What Do You Do At A Popcorn Festival?

Saturday morning, after Anna and Noah spent the night, started early. The children were admonished to not get up before 8:30 so at about 7:20 someone touched my arm softer than a whisper and then her very quiet voice said, "Grandma?" "What, Honey." "We're bored. Can we read?" "Sure," I said. A few minutes later, the same touch and the same quiet voice with the same message. We're bored. Okay, you can play in the playroom. A few minutes later I got up. I did my shred and the kids weren't even that interested. It's seems they'd seen their mom do it plenty of times.

Outside it was pouring and not looking a bit like we'd go to the Popcorn Festival but a few hours later the rain stopped, the radar looked promising, and we got ready to go. I picked up my camera and the battery was suddenly so dead that the camera wouldn't turn on. I put it in the charger and no dice - and no charge either. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm NOT going to a Popcorn Festival with grandchildren without a camera. So we stopped at Batteries Plus, a business that I'm appreciating more and more. This was a good chance to assess the condition of Anna's three loose teeth among other important subjects.

Noah looked around a little and then very importantly told me that they were pretty much out of all batteries at their house and that we should probably get some. Evidently the AAA batteries were at the most critical level. Fortunately, I mean unfortunately, we had already checked out.

We stopped at Anna and Noah's house for jackets and closed toe shoes both of which were unnecessary as the weather suddenly cleared and warmed.

As soon as we got to the festival, the first order of business was lunch. The kids wanted cotton candy but we told them we'd get some on the way out.

Anna had some good ideas about where to go.

After passing a lot of booths where I would have lingered except they were just too boring for the children and would have entailed spending money, we found the air rides. The kids went through a very long caterpillar and then headed for the Wave of Fire. There were no waves and no fire but there was a really high slide.

They climbed up and I had to try to guess which side they were coming down so I could get some good action shots. After the first round, we worked out a system where they'd stand at the top and wave, making sure I saw them, before heading down.

Noah was a little uneasy during his first slide but recovered by the time he reached the bottom.

After three trips on the Wave of Fire we sought other adventures. The next one and what turned out to be their favorite, was the obstacle course where they raced through all sorts of obstacles, climbed a wall, and flew down a slide at the end.


We had three more tickets each for them and thought they could try their hands at a couple of challenging games with ridiculously cheap prizes. This was good though because there was no big disappointment the couple of times that they didn't win anything.

I'm confident Beth won't read this post and she'll never know that her children held guns and shot at small safari animals.

Here you can see Annie Oakley, aka Anna, taking aim. She got her kill on the first or second try. Her Aunt Amy would have been so proud. Noah knew his turn was coming and paid very careful attention.

Noah, you know being a little younger and all, struggled a little with the hold and with his aim.
I have to give the teenager credit for his patience because even though sometimes Noah aimed for a full minute or more, the teen didn't rush him. Sometimes, while Noah was aiming, he'd look at him and smile while I lowered the camera to rest my arms, but he never rushed him.

On his last shot, Noah hit his target. He looks satisfied but look how happy his Grandpa is!

We headed for the car with the kids asking every few seconds if we could get cotton candy and us promising that we would get some at one of the last booths before we got to our parking place. I walked with Anna and Mr. Right walked with Noah. It may look like Mr. Grandright was getting a little impatient with Noah who was too distracted by one of his cheap prizes to keep walking, but he was. Just a little.

They did fall slightly behind because incidents like this kept happening. See that little blue ball near the bottom of the picture? And see Mr. Grandright's face? It was okay though. He never got mad and he was patient and generous all afternoon.

Then we got to the last booth. You know. The one with the cotton candy. Except there was no cotton candy. The whole cotton candy section was empty. The kids still insisted that I go up to the people in the booth and ask if they were out of the cotton candy that was nowhere to be seen and it was confirmed. They were out of cotton candy. Why oh why after everything went so perfectly, did we have to break our promise to get the cotton candy? I guess it was just meant to be.

We got back to Beth's and somebody was really happy to see his siblings (although he appeared to be wondering why they weren't holding any cotton candy).

It was a fun 24+ hours. Toadmama commented yesterday that she bet Grandma slept well and she was oh so right. But I'll guarantee that last night's sleep was nothing compared to what tonight's is going to be. I am happy and completely exhausted!

