Mother's Day, Quiet Weekend and the Beginning of Spring

 I love days like today when I don't need groceries and don't have anywhere to go, so I just putter around and do a lot of small stuff.  

I don't think it's going to work, but I had a NYT charge on a credit card for $250 for a year's subscription to the digital newspaper - which I do NOT need or want.  I don't even do Wordle and the other games like I used to and don't read articles unless someone sends me a link.  Turns out I was subscribed for $25 a year with an auto renew, so I might not can get out of it legally.  I've contacted customer service but haven't heard back.  I can try contacting Chase and seeing if I'm liable.  I really hate auto renews and never keep them if I remember to cancel - except, of course, my rent and other necessary bills.  

I walked to the mailbox to mail my dental bill, which I am so glad to have.  It was Mike's plan through PCC, and it passed on to me.  In the whole 10 years I've been here, I haven't had to spend a penny on a dental procedure - except for that rogue wisdom tooth that was supposed to be hiding but came up and cause all kind of havoc a couple of years ago.  It did cost money but not a huge amount, and it turned out so much better than I thought it would be.  I had already started worried about bone damage and biopsies and things I didn't need to worry about.  That was the same summer I had cataracts removed from both eyes, so it was a busy time.

I saw Dr. Muni, the cardiologist, Wednesday and got some med refills for my afib and had an EKG.  All the words on the report sound scary, but my favorite sentence was "no change from last time? which was 5 years ago.  Now I have my Medicare Well Visit Dr. Gil's first on her first available appointment - September 7th.  I could be healthier, but I could be worse off too, so I'll be content with that.

Elise got some roses when she bought groceries last night and brought me one for my bedside table. Not sure what kind of rose it is - not the usual kind.  Emily called it "dramatic" with it's hair blowing in the breeze.

On the way to the mailbox, I took some pictures of the rhododentrons near Noreen's garage at their peak.  They're amazing - every color from white to dark pink - and huge!

The shady walk between mine and Noreen's dining room windows.

This hydrangea pot got a good soaking while I was out.  It's a strawberry-vanilla panicle hydrangea.  It did very well last summer once I got it out in the sunshine.  This year, I placed it out back early where it gets sun every day, and it really looks healthy now.

This is the way it's supposed to look.

I wish we were allowed to plant things like this in our front beds, but we aren't.  We're lucky enough to have landscapers who landscape, but they don't seem to have any plan, and it looks scraggly this time of year.  My returning hosta will soon change the looks though.  It's probably big enough to furnish 5 or 6 good-size plants, but I don't really want to take that one by myself.  I'll just enjoy it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty warm today, and Sharon is not going to Mah Jongg.  I'll look and see if I'm needed to fill up a table.  If not, maybe I'll go out to Mount Si Nursery and see what pretty things I can find. 

For now, I'll finish my laundry and maybe go outside and work on the porch a little.  It needs some cleaning and new plants in anticipation of warm weather.  

New Title, Same Blog

 I forgot I had changed the old blog (Keeping it Going in Alabama) a couple of years ago, which says a lot about my memory.  I've worried about changing and losing all the old posts, but I think I'll take a chance on that.  Here is a link to the old blog just in case I lose it - and I probably will.

https://keepingitgoinginalabama.blogspot.com/

Those years cover some of the saddest days and some of the happiest days of my life, and I don't want the girls to miss these moments of their childhood.  

There's something interesting that happens every day, but I just got out of the habit of recording it, so it seems like my life just kind of disappeared for 10 years.  I might not get it done, but my hopes are to change the appearance and try to post more pictures and memories as I go along instead of having to play catch-up and get discouraged.  

Changes have happened but nothing earth-shattering.  Believe it or not, I'm still living in the same place Mike and I moved into in January of 2016 when we packed up all the possessions we could and moved across the country.  It gives me so much pleasure to go back and read the way our life was from 2009 to 2016 - pleasure mixed with sadness and some regrets but overall a good decision.  

I still live here, but one change is that Elise now lives with me.  It's not ideal and not exactly what either one of us wants, but we are plodding on and making it work somehow and hoping we'll we able to find a larger place we can afford.  We're locked into a 1-year lease right now but with hopes of a 3-bedroom apartment opening at the end of that lease.  Or something else.  

