We're back!

Please come over to the new blog.

:-)
T

The Liver Blog is Retiring

You know what, Bob is right. It's time to put his liver away. Honestly, I think it wants to live a quiet life now and just do what it's supposed to do -- be a little noticed vital organ that binds bile and filters poisons. No drama. No personality.

So I've decided that it's time to stop with the liver shrine in thought, word, and deed.

It's time to move and it's time to move on.

Bob's liver and I are at peace and I am going to leave it alone.

This will be the last dispatch in the Rolling on the Liver blog. After we've crossed state borders and get internet hooked into our Iowa surprise, there will be a new blog and attitude. Please do check back here because I'll post the link here.

In the meantime I continue to happily refer you to Professor Mary Hess's blog for a daily dose of truth and reconciliation.

So what can I say, you have all been just wonderful and I hope you won't leave. It's merely time to change. The liver blog really helped me to process some of what happened and especially how so many people were involved. But I've realized that I can never tell you everything that people did for us. I can never thank everyone enough. I've realized it's impossible. What's that saying, "pay it forward." That's what I hope we can do. And maybe that's what the Iowa surprise is all about.

OK, friends, you've heard it here first. No more mention of Bob's liver. It is hereby now in it's proper place. It has no power over me. I promise. Over and out.

See you in a week or so.

With love, T

We're Moving

Come on over and we'll have a party. Actually, this is what it looked like around here last Saturday when Amanda invited one friend from school over; that somehow turned into a party of six. It was an impromptu girl-boy party. Aren't we such good parents to provide this senstive setting for such a tender growing up milestone?

Anyway, Bob is definitely #1 packer. He pretty much did all of this and more by himself. I'm a schlep. Plus, he finished his cardiac rehab today with flying colors. I told you Bob would be the bionic man one day again. Tada!

Emotions eleven still to come. Wednesday is moving truck day, cleaning apartment day, and take treats to the kids' last day of school day. Holy cow, and I remember like yesterday sending in the fax from our previous locale of Baltimore over seven years ago; a fax of Amanda's kindergarten application to this really cool public school that I had seen in a magazine. I was completely ridiculous in outlining this 4-year-old's every play date, Sunday school class, pre-school experience, kiddie community ed class, time with the babysitter, day care resume, etc, etc, thinking that it would get her in. In reality, all it took was an administrative snafu and wala -- she was accepted into a very wonderful school from all the way across the country, even before we had moved to St. Paul. Three years later, Aidan was grandfathered in. Sometimes all it takes is a clerical mistake and you can be a good mother. Whatever, I got myself two bilingual kids with two mono-lingual parents.

Anyway, 2 days left.

Take care, Love, T

Welcome to Montana!

What are friends for but to take you with to the mountains? At least via the liver blog. So, here are our dear friends, the Anderson's, on their way to Montana. Left to right -- Benny, Miranda, Martha A, Mara. It would be dog gone hard to determine which one is the cutest in this picture.

I do believe those are the Grand Tetons in the background. (I had a college roommate from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.) And there's Lonn in the picture too. Benny must be taking the picture.

This is truly a beautiful picture. Martha A's mother and father in it too; they visited us every time and every day that Bob was in a hospital in Rochester last year. It was Martha's dad, a Mayo MD emeritus, who called us into the emergency room that first time at the Mayo Clinic; the very same night that my brother came to get Bob to take him to the emergency room. And who helped us to decode medical-speak, for example, if they have used the words 'liver transplant' they really mean liver transplant. I thought it was just a euphemism of the liver transplant floor.

Family vacation.

Martha and Lonn. Well, what can I say? It's another one of those I-could-say-so-much pictures. For now I'll leave it at this -- Thanks for everything! Happy Birthday, Martha! Bye! Love you! Miss you! xoxoxoxoxo

Thank you Andersons, for letting us take a peak at your trip to Montana; and for our wonderful friendship.

With love, T

Which way is up?

I do not know the answer to that question. We're moving. All is good. All is great. But there are some really big questions that I cannot answer. Like, where should we get home owner's insurance? Where will my kids go to school? When will they start? Who will enroll them? How do you get to the airport? Is there mold in our new bathrooms?

But I can tell you this. We had a most wonderful dinner with Bob's cousin, Serena, and her fiance' Isaac. Both are living my vicarious lives as political science grad students at the University of Minnesota. So we chat, eat, drink, talk about the Speirs, and then get into Nelson Mandela, union organizing, and ideas on education. And for some reason Amanda and Aidan are amazingly well behaved while there. It's more than the cell phone games, right? We watch slides on South Africa, its vineyards, and Robben Island where Nelson Mandela cracked rocks for years. We consider political and humanitarian work in conflict situations. Of course I mention LWR's groundbreaking work in Colombia, where ordinary people trudge through jungles to negotiate with killers. And we marvel at how smart and fluid Uncle Randall and Aunt Anne are; Serena's grandparents; Bob's special uncle and aunt.

And you should see how much Amanda and Serena share features like height and hair, in spite of over 15 years difference in age, and a couple of college degrees. But I forgot my camera so I'm sorry that I can't show you.

And I am so dog gone tired that I really need to go to bed. It's been quite a week. And I'm sure you've had quite a week too. Didn't everyone have huge weeks?

We're moving to Des Moines in five days. We all wondered where Serena and Isaac will go when they get their PhD's next year and take off to a land of tenured-university-positions. Oh, please, God, let it be Des Moines. Wouldn't that be cool?

Take care everyone. I'm working on a birthday blog. Come back tomorrow.

With love, T

It's Empty Around Here

Hello and welcome to the liver blog. It's so nice to have you here.

I don't have a lot to say because I think my mind is emptying out in the same way our apartment is. The walls are bare. Packed boxes all over. Tomorrow Bob and Cynthia will bring over the bedroom set we inherit from Cynthia's parents. Her Dad died the month before we met her in 1999, just before the all of us moved to Baltimore. Her Mom died 4 days ago. It's been nice to spend time with Cynthia this week. I mentioned to my office-mate, Joanne, that it almost feels holy around here with all the emptiness. Like somehow we are being set free.

In a way, I just wish the next 14 days were over. I wish I could just skip the emotion of it all and move on. It's all good, but I'm not looking forward to another round of drama.

Here are my recent ipod downloads:
Mr Jones by Counting Crows
A Lifetime by Better than Ezra
Found Out About You by Gin Blossoms
Beautiful by g love

Aidan wonders if there is a bowling alley in Des Moines. I wonder about the condition of the bathrooms in the house we just bought. Bob, the only person who has seen the house that we just bought, can't remember. Amanda wonders about the dogs she sees on the Iowa humane society website. If they are taken off the website, does it mean they found a home? Or put to sleep?

I hope you are all well. Take good care.

With love, T

Why I should not write so late at night.

Don't you just want everything? You want kids, a husband, the best career in the world. You want to be a good friend, and great auntie. You want it all. But it usually doesn't work out that way. Something has to give. You want to be at every meeting. You want to cook every hot breakfast. You want to be at every bedtime tuck in. And you just can't. It is impossible. And you have to rely on others and the influence of others to make it work. There's really no other way. It goes back to the big lesson from this past year. You think you are in control, but you're really not. No one is. Control is a myth. Order is over-rated. You just do the best you can and let go. And let the butterfly come to you when it's ready.

Enough philosophizing for tonight. If you want something more substantial, I suggest going to Mary Hess's blog, where there is always a golden nugget of something worthwhile to think about.

Goodnight, T