My Dearest Boom-pa

I hope this finds you well.  From what I've read, you've been extra tired lately, and to be honest, I can't blame you.  You've been alive and well for a pretty long time now, I guess you'd need a little extra rest right about now.

But I want you to know, you are loved.

You and Granny haven't been able to come to FL for a while now, and now I realize how much I took that time for granted.  A young 20 something girl doesn't need her grandparents checking in, but an almost 40 yr old with young boys of her own sure wishes her Granny and Boom-pa were nearby.  Heck, I remember when Granny was 45 yrs old.  I can't imagine being a grandparent at that age.

I remember spending the night at your house, dressed in an 'angel' shirt. That would be a Boom-pa t-shirt, so big on an itty bitty girl that the sleeves would drape and hang like the wings of an angel.  And while wearing that shirt, I would crawl into bed between you and Granny and marvel at the light she had on her side of the bed, allowing her to read.  But you were sleeping!  What an amazing arrangement...together, but different.  At that time, so hard to fathom.

When you would come to visit us, it was like a cloud of peace settled over our household.  I'm sure you know there was a bit of stress, to say the least, but when Granny and Boom-pa were coming, everything was set aside.  Now I suspect maybe it wasn't, but from a child's eye, it was a holiday.  Rusty and I would go out and climb the rusted horse's gate in order to get the first glimpse of your car.  Then we'd scramble down and go running into the house shouting "They're HERE!  They're HERE!"  Nothing could go wrong.  Granny and Boom-pa were HERE and that's all that mattered.  An umbrella of happiness and contentment settled over us.  It was like a breath of clean, fresh air.

I remember one time, a few of us (Rusty, Mindy and myself, maybe?) were staying over and you and Granny went off to church on a Wednesday evening.  We balked at the idea, claiming religious differences (although I'm sure it was more to do with the fact that we were just tired of going to church period) and as a result you were taking us to see Dave and Cindy for the evening.  However, we had left certain messages on the hallway chalkboard.  Which we had to point out to you, because you didn't see them.  And as a result, you and Granny told us how being up front and honest could be to our benefit.  If we want something, we should just ask you.  So, Rusty and I decided to test you by asking for a camera.  Which taught us another lesson...the answer won't always be 'Yes'.

I mostly remember being on your shoulders.  I know it was exhilarating, yet frightening.  I'd clasp my hands around your head, afraid I'd tip backward and fall off.  But you would calmly tell me that you couldn't see if I held you like that, take my hands off your eyes and hold them, and we'd have the best time while I was on top of the world.

I remember your garden.  I remember sliding down your back hill.  I remember Uncle Joe with a canoe in the river down there.  I remember being up a tree and thinking "It won't hurt TOO bad if I jump down!" and your telling me that it probably would.  I remember the chestnut trees in the back yard and the swingset I fell off of, getting chestnut burs in my knees.  I know Granny helped pull them out.  I remember flying over your head as you flipped us through the air and somehow, miraculously, we always landed on our feet.

I remember your hands and the piece of shrapnel I always played with.

I remember your grace and dignity and strength.  I remember your love, forgiveness and compassion.  I think of you as the best and greatest man I have ever known, or could know, as well as the best person I could strive to be.  And I also know that you would say "Beth, you should strive to be Christ-like".  But, Boom-pa, you are the best example of Christ-like that I have ever seen.  And I am so blessed and honored that you are my grandfather.  And I love you.

PS...Thanks for teaching me to put peanut butter on pancakes.
  And for teaching me to drive a stick shift and not freaking out when I lost the window in your Rabbit.

School's out for the summer!

So what do you do with a super smart boy ready to go into the 4th grade?  Seriously, smart.  He made straight A's the entire year, not a single B on that kid's report card.  Way to go, Zach!  So proud of you ♥

He's been at me a lot recently to let him cook more.  Making his own tea and scrambled eggs isn't cutting it anymore.  So I let him help me make a cake, and then he got to try his hand with the pasta cutter.  I need to put my feet up and let him do the dirty work around here ;)  And I need to learn how to work with fondant...but the taste is all that really matters, right?

Ta-dah!

Have I ever mentioned that Owen is a bit of a handful?  No? Are you SURE?

Ok, I see you are being facetious.

Owen keeps my busy.  Even when I'm sleeping, I'm wondering in my head what he's up to and the minute wakefulness is near, my brain is practically jumping out of my body to check and make sure he's safe.  And make sure the house and all inhabitants are safe as well.

Potty training is going well.  He goes in, sits on the potty and does his thing, climbs up and washes his hands, and comes out.  Well, that's what he WAS doing.  He's decided to change things up a bit.  These photos were taken a few days apart and you can see why I realized I had to put the childproof knob cover back on the bathroom door.  It's not so much that I don't agree on the cleaning powers of detangler for glass, but the sink is a bit high off the tile floor for a bitty boy to fall and crack his head on.  Sigh. 

