Changes

For some time now, I've been dissatisfied with this blog, realizing that it has probably outlived its original intent: to share family news.  Now each family has their news outlets--some running their own blogs and others resorting to Facebook feeds.  So, this blog will now disappear.

The reality is I can't keep up with posting anymore.  Another reason is I don't seem to see the grandchildren as much as I once did -- blame that on working more, having less energy, the nature of my grandchildren's lives as they've gotten older and are in school, my aging -- but the reality of it all is less face time with them, which is one more reason to suspend the activities of this blog.  It won't really be that big of a shift, as it's been dormant for several months now.

Which is all to say that it's been a good run, but at some point, this will all go away into Blog NeverNeverLand.   So thanks to those who have been coming by -- thanks for reading.

Take Time

Chad wore shoes to correct the inward curve of his foot, so his shoes always looked like they were on backwards.  He must have been about six months in this photo, and I'll disinherit any one of my children who puts this up on FB.  This is private stuff--blog only.  Yesterday's post was about looking at a picture of myself and wondering where I'd gone.  That's how many of these older photos hit me.  Like those bell-bottoms.  Back in fashion now, and this was -- how old are you now, Chad? -- thirty-plus years ago, let's just say.

Many of these negatives have acquired a magenta cast to them, so they scan in more green.  I worked on this photograph for a long time, but it's still very green, which makes our lips quite pink when I try to adjust for the offending hue.  But I still love this photograph even though I look about twelve years old.  I found another one that was taken on the day we brought Chad home from the hospital after his birth.  I look about nine in that one.

This is my sister Susan, pregnant with her son Jeff.  As I said, because the magenta had taken over the negatives, I found some success in stripping out all the color, leaving behind the black-white values.  Check out those plastic pants on Chad.  We were standing in the backyard of my house in Provo; it was summertime as Chad was born in April (I think it snowed that week).  I love Susan's hair, the casual way she holds Chad, the smile on her face -- all pointing to the fact that she was relaxed and happy and would be a great mom herself (she is, and she was).

In some ways it's easier to look back and remember the sweetness of those milky-smelling babies, their chubby legs, summer afternoons.  We don't remember colicky nights, fights with the husband over too many extra baby pounds, the incessant pounding of the drum to finish school, become somebody, find your way, get there get there get there.  The "There" lay ahead of us in some grand glorious vision of possibility and all the bad things that happened would be stripped away once We'd Made It.  The future is a seductive thing, moving our focus away from the here and now.  But as I look back, it's evident that the Here and Now is all we ever really have.

So grab those chubby babies, walk away from the dishes, the housecleaning, the financial reports, the papers to write and the ballgames on TV, and and play Chinese Checkers or dolls or take a picnic or a walk one more time with your kids.  For when you look back -- and you will through those misty lenses of time -- you'll be able to see what I see now: a wonderful set of memories, triggered by old photographs.

Where the Road Begins

This is what started it all: a tiny child looks up at his mother, both of them new to this experience.  She hopes she will do no wrong.  He has no hopes, only trust and a wiped-clean slate of memory of which a life will write on, one stroke at a time.  She wishes him only happy memories, and believes it can be so.  Wants it to be so.

He grows.

 

 

A brother joins him in this earthly romp.  

As well as a sister.

 Peter came at the end, completing our family, almost.

 

Dave's here.  Now we're set.

 

Places:
Antioch, California, on the lower end of the Sacramento Delta and very hot in the summer

Highland Mills, upstate New York, a tiny town with a small rock library, very near to West Point

Ogden, Utah, where my parents still live, although in a different house

Arlington, TX, where we'd strung a hammock

San Francisco, Exploratorium Museum (lake in front)

Dublin, California

 

Who Is She?

I've been looking at old photographs.  That's what being shut-in will do to you.  I found this one and I look at myself and wonder, who is she?  I recognize Chad, in his little boy sneakers and curly hair, and see his son's chin and recognize Chad's luminous eyes.  But who was that young woman?  And where did she go?

(And didn't she have great hair?)

Quick Trip to Barbara's

School was cancelled on Monday because of a power outage.  I received the phone call around 8:30 and by that afternoon, I was at Barbara's in Arizona. 

That was the first day and afternoon: we fed Pup, the tortoise, went on the slide, fixed and ate dinner, went out for frozen yogurt at Yogurtology--yum yum!

The second day (Tuesday), Maddy let me do her hair, but she instructed me on WHAT to do.

But Keagan did her own hair.  While Riley and Keagan were at school, we shopped, went to lunch, shopped and sewed sewed sewed nine pillows for Barbara's sofa.

Maddy sewed with a needle and thread--a future quilter!

Dinner was on Grandpa Dave at Chipotle's with this cool plywood wall, drilled full of holes and backlit by orange lights.

Today was the day we went earring shopping because Keagan and Maddy can finally change out their pierced earrings for the first time.  Maddy insisted on carrying her set of earrings in her pink jewelry box.  We went out for yogurt again. 

 

Riley shows off his completed Lego car, shades of Uncle Chad!

 

And we all went outside to see why the fire engine was at the neighbor's house.  No clue.  But it was just like a summer night, balmy and easy and the children were squeezing out the last little bit of daylight before bed.

