Danny turned 10 yesterday. He spent the night with Gramalie and Grandad on Friday night. They went to sent “Men In Black” which Danny liked alot. Gramalie said it was the slimiest movie she had ever seen.

Danny won two medals (3 LF, 4 Back) and two ribbons (11 SF, 7 Med Relay) earlier in the day. Nicole got up early with Danny, and I drove them both to the county meet on the way to work. Kathy and the two little girls arrived later. Kathy sent me text pages to keep me updated. Danny did well considering this was his young year.

Kelly and Mary Claire were worn out after a hot, full day of playing at the park. Kathy was tired, too, and fortunately I had some pizza left over from a staff meeting to feed us all (except Dan who ate at Mom’s.)

We all got up early again on Saturday. Nicole’s relay team won their medley relay heat, and just missed a ribbon with a13th place. Their free relay got 15th. Nicole swam her first individual county event ever. She won her heat, and Coach Kelly told her she did a terrific start and turn. Unfortunately I missed the race tending to Mary Claire’s bleeding lip. She had slipped through the bleachers as I hoisted her to the top seat next to Kathy.

Kelly and Mary Claire did good keeping busy through the long hot day. Kathy says they have gotten very adaptable because of the baseball season. Wherever we land, they figure out a way to have fun.

Michael Halpin and Nick Menson came over for Danny’s birthday (Richard Nason and Alex Meyer both were sick and could not make it.) We all had hamburgers and hot dogs, opened presents, ate birthday cake and icecream, then I took the boys and Nicole to the Atlanta Ice Forum for a long ice skating session. The boys all got hockey skates. Danny was the fastest kid on the ice, and probably the most dangerous as he practiced his stops (mostly into the wall.)

Nicole carefully made it around the rink 33 times. Danny was proud of his 6 blisters and that he finally figured out how to do a sideways stop on the ice.

I was chilly most of the time. I should have skated.

Poor Kelly ended up with a fever tonight. She almost fell asleep at the pool before we realized that she wasn’t just tired, but running a temperature.

Danny went out and played street hockey with the Halpin boys, their dad, and his new roller blades.

Danny was sick with a fever and stayed home today. Late tonight, after everyone else had gone to bed, I heard some stirring upstairs.

Danny was awake in bed. He had had a bad dream and gotten up to open his door. When I asked him what the bad dream was about, he said, “Woodmakers.”

“Woodmakers?” I asked, not sure I had heard right.

“Yeah. They were big,” he said.

“You mean like carpenters?”

“Yeah, carpenters.”

He couldn’t tell me a lot. There were ships. The woodmakers would make a noise if he tried to escape. He said he had had the dream before.

“What makes you think of them as woodmakers? Do they have axes?”

“No. I don’t think they had tools…. I think they had nails.”

I told him that when I had fevers as a kid, I used to have bad dreams. A lot of times I would wake up sweating, and that’s seemed to be right when the fever broke and went away.

“Did you wake up sweating?” I asked him.

“No.”

Oh well. I decided to let him go back to sleep.

Danny & Alex

I have learned a lot about computers today (more than I already knew).

I play the bass clarinet.

I like Notre Dame.

I like the Beatles and Nat King Cole.

I like the Olympics.

— Nicole

We had a very eventful Easter Eve. Kelly and her mom, that is.

Kelly was invited to Charlotte Butker’s birthday party the Saturday before Easter. I was letting her watch TV in the basement so I could get the house cleaned up before we left for the party. At 11:15, the cries of pain came from the basement. Nicole told us Kelly was climbing on the chair, slipped and cut open her chin. Sure enough, she had a pretty good sized gash, but not much blood. It was decided that she should go to the emergency room.

On the way to Egleston, she told me a number of times that she didn’t want stitches. I tried my best to comfort her, telling her hopefully all she needed a special band-aid.

