When the family has left, what's left

Blogger is again not letting me edit or caption my photos. Above a tufted titmouse; Steve, his brother and Allie on his last night; Maya doing a drill with her soccer team;and sunrise today which is occurring earlier and earlier. Ah later it let me shrink the photos but I am too lazy to caption them. It is taking me a while to blog as I am distracted.

We've had the worst April ever with snow, sleet, temps 20 degrees below average. They needed to deice the plane Sunday when my sister-in-law and mother-in-law left. No BBQs or sitting outside for us. But then Monday I was able to run in shorts and later bicycle. Back to fleece, presumably an ecological scourge along with the microbeads found in facial cleansers, yesterday and today,
Steve's brother-in-law left yesterday. Now a quiet house. At some points, we had 15 people filling it, 5 of them energetic children. I am recovering from too much wine, too much coffee, too much Italian pastries. Yeah, no one pointed a gun to my head. For the most part it was fun though one family member made things much less pleasant particularly for me. We are still dealing with the ramifications of that. This is sucking a great deal of pleasure from my life.

A friend came over after some of the family had left ostensibly to  binge TV. That didn't happen. Instead, lots of wine and guessing which of the 49 flavors of jelly bellies we had. We had bought a huge container of them to fill the plastic Easter eggs though as it turns out, the little kids hated them.

In all a good  extended weekend. Great-grandma seemed to enjoy the great grand babies. Who knows if she will see them again?

The local assessors sent a response to our appeal. They cut the market price  to half the difference between what it was to what it should be. Again, the market price should be what we paid for it. We need to appeal to the state next but at least they gave a little.

I get my temporary fake teeth replaced with the permanent fake teeth. I will be able to eat whole apples. I am hoping the insurance company will honor its promise to cover this. More battles.

How much does it cost to sew up my chin and lips, an hour's work? $8000 for the plastic surgeon alone. Amazingly, this was covered. I don't think my reconstruction cost so much, which involved much more time.

We had Tessa today who assisted in scaring the seed stealing squirrels. They are persistent.

Family photos

lots of wine was drunk

missing the 3rd generation of these 4

the trampoline got a workout these past few days

words with friends

very hard to get the 5 in one place still  We've given up on having them all smile. We do have a huge playroom in the basement but they rather play where we are

Oliver dressed for today's piano recital

15 of us

yoga lessons

Six year old humor

My 91.5 year old mother-in-law waiting to get on the plane to come here

Daniel decided to tell us last night his original jokes:

 

What do you call a pig causing chaos?

MayHAM

 

What does a horse wear?

Nothing. He's NEIGHHHH-ked.

 

There was some skepticism in the audience that Daniel wrote these himself particularly
 the first one using words such as 'chaos' and 'mayhem' that aren't usually in a 6 year old
 vocabulary but he is unusually fascinated with words. If he hears an unfamiliar word,
he asks about it and adds it to his internal list. His favorite word is 'instigator' as in

 But Tessa was the instigator!

 

I think these jokes are known as groaners. I've searched for Daniel's jokes and haven't
found them so he may be right. He is a clever little boy.

 

Josh liked groaners too at his age but his were especially unoriginal and he often muffed
 the delivery.

 

How many jokes have I heard throughout the years and how many do I remember?
Not many and most were from when I was 10 or so:

 

What's white and crawls up your leg?

Uncle Ben's Perverted Rice.

 

How did Helen Keller get wax under her fingernails?

Whispering sweet nothings in her boyfriend's ears.

 

Our house is now full of people. Steve's mom, brother and sister have come from
their respective coasts. The kids and their kids visit too so some chaos and mayhem
 here. All is good and fun though I know a mess in the kitchen awaits. I am nervous
 about Steve's mom as the new surrounding is confusing. She needs to know what
 time it is constantly.

 

So it's 7:45 now?You'll take me home now and I will be home by 8.

 

No, you are 1900 miles away, not 1 mile away.

 

But she gets a kick of watching the great-grandkids' interactions and they are no
 longer scared of her. Tessa helped put her to bed last night. The chairs in our
breakfast nook are not senior friendly as they are high. Having a ranch, though,
is helpful as stairs are very difficult.

 

We went for a short walk yesterday in a nearby town (where Julie grew up).
Although she moves well for a 91 year old, some impatient middle age man
became trapped behind her and the walker. My sister-in-law noticed his eye
rolling and attacked. See how well he moves when he's her age. But he probably
 won't ever be her age. Not many will. Although she will get confused about some
 details (like where she is and what day it is), she is very alert. Her long term
 memory is intact though very sugar coated. She remembers only the good.
She knows the Marnier's roster and lives for their games.

 

More later.

 

 

 

Corbels and corvids

I've been buying corbels as minishelves. This is made from cement

This one is made from metal. I also have pairs of painted wood

I like this painting. Unfortunately I couldn't put it up by myself as it is way up there. Big sigh from Steve

 

I try to buy corbels when ever I see them so I can put up some of my treasures above the hands of the grandbabies.

Corvids are crows and their ilk that lately have been visiting my feeders. The only corvid I like are the blue jays as they are pretty and are too big and clumsy to get much out of the feeders. They eat below. But male grackles and redwing black birds come in big flocks (no females) and pick everything dry. They are easy to scare away but they are relentless.

 

Yesterday we had thundersnow. The weather report predicted rain to start at noon so I went out early in dark skies even though the well hidden sun had been up for 2 hours. Soon I was being pelted by ice balls that melt as soon as they hit the ground. Then thunder, then lightning which I judged to be a mile away. I was running through deep woods. Hopefully the lightning would hit the trees first. In my sub, the land is wide open and I would be the tallest object. I guessed I would be safer in the woods. The ice balls started to accumulate . Such strange weather.

