This Summer…

 

Where has this summer gone?  The days have raced by faster and faster and we are already looking at September tomorrow.  Schools have all started here but it will still feel like summer for at least another month.

So, what’s been going on here?  Earlier this month my granddaughter, Annika, spent the night with me just so we could spend some time together catching up.  Even though she is 25, we have always been close and can easily talk all night (which we did!).  Annika enjoys old movies so I introduced her to a really old one, but a classic: Arsenic and Old Lace.  This was released in 1944, stars Cary Grant and was directed by the famous Frank Capra.  It is a classic black and white comedy and one of my favorite old movies.  Many of you have probably seen this movie but if not and you like classic comedies from the 1940s, it is worth seeing!

We all had a bit of a scare several weeks ago when my 19-year-old grandson, Gavin, got sick with Covid.  This new Delta variant is all over the place here and spreading like crazy.  It’s almost worse here now than it was last year since this one is so much more contagious.  We are very grateful that although Gavin was pretty sick for a couple of weeks, he did not have to go to the hospital.  He is doing better now and has been back at work for almost two weeks.  He still doesn’t have his taste back and is not feeling his best just yet, but he’s getting there.  I am so thankful he is doing better!

I had my 69^th birthday on August 9^th.  (It seems impossible that I am nearly 70!)  Since Gavin had been sick and quarantined, I celebrated it late with my son Chris’ family this past Saturday.  I keep telling my kids that my favorite gift is simply to be able to spend a little time with them!  We had a wonderful dinner out and then went to Chris and Kristi’s house for cake and gifts.  I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with Chris, Kristi, Gavin, Annika and Nick (Annika’s boyfriend).

Left to Right: Gavin, Annika, Nick, Tom, Me, Kristi

 

Kristi, Chris and me

Well, this has been my August other than some usual medical appointments and such for Tom and myself.  Except for Gavin getting sick, it has been a good month overall.  I hope all of you are well and enjoying the final days of summer.  Take good care and thank you for your friendship even though I am not the most frequent blogger!

 

Cold Weather, Birthdays and Birds

Last week I wrote about how so many of us were headed into the deep freeze with all this cold weather.  Well, I guess we got there because temperatures have continued to go down in many parts of the U.S. and many other countries as well.  It is currently 0 degrees F here and was below 0 last night.  I’m not complaining though because I have friends in Minnesota and Canada that have temps of -40!   

We braved the cold last night to celebrate my granddaughter’s 25^th birthday.  Originally, we were going to do that last weekend but heavy snow postponed the celebration a week.  We met at a popular Indian Restaurant for dinner and then went to my son’s house for a bit.  It was wonderful to see family as that is a very rare occurrence these days.  We will be fortunate to see everyone again next week as we will be celebrating my grandson’s 19^th birthday.  Gavin and Annika have birthdays that are less than two weeks apart making February a big birthday month for our family! 

I always feed the birds here but in this extremely cold weather I try to have a little extra for them.  We get a nice variety of birds year-round so today I thought I would try to get a few pictures.

 

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day today!  Tom gave me some chocolate covered strawberries and a beautiful red rose!  Have a good week everyone!

 

A Cold and Snowy Weekend

 

Like many other areas, we have headed into the deep freeze for the next week!  Our high today was 15 Fahrenheit and that is about the warmest we will be for at least a week.  We’ve also had snow today and expect more over the next several days.  It is February after all and such weather is expected, so we will just hunker down at home.  I’ll make some homemade soup and may even start a new jigsaw puzzle.   

I had my first appointment with my new doctor this past week.  I like him and he seems to be a good doctor.  There’s just one thing, he appears to be younger than my kids!  I know, as we get older that happens but it just seems so, so weird!  Is it just me or does anyone else feel that way?

Last week my granddaughter, Annika had a birthday.  She turned 25.  How does that happen so fast?  We were supposed to celebrate with her at my son’s house Saturday night but they rescheduled due to the snow.  Maybe next weekend. 

