Welcome Home!

This very nice family (woman in red shirt, man with backpack, 2 little kids) has been a band of nomads for eight weeks and a day, as they traveled from coast to coast (with their wonderful mother/mother-in-law/grandma), then stayed in motels and bunked with family and stayed in motels and bunked with family and stayed in motels,* all in anticipation of this day:

Today they became homeowners. (Well, them and the bank...)




*On the phone the other day I asked 4-year-old grandson if he was in North Carolina (because I didn't know just where the nomads were at that point), and he said no, he was in a hotel. Poor kid. He really needed a home!

Oh, Jesus

TALLAHASSEE - "In God We Trust" will officially become Florida's motto, although those words have appeared on the state seal since 1868, under a bill that Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Thursday.

[...]

The motto bill resulted from a school project by two fourth grade pupils who discovered there was no state law certifying "In God We Trust." They approached Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, who introduced the bill.

"First and foremost this honors the Almighty," Evers said in a statement issued by his office. "It also gave these youngsters an opportunity to participate in Florida's legislative process."

Happy Birthday to Littlest!

Today is Littlest Grandson's 2nd birthday. Here he is watching Thomas the Tank Engine roll into the station in Williams, Arizona back on Mother's Day (May 14).


Admiring the Lego version of the world of Thomas and his friends...



From the interior of the train while actually riding Thomas...

Happy birthday, sweetie face!

Way behind on my blogging: bullet point edition

Hi, guys.

I just haven't had the time/energy/enthusiasm/(noun of your choice) to get up to date in the bloggy world. Therefore, I've decided to bullet point my news, and maybe I'll expound later and maybe I won't.

• Monday we had to send Shadow, our alpha and omega cat, on to cat heaven. I'm bummed, and this is probably the main reason I haven't been blogging. We sent JJ on ahead in February, just weeks after Grammie died. I never eulogized JJ -- never even mentioned her death here before now -- and now I'm dragging my heels on Shad. Both will get a proper eulogy from me eventually. (I'm trying really hard not to make this the all-death-all-the-time blog.)
• Still recuperating from my month away from home. Still cleaning up the physical mess, too, the one I left behind due to a semester of crisis management and the additional mess made by Tall Son in my absence. I'm making progress, however.
• Tall Son has officially moved out, although he hasn't fully vacated his room or otherwise stored his belongings. It's much easier to keep the house clean when it's just me.
• But it's not just me. I still have one cat -- Molly. She's probably a little stunned to find herself an Only Cat. She's never been that before. In fact, the last time I had only one cat in the house was 17 years ago.
• Had a wonderful lunch today with most of my descendants and their spouses, lacking only Marine Son and Corpsman Son-in-Law. I think Indian Princess (daughter-in-law) thinks Red Lobster is my favorite restaurant, so that's where we went. (But really, it isn't. Still, the salmon was tasty.) Tall Son has a killer digital camera, and we made little videos, mostly starring the youngest grandson. That's what happens when you're two; you're automatically the cutest. (Then you get older....)
• The Grand Canyon is grand. Not that you needed me to tell you. We pretty much considered this our scouting mission. We got a good look at the canyon, but with a four-year-old and (all but) two-year-old in tow, we couldn't do stuff like hike, raft, etc. Next time I'll have money and take a helicopter ride. There will be a next time.
• Before I left, I told many people, including Waveflux; he wished me a good trip and asked me to bring him something back. I took this request very seriously, but once on the road I wasn't quite sure what to get. (If I'd gone to the Democratic National Convention, f'r instance, no problem.) In the end, I settled not for a physical object but an item to add to his list of things to see before the final check-out. But revelation of that item will have to wait until later. :)
• Something to look forward to: Alanna and I are going to see the Prairie Home Companion movie on Thursday. I'm excited about this like others get excited about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies. Woo-hoo! Only four more days!
• School starts for me again on the 22nd. I am NOT counting those days.

I feel better now, having dipped my toe back in the blog pool. I think my blog-block might be over.

Actual photo taken by me of the Grand Canyon. Yes, it looks like all those other photos on the web, but I took this one! I was really there!

HOME!!!

Having lived in one hotel room after another for 20 of the last 28 days, I now know why rock stars trash hotel rooms.

Yikes!

I've been everywhere, man.

I return to chaos...Tall Son is moving out again (yippee!!...he's 28, folks) and while he keeps his body clean, he's otherwise much like Charles Schultz' Pigpen. Physical chaos surrounds him and moving means mess. So I have returned to mess.

When he's gone, though, I get to reclaim my space.

The oddest thing about returning home is...where are the beautiful blonde grandsons? We've been constant companions for 28 days and the quiet and lack of motion has me off-kilter.

I'll be back chattering away in a day or two, but for now I have much chaos to deal with.

Excuse me now while I go check in with my favorite blogs...