Music Memories-The Weekly Smile

I didn’t think I would have much to smile about this week but I was wrong. This is one instance where it is good to be wrong…the smile scale!

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. The music from those years is what brings all those years back to me. This was a great weekend for music and memories. As most of you may know, this weekend was the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock, 1969 super music fest that lasted three days and changed so much. I didn’t go to Woodstock in 1969. I was thirteen years old. I remember staying in my bedroom with my older sister that weekend. We listened to the radio as much as we could. The station we played gave updates and live reports about who was on stage and what was going on at the festival grounds.

Thanks to Robin at Breezes At Dawn who reminded me, I was able to listen to a lot of the re-broadcast of the festival on xpn.com.  It was truly smile inducing and had me singing a long. I got to hear Joan Baez and CCR. I heard Sly, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin. Canned Heat. The Who. Blood, Sweat & Tears. Yeah. If you grew up then, you are smiling now, right?

I missed a lot but I will look up what I missed and listen to it throughout the week. I’m sure I will be smiling right along with the music!

The Weekly Smile is a weekly blog hop hosted by Trent at Trent’s World. Here is his smile from this week. What made you smile this week?

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Hugs And Smiles #WeeklySmile

The past three weeks have been different as we get used to a new routine. With the kids in full time daycare, I’m not needed as much. However, we haven’t gotten into a routine because things keep popping up. The kids now live in Vancouver, Washington. You may have heard that there is an outbreak of measles in Clark County. That’s the county that covers Vancouver. Over half of the exposure sites are within a couple of miles of where they live. The daycare classes that the kids are in have kids that attend one of the elementary schools with confirmed cases of measles. The boys have been vaccinated but Maya had not been. My daughter does not like to vaccinate with the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)until after age three. Maya turned two over the weekend. So it became a challenge to keep her from possible exposure. She stayed home from daycare and I stayed with her. She finally was able to get an appointment to get vaccinated against the measles. Then we were told she would be considered “safe” after ten days. My daughter was between jobs so she stayed home for her for a week then she had to start her new job so I stayed with her. She’s finally safe, or as safe as can be with the first of the two vaccines. [There are two vaccines. The first is given between 9 and 15 months and the second between 15 months and 6 years. The first vaccine is 93% effective and the second bumps the immunity up to 97%.]

Then the weather changed just in time for me to go up there for Maya’s birthday and get snowed-in! So I was up there again for a couple of days. I’m home. I’m a little sad (depressed, actually) because I miss them.

So where’s the smile? Well, after not seeing me for a week and a half, I went up there for Maya’s birthday and got up there early so I went to get the kids from daycare. They weren’t expecting me. When the boys saw me, they did a double take. Then we walked over to get Maya. I didn’t even have to call her name. She heard the door open and looked in that direction. She saw me and she tore off running toward me faster than you would guess a 2 year old could run. With outstretched arms, she jumped into my arms and grabbed a hold of me around my neck with a death grip! She put her little head on my shoulder and just held on tight. THAT was my smile. She missed me that much.

As I sit here typing this, although I’ve been depressed these couple of days since I last saw her, this memory is bringing back more smiles and I’m pretty sure that when I see her again next Sunday, she’ll be just as happy to see me. I’ll be staying with the kids while their mom works and the school and daycare are both closed for Presidents’ Day. I’m looking forward to that.

What made YOU smile this week? Tell us about it in your own #WeeklySmile post and head over to Trent’s Blog to check out more smiles.

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#WeeklySmile –Sneezing And Coughing

I got a text from my daughter on Wednesday evening. Maya was sick. It didn’t surprise me because Anderson and Spencer had been sick. In fact, my daughter stayed home with them on Monday but couldn’t miss a second day of work so I went over early Tuesday and stayed with the boys (and Maya). I came home that evening and the boys went to school on Wednesday. So I figured Maya would be getting sick but was hoping it would be on the weekend. That didn’t happen. I drove over super early on Thursday (I had to leave at 5:15 am) and stayed with Maya. She was so sick she didn’t wake up until after ten that morning. But she was sick. Fever, runny nose, watery eyes, the whole thing. And while she could actually have gone to day care sick, we didn’t think that was a good idea. There is a measles epidemic where they live and she has not been vaccinated so we didn’t want her to be more susceptible to it or to spread it if in fact it turned out to be measles. She was happy to see me and she cuddled with me all day, except during her four naps! She usually takes only one but that was another sign that she wasn’t well. I stayed with her again on Friday and she was much better. Still sick but much better.

