April 20 with dear KT

Saturday: Diana asked me if it was possible to meet she and KT over at the Gardens mid-afternoon today--so that's the arrangement we made, which worked out just fine. I snapped only a very few pictures while in the butterfly conservatory ... because I already have 100's ... plus since it was a Saturday, it was super crowded and not worth trying to get a good photo.

I was able to finally find Kaity and her mom inside the conservatory and then Kaity and I took off on our own. We stopped by the gift shop to see if there was anything interesting (toys) to look at; but they've cut way back on their toy selection!

Earlier in the day, Kaity had asked if her good friend, Kenzie, could come over with her this afternoon. I love having Kenzie over with Kaity! But it turned out that Kenzie had forgotten all about a soccer game she needed to attend. She is on the team, but is unable to play because of her recently fractured tibia (!!); but she was there to support her team anyway. So it was just Kaity and I!

We worked on our new puzzle (I forget to take pictures) for awhile, which is always fun. Kaity's pretty territorial when it comes to puzzles, though. You have to be careful NOT to TOUCH a piece she has her eye on! I'll take pictures as we make further progress. Right now we don't even have the border completed.

Kaity requested we watch a Woody Woodpecker movie, so we did that. It was okay. I am not a "fan" of movies like this; but I can certainly sit with Kaity as she enjoys them, can't I? I like a GOOD story plot with well-developed characters. I like history and intrigue! I like love stories. But ... Kaity isn't there yet, so that's okay. I have an abundance of movies to show her when she is ready for them. At this age (almost 12), Emma wasn't into my kind of movies either--she did, however, grow over the years and we ended up having very similar movie "likes" and "dislikes". 

These "silly" pictures are Kaity goofing around. It looks like my coffee table ran her over ...

... isn't she funny? I love her laugh.

Well ... that's it. Her tongue is hanging out. She is dead.

I love you, Kaity-girl.

 

April 19 A Charlie Crisis

Friday:  On my short list today was repairing our marionette bird puppet--CHARLIE. I had gotten him out of his closet hiding place and played with him with Cal on Wednesday. I never actually let Cal run around with Charlie--because his strings get tangled up so easily--but somehow, he managed to get more tangled than I had ever seen him before. Poor Charlie!

To no avail I tried to untangle the four strings, but the more I tried, the worse Charlie got! It was hopeless! When Kaity was here last night, we looked at the problem together. Kaity's usually pretty adept at untangling Charlie for me; and actually, when Kaity plays with Charlie, he does not get tangled! She worked with his strings for awhile, but this time she was unable to straighten him out.

I told Kaity that I thought the only way to fix Charlie was to cut his strings and re-string him--she agreed; so that's what I did today. I cut his four strings and then hot-glued them, one-by-one, back to their cross-sticks. Then I made a little cardboard square piece, wrote CHARLIE on it, and hot-glued that to his sticks. I'm hoping this little "square" prevents, or at least discourages, the strings from crossing over and getting so ridiculously tangled.

I also decided to store Charlie in a bin on the top shelf in the playroom--that way, he doesn't have to hang on a hanger, stressing his strings out. The top shelf is out of reach for the little kids, and he fits perfectly in the bin!

April 18 My KT-Girl

Thursday:  I was already in the driveway when Kaity's bus pulled up this afternoon. It's been a week since I've seen her and I missed her! Apparently, she had been sick and missed a day of school this week; so she presented me with a few homework assignments that she needed to complete.

We worked on Kaity's homework right away. I used to love school ... well, except Math. Wouldn't you know it? Kaity had a Math assignment on parallelograms and trapezoids, etc. Not exactly my cup of tea--but I learned a lot from helping Kaity with her assignment. It's not like I didn't know this stuff; but it's been so long ago that I studied it, that I quite forgot it! Kaity also had a history lesson that covered colonial life in the late 1700's--the Boston Tea Party and the Continental Congress, etc. I love that stuff.