As you can see there’s nothing too exciting around here right now.  Well, maybe one thing.  Our local football team, The Chiefs, are playing in the Super Bowl again tonight.  I am really not a sports fan but it’s hard to live in the middle of “Chiefs Country” and not be a bit of a fan.  Their stadium is about 15 miles from our house and we are surrounded by fans here.  Tom loves all football but especially our local team.  He is really excited about the Super Bowl and is planning on making his “once a year nachos” for the game.  I call his nachos that because they are not the healthiest and reserved for special occasions! 

I hope everyone is well, happy and staying warm!

An Ice Storm and a Birthday

 

We woke up this morning to a bit of an ice storm.  I know the picture looks like snow but it is actually ice.  A good day to stay home and off the roads which is just what we have done.  I did venture outside late this afternoon to roll our trash container out to the end of the driveway since tomorrow morning is our pick-up day.  It was a little slippery going but I made it! 

We had a nice coating of ice and sleet.

Today is my oldest son’s birthday.  Chris is 48 today and while he may think that is old, it really makes me feel old!  Many of us know that 48 is actually quite young when you are in your 60’s and looking back!  I sent him my love and birthday wishes this morning.  The day he was born was the best day of my life and it changed my life for the better! 

Chris at eight years old.

It’s been quiet and slow around here since Christmas.  I appreciate the quiet days after a holiday.  It seems like there is always a lot of rushing around with cooking, cleaning and other preparations for Christmas and a break afterwards is welcome. 

There’s not much to write about today but I wanted to stop in and say Hello and see how everyone is doing post-Christmas.  I don’t think I am the only one that has this very wintery weather today from what I have been reading on other blogs.  I made some homemade White Chili soup for dinner tonight and that just hit the spot for a cold, icy day.  I send my best to everyone for these last days of 2020. 

 

Another Year Older

As of yesterday, August 9^th, I am yet another year older.  I have caught up with my husband, Tom who celebrated his birthday this past June.  We are both now 68.  I am quite sure that when I was younger I never thought I would ever be so old!  My age has never actually bothered me though and I’ll gladly tell it to anyone.  It is some of the things that go along with age that sometimes bothers me!

This year for the first time I didn’t really want to celebrate my birthday.  The past month has been a hectic one with Tom being in the hospital and us handling his health problems.  Then on top of that I have been having some increased trouble with my blood pressure.  I’ve taken medication for it for years but suddenly it has been running entirely too high.  I am betting it is stress related but I did see my doctor to be safe.  He increased my medication and will see me again in a couple of weeks.  So much has been going on recently, not to mention me being behind on a lot of the regular things that demand my attention, I decided I’d just skip the birthday this year.

However, my son Chris and his wife Kristi invited us over to their house this past Saturday night to have dinner and celebrate my birthday.  Kristi is an excellent cook and baker of cakes and she made me a Hummingbird cake for my birthday!  A Hummingbird cake is a traditional southern spice cake with bananas and pineapple and a delicious cream cheese icing. 

                                                                  

Hummingbird Cake

It was a wonderful evening spent with family and a perfect way to enjoy my birthday.  It is a gift to me these days just to see my grandchildren and grown children!

Last night (on my actual birthday) Tom and I went out to eat, which is something we never do anymore thanks to the pandemic.  The restaurants are open at a reduced capacity and following the local Covid requirements.  We had a nice and relaxed dinner and I especially appreciated not having to cook!  

 

  

The Internet Sure Comes in Handy

I have always appreciated the many things we are able to take care of using the internet.  It saves money in reducing the amount of gas usage for the car, stamps for letters and most of all it saves the time it used to take to complete certain types of business that you can now do online.

Since many of us have suddenly found ourselves in the situation of staying home at least part, if not most of our time, we can really make use of the many advantages of the internet.

I had several things I needed to get done today and I was able to get all of them taken care of on my computer.

