Thoughts I've Been Thinking.

No photos this time. Just thoughts, lots of thoughts. I've been watching some interesting shows lately. I have a DVR and can watch any number of shows anytime. Last night I watched a couple of back shows from "Oprah." One was about overweight teens. Having been an overweight teen I felt sorry for them and knew how they felt but I added to it my perspective of being an adult. I know what teenage angst is like. These poor kids thought their only angst was being overweight but there are so many kids, not overweight, that feel the same as them. Their angst is about being a teenager. Most teenagers I knew were unhappy with something: parents, hair, grades, teachers, friends, clothes, feet, possessions, bikes, you name it.

I think it is about time. We don't take the time to really be present with our children. Our society and culture, as it exists, is on the fast-track to failure. We push ourselves and our kids to achieve. How big and how much and how fast can we get it. So many kids, young kids, are pushed to do soccer, gymnastics, dance class, sport teams, academics, so they can achieve and get. We tell our kids to "buck up" and get over it. It seems that my generation and the ones that are following are getting kids who burn out young, are depressed and obsessed and just don't feel good about who they are intrinsically. They need to be exactly like everyone else (or better) to be happy. When they are not like everyone else, when they don't have the same things or look the same they are really unhappy. Hmmm... That's the teenage way.

Moving Day - Part I

It was sooooooo cold the day Offspring #1 decided to move her furniture into the storage. Her and Big Bry are selling their land in the woods and moving into town. It seems she misses the shopping. We were all prepared to help them move but when we woke up that Sunday it was blowing like the bejeezus! The wind was gusting up to 60 mph and trees were falling all over the place. We actually lost our electricity and we don't even know which tree knocked it out. I took pictures of all the downed trees and power lines but they only looked like we were walking in the woods somewhere.


So anyway, I wasn't blowing up where Offspring #1 lives so they didn't know what we were talking about and went to move anyway. Extremo didn't want to travel over the big bridge with his van full of stuff inside and out so we just met them at the storage and helped them unload. My job was to watch Grandson #2. Extremo & Big Bry moved all the heavy stuff.

Offspring #1 enlisted the help of her good friend, who just happened to have a van. How fortuitous. Did I say it was cold? It was cold.

Offspring #1 is very happy. She is moving to the city and getting a house close to Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad are happy too. Don't worry though this is only moving day part 1. Part 2 is going to be much harder...

Bozo Extremo

The first time I saw Extremo Sunday morning this is what he looked like.

Now I had been up since 7:30am, on my computer. Offspring #1 and her family spent the night after a long day traveling to the distant, rainy, foggy mountains to see my sister. Big Bry and I had been in the computer room for a couple of hours quietly working on the computers. We weren't bothering anybody. Around 10:00am Offspring #1 came in bringing my precious Grandson #2. I was holding and loving him, he was so warm and cuddly, when in walked his Grandpa Extremo, looking like this. I suppose you have to leave that stuff on until in softens the beard so men can shave. Extremo must have thought he had on some kind of costume because he began acting really goofy. The baby loved it because he loves his grandpa. Then the dark transistion began...


Next he put on a red bozo wig he had lying around. One of his clients gave this to him. I wish they wouldn't encourage him. He ran around like this for awhile and then took it to the next level...

Here is the final Extremo. He was in his element and fully manic.

Extremo is enamored of Beyonce's new video "Single Ladies" and the dangerous part is he claims he is an excellent dancer. So crazy me challenged him to do the dance and let me tape it.... duh... that was a no brainer, of course he would.

People always ask me what it's like living with this clown. All I can say is watch this video.

Daddy & Mommy & Baby makes three!

Aloha Ohana, Well Grandson #2 is now 5 months old and as it turns out he is a pretty happy boy. He laughs, he coos, he gurgles. He is starting to know when we take something away that is making him happy and he cries, not sad cries, mad cries. Not to say that he is one dimensional because he has lots of moods...


Here he is in a pensive mood. I don't know what he is thinking or even what he is doing but it sure looks like he has some practice at it.

He even wails and cries and gets mad if you don't take care of him right away, imagine that, a baby with no patience! Even with all his favorite toys sometimes he is just not happy.

But sometimes he is so happy I could just shoot myself! He is so darn cute. Here he is in his "Bumbo." It is a little soft rubber seat that you put babies in so they can sit up by themselves. His mommy puts him in it to feed him. By the way, he just started eating rice cereal last week. It is soooooo yummy he is laughing.

He is also happy that he gets to wear his daddy's hat! It is so easy to please babies.

He's not always happy just because he is with Daddy and Mommy. Daddy takes away Mommy's attention and he has to wait his turn.

