Hot Rod swap meet

OK, I stumbled into a hot rod swap meet at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds Friday afternoon. Bill had to fly from Hooks to Conroe to have some work done on his plane, and I met him at the Conroe airport. We drove across the highway to the fairgrounds to check out the crowd, and found a swap meet. Basically, lots of trucks and RV's, set up in loose rows with tables and displays of things for sale/swap. Things that include old fenders and headlights, parts of old car bodies, transmissions, new tools, replica old tires, and restored old cars, tractors, motorcycles. Also, for some inexplicable reason, some "booths" had displays of dishes, glassware, stuff you expect to find at a flea market but maybe not at a hot rod swap meet. I figured it was to provide purpose and entertainment for the wives that trekked around with their husbands to the hot rod swap meets. So if you are looking for a front grill for a '64 Ford Fairlane, you might find it here. I think the whole idea of the swap meet is to give folks who do this for a hobby a way to travel, write it off as a business expense, and socialize. It was interesting. I want to find a swap meet for digital graphics in Hawaii, go there and write it off as a business expense.
Afterwards, I took Bill back to the airport and shot a video of him taking off. Tomorrow I'll take off (with him in the cockpit) and we'll head to Lufkin for breakfast. Then maybe I can talk him into heading on up to McKinney from there to see John in his Halloween costume!! (Are you reading this Bill? pack a bag....)
Parts of something...


Old car...

Old car parts

Twins are one month old!

Claire and Jake are 4 weeks, call it one month, old on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Last week Claire weighed 6 lbs, up from her birth weight of 5lbs 2oz. Jake weighed 5 lbs last week, up from his 3lbs 13oz. They go back to the pediatrician next Tuesday, I get to help take them!! It will be my first outing with the babies, car seats, stroller and all!

Jake and Claire in the cradle together.
Jennifer holding both babies, they really listen to her.
Happy one month birthday! The twins wear new hats knitted by my cousin, Nelsie, from Dallas. She also knitted a UT hat for baby John when he was born, and a sweater for my baby Jeremy (twins Dad), when he was born 30+ years ago.
Twins share a bobby pillow. I have since found out that Jennifer has TWO boppy pillows, so they can each have their own now.

Granny Nanny - the saga continues

Jennifer is feeling MUCH better. After one month of pumping every 2 hours, feeding twins every 3 hours, recovering from c-section, and flu, and finding out about thyroid cancer, thus being totally exhausted, the flu seems to have passed, she has had several nights of solid sleep, no more pumping, and she is very glad to be back on her feet. We have all pitched in, me, her Dad Grady and his wife Carrie, Aunt Becky, sisters Diana and Jamie, and countless folks delivering food, and all the prayers from folks known and unknown, things are looking better. (See link to Jennifer CAREPage in previous post)

Jennifer is stronger, and now better able to face the next step, the thyroid surgery and another 6 weeks recovery. This time, we will be on top of the twin care, she will be able to come home and rest without worrying about the twins. The surgery date has not been scheduled yet, MDAnderson wants a complete neck scan, that is scheduled for Nov. 13, and the surgery will be soon after that. If they can get the scan earlier (through someone else's cancelled appointment), then the surgery may be earlier. I'm flexible!!

Twins napping in the cradle.

Jennifer holding both babies, they really respond to her voice!
Bill pitches in and helps with an afternoon feeding and baby holding time.

Bill and Jake have bonded.

JanMa feeds Jake.
Jake and Claire do tummy time on the playmat.

Purposeful Retirement

I'm working on the P list for retirement. The first P was Planning, and I planned on many fronts for my retirement. The financial numbers were right (well, they were adequate!!), and I planned for the transition (trips), I planned to be busy (JanMa's Digital Memories), and I planned to offer the next year to help out with the expected new grandbaby twins. All this has been mentioned in previous posts.
The second P is Purposeful. There needs to be some element of retirement that is meaningful, and not just an idle filler of time. For me, it is helping to take care of the twins. This has become more than just JanMa holding babies and helping Jennifer out while she recovers from a C-section delivery. Jennifer has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will be undergoing surgery very soon with another 6 week recovery, followed up by radiation therapy. See her MD Anderson CarePage set up by her sister Jamie at https://www.carepages.com/carepages/jenniferjamesrobin/updates/2399721
And to top it off, she has the flu. The C-section, taking care of new babies, exhaustion, stress of the cancer diagnosis, all have weakened her. She is now on Tamiflu, and should be better in a week or so. The concern now is whether or not the babies will get it. They have been exposed, so now just wait and see. I figure I am the safe one, I had my flu shot, and probably old enough to not be too worried about swine flu, plus I have not been out in crowds for the past 5 days, since I was mostly at their house on baby duty.
Long story short, my Purposeful Retirement for the immediate week ahead is to take care of babies while Jennifer minimizes her contact with them. For the short term, I will do 3 nights a week of night nanny duty, and care for the twins during her cancer surgery and radiation. So my plan to "help take care of the twins" has become Purposeful, for me and hopefully will have a postive and needed impact on the lives of others.
If I ever think of another P element of retirement, I'll post it!!

