John goes to the movies

Well, I haven't made it to McKinney lately to visit with John. But I have kept up with events in his life! I just love this picture of Jason tossing him up in the air. I think I've posted it before, but it's worth a second look.
For Father's Day, John and Ashley gave Jason "movie passes" for 2 guys to go to a show. So Jason took John to see Cars 2, his very first movie. I talked to John afterwards, and he told me all about seeing CARS! How fast they go, they crashed, and so on. And of course, popcorn was involved.
I have been able to keep up with John using FaceTime, here is a screen shot from my IPad of what I see when I video chat with John. I also used FaceTime to chat with John when I'm with the twins. Claire says "Hi Dohn" and also something that sounds like "unca Dason". I also used skype to video chat with Mom, and when Claire sees Mimi on the screen, she very clearly says Mimi and points to her face on the ipad screen.
Jason sent me pictures from his phone of the family dining out for lunch on Saturday at a burger restaurant.
Afterwards they went into an old-fashioned candy store. So many choices, how is a kid to choose?
Finally he makes his choice. I hope he got to pick out a few...
I have to comment about the technology involved in the video chats and the pictures sent from phones. When my first child was born, the in-laws lived overseas in Indonesia. We sent them a telegram to let them know about his arrival. (This was in 1977, and that was the fastest means of communication available to normal people). A few days later they called us, an overseas call. The conversation had about a 5 second lag, so you would say "Hello" then wait for 5 seconds to hear the reply. If you didn't wait long enough and started talking again, you would be talking over their words coming in after the lag time.

Me: Hello (wait 5 seconds)

Reply: Hello. how is the baby?

Me: He is fine, eating well, waking up 2 times at night, sleeping a lot during the day, I've learned to change diapers, etc, etc, etc. (Wait for it.....)

Reply: yada, yada, yada

and so on, a rather stilted conversation.

Fast forward to email, the next big change in format of communications. I consider cell phones to be just an extension of regular telephones, but email was a big change. When several of my older teacher friends were starting to have grandchildren, they became big email users, because of the ability to attach picture files to email. Now they could see pictures of the grandchildren who lived far away much sooner than by regular mail. Over several years, digital pictures, video files, and internet websites became asynchronous ways to keep up with family members who didn't live close enough for frequent face-2-face visits.

Now I can video chat with my grandchildren (which trust me, is much more fun than video chatting with your own children! if only because I know very well what my own children look like, and as adults they don't change much. The grandchildren change every week!) So now I am an eager adopter of skype and FaceTime. I see one of their little faces on the screen, and I just can't help but smile. It is truly amazing to use this technology, and a bit intimidating to know that they will grow up with it as part of their lives.

RAIN!

It rained at my house last night, the first real rain in over 4 months, maybe more. Not that the Texas drought is over, but at least it still can rain. That wonderful background buzz of a substantial rain shower woke me at 4 a.m. I got up and looked out a window to confirm, then crawled back into bed, shoving the cats back to their side of the bed. Then I heard my sprinkler system go off. Feeling guilty about water usage for the lawn while it was raining, I got back out of bed, headed to the garage to shut the sprinklers off. Then back to bed for another 4 hours of sleep. Wonderful! Today the caladiums are perky, the geraniums look dewy, grass seems to be greener, and the tree frogs were letting me know how happy they are with their extremely loud (for their size) croaks and squeaks. Things are now drying off and the cats are back at their favorite morning nap spot.


Work on the powder room faucet is still on-going. I actually got under there using a bunch of pillows to cushion the floor and disconnected the bolts that hold the faucet to the countertop. I also shut off the water under the sink and tried to disconnect the water supply lines, but I couldn't get enough strength on the wrench to loosed the connections. I did remove the cabinet doors to allow for more room to wriggle around in there. Bill says he can disconnect those supply lines, but I don't see how he will fit under there, I can hardly get in there and he's over a foot taller than me!
While working on the sink, I decided I needed to use a socket wrench. I headed out to the garage to my Dad's old toolbox with his old tools in it. ( I got his toolbox, sister Diane got the shoe shine box he had made when we were small kids.) I pulled out a set of small sockets, and was able to piece the parts I need together and use them.
Tools are always useful. I have never used a shoe as a hammer, or a knife as a screwdriver. I have a quite sufficient collection of tools, including some very heavy duty looking things that I have no idea what they are for. I did borrow a dremel set from Bill and used it to buff out some paint spills in the sink that I had not been able to get out with paint remover. I got a little over zealous and left a few grooves in the sink but you have to know where to touch and feel to be able to tell. But for now the task of replacing the powder room faucet is on hold.

