12. 24, 2015 Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2015

Dear everyone I know,

Right now I’m in Coeur d’Alene Idaho, sitting at Josh and Megan’s kitchen table, looking out the window at 15 inches of snow!  I’m here to celebrate my newest Grand Baby Elizabeth’s first Christmas with her and her parents.  J  It’s warm in the kitchen, Megan is making spritz cookies, baby is sleeping, and Josh is working…so I thought to use this time to get this letter written.

We not only have a new Grand Girl but also a new Grand Boy!   Scott’s son Brad and wife Megan had their son Elliott Scott on February 10 and 12 days later on February 22, Elizabeth LaRue was born. Both are thriving cutie pies with big smiles; I have to admit that Elliott has a lot more hair than Elizabeth.  In fact, my sister has called him Prince Luscious Locks.  

Scott and I had a good 2015; not as much travel this year as last year… if you read my letter last year, you know we traveled the country for six months. As wonderful as all that was, I needed to find a job and in January I started work at Greenwood Middle School as a 6^th grade instructional aide.  This past September I switched over to the Central 9 Career Academy, a vocational school for 9 school systems.  I’m doing basically the same thing at C9 as I did at GMS…friendly nagging and crowd control.

Travel.  Last Easter I came to Idaho to meet Elizabeth and contrived to hold her for the whole week.  Once school was out in May, we headed west again in our RV with Sam and Jenna as co-pilots.  Stops included the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Wall Drugs, and Little Big Horn, ending up here in Coeur d’Alene for some family time.  Leaving Sam and Jenna here to tickle Elizabeth, Scott and I continued to Oregon, meeting up with Cousins Sue and Bob Wilkins, and then driving and camping up the coast, ending up in Seattle.   Back home by mid-July, we had the house re-sided and the roof replaced, and then I was back to work.  Work really puts a damper on things, doesn’t it?  Scott is still enjoying his retirement – he makes noises about finding a part time job but he’s not looking really hard. 

My son Josh and wife Megan are having fun with Elizabeth, watching her grow.  Josh programs from home for HP and Megan is an elementary school counselor.  Idaho is way too far away from Indiana for my liking but we skype often and they’re good about sending me pictures of Elizabeth’s smiley little face.  I crocheted her a blanket before she was born, the colors of the rainbow.  It makes me happy to see that it is her favorite blanket, the one she sleeps with it every night!  

My son Tim and Mary are both teachers in the Lafayette Indiana school system.  Mary is an English teacher at the high school and Tim is teaching 8^th grade algebra.   They’re doing so well with raising their boy Clark – he’s a fun little guy and I love it when I get to hang out with him.

My son Sam and Jenna are living in Bloomington Indiana.  He’s working as a Tech Writer, hoping to get a novel or two published, and Jenna is working as a Costume Technician for the Jacobs School of Music, at Indiana University.  

Scott’s a lucky guy – both of his children and their families are mere minutes down the street.  His daughter Jessica and her husband Shawn have two girls.  Kaylinn is a high school freshman and Kamryn is in 5^th grade.  Brad and his wife Megan are handling two babies…their daughter Gretchen is 19 months and Elliott (aka Prince Luscious Locks) is 10 months.  

My boys and their girls, Scott’s kids, and all the Grands make us very happy.  Grands are the best, aren’t they?

PS

It’s now Christmas Eve morning and I’m back at the table, sitting next to Elizabeth as we both eat our oatmeal.  It’s still snowing! There has to be almost 20 inches out there on the porch.  Yet when I talked to Scott this morning, he informed me that yesterday in Greenwood it was 60 or so degrees and a tornado hit the area.  Weird Weird!  

As I was making my oatmeal, I heard Megan tell Elizabeth that it was her very first Christmas Eve!  And I had to laugh because it’s my 58^th Christmas Eve.  And wow, how the cast of characters in my life has changed!  Life is as weird as that tornado but as long as I’ve got Scott and my boys and girls and all those grands to hug and roll around on the floor with…Life Is Good! 

HO HO HO and Merry Christmas!

09.16.2015 A chance meeting at Steak and Shake

09.16.2015  Below is something I wrote on 9.11 and posted on Facebook as part of my 2015 Picaday.  It has nothing to do with the huge American tragedy that happened 14 years ago when so many people lost their lives - the date is just happenstance.  I'm posting it here as part of my blog because I didn't want to lose what I'd written after I met Shirley, a little old woman who lost her husband just over a year ago.

9.11.2015

Scott and I walked over to Steak and Shake for a quick supper.  As we walked to our booth, I noticed a little old lady over by the windows.  She was sitting by herself, slowly sipping her coffee, playing with her napkin, just looking at the other diners.  Scott and I sat down and ordered our food.  I looked over and she was still by herself, looking kind of sad and lonely.

