Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung, sunny and dry with cool mornings and evenings. It will last a week or so before summer hits. Three weeks ago I was shivering and worrying about freezing pipes, now I'm planting geraniums. I do love our short Texas Gulf coast winters, flanked by months of fall and spring temperatures. I could do without July and August, but all in all, I'd rather be in shorts and flip-flops in the shade by the pool rather than shivering under a blanket in my house with a heater by my feet! I like to say I've lived my entire life in the shadow of the Gulf coast, totally acclimated to the moist heat. My skin loves it. And now that my face has cleared up, I can go out in public again.

Tulip tree is now blooming, just a tad late this year due to earlier freezing temps.
New Boston ferns planted in the courtyard to replace frozen plants.
And this month's project, new caulking in the powder room, soon. So far all I've done is pry out the old caulk. I think I'll go ahead and replace the faucet while I'm at it! Or at least I'll buy a new one and get Bill to replace it!

Meanwhile, JanMa's Digital Memories is starting a few projects, slide shows for a wedding and a 50th anniversary celebration. I expect the rest of the old photos from Mom to arrive any day now for scanning. Since I'm captioning those old family pictures, I've had to ask my Mom and my Uncle GC for some help with names and dates. I've been learning a lot about my family, and it's been fun for them to reminisce. And I'll make multiple DVD copies of all the photos to share with my Uncle, Mom, the boys and some cousins. So don't just get your old photos scanned, include captions with names and dates, cause once you are gone, your kids won't have a clue!

Overnight with the twins

I got to babysit the twins Saturday for Jennifer's birthday. Actually, I offered to do that as a present to Jennifer, and to overnight and get up with them Sunday morning. Being retired and on a fixed income and all, it's a win-win for all of us! And we had a great time! I got there early to play with the babies for awhile, and Aunt Jamie and cousins Travis and Allison were there to help get Jennifer into the party mood. There was enough chocolate in the cupcakes and cookie cake and brownies to fill everyone's chocolate cravings for some time to come.

When I got there, the kids were fingerpainting. Jennifer is so brave!

View of the finished products.

Allison and Travis show off their painted fingers!

Jake seemed to prefer getting his fingers into the charcoal remnants from the grill! He tasted a few chunks (it's just carbon!) then started bringing them to me to share.

Claire likes to give kisses, especially to Jake.
I caught this picture of Claire, she has such a determination that really comes through in her expression in this picture, I think.

Jamie and Jennifer get the kids swinging.

The kids played inside for awhile before dinner. Allison and Claire danced, Travis and Jake got in and out of the cars. Allison is a good team player, and pushed Claire around in the car.

The menu for all 4 kids at dinner was a chicken and veggie casserole. It reminded me so much of when the boys were young and there would be me and another mother with kids and we would feed hordes of boys. We fed them hotdogs and chips or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Not quite the healthy dining habits these kids are getting, which is great.
The nighttime routine makes it easy to keep the twins. After dinner around 5:15 or so, they get a bath. Both of them like to play with the stream of water from the faucet. In this picture you can also see Jake's teeth are growing larger. I think I've seen teeth appearing in the back of Claire's mouth too! After baths, it's time to brush teeth. Then I read them a story and put them to bed. They chattered back and forth for awhile, then it got quiet and they are asleep by 7:00 - 7:30.
They slept well through the night, Claire woke up once and I changed her and put her right back into bed. Jake woke up about 5:45, I held him in my lap and we rocked for awhile. That is the best part, when they settle down in your lap for a sleepy-time rocking. I did try to put him back in his crib but when those little arms reach up to be picked up, what grandmother can resist? So we rocked about 20 minutes or so, then he woke up enough to start chattering to me, which woke Claire up. It was 6:30 by them, and time to get up anyway after their 11 hours of sleep.

For breakfast I fixed toast and scrambled eggs. Claire likes eggs,

Jake does not !

I convinced them to leave their ninnies and stuffed animals in their cribs for later on, and we got dressed, and were out for a walk by 8:30. A good start to another beautiful Texas winter day.

Home Bound

I am treating my face with a cream designed to destroy pre-cancerous skin cells. After 8 days, there were several areas on my face that were turning red. I stopped using the cream, and now it looks even worse, but I know the areas will be blistering, peeling off, and then hopefully all clear in a few weeks. Meanwhile, I am staying pretty much at home and out of the public eye. I'm not even swimming, because of the chlorine in the pool and I don't want other swimmers to jump out of the pool thinking I have some horrible contagious skin disease!

Pretty gross, I admit.

