I just love our pool.......love it, love it, love it!

I just got through reading some of my old entries and all the comments.  I came upon a comment that I had missed and I felt like my heart stopped for a minute when I read it.  My newest daughter-in-law had posted a comment that I know is a turning stone in her life and in mine too for that matter.  Here is the comment:

I really don't think you could have put it any better! except for one part. I am so very greatful that you and the rest of the family are the way you are! I know that " the one who will remain unnamed" had alot of control over what I thought for a while there. but I am and always will be so very greatful that things have worked themselves out. I love my husband very much, but my love has stretched further. I have found myself holding you very dear to my heart. but it has also gone further still. I have found that I care for the whole family. I guess I really didn't notice how very deeply I cared until Jessie and Alex went back home. I know this will be the first that these word are formed from me but Janice, I LOVE YOU MOM!

Posted 7/28/2007 12:11 AM by sorrowsdoormat

 

I love you too, Trish and I understand what a step for you this is especially since I know how meaningful the name Mom is to you.  Thank you. 

I survived the overnight visit with my grandchildren since it was the very first time I have had them for an overnight......all three of them.  What an eyeopener it was for me!  I had forgotten how time consuming and how organized you have to be, even if your organization is limited, to be an good and effective Mom.  I think I did rather well since Trish and I share some basic theories on child rearing but we also have differences too.  Which I totally expected since times change and expectations change too as time goes on.  There are going to be differences .....just because I am the Grammie and not the Mom......so I can be more lenient and the truth be told......I just am more mellow as I age.  I am still learning to pick my battles and letting some things slide by or just ignore since some battles are not worth the effort or are ones that time will take care of.  I guess I am getting better at determining which ones I will be successful and which ones will ultimately be ruled a draw.  Of course, now my being selective in choosing battles is creating a potiental problem.  My kids remember me as always being successful in maintaining my authority as a parent.  What they do not realize is that I learned a long time ago that you can not deal with a child on its own level........since they are experts on being whatever age they are at the time.  I always picked the situations that I knew I would be the "winner" and the situations that developed where my authority would be put into question, I would just ignore.  If ignoring was not an option then I would indicate that I would deal with it at a later date hoping by changing the location and/or situation that I would be in a better position to make a difference.  Dealing with a four year old throwing a temper tantrum in a public place is different from dealing with them in your own home.  At home, I usually at first just ignore them as long as they are not physically harming anyone or anything.  In my family, if you keep up a temper tantrum for very long, you get laughed at since everyone else knows that you definitely are now NOT going to get your way now since that is just the way it is.  In public, they get picked up and taken home........and will be left with a babysitter the next few times.  Embarassing me in public is not an option.  I do not reward temper tantrums by letting the child get what they threw the tantrum for in the first place.  My kids were smart.....they quickly learned that throwing a tantrum just made it where they absolutely were not going to get what they wanted......so they tried reasoning.  They found that reasoning or discussing it with me at least allowed some wiggle room in the NO department.  I am surprised that none of them grew up to be a lawyer since they became quite good at defending their position as to why they should be allowed a privilege or should be allowed to do something.  I just hope my kids will realize that you have to pick the behaviors with your children that you want to have a change occur and limit the things you want to be changed to be effective in your parenting.  I usually had a major thing and a minor thing that got addressed ......the major one received more deligent attention with the minor one receiving less scrutiny.  Kids are kids and are going to do all the kid things....even the bad stuff.....it is all part of growing up.  Humor is good when dealing with children......even if you have to keep yourself from cracking up over the things that they do and say.  My kids always tried to get me to crack up since they discovered that if they could get me to laugh.....no punishment.  It just did not feel right to mete out a punishment when I was laughing.    

