Day 257: Birthday cake

We celebrated Sam and Karin's birthdays this evening after looking at some houses. Here Sam and his cousin Gideon enjoy some chocolate cake while Karin prepares some more pieces. We didn't arrive until after 8 pm, so Zaria didn't participate in the cake-eating. She was already pretty tired and definitely didn't need sugar that late.

We weren't able to look at the home we wanted to put an offer in on, but we looked at some comparables with my dad and one of them caught our attention. It had a bigger kitchen and a less busy street, so it may be a contender if we like the neighborhood.

Day 186: Tribute to Stone

Today we remembered our friend, Jim Stone, who died suddenly and untimely in a car accident last Friday. Since he had been a serviceman, below is a photo taken outside of the color guard who had just fired off their salute in the parking lot after the funeral. It was bitterly cold outside, but an amazing night. Stone touched the lives of many, many people. I hadn't previously realized he didn't have any kids of his own because he was always surrounded by young people that considered him their "dad". He had 3 stepkids, and at least 20 "adopted kids" that he poured his love and wisdom into. We always felt welcomed by him and part of the "family" at Sonshine-- even after Jamin and I had been gone for a few years he remembered us and welcomed us for pancakes. He will be sorely missed.
After the memorial service, we sojourned to a local restaurant and enjoyed some music from Vessel and In Overflow, the band our friend Karin is in. We had last seen Jim at the In Overflow concert the week before he died, bringing two of his "kids" from Wisconsin to support Karin's band. In Overflow wrote and sang a tribute to Stone that you can download here: www.myspace.com/zzf