Bill was brave enough to tough it out on Valentine's Day, I even offered to cook dinner, since I didn't want to go out. I didn't even get him a card, but I did go through old cards he had given me over the years and picked out two, wrote more stuff on the inside, and gave him those. I thought that was pretty clever. He had roses and a cute audio card waiting for me at his house, it played "Come Fly With Me". The roses were unique, sort of soft green-white color.
During my self-enforced house arrest, I have done some needed spring chores, including cutting back dead plants and sweeping pine needles off the roof. I even wore my soft-spike golf shoes to keep me from slipping on the roof. Every time I do this I swear never again, but it is not a difficult chore, and other than being afraid of just freezing in fear, I can manage OK. I used to climb up there with extension cords, Christmas lights and a staple gun and hang over the edge putting up Christmas lights!

Preparing to climb up...

View down into courtyard from the top.

I have also been scanning 100's of pictures that my Mom sent. I am learning a lot of family history, seeing my parents as they were before I was born, and seeing some ancestors I never knew. Here is a picture I had seen many years ago, when I was in my basketball coach phase. It is my great-grandfather (I think) William Oscar Draper, who was a teacher and obviously the coach of this very early girls' basketball team. The first girl in the picture is Nettie Guin, I suspect some relation to me, since her name was written on the back of the picture along with his. I googled him and found some cemetery records for Walnut Grove Cemetery in Lamar County, Alabama. My parents and their parents are all from Alabama. W.O Draper was born in 1873 and died in 1939. I'm guessing this picture was from the 1910-1920. My Mawmaw and Pawpaw Draper, my Dad and his sister Nancy are all gone now. I'm going to find out more from my Uncle GC, but now I also want to do some geneology research. There are a LOT of Drapers buried in Walnut Grove, and also Nettie Guin. She was born in 1898 and died in 1973. I may decide to play "Who Do You Think You Are?" (TV show) and travel to Lamar County, Alabama, and visit the Walnut Grove Cemetery!

Visiting with William

Bill is back from Dallas, finally. We went to visit his grandson William late one afternoon and he has certainly grown in the last month since I've seen him!

Bill and grandson William, 4 1/2 months old.

William is strong enough to hold his body upright now. He also laughs and notices things around him, the TV, the camera flash, people and voices.

And Sammie, the dog!

He can sit in the exercise seat and grab onto a toy and pull it to his mouth and chew on it. His teeth are probably just about to start popping out.

I think William looks like his Dad, Jeff, and I never saw Jeff as a baby!

On another of my favorite topics, food, here is a new place Bill and I enjoy, The Morning Delight (it's a RESTAURANT). The lady in there remembers us, and pretty much knows our regular order. I get the breakfast taco with crispy bacon, Bill goes for the one with sausage. The breakfast tacos are made to order. I get hot chocolate, which is not on the menu but she makes it anyway. We also get beignets which are made fresh there, but I have also had my share of the doughnuts and they are great too. It is on our way to Hooks airport, so I'm sure we will make it a regular drive-by on early morning trips out of town on the Archer. Prices are very reasonable and they have wifi and 4g.

Something else in my life, a treatment that is supposed to destroy pre-cancerous skin cells. You put it on for a week or so, until (if) anything starts to get gross, then stop and let the area heal. I have used it on my arms and had a few spots break out. Now I'm trying it on my face. Here are the results after one week. I'm trying to limit my exposure to the public this next few weeks, til this stuff clears up. My Dad used this stuff on top of his head many years ago, got red scaly patches and sent me a picture! Now here's my picture, but a few weeks from now I'll look a lot better, and be a lot healthier!

Other Dallas Activities

On this last trip to Dallas, in addition to babysitting John and Taylor, I also had lunch with my sister Diane and her husband Richard at Red's Grill.

I've been there before, but as I was driving from McKinney and meeting them at Red's, I asked for a reference point. "The intersection of Preston and Park" Diane told me. Well, just about everyplace I ask Diane for directions to, is at the intersection of Preston and Park. We met a Chili's a few weeks ago, at the intersection of Preston and Park. The car wash place was at the intersection of Preston and Park, and so is the urgent care place I took my mother to over Christmas. WELL, technically there is NOTHING at the intersection of Preston and Park.!

And technically, it is W. Park, not plain old Park. All the places I was going to are a few blocks off of the intersection. But I've made enough trips to Dallas in the past 2 years that I'm able to navigate my way around, amazingly well.

