Firsts

There are times you think about with excitement when you know your first grandchild is going to be born and she's a girl and she'll grow up and go to school. You can afford to since you've been through it with your own kids and you know what's coming: first grade! Exciting times! I remember when I was in first grade it was such a big deal. My teacher was Mrs. Lane.

I remember the reader I got, and opening to the Dick and Jane stories sitting on a high stool in my mother's kitchen in 1962 and reading out loud while she made dinner. Practicing words. Mom helped me sound them out while she worked. Four other kids were bouncing around the house somewhere now that I think about it but it felt like it was just me and her.

I learned to print in Mrs. Lane's class. We did Spelling and Phonics, consonant blends and vowel sounds. Lots of rules for words. Grammar. When to put "a" and "an" in front of words. She went around the room once asking each of us to put the right article in front of the word on a flashcard she held up. My word was BOAT.

An boat, I said.

She didn't laugh. (First grade teachers are SO our mothers.) She was good to me. There was this horrible squashy feeling of getting it all-the-way wrong in front of the class. The world. Out loud. But she made it okay and fixed me. She showed the whole class (once more) how to say it right. And I always have since.

Never to be forgotten first grade.

Grandpa Kent and I got this yesterday from Abbie, who's seven.




This is my little Flat Abbie who came, laminated, in the envelope and whom I get to take on a trip with me! How cool is this - I know right where we're going.

I called her last night and told her, and said I would tape her to my shirt front and have Grandpa Kent take pictures of us. Kent says it's ingenious, huh, how her teacher had her stand arms together and legs close so she looked, indeed, flat. Agreed.

I was looking at how cute she is. She's going on the fridge. Abbie was very busy playing ball with her dad and brothers outside when I called so she took just a few moments with me on the phone. A good few; she's happy and I am. I'll keep you posted.

Breathing it all in

Can you stand more nature shots? 

Kent in the garden Saturday morning digging a trench 



Planting potatoes



Ground level



This morning I left the house to return a video to a friend, get groceries and exchange bathroom rugs at Kohl's and got sidetracked! This is the country I drive through to get uptown on a day. It's sparkly in spring, lush in summer, brilliant in fall and has been for the last three months dead asleep.

Yoshino Cherry tree



Cooing bird



Sun on Cherry



Potted pansies. Just the one trailing...



Purple iris, first I've seen



Camellias still hanging on



Cardinal



Cherry in sunlight



Forsythia and Cherry



Azalea; hmm, maybe not - lorapetalum?



More cherry...



...and blue sky...



...more still...



Tulip tree budding



Lots of pictures; you can imagine how many total I've collected. Ten days away from GA when buds were bursting and birds singing prepared me to breathe it all in this week! I do. I am. Breathing it in - and feeling, like this place, rarefied.

Unexpected joys

I bring you more blogging from Michael McLean. He says first about visiting the New Flagship Store of Desert Book in SLC Thursday and finding his M2B:) books on an end cap, and how that makes him feel. A feel-good few paragraphs that aren't boastful.

Then the real Triumph, as his post is titled. Enjoy!

The real triumph of the day was not achieving end cap status.   No, the big moment came later when I got home and heard my grandson calling me by the name he gave me when he was first learning to talk.   TAPPAW!!!!    TAPPAW!!!!  TAPPAW!!!  There was an urgency  in his voice that literally pulled me to his side.

“What is it, Bucky?” I cried as I raced upstairs.   As if he’d planned it for maximum theatrical impact, he said not a word, but let the image he was holding in his outstretched arms do all of his talking for him.   It was poop.  His poop.  It was his FIRST poop in a potty.  For about a year Bucky’s been asked by virtually every adult relative he has  if he’d like to poop in his child size potty , and he’s had no interest.  He’s been the recipient of several techniques for potty training little ones, but none of those worked….at all!

But today as he proudly displayed his exceptional accomplishment I got rather emotional. It was a robust dump, worthy of a seasoned veteran of pottydom, but it came from my first timer grandson, and I was proud.  M2B:) proud.   I’d have given him a high five but his hands were full.

When I devoted a chapter and a song  in my M2B:) book to unexpected joys this wasn’t what I had in mind.  But I’ve got to be honest.  This was a much bigger deal that I thought (in more ways than one).
The entire experience put a grin on my face.  I think you know what kind.

Drop and roll

I dropped my cell phone in the parking lot and it's scuffed. My new phone. It used to look like this, scratch free. This morning I painted the scuff with red nail polish and it looks pretty good. Getting the idea and considering it for a day I could hear the kids say mom, what are you thinking? And rolling their eyes. Only our mother. If you're embarrassed that I finessed my phone with nail polish, look it over when you next see me and ohhh and ahhhh, or feel free to leave a comment here that I'm goofy.
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Look at spring in my yard and neighborhood!

Always my mom with the flowers. Hear those kids rolling their eyes?

Home and blessings

Brad drove me to Springfield, MO early to catch my plane and I was home before you know it. That's leaving out the mundane parts of my travels, but who wants details... I will say (and this is one reason for this post) that I was all day blessed. Yesterday my knee went out on me. It's a classic "trick knee." What a trick I had running after Garrett on his Thomas the Train trike yesterday afternoon making sure he wasn't in the road! Anyway last night I was desperate thinking how many steps I would be taking today. Walked around the house no problem before we left, then rode in the car two hours and Brad let me go at the curb saying something like, "don't let your leg get ya'." How I prayed not! Every step all day became a prayer and a blessing. The plane nosed into a gate at the end of D terminal and we unboarded on the tarmac. I climbed a raft of stairs to get into the building. I panted, and my leg held up. Walked probably a quarter of a mile to where you catch the underground train, then another quarter above ground to baggage and on to ground transportation. Leg throbbing but no buckling. AND I made it onto Groome with four minutes to spare as the last passenger (thank you thank you thank you) AND got the front seat where the air conditioner blew on me all the way home. (80 degrees today.) Blessings, blessings, blessings, and at last, home.

