My oldest daughter Anna got married last weekend, 08/08/08, on the Assateague National Seashore. It was beautiful and sad in a way: Thomas was not there, but his friend Christina was, and his folding chair came with us too. I think this chair had been to Iraq with him: it's khaki colored, one of those sling chairs with a cup holder in the armrest. His aunt Holly sat in it to watch the wedding and I stood to watch from the side so I could see everything. At the reception, Maria toasted her sister, and alluded to her brother, but this was Anna's day and sadness was not allowed to stay.



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August 2005 came to a close. Pat, the woman who had worked at G Street and had given me such wonderful advice and support from the beginning, retired at the end of June so I was on my own now in learning how to cope with loss. Juli Werner had talked me into doing a race to benefit wounded soldiers (a part of the Wounded Warrior project) that was to be held on November 12. Juli would kayak and I would run, carrying Thomas's dogtags. I've talked about this before (my post of 10/17/06) so I won't go into it again but I did have some concerns about this. I was not going to be able to train, even half-heartedly, for some of the time because I had to have some minor surgery in September, and at the beginning of October we were going to be gone for nearly a week to Washington state and Fort Lewis. Still, the run was not that long and no one would have laughed if I had to walk part of it (which in the end I did for a bit but still had a decent time (for me!)).

School started for Matthew. It must be said that this was not going smoothly from an academic point of view. He was never that enthusiastic about school, but this was definitely a step down, and has continued to be a problem, though it must also be said that the issue is homework. Thomas never did homework either so this was not terribly surprising. I had decided to back off from PTA involvement as the previous year had not gone well for various reasons and because I was now taking care of my mother-in-law: she was living near us but not driving so I was taking her to doctor's appointments and the grocery store (and I still am!) and there are only so many hours in a day.