Claire and Jake on the playmat, looking at each other.

Jennifer reads to one of the twins before going to MD Anderson.

My good friend Lillie offers another pair of hands to help with twins. Jake really liked Lillie.

Jennifer Cancer Diagnosis

Just when you think things are going OK.... the hits just keep on happening. Jennifer's Drs had noticed an enlarged thyroid, she had a scan and a biopsy this past week, the results were thyroid cancer. Through acts of God, Jeremy's boss's wife's cousin was able to get Jennifer into MD Anderson in a day for appt. with a top endocrinologist. Long story short, she will have surgery before Thanksgiving and radiation in January. For more info and details, visit Jennifer's MDAnderson Care Page, set up by her sister Jamie.
https://www.carepages.com/carepages/jenniferjamesrobin/updates/2399721

Meanwhile, she also has the flu, regular or swine, but doesn't matter. Babies have been exposed. They don't test for swine flu unless you end up in ICU. I care, because I have had a flu shot but not swine flu shot yet. I feel fairly protected though, with the flu shot and my age. I will be able to get the swine flu shot this next week, and plan to do that anyway. Jennifer will minimize her contact with the babies, and take Tamiflu, so hopefully this will pass without Claire and Jake getting sick.
Jennifer reads to one of the twins before going to MD Anderson appointment.

Claire, on the left, and Jake enjoy playtime.

Night Nanny Duty!!

Tuesday, Oct. 20, I had my first night nanny duty with the twins. I gave them their 11:00 feeding, then ran back and forth from the guest room to the nursery, everytime the baby monitor squeaked. After the 2:00 a.m. feeding, I turned down the volume on the monitor to low, then was able to ignore the coos and sighs, and only heard louder cries or squawks. The babies slept well during that time, I actually slept more than an hour. Same drill after the 5:00 a.m. feeding, and I slept til Jeremy came upstairs to check on them around 7:00. I stayed on duty til Jennifer returned from a morning OB appt, then home for a quick nap and more JanMa's Digital Memories scanning.
Twins went to pediatrician on Tuesday, Jake is now 5 lbs, and Claire is 6lbs. They are on their way!!

JanMa packs for night nanny duty.
I took my rocking chair, since the one Jennifer uses downstairs is too big to move back and forth for now.
JanMa's rocking station set up in the nursery, complete with cat.Jake and Claire share Claire's crib in the nursery.

Claire in the swing.

Claire's first playtime on the playmat.

Side Note about travel

Retirement travel offers tremendous flexibility. You don't have to wait for vacation or holidays to travel, and generally when traveling there is no hard set time schedule. On my trip back from McKinney last Sunday, I stopped at a "distraction", the Russell Stover chocolate factory in Corsicana. As mentioned in previous posts, Corsicana stop is usually at the Collins Street Bakery, not for fruitcake, but for soup and sandwich lunch and a couple of cookies, or their awesome chocolate pound cake. But Russell Stover is located just down the road from Collin Street Bakery, so this time I made that my stop. Sort of a disappointment, factory was not operational on a Sunday, but that was OK. The thing that put me off was the 4-for-1 sale on Valentine's Day candy. Now I did hear a store clerk tell an older couple that the "use by" date on the candy was May 2009, and she did make a point to not guarantee the quality of the chocolate 5 months after the "use by" date. But since this couple was an older couple, as were most of the people in there, I figured they really wanted the bargain, and weren't worried about the "use by" date. I hope they weren't going to save it for Valentine's Day, 2010!! But there were free samples, and there was a Blue Bell area. I skipped the packaged candy, got a scoop of mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone, and headed on toward Conroe. I decided that the old folks stopped by for the free samples, being on fixed incomes and all!!



Old retired folks stopping for freebies at Russell Stover factory on their way through Corsicana.
I followed a giant insect into my neighborhood on my return to Conroe.

Actually some kind of 4-wheeler mud bug.

photos on quilt squares

Someone asked me how to get photos onto fabric for quilt squares. I checked with Quilter's Corner in Conroe, they said the best thing to use is Printed Treasures, which is a fabric that you can run through an ink jet printer. I tried to use it on my printer, and it jammed up. My printer runs the paper through in 180 degrees though. I then tried it on Bill's printer, paper just runs straight through the printer. Still jammed up, plus it uses a LOT of ink. Then I went back to my original idea, print onto transfer paper, iron on to fabric, make quilt square. I bought some at Michaels (many more sheets at half the price of the Printed Treasures fabric squares). It worked great. The only thing that is critical is to mirror the image first, so it prints "backwards". Then when you iron it on the fabric, it will be frontwards. Worked great, so now I can expand my JanMa's repertoire to include photos onto quilt squares (or any kind of fabric that you can iron a transfer on).