At 1:00, she was brought back to a room to wait for the doctor. Very nice guy, with terrific bedside manner for kids. He came in the room and Kelly, who was turned away from him, immediately said, “I don’t want stitches”. He sat down next to her and asked her what happened. Still looking at the wall, she told him. Then he asked her about her teeth, tongue, etc. Only then did Kelly turn to face him and she let him look at her chin, still telling him “I don’t want any stitches”. He told her she probably didn’t need stitches, this time. He pulled out some glue, alcohol, band-aids, etc. to show her exactly what he was going to do. She put her hand on his leg and listened very carefully to him. It was most cute. While a nurse was gathering the things he needed, he left the room, but before he left, Kelly told him one more time that she didn’t need stitches. He laughed.

Meanwhile, I’m looking at my watch and am relieved that we’re going to make the 2:30 party. Dr. Snowden returns and prompts Kelly into saying once again that she doesn’t want stitches. He sat on the bed and tells her she’s “a piece of work”. I think he particularly liked her. After glueing and bandaging her cut, he gets up to tell me how to care for her chin. Kelly then says “How do I look?” She has put the band-aid on and the Dr. gets another chuckle from her and tells her she has done a fine job putting the band-aid on.

Kelly and I have just enough time to clean up at home and still make the party on time.

We’re cruising down 85 when a funny sound comes from the van. I’m afraid one of my fears has come true. The van loses a little control and I know I’ve got a flat tire. Fortunately, all the cars slow to allow me to pull over on the right emergency lane. We stop right before Spaghetti Junction and to the right of me is expressway, and to the left of me is expressway. There is no way we can walk for help. I immediately started to look for paper and pencil to write a note for someone to call for help. No more than 2 minutes pass when a tow truck pulls over in front of us. A very nice man gets out and offers help.

I kept thinking of our neighbor who lost her daughter on the side of the expressway and am very worried about Kelly sitting in the van. I ask him if Kelly could please sit in his truck. He also lets me use his cell phone. I notice the name of the company on the truck, Angel’s Towing Service. I looked at it twice just to make sure I was reading it right. The guy was so nice and helpful, that I had a particular feeling of being watched over. He tells me that he didn’t used to stop to help people until once on a trip his wife and baby were stranded and someone stopped to help. He was about to exit to buy an Easter basket when he saw all the cars swerving and slowing and decided to see if someone needed help. Kelly and I, maybe it was just me, were blessed that day. I truly felt like an angel had been sent.

[Having four children has broken me of the habit of recording things in the diary. For a New Year’s resolution, I’ll try to make more entries and here it is already the 13th!]

As I turned into the driveway after work, my headlights caught a rabbit running across the back yard in front of the playground and up towards the back fence. Snow was still in the half of the yard near the house where the house shadow had blocked the sun all day.

I came in and told everyone that I saw a rabbit run across the back yard. Kelly was very excited, and went to the window to see the rabbit.

“You won’t be able to see him,” I told Kelly. “He ran away and it is very dark.”

“There he is!” she yelled. “I see him! He’s white! He’s a girl rabbit! I see him!”

Foolish me.

Kelly started giving us regular updates about her rabbit, entering one of her long sessions where we end up ignoring her.

I was standing in the kitchen talking to Kathy, when Kelly came running to me with her hands in the air making noise. She crashed right into me, and then came to an abrupt quiet.

“Hey!” she yelled, with a puzzled look on her face, patting me three times on the zipper area. “You’ve got a rabbit in your pants, Dad!”

Kathy doubled over at the stove, and Nicole had to be sent from the room in stitches. I knew I had to act fast, because if Kelly realized how funny she was, this could become one of her regular routines with others like Grandad, Grandpa, Uncle Ted, etc. I had visions of her patting various members of the family at formal functions and laughing about a rabbit.

“That’s not a rabbit, Kelly,” and I proceeded to tell her the quick truth and give her a lecture about being polite.

She never knew how funny she was.

Halloween is coming in about two months, and already I feel in the mood for it. This year my birthday is Friday, October the 13. This is also my golden birthday since I will be turning 13 on the thirteenth.

It is already beginning to get cold in the mornings before school.

–Nicole