January 27/28 Kaity Sleeps Over

Saturday:  Since both of Kaity's parents are out of town this weekend, I got to have Kaity spend Saturday night here at the Beach House. Kaity hasn't had many sleepovers at my house 😕 because ... well ... I'm not sure! I know she spent the night here a few years ago when I was in Florida for 10 days. Emma was living here at the time and Kaity slept over and went to church the next morning too.

I picked Kaity up at 10AM Saturday morning. I didn't really have an agenda for us. I wasn't sure if Kaity had much sleep Friday night (she has odd sleeping hours, especially on weekends), and decided to just hang out here. It isn't difficult to relax with Kaity and just do the usual household stuff that I usually do when she is not here. She plays a lot on her phone (games with friends, short video clips, etc.) and I actually designed a card and printed out for my "Missions" file during the afternoon.

We also folded and flew a bunch of paper airplanes. See?

We also worked on my super annoying puzzle. Kaity found FIVE pieces--I was so thrilled! I only found ONE, but that was okay. We drove over to Altitude at our usual Saturday night hour--but it was SO crowded with so many parties--there was hardly room to jump! PLUS, none of our friends were there. We didn't recognize a single person! I wasn't even surprised when Kaity suggested that we leave after only 30 minutes. We had already stopped by Diana's house to get her shampoo and conditioner--so we drove back to my house and Kaity washed her hair. THEN we watched a movie: the original and first JURASSIC PARK movie. I think it's been years since I've seen it! Kaity likes to watch movies that freak me out. For some reason, she finds my screaming to be amusing.

I almost forgot! Kaity "wandered into" the medicine cabinet in the main bathroom and found a bunch of abandoned make-up in a little cosmetic bag--so she got to work making up her face. She was only doing this to be funny--Kaity is ELEVEN and doesn't wear make-up! But she sure had fun piling it on for a few minutes.

Kaity had so much lipstick on and so many colors of it all at once that she looked ... hilarious.

We ended up going to bed at about 10PM. We left our separate doors open. I went to bed with my usual book to read and Kaity had her phone and was playing games. She did really well with being quiet. I only. heard her once when she got up to use the bathroom at about 1AM. But she did not keep me awake one bit; so everything worked out fine.

Sunday:  We met Ruthanne and Terry at church this morning for the 10:45 service. I wasn't sure what Kaity would like or NOT like about being in church; but she did just fine. She sang with us and then was super quiet during the teaching time--she actually fell asleep while leaning on my shoulder--which was just fine. It was a good service, a really great time of worship, and I was so thankful to be there. Kaity actually recognized one of the songs: "Holy Forever" because I have it on a playlist on my phone that I listen to all the time while we are driving. It was nice to hear her voice singing it along with a thousand others in church today.

We decided to bring lunch home from Qdoba. YUM. We both ordered their "BOWLS" and got steak and rice. It was wonderful. I only ate half of mine and saved the other half for lunch on Monday. Kaity wanted to watch another JURASSIC movie, so we did. This was the second Jurassic Park movie that came out in 1997 (I think) ... "The Lost World: Jurassic Park II". I didn't even know this one existed! It was an interesting story and really scary. 

We worked on our puzzle some more and just hung out. It was so nice to have you here for 36 hours, Kaity. You are a JOY to be with. Love you to pieces.

PS. I took Kaity back to Diana at about 5:15 and then went to watch the Lions in the playoffs against the 49ers. Sigh. It was like watching two totally different Lion's teams! We were amazing in the first half and up by 17 points at half-time. But did we win? Will we be in the Super Bowl FINALLY?!?!?!? No. We lost the game. The second half was miserable to watch. Everything that could have possible gone wrong, DID. I was screaming my head off. Well ... I'm still proud of how the Lions played this season. It certainly was fun to follow a winning team for once!

January 25 with Kaity (and more!)

Thursday:  I was supposed to be over at Jesse's today at 1:00 to take him to the airport. He has (HAD) a 3:45 flight out to Florida this afternoon. However, that flight was delayed (due to fog)--so he called me and asked if I could pick him up at 3:00 instead. No problem. I dropped Jesse off at the airport and then drove over to get Kaity. I was late getting her; but Jesse sent her a text to explain why.

