The Burlingames

Chronicling the adventures of the B's

Category: Family

Awkward Moments…

by Dave

There were quite a few awkward moments from the visitation that I thought I would share with you.

– People just giving us hugs without saying who they are or how they know Mom.

– Dad asking, “Do you remember _________?” 9 out of 10 times I didn’t and felt really bad for saying so. I would recognize many of them but their names were not familiar. Neither was the description of, “well, they live in so-so’s old house over by so-so’s land, etc., etc., etc.”. (LOVE YOU DAD!!!)

– A young child asking if Mom’s legs were cut off (because we couldn’t see them).

– Same young child asking if her head was cut off and just sitting there because of Mom’s neck rolls.

– Watching one of Mom’s students try to grab her hand to shake it – this was just creepy (dead people feel weird)!!

– Random people that I didn’t know rubbing my belly.

– People telling me Mom’s death is harder on them than it is on me. Pretty sure its not!!

These are the ones that I can remember. Enjoy the giggle!

Today…

by Dave

Today was a very difficult day. We managed to make it through with lots of tears, music and laughter.

We cried as we said our final goodbyes to Mom. She will forever be missed and always be loved. Mom will be cremated and we’ll have a graveside burial for just family when the time is right (if there is such a time).

We sang some of her favorite worship songs nice and loud!! I will probably never make it through ‘Sweetly Broken’ without crying (although I didn’t cry today during the song).

We laughed today as well. Brianna and I made the congregation laugh when I said, “I’ve always told Brianna that I’m the favorite and she’s adopted”. Brianna said (very loudly), “I’m not adopted!!!”. We laughed at home when we talked about how creepy it would’ve been to have Mom smiling to show off her ‘new teeth’ (she recently got her braces off and loved her straight teeth). We laughed when we opened a card with no label on the front of the envelope and nothing written on the inside of the card. We laughed when we saw the card addressed to “Breanna, Meghan and Carl P.”. Our names are: Brianna, Megan and Paul, just saying!! ;-)

God’s grace is with us each day and through him we’ll make it through each day. We have a long journey ahead of us but we’ll make it through with God by our side.

A Big Thank You

by Dave

Megan and I would like to thank all those who came to see us as well as those who are praying for us; we’ve had a very long week and are anxious to get back into our daily routine. We are also looking forward to getting some good rest as we’ve had a lot of late nights and early mornings. We appreciate everything you’ve done.

Death in the Family

by Dave

Please pray for Megan and her family. Her mother, Caron Paulson, died in a single-car accident last night. Caron was on her way home and lost control of the vehicle while driving in the rain on a gravel road. Funeral and visitation info will be posted here when it becomes available.

The latest…

by Dave

I just realized its been a long time since I last update all of you on the happenings of the Burlingame clan.

Eli…is now well adjusted to his new bed. He does a great job of staying in bed and has only fallen out two separate times (once at our house and once at Grampa and Gramma’s house). I have to laugh, a few times I’ve needed to get the pack n’ play out for other kiddos to sleep in and Eli gets mad. He must think it is for him to sleep in. It has been fun for us to see his language (talking/signing) abilities take off and we really enjoy communicating with him now that we can understand him. Eli LOVES LOVES LOVES to watch some signing DVDs we have on loan from Gramma P. called, ‘Signing Time’ (can be found at http://www.signingtime.com). Lots of verbal language and lots of sign language has been picked up by both Eli and Dave (sign language component). Eli enjoys helping Dave and I around the house. He has his own water can (my old one) and likes to carry it out to my raspberry and tomato plants to help me water them. Just this morning he and Dave finished putting a culvert ring in the fire pit. Eli’s feet have also grown by leaps and bounds this summer, in the spring he was still wearing a size 4 but now he comfortably wears a 7 and sometimes an 8. I think this is just an indication of how much shoe shopping we’ll be doing as he grows up.

Dave…has been keeping very busy at work. They have needed him to come in early many times this summer. Lots of deliveries needing to be made. Softball is now over, but his team did a great job and played well together. Eli and I didn’t make it to very many games due to times, the heat and other events going on. Dave has been very diligent about working on the house and has made some great progress. We (and by ‘we’, I mean Dave) have been making steady progress in getting things done around the house to make room for the baby. I’m excited about what is done and a little anxious about what still needs to be done (pray please!!). Dave has gotten some new musical gear and has been selling other musical gear. He has been ‘fine tuning’ one of his basses and has been enjoying every minute of that. I love my husband!

Me…I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer home with Eli. We’ve had lots of fun hanging out together, working around the house and yard, running errands, going for walks, etc. I used my one free day each week (Eli had to go to daycare one day a week to maintain our spot) to get homework done. I took a class this summer called ‘Environmental Education’ it was a requirement for my teaching license. I have no intentions of using the knowledge at all, but who knows, maybe it will come in handy one day. I head back to work full-time next week for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year. Part of me is excited to go back (because I love my job) but part of me is not looking forward to going back (because I love being home with Eli).

Gilbert…has steadily been growing, the doc says I’m on target for size and should be on target to deliver a nice size baby boy (not quite sure what this means). Gilbert has taken to waking up and moving a lot from 10-11pm and 5-6am. If he can have a sleep pattern like that when he’s born, I’d be alright with that.

Dave and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on August 7th. We had a great weekend together, kidless (well, as kidless as we could be). Eli spent the weekend with Gramma and Grampa Paulson. They had all kinds of fun. Dave and I got a hotel room for Saturday night, ordered in pizza, went swimming and went to see a movie (we wanted to test out my new hearing aids in a theater). Sunday we did lots of house and yard work, it was a very productive day. Then we went out for a fancy dinner at Vic’s in Minneapolis. It was such wonderful food and a great experience. We took a little stroll down by the waterworks system as well, since it was right there. We also saw a beaver!

That’s our not so quick update.