Cowbird Moms

Mama cowbird checks the area for nests with eggs. Once the 'good' mama bird vacates the nest for a bit, mama cowbird swoops in and lays her own egg sometimes pushing the existing eggs out. That is it for motherhood. Off she flies.  The foster mother apparently can't tell the difference between her eggs and the new egg. Baby cowbird is usually more aggressive and larger than its nestmates so it is first to be fed. The cowbird species gets to continue with very little effort on the part of the parents.

The megacompany that took us over was like a cowbird mom. It wasn't too successful doing things for itself but it could sniff out what others have done, buy them up and push the workers out. Not nice but effective.

Back to November drabness. After a run, on to the dentist to have the final fitting for a crown. As he was scraping off the temporary cement, he hit a nerve. I wouldn't let him continue until I was numbed even though he said 90% of people don't need it at this point. I guess I am part of the 10% of whiners who do. I can put up with a lot but dental pain is something I won't.

On Tuesday and Thursdays, I have my Livestrong class. I showed up only to deal with the weight machines for a bit and skipped the group activities as I am still hacking away. It turns out I did infect my mother-in-law and sister-in-law though no word about the brother-in-law. Hopefully they get a much milder version such as what Steve has.

Great-grandma/Not so great grandma

Our last dinner together. Daniel still won't look at the camera

They are gone now, back to Seattle and New York. It was a good visit. Great-grandma 
enjoyed seeing her great-grandbabies for the first, maybe for the last time. It would be 
hard for the kids to make their way to Seattle though maybe Josh, Julie and Allie could go.

The not so great grandma would be myself. I was in charge of walking my mother-in-law
 to the curb after dinner for Josh to pick us up. He seemed to be taking a while so I had
 her sit on a nearby bench. Unfortunately it was very low to the ground. She had made
 it to a sitting position but suddenly she toppled over forwards  to the ground, scary as
 she is so frail. She seemed confused and shaken but not harmed. Several bystanders 
came to our aid. Had to listen to lots of the blame game after that. As it turned out, her
 shoes were on the wrong feet and she had a couple of glasses of wine.

We all went out to breakfast earlier in the day, except for Josh's family (he was working)
 and my brother-in-law who likes to sleep until noon. Later, after dinner, one of the Moms 
came over whose daughter used to go to school in NYC so she would stay with
my mother-in-law since there was no room in her daughter's dorm for her. She 
brought the other moms with her on various trips.

So it was fun watching the kids interact. Maya is much more verbal now and loves to
 boss Tessa around.

Josh thinks his frustration with Allie will pass (she cries and he has no idea how to make
 her stop) once she is verbal. He thinks the first words out of her mouth will be an 
expression of gratitude for all that he has done for her. More likely, a list of how
 he fell short on various occasions.

I am calling this the Ground Hog's Day cold. Each day I wake up hopeful that the
 symptoms will have gone away and it feels like a brand new cold instead. It really 
made our family visit less enjoyable plus the onus of possibly spreading this crud to
 them. And I just sounded disgusting hacking away and having to blow my nose. 

I finally went running today though not so far. Since all this rest hasn't stopped the 
cold in its tracks, I figured at least part of me would feel better. I really feel antsy
 when I can't exercise in some way.

Yoga Baby

Maya loves to imitate and seems especially fond of her great-aunt. She also is very flexible but maybe most little kids are.

It is the middle of the night again. What sent me into my den was to research the difference between a cold  and the flu. Has it started here yet, the flu season? Only one confirmed case in our county. However the flu is characterized by body aches, head aches and a high temperature. At worst, I have a slightly elevated temperature (haven't taken it but get lots of chills) but no aches. But I never have been so incapacitated by a cold. At most, I stop activities for a day. We are going on to Day 4. Where is my previously strong immune system?

I keep my distance from my mother-in-law. She certainly doesn't need this thing, whatever it is. At one point, I was going to be left alone with her and Maya while everyone else was going out to have fun. Uh..no. She needs to be helped here and there. Hard to do without touching her. I hear her now clumping around but tonight our hall is lit with flameless candles so she can see where she is going. At her assisted living place, she will occasionally call the front desk in the middle of the night to ask where she is.

So I stay home. My muscles are probably melting from inactivity. I am feeling somewhat better so maybe I can handle a walk today. It is supposed to be our warmest day...60 deg.