Kaity used my nice mechanical pencils to write out her answers. I decided to donate one for her to use since she enjoyed it so much. It took awhile for us to work through these assignments--but it was so nice to interact with Kaity and "pick her brain" a little bit. She is a wonderful girl, Kaity is. She has some reading challenges--which naturally affects every subject in school--so it takes extra time and patience for Kaity to do her assignments. She's not terribly fond of school work, but this does not mean she does not have a very capable brain. She just lacks motivation I think ... and definitely lacks interest in certain subjects (don't we all?). Plus, in our age of technology--patience isn't needed as much as it used to be--information is everywhere on the internet, right at your fingertips.

Doesn't Kaity have a beautiful face? I think so ... and I love her dearly ... not for her beautiful face, but for her heart.

We ended up over at our trampoline place mid-evening. It was surprisingly NOT crowded tonight. Our friend, Ayden, was there; so he and Kaity hung out a bit. They used to be much closer--but things have shifted a bit with their friendship. We also received word that Kaity's dear friend, Kenzie, has a fractured tibia! Yikes. If that is the truth, Kenzie will be a few weeks or even months, away from jumping at Altitude. I hope her leg heals quickly.

April 17 with Cal

Wednesday:  I'm never quite sure what mood young Cal will be in while playing at my house. Yesterday, he was not as wild and crazy about CARS and trucks as he was about the puppets! I got out Charlie from the closet and cracked Cal up for awhile with him. His strings are so messed up right now, I'm not sure I will ever be able to straighten them out again!

Cal was very amused by both Charlie and Sunny today and kept going back to play with them.

We did spend a bit of time back in the playroom and had our very own gravel pit to play in for awhile.

Mr. Cal was very intense and precise about which trucks were capable of which tasks ... and correctly named each truck!

Cal did a good job keeping our "beans" and sparkly stones inside the container. He understood my instructions about not throwing them all over the room, and played for 20 minutes very nicely. Good job, Cal.

I was a tiny bit surprised that Cal derived so much pleasure moving beans around from bulldozer to dump truck, etc. I do have some "buried treasure" under the beans that we were able to find, and that was fun.

Our three hours here went by quickly. We read quite a few books while Cal was on the potty. Every single book that was in the bathroom book bin was read from cover to cover!

Cal fell asleep immediately on the ride back to his house. Once there, I let him sleep another 20 minutes while I got the kids off their bus; and then we all had a nice cantaloupe and cucumber snack. We also played horse rides (I was the horse) in the basement while watching a Aidan and Brendan play a video game on the big screen. 

It was a very nice few hours with these beautiful and precious grandchildren. So thankful for them.

April 11 with KT

Thursday:  I'm not sure, but I think it's been a few years since I have been away from Kaity for TWELVE entire days ... but this was with good reason! Kaity was on a mini-vacation with Jesse to Florida and back. I was very excited to see her today and hear about all of her adventures. When I asked her about her trip, she spoke mostly about her swim with the dolphins, which sounded very cool. Kaity forwarded me some pictures tonight; but I haven't transferred them over yet--when I do, I'll post them.

At my house tonight, however, Kaity completely finished up our puzzle! EXCEPT ...

... there was ONE missing piece. We searched high and low (and I have separately searched every living inch of this place!) and it's just not here!

Since Kaity was under doctor's orders NOT to jump for TWO weeks at our favorite trampoline park (in order to give her knee a rest), and today marked the two-week time, we drove over to Altitude tonight. Kaity brought along her knee brace and wore it most of the time she was there. This is our friend, Elijah. He is a really pleasant young kid who doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. He jumps super high. He is easy to talk to and has the most beautiful smile.

It's good to have friends!

None of our other friends showed up tonight, so that was a little bit sad. When Elijah had to leave, we left soon afterwards as well. Kaity said her knee was a little bit sore, but not as bad as it had been--so that's good.

