5 years later

Here Jer and I (Sporting the horiz stripes) pose on our 5th anniversary. These 5 years have gone by so fast for me. I remember once sitting next to the canal in Seneca Falls with Jer. We knew no one in the whole town. It is a very cold, economically depressed, and socially isolated area. We moved there inorder to be able to complete our respective graduate schools, and we each had an hour commute through the snow belt. We were talking about how depressing it would be to move there without one another, but since we were together it was wonderful. I have beautiful memories of that year even though we were poor, and I was a terrible cook (even the sister missionaries didn't want to come over for dinner).
Wherever Jer is, that is where I want to be. It has been like that since I first met him. I know that I will be happy.



SUMMER VISITORS:
We have been very blessed to have lots of visitors this summer. Here are some of the pics
James, Maddie, Rachelle, and Anthony
Luca and Arianna played wonderfully together. They measured Dinosaur footprints and searched for fossils at the science center.






Aaron, Ashley, Clarissa, Luca, and James
Tommy with 3 friends came down to barbeque before an orioles game
I went to M-burg to "babysit". I had a wonderful time being with my little sis. Here we make a fire and roast marshmellows.

Here we are in Duck NC. Jer dares to enter the sunlight to dig a hole with Luca.

Happy anniversary Joanie

This is a revolutionary armband that I sometimes like to wear so that I don't forget that our anniversary is on July 26. Even now, five years later, I still have to look in the dictionary in order to correctly spell the word 'marriage'. (Do we still have the 5oo announcements I made to let people know about our impending 'marraige'?) As we got to know each other we found out that our unique strengths complement eachother to form a more perfect whole (for example, we found that I'm smarter and she's a faster swimmer: In a biathlon relay involving aquatics and verbose prognostication we would do quite well.) Luckily, I proposed before they changed the meatball recipe at Wegmans (Note to Wegmans: The post 2002 meatballs are a tad heavy on the garlic - actually more than a tad I'd say). We had a wonderful wedding and festivities (Joanie: next time you get married and have a wedding reception on a military base try to remember to have proper ID so as to be admitted to the party.)We moved to Seneca Falls, NY (The birthplace of both Womens' rights and the Mormon Church???) Where we lived for one year in the old Third Ward School building (no insulation in the walls or ceiling). Then we moved back to Ithaca for two years where Luca was born ('naturally', thanks to that area's general cultural proclivity toward eating too much granola). The fact that Luca had the same pediatrician that was present at my birth caused me to have a great epiphany that moving away from my birth city might be healthy (the full course of said epiphany taking 9 months to play itself out - I'm sorry joanie) . This landed us in Baltimore Maryland where James was born (Joanie, Where would you like to have our next baby be born?) I can say with confidence that these last five years have included the four best years of my life.

Going to the Photographer

There are many books available to prepare children for experiences that may be frightening. Example: Going to the doctor, Going to the Dentist, Starting School....well we need one to prepare children for Going to the photographer. Luca was terrified and wouldn't even sit on the table. He is normally so friendly and independent but as soon as we walked in that studio he clung to my leg and started crying "I don't want to!" Its not the sort of situation where you can take the hard line, "LUCA just get up on that table and SMILE." Probably won't get the best facial expression. Eventually he warmed up and we got at least one decent shot of the two of them.

LILIES

Here are a few more pictures of our flowers. This time it is Lily season. These remind me of that song that goes:
Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow...
and then there's more, but I never remember it. This morning James and I were waiting for the sun to rise, checking out our lilies, and wondering why I have to go to work too early and come home too late. And I was remembering snippets of this Longfellow poem I had read a long time ago:

Beautiful lily, dwelling by still rivers,
Or solitary mere,
Or where the sluggish meadow-brook delivers
Its waters to the weir!

Thou laughest at the mill, the whirr and worry
Of spindle and of loom,
And the great wheel that toils amid the hurry
And rushing of the flame.

And finally, part of Brahms' german requiem:

Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret
und die Blume abgefallen

For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man
as the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower thereof falleth away

I don't actually understand german, I just put it here because thats how I remember hearing it on my parents' scratchy LP when I was a teenager first coming to a realization of my own mortality. Anyway, here are the pictures:
*Jeremiah

Luca's B-day

Its a scooter day! Luca loved his birthday present from his aunt Emmy so much he had to eat breakfast wearing his helmet the next day. Luca really made out like a bandit this year!!!

Happy Memorial Day!

Yes, Jer did burn the white hots.

We took a wonderful long weekend up to Ithaca to visit Jer's Parents. I love to visit Ithaca. It is such a beautiful place, and it brings back many memories of being a college student and of dating Jeremiah. It makes me very grateful for the experiences that I've had. It was so exciting to share this place with Luca. He does not get to experience the outdoors in the same way living in a much more urban environment.

Happy Birthday Luca!!!
Luca had a fun birthday complete with a treasure hunt! Here they run on their way to discover the next clue. At the end Luca holds up one of his presents, A LIGHTNING MCQUEEN CAR!!!

Whenever we visit Jer's family a familiar scene plays out. Jer finds the chain saw and takes on his forrester alter ego. He roams the property with a crazed look in his eyes searching for some poor species to cut down. His parents follow pleading mercy on behalf of the trees.

Here 3 generations of Fairbank Men work together to build a fire.

We drove through beautiful Cornell Campus. Below is the infamous Rand Hall. You'd think for an architecture school it might be more impressive. As we drove through we explained to Luca that if he works really hard maybe someday he can go to school here too. We told him that if he did we would move back to Ithaca with him. That may turn out to be a deterent.

Here we are up behind the Ithaca Gun Company at the top of Ithaca falls. You can see Cayuga Lake and Ithaca in all its spring splendor!

Grandpa Meditates in the Chapel for prayer and meditation. Only in Ithaca.

Beautiful Ithaca falls. I drove by this spot almost everyday. It is so easy to take it for granted. Luca really enjoyed walking out to the base of the falls and engaging in the age old ritual of rock skipping. Maybe someday he can be a master like his old man.

Luca gets his hair blown back at the Ithaca Science Center.

Since I didn't get to have a little girl to dress all in frills, I have my fun by dressing my little boys in matching outfits.

Luca loves to water his garden, so in order to prevent it from being a swamp we control the portions using a spray bottle.

We have been very busy the last few weeks. Here we are in State College PA for Becca's Graduation from Penn State!!! We got to visit Nana and Papa while we were there.

Addendum to Boys and Flowers

So, Jeremiah entered the last post. I read it at work, and I thought to myself. Is it really that hard? It makes it sound as if our family life is very difficult. So I drive home planning to ask Jer about it....I open the door to James screaming (because he wants to nurse and will not take the bottle) and Jer saying "Ouch! Ouch! Luca you poked me in the eye!"
I guess no need to ask. It really is difficult, but we love it. They make everything better and more exciting.