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Trish and Josh!!!  I get to have the kids tonight for an overnight to help celebrate their anniversary ......so they can have some alone time.  It should be interesting since this will be the first overnight with me they have had.   Kids always have to test the waters so I am sure they will have a few tests for me.....probably dealing with bedtime....that is usually the one that gets tested first.....lol.  I am looking forward to this time together with them.  I just hope Neko remembers that he is sleeping through the night now.......but if he "forgets", I am still on an Alex (my other grandson) schedule so no biggie.  I have been busy dealing with Heather's move to our camper until her big move to go down South.  She is discovering that moving is HARD work and after a while, you begin finding it easier and easier to throw things away rather than pack them.  Trish posted a video of their exchange of vows and I cried like a baby when viewing it.......I am such a crybaby when it comes to those kind of things.....just hand me the kleenex!  They have had such a rocky start in their marriage due to a "friend" .....more like a snake in the grass hissing venom.......that finally tipped her own hand and showed her true colors.  Not a friend, but an individual so warped and twisted for revenge that how dare someone be more talented, more happy, more successful, or more fruitful than her.........afterall, she has a college education that is evidently going to be wasted since her various "illnesses" preclude her being able to get a job never mind......keep a job.  I would feel sorry for her.......but I don't!  She was instrumental in keeping my son from being allowed to be there for the birth of his first son.......and maybe his only child.....time will tell on that.  We did not get to welcome Neko into this world and Trish and Josh both missed that experience of a family welcoming a new member.  Our family is just happy that Trish was able to think more clearly after Neko was born and realized that something was wrong with the facts that had been presented to her and ongoing events proved that she had been given misinformation and had been lied to by this "friend".  As for the "friend", she is pond scum to me and I am sure, in the end, she will be her own worst enemy.  No revenge is necessary.....she will do it to herself......since the only revenge that we plan is to live our lives without her in it and be as happy and contented as we possibly can.  That kind of revenge is the sweetest kind!

My Husband was able to get a little home time tonight between loads, and I am ever so grateful that he did.  We had a little visitor this evening and I am not even sure how it got inside the house, never mind how in the world it got into my kitchen.  A bat!!!!  My Husband goes to remove it while Jen and I are freaking out and trying to get to a safe place.  Jen is willing to settle for a curtain.....not me!!!!.......in the bathroom behind a closed wooden door was the place for me!  He used a broom and a towel to take it outside and set it free.  My Husband and Jen got all upset with me when I made them throw the towel away.  I have a phobia about bats and rabies and I am not willing to take any chances.....so the towel gets thrown away....just in case!  My Husband is My Hero........he saved me from the bat!

We had another party at the house this weekend.  I must have missed something along the way since I did not realize that Heather's birthday party was going to be held at my house.  Hindsight can really be a "duh" moment sometimes since she has most of her belongings boxed up and lining the walls of her small house waiting to go into storage.  I guess my mind was more on Jessie and Alex and the party we had last week.  This party.....we had water....lots and lots of pools with water galore.  The kids loved it.  They also had lacrosse sticks and badminton and REAL horseshoes to play games with.  The playstation inside got its workout too since Adrianna, Chris, and Damien all have short attention spans so flit from one activity to another.  There was no fighting or tattletelling this weekend among the children so they are starting to settle down to Grammie rules......or at least I would like to hope so.  I am a sort of "Knock it Off" kind of Grammie who just separates those that fight and argue with as little drama as possible since negative attention is still attention so I give as little attention as possible to negative behavior.  Lots of attention to positive behavior though coupled with hugs and words of appreciation work for me.  I am strict but fair and the kids pick up on that pretty fast.  The weather worked in our favor too with it being warm but with a gentle breeze to carry the sounds of laughter and the gentle murmur of conversation.  Of course something had to go wrong though.  This time we ran out of propane .....so no hot water.  Not too big a problem since it is something we can work around until they deliver more propane.  We have the stovc in the camper so we can heat water to wash dishes and clean with.  My Husband is redoing the water pipes in the camper but ran into a glitch so the shower will have to be finished being fixed next weekend.  Heather and Tom are moving into the camper on 1 August so my Husband had better get a hustle on.  I can not wait until I get to throw a party where I do not have some kind of disaster strike on the eve of the party.  I am doing really well in not getting bent out of shape.....lately, it has started amusing me on my disasters and mishaps that keep occurring.  I am determined that I am going to enjoy my time with my family come what may.....and every mishap will become a family story to amuse the grandchildren later in life. I put Neko in the baby walker to see how he would fit in it.  While his feet do not even come close to touching the ground, his little body filled the seat so that he is not in any danger of slipping through one of the leg holes.  That boy is built like a tank.  He has finally learned to laugh.......and he sounds so beautiful.  Alex is back in North Carolina but I get to talk to him every day so we get to hear each other.  I keep practicing with him on saying "I love Grammie".  I can hardly wait until he actually says the words.....music to my ears!

