Randomness

It's been suggested to me lately that I might want to write something here every once in a while so they would know what was going on in my life.  Unfortunately, there's nothing much worth writing about, but that won't stop me from jabbering on.   It's on you, Debby!

This is about the way I've felt this week.  Just let me sleep!  Layla might like to sleep, but she doesn't care if anyone else does or not.  Elise closes her out every night, and she sits in front of her door or brings her toy gifts to the door.  As a last resort, she will come sleep with me.  My room doesn't have 15 new plants in it like Elise's does for her to chew and destroy, so it's kind of boring.

She had a friend to quit work this week and asked Elise to take all her plants home because she didn't have room for them.  They're beautiful, and, although she's shared some for the living room, there are still a lot of them and a big temptation for a kitty.

I cleaned out my walk-in closet this week and stole some drawers from the sewing room.  I think Layla was more excited than I was about a new place to hide things.

I do have the playroom in my room, so she visits me some to find a new toy to play with.  I just found her with this horse.

Katherine got sick at school today, and Emily went to bring her home early.  When Graysen got out of school, we walked over to their house.  I hardly spend time on Steller Way any more, and it was nice with a lot of book reading and game playing.  

I may be the only person over 6 not to know how to play Connect Four, but I have never played it.  Since the box suggested players be 6 and over, I didn't bother learing how to play and teaching it to these two.  They still had a lot of fun dropping the pieces in the slots and exclaiming over who "won."  Then they used the pieces as hockey pucks before I put it up.

I wanted a picture before I walked home, but this is all I got.

Graysen holding an amiguru bunny I made her before she was born.  It just has one eye, and we tried to put another one on yesterday, but I've got to figure it out first.  It's been one-eyed for quite some time though, so she doesn't mind.  The blanket is one I made for Elise and Emily in the early '80s to go in a cradle their Grandaddy Windham made for them.

Katherine couldn't bother to look up from her "studying."

We had a rather interesting music time earlier.  They were winding up the old toy clock Emily got for her second Christmas that is still cranking out the tune, ending with:  It stopped.  Short.  Never to go again.  When the old man died.  I didn't take a picture, but it's this one - but a little more battered.

I could remember most of the words, but I was curious about the whole song, so I searched for it on YouTube.  That got both of them up on my lap, and we listened to it.  It was actually pretty sad after hearing several verses of it - the clock that was purchased on the first day of the grandfather's life and stopped working the day he died.  There was silence when it was over, and then Graysen's only comment:  "That was a smart clock."

They wanted the next song that came up, so I obliged, but we were on some morbid play list or something.  It was Oh My Darling Clementine.  They knew the song, but had never seen it in animated version, so they watched it very closely.  I thought it might bother them that a little girl drowned, but they were disappointed when it didn't show her under water.  Oh, well.

I allowed one more song, and it was She'll be Coming Round the Mountain.  What could be wrong with that one?  They especially loved the verse about, "She'll have to sleep with Grandma when she comes."  Then when it came to the verse about killing the old red rooster, they wondered why.  It was not my day for explaining things away.  I made light of killing chickens to eat - as much as I could - but they took it well and then Graysen brought up lobsters and cows and fish.  Katherine had been pretty quiet, but all of a sudden she popped her head up with her little flushed cheeks and said, "But, Mimi, do people eat kitties too?"

As I said, a pretty dull week.  I finally got Geico to come around and allow my car to be repaired - or looked at and inspected.  I might not repair it since it's so old and I'm getting another one soon.  It was a long battle, getting the at-fault driver to answer the insurance company's requests, but I trapped him with a text.  I asked him why he was avoiding the insurance company, and he texted back that he was sorry, he thought his dad was taking care of that.  And that was enough proof that he had hit me, so we sent a screenshot of that conversation to Geico, and they stopped fighting the next day.  I'm so ready to get that over with.  I am getting sentimental about my old car though.  I got it new in 2005, my very first new car just for me.  I didn't know I wanted an SUV, but once I drove it, I really did like it, and it's been perfect for hauling around dogs and mulch and funiture and lately kiddos.  It's taken us across the country many times, making a lot of good memories.  It hasn't given me a bit of trouble all these years until last year when it developed some quirk that no one seems to be able to diagnose.  It heals itself and then starts again, but I can't take any more chances with it or throw any more money away on someone's guesses. 

I'm happy that Kathy has overcome double pneumonia and several days in the hospital to get back home again  - as was a certain little black and white dog.  And a husband.

We start our round of birthdays next week with Emily, then Alan, then Debby's Sophia, and then Graysen.  With Alan squeezed in there in the middle, I usually am late (or worse) with his birthday greetings, but he's used to it.  Emily's will be downplayed, (she hopes); Sophia's will be as exciting as only a baby's first birthday can be; and Graysen will have a unicorn/fairy/mermaid/princess party.  These years have passed too fast.  I'm not ready for a 6-year-old.  I should have plenty of pictures of these celebrations - at least some of them.

We've had beautiful blue skies today, and I just missed a gorgeous picture as I walked home this afternoon because my phone was dead.  Just imagine it:  Bright blue sky, mountain peaks with snow on top, and a ring of white clouds just below the peak. Breathtaking.  I need a new phone.