Christmas Week 2013

(All pictures in this post are from LAST Christmas)

 

In case you were wondering at my quiet, I would remind you of something I said a couple of years ago, "I blog on the upswing."  If you are new to the blog, this drop in visual productivity, it has happened a lot over the years...I feel the downward pull of emotion or circumstance and I can't.find.words.




A girl and her "Grinch Punch" and her living back stop

Those closest to me will recognize it in my arguing style...I lose nouns and descriptors and start calling everything "crap" and "thingie" and "stuff" and find that, while I may have a valid argument in my head there is no way that it will be passing my lips anytime soon. So, I go quiet and stay that way until I find I have control of my faculties again.  It's just how I process.





The girls and Uncle K putting up the lights that I STILL have up on my back fence.

But, today, dear reader, I found my upswing.




Uncle BakerMan chattin them up

This has been a hard week for me, well...honestly...a hard month.  It's Christmas for crying out loud.  Usually I'm one of those OBNOXIOUS "Let's sing Christmas carols on Halloween" people.  I usually start in about September sizing up my kid's friends to see which would be caroling fodder and try and teach them new songs they might not know so that when Christmas comes around I can drag them around the neighborhood.  BUT...not this year.




Those are his ACTUAL horns...been there all his life...only
became so prominent as he lost his hair.  Just ask Uncle J...he'll tell ya.

It's odd how a fact that underlies your life affects you.  I've know since the divorce last year that my-ex and I would be trading off holidays...he was nice enough to give me the first Christmas, and I've KNOWN that meant that I wouldn't have my kids this Christmas.  KNEW it.  Prepared my head for it or so I thought.

There is a whole series of these
I'm saving them for her wedding video.

See, I've been "crankier" than normal since putting my feet back in my house after my Florida trip.  It started out as just little things...running out of coconut milk and butter.  Other people have other staples that they never run out of...in my house it's coconut milk (for curry) and butter (for life)...I am NEVER out.  Over time it progressed to either me being too weepy or too silent with everybody. 





Hilarity all around.

When last week started, I could feel the completely counter-productive desire to tell the kids to just "GO ALREADY!"  It's been a surprising emotion for me, "get out of here, it hurts me to know you'll be gone, so just GO."  I've felt that way a lot in the last year.  Thankfully, by the time Mom GOT married, I think I was better at recognizing it for grief and NOT saying stupid things that I didn't mean...I think. 

Anyway, when it hit this week, I definitely recognized it...I lowered my goals for the week...I pulled my kids close and actually WENT caroling on a whim with zero preparation (which was great by the way) and finished up school and tore apart caches of clothing that needed to be torn apart and went to a movie and did everything I could to ENJOY my last week with my girls for the year.





I was SO sick in this picture...but it's become on of my favorites
Go figure.

And then they left.

Singing with my family around is not something to miss...

And then I sat on the floor in the middle of the mess and cried...for awhile.  And then I reached out to people in one post...spent awhile chatting, texting, and talking...to say that my phone 'LIT UP' would not be an exaggeration.  And then I realized that this was something I was going to have to walk through ... So I did what any self-respecting total geek would do...I set up my laptop in my bathroom,  watched a couple of episodes of "Farscape" from my tub and decided that sleeping was a pretty good option, all things considered.  I find Science Fiction soothing...it is part of my charm.




Ah wrapping...a skill I hope their daddy realizes HE needs to teach them.

I wish I could say that my "funk" was over at that point.  I'm not sure it's over now.  But over the last couple of days of quiet within my own house, I realized something pretty great... I realized that I walked through another valley and made it...again.

Nine of us last year.  So much fun.

In "The Screwtape Letters", chapter 8, C.S. Lewis talks about the "Law of Undulation".  If you've not heard of this book, in a nutshell, it is letters from an elderly "Uncle" demon (Screwtape) to his younger nephew detailing ways to bring people AWAY from God.  It's a very interesting juxtaposition in Christian writing, taking it from the devil's point of view, everything that seems like a triumph is actually a defeat for Christ.  In the quote below, the "patient" is this nephew's charge.  The nephew has noticed that the patient is downhearted and supposes it is his success that has make him so.  Dear old Uncle Screwtape offers insight into our lives in his answer.

If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life - his interest in his work., his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down.  As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty.  The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it. 

