Tag Archives: grandkids

Weekly Wrap-up

By Posted in 2019, updates, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , , , 4 Comments

What a full week!  Last Sunday Michael got called out to work from 3pm to 7am clearing the roads during a little snow-spurt we had.  Jessica had left for Wabash, IN where she would be working until Wednesday, so Olivia and Samantha came over for a sleepover.  They were able to sled down the Great Sonnystone Mountain both days.  Little one (with her sock mittens) had to be pulled up the hill and Grandpa was worn out…

We had 2 Birthdays this week!  Eliza is now 8 years old!!  Emma is, gulp, 13!!

I started working on my Ancestry in earnest, starting with a Prologue to my new blog, All My Ancestors… I don’t have a schedule for posting over there, but I will let you know here at The News when I do.

Casey put down new flooring in the bathroom.  I didn’t take a before and after picture — did I hear you say, too quickly, that’s okay?  It looks great and is much warmer.

Then, out of the blue, just a couple of hours ago, I found the draft of Grandmother’s story!!!  I won’t even get into where I found it, but it is there, all 3,242 words of it!  I read it over in disbelief!  However….

As I’ve been poking around the family tree, I found out more about Grandmother Mayne that may or may not disprove my theory of her “lost years”.  No matter…it’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I’ve been pretty faithful to my photo-a-day project over at Photo Synthesis, too.  If you’re sitting around trying to stay warm reading blogs, you should check it out…  I’m just sitting around trying to stay warm writing them..!

Peace

 

 

The last 2 weeks…

By Posted in 2018, Christmas, Christmas at Sonnystone 2018, Photos, Sonnystone at Christmas, updates Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

It seems like forever since I’ve blogged, but with good reason.  I always feel a little guilty when I don’t keep ya’ll up-to-date with the latest coming and goings around the Acres, but sometimes life is just too full of Now to stop and write about it…and that’s all right with me.

Olivia played the piano beautifully at her recital on the 8th.  The grandkids are sure growing up fast… I have a lovely video of her performance of “Belle”, but WP makes it difficult to upload videos, so all you get today is a pic…

We flew to NYC on the 11th…remind me not to take the earliest flight on earth next time.  We arrived early enough to pick up Eliza from school, the first time I’ve visited there.  She took the next two days off to hang around with us…

Early our first morning, we took the subway to Rockefeller Center for the NBC Studio Tour.  It was so incredibly cool.  At the end of the eye-opening tour — who knew the SNL set was so small? — the do a video of a “late night talk show”.  I can’t take the time to upload it to wordpress and you probably wouldn’t watch it anyway, but Eliza was the announcer and I was the guest.  It is hilarious.  So fun.

We spent Thursday hanging out, decorating the tree and playing games.  Emma was there, too, but Emma will be 13 next month…if you know what I mean…

Friday both girls were back in school.  Eric, Melissa, PawPaw, and I spent the day traipsing through the Oculis and over to the Whitney to view the Warhol exhibit.  It was as good as Warhol, but I thought there might be more…  Seems like I had seen many of them already…am I getting jaded?

Or maybe it’s because NYC surrounds a person with art…like here on the High Line…

Saturday morning found us at Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, our annual tradition.  This was the 14th visit for my daughter and me, and the show has changed for the better.  I told them last year we needed to just concentrate on the dancers and they took my advice.  They added new music, new choreography, more light-show stuff, while keeping the old favorites…though they don’t do the Santas with mirrors anymore.

 I just realized that my obsession with the Spectacular is as strong as my obsession with Disney….okay, not quite, but I do tend to repeat my good experiences again and again.

 

 

We flew back home Sunday and spent Monday doing laundry and at the grocery store.  We’ve had Samantha for the last 2 days and that’s as much a workout as walking NYC.  Olivia’s out of school now, so they’ll be here for a sleepover tonight.  I still have to buy gifts…and get these witch nails manicured…and get more food…

Our Christmas with the Jrs. will be this Sunday and by Monday the sound of the silence will be strong…  I’ll have plenty of time to write…

 Jingle All the Way…

Peace

First December Post

By Posted in 2018, Autumn at Sonnystone Acres, Christmas, Holidays at Sonnystone, Photos, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , 2 Comments

Casey had a birthday last Friday, his 64th.  I usually post something mushy about him, so if you are interested in knowing just how much I appreciate him read here and here and here ….just go check all the November archives!!!

This year’s celebration involved the traditional gifts of underwear and socks, but instead of a flannel shirt I found a shirt just like the one I gave him 10 or 15 years ago, the one that is really ragged now, though it pops into his clothing rotation every so once in a while.  I don’t imagine he’ll actually toss the old one, but I can sneak it into the rag bag soon.

After piano lesson on Saturday, Olivia and Samantha came over to put the decorations on the tree for us…

I’ve been shopping and I still need to do more shopping and it’s awfully tiresome.  I do make friends standing in line, and always chat up the cashier, so it has its fun moments.   When I got down my Christmas-y clothes this year, it was sad and pathetic, so I’m on a quest for some Holiday togs.  This week-end is Olivia’s Piano Recital at EMA and in just a week we’ll be flying into NYC for our Christmas celebration with the Jose’ Family, so I must have all my frocks in a row.

I’ve traced my genealogy about as far as I can go using the free library version of MyHeritage, so I decided to sign up for a 2-week free trial.  It’s true that Ancestry has a larger database, but I see many of my family folks are on MyHeritage, so I think that’s the way to go.  Except…I don’t have time for it right now.  I think it’s going to make a great January hobby…

I’m within 1 book of meeting my goodreads challenge for the year, cruising through some old-time mysteries by the likes of Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey (thanks, Sippora!)

