Cousins
Mood:  happy
It has been a whirlwind week. The Grace's are in town and the cousins have been able to spend some time together. We went to Kings Island, Brookville lake for boating, Hueston Woods for swimming, and Mike stayed over at our house for paintball.

It was interesting to see how the older two, Katie and Chad, seemed to hit it off. Then the two troubled middle children, Chelsea and Callie seemed to match up. Finally Joe and Mike got along great. Although Mike is not the youngest of the Grace's, Joe and he are real close in age.

Joe did manage to get lost at Kings Island for about an hour to help spice up that trip. Chad put a nail in my tractor tire - it cost like $150 to fix it. I guess that it couldn't be a perfect week.

Grandma Freedman passed away - after heather arrived. It was almost like she waited for her to get back before letting go. She was all about family, so it is fitting that us three remaining grandkids would be together the week that she passed away. She spent a lot of time with us grandchildren, the rest are in California so we were a bit closer I think. I like to think that she was able to watch the cousins this week and see them get along so well and have a good time like they did. If she had been here, she would have liked to have been with the children.

One unusual coincidence? I had purchased a pear tree back in the spring. It never did anything - it was basically a stick in the ground, no leaves, the buds showed no life, nothing. I was planning on cutting it down with my chainsaw when I had some spare time. On Sunday I was showing Heather my boat in the back yard and lo and behold - it had burst out in small leaves all over.

A coincidence that on the day she passed away the tree finally sprouted leaves, or... Reminds me of the two balloons at Grandpa Freedmans funeral service. During the memorial service two ballons that had gone up to the ceiling during a party the day before came down in front of his favorite son, Uncle Vaughn, and his namesake - Joe. Again was it just coincidence or an unseen hand.