Thursday Thoughts

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

Nesting
Last Thursday I mentioned that Bill had been trimming the tree in our front yard when he encountered a mother bird sitting on her nest entirely nonplussed by his noisy activity and apparently not fearing for her life (or at least willing to give up her life for her baby). I subsequently heard from our daughter Heather who wondered whether or not her dad had given the bird a reprieve or went ahead and cut the limb. I assured her that he left the limb alone in the manner of St. Francis of Assisi. And as an update, Mother Mockingbird is still guarding the nest with great determination. I have seen another bird (that I presume is her egg daddy) bringing Mama M. food. She turns around occasionally, but doesn’t seem to ever leave her nest.

Dropping In
For the past couple of years, I have traveled from Arizona back to Denver for a few days in February or so to allegedly check on our house, but secretly to get hugs and kisses from some of our grandkids. This year I thought I might forgo that trip because of the almost-one-week that I spent in the hospital in January. I felt as though I had already lost a week here because of that hospital visit. But alas, I recently began being homesick, and because it looks like we may be staying here longer than usual for a variety of reasons, I decided a trip home was in the cards after all. Therefore, I am leaving today for Denver and returning to Arizona on Tuesday. My plan is to continue the blog, but if I miss a day or two, don’t panic. No health issues; just fun times with my grandkids. As it happens, Bill decided at the last minute to come as well. It’s a party!

Indiana Jones Jr.
Here is the latest in my Etsy shop – Nanas Whimsies Shop. I have to share because I think it’s too cute for words. It is a Panama hat for toddlers up to small boys. The circumference is about 23-1/2 inches. The hat is made out of 100 percent cotton, so it will be cooler in the summer, and the perfect way to protect a little boy from the sun. I loved making it, and I think it turned out so cute.

Ham it Up!
I sent a lot of my leftover ham home with my Easter guests. We ate green beans and ham for dinner night before last (along with wilted lettuce and macaroni and Swiss cheese; a veritable feast). Yesterday morning we had scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. And now I’m done. The remaining scraps are going in the garbage and I won’t make another ham until next Easter. Put a fork in it.

Sweets for the Sweets
I gave up sweets for Lent. For 40 days and 40 nights (or so) I thought about what would be my first sweet thing to eat on Easter morning. I craved ice cream. I had those Girl Scout cookies in my freezer. Bill brought out my big box of chocolates that he bought me for Valentine’s Day. But my first sweet? A donut from Basha’s, filled with Bavarian cream and iced in rich chocolate. Was it good? Oh, yes.

Ciao.

30Mar2016

Family Cooking Ties

Posted in Main Course, Recipes, Side Dishes by kzmclain

“Do you think you will use that ham bone or throw it away?” asked my nephew Erik as he got ready to leave on Easter Sunday. I knew right away why he was asking.

I assured him that the ham bone would be put to good use. But if I wasn’t going to use it, he wanted it.

“What would you make with it?” I asked him.

He didn’t have a plan, but he knew there were a lot of options. He also knew that a good cook would never let something as delicious as a ham bone with a lot of meat still clinging stubbornly to it go to waste.

This past Thanksgiving, Court asked Jll a similar question. What are planning to do with the turkey carcass? Jll assured him she didn’t really have a plan, and as she has four kids and was entertaining Heather and Lauren and the two boys, she was desperate for refrigerator space.

“Take it,” she said with obvious relief.

Like, Erik, Court wasn’t sure what he would make, but knew a turkey carcass would make something good. I think that carcass turned into turkey noodle soup if I’m not mistaken. And it undoubtedly was good because everything tastes better if there’s bones involved.

I have said on numerous occasions that my mother was a very good cook. Though I never asked her, I presume she liked to cook, because I don’t think you can be a good cook if you heartily dislike it. Given all of that, I often think how happy it must make her up in heaven to see how so many of her grandkids love to cook – and do a bang-up job of it.

