I spent Memorial Day weekend in Dallas, visiting with John and Taylor and parents, and also with sister Diane and husband Richard. Taylor is quite verbal now, she even says JanMa! I got to babysit for the kids one evening, and Taylor knew exactly when her Mommy and Daddy walked out. She fussed a bit, but John helped distract her. She wasn't interested in being held, but at bedtime she snuggled up with her giraffe and baby and went to sleep fairly quickly. John and I laid on the couch and watched TV til Mom and Dad came home.
John was happy to see me each morning when I arrived at his house, and Taylor squealed and giggled too. John would run and tackle me, and I discovered I can barely lift him up! Taylor was right behind him saying "JanMa, JanMa, JanMa". I can still pick her up, but she wriggles down right away. What a fun time!
Jason plopped the kids' lawn chairs in the wading pool so they could get their feet wet like the adults were doing.
Taylor wears pigtails, and Jason tried putting in a pony tail one day while I was there.
I went with the kids to a birthday party at a park one morning and spent time climbing ladders and going down slides. Cake at 11:00 a.m. is a fun thing to eat.
Water activities are a must on Memorial Day in Texas heat. John liked his water wiggle.
John will start playing soccer this summer. Now he is only 3 and a few months, but he must be learning from his Uncle Nik, cause he knows what to do with a soccer ball.
I played chase, tossed a nerf football, and if I made a good throw, John could catch it. He can throw it pretty well too. I also got involved in kicking the soccer ball with John and swinging Taylor in her swing. She likes to strap herself in and she can tell you when she wants down. She has grown up a lot since I saw her in mid-April. I'll be back in June to see how much more she's grown.
Mother's Day was a swimming party at my house. The water was too cold for the adults to get in, except for Jeremy, who got in with the twins. JanMa also got in up to her waist, but even Claire said it was too cold. Jake didn't comment, but he didn't stay in long. He may not say a lot, but he is clearly a thinker!
We sat outside for awhile watching the twins play. Mimi and Diane were here, as was Grandma Hayslett, Jeremy and family and Blaine and Erin. I had set up a water sprinkler toy and the dragon float so the kids could play in the water but not in the pool.
Here is a video of the twins playing on the water dragon.
Everyone managed to fit around my new (Mom's old) dining room table, with all the leaves in place and the table angled out toward the living room! We had 11 chairs, including the twins, and everyone fit.
After lunch, I got the Wii going for the twins, Nickelodeon dance. This is an interesting observation on the young generation. Can you figure out what this picture is about?
Here is another shot of the same thing.
Now can you tell? Obviously it is fingerprints on a TV, my new 47" large screen Vizio, to be exact!
Notice the Wii sitting next to it on the fireplace? Well the twins were dancing, and I or some other adult was actually holding the controller. But when the program would load, verbal and visual instructions appeared on the TV to press the A button to start. Well, the twins, being so skilled and familiar with iPads, would immediately put their hands on the large A button on the TV screen! If an adult didn't press the A button on the controller quickly enough, the kids would start to slap at the TV screen. Thus lots of handprints on the TV, and a unique observation about the twins having already skipped plain old TV technology and leaped ahead to touch screen technology! Reminds me of when Jeremy was about 3, and we had a VCR that I recorded cartoons and Sesame Street on, and I could fast forward through commercials on the recording. But when he watched a show on a live TV broadcast, he would tell me to fast forward when a commercial came on. He learned to watch video from a recording before he really understood about watching TV and having to sit through commercials! Years later I think he was the first in our family to have a TIVO, and he told me then it would change the way we watched television. I finally have a DVR, and I love it, I even insisted Mimi get one, and she is liking it too!
This is a picture taken a few weeks ago while babysitting the twins, they are so sweet to each other!
One more picture taken at JanMa's 60th BDay party of all the grandkids.
And one more that I thought was just precious, Ashley took this of Taylor at the water play day at Mother's Day Out. It is a water thing set up like a carwash, and the kids can ride, pedal or scoot their riding toys through it. So clever!
On Monday, March 19, Mimi arrived in Texas and announced she was moving to Texas. On Tuesday, May 15, she closed on her new house. Here is what happened during those 2 months.
First, she bought a house. This was after spending a week looking at retirement buildings, then looking at 55+ communities. But this was the house and it was meant to be, everything just fell into place.
The colors were just what Mom wanted, and it was exceptionally clean!
She returned to her Asheville home and started cleaning out stuff.
I arrived a few days later and started packing.
I made one last trip to the Memorial Garden at Deerfield where Dad's ashes are buried.
The moving van arrived and the loading began. Even the golf cart made the trip on the van.
Mom got sad news just after she arrived in Texas in March. Her dear friend she had been seeing for several years passed away. She had visited with him just before coming to Texas. On the drive from Asheville to Texas, we stopped off in Birmingham to visit the gravesite.
After a few days back in Texas, the moving van arrived, and the boxes and furniture were unloaded. And here is Mimi welcoming us into her new home!
Even the golf cart settled into its new home.
Diane arrived later in the week and helped with the unpacking.
Not much in the living room yet, Mom had purchased new furniture just after she bought the house, and it hasn't yet been delivered.
Various pieces get moved around and viewed in different locations before settling on exactly where things will go. Jeremy and Blaine spent one afternoon moving the heavy stuff.
The day Mom closed, my cousin Nelsie and her husband came for an overnight visit to see the new digs. They have a camper van that they parked in the driveway for the night.
Here is Mom's new sofa and end tables. She also has a new light brown leather recliner and a new chair that matches the pillows on the sofa.
On a totally different topic, here is a picture of me and Mark, from Biggest Loser. I am a fan of the show, and Mark was on it this past season. Mom and Bill and I were eating at Spring Creek BBQ and I saw this guy walk across the room and sit at a booth next to us. I heard him speak to the woman he was with, and I hissed at Bill, "It's Mark from Biggest Loser!" Bill asked, "What's he eating?" I leaned out and over and said, "A salad." That seemed to confirm it. But just to be sure, I leaned out and over again, and said in a normal voice, "Excuse me, I gotta ask. Are you Mark?" "I sure am," he replied. I told him I was a big fan, and that was that, until we got up to leave. Mark said good-bye, and I spun around with my camera in hand. And here we are! He's looking pretty good from starting at 291.