Sunday night was the Super Bowl. I had stopped at Buckee's on the trip up and picked up some chips and queso in a jar. Bill and I had that for our super bowl party in the Marriott Residence Inn room as the game started. I rooted for the Packers and he took the Steelers.
After driving through the melting ice and snow slush mixed with sand on the Dallas roads, the car begged for a wash before returning home.
Then on the trip home, all those tons of sand that had been spread out on the roads were now blowing in the wind, and it was like a sandstorm driving out of Dallas toward Houston.

Another interesting sight on the road back to Houston is this wind turbine propeller being transported. Usually I see them headed north, from the port of Houston. Don't know why this one was headed south. These things are incredibly long and large, much larger than they look when you pass by a wind farm.
Finally at home, I was surprised by a package from Bill's niece who lives in way up north in Wyoming. A year ago at Thanksgiving she had brought down jars of Chokecherry jelly and syrup. I really liked the jelly, and when I saw her last Thanksgiving, told her I was out. So she sent me more. I had toast and jelly the very next morning!

Now back at home, waiting out another 2-3 days of freezing temps at night, then south Texas should be through with winter! And now that Bill has returned from Dallas, I want to get back to flying, and make the next trip to Dallas on the Archer!

Babysitting John and Taylor!

Last weekend I headed back to Dallas to babysit John and Taylor, visit with my sister Diane and watch the Super Bowl with Bill, who was still in Dallas in G-V school (that's a Gulfstream V, one of the most awesome business class jets made, or so I'm told.) The ice and snow in Dallas kept me in Conroe until Saturday morning, when the temps finally rose above freezing in north Texas and the ice started to melt. Jason and Ashley were going out for dinner and a comedy show (Christmas present tickets). Jason bathed the kids before they left, I had food for John and bottles ready to mix, and after babysitting the twins, I figured this would be a snap, and so it was.... Except for the part about when Taylor gets fussy, she just wants to go to bed. So about 5 minutes after they drove away, Taylor started crying, not just fussing, but loud wails. John covered his ears and said "Loud!" I agreed with him, and took her into her room, we walked, I bounced her, held her up and sideways, rocked, nothing helped. John brought me her pacifier and her bottle (smart kid) but neither helped. I finally remembered the "she just wants to go to bed" part, so I laid her in her crib and she immediately toned it down to a sniffle. I patted her in the crib, got her to take her pacifier, and she fell asleep soon. After a short nap, she was awake and happy, and from then on I got her into the crib before the wails started.

Taylor really does like her JanMa!

Taylor is a happy girl, and loves to smile.

Taylor was happy in her swing while she watched Monster Truck shows on TV.

John really got caught up watching the monster trucks on TV. As the truck climbed and bounced and leaned over on 2 wheels, he would get all excited. I was thinking he would get even louder if the truck tipped over. BUT , when a truck did tip over, he would say "Oh No" and act sad for the truck.

John grabbed a book, and tossed me out of the chair. He wanted to read it to me!

John and JanMa play tickle games.

Taylor joins John and JanMa at the table for dinner. John had a choice of a picnic on the floor or sitting at the table, he chose the table.

John found a pair of gloves in his sock drawer. I put one glove on his hand, and he wanted me to wear the other one. He never wanted the second glove on his hand. He even slept with the one glove on that night.

John with his new haircut, intently watching monster trucks on tv.

John likes to watch Nick, Jr. (a pre-school version of Nickelodeon). It teaches kids to move, count, sequence, make inferences, all those kinds of learning skills, at least each show lists learning objectives at the beginning of each segment! Just like lesson plans! In the video below, John is learning a dance. The TV guy takes the kids through step 1 (jump), step 2 (clap your hands) and step 3 (twirl around). John followed along without any prompting from me, I just happened to walk in and catch him on video.

Claire and Jake update

I got to spend several hours with the twins this afternoon. We had a great time! They were finishing up lunch of chicken, pasta, avocado and orange slices when I got there. They spent some time in their cars, Claire is starting to push herself backwards in the car. Jake also showed me another riding toy. I had taken an old cell phone and Claire loves to play with it. Jake seems to prefer TV remotes. And they say gender differences are learned behavior! Ha!


We also spent some time on the rocking horses. They need a boost to get on, and some help with the rocking, but they are learning how to hang on to the handles.

The twins have new large bears, pink for Claire and blue for Jake. Claire carried hers around and gave it kisses.

JanMa and twins spend a few minutes rocking and reading a book before naptime.

Here is another sign of genetic gender differences! Claire likes to play with her kitchen, and Jake seems to still be interested in the remote and big screen!