Seven Years

I'm not a meme type of gal (if you don't know what a "meme" is please follow the link; it will lend understanding to the rest of this entry). I apologize to all my blogger buddies who have "tagged" me in the past; I don't mean to ignore you, but I just enjoy reading memes more than I do writing them.

However, a fellow blogger, Purple Valley, altered a popular meme currently dashing about the blogosphere, and I rather liked the creativity her version allowed. I'm going to participate. My first meme!

Seven Years, Seven Events

2000: Oh, what a year! I got married in February and had Madeleine in August. Superdad started law school in September. A great, great year!

Cutting our cake

2001: Superdad received an invitation to summer (i.e. spend the summer interning, basically) at his first choice law firm. Generally, provided they do a decent job, law students end up working at the law firm they summer with once they graduate. This is the same law firm he's with now, and the same one he identified early in law school as the firm he wanted to work with once he graduated.

2002: In July I quit my job to stay home with Madeleine, and soon to be Hank, after two years of wanting to do so.

In October, Hank is born.

Superdad and his new son

Hank, just hours old, with my mom and dad

2003: Superdad graduates from law school in May and begins work the same firm he summered with the previous summer.

Madeleine and Superdad

We packed up our meager belongings from our apartment in Janesville and moved east, into the house we're in now.

The front porch of our "new" house (the ugly black railing is now gone)

2004: Superdad and I, plus the two kids crammed into a minivan with my mom and stepdad and drove out to New Jersey for my cousin's wedding. The affair was small and intimate and allowed a new generation, my children's generation, an opportunity to get to know each other. Madeleine was also quite impressed with New York City (though you can't tell it from this pathetic picture in which she's slouched over, asleep).

l-r Madeleine, me, Superdad, Quantum Void and Bob (I apologize for the lameness of this picture; the ones I wanted to share I apparently don't have electronic versions of, so I'm stuck with this).

2005: October is the defining month in 2005. Elisabeth is born and, days later, my mother passes away.

Superdad, Elisabeth Jane and me in the recovery room, just following Elisabeth's birth

My two girls: Madeleine and Elisabeth

2006: My dad, Elisabeth and I make one last trip to Minnesota, to see my grandfather, in June. He dies a few week later at the age of ninety-two. While there we tour rural southwestern Minnesota and see where my dad was born, visit with various cousins and stop at cemetery after cemetery confirming birth dates and death dates of generations of relatives (I love genealogy; this is neither boring nor morbid to me).

Dad and Elisabeth overlooking the fields my dad farmed as a boy.

2007: With seven months still to go, I suppose it's possible this entry might change. But I can't imagine many things more life altering will happen to us than making the decision to home school Madeleine.

There you have it. My first meme. I know it's the meme tradition to "tag" other bloggers, but I won't do that because I don't know who's interested in memes and who is not. So, if you want to copy, let me know; I'd love to read your entry.