Summer ends once again

What a summer I've had! Khalil Isaiah was born on June 25- another beautiful little boy to add to our growing family. For the first time in years, the boys outnumber the girls in our gang. Grandchildren continue to amaze and delight me.


In July, my theatre group had the opportunity to perform Darfur Calls once again and it was so wonderful to be back with the cast- great friends and actors who give their time to the cause. It's such an amazing feeling. I spent much of the rest of the month writing another play, Ben's Gift for the holiday, Selichot, and we've started rehearsals now on that.





Just last week, Eli, Alana, and I were in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, visiting my sister Jane and her husband Rich. They were the best hosts- taking us hiking and to all of the beautiful sites. We even got to go out on a boat where we saw some whales, an otter, some Puffins (they are SO cute!), jumping salmon, and bald eagles- not to mention waterfalls and scenery like we've never seen before. It also just happens that Rich is the chef at the hotel there, and I don't remember ever having more delectable food in my life. He kept us spoiled the entire trip- even serving up bananas foster on our final night there. Thank you so much Jane and Rich for a truly fabulous vacation.








Eli goes back to school tomorrow- a sophomore, and though he really wanted to stay in Alaska for a year, I think he's getting used to the idea of another school year here at home. He and his friends have been burning up the phone lines, and he got all of his school supplies in order last night. Here I am- for the first time in 28 years, I won't be going back to school with the kids. It's a bittersweet feeling- I will miss the daily interaction with my students and my colleagues- my friends at Bush. I will miss "talking teacher" with them and my other friends in the profession. Yet, I feel really good about my decision to retire. I have this overwhelming sense that new things are coming soon, and I can't wait to find out what they are.

Seeing Barack

I picked up Aden and Abram today to give Rachel a little break, and we went to the Play Place at MacDonald's. Now those of you who know me KNOW I don't do MacDonalds, but when that happens to be one of my grandsons' favorite places, what can I do? We have a little routine- the boys eat their Happy Meal McNuggets with fruit and milk, and then they play for awhile. Last, we eat an ice cream cone (don't tell Rachel!!) :) and we go home. So today, we were sitting in a booth eating our ice cream- Abram was next to me, and Aden across from us, and there was a large group of African Americans in a couple of booths next to us. Suddenly, Aden stops eating and says, "Look, Bubbe- it's Barack Obama." My initial reaction was "Oh crap," but then I noticed one of the young black men looking at me and pointing over my head, so I turned and looked up, and there on the TV screen was none other than Barack Obama himself. The young man looked at Aden and gave him a thumbs up.

On the way home in the car, Aden was playing and talking to his stuffed bear (from the Happy Meal) when Abram piped up with, "Aden, you are a one man show!" And Aden said, "Bubbe, tell Abram not to call me a one man show." I thought I'd wet my pants laughing. I told Rachel about it, and she said neither she nor Greg have ever said that, and then Greg remembered it's a line in the movie Madagascar. But how amazing that a 2 year old would not only remember the line but also use it completely appropriately. I texted all this to Alan, and he said, "We've got a genius and a comedian!" Of course we have a couple of other genius comedians in Gabriel and Sofia, too! Read Kristinn's blog and you'll know what I mean! And we can't forget Khalil, who at 6 weeks, already laughs and coos and we could swear he's starting to talk sometimes!

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I got to be so lucky.