The Queen And Her Court

It apparently wasn't Wrigley's turn the other day, so Lily tells him off. Then she gets herself up in the rocker. She seems very pleased to have so much attention bestowed upon her and she's all smiles.

Okay, she tells Bailey, it's your turn...see, it's right here...come on.

Wait a minute, I have to have a bite...then it's your turn!

You get a smell...oops...only a smell...

hmmm...remember when I had a cookie and was the center of attention?

Ben Has His Say

I'm Benjamin. Mommy read me the post that Gammy let my cousin Lily do, and I told Gammy I should get my own turn because I have something very exciting to tell! After several months of being home with Mommy and Daddy, and sometimes Grandma Nancy and a variety of visitors, I finally got to break out of the joint. Daddy and Mommy dressed me up real nice, and tried to comb my wayward hair, then put me in my seat and drove me to a place called "school". My dog, Sweet Dee, was very sad she had to stay home because it seemed that everyone was very excited about the trip we were going to make.

One time when I went on an all-day trip to Grandma Nancy's with Daddy, my Mommy bawled a little before Daddy and I left to go. Here's a picture of Mommy's face the day I went on my adventure. I think she really wanted to go and cried because she had to stay home and clean out the garage while Dad and I left for our "man day".

Anyway, back to our recent adventure... Daddy carried me into a really bright and happy place called "school". Mommy followed along looking like she might brawl again...uh oh...but then she cheered up and we all had a good time exploring.

I met lots of nice kids and a special teacher. I had to go through a doorway to get to a barn-like place with lots of animals (or I guess they were other kids) ...hey, some little brat bumped into me...just wait til I learn to crawl, Buddy!

In no time at all, my parents were back to pick me up. I barely missed them, but I was really happy to see them. Almost as happy as Mommy was to get me back in her arms. Here I come Dee! And see all you kids tomorrow.

May The Force Be With Us

Tucker passed a milestone recently on the way to growing up, so the family celebrated by going to Disneyland as they had been promising him. Due to Jenny's ability to make diamonds out of dust, she and Jack had free tickets so the family visit to the magic kingdom was essentially half price. To get the free tickets, Jenn and Jack volunteered a day for a local charity in Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" program. By donating their time, they got the free day at Disneyland in return. Great deal for all, but especially Tucker who had been longing to see the sights.

Tucker was pretty brave for 3 1/2 and took pictures with several characters, including this mean looking woman. He doesn't appear scared at all. For his bravery, his parents rewarded him by forcing him into this recreation of Stars Wars...starring themselves! That's Tucker on the top right-hand side. I noticed that he stayed as far as he could get away from the big scary guy in the left corner...but Richard, being the geek he is, seems to be pretty cozy with him. Jenny is looking pretty sassy as the Princess, while Jack looks like a true teenager just wishing he were somewhere else.

Lily Celebrates Life

Hi! I'm Lily. Gammy said I could tell you the story. One day Mommy woke up in a really happy mood and even put on lipstick and makeup before she got me dressed for the day.

We seemed to take a lot of pictures that day. It felt like every time I got another piece of clothing on a picture was taken.

That's ok though, because I thought I was getting really cute with my new purple outfit.

The most handsome man that day seemed to be Wrigley. Since he considers himself to be a true gentleman, he dressed up in formal attire.

Bailey wasn't feeling well that day due to some medical problems, but she let Mommy dress her up a little too. She didn't feel like smiling much, but she did sit still for a picture.

We all went out to dinner and I had my favorite food with my favorite people, so it was a banner day for me...

When we got home, the celebration continued. It was Mommy's birthday, so we had a lot of years to celebrate. But Mommy didn't want to tell how many years she was, so here's what we put on the cake. Guess who got the first piece...

Now All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down

In looking through my pictures lately, it dawned on me that Mike and Jaysa's years spent together before parenthood were just one big training event for Mike. For instance, take my favorite pictures from cousin Kim's wedding. Mike wasn't just leading the conga line in these pictures, he was practicing for the future. See this arm and body movement bears a similar resemblance to...

this picture of Mike putting on his vacuuming moves...

...AND, this variation of him leading the conga line strongly resembles...

...Mike doing the cooking in the kitchen on Mother's Day.

