When it rains it pours (and we aren't talking salt)

Did I mention flowers before??? Well, here pose Mason and Colin in front of one of 4 fantastic flowering bushes (Alfie told me the name of the bush but I forgot) in the front of our house (one on each side of the two doors...). The past week's summary? Hmm... well... we took Al to the hospital with chest pains and trouble breathing 2 Thursdays ago. 3-4 days in the hospital and many tests showed progression of the cancer and shook us all a bit. Even though he now needs oxygen to continue functioning normally, he is back at the house and more or less stabilized back into the wonderful, loveable Al we all know. Lise and Ann came in from Chicago and Elena flew in today. Irene was visiting when the crisis happened and has also been here helping us through this... We have been busy of course in the usual Alschuler family fashion of having meetings where making lists, giggling, crying, planning, and hugging are the wonderful norm. In the midst of it all four Ruhes came down with horrible achy/flemy/sneezy bichos (bugs). I have a warm box of tissues next to the keyboard as I type this to the soft wailing rythm of Bjork from a collection given to me by the famous uncle chocolate (thanks again Jamal). So it has been an extremely full week which is culminating tonight by updating the blog and paying bills. I start work on monday and have a whole bunch of forms I need to fill out before that and then there's always laundry. Wow... Here's a few more images from the week+: The get well picture that Aman drew for Isaiah (he got sick first) and the thank you card that Isaiah made for Aman(notice what he calls Aman in the center of pic). Mason and Aman "relaxing" in the bath (the reality was that they spent a little over and hour making flatulence sounds with cups and water and giggling loudly). The rocky outcrop where we stopped on a hike with Oma before we all got sick. And... I could not resist... guess who? (I don't even recognize myself as a yittle dude but Dad says that's me)

White Flowers in Bloom

Oh yeah, so next time I will include a pic of the scandalous amount of blooming white flowers in the bushes in the front yard. So hey, guess what? Dad gave me some MORE slides from my childhood... but I won't post them anytime soon although I am going to because there are several great ones of Dad and I that I had never seen before... And the big news of the week is that friday Kollmorgen sent me a new offer of employment with almost everything included that I had asked for ... so as of yesterday I am officially employed and begin on June 5th. I am getting busy finishing up the last yittle projects that I have been doing cause there's only one week left of freedom!!! Last weekend we went to Elena's graduation from Bard college in NY. The boys and I arrived for a nice lunch on saturday and then on to the ceremony in the afternoon. Congratulations again Elena!!!! We are so proud of you! While the celebrations continued that evening, the boys and I slipped out and went to visit Dad and Janet. We spent the night and hung for most of sunday visiting grandma and Doug, taking nice walks, splashing in puddles and giggling at a silly talking-animal movie. The boys once again have proven (especially Isaiah) to be masters at finding Dad's ticklish spot... Today Irene got off a red-eye flight from the west coast. She is here for the next five days and we are happy to have her here. The three cousins pounced on her and played games with her all morning. Then Isaiah had his second soccer run in the afternoon. The first game they lost 5-1 and they tied at 1-1 in the second game. It was nice hot and Isaiah sweated buckets and was very happy at the end of it all. Large quantities of soft icecream was the finisher!

Of course!!... regular photos can be done too!!!

Aman is reacting to his MMR and DPT shots, gifts from the doctor's office yesterday. He is fitfully sleeping behind me but that gave me the chance to clean out our desk a bit and shift stuff to a new shelf I brought upstairs this morning. In a dusty corner I found a stack of old photos. I digitized a few of these classics and couldn't resist posting them... (and that's it I promise) Mom and Colin An Old school pic 10 years old Baseball: Williams Lumber team with best friend Mike Torracello in Rhinbeck, NY at around 11 years And the last classic of David, Aria, Javid, Sutherland, and Roshan (and could be Erica or Samantha Schmidt in the way back)

Great Grandpa's Stash

Dad has been going through boxes Granpa David's files, papers and pictures for months now. He saved so many interesting things including most of the love letters he wrote to grandma while they were dating (very cute!). Among the pics dad found a bunch of slides that he sent me and that I have been trying to figure out how to digitize... I had some time the other day and what did I do...? Yes of course... I googled it!!! ...figuring I had to take these to someone else to do but the first article I found was a simple at-home process with a digital camera. My technique needs some improving but I did a quick few to share here. There's moi of course, Jaleh, Dad and Grandma!!

A touch of this and a pinch of that

It was a stressfull weekend for me emotionally. I still can't get my head around the fact that we live here in MA. Life is so completely different than the one I knew 3 months ago (and it's still bloody cold!!! When is summer gonna get here???). And yet beautifully the same still surrounded by this amazing unit of Britt, Isaiah and Aman... growing, churning, soaring together. And summer? Just around the corner June 21st. Our 14th wedding anniversary! Warmth and smiles on the longest day of the year... I have also tortured myself with the salary negotiations that I entered in on with this job that I was offered. The wait is killing me and probably adding to the stress mentioned above but they confirmed today that they still want me and will be getting back soon with another offer... Well, soccer was cancelled on saturday due to "field conditions" (a weeks worth of pouring rain) so we headed to the pool. The diving board was again the favorite and this time 2 year old Mason joined in the aerial fun. I also include an image of Isaiah getting off the bus on his first day taking the bus... ah these little firsts that make it all real...!! :)