dreary day

 The weather kind of matched the mood.

 Sam's grave is on the right, the fresh site on the left.  It's hard to believe they're both gone.

 It's hard to leave too.  It was like that with Sam too, felt wrong to drive away without her.

But this is right and good.  They had a fun life together, and they're together again.

Love, Val

until we meet again

Peace and love to you our buddy, Maria's best pal.

Everything about Maria's life was better with you in it.

It's hard to let you go, but forcing you to stay felt all wrong too, after all the happiness you've brought us.

 Until we meet again, our precious girl

Love, Everybody

saturday

 We went over to John's old house so Jay could fix an outdoor faucet pipe that broke.  One more thing, you know?  It's fine.

The kids were visiting their favorite trees ONE MORE TIME before the house is sold.

This guy is an amazing tree climber.

He went up so high I was bitching at Dannell to make him come back down.

 He seemed quite nimble and fine until the point he was yelling his shoe was stuck.

Aaaagh!!!

 When he came to the bottom finally, he yelled for someone to come over, so I did, and he leaped into my arms, trusting me to break the fall, and neither of us fell, so that was good.

 The dumpster is filled, sadly, with many things that would be donated in normal times. But there are no donation sites open, and yeah.

Toss it in.

It was a nice afternoon, so glad to see these people.

 And then this old, funny running joke.

The Wilsons--Today was our neighbor's birthday, so the Wilsons had to back to him.  We found this Corona container at the grocery store and it cost $15.  Jay paused at the price tag.  I told him to just put it in the cart.  "Yes! Just do it!"

The Wilsons are sitting comfortably on three rolls of toilet paper, which I don't think they found right away, but I'm sure they laughed when they did.

Happy Birthday, Don!

And that's the end of a fine Saturday.  Love, Val, aka GRANDMA

problem solving

Do you see that little girl wearing her Frozen shoes on the couch?

Heidi asked her about this. We don't normally wear shoes inside at all, let alone on the furniture.

It's to protect her toes from her savage, biting sister who stands up next to the couch now and last week, I had to intervene and save. The baby had half the child's foot in her mouth and there was screaming and there were teeth  marks.  I was surprised at no blood, actually.

Yes, it was that little cute one in the swing. She has a mouth full of very sharp teeth.


And this:

They wanted macaroni and cheese for lunch, but see where it is?

Whaaat?

Why are things stored in such a high place?

I said maybe if I could fly up there I could reach it.

A practical child told me never mind on the flying, just stand on a chair.

Love, Grandma

so cold

 All the plants are ready to go.

They've taken over the kitchen.

 We take them outside in the daytime for sunlight and water and bring them inside again.

Lovely Minnesota springtime.

GAWD

 We bought a lot of these plants as a fundraiser for the kids' school.

These pictures from Alicia tonight made me laugh.

I understand, 100%.

 When these guys dropped off the plants, I brought the mama Jay's big winter coat to wear while we socially distanced on the freezing patio in the freezing back yard.  The little child was wrapped up in a big blanket and all was well.  The brothers were squirrelly and sassy, and that was good too.

I love the oldest one's big laugh and the wise guy aspects of the younger brother.

They did not disappoint.

Onward.

So much love, you guys,  Mom and Dad and Everybody

happy fifth birthday

Happy Birthday!

It was such a great day, surprises galore, including this Slip and Slide left on the front steps by friends.

This was a great day, and I hope the year ahead is wonderful too.

With your sense of humor and big ideas, it's bound to be great.

I've said it dozens of times, but it's always the truth:

This family is better with you in it.  Lucky us.

Happy Birthday, love Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

may

It's May.

Two months ago this whole thing started with the epidemic.  Over a million cases now in this country, and almost  70,000 dead.

It's incomprehensible. 

We complain about feeling restricted and hemmed in, annoyed, confused, anxious, vaguely scared, a lot concerned. 

But this made us laugh, this huge sign at Target: 74.00 and under!  Not much on that rack and not a single tag over 4.99.  Okay, true story!  Less than 74.99!

 Since we're stuck at home, he's been working on this old house, dealing with the peak and that high window.  Today it all came together, paint dry, window polished and put back together, even installed the air conditioner.

Here he was, perched on his scaffolding at the high window, screws tucked in his lip.

 Yeah, you.

Onward into May, missing our family, our kids, missing our parents and our grandkids, just keeping on.

We're trying to support all the students struggling along in this house, trying to finish their year, but not much we can actually do.  We cook.

Hoping May brings better news than April has.

So much love, Val