When we get towards the end of the conga line night, we find Mike "exhausted" from all the physical activity.

...much like this picture below of him and Ben. Notice the "puke bucket" that Jaysa so tenderly placed by his head has been replaced by the TV controller these days.

The old Mike could barely keep his eyes open at the end of the night while partying with his "Mate". And the same can be said for the new Mike...

Well ... maybe the new Mike doesn't bother to keep his eyes open while partying with his "Mate", but I'm sure Jaysa doesn't mind being replaced by such a cute little party animal!

Too Old To Rock, But Not To Weed

Not quite sure this is a good look to sport, Rich... uh, looks like you agree! But what to do if you can no longer be a rocker stud?

Richard?...Richard?....ah...Richard?

Oh....He's a super hero. At least Jenn should think so if he's willing to do the weeding without any help. He gets my vote.

Mama's Hair

When Ben was born and everyone was staring at his face, the consensus was he looked like Mike's family. I agreed that his facial features resembled that side of the family, but one thing was for sure in my mind and that was Ben's head full of hair was just like his mama's.

I'm In Love With A New Couple

My old friends are gone and there's a new couple in my life. She cries a million tears every time she sees me, and he dries up all those wet tears with his strong, hot breath. Hmmmm, if it seems to be getting a little steamy in this post... well, yes, they do steam clean too!

My old Kenmore washer and dryer lasted 8 years. The dryer's handle broke 6 months ago, but I was still able to open it, and it dried so well still that I just persevered on. Then last Tuesday the washer stopped spinning and the door wouldn't open, so Bill had to force the door open to get my good sheets out. This spoke to me as time to get a new set. My two old friends seemed well past their prime, but were salvaged by a friend just the night before the new ones were delivered. Image our shock to learn that doing an average of 8 loads per week, it will only cost us $12 for one whole year of washing. I had to get started right away!

Interesting note is that, when the delivery man from Lowes set up the dryer, I discovered that the old dryer vent had been installed backwards 5 years ago when we moved here. hmmm, no wonder it blew so much more dust out than it had in our old house in Albuquerque. See, this flange is supposed to attach to the dryer and have the hose run from it to the wall vent. But they had installed this flange to the wall vent and only the hose connected to my dryer.

When the new pair first arrived, it seemed so overwhelming to learn how to operate them that I promptly went to bed and took a nap at 2:30 on Friday afternoon. When Bill got home and woke me up, it didn't seem so complex any more and I was able to operate them without reading the thick manual that accompanied them. Good thing I took that nap...now back to laundry duty.

Too Old For The Mosh Pit

Last night Gampy and I went to the ZZ Top concert in town. When the tickets went on sale last month while Gampy was on travel, I bought them via the Internet. Being that this was my first time to buy tickets for a concert, I hit the button for "best available" thinking the more you pay the better the seats will be. It came back with "Floor Seat, Row 20, Seats 12 & 13". So of course I hit purchase, planning to surprise my ZZ Top fan when he got home.

Now, it will make you gasp to find that at age 60, I have only been to one outside Beach Boys concert in my whole life. So imagine my surprise to find that those expensive floor-seating tickets meant that I found myself being blasted by the music while having to stand up for the whole show if I wanted to see anything. Sit down people! And the worse part was the truly loyal fans (read the ones who like to wear zoot-type suits and big men's fedoras) are the ones who will shell out the money for the floor seats, so there I found myself behind two big guys in hats that blocked my sight, as well as hurt my sensibilities!

What was there to do but buy two beers and sit down in the dark below all those over age hippies and wait out the show. The guy next to me offered me a set of earplugs, which he and his 2 companions had in their ears...why come to a concert just to block out the music? You gotta love ZZ Top fans, and I do love one of them or you wouldn't have found me drowning my sorrows in that beer last night.

What A Difference A Year Makes

Last year around Memorial Day, Mike and Jaysa were trying to get pregnant and visited Jaimee's new baby Lily. Mike looks wishful in this picture and he had to hold Wrigley every time he wanted to hold Baby Lily. Luckily, a short time later Jaysa and Mike (and Dee) found out they were going to have a little one of their own.