I'm not sure I totally approve of his dance-wear, either, but we have time to discuss that.

May 20 = Elmo Day

Can you believe it's been a year?  A whole year since we lost Elmo.  We still miss him.  Yes, we have Holly and we love her but at the same time she reminds us of the things we didn't realize were so special about Elmo.  He was an awesome dog, the most gentle you could ever imagine.  We were so blessed to have him. 

A rare occurrence...

Owen falling asleep on the couch.  Unsolicited sleep, sleep that didn't require at least SOME amount of effort, not to mention the massive amount of effort it often takes...SLEEPING in an open, public, active area.  Ahhhhh.  How peaceful.  Can I take a nap now?

Happy Anniversary!

11 years married...whew...made it past 10.  Whodathunk?  Thanks for putting up with me, Honey!

We went out with some friends, as well as Sharon and Jerad.  Met a new friend whose family is moving to the area soon (hope we didn't scare them off!) and had an overall great time.  Btw, Beth + alcohol + camera = RUN!  Thanks, guys! ♥

Butterflies!!

Do you remember back in jr. high, or whatever grade it was, when you learned about potential energy?  It was a rather abstract concept for young minds to grasp, but something we seem to understand much better as we get older.

Well, I have a potential swarm of butterflies here.  Come, butterflies, come!

Back to Mother's Day...

I think it was on Mother's Day that this particular session of blogger procrastination began.  Of course, I have gone way beyond the scope of procrastination, I'm pretty sure a new word should be created to encompass the magnitude of putting-off that I have accomplished.  Probethination?  Procrastibethan?  Bethasstination?  Hmmm.  Not sure if those work very well.

On Mother's Day, I was having a nice ho-hum day, Kev was working and the boys were driving me crazy and we had no big plans. I just wanted a lazy day.  Then my brother called,  he had some issues going on and needed to vent and wanted to spare our mother since it was Mother's Day.  He has schizophrenia and the fact that he was able to see and empathize with how his actions might affect others and act accordingly made my heart melt.  He's really had a tough go of things, but so have many of my siblings.  I can't believe my heart is still functional, it's puddled around my feet so many times.

Then later my mom called.  I saw the caller ID and thought she'd heard from my aforementioned brother.  But instead, she was frantic and crying and breathless saying she was in the ER with Danny, her husband, and his heart had stopped and they were shocking him.  My heart about stopped at that point.  Danny had just had a questionable epsisode a week or 2 prior and was waiting on follow-up testing, but now there was no question.  He was having a heart attack.  I got to speak with the nurse who explained that he kept going into V-fib but once shocked, he was returning to a normal sinus rhythm, which was good news.  The bad news was that it wouldn't last, he'd return to V-fib and need shocked again.

So Mother's Day spiraled down into a flurry of phone calls while I tried to notify family members and do what I could to help my mom (which was basically trying to explain medical jargon), while crossing my fingers and praying that Danny would be ok.  Being in FL with them up in KY really ties my hands, not that being there would really have changed things much.  Miraculously, the long story short is that he came out of it with no major damage.  They air-lifted him to a larger hospital (after giving him a clot-dissolving medication) where the doctor was able to take him directly into the cath lab and insert a stent into the closed vessel.  He was home a few days later.

Thus I missed posting that day, which then rolled into the next and the next and voila!  It's almost a month later.

In the interim, I've been trying to make healthy 'yotes'.  That's what Owen calls yogurt, although he is getting more adept at saying the actual word :(  Fresh berries, mangoes, whatever I can throw together in the blender with some organic yogurt.  It's usually so thick that we have to water it down with milk, and I'm having issues with getting it through his sippy cup.  But we're working on it.

Can you give a girl something more than "More Roses"?

That was posted on my Facebook wall a few days ago.  I wrote the author back b/c I was thoroughly confused, and thought for sure some weird spambot had hacked her account, leaving bizarre messages that must surely have some subliminal mind control, just waiting for me to download a virus to my computer.  Srsly.  But no, she was just hinting that I needed to update my blog.  Hmmm.  How embarassed was I?  LOL...so Kelly, this is for you!

Grammy just left with both my little monkeys and boy I'm about ready to crack a bottle wine to celebrate.  As I'm typing this on June 4th, school has been out for 2 weeks today, and both boys at home all day long is pretty much pure chaos.  I'm tired.

These pics were taken on May 8 or 9, I believe.  Owen is still a little fruit maniac, and here he was totally enjoying some watermelon.  As well as taking tips from Zach on the finer points of swing set play time.  The funny thing is, as messy as Owen gets eating juicy, sticky, drippy or whatever kinds of foods, he freaks out when he's done (and sometimes before he's finished) saying "Wash hands! Wash hands! My shirt's wet!" and pulls off his clothes b/c there is NO way he's going to wear clothes that are inappropriately wet.  Bathing suit wet?  Fine.  Other clothes wet?  Hell no.