Lazy Hazy days of summer

Why am I writing about the lazy hazy days of summer? Well it's rather hazy today and I'm feeling really lazy and it's still summer time so why not?

The lazy hazy days of summer are flying by. School will soon be starting for Maddie and Isaac. Maddie is going to the third grade and Isaac is starting preschool. Cindy told him today that she had registered him and he was so excited. He even asked me if I would go with him! Yeah, like they would really let a fat grey haired grandma go to class for anything except to work. He was very sweet asking me to go.

While we're talking about Isaac I have a funny little story for you. If you read Cindy's blog you know that Isaac "loves" Micki's boobies. Well the poor demented kid has noticed mama has them to. I was getting him out of something, (I don't remember what, but is that really important?). Anyway his hand touched my boob. He looked kinda funny and touched it again saying, "Well, Mama Norma, I see you have big boobies". Now if you've seen me, you know why I said demented kid. I almost fell over laughing. He's such a funny sweet little guy.

Isaac was asking about hair color one day. He told me he has blond hair and daddy did to. That mommy had dark hair and baby doesn't have much hair. I asked him if I had blond hair and he says, "No mamw Norma, I'm sorry but you got grey hair". Now tell me he's not just adorable.

To get back to my original topic of summer. This has been a good summer, busy as usual but a good kind of busy. We've seen the grandchildren just about every day. Cindy and Chris went to Baltimore for a week and man was it lonely and quiet. We kept their dogs but they're almost as lazy as I am! We still had Maddie and Noah next door. Maddie is always so good so polite, and very grown up. Noah tried to make up for Sophia and Isaac being gone. He was extrememly noisy, into everything and on top of everything. Maddie and Isaac have done their share of climbing but Noah makes up for both of them. Sophia may top the climbers though. There's nothing she won't try to scale. The whole time Noah is doing his deeds, he's sweet as sugar and full of smiles, hugs and kisses and throws in an "I love you" every now and then. You can't really get mad at him and stay mad for long, he's just so daggone sweet.

I will admit there are times when Noah isn't so sweet. He gets so mad over nothing and throws horrible tantrums. I know that to him, his problems are huge! We're all learning how to handle his temper and things are slowly starting to go a little smoother. He has also decided not to take his naps so that be evening he's a really big little bear! Isaac and Sophia take their naps good, thank goodness.

All the kids enjoyed the pool until it collapsed in the night last week. We got up one morning to see the towel rack at the end of the driveway, block from the flower garden on the driveway. Thank goodness it didn't hurt any of my roses. Some of Ray's turles from his collection made it to the road and the welcome mat was across the street. All of the chemicals were up the the yard. Only one death and one injury from this horrible catastrophy. The death was of the much loved swimming pool. The injury was a broken leg of one of Ray's poor little turtles. He'll have to have surgery to fix it when Ray remembers to get some super glue. It could have been worse. If the pool had been larger we could have had some real problems. We won't be getting another pool this year but might get one by next summer.

I hope everyone has had a busy fun filled summer and enjoyed your children and grandchildren. They grown up too fast.

Fourth of July weekend

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderul holiday weekend. Ours was very quiet which is unusal for us. Crystal stayed in Baltimore and Micki and her family went to the mountains for the weekend so it was just Cindy and her family and Ray and myself.

Saturday Ray and I went to Nancy's and I took her to Krogers while he worked on setting up a new computer table for her. This was the first time in almost a year that Nancy had gone shopping. We've been doing it for her. She enjoyed her outing but was pretty tired when we got back to her house. Hopefully she can work out her finances and get her hip replacement surgeries and be able to get on with her life.

Cindy and Chris put polyurathane on their floors Sunday and spent the night with us Sunday night. That was a lot of fun. It was nice to wake up again and have little ones climb in bed with us. Ours girls did that about every weekend while they were little. Maddie has been here weekends and we've been lazy with her but not Noah until this morning. But that's another story.

