Mastering the situation

It's Wednesday.

That means it's Grammy's day to take care of Mason. For those of you that don't know, Mason is my 15 month old, adorable if I might add, grandson. Now, those of you that have 15 month old children, or have ever known one, know they can think they rule the roost. You just have to remain calm, remain in charge, and let them know who's boss.

I had a daycare for about 15 years. I loved it right up until I hated it. The day I woke up and hated it, I quit. I would never, ever, ever take care of a child that I couldn't think of as my own. Love him, treat him with respect and have fun too. If I couldn't look at a child and feel that warmth of love and kindness flow through me, I didn't care for him or her. It wouldn't have been fair to the child, or to me. I loved every single one of my day care kids and raised them just as my own. Taking care of your grandchild is a whole different ball game.

I look forward to Wednesdays for sure. Brian went in to get ready for work about noon today so right then, it became Grammy in charge time. Of course, Mason doesn't like it when his loved ones leave the room, so he screams. Cries real tears even. Looks over at me, and I honest to God just can't help myself, I laugh at him. He looks so pathetic. OK, that pissed him off! He screamed some more...he'd scream a bit, look at me, scream some more. I've learned that if I go get him, he'll just have a hissy fit. So, I just let him scream a bit and then he'll come over to me and things are groovy in his little world again. All this really only takes about 2 minutes...if I can quit laughing at him that is! I'm remaining calm, and in charge for sure.

I fixed him a grilled cheese sandwich and some peas and carrots for lunch. I put 3 pieces of sandwich and 5 peas and 5 carrots on his tray. He perused the cuisine, chose a pea, and began to dine. He ate all that and I repeated the process until all his sandwich and peas and carrots were gone. He tries to feed me peas....gag me. I then gave him a few animal crackers. Did he try to feed me one of those? Hell no! Selfish little bugger! Still in charge I am.

He started to get droopy eyes in the high chair...so cute. Brian needed to leave for work at this point so of course that broke Mason's heart. Big crocodile tears and everything. I took him over to the rocking chair with his milk as he was just so tired. He wailed for about a minute and a half after Brian left...then calmed right down. We snuggled and rocked like this for about 4 minutes. I could just feel the love flowing from me through him. Such an awesome feeling. I turned him around so I could see him and snuggled him that way. So soft and sweet and innocent. Eyes would flutter almost closed and then open and look at me. I'd give him little kisses now and then. I reached down and caressed his very soft cheek. He smiled. My heart melted. He made kissy sounds with his lips so I'd give him another kiss. My heart just filled with love and joy. I could have rocked him like that for hours. I got up to put him to bed. Carried him upstairs and laid him in the crib and covered him with his soft blankie and he grinned. Oh how precious. I stroked his cheek and his eyes fluttered. He gave a contented sigh and I left him to his dreams.

Yes, we were both calm.

I'm not sure which one of us is actually in charge.

I don't think it really matters anymore.

Life lessons

I've learned lots from my Dad my whole life. He really was a font of knowledge even though he never finished school.

Not a day goes by that I don't think of him or quote him. Just the other day we went to a Mexican restaurant and Den said he thought he'd have a 'fajeetie'. That would be fajita in Dad speak. I asked if he was going to have some japaleenies on it, another Dad speak.

How is Daddy helping me lately? Well, I've hurt my achilles tendon. I need to try not to strain it. Our living room is in the basement down a steep flight of stairs. My laptop is down there too so I'm up an down a ton of times during the day. Dad had knee surgery a few times and I helped him recuperate. He had to learn how to do stairs. So, now every time I go down or up the stairs, I keep saying to myself, down with the good, up with the bad. I can just hear Dad saying that over and over. He'd pause before taking a step up or down, say that to himself so he'd know which foot to use. Going down the stairs, put your good food down first. Going up the stairs, put your bad foot up first.

Thanks Dad.

When you wake up in the morning and see this

You just know it's not going to be a good day.

The importance of punctuation

and capitalization.

So, things are still hairy here. I'm not unpacked, I'm not settled. I've gained a ton of weight and haven't been to the gym in over 2 weeks.

I decided yesterday to take time to play online. So the unpacking will wait a bit longer. Wanted some me time. I have 68 unread emails still. I was cleaning out my junk email and I noticed there was something that said someone had commented on my Facebook. It was someone I don't know and it looked like spam. I thought I'd better check it out. Went to my Facebook page and began to read comments and stuff. That's when I got to one my dear husband made.

OK, let me lay the ground work here. My son Joshua is an idiot. He calls his father Dick. He'll call and say 'Let me talk to Dick'. He got hold of Den's cell phone and now when Den turns it on, it says 'Dick'. Laugh every time we see that. Did I mention Den's real name is Richard and Joshua isn't calling his father A dick, he's calling him Dick. I love him dearly, but sometimes I'm not sure from whose loins he sprang. So Joshua made some disgusting comments about Susan Pelosi's balls on his own Facebook page. Ya, don't ask. A few days previous to that, he'd commented on the 5 people he'd like to punch in the face. Billy Mayes was one of them.

