Category Archives: family

Facebook Game

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Am I the last person to do ABC’s of Me from Facebook? I loved it — quick and easy and very Twitter-like. I you haven’t done this yourself, give it a try.

A – Age: 51

B – Bed size: Queen

C – Chore(s) you hate: Every single damn one of them

D – Dog’s name: Abby the Lately Beloved

E – Essential start-your-day item: Cappuccino. Espresso. Coffee. Rinse and repeat.

F – Favorite color: Green. No, yellow. No, blue.

G – Gold or Silver: Platinum

H – Height: One inch higher than whatever my husband claims.

I – Instruments you play: Cellphones

J – Job title: I used to have one of those …

K – Kid(s): Older Daughter (mother of grandson Capt. Adorable), Younger Daughter (college student contemplating fulfilling her mother’s dream of master’s/doctorate in English) plus Son-in-Law (Most Talented Artist Ever) and four cats.

L – Living arrangements: Married. With benefits.

M- Mom’s name: Susan Jeanette

N – Nicknames: ????

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Too fuzzy to remember

P – Pet Peeve: People who cannot drive. And people who yell at people who cannot drive.

Q – Quote from a movie: From “Time Bandits” — Kevin: Yes, why does there have to be evil?
Supreme Being: I think it has something to do with free will.

R- Right- or left-handed: Right

S – Siblings: Two younger brothers, who of course were spoiled rotten and were raised by different parents than those who raised me and they got everything they ever wanted. But as all my friends and other family members know, I’ve come to grips with this and have moved on and don’t ever hardly think about it one little bit anymore at all.

T – Time you wake up: Anywhere from 4:30 to 5:30 a.m. — I know, I know. I can’t help it. It’s a curse.

U- Underwear: Yes.

V – Vegetable you dislike: One word — limayuckybeans

W – Ways you run late: Standing in my closet frantically throwing clothes on the floor and moaning, “I don’t have anything to wear. Why are all my clothes so awful? Why doesn’t anything fit? Why do I look so horrible?” In other words, typical morning routine.

X – X-rays you’ve had: Too fuzzy to remember.

Y – Yummy food you make: I am well known for my peanut-butter cookies, sandwich rollups, Chex Mix, spiced-tea mix and fresh salads. Hey, I’m thinking restaurant menu …

Z – Zoo favorite: Being on the outside looking in.

Note:  I said “Married with benefits” because my husband and I have a commuter marriage that straddles two states, which means I get to live in Alabama and Mississippi sort of both at the same time, with our home state of Tennessee thrown in, too. So get your mind out of the gutter.

Spring Cleaning

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Spring cleaningHome-organization experts say you can tell a lot about Spring cleaningpeople by the state of their refrigerators. I hope you can tell from ours that I did a massive cleaning shortly after Christmas’s food extravaganza and have kept it in top shape ever since. I mean, this was a six-hour job — taking out and scrubbing each shelf, throwing away a whole garbage bag of expired/old/what-in-the-world-is-this food and getting into every little corner and those Spring cleaningannoying ridges in the vegetable bins. And maintaining it means constant vigilance for crumbs and that Unidentified Sticky Stuff that mysteriously shows up. I can pretty much guarantee that everything in this fridge is now fresh and edible. Before this cleaning marathon, I would have to sprint to the fridge to throw myself in front of it when folks headed in that direction — I was that embarrassed to let anybody see the disgusting chaos inside. Luckily, in my cleaning frenzy I even felt moved to attack the outside, excavating years of Post-Its and lists that dated, I’m ashamed to admit, to the previous century. I kept all the artwork and notes and doodling that had decorated the door for so long — our refrigerator had long served as a sort of guestbook for my now 20-something-daughters’ friends as they traipsed in and out of the house during the Teenage Years. But with 1-year-old grandson Capt. Adorable discovering crayons, it’s time to make room for new artwork. And food that isn’t growing food of its own. My daughters’ reactions to the clean fridge were telling: Older daughter (Capt. Adorable’s mom) said, “Mom, the refrigerator looks wonderful! Great job!” Younger daughter said, “Why did you take down all the pictures? They’d been there forever!” But I’ve already started a Refrigerator-Door Scrapbook — and I guess in another 10 years I’ll have another Fridge Spring-Cleaning.

Grandparenting

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You know how people say, “Oh, you’ll love (fill in the blank)” and you just nod and smile and agree politely because how do you know you’ll love (fill in the blank) until you actually do/are/try (fill in the blank)? That’s how I was when people told me, “Oh, you’ll love being a grandma” — but after 53 weeks and some days of being one now, I can tell you: Those people were right! Read more at my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090403/ARTICLES/904035000

A Week of Spring — Fashion

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Spring fashionWelcome to day No. 4 of A Week of Spring. Before I Spring fashionbecame a grandma to a darling baby boy, I thought little girls’ clothes were the cutest. Not so! Little boys are right up there fashion-wise, especially when it comes to spring style. I absolutely adore these pink and green madras shorts with the pink grasshopper-print polo shirt and the blue and brown board shorts paired with the colorful T-shirts, all in size 18-24 months from Baby Gap. I can’t wait until it’s warm enough for my 1-year-old grandson, Capt. Adorable, to run around in these. He is going to rock the playground. Come back tomorrow for day no. 5 in A Week of Spring.

