1997

My mom came across this letter from Philip's parents to my family the other day. . .  It was dated 2/17/97.  The letter must have been written a little while after Philip broke his ankle (and I was SO CROSS because he broke it on a trampoline and after the incident my parents decided trampolines were the devil and unsafe and we could never have one. . . I was pretty unimpressed with Philip for ruining this for me)

"Philip gets his stitches out today from his last surgery.  He had an allergic reaction to the disinfectant they used so his foot was all blistered.  He was still on crutches on his birthday and bummed not to be able to ride his new bike.  I think we're finally at the end.  He will have to have x-rays every once in awhile to make sure the growth is normal but it looks good at this point.  It's been an interesting experience for all of us.  He's doing fine in school with a challenging male teacher.  He reads quite a bit when he finds an interesting book.  His, and David's, latest interest has been a computer game called Sim Farm.  Have you ever heard of it?  The boys play hours developing and taking care of farms.  They have about 100 different crops to pick from and they have to buy all the land, equipment, seeds, insecticides, etc.  Their best farms were strawberries and pigs!  I don't think they've watched more than 10 hours of TV since they got the game for Christmas.  It's been interesting to see their progress - Philip is even learning about futures.  David continutes to be his funny self.  Hardly a day goes by that his teacher doesn't have some funny story to tell me.  He's got the hang of reading and doing well now."

So apprently my husband's strategical financial investing and business wheels have been spinning for years. . . and the whole reading like crazy things is still the same (seriously that boy consumes biographies, business and financial books like NOBODY'S BUSINESS). . .  I just looked at the date on this picture and it was taken 4 days before the letter was written - love it. 

Nine years after this picture was snapped, this boy proposed to me.