Cousin Cousine

Cousins have, through the magic of social networking, reappeared in my life. Actually, some of it was ordinary telephone networking. I have looked for one cousin by her maiden name having no clue about her life so got no where at all. Her "little brother" I remember him as a tow headed little boy--called and we have had a couple of fun conversations. I got the FB of the girl cousin who is close to me in age, and wow! does she do interesting work. I have not seen her for about 33 years, my girls were babies, and the time before that we were in high school. We have lost all our parents now and that reignites the curiosity about family. Talking to my daughter, I realize how little my kids know about my paternal family. My parents broke up early on in my kids' lives and things were never really fixed between me and my dad before he died. His last words to me were "You are all liars, all 4 of you." There were 6 of us so I don't know which 4 of us were liars. At that time I was leaving toxic people alone and said goodbye. One aunt said we siblings were not allowed at my dad's funeral, but I didn't feel the need to be there anyway. so I didn't go. In the last couple of years the remaining aunt, the most fun aunt EVER really, said that was also a lie.Aunt D would not do that. I guess those two didn't tell each other everything. The aunt who "forbade" us from going to Dad's funeral also told us she had him buried at sea. The remaining aunt now says that was a lie, too,(on our part) that they really dug a hole on or in his mother's grave and put his ashes there. You can't make this stuff up. Even my mom thought he was buried at sea, boy was she surprised when she heard the truth. The same two aunts and my grandmother buried an older sister of mine who died as a baby and never told my mom where she was buried. So, can you see, there's not a lot of talking going on. Why did she accept that? We kids had never heard a word about this sister until I was a young teen and saw a picture that looked almost like me that I had never seen before. Oh, there was another baby. Many many years later when I was the mother of one, my mom and I were driving down first street when a story came on the radio about how many babies died in the 40's from a nutritionally incomplete formula, after 30 years my mother learned why her baby had died. That was her formula.
The last time I saw my uncles Charlie and Bob was when my grandmother died. Or maybe it was only Charlie... Charlie had had some tooth implants and was having trouble with them. The photo my cousin sent to me shows a guy who looks so much like his dad I might recognize him on the street.

Explorations

I discovered a colored pencil artist with a couple of wonderful books on the artrageous site. I purchased two books and a really big box of prisma colored pencils, the Cadillac of colored pencils. I wish my 8th graders could use prisma on their repeat design, but they are too expensive for school. I have also tried a few oil pastel landscapes at school and am finding I like it, don't know a lot about it but am having fun with it. The colored pencil artist I found in my search for a smaller format art form that wouldn't take up every square inch of our house, what is left of it....meaning it is already packed with our art from over the years. What can I do to stay creative and even call myself an artist that doesn't take up that much space? This might be it. We shall see. Ann Kullberg, "Capturing Soft Realism," in colored pencils is a very step by step book and she is very step by step, I have always been rather slapdash, but I am so intrigued by her beautiful results that I am going to give it a try. I have been accumulating stocks of art supplies for the last couple of years in anticipation of my retirement which is not exactly looming. Best just get started. Restarted. Going. I do acrylic landscapes with my 8th graders and have learned to enjoy them myself, we did not do landscapes in college, period. So here I am, playing with it now.

Weight Loss Report WLS

I have bumped along here for a month and am now officially down 140lbs and need to lose zero. My workouts are making me stronger by the week and I am stepping up on two steps now, not one. In the past, no matter how much I worked out, step ups were just too painful. I am lifting more and more compared to when I re-started weight training. My trainers are great, we get them through a school wellness program in our town and they do a different workout each and every time. There is always something new. Support meetings for St. Vincent's have started up again with new leadership and it is good to be back, though I do find myself impatient with a person who repeatedly says and asks the same thing over and over again. I finally told him he may not be ready to make this choice. Choosing WLS is definitely a life changing decision with lifetime commitment to vitamins, minerals, and other aspects of health. One must really make up one's mind to follow the rules after going through this. My surgery has been 15 months now and I am still doing great with no bad after effects or incidents. yet. I say yet, because I have read enough to know that things can happen a year or two out that are still related to the surgery. At the moment, and I am not complaining, my family doc wants me to get my calories up and the first few days I made a big press for that, I lost two more pounds after being stagnant for a month or so. I am wondering if I should get the shots in my knees again now that I am normal weight. Yes, you read that right, normal. I think I might ask the arthritis doc this summer what he thinks.

YaYa Limited

I do not know how we can spend 5 hours together and never stop talking, but we do. My best friend/cousin and I had a wonderful time together on Friday. Tea and talk. No kids around so we never had to shut up! She is all packed up to move again, but as always neat as a pin and a great hostess.

