Wednesday, January 29, 2014

January 27 - 31, 2014 - AZ and CA

Wednesday, January 29.  I had nothing that had to be done on Monday but I managed to stay busy somehow.  Jan invited me for dinner and we had a delicious salad, pasta with spinach and portobella mushrooms in the sauce and lots of good conversation.

I got to thinking that I'm going to have lots of kid conversation once I get back to San Francisco, so I called some friends to invite them to happy hour at my house last night.  We had a nice group of about 15 gathered on the patio and had drinks and lots of yummy appetizers and especially, lots of good conversation.  Parties around here happen early in the evening and are all done by about 7 pm.  I was cleaning up the kitchen at 7:20.  Pat and Roger brought Louie and we got so many compliments on what well behaved dogs we had.  It was fun and I'm going to miss my good friends and will look forward to hanging out with all of them again soon.

Just as I was waking up this morning, I got a text telling me that Randy and Ron's step-father, Art Shackelton passed away during the night.  Now there is a man that I have total respect for - he set the example of just plain being a good man his whole life.  With 7 children of their own, he and his wife, Barb, took in my 2 brothers as foster children and raised them as their own.  They worked weekends and holidays as a family to build a beautiful log home on the Wisconsin River near Mazomanie.  Barb was fascinated with history and they were both involved in the local historical society and her yard was filled with native wildflowers.  She passed away in 1998.  After Art retired from the State Patrol, he spent his retirement years traveling in a motorhome and then traveling by plane to Europe and around the US.  I always loved visiting with both of them and their whole family.  Rest in Peace, dear Art - and thanks for all you have done for my siblings through the years. 

Other than having to leave the house to get a haircut this morning, I spent the day getting ready for my trip - doing laundry, cleaning out the fridge, giving Frisco a bath, and taking him for a nice, long walk.  I'm going to miss him and so appreciate that Pat and Rog are willing to stay here and keep him for the next 6 weeks. 

Thursday, January 30.  My morning has been nonstop, as I didn't even start packing my bag until after I had my coffee.  In spite of that, just the act of setting things out let Frisco know that something was up.  Poor guy.  I feel bad about leaving him and am so thankful that Pat and Rog are willing to keep him for me.  He is in good hands and has his buddy, Louie to hang out with.

Connie took me to the airport and I have a couple of hours to wait for my flight.  I'm getting excited now to see family again and to see how those granddaughters have changed in the last 6 weeks.

All went well and Jill was there to pick me up at the airport.  This is the first time that I have flown Southwest and to San Francisco in a long time as  the last flights have been to Oakland on Allegiant.  

And yes, those babies have changed - they are bigger (but still tiny), are smiley and both quite vocal and don't require the personal touch of being held as much as they did.  They were wearing outfits that I gave them.  Charlotte came right to me when she woke from her nap, a little shy, but happy to see me.   She liked the book that I brought her about butterflies - I know this because we had to read it over and over again.  When bath time came around, she wanted me to "do it all" - and that meant bath, getting pjs on, brushing teeth while watching educational videos, and bedtime stories.  She's such a sweetie!

Lois fixed a nice dinner and we had a glass a of wine and some great catching up after the kids were all down in bed.  My days are going to be filled with activity again and I'm hoping that I don't have too much trouble adjusting to it.

Friday, January 31.  Today was a good example of what a day with the twins will be like.  And it kind of goes like this:
     Ben brings out a baby who is fed and changed, then hops in the shower
     Jill brings out the other baby
     Charlotte wakes up and is ready for breakfast
     Jill nurses the babies and they go down for a nap
     Grandma takes Charlotte to daycare
     Jill gets ready for work
     Babies wake up and are changed and fed, have playtime
     Babies take a nap
     Babies wake up, are changed and fed, have playtime
     Babies start their fussy time - the witching hour is between 4 and 6 when they want to be held - 
          Kind of hard when there is only one person, the swings come in real handy then
     Ben and Charlotte get home
     Ben gets twins ready for bed
     Grandma feeds Charlotte, has a little playtime, then bath, pjs, tooth brushing, story time, bedtime
     Ben and Grandma have dinner 
     Jill gets home
     We all collapse

I will only be with the twins by myself on 2 days of the week.  The rest of the time, either Ben and Jill are home too.