Word Perfect

I have a cool daughter.  She's not cool because she likes to play Scrabble.  She's cool because she likes words like I do.  To her Grandpa, she is probably cool because she likes to play Scrabble, but that is a different post at a different time that hasn't taken place yet because when we get together to play games Scrabble is low on the list since it is the favorite of the least amount of people. 

I see however, it is possible to play solitaire with Scrabble tiles I see.  I think it's pretty neat to not only use all the letters in a big puzzle, and then to do it twice. 

Really cool. 

I Have the Boys Today

I have the boys today.  I like saying that, and I get along all right, too, if I just make up my mind, that I'm not going to be able to do anything I want to do, or anything remotely fun, either.  Lorene is here for a few days while her husband is training somebody, or getting training in Council Bluffs.  It is boring in her little apartment with no internet, and she has to work anyway, so being here makes fewer trips to Grand Island.  She is working 7am to 7pm today, which makes a very long day, but Barry still naps and as long as I keep Zane off the computer he will play nicely with his toys.  He has been playing for a couple of hours with his Thomas train set, and now he is into the Legos, and Barry is sleeping.  We have made a lemon pound cake, (from a mix), put the laundry in the dryer, (I hope Zane didn't turn it off), played a game as well as the aforementioned activities, had snack and it is 11:00 am and time to think about lunch.  Maybe we'll just have pound cake.  Except it will make me sleepy and crabby, and Zane hyper and crabby, so I guess that isn't a good idea.  Plus there are about a million leftovers in the fridge and freezer from the turkey dinner we had a week ago and I just keep making more food!!  You think we had to eat around here or something.  I think we need to have a eat all the leftovers for dinner day.  I'm going to be gone this weekend to see my brother with daughter number one and THE BOYS, while Jim is here with daughter number two while she goes a very long way away to district one-acts.  Now you think they could eat all those leftovers in the fridge, but is Jim is here by himself, he will eat ham sandwiches and when Lynette is there, they will want to eat out, so all that will happen is that I will come home to older leftovers.
Well, that lasted a long time.  Barry is awake already, and I've been up checking on the cake since Zane was worried about it and fixing the train track.  I wonder why I thought I could blog anything anyway?

How to Eat Like a Two-Year Old.

Zane would rather be a grazer.   He would rather eat candy, chocolate milk, and cookies.  His parents would rather he ate his dinner at the table with everyone else.  Sometimes this means sitting at the table after everyone else finishes.  (Even if he's pushed the plate away.)

All Done!

My Boy Zane

Zane isn't three years old yet.  He still has a month to go.  It's been fun having him around so I can see how much his mind has grown. He is into puzzles and games.  Today we were playing with a number puzzle and we had four empty spaces when he looked at the three pieces left on the floor and said, I can't remember what he said, but something to the effect that there weren't enough pieces left to finish the puzzle.   We looked around and he found the missing piece and put all four in and he was done!  Now, what is that, counting?, subtraction?. I was amazed.  I love to watch little ones learn the concepts of life and learning. 

He can put 25 piece puzzles together with a minimum of help.  I am amazed at how well he is doing these at not yet three.  

 I got out my geoboards today.  Zane loves them.  He doesn't do much put pile up rubber bands in straight lines, but he'll learn more. 

He also plays with his Thomas trains for hours at a time.  He connects a few pieces of track together with his buildings  connects his trains, and acts out stories and situations.  He gets most of that information from all the Thomas and Friends videos he watches.  Even so, imaginative play is the best thing.  

There is evidence of a toddler in the house. When told to "put your shoes by the door", this is what we get. 

Halloween Kitty

This isn't Zane, but Barry is a part of him, too. 

What better thing for a round little baby to be for Halloween, but a pumpkin?

And he's just cute.

This was one of those days, that while Zane and I were playing puzzles, Papa was walking the floor with baby Barry.

Whew! Finally, asleep!

Be Thankful

I didn't take many photos on Thanksgiving Day.  Not of the food, not of everyone there, not of the games we played.  And especially not of the dishes that had to be washed by hand, since the dishwasher is broken. 

Thanksgiving is really more than food, it's about the gathering of family and friends together to eat and enjoy and get to know each other better.  

It's a time to welcome new members in. 

It's a time to enjoy your grandchildren.

It's a time to enjoy...

the fun things of life. 

It's a time to enjoy the outside...

..and to let the outside in.

(the fireplace was too hot)

It's a time to remember our heritage, thanksgiving that spans the generations.

It's a time to be thankful, for who we are and for what we have.  

Starting Again

I'm starting all over again. Babysitting TWO grandsons this time instead of one.  I'm getting used to, again, the joys and pains of having TWO children to look after.  I think I'm better equipped this time.  I know that I won't get anything done, and I don't try to.  But I also know the little bit of time it takes to run down and put a load in the washer or dryer, to wash up a few dishes and to fold clothes while watching Zane play with a baby on my lap.  The problem I have is the meals part.  I need to make "certain sure" what I'm having for supper long before I need to cook it.  And then work in fits and starts all afternoon.  I like to make sure Zane has outside time, running time, and quiet time.  I knew all this "back in the day", but I was tireder, (more tired), how DO you say that, and cared less about getting work done.  Now I know that "keeping up" is easier on me, which is easier on everyone else in the long run.
Now that  Lorene has gone back to work here in Kearney and working long hours, I want this job, really, I want the chance to put some of my values and ideas in their little heads.  I want to love them, and teach them and read to them.  I want to do some things with them that I didn't do with my kids.  I think it is a little bit, "I would do this differently this time around."
Grandchildren are the second chance.  The chance to change, the chance to play,  the chance to watch again the growing of babies into people.  The chance to have some influence on another little life.  There is something grandparents have that parents will never have.  They know how precious that little life is, how much they want to put in it, how much they need to know.  They know how short the time is and how quickly it's gone.  Some of those things are lost in the hectic life of raising kids the first time around.
I know I'm going to be tired and frustrated after 10 to 12 hours of looking after a baby and a toddler.  I know I'm going to have more headaches and less time to do fun things.  But, I also know that I only have one chance with these kids, and people are more important that another scarf.