Let's just say there is a LOT of estrogen in my house, and leave it at that...

I made it through another undulation...another turn of the wheel.  YAY ME! Every one of these "undulations" has taken me farther into comfortable-in-my-own-skin and given me proof that I'm capable.  It's hard to admit, but without these dips I wouldn't have made the progress that I've made.  When things coast along, I get proud...supercilious (one of Bean's words this month ...  go on, go look it up...I'll wait. ;) ).  I guess I need that humility of despair now and then, maybe we all do.

Monkey Face dazzling her Grandma

I've gotten a couple of emails from the girls and it sounds like they are having a GREAT time.  I wouldn't take that away from them for the world.  The hardest part of this week is that guilty feeling that I have in the low moments where I would rather it be ME having fun with my girls.  How selfish is that?  And narcissistic? And entitled?  I pray THAT part goes away.  I think that it's probably a natural reaction...but so SO destructive.  Just keepin it real.

Monkey Face's mantra last year, "I'm going for the Yahtzee"...and she got about 8 of them. 
Amazing!

Today is Christmas Eve...by tonight, Nali and I will be tucked in among our dear friends, probably eating cookies and playing Rummi Cube.  Tonight, I will be surrounded with family I've adopted as my own and I will make memories and they will be beautiful, too. 

Scott and Stacey 2012
Love my big brother.

And next week, when my girls get back, for the first time in THEIR lives, we won't be starting school on the 2nd.  Nope, we're going to figure out some new fun New Year's traditions beyond taking down the tree, so the NEXT time I have my Christmas week to myself, I have something great ahead of me.

I have so many pictures of the sky changing colors over those roofs.
Just my favorite spot to watch the sky change.

Well, unless we get bored...then we'll just break out the microscope...

My loves, 2012

 

 

See ya around...

The Wedding

Back in March, my mother decided to get out of here for awhile.  It was a vacation, a needed break.  A MUCH needed break for all of us.  See, the amount of change required of a family, even a close-knit family like we are, increases the stress level and potential for depression.  You know this.  This is not a new thing... that changes have dogged our heels for a long time now and stress and sadness had become a daily grind.

So, mom took the opportunity to just get away for a bit.  Or so she thought.

As she reconnected with all of her friends in Arizona, there was a surprise that the Lord had in store for her.

Let me introduce Grandpa B...and well, you already know Mom/Grandma.

Mom was already pretty good friends with Grandpa B.  See, he and his wife had parked their motorhome across the street from Mom and Daddy's 5th wheel and they had all been friends.  When Daddy died (over 3 years ago, which is still a surprise to me), Grandpa B and his wife had helped a lot.  A little over a year ago, Grandpa B lost his wife suddenly.  Both Mom and Grandpa B retreated to the safety of their homes (Mom in Texas, Grandpa B to the great northwest) as they mourned and tried to move forward in their lives.

Truth be told, they were both still mourning when they met in Arizona a few months ago.  But God had a plan.  Mom has said for a long time that if the Lord wanted her married He'd have to drop a man in her lap.  Ha Ha, silly Mom, challenging the Creator of the heavens and the earth that way....aren't you cute?

Neither of them SHOULD have been in Arizona.  Mom just needed a break and decided to visit my aunt and uncle who have been staying in her 5th wheel.  Grandpa Bob decided to visit his brother and sister-in-law in the park at the same time.  Really?

And then, they met again after all this time.  To hear it told, it was a little like a bolt from the blue.  SHAZZAAM! (I hope you heard that in my southern belle voice...it has at least 3 syllables...SHA ZZA IM).  They went out on a date...in a convertible Thunder-bird.  Well played, Grandpa Bob.  Chicks dig Thunder-birds and convertibles.

Anyway, in just over seven WEEKS they were married.  Yes, I said married.  They wanted to get started living their lives, traveling together, and enjoying all the perks of married life.  And they had little grand girl eyes on them.  Call it old fashioned, but honestly, I am so blessed to witness them sticking to their convictions in this crazy world. 

The wedding was tiny...just us and a few friends and the pastor.  Then we all went to Scottie P's (cuz we were HUNGRY, duh) and then on to the beautiful party that was thrown by our community group at church.  It was perfect.  Short, sweet, loving.  Just the thing to kick off a life.

