Is there life after Thanksgiving weekend?

Silly, silly me!  I gave myself a day at home after Thanksgiving, then thought I would trek up to Muncie to help the children put up their Christmas tree.  Am I nuts, or what?

Let's see...cool weather + two little children with pent-up energy + Christmas tree = chaos!  Meg inherited a number of very large boxes of Christmas decorations from her father when he and his wife went to motorhome living, but she hadn't ventured into the boxes until this weekend.  At one point, Nathan walked  into "his" garage and stood there staring at the pulchritude of Christmas crap in various stages of being revealed.  Pretty mind-boggling!  On Saturday, he put the tree together and I put on the lights.  Today, we endeavored to decorate it.  Robin was getting into it; Ryan needed some lessons in how to hang ornaments.  By the end of the day, BOTH of the children were taking things OFF the tree!  Then, of course, there were the two trikes being driven through the house and rammed into things, and the dog following me around, and some fusses over who was getting what... 

When all was said and done, the living room looked nice.  There is ALWAYS more to do, of course...but all I could think of was that I had to do some holiday decorating of my own at home, and I think I will do it alone!

There were a couple of "funnies" with the children.  Before I went up there on Saturday, Megan IMed me that Robin had a stash of lima beans from the day before somewhere in her bedroom and that she was saving a special bean for Grandma.  At lunch after I arrived, Meg asked her if she had Grandma's special bean.  She thought for a second and said, "I think I ate it."  We howled!

Today at breakfast, I had my usual "morning hair"...curly and sticking up all over.  Megan was running Ryan through his colors.  He was getting them all correct.  Then she pointed to the table and asked what color it was.  He missed "brown," so she asked about what color other brown things were.  What color are Mommy's pants?  What color is Robin's hair?  Then, as a challenge, she asked, "What color is Grandma's hair?"  Ryan looked at my hair and said, "Noodles!"  Guess we know how my hair looked to him!   Frodo the Wonder Dog is a dead dog tonight.  She has finally acquiesced to riding in the back seat (on the floor) but always has to be lifted into the car upon departure, quivering all the way.  On the trip up to Muncie, I hear nothing from her until I get within a few blocks of the kids' house, then she comes alive.  Same thing on the way home.  When I turn onto Stanley Road just east of my house, she gets antsy.  Guess our neighborhoods smell!   December will be a busy month.  I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving.  I am hoping for decent weather for the winter.  All fingers are crossed!

Turkey Day

Many thanks to Judy and Phil Heffelman for, once again, including me as part of their extended family for the Thanksgiving feast.  With our children farther away now, traditions are changing.  In time, we will figure things out.  For the moment, it was just nice for us all to be together.  I missed being with my sister and her family, but I hope to be able to make up for that during the Christmas holiday.

In attendance were Judy's aging Aunt Betty and Uncle Dale and their son Mark...plus Meg and Nathan and children, and Nate's brother Dan and his fiancee, Sara.  In all, there were 12 in a house nearly as small as mine!  Judy had way too much food, which was all very good.  Quite a feast!

Robin and Ryan were very good.  Robbie acted a bit shy around the folks that she doesn't get to see very often.  Every once in awhile, Grandpa has to tell her no about something--and no matter how nicely he says it, it breaks her heart.  It happened again today.  He told her that he didn't want her to bring the rocking horse into the living room because of the hazard to the older folks...and her lip quivered for quite a few minutes thereafter.  At the table, both she and Ryan were angels.  When Robin said she was done and wanted to get down, I whispered that she needed to ask Grandma Judy "May I be excused?"   To my amazement, she did!  Of course she was excused, and of course she looked like a cream puff for having done it!  Little Ryan just totally laps up the attention of his Grandpa.  Grandpa is his favorite person in the whole world.  He is such a cutie!  (Ryan, too!  Heh heh.)

I got home around 5:00.  Frodo was dancing in the window, waiting for me.  I have accomplished nothing BUT Thanksgiving today, by design.  Am currently waiting to hear that Meg and family got home okay.  I am a little concerned.  They should have been there by now...  They are driving my old Taurus which is now officially not putting out any heat.  They had the children bundled up with coats and blankets, but I worry...

Oh!  Meg just logged on!  Yay!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This occasion isn't about turkey or travel...or even family.  It is about giving thanks.  Nothing needed to bow one's head and thank the Good Lord for the year's blessings. 

I am thankful for my family, of course.  My sister, who cares about me even though we don't get together very much.  My daughter and grandchildren...not a total package.  I love them together and individually!  My job that keeps me grounded in reality.  My friends (ham and otherwise) who don't ask anything of me.  My health.  My life.

As God has blessed me, I try to give back to the world.  May He give you all as He has given me.  And may your Thanksgiving be blessed!

Be it ever so humble, cluttered, dirty...

...there's no place like home!  This is the first weekend in a month that I have been home.  Since the weather was somewhat decent, I decided to spend it doing yard work.  Well!  There's an awful lot of yard work to do...and I am just one person.  Suffice it to say that I got some done, but certainly not all that I had hoped.  <sigh>

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is this week!  My original plan to be with my sister and her family in IL has been altered, due to dawg and fatigue.  I run and run and run, forgetting that there simply has to be some productive "down" time in order to feel good enough to run some more.  Sorry, Shari.  I run as fast as I can just to stay in one place! 

