Revelations on Aging

I'm back to scanning more pictures from my Mom, a flat rate USPS box full of them, this is the rest of all her pictures. This is quite an undertaking, scanning and captioning them, but also separating out some pictures for my sister and other relatives. I don't need an 8X10 of my Aunt, but maybe her daughter (my cousin) would. As mentioned in a previous blog post, I am learning so much about my family, and finding out how much I don't know!

ME: "Mom, here's a picture that looks like you and some guy that's not Dad, the year is 1940-something. Who is it?"

MOM: "Oh, that's me and (insert name, there were a lot of them), I was still in high school and your Daddy was off to the war."

Who knew Mom was so popular and had such fun during WWII? I also learned TWO of my great-grandparents were divorced. And here I felt so bad about being the first in the family to get a divorce! And from my Uncle GC, my Dad's brother and the last of his generation, I've learned my great-grandaddy was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse, and the coach of a girls' basketball team. This picture was shown in a previous blog.

So now, just like the celebraties on "Where do I come from?" show, I'll have to make a trip to south Texas to spend a few days with my Uncle, collecting his pictures and captioning them to get that half of the story.

Every time I turn over a picture to scan, it's like finding a treasure, a present from the past. And here's the REVELATION: if I don't learn about this past now, I may not be able to in the future and it will be lost to me and my children.

Mom could tell me the boy on the back row left is my Pawpaw, my Dad's father, so the seated man must be the one-room schoolhouse teacher. But maybe my Uncle can fill in the other names. If I waited on this project for some years in the future, there would be no one to ask. And I would have hated to find this picture in my Mom's things and not know who these people were.


And now for Grandma Robin and Mimi, here are some twin shots. The babies travel in style in their new car seats, with DVD players for their viewing pleasure. I would have paid a lot of money for that technology when my boys were kids!
Twins snacking outside while JanMa does twin watching duty.
Jake entertains himself and Claire by trying to pull her in the wagon. Hard going on the grass.

Why is it that kids (like cats) like to sit in things? Jake finds a storage tote makes a good place to sit.

Claire has gotten the bouncing on the horse skills down pat.

And my favorite Mexican restaurant has opened a new location, on I-45 south of Conroe. It is a nice fairly new clean building, and just as tasty, but not nearly as convenient for me. However, it makes a good middle spot to meet Bill for a quick lunch together.

Spring Planting

I spent Thursday at the Houston Garden Center with my page of coupons and bought as many plants as I could fit in my trunk. Some were for Bill's house, some for my house. I happened to get to Bill's house about the time the yard crew showed up, and they planted 3 large mounding junipers out by his sidewalk. They also dug up an asparagus fern recovering from the winter freeze, and I hauled it back to my house to put into the courtyard. Then I put in the rest of my courtyard plants.

Notice the large green asparagus fern. It looked like a spindly weed a few weeks ago!

I also put together a bouncy-rocking horse for the twins. It is low to the ground so they can get on and off by themselves, and it bounces which I thought would really appeal to Jake. Claire likes it just as well and now they can bounce and burn off a lot of energy.

Gal Pals Road Trip

Me and some of my gal pals made a trip to Debbie's lake house on Sam Rayburn for some R&R the first part of the spring break week. Two of us are retired, but the other 3 are still working, so spring break time is a good time to get away. We laughed and giggled a lot, watched DVD movies each night (Steel Magnolias the first night), walked on the "beach," ate and drank things we shouldn't, and shopped at junktique shops.

Loaded up and ready to go!
View from the house down to the lake.

Walking on the beach.
The Gal Pals
Enjoying snacks...
... and late afternoon views ...
and finally the sunset from the back porch.
And on the second day we headed to Natchitoches to see the Steel Magnolias filming locations.
The flowers and tulips were easy to look at also.
We also shopped
and ate at the Landing where I tried a meat pie, delicious!

On the last day we detoured through Jasper, shopped at the Junktique store and had awesome burgers at Hamburger Depot before heading back to civilization.

It was a great get-away time, no TV or cell service at the lake, quiet, restful, peaceful, and time well-spent with friends that I no longer see everyday. It was also nicel to get home and realize that I can enjoy quiet, peaceful times in my own backyard.

Another visit with William

Bill and I made a quick visit with William. He has 2 teeth now and is rolling over.

Plus he has a fantastic smile.
William is fascinated by Bill.

He looks exactly like Jeff's baby pictures!

Three generations of Schultze boys.

William shows off his roll over skills.

William seems to like bouncing on Bill's knee.

He is getting cuter everytime I see him, and more interactive and aware of his surroundings. He goes in for a 6 month check-up next week, and I want to know his weight. I swear he outweighs the twins (individually). I can pick up both twins, but I couldn't pick up 2 Williams!

More Thoughts on Retirement

Clothes: We all have a good visual of "WalMart Man" or "WalMart Woman" and the clothes they wear. None of us, of course, would dream of even going out in the backyard dressed that way. But when you see a person wearing scrubs, with tennis shoes or socks and crocs, and an ID badge hanging around their neck, so what? They just got off their shift at the hospital and are picking up a few things before heading home. SO.... if I donned a set of scrubs, which are quite comfortable (I imagine, since I don't own any - yet!) and socks and crocs, then hung my old CISD badge around my neck, I could go anywhere around town very comfortably, and no one would give it a thought! HMMMM....

Using a Calendar: I have to use a calendar (I use google calendar on my computer) or I might forget things, like doctor and dentist appointments. Then I started adding other things to my calendar, retired teacher meetings. Now I'm teaching some Adult Leisure Learning (ALL) classes and so I added those to the calendar. Then there are a few other items, like definite babysitting dates, lunches with friends, JanMa's Digital Memories appointments, and dog-sitting, rides for friends, and travel dates. So my calendar now shows a lot of "things to do," which makes me feel very busy and stress starts to creep in. But I know the stress of trying to remember events without the calendar would be so much worse. And face it, if I missed any of those events on my calendar, it would not be the end of the world as I know it, nor for anyone else. So even though it is on my calendar, I've adopted the attitude that I don't have to do it if I don't want to. So all is well and stress-free in my retirement world.