 

In Shanna's school district, all second graders spend a day at a one room school house near me that was built to serve the ghost town I live in. They are to dress as 19th century school kids. Oliver's turn is today but Shanna couldn't find the requisite suspenders. That was my excuse to go to the thrift store where I found a pair. I had seen these kids in the past and assumed it was an Amish school until I noticed the sneakers.

 

Off to fix my nails so when I was to go to the first neighborhood association, they wouldn't look down on me for having chipped nails. The ones ruling the board have moved or are moving out of  the neighborhood and new people have been put in their place. Does anyone object? I don't know these people. The new guard want the neighborhood to be more friendly yet it was pulling teeth to get them to say their names and where they lived. I know their dogs more than them. Do we want a gate and guard house to the front of our sub as some suggested? Nah. Do we want to salt the road near the entrance so we don't slide into the busy road? Yep even though it violates the township's rules. Our meeting was downtown, a 6 mile schlep. This was my third trip already that day. Once for the thrift store, later to take my brother-in-law to Happy Hour, then to the meeting which could have been held in one of our houses as there was just ten of us.

 

I had signed up that day for my cooking class but between Steve's brother coming and having to go to that meeting in the opposite direction, that was not going to work.

 

Steve's sister and mother show up today. It should be fun.
Below: Oliver dressed as a 19th century schoolboy

 

Winter in April

I had these giggling beauties with me this afternoon (along with their moms). Tess is in focus; Maya is not. Just the opposite in the photo below

For Tess's birthday, I gave her funds such that she could pick out a princess costume in Disneyworld. She opted for Rapunzel

Two weeks ago, it was spring! 60 degrees; flowers blooming. and then the freeze came. 16 degrees this morning with a high of 30. I ran through snow and ice Sunday. Yesterday I had guests but lacked the energy to go out in the cold, blustery wind later that day. I  will do a double workout the next day. Yeah right.  I did do a long run this morning but as it was only 20 degrees when I finished, bicycling was out of the question 35 degrees is my limit. Fortunately it was sunny and calm. Birds were singing, deer running parallel to my path. It was nice.

 

As I type, my Brooklyn brother-in-law is on his way here. The Seattle folks will fly in Thursday.

 

A weird idiom: he drives me to distraction.

 

As it is spring break for Maya (different schedule than Shanna's kids), I had wanted to take her somewhere fun but this cold weather stopped that. After Tess left, she still wanted to play outside so I watched her on the balance bike, which she is outgrowing. I should get her one with pedals.

 

My friend's biopsy results came in today; no cancer which is good but she still is suffering from host versus graft disease.

 

The next few days will be busy...which is good.

Trencadis Teapot

I thought that a potential hobby would be to buy up cheap dishware and break them up to form planters In the mean tme, I bought this

All over Facebook,  Michiganders have been posting pathetic photos of their spring flowers suffering from the snow These are my crocuses. So sad

I finally put together my peacock trellis (purchased a month ago) Amazing how long it took to put together a 3 piece puzzle when I kept putting one of the pieces on backwards. This is sort of a trencadis piece but pieces of glass were used rather than ceramics

Poor Allie looks like someone slapped her cheeks, a cardinal sign of 5th disease. The pediatrician agreed with Dr. Sue. All better now. Last week she had her first haircut as some of her back hairs were in the middle of her back though most of the hair ended as you see here

During the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the camera kept focusing on Gaudi's buildings. I told myself that if I ever got to Europe, I would head to Barcelona to see these for myself. Ten years later, some of the Moms and I went to Paris to visit one of the kids studying abroad. Another mom and I hopped an overnight train to Barcelona, one of the most memorable nights of my life.

 

To cover his curvy creations, Gaudi quickly realized that conventional tiles would not do. He bought out all the broken bits from nearby ceramic factories and turned them into mosaics he called trencadis. I went back there two years later with different friends to spend more time there (and in Madrid and Sevilla).

 

Stupid snow wrecking my flowers and messing up the state's fruit industry. Sunday mornings are when I like to take long rides as traffic is at a low. Icy and cold today. Yesterday there was a high wind advisory but as the winds hadn't really ramped up yet, out I went in the just above freezing weather. My temperature allowances for biking is much different than running as biking cools one down much more than running, which is more heat producing. True I can just wear more clothes but I can't fit my helmet over a hat and my feet are always vulnerable to freezing. Wearing more socks just cuts off circulation as I found out the hard way. I felt fine making sure I faced the prevailing winds first so when they increased, they would be on my back. The snow had started but the road was too warm for it to stick. No one else seemed to be out. At one point, the snow came down very hard but except for numb feet, I felt fine and was home by the time of the strongest winds.

 

A not very exciting weekend. A friend and I watched "Vinyl" interesting most for the 70s music. What to do with the Easter hambone? Split pea soup is what most would make but I hate peas. I used black-eyed peas instead. I am waiting for the icy patches on the road, no dirt roads for me today, to melt so I won't slip running. Then maybe a visit to Allie.

Send in the clowns

April Fool's jester. She is very pretty

Antique jester actually is a music box that plays "Send in the clowns"

 

I think I will take a break from resale shops. Too much stuff. I am surprised Steve hasn't protested.

 

Where is our spring? The frost has killed my irises. It is too cold to bicycle comfortably though I've been able to run. Buds are appearing on the trees; the peepers sing, the deer jump in front of me.

 

Yesterday my baby girl turned 25! She has a new job much closer to home that pays a bit better but we are still trying to find the perfect career. We had a nice lunch together yesterday. And today I took a good friend out , belatedly, for her birthday.