Wednesday night was Restaurant Week with the Moms. Downtown restaurants in Ann Arbor twice a year have special menus for a week. We go to the vegetarian restaurant Seva as some of us are vegetarians of different degrees. I have red curry lentil soup, portabella ravioli, a flourless chocolate torte along with lots of citrusy IPA beer. We laughed and exchanged stories for 3 hours, lots of fun, then out into the cold to try to remember where I left that car. I swore I had parked it on a certain street but no, it was not there. It was very late, dark and cold and I was by myself...not a good feeling but fortunately I found it a block away.
Thursday the family came in two far apart in time flights. The Seattle sister and her husband stayed at Shanna's mother-in-law's house while we awaited the New Yorkers. Finally at ten at night, they were able to surprise Steve. With the kids and their kids and significant others, we were 15 people: hard to move from one place to another all together. We just stayed at our house some of the time drinking lots of wine. We had a good time sharing stories, some of which I had not heard before. Sample: Steve was 8 years old or so sitting in class with a pair of scissors. He decided to cut off his eyebrows hair by hair fascinated by the pile of hairs forming. Soon it was time for recess. A girl took one look at him and screamed. As soon as he got home, he decided he needed to cover up his cutting job. For the next month or so, he borrowed his mother's eyebrow pencil and filled the eyebrows back in. No one seemed to notice, not his brother who is just a bit younger who shared his room or his mother, who we called to see if she remembered. This story sounds a lot better after you drink a bunch of wine I am now realizing.
The adults, most of them at least, went out for Happy Hour on Friday which turned into a nice dinner. On Saturday, some of us went to Oliver's birthday party in Canton and looked at the hole in the ground that will be Shanna's house. This is how much progress there has been in 4 months. I swear my parent's house was finished in less than 3. Part of Josh's job, as with Julie who deals with marketing, is to go to the auto show. They took one of our Seattle visitors as he is a car guy though mainly he is interested in fixing up very old foreign models. He usually is working on several car carcasses at once. Not sure if he ever finished one.
Then we had the big birthday dinner proceeded by the giving of gifts that I wrote about previously.
But we all had good talks: topic number one...worries about our kids. Will parenthood responsibilities ever end? Not any time soon for us. The next week was full of dealing with various unpleasant issues.
Sunday, sadly they all went home. Our house is so much quieter and lonelier now. We went for a drive to look at places for Josh to live. Living in Dexter will no longer be practical; he .has to move east.
Monday was the day of ice that resulted in the death of one of our cars. It was officially junked today. This was the car I drove loaded with baby stuff across Canada and NY to meet my new grandson. I drove it again with Naomi a few years later to retrieve a crib from Boston. It had a great sound system and a moon roof. This was the car that Josh drove into a deer. The body was made of plastic so the impact completely shattered the front end. But the car looked great as the plastic doesn't rust or even fade. It still looked new though I haven't seen the car since the last 2 accidents. We also had a meeting with the financial advisor to deal with our portfolio. Hate those meetings..never know if we are doing the right thing but by doing nothing, we are doing a lot of harm. Still to do, transfer all of the 401K into an IRA so the kids will not be socked with extra penalties if we were to die at the same time. Also need to put everything into a trust.
Tuesday was the day of taking care of a zillion issues. I stayed back with the grandbabies. By the time I was free to run, the thunderstorms started. Our former place of employment's stock went way up. We sold even more of it.
On Wednesday, it was in the fifties. I was full of pent-up energy and went for a run lasting more than 1.5 hours. On it I saw the orthopedic resident(who by now must be a 'real' doctor) out biking with a mud stripe up his back. I met him in the ER way back when I was dealing with my broken arm. The ER resident wondered about my story that I had tripped running. He actually thought I might be escaping an abusive husband. He could not believe a woman my age would be running for any other reason. Then the orthopedic guy stepped in and said he himself, had seen me run plenty of times while he was biking (and that maybe I should bike instead). I have seen him out running with the marathon training group that seems to love my scenic beauty road too. No scenic road for me now. It will take a while for the ice to melt there.
