cruising into spring

 This is something Julia and p.j. do for hours on end--create decorations for the Barbie house.

See the wallpaper in the photo above?   Santa wallpapered the walls with wallpaper from our own house.

How did he do that?

I don't know, but he did.

Anyway, that wallpaper was from our bathroom in our old house, back in 1985.   Jay and I were putting up wallpaper, bitch of a job that is, and about halfway around the room, we realized we were putting it up upside down.

We paused then, and there were three kids with us in the bathroom, plus a standard poodle, and sweat was dripping off Jay's nose.

I said, "It looks great.  Let's just keep going."

Sometimes, life.

 The wallpaper in this picture was given to me by a lady who'd been given it by someone else.  This hand-me-down wallpaper was on the walls of Heidi and Kirsten's room for a couple decades, until my friend Jody said it was child abuse, and we had to redecorate.

I still like it.  The 90's weren't a bad decade.

I pretty much loved the 90's.

Today at Target I bought some lights that came in this box.  As soon as I saw that plastic window on the corner, I knew this would bring huge inspiration to a couple girls.

 It totally did!  They watched YouTube videos for instruction on how to make furniture from toilet paper tubes and bottle caps and scraps of fabric from my baby blanket sewing.

Julia came to me worried about the rough edge on the front.  I tried to trim it too, but it wasn't meant to be with that scissors and that box.   I suggested they use the green tape on the edge and it turned out so cute.

And this little animal:

She's been begging for pierced ears, so they all went last Saturday, and two people were supposed to be on hand to do both ears simultaneously.

Only they all got there and there was only one lady.

Who was confident.   p.j. was confident.

And then it all went down the tubes. So she has one pierced ear and told me she'll have the other one done some day when she is feeling brave.

I asked her if it was now? Are you brave now?  No?  Okay, how about now?

"Grandma!"

And now, moving on to this problem:  Sunday is Easter, so I purchased this lovely pinata.  I can't deal with pinatas that look like actual people or animals.

Whack them with a stick?

No, no, no.

They filled it with the ton of candy I bought today, and then true to form, the little turds started raiding the pinata and stealing the candy.  Kari intervened, but I think I need to buy more and hide it like I have in past years.

Whee.

And it's officially Little Jay's birthday, though he wasn't born until 1 am.

April is here, and we're all okay

And I'm glad.

love, Val

Japan, 1944

 Happened to be looking for some pictures buried in files.  I've given so many files such completely generic names that it's a process to find anything.

But I ran across these photos from when Jay's dad was in Japan during the occupation after the war.

 I think this one was a post card:

Anyway, the kids are home on spring break, so it feels like a Saturday today.   It's going to be 70 degrees on Wednesday and Easter is upon us and what a lovely Monday this is.

love, Val

pictures from the week

 Reading library books, above.

Sewing blankets--these ones below are for Cake-cake, p.j.'s little sister due in a month:

 These blankets are for two other people I know who have new baby boys:

These are some from instagram, Dan and Alcia's little girl smiling

Renee's sweet kitty:

And anyone who has ever put kids to bed will understand this whole nonsense:

It's been a good week around the house, promising real estate calls, lots of plumbing, on the verge of spring.

Happy Friday.

love, Val

funny superbaby

 Here she is a few weeks ago with her big brother,

And the fun continues:

 She's looking like her brothers..   Oh my goodness.

I love you, Peanut.  And you big guys too.   Love, Grandma and Grandpa, too

sunday night supper

 Dan texted me yesterday about getting together today.

Supper it was.  These two guys were far more interested in Legos and the Scooby Doo movie they could watch on my parents old TV down there.

Here they are eating orange ice cream pops.

Dan found the puzzle Kirsten and the kids have been working on.

 Hugging on the baby:

 Julia got the camera at some point and took pictures.

 These guys were not hungry for supper, but later the little one requested a hamburger, so Grandpa heated up a leftover one from the lake and he ate it all.

They were still so hungry they left with cold grilled cheese sandwiches in their hands.

That made me laugh.  Whatever.

 It was snowing and Tim brought in snow which they ate, and also threw around as snowballs.

Not exactly a fan, but it was only a little snow and the floor in the family room is just sub-floor anyway, so a little snow can't hurt it.

Happy Sunday, you guys.

We love you so much,    love Grandma and Grandpa

opening the cabin

 The warm weather last weekend inspired us to go ahead and make a trip up there to get the water on and drag up all the blankets and sheets and stuff.  We can't leave it there because we don't trust the mice.

(The lake was still frozen.)  We don't trust the mice for a reason:  They shit on everything.

So I cleaned up mouse poop.  Not a lot, but widely dispersed.  Jay cleaned bugs out of the light fixtures too.

This is Sidney, having glommed on to Julia on the ride up.

 Same old thing, view from the front bedroom/porch into the main cabin.   See that little closet? The mice pooped heartily in there.    We vacuumed.

 The frozen swamp:

 This is the scene of a severe moment.:

 Jay lugged the water softener from the van to this little underground mechanical room and then set about attempting to carry it down the ladder.  He asked me to help steady the top.

Well, shit fool.

A water softener is a very heavy thing.

As soon as the weight shifted, even though I was holding onto the body of it, somehow the top cover snapped off and there was a very bad three seconds where I really thought  the man was going to land on his back in the hole with the water softener on top of him.

This did not happen. He is not hurt.  Balance was maintained and the water softener did not crash either.

GAWD.  Can we put a strap on it and use a tree and winch it down the ladder?   Do you have to personally carry it in your arms?

Okay, moving on from that.

 After we were there a short time, Sam decided to get back in the van and would not come out. Coaxing didn't work. Fritos were offered.  Nope.

Eventually we went to get groceries and took the dogs along. Tim waited with them, said he preferred it to going inside the store.

 When we were home from the store, the dog happily jumped out and came inside with us.

We played Apples to Apples and watched dumb movies until midnight.

It was a great weekend.

love, Val

gimme that kid

Yesterday Dannell called, kind of apologetic.  Could we watch the little guy today?

Yes!

They think a kid like this is a burden on me.   Well, he's not.

The little girl was going to stay home today, but there's a lot of stress going on in this house at the moment and one thing I can count on is my girl.

They thought it would be fine if she came for lunch and played with her cousin for a few hours.

We got under a blanket on my bed and watched Curious George together and ate crackers.

It was great, except every time my eyes rested, the little guy would holler, "Grandma! Wake up!"

These little animals are at the swimming pool, I"m told.  These two cousins rarely have the chance to play together without anyone else, and they found fun things to do.

 A little math:

 And pouncing on the Grandpa:

This was a lovely time, sweet little kids in the house, plus it was Friday, and that's always a good thing.  

love, Val