Oh what a difference a year makes! Mike and Dee have their hands full this year with a baby of their own to look over while Mom Jaysa is busy washing and cleaning those bottles! Dee is just as protective of her little miracle as Wrigley is of his. I love the way she keeps an eye on Ben in this picture, even while she's sleepy herself. It amazes me how these two dogs are so enamoured with their babies.

This was Jaysa's first Mother's Day as a mom, and it will be Mike's first Father's Day. Maybe we'd better proclaim a "Special Dog's Day" for Dee and Wrigley to acknowledge all the loving care they give their Bay-Bays!

Come Grow Old With Me

I've had a crush on Bill since the day I met him. His mother says I've improved him immensely, such as haircut, getting rid of those glasses with lasik surgery, and most of all, burning his polyester pants and hiding his Members Only jackets until he forgot about them. I think he was the last member of that club! But to me, he's still my "Boy Toy" as he used to like to introduce himself as (yeah, right Bill) to my family no less.

Bill and I were both in our 40's when life brought us together at work. We remained friends for about 5 years and the odds of us getting together were very low. Then, when we lest expected it, life threw us together again. Since we were closer to our 50's by then, we were wise enough to realize we might not get another chance. We were married May 9, 1997, in Idaho at The Hitching Post. A fitting place for a Texan to wed. The picture below was about 5 hours before I broke my toe in a tangle with the bed cover, which is why I was still smiling. Come to think of it, that broken toe might be why we seldom celebrate our anniversary.

We have grown a little older and wider, and maybe grayer. We sometimes don't even remember it's our anniversary until it's a month or so past. But, this year we remembered because it was on Mother's Day just like the day we were married. We still didn't celebrate this year, but at least we remembered.

So Wild Bill, happy 13th! May the words of this poem continue to be true for us:

Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be...

White Trash Fireplace

Back in early March, when Lily got sick and went into the hospital, we had quite an exciting time one morning when we woke up to see our breath fogging every time we exhaled. Jaimee and Lily had just moved into a new house when Lily got sick and the gas company was supposed to read the previous occupant's meter, then read it for Jaimee and switch the account.

Instead, as our lack of luck would have it back then, the gas company lost the "piggy back" order that was attached to the turn off order for the old occupants, so the gas company just shut off the gas. That gas was heating the house and heating the hot water. We didn't notice the lack of gas until we woke up the next morning and the house was freezing and there was not a drop of hot water.

Jaimee put Lily in bed with me and I tried my best to warm her up through body warmth and a big old down comforter. Meanwhile, Jaimee and Bill were making plans to start a fire with the firewood in the yard left by the previous occupants. Jaimee popped into the bedroom where Lily and I were huddled in bed with her oxygen tank. Jaimee let me know Bill would have a fire roaring soon to heat up the front room.... WHAT????? I made a mad dash down the hall with Lily, pulling the oxygen tank behind us.

"Are you guys crazy? You can't start a fire inside with this baby on an oxygen tank!"

My father spent his last 6 months of life on oxygen, and if I remembered anything, it was the big sign outside his front door stating no smoking due to oxygen inside...now these nut cakes were going to get a blazing fire going in the fireplace.

So, Gampy hightailed it down to Walmart and bought Jaimee and Lily this little electric heater (thank God the electric and gas companies were two separate entities or we would've been out of luck!)

She may not look so hot now, but this little heater was very appreciated at the time. Once we started thawing out, Jaimee decided to see if she could roast a marsh mellow in the "fireplace" and we had a good time joking about how classy we must look.

Mr. Wrigs decided to cozy up to Jaimee when he realized she had food. Before that he was afraid (as usual), but when food came in the picture he "thawed" a little towards the contraption.

Still, a guy can't get too close to something glowing red hot, so if Jaimee wasn't actively cooking, Wrigley kept his distance.

I'd like to think it was all fun and games, but more than a few frustrating tears were shed trying to convince the gas company that a baby just home from the hospital on an oxygen tank constituted an emergency on their part...after all, it was their screw-up...but they didn't see it that way. The best they could do was the next day by 5 pm, so Jaimee's friend Emily volunteered her oscillating heater for a few days so the baby could have warmth in her room to nap and sleep. The rest of us covered up with lots of blankies.