A New Chapter

Wow - who'd a thunk? I'm 57 and living with my parents again! But it's nothing like being young and living with them, I mean, I'm a GRANDMA now!

I have my little nook in the corner of the house between the bathroom and the carport. It's about 5x6 and I have a bed (futon), dresser, mirror, cabinet, table/lamp combo, all divided from the rest of the house with a folding screen and standing fan. What more could I need?

The day I got here my mom visited the doctor and was told that she needed to put some salt back into her diet. She did and her dizziness and fainting is virtually gone. The day after I got here was another doctor visit and they finally figured out what caused her stroke - it was her racing heart! Now they just have to decide to put in a pacemaker, they're still not determined that that's what she needs.

So mom is getting stronger every day, many of her problems are under control and we're even getting to the beach for exercise, a little swim a couple times a week. Personally, I could do it every day! It's a nice way to end the day! Dad's coming too so he's getting to enjoy his Hawaii and getting exercise too, not that he doesn't get any like mom. He's the lawn man at 2 houses, he gets plenty of exercise!

While I have my nook we're still looking into building a guest room that I could use while I'm here and then the folks can have actual guests stay in it. I like the idea of a room at the same level as the rest of the house, with an ocean view and breeze. Much more appealing for guests (and I'm the first guest!).

I got my car on Friday and it feels so good to have my own wheels. Yesterday mom and I went running errands while dad worked on the corolla, getting it ready to sell. While we were out dad had us stop and pick up a tool at NAPA. All this wasn't possible before me and my toaster got here - that's called progress! Dad was having to do all that by himself.

I haven't done a ton of work around here yet, it's a bit on the warm side and hard to work in. I did get all the bottles for their noni juice sales cleaned, fixed their vacuum, cleaned the deck, installed some drywall and taped some of the ceiling in the kitchen to help eliminate "visitors" from outside. Oh yeah, can't forget the spider sucking!

All in all a lot of improvement around here, some due to my presence, others due to doctors finally making diagnoses.

BUT - I do miss my kids and grandkids. Thank goodness I have a ticket to go home for a visit!

 

2014 International Convention!

I finally got to attend an international convention this past weekend. Maybe some day I'll get to be one of the delegates instead of just an attendee. We heard 50 talks, the two I appreciated the most were on neutrality and anxiety. We saw lots of videos and heard lots of experiences from around the globe. We got 5 (?) new publications and had talks by a very animated governing body member, Bro. Lett. We had 294 baptized, including a brother with one leg who had to be handed into the pool and dunked on a cot! It felt like a scene from the Bible itself! We had 3 sisters from Norway behind us on the last day who were singing in sign! I had nice conversations with a few but the one that struck me the most was from a brother from Puyallup. I spotted his daughter wearing a beautiful costume, snapped a shot of her, approached her to find out where the costume was from, since she was from Puyallup. It was a Nigerian dress, it was beautiful! Then her dad told me they have friends in Nigeria and they brought back costumes for the girls. Then he shared this experience: a 23 year old brother had just been released from prison, doing his 18 month stay for neutrality. He's in great spirits and says they do their time as just part of their "right of passage" you might say. They don't let it get them down, they feel privileged to do it for what they believe in. It's a badge of honor! What a wonderful attitude! It was a great convention, even if I wasn't in a foreign land.
The convention itself was, that is. The venue caused lots of headaches and I hope we never have another convention there.

There's not enough parking at the Husky Stadium to accommodate the number of people filling it (we had between 31,000 and 32,000) so we hired buses to lessen the need for parking. Those that did drive had to park far from the stadium and walk. I'm not sure how far they had to walk but I think it's safe to say there were a lot walking a mile or more. The shuttles that were provided were golf carts so only a few could be shuttled at a time, most people walked.