I've also been transferring some video to dvd for a JanMa's Digital Memories customer. This lady is a teacher from Mexico. It's fascinating to watch her video and see the same things everyone else has on their videos, birthdays, Christmas, vacations, the beach, zoo, Disney, family gatherings, but with everyone speaking mostly in Spanish. The commonalities are so much stronger than the language barrier. Plus some of their vacations were places in Mexico, and I want to know where they were! I want to go there!

I also have the disturbing thought that differences that separate groups of people may have more to do with financial resources than geography or language.

My friend Lillie and I went to Matagorda Beach for a short weekend visit to walk the beach and hunt beach glass. We made this same trip 2 years ago the week I retired, and it was fun to go back. Here we are heading out for a walk through the waves.
One of the several pieces of brown beach glass I picked up. Lots of broken beer bottles out there!
Dinner at a cute pizza place, the pizza was excellent. We sat outside on the deck, enjoyed a brisk breeze that kept bugs away and the temperature tolerable.

Even though I loaded up with sunscreen, I still got red cheeks!We overnighted in the Airstream trailer. Lillie got the bedroom and I got the fold out couch, but with an airmattress on top. It was quite comfortable, and I slept very well.

Ellie the dog gets to lick the yogurt carton for her early morning treat.
Video of the beach waves. There is something so powerful about watching and listening to the never-ending sound of crashing waves. Then there is the incessant wind blowing in from the water. On the one hand you feel part of the power, at one with the water and air. Then those waves race up suddenly and cover your feet, and you can only imagine the alien world that lives under that water, just waiting for a nibble on your toes!

Watching the waves coming in reminded me of the movie Castaway, and Tom Hanks comment about every tide bringing in something new.

I have discovered the most awesome app on my IPad, FaceTime. I can now video chat with John and talk to him, and to Ashley and Jason of course too. Taylor can also see me so maybe she will be more used to me the next time I go visit. But last week I babysat the twins one night, and we FaceTimed with John. Claire pointed at the IPad and said "baby" when she saw Taylor. She also said Hi John when prompted. John seemed to enjoy seeing Jake and Claire, and Jake just looked at the screen in amazement and poked his finger at it. It was so much fun.

Later on I showed Claire some of the pictures I have on the IPad, and she quickly picked up the "pinch" motion to close a folder of pictures! She also picked up the finger swipe to move from one picture to the next.

Claire put on her flower headband all by herself.

Claire had mimicked me doing some leg lifts on the floor, and then she tried to rest her feet on the coffee table just like JanMa was doing!

Jake snagged the headband for himself, what Claire has and does, he wants to do too.
Then I took the twins for a bike ride to the playground. As soon as we got outside, Claire climbed into the bike stroller. Jake climbed in after her, but they couldn't get themselves side by side. So I took Jake out, then put them in each on their own side one at a time.

Notice they each have a pacifier in the pictures below. However, when we got home, there was only one pacifier, so somewhere along the hike and bike trail is a lone pacifier, turquoise in color!

Claire's favorite part of the playground was the steps up to the slide platform. After some cautious steps, she got quite proficient at going up and down, holding onto the hand rails. Jake liked to climb up but he preferred to slide down. I held his hand and helped him, but I think he can do it on his own next time.

Video of twins at playground

By the time we got back to the house, JanMa was red cheeked and sweaty, as were the twins. Baths for them, then a quick shower for me. It was 8p.m. when we got upstairs for teeth brushing, storytime and prayers and bedtime. But Jake went to the cd player and started the sleeptime music, Claire stood on her step, held onto the crib bars, and said "seep, seep" which I interpreted to mean that she wanted to go to sleep. I put her in the crib, Jake was now hanging on to his crib, so he went into bed too. They were quiet in 30 minutes, and when I checked on them later, both were sacked out and they had not thrown anything out of their cribs (which is a game for them, to toss everything out then holler for someone to come put it back in!).