Kaity is never very happy when Jesse goes out of town. Me either! We always miss him--Kaity much more than I do (obviously). But we spent some time together over at my place, ate a nice meal, and then drove over to Altitude.

Before we got out of the car over at Altitude, we prayed that Ayden would come too. Kaity had sent a text to his dad earlier in the evening about us going over to Altitude and what time, etc., hoping she would hear back with him saying that they would be going--but we did NOT hear back. Anyway ... we asked the Lord to bring Ayden anyway. And look!!!! We were there just a few minutes when AYDEN arrived. We were very happy to see him. Also, BLUEBERRY, Alex, Isaac and Allen were there. These kids have so much fun together.

This face on Ayden! 

And THIS one! What a nice person you are, Ayden. So attentive and easy to connect with.

This picture completely cracked us up because it looks like Alex is standing on top of Kaity's head ...

And this picture too! 

They played "tag" until they were completely worn out; and then they played a game called "Grumpy Grandma" (!?), but I never did find out the rules to that game. All of these kids have nicknames too. Ayden's is "Spiderman", "Blueberry"? His real name is Jase. Kaity calls Allen "BOB", and Alex is called "Coco Melon". Isaac's nickname is "Tiny Timmy" (he has a SCREAM that you would not believe--like it completely wrecks your ears)--and he is smiling from ear to ear as he screams.

These kids had a lot of fun Thursday at Altitude. Kaity was sad in her heart because her dad was flying farther away with every minute we were there. But she did alright. She just loves her dad, and I am thankful for that.
 

January 24 Reunited and happy

Wednesday:  It doesn't seem possible ... but it's TRUE! I haven't seen Dylan, Kelly, Brendan, Aidan, Erin or Cal since New Year's Eve/Day !!! TODAY was happening NO MATTER WHAT.

I picked up little Cal from preschool at noon. I walked over to his classroom (which has an entire wall of windows) and pressed my face against it and smiled. He looked up and began yelling, "Grandma, Grandma, GRANDMA!" Squealing actually. His happy little face! So darling.

We played a bunch of stuff at my house today. How wonderful to have Cal all by himself to listen to, play with and just ... focus on him. We had a bunch of fun.

Mr. Cal is not difficult to feed--which is so nice! He eats like a trooper! He's a little bit fickle (sometimes) about exactly what he is eating when; but for the most part, he just eats whatever you put on his tray. Today, he ate Mac ' n Cheese, nachos (with taco meat and shredded cheese), a few big hunks of Colby-jack cheese, cantaloupe, crackers ... and very last--a homemade chocolate-chip cookie. What a dear little face you have, Callaghan. My heart is warmed just by looking at these photos of you!

We had fun watching my birds (and squirrels) today too. There were a few times when a squirrel was INSIDE my window box feeder--so Cal would run to the window and freak it out and it would JUMP to the ground--which really pleased Cal to no end. Eventually, Cal would just scream from a distance and get the same result--the squirrel would FLEE, and then we would laugh.

I was invited to play in the playroom for awhile. We were playing with all of our cars and trucks for a long time. Cal was really "into" my pull-back digger truck and dump truck. I took a deep breath and then told him I was going to show him something, but that he would have to play with it as I directed. I pulled out the bin of beans, chic peas and sparkly rocks from deep underneath the bottom bunk bed, and I told Cal a little story about his brother Aidan and what happened the day he and I were playing with this stuff. I told Cal I had just one rule: Keep the contents of the bin INSIDE the bin--no throwing the beans around the room! You see, Aidan (at age 4) just would not comply with that one rule; so I had to put it very far away and we couldn't have fun with it anymore. Cal listened carefully. I told him Aidan cried about it, but that I put it away anyway. SO ... look how nicely Cal is playing!

We went on a "treasure" hunt and found all of the tiny sparkly rocks that were buried underneath the beans. THEN we found all of the clear blue "ice" rocks! THEN Cal thought it would be fun to include our cheetah (the cheetah is kind of blending in, but Cal is holding it) to see how he liked being in our "rocks."

