Going to be a Monday Report

My intentions of Thursday Reports didn't work. Obviously somehow I can not manage my time. Sigh. But I feel I got a lot done this past week.

What was very good: my knew chair came. We had given up waiting to hear from the manufacturer of the broken chair. Lost hope to get a replacement part. The person (UPS?) who delivered it was very nice and even carried the box upstairs and strongly refused to take a tip. To be honest I was a bit disappointed that it didn't come assembled since it was ordered from a department store and not amazon.

Next day, when we were in the spirit of doing it, I first unpacked all the items and checked them off the list. All tools were included and surprise, surprise, it didn't take that long.

Saturday the 21st we collected our "granddog" because "his" family had gone on vacation for a week ... where it was warm. Ah, we were sent nice photos of beaches and pools.

The weather here was not always favorable but when it was not raining and not tooooo cold James would go for a walk with Stella. I tried to go as often as possible with them.

Alsways love to see something new and exciting in the neighborhood nature.

Our friend Julie has a contract to sell her house so she wanted us to have two of her patio chairs. Just perfect for our front patio. 

As you know in winter we spend the evenings up in the loft because ... heat rises of course.

And yes, Stella approved of my new chair too. But only if I sat in it too.

But that Saturday the weather was not that nice and we didn't want to leave Stella by herself the first evening we had her (good excuse) so we decided to use our Forum season tickets for that evening online. The speaker this night was Maria Ressa who got barely on time permission from the Philippine Government to come to us for this event. Her resume is very impressive including a Nobel Peace Price. 

It was very interesting.!

We had brought Stella's bed from her house and she was very happy to use it next to our bed.

Every night she slept either there are under our bed.

Whereever we were she was right next to us.

On Tuesday we helped out at the church and then decided to have lunch at the Korean place. The owner asked "2 Japchae" instead of asking us what we wanted. He was so right. I looked up recipes for that and it looks like very easy to make. Have to try it. It has become quite expensive.

Yeah, our late winter blooming camelias have started opening their buds. We so enjoy them.

James has fun when Stella tries to go back to our house. She knows exactly the way and sometimes tries to go home too early and probably disappointed when James walks one more loop.

Papa has left the house without her. But Omi is still here.

The children asked for more photos of Stella when they were gone. Yes, Stella missed them too.

Every time when I had been gone and came back, Stella run around fast with one of my shoes. All of the ones I didn't want to get slobered on I had to put up. These shoes could handle it. And eventually she dropped it somewhere. No chance to take it from her.

We also had to watch where we were stepping. She didn't mind when I had to waddle with my feet left and right next to here. 

This Saturday we brought her back late afternoon. Sarah told me at their layover that they would be disappointed if Stella wasn't at their house when they would arrive (around midnight!).

We kept her company until 8:30 pm because Omi had to do some sewing on their sofa which Cooper the puppy had done a number on. I am rather proud that I managed that.

Bye bye Stella, until next time!

Thursday Report

Again I am hinking behind. In the last blog I reported about James' cataract surgery. He is very happy and by now it almost seems history. He doesn't need glasses anymore except only some over-the-counter reading glasses. The doctor told him to look for 2.5 but 1.5 is just right. He is happy.

At the time of the second eye surgery I was reading on my phone in the waiting room. I don't get to look often at Facebook but when I did at that time I came across this article:

And HERE IS THE LINK to that article.

I opened the article and was very excited because I remember that we were there in the field when it was still a pretty new discovery. It had not been in our itinerary on that trip but our guide knew about it and since we were very close and still had time that day he asked us whether we wanted to see it. 

HERE is the link! in my blog if you are interested to read it. You have to scroll all the way down as it was the last thing of the day.

I was so taken in by reading the reports and searching my memory that when my name was called in the waiting room I didn't think much time had passed and was scared for a moment "everything ok with James?" He was done and I was taken into the recovery.

When at home and time for the first drop to put into his eye, I was taken aback again. What was that yellow "pearl" on his lower eyelid? Well, we were told to contact the doctor for any questions. So I did. I had taken a photo and offered to email it but Caitlyn knew exactly what it was: a slow-release medizin which is implanted in the tear duct ... except sometimes it doesn't quite fit. No problem.

Wednesday January 11 .... neighbors are delighted. Our new landscaping company is taking care of the leaves. They blew it onto the street and sucked it up into a truck. All looks much nicer admittedly. 

Yo-yo weather. Two days later. The weather is very nice. We enjoy our walks. And daffodils are poking out in many places.

We also have a new "toy". When we visited the grandsons "over the river" they showed us what Santa had brought. A Connect 4 spin game. Colin beat me! James and I had to buy one to practice, ha-ha. It is very cool. Quite challenging. I highly recommend it.

Monday, January 16, Martin Luther King's Day. No school!

