Goodbye Dad

My dad, Lloyd William Catlin Jr (aka Bud), passed away a couple of days ago. I don't know what to say or think but I've been taking a walk down memory lane. I don't have many pictures over here because we put all our pictures in storage in CA. However I felt compelled to bring some pics of Dad when he was younger. My mom gave these to me a couple of years ago. My kids always think this one is "Uncle Ben" and is my favorite. He enlisted in the Army at 17 so that he could fight in WW2.

Here he is about 18 mos. I think this looks a lot like Kate.

Dad and his sister, Betty around 1931 (3 years old?)

I flew home, thanks to Dad's expense, to introduce him to Kate. It's the only time he's seen her and I went to purely get a picture of him with her before he died.

Mom and Dad at the Tyler Place Family Resort in Vermont. This is my favorite place on earth and we went there many summers growing up and again with my kids as a grown up. Good times.

Dad giving an eloquent toast at my wedding. He always had a way of putting some flair on the English language. He could take an ordinary sentence and make it exquisite.

I just like this pic of Issy and Ben snuggling my dad while reading a story. This is from the last time we went home in Dec 2007. We saw him March 2009 in Las Vegas, but this will be the first time home for the big kids in a long time.

I remember seeing my first play at Shea's (Annie) with Dad. Did that instill my love for red hair? Ha ha. I'll always remember him at every track meet or sporting event and faithfully supporting every endeavor I've ever undertaken. While Dad and I didn't see eye to eye on many things (the volume of our voices or his incessant need to ALWAYS remind me to turn the light out upstairs), he was my dad and I'm sure there will be a giant hole in my childhood home when I return. Maybe I'll even shut off a light when I leave a room just for him.

Why I haven't update in a month

I like to be busy. Things have been busy. Ben and Noah go to soccer practice twice a week and games each Saturday.

Young women's takes lots of time (which I love). So does doing Issy's hair. Wet hair in sponge curlers....

....turns into this the next morning.

The kids with their Easter baskets. We made them clean up for 2 hours before they could hunt for them. I know we're mean parents. However we had 41 people over for Easter dinner and the house was a mess.

Officially my grand kids can beg to come to my house now that my good friend Melanie taught me how to make rolls. These aren't just any rolls (the recipe is called Lion House Rolls for those of you familiar with those beauties). Don't they look delicious?

I've also been WAY busy starting an Okinawan memory quilt group. We each do one block of something that reminds us of our time over here in Japan. Multiply that times 20. Six months later we exchange our creations and voila! we can then piece it together for a work of art. Well, that's how it's supposed to go. I was rather disappointed with the squares I got (no one I personally knew was in the group) so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started another group. This one is mostly people from my church and we are all helping each other out. Here is my square from the first group. It's Mt Fuji.

Speaking of Mt Fuji. Rob went to Tokyo for a dental conference for a week so that kept me busy being a single parent. Here is a picture of Mt Fuji he took while on the airplane. Yes, we hiked all the way to the tippy top of that hill. It only had a little bit of snow, but was very cold when we did it in August.

And here's the token cute picture of Kate along with a video of her playing the clarinet.