I guess I could start with the title, Spring, Spring, Spring ~ How I Love Spring!!! Well, I have loved Spring but we're almost into Summer . . . So I guess my new title would be "Summer, Summer ~ I'm not a fan of really hot days" but all the rest is okay.
Finally, I'm catching up with my blog - I last wrote in October 2012, just after my surgery. On this coming Monday(April 8th) it will be exactly 6 months since I had my surgery and to say that it has been an amazing journey, would be saying it perfectly. My ankle has been declared "perfect" by my surgeon many times, he is very happy with the movement I have in my ankle, the lack of swelling and of course the look of my xrays. My arthritis is gone, my pain is gone and the pain in my tendon is gone!!! As life changing as it was when I broke my ankle 33 years ago this summer, this has also been life changing. I have to admit, not to the degree that the original break so altered my life, because as I just said I lived with the pain, the limp, the things I couldn't do anymore for 32 years. But I am thrilled that I took that big step and had the surgery done. My daughter Tina sent me a gift for my last great checkup and said that she was "proud" of me for having the surgery. I, of course, thought "really, it wasn't that big a deal!!" But then I remembered back to my pre-surgery jitters. I was REALLY scared, but I educated myself, got a lot of info on the subject, Tina in fact sent be a cd of "preparing for surgery" so I'm gonna take that she's PROUD of me, in fact, I'm PROUD of myself. I couldn't have done it without my husband, Kenny, who was a fantastic caregiver, so all in all, it turned out to be a GREAT decision. Here is my xray of my March 28th appointment . . .
The "hatch marks" on my one bone are actually a plate and screws from 1980. But the "thing" where my ankle should be is my new ankle, just thought I'd share!!
A BIG EVENT is coming up this coming Sunday. It is our oldest grandson's birthday. Matthew Jerick Richmond will be 14 years old!!! I know I say this everytime one of my grandkids has a birthday, but really, where has 14 years gone??? He is now Matt, in the 8th grade at Rincon Valley Middle School and on his way to Maria Carrillo High School in the fall. Now taller than Grammy, smarter than Grammy but still gives me "lovies" on demand!!! He's a good student, pretty responsible and an excellent ping pong player. Happy Birthday Matt!!
Matt has just finished Rincon Valley Middle School today and is on to Maria Carrillo. I never did get a picture of the two of us together but here's one of him and my husband, Kent, well Kenny,
Matt played a lot of ping pong at RVMS and he's gotten pretty good. His Grandpa has always been the one to beat but Matt has taken over that spot. He's umpired quite a few Little League games this summer and the skuttlebut is that he does a pretty good job. So that's it for Matt.
We got an early start on working in our yard because we had pretty nice weather in February and March this year, we're way ahead of our usual timetable. BUT April showers are upon us!!! We need the water and my plants are getting a free supply so I guess I can't complain. Again, I was late in planting my sweetpeas but they are in and hopefully I will get some sweet smelling flowers from them. I grew all of them from seed, I bought myself a small greenhouse to start them in, unfortunately I don't have the continuous light source they need to make them grow, but they did okay. I had quite a few plants that survived the winter and are already blooming, snapdragons to name one! I'm looking forward to finding a new plant by Burpee, a yellow geranium. Geraniums always remind me of my Mom, so I'm hot on the trail of this new yellow one, they've never developed one before, I'll keep you posted!! Well my yard has done very well, my sweet peas, not so much!!! Here's a picture (before all the flowers bloomed and now need to be cut back)
I always laugh because my sister Connie is a true gardener (I don't laugh because she's such a great gardener, I laugh because I'm not). She loves finding new plants, she researches them to death, works hours and hours out in her yard, and her yard is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Me, not so much!!! I like a lot of color but I am not a gardener, I'm someone who plants 4" plants and hope they live. Also, it gives the two of us time out together, fooling around and I always learn something new from her. I usually forget it, but I do learn it initially!!! The thing I laugh most about is me trying to have a yard similar to Connie's - basically - not going to happen!!! I've said before that a lot goes on in our yard ~ basketball, baseball, ping pong, swimming, light sabre fights, general good fun - but - every once in a while a ball goes crazy and crashes into the fence or something else, but I choose to make art out of those instances - here's my latest masterpiece . . .