Not only are they good cooks, but they appreciate the art of cooking and the gift of good food. Recently, when Jen was here, we had the family over for carne asada. Dave’s son Christopher had smoked a pork butt the day before, and had some left over. He brought it along, knowing full well that somehow that smoked pork would be eaten. It was. I put it in a fry pan, crisped up the bottom, and it became smoked carnitas. In addition to pork butt, he smokes a delicious brat. My mouth is watering.

Jen’s son BJ is happiest if he can throw a piece of meat that he has marinated for a few hours onto the grill. He makes up his own marinade using whatever he thinks sounds good. I would never be able to do that. I require a recipe. Jen sent him home with leftover prime rib from their Easter dinner. He sautéed onion, garlic, mushrooms and a jalapeno in some olive oil, then added the meat to warm up. He made it all into a sandwich.

Good cooking isn’t limited to the men of our family. Mom would have loved seeing Maggie in the kitchen. I have watched Maggie mature into an absolutely splendid cook in the years since she’s been married. She is far removed from her post-college days when she would be cooking something in a fry pan and call her mother in desperation as smoke was rising from the pan. Jen could hear even over the phone that the meat was frying at too hot a temperature. “Turn down the temperature!” she would firmly instruct Maggie. “It’s cooking too fast.

It’s nice to see our love for cooking being passed down to our kids and even our grandkids.

I used up my ham bone last night preparing green beans and ham. Here is my mother’s recipe for Green Beans and Ham, in the exact words from her recipe card…..

Green Beans and Ham or Bacon
Sauté chopped onion in margarine, add flour and brown slightly. Add hot water and boil a few minutes. Prepare frozen green beans (or fresh beans). Pour the onion mixture into the beans, add ham (or chunk bacon cut in small pieces). Simmer about 30 minutes. Add water, if needed. Add peeled potatoes and continue cooking until potatoes are done.

Nana’s Notes: I sauté in butter rather than margarine. Rather than water, I use chicken or vegetable broth. Nowadays you can get fresh green beans anytime, so I never use frozen, only fresh. When I was small, green beans were only available in the summer. Mom would buy them from a farmer. I carefully cleaned them, always on the lookout for a worm! I like to use new red potatoes or new yellow potatoes.

29Mar2016

Take Me Out to Spring Training

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

I’ve only attended a handful of spring training games in my life. Well, to be perfectly frank, depending on your definition of handful, I have perhaps only attended a handful of professional baseball games of any type in my life.

My brother is grown up now, shown here with his youngest grandbaby Kelsie. He would undoubtedly take a swing today.

Nebraska wasn’t big on baseball when I grew up. At least not Columbus, Nebraska. The only baseball games I attended when growing up in Columbus were those in which my brother played. For the record, during the course of his Little League baseball career, he didn’t take a single swing at a ball. Not one. I vividly recall my father BEGGING him to take a swing. We don’t care if you miss, my dad told him again and again. We don’t care if you strike out, he would add. Just take a swing. But here’s how my brother’s 6- or 7-year-old brain apparently rationalized his strategy. If I swing, I will likely strike out and humiliate myself. If I get on base via walks, I am fast enough that it is likely I will score. There you have it. It’s simple, really.

The Cactus League, of course, is located in Arizona. In fact, eight different communities in the Phoenix metro area have a baseball park devoted to one or two different teams from around the west and midwest. The teams include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Colorado Rockies, the Kansas City Royals, the LA Angels, the LA Dodgers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Oakland A’s, the San Diego Padres, the San Francisco Giants, the Seattle Mariners, and the Texas Rangers. A few teams share a ball park – Arizona and Colorado, the White Sox and the Dodgers, the Indians and the Reds, and the Royals and the Rangers. The others have their own. As you can imagine, the teams and their followers provide quite a boost to the cities’ economies.