Today, Thursday, more snow. Snow, snow, go away. I hate worrying about all the accidents it causes. I ran at the Y before my LiveStrong class as this month was not great for running and I try to keep to a certain quota. We had Ms. Maya again as Naomi went out to take care of more business. At least she recovered from her bad cold that had made her extra crabby the two days before.
There is more that I didn't cover here that will change our lives.
Thursday the family came in two far apart in time flights. The Seattle sister and her husband stayed at Shanna's mother-in-law's house while we awaited the New Yorkers. Finally at ten at night, they were able to surprise Steve. With the kids and their kids and significant others, we were 15 people: hard to move from one place to another all together. We just stayed at our house some of the time drinking lots of wine. We had a good time sharing stories, some of which I had not heard before. Sample: Steve was 8 years old or so sitting in class with a pair of scissors. He decided to cut off his eyebrows hair by hair fascinated by the pile of hairs forming. Soon it was time for recess. A girl took one look at him and screamed. As soon as he got home, he decided he needed to cover up his cutting job. For the next month or so, he borrowed his mother's eyebrow pencil and filled the eyebrows back in. No one seemed to notice, not his brother who is just a bit younger who shared his room or his mother, who we called to see if she remembered. This story sounds a lot better after you drink a bunch of wine I am now realizing.
The adults, most of them at least, went out for Happy Hour on Friday which turned into a nice dinner. On Saturday, some of us went to Oliver's birthday party in Canton and looked at the hole in the ground that will be Shanna's house. This is how much progress there has been in 4 months. I swear my parent's house was finished in less than 3. Part of Josh's job, as with Julie who deals with marketing, is to go to the auto show. They took one of our Seattle visitors as he is a car guy though mainly he is interested in fixing up very old foreign models. He usually is working on several car carcasses at once. Not sure if he ever finished one.
Then we had the big birthday dinner proceeded by the giving of gifts that I wrote about previously.
But we all had good talks: topic number one...worries about our kids. Will parenthood responsibilities ever end? Not any time soon for us. The next week was full of dealing with various unpleasant issues.
Sunday, sadly they all went home. Our house is so much quieter and lonelier now. We went for a drive to look at places for Josh to live. Living in Dexter will no longer be practical; he .has to move east.
Monday was the day of ice that resulted in the death of one of our cars. It was officially junked today. This was the car I drove loaded with baby stuff across Canada and NY to meet my new grandson. I drove it again with Naomi a few years later to retrieve a crib from Boston. It had a great sound system and a moon roof. This was the car that Josh drove into a deer. The body was made of plastic so the impact completely shattered the front end. But the car looked great as the plastic doesn't rust or even fade. It still looked new though I haven't seen the car since the last 2 accidents. We also had a meeting with the financial advisor to deal with our portfolio. Hate those meetings..never know if we are doing the right thing but by doing nothing, we are doing a lot of harm. Still to do, transfer all of the 401K into an IRA so the kids will not be socked with extra penalties if we were to die at the same time. Also need to put everything into a trust.
Tuesday was the day of taking care of a zillion issues. I stayed back with the grandbabies. By the time I was free to run, the thunderstorms started. Our former place of employment's stock went way up. We sold even more of it.
On Wednesday, it was in the fifties. I was full of pent-up energy and went for a run lasting more than 1.5 hours. On it I saw the orthopedic resident(who by now must be a 'real' doctor) out biking with a mud stripe up his back. I met him in the ER way back when I was dealing with my broken arm. The ER resident wondered about my story that I had tripped running. He actually thought I might be escaping an abusive husband. He could not believe a woman my age would be running for any other reason. Then the orthopedic guy stepped in and said he himself, had seen me run plenty of times while he was biking (and that maybe I should bike instead). I have seen him out running with the marathon training group that seems to love my scenic beauty road too. No scenic road for me now. It will take a while for the ice to melt there.
Today, Thursday, more snow. Snow, snow, go away. I hate worrying about all the accidents it causes. I ran at the Y before my LiveStrong class as this month was not great for running and I try to keep to a certain quota. We had Ms. Maya again as Naomi went out to take care of more business. At least she recovered from her bad cold that had made her extra crabby the two days before.
There is more that I didn't cover here that will change our lives.
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