Baby Bear

Barry is 2 months old now and cute as a bug.  I can get photos of him smiling now, but he still spends a lot of time looking for Mom and Daddy.  It's a bittersweet moment for me, since I was Zane's "other mom", and he was looking for me, too, at this age.  However, this is how it should be, with Mom and Dad the most important, and Gramma next. 

This photo here is 6 weeks.  What a strong little guy!!

Julius Caesar Lives

."Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears."  For those of you who don't feel the need to know at least bits and pieces of classic literature, that is the speech Marc Antony gave at Julius Caesar's funeral as William Shakespeare imagined it.

Which I didn't know either, but I have heard the phrase before and I knew Brutus stabbed Caesar in the back (and killed him).

In Lynette's AP English class, students were given the opportunity to memorize 35 lines of Julius Caesar. dress up in a historically correct Roman toga, and present it with suitable acting in front of the class for 250 extra credit points. 

So, she began to memorize, and she can't do it alone.  I listened, I corrected, I followed word for word on her paper.  I marked places she was shaky, I made her read it by herself, I listened again.  AAAAAUGH 

Then we need a toga.  All the white sheets were fitted.  So that was out.  So, I go rummaging in the huge tub of material.....hmmm, a white flannel sheet, do you suppose they wore flannel?  Oh, look here is a table cloth...I've been wondering why I was keeping that. It was too long unfolded, too short folded in half, I had to tack up a big hem for the right length.

Thank goodness for google, which can show you how to wear a toga.  You do however, need to be very careful about what you are looking for in the toga department. 

Now for the dress rehearsal.  I thought it would be a nice thing to get a picture of the toga we worked so hard on with a few gestures of her acting out her speech.   

And this is what we get....

By this time we are laughing so hard, not much is getting done except silly photos.

Here are the ones we started out to get, a Roman citizen in her toga, with her tiger.  

Except, women weren't citizens in Rome, and it was lions instead of tigers.  

Happy 16th Birthday

My daughter has big ideas, and then she wan't me to carry them out. Somehow, I've gotten the reputation that I can do most anything.  Well, I can't really, but I CAN do a lot of things.  The best part is that now, she is willing to help me do a lot of things, especially since she found the idea for these cupcakes somewhere on the internet.  She wanted to take them to her play production class on her birthday.  (It's a little less formal there, having class on the stage in the auditorium does that.)  I made the cupcakes, and colored the frosting and started frosting like mad.  Lynette cut two slits in the top of the cupcake to stick the ends of the candy in.  (We used "extreme airheads" from Target.)  Then it was an easy thing to put "clouds" on with the decorating too.  As she said, "clouds don't all have to be the same"  We knocked these out together in less than and hour.  She got her mead of praise at school, and a whole bunch of practice. 

The next challenge she handed me, also for her birthday, was a rainbow layer cake, which she also found on the internet. It went a lot easier than I thought it would.  I used a cup of colored batter in a 9" round pan, which took less than 1 1/2 boxed mixes.  I think next time I might try 1 1/4 cups.  It will depend on how tall you want the cake to be, and if it will fall over if it gets too tall.   

Of course, not thinking it through, I started with the red layer, which I thought should go on the bottom, but Lynette said red goes on the top, "just look at any rainbow".  (Good Grief, does it really matter.)  Since I only had two pans, I had to find a place for the red layer to sit, while I started on the purple.  She wanted the colors on the darker side, so I used paste colors for the blue, red, orange and yellow.  A couple of good squeezes took care of the purple and green.

One thing I discovered is that it is VERY hard to spread a cup of batter evenly in the pan, so I had a few slightly uneven layers, until I got the hang of it. 

I put the layers together with butter frosting.  (I like good tasting frosting.)

The cake was a little lopsided.  I think I had an uneven number of lopsided layers.

Sealing the layers with a thin layer of frosting, makes the next layer easier. 

We decorated the top with some leftover candy from the cupcakes.  Since no one around here can manage to put things dead center, we went for the charmingly off-center look. 

The first slice.

Let them eat cake!

And then we did all the other cool birthday things, like candles which girls like until they turn 21 or so,

and presents.

and cards, (from her almost three year old nephew), 

and family.

I'm sure glad she's mine. 

The Measuring Wall

There is a wall in our house that we don't want to paint.  

It is a record of our lives.  

It isn't really a wall, just the edge of one

that is a perfect spot for measuring the kids' growing up.  

We have the adults up there, too, so the kids' can see who

they are catching up to.

We love to look to see when Nathan and Lynette were the same height, 

to see how soon someone is catching up to Mom. 

(Nobody is going to catch up to Dad.)

Even the neighbor girl is on the wall, so she too can see

how much she is growing.  

We've know her for ten years and they don't

do this at her house. 

We had a place to measure when I was growing up, on 

the painted trim in the kitchen.  The walls and trim were yellow then

and we watched our names rise from year to year.  

That spot is gone now, who wants a kitchen to stay sunshine yellow

forever?  I suppose someday we will have to 

paint over this little memory.  

But, the nice thing about memories, is that some day they make good stories.