So where’s the smile? I smiled because I was in a position to go take care of her so she would be more comfortable at home and so my daughter would not have to stay home from work a second day in the same week. That’s a pretty neat position to be in. I’m close enough to them and able to help out. And the bonus is that Maya is so attached to me that she cuddles with me when she’s sick but not with anyone else, not even with her mom. She loves her Nana and feels comfortable and loved and special so that’s a pretty neat thing to smile about!

I won’t tell you who is home with a fever and sniffles and sore throat now! But that’s okay. The Maya Snuggles were worth it!

What made you smile this week? Head over to Trent’s blog for his weekly blog hop feature, The #Weekly Smile!

 

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Just Can’t Please Me–#WeeklySmile

Yup, that’s right! This week’s smile is going to make YOU smile, too. As many of you are aware, I have been babysitting three of my grandchildren since they moved thirtyish miles away in early September because my daughter had not been able to set up daycare. The babysitting had me driving back and forth between the two cities several times a day then around November it became easier (and cheaper) to go over on Sunday evening and stay until Friday evening, unless I had an appointment back near me. It was exhausting, physically and mentally. Several times she said she was setting up daycare so I would only need to watch the kids for her a couple of days a week. I was looking forward to that then she announced that the woman that was going to watch the kids had decided to go back to work instead so I lost hope!

Then, last week, out of the blue she said she had found a place that might have openings for all three of the kids and she was going to go visit to see what it was like. I had heard it before so I sort of ignored it. That afternoon I got a text message saying all three of the kids were starting day care at the same center on Monday and it would be full time, five days a week. Wow!

I hadn’t expected that. It gave me just one more day of watching them before the weekend and then the Monday they started at the center. I cried. It kind of made me feel like I was no longer wanted or needed. I know it was silly but it just threw me! After the first couple of days, I realized I was being silly. Here I was feeling upset about finally getting a change in the situation that had been exhausting to me for months. So I not only smiled at myself, I laughed at myself.

They started daycare this past Monday and aside from a bit of a rough time getting used to a new schedule (they have to get up about two hours earlier than when I watched them) all three of the kids like it. Right now the boys are only there in the morning until the school bus picks them up because my daughter picks them up about ten minutes after they are dropped off after school but when she begins her new job in three weeks, she will be picking them up later than now because of different work hours and a longer commute. All is fine. This week I’ve actually been over there twice anyway; once because she had an after work appointment and once because it was my daughter’s birthday so we went out to dinner. So I’m still seeing them and still needed (in fact, I am babysitting them tonight so she can go out to celebrate her birthday with friends). Silly me to think I wasn’t needed anymore!

Trent over at Trent’s World hosts a weekly blog hop called The Weekly Smile where he asks us to write about one thing that made us smile during the week. Go check it out!

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2018’s Last Smiles

The end of last year was good in a lot of ways and brought many smiles. There were new friends as I met some of my daughter’s friends for an evening of making tamales, a Christmas tradition in my family. I was the one that taught the new people how to spread the masa on the corn husk and fill it and roll it. They turned out tasty; a bit different from the usual but still fine. Next year I think I will take over the cooking of the meat again but maybe not. I won’t be around forever so the ones after me have to learn so maybe I should just make sure I am here to supervise when the meat is put on the stove (or in this case the Instant Pot).

I also managed to carve out a little bit of time for me. I had a day of doctors’ appointments the Thursday before Christmas so I went home on Wednesday night. After the appointments, I stayed home so that I could attend a pizza night across town at some friends’ home. It was a lot of fun. We had pizza, birthday cake (for me and for three other women who were there and had December birthdays), yummy drinks, and then a very fun game and a white elephant gift exchange. Those are always fun because the gift you choose can be “stolen” from you!

