PROM NIGHT - MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND HER DATE

 

My granddaughter's dress was purchased from a thrift shop, and, with slight alteration, the dress fit her perfectly.  She likes vintage clothing.

FAMILY DAY

Yesterday, I was gone from home all day, spending time in activities with various members of my family. The first outing was to Grandparents Day at my granddaughter's high school. Grandpère could not go, as he was due at the boat museum at the same time. Last year, we made the grand tour of the entire school, so GD didn't think we needed that again, but she did want us to visit her art classroom and see the work she had done in class. While we were looking at her pictures, the art teacher came up and said, "Your granddaughter is a very talented artist." I said, "We know." Still, I was delighted to hear the art teacher affirm what we knew. The picture is from our visit to the school last year. The photo from this year will be mailed to me.

Next up was a pleasant lunch at a local restaurant with my daughter-in-law and son to celebrate my DIL's birthday.  I enjoyed spending time with them, catching up with what's going on in their lives and the life of their son, my grandson, who is at LSU.  I have sworn off discussing politics with my son, except about matters upon which we agree, and I managed to keep my oath till the end of the lunch, which mercifully concluded before the discussion became too heated. I'll simply add that we all agree on certain matters political, which I will not detail here.

My next destination was my son's house to stay with my grandson until his older sister, my granddaughter in the top picture, came home from school and running errands. My GS is now a couple of years older than in the photo.

So. There it is - my family day - which is why I didn't blog yesterday.  Busy, busy, busy.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS - 8

Not eight ladies dancing maids a-milking, but six ladies all in a row.  My grandmother, Aimée, is in the center with her five daughters, from left to right, Eva, May (Aimée), Gladys, Irma, and Pearl (my mother).  Eva and Irma lived in Reno, Nevada, so they must have come to New Orleans for a visit.  My mother and my Aunt May look so young.  My grandmother always looked old to me, I'm sad to say, probably even before she  was old.  She dressed in the old-fashioned way with long dresses, lisle stockings, and sensible, lace-up shoes. 

The young lady pictured above is ready to dance.  My granddaughter was three or four years old in the picture and wears one of her costumes for her dancing school recital.  I sat through the recitals for my sister, my daughter, and my granddaughter.  As a child, I enjoyed my sister's dance recitals, but, as an adult, the recitals with performances by many youngsters seemed endless.  My sister was a talented dancer and danced through high school, but my daughter and granddaughter took dance lessons for only a few years.  Thank heaven for small mercies.

I'm running out of material for the twelve days of Christmas, with still more days to fill.  I should have stuck with the song.

UPDATE: My grandparents had seven children in all, five daughters and two sons. 

ONE DOCTOR VISIT - TWO TRIPS

Today, my granddaughter, pictured to the left when she was 3 years old, who is now 15, had a doctor's appointment, and the plan was for me to take her for the visit. I went to her school to check her out, and I was told that the proper procedure was to send a note on the morning of the appointment. In GD's case, she became ill over the weekend, so the appointment was made only this morning. Of course, I am only the grandmother and remain out of the loop for certain information on the rules of the schools of my grandchildren. And either my son or I could have called ahead to let the school know, but we did not.

Anyway, the students were at lunch recess, and no one was going to hunt GD down in all the nooks and crannies from amongst the 500 students at the school for anything short of a dire emergency, and a regular doctor's appointment did not fall in that category. The secretary said that the kids would be back in class in about 10 minutes. I called the doctor's office to see if we could come some minutes later, but the receptionist said that the doctor would be at lunch. She was kind enough to schedule us for later in the afternoon. "Oh well," I thought, "one trip for nothing."



Howevah! On the way home, I saw a Great Blue Heron in flight followed by the bird's landing in a nearby tree. Beautiful! The trip was not for nothing.

After a delicious lunch cooked by Grandpère, I headed back to the school, to the doctor's office, to the pharmacy to drop off the prescription, to my house to wait for the medication to be ready, and finally to take GD to her house, because it was too late to return her to school.

Another plus to having a busy day was that I had my mammogram on Friday, and even after 25 years, I tend to be a little anxious as I wait for the results, but I didn't even think about the mammogram today, and around 4:30 the doctor's office called to say that everything was fine. Thanks be to God.

The weather here is cold (still!) with a nasty north wind blowing.

I don't even know why I write these boring accounts of the trivia of my day, except that, at my age, I'm still somewhat taken aback to still be doing this sort of running around with children and teenagers.

Anyway, I gave you two pictures to spice up the post a little. I found the picture of the tiny ballerina while going through old papers. How 'bout that bright red lipstick?

PLAN V. REALITY

THE PLAN:

1. Take Grandson and Granddaughter Christmas shopping. The two wanted to pick out their own gifts, and we did not have time to do so before Christmas, as they were at their mom's house.

2. Take Granddaughter to her friends house for the gathering before the Sadie Hawkins dance at her school (her first date!)

3. Bring Grandson to my house to stay until his dad got off work.

Simple.

THE REALITY:

1. Arrived at the home of GD and GS to learn that GD had typical symptoms of a bladder infection, so we had to make a detour to the Urgent Care Clinic. TBTG for the clinic, because we avoided the nightmare of the ER. Indeed, GD had a high infection count.

2. While we waited our turn at the clinic, GS became bored and restless, so I called Grandpère to pick him up and prevailed upon him to take GS to the game store to buy his Christmas present.

3. Dropped off prescriptions at pharmacy.

4. Went to Walmart for items GD had to have.

5. Returned to my house to wait for medications to be ready.

6. Picked up prescriptions.

7. Returned to the home of GS and GD to pick up GD's clothes for the dance and for spending the night at her friend's house and to pick up GS's game player, so he could play his new game at my house.

8. No time for Christmas shopping with GD.

9. Finally ate lunch around 4:00 PM.

10. Took GD to her friend's house.

All for the love of the two pictured above in the pool from a few years ago. Not quite so simple as I planned, but all's well that ends well - I guess.

I know. This post is boring. But I feel better.