I pulled into the garage and lugged my stuff in - and cried, standing in my empty house. Do you understand that? I don't exactly; I was overwhelmed with grief suddenly. There are no little children here. I was singing Little Einsteins under my breath along the freeway earlier and had caught myself and laughed, but at home, I cried. Erin cheered me right up on the phone when I called her; offered Noah on her end to talk to, and I sang Eeensy Weensy Spider through a few little tears and things got normal. They made me smile. Erin said Noah was laughing.

So glad to be home with Kent. About every three months on this blog I'm saying something along these lines - excited to go away and more excited to get back to this man I love. Am I gone every three months? And vowing more or less here that I don't ever, ever want to go away again. I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not eat them Sam I Am. I said so to Erin, and she kicked it around with me a little, reminding me that Sandra had had a bad time of it as she had to leave Minneapolis a few weeks ago, which made me feel better in a weird way (don't hate me Sandra); then post haste brought up us going to Utah in June. Now we two have fixed dates to go and come three months from now; me coming over to Minnesota with her and the three kids from Utah. She loves that idea (having help on board the plane with the kids). Has to run it past Mike - and she hopes our idea flies. I tell you, soon I will be in the air again and leaving my honey and doing this same song and dance routine on the blog. Bear with me.
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I have no pictures of Brad. He was too many hours gone during the week, and done when he got home at the end of the day. I saw Dana only a handful of hours total and never once thought to grab a pic. Ack!
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I take series of pictures with these little boys. They're photo essays.



I love you guys and will miss you. Love, Nana

No time

There's more things to say and pictures to come, but I have NOT the time to sit here long and post. You know how it is.

And I fly home tomorrow. Home in time to get Kent's dinner. SO glad about that!

Maybe the day after for time with my blog.

Snow Day

Meetings are called off but for Sacrament meeting. It snowed all night and is still snowing. Weather alert til 7:00 p.m. Snow is in drifts against the house and fence, so we can't really tell how many inches on the ground . . . Brad's preparing to go in to church and I'm staying home with the boys.

Yesterday watching the Princess and the Frog I danced with the boys and swung them, getting great lift - wonderful tunes in this show, by the way - and pinched or pulled or tweaked something in my low back. You know. Something that stretching, the tennis ball, and taking it a little easy will help but which is yelping at me big time this morning.

Hence, Brad is going to church and I'm staying home. With the boys.

Adventures, and losin' track of the days. . .

Jen snaps a shot of her and Brady. She has long arms and gets great pics . . . love 'em, Jen. I have more pictures of the kids these days because of you doing this - thank you girl!



Garrett snuggling up to Addie when John and Shannon come over late one day. We were going to play games but it felt too good to just hang out and talk. Til LATE. I paid for it the next day! (So did Brad. He had a nap in his car at lunchtime, only waking up when his phone rang, thank goodness.)



Brady looked straight to the shelf at the top of the closet in his room, wanting the art box. To "play with markers, Nana." (Gulp. Big decision?) Jen helps out, and the boys have a fun twenty minutes scribbling. Brady's got real flair, actually.





This is the scene but on different days in different clothes, same spot, same concentration, right after Brady and Garrett get dressed in the mornings. Crunchy Squares and a little milk, or applesauce or yogurt - something in the bowl being spooned up to the face. Long way from bowl to chin . . .  I considered (since Brady won't wear a towel over his shirt) how I've been probably doing things all in the wrong order so far! He's careful, I'll give him that.



Caught him at eye level across the big table...



Garrett. Yeah.



Garrett and I went out after his nap yesterday to play in the back yard. Upwards of 70 degrees - perfect afternoon. He heard a plane overhead once and a dog barking somewhere. Other pictures I have show the concern, and him pointing. He threw the soft ball and I batted a few which he ran after. He drew with chalk, keeping off the brick and the door. (I watched him, Dana!)



Look at those cute little bare toes!



Same backyard 36 hours later. NW Arkansas is heading for 24 hours of rain/sleet/snowfall. Several inches predicted; here already a skiff. We've stayed in all afternoon except for these moments when I retrieved toys and snapped this picture.



I told Brad today how happy I am here. Thanks you guys for having me. I miss Kent a lot and we talk a few times every day. I know he misses me and is being self sufficient and making do. I love the trade off, being with my boys here. We're having adventures. Today things like going to the store and Chik-Fil-A (in the cold, cold rain) and getting Brad's car in and out of the mechanic; cleaning the boys' bedroom and making messes in it again; watching the Princess and the Frog which came from Netflix this week - good timing - and Pixar shorts; watching it start to snow; waving goodbye to Jenny early in the morning when she knew she had to get ahead of the weather and back into Dallas; eating Pizza for dinner and getting baths for the boys and clean faces and combed hair. A couple of us got a mid-day nap.

Brad's a great son. And Brad's a great dad. He chatted with Brady earlier about when mommy comes home. In three days. Brady said, "After I eat my ice cream cone?" (Chik-Fil-A) "No, three days," Brad answered. I asked Brady, "Can I stay at your house til then?" He nodded and licked his ice cream cone and let me wipe his chin.