It was time for me to put my 'daughter' hat to the side a bit and wear my 'mother / grandmother' hat for a while. Our middle child, Andie, had surgery. She needed to be down for about a week. I left Wednesday, February 4th, to go to LaGrange to see if I could help. It felt a little strange to pack for a 5-day trip to LaGrange. Usually it is no more than an overnight event and one little bag with both our things in it is fine. This time I filled a suitcase. Of course, it is winter and winter clothes take more room in a suitcase. I also took Institute materials to study, a crochet project to work on, my ukulele in case I had some time to practice and my lap top to work on pictures and things. All that for one person. Geez!! I used everything I took so it really wasn't a bad things. Just lots of stuff for one person.
Andie's surgery was Wednesday morning. Michael, her hubby, would be with her. I was to cover the kids bases that afternoon after school and in the evening. I arrived in LaGrange in time to unload my car and put my stuff away for the 5 days. Then I found the car seats for the Mini's and got them in my car. I had just a few minutes left over before I needed to be at the kids school.
Hayden has decided to participate in basketball. He has never really played basketball before. There are several issues in Hayden's life meaning athletics will not be his strong-suit. This is not a problem for us. He took up running for a couple of years now and he is really good at that. But playing basketball, baseball and/or football has not been on the radar. Andie sent a cute eMail to me telling me he signed up for basketball. She assured me I read that right, basketball is what Hayden wanted to play. He was on a team with their school and would have a game Wednesday afternoon about the time Andie and Michael were to get home from the surgery. I would cover the family attending Hayden's basketball game for them.
The school has 8 teams comprised of 4th and 5th graders. Four teams play on Wednesday afternoons and four teams play on Thursday afternoon. The games are made up of four 5 minute quarters. Each team is divided into two groups. The first group plays the first quarter, the 2nd group plays the 2nd quarter. The cheerleaders do a big cheer at the break. The 1st group plays the 3rd quarter and the 2nd group plays the 4th quarter. Everyone gets to play. Hayden tells me there are a couple of kids on each of the 8 teams that are really, really good and they get to play all the game. So you watch two teams play a 20 minute game and then the next two teams play their 20 minutes game. Hayden's team wore blue t-shirts with the name Kentucky on the back. This day his team played Wichita State in the yellow t-shirts. Hayden's team would win their game.
These are pictures of my Hayden Boy playing basketball. Hayden is at the far left of the first picture giving me a thumbs up. In the second picture he is sizing up the kid he is supposed to guard. The third picture is one of the times he was lined up at the free throw line. And, the fourth picture is my final thumbs up at the end of his game. It was totally fun to watch him run up and down the court. I was extremely proud of him for choosing to play.
Michael surprised us and came to the game. He got Andie home and tucked in for a nap. Then she insisted he go to the school and see if he could catch some off Hayden's game. Fortunately, the first two teams played their 20 minute game first. Michael got there for Hayden's game. The kids were so happy to see their dad.
The kids and I went back to the house after the games to be with Andie until Michael finished picking up prescriptions for Andie. Then I took the Mini's to Dairy Queen for dinner.
They ate really well and were very well behaved. I assured them dessert would happen if they ate well. They saw a picture of an Oreo Brownie Sundae when we ordered our food. They were both sure that was going to be their dessert. Of course, after eating they would be way too full for that big a dessert. Hayden educated me with the knowledge they each have two stomachs. One contains their dinner and it can get very full. The other is for their desserts and there is always room in it for dessert!!! Who can argue with that logic?? I assured them I had no problems purchasing that big of a dessert IF they were going to eat the entire thing. Hmmmmm...Hayden realized even his 'dessert stomach' didn't have room for that so he asked if they would just sell me a brownie for him. I told him I would ask. Bailey was sure she could eat the entire thing. I told her I would order one with two spoons and she and I would share her ice cream dessert. That was okay with Bailey. The kind people at Dairy Queen did sell me just a brownie for Hayden. We had our desserts and headed back to the house. The front was moving in, lots of clouds and all the roads had been treated for ice and snow.
Wednesday night Hayden came to my room and gave me two books to read. He shares lots of what he is reading with me and I read it as well. He got these two books at a book fair. They were free to him. He said they were both 'excellent'. Wednesday evening I started reading and made it through 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' by Barbara Robinson. It was an 'excellent' read. Finished it Wednesday evening before going to sleep. I managed to read the second book 'Fourth Grade Rats' by Jerry Spinelli on Thursday. Hayden was very impressed when I returned the books to him. He put them away and then showed up with two more books for me to read!!! Yike!! These two books are by Gordon Korman and are the first two in a series named "On the Run". I made it through the first one of these book and brought the second one home to read. I believe Hayden said there are six in this series so I see four more of these books in my future.
The wind howled all night Wednesday night. We awoke to a coating of snow but the streets were clear, thanks to the treating of them the night before, so the Mini's did not get a snow day from school. Michael stayed home Thursday as Hayden has a well-checkup at his doctor in the morning. Andie was up for a good bit of the morning. She went to take a nap after Michael got home. I took that opportunity to go to my room and play on the ukulele for a while. It was great fun. That is my first attempt and I totally enjoyed it. My only dilemma is that, for once, I have fingernails. Usually that doesn't happen in the winter. With the cold they get brittle and break very easily. Longer fingernails can really get in the way playing a guitar and my ukulele is smaller than that. I decided to leave them a little longer because I'm sure they will break sooner or later.
