A great family and a great foundation

My father has 7 siblings and even figuring in one bachelor and one nun I still have 22 cousins on my dad's side of the family. It's a fairly big family but we've always been fairly close. I'm pretty sure that most Easters and Christmas Eves at Grandma Lentz's house had a majority - if not all - of us under one roof. Sure there is a huge age gap. The oldest grandchild is in his 40's and the youngest is 13 but, with the exception of the youngest five grandchildren, we all know each other fairly well even if we don't see each other all that often anymore. And it's not that we don't know those younger five, it's just that we didn't have as much time with them before the family started moving all over the country. We used to all be primarily living in Iowa and Illinois. Nowadays, just figuring in the 25 grandchildren on the Lentz side we cover states from Arizona to Massachusetts and Florida to Washington State and a heck of lot of other states in between. Most of Lincoln's family is confined to Massachusetts and Vermont and we see them less than we see mine. In fact, until Nate's funeral in December I had only met 2 of his cousins.

But this is what amazes me about my family. We're close in a way you wouldn't imagine. Do we talk to each other every day and know exactly what is going on in every one's life? No. But we know about the major events like weddings, births, and deaths. And we make sure to celebrate them - or mourn them - as a family.

This year we have two major family events. My cousin Rachel, the youngest of all the grandchildren, had her bat mitzvah in January and all the aunts and uncles, and a good number of the cousins, flew out to New Mexico to help her celebrate. This June my aunt, Sister Bonnie, is celebrating her Golden Jubilee (50 years as a nun) and it sounds like almost all of the cousins will be making it back as well as all of Sister's siblings. I'm flying back alone with both kids for 48 hours even though it means early morning flights that Jake will most likely throw up on. My cousin Brenda is flying in Saturday afternoon for the party and will turn around and fly back to North Carolina the next day.

In this day in age, when everyone is so busy and money is tight and we're spread from coast to coast, I am impressed at what a tight family I have. I am incredibly blessed and I know that all of the credit for creating this tight-knit family rests on my Dad and his siblings. All of them have shown us the meaning of family and it is obviously something that each and every one of us have learned through watching Grandma and Grandpa and their eight wonderful children. Thank you Linus, Charlotte, John, Sister, Dad, Rose, Mike and Joe for giving me such a great foundation.

(And no, I'm not discounting Mom's side of the family. They're pretty freaking awesome too but I only have three cousins on that side so it's not nearly as impressive.) BIG SMILE!

One year

Today is the one year anniversary of my Grandma Gert's death. It doesn't seem like a year has come and gone so quickly but I guess the calendar doesn't lie.

I'm not terribly sad.

I know that sounds bad, but I'm not. That doesn't mean I don't miss her or that I don't wish she was still here but I'm not sad. She was almost 95 years old when she died and she had lived a great life. She was still living at home by herself and she had her 8 wonderful children by her side when she passed away. Her funeral was sad but it really was more about celebrating her life and not mourning her death.

Those of us that knew her were blessed by her presence in our lives for many, many years. I guess it was time to give her back to those that had gone before her - Grandpa Charlie, Edith, Jerome, and David to name a few.

So I'm not sad. I'm happy for her and the loved ones she has been reunited with in heaven. We were selfish in keeping her for so long but I don't regret one day of it. I'd do it all over again.

The real estate market

My grandma's 3 bedroom house in Elma, IA just sold for somewhere shy of $20,000. A parking space, yes a PARKING space, in downtown Boston just sold for $300,000!!! And no, that is not a typo up above, I did say $20,000.

Unbelievable.