But then Mommy comes back and all is right with the world. Ah, it is good being a baby. You get rice cereal, and jumping swings, and yummy milk, and fun toys, and loves, and kisses, and Mommy.

The Way Back Home

It was a great trip to Fallon for Christmas. Lots of family, food and fun. It was bad news for Big Bry to find out his Dad had fallen and broken a hip and his family was gathering in Utah to be with him. Big Bry left right after Christmas dinner. Offspring #1 stayed with us in Fallon for a few days until she got a call from Big Bry and she caught a plane to be with him and his family in Utah.

So that left four of us in Fallon to get back in one car with all the Christmas presents and luggage. Right, yeah? No.

It was a pretty tight squeeze for 3 men all 6ft. tall and up. But the trip was good. The weather was great, we made good time, we had great conversation and we stopped in Mt. Shasta for dinner. Somewhere in almost every trip we take we stop at a Black Bear Diner and this trip was no exception.

We had to take pictures with the bear and give thanks and gratitude for our good fortunes.

Christmas Morning

This is Grandson #2's first Christmas. Of course he has a brain of Einsteinian proportions and is intelligent beyond his 4 1/2 months of life experience. So of course he is intrigued by every present he received (this means he stuck every single one into his little baby mouth!)

Extremo, also having a brain of Einsteinian proportions, also stuck all of his presents in his mouth.

Big Bry was so happy with his present that he laughed his head off!

And a good time was had by all. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Over the River and Through the Snow

So we all got up early on December 22nd and tried to pack up the cars. We were bound and determined to get to Fallon for Christmas if we had to go 10 miles and hour! Little did we know how prophetic that was going to be.

Extremo had broken the chains for Offspring #3's car the night before and Big Bry got up at first light and went to Les Scwab to get a new pair. Then he came home and started to pack his Tundra for the long trip.

We had to forge a path in the snow between the house and the cars. I made Offspring #3 stand right next to the drift of snow so I could document it for posterity.

Luckily, the men had packed down the snow and shoveled the driveway the day before. This made it a little easier for us to get to the cars. If you look behind the "Never, Never Van" you will see my car and if you look at the tires you will see just how deep the snow was. We were most worried about getting off our street. Offspring #3 drives a Cadillac Coupe de Ville and it rides low to the ground. With all the snow and ice we thought we might lose a muffler or worse.

All chained up we proceeded down the road. Most folks were on foot that day. The snow was deep and icy and slidey (is that a word?) We got about 1/2 mile down the road and the chains were really starting to make a terrible noise. Now I have been in chained cars many times and they are indeed noisy but not like this. A continuous thump said something was hitting inside the wheelwell and it didn't sound good. We stopped and took a look and it seemed okay. When we took off again the thumping got worse, sort of a whacking now. Big Bry pulled up next to us and took a look as we drove and sure enough he saw something amiss. We decided to take the chains off and go slow. Well slow turned into 5 hours to Salem, 45 miles away. It was slow going, lots of dumb drivers doing dumb things and icy roads. After that experience we were more than happy to take a short break outside of Salem before hitting the road again.

Once we passed Albany the roads cleared up and it was smooth sailing. We reached Medford at 5pm and took a nice leisurly dinner break. By the time we hit the road again it was 7:00 and we really didn't want to face Mt. Shasta in the dark. We decided to find a place to spend the night. We had already been on the road for 10 1/2 hours and it would be a few more before we stopped.

We finally stopped at the Motel 6 in Weed. Here is the baby relaxing. Whew! It was long day for him sitting in his carseat. Lucky he had his doggie feet pajamas on to entertain himself with.

Here he is relaxing even more. He loves naked time. His feet are his really most favorite playthings.

We got up the next morning to snow and ice on the roads. We thought it would be fine but as we turned east to Susanville we hit heavy snow. The roads were ice and a bit slippery so we decided to put the chains on the Cadillac.

After all these years, Extremo is getting pretty good at it.

It was cold and snowy but we all stayed cozy in the cars.

I wanted to sit in the back seat but after my first attempt to get in resulted in me laying face down in a pile of pillows, LC graciously offered to bunk out back there.

Here we are at the very last rest stop before Susanville. We dress for comfort on the long trip to Nevada. Actually I don't think I got out of my pajamas for 3 days before and 2 days during the trip.

So, why were we so all fired up to go to Nevada, the old homestead? Whatever do we do when we are there? Well, first of all we relax. You know since we are not home we don't have to worry about washing clothes, getting the roof cleaned, scraping the mildew off the walk, getting the dog cleaned and all those other life chores that have to be done. In Fallon we sit and have a margarita or two or six!

We go leisurely shopping the night after the rush of the day after Christmas.
We play games with the family.

And we watch the children grow. It was all worth it.