A banner day, a banner week!

I know Peter covered a lot of this below, but here's another take, another reinforcement.

Sitting with Grandma last Saturday, I realized she had had a banner day.  David and Paula were there, Johanna came by in the evening.  I had stopped by on my way back from Pittsfield.  A Meadow Lakes friend dropped by.  Aunt Georgia had called.  Net effect?  She was in good spirits, even though Princeton lost in football.  That meant she ate all the fruit on her plate and positively marched through physical therapy!

 

Then we all just found out that the Dundee Dicksons will be making the trek to be with her for Thanksgiving.  All this, after Paula had been with her for over a week, Jeffrey and Melodie had driven up and Peter had come by multiple times.  She is getting better.  It's slow and will take more time.  But it seems the best medicine of all is family.   Her cell phone is 609-651-3132.  Don't get discouraged if she doesn't pick up; it means she's either doing her needed physical therapy or she just can't locate the phone.  Try again later.  The calls are like medicine!

 

Poor Paula herself got sick while she was there helping out (heroically).  David came down on Saturday to get her home to where she could get her own rest and recovery.  

 

Big news from Dundee on the sports front.  Daniel's volleyball team won the state championship!  And he was named to the all-tournament team.  We hear he has a killer serve, as well as being a dominant force at the net.  It's a tense, stressful sport.  And, one which Claire is going to join a traveling team.  She won the "Most Improved Player" on her school's volleyball team.  I suspect this all came about because of the extra practice time in Pittsfield this summer.  That one game that lasted ten minutes must have pushed them over the top!  Seriously, that's great news. 

 

Other news from Dundee include babysitting Miles one night when Bill and Jen went to a concert.  He's growing!  And the back health out there seems to be improving. 

 

And Mary's back is getting better too.  It seems like she turned a corner recently, even if she still has a little more to go.  The proof is she sat through a whole movie (Moneyball) in the theater without getting on the floor halfway through to stretch.  It's a good movie, by the way.

 

I spent a couple of days last week in Pittsfield, winterizing the place.  That meant trying to find place to put outdoor furniture, lawnmowers and canoe.  And that means we're looking forward to getting a garage at some point in the next decade.  One the way back, after seeing Grandma, I hustled over to catch Princeton soccer and football games with Peter.  Lots of memories with children on those fall Saturdays.  Fun.

 

Margaret has landed a new job, so she will have a seamless transition since her company lost the funding for the project she had been working on.  She is going to be starting at GW Business School working on their Latin America programs.  Joe called to say he did not have an exam this week!  But he does have two next week, before Thanksgiving.  He'll be thankful that they're over.  And we had a nice long chat with Annie who is very busy at work with a big corporate pr event, today.  You can read about her getting robbed last Saturday night on her blog: http://3rdculturekidbetweenworlds.wordpress.com/  The picture of the city on her blog is her view (on a clear day) from her apartment.

 

Next week is Thanksgiving.  Time is flying.  Love from down here!