So this year has been pretty good as far as the “normal” stuff goes, unfortunately it was all offset by the deaths of 3 grandparents within 11 weeks of each other. My paternal grandmother “Granny Lucy” passed away on January 29. Even though it was a surprising phone call at 12:30AM, looking back it was kind of a relief because we had always figured she would be back in the hospital again for an extended period. fighting as she’s been doing for over 15 years now between heart problems, cancer, multiple clots, and various other problems. She went peacefully in the middle of the night.

One week later my maternal grandfather “Papa” passed. His was no surprise as he had been in hospice for 3 weeks, they were about ready to kick him out even because he improved a bit. When I got the call a week before in the middle of the night about my grandmother I had actually thought it was for him. He was a tough guy, retired Air Force, wrote his own obit even, hilarious to the end.

Since my grandmother passed, my other grandfather “Ganky” just wasn’t the same. They had been married for 67 years, unheard of these days. Every day of his life for the last 67 years he had gotten up and there she was, then all of a sudden she wasn’t there. He had been working on one last project for a company that he bought in the late 70’s and built up but had mostly retired from. It kept him busy, his mind was occupied at least with it, and he had somewhere to go every day instead of sitting in an empty house. He still got Kellie, had even started keeping her on Friday nights like he did me most of my youth. Kellie had been the light of his life for the last 5+ years and we had hoped she would help, even just a little, in fixing his hurt.

We had already made plans for him to keep Kellie Easter weekend, it was Kriss’ 20 year reunion weekend with events on Friday and Saturday. Easter Sunday we were going to pick her up but he called and said he promised to take her to Captain Joes, a local seafood joint in Midway, GA, where she always liked to eat shrimp and get dessert off the salad bar. We were a little miffed because we were supposed to be at some other family’s house for lunch but instead we met them there and had lunch together. When we left we were trying to get back to Savannah to eat a second lunch and told him we’d come back by his house to pick up Kellie’s stuff, he lived just 5 miles from us, which we did later that evening. I went inside to get her bag while everyone else stayed in the car and we didn’t stay at all. That was the last time I saw my grandfather.

Looking back now I see that he just wasn’t the same that Sunday. Usually he is all smiles with Kellie, but that Easter day he was just kind of blah. I’m glad we spent that time together at lunch. He went on April 15, died of a broken heart. Tax day will always be a day I remember, it changed the whole rest of my life.

So by now I’m sure most of you know we have this little celebration every March 17th in Savannah, Ga, called St Patrick’s Day. It’s only the 2nd largest parade in the US, but definitely the largest party afterward. It was on a Tuesday this year and the girls were out of school so we headed downtown with our neighbor Lonnie. We got there about 8:00 and headed to a Starbucks for a little warm up/wake up juice and get the kids a little bite to eat. It was still a little cool out and I had opted for shorts opting to deal with the cool for a little while in hopes of making it up on the back side with the predicted nice weather so getting inside out of the windy gray chill was good. Read more

Again we took a trip to beautiful Tybee Island for another parade, this time St Patrick’s day. Tybee held it’s parade on the Saturday before the big Savannah parade and we again had kids on hand and an extra one to boot in Courtney, Alyssa’s friend, so we loaded up and trekked to the island hoping for another fun day. It was gray and cooler this time, as opposed to the beautiful day we had in February for Mardi Gras, so we decided to get back off the beach breeze a little and stood on Tybrisa this time. Read more

This past weekend Tybee had it’s first Annual Mardi Gras parade and street party. We had all four kids this weekend so Kriss and I made plans to go down to the beach and check it out. The kids really love going to the beach and the weather was going to be nice. We got there early enough to get good parking and get down by the pier where a few vendors were set up selling beads, masks, drinks, etc. We had over an hour before the parade came so we walked up on the pier and then the kids wanted to go dig in the sand so we let them while we sat on the pier and enjoyed the sun.We ran in to several friends too. Read more

Alyssa was asked to be in the fashion show for Maurice’s at the Southern Women’s Show yesterday. She got to get out of school early and go to the Trade Center Friday and get dressed up/made up and walk the runway. She liked doing it and said she would do it again. Kriss also got to meet a bunch of people like Chef Joe Randall and saw lots of friends there. She has more pictures on her Facebook and at the Southeast411 Page

Yesterday Kellie went on her first kindergarten field trip and Kriss went along to help herd the kids. They went all the way to Georgia Southern in Statesboro and visited the Science Center and Planetarium. They got to learn about plants and do experiments with them, dinosaurs and play with their fossilized poop, and dig for fossils. The weather was supposed to be in the upper 60’s so they planned to eat outside but it ended up not getting anywhere near that warm so they were eating outside in the cold. I can’t believe there wasn’t somewhere they could have gone where it was warm, some kids didn’t have enough clothes even. Judging by the pictures it looks like they had a lot of fun though. They even had green shirts made up for it.

Even though it’s already 2009, my class from Savannah Christian c/o 1988 met this weekend for a 20 year reunion. We met up Friday night downtown at the Bull St Chop House and Saturday at the Savannah Yacht Club on Wilmington Island. Both nights were wonderful, tons of good food at both places, including oysters on Saturday (yum,) and lots of good conversation. Kriss was able to come with me Friday night and already knows a few of my friends but she had won tickets to see Rascal Flatts and Jessica Simpson in Charleston back in December and didn’t realize it was for this weekend so she and her mom went to that.

We all talk on Facebook a lot now and are already thinking we should be doing this more often, several times a year even, instead of waiting another 10 years. Some of my classmates even live near us so we can go out or visit each others house in Richmond Hill. There are a lot more pictures on my Facebook page if you’re friends with me.

Back in December Kriss won tickets to see Rascal Flatts in Charleston at the North Charleston Coliseum this past Saturday night. She originally thought they weren’t great seats when she looked online but she said they ended up being fairly decent. I only wish she had take a good camera, this pic was taken with her camera phone. Unfortunately she missed the second night of my class reunion with her new friends, you would think they had gone to school together, but they both said this was probably the best concert they had been to.

Marc has gotten in to a lot of activities over recent years, I don’t know how he even keeps up with them all and his school work sometimes, but one that he seems to really enjoy so far is acting in plays. He’s done a few plays for his school (last spring he was the lead role as the prince in The Prince and the Pea) and church. This Christmas he was in a short play at his local community theatre called The Elves Impersonator, you’ll get the name when you watch it. Dad and Lynn were going to Nashville and stopped in to see it on the way up and he filmed it.

A joke I have heard my whole life that continues today about Disney is how you wait in line for 60 minutes to ride a ride that’s all over in 60 seconds. Disney can’t hold a candle to Christmas. For weeks and months (maybe only days for a few husbands) we shop, and cook, and drive, and agonize over what to get our family and friends for Christmas. Then in the blink of an eye, three little Tasmanian devils tear through their packages like a tornado through a trailer park. The kids were all pleased with their gifts that Santa brought as well as what Kriss and I got them. I was advised that the two older girls were up at 3:00AM with the tree turned on as well as every light in the living room looking to see what Santa brought. He brought Erin and Kellie bicycles and Alyssa a Vera Bradley bag. I think Erin likes her bike most of all but Kellie really hasn’t ridden hers yet. Alyssa got a stack of books she is in to now, all the Wicked, Twilight, and other vampire craze that’s going around now. Read more