Out Of The Mouths of Babes

Violet and David walking to the park.

"Violet, I sure am glad you were born."

"I'm glad you were born too, Dad.  In fact, I think I will call Matati and thank her for having you, so that then, you could have me."  June/2013


Me to the Grandchildren while on a vacation with them

"Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you both for being so cooperative and helpful during this vacation"

Violet:
"Yeah, we do make a pretty good team." 

Lost Pines Resort Vacation

This was an email I sent to David and Amy after our trip with our grandchildren, Archer and Violet.

William and I were talking about the kids and what a good time we had with them.  The pics are ok, but the experiences we shared were priceless.  Archer was the most fun I have ever had with him.  We just clicked.  One night, it was kinda late and we were all pretty tired lying in bed and Violet started singing this little tune she made up about "why is he a bad boy..."  or something like that.  Well, it was endless and finally I told her she would have to stop singing so we could all go to sleep.  .......all was quiet and then, off she went several more times and Archer and I got the giggles real bad.  Couldn't stop .....so fun.  He slept with me and Violet with Granpaw.  Sometimes she likes to treat him like a little baby.  That night, scratching his back and saying very softly..."go to sleep now, go to sleep....."  crazy, but sweet.

As we all know, both children are quite sure of themselves and have that glow about them.  Archers' way of showing it is to make up his mind and do his own thing and sometimes you just have to let him, within reason.  It seems to work well with him.  If you look closely at the pic of Granpaw and Violet with the Alpacas you might see Archer up on the stairwell of the hotel looking down.  He was very sure he didn't want anything to do with some crazy looking Alpacas or the Hummingbird Garden.  So he and Granpaw went bike riding all over the property and down by the golf course there.

Violet as usual made friends everywhere she went, in the pool, in the restaurant, at the movies, even the elevators.  When she left her yellow chickie in the restaurant, she was so worried about her.  We raced back down to the restaurant and she went up to our waitress and asked if she had seen her and that she just knew Chickie was very upset.  The waitress. with a wink to me,  said that she saw something yellow over by the cash register, Violet and Archer ran over there and the reunion was so sweet.  Violet asking Chickie if she was okay.....etc.   all of the folks there loved it.  and of course Pete went to every meal with us.  At one point I was telling the kids how proud I was of them for being so cooperative and Violet piped up and said, "yeah, we do make a pretty good team."

It was like that our whole stay, so fun playing with them in the pool too.  We had chairs in the water and Violet would pull us along. Archer wasn't too interested in the water slide and it was really high, I wouldn't do it either.  He spent a lot of time playing volleyball with people in the pool and riding down the "Crooked River" either in a tube or just floating along, with some other boys his age.  He could stand the whole way so a person could just ride all over the place.  Very beautiful.

So I think we have finally figured out our annual trip with the kids, Lost Pines.  We also felt time wise, it was just enough for everyone, plus not too far from home.

A great trip with our wonderful grandchildren, thank you both for letting us have them with us.

Love,

Matati (although after watching Lion King 1 1/2, they were calling me Matata.)

Remember your sisters

I met with my younger sister, a couple of days ago, and after we had spent the day together,we came up with some really good ideas for our book we had decided to write.  It was an exciting time for me since I could definitely see my characters and how they might act.   

I can fall back on my history with my sisters as young children and then as grown women. Some of them moved away, some came back to our home town.  This made for some interesting relationships with each one.  I was closer to some, not so close with others.

This kind of back and forth, ebb and flow, with them  as we grew up was very interesting.  The "book" begins with two characters, sisters, and after writing a couple of pages as an introduction, I recalled something I had read last year that brought it all together for me.  And hopefully will make me a better writer.

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter..

'Don't forget your sisters,' she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them..'

'Remember that 'sisters' means ALL the women... your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. 'You'll need other women. Women always do.'

What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman thought. Haven't I just gotten married? Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup! Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!'

But she listened to her mother. She kept contact with her sisters and made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another, she gradually came to understand that her mother really knew what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries upon a woman, sisters are the mainstays of her life...

Trip for Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving, we were off to the river house for some time with the family and so happy everyone was able to come.  One of the best parts was that David and Aubrey were going to be in charge of the whole dinner.  All I had to do was enjoy spending the day playing with my grandchildren.

This was the first time in 46 years, I had not baked a turkey and all the trimmings on this special day.  Consequently, packing up for the trip was relatively easy since I didn't have bags and bags of groceries.  William and Sadie and I got underway around noon.  It was a beautiful day and the landscape was fully fall-wrapped, so pretty.  Sadie is a great little traveler and loves to go in the car.  She sits quietly on my lap the whole time.

As we drove through Fredricksburg, the Christmas decorations were out and as usual, the sidewalks were brimming with shoppers.  A very festive atmosphere.  We were happy and excited as we got to our shortcut outside of Harper.  FM 473 is eight miles long and runs into Interstate 10.

The closer we got to the river house the more nervous I got that I had forgotten something and I had been mentally listing all the items
I should have packed.

By the time we made the turn onto 473, I had worked myself up to a full blown frenzy in my head, thinking about what I had neglected to pack. Then, it occurred to me that William was driving way too fast for this stretch of road.  Not only is it very curvy, but it goes up hills and down hills, lots of hills.  I told him he needed to slow down and for a while he did.  Here came the hills, up.....down......up.....down.  I began to get mad that he was not slowing down and I was feeling a little queasy.  About that time as I was holding Sadie, I felt her stomach lurch,... wait,.. what...yes, it was definitely moving.  Uh oh,,,,,,,oh no.....at about the third hill, all of a sudden she started getting sick.  Not a little bit.  An incredible amount, all over me, all in my seat, in my purse, all over my books and magazines.  At that point, I completely lost it.  My sister calls it a "psychic break", I call it completely, out of control, crazy.  "Pull over, pull over, pull over damn it!"  God, I was so mad and upset and sick and holding Sadie and.... it was awful.