People keep asking, "But how are you?"  It's funny sometimes.  How am I?  I miss my best friend who I got to live with again for awhile, it's definitely lonelier here.  AND the dishes aren't completely done nearly as quickly.  But I would not, for even a second, have her anywhere but exactly where she is.  Loving a man who loves her and understands her hurts, because he has his own.  He understands her faith, because he has his own.  He really is a wonderful gift to our whole family because he is such a gift to her.

But even more, I am humbled by my Lord who would make a way for both of them at exactly the right time, in exactly the right way to be so incredibly blessed.

Shortly after the wedding they took off to travel the country and now I wait for the daily afternoon texts that sparkle with the joy of her new life, sharing their location and always some funny little thing that has delighted her.  So incredibly blessed.

In the spirit of constant learning and growing I have started a list of "Things I couldn't possibly have unless God dropped them in my LAP!"  I figure, it couldn't hurt.

See ya around...

Our first week of OUT school...'N Stuff...

There should be a picture RIGHT HERE of the girls and I in all our gear standing on the driveway...but I'm not sure what I did with my camera...and it's only 4:35am...so it would be considered RUDE to poke Beanie and see if she knows.

It's okay with me, because a newsy post can easily be followed by a picture-y post and I hardly have to try...which is important now and then.

So...school?

Kinda fun.

The girls LOVED their very first day of "Out" school...dubbed thusly by a then-5-year-old Beanie who wished she could go to "out" school when all of her little friends on the street went to kindergarten. The wishing to go to "out" school only lasted until the middle of the second semester when several of her little friends confided the wish to stay for "home" school...but the term itself, stuck.

So what to say first?

It is SO fun to go and see friends (student and teacher alike) first thing in the morning and listen and learn and visit and share ideas. Pulling out new books and supplies is great fun too...that's pretty much the same "home" or "out"...although there are WAY more supplies needed for "out". This makes the corralling of said supplies a little skitchy. We've never needed room for 3 full 3 inch storage binders...or 3 different Science boxes...but new crayons are new crayons, even if we never progress further than, "Stick it in the pile by the piano". New crayons=Joy. Still, don't show up unannounced without your hard hat...'kay?

My kids are taking subjects we've never done formally at home before. For instance, Spanish! Monkey Face spent the rest of Thursday (our first day) and most of Friday wishing to be called by her Spanish name. P.E., which we've done always, every day, every year...but have foolishly called it soccer, swimming, jogging, hula hooping etc...holds great fascination for them...our first class of that will be this afternoon. And then there is Art. I'll confess, I'm more excited than they are...but then again...I'm all kinds of impressed with their Art teacher. I've seen him draw and paint and it makes me, the one who is more into penmanship, very happy.

The girls think lunch out of box is AWESOME. It's not so much the lunch itself...it's more the snacks. I've actually allowed fruit rope in. Technically, it wasn't that I wasn't allowing it per se...it just seemed unnecessary when they’d just eaten breakfast (at home we don’t usually eat until 8:30 or 9) and they could just grab an apple…a cheese stick…a bowl of crackers. Little did I know they had been missin’ out on a certain TYPE of junk food (Just to clarify, they get junk food a-plenty in other forms.) and the lunch box soothes their little souls.

There are a few things that we are still muddling through. One of my friends at the school told me to expect it to take about a month to really understand the interaction of the paper. And I confess…it’s my biggest stressor. In homeschool…it’s ME and THEM. I made the plan, the worksheet, assigned the book AND have it on hand. I understand where I’m going with the assignment (for instance, this one we’ll test, this other one is just a learning/reading thing) and they DO it, cuz I’m their mom and they want to see daylight at some point in their lives. With six teachers (each kid) BESIDE myself that intimacy with their school work is gone. Right now, while I’m NOT sure of the plan…things are a touch more chaotic than I’d hoped.

Still, they wanna go back. And for me, for now, that’s all that matters. There are so many things in my life right now that I can’t un-jumble. As challenging as this is…this is a finite equation…it’s answerable…AND even in the chaos, it’s still pretty fun.

Regarding the ‘N-Stuff…that’d be the Grandma.

We started this weekend in Urgent Care, as you know. Things went well Saturday, but her blood pressure climbed all day Sunday. So, Sunday night, back to Urgent Care. We had a terrific doctor who checked her over and switched her meds around…we were in and out of there in under an hour…which was really REALLY nice. He recommended a doctor for us to call first thing in the morning.