This is a picture of my fountain. I bought it with the retirement money I received from my friends from Cook Middle School. It's important to me. When I saw that it had a hole in it the perfect size of a baseball I realized that it had been hit and no one had "fessed up" and told Grammy. Rather than get all mad about it, I asked my son for a baseball and superglued it onto the hole. I like it. It kinda explains what my life is about.
Let me catch you up with our grandkids - Cyrah, will be graduating from high school in May, she's applied to several colleges and hasn't made a choice yet. She's still interning at the Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco. That experience has served her very well, it looked great on her college applications and she received a personal hand written note from a college in Boston asking her to come there. So Cyrah ready to start her own version of "Oh The Places You'll Go" we're all very proud of her!!! Well, Cyrah graduated yesterday in San Francisco and has decided to go to Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. I guess the hand written note clinched the deal for her. Anyway, she's very excited! Here's a picture of her at her graduation yesterday!
Our granddaughter Chloe will be 10 in July and she came up and spent a few days with us during her spring break. She wanted to make a pillow with a "C" on it and she wanted to learn how to sew and "beadazzle" it. Well, she did it!! Here's a picture of Chloe with her pillow, she was very proud of herself! She finished 4th grade yesterday and has been selected to be in a special program for children who are musically talented. It's a two week program and she's very excited. A Star Will Be Born!!!
Then there is our littlest grandson, Rhone. He is such a cutie!! Very talkative and full of personality. He goes to preschool and is very artistic. He was 2 last October, so he's about 2 1/2 now. Here's a little taste of Rhone. Rhone was in his Aunt Katie's wedding 2 weeks ago and here he is dancing the night away. I've heard that he was the star of the show!! Stayin'Alive, Stayin' Alive!!!
Let's see, Benji will be next, Benji is 6 years old and is just finishing up his Kindergarten year, wow, did that year go by fast!! He's done great, made lots of friends, learned lots of stuff and is ready to take on first grade. He's playing t ball again this year and here's a picture in his uniform.
He is anxiously awaiting a visit from his "Auntie" (Tina who is coming from Mississippi this coming Tuesday) and the end of school on Friday.
Zach is next up! Zach turned 10 in May and will be finishing 4th grade next Friday. He does very well in school and is playing baseball in the Farm league this year at Rincon Valley Little League. His Dad, Mike, is the manager and if they win today they will get into the playoffs. Zach is our family lawyer and has been since he's been little, he defends whatever his position is very well and can do a GREAT closing argument about anything!! Here's Zachy . . .
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The last grandchild to tell you about is Joe. Joe is 12 1/2 just finishing up 6th grade and then will be onto middle school. Joe is very artistic, I don't know if he'll continue to enjoy it but he's always been a kid that sees stuff in an artistic way. When we used to go find the Charlie Brown's, Snoopy's, Lucy's and Woodstocks every summer, everyone had a job and Joe's job was to tell us whether he thought the artistic quality of each piece was good, bad or ugly!!!
I've always said he should be a model but he just smiles and shakes his head no. Here is Joe . . .
That's it for our grandchildren, our own children all seem to be doing okay and we're lucky we're able to see and hear from them on a regular basis. We do have some exciting news in our extended family. My niece Katie (my sister Connie's youngest child) had her baby on December 28th and he's just turned 5 months old and become the heart stealer/breaker of the family. Katie and her husband Jared have given all of us little Evan Leigh Kinzel and he is a cutie pie. While Katie was off work recouperating I was lucky enough to be a constant lunch companion with Connie, Katie and Evan on Friday's. Evan will be a restaurant critic when he gets older!!! Here is little Mr. Evan Kinzel . . .
Did any of you ever watch The Arensio Hall show years ago??? Well I did and he used to do this thing where he would put his index finger up to the side of his head, look questioningly at the audience and say "Things that make you want to say hmmmm???" So I have one and I'm going to ask you . . . Do you ever wonder about those people you see on street corners, in the rain, in the hot sun, selling fruit?? They seldom even have a bottle of water with them. I wonder - where do they get that fruit??? Does anyone ever buy it??? Where do they go to the bathroom??? Doesn't the fruit go bad sitting out there all day long??? I realize that all this shows is that I don't have anything important to think about when I'm driving, but have you ever thought the same things. Do you have any things make make you want to say hmmmmm??? Let me know, I'd be interested in hearing about them!!! (I know that sounds kinda weird but I've been thinking about it and wanting to put it in my blog for months, but I haven't been writing my blog so imagine the stress of trying to remember that for all these months!!!
