Hi Ya'll

Last week Joachim and I flew from Montrose to Dallas to visit my grandparents and it was the trip that redeemed air travel for me (see family reunion). Even though Joachim flew as a “lap baby”, he had his own seat each way and he was a perfect angel-child, content to read books, eat snacks and “work” his own seat-back tray.

I've always enjoyed visiting my grandparents, but I’ve always taken for granted that they just keep on living. This visit, at 85, I saw how old they are getting and our time together seemed more significant. Everything in their house is a connection to my childhood because little has changed. She’s simplified over the years, like no more live plants, but they still live independent and orderly lives. Since we’ve returned, I’ve been full of stories gushing to anyone who will listen.

I’m fiercely proud of my Grandmother’s spirit and my grandfather’s quirky ways. Since I’m pretty sure they never see this blog I’ll share one of their charming secrets. My grandfather subscribes to about 4 newspapers and my grandmother picks them up at he end of the driveway at 6:30am. The first thing she does is pull out the “guts” of each paper and all of the advertisements and puts them in the recycling. She said he’d go nuts trying to read every article and feel obliged to peruse all of the advertisements in case there was some gadget he couldn't live without.

Then, when my grandfather reads the paper she sets out for him, he highlights the articles so my Grandmother can skim, gleaning the news just like my ninth grade teacher taught me to underline for content :) I could write pages about the beauty of their idiosyncrasies and it's those funny things about them that seem to make their relationship work and last.

The first night we arrived we all played the blood pressure game, even Joachim (a daily event). Mine was shamefully low, but I think it was just adjusting to sea level.Joachim really enjoyed playing in the backyard and blowing bubbles (I really enjoyed the surrounding fence and the absence of irrigation ditches).
Trying to break the stale bread to feed the ducks.
Frustrated trying to break the stale bread.
I had questions about family and marriage and why they think theirs worked and if they were happy, what were the hardest times, what are their childhood memories and on and on and still I was firing questions as we drove to the airport to fly home. About 5 years ago I asked her what it's like to have lived through so many changes. I don't remember her answer, but I remember her saying that when she was a little girl she figured out how old she would be in the year 2000 and she couldn't conceive living that long. I figured at the time that would be like me seeing into the year 2070, inconceivable.

flight home

Joachim eating ice.No matter how many times I fly I never get tired of staring down and the world below. I took all sorts of pictures and then as we came around to land in Montrose, I was fascinated by the view of Delta, I found the city's silos and then the lake and followed it back to Ben’s parents 20 acres and spotted their house and then started looking for Beckah and Chris’ 40 acres and I never thought once to get out my camera, duh, of all the cool pictures I could have taken, I missed the most obvious one.
My grandfather took up painting in his retirement and he's beginning to give them away, I got these two for Joachim's room, in addition to a stool, my great-grandmother made in the '30's.

haircut

I've been cutting his hair during naptime, but recently (after watching the "hair" segment of Elmo's World 10 times) I thought he might like to get an awake haircut. It was off to a good start, but quickly turned into a lot of head shaking and "no-no-no". I gave him a touch-up during a recent nap and I think he looks mighty handsome now.

hummus dip

Joachim and I made humus last week and when we finished I told him he could have a finger taste. First he stuck in his finger, then dipped his nose into the blender to be closer to his finger while he shoveled "tastes" into his mouth. I think he liked it, when I brought out the camera he got a little self-conscious, but you can see it was still good stuff. (Don't worry, if you come to our house, we don't serve guests food that's been double dipped.)