A Week of Spring — Easter Candy

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Easter candyWelcome to day No. 3 in A Week of Spring. I love Easter Easter candycandy! Well, not really the candy part — I’ll take a bar of deep rich dark Green and Black’s over a milky chocolate bunny any time — but the oh-so-cute and whimsical spring-time packaging always makes me smile. And who wouldn’t? Fresh Market has an overflowing abundance of Easter candy this year and I can’t help but picture adorable Easter baskets filled with Easter Candyall sorts of sweets and treats. I think it’s the fascination of boxes and wrappings and what-wonderful-things-could-be-inside that’s so intriguing. And I probably have passed that on to my Easter candydaughters, who are in their 20s but still delight in candy-laden Easter baskets … although they rarely eat it all.  Since they’re vegetarians, we’ve banished Peeps but anything with caramel, fudge, peanut butter or vanilla creamy goodness at least gets a nibble. We’ll see if my 1-year-old grandson carries on the family tradition — I’m betting one bite won’t be enough for him! Come back tomorrow for day No. 4 in A Week of Spring.

A Week of Spring — Pink and Green

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Spring shoppingIt’s day No. 2 in A Week of Spring and we’re taking a look Spring shoppingat those wonderfully fresh and pretty spring colors that make us smile. I spend most of winter in black turtlenecks, so as spring approaches I’m definitely ready for something different. I love finding blooming spring colors in unexpected places, like this gathering of pink, green and yellow at Harrison Brothers Hardware in Huntsville, Alabama. On the city square since 1879, Harrison’s is part museum, part antique shop and part gift boutique. These spring gotta-haves were between the massive old safe and the tempting candy aisle. Sweet! I’d take everything, from the pink and green toile trays to the mint-green glasses. But my favorite is the pink-and-blue paisley ice bucket. For some reason I cannot resist cute ice buckets. I’ve got a gazillion, including washtub-sized ones we’d need for my daughters’ high-school parties and smaller sizes like this one that are perfect for book-club night. I mean, really, how many ice buckets do you need? But that’s what spring does to you — makes you start planning parties out on the deck. With plenty of pink and green. Come back tomorrow for day No. 3 in A Week of Spring.

Birthday Parties

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Nolan Behel birthdayGrandson Capt. Adorable celebrated his first Dragon birthday cakebirthday in style, with even his Grandad John taking a break from sports news to wish him a happy one. In keeping with the whole dragon and little prince theme, the birthday boy got crowns on his T-shirt and bib, a dragon cake and a soft purple crown for his Nolan Behel first birthdayprecious baby head. The hit of the party, however, was Capt. Adorable’s discovery of balloons — or “oons” as we had to call them to avoid Nolan Behel first birthdaysetting off a frenzy. To celebrate the first-birthday occasion, balloons were everywhere — even festively tied on to his high chair. It was the first time he’d ever seen balloons close up and he was fascinated. When his mommy gave him one to hold, he clutched the ribbon tightly and would not turn loose as he spent almost a half hour tracing a joyous route from room to room. The joy stopped, however, when the balloon would drift up to the ceiling and the Capt.’s desperate wails brought the nearest tallest adult running over for retrieval. His smart mommy realized that getting him into his high chair for lunch amidst all the balloon decorations would not work at all, so she took him into another room while the co-conspirators removed all “oons”  and when he came back in distracted him with — what else? — cake. Success! “Oons” forgotten — for the time being, at least.

First Birthday

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Baby gymWork by Jason BehelHappy first birthday, Capt. Adorable! My grandson, Nolan, is 1 today. Everybody told me how much I would love being a grandmother and what a precious gift grandchildren are and I said, “Oh, yes. I know!” but it takes being a grandma to really know and now I can say with all the conviction in the world: Being a grandparent is the best thing ever! We’re partying all weekend, but Nolan already got his best present: A rocking dragon his daddy made him from a rocking-horse pattern. As always, I am overwhelmed by my son-in-law’s talent. He put a “B” on the seatback, handtooled the leather trim and made a lightweight sword to complete the ensemble. Nolan loves it. It was Jason’s first woodworking attempt, and now I’m making up my own want list: coffee table, bench, barstools …

Family and Friends

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One of my new favorite things is taking my almost 1-year-old grandson, Capt. Adorable, to the playground. He’s … well, adorable! Because he’s an early walker, he’s so much smaller than everybody else running around — it’s like his coordination hasn’t caught up yet with his little toddlin’ legs. He mainly stands and solemnly observes with that precious forehead crinkled in deep baby thought. You can just see him processing what he sees and thinking, “Oh, so you’re supposed to go up here and go down there. And move over when somebody else wants a turn. I get it!” He knows and loves the things he can reach — these chiming bells, a giant tic-tac-toe game of revolving x’s and o’s and the baby-sized swings and slides — and seems quite amused at this alien concept of sharing.

Shopping

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With store-closings and business-bankruptcies in the news every day, it’s easy to forget that some favorite shopping destinations disappeared years ago. Remember, for instance, when downtowns featured thriving and vital department stores and it was a Big Deal to go shopping there? When we’d visit my grandparents in Illinois  I’d wear my best dress (this was when blue jeans were for playing outside only) and go with my grandmother to shop in downtown St. Louis. We’d admire the department-store window displays and then ride the elevator upstairs to the tea room. Tres chic! Read more shopping memories at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090320/ARTICLES/903205000