Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

Robbie with his 'big' friend Steve.  Below is Robbie, Steve, Kaylena, his girlfriend and friends, Karen and Justin. My youngest sister, Susie, had her only child on Tom's birthday, July 4, 1991.  Robbie has always been special to us so we were excited to attend his open house for his graduation from Brimley High School on Friday night.  It was held at the Soo Line Lodge which is west of Brimley and a great place for a party. In this picture you see my brother's daughter, Ashley, Tom (my husband) my father, Jack, my mom, Lois and Uncle Charles.  Susie put together a video of pictures and this one is for Jennifer.  Dharma made the video.  Dharma is our daughter Jennifer's dog. My mother has made each of her grandchildren a quilt for high school graduation.  She lets them pick the design and the colors.  Robbie wanted a quilt about life at Birch Point where he grew up and where my parents lived until a few years ago.  The quilt is stunningly beautiful with scenes such ...

I haven't blogged in quite a while for several reasons.  First of all, I have been working almost full-time to complete my contract with Grand Rapids Public Schools and the Kent ISD.  I still have some remaining days on my contract but I was advised last week that I can carry over the remaining days until Sept.  The grant expires Sept. 30 so I can work up until then with this contract.  I am meeting with GRPS officials next week on Thursday and Friday to discuss work options after that. Our past week has been filled with several unexpected events. Tom's mom has been ill and hospitalized.  She is doing better but is still in the hospital.  So our schedule was adjusted from what we had planned.  We are so thankful for the wonderful health care facilities in Grand Rapids.  Special thanks to the Meijer and DeVos families for their additions at Butterworth Hospital. We have also been working to get Jen's house ready to rent.  That mostly fell on Tom's shoulders.  Tim Anderso...

Yesterday was great fun as Joyce and I ran in our 16th River Bank Run.  The River Bank Run changed some race times so I didn't get to even see Joyce.  Joyce ran the 25K and I ran the 5K so I was done running about the time she started.  It was a little unorganized at the beginning this year.  This picture was taken just before the race began.  All those people are runners and we were really packed in tight.  In total there were over 17,000 participants in all the categories. The next three pictures were taken as I approached the final turn.    It looks dark because it was raining so hard. Seventeen years ago during a Mother's Day celebration, I picked up the Grand Rapids Press and saw the story about the Old Kent River Bank Run.  "I would love to run it that," I said even though I wasn't a runner and not even athletic.  But Joyce said she wanted to do that too.  It wasn't until the next Feb. when I finally put my feet to the payment.  Sherry and I started runn...

I had a great birthday on Tuesday.  I received phone calls from my family.  My mom called at 6:50 AM so she wouldn't miss me before work.  My brother Tim called as well as Jen, Kristen, & Eric.  Tommy and Sherry had us over for a birthday dinner and fun with the kids.  Tom gave me flowers that we used for a centerpiece and I've been enjoying them since.  Fresh flowers are such an extravagance which makes them special gift.  I also got a beautiful gold and silver bracelet from Tom.  Very thoughtful gifts. You can see the fun we had with the kids.  Sherry made a delicious meal of my favorite things.  I picked tacos which was very fitting for Cinco de Mayo.  Since I work in three Hispanic schools, I thought I would see many celebrations for Cinco de Mayo but I was disappointed to learn that nothing special was going on because "they don't have time."  There is too much curriculum that has to be covered-even for Kindergartners.  That is really sad.  But it shows t...

Good morning dear readers, I am a little behind in my postings for my blog but I hope to catch up in the next day or so.  Working every day has a way of slowing down my time to write and reflect.  It all takes time. Sunday Tom and I went over 100 miles on the motorcycle.  We enjoying seeing all the flowering trees which were in full glory.  Lots of people were out in their yards, exercising by walking and just generally in good moods. We drove all around Gun Lake where residents were busy getting their toys in the water.   As you can see by the pictures, many trees had not started to leaf out.  But in the last week days that has changed. We drove by Paris Ridge Elementary School out on East Paris west of Caledonia.  This is Caledonia's new school which I believe will open in the fall of 2010.  It is located in a housing subdivision that is huge but really only half-full.  There isn't much new home construction going on there. On our way home we went by the home of a close frien...

This first picture isn't from Chavez but it is Tom showing some of the treats he received this week for tilling gardens for friends.  He tilled 7 gardens Wednesday and Friday.  On Wednesday he was at Gretka Domer's and she sent home brown eggs and peanut butter cookies.  Two of her neighbors came over while Tom was there and offered him cash jobs.  So he came home with his money and took me out to dinner. Several of you mentioned that you would like to hear about my work for Grand Rapids Public Schools.  Today I was at Cesar E. Chavez Elementary which was known as Hall Elementary until this year.  Chavez is an appropriate name because the school is surrounded by the Hispanic community.  This picture is the new school which is under construction and will open in the fall.   It sits right next to the old school which will be torn down as soon as the new school is ready. The Hispanic Center is across the street from the school.  There are many services available for this communi...