Nancy bought a London Broil while we were shopping on Saturday so we invited Cindy and family to have dinner with us Monday so Cindy and Chris brought another Longon Broil and Chris cooked both of them for dinner on Monday. MMMMMM they were good! Ray had a meeting at church and Cindy and Chris left the kids with me and Nancy while they went home to put Izzy's bedroom back together. I was kinda hoping they would spend the second night but that was a little unrealistic. No reason for them not to sleep in their own beds where they can rest better.

Not much swimming over the weekend. It rained and stormed quite a bit. It's kinda dreary today so maybe it's supposed to rain again. I didn't listen to a forecast this morning.

Tuesday morning we went with Cindy and Chris to take Izzy to a movie. That was fun. He was so enthralled with the movie and his popcorn. I usually keep Sophia while the girls take the other kids so this was her first experience at a movie and she did really well. She got a bit antsy the last fifteen minutes so Ray took her to the lobby. After the movie we did some shopping and had lunch. Everyone was tired when we got home that evening but it had been a fun day. I think this is the first 4th of July that we didn't have a cookout here with all the kids.

Micki, Johnny and Noah got home Tuesday evening. Maddie decided to stay in the mountains with some of her cousins from KY that she doesn't get to see often. She'll be home Sunday afternoon. I sure hope she's having a good time. She probably needed a little vacation from Noah. She adores him but he does wear us out. Most two year olds do. They're so active!

Micki and Johnny went to a movie at midnight last night so we kept Noah all night. Hey, he even slept all night! At 6:30 when the alarm went off he thought it was the phone and wanted to talk to mommy. I put him in bed with us for a few minutes to cuddle but then Ray had to ruin the moment by getting ready for work! LOL Noah had breakfast with papa and was so sweet and loving all morning but he sure wore me out. He was into everything with a big smile and lots of hugs and kisses. I'm not much of a morning person so it was hard for me to keep up with him. Johnny came after him about 9:30 and I was tempted to take a nap but alas, I have to much to do today.

Guess I need to get busy if I'm going to get anything accomplished today.

Summer days

Hot summer days! Ray put an easy set pool up for the kids and grandkids. I don't like water but I do like watching the grandchildren play and splash. Maddie and Isaac are little water dogs. Noah is finally learning to like the water. Until this past week he acted terrified. I think it was the cold water after being in the heat and the shock of it upset him. He's a sensitive little guy. But now he's really enjoying it and splashing around having a blast. The water has finally warmed up enough for him. Sophia loves the water and jumps and splashes right along with the others. But when she's tired, she wants out right now.

That's where mama comes in. I get baby duty. Change diapers, rock tired little ones to sleep, give them a snack or drink and just generally be there when they want me. Do I enjoy this when every one else is swimming and soaking up the rays? You had better believe it!

I'm terrified of being in the water myself so I stay away from it as much as I can. I don't even like to be splashed if I get close to the pool. As for soaking up the rays and tanning, I blister in a matter of minutes and I really don't like that. I'm really fair skinned and have sunburnt all my life. Not pleasant! I also don't like the really hot days, the heat makes me feel yucky and sometimes kind of sick. I do enjoy the small amounts of time I have in the house by myself before one of the grandchildren need me. Or even my kids, as grown up as they are, they still yell "Mom, I need you."

Ray loves the water, probably more than all the kids and grandkids. Sometimes I get a little lonely in the summer when everyone is in the pool but that doesn't last long. Like I said, they yell at me pretty often and I always have a good book at hand to entertain me or even get on the computer. And of course, everyone eventually gets hungry so theres lunch or dinner to fix or sometimes both. The girls and their guys are good to help provide and fix the food, even clean up afterwards! Not usually a lot of work for just one person there either. So yes, I do enjoy the lazy days of summer even though I don't like the water or heat.

With summer here, I get to spend a little more alone time with Sophia. Since Cindy isn't working, I don't get to babysit just her. I usually have Isaac and sometimes Maddie and Noah with them. So one morning a week, Cindy takes Isaac to see a movie and I have Sophia all to myself for a couple hours. Sometimes we play and then she takes a nap. Sometimes she likes to sit quitely while I rock her and talk to her or even sing. She isn't old enough yet to know that mama really can't sing.

