a right hander in a left handed world

ok i'm having fun in va. with darla, geof. cole, dayne, and baby june. i can relate with all the stories of spilled milk, poopie diapers, and i remember distinctly what it was like to fix meals for kids and why it was i hated to cook. let's see--1hour minimum to make it---15minutes of them verbally and or visually giving you their opinion of what you have spent your time, effort, and what little brain power it takes to create yet another delectable kids meal that they are not thrilled about. to explain the verbally-- "i hate this why do we always have to have what i hate?"
"Wait a minute, you liked it last week."
"That was before you made us eat it 3 days in a row."
"can you blame me? it looked like something you would eat without a fight."
visually-- they smear it everywhere there is an available surface.
which leads me to the 1 and 1/2 hours worth of clean up.
followed by the last and final phase--a lifetime of trying to keep all that delicious peanutbutter and jelly and cold cereal and spaghetti and whatever else from taking up permanent residence on my rearend and thighs.
yes yes yes while it was a phase of my life i valued and realize the value of i can't tell you how glad i am that it is your turn and i get to come in for a little while, play g'ma and leave.
i am so impressed with all of you. it is not an easy job and you all do it so well and lovingly for all these cute little kids. just remember it goes by faster than you think.
we are off to the pool. we nearly always have the pool to ourselves. the most people i have seen there are 2 until last night when there were 4 women that came down to the pool to put their feet in the water and watch Caleb the 9 year old boy that was with them "swim" in the shallow end. the whole time he had his hand on the side of the pool. they were all so funny. they told him to let cole teach him how to swim. he said he was embarassed enough. it really is true. the black people here don't swim and are deathly afraid of the water. they were all laughing and clapping for the kids. cole and dayne put on quite a show. they loved all the attention. these guys are truly fish. cole is amazing in the deep end and is working on his surface dives so he can get things off the bottom of the pool. he can get down about 5 feet, but needs a little push to go to 7 feet. dayne is amazing in the deep end also she can hold her breath long enough so that you can swim across the entire pool to retrieve her. i'm trying to teach her not to run on the deck not mind you so she won't slip and fall, but so that we will be somewhat close to her when she decides that she is ready to jump in. i can stand in shoulder deep water and shove her to the bottom. she pushes off, pops to the top and says, "Again!" she is an animal. now we need to get her to learn how to come to the surface and take a breath for those times we haven't been able to keep up with her.
baby june is beautiful and it's so nice they have decided to take a little indian placement baby into their home. she is so dark. wait a minute, she's not that dark ever day or night because she has jaundice and so has to have a blue light pad on her at all times hence she has earned the nicknames gloworm or june bug.
we had so much fun on the 4th. i fed geof. and darla crab and grilled red peppers till i thot we would all pop. then we went to the fire works at maymont park. the richmond band was there and there was a choir at one point. we walked around for a while and then settled in to watch the fireworks. they played an arrangement by tychousky (i can't spell) the conductor made the announcement that they were the only band that could play the piece as tychousky had intended because they had everything available to them. you see it calls for fireworks and cannonfire and a carrilon. the army had their big cannons the fireworks were in sinc and everything went off perfectly. it really was spectacular. i thot of mike going and all the men and women over the years that have fought for our freedom and the blessings we enjoy in this country and went ahead and bawled--it was dark and so no one saw. we came home to pie and ice cream. all in all a great 4th. followed by a great 5th with baby june being born.
i could write a whole bunch more but i have puzzles to put together, cookies to make, games to play, costco to shop and then their is swimming with the maniacs. i will miss them horribly, looking forward to the next visit already--now on to denver
take care, le anne