Two Hands, One Heart

Cool's granddaughter was here from Arizona, and after making jewelry together, they honored my request for a picture of their hands. How awesome that they thought of this pose! Emma was with us when we celebrated her grandma's 60th birthday at Il Lucano in Gig Harbor. After lunch we took a little field trip, riding a trolley down to downtown Gig Harbor and back to the Park & Ride lot where we had left our cars. This wasn't my only time to see Emma while she was here. She was at church too, and after church a bunch of us always go for coffee at Cutter's Point. This time we planned ahead and each brought four quarters and I brought the ever-popular game, Left Center Right. It's a mindless game, and it is oh so much fun. When people play it for the first time they always look at us as if to say, "What a dumb game--I don't want to play." The fun is seeing the change in their attitude once we get playing, and Emma was no exception. I ever heard her say, "I like this game." Sorry to say she didn't win, but her grandpa did, so here's hoping he took her out for something special and spent his $10 in earnings on his granddaughter.

Grandchildren are a special kind of BVGO (Bethel Valley Girl Offspring). In fact, I'm going to make up a new category for them, right on the spot. They shall forever more be known as BVGOO (Bethel Valley Girl Offspring's Offspring). There are nine BVGO's, and there are 16 BVGOO's.

Alas, there are only four Bethel Valley Girls, and between us we have eight hands and one gigantic heart.

I heart the Bethel Valley Girls, and six hours from now we will be together at j's house, sipping, supping, smiling and supporting. Can't wait!

SMG's (BVG's: The Next Generation, Part Two)

Please refer to my post of February 5, 2013 for BVG's: The Next Generation, Part One. I was just looking aimlessly through past posts, got to that one, read it and knew I had to do an update, given the fun news my daughter shared with me last night. I wrote back then about her and her friends Nicole and Katie who live by her in San Mateo, CA. Since then, Nicole has given birth to her twin daughters, Genevieve and Mabelle. Nicole and her husband moved from their place in San Francisco to a darling Victorian just two blocks from my daughter and her husband. How fun it is for my daughter to have her dearest friend live so close with her two adorable twin girls, who are eight months younger than my grandson. Meanwhile, their friend Katie who I also wrote about back then shows no inclination to remarry or have children. But no worries, because something even more wonderful and amazing is happening.

First of all, let me shout it to the rooftops---because it's safe to do so in this private blog---that my daughter announced to us a week ago that she is pregnant again! We're not supposed to tell anyone because she isn't telling her brothers until they are all together in Hawaii next month. But they don't read this blog, in fact they don't even know it exists, so unless this blog suddenly goes viral, this 'secret' is safe. I'm thrilled, of course. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of me becoming a grandma for the first time, and my new motto is, "Keep those grandbabies coming!"

But there is something even more exciting to this story. Last night my daughter told me that her good friend Nidhi is also pregnant! They announced their pregnancies to each other at the same time. How fun it will be for them to be pregnant together. But the real kicker is the fact that Nidhi and her husband are looking for a place to live in San Mateo! They have a small apartment in the city (San Francisco), but now with the pregnancy and all they are choosing to move to where my daughter lives and where Nicole lives.

And I have a beautiful vision of the future, when my daughter and her two friends are at the park with their five (or more) little children. They will celebrate birthdays together, do preschool together, go to school together, and hopefully they will all play together on the tee ball team my daughter is going to coach.

And before they know it, in the blink of an eye, those children will be all grown up, off on their own, having their own children, and the SMG's (San Mateo Girls) will be sipping their wine and asking, "So, what's the latest on your grandchildren?"

May the SMG's be as close as the BVG's.........

Ode to Cool on Her 60th Birthday

Jokes about age can be kind of cruel,
And we could never do that to Cool.
This is the day that she turns sixty,
But truthfully, she doesn't look a day over fifty.
She still has dark hair--dark hair to DYE for--
And she has no afflictions--that she doesn't have medications for.
She still goes off to work each day in a hurry,
Anxious to put together yet another jury.
She's a wife, a mom, and a loving grandmother,
She's a friend, she's a sister, she's just not a brother.
She's the life of the party, so full of fun,
And when she smiles at you, you feel like you've been kissed by the sun.
She's not anxious to be the one that you laud,
But rather to hear you sing the praises of God.
So Cool, it's God we thank today for you,
And pray all His dreams for you will come true.
To be your friend is truly a pleasure,
And the bond of our Sisterhood is an incredible treasure.
So enjoy this sunny day and the hugs that are due,
With all our love we wish Happy Birthday to you!

My First Pedicure

(I don't know what's gotten in to me----five posts in one day???)

As long as I have been posting pedicure photos, here's one from my first pedicure. I recognize my left foot. It's the one on the right. On the left is my daughter's right foot. So my left foot is on the right, and my daughter's right foot is on the left. Is that right?

During one of her earliest visits to us after we had moved to Hawaii, she was shocked to learn I had never gotten a pedicure. So one day she decided to take me to the nail place at the bottom of our hill in Kailua so we could get pedicures together. It was a real mother-daughter bonding time.