We've Got Company

I've addressed the joys of grandparent hood previously. There are pros and cons. Bacardi Mama touched on both of them in her post on Thursday. She's always babysitting for her grandchildren and she always seems happy to do it but, if you don't know her very well, you may not know what a sacrifice she made this time. She's a died-in-the-wool, unwavering, lifetime Cubs fan and she passed up a chance to go a game to babysit her grandchildren. What a trooper! What a grandma!

Now it's my turn. We got a chance to have Anna and Noah visit overnight. Once again, I was filled with trepidation fearing that they might not enjoy it very much but so far it's been a really fun adventure.

Here they are coming home from a friend's house because I was there to pick them up.

We stopped at GFS on the way to buy the 20 oz styrofoam coffee cups that Mr. Grandright and I like. And I was amused to hear Noah gasp at what we paid for them. (Truth be told I gasped too. I had no idea we were spending that much on disposable cups .)

Then we went to Meijer to be sure we'd have everything on hand that grandchildren need to enjoy an overnight at their grandparents' house. We got cookies and soda and snack cakes. Our last stop in the grocery store was supposed to be for ice cream (required for root beer floats) and Toaster Struedels. I asked Anna to not let me forget and she didn't. Twice I almost checked out without them and each time Anna faithfully reminded me to head for the freezer section.

We went out to the car to get the re-usable bags before we checked out (see I am green in some areas) and when we went back in, there was a police car parked in front and just as we got up to it, a policeman escorted an attractive, hand-cuffed young lady to his car and helped her inside. This really got the kids attention and invoked every question imaginable mostly within earshot of the suspect.

I told Beth about it last night and said that she'd probably never have to worry about the kids stealing anything. She then told me about a friend whose daughter took a necklace belonging to her step-grandmother. When the friend contacted her dad and told him about it, he offered to have his police officer friend stop and talk to the culprit. I'm pretty sure that child will never borrow anything without permission again.

We utilized the self checkout, and I was impressed with Anna's grocery bagging skills. She bagged our entire $108 worth of merchandise and did a great job of it.

Then we went for a short stroll at Striebel Pond. As we were returning to the car, I was approached by an elderly (older than me) lady who asked a favor. She had walked a half mile with her cane following a hip surgery but just didn't think she could make it any farther. I took her around to the other parking lot a half mile away where her husband waited. The kids thought this was interesting too and asked all sorts of questions when we delivered her to her husband. For me, I got a kiss and a blessing for doing something I was grateful for the opportunity to do.

Here you can see how enthusiastic the kids were to visit Striebel Pond.

But soon Noah was worn out from all this dancing and walking upwards of 200 feet. And don't forget, according to him, we spent two hours at the grocery store. Anyway, at this point Anna's response lent new meaning to the song, 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'.

This morning Anna and I put together a puzzle.

She did most of the work, and as Noah looked it over, I commented that Anna is really good at puzzles. I wish I could somehow include the inflections in his voice when he replied, "I know that!".

Today we're planning to go a popcorn festival but so far the weather isn't cooperating. The forecast looks promising though and I just know there'll be more adventures there.

I said I was worried about the kids having a good time but maybe that really wasn't my issue. Could I have been worried about me having a good time? If I was, my fears are at rest because I'm having a blast!

Striebel Pond Swans and How They've Grown

It was so fun last year watching the swans grow but I don't know what happened to them in the Fall. Did they migrate? I heard that one died but there are varying stories about whether it was a parent or one of the young ones. I'm leaning toward one of the young ones. I also heard that they tried to come back this last Spring and were driven out of there by the parents. I'd be interested to know the real story.

This year the swan pair hatched SIX babies right after a big storm last Spring. I talked all about it here. And here are more pictures of them taken that first day after they hatched.

I've watched their progress and how fiercely protective the male was of his territory. I thought he hated geese and talked about it here and here and here. I now think he considered geese to be the biggest threat to his little ones because now that the baby swans have grown into young adult swans, the geese and the male co-exist without all that drama.