We got a full 20 minutes of fun from our time in the rock bin ... but then Cal took a handful and looked at me ... and hesitated ... and I reminded him about Aidan ... and he dropped his fistful back into the bin; but wouldn't you know it? That DARN cheetah started running through the beans and accidentally kicked a few of them -- boing --- out of the bin. I narrowed my eyes at the culprit (Cal), and then CAL offered to put the whole thing away. So we did. He kills me. I would, however, rate the bean bin a success for today!

We left the playroom and spent some time playing treehouse. Cal loves this set so much. I was telling Kaity about it the other day and she reminded me (in NO uncertain terms) that the treehouse was HERS (which it IS!). I bought it for her for her sixth (?) birthday with the condition that it had to stay at MY house (it was expensive, and would not have existed for longer than one week if Kaity had taken it home).

Cal is very imaginative in his play. I love to watch him go at it. He's very cool with sound effects too. The squirrels "squeak", the birds "tweet", and grizzly definitely ROARS, etc. Cal is a blast.

Somewhere during our few hours here (I think it was when Cal was playing with the train set in the kitchen area), I was playing children's praise songs (from my phone playlist) and Cal looked up from the trains and said to me: "Gramma--Jesus is NOT dead." I was clearing our lunch from the table and stopped, turned to him and said: "You are RIGHT, Cal. Jesus is NOT dead!" Cal responded: "He WAS dead, but then he didn't STAY dead. He rose from the dead." Yes, Cal! Jesus is most certainly ALIVE. Mmmm...my heart swelled with love and joy as I listened to how serious Cal was about this awesome truth. 

We played with our "stuffies" for awhile too. Cal likes stuffed animals a lot. Mine all have names (naturally) and special voices (!!), so it's very fun to play with them.

There was another remarkable thing that happened with Cal today. While we were playing with our trucks, Cal had the gas truck that has the word "Shell" on the side of it. I was playing with one of the car carriers and Cal asked me what kind of truck it was, so I told him. Then he told me this: "I have the SHELL truck, gramma." and pointed right to the word "Shell" on the side of the truck. How on earth did Cal read that word? What the ...?

We returned to their homestead at just about 4:00 in time to get Erin and Aidan off their school bus. Cal did NOT take any naps with me today! While we were waiting for the bus to drive up the street, Cal pretended he was driving my car. He really gets a thrill out of this.

Here is ERIN showing me her new Chinese immersion T-shirt. She knew I would like it because it is a beautiful RED.

Isn't she precious? I love spending time with Erin and listening about her school day and her friends. She has such interesting little stories to tell. And she is super sweet to listen to. I brought some after-school snacks over to their house--so Erin was eating those while she was talking to me. 

Cal kept begging to go downstairs in the basement so he could show me the latest stuff down there. 

Here he is with his LIONS hat. "Did you know that we beat the BUCS, gramma?" Yes, Cal! He knew a bunch of other football facts as well. And then he grabbed his football and went out for a long pass! He missed it, but I'm not a very good quarterback.

This little face ...

And here is Aidan Paul! He has lost THREE teeth since I last saw him! Oh.my.goodness. I love you, Aidan!

And here's Brendan enjoying a show on TV. I watched it for awhile with the kids, just to be in the same room with them. It was a poorly written and far-worse(ly) animated show that made zero sense ... sigh. It was just good to be in proximity to this beautiful child for 30 minutes.

That's all for this week! I left to return to my house shortly before 6:00. It's difficult for me to drive at night--I don't see as well, for some reason. It wasn't pitch black yet--so I left and made it safely home by about 6:20. Super thankful for this Wednesday. Not a single thing happened that the Lord did not give me strength for. He is SO good.

January 21 Lions 31, Buccaneers 23

Sunday:  Well ... we watched HISTORY this afternoon! The Detroit Lions have never won TWO playoff games in one season--at least not since the Super Bowl era arrived some 57 years ago. The announcers were saying that in the early 60's, the Lions were the team to beat--they were really good. But that was a LONG time ago. The first Super Bowl took place January 15, 1967. We have only once made it to the playoffs (perhaps it was 2x), but never progressed beyond the first playoff game--in other words, we LOST. We've had 0 and 16 seasons! Anyway, for years just saying I was a Lion's fan was almost laughable to anyone who was listening.