So I went over and slid into the seat across from her and said "Hi!  I saw you sitting here by yourself and I was compelled to come over and say HI!"  She smiled a big smile at me, straightened up a bit and said in a soft voice "Do I know you?"

I said "Nope!" and smiled back at her.  We started talking.

Shirley is 88 years old a pretty woman with a soft wrinkled face.  Her husband of 65 years died about a year ago.  They would often eat at the Steak and Shake, since it's close to where they lived and she eats there still.  "I eat my sandwich and pretend that my Rex is sitting across from me."

She misses him so much that at night alone in her apartment she cries for him.

I asked about children or grandchildren - she has them but none live close to Greenwood and everyone is so busy she hates to ask very often for some time.  She was upset that her photograph album wasn't in her purse - she wanted to show me a picture of Rex.  I asked her what color his eyes were and she smiled and said they were a little blue, a little green "and he had a beautiful smile."

Eventually I went back to my table but kept an eye on her as I told Scott of our conversation.  She smiled over at me as she packed up her onion rings and paid for her meal and then stood.  I hopped up, went over and gave her a big hug.  She hugged me back, looked up at me and said "Thank you so much for coming to my table.  I'm not so lonely right now."

She followed me back to my table, thanked Scott for sharing me for a few minutes and then left.  I tell you what, I wanted to ask her for her address and phone number so I could take care of her but you know, little old ladies shouldn't give out their info to just anyone.

I'm so glad I went over.  :)  If you see someone sitting by themselves, don't be afraid to go over and say HI.  You might be just what they need.

02.17.2015 Tim has inspired me to return to this blog!

02.17.2015

I contributed to this blog fairly regularly for awhile...and then when I was hanging with my grandson on a daily basis, I also posted on a daily basis.  But then, I stopped.  and it's crazy, but 2014 was full of changes and adventures for me and this blog would have been a good place to write all about it.

But I was living it and didn't really have the time to write it all down properly.  Maybe I'll blog about it all in my next post, because THIS post is about...

50 Shades of Grey.   I read the first book.   I took the book out from the Greenwood Library, using the automated checkout lane so nobody really knew I had it ( not the reason I used the auto checkout..I always use it)  but I DID find myself a little embarrassed when I turned it in and one of the nice women who work there commented on it...."ooooohhhhh you've read this, hmmmm?" with a sly little grin.

And really, as I used to tell the boys, " if you can't stand there with pride on your face and tell your grandfather or me exactly what it was you did or are planning to do...well, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place  at the LEAST think long and hard about it to see if it's all gonna be worth it because I will find out."

so maybe I shouldn't have read it in the first place, but I really wanted to know what all the fuss was about.   I read it and was darn happy I was not sitting on a bus or on a couch next to a kid while I was reading it because  "sheesh" and "whew" and "just what is she thinking?"  I didn't bother to go on to book 2 or 3.   I figured it just would be more of the same and I didn't care enough about the characters to find out how it all ended.

Anyway - last night I was reading online a few articles written by people who are completely outraged by the movie.  And I get while they're outraged... they say young impressionable people will view the movie and think it's all a good thing, perhaps leading each aforementioned impressionable person down the path to wrack and ruin.

And I get it.  But you know?  It's a movie.  A movie based on a book.  It's a book.  It's not real.  And I know that lives can be changed for better or worse by a book...but when you get right down to it, it's fiction.

I was a middle school librarian when the first Harry Potter book came out.  Witches!  Sorcery!  Dark Magic!  OH NO!  And was I gonna put it into the library?  Yep.  And each elementary put that book on the shelf as well.  The kids READ.  Did any of them become witches or warlocks?  I do not know.  But sheesh.  FICTION.  It's a book!  Fiction!  and wow, look at all those kids reading, zipping thru those enormous books!  They're Reading!  It's a MIRACLE!  Where's book 2!!!??/

One night I was at choir practice and there was a great brouhaha going on about the new movie coming out based on a novel titled  The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.  I'd read all 3 of his Dark Materials books and really enjoyed them.  I never thought any of them were based on fact, but the brouhaha?  Oh my goodness people!  It's FICTION.

I understand the power of the written word.  I understand that some people can't tell the difference between right and wrong, between black and white, BUT a talking armored polar bear or a talking lion (let's just go ahead and drag Narnia in here) is fiction.  And if the writing is good and the book starts people talking or omg, THINKING...well it's ALL GOOD.

So 50 Shades of Grey?  No, I won't go see it...it'd be a waste of my money.   And really, MEH...it's FICTION!  If you want to read the book or see the movie?  Go ahead!  It's NOT REAL..  Just don't get into somebody else's face if they want to read or watch.  Sheesh.  It's NOT REAL.

Meh.