I would be remiss in not saying that I have to HAND it to my daughter for being so thoughtful, because she insisted she would be the one to FOOT the bill.

Funny Signs

These are a few of the funny signs we've seen in the various places we have lived and traveled:

I've always wanted to add this caption below that last picture:

    "It doesn't have to be."

Not-so-fun BVG Demographics

Within four days of each other, 50% of the BVG's were told at separate hospitals, "Your husband is having a heart attack." This is not a demographic we like to hear about. As it turned out, my husband and I were the fortunate ones. Cool and her husband would say, "We're fortunate too," and that would be true, but he now has two stents and we continue to be concerned for his health. The past two weeks have been exhausting, both physically and emotionally, but in the end, thanks be to God for answered prayer. And thanks, too, for the love and support of the BVG's who are here for each other in the bad times as well as the good times.

A week ago yesterday I was taken by the hospital's Heart Attack Coordinator to the front waiting room while my husband was rushed from the ER to the surgery room where his angiogram was performed. I had remained calm as my husband, who was experiencing a tightening in his chest and chest pain that was radiating up in to his throat and neck, was sent from his doctor's office to the emergency room at the hospital. Now, sitting alone in this waiting room, the reality of what was going on started to set in. I knew I needed to text my three children, all of whom live far away. Besides them, the only other people I considered contacting were the BVG's.

I have thought a lot about this during the past week. I have many friends and other family members I could have called, but the ones I trusted to pray for my husband were the BVG's. Their quick responses to my texts and their expressions of support meant the world to me.

How must this have affected Cool when she read my text? Four days before she was at work when she received word that her husband had a heart attack and was in the hospital. She had to leave work and drive to the hospital alone. The thing is, her husband had done the same thing! Yes, he drove himself to the hospital when he was having a heart attack. He walked in the ER and said he was having chest pains, and he got immediate attention. I know in my husband's case, I was amazed how quickly there were eight additional people in the ER working around my husband when his EKG indicated he was having a heart attack.

To make my long story short, it wasn't a heart attack at all. In fact, the cardiologist found that he has no heart disease and no blockages whatsoever. Did I say he was 'fortunate'? He is extremely blessed!! More tests were done on him that evening, and the following morning they had the diagnosis: Pericarditis, or inflammation of the sac around the heart. Pericarditis mimics a heart attack. He apparently got this from taking antibiotics for a sinus infection two months before. All he needed were some anti-inflammatory drugs to fix him up good as new. His relief came immediately after even just one tiny pill.

I wish that was all Cool's husband needed. He's at home, she's at work, they are both exhausted. My husband is at work, I'm at home, and we're recovering from our exhaustion. Cool's oldest child come from Oregon to be with her at the hospital and then again this past weekend to help celebrate Father's Day with his dad. My oldest came with her husband and eight-month-old son from California the day my husband got out of the hospital and stayed through Father's Day as well. We live just ten minutes apart and wished we could have gotten the two of them together for another BVGO (Bethel Valley Girl Offspring) Reunion, but that wasn't possible.

Now here's a happy thing: Elletu's daughter loaned me her high chair to use while my grandson was here, and now she says she is willing to sell it to me as long as I'll make her some garlic chicken salad. You better believe I'm going to make it for her! Now my grandchildren will use the same high chair used by Elletu's grandchildren!

So I shall end this post on a high note, with a FUN BVG demographic:

50% of the BVG's have grandchildren who used the same high chair.

UP

I grew UP in a family that was interested in words. Our favorite family game was Scrabble, and I was always UP for playing. My own children were brought UP on word games, and whenever we get together these days someone always brings UP playing Boggle. I opened UP my e-mail the other day and one of my brothers had sent me this forward about the word UP (see below, not UP above). I fixed it UP a bit, adding some of my own applications I came UP with. I hope you're UP to reading it:  

There is perhaps no other two-letter word that has more meanings and uses than the word UP. It is easy to think of the word UP meaning toward the sky, but consider this:

When we wake UP, we open UP our eyes.

After we get UP in the morning, we make UP the bed.

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP?

Why do offices come UP for election?

Why is it UP to a secretary to write UP a report?

Why do we call UP our friends?

We take time to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver and warm UP the leftovers.

Before we serve a pie, we might whip UP some whipping cream.

We clean UP the kitchen and lock UP the house.

Sometimes we pay some guys to fix UP the old car.

Some people stir UP trouble.

After an argument, it is good to make UP.

A woman looks in a mirror to put on her make-up.

We line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP when it is stopped UP.

A store is opened UP in the morning and then closed UP at night.

When a song is dragging, we have to pick UP the tempo.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper use of the word UP,

Look it UP in the dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP about 1/4 of the page.

It adds UP to about 30 definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but don't give UP.

You may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains a lot, it often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap this UP.

Now it's UP to you to think UP more to add to this list.

Are you UP to it???

 

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