Taling about singing, I sit in the back of the church and try to sing low so no one tells me I have a horrible voice. (I really do!). But I do like to try to sing sometimes and the babies enjoy it. Now Maddie is a different story. At eight years of age, she knows good singing when she hears it. We were in the car the other day and she was singing Old McDonoald has a Farm. Well I made a dreadful mistake. I started singing with her. She got real quiet and said "Mama I don't think I want to sing anymore." Guess she put me in my place right proper!! You know you're bad when a child tells you they don't want to sing with you. Oh well, no one's perfect, right?

Father's Day

Well since mother's day, we've all been extremly busy. Cindy and Chris took their house off the market so they could do some updating. I've been watching the kids every day to keep them out of the way and Ray, Micki and Johnny have been helping with the renovations. Crystal got to help last Sunday morning before she had to head back to Baltimore. The outside of the house is gorgeous. They put up vinyl siding and painted the shutters and other trip. It makes such a difference! They have several more things to do before they put it back on the market, if they do! They really like the siding.

This past weekend was father's day and again Crystal wasn't supposed to come in. I knew she was planning to but this time the surprise was on Ray. She rode in with Rose and Christina and got here at 8:30 AM Saturday morning. Cindy and Micki left at 5:30 to drive to Beckley to pick up Crystal.

Ray was planning to help our neighbor move some furniture so when he heard the car doors he thought it was Greg getting ready to leave so he rushes out the front door. No Greg but he seen Cindy and Micki getting our of Micki's van and lo and behold----here comes Crystal to. He was very pleasantly surprised!

We had a great day on Saturday. The girls planned a cookout and swim party. Guess who cooked for two days? LOL We have a small pool on the driveway so Ray and all the kids spent the day doing what they do best in the summer. Enjoying the sun and water. I pretty much stayed inside and enjoyed some peace and quite, read and even took a nap. I went outside several times but I don't swim and the heat and sun get to me really fast. I never could stand to be in the sun for long. I did enjoy having everyone here and I loved watching the kids swim.

Maddie has always been part fish and now Isaac is. No fear of the water in those two. Noah takes quite a while to warm up to the water but when he does, he won't get out. Sophia loves it and goes as wild as a year old can when she's swimming. I tried to get some pictures of them but my camera card is full and the computer wouldn't let me download them. Guess I'll have the girls help me figure out what happened. Maybe I can get pictures the next time.

I keep Maddie and Noah on a regular basis while Micki and Johnny work. Maddie is growing up so fast and is a wonderful eight year old, polite, good, cheerful and lots of fun and company. It's great fun to watch Noah growing up every day. His only problem is his temper but I think he's starting to handle that better. He's sure a sweet loving little guy. Now with Sophia and Isaac I see them often but don't keep them much since Cindy is a stay at home mom now. I do watch them a couple hours a week while she runs errands. So while they were working on the house, I got to keep them every day along with Maddie and Noah. Man, did I get tired but I did enjoy the kids. Isaac is such a big boy now. He usually plays good with Noah until one or both of them get tired and then they fight some. That hasn't been so bad lately either. Sophia is now walking and is adorable just toddling around and being sweet. She gets into a lot but usually if you tell her no no she will get out of it. Of course if you speak a little sharp, she has a total meltdown. Kinda like Noah there. Really tender hearted.

Yesterday Ray and I took Crystal to Fayetteville to meet her friends so they could go back to Md. We skipped church so Crystal could visit with her granny a little while and I had been wanting to see how mother is doing. She's getting so frail but I guess that happens at 84 years old. We enjoyed the visit and mother was excited seeing us. We met Crystal'a friends at 3:00 and then Ray and I headed back home. A busy weekend but a good weekend.

Until next time, this is mama Norma saying so long!!

Surprise Mom!!

In my last post, I was bemoaning the fact that this would be the first mother's day without all my children present. Little did I know that sweet Crystal had lied to me all week!

Friday evening after 10:00, I was sitting quietly, watching TV with Ray when Micki runs in carrying a dog! She says, "Look what we found running around up the road!" Now keep in mind how tired I am. I had cooked dinner for everyone, cleaned up the kitchen, kept Noah all day plus laundry, housework, etc. So I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that if Baci was here, Crystal was too. All I could think of was "What the hell is going on? What's happened to Crystal?" I looked past Micki to ask Johnny what was going on and there stood Crystal laughing. Surprise MOM!