This year Bill and I attended the opening Cubs game at Sloan Park in Mesa. As you can imagine, the fans were in a downright FRENZY of ADORATION for their beloved Cubbies who came thiiiiiiis close to going to the World Series. The stadium was packed, and if you didn’t get your tickets weeks in advance (which we did), you were out of luck. I don’t even remember who won the game (or even who they played), but it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday we attended what will be one of the final spring games for the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Field in Scottsdale. They played the White Sox, and unlike the Cubs’ game, the stands were far from full. Having not attended another Rockies game this spring, I don’t know if that is typical, or if the fans have simply run out of steam. The weather was overcast and delightfully cool. But given the weather and the only halfway-full park, the beer venders were begging for sales. Even the man with the hat that makes it look like there’s an arrow going through his head and wearing peanut earrings was desperate to sell a beer or two.

I noticed that there were a variety of fans representing many teams in attendance. Of course there were Rockies and White Sox hats and shirts. I also saw a lot of people wearing shirts with Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Angels logos. And, of course, very many Giants hats and shirts. 2015 World Champions and all….

It is fun to see the kids before the game lined up by the fence looking for autographs. The players yesterday were happy to oblige.

They were also happy to hit home runs too. In fact, I quit counting after a total of seven home runs. Three were hit by Rockies players, and they were one after another – three in a row. Imagine the pressure on the fourth man up. He handled it like my brother. He didn’t take a swing and managed a walk. That’s one way to beat the pressure.

Maybe 10 minutes before the National Anthem, I noticed some hubbub down on the field near the Rockies dugout. There was a man spraying what appeared to be bug spray into the corner near where the man who would sing the National Anthem would soon sit. The apparent bug-sprayer man seemed to be quite concerned, and several other Rockies officials also came to check out how things were going. I never was able to figure out what it was they were spraying, and frankly, don’t want to think about it too hard, it being the Arizona desert and all.

And Bill said to me after the game – as he does after every game – we should go to more baseball games this year.

We’ll see.

28Mar2016

Alleluia

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

Well, the Lord is risen, so I baked a ham.

I always kind of wonder how certain foods become synonymous with certain holidays. I understand how lamb became traditional food at this time of year – you know, Passover and all. But ham? I guess I should just thank my lucky stars that we don’t have the Easter Pig visit us each year.

It’s bad enough that there’s an Easter bunny. As my niece Maggie put it the other day, Easter is kind of a silly holiday unless you are a church-goer, or at least a believer. Oh, I know, I know, Easter is based on pagan rituals. But there really is no way around it. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

So really, the Easter Bunny is just another way to get consumers to buy more stuff for our kids – stuff they almost never need.

When I was a kid, we didn’t get Easter presents. We got Easter eggs and chocolate candy. Period. At our house the bunny came during the night and hid our entire basket full of the eggs we had dyed the day before. Not the individual eggs; the whole basket. It took some creative thinking on mom’s – oops, I mean the Easter bunny’s — part. One year my basket was in the clothes dryer downstairs. It took quite some time to find it.

But back to ham for a minute. I like ham, but I don’t love ham. I would never, for example, order a ham sandwich if I went out for lunch. Oh, capicola and provolone sandwich, for sure. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato, you betcha. Italian sausage sub, no brainer. But not a ham sandwich.

And yet, the one time a year that I bake a ham, it tastes so good to me. And then, of course, there are the leftover meals. Ham and navy bean soup. Green beans with ham. But don’t even suggest HAM SALAD. Yuck. Ham should not be a salad. Tuna should be a salad. Eggs should be a salad. Not ham.

To celebrate the risen Lord, Bill and I went to the sunrise Mass at our church – 6 a.m., necessitating a 5 o’clock wake-up call. The church was surprisingly full.

And then we came home and I began my preparation for our Easter celebration, featuring the ham. Each year I make the ham and, some kind of breakfast sausage casserole.

This year I added a bonus. We stopped earlier this week and got tamales – some green chile and some pork – from Old El Paso Tamale Shop in west Mesa. They make some of the best tamales in the East Valley.