But we took a bus, me and most of my friends from the Kingdom Hall. We had to board the bus at 7 AM so we could depart at 7:30 to arrive in plenty of time to be there before the 9:20 start, since it's only about a 45 minute drive. Unfortunately this was July 4 and traffic was miserable. We arrived about 10. The second day we took a different route and were there early, as well as the third day. On the second day our bus captain, Kevin Hayden, called the other bus captain, Kimo Sosusco, to let him know that we were at the stadium WAY ahead of his bus! Kimo thought he was fibbing and asked where on the freeway we were! Kevin told him we were in front of the sta-di-um! It was great, our bus was roaring!

Getting home was just as challenging, if not worse. Friday and Saturday we got home about 8 PM. Friday I still had to bake 100 cookies for our congregation's portion of the delegates' hospitality that we were having on Monday! Saturday our bus nearly broke down, we couldn't go over about 45mph and it did break down as soon as it got back to the bus barn in Tacoma! But we made it to the KH safely. Sunday we managed to get loaded and moving quickly so we got home at a decent time. In spite of the long days the buses created I totally enjoyed riding with my friends. And our bus driver, Esther, was an inactive, flamboyant sister who enjoyed being surrounded by all us crazies!

It's an open stadium and this is Seattle so you never know what the weather will do. Well, we hit both extremes, at least as extreme as you can expect for July. It was very sunny and hot (for here) and friends who manned the first aid said people were suffering from the heat. Ambulances were coming and going constantly. Even my newest grandson, Kevin, suffered from the heat and Shirley had to leave early. Then, Saturday afternoon it decided to lightly rain for about an hour even though the forecast had 0% chance of rain for that day! On day 3 we had no choice but to sit up in the nosebleed section and it turned out to be the best seats! We had a great view!

Finally, the corridors would get so packed during the breaks that it was nearly impossible to visit. It may have been more our side of the stadium side that experienced that since it was the shady side. I did manage to work my way through the crowds some and get snaps of some of our colorfully dressed delegates. Our largest group was from Korea. There were over 1600 Koreans but there were also delegates from at least 40 other lands.

So while it had many downers if given the chance, would I do it again? You bet I would!

Hunter the Arteest!

So I was shooting my picture of the day (subject: hats) and Hunter showed up so I decided to put him to work. I was running back and forth setting things up and had him clicking my remote to take the picture. He really got into it. But to start at the beginning, I have to go back into the back bedroom.

So I went into the back bedroom to get the remote and Hunter followed me. He spotted my black stuffed piggy on the bed and decided that "Max" was gonna be in some shots. So he carried him outside and left him on the deck until I was done with my project.

Then Hunter took charge.

He picked Max up and parked him on a rock in my woodland garden, went back to our pile of hats and picked out Keith's fedora and fixed Max up. I took a couple snaps and Hunter was ready for the next pose. Max was on a swing next, in the same fedora. 

Hunter had already been eyeing the concrete bench outside my bedroom doors so Max posed there next. Then back to the swingset, on the slide this time. Then on a flowerpot. Then on a ladder. I had to stop him from parking that piggy on the very top, I couldn't shoot that high! Onto the hot tub! Back to the swingset! He was checking out the nasty chicken coop and I suggested Max sit on a washtub in front of the coop instead.

I finally had to pull the plug on Hunter's adventure, I still had to get dinner going. He sure enjoyed himself, he's a little director!  He had to be sure to keep changing hats, a lot of thought went into each picture. He also picked a daisy for Max to hold in most of the shots. 
I sent him home with the flower to give to his mommy and promised I'd get these pictures up somewhere so he could see them before bed time. 

Here you go Hunter!

Which Way is Up?

My head and stomach are still reeling from the past few days' events. After only 5 years it looks like another of my marriages has bit the dust.

This time, though, it's not due to any specific shortcomings, it's just an inability to meld our 2 lives in a way that we're both happy and comfortable. 

Without going into  a lot of details something happened that appeared to show a huge rift in our marriage. It opened my eyes and when we discussed it the possibility of not staying together was prominent. 

After a couple more days I could see that what had happened was not meant to be as serious as it looked and told Rick that I would like to see if we could make some changes to try to make our marriage work.

He said no.

Besides the things that I could see that we needed to work on there was one thing that could not be helped: my being a JW.