The next morning, I hopped back in the car at 6:45 a.m., drove home, showered, finished some lesson prep and picked up the stuff for my meeting with the Dean (I'm being evaluated this semester), then drove to school and taught. 

A busy three days, but fun to see the Charons!

Family Events of July 2012

We've been kind of busy this July, in a good way, seeing different family members.  

Susan came and we went and got pedicures together.  Actually she and Tom came--he for his consultations at Cedars-Sinai for his cancer.  They headed into LA, and from there, they went home.

I made some cookies for their visit.  Peanut Butter.

Chad came out for lunch, and we both went over to the National Cemetery for a ceremony for a member of his ward.  Here he is at the Medal of Honor site.

Susan and Tom came back and that night we went over to Sippy Woodhead Pool at Bobby Bonds Park so she could swim laps in the sunset.  Hi Susan.

We also drove down our main drag so she could see our local hotels, including this vintage neon sign.  The next morning they went into LA for Tom's treatment.

Scott and his family arrived, and he and Chris set up an electronic cottage in our dining room.  It was great to visit with them, and to meet, again, their children.  We had a nice dinner together outside, and they spent the night.

In the morning they packed up, and we took some family photos.

 

 

Tom's hospital stay went on longer than we thought, with a few hairpin turns in the road, so after they moved him to a new hospital ward, I made cookies to take in to Susan, and now her son Pete, who had arrived the night before to help out.

This is an enormous hospital, and we were to go to the Saperstein Tower, Cardiac ICU.  Apparently they have multiple ICUs there, so they distinguish them by the specialty.  

Sign inside the elevator.

We arrived on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) so there were signs directing us to the manual doors, if needed.

We took Susan's to Joan's on Third, an upscale deli/restaurant where we all shared what we ordered.

Then we stopped back by her hotel to retrieve her laundry, where we saw this sign, reassuring us that "Should the elevator doors fail to open, do not become alarmed.  There is little danger of running out of air or of this elevator dropping uncontrollably."  This is how you know you are near Hollywood, where the special effects in movies are generated.  Including falling elevators.

 

Old-timey soap dispenser, but I'd brought my own.  I'd done a little research before leaving home, locating the two most promising self-service laundromats.  Both had Spanish names.  This one was Limpia Laundramat and boy, it was limpia (clean).

State of the art.  No scary things in washers.  Change machine.  Happy families.  

We were done in under an hour, dropped the laundry off at the hotel and went home again.  If you need to know where a good laundromat in LA is, call me.

I think Barbara and her family are coming next week for a summer's last gasp of fun before school starts on the incredibly early: mid-August.  Whatever happened to beginning after Labor Day?

Barbara's Visit June 2012

Because David is studying to take the Dental Boards, Barbara and her children shipped out Monday to stay for ten days.  The first day, just being here was a novelty.  The second day, we set up the wading pool and the water table toy.

They found the Dress-Up Box, full of old clothes.

The kids marched around the "circle" of our yard: up the hill by the rose bushes, along the fenceline, down via the kumquats, up across the front door and duck in between the bushes on the far side of the house, and enter back again to the back yard, where Barbara and I sat chatting after dinner.  Summer nights are the best.

Today, the fourth day, we went to the beach.  Maddy's first impressions: She appeared to be pulled off balance by the receding water.  She soon got her sea legs.  Barbara thinks this is the first time that she has really interacted with the ocean; I couldn't remember any other time.  Here's some more photos of our day:

Riley seems transfixed by the wave action.  I did tell them to keep their eyes on the water.  About a billion times.

Off-balance Maddy.

Keagan is in awe.  She thinks we should come back again and go boogie boarding.  Agreed.

Sand castles are being built.

 Back home, Barbara had the brilliant idea they should wash out their shells in the water table.

I'm still prepping for the YW Camp luncheon for 70 which is coming up on Monday.  Here Riley helps take snickerdoodles off of the cookie sheets.  He did this three times.  I'm pretty impressed with how helpful Barbara's children are.  Keagan usually takes the lead on getting the table set up for dinner every night out on the patio, and they all clear their dishes cheerfully.  And with a little reminder, they do their "zones," blitzing a room or two, picking up toys.

Keagan is trying out one of the drawing programs on my iPad.

I'm wondering what else I can pull out of a hat to keep the kids entertained.  We have introduced them to two new movies, of Japanese cartoon origin: Totoro, and The Secret World of Arrietty.  I was surprised to look over and see a scene where the two little girls jumped into a Japanese bath with their father (very chaste and traditional Japanese experience, really), but didn't say anything and the scene quickly ended.  The old aunties seem to be such crones.  But the stories are lovely, the music exquisite and so far, both have had a 9-ish-year old girl in them, which is great for Keagan.  Multi-culturalism here at our house.

Tomorrow Barbara and I will be sewing more curtains for their house (she brought the fabric).  She's doing the sewing and I help with planning it all out.  We still have 3 giant batches of pasta salad to make; prepping (chopping) will go on during the day on Saturday, with final cooking and assembling shortly before we pack them up to go off on Monday morning at 7 a.m.  It's busy, tiring (we go to bed very early around here), but always fun to have the grandchildren come!