What a wonderful surprise! She had planned to ride in with Rose and lied to me all week. I'll forgive you this time honey! I would have known the sound of Crystal's car as soon as it slowed down on Coal River Road. When I heard Micki's van, I didn't think anything about it. She lives beside me! Micki and Johnny met Rose and Crystal in Charleston and brought her home. And Rose picked her up on Sunday to head back to Baltimore.

In the meantime, I enjoyed having Crystal here the last few minutes of her birthday. Cindy had made a cake to surprise her with and it seems the BBQ I had spent the day making was for Crystal's birthday dinner but since she was late, we ate and Micki put up leftovers so Crystal could have her dinner when she got in. I thought I was making BBQ because Chris wanted it. They got me good this time.

We had a wonderful time at Cindy and Chris's annual Mother's Day cookout, usually held for Chris's mom and myself but Judy decided not to attend this year. Hopefully she'll attend the next function we have together as extended family stuff. Chris did a superb job with the cookout and serving lunch. The gifts were nice but the best part was having all my girls there with me.

Thank you for another wonderful Mother's Day to my three wonderful daughters and my almost as wonderful son-in-laws. I love you!

Hard Time!

Some of the hardest times in our lives are when our loved ones can't be with us for whatever reason. Death is the most obvious one. But in another town or another state on special days isn't easy.

Today is Crystal's birthday and even though we celebrated it two weeks ago when she was home, today is the actual day and I miss her. I have phoned her, at work, to wish her a wonderful day. She's going out with friends from work tonight and I hope she has a great and safe evening.

Crystal was due 29 years ago on Mother's Day which was May 8th that year. Mother's day is May 14th this year and she'll be Baltimore. Why, other than the fact that she lives there now? The biggest reason is the gas prices are so high that she can't afford to make the trip home more often. She plans to be here on Memorial weekend but that's not the same as her birthday and Mother's Day.

I think this will be the first Mother's Day I'll celebrate with one of my children not with me. It'll be different and a little lonely although Cindy and Micki will be wish me with their families. Cindy is hosting her traditional Mother's Day cookout for me and for Chris' mom. That's always a wonderful day. Cindy and Chris are such wonderul host and hostess and make sure we all have a good time at their house. Micki will be with us for part of the day and is helping Cindy and Chris. Then she'll spent time Johnny's mom and her family. Busy day for them, just like all hollidays. Extended families are great! Never a dull moment or special day. We're so blessed that the girls married into good families that all enjoy spending time with every one.

I know there are lots of hard times in life but most of our center around Ray's job and if anything goes wrong with our girls and their families and that includes not being with them for special occassions. I guess now you know where my heart lies. With my husband, girls, son-in-laws, and grandchildren. There are lots and lots of other people I love but these are my "special loves"

Not a holliday but=====

We're having turkey and all the fixings and it's not even a holliday! Our family loves turkey any time but mainly they love to get together and have meals as a group. The occassion today, Chris and Cindy got hungry, I guess. I don't mind though. I enjoy having them all come to eat, just the noise sometimes (usually) gets to me.

I kept Izzy and Sophia this morning while Cindy went to Curves. We had such a good time. I helped them with breakfast and then we wrestled and tickled until Cindy got back. She caught us in the middle of giggles. Wonder what she thought? Mom doesn't get the giggles often, just when one of the grandchildren get them. Hmmm maybe that's more often than I thought it was. All four of these grandchildren have such a contageous laugh or giggle that you have to laugh with them. They're such happy kids!!!

I haven't felt like playing with them very much for a couple weeks but felt better this morning. Whoever said getting old is the golden years in full of it!!! I sure didn't have aches and pains like this when I was younger and I'm not even old yet, just getting there.

Well enough for now. Guess I'll finish cooking dinner and try to have it ready just after five. That will leave everyone time to do their evening activites while I clean the kitchen and keep Maddie and Noah for a while. Have a good evening, everyone!!!