Weight Loss Report

I am 13 months out from WLS and hovering between 130 and 136 pounds of weight loss. My skin has held up remarkably well and I am really toning up since I restarted weight training. 2 or 3 months ago I was 32% body fat, now I am 25% body fat. (and 62 years old) Woo hoo! I went to a big gathering of cousins and they pronounced me very healthy looking and strong looking. I know that my posture now is straight up, not bent over in pain, and the work of carrying all that weight around. And then I add some skechers roll bottom shoes to it and they must add 2 inches to my 72 inch frame! If any WLS'rs come here, I have discovered unjury protein powder, nectar protein powder and click. Unjury and nectar can be stirred with a SPOON! and no protein after taste. I think the nectar has to be bought in a medical setting, but go find it! My one year blood tests were normal, a tiny bit low on the protein so I have stepped up the powders, seems to be the only way I can get enough. I have managed to keep my hair, I take all my vitamins most days and try my best to get the calcium. Love the chewable lemon creamy thingies but crystals are my mainstay, stirred into yogurt. Another recommendation I make is the shaker cup that I buy from amazon.com, I am getting a second. That thing has made the blender and the hand held whirly stick unnecessary, as well as finding the very stirrable protein powders. The Click needs the shaker bottle.

Four Nights

The grandson has spent 4 nights, no problem, his last personal best was 3 nights. Yesterday we went to our town's fantastic public park with the best playground in the midwest. It was packed. First he rode his razor scooter until he was tired of that (sidewalks only) then played on the playgrounds which, by the way, are completely accessible playgrounds with lots of seating for parents and grandparents. As the sky clouded up, we decided a movie was in order because we ALWAYS go to a movie. I took the 5 yr old to see Alice in Wonderland and we loved it. He claims to not be scared, but he was curled up like a blue worm in his seat for a while. I found the movie worthy of a trip to the theater, even without a 5 yr old. After my morning trip to the dentist, we will head off to meet mom and maybe I will do some of that spring cleaning I keep reading so much about on line.

New tradition, as we drift off to sleep, H wants me to tell stories of my childhood, sleeping in the barn, swimming in the creek, Rose and I lost in the woods with baby sister. Sometimes he already remembers parts, but wants to hear it again. We used to discuss planets to fall asleep, I have more knowledge of my childhood than I do of planets, but it works.

Easter+Cousins=FUN

Friday I met my daughter and gathered up my grandson so we could go the the big gathering of cousins in the country. Dear daughter has a pressing engagement and the drive with young un and infant is just too much. H and I did the museum on Saturday, all the while ticking down the time until "Going to the Cousins". He planned on filling a backpack with eggs to share with his friends. More about that later. Somehow E.B. discovered there was a child in the house and really left enough treats for the three children who lived here and grew up. Miscalculation. It took a comically long time for H to even find the treats because he was not expecting them and was amazed at how E.B. knew those were the exact cars he asked Daddy for recently. He then decided he had so much candy that he didn't even need to get eggs at the hunt.
The weather and the temperature couldn't possibly have been one iota better yesterday and we arrived at the gathering of three generations of cousins, seconds, maybe a third or two, and some several times removed. The food was particularly beautiful as Rose is a vegetarian, so the salads are just photogenic and amazing, she made an eggplant dish she invented that I was able to eat a bit of and it was superior. There was a table laden with desserts, strawberries, and apple slices AND a chocolate fountain. Reece, a third grader, has his first strawberry in chocolate and I swear the boy was in ecstasy. I asked him if he wanted a chocolate fountain at his wedding and he literally shivered with joy, yes, he closed his eyes and shuddered. Want a party idea for kids? Fruit and a chocolate river...and a river of babies--Baby B. Baby L. Baby E. is that all? not sure, then tots, then preK then elementary and three middle schoolers who no longer wanted to tolerate a 5 yr old boy...for a while.. a trampoline, 2 great danes--two calves the size of great danes and good old lemon drop, a beagle with a body the size of a fatted calf. At five there was bottle feeding of calves.

At some point we "hid" the eggs, 200 plastic eggs with various treats and some with slips of paper with very funny tasks inside. Believe it or not, the kids loved the tasks. Hug 5 trees, thank your mom, hop ten times on one foot....Marci and Matt live in the country, have acres, woods and a creek, we hid the eggs in the yard only, which is probably 2 or 3 acres and woods encroaching, some eggs were hidden, many were just tossed especially for toddlers, then the brood zoomed over the land filling their sacks and H's plan to save all his eggs to share with friends? No deal, he did the same as last year, ate everything. I made him eat something with protein at least twice during the day, but the rest of the time....oh well.

I hadn't been with my cousins and their children since Thanksgiving and now I really look like THEIR mother--that was fun, and once Mandy mistook me for HER mother, my cousin Rose. I think we have the same sharp jawline now. Right at 6p.m. we rolled out toward home and H said with disappointment, I thought we were staying till night. It's six o'clock! Oh. He did not collapse and fall to sleep on the way home..unbelievable (we talked all the way home) but he is still in bed right now at 8:15. He wants to go home today, he's afraid he'll miss school tomorrow, I think he wants to share his good times!