Yesterday, which was Monday, Mom called and got an appointment with the recommended doctor’s colleague for 1:45pm. Nice. Who would have thought that we’d have gotten in the same day? On top of that, we liked the doctor a lot. She was very attentive and kind. We changed meds again and go to check on everything on Friday.

Please continue to pray for her. Her blood pressure makes ZERO sense to me. We’ve learned that if she doesn’t eat it goes up and if she is stressed (like going to the doctor) it goes WAY up (another reason to praise the Lord, this doctor was so nice, Mom is looking forward to seeing her again)…but aside from those two obvious ones…there seems no rhyme or reason.

One other thing…things are pretty stressful over here. MOST of it is good, new, excited stress…the kind that makes you laugh. Some of it is bothersome, minor things that all by themselves would barely blip the radar. And there are small bursts of BAD, scary stress. But my body doesn’t deal well with it. I don’t sleep. Could you pray for that too?

I guess that’s it. Hey, look, it’s only 5:30am…plenty of time to…hmmmm…well, time to do something, I suppose.

See ya around…

In Which the Grandma Scares Stack...

This is a pure prayer request...

My mom has had REALLY high blood pressure this week. On Monday she went for a root canal and her BP measured 203/99…

It came down a bit over the next few days…but starting yesterday afternoon her left arm was feeling very uncomfortable…of course, she didn’t say much about it…

Today, when I called to tell her that I was on my way home, she told me that her left arm was really uncomfortable and sort of numb. I called my neighbor to take the girls and rushed her to urgent care where THEY rushed to get her BP (now 218/103) down and went about trying to find out what is going on.

Long story a little shorter…they still don’t know why her arm is so uncomfortable but it does seem that she is “okay” in that she has not had either a heart attack or a stroke. And they’ve given her some medication to bring her blood pressure down to a safer level.

Because she lives out of the state so much, she doesn’t have a doctor in the area…so I’m praying that we’ll be able to find a kind doctor who takes Medicare here in the area…

Because we are a pretty natural family, we don’t know even how to approach being on a medication that has severe side effects…and until we find this doctor we have to understand what we see and be ready to take her to the ER should any of the many possible side effects come about…some of which they told us WOULD happen anyway for the first few days…so I’m praying for understanding and clarity…

And because she’s my Mommy…I want to keep her. So I’m praying for healing…and peace…and to be able to keep our emotions in check so that we can keep a level head…I say “we” but probably mean “me” and “my”.

To be clear…she’s okay…and I’m praising the Lord for that!!

But…please pray.

See ya around...

February 3, 2011...One Year Without My Dad.

Huh. This one is long.

I've been thinking about this particular blog post for awhile. What do I say? My sentimental nature doesn't let me let it pass by without comment...but what.should.I.say?

This has been an incredible year. Really. In all my years so far...it has been the hardest I've passed.

This is the year I lost my dad...and late in this year I realized that I'd actually lost 7 friends/family in 18 months.

This is the year I grieved with my mom.

This is the year that I've had the most health struggles, whooping cough, broken rib, unexplained fatigue, heart freak-outs, girlie stuff and that doesn't include health issues with my kids.

This is the year that Bubba and I have struggled the most to find each other and actually considered what might happen if we couldn't.

This is the year we experienced the heartbreak of leaving a church that we loved.

But you know what...as hard as this year has been...I think I've witnessed more miracles and joys specifically from the Lord than I ever have before.

When Dad died, I got to be part of an incredible community of friends and family the week of the memorial. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 family members join us in Arizona from all over the United States and an entire town full of people who had loved my Dad surrounding us and praying with us and loving us. I made friends that week that I will never ever lose...friends that love me and my family and pray for me and my family that I only met because of that terrible moment that I had to lose my dad.

Because of the loss of so many of my loved ones, I've had to face God and decide whether I would follow Him even through this. There were times even I wasn't sure which way I would go. God has truly been my support in so many ways while these tragedies changed me irrevocably. Even so my faith feels more solid than it has been in my entire life.

This year of grieving has been so precious. I've gotten to know my mom so much more deeply through all of this. I've been blessed to be the strong one sometimes and the weak one at others. I've been allowed to wrap my arms around my mommy and just cry. And I've been blessed to laugh with her until my sides hurt. This has made us better friends and sisters in Christ than we ever have been. And I am blessed each day by the bond.