Let's see...  I took the guest room comforter out of the dryer today to find that the seams were largely shredded.  I stubbed my pinky toe last night, and today it is purple.  My right arm muscle is sore from raking.  I broke an egg to make French toast this morning and managed to get many pieces of shell in it.  (How many years have I been breaking eggs??)  How am I doing, so far?  The good news is that I found the remote control for my bedroom TV, missing for at least a month, on the floor under some linen in the guest room where my grandchildren play.  The lost is found!

I spent a long time on the phone with Meg today, but the conversation got cut short when Meg announced that the Colts game was on.  Who woulda thunk that my kid would become such a football fan?!  The Colts are a big deal around these parts this year.  Having worked several Salvation Army events at the games over the last couple of years, I can attest to the insanity of the fans.  Not quite as bad as Indy 500 fans, but coming close!  I am watching the game, myself.  Go Colts!

Test message

There is no life without tests.  Checking a faulty situation...

Backpack Birthday

Left for Muncie on Friday afternoon in order to help with the preparations for my grandson's 2nd birthday.  On Saturday morning, I was preparing to clean the bathroom when I saw that Robin and Ryan were playing in and around Robin's bedroom door.  Robbie was inside her room.  Ryan was on his knees in the hall just outside, with this left hand raised to the door.  My "mother" instincts told me that this wasn't a good situation because of the potential for fingers pinched in the door, but since the children weren't fussing or even being rambunctious, I thought I would leave well-enough alone and turned my attention to the bathroom.  Only moments later, Ryan let out a wait, and I knew without looking what had happened.  I jumped into the hall to find the index finger of his left hand in the hinge edge of the door.  Robin had closed the door on it, but since the door didn't close properly, she started to do it again.  In effect, the door was closed on his little finger twice!

I got Ryan extricated from the door.  I took one look at the finger and panicked.  It wasn't bleeding, but it looked dented and crooked--basically smashed--with some skin peeled back.  I rushed him to the sink to run cold water over it, all the time yelling for Megan.  (She couldn't hear me because she had a hair dryer blowing in her ear.)  Nathan came on the run.  In a matter of minutes, they were on their way to the prompt-med place.  I stayed back with Robin.  X-rays showed that the finger wasn't broken, but it had started to bleed and was quite purple and swollen.  The doctor wrapped it in gauze for protection and taped it to his middle finger to help immobile it for a few days until it began to feel better.  And Grandma spent the rest of the day feeling awful because she saw it coming and didn't act to prevent the situation!  Robin, of course, didn't have a clue what she had done to hurt her brother, and certainly hadn't done it on purpose, so there was no point in placing blame.  To his credit, Ryan was a good patient and hasn't complained about the finger since, although he wasn't using that hand.  Poor little guy!

Today was Ryan's big day.  After church, Nathan took the kids to the backyard to play (and keep them out of our hair).  At one point, he was in his daddy's arms, crying, because he had fallen off the swing.  I yelled out the window, "Grandma and Grandpa are here!"  The tears shut off RIGHT NOW, and Ryan made a bee-line for the house.  He loves his Grandpa Heffelman!  We had a great birthday meal, sang the traditional song, had cake and ice cream, then had Ryan open presents. 

Robin had some presents, too, but she soon figured out that the day wasn't all about her.  She went over to her father and told him that she was going to have "sad time" out in the back yard.  I followed her out.  She had gone clear to the back of the property and got up on her Little Tykes slide deal.  She said she was having "lonely time".  I asked her if she was feeling lonely because someone else was getting the attention, and she said, "'Cep' me."  It is sometimes difficult to believe that I am dealing with a 3-year-old!  It was very clear what the problem was, and she was able to verbalize it!  Within minutes, we went back in the house, and Robin started playing quite imaginatively with some of Ryan's presents.  (He didn't care.  He was too busy on his knees playing with his trains and cars!)  They played nicely for the duration of the Colts game (which we were watching on DVR)--then the grandparents all departed for Plainfield.  Meg wrote to tell me that the kids did NOT want to go to bed.  Surprise, surprise!

So, why is it a Backpack birthday?  Ryan got a Thomas the Train backpack, and Robin got a Dora the Explorer backpack.  Ryan got a Dora the Explorer talking toy backpack, complete with compass, map, telescope and video camera.  He also got little doll named Eddie, which had a backpack on his back...  (For those of you who don't have little ones around, Dora the Explorer is a favorite TV program.  Robin can count in Spanish because of it!

All in all, it was a pretty nice party for a little dude who probably won't remember it in 5 years!  Did we overdo it?  I don't think so.  Everyone deserves to have one special day, surrounded by the people who love him/her.  Today was Ryan's. 

To those of you whom I have bored with the accounting of this weekend's escapades, I apologize.  Hey...I warned you on the very first entry in this blog that I would be talking about my grandchildren a lot!  It is fantastic to have two healthy, cute, bright, delightful children in my life.  What a blessing!

