Emily is about to turn 18 years old. Anna came home from college to celebrate. Linda surprised Emily with a small gathering of her friends at a local restaurant for some decadent desserts.
Emily was truly surprised and it was fun just sitting around and talking.
Emily was selected to play for the KMEA All-State 5A and 6A Band. What an honor and a testament to the hard work she has done with the flute. The whole family was there to listen – Linda was there for professional purposes already, Anna drove down from Manhattan, and I drove down from Kansas City. Additionally, Linda’s parents drove down from Topeka. It was great having the whole family there to listen to Emily and the rest of the All-State Band.
Unfortunately, we were unable to record any of the concert, but I have a nice picture that was taken during the final bow.
After a year of going back and forth about where she was wanting to go to college, Emily announced to me and Linda last night that she has chosen to go to K-State. This makes us so very happy, not only as K-State alumni, but because she’ll be going to school where her older sister is currently going. Having that support will mean so much. Also, she’s going to be around when we head to Manhattan for games.
She started looking at schools 2 years ago and was convinced she was going to go Boston University or Providence University. After visiting Boston, she ruled it out, but loved Providence. So, it was Providence for quite a while (assuming there would be lots of scholarship to help make it affordable). Then she visited Truman State in Missouri and fell in love. However, it was such a small place and she’s a city gal.
Iowa State came on the radar and she was full tilt for moving to Ames. A visit to the school helped solidify her resolve to go there. However, we explained to her that she really needed to give K-State a real chance to show her what they had to offer. She’s known K-State and Manhattan her whole life, but she needed to really know what she could get from it.
Linda and Emily visited K-State a couple days ago and she fell in love. She got all of the information she needed to about K-State and the programs in which she’s interested.
#EMAW
Emily danced with the Pacesetters a few nights ago during the men’s basketball halftime. Here’s a short video clip of the dance.
She starts out on your far right…
Emily played in the winter piano recital a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it due to work obligations, but Linda was able to record it on her iPhone. I realized earlier today that I hadn’t actually watched the video.
So, here’s Emily playing Variations, Op 40 No1 by Kabalevsky.
I’ve been sitting and pondering a lot over the past week. I’ve been trying to properly evaluate my feelings regarding the life change of Anna leaving for college this past week. This wasn’t something that came on quickly nor was it unexpected. However, it is certainly requiring adjustment.
I didn’t cry when Anna started Kindergarten. I didn’t get teary-eyed when she started driving or graduated high school. All of these events were expected life moments that every child is expected to complete. I was extremely proud of her (and of us) for getting to to that point in her life. I’ve felt the same in regards to her choosing a college and moving out of the house.
However, when your oldest child moves away from home for the first time, it feels different. Over the past couple years, she has been so busy with school, work, and other activities, there were many days when we just barely saw each other. Yet, it surprised me when it first hit me that she was really gone. More on that in a bit.
Our schedules were not in-sync at all over the past week. We couldn’t do the traditional “move in” to the dorm. However, we really had the best of all worlds. Linda and Anna moved all of her stuff on Tuesday, but then returned home. (A roommate was already moved in because of band camp, therefore making the room available). I was working, so I wasn’t able to help with this move.
Anna then left for college on her own on Friday because she had a mandatory 5-minute violin audition for orchestra. It didn’t make sense for her to drive 2 hours for a 5-minute ordeal and drive back; therefore she went by herself (again, because I was working).
The family then drove over to see her on Saturday morning; we were able to take her to lunch and get the traditional pictures of parents with the kid in the dorm room.
Unfortunately, she had to learn a life-lesson on her first few days away from home. Because she only had 5 minutes of business on her first day away, she drove another 90 minutes away to another college to visit one of her best friends. She stayed up way too late and ate way too much ice cream. When we arrived on Saturday, she was sick to her stomach and didn’t feel much like hosting the family. We pushed through her illness to visit all of her classroom buildings on campus, went to lunch, and installed a carpet remnant on the dorm room floor. She was miserable the whole time. Just as we were about to leave to go home (so she could get some much needed rest), she rushed for the dorm bathroom and began vomiting. I always feel so helpless when my child is vomiting – not much you can do until it’s all over. Amazingly, she stepped into the hallway with a big grin and a bounce in her step – she suddenly felt all better. She now asked to go get french fries at Vista Drive Inn. Oh, to be a college student. (lest you think there was alcohol involved with her sickness, I can’t even get her to drink a soda because she doesn’t like the taste).