We had a houseful as we do each Easter. They come in waves. The early birds were my niece Maggie, her husband Mark, and Austin and Lilly, DECKED OUT for Easter…

Bec showed up soon after with her offerings of coffee cake and chocolate cake. We all toasted the Easter bunny with mimosas! Nothing says alleluia quite like orange juice and champagne. And, by the way, this was no simple chocolate cake…..

Next my brother rolled in, bearing gifts of freshly made donuts and Parker rolls so fresh they were still warm. Nothing says alleluia quite like freshly baked bread. He was followed shortly after by his daughter Brooke.

Later that afternoon, Bec’s son Erik, his wife Josey, and kids Mackenzie and Carter arrived, their second fete of the day. And finally, Dave’s daughter Kacy and her three daughters completed the group.

We set up the little splash pool and the kids had as much fun as if it was a regular Olympic-sized swimming pool. Lots of splashing going on….

We had a wonderful day, and what was left over of the ham went home in many takeaway bags. There will be lots of soup cooking this week in Arizona. Ham and green beans is on my menu.

26Mar2016

Saturday Smile: The High Life

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

From the time she was a toddler, our 9-year-old granddaughter Dagny has liked to climb. In fact, one time when she was under our watch, she was up in what eventually Bill made into the playhouse high above the sandbox in our back yard in Denver. She was reaching to grab the fireman’s pole and missed. Suddenly, down she went, landing hard on her back. Thankfully, she only got the wind knocked out of her and sustained no injuries, serious or otherwise. She has a busy guardian angel.

Her favorite past time is any climbing wall any where. She is fearless….

But here’s what made me smile. This past week, this is where her mother found her doing her homework……

Love that girl!

Have a great weekend.

25Mar2016

Friday Book Whimsy: The Forgotten Room

Posted in Book Reviews by kzmclain

It’s certainly not the first time several authors collaborated to write one book, but I believe it might be the first time I have read a novel written by multiple authors.

The long-awaited The Forgotten Room was authored by three well-known and prolific fiction writers, Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig. The three “W’s”. Not too complicated to figure out how to alphabetize on the cover.

Willig is the author of a number of historical romance novels; White has written somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 novels, most taking place in the Low Country of South Carolina. Beatriz Williams has authored five or six period novels. I recently reviewed Tiny Little Thing, which may be one of my favorite reads of 2016 (though I recognize it’s only March).

I don’t know the back story of how these three authors came to write a novel. Nor do I know how they decided who wrote what. The details have been purposely kept secret.

The Forgotten Room is about three women in three different decades, all united in some way by a ruby necklace and a room in an upper New York City mansion. Olive lives in the late 18^th Century, the daughter of the man who designed the house, but was mysteriously fired and subsequently committed suicide. She becomes a maid for the family living in the house to find out why her father was fired and never compensated for his work. A decade or so later, her daughter Lucy rents a room in the mansion, which in the Roaring Twenties has become a boarding room for women. Her goal is to find out who was really her father. And finally, Lucy’s daughter Kate, a physician, treats patients in the home which has become a hospital for returning war veterans.

All three women own the necklace at some point, and all three women have history in the forgotten room in the mansion.

I wanted to like this book. I expected to like this book. I liked the idea of this book. I just didn’t find myself drawn into the story.

As mentioned earlier, the authors have not revealed how the book was written. They purport that it was written in round robin style as opposed to each author taking charge of one of the characters. I will say that the writing styles were seamless. I couldn’t tell who wrote which chapter.

But I will also tell you that I just didn’t ever grow to care one bit about any of these three women. Their stories were illogical and implausible. I am fully willing to ignore the implausibility that takes place in most romantic stories. This time, I just couldn’t forgive it.

Each author has a novel coming out soon, and I can’t wait to put this one behind me.

Here is a link to the book.

