the week

These two--the older one is back to college, semester off to a start this week. The younger is back on distance learning starting tomorrow, due to the pandemic.   So many positive covid tests, though nobody we know is dangerously ill, it is just a lot.  

Probably this is a wise decision, but their anticipated return date of January 25 does not seem likely.

Oh, and her lizard. Kari has a lizard that I was  80% sure was dead when I checked on it yesterday while she was gone.   Oh, boy.  Not good.   But then later I went upstairs and Lillian was quite undead, running around looking quite beautiful.  Whee.

Monday I donated blood, which is something I've been meaning to do for a very long time, and finally it is done, and it was pretty easy--from the scheduling and location, to the process itself.  I intend to do this on an ongoing basis.
 

The reason this is important is because this thriving little beauty of a child was fighting for her life four years ago.  After recovering from RSV, which was life threatening for her as a wee baby with a heart defect, it was realized that she really couldn't go on any longer with her heart the way it was, and before they sent her home, her heart was repaired.  She was like nine or ten pounds, just a wee little minute of a girl.

We were told it was a typical heart defect often seen with Down Syndrome, but it was still overwhelming! Her little heart was like the size of an acorn and someone had the knowledge and skills to repair it.

Amazing.

And look at her now, at three!  She received blood so many times during all that traumatic winter, and here she is, living it up.

In the news today was this--they are opening up an Ice Road up in the northern angle, that weird little piece of Minnesota that intrudes across the Canadian border.  It can't normally be reached other than driving over into Canada and around, and with covid, I guess this was a problem.

(There's not much going on there other than wilderness, but there are people who love their wilderness, true.)

Anyway, Lake of the Woods is very big, and very deep and this Ice Road is twenty two miles long.

I was very intrigued by the story, but guess who will never be traveling there or EVER going on this Ice Road in a million years.

Dan sent these pictures of the puppy, June.   

Dog obviously knows how to live.

He said she's pretty naughty a lot of the time, but you'd never know it by these pictures.

Had lunch with these two today, very fun.  We laughed, and ate, and it was great.

Tomorrow is Friday, best day of the week.

We've to the halfway point of January now, cruising along.

Love, Val

another weekend at the lake

It was cloudy and warm. They had fun, came home Sunday night covered in bug bites, not sure what bit them, probably due to the geese up and down the shore.

Here's John pitching, his oldest kid catching, another cousin at bat--tennis balls and a plastic bat. When that catcher had his turn at bat, he swung it too hard and it bent and hit him right in the face!

He was fine, but Good LOR-ed!  

Doing nails:

Warming up after swimming:

Everyone was gone by noon, John's family to baseball in the cities, and Heidi's sick of the drab weather.  Jay mowed and I cleaned.

Then we took the dog on a boat ride. The clouds cleared and it was warm, the lake smooth.

This is a cabin not far from ours where we rented many years.   My parents and her sisters, and brother and parents, and we also, would rent cabins together at a resort for Memorial Day weekend.  My sister would too, and my brother sometimes, other cousins.  Or people would team up and stay together.

Weather on Memorial Day is super unpredictable, but we persevered and had so much fun.

This is the cabin my mother's parents used to rent.  It had a sunken bedroom and a dramatic, dark red lamp with a lady's face on it, or the carpet was red, maybe not the lamp?  I don't know what it's like in there anymore, thirty years later.   My grandpa passed away in 2008, Grandma in 2012, though it feels like I just talked to them yesterday.

I know it's a thing people always say, but how do the years cruise by this fast?

This is the cabin my parents rented, right near the woods and the swamp. At Memorial Day the swamp is incredibly loud, full of peepers and frogs and toads.  My dad loved the racket, recorded it as restful music.

Anyway, it was a lovely boat ride.  

 

And then we came home, and storms are passing through, wild clouds, road construction, roads closed, crazy drivers, and the whole room here is glowing and golden as the sun sets.

Onward to Monday.

Love, Val

happy birthday, mom!

 I didn't think of taking any pictures today, so this one will have to suffice.   

It was so lovely to be together, for the first time in over a year, sit at the table, enjoy a snack and almost two hours of conversation.

How I have missed you both in this long time. We've done our best, and the phone sure works, but it's felt so, so long.

What a perfect day to be together.

Thanks for loving all of us the way you do.

Hoping this year will be a better one.

Happy Birthday with so much love, Val and Everybody

into december

 Heidi and I had lunch with my mom on Monday. She cooked, so delicious.  There was a Facebook thing a while ago about your favorite place to eat.  I felt like it was a restaurant choice, but immediately I thought, "My Mom's!"

This Santa and his wife were very cute, though their singing was annoyingly loud.  I glanced over and saw what I thought was a rodent tucked between them. 

???

I asked p.j. if she had stuck a rodent in there?

She said, "It's Rudolph, not a RODENT."

 Okay, I defer.

These are from today where they played with the sink again.  There was a bathtub for the doll off to the side because there was some fighting about whether dishes or the baby should be in the sink.

 After while we made a fort, which the child calls a Camper.  It was tricky figuring out how to anchor the corners of the blanket.   I closed one end in the window, tied another corner to the banister using the legs of a Halloween costume as a rope. A big planter held down another part, and that precarious stack of VHS tapes held the other one up.

 Then she urged her grandpa to get in the Camper and go to sleep.  He cooperated but there wasn't much sleep happening in there.  They had his phone for a flashlight and lots of questions.

Onward.

Love, Val

lunch on wednesday

 We had lunch with my parents today.  Heidi's maternity leave is flying by, trying to enjoy it along the way. 

This cute sister really liked my parents laundry room.

I brought the old doll house up from the play room in the basement for her.   She did like it and so did her sister when she got home from school.

 He was able to join us, wouldn't pass up my mother's cooking.

 Heidi listened to her playing with the doll house and said her story lines involve some fighting and time outs.  She was right.  Oh my goodness.

 Pretty girls everywhere.

So much love, Val, aka MOM, aka Grandma

walk to the creek

 Butterflies in the zinnias:

 She wanted to pet the horses too.

Love, Val