I picked the kids up from school Thursday. Hayden took me into the hall next to the cafeteria and showed me the posting on the door of the room where music and art is taught. Hayden is participating in the ACT program again. This time he gets a speaking part. He is pointing to the character he will play in the musical 'Joust'. He will be Sir Dancealott.
Friday Michael got the kids off to school in the morning. I got my shower in preparation for an outing. I would go to the drug store and pick up Hayden's prescription. Then I to McDonald's to get Happy Meals for the Mini's. I was going to the school to have lunch with my Mini's. It would also be the day Bailey could give out treats to her classmates to celebrate her birthday. Michael purchased two boxes of individually wrapped packages of Skittles. I carried two Happy Meals and two boxes of Skittles to the office of the Mini's school. The treats were approved. I signed in and got my badge. Then I went to the hallway to wait for Bailey to arrive with her class. As I sat there with my Happy Meals and Skittles on the bench beside me, I attracted a lot of attention from the little kids as their classes made their way to the cafeteria. A lot of longing looks at those neat foods.
Bailey invited a friend to eat with her. Hayden opted to just have his lunch with Gramma.
Andie had some delicious soup in her freezer which we had for dinner. I got the recipe because this was excellent soup. We had soup and big biscuits. Yummy.
During the evening I was crocheting on an afghan I started in the afternoon. Bailey watched and then came over and said, "Ma, would you teach me to crochet." I told her I would be happy to do that. She found some yarn Andie had and I gave her a crochet hook I had. She made a little bit of a chain. Such a tender moment. So happy when the kids want to learn these things that I can teach them. Love sharing that time with them.
Saturday morning Bailey had a Girl Scout event to attend called 'Thinking Day'. Bailey is a Brownie Scout now. The Girl Scout troops in the area can set up a booth that fits the theme for the day. This year the theme was Weddings around the World. Each troop had a country for which they displayed wedding traditions. Each girl attending was given a passport book. After they went to each booth, they had their passport book stamped for that country. The event began in the gym with a parade of the countries and instructions on how the day would be handled. The Girl Scouts manning booths were dismissed from the gym first to get to their booths. Then the rest of the girls were dismissed to visit the booths of their choice. The booths were divided between two rooms; the cafeteria and the multipurpose room. Bailey's troop went to the multipurpose room first. Then to the cafeteria. The first picture is of Bailey in her Swedish headband sipping on her honey straw from Egypt. The second picture is Bailey in her lei from Fiji with her cheek painted from Canada and her hand painted from India. The last picture is her walking on pretend hot coals from Fiji. She had a great time and I found it all fascinating. Michael sent her with a roll of quarters. All the activities at each booth cost 25 cents or 50 cents. The money is used to support something in Girl Scouts. Can't remember what. Lots of fun.
Saturday I took the Mini's to Steve-O's for a pizza dinner. Michael had a work event to attend. The kids and I took dinner home to Andie.
Saturday evening I stayed up till midnight to finish the afghan I started the day before. When Bailey saw me working on it Friday evening she asked me who it was for. I told her I just wanted one in my closet in case someone had a baby and then I would have a blanket ready. She seemed satisfied with that understanding. Saturday, we got talking about her teacher, Ms. Coomer. Ms. Coomer is pregnant with her second child. Bailey told me it was going to be a boy and he was going to be named Levi. Then she looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said, "You could give the blanket to Ms. Coomer for baby Levi." I was so touched by her desire to give her teacher something. Ms. Coomer taught Hayden while he was dealing with so much until the diagnosis was made of ASD. Ms. Coomer loved him through all those difficulties. Now she has ADHD Bailey and is loving her through this as well. I finished that baby blanket and folded it neatly. Sunday morning, I took it downstairs to Bailey and hugged my little cherub. Then I explained how happy it made me that she thought of others and wanted to help them and make them happy. Because of that I was giving her the baby afghan to give to Ms. Coomer. She was so happy. Love those moments.
Sunday morning I was the second person downstairs. Bailey was the first. This was her birthday. She turned 8 years old. This was my youngest grandmonsters greeting Sunday morning.
Andie and I prepared the pancake batter the night before. These are made with a yellow cake mix. Not a thing good for your diet in these babies. They are topped with a powdered sugar glaze which Andie had me mix up with left over cream. Andie taught me how to fashion hearts out of bacon. Bailey would receive a stack of 8 pancakes, one pancake for each year of her little life.
I headed home about 12:30pm. It was a fun 5 days with the Marx branch of our family tree. Even though Andie had surgery, we still enjoyed some time together, I got a Mini fix, read 3 books, crocheted an afghan, played my ukulele and the list goes on. Good visit.
Papa was found in good shape. He was happy for the company. We visited for about an hour. Then I met Claude for a nice dinner and a catch-up on life. We both headed to Sadieville for a nice evening together.
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