I pulled this from my Dad’s blog. He wrote this right after my Grandpa died a few days ago.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Paul

Paul A Butkereit April 1922 – June 2009

Everything I ever could ever define as good
Was there in this man

A scant five minutes in his presence
Was all it took to convince anyone of this

He had an honest and open relationship
With the world
With everyone
With everything

I never knew him to tell a lie
Not once

His simple philosophy
Could be summed up
With one phrase

Do the right thing

What the right thing was
Needed no mention

It was understood
That you knew

It was your responsibility

To know

I really believe that he felt that way
About so many of the world’s
problems

People, most often know
What is the right thing to do
Deep down inside
They
know

They just won’t always admit it
To themselves

Let alone
To others

If ever there was
An example needed
To define the opposite
Of pretense

That would have to be
My dad

Unassuming, charismatic, outgoing
He was the guy who

Picked up hitch hikers
Stopped to fix flat tires
Did business on a handshake
Volunteered his time
Trusted his neighbors

One of my earliest memories
Is of my dad
Rushing in to pull someone
From their shattered vehicle
Lying upside-down and on fire
In the middle of East Seaman Avenue

A crowd of people
Looked on
Frozen with fear
Dad walked right up
And pulled the man from his car

The crowd failed to act
Because they were afraid the car would explode
My dad went in
For the very same reason

Mom had a fit of course
But I don’t think Dad could have done any different

And so it went
He was always that way
Which caused Mom much grief sometimes
But as kids growing up
It gave us a very broad perspective

The sort of perspective needed
To realize that the world is more
More than a man
More than a people
More than a nation

That we can be the heroes
We can be the leaders
We can be the champions
If we simply

Do the right thing

Now he is gone
And I am realizing
Perhaps for the first time
That he is as much a part of my message
As I am

As we all are

Thanks Dad

Posted by Citizen of Earth at 4:35 PM

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I got a mosquito bite on the palm of my fucking hand! How does that happen!?

Please excuse the profanity, but I am highly agitated about this turn of events.

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I am beginning the process of buying a house. I am SO overwhelmed.

My biggest problem is that the area that I’m looking in had all of these great houses. A lot of them were exactly what I was looking for. They had all been sitting on the market for a little while and I was keeping my eye on them using a realtor website. Unfortunately that was also during the time period that I was overly pregnant and my dear husband was out of commission because of a broken knee, in addition to all of the other crap I had going on at the time.

Well, now that I have had my baby and my husband can walk again all of these great houses that I wanted to take a look at are either sold or under contract and as good as sold. I am soooooooooo agitated. It also doesn’t help that I am five states away from the state I am actually looking in. Dear hubby is still there to look at the houses, so I just need to trust his judgement in case he finds ‘the one.’

I feel bad for him because I keep trying to convince him that we should also be looking outside of the area that he wants to target. I keep sending him listings for houses that are farther away from his job than he wants to be. Usually these houses are just what we are looking for in terms of size and price, but add too much commute time for his drive to work. ARGH!

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I stayed at this absolutely adorable little bed and breakfast the other day called the Palmer House. This was my first time staying in a b and b, and I must say that it was a wonderful experience. The owners were extremely hospitable, felt more like family (the nice kind!). The rooms were amazing, it felt so much more cozy and comfortable than being in a hotel. My room was the Lydia Room set up with a king size bed, which was nice since I had both the kids with me. I loved that their huge standard poodle, Spencer, was constantly roaming around the house and checking on everyone, makes me feel safe. I just love dogs, and Spencer is such a sweety! Dolly, one of the owners, made amazing pumpkin pancakes the next morning. Another real plus about this place was that it was half the price to stay there than at the Best Western down the road, and I was more comfortable. I made sure to write a little blurb in the guest book in my room. It was neat to read what other people had left in there.

I have always wanted to try staying at a b and b and I must say that the Palmer House did not disappoint!

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You know how some books and movies are about a special group of people, such as a club or society or some such nonsense? Usually it’s about a group of women (think Ya-ya Sisterhood, Babysitters Club, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, etc.) or a family (Family Stone, Dan in Real Life, etc.) and it is a very feel good story. There are all of these wonderful people and they all have such great connection (whether positive or negative) to each other, and you think to yourself that this just doesn’t happen in real life. You don’t usually see a bunch of people just coming together like this! You especially think that, even if things like this did happen that you wouldn’t be a part of it.