24Mar2016

Thursday Thoughts

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

What Would Wilma Do?
One time, not too long ago, a friend of mine posted something on Facebook that made me laugh and nod. It said I went to Target and only bought the one thing that was on my list, said no one, ever. And isn’t that the truth? Any time I go into Target, I come out with a multitude of things that I wasn’t aware I couldn’t live without prior to going in. My most recent example? I went to Target to buy a potato peeler and came out with a 6 qt. crock pot. What the heck? Well, my old one was, um, dirty. Seriously, the old one had been purchased back in the mid-70s. It worked perfectly fine, but it was the wrong shape. I guess back in those days the only thing crock pots were used for was stews or soups. I wanted to fit my corned beef into the pot and I would have had to fold it over. Which, of course, would have worked, as it has worked for every St. Patrick’s Day since I purchased it in the late 70s. But now I have a shiny new one, and my old one is going to join its crowd of lookalikes at Goodwill.

M is for the Million Things She Gave Me
The other day, Bill was working on the blasted acacia tree in the front yard. You know, the tree with which he is in a constant battle? If it isn’t pods, it’s beebleberries. If it isn’t beebleberries, the pods are back. Anyway, he was trimming the tree (no easy task because in addition to pods and beebleberries, it has thorns). He told me later that he was about to cut back a branch when he noticed some eyes peering at him. There was a mother mockingbird sitting on a nest on that very branch. She didn’t say a word to him, but she didn’t move either. She was going to go down with her baby, no matter the consequences. She’s a mother, after all. I took a photo, but you have to really search to see the bird. Find the nest and then imagine the bird. She’s there, I promise. My photography also didn’t alarm her…..

Midget Model
You all might remember that I have a shop on Etsy in which I sell handmade items. If you don’t remember, it is Nanas Whimsies Shop. Check it out! Anyway, I recently have been making sun hats for toddlers. I asked my niece Kacy if her youngest daughter Kelsie would model one for my shop. Now if this doesn’t sell a hat or two, then I don’t know what the world is coming to….

A Little Something Different
The restaurant at which Bec and Bill and I dined Tuesday night at the Desert Botanical Garden (Gertrude’s) has kind of a unique spin on their food and beverages. Locally-made tequilas. Locally-grown produce and nuts. Interesting flavor combinations using spicy peppers. So I was excited to try their Cactus Cosmo, which used prickly-pear-infused vodka. Not only was it lovely, but it had a unique and absolutely delicious flavor. Well done Gertrude. Or whomever….

Our granddaughter Kaiya is studying the desert in her second grade class right now. In a text I got from her yesterday morning she said, “Nana, I learned that in Arizona they have stick trees. Have you ever seen one?” Of course, I need more information than that, but I suspect she is referring to the ocotillo tree. It is one of my favorite Arizona plants. When dormant, they look absolutely DEAD. And then in the spring, they start sprouting little green leaves. Their big hurrah is right about now when they sprout beautiful orange blossoms. I would love to have an ocotillo tree, but our co-owner (my sister Jen), who doesn’t put her foot down about much, has put her food down about planting an ocotillo tree. “They look like something from out of space.” What do you think?….

Ciao.

23Mar2016

Lighten Up

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

The desert is ablaze in beautiful colors.

March is perhaps the nicest month here in the Arizona desert. It won’t be long, and the temperatures will be hot enough to keep even the heartiest nature lover inside enjoying the cool of air conditioning and television. By that time, we’re back in Denver enjoying the spring and early summer weather.

But in March, the daytime temperatures in the East Valley of Phoenix are warm, yet the nighttime temperatures still cool down to the 50s. The cacti, which to this point seemed dormant, prickly, and somewhat grouchy, start bursting into blooms of bright yellows, pinks, purples and corals. The desert is coming alive!

Because of the blooming blossoms, Bill and I decided to visit the Desert Botanical Garden yesterday. I have mentioned that my sister Bec volunteers as a docent at the Garden, and so she agreed to give us a personal tour. She and I have gone several times in the past, but not since she studied all of the plants the Garden offers. This time she gave us information and interesting tidbits about all of the plants. It pays to have friends in high places.

In addition to wanting to see the flowers in bloom, Bill and I were eager to see a special show being offered until May at the Desert Botanical Garden – Bruce Munro: Sonoran Light. Munro is a British artist who primarily uses light as his artistic medium. The Desert Botanical Garden was bedecked in amazingly beautiful colored light – a sight to behold. Since we had an early dinner, we were able to see the lights go on as the evening got dark.