Notwithstanding, I HAVE been a Lions fan--although rather negligent since I haven't owned a TV since 2012 and have only watched a few games. But I do remember well those years that Jim and I used to watch the games together, with me yelling at the top of my lungs, and Jim giving me all the statistics that I needed to know for the rest of my life.

Interestingly, our JESSE is named ... kind of after a Lions' player from 1980 by the name of JESSE THOMPSON, #84. He wasn't a starter, but he did play quite a bit. I remember Jim and I having difficulty agreeing on a name for our expected baby and one Sunday afternoon as we were watching the Lions play, Jesse Thompson was in on a number of remarkable plays and I told Jim that I liked the name JESSE, and he agreed right away. Although I put the kibosh on a middle name of JAMES--no way. 1980 was Billy Sims' rookie year, by the way, where he ran the ball 1,303 yards and caught 57 passes for another 621 yards. I think he was rookie of the year that year.

When the Lions won their playoff game last week, it was the first playoff win in about 32 years--and we only won by ONE point. Today's game against the Bucs was sweeter, I think. Anyway--it was a great game even though NBC messed up the broadcast in our area for about 20 minutes as the second quarter was winding down. We were so infuriated! It finally allowed us to reconnect and finish watching the game. I did a LOT of screaming. Jesse and Matthew were very understanding!

Dear Kaity having a hug with Jesse

It was SO GOOD to see Matthew. What a nice person he is. It was very fun to watch the game with him and listen to he and Jesse interact about football in general. Matt has been working at a car dealership for a few months now and is doing well in his job--earning more than I ever did in a week even after working 35 years!

I love you, Matthew! Praying God's best blessings for your life, dear grandson. Hoping with all my heart that you know Him, love Him, and surrender your life to the One who made you and loves you more than you could possibly understand. 

January 20 with Kaity

Saturday:  It was our usual Saturday afternoon around here today. Kaity came over, we hung out, watched some funny cat videos, ate a meal ... and measured Kaity! I've been measuring the height of my grandchildren for years on the narrow wall outside my bedroom. So far, Matt is the tallest at 6'1", but I don't think he is quite finished growing yet. Kaity has grown almost 10" in three years.

Kaity has been going through a growth spurt for close to two years now. She is now officially 5'2" and on her way to growing taller than Emma (about 5'8.5") when all of her growing is finished (her bones, that is). We are thinking she might reach a height of 5'10"--it wouldn't surprise me a single bit.

We did go over to Altitude, but our friend Ayden was gone for the weekend--so there was no hope of meeting up with him there. The place was packed out with birthday parties, etc. This was the first time in a very long time that Kaity didn't find a friend to play with. But she still jumped and practiced some of her moves. We still had fun together laughing at all of the antics of other jumpers. 

Time spent with Kaity is almost always fun.

January 19 More birds

Friday:  My "Birds of Michigan" Field Guide is helping me identify some of the birds that are eating at my feeders--but a few of them are difficult to decide what exactly they are! I'll post these recent pictures I took Friday and perhaps later I will be able to identify these big, brown, speckled birds--they are very aggressive--all my tiny birds flinch and fly away when they swoop down to eat ...

Look at the icicles! There are even icicles hanging from the little bird house attached to my window.

These big guys do NOT like to be messed with! Look at mean they are ... and how long their beaks!

Even their eyes look ... piercing--don't they?

This little bird (and many of his identical friends) come every day to feed. They are a little kinder to their own than some of the others that visit here ...

This guy looks like a regular STOOGE ...

Ooo ... I just found this bird in my Guide. It is a European Starling! It says 100 Starlings were "introduced" to New York City in 1890-91 from Europe! This brown speckled coat is how they look in winter--they look a LOT different in the spring and summer--"glittering, iridescent purplish-black."

Isn't this little guy a cutie?

 When I catch an extra moment or two, I will get serious about identifying these beautiful birds ...