Ninety six

My aunt on her 96th birthday the other day. Still enjoys a drink or two. Shows no sign of slowing down

Usually I am not a fan of baskets but this woven mix of beads, reeds, hawk feathers and papier mache appealed to me. Have it hanging in my bedroom with the basket filled with seed bead flowers

Along with several traditional red bleeding hearts, I have this white bleeding heart

cool glass sculpture from a friend

Maya is such a little beauty

The four days of rain just began. I was able to get out between rains to run and to do some long neglected gardening. I am still behind on my bicycling program but perhaps I don't need to train so hard because I will be hauling 56 pounds (and hopefully 66 pounds) less up those steep hills of Northern Michigan in just 11 weeks. Yep I am still losing weight though more slowly. Of the five in our immediate family, only Shanna is shorter than me. So naturally, only Shanna should weigh less, which she does. Naomi and I weigh the same but she is taller and has a larger frame. Josh of course weighs a lot more even though he doesn't have an extra ounce of fat on him. Who do I weigh more  than? Steve. For some reason, he is losing weight so he is quite a bit lighter than Josh who is only an inch taller. I will be lucky to weigh as little as Steve who weighs only slightly more than Shanna.

I went out with most of my Chosen Sisters aka the Moms for my belated birthday Tuesday. Fun. I had some bizarre concoction, a Cajun Margarita chock full of tabasco sauce, along with a vegetarian muffelata. I had taken Naomi to the same Cajun café a month ago. She and a girlfriend will go to New Orleans in 2 months so she was able to try some of the food in advance. She doesn't get to go on many vacations so this will be special for her. She and Maya came over last night. The special ed teacher thinks that Maya may be autistic, which I don't think she is at all. And she has been screened twice before; the physician and the early intervention specialist and showed no signs of it. She is very social and interested in peers. Her teacher reports that she is one of the more popular girls. When Naomi expressed surprise, she was told it was different than in boys though did not provide any examples. I will see this woman in a month during the IEP and question her myself. Meanwhile Naomi was to fill out a very unclear questionnaire to determine autistic tendencies. Sample: does your child display stereotypic behavior? What do they mean by that? Back when I was on an antipsychotic project, one of the side effects of antipsychotics was 'stereotypy' which involved drooling and lip smacking. Are they assuming that parents are well versed in neurobiology? Or are they referring to gender stereotypes. Yep Maya loves playing mommy with dolls (and friends) and playing hairdresser. Is that a negative. From the scoring, I assumed they were referring to stereotypical autistic behavior (undefined) and said, no she doesn't. Still she is behind on many other things and will need services. Her problems with speech are completely different from the ones shared by me, Josh and Shanna's two boys (though not by Shanna herself).

96. I think that is the oldest that any of my relatives have been (and I've been doing lots of genealogy though not lately). So of my grandmas 7 kids, only the first born and the last born are alive. The second born died this summer. The first 5 kids were born in 6 years. There are 10 years between my two aunts, both are doing quite well. I made arrangements yesterday to see the younger one who was closer in age to my mom so might know more about her. She hates Michigan winters so escapes to Florida every year but lives on a nice lake in the summer. I saw my oldest aunt twice last summer. Very active and alert. Most would guess that she is much younger. I was quite taken back when I saw her as she looks so much like my mom who has been dead almost 10 years and whose mind had left 4 years before that.

What to look forward to? Josh is supposed to take me out soon as he was away on my birthday weekend. A dinner at one of the Mom's farm Saturday. A minivaction in 10 days to Mackinac Island with Steve. My bike rides. A yet unplanned anniversary trip to Europe in the Fall. To not being fat.