And speaking of dinner, we had a delicious meal at Gertrude’s, the restaurant at the Garden…..

Bill, Bec, and I enjoyed a yummy dinner on the patio.

Afterwards, we walked around and saw some of the pretty desert flowers…..

We saw Munro’s interesting displays before the sun went down and the lights came on……

This display (and several of the others) is made out of empty two-liter soda bottles. Inside, the artist puts fiber optic lights.

And then, when the lights went on, it was a sight to behold…..

It was interesting to see what can be done with lights and fiber optics. We, by the way, weren’t the only ones to have this idea. The Botanical Gardens was very busy, especially later when it got dark.

There is, of course, no way a photo can be as beautiful as the real thing. One of the most majestic parts of the light show was something quite unexpected. The Desert Botanic Garden is bordered by some of the red-rocky hills plentiful in the valley. One of the hills is filled with lights that twinkled and shone as the day transitioned into night…..

It was a pleasant afternoon and evening. By the way, the light show runs through May 8. Bec’s tours run longer than that!

22Mar2016

Shiplap

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

Today is a good day for a good day…..

People are always talking about binge watching television series. I am not really a binge TV watcher. I watch many series on Netflix in the correct order – Season 1 to the last or most recent season, for example. But it would drive me crazy to sit and watch one program, show after show, season after season, all in a row. I know many people do just that. Not me.

I will watch one, maybe two, in a series, and then move on to something else. I will come back to the next in the series a few days later. For example, right now I’m watching Gilmore Girls, Longmire, Doc Martin, Call the Midwife, and Blue Bloods, but not all in a row.

But I will tell you what program would give me cause to make an exception – Fixer Upper. Unfortunately, there is only one season on Netflix despite the fact that in real time they are on Season 3.

You’re killing me here people at Netflix. I can’t get enough of Chip and Joanna Gaines.

I am not particularly a huge fan of HGTV. Once in a while, if I can find absolutely nothing on cable despite the fact that I get somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 channels, I will tune in to a House Hunters or House Hunters International as background while I crochet. That, in fact, is how I first stumbled on to Fixer Upper. It just happened to be on as I searched desperately for a program that wasn’t Law and Order: SVU or Criminal Minds, both of which you can find any time of the day or night on some channel somewhere.

For those of you who, like me, are unaware of what’s popular with people who live exciting lives, I will fill you in on Fixer Upper.

The program takes place in, of all places, Waco, Texas. In Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna help a family buy a home they can afford (generally something that is in terrible shape) and then help them fix it up to be something perfectly splendid. It’s an interesting concept, but not everyone could make this idea be show-worthy. The Gaines do it because they have what it takes to be interesting. They are funny and charismatic and clever and seemingly so very fond of one another. I could watch the program 12 hours a day, every day of the week.

Now here’s a surprise. Bill really enjoys the show as well. Chip Gaines is so goofy and funny and talented that one can’t help but love him. Joanna plays the straight role perfectly and their chemistry is amazing.

By the end of the show, they have turned a terrible house into something beautiful, and made it look easy.

Don’t get me wrong. Quite frankly, all of the homes end up looking basically the same. That’s because they do the same thing to every home. They tear down all of the walls, making the first floor one big room. They lay hardwood. They put in French doors. They put in a kitchen island. They install crown molding.

And, whenever possible, they use shiplap.

By the way, last spring when my brother Dave and sister-in-law Sami came to Denver to visit us, I talked with Sami about wanting to remodel our kitchen and family room. Any ideas, I asked her.

Her response? Shiplap.

Whatlap?

So Sami attempted to explain shiplap to me. Being entirely uncreative, I simply couldn’t understand what she was talking about. Now I understand because, well, Fixer Upper.