I have read some really good books lately and I have a couple of authors I want to tell you about . . . I've really enjoyed Cathy Lamb and Amy Hatvany books. They are kinda weird but stories about people, love, family - you know stuff that makes the world go round. If you get a chance try a book by them.
I also want to mention that I am reminded lately how much friendship is such a vital, important and big part of our lives. As a kid growing up I never had lots of friends. I don't really know why but the ones that I had were very important to me. I had my sisters I guess and as my kids like to tell me, I am antisocial. Which is true in a very large sense. I had my cousin Judy, who I am still very close to today and LOVE talking to her on the phone and laughing, laughing, laughing!!! I have my friend Linda Robertson Groobin, who lived next to us when we moved to Santa Rosa on Randall Lane, Linda changed my life in so many ways. Because of Linda I had what I consider to be a "normal" teenage life. We "tooled" 4th st., we went to dances, we kinda snuck out when she was supposed to be at choir practice - without her I would have really been a mess of a teenager!! I just wrote her a message for her 66th birthday and though we haven't seen each other in a few years (more my fault than hers) she is always in my heart and mind. Then I met Kenny, got married, watched each other grow up and became good friends, I think I got the better end of that friendship but that he's hung with me all these years (49) is a testament to him. I've always had my sister Connie, through thick and thin (literally) that girl can make me laugh, cry and shout out loud!!! I've just always had Connie, she is my constant, my "person". When I started working I met many people that became my friends, people I still keep in touch with, people that still mean so much to me - Mary K., Pami, Fred, Joycie, Bill C., Marie, Yolanda and really many more but none so dear to me as my partners through complete trust and love for each other as Linda and Sandi. We met 2x a day for breaks in an office with our door closed and discussed everything and anything that mattered (and didn't matter) to us. We griped about what was going on at the school, our homes, our lives, laughed, cried, hugged - opened the door and went back to our own office and kept working. During the summer we met at Round Table Pizza every couple of weeks for a 3 hour lunch to catch up, commiserate and laugh with each other. But invariably things change. Linda has moved to Redding, we haven't seen her in almost a year although we've talked on the phone and that feels like home. And Sandi and I still meet regularly for lunch to share our lives with each other. And Sandi is the reason I wanted to write today about friendship. I LOVE SANDI SO MUCH!!! She is going through hell right now, and although I feel her pain and sadness and anxiety so much, all I can give her to help her is my honest and true heart, my love, my words that seem to be so inconsequential but I give all of that to her and wish I could do more!! Sandi learned last July that her younger sister had cancer. It was a very aggressive type cancer but HOPE became the byword we all lived by (I include myself in this scenario because from the day Sandi told me I have prayed every night for God's healing hands and HOPE for Sandi and Lisa). If you have anyone who has gone though cancer you will know that it is hell. In August of last year, Sandi and her family lost their Mother. So wham/wham, just carry on with life. Well now, almost a year later, Lisa is losing her battle with cancer and Sandi has been everything a person could hope to be to Lisa and her family. At this point she is there for a week at a time, constantly keeping Lisa comfortable and she comes home for a few days to check on Lew and try to recharge her batteries and back into the fray. It is heartbreaking. Sandi has dealt with terrible loss in her lifetime and I learned early on how to take on grief and go through it because of Sandi but I feel so bad for her right now but I feel that because of our friendship I am helping her in some small way. And, if in the end I was able to help her even a little bit I will feel that I was finally able to pay back to her what she has always done for me by being my friend!! She is my Hero!! If you believe in prayer, could you please say a prayer for Lisa Rios, Sandi and I would appreciate it.
I think I will end on that note, I have gone on and on, and if you're still reading by the end of this long post, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I know that it's weird that I write a blog, send it out, asking people to read about my family and my uninteresting life and people actually do it. See, that is friendship in action!!! Again, Thank You So Much!!
My thought to leave you with this time: Take a few minutes to stop, take a breath, look at the moon, breathe in some fresh air, thank God for your blessings and enjoy some quiet . . . you'll feel better after!!!
I just added a video of our grandson Rhone who is going to be 3 in October reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear to his toys!!! We had to put it in two parts. Hope you enjoy it!
Until next time (hopefully not so long) . . .
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