Every Anniversary is A Gift

Today is my 37th anniversary of going to the DeKalb County courthouse in Decatur, Georgia, and getting married to a guy I met at a restaurant where I was doing food prep in the kitchen.  He was a cook there and night manager.  He was funny and loved to talk for hours at a time.

We were both 24 years old and not much education between us.  We liked different types of music, we had different tastes in just about everything.  We had a daughter by the time we were married two years.  That made our differences seem more noticeable and difficult to deal with.  We've had our bad times, for sure.

Now we've passed age 60 and have lots of fun together.  We appreciate our differences and celebrate all of each other's interests.

Steve loves to watch sports and we finally were able to get a big screen TV.  He has subscriptions online to read about sports.

I enjoy different destinations online, such as Facebooking with my cousins in Texas, keeping up with my favorite opinion forums, playing games and reading books.

We love watching birds at the feeders in the backyard.

We appreciate everything and try to keep complaints and critical remarks to a minimum.

Doing things apart is no problem - whatever the other person wants to do is fine.  That was hard to learn!  It involves total trust in each other.  But we learned to have each other's best interests at the top of our priorities.

I never did acquire an addiction to ball games like Steve has!  But my knowledge of music history and great performers has evolved and we appreciate listening together.  

He is my human, he belongs to me, and vice versa.  We have grown together like permanent friends will do.

I cannot imagine a better husband, or a better marriage.  I think this is as good as it gets.  Just my opinion, a'course!

Where Has the Time Gone!

These gorgeous gals are my Aunt Cali and my mom, Marta (in pink).  My mom will be 90 on Christmas Eve. This is a recent photo, taken by my cousin (Lieutenant) Micah, who graduated West Point a couple years ago, and graduated Ranger School after that. That kid has been through some training, to put it mildly!  So he and his wife Corinne were vacationing out west for a short time, and dropped by to see his grandma and his aunt, near L.A.

This summer has just flown by and now Zoe, the Terrific Grandkid has just about completed her first week in high school, already!  She is so excited about being in Drama class, taking French (after having to take Spanish, which she couldn't really get the hang of, in 8th grade), and getting into Jazz Band!  She's playing stand up bass and she's the only freshman - everyone else is juniors and seniors!

Zoe had a pretty good summer vacation, which started off in the Athena Music and Leadership Camp.  That was an intense week of music instruction and performing, all just for girls.  She made several friends and learned a lot!  She was the only bass, and so had the opportunity to play in the teachers' jazz group.  On the concluding day there was a big performance with all the girls playing different kinds of music, divided into types of instruments.  Then the whole band played, then the entire orchestra played, then the teachers' jazz group played.  They even had a drummer's circle, which was fantastic.  Zoe wants to attend next year so Grammaw is saving up.

After the music camp there was some resting time, and she went swimming, shopped for new books, spent lots of time with her girlfriends Caylee and Rieley.  They went to several movies and ate out at some nice restaurants.  They all love science fiction (putting it mildly), and have a lot of subjects in common in school.

Before summer vacation even started, Zoe got to go on the 8th grade trip to Savannah, GA!

After that, she got to go to Six Flags with the band!

Okay this kid is enjoying life, no doubt about it.

Spring, Then Everything

It's gonna be great!  This is a cedar bucket of elephant ear bulbs - how great they did!  This summer will be the third sprouting from those wonderful huge leaf bulbs.  I cannot wait to see all the other bulbs come up that are scattered all over the property here!  The hyacinths are peeking out already and they are gonna smell so good.

The other rosy bloom is Wonderful Grandkid, who is enjoying her 8th grade year so much!  This morning she and her grandfather worked together at school, painting scenery for the drama department. 

Yesterday we hauled her double bass around to the high school where the band evaluations were going on.  It was so much fun to see her perform with her school band in a very nice venue.  These new high schools are just beautiful.  And the band directors all do such a good job with all these kids.  They are lovable teachers, enthusiastic and funny.