The BIG smile came on the Friday before Christmas. I think I have mentioned Lularoe clothing in the past. Well, I follow one consultant on Facebook. They are a local husband and wife team (they are actually the ones who hosted the pizza night) and they are very generous. They’ve become friends with their 8800 members, and in a lot of ways the group is more like a family. This year they did a Twelve Days Of Christmas giveaway. Each day there was a question asked and those who participated were entered in a drawing for a shopping spree. The shopping spree time length corresponded to the “day of Christmas” it happened to be. Friday was the ninth day of Christmas so the shopping spree was nine minutes long. The winner had to be online when the name was announced at six in the evening then their time began immediately. Well, I won the ninth day of Christmas and was standing by with my list of items I wanted to claim (there was a specific phrase that had to be typed as a comment to each item claimed). I scored big! I was able to claim nineteen free items! If I totaled the sale price of the items I claimed, it would be well over five hundred dollars! Some of the items I used as gifts and some I kept for myself. It was the icing on the cake that was December.

Christmas was good. It started very low key as I woke up with three of the grandkids and enjoyed watching them open their gifts. My two daughters were there. Then I drove the three hours to Seattle to spend the rest of the day with my son and grandson and daughter-in-law. So for the first time in about five years, I got to see all three of my kids and all four of my grandchildren on Christmas!

These were my many smiles for the last couple of weeks. What did you smile about last week? Check out Trent’s Weekly Smile post and tell us about your smiles!

#theweeklysmile  #weeklysmile

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Two! #WeeklySmile

Last time I wrote about dog sitting and the wonderful couple that owns the dog. I mentioned that they are finally pregnant after their IVF procedure. Well, she just messaged me. They have finally announced the news to the family. She’s officially there months now. The big news?! Twins! Isn’t that wonderful? I’m so excited for them. I can’t stop smiling!

What made you smile this week? Go on over to Trent’s blog and check out his weekly smile post!

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Warm #WeeklySmile

This week was anything but warm! One morning it was 25 degrees when the boys had to go to the bus stop! Way too cold, especially since they don’t have the kind of outerwear for that temperature!

It was a warm week in that Maya was very happy to see me after I was gone for a few days so she was full of warm hugs and kisses! I think that at twenty-one months she doesn’t understand the concept of time and days so she must have thought I wasn’t coming back!

Well, why did I call this warm? I met a lady through my Buy Nothing group who has a dog named Lance. He’s a very good dog but when he is left alone in the house, he goes crazy and tears everything up so they never leave him alone. She and her husband are going through the IVF process and it requires numerous lengthy appointments so she has me come over and stay with the dog. Lance is very mellow and just sits by the fire place while I am there so I enjoy having time to read or watch a show on TV without the guilt i have at home (because there is so much to do at home). They pay me very well to sit there and enjoy their lovely home. I’ve gone about five times. She is now pregnant! Hooray! Last night they wanted to go to dinner and to see The Nutcracker so I stayed with Lance. When they got home, she paid me and gave me a bag full of paper goods (Tp, paper towels, etc. which I cannot buy with EBT) and a gift bag which she said was for my birthday! Yay! I rarely get any gifts, not even for my birthday (which is coming up). It is beautiful, comfortable, plush bathrobe! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention warm! That’s what made me smile this week! A new bathrobe that will keep me warm! And the thoughtfulness! What a bargain!

What made you smile this week? Head on over to Trent’s blog and check out the Weekly Smile!

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I See

It has taken me awhile to get around to this week’s Weekly Smile but here I am. The reason for the Weekly Smile delay is actually this week’s smile.

On Monday afternoon I finally had the first of my cataract surgeries! It’s amazing to be able to see without glasses. I still need reading glasses but I can now walk around without bumping into things! I haven’t tried driving yet but I’ll do that this afternoon. I can also watch TV without glasses now! I’ll have the second eye done, probably in December or January, then I’ll be able to have the full effect of the surgery! I’m excited!

I spent a few days at my daughter’s after surgery because I couldn’t focus but I’m home now and starting to get back to some reading.