The Big Blow

Every year, the situation with the leaves and leaf raking is a bit different from the year before.  This season, the ash tree in my yard to the south did not turn yellow as it usually does, but true to previous years, it dropped its leaves all at once.  Last year, the maples in the front of the house dropped their leaves over several weeks, requiring several rakings in order not to overload the curb where the city workers vacuum them up.  This year, there were no leaves coming down from them until <whooooosh!> came the winds and storms of the past few days.  As I raked this afternoon, I noticed that the bulk of them are down without too many on the roof.  Thank you, Mr. Wind!  I might not have to rake forever!

Speaking of the Big Blow, several towns in southern Indiana were hit with an F-3 tornado in the wee hours of Sunday morning when people slept.  Twenty-two folks lost their lives in that one, with many more injured.  Most of the fatalities were from a mobile home park--tornado magnets that they are.  The Salvation Army has six mobile feeding units and two fixed feeding stations on scene.  I spent quite a bit of time last night talking to SATERN radio operators who are giving us a hand down there.  I'm still trying to determine if I should go.  This one will take awhile to clean up...

Last Sunday, one of my ham friends accompanied me to Meg's in Muncie to do some home repairs.  (Thanks, Mike!)  While Meg and I vacated with the children in order to shop for play clothes for Robin, the guys did the work without urchins underfoot.  Meg fed us well, then Mike and I headed back to the Indy area.   I had to chuckle a bit, though.  When "Gwamma" comes to visit, I sleep in the living room on their futon, in my sleeping bag.  (Robin loves my sleeping bag!)  Sunday, the dear child assumed that I would be staying for a "sleepover"...and her little brain was working overtime when she saw that I had Mike with me.  She said, "Gwamma, you can share your sleeping bag with Mike!"  If Mike weren't such a good friend, the moment might have been embarrassing.  As it was, I told her that I had to go home so I could work, and muttered under my breath that I was sure Mike's wife would appreciate Robin's generous offer!

Sunday is little Ryan's second birthday.  It is difficult to imagine that he isn't yet two years old because he is quite amazingly verbal.  On Halloween, when he was in costume, I asked him to tell one of my colleagues what he was.  He said, "I'm a boy!"  Uh...well...yeah.  Stupid Grandma!  Meg had him practice blowing out candles today.  She is such a good mommy.  I would never have thought to do that!

Threat of storms again tonight.  I don't have to worry about my longwire antenna.  It came down in the last storm on Sunday!  <sigh> 

 

Wal-Mart Superstore

Beautiful downtown Plainfield has a brand new Wal-Mart Superstore that just opened up a week or two ago.  Plainfield has a Kroger, a Marsh, and an Aldi's--all grocery stores.  I ventured into the new Wally on Tuesday and noticed that the prices were pretty decent, so I endeavored to do a stock-up trip after payday (today) since the cupboard was getting pretty bare here at home.

Lesson learned:  there are some things that are more important than price!  I am not familiar with the layout of the new store, so it took me awhile to find everything I needed (lacking a list).  I went up and down the grocery aisles getting regular and frozen foods--then realized that I had to go WAYYYY to the other end of the store for dog food and toiletries.  I think I did the width of the store three times before I was secure that I had everything.  I didn't find meat prices to be all that good.  (The brand new IGA store in Monrovia, where I work, has better specials.)  Sooo...it looks like I will continue to do the stock-up shopping at Wal-Mart, but will probably still patronize my happy little Marsh store.  I wonder how much the new store will eat into the business of the old stores...

It was warm again today.  Still is!  I should have spent my afternoon out working in the yard, but didn't.  <sigh>  The best part about the day?  It's FRIDAY!

 

Ugh

I have really let things go around the house.  For reasons known only to God, BOTH of the lamps in my bedroom went south at the same time.  (Replaced one socket.  Don't know about the other one, yet.)  Bulbs burn out, leaves fall down, dishes get dirty, and grass grows.  Go figure!

Megan and the children came down yesterday afternoon so that Meg could use my computer.  That made me Chief Cook and Bottle Washer with the children.  Largely, they were good, but I'm not as young as I used to be!  We colored on paper, and we played outside, and we took a bath....but the biggest babysitter is Dora, the Explorer.  Thank God for Dora videos!  Okay...so I have to confess to delivering my grandbabies to the Boob Tube.  It's better than yelling all the time and going crazy!  Meg is convinced that she is a bad mother when she lets the kids watch TV, but I am here to tell you that mindless entertainment works for all of us!

I am feeling somewhat empowered at school these days.  For the first time since I made the move to the jr-sr high school...back in...uh...'95?...my efforts for the children seem to be appreciated.  The new middle school principal announced to me the other day that she had chosen me to go on a scouting expedition with other schools to help create our new curriculum.  As a result of the new situation, I am teaching better and feeling better.  This year's schedule is good, and this year's class is a WHOLE lot better than last year's.  For the moment, I am feeling successful...at least at school!

I think tomorrow is Friday and payday.  Yay!