I tried to find a Happy Birthday icon to post for Heather's birthday......Her 30th birthday by the way!!!  I finally had to go to her site and "lift" one from her since I found out that I could not navigate through Bigoo like she does.  This is going be posted a day late since she spirited me away early this afternoon for lunch and then to "help" her husband select an appropriate gift for her.  She wanted something she could use but put a $50 ceiling on the gift.  We searched high and low and discovered that Heather is really hard to buy for.  Most everything she really wants ....she has already obtained it or it is not on the market yet.  She has most of the kitchen gadgets and you can't buy her clothing since she is like me......we have to try it on first since it can look great on a hanger but look HORRIBLE on us.  Jewelry got exclude since $50 is not much to work with for nice jewelry since we both wanted her to have something really nice.  Finally found a steam cleaner that was professional grade and decided it was the best we could find.......and useful too since they will be moving at the end of the month and will probably need it.  I called Heather to see how she liked the gift.........at first she thought it was a vacuum cleaner and was wondering why we would get her something she already has.  Finally realized what it actually was and is now discovering all the uses she can do with it.  She is loving it more and more now!  It is amazing to me that Heather is now 30 years old.  I remember when she was born while I was stationed in Germany.  Everyone kept telling me how beautiful she was.  To me she was beautiful since she was my little girl but it was not until her hair grew in enough to be feminine that I truly realized just how beautiful she was.  As a baby, she would ignore women and saved all her flirty smiles for the men and the men in my housing area just loved her to death.  As she grew, she became my right hand daughter.  I am the first born of three daughters and I was my Mother's right hand girl and Heather became mine.  It is a position with a lot of responsibililties but it also has many privileges too.  There is a special bond between us beside just being Mother and Daughter.......we were a Team.  Not friends.......that comes later since friends are plentiful......Mothers are not!  I would have posted this sooner but Heather stopped by after work and it did not seem right to be working on it while she was here so I had to wait until she left.  Which, of course, was after her birthday was over.  She is having her birthday party this Sunday so we will all get to sing Happy Birthday to her then.  I tried to sing it to here just after midnight minutes into 12 July but silly girl left her cell phone on vibrate.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!!!!!

A plane crashed and I never knew since I didn't turn on the TV or radio in the last couple of days.  Visiting on Xanga, I go to PumpkinAnna's site and the world is now a little more smaller and a lot more sadder.  PumpkinAnna wrote this part:

The girl who wrote this is the daughter in law of a teacher friend, a hostess of mine, and a new mother.  I believe in the power of prayer.  Let's pass this on and pray for Gabby and the familly she left behind.

The Daughter in Law wrote this:

My Two Sluggers.......They are a little less than 6 months apart in age.  The outfits they are wearing are size 12 months.......funny how they fit the boys but in different ways since Alex was born in October and Neko was born in April.  Looks like Alex will not be handing down too many more outfits down to Neko in the future.

These two angels rule my Heart......aren't they so handsome!!

Alex is rubbing Neko's head again.  We finally got Damien to leave his nose alone and Adrianna is getting tickled at everyone trying to get Neko to look towards the camera.  If Kendal was in this picture, this would be a group photo of all my Grandchildren to date.  The Banana Blanket in the background is Joshua's old baby blanket that I designed and made for him when he was a baby. 