I guess it's mostly the assumption of what JWs are like. Not that anyone was uncomfortable around me particularly, I didn't go around preaching to them. But they possibly felt unable to be themselves, they felt they had to watch their p's and q's (which I appreciated). Rick misses having his family dropping in. He misses having the holidays under his own roof (even though he's agnostic). He didn't - WE didn't realize that he would miss those things. We didn't know his family wouldn't visit. He does the holidays with his family but he didn't know he wanted his own celebration.

But there's a silver lining to this cloud of doom - this frees me up to help my parents more by staying with them the bulk of the time. Almost like an answer to our prayers! Not the way I wanted it to happen - I'll miss Rick terribly, he's a great guy, I love him lots and I truly enjoy his company - but sometimes that's the way it goes. We were both happy single and will get there again.

Tulips 2014

Sarah bought herself a new Canon 60D just like mine and has been needing to get out and break it in. So we started a spring photo challenge on facebook which got the ball rolling, it was actually a lot of fun. Here are a few of my favorite shots from that project:
Then there were tulips.

We live in a bulb farming part of the country so we have daffodils, tulips, and other bulbs in huge fields that attract tourists by the droves. We don't care for the droves and last year we found a lesser known bulb farm that's 10 miles closer than the popular ones and is a prettier drive. So it was a beautiful Saturday and we headed out. By the time we got there it was raining a nice, constant, saturating rain.

While we were in Ireland we braved the "driving rain" to visit the Giant's Causeway. So a little Washington spring rain isn't gonna stop us! We got out and shot the tulips and the show garden. When we were all sufficiently soaked and cold we headed toward home with food on our minds. We drive through the town of Elbe and they have a few old railroad cars parked and converted into restaurants, taverns and motels so I suggested we stop there to eat.

It was a little on the cool side, a little on the expensive side, but the odd surroundings (including the odd waitress) the beer, and the food were all worth it. I finally tried a Monte Cristo sandwich. I enjoyed it but will probably not have another, too much cholesterol. Rick and Sarah both got vegetarian chili served in a bread bowl. All good fare for the cold and damp.

So now our appetite has been whet and we're going to start another 365 on June 1. We're having weekly themes and we'll share that on our current spring photo challenge page on facebook so anyone who wants to do a weekly project can follow along. 

Uh Oh...

Another Sizemore has made his appearance on this planet - and it's another KEVIN Sizemore, to boot!

Yes, Shirley was able to get the delivery up and running just a few days before the due date because of health issues. Things started out slowish but when they ramped up it was over and done in record time! Nothing like poor Chelsea's recent experience.

Kevin was born at 2:33 in the afternoon on 4/18/2014. He weighed 7 lbs and 4 oz which was the exact same weight as his older sister Elise. He was a little longer and pretty much perfect. No cone head or "stork kiss". The only thing that was said was that the cord was wrapped around him (not his neck) 3 times!

Shirley's good friend, Christie, Grandma Mimi and I were all allowed to be present for the birth, it was a real treat. Kevin (dad) stood  by the side that we were on so as to block viewing what none of us wanted to see anyway, but we did see the little purple baby as soon as he was out. Now I know what they mean when they refer to the baby as "pinking up".

Auntie Rachyl brought the older siblings along with gifts about an hour after he was born. When Ellie entered the room she headed straight for Grandma Mimi but when she saw her holding the baby she made a sudden turn to me instead! Then Ellie gave mommy the gift and opened the card for her. It was sweet, all 3 wrote something in it by themselves. Elise's was a picture of a face.

The nurse was bathing the baby and I finally said something about dad bathing the baby so she handed the job over. It was apparent that he was an experienced dad but for some reason she thought she should give him his first bath - NOT! After the bath, inoculations, temperature, head measurement, etc were done it was time for the kids to officially meet the new brother. Joe held him like a champ. Shayne was slightly more awe-struck and Elise handed him to dad after about 2 seconds!

They ended up having to stay one extra day but all got home Sunday noonish. Shirley was happy to have her whole BIG family together! Who'd-a-thunk Kevin would be the one to have the biggest family?