1. Pay Bills - I admit this is not my favorite thing to do but it must be done. It is much faster and easier to handle this online through my online bank account.  
2. Personal Property Declaration - For those of you not in the states, we have to fill this out each year for tax purposes.  Basically it states what vehicles you own.  Oh yes, Uncle Sam has to get his cut of our money for everything!  And yes, this was supposed to be done by March 1st but the deadline has been extended.  I was able to do this online.
3. 2020 Census - Every four years in the U.S. the census is taken to update the number of people in the country.  In past years it was done on a form you had to fill out and mail in or sometimes a person would even come to your door.  This year we received a letter in the mail and was able to use a number given to us online to fill out the form for our household.  Quick and easy, I didn't have to leave the house.
4. Birthday shopping - My youngest son, Sean has a birthday this month. Many stores are closed now and I didn't want to go out anyway.  I was able to order his gift online and it will be here just in time for his special day.

It was nice to be able to get all these jobs taken care of here at my computer in a fairly short amount of time.  There are many other things that most of us take care of online these days as well.  This online ability is proving so much more important now with all the restrictions due to the coronavirus.  Both my sons and my daughter-in-law are able to work from home.  Many children around the world are now or soon will be attending school at home on computers.  

In my mind there is something equally important the internet provides for us.  That is the ability to have contact with one another no matter where we live or if we leave our homes or not.  I value that contact, especially now!

And because this is a boring post with no pictures I'll add a photo of my cats when they were kittens.  Hopefully it will give a smile or two.

Zeus and Sophie

Please take care everyone! 

Another Birthday

We've had a nice weekend after a week of snow, ice and temperatures as low as
 4° F.  It has been above freezing all weekend and we even celebrated another family birthday.  My grandson, Gavin, had his 18th birthday yesterday!  That is a special birthday for most.  I can even remember looking forward to my 18th birthday.  We had a wonderful meal in a nice restaurant on the Plaza in downtown Kansas City.  Afterwards, we went back to my son's house for more family time and gift opening.  It is so hard for me to believe my youngest grandchild is now 18 years old!  It seems like he was just born a few weeks ago.  I don't know how anyone else feels but I think grandchildren grow up twice as fast as your own children.

My Grandson Gavin

Last week ended on a sweet note with Valentine's Day.  I hope everyone had a nice day.  We don't really celebrate the day by going out or anything like that but Tom did bring me some beautiful roses and chocolate covered strawberries - yum!  I gave him some pistachios (his favorite) and some of his favorite candy.

We have had a fairly relaxing day today.  I am getting ready to start another scanning project.  It is a goal of mine to scan all of my family's printed photos.  I have a huge quantity of  photos considering that we did not start taking digital photographs until around 2000.  Add to that the fact that our family has always taken a lot of photos going all the way back to the early 1900's and even a few from the late 1800's.  To complicate matters more, I also hope to write names and dates on pictures that are not identified.  Last year I scanned about ten years worth of photos from when my boys were young.  At some point I need to pick up from there but that is not what I'll be doing this time.  I want to get all the really old photos scanned.  Has anyone else taken on the project of scanning family photos?  If so, I could sure use any tips you may have!

Have a great week!

A New Week

I can not tell you how happy I am to see a new week!  I am in hopes of getting back into a more normal routine after dealing with my husband’s flu all last week.  He is not yet 100% but he is improving and much better than he was at this time last week.

We celebrated a family birthday yesterday.  My beautiful granddaughter, Annika, actually turns 24 today but we celebrated yesterday.  I can not believe I have a grandchild that is 24!  Those years pass by so quickly.  She is a wonderful, loving and kind young lady and we are very proud of her!

My lovely granddaughter, Annika

We are also very happy today because our local Kansas City Chiefs football team actually won the Super Bowl last night!  We live in the heart of the Chiefs Kingdom and it would be an understatement to say most everyone around here is a major fan.  Even watching the game from home last night there were many fireworks going off with each score and when we won the game it was like the Fourth of July around here with fireworks and excitement going late into the night.  Wednesday there will be a big parade in Kansas City and all the area schools and many businesses are closed for a day of celebration.  As I’ve said before, I am not a huge sports fan, but when you live here you can’t help but be a Chief’s fan! 

I am hoping to get a little better about blogging as I feel like I have gotten off to a very slow start.  I’m still learning as I go, but I follow so many excellent blogs and I consider them all to be great examples.  I may soon have a post about a new type of jigsaw puzzle I have started.  It is a mystery/escape puzzle and totally new to me so I’ll let you know how it goes!

Take care everyone!