Sarah drove with her three to work and we picked them up there before 8:30 am when the pharmecy opens. None of us had breakfast yet because we were going to Ihop. The boys enjoyed it very much. 

As soon as we were at our house they wanted to work on their Kiwi boxes (second installation of our Christmas gift subscription. 

Papa mostly helped Owen and I mostly helped Colin. All three were very patient. 

Both twins did very well and Caleb did his totally by himself. It's an advantage when you finally can read. It is a "battery operated painting machine".

After lunch the boys helped Papa clean off the patio. 

And right away we all decided that the weather was so nice and we had to go for a walk. The boys wanted to look for geocaches. Fine with us. There are several at Meadow Farms so that is where we headed. The first one was a success but we could not find the next two. That is o.k. because we had fun walking and enjoyed being outdoors. 

We ended up next to the lake where I had parked. The boys enjoyed breaking off pieces of ice on the shore  and got really muddy. Oh well... 

Wade picked them up on his way home. Papa and Omi had totally enjoyed the day with them.

Wednesday the 18. we had tickets to a lecture at the VMHC (Virginia Museum of History and Culture) through our membership. This was the write-up:

Presented by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture & the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History and Civics

The job of Solicitor General is the only position in the US government requiring one be “learned in the law.” Join three of America’s top legal thinkers, former US Solicitors General Paul Clement (President Bush), Donald Verrilli (President Obama), and Noel Francisco (President Trump), for a panel discussion about today’s Supreme Court, yesterday’s Marshall Court, and how the two relate in 2023. William & Mary Law School Professor Katherine Mims Crocker will moderate the conversation and audience Q&A.

Well, we are never bored!

Happy New Year!

Oh no, it is already the 10th day in this new year. I am not really sure what to report. Christmas was over. My birthday done. We had a good time but if you read my blogs ... a very quiet time for us. 

I really like the time between these two holidays. There is something about it. On Wednesday we were invited to dinner at Carole and Chuck's. On Thursday we went to a funeral around lunch. It was very moving. 

On Friday I felt the need to cook. I made some mini meatloafs. That recipe is a keeper. 

 

A healthy recipe. This is all GF with the spaghetti squash and spinach gravy. Ah, so nice. James is not that keen on the spinach gravy though. It's not how his Mom used to cook spinach.

December 30!!! Can  you believe that the weather was so nice that we could sit and have lunch outside. 

For New Year's Eve we were invited to Jeanne and Jim at 6 pm. It was nice to celebrate with "old" neighborhood friends but also new neighbors we had not met before. This is quite a large community we live in.

When Jeanne had called me to tell me about the party I had just heard on TV that if you are invited to a New Year's party it would be rude to leave before midnight. Mmhh. I had to ask. Was this a New Year's party? Ha-ha, she didn't know why I was asking. 6 pm was rather early to stay till after midnight. As she was wondering I told her about the TV report. No problem. Not a NYP (New Year's party). But of course with me as wife James is not allowed to go to bed before midnight. I owe it to my mother. Where is that champagne? We had some when we were back home from the neighbors.

Btw: This is the day we celebrated our church wedding in Germany 47 years ago. Ah the memories.

Happy New Year!

2023!

Monday - Is this an omen for the year? We had to bring my Telluride to the shop. A warning light had come on. I had just had it in for service a few days earlier, but ... they only had to update the computer system. No charge. But they didn't know that less than 2 weeks ago?

Tuesday - James had the cataract surgery for his first eye.

All went well and he pretty soon was very excited what he could see again. Still, there was a lot of preparation and then things to take care off afterwards ... like the follow-up at the eye doctor the next day etc etc. 

Friday we had to bring James' car to that service. It was very early so we didn't bother to eat breakfast before we left and decided to have a nice breakfast before going home. We went to First Watch. Nice but rather expensive.

In the evening we went to one of my favorite church services. The Feast of the Light, the start of Epiphany. Our three younger boys had heard about it when Father Lee mentioned it at Christmas service in the announcements and they were excited about it. We went "over the river" to get them, took them to our house for dinner, and then to the service at 7 pm. Afterwards was the burning of the greens with marshmellow roasting and all those trimmings. And then we brought the boys back home. 

Saturday - All week I had been preparing myself for the church ladies coming to our house for breakfast at 9 am. Besides having promised to lead one more time as the president (I only had commited myself for one year) I also had promised a little exhibition of all our nativities we collected from our travels around the world.

I had prepared a hand-out which ended up being about 3 1/2 pages. The nativites were scattered around the house like always but I had put numbers with them.

Here only a few examples from Germany, the Azores and Canada.

This little wood carving is from our trip to Israel. Mary on the donkey. The Holy Family fleeing to Egypt? One of my favorites.

And today, one week after the first eye, James got his second eye done. 

We both are very happy how everything went. He says that the change is amazing!!!