I managed to write for an hour every day in November, but I can’t brag about how much I accomplished.  I’m stuck in the middle of the beginning of the Grandmother story, so I left it and did some editing of some old stories I’d forgotten about.  I found a poem that I wrote on our trip to Brown County and it wasn’t too bad, so I fixed it to  good.  Overall, I think I’ve gotten a habit going…just in time to break it for Christmas..!  I don’t think I’m good for routine much longer than 30 days anyway, so I really don’t mind at all…

Peace

 

Scenes from the week-end

By Posted in 2018, Photos, Thanksgiving, week-end wrap-up Tagged , , Leave a comment

We danced through Thanksgiving…

Friday we brought Everything Christmas down from the attic, raising dust, destroying cobwebs and sneezing.  We had made a fair dent in the decorating on Friday, but stopped Saturday to see a matinee of Ralph breaks the Internet with the Jrs.  We returned to our mess that evening and again this morning.  We have vacuumed up so much cat hair that I’m ashamed, but it’s pretty much done except for the tree…and maybe more Mr&Mrs Clauses….possibly some new pillows…

Now my week is free to catch up with my hair and nails and shopping.  I am closing in on my Reading Goal for 2018, too.  I’ve had to get my Grandmother story out of my mind and on paper, or air, or wherever these words go, before I can go on with the genealogy project and I’m getting verrry close to finishing.

I can’t get a good picture of our new wreath yet, but here’s a bad picture……use your imagination as your filter…

Peace

 

By Posted in 2018, Autumn at Sonnystone Acres, November Writing Challenge, Uncategorized, updates Tagged , , 3 Comments

My daughter-in-law’s surgery went fine and she is back home loopy on meds, so I’m still doing the chauffering for her.  It was about 8pm last night that Michael brought her home, so I had Samantha asleep and Olivia at least in her room — I felt like a real Mama.  Samantha gets out of pre-school at noon, so I’ll just say “hey” and get back to work…

I’m glad the election is finally over, but it won’t stop the incessant roar of anger in this country.  I continue to avoid watching cable news, facebook, and twitter, though facebook, for me, seems the mildest of the three.  Facebook just hasn’t been showing me much more than ads until recently when folks (and their cute kids) started popping up–finally a reason to hit the like button..!  Believe me, a person can stay informed without the shrill and shriek of the talking heads manipulating and triggering emotions…

Casey is out putting some cages around the rose bushes.  There are some tall canes that I fear will be destroyed by winter snows.  Our first “snowfall” is predicted for next week…the kind that melts by noon…but we’ll be ready for anything.

Getting up early and getting out of the hou-hou-house seems like such a new/old experience.  Out there in the early morning with the school buses sends me back in time when I had places to go and things to do…and stress out the wazoo.  I’m glad I can help the kids out and take a little of the stress off of them.  Soon enough I’ll be back here with plenty of time to write.

Perfunctory Picture

 

Peace

 

A Lovely Day in Autumn

By Posted in 2018, Autumn at Sonnystone Acres Tagged , , Leave a comment

I take Olivia to piano lessons every Saturday and her little sister always wants to tag along, which is fine with us.  We go various places for lunch afterward and today we went to the mall. The Christmas decorations are not up yet (thank-you-very-much) but a seasonal toy store has popped up and the the kids were like…uh, kids in a toystore??

This picture was taken at Justice, not a toystore, but filled with goodies…

Back home, the sun shining on the trees beckoned us to walk down the path…  We call our woods Solla Sollew and our little ditch is the River Wahoo.  The dropping temps did quick work of coloring the leaves, but the rains cut short their stay on the branches.  Now they have have covered the path with a mosaic of orange, yellow, and red while the green still peeps out from beneath.

I walk in wonder at the beauty of Autumn.

Bridge over the River Wahoo

Don’t forget to change your clocks back tonight…What a delusional idea daylight savings time is…As if we are adding or taking away or moving hours…   I’ve worked third shift on the transition night and I assure you that the hour that is added is an hour, but the hour you take away is not.  Just make all your hours golden and you’re good…

Peace

 

The Bi-weekly weekly update…

By Posted in 2018, Autumn at Sonnystone Acres, Uncategorized, updates, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , 1 Comment

As we watched Hurricane Michael slam into Port St. Joe, I was haunted by these pictures taken just last  March when we were there, staying at Presnell’s Marina…

 

Hwy 98 going into Carabelle FL
View from our camper, Presnell’s Marina, Port St. Joe FL
Cape San Blas FL

Cape San Blas is the strip of land catching the setting sun…  I read that Hurricane Michael carved some new islands out there.  The beautiful road that we drove from Port St. Joe to Carrabelle is washed out…

We have reservations for this coming March to stay right up the road from Port St. Joe at Indian Pass, a spot called Water’s Edge, and their last facebook post was “Please pray for us”.  I certainly am…

On a brighter note, here’s some photos from a morning at the mall with Olivia and Samantha…

 

 

Though we’ve only been back home a couple of days, it seems like a season ago that we camped up at Brown County,…temps were 80s and humid and it seemed like a last hurrah to summer, though the calendar says it’s October… I didn’t take many pictures, though…

 

Just a few of Brown County State Park (above) and some neat stuff I saw in some shops in Nashville, IN below…

 

I enjoyed getting away…

and came home rejuvenated, ready for Autumn’s changes…

Peace