried out and made the team again for next year (no surprises there). Iris also got to play 7th grade volleyball at school this fall. Her team had mixed success (hard to win when they didn't run an offense like other schools and had equal playing time for all), but she enjoyed it overall. 

Felix got his temps in July and has worked on his hours of practice behind the wheel. So far, he's a pretty conscientious driver. He's also just about Nick's height. He's done well so far in 9th grade and has been working out to make himself a better athlete for the next baseball season. 

Iris has been crushing it in 7th grade. She still plays trombone and had a band concert in December. 

The bright spot of the last six months was the family trip we took to Italy. We found a week to get away between the summer activities and school starting, and made plans to spend five days in northeastern Italy. It was Iris' first trip out of the country and Felix's second this year. I wrote about our adventure here.

Nick's firm bought a new building for their WR office and hope to move in after renovations are complete this spring. I continue to work on work zones at WisDOT.

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving without Mom. We went to GB for Nick's side, and had four generations there with Nick's grandparents in attendance. My side got together for a subdued dinner that weekend.

We hope you have a safe, happy, and healthy 2025!

First half of 2024

Life and other distractions have gotten in the way of regular updates here. I will endeavor to try on two updates per year.

So. Here we are at the end of June. The beginning of the year was tough emotionally as we learned to live without my mom. I've been helping my dad as much as I'm able, and my sister is too.

Felix went to Germany with a school group for ten days at the end of March and had a great time. Iris, Nick and I took an unexpectedly snowy brief spring break trip to Minneapolis at that same time.

Felix made the JV2 baseball team and spent the spring playing (when it wasn't rainy and/or cold). Iris improved her volleyball skills until it was time to focus on softball instead. She's already played with three different teams this summer (subbing on one) in six different tournaments and currently has a 0.596 batting average and 1.369 OPS. :D Her teams have two 2nd place and one 3rd place finish so far.

Nick continues to grow his business, while looking for more hours in a day to get his workload done. Cara just had her 10-year anniversary in her present job.

And that's where we are so far.