Linda did her best to not have any crying episodes through all of the past week, but she admittedly did have a couple brief spells of misty eyes. I had a heaviness in my heart knowing that she was leaving, but I wasn’t really all that sad. However, it really hit both of us quite hard on Sunday evening. We went to Mass – a service where Emily plays piano and Anna sings and plays violin. We’re busy all week long, every week – but we almost always attended Mass every weekend as a four-person family. It was very clear that we were a three-person family at Mass now. Stupidly, I pointed this out to Linda just before Mass started and then we both started bawling. Just then, the teen music director (and Anna’s voice teacher) had stopped to check on us – finding us bawling, which just about set her off, too.
Each day has become easier. It helps that we can text and Snapchat with each other with ease. She’s been doing well – and even posted an awesome selfie of her first day of college. We’re proud of her and are looking forward to going back to see her soon (it’s a good thing she’s in the same place where we go to watch football games all season long). Go K-State – EMAW!
Before everyone resumes school, we headed off for our summer vacation – finally a place that none of us have ever visited. Linda has made sure we have spent our summer vacations visiting iconic places around the nation (Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, LA, Nashville, etc). However, we were looking for a place none of us have ever visited. Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls beckoned…
We flew in to Buffalo and promptly made our way to Duff’s Famous Wings to get some Buffalo Chicken Wings (one of the 2 purported origins of Buffalo Wings) . Of course, I paired it with a nice pint of Yuengling brew – from America’s oldest brewery.
Afterwards, we went to Delaware Park in Buffalo to hike around and view a Japanese Garden – a beautiful walking trail.
We hung out in Buffalo and stayed at Chestnut Hill Farm House, a bed and breakfast on the southern edge of town. The place was a remodeled 165-year old farm house. We enjoyed a wonderfully spacious room with a side room for the girls and a patio off our bedroom.
We woke up Sunday morning and attended Mass at one of the local Catholic churches. It’s always amazing that one can attend Mass in another state (or even country) and it will be very similar to the home church. We then returned the Bed & Breakfast to enjoy the promised breakfast – a french toast casserole and assorted fruit.
One last thing to do in Buffalo before heading to Niagara Falls was to tour one of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses there. This was built in the early 1900’s for Darwin Martin, a millionaire who had worked his way up from selling Larkin soap door-to-door in NYC to being the senior accounting executive for the Larkin Soap Co. It was a fabulous tour. Unfortunately, no photos inside, so you only get these outdoor photos.
After spending the afternoon in Buffalo, we loaded into the rented Chevy Cruze and travelled an hour north up to Niagara Falls, NY. We hiked for a while on the trail in the park. The first views of the falls were breathtaking – and we quickly took a group selfie to commemorate the arrival.
We are standing on the USA side, right next to the USA falls with Horseshoe Falls in the far background and the tall buildings of Niagara Falls, Ontario behind us. We eventually got across the water (after an hour on the bridge, waiting to get through customs) and checked in to the hotel. The highlight of the evening, after a 20 minute walk back to the water, was a ride on the Hornblower boat into the base of the Horseshoe Falls to see them lit up with colored spotlights and view an impressive fireworks show just above us while floating in the water.
The final and penultimate day was filled with a tour all around Niagara Falls via a tour bus and guide. This was definitely the way to do it there – we saw and learned so many things that we wouldn’t have without the guide. We enjoyed the time-honored Maid of the Mist boat tour and really got up and close to the falls.
We spent time on land on both sides – up close and personal. It seemed you could hop the little fence and jump right in the water.
We finished the day at the top of an observation deck which afforded a most spectacular view (second only to being at the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls). The view was truly amazing.
