Enjoying Florida

Here are some favorite pictures from the last few days.

On the left you can see Tom, Matthew and me. We all went out to a Chinese restaurant one evening.









Here's Kelly and her mom Carol the same evening.















Winter Park has an excellent farmer's market open on Saturdays. Matthew found it very relaxing.



















Kelly's parents have a spool which is a combination pool and spa. Matthew loves going in the warm swirling water. He loves it so much he squeals with excitement.






















The big event occurred Sunday when Matthew was baptized at the same church in Winter Park where his parents were married. Here is our group photo including Matthew, his parents, and all his grandparents. He was very contented during his baptism. The minister presented him to the church, walking down the aisle and showing him to everyone in the congregation. Matthew was so happy and well behaved on this special occasion.








This is my favorite picture of Tom, Kelly, and Matthew.

Greetings from Orlando

We are spending a few days in Orlando because Sunday is Matthew's baptism. The weather is warm and mild. Tom is getting in lots of golf. I'm enjoying lots of grandmothering time with Matthew. Here is Tom on the golf course, getting in a moment in the sun with his son.

Here are the two grandmothers with our Little Guy!









Here's Kelly's father carving the turkey on Thanksgiving Day.














We all enjoyed decorating ourselves for the holiday. Here are Tom, Kelly, and Matthew, a pilgrim couple with their Little Guy


























We saw an egret walking on a nearby yard. It was so slender and beautiful---at first I didn't believe my eyes.

Spoiled

Spoiled. That's me. My dishwasher died yesterday, a slow lingering death marked by stops and starts, screwdrivers and wrenches, hope and defeat. With a sink full of dirty dishes requiring attention, I headed for Walmart to get supplies for hand washing, a drying rack and drainer, preparing to once again, after a spoiled rotten life of automatic dishwashing for the past 37 years. I was feeling just a little sorry for myself, wondering how I would cope with this discomfort.
Then this evening my hands were in the warm soapy water surrounded by dirty dishes when I experienced a kind of revelation. This was not half bad. The warm water on my cold hands felt really good. It came to me that dishwashing is a finite task with a beginning and end, a household chore, unlike some others, that I can check off as completed at some point, giving a satisfying sense of accomplishment. At the moment that I am handwashing dishes, probably millions of people in all kinds of settings are doing the same thing. It is a time to think about this shared task.
I realize that I am the first generation of women with automatic dishwashers. My mother and all the generations preceding never had such an appliance. In the world today what percentage of the world's people have any kind of modern appliance or, for that matter, clean running water? Hot water that doesn't have to be carried long distances by hand? How lucky I am! A broken dishwasher is a blessing, reminding me what a lucky life I have. Sometimes I need these reminders. Otherwise I remain Spoiled.

Here I am in front of my computer screen, with a picture taken by my new webcam attached to the top of the monitor. Recently thanks to Kelly I've begun to use Skype to keep in touch with family members. Today on Skype I read a book to Scarlett (who is in Chicago); I could show her the pictures in the book and she could listen to me reading it. This evening I saw baby Mathew (in New Jersey) as he was trying to go to sleep in his crib.

How greatly the world has changed in my lifetime. We got our first home telephone when I was five years old. The phone number had just 4 digits and I still remember it! There was a "party line" which we shared with some of the neighbors. One day when I was seven years old we received our first television set. Programs were in black and white and the reception was not very clear.

Now we all have cell phones, computers, and ipods. I can see and talk to my grandchildren living in other parts of the country in a video conference. How wonderful this is! And it causes me to wonder what the future holds and what new marvels are out there.

Last Weekend
We went to Cathy and Sasha's house to spend some time with our granddaughter Scarlett. Here are some pictures of our activities. We went to the park both Friday and Saturday. Scarlett is very cautious about playing on the swings and slides so I played on them with her. Being a grandmother gives me a chance to play like a child again.


















Here is Scarlett modeling her Halloween costume, Dorthy the Dinosaur for us.






It was a lovely sunny weekend for early November. We needed our jackets and sweaters but it was very nice to be outside.

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Halloween Visitors

Here are some trick or treaters who came to my door on Halloween night. I love their costumes!

The Cookie Bakers

I have a good helper when I bake cookies. Gabe shapes the cookie and then places it on the cookie sheet. Sometimes he eats a chocolate chip. We have fun!

Some Pictures from Last Weekend

Steve, Marta, and Gabriel came last weekend. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and Gabriel and I baked cookies.


Gabe enjoys potstickers. He's fairly adept with chopsticks too!

















Steve and Gabriel before our dinner was served.











Here's Marta!












This is Beef and Peapods. So good!

5 Months

Matthew was 5 months old on October 12. Isn't he cute?
More Matthew pictures can be seen here.

Last weekend we went to Cathy and Sasha's house. Scarlett was very happy to see us and enjoyed having attention from two grandmothers. Sasha's mother has been visiting for a month, returning to Korea on Monday. She is a lovely gracious lady so it was lovely to see her again. Saturday we took Scarlett to the park.The day was cloudy but warm so we had a good walk in the park together plus lunch and shopping.




Saturday evening Sasha's mother prepared a wonderful Korean dinner. Tony and I enjoyed it so much, continuing to eat after everyone else had finished. Tony's favorite was the bolgogi, thin sliced beef cooked with vegetables and a little spicy sauce. So good!






On the way home we stopped at Steve and Marta's house. We're always so happy to see Gabriel. My grandchildren are so much fun.














Marta made a wonderful lunch and we had a great time together.

Here are a couple of pictures taken last week in our living room.

Our Weekend

We've been having a heat wave with temperatures that I don't recall seeing at this time of the year. A little time at Lake Michigan sounded good so we drove to Manistee on Saturday. The beach there was beautiful and there were very few people. We enjoyed walking along the beach and out onto the long piers jutting out into the lake.



Manistee is a quiet little town with the beautiful addition of a wonderful lake front park. So many of the cities on Lake Michigan, such as St. Joseph where Steve, Marta, and Gabriel live, have beautiful lake front parks.







Please notice Tony standing on the pier on the left. The structure that is built there is to allow access to the lighthouse in the winter. The pier is ice covered and dangerous on a cold snowy day.



Ludington is a slightly busier town with more people on the beach on Sunday. It was such a perfect sunny day. Children were playing in the water. I took off my shoes to wade for a little while. The water was cool but comfortable. It was a pleasure to spend some time on the beach before winter comes. Our cool down will come on Wednesday if predictions are correct.

Birthday Girl

Today is my daughter Cathy's birthday. Days have gone by and the little children I used to know are adults. Now my daughter is a mother herself. How quickly the years pass. Cathy and I have a couple of strong interests in common: reading and knitting. For her birthday I sent her the novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, about women's life in Afghanistan. Usually ranked at the top of the best seller lists, it is one of the best books I've read in a long time. We'll be celebrating Cathy's birthday with her next weekend.

Weekend Fun

We went to Steve and Marta's house to help with Gabriel while they completed a painting project in the house. Saturday morning we went to the Lake Michigan beach, which is very near their home. Gabriel loves the beach; he chased sea gulls, threw sticks in the water, and played on the play equipment. It was a beautiful warm day with good sunshine, so we had a lovely time.





















Then Sunday we went to the apple farm where the apples were big and beautiful and ready for picking. You can see Gabriel holding the first apple he ever picked! He enjoys climbing trees to pick the apples, so with his father's careful supervision, he was able to do that.