Gentle Years

I am leaving on Friday at dawn.  For those of you who have adopted, you know that this is the stage at which you start to feel like the White Rabbit.  You even start talking like him, "Don't just do something, stand there... Uh... no no! Go go! Go get my gloves! I'm late".

If you understand that, you've been there :)

Fortunately for me, Grange Fair is tomorrow so I can relax-I spent the last few nights calling people for food donations for the ham & bean supper, went to Aidan's open house, had a church officers meeting  and a meeting of the social studies council executive board.  Have also been busy getting things ready for my sub, who is more than competent to take over for me, so that is a big relief.  He also just happens to have adopted from China using the same agency that we are using for Eva.  Amazingly small world, especially because he was living in Wisconsin at the time.  What were the chances of him then moving to New Hampshire just when I needed someone like him to come along?

So I'm sort of ready-you know how that goes.

I'll leave you now with some photos of those that I will leave behind:

Aidan complained that I always have the camera and he never gets to use it, so this is his idea of a self-portrait (remember that he doesn't like having his photo taken, so of course he was being a goofball even for himself as the photographer).

I have a week left of summer.  This week was spent almost exclusively on planning my classes for the next three months for a sub.  I won't be out for three months, but since I don' know exactly when I will be out, I have to plan accordingly.

Then I took just a little time for my neglected son.  We went to the movies, saw Captain America and then the "free" Wednesday movie MegaMind, and this week is going to be all about him and the rest of the things I've been neglecting.  That includes cleaning.  To kick it off, I cleaned his room and drawers and decided that while I was at it I would pack Eva's things for China.

I haven't figured out yet whether or not I'll take the floatie device.  With Aidan we took water wings so they packed flat and then we could blow them up-this thing is a space hog.  The backpack is filled with toys; the suitcase is filled with clothes and toiletry items.

I'm still pretty clueless about shoes for her.  I can take a few sizes, but have no idea whether or not they'll stay on her feet where she doesn't walk on her soles.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of my two cowboys.

We had the big kids and their kids over for supper tonight and it is just so much fun to watch them together.  So much fun that I didn't even think of getting the camera out as Aidan and the first two grandsons played swords, using kickboards as shields, or as the youngest grandson lined up the trains inside the barn and then locked them in, or as the baby clutched a Shetland pony and wouldn't let it go.  Then the younger boys were playing on the lawn while Aidan, RB and I went on "the trail".  It's really just an arc into the woods behind the lawn, but we love it-Aidan blazes the way through the branches and brush, usually walking with a stick that he uses to slash obstacles out of the way or to mount the heights of our boulders.  I have to teach him to be imaginative at times, and he really picked up on the adventurer/explorer theme and has a great time with it.  On our walks we encounter pine needles galore, horse mushrooms, and yards and yards of teaberries.  If you're not from this part of the country or you've just never seen the last two, here are a couple of pictures:

These aren't my pictures (yes, I scoffed them from someone else) but the next three are.  Once a year I make sure that we get to the ocean, which is a couple of hours away, because I had lived all my life in New Hampshire and not seen it until I was 19 years old.  That's what happens when you have 10 siblings, live on a farm, and have a swimming hole across the road as well as the 4th cleanest lake in the world just a few miles away.  But I love it and so did these guys:

I don't like shopping.  Or bargaining.  Or yard sales.  I used to like grocery shopping before the prices went up so much.  I do like antique shopping but only if I am actually looking for something. 

But every now and then I get excited by something, and that happened this weekend when I went to a church fair in town (not our church, but another one).  Here is where Aidan keeps his "little things" in his room:

I had been looking for something like this for Eva, and this is what I found at the fair for a whole five dollars!

Our oldest grandson and Aidan sit on the porch in canvas lawn chairs so the little boys needed special seats of their own.  For $3 I came home with this:

Now I'll leave you with the image of what our house looks like when all four grandchildren are over and all of the big kids are home (and Aidan retreats to his room; he still dislikes "crowds" and he also dislikes having his picture taken, in case you hadn't noticed, though I did manage to get one in here)

We finally got the Internet problem solved-it was a drop line issue and the point of disconnect was under the porch-not checked on the first or second tech visits so it was fixed today with three techs and about 3-1/2 hours of work by them.