Throughout the day and night, Shanna, Naomi and Josh made visits along with some of their kids. After all had left and great grandma went to bed, we rewatched Breaking Bad episodes together though this is a first viewing for Steve. We are up to the middle of the second season Due to election day, no school for the kids today so we will see more of them. Tomorrow, all fly home.

Great Grandma photos

Hard to get 5 kids look in the same direction

Great Grandma Terry is thrilled to met all her grands even though she was extremely nervous about the plane ride here. Also she is easily confused in the middle of the night in our house despite the nightlight. She just turned 89. Even though she is in good health, she is becoming frailer and frailer. She needs a walker to go more than a few feet. She is also getting to see the grand kids' new houses; Shanna's on Saturday and Josh's on Sunday. Yesterday we had Grandma Terry's 3 kids, 3 grand kids, 5 great-great kids with a few assorted spouses, 12 people all together, running around. Chaos. And there are more spouses, more grandkids and step grand kids elsewhere. She seemed to enjoy it especially with the wine.

As for myself, I observed all from a safe distance. I am sick again. What is going on with me? I am rarely sick. I didn't even get anything while on chemo. Two weeks ago, the strep throat, a week in which I was healthy, then this mild but annoying cold ad now a new cold which made me feel just awful for he past 2 day. I finally slept last night with out waking too much. I have to keep an ear out for great grandma as Steve is deaf and Steve's brother sleeps with ear plugs. She got lost again during the ten foot walk to the bathroom.

Squirrels

Josh has been entertaining his Brazilian co-worker and his wife. He took them to Ann Arbor the other day. What were they the most impressed with? Squirrels. The campus is full of huge elm trees which in turn are full of squirrels. The students feed them so they often come right up to people. None in Brazil. Actually there seemed to be few of them in Europe though I saw a few ratty ones in London.
On our property we have two kinds: the enormous fox  squirrels which now are unbelievably fat and the tiny but aggressive red squirrels.

A few weeks I planted a bunch of tulip bulbs. Silly squirrels must have watched me doing this. It wasn't long after I found out they dug most, if not all of them out for a nice snack or maybe they are buried in their nests. Same with the 90 Dutch iris bulbs in which I have nothing to show for my efforts.

It is beautiful out today but I decided that maybe exercising with my cold is prolonging it. I cough all night. Yesterday I felt so awful. Steve's brother, sister and mother are staying with us. Yesterday we were at Shanna's most of the day. Today we will be at Josh's. It is so wonderful to be with family. Pictures later.

Grandma's on the plane!

So it looks like she is coming assuming she doesn't cause them to make an emergency landing somewhere.

This is Steve's mom, our only surviving parent.

How would you like to spend a night in jail?

Well we are.

On an impulse, I purchased a Living Social deal to an old jail that has been converted into a B&B. Inside the jail, is a  Drunk Tank, which makes wine, which a bottle of it is included in our deal. I am hoping that since this place is south of here in Indiana, there will still be some fall colors. It is located in Parke County Indiana known as the Covered Bridge Capital of the MidWest. I've stayed nearby before in Turkey Run State Park which is beautiful. Hopefully in late fall, it still is.Years ago, I went on a week long bike ride that went from state park to state park in Southern Indiana which for the record is hillier than hell.

It is the Middle of the Night. I can not sleep. I stripped the bedding off my back-up bed in anticipation of my mother-in-law's visit TODAY. She is scheduled to leave Seattle 7 am (PDT) with my sister-in-law. Flying makes her very nervous so it will be 50-50 if she actually will be on that plane. My brother-in-law will be flying in from New York later in the day.

Steve's mom flew here once for Shanna's wedding 6 years ago. She passed on Josh and Naomi's. She has only seen one great-grand child (Oliver) who flew with us when he was one. As she is 89, there probably won't be many opportunities to see the grand children and their kids here.

Since I've had grand babies, I seem to catch whatever is going around. I have this annoying cough that started as a scratchy throat a few days ago. Nights are the worst as I feel like I am coughing a lung out. Steve has it too so if I do by some small chance fall asleep, I  am treated to his hackathon. Aside from that, I don't feel bad and have been doing at least one work out of some sort each day.

Last night I had Ms. Allie. I don't think I am contagious (five days after symptoms appeared) but to be safe, I had Naomi do all the handling of her. After she had been fed and changed, Allie just stared and cooed at light patterns on our ceiling. She now smiles more consistently..a very pretty baby.

A picture off the web site of  one of their rooms. A bit small. I opted for a suite plunking down another $10.