This year of health problems has been interesting. I'm learning to live inside my limitations. I learning not to plan for tomorrow, but to do exactly what I can today. I'm learning to let the mess roll off my back. I'm learning to pull my kids close and just hold them even if I can't do anything else.

I've worried for years about not doing everything that people think that I should...I'm learning to just get over it. And I'm learning to say, "No, I don't think so" and "I can help you so long as you realize that sometimes I won't be able to help you and can live with that." and the hardest, "I know that you think I'm good at that...but I don't think it's a good idea right now".

I don't know, anymore, that I'll ever be up to snuff again. I pray that I will, but for the first time ever, I'm done FIGHTING and have started accepting. That's not to say that I'm ready to roll over and die...but the stress when I can't FIX it is leaving me finally. And honestly, I think it's good for me.

During this tough stuff, Bubba and I struggled. A LOT. But the Lord provided us a marriage conference that has opened up topics that BOTH of us have been stuffing for years. It has allowed a level of openness and honesty that we haven't had in a long time. And even more than that, God has given us both understanding and opened our hearts to grace and mercy for one another. We aren't out of the woods yet...but for the first time, in a long time, we are both trudging in the same direction.

Leaving our long time church back in March was one of the most difficult steps of this year...But God had an amazing plan for us. He had been preparing a different church for us. He had brought them to the area...He had established several of our long term friends IN the church...and He found them a BUILDING in February...just in time for our arrival. ;)

Within two weeks of being at the new church, we knew we were home. There was no uneasy search. The kids were comfortable immediately which was unlike our last church hunt. I think the most amazing part of it all for me was how much I hadn't realized what I'd needed, until God pulled us through those doors.

Through this new church, we have a community, unlike any we've ever experienced before. We have a small group of people who we meet with weekly who have made us one of the family in a way that has been missing in all of our church experiences. Missing church is the biggest disappointment of our week, and I have to say that has never been the case before. Through this group, we are making friends as a family and it is very sweet.

We also have a counselor that has been really helpful to Bubba and I. We didn't know, when we left our old church, that we would need a counselor...but God did.

As I look back on this year that I was forced to live without my Daddy...I realize that I am blessed. I would not have chosen this path...not for a million bucks!! And I wouldn't have WISHED this path on my worst enemy. But this path was chosen for me...and I followed it ONLY because the Lord held my hand the entire way...

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11


I always THOUGHT I believed that before...now I KNOW that I do.

See ya around...

Geeeee-tarrrr....

Ah the Guitar!  I love the guitar.

Now, make no mistake...I do not PLAY the guitar.  As a person who sings, but has no particular talent for instruments, (although I can honk a mean pitch pipe, if I do say so myself.) I have ALWAYS loved the guitar...or rather "the guy with the guitar" who would show up places so that I could sing along.

I don't know for certain what my first memory of "the guy with the guitar" was...but I will tell you that by the time I was 9 or 10, I had a friend whose Dad always threw those parties where "the guy with the guitar" would show up. As these parties happened at least monthly, I had a lot of exposure. To this day, my musical tastes are affected by those folksy ballads.

Now, my Dad was one of those "guys with a guitar" for a good portion of my childhood.  My Dad was a pretty interesting person, musically.  Never really trained...I'm not positive that he didn't have piano lessons as a little kid but nothing beyond that...but give him a piano and he could pick out anything.  Sometime in the late 1970s, he got "into" the guitar.

He played and played and played until, just like the piano, he could pick out anything.  So, when, at about 9 years old, I WANTED a guitar, he was ALL over it.  Got me a little guitar...got me lessons...sat next to me and played...showed me how to tune the guitar to itself...all kinds of things.  I specifically remember learning to play "Peaceful, Easy Feeling".

But then, I stopped.  I don't remember any major life changing event the made me stop...my memories of the guitar just fade away.  By the time I was 12, I KNOW I was not playing at all because I remember watching a friend who really COULD play and thinking, "Wish I could play..."  And it's pretty much been that way ever since.

Somewhere along the way, where the guitars went was lost on me.  Guitars are not like pianos...pianos are REALLY hard to move and get rid of...guitars...not so much.  All I knew was that we'd HAD guitars in Pennsylvania and Florida, but by the time we got to California, we didn't have them anymore.

