Confessions of a Grandma

Virgos are meticulous about their appearance, have refined palates & would benefit from weekly yoga classes. I read that a while ago in the newspaper horoscopes.  I read it to Mike and his comment was, “Yeah, weekly yoga—that’s important to me.” “It says would benefit from .  I guess they forgot stubborn and set in their ways.” ************ What does one get for the man who has everything he wants?  Here is what he mentioned prominently when I asked for birthday gift suggestions: Plastic shower rings.  It seems the scraping noise made by our metal shower curtain rings irritates him greatly and this is something that would make his life more pleasant.  Seriously, how exciting is our life? I also got him a copy of Linda Myers’ book, Return to Vietnam , and Snowflake Chocolates .  Of course, I made him a card. I ordered lobster meat and I will make some Connecticut style lobster rolls—just the meat and butter served on a roll. That was his wish ...

I went to Wallingford on Sunday and took Amy, Kristen, and Dane out to lunch in celebration of Amy’s birthday. Amy’s present from me was a framed poster I had taken from a 1930’s Grade Teacher magazine.  It showed an owl exhorting everyone to “USE GOOD ENGLISH.”  It may sound like a strange gift unless you know my daughter. I also gave the kids little back to school goody bags. These were filled with tissue packets, hand sanitizer, pencils, tape, white boards, book marks, and magnets for keeping track of important papers on the the fridge.  And of course some M&Ms just because chocolate never hurts. We went out for a birthday lunch.  It was a gorgeous summer day.  I am not saying the grand kids are hyperactive, but it is good when we can get an outside table. Dane was turning on the charm.  “Has anyone noticed how beautiful my mom is in her new blouse?” K. will be starting grade six this week.  D. starts full day kindergarten after Labo...

August Birthstone - Peridot It's hard to believe that thirty-eight years have gone by.   Now my baby girl has babies of her own.  Just a couple of weeks ago she asked why I hadn't told her that having kids was so hard.  (Payback, I replied) But, of course, she has two delightful children to light up her life and keep their old granny feeling happy. Happy Birthday, Amykins.  I love you.

It feels like we had to drive all the way down to Florida just to enjoy a bit of sun.  We sure have not seen much of its shiny face between the trip back in April and now.  An old Vermontism: "Hope it don't hurt the rhubarb."  Let me tell ya, my rhubarb has turned into a mutant monster plant.  I'm afraid to go near it. My son and I are off to visit my daughter and the grand children.  We are attempting to pull off a fast one by bringing Kristen back for a little-brother-less week with Grandma.  He will get his turn when she goes to day camp.  We have a shopping trip planned--that's her birthday present--and I have sewing and craft projects lined up.  We'll see how this experiment goes. My daughter did want assurance that I would still take the two together on occasion.  That will be her birthday present this year. Part of my birthday present--downtown Savannah. If I remember correctly, this was once the Coca Cola plant.

June 14th is Flag Day in the United States. It also happens to be my birthday.  Today is the 63rd anniversary. Like Dani's brother, who happens to share the exact same birthday(see her tribute to him at http://oklhdan-musingsamiddleagedwoman.blogspot.com/2011/06/happy-birthday-flag-boy.html )*, I was told that my birthday was so special that everyone put their flags out in celebration. Oh, the lies we tell our children, but that is another post entirely... Mike and I spent the morning walking on the beach and the afternoon floating around in the motel pool.  Tonight we will go out for a nice dinner.  The moon will be nearly full so later we will sit out by the pool into the warm evening, sipping a good wine and planning the future. And my present this year is big--we will spend the upcoming weekend in Savannah.  This is something I really want to do and something, being a city involved, Mike would prefer to avoid.  So it is special and it has ...

Today I was the Grilled Grandma on the blog, Grandma's Briefs .  You can check out my adorable grand children there, and you can check out Lisa's blog. My brother has been here for the past three days and has put in two new windows on the north facing wall of the house and has replaced the back door frame and rehung the old door.  Nice to have that talent available in the family.  Now I will have to do a spot of painting and I sincerely hope that will be it for home repairs this season.  That's what the budget says, anyway. Tomorrow is my brother's birthday and my sister, other brother, and our spouses are taking him out for lunch.  He'd rather go golfing, but the links are way too wet.  It's a big O birthday so that deserves a bit of extra attention.  Of course my sister, being the baby of the family, can get away with making jokes about old age, but, since I am the oldest,  I am pretty much required to be nice about it.

I started out for my exercise walk yesterday.  It was cool and I had a brisk pace going when I realized that it was just too easy!  I had to run for some intervals to break a sweat and get the old heart rate up enough for some aerobic benefit.  I ran to a telephone pole, walked to the next, ran to the next, etc.--unless it was steep uphill or on the paved road.  Old-woman-running is a sight that the general public probably should be spared.  Hey, at least I don't wear spandex exercise clothing.  At one point I actually did and could get away with it, but now...like I said, there are just things that the public should be spared from viewing.  Anyway, I probably ran a mile out of the 3.7 mile loop and did about the same this morning.  Believe me, I did get the heart rate up and a slow burn blazing in the buns.  I'm not sure where this burst of energy came from, but I hope it goes away because it is slightly annoying. Maybe...

I spent yesterday replenishing the larder--a huge investment of time and cash.  Then, today, I went out to get some cherry juice for Mike since it is supposed to be good for flushing out the uric acid that causes gout.  Then, I had to run out to the store once again.  I have been thinking, "Mike's birthday next Thursday," for nearly two weeks now.  I just didn't realize until sometime this afternoon that "next Thursday" had actually arrived.  I'm a terrible wife.  Happy Birthday, Mike!