April 10 Matt is NINETEEN

Wednesday:  I made this card for Matthew's birthday and brought it over to him on my way home from being with the little kids.

Matt was just three years old in the first picture. I used it for the cover of his card because it's just so cute of him, isn't it? This was taken on the school playground in El Paso, where Matt lived for more than six years of his very early life.

The inside of his card was a combination of more than 30 other pictures I gathered from my archives. I love these pictures of Matt--mostly because I can remember every place/event of each picture.

Matt isn't a young child any more. Nineteen is his very last year as a TEEN. He graduated from high school a year ago. He is presently working full time at a car dealership as a mechanic-in-training. Right now, he mostly changes the oil on the cars; but he has a lot of mechanical aptitude and is eventually going to advance in all he can do to work on and fix cars.

I need to post bigger pictures of the ones I used for his card--because I love these so much:

The bluest eyes!

This was about a year ago. Matt was over,
and he and Emma were sketching stuff.

The one and only time Matt has played
PACHESI at my house.

I think Emma took this picture of Matt.
They are at a playground very near his house.

This is a close-up of the picture above.
Matt has grown to be so handsome.

I especially love this picture of Matt,
so I zoomed in (below) to see 
the sweet expression on his face ...

This was one time when just Matt and KT
were here with me. Matt went out of his
way to play with KT and was so kind.

A football player for Comstock Park.
Matt loves football (me too!).

At my friend's (Karen) pool a few
summers ago. Matt was the captain of his
own ship!

At Deer Tracks Junction.
I loved watching these boys love on
the goats. Super sweet and tender.

At AJ's. Matt "won" more tickets and shared his
winnings with Chris!

At Deer Tracks Junction,
lost in the softness of this little rabbit ...

Same day at the Budgie House

One of the last times I was in the woods
with Matt. I loved walking in the woods
with him.

At Art Prize a few years ago

Matt playing with our Cocoa Cat puppet

At the Corn Maze
Schwallier's Country Basket

Grand Haven Pier
2014?

THIS picture!
Out in nature, having the time of
his life.

2012 at Townsend Park
Hunting crayfish!

At the school playground near Brendan's
house blowing huge bubbles

I think this is at the John Ball Zoo
playground. We used to play
there after visiting the animals.

I remember this day like it was
yesterday. We were at a park
on the W. side of town, doing
some hiking. This is such a great
picture of Matt.

I had this picture of Matt
hanging on my bedroom wall
for a long time ... but his beautiful face
looks so sad, doesn't it?

One of my favorite pictures
of Matt and KT

It was always so much fun
to explore the woods with Matt!

Matt was great at Origami too.

A very expert LEGO builder

A happy Matt showing me his
new bike helmet

The years sure go by quickly. I continue to pray that Matt will seek the Lord who made him. I pray that Matt will KNOW Him as Savior and lover of his heart and soul. I love this quote from C.H. Spurgeon: "God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He ever created." I think of Matt when I read this because long ago, when he was just a tiny child, we were talking about how much God loves us. I told Matt that God is ALWAYS watching us and wants us to talk to Him. Matt was about 3 at the time--we were at a playground, and he was cuddled up with me--he interrupted me with several questions: (1) "What if God is sleeping when I try to talk to Him?" I told Matt that God NEVER sleeps--not ever! (2) "What if God is too busy to listen to me?" I answered that God is NEVER too busy and that He loves to hear Matt talk to Him. (3) "BUT what if God is very far away when I try to talk to Him, grandma, and can't hear me?" Matt was quite persistent that God was not interested in listening to him! My heart felt so sad during this conversation; but I didn't back down a single bit. I reminded Matt of a verse we had been memorizing: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13.5) 

I pray you will know that the Lord is as close to you as your very breath, Matt. I pray that one day you will enter into a relationship with the God who made you, and the only Person who will ever satisfy the longings of your heart. I love you very much.