Our first grandson is going to kindergarten in the fall.  Since he has sensory processing disorder, our daughter is sending him to the five weeks of summer school offered at our elementary school.  He just loves it!  Here he is getting off the bus on that first day:

Then, I interviewed him about his day so that our daughter could see his very first comments about it:

Did you hear all the kids in the first video, calling out greetings to Aidan?  It made him decide to go to summer school as well.  Today was his first day.  He was very nervous even though this is his school and he knows the kids and staff; he said that his belly hurt and he was cold-the kind of cold that comes with a belly ache.  Tomorrow is his first field trip-they have one each Thursday.  He is very nervous about that.  He asked me if I could chaperone but I already made an appointment for the youngest dog to get his second Lepto shot while Aidan was away because he hates to go with me if that dog is going to be hurt-he doesn't care about the other two.  So we'll see how tomorrow goes.

I told the boys that when they got home from the field trip shortly after lunch we could go to the beach, but they would rather go to my brother's gravel pit, so there we'll be.

We do have a new modem but the modem was fine.  There is a lot of noise on the line every afternoon and evening.  The tech who was here can't climb the telephone pole because the pole is marked condemned-to be replaced-so no one can climb it.  He is sending the line tech to check it out to see how much spillage he can detect and what else they can do.  So I'm not spending much time online-sorry to those I follow for my sporadic posts.

I'll keep my posts short and limited since I have a bunch of pictures to share of recent happenings but too many for one post.  Here are some lake shots from yesterday:

I didn't get any shots of our first grandson in the water since I was in the water with him, but his transformation from a year ago has been amazing!  Last year he screamed, cried, bucked, and totally broke down at the thought of water.  After a year of occupational therapy for his sensory processing disorder, he has discovered a love a water!  (I've added a July 4 picture of him at the bottom to show just how much he loves it now.)

Our first grandson graduated from preschool!  A big deal because he has gone to this daycare/preschool since he was six weeks old.  This summer he will attend five weeks of half day summer school at our local elementary school and get off the busy at our house to spend the rest of the day with me and Aidan.  Here he is with his best friend (they have both been together since they were infants) and then making some of the goofy and sweet faces that he has a talent for.

We had a birthday party on my mother's porch for her, even though she is gone.  She would have been 83 years old.  The eight of us living nearby gathered with her best friend and my cousin who is like a sibling.  Here is her cake, the view from her porch, and my two younger sisters.

Today my oldest kids and Aidan and the grandkids went to Storyland (Little Baby was working).  Here are some shots from our outing.

Just in the last two weeks we've gone from this-so warm that the kids were playing with squirt guns even while there was snow on the ground......

.....to this-two inches of snow mixed with sleet and hail that made driving Aidan's birthday guests to and from the party a dangerous proposition.....

...to one day later-Easter egg hunt....

....to a day of intense heat yesterday (and still 70 degrees at 10 at night)-with enough wind for kites...

...to balmy weather this morning that has now turned to rain.  In New Hampshire we always say, if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change :-)

On April 1 we had a snow day; on April 9 we were all playing outside without coats and trying not to track mud into the house.  Here are some shots of the two weekends.

I am behind on visiting your blogs and posting to my own-sorry.  Twice a week I sleep at my mother's house so two nights a week I don't sleep.  Most of the time I'm operating in a foggy state.  So I'll just show you what we've been up to in pictures.

Tiger Scout visit to my sister's bakery as part of their healthy eating unit.  She makes all organic products and everything comes in gluten-free as well.  She shares the business with a woman who owns a health food store.

Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts

Aidan was excited, but his car came in last in each heat.  My husband said a lighter car is a faster car.  He used to drive stock cars, so he does know something about it, but stock cars have one thing pinewood derby cars don't have-an engine :-)

Visit to Chutter's store in Littleton.  They have the longest continuous candy counter in the world and are in the Guiness Book of World Records.  Pretty Baby used to go there every couple of months with her best friend in high school.  Aidan loves to pick up tourist brochures and when he got one of theirs and asked if he could go there, I called Pretty Baby and we made a trip today.