I also love to watch funny shows with her, and laugh at the show and HER reaction.  It's lots of fun to show her clips from old movies like Unsinkable Molly Brown.  My Debbie Reynolds movie poster sparked a lot of interest in 60s era movies.  Fascination with movies never goes out of style and really bridges the generation gaps.

Music is another mutual interest we share - the Beatles music we sing with, play along with, analyze no end.  Mark Rivera just released a new album and every generation is crazy about it around here.  The Stones, the Cowsills, Jim Croce and James Taylor.  Music has never been more accessible and important in our lives than it is now, when teaching Grandkid and being taught by her.

FALL 2013 HAS ARRIVED IN NORTH GEORGIA

Every October, our beautiful grandkid turns another year older and at the same time Fall arrives to inspire and invigorate.  It's the best time to be alive and experience grandparenthood, framed by great weather and the prettiest blue skies of the whole year.

Okay i'm a weird old cheerleader, no doubt about it!

Wholly Guacamole!

The best parties of my life are with my little family, when we welcome Terrific Grandkid for the weekend and go out to the current favorite restaurant, Tacos and Tequilas, and have a blast!

This past Friday there was an orchestra rehearsal and Grandkid was there with her upright bass, Jojo, right on time.  She and Jojo always emerge from practice glowing and enthusiastic, the energy shooting out in all directions.  The lady conductor just brings out the best in everyone, I think.

We headed for our favorite eating spot and it was crowded with families, babies and kids everywhere, loud and happy.  We waited a few minutes and got a corner table right behind the guys playing and singing, and we could see right into the kitchen - very clean!

The service and food are excellent, I had wonderful tamales.  They make the salsa fresh there every day, and it's so good.  When my entreé arrives I always pour the bowl of salsa on my plate.

I don't drink and drive, and they don't have non-alcoholic beer, so I get the lemonade which goes great with Mexican food. 

We laughed and talked and hugged each other and shared tastes from our plates.  We have fun together.

Busy Summer, Now Back To School

My terrific grandkid is starting 8th grade very happily, and excited to be back in school.  The first day was great, so I heard.  I am so glad! 

The three times she was with her mom for two week increments, and thus able to visit with us too, were incredibly fun and exciting for us, her Papa and Grammaw.  We made sure to have her favorite meals at home here, eat out at her favorite restaurants, shop in her favorite stores, and let her have down time to watch her favorite tv shows.

Early in the summer she got enrolled in an orchestra camp, and we bought her a double bass to use.  She did so well, she was awarded a scholarship for the orchestra camp in 2014!  She loves playing the bass.  We found a teacher who is happy to provide lessons whenever she can be here, and now the kid is playing Bach. 

She also worked with her Papa planting a vegetable garden and he harvested some sweet 'taters just a couple days ago.  We had lots of cukes and squash.  There were hardly any tomatoes, it's been so rainy there wasn't enough sunshine.

There has been a problem with one of her teeth for a long time, where an infection was resistant and she needed surgery.  We were able to get that done and taken care of, and the antibiotics were over with by the time she had to go back to her father's place.  It was such a relief to get it all behind us. 

She had a good time shopping for school supplies and a few clothes.  We always end up in the bookstore and the comic book store while she's here. 

She is happy to help her mom with all kinds of chores and her grammaw too.  We make sure she has lots of rewards! so she's always motivated.  Not only do we love her like crazy but our funny cat won't leave her side.

I can't think of anything more wonderful than being the grammaw of this extraordinary, lovely and intelligent person as she grows into a fabulous individual.  I only hope she will cherish her own self the way we cherish her.

Five Minute Friday: PRESENT

Five minute time was last Friday but better late than never, so I'm always saying.

"Present" is the topic.  They didn't say what kind.  But I assume they meant THE present, as in Right Now.  Much has been written about the need to live in the present.  But I think living in the future would be a great skill for people to learn at an earlier age.  As in, planning what to get at the grocery store for the week ahead.  Starting in with meal preparation BEFORE it's time for supper - that sort of thing.  If we're not thinking ahead, about the future, all the time, life becomes uncomfortable and everything is in a mess.