28 posts tagged “home”
MomH sent me some photos from when I was home in August to go to the fair. I actually scanned them as soon as I got them, which would be today. It usually takes me a few months of procrastinating before I finally forget and never do it. What's more impressive is that MomH had Steve download the pics from her camera and then she took the CD to the store to get copies within close to a month of them being taken. It's a pretty involved process, mind you.
I thought you might enjoy seeing a few. If you don't enjoy them, then you just wasted a few seconds glancing through. :-P
From left to right, Brother Ray, Yours Truly and Brother Steve:
Me with Danielle, Brother Ray's oldest. She's a freshman in high school this year. I remember when she was an itty bitty baby. Sigh.
The fairgrounds had a relocated and restored one-room schoolhouse.
Back on the farm, here are the sheepies before they went to the fair.
(Yes the photo is crooked. The scanning process is also a pain in the rear and I deemed this good enough).
Finally, the main event. There's a family of kitties living in my parents garage. They could not possibly be cuter. I had to check my luggage to make sure Mom & DadH didn't stick any in my suitcase when I wasn't looking.
Here's my entry in the effort to keep the internet from imploding without cats.
This is Kitty, aka Grandma's Cat, The House Cat, etc - the kitty I convinced MomH to take in when I was home at Christmas.
She's not the prettiest of cats, but she's a sweetie pie and a great house kitty. She loves MomH, not so much my father although he helps look after The Cat. It's really fun to see them turn into housecat people.
Kitty was helping us sort through Grams' many decks of cards. They were euchre decks so we had to put whole decks back together. All the 9s through aces (plus 5s) were worn, all the 2s through 8s were like new. That makes sense if you know how to play.
Kitty doesn't know how to play euchre, but likes to play with rubber bands. Sorry for the blur, I couldn't get a non-action shot.
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A few days at the fair was good for the soul, but probably not my waistline. Oh, well. It was worth it.
I ended up seeing a lot of my friends from my 4-H days (such fun catching up!), and some people I never was friends with (ignored each other just like old days) and one person I told off at the State Fair years ago because she was a witch and I had had enough of her putting me down in front of people she wanted to impress. I made nice with her yesterday - it was 20 years ago, after all - and I think she was still holding a grudge. So that was fun (for me). She can either get over it or not. Probably not since I heard she still treats her friends that way. Eh, whatever. I'm glad I talked to her in any event.
This morning I sat outside on the deck, reading the paper and listening to fish jumping in the pond. A hummingbird even stopped by to wish me good morning. Ahn.
I went down to the barn to play with all the kitties - so many barn kitties! I apologize for not taking any pictures, but my camera would have exploded from all teh cute. The baby kitties were beyond adorable. There were babies in Mom & DadH's garage (marmalades) and another set in the calf barn (grey tabbies).
The embryo transplant guy was also there so I took a peek at cow embryos under the microscope. I think he said they were four days old. Pretty cool stuff, that. Then I helped out the process by handing the straws to the guy so he could transfer the embryos into waiting heifers. Not too demanding of a job, except those were worth a lot of money and if I dropped one, DadH would have had a massive coronary right then and there.
I had lunch with the family, which was really nice. The girls were at the fair so it was just all us adults for a change.
MomH and I went to visit Grams again. She's pretty delusional, with moments of lucidity. She knew who I was and that I was visiting from Arizona. On Sunday she was convinced she was going to deliver a baby, but we talked her out of that. Today she thought my aunt and uncle from Wisconsin were there but mad at her and avoiding her. Sigh. We just talked to her and spent time with her, although it didn't feel like nearly enough time.
I thought we'd get out of the room and have a change of scenery. I caused some excitement by wheeling her too close to the front door. Her house-arrest ankle bracelet set off the alarms and the staff came a running. Whoops. No one is getting out of that building without the entire neighborhood knowing about it, I tell you what!
My time home was far too short. I didn't get in touch with some friends that I should have but it was a quick in and out. I wanted to maximize family time. My family rocks. They are really funny, really good people. I miss them.
It's been a long day so I suppose I should get some sleep. It's good to be back.