Now, my dad had been making noise for about 2 years about wanting to get a guitar again...but he hadn't been able to find a nice enough cheap one.  Christmas of 2008, mom and I found a little guitar ornament...with the promise that we WOULD find one.  By Christmas of 2009, I'd found one.  Costco had a little Fender on sale for $99...so I got one for our family and mom and I went in together and got one for Dad.

You should have seen my dad with that guitar.  It was a complete surprise.  He was SHOCKED...And completely entranced.  With the opening of the guitar, we lost him for the next couple of hours.  He sat there and plucked...and strummed and tuned and plucked some more.  He was re-figuring out all the songs he used to know and trying out all the chords he'd forgotten.  I honestly don't think that I've seen him THAT excited about a gift someone else gave him, and I was SO happy.

His excitement really struck a fire in us...and we practiced and practiced and were starting to get calluses on our fingers...

As for Dad, he took the guitar home and continued playing until February, when he died...

That guitar was the first thing that I saw when I walked into the RV after arriving in Arizona after his death.

I don't want to lose this post to the melancholy into which it seems to be headed...because for the most part, this will not be melancholy...but I wanted to be clear WHY we quit playing for awhile.

During the week that we were in Arizona for his memorial, the guitar played another role.  See, my cousin came.  Now I hadn't seen my cousin in 13-15 years...but it turned out that he had something from Dad.  Dad had given my cousin our guitars some 20 years before, so he showed up with my Dad's guitar from my childhood...and the guitar my little 9 year old self played.  It was pretty cool...and pretty gut wrenching...and memory jogging.

My brother and I had a great time playing with those guitars.  He got to hear the story of our Christmas gift.  He had a few stories of his own.  And I shared the teeny tiny bit that I'd learned at that point...



When it was time to go home, Uncle BakerMan and I had decided that he would take Dad's old guitar and I would take my little-girl-guitar and the one we'd bought Dad at Christmas...that would give me 3 for the 3 girls so that we could play.

Right.

Well, as I said...the guitar has played a pretty big role in my life this last 9 months.  Thankfully, we had to wait until April, when mom got here, for Dad's guitars...but our guitar was sitting right where I'd left it, in my bedroom.  Can't tell you how many times I just sat there and looked at it.  Can't tell you how many times I told one girl or another, "Not right now" and sadly, even scolded them for strumming it while it stood on it's stand.  Can't tell you how many times I've grieved while I watched the dust collect.

Last week was actually a really hard guitar week.  I wished that I knew how to play it over and over because then I could take it camping.  I mean, what could be better than a girl, a guitar and a campfire?

So, this week I made a decision. For crying out loud...how is a dusty guitar a "good" memory of my Dad? So I took them ALL out...dusted them off...found a place to put them RIGHT OUT in plain site. AND.


And, I started the girls learning the teeny tiny bit that I know.  And played a little myself.

Time for some new memories...

Some of them a little wistful...


Some of them downright funny...


All of them linked SO HARD in my mind.

Miss you, Daddy.

See ya around...

And she's off...

Well...it's actually been a week.

Tuesday before last, Grandma's dear friends Gigi and Baba (names changed cuz it's how I roll) pulled up in their 5th Wheel to sweep Grandma back to Arizona. Thankfully they didn't sweep her RIGHT away, or there would have been far more tears.

They stayed in the area until Saturday morning. We did a few things with them of which there were no pictures. They play the most interesting game of Yahtzee ever.

But on Friday night, we decided to have a fakey little Thanksgiving Dinner. Just your basic rotisserri chicken with the fixings that we LIKE to make, like cranberry sauce and mashed taters and soooped up stove-top-ish stuffing...and salad, cuz I didn't feel like any actual-prep-needed veggies...and sparkling cider. We pulled out the pretty glassware and the pretty-but-plastic everyday...ehem "china"...and the same old, mismatched, nicked cutlery we use everyday and had a real meal with these people that we've grown to love so much and adopted as another set of grandparents.

It was great. Really REALLY great.

And then Miss Baba pulled out one of her passions to share with the girls.

