Friday, October 30, 2015

happy friday

 Here's the little sister at her big sister's preschool, waiting for something to happen.

Once in the room, there was this sensory table full of pumpkin seeds.  Normally, a person would see sand or rice.  But today, no.

It is October, you know.
 This is p.j. in her Halloween costume as Ana.  I put her hair up and it was a great Halloween program.

 She's the only girl in a class of seven boys, and that little teacher dressed as a cat was worried too  about this.

Nah.  She plays with her cousins, and honestly, none of the boys in this class seem overbearing in the least.  p.j. likes them, reports fun times only.




 This is the little sister in the hallway, ready for the costume parade





 That's p.j. in the Ana dress, ribbons over her back:

 After all this festivity, we headed home again, and the little sister  was long asleep as I rounded the driveway.

This is the entire reason I bought this plant at all--the fall color, and not disappointing at all.

 Later we had an appointment in the city, and the cloudy sky over the skyline were both striking and beautiful.

Lydia asked what I was taking a picture of??




This.

 A day later, an evening later, pumpkin time:



 Sam was super helpful and extremely interested:




 This little beauty came about by fall leaves glued to a canning jar, little electric votive inside.

That did not stop our dad from trying to light one with a grill clicker-dicker.

Yeah.

Pssht.

October is over, and what a beautiful fall this has been.

love always, Val

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

life is good

 These two little cousins were here yesterday getting babysat.

They recognize their own kind.

Sam always has to be near the babies, so she was right on duty.

 Lunchtime!

The little boy with the curly hair wanted Cheetos right before lunch, so I told him to put them on the table, and he could eat them with lunch, but please not before.   The others who also had bags of Cheetos were supposed to do the same.

 Well, the child has a sense of justice and he was annoyed by the kids who kept sneaking out to the kitchen snitching Cheetos while lunch was being prepared.

I agree with him.

 PUH-leeze.  We can see you.

Get out of the Cheetos.  We don't want little guys to have their appetite ruined right before the meal.

And this picture was found on my camera tonight after work.

My new job is going fine, I think.  The supervisor called me tonight to discuss and she seemed  quite content.

I'm still learning, still making mistakes and figuring things out, but it's a huge bump forward from one week ago when I logged on for the first day.


love always, GRANDMA, aka VAL, aka MOM

Monday, October 26, 2015

okay, tell me what's happening here


We were in the living room when smoke rapidly filled the kitchen.

I am still enduring the stench now.

So, JULIA put Easy Mac into the microwave with NO WATER.

Little Jay noticed first, "What is burning??"

It was billowing over the kitchen at that point.  We ran out there, and it was pouring from the microwave, no flames, just billowing smoke.

When the door opened, the cooking stopped.
No worries. All good.

Macaroni, all charred, thrown in the trash, microwave washed out.

Good God.

Julia?

Use water.

love, Val

Sunday, October 25, 2015

mummy wrap









The host and hostess:
Thank you so much for hosting this wildly anticipated occasion once again.

It was great.

I love you all.  Love, Val, aka Grandma, aka MOM

halloween party, 2015



 It was great.
 That guy is my niece's boyfriend.  He's a good-natured person, fun to be around.  At one point, he looked around and said, "I have never seen so many KIDS."

Oh yeah.
 This is Dan as a Candy (W)rapper.






 Hyping out in the storage room where the video games are located:





They got a laugh out of this goofy toy once again.   A skeleton peers out and says, "I put the die in diarrhea."   Nice, huh?

 Here she is!


More pictures to follow.   love, Val