McKinney trip

I drove up to Dallas fairly early Saturday morning, right past the Cotton Bowl and all the traffic trying to get into the stadium. Got to Jason's house in McKinney right at kick-off of the UT-OU game. Jason, Ashley, John and I were all dressed in our orange gear. John played around on the floor during the game, I watched him and took pictures, Jason cooked hot dogs, Ashley got out lunch stuff, and UT won the game. Afterwards, we made a hardware store/Sam's run, Jason plans to replace his builder-grade dishwasher with a good one. I had made plans to meet a JanMa's Digital Memories customer from Dallas area and deliver a DVD project and pick up more slides from her. Sunday, more John watching, then drove back to Conroe. It is so neat to see John crawling, pulling up, feeding himself fingerfoods, and generally being a real happy kid. I marvel at what good parents Jason and Ashley are, they are so patient and positive and loving with John, and his personality certainly reflects it.

John feeding himself some melt-away yogurt drops, made by Gerber or some baby food company. I am amazed and the variety of baby foods now, the actual food and the complexity to suit various stages of a baby's digestive capabilities. I remember just handing my kids a green bean or french fry, or cracker as finger food.

John in the tub. Jason reserves the privilege of bathing John every night, except for a few nights a month when he has to work late. John seems to enjoy the ritual.

John pulls himself up on anythng he can. He likes to stand up, but he hasn't let go yet.
John in his Texas gear entertains himself during the OU game.
Jason pulls out his current dishwasher to see how complicated the installation will be for the new one.

John likes to pull himself up and stand.


John gets to feed himself snacks after eating his lunch and dinner.

JanMa helps with twins

I am so excited to spend time with the twins and be useful!! The diaper changing and bottle feeding skills come back pretty quick. Right now, they mostly eat and sleep, and get a little fussy from time to time, but no crying screaming jags. I hope they stay that way, they can't afford to burn off calories, they need to gain weight. Jennifer and Jeremy are learning about sleepless nights, the babies' cradle is in their room at night, so every little whimper and coo wakes Jennifer up. So if I can relieve her so she can get a nap, or a shower, or just put her feet up for awhile, she will recover from the surgery much quicker. I would like to do night duty from time to time, so she can get a better night's sleep. And I keep telling her, it won't last forever. Below are a few pictures, and more at http://picasaweb.google.com/robinjan51/ClaireAndJake?authkey=Gv1sRgCK2WncWV7tjl7gE&feat=directlink

Jake and Claire in the cradle together.
Close up

Diaper changing station, how quickly it comes back, even if they do have heated wipe holders now.
Jake checks out Claire next to him in the cradle.
JanMa hold both twins on their first night at home.

The Twins Are HOME!!

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, just about two weeks to the hour after the twins were born, they go home. Jake passed his car seat test on Monday, and got his "surgery" on Tuesday morning early. Both babies have put on weight each day for the last 3 days, with 8 oral feedings a day. Jennifer is on autopilot, nurse babies, pump, change diapers, nurse babies, and so on. She goes solo tomorrow. I told her to put my number on speed dial, just in case. It has been an exciting two weeks, just seeing and some holding of the babies in the NICU, but being able to visit them at their house is really awesome. I love just sitting and holding them. I took some pictures of Jeremy as a baby to compare his face with Jake and Claire. In some ways, Jake reminds me of Jeremy, but when you see the baby pictures, Claire is the one that really seems to look like him.

I'm off to Dallas this weekend, to enjoy grandson John and see Jason and Ashley's new house. I hear John is pulling himself up and standing, and crawling all over the place. It will be a real treat to spend some time with him and watch the way he smiles and laughs at his Mom and Dad. He has such a personality.

Jan feeds Jake a bottle, in the NICU a few days before the babies go home.
Claire, on the left, and Jake enjoy napping together.

Jan holds both babies in their new home.

Jake and Claire together in their cradle ready for their first night at home.

Twins update- 1 1/2 weeks

The babies are doing great! Claire is up to 6 oral feedings a day, the goal is for all 8 feedings to be oral, in order to go home. Jake is at 4. He needs to gain weight, right now he burns calories when he sucks, so it is a delicate balance between him eating on his own and not losing weight. Wish I could burn calories by eating!! Check out the picasa web album for more baby pictures.
Some of those oral feedings are on a bottle, so I plan to get some baby bottle feeding time in with Claire soon, then Jake.

Jennifer holds Claire, Jan holds Jake.

Claire and Jake, after one week

Jake and Claire are now sharing a crib in the NICU. Both are improving daily. For more pictures, see the Jake and Claire picasaweb album at http://picasaweb.google.com/robinjan51/ClaireAndJake?authkey=Gv1sRgCK2WncWV7tjl7gE&feat=directlink