Miss Baba is a rock person...rock collector...rock cutter...rock placer-into-pretty-settings-and-make-actual-jewelry-out-of-something-that-used-to-be-just-a-rock person...And she had a lot to show us. Sadly, she hadn't brought any of the finished jewelry. It was already packed to go...we'd gotten to see it earlier in the day back at the RV...but no pictures. Sad.

She started with just Beanie and Bear...

But it wasn't a terribly long time before she'd sucked us ALL in...


We sorted and wetted SO many stones. You wet the cut stone to see how it will looked when it's polished. And I, for one played with them...looked at the light shining through them...


Lined up Bubba's head so it looked like I was about to SQUISH it as I was admiring the rock...in the second one the boys actually KNOW what I'm doing...hence the laugh...


HA! Mr. Gigi, I SQUISH your head!


This is my favorite one...I love that color blue...A.LOT. It is also nearly the color of my daughter's bedroom ceiling which I also love A. LOT. You know, she still won't let me move all my stuff into and take over her room so that I can look at it all the time. (sigh)


We had quite a good time with that. But there was another very important person involved in this visit. Well, not exactly a person...but loved...VERY loved.

This is Barley...isn't he sweet...


Well you can't tell from pictures, but he is sweet. One of the sweetest dogs EVER. And Monkey Face LOVED him...and that's saying something as dogs aren't always her thing...


We tried really hard to get a shot of all the girls with Barley to show to Uncle BakerMan, who also loves him...but Barley wasn't playing with us. He's a little old and a little sore and he just wanted to EAT or SLEEP...So Miss Baba fed him while the girls cheesed it up...


And in the end...Barley didn't want to go. He found our kitchen floor MUCH to his liking and Bubba had to lure him out with the promise of mashed potatoes...


And the next morning we dropped Grandma off and followed along beside them for a ways as they set out...


So Grandma is back in Arizona now for awhile. We expect her back some time in December for Christmas fun.

As I was putting this together, I really wanted a picture of Grandma and the girls as the closing shot. All I could find was this one...well, it's actually a set...and it would have been taken last Thursday night...but...teee heee...look at how silly it is. We call Beanie "strange-alien-child" when we see her dressed like this and I'm positive that were she another year older she wouldn't want me taking ANY pictures in this state. But as I inadvertently managed to get a whole series, I'm taking this one opportunity!! WOOOO HOOO!!! So this is for the Grandma and her goofy girls...



Look while you can, because I'm certain that when she's 13 she'll make me take it down.

See ya around...

Accentuate the Positive...

So...hmmmm...yesterday, five days from my first hooping try, I still could not hoop around my waist. VERY irritating.

I got online at a new forum I just joined and said something along the line of "WAAAAAAAAHHH...my 7yo is so much better than me...why can't I hoop...WAAAAAAHHHH!" They took pity on me and gave me a ton of pointers...chief of which was "make the hoop bigger and heavier".

I also got some advice on how to tape the hoop to increase the friction and what type of clothing to wear...both more form fitting and natural fibers, and how to move within the hoop, how to place my feet, etc.

SO...this morning I made me a BIG 'Ole Hoop...it reaches my chin...which is about 60" across(I'm very tall, don'tcha know). Then we put 3 cups of water in it and taped up the connection (it still leaks badly, but it's hot, so we don't care). As for the other stuff, I've gotta wait until I can acquire the materials.

And guess what!!



That's right, I can hoop! And what's more, I'm STARTING to be able to catch it when it's on it's way down...



It's AWESOME! I can't tell you how great it is to have a little success after 5 days of trying. YEAH!

And what's more? Grandma is doing it MUCH better, too. She was having a hard time keeping it going like she wanted.

Check her out!!! (Can I just say how much I love this picture?)



Grandma is so much better that she has taken to taunting our reigning champ. Let's just say Bear did not take the challenge lying down...



I'd say that Bear is probably safe in her title for awhile...

See ya around...

Another life...

You know that Grandma has been with us since April and except for a couple of weeks ago when she visited my brothers, we've had her all to ourselves...well, it turns out that we'll have to share her once again.

Last week, our family lost another of our favorite people. My great Aunt Nina passed away on Thursday morning. Wow, has this been a crazy year or what? Mom is heading up to Washington on Thursday to celebrate Aunt Nina's life with our family and to visit all and sundry in our great pacific northwest family...(oooh, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get letters about that one...for the record not a single one of them is named "Sundry".)