The girls are still the most important things in my life, but they are quite different now.  One teenager and one preteen!  After living near and having them off at Cascade View Elementary - one block away - this is the last month of either of them going to that school.  So sad to me, but I think there's some excitement from them about once again being in the same school - Snoqualmie Middle School - for a year.  Then Graysen will move on to Mount Si High School in 2027 while Kate has 2 more years at SMS.  Luckily, both schools are fairly close but not in walking distance any more.  If they have after after-school sports, the activity bus will bring them to the old school - right between my house and theirs, so they can come here whenever they want to.  And they will ride the bus on regular days to within a block of their house.

It's going to take a lot of time to make this space like I want it, but for now, I'll just try to remember to post my thoughts every few days and try to keep up, since that's been my theme for 17 years.  

I'm lucky enough to have good friends here in Snoqualmie, in addition to my family, who keep my spirits up when life gets real.  

Learning Mah Jong and being dedicated to playing with a group of fun people has been one of the nicest things I've done for myself.  On good weeks, we play twice and usually at least once a week with some combination of people.  We're serious about the National Mah Jong League Rules but not so serious that we argue or fail to laugh at ourselves.  We want to KNOW the rules even if we sometimes let our mistakes go.  

The good thing about a group like that is that there are so many different ages and interests.  I love hearing about their lives and families and I'm sure I bore them with mine.  One of the conversations about quilting just MIGHT turn into my getting back to sewing a little bit.  Here's keeping my fingers crossed that Sharon doesn't lose patience with me.  Some of them play bridge, which I retried and remembered that I'm no good at that and dropped it again, but I could play a non-stressful game if I had to!  Mary and I play Scrabble and MJ sometimes, and a couple more play an interesting-sounding game called Hand, Foot, Toe that I also might explore one day.  I do love my alone time though and can't get too involved and neglect to waste my usual amount of time.

I have friends in the neighborhood that I'm so thankful for.  Noreen and I catch up every other day or so and have some marathon sessions over her dining table where we try to solve everything wrong that we know of and laugh a LOT.  We're counting the days until it gets warm enough to head over to the pool to sit and watch our kiddos swim - or just take our coffee over there in the mornings to get some fresh air and quiet time.  

I took this picture of her beautiful Japanese maple on the way to have breakfast with her one day this week.  Such an inviting view, and the eggs and sausage were just what I needed.  

If I find some pictures to go with this post, I will include them, but I don't have much time today.  I'm not sure whether the girls will come here after school or not and what will happen for the rest of the weekend.  

Below are the last pictures of Graysen and Katherine.  I just don't take hundreds of photos like I used to.  They'd rather take pictures themselves than be captured in my computer, but I catch them sometimes. 

Graysen comes in reading and keeps right on going for a while.  She laughs at herself for not being interested in the Harry Potter books when everyone else was but is totally immersed in them now.  I think she finds his world a little more exciting than hers right now!

Katherine spends a good bit of time redoing my computer - without telling me.  She puts cat cursors and all kinds of surprises on there that make her laugh at my confusion.

Gray is also very interested in ancient history, and we're looking for some study guides that are interesting for the summer.  Most of the ones we've seen in the library look dull and textbook-ish, so we might find some home-schooling workbooks that will be fun and interesting.  

These girls are the very center of my heart, and I can't believe how different their lives are from my life at the same age.  My summers consisted of reading and being bored and too hot and walking to the library and reading more and going to the city pool in the afternoons.  Not exactly exciting, but it taught me to handle boredom, and I can't say I'm ever without something to entertain myself. 

This is how my online MJ game looks when I open it to play a game.  It took me a while to learn how to move the cat off the tiles, but it always comes back and sometimes chases my cursor.

So that's my Friday.  We had higher hopes for May being warmer, but then we always do and have to remember how beautiful it's about to be.  Maybe I'll get out and walk around with my camera this afternoon and capture some of the rhodies starting to bloom.  

Here's hoping I don't lose both blogs in this endeavor.  😕