Share your favorite winter photograph.
It's a repeat, but it's still my favorite. MomH said of it, "Wow, it makes it look like we live in a pretty place."
It's the last and first week of the year. It feels like some kind of calendar purgatory, where you are lingering and time is neither here nor there. Except with calendar purgatory, you don't have to cough up extra cash to save your soul. You just need to get moving or sit around and wait it out.
I thought I would wait it out, but now I feel like getting things done. Or at least getting ready for a long weekend with time on my side.
If anyone is interested in What I Did Over Christmas Vacation, here's the synopsis:
- never once was crabby or grouchy with any family member
- had severe back/shoulder/neck pain which I attributed to a bad pillow. MomH thought it was because I wasn't being crabby or grouchy and therefore holding all of my stress in and causing myself pain.
- shovelled snow. Twice.
- played with baby kittens and a few baby calves
- never did decorate a cow
- stayed indoors as much as possible
- escaped bad travel weather
- convinced ParentsH that Garage Kitty really should be House Kitty. Success!
- caught up with my favorite college friends
- ate fantastic Middle Eastern food in Metro Detroit.
- did not catch up with my favorite hometown friends except for my BFF, who was kind enough to give me a ride from Detroit to the farm, where she was polite enough to stay and listen to DadH go on and on about farm programs until 1:00 a.m.
- thoroughly enjoyed and finished GODBLOG! w00t! Now I can talk about it with all of you who are so much more with it than I am.
Now here's what I hope to do this week (some I could be getting done instead of spending this time writing about doing it...):
- Send condolence letter to College Roommate who unexpectedly needed to put her kitty buddy, Mason, to sleep last night. Soooo sad.
- Shop for non-floral sleeper sofa/Davenport
- Unpack suitcase
- Laundry
- Ironing of clothes
- Mending of clothes
- Organizing VP Finance stuff that's piling up. Whoops.
- Do monthly VP Finance reports for Nov. and Dec. Double whoops.
- Finish going through vacation mail
- Ride the new Light Rail into downtown PHX (Heard Museum is having fry bread! Yum!)
- Work on resume (job is secure, as far as I know, but I should have it ready to go regardless)
- Get to work on a St. Patrick's Day letter to make up for not doing holiday cards
- Get some exercise for crying out loud
- Read one magazine from the ever-growing pile
- Figure out Denver itinerary for Birthday Weekend
- Figure out vacation days for 2009
I think that's enough for now. Of course, even if there's something I forgot, I won't want to do it until next week because it's not on this list.
You know how I'm always complaining about how my parents' old computer on dial-up is faster than my cable modem Dell laptop?
I think that's actually a case of memory by sentimentality.
That said, I'm not doing well keeping up with the 'hood because it's too frustrating to even be online.
Okay, so there's my excuse for being lame.
I've only been outside a couple of times since getting here on Saturday night. I really lucked out and was able to sneak into Michigan during a break in the winter weather. My BFF picked me up in Detroit and the snow started kicking in again when we were about 30 miles from home.
It's cold here. So cold I really don't have enough words for it. When I do venture outside, I'm the little brother in The Christmas Story, all bundled up to the point of not being able to move. I'm careful not to fall over lest I be stuck in a snowbank until someone notices I'm gone and they send out the dogs.
Speaking of dogs, Jay (Steve's yellow lab) is a big fat goofy happy dog. His estimated size is around 100 pounds. And he thinks he's a puppy. Tyson, the pit bull who adopted our family a few years ago, hates the cold. He's such a baby. All I have to do is open the door to the outside to see him cower and hide. He's such a sweetie pie, super smart and loves kitties. Awww.
The rest of the family is doing well. DadH isn't very mobile, all that talk about how he needs to get more exercise was just talk. It bugs me how he doesn't bother to help himself get healthier, but I've run out of patience to badger him further.
I haven't made it out to the barn yet to see some cows, but I probably will today. Maybe. Did I mention it was cold? MomH just told me it was in the 50s in Phoenix. As far as Phoenix weather goes, that's pretty chilly so I guess I don't have it much worse here. :-P
MomH helped me finish my quilt. It took all of an hour to finish something I've been procrastinating about for the past three (four?) years.