So as the "video"/"picture" girl...I've been sharing a bunch of memories with my cousin John (he's a second or a removed or something but you get the idea) as he weeds through pictures and posts them. Some of them are so funny and some are sweet...

This is, from right to left, Aunt Nina, Nina's daughter and My Grandma Marie...all looking very "June Cleaver-y" to me...they are all gone now...



And here is another of of Aunt Nina, Grandma Marie and their brother, my Uncle Karl...also all gone...



As straight-laced as they all seem in those shots, there are also a few of these nuggets that were found...anybody else thinking...WOW!



But in light of all the other pictures...this is the one that stopped me. This is the one that made me the saddest and the gladdest...This is one of those..."I wanna do that" pictures that remind me how great my WHOLE family has always been...

Johnny titled it, "Mom and her girls---practicing for church"



What a great memory for those kids. What a wonderful moment, caught on film. I'm sure it was a typical "rehearsal"...someone was probably off key...someone was MORE than likely fidgeting or acting up in some way...someone else was probably impatient about something...but the picture of the moment...that flash of light caught the togetherness of a family. The togetherness that I KNOW carried on in her life and gave her children and the rest of her family joy. Lots of it.

After seeing that picture the other day...I put MY mom to good use. The woman can PLAY the piano...so I made her. And she made US learn a new song...and then Bear made HER play an old song for us...one that is full of meaning for us because it's played a part in the last two funerals, Grandma Marie and Daddy...and I just recorded the moments...in memory of Nina...but FOR me.

I don't know how long I'll get to keep my mommy...but I never ever want to lose the moments.

The one she taught us "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1:59)



And part of one we made her play, well BEAR made her play, again and again..."Until Then" (1:54)





Aunt Nina...you will be missed. We love you.

See ya around...

Letters to Grandma - First Day of School...

My mom has gone to visit my brothers in Florida for a couple of weeks. She left last Thursday and will be back next Monday night.

We were originally supposed to start school LAST Monday, but we had some issues with shipping and organization on my part, so I just pushed it off without thinking that Grandma would miss some of the fun of the first couple of days.

With that in mind, I kept my camera handy today. As things happened I had the girls tape a "letter to Grandma"...I won't pretend that ANY of these are uncoached...TOTALLY coached...in some cases FULLY rehearsed. Strangely, it was Bear that was able to do her little schpeil in a single take. Anyone who knows Miss Bear knows that she is joyfully distractable...it's one of her gifts...so the fact that it took her more sober sisters SO much longer to get "it" said, is kind of funny...and altogether charming.

I'll give you the run time of each of these in case you want to opt out...but they are pretty cute...

Beanie to Grandma :29



Bear to Grandma :09



Monkey Face to Grandma :11



This is Monkey Face's plan for the day...or the school year...she said this one on her own in varying ways and then I grabbed the camera...

Monkey Face :23



And then here is just some footage...it'll probably end up in our year end video...but Grandma would have thought it was sweet if she was here. This is Bear reading her passage from our morning Bible Study...Gen 1:14-19...Bean is there "JUST in case"...I'm not sure "in case of" what?...but that's what sisters are for...

Bear 1:31



And this is the actual moment that Monkey Face got her pencils. We have used Prismacolor pencils for a VERY long time and I truly love them. Because of that, when Bean started school I was looking for a reason NOT to share mine with her anymore. That bit of selfishness created a tradition. In our house, upon arrival into Kindergarten, a child is given her very own box of 48 Prismacolor pencils. Daddy searches high and low to find them at a reasonable price and it's a very exciting rite of passage.

Sorry the angle of the shot is off...I was trying to be unobtrusive with the camera because she REALLY likes to play to it if she knows it's on...oh well, you still get the excitement...

Monkey Face 1:06



Well Grandma, we hope this finds you well (I know you are, I just talked to you last night)...and that it brings you a little added joy.

As for the rest of you?

See ya around...

Um...WOW...

This afternoon, I heard some hilarity...I followed it...and look what I found...



Evidently, Bean asked Grandma if she would mind a make over. Methinks Grandma got more than she bargained for...



I'm told that at one point Beanie was dabbing at Grandma's face with a paper towel. When asked why, Beanie replied, "Oh, I need to wipe off a little of your make up so that I can do that next! I can JUST imagine it!"



REALLY can't wait...(snort!)

See ya around...