The two babies in their own chariots.....hand carried of course.  Both the Mothers are starting to make the Fathers carry the carriers whenever possible since these boys are getting heavy!

Cool Dude Neko...........checking out his Dad.....that little bit of red shirt in the lower left corner.

Yesterday the decision to finish filling the pools was made......and disaster.  Those pools took a lot more water than anticipated and we were out of water again.  Heather had wanted to order water ahead of time but my Husband did not think that was necessary.  Hindsight.......someone should have open the cover to the well and eyeballed just how much water was actually there first.  So, about 3 in the afternoon........NO water!  Jen is having her birthday party this Sunday (delayed since she went to the Christian week long concert called Creation) so this is not good news.  When we lost water on the Fourth, we were able to get water the next day but due to the system that my Husband had in place, priming the pump once it lost its suction was a task onto itself.  We did not actually get RUNNING water until sometime Saturday morning.  I still had all the mess to wash and clean up from the Fourth.

Edit and Update:  I had to discontinue entry due to thunder and lightning storm overhead.  Back to business of writing an entry.  So Saturday my Husband redoes the priming system so that it is female friendly while I and Jessie go down or rather up to Oswego to get my van from Josh.  We have to use the van since it has the hitch to the trailer that we use to haul the Karts to the racetrack in Geneva.  My husband has decided that he will step back and let Jessie race his new kart since she has never driven the new one just the old tired ones that we had before.  We had revamped one of the engines but I would have rather just have spent the money on a new one rather than sink it into the old tired (my opinion) engine.  Both Jessie and my Husband were first planning on taking Alex to the track but I finally convinced them that it would not be a good idea.  They have not been watering down the dirt track like they have in the past and the dirt in the air is just incrediable.  You wind up having gritty sand laying on top of your eyelashes it is so bad.  Since there is a lot of clay in the dirt, it just sucks the moisture right out of your body especially your lips.  So while I was running around, we ran out of water the second time and that Saurday I am waiting for the waterman.  10:00 PM ... He arrives!  Heather and I do a Happy Dance since I know I was giving up that he would come that night.  We were his last delivery for the day.  Talk about just making it under the wire!  I do some dishes but more importantly......I take a long soaking bath and wash my hair.  It is now 3:30 in the morning.....I know I should make the salad for the party now but I am so tired that everything is taking me three times a long to get it done.  Decided to sleep and wake up early.  I had told my Husband that I was not going to church and that I had stuff to do.  He only heard that I did not want to go to church.  So he woke up and left without waking me up.  10 o'clock I awaken.....the rush is on.  I go downstairs and put water on for the noodles and start doing more dishes.  Then I start washing the veggies that are going into the noodle salad.  As I am washing the carrots, my water pressure starts to drop.....and drop.....and drop.  WTF!!  We can't be out of water.  Go downstairs......look at pump.....Nothing!  Turn pump off and then on......Nothing!  Check the fuse box......one of the fuses has been tripped so reset it.  Turn pump on...pump starts....blows fuse....pump stops!  I call my Husband but he is still in church so phone is either off or in the car.  Husband gets home and tries to fix pump but not going to happen.  This pump is not fixer friendly....more of a throwaway kind of pump.  So Heather to the rescue with her handy dandy credit card to get us a pump until next payday.  My Husband is not a happy camper since he is missing Jen's two fold party......one for family and one for her friends though he had no idea that he would miss both of them at the time.  He was suppose to leave that afternoon about 3 but never got to the truck until about 10:30 that night since the first pump we purchased was the wrong one and had to be returned and replaced.  We have water now.  When he came up to let us know that water was available .....we gave him a standing ovation.  Both parties went well with a bit of drama in the evening party that caused one of the guest to be told to leave and he left leaving tire tracks on the lawn.  Of course the drama happen after my Husband left or someone would have been hanging on the clothesline hanging out to dry otherwise!