That's about it for here. Nothing exciting going on. Just happy to be home and with the fam.
I hope everyone is staying warm and safe.
Merry Christmas!
This may or may not cause controversy, but I'll throw it out there anyway.
I received a meme with a holiday theme, questions about Christmas. I read through what my friend answered and busted up at this:
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? only a Communist opens presents on Christmas Eve
I do not understand the opening of gifts on Christmas Eve for any other reason than that's the only time your family can get together.
Fact: Santa Claus doesn't show up until the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.
One of the great joys of childhood (and now) is going to bed on Christmas Eve with giddy anticipation. Then waking up and seeing presents under the tree that weren't there before.
If you unwrap all the presents on Christmas Eve just because, then what's Christmas Day for? And how do you get presents before Santa comes? Then it becomes just another day, in my opinion.
In our family, we'll go to Christmas Eve service at our little country church. The next morning, my nieces will open their Santa presents at their house and then everyone will be at Mom & DadH's house for a big breakfast spread. After breakfast, it will be a present-opening frenzy. Then assorted adults will go out to the barn and do cow chores. Then my relatives will show up around noon for lunch, playing in snow, riding snowmobiles, ice skating, etc. Then more chores, then dinner, dessert and coffee. When my relatives leave, I'll crack open something alcoholic. Maybe some raspberry champagne from the local winery. Yum.
I suppose some of you out there have legit reasons why you open presents Christmas Eve (like if that's the only time you can all get together), but I could never dis Santa and give up Christmas Day.
Show us something you love about your home.
I could post pics of Elvis, but you know him already. Or pics of Arizona, but my thoughts today are in another place.
In a few weeks, I'll be home with my family down on the farm. I can't wait.
Here are some pics from last year's Christmas visit I don't believe I've shared yet.
I took the girls up to Michigan State to wath the women's basketball team. We encountered some traffic along the way:
But we made it to campus and the girls (and a friend) posed with our most famous alum, Magic Johnson.
I bought my plane ticket home so long ago, the pain of its price is gone. Now all I have to think about is making cookies, playing with the girls, talking with my parents, giving DadH a hard time about not taking better care of himself, listening to my 94-year old grandmother's stories and having nowhere to be until it's time to go visit my friends in Detroit and then back to Arizona.
December 20 can't get here soon enough.
While walking in a winter wonderland can be fun in theory, it makes shopping a big of a drag. Do you plan on doing your holiday shopping online or in-stores this season? Why?
Sponsored by Best Buy.
My winter wonderland looks exactly the same as my summer swelterland. The only difference is the temperature, which is pleasant during the holidays. But it does make for a drag and it's hard to get into the holiday spirit, especially for a snow girl like me. The lights on the saguaro cacti and mesquite trees are pretty at night and all, but it doesn't cut it.
As for gifts, I'll take a look through my gift box and see if I'm missing anyone. If I am, then I'll probably do my usual REI Outlet.com and buy the family some nice winter gear. I have to get DadH his fancy mountain trekking socks. He's never been so happy with a gift since I bought him a stovetop popcorn popping pan many years ago. And MomH doesn't have to listen to him complain about how cold his feet are every time he comes back inside. It's a gift for everyone!
What gifts, big or small, are you hoping to find under your tree this year?
Sponsored by Best Buy.
I asked for lights for my bicycle so I can get started on a morning ride before the sun comes up. MomH was a bit perplexed but I assured her they should be easy to find in a sporting goods store or any place that sells bikes.
Now I'm looking forward to seeing what I'll actually get. Things often get lost in translation between here and there.
Other than that, I can't possibly think of anything I want my family to buy for me. To me it's all about being home with everyone.
And cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. And nuts and cheese and popcorn...yum...
Bottom line on gifts: if I can make it out of there without large/heavy/sharp/breakable objects, it's all good. There have been years where I've had to ship gifts back to Arizona by UPS because I couldn't or wouldn't pack them in my luggage.