My big smile came last night, Friday, but I’ll save that for a few days! Hint: 💙⚾💙!!!

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The Week’s Smiles #WeeklySmile

A lot of things made me smile this week but things haven’t worked out so that I could write them up until now. That’s because I’ve had a particularly bad time, health-wise, and ended up back on pain killers and muscle relaxants when I had stopped needing them. With luck, that’s over and it will be better, although I seem to be overdoing things and ending up in pain again but I am going to try to do less for the next few days.

As usual, most of my smiles have been courtesy of my grandchildren! Kids really do liven things up and make me happy.

Anderson and Spencer are used to going to the park with me several times a week but I haven’t been able to take them (still not driving) since about a week before my surgery and that was over five weeks ago! Spencer keeps asking me if I can take him some place and I keep saying I can’t drive yet. He couldn’t understand why I couldn’t drive because I was back from the hospital where they had “made nana feel better.”  One day he saw the incision with all of the staples still in there. After that, he understood. Every time he saw me he would ask me to show him my “owie” and I would let him see it and he would say something about no driving yet. Then he went with me to get the staples out and thought I would be able to drive him right away but he saw that I was still using my cane and still in pain so he waited. I didn’t see him for two days and then when I saw him, he ran up to me and pulled my shirt up so he could see my “owie” and said it was better but “I going to wait til that part has no more tape then you can drive and take me somewhere.” That made me smile. I didn’t have to say anything, he just knew it wasn’t time yet.

Then there was Anderson (7 years old) who no longer likes to hug me or let me hug him but when he didn’t see me for three days, he ran up and hugged me! Another smile!

And Maya who is just six months old made me smile when she practically jumped out of her swing when she heard my voice and wouldn’t settle down until my daughter brought her to me to hold as I sat on the couch (still am not supposed to pick up anything over ten pounds and she’s close to twenty-five).

On Sunday, there were lots of smiles when we all met my son at a nearby park. He lives three hours away but they came to the area to go rafting and we were able to sneak in a short visit before they headed back to Seattle. What was so special about that? Well, for the first time, all four of my grandchildren were in the same place at the same time! That’s pretty smile worthy. We had a good but short visit. One year old Mati was pretty tired and ready for his nap as was Maya so we cut it short but it was a successful meeting of the cousins!

There were other smiles this past week. Some came from old friends who dropped notes or sent emails to check in with me and my progress on the road to recovery. The “old friends” especially make me smile when I think how far we’ve all come from the days we knew each other in high school!

Those were my smiles for the week, at least some of them. What were yours?

The #WeeklySmile is hosted by Trent at Trent’s Place. Stop in and see what is making others smile and maybe share one of yours?

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Heavy Traffic –#WeeklySmile

I had not been out of the house since coming home from the hospital a full week ago. My daughter said she would take my mom and I to dinner last night but she had so much running around that she fell asleep when she got home so it was late before we went to dinner. Luckily, we had some leftovers to keep us going!

When she came to get us, it was her and Spencer, the four year old. We headed toward the restaurant, not far from here, at about 8. By then there was no traffic and my daughter remarked how light the traffic was. When we left the restaurant (after a truly delicious dinner) we decided to go to the grocery store to get a few things Mom and I needed for meals here at home. After, my daughter said she had promised Spencer a frosty drink from Wendy’s which is across the street from the grocery store.

We got to Wendy’s and got in the drive-thru line. There were three cars ahead of us when we ordered. Not three minutes later, there were two cars ahead of us as we waited when Spencer sighed loudly. I asked him what was wrong and he said, “Me no like it when we’re in heavy traffic like this!”

We all cracked up! That was my smile this week. I’ve a few of them but this was the most recent one.

I’m heading to my daughter’s house as soon as she comes to get us in a couple of hours because she has AC and I don’t. We’re currently at 83 degrees (28 C) at ten in the morning and headed for 106 degrees (41 C). So we’re off to try to stay cool. I’m sure the afternoon with the grandchildren will provide many more smiles.

What made you smile this week? Head on over to Trent’s blog for more smiles!

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