Confessions of a Grandma

My daughter met me with the two kids on Friday night in Middlebury--a half way point between our houses.  I took them all out for pizza and then just Dane and I made the trip back to Jericho. My grand daughter, twelve now and in the seventh grade, has decided it is more important to be at the school dance in the presence of cute boys than to spend time with her old granny! Dane was happy to have my undivided attention for the weekend though. Thinking of a post that GigiHawaii  wrote a couple of weeks ago, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  His answer: designer of computer games. He has not given up on teaching me how to play a game either. He is quite the little mathematician.  "Grandma, you are 30 plus 35.  My mom is 40 so you were...um...25 when she was born."  "I have $202 dollars.  That is 20,200 cents.  Do you still have 30 dollars?  How much cents is that?"  When I said 300, oh wait, that's not right, he...

My grand son loves Halloween.  He does up his room, turning it into a haunted house, each year more elaborate as he adds to his stash of ghoulish decorations. I was visiting them yesterday and we made a trip to the party store so his sister could get a costume for her school dance.  He's had his Darth Vadir costume ready since early September.  Not everyone is so well prepared.  The place was jam packed.  His mother had warned him that this trip was for his sister; he would NOT be getting anything.  Torture!  He was good about it, but, oh, the desire that filled his little eyes. The young girl that waited on my daughter and grand daughter was very sweet.  My grand daughter thought her hair was really cool.  It was long brown hair tossed to the right and shaved off the left side.  My daughter's comment, "Yeah, well you are not doing that."  If I were a really kind of mother I would drag out Amy's high school picture the next time...

My grand children live in a small Vermont town.  The buildings along the main street were mostly built in the  early 1800’s.       Colonial and Victorian influences are evident.  It is a pretty little village. The fountain where my grand son is standing has a boy with a boot during warmer weather.  We have had some cold days and some snow, but this day was quite balmy—almost 50. Anybody know what these architectural styles are?  There are marble quarries nearby so one sees a lot of that in the area. Of course, the very best part of that little town: and  

The past week was Vermont summer at its finest…well, at least if you like the heat and the sunshine. Weeding the garden chores were fairly easy.  It has been dry and even the weeds are not growing quite as vigorously as usual.  Watering the tomatoes and the planters is of critical importance, though.  Mike takes care of that job when he swabs the deck each morning. I have a few tomatoes almost ready to pick.  I also picked a bunch of lavender to hang for drying.  I do like to have a sprig at bedside.  Lavender is one of those smells you either love or hate, but I love it. I spent about 8 hours doing library volunteer work spread out over the Monday-Wednesday-Friday open hours.  The advantage there—besides doing something useful in the community—is that the library is air conditioned.  This week, I covered many, many new books in plastic and entered them into the catalog system.  Our library is small, but it is very, very busy, especia...

Oh, dear. My grand son drew this picture while he was here last week: Clearly, it is the tick I tweezed off his little chest. And I totally recognize the dots as bacteria from his favored book, The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts. Also, we had a conversation a couple of times about the feelers/antennae on bugs. I am worried that this is a sign of trauma to his sensitive nature.

There seems to be a bumper crop of pine cones this year.  My next door neighbor's trees are surrounded by fallen cones. This sight cracked me up, I must confess.  When my grand daughter was only about two, her parents took her on a picnic.  They discovered that their usually sunny and happy little girl shreiked hysterically at the sight of a pine cone.  Later that same summer, I took her for a walk in the woods and she had to be picked up and carried around any pinecones we came across.  It made for a pretty short walk. My theory is that she had overheard the expression about bears doing in the woods and in her two year old mind, that is what she was seeing.  I'm sure she must have been wondering why the otherswise sane and sensible adults in her life would think it a good idea for her to set foot near such disgusting piles,

My grand children spent the weekend. Dane completed this six foot long puzzle--with only a tiny bit of help from his Uncle Kevin. We had popcorn and watched movies from the library.  We went to the playground--a couple of times.  We went out for pizza and played in the arcade for a while.  We did some drawing and card making and story reading. Kristen did some shopping at Plato's Closet.  Dane kept saying he wanted to go too.  He doesn't like shopping so I was a bit confused, but I took him, too.  He was very disappointed when he realized we were not actually in a closet full of play-dough (one of his favorite things).  We didn't have his pajamas, but tee shirt from Mike's old Motor Cycle business made a good enough night shirt.  He liked it enough to put on his boots and go out to do a happy dance on Saturday morning. Kristen is modeling a felted hat I made for her.  She doesn't like to have her picture tak...

Not according to the calendar, but there is something about Labor Day weekend that makes it feel as though summer is making its exit out the back door while fall is knocking on the front.  My sister and brother-in-law were over for supper last night--a summery meal of chicken Cobb salad, fresh green beans, tomatoes and corn on the cob served on the deck.  Still, it was dark by the time we got to dessert. We had finally heard from our brother who lives in a town that was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Irene.  He lives near a mountain stream besides.  The were without electricity and the yard was flooded, but house, barn and animals were all safe. It was very sad to ride into town the other day and see the damage that has been done.  The next town, the one where I grew up, actually, was hit hard and it seems like everything is just covered with river silt.  My husband's old shop was flooded with four feet of water.  State offices in another town we...

Ready for the water slide.  Verdict...AWESOME! Grand daughter liked the faster slide. The slower one was fine for me. We also visited a garnet mine. Lake George public beach--quiet in the afternoon. We had a fun three days and two nights in Lake George.  I took the kids and their mom stayed home and painted and cleaned although she would have enjoyed going to the lake as well.  Moms have to choose the responsible things and grandmas can have the fun.  It really was a fun time.   The kids wondered why Mike didn't come with us.  I had to ask if they really thought they would have got to spend six and half hours at Water Slide World if it had been up to Mike.  He had fun, too, enjoying his quiet time.

Susan Adcox who writes about grandparents  at About.com had the love/luck of chocolate going for her name in my hat.    So, Susan, e-mail me an address and I will send you Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life as part of the Pass-the-Book.  And check out Sian's blog-- High in the Sky --to get the full rundown on how it all works.  The author is way too young to be a grandparent, but she has an interesting blog and some good recipes. *********** Mike has surprised me big time!  He has cut way, way back on salt.  I never thought he would even try.  Here is a man who put liberal shakes of salt on pepperoni pizza, sausage, Chinese food and tacos.  I guess a night in the hospital made a believer out of him.  And, he is even talking about getting himself a pair of pajamas! *********** Can you tell how swollen my left big toe is from my graceful tumble down the stairs several weeks ago? I have not been able to wear sandals with a ...