I'll add more thoughts as I have them!

Grandma Hayslett visits the twins

Grandma Hayslett enjoyed visiting with the twins.

We didn't stay very long, but next time the weather will be warmer, we'll go earlier, and watch the babies play in the backyard. Claire discovered my shoes, and had a great time trying to walk around.

Jake shows off his cute smile.

Claire carries a purse around sometimes, and she puts the strap over her shoulder and walks around with it. Jake likes to carry it around sometimes too, but he doesn't do the shoulder thing.

Slumber Party with Twins

Claire and Jake had me over for a slumber party last night. They served chicken casserole, mac and cheese, and bananas and peaches for dessert. They took baths with shampoos. Then we watched a little TV before bedtime. I was too tired to even get the camera out that evening, but the next morning I did. Claire loves to carry a purse. Jake does too, so I'm going to take a backpack to Jake so he will have a guy purse to carry around.

Claire showed off her dancing and jumping skills while watching Elmo on TV. Jake also has some slick moves, but he is not into performing in front of the camera. Jake likes to sit on the floor and move the upper part of his body.

Months ago I started bouncing the twins on my legs, even before they could walk. They still love to do that, and when Jake gets settled on my thigh, the Claire usually comes over and her preference is to sit on my shin. I consider it exercise, and after a few minutes of leg bounces, the old legs are pretty pooped.

Since Jake loves to bounce so much, I'm going to find him a suitable bouncing toy that he can sit on and bounce. If these babies want it, JanMa will beg, borrow, steal or buy whatever it is, all they have to do is ask!

John's 2nd Birthday

John's 2nd birthday included a bounce house, a new sand box, hotdogs, cupcakes, presents and about a dozen kids from his playgroup. John likes to watch the monster trucks on TV and Jason and Ashley had taken him to see the monster trucks last week. So the invitations had trucks on them, Ashley had made truck-shaped cookies with wheels and quite a few of the presents were trucks or related to trucks.
John in the bounce house, I noticed he is jumping with 2 feet now. He also got very shy and sat in my lap for a few minutes as the other kids started to arrive and climb into the bounce house.

Blowing out the candle on his cupcake.
John opens presents with the help of some of his playgroup friends.

Opening his sandbox toys from JanMa.
Playing with a few of the many trucks he received as presents.

A word about the sandbox toys from JanMa. I checked both WalMart and Target, and there were a lot of trucks, some metal, some plastic. Some had batteries, some had various handles that controlled monkey-motions to raise and lower dump beds or front-end blades. JanMa thought about a sandbox, full of sand, and toys that might get gritty, dirty, stepped on, dropped, tossed, left out in the rain, and so on. So I opted for simple, totally hand operated, plastic, and inexpensive (dare I say cheap?) so that if they break, get lost, or otherwise become non-functional, it is no great financial loss!

The new sandbox with new sandbox toys.

John loved the bubble blower from cousins Jake and Claire and Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Jennifer.

The next day I went back to visit, to play with more trucks, more sandbox time, and I had one of the most thrilling moments of my life! John said JanMa!

Actually, he said ManMaw, J's are problems for 2 yr olds! But he said it, and later on that afternoon he said it often and loud and very distinctly. He quickly learned that if he says ManMaw! he gets all sorts of attention from me. Ashley said that when I'm there he totally ignores his Mommy and Daddy. So what they say about grandparents is so true: JanMa can show up, play and talk and share time with John, completely shower him with attention, then leave! What a deal! I also heard him say Mommy and Daddy very distinctly and clearly. No more mamama and dadada, he knows his Mommy and Daddy's names.

I also got to hold Taylor and watch her new developments, smiling and...

...rolling over!

Taylor enjoys the outside sunshine.
John gives Taylor a kiss.

JanMa's Digital Memories Update

Sandal weather was back for a week, and the tulip tree hit full bloom, it is really pretty, and amazing because I do NOTHING to make it happen.

Then the coat weather came back just in time for my trip to Dallas for John's birthday party. But the sandals are ready and waiting for the inevitable rise in temperatures.

JanMa's Digital Memories has gotten some recent business: a wedding slide show, multiple vhs to dvd conversions, planning for a 50th wedding anniversary slide show, and even an edited dvd deposition for a legal proceeding. I even combined my trip to McKinney with business, visiting 2 customers and picking up some of their pictures and video. I have gotten to the point of having business lunches to demo slide shows! BUT I still work on JanMa's time, at my convenience! Another thought about TIME and STRESS: two days last week I inadvertently allowed my daily routine to get a bit crowded with things I wanted/needed to do. I began to stress about it, mapping it all out in my mind, then decided NO! I'm not going to plan or anticipate things I need to do, I'm not going to stress about it. I'm going to do or not do, according to how much time I have and how much I want to do or not do it! This is my retirement and I'll live it my way!

Bill and I had a tasty grilled dinner (ribs, veggies, corn, pineapple and sausage) at his nephew's house. Donnie is following in his Uncle Bill's footsteps as a pilot, he is currently flying for a commercial regional airline, trying to build up his time. So Donnie, his girlfriend Jodie and his mom Susie (Bill's sister), got the grill going and served up a lot of food. I got my face cleaned by one of their dogs!
It is nice to have Bill's sister around, we had a nice lunch last week at The Morning Delight, they serve lunch as well as breakfast. Tasty and nicely priced, and you can sit there as long as you like.