So Bill and I have varying ideas on what we want to do to our Denver home this spring when we return. And I’m pretty sure, now that I understand what it is, it will involve shiplap. In a perfect world, it would also include knocking down some walls, but the world, my friends, is not perfect.

By the way, another thing that Joanna loves are sayings stenciled onto the walls of the home. The quotation that leads off this post was one of my favorites.

Oh, and shiplap.

21Mar2016

Teen Angel

Posted in Whimsies by kzmclain

What is it about grandkids?

This isn’t, by the way, one of those questions I’m going to pose and then spend the rest of the blog giving you the answer. The reality is that I really don’t understand why grandkids are as special as they are to the grandparents of the world. I just know they are. Special, that is. Special in a way that’s totally different than our kids.

Saturday, our eldest granddaughter – eldest grandchild – turned 13. A teenager. That just seems impossible. Because she was the first grandchild – and perhaps because Dave and Jll didn’t realize that if you give birth, they will come – we were there en masse at her birth. Seriously, there were a total of five grandparents, one uncle, and one aunt all there and ready to greet the newest McLain.

March 19, 2003, was significant for a couple of reasons besides the birth of Adelaide Grace.

First, it was the date of the heaviest snowstorm to hit Denver since 1913. A total of 31.8 inches of snow fell overnight, beginning the afternoon of March 18. Here is a picture we took from our front yard…..

Dave called us around 10 o’clock in the morning to tell us that Jll was in labor and they were heading for the hospital. We immediately began digging out our car. Or trying to dig it out. It turned out to be an impossible task to get out of our driveway, even with four-wheel drive. We learned later that, perhaps due to the change in the barometric pressure, laboring women were arriving at the hospital in droves. Because of the snow, some were literally being brought in on toboggans. But Dave was able to get Jll to the hospital without either a toboggan or a fire truck. His Land Rover successfully made the trip.

And meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were trying to dig out. Finally, Allen – driving that self-same Land Rover – came back to pick us up and take us to the hospital. All of us.

We were actually in the room with the parents-to-be all day long, until Jll was ready to give birth. At that point, the most important people – the parents-to-be and the medical staff – asked us to retire to the waiting room. There we were, seven people pacing as one. Finally, we got the word. Addie was born! Ten fingers, ten toes.

Here’s the other significant event that transpired on March 19, 2003. As we were racing out of the waiting room to head to see Addie, I glanced up at the television screen. President George W. Bush was announcing to the world that the United States had dropped the first bombs on Baghdad and the War in Iraq had begun. President Barack Obama began pulling troops from Iraq when Addie was 8.

Addie was a pretty baby, and is still spectacularly beautiful as you can see (and has better hair)…..

All of our grandkids are special, but when you only have one, he or she is liable to get a bit of extra attention. I remember one particular day when she was still a baby. I was shopping for clothes at Macy’s. In fact, I was in the dressing room nearly nekked when my cell phone rang. It was Bill.

“Jll is here with Addie,” he told me.

“Don’t let her leave,” I shouted, already putting on my pants. I finished dressing in record time and raced home in time to see our little grandbaby. It’s funny when I think about it, because they lived not far from us at the time and I probably could have stopped over any time of any day. But I wasn’t going to miss a visit with our special little girl.

And she is special. She was and is loved by many. Here she is with her granddads….

Papa Tim plays with baby Addie. Papa Bill and Addie relax together. Last summer, Addie played catch with Papa.

She is – and always has been – a great student….

Very first day of school, left. First day of 7th grade, right.

She stays busy with activities outside of school. While, as you see, it began on her tricycle, soft ball is now among her sports….

And swimming…..

And much to Nana’s delight, she has always liked food and cooking….

So happy birthday to our eldest grandchild. She is one in a million.

Nana's Whimsies

Musings of a Baby Boomer….

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Thursday Thoughts

Family Cooking Ties

Take Me Out to Spring Training

Alleluia

Saturday Smile: The High Life

Friday Book Whimsy: The Forgotten Room

Thursday Thoughts

Lighten Up

Shiplap

Teen Angel