More summertime activities

Taylor is stretching her boundaries, and likes to look out the window, as if ready to explore the world in the backyard as soon as possible. She is almost 8 months old, and although she can't yet walk, she can pull herself up, and obviously climb up on things as well! This picture came from her Daddy's cell phone, with the message, "She got up there all by herself!" She is looking outside to the backyard where her swing is.
The twins get to beat the heat with outside water play. They had a 3 day trip to Galveston, which probably seemed like 3 weeks to their Mom and Dad! But they got to walk along the beach, get in the pool, and see the penguins at the Aquarium Pyramid at Moody Gardens. Both kids got new water shoes to wear on the beach and around the pool.
They also still enjoy the water wigglers and a new water table.

As for this retired JanMa, I am swimming in my own pool again for the summer, and the water is great! Still working on a few JanMa's Digital Memories projects, mostly scanning pictures. And still working on some house projects, caulking the powder room sink, which is now escalated into a new faucet. And HOPEFULLY going on a vacation at the end of June!

Summer is here!

Although the temps have been high for several weeks, and even though the calendar doesn't have summer for another 2 weeks, summer is truly here when school is out, even for a retired school teacher. I have heard that John is enjoying the wading pool again, and when I get to Dallas again I'll get pictures of him splashing around and maybe take him swimming. And maybe even Taylor in the wading pool. Here are pictures of John on a slip 'n slide taken in Austin at Grandpa's house.

Here is the water wiggle, that I thought the twins would love.

Twins decked out in swimsuits and shirts, hats, and loads of sunscreen.

Claire was not so hot on the water wiggle at first. In order to get the wigglers to wiggle, the water has to be turned on pretty forcefully. Then the wigglers wiggle, but the water sprays up high in the air, and has an almost sharp sting when it hits your skin. Plus you get water on your face and eyes quickly. Jake was unfazed, he waded right in and grabbed the wigglers and used them to spray water everywhere. Claire would get close, grab one, spray herself in the face and back off.

I now think what they really might like is the faucet connecter that has two outlets, and a short RV type water hose for each. That way they could each have a water hose and spray it all around to their hearts' content. But that's for another day.

Memorial Day Weekend Conroe and Spring

I was back in Conroe for Memorial Day weekend Sunday with Bill and sister Susie and in-law-to-be Jodie eating and splashing in pool. Note the holiday vinyl table cloth, you'll see it again in a twins' video.
Hot dogs, beans and chips were the main course, but the appetizer included deviled eggs I had made, queso and chips, and a mango pico dip that Susie had made. It is truly awesome.
So we splashed in the pool, listening to summertime music on my ipod and speakers, sat around the patio table with a fan blowing on us and stuffed til there was no more room. The final course was a wonderfully sweet seedless watermelon, and no room left over for strawberry shortcake. So I had it for breakfast the next morning!
Monday I took a picnic to the twins. I sat in the wading pool with them, splashing around with the water hose. Shrieks and laughs abounded, and Claire liked splashing me too.
Then I spread the holiday vinyl tablecloth on the grass for a picnic. They each ate most of a grilled hotdog from the previous day that I had brought down. I held it in my hand and took a bite off the end, then gave it to Claire and told her to hold and eat it like JanMa did. Then same to Jake. They nibbled cautiously, but ate most of it. They didn't care at all for the baked beans.

But they LOVED the watermelon. I cut triangle pieces for each of us, and showed them how to hold the green part in their hands and eat the red part. I put a piece in their hands and pointed to the red part, and I was holding and eating my piece too. They started out slowly, but didn't stop til they had each finished off TWO pieces, eating all the way to the rind! The pictures below are a little "damp" because while I ran inside to cut more watermelon, they played with my camera, actually turning it on and taking a picture, getting watermelon fingers on the lens in the process.

Claire tended to eat down one side of the wedge to the rind, and I repositioned the piece in her hands and got her started back on the red pointy part.
Video of Jake and Claire eating their Memorial Day watermelon.

After eating, they followed me back to the pool to wash off their hands and faces.

Claire helps Jake wash off.

They were not as excited about being in the pool as before, but when I turned the hose back on to rinse off the picnic tablecloth, they climbed out of the pool and ran laughing and screeching to me and the water hose. I think some kind of waterwiggle is in their future!
I stripped off wet bathing suits and swim diapers, and told them to go find Mommy and Daddy. After helping them dress, we put them down for a nap and I left, enjoying the pleasure of being a grandparent. They were asleep before I walked out of the house, and I think they took a long nap!