With me so far?

Den can't stand Billy Mayes. Every time he comes on TV to tout one of his products, he just yells. So Den yells back. It's quite funny actually. You just know when you see Billy's face on TV, you'll hear Den beller 'BILLY MAYES HERE!' He never fails.

Still with me?

Den is pretty much computer illiterate. He's getting better, but not by leaps and bounds.

He's got Facebook and he doesn't really know how to use it. He likes to read the comments that people write. So, of course he read Joshua's comment about Billy Mayes. Now, Den wanted to comment back to Joshua, but he really doesn't know how. Does he ask? Of course not. He found a box and typed in it. Oh, did I mention he can't type either? He doesn't know how to use punctuation, and he doesn't know how to make capital letters. He typed in his status box. You know the one that says what you're thinking at the moment? The one that if people have the 'email me when people type things in their status box I'll get it' box? Ya, that one.

So, now on my husband's status it says:

josh I like billy mayes dick

What difference one comma, one period, and a capital D would have made eh???

Yep, I'm so proud.

All good things must come to an end. So must our time at Buttonwood Bay for this season. It took us a week to get things cleaned, stowed, and packed up ready for the 1400 mile journey home. It was difficult, as I was kicking and screaming the whole time! "I don't want to go home" became my mantra. Usually while going for my daily golf cart ride, or bobbing in the pool talking to all the wonderful friends and acquaintances I have there. My last Friday at Mah Jongg I know I said it at least 10 times! Alas, go home we did. Insert heavy sigh here.

Sunday, May something or other (remember in BB it doesn't matter what the day, or date is) we had our last supper with our very good friends Mary & Clair. They just bought a new toy, so flew their son Kevin down to ride it back home. He is the youngin in the picture. I admit, I wanted them to buy the motorcycle for purely selfish reasons. I knew I'd get to ride it for one, and I knew I'd get to meet Kevin for two. What a great 'kid' he is! I should have expected it as his parents are top notch people. I saw a lot of both of them in Kevin, but I saw a really neat person to be around too. He was polite and funny and intelligent. Just my kind of guy! Anyway, we enjoyed a lovely meal at the Olive Garden the night before we left.

We decided to pack food to eat at picnic areas on the way home. I don't like fast food and it's expensive. I made lovely egg salad and homemade cookies and other stuff, some even healthy, for our lunches. I prepared beef stroganoff and cheesy potatoes for our dinners. It worked out famously. Here's Den enjoying lunch.

We had a bit of a cooler debacle the evening before leaving. I have a large, 5 day cooler. I'd planned to put all the frozen food from the freezer in that and also all the condiments, etc. from the fridge in there. I was going to duct tape it closed and figured all would be fine when we reached Houghton Lake. I bought a smaller 5 day cooler to pack all the food we planned to eat on the trip home in. It has a handle and wheels and would be easy to get to the picnic tables and to the hotel rooms at night. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans! I had a bit more freezer fare than I thought and it totally filled the larger cooler! I was then forced to put the fridge stuff in the smaller one and even had to throw a few things away. That left us cooler-less for the food for the trip home! What to do at 9PM the night before you're leaving? Dial our friends at the other end of the street that's what! Did they have a largish cooler they weren't taking home with them? Of course they did. Could we borrow it until September? Of course we could. You'll notice the cooler in the picture next to Den has their name on it. They might let us use stuff, but they don't trust me to remember who I got it from! Good thinking guys, I can't remember my own name most days!!!

We took 3 days to get home. Spent 2 nights along the route. Den found something worth coming home for!

I'm not so sure!

Is it September yet?

Where did they go?

As you know if you've read my blog before, I live in a very active 55+ community. When we got here in September, we were the first to arrive on our street. It was kind of eerie in it's quietness. During the next month or so, the park began to fill up. At peak season it's fairly bursting at the seams with people. Golf carts whizzing here and there. Tons of people at every activity. People, people everywhere!!!

April 1 begins the migration back north for a lot of our residents. We live at the west end of our street and our friends Mary & Clair live at the east end. We're the last people on Hammerhead Dr. this year. Here you see us both at our opposite ends. Sentinels of the street. This is Mary K. & Clair guarding their end! You will definitely need to click on these pictures to make them bigger!



This is Den and I holding watch at our end.

We have 4 sand hill cranes that live in the park. They usually stay over near the canal. Since all the people have left, they're checking things out up close. They were right in front of our house here.

"Holy crap Louise, where the hell did all those humans go???"

We joke at home in Houghton Lake that after Labor Day you could pitch a tent out on M-55. Here in Buttonwood Bay you can put your patio chair in the middle of the road. Just what I did! Right after I laid our grill grates in the road to clean them. Gotta love being one of the last people here!

We'll be pulling out on Monday leaving poor Mary & Clair to hold the fort down all by themselves.

Farewell Buttonwood Bay. We will see you again in September.