'Idiots delight' finally pulled over.  "Is this a good place?" he said.  Jesus Christ....   I bailed out of the car in hysterics, crying, furious, crying uncontrollably.   I could not get it together and this 18-Wheeler dude who had pulled over for a lunch break saw the whole thing unfold, literally.  I'm not sure, but I think he was laughing, well, I know he had a big fat smile on his face. After about 30 minutes since the total breakdown, I cleaned myself and Sadie up. And my purse and my shoes, (yes, in my shoes). William cleaned up my seat and the floor.  Thank god he kept his mouth shut.  Then, we got on I-10, and headed west.  

About an hour later, William says, 'you okay?'.  "Yes, I'm okay".  As we headed for the river house I added one more item to my list of things I had forgotten.... a doggie bag and one of those stun gun thingies.

Shakeup at Shoalwood

No, not what you think, no, I'm not leaving the boy after what....45 years.  No the shakeup has to do with this home of 30 plus years getting a face lift.  It has been such an experience for us to see "this old house" start to
look less like the Clampets live here and more like some real nice older folks do.

The entire process took about 2 weeks of very loud pounding and sawing and more pounding.  I now know why some
people leave on vacation while their home is being renovated. But, we stayed through it all and glad we did.  Mainly because there was usually some questions that needed answers fairly quickly.

"Matati"

I have been a Grandmother for over 3 years and I can't say it gets any easier. Don't get me wrong, I love my role as the grandmother who is called "Matati". It is just that when it comes to the discipline aspect of my role, lately, I have hit a brick wall...... hard.

My grandson, Archer, is 3 years old and truly such a joy in our lives. However, lately he is a handful! Very independent and that is fine, but also very argumentative and stubborn and that is not fine when the grandparents are exhausted.

I have yet to send him to 'time-out', but I came very close a couple of days ago. When my children were young and would act similarly, there was no 'time-out', just a swat on the butt and sent to their room. Archers' parents use the time-out method.

To give you some idea of how trying it was, this was the scenario: It is 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. Archer's bath has been ready for about 30 minutes and is getting colder by the minute. Archer is playing with his remote controlled tractor and keeps running into the dog. The dog is being extremely patient, mainly because she is a Golden Retriever who is used to these shenanigans, but also because her arthritis is so bad, she will only get up if she absolutely must. After several verbal commands to stop, from me and from Grampaw, Archer is totally ignoring us, and I am ready to take the toy away and prepare myself for the screaming fit. Then out of the blue, he says: "It is my toy, all mine, and I can do whatever I want with it!"

Hmmmm....really. This is not the Archer we have known. This child is some sort of alien in our house. I take the tractor away, and the remote control device and yes, the screaming begins. I go into the bathroom and close the door. Just me, and a tub of lukewarm water. The urge to get in and put my head underwater so I won't hear Archer is strong, but I just sit there, on the edge, literally, almost in tears. Yikes.

Then I hear this little voice on the other side of the door, "Matati, I need to come in and take my bath." I open the door, he struts in, takes his clothes off, gets in the tub and begins playing with his bath toys. It was like nothing ever happened, like we had just survived some sort of time warp. Amazing. Incredible. Almost scary.

Sadies' Adventure - A Field Trip

The woman who bought Sadies' sister, "Alice", wrote me with an update on her.  Seems like the sisters are on the same page with their tricks and personalities.  Very cute.  She mentioned that Alice chews everything, including furniture which Sadie doesn't seem to have a taste for.  So to remedy that situation she had heard that Petsmart had something called "Bully Sticks" .  She bought some and that is all Alice chews on now.  So, I packed Sadie up and headed to the Petsmart store and also to check into classes for her to take.

We were in the aisle where all the chewy things were and this couple walks by with a very tiny black and white Bichon Friese. He was adorable and was walking around without a collar or leash.?  However, he stayed right by the couple and didn't wander off.  I was very impressed and asked them about him.  Turns out, they were from Mexico and drove all the way to the Woodlands that day to pick up their new baby, "Bruno".  When I asked about the way he followed them around, they said that that is just what he did without any training.  Hmm...then I found out from one of the sales girls that the couple told her that "Bruno" just didn't like the way the collar felt around his neck.....  Interesting.
Sadie was about to have a heart attack about this little puppy, so with collar and leash on I put her on the floor and she immediately went nuts for the puppy.  I realized that she was out of control but when I tried to pick her up, she wriggled out of her collar.  Yikes!  The couple scooped up "Bruno" and Sadie bolted through the store.  We all were chasing her, but she is super fast and with her hair on her feet she would slide to make a turn into a different aisle very quickly.
The whole store went on 'Lock Down', with my Sadie touring the place at 80 mph!  They locked all the doors so she wouldn't run out into the parking lot and finally was caught while watching the little guinea pigs!  Lordy.  I was a wreck.  One of the employees tightened the collar for me and asked if I wanted to enroll her in their obedience classes.  I looked at her like she had just granted my fondest wish.  Yes please!!  She looked down at Sadie who was straining and  pulling on her leash and said, " We're going to teach you NOT to do that pulling on your mom".  I almost started crying.  I was so happy. 

Yes, sign us up! 

Oh.....I got the Bully sticks, she could care less, not to mention the smell is enough to knock you down. It smells like something died.  Oh yeah, something did, a cow. 

So, Sadie starts next Wed. evening, 1 hour class, one day a week for 6 weeks.  Also made an appt. to get her trimmed up since she is now a shaggy dog.  I followed Lanny's lead and slick her hair back out of her face, but I use water.  Ill get a picture of her and send it to you guys.