Well, every Tuesday in my neighborhood a wonderful group of women get together and just talk about what is going on in their lives. I moved into my house almost two years ago and was immediately given an invitation to this little club (with no agenda!). I swear that the ladies who make up Knit and Gab are just a book waiting to happen. They are the most amazing group of individuals. It’s so fun to be a part of hearing about everyones lives and stories every week. I never thought that there actually were groups like this that existed, let alone being a part of one. Thanks ladies!

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Ok, so I haven’t updated in about a week, but I’ve been really busy as usual. I need a chance to bitch about what’s going on with myself. My husband and I are starting the process of purchasing our first home and that is just a TON of work. Just when we were going out with our realtor to look at some houses I get a call from my family in New York about a major emergency. I dropped everything I was doing and packed up for myself and two small boys in less than three hours. Luckily I had some help with that. We then got in a car and drove for twelve hours to New York State. Normally this is an eight to ten hour trip, but I am nursing my littlest guy and we had to stop to do that every one to two hours. Argh! My sister-in-law was good enough to accompany me on this little expedition, thank goodness! I could have done it without her, but it would have been a lot more miserable. I am now staying at my Mother’s house and looking forward to another trip tomorrow of about four hours.

My kids are being so good. Yesterday my two year old must have sensed something was really amiss because he was amazingly good. He didn’t whine or cry or throw temper tantrums. He just did as he was told and kept mostly to himself. I’m pretty proud of the little dude. I guess it helps that we have the DVD player in the Freestyle.

Tomorrow I’m going to pick up my Dad and am probably going to say good bye for the last time to my Grandfather.

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As I lay in bed nursing my newborn I am listening to the soothing sound of a Summer thunderstorm. I have always loved the rain in the Summertime. It can feel so refreshing. The un-earthly light that is specific just to these types of storms is beautiful. The sound of the low grumblings getting closer and closer and louder , and then receding into the distance on top of the sound of the pouring raindrops. The occasional flash of lightening and as soon as it came it is gone again. If you’re lucky enough you might get your rainbow at the end of the storm.

I am reminded of my childhood, either sitting on the porch of my Father’s apartment or in my grandparents home in Cherry Valley lazily watching storms come and go. Feeling the awe and respect of the power of mother nature.

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Breastfeeding may boost grades

Published: June 15, 2009 at 1:04 AM

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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I just ordered myself a dutch oven from Amazon.com and it should be coming in the mail tomorrow! I’m super excited! I just got a book out of the library called “Glorious One Pot Meals” by Elizabeth Yarnell and after reading it I decided that these recipes sound fantastic and easy. Of course you need a dutch oven to make all of them, so I went ahead and got one. I can’t wait to try the recipes and the oven! I know what I’m using to make dinner tomorrow night! I’ll post an update about the dutch oven itself and how the recipe comes out.

Update June 22, 2009:

I got the Dutch oven on the seventeenth. So far so good! I have cooked two very successful recipes, and one not so successful. The pot itself seems to be really well made and I am very happy with it. There have been no chips on the enamel as of yet, and I even put it in my dishwasher and it made a twelve hour trip to New York with me in my car with a toddler.

The first recipe I made in it was Sante Fe Chicken, and it was soooooooooo good! I will most defnintely make that one again. I then made some sort of a steak dinner, but I think I deviated too much from the original recipe since it wasn’t too good. After that I used on the stove top and dumped all of my left over veggies in the fridge into it. I then added some beef cubes and it came out so tastey. I have to call my husband and tell him to freeze it so I can have some when I get home from my trip to New York.

I’ll be sure to post the recipe for Santa Fe Chicken once I get home.

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I am finally going to try cloth. When I was pregnant with my first son I kept saying I wanted to try it. I didn’t want to deal with pins and rubber pants so I started looking on-line to see if there were alternatives. There were so many different varieties and choices that I just got discouraged and gave up. We’ve been doing disposables since then, I hate to admit.

Well, now that I have time to research, I’ve been looking a little more closely at the options. Yesterday I ordered three of the bumGenius  Organic Cloth diapers, just to try them out. I decided to go with these because not only are they a one size fits all diaper, they are all-in-one. If I really like them I’ll order some more. I will still use disposables at night since my newborn sleeps so well, but I’m really hoping that these work out well. We will end up saving a lot of money doing this. I’ll update once the diapers come in.

Update June 22, 2009:

I got my diapers delivered on June 17th. I then proceeded to wash them eight times! Boy, they take a long time to dry! They seem really well made. I have only had the opportunity to use one of them once, since I have a lot of other things going on right now. I’ll be sure to update more once I start using them consistently and can make a fair assessment of them.

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