My heart is with everyone in Canton today for Grandpa's calling hours.

Rachel had an appointment today at Sears for her 4 month (almost) photos. Here are the pictures. The top 2 pictures are the ones that Lisa ordered and the grandparents will get 5x7's of one or another. Aunts and Uncles will get wallets. If anyone wants different pictures, please let me know and i will get you information on ordering and stuff.

Friday June 27

RIP Grandpa. He died in his sleep about an hour ago. Thank you for everything you ever did for me. I love you. It is now 4:00am and i can't sleep and i find myself teary. I am trying to cope with the loss of a loved one for the first time in my life. Well, i am coping,not trying to cope. This was not a surprise and we all knew it was going to happen for about 2 months now. But knowing it was going to happen does not mean it is still not sad.
As I tried to sleep earlier tonight, my mind was racing, thinking about all 4 of my grandparents. I was remembering moments with or things about them that made me smile.
These are just some of the ones that went through my head about him:
- Dune buggy. When we were kids he kept a dune buggy in the shed that he would bring out a few times a year and give everyone rides in the park.
- One of my early childhood memories is of him taking me and my brother Joey to the doctor for some sort of shots. We were in his Ford LTD and Joey was still crying about it hurting. Grandpa tried to make us feel better by taking us to Friendlys for some ice cream.
- The cruise he went on with us. I have been on 5 cruises in my life and i can honestly say that my favorite one was the one that he came with us on. Him and I spent alot of time together by the pool and in the casino playing blackjack during that week long trip. We laughed alot and drank more than we both should have.
- Politics. He was a far left wing Democrat. He always watched C-Span and knew about what was going on in our government. I always got a kick out of telling him i was cancelling his vote by voting republican.
- His towel. I lived with him for 10+ years and saw him in his favorite outfit hundreds of times. A towel. I imagine it was extremely comfortable.
- His stash of 70's dirty movies on vhs. Thanks to his collection, there were alot of neighborhood boys who look back fondly at the original Debbie does Dallas and Taboo movies.
- His ability to seem to be able to fix anything. He was very handy with tools and could fix anything on a car, a radio and even a computer. After he retired he took classes on electronics, computers, and many more things. There seemed to be nothing he couldn't rig.
- The barbershop. He would always take me to 30th street plaza to get our hair cut by a guy named Terry. We would sit there and BS with Terry and the other customers for hours sometimes.
- Rodney Dangerfield. He loved Rodney and had all of his standup tapes and movies. He would recite on liners and just laugh at Rodney.
- His swimming pool and the way he could swim with ease. Grandpa was always a bigger man. But i remember him diving and swimming in the pool and the way that it seemed so easy for him to do. I also think about the pool and remember the way he would lay around sunbathing in a speedo and getting SO DARK.
- I will always remember taking Rachel to see him in the hospital. He had been really out of it and wouldn't even open his eyes. When we told him Rachel was there, he perked up and opened his eyes. He put his arms out and we let him hold her. He kept calling her pumpkin and was completely aware of the situation. He tried tickling her and posed for some pictures. After we left the hospital he was in a non-respondent state the rest of the weekend.
- The last real conversation we had, he told me to take care of my girls and that I did not know how lucky i was. Maybe i don't, but I have a real good idea...


These are just some of the things that popped in my head tonight when thinking about him. They all made me smile. Lord please show mercy on him. He was far from perfect and committed many sins. But he was a good man who was loved by alot of people. Goodbye Grandpa. Thank you and I love you.

Thursday June 26th

Early this morning my Grandpa Polsinelli suffered two heart attacks and is barely alive. Both of his kidneys have shut down and he has had some extensive brain damage. He is off the ventilator and barely breathing on his own. The family has asked for him not to be resuscitated when his heart stops again. He will not be alive when the weekend ends. I do not ask any of you to pray for him to get better. He is beyond that. But i do ask you to please pray for his soul. Grandpa was far from a perfect man and perfect husband. I lived with this man for about 10 years of my life and i look back fondly of him. As a child i was scared of him. He was loud and we always seemed to have to walk on eggshells around him. But as i got older, I learned a lot from that man and he treated me very well. After high school, he would take me every morning to my job during the week because i did not have a car. He would slip me $20 bucks so i would have some extra spending money, and he always treated me like a man. I loved that man.

I have been fortunate that I have come from a healthy and lucky family. I am 34 years old and have yet to lose any one close to me. All of my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Parents, Brothers, Sisters and First Cousins are all currently alive. I am very blessed and thankful.

Rachel got to meet her great grandfather for a brief 10 minutes back in May. I am submitting a picture of the two of them together.

Again, please don't feel sorry for my grandfather or family. We are all coping and have had time to come to terms. He has been extremely sick for weeks. I just ask for you to pray to God for his soul and the Lords forgiveness.

Tuesday June 24

Well, still no number 2. The doctor we called was not worried about it at all and said we should keep trying to give her prune juice with her bottles of milk. She does not seem at all uncomfortable and has been in a great smiling mood. Here are some pictures from tonight. There are pictures of her second bath. She likes sitting in a puddle of warm water and giggles the whole time. There are pictures of her chillin' out in a pile of her clean clothes. And there are pictures of the princess sitting on her throne.

Monday June 23

All of us are doing fine and there is nothing of note to report. The biggest news affecting us is that Rachel has (as nice and delicate as i can put it) had some issues going number 2. One time in the last 6 days to be exact. We have given her about 8 ounces of prune juice mixed in with her milk but all that has produced in the last 36 hours is some nasty gas. She does stop what she is doing and smiles when she farts. It is quite funny. Rachel does not show any signs of an upset stomach or any discomfort, so we are not fully concerned. If nothing happens overnight, we will call the doctor again in the morning. Here are some more pictures from the last few days.

Tuesday June 17th

Everything in Virginia is fine. Rachel has learned to roll over from her stomach to her back. She also spins herself around while on her back. One minute she is laying with her head pointing one way, and with a blink of an eye, she is 120-degrees rotated. Rachel is also constantly drooling. There is always spit and slobber hanging from her mouth. She reminds me of that dog in the Tom Hanks movie "Turner and Hooch". You will notice a lot of saliva on Rachel in the pictures i have posted. Nothing of note since my last post. I went to Atlantic City with some co-workers over the weekend and had fun. I came home with more money than i left, so that is always nice. I actually won enough to pay for the new Dell computer i bought 3 weeks ago. That is extremely nice.

Sunday June 8th

We had a heat advisory for the whole weekend and temps were in the 90's. Saturday was extremely hot and around 3:00 in the afternoon our power went out. Just when the un-airconditioned house started to get unpleasant, our power came on around 5:15. It then disappeared again at 7:00 and was gone the rest of Saturday. Luckily it vanished in daylight and gave us time to prepare by getting out candles and figuring out how to handle the night. We stayed on the middle level until it got way to warm and then moved to the always cool basement where we all decided to camp out and sleep. The power came back on around 1:00am and that was our not so exciting weekend. Here are some pictures that have been taken in the past week or so.

Saturday June 7th

Everything is fine here in Virginia. We are in a heat advisory for the weekend, so we are going to try and stay indoors as much as possible. I am clearing out the rest of the photos from our Ohio trip. Again, i took lots of pictures. If you do not see yourself posted holding Rachel, it is because the picture did not turn out great. Not because i am ignoring you.