Prior to our flight home, we had a bit of time to kill – so we stopped at a movie theater and watched the new “Ghostbusters”. What a fun weekend.
I have been a Weird Al fan for more than 30 years – in fact, I lip-synced one of his songs for a talent show during my senior year of high school. Unfortunately, despite my devotion, I’ve never been able to see him live in concert. Linda saw him in concert in the late 1980’s when he was the opening act for the Monkees. When it was announced that he was touring with his latest album, I jumped at the chance to be able to see him.
I honestly grinned from ear to ear throughout the whole evening. To give you a sample of what I was enjoying, here is a compilation of clips I recorded throughout the evening (originally shared individually on my social media accounts):
OK, so it’s been since March 12th since I posted my last entry – and it was a bummer because I had sustained an injury while running and it put me out of commission for quite a while. I was hoping it’d only be a few weeks, but it was a lot more.
I missed my first marathon (for which I had been currently training) – and I missed the half-marathon that I had vowed I would do just 4 weeks after the marathon. The injury lingered and it took a while to get back in to shape.
But – you probably don’t want to know all about that. You’re probably more interested in the things that has happened with our family over the past two and a half months. Well, here’s a quick run down (and hopefully some future posts):
– family vacation to the Dominican Republic
– sang with the KC Symphony production of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses
– Anna nominated for Heritage Court (i.e., kind of like prom court)
– Emily’s performances with Pacesetters
– Emily’s flute recital
– Anna and Emily’s piano recital
– Prom for both Anna and Emily
– Anna’s vocal performance at Raider Revue
– Anna’s high school graduation
– Bill is selected as President of Kansas City Symphony Chorus
– Linda rides her bike in the Cottonwood 200
– Linda and girls take a trip to Galveston
– Bill and Linda see Keith Urban in concert
Like I said, we’ve been busy. There’s a lot to talk about and I hope to get all of you caught up. Here’s to keeping up promises…
It was one week ago. I was running my “long run” for the week – fortunately, only a 12-mile run after running 16 miles the week before. I’d been experiencing a bit of soreness in my heel over the past couple weeks, but I assumed it was because my mileage had drastically increased since running my half-marathon a few weeks ago. Let’s face it, every run lately has started with a bit of soreness, but it had always worked out within the first 1-2 miles. It’s really not that big of a deal.
However, this run felt different. The soreness in my heel was a more sore than usual. But – I pressed on, like a good boy should. By the mile 3 I was still hurting and started to worry that I would really be hurting by the time I finished my 12 miles. Around mile 4, I was going up a short incline (in a motion much like running up some stairs) when I experienced one of the worst pains I’d ever felt – a pop in the back of my heel. I immediately assumed I’d ruptured my Achilles tendon. My training as an emergency physician was quickly put to use – and I determined that the tendon was not ruptured. I tried stretching; tried walking it off; tried a slow jog…nothing was working. I quickly determined that my run was done and I needed to start walking home.
I texted Linda and called Anna – someone would come pick me up. By the time Linda got there, I was only 1/4-mile back and couldn’t take one more step without being on the verge of tears. This was more pain than I experienced when I broke my pelvis 4 years ago in a bicycle crash. Honestly, my “almost tears” was the frustration over the fact that my marathon training had come to an abrupt halt. So close, yet so far away!
I used crutches the first 24 hours, but quickly moved over to the cane that I used for a few weeks during my pelvis fracture healing. The best thing that could’ve happened was an invitation to be evaluated by a good friend that is a physical therapist. She did some magic massage and ultrasound therapy that made my heel feel much better. Kinesiology tape and a heel cup have also been a miracle.
My marathon is 5 weeks away. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to run it, but I’m hoping that I get the chance to try. I’ve rested for a full week and I’m expecting another week of no running. I’m hoping to start using the stationary bike soon to keep my cardiovascular status in check. If things work out, I’ll run the marathon – but in a much slower time than previously expected. At this point, I’ll be happy just to get the chance to try.