...And deeper in debt, as the song goes. So here I am, making my first blog post at age 66. I can only promise you the same old boring stuff that I have posted all along, so if you are reading this, you must love me!
My family--daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren--arrived very late on Friday night, none the worse for wear. The children had fallen asleep in the car and so excused themselves to bed almost immediately. Meg and Denis and I stayed up just a tad longer so they could decompress. It was easily 2:30 AM Indiana time before we crashed.
Saturday, we were all late in getting up, as you might imagine. I got everyone fed brunch, then took off with the grandchildren for a shopping trip. Robin (my granddaughter) complained that she only had 100 pages left in a book she was reading, so we started out at Barnes and Noble. We went right to the service desk to ask for assistance, to save excess walking. Robin started spouting titles and authors of books she wanted, and the gal helping us found all but one. Ryan wanted a book, too...but the one he wanted he had already read. He wanted his stepfather to read it. Thus, Grandma bought all four. (They weren't cheap, but there was an added advantage that the Avon Schools were getting a share of whatever was purchased if it was mentioned at the check-out desk. Always willing to help the schools!)
The children get their love of reading from their parents, and the opportunity to do it through the discipline of their stepmother. As a youngster, Megan always had three books going in the house: one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in her bedroom. (I have no clue how she was able to keep the plots separate, but she did!) As an English teacher, I was always trying to steer her AND the grandchildren to good literature instead of the junk that is out there. At one time, Robin had a series of books about fairies. Although she was really into fairies at the time, the quality of those stories was awful. Thankfully, she graduated to better stuff on her own. Both children read way above grade level. Ryan, being all boy, is more into sports than reading, but he holds his own in that department. I never balk at buying books for the kids.
Our next stop was JC Penney's. Since they had mega-snow at home, Ryan had only worn his boots and forgot his shoes. (We had nothing on the ground here. He complained that he needed shoes anyway...) He found what he wanted, but not in his size, so we moved on to the jeans department and bought two pairs for each on Megan and Denis's nickel. Then on to Shoe Carnival. We finally found a pair of shoes that Ry liked...and Robin got some socks...then we came home. By this time, we only had an hour before we were to go to The Coachman Restaurant for my birthday dinner. Everyone was hungry. Good timing!
At The Coachman, we were to meet the grandchildren's Heffelman grandparents. They beat us there! The plan was to introduce Denis to good ol' Indiana pork tenderloin sandwiches. I was hungry for that, too, so most of us had that. However, so many appetizers were ordered that I'm not sure anyone was really hungry by the time the real food came! We all came back to the house for cake and ice cream afterward. Judy and Phil (the other grandparents) gave me a little box with a "grandparent" saying on it that they purchased in Nashville, IN...and Megan and Denis gave me a food scale (which I requested)...but the piece de resistance was a family tree on canvas that Megan had made using some software that Denis had developed himself. It is a one-of-a-kind gift! The graphic is in the shape of a tree, with the names of my ancestors and descendants making up the leafy portion. The only names on it that aren't direct-line ancestors/descendants are the names of my siblings that are on it, too. Actually, Meg gave me two of these--one of which was just the tree. The other had ghost-like pictures of ancestors behind the tree. Very nice! I am working on how to properly display these. No one else in the world has anything like it!
Sunday, I couldn't get any takers for church, so we slept in. The day had been blocked out and planned for Ryan to play with his buddy Jack who used to live next door to me. That worked out okay, although it is never enough for Ryan! For some reason, Jack's younger sister Grace didn't come, so Robin found herself able to snag some one-on-one time to play on the computer with her stepdaddy. I think she liked that!
Monday was departure day. With bad weather predicted for later in the day/night, they really needed to be on the road at a decent hour...but it was a work day for Denis. He had an online meeting with his workplace. (Thank God for my Wifi!) They left as soon as his meeting was over and everyone could get organized. The trip home was without weather and in time for Robin's Girl Scout meeting at home in Zion, IL. Whew!
One good thing about the visit (other than the obvious) was that I learned they would be back for their Spring Break! Megan's birthday comes in there, as well as Megan and Denis's anniversary...and Easter. I am already looking forward to that! I sure hope the weather cooperates. I woke up to 3 inches of very wet snow this morning. Hey! Let's be done with that stuff, okay????
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