I've had a hard time photographing the swans lately. They tend to hang near the edge of the pond when I'm there and with the grass being about five feet tall now, I can't get a clear shot. So the other night I took my life in my hands and fought my way to near the water's edge to get some pictures of the more mature swan family.

Isn't it incredible how much they've grown in just over 3 short months! Now you have to look closely to tell the mom and dad from the kids. I think that the mom and dad have dark orange on their bills and the youngsters don't but that's just my theory.

I'll try to watch more closely and visit more often to see when they take off for their southward migration. They do migrate, don't they? (I just researched a little and found this: "The young begin to fly at 4 to 5 months but usually remain with the parents through the first winter. Non-migratory in North America, Mute Swans may make short-distance, seasonal movements dictated by the weather.") It will be interesting to see what they do.

Now, as far as risking my life by making my way down to the waters edge. I chuckled to myself as I fought my way down there for being such a baby. After spending ten or fifteen minutes with the swans, I continued my walk on the trail. I rounded one curve just in time to see a large snake slither off into the grasses.

We probably won't get many more close-ups of the swans this year - at least not if we have to walk through tall grasses to get them.

You Capture - Signs

This week's You Capture subject is signs and who can think of signs without remembering the song by the Five Man Electrical Band (oh sure maybe someone younger). But who, my age, can think of signs without thinking of these lyrics:

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"

And then there are signs which require interpretation. When you see these signs, it's not too hard to figure out that summer is ending; winter is coming.



Most importantly, I shot most of my photos in 'manual' this week and didn't use a flash even in the lowest light. I feel great about that. Thanks, Beth!

For creative signs of all kinds, visit Beth at I shouldbefoldinglaundry and, better yet, join in the fun.

True Confessions Tuesday - Sep 7th Edition

Right off the bat I have to admit that my confessions include more than just the weight loss sabotages that the Sisterhood encourages us to confess. I've gone through a stage lately where I've had nothing to blog about. Even after I remind myself that ultimately this blog is a diary/journal for me, I've still got nothing.

Apparently this has begun to bother me more than I realized. You see there's a blog that I like to read called Toadmama's Interstitial Space. Don't worry, I had to look up interstitial too and I'm still kind of vague about what it means. The important thing though is that Toadmama's blog is interesting and full of really beautiful pictures.

The connection between Toadmama's blog and my angst at having nothing to write about manifested itself in my dream last night. In my dream, having nothing to say on my own, I just went to Toadmama's blog, took pictures of it with my camera, and then displayed them in my blog as if it were my post. It still cracks me up when I think about it.

And I'm surprised to see that the pictures display pretty well in my blog. If you're looking for an entertaining site, visit http://toadmama.com/ Believe me, you won't be disappointed.

Now on to my real confessions.

I knew that our Team Challenge was a biggy for me but I really didn't know how significant it was. I lost eight pounds over the course of the 30 day challenge and it was fun being part of a bigger effort. This is driven home to me by the fact that the minute it ended, my inspiration ended too. I've been very self indulgent and and unmotivated.

The one thing I've done pretty well is Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred workout. However, in all honesty I think it has more to do with the physically fit part of it than the weight loss part. Everyday I'm amazed and pleased with myself that I'm 64 and can do the first workout. That didn't stop me from skipping the weekend because I thought of some excuses but yesterday morning I got back on track again.

And, in addition to eating badly, I've neglected my second phase workout which is a photography walk at Striebel Pond. (No wonder I don't have anything to write about.)

So, I'll put on my big girl pants (the ones that used to be a little bit to big for me) and try to get back in the groove using all the tools that the Sisterhood of The Shrinking Jeans makes available too me.

Here's to a brand new start!

You Capture - Mornings

The things I do for Beth and her You Capture! Tuesday morning I couldn't sleep because I knew I needed to get up and capture some very early morning pictures for this week's challenge. The times on my pictures are all off by one hour because when I returned from Michigan a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to reset the time on my camera.

I got up about 5:15 and had to wait about a half hour for there to be enough light and enough color to start my project. While I fried hamburgers for Mr. Right to take in his lunch, I kept stepping out to the backyard in my pajamas to see what I could get.

When I didn't think the colors seemed true enough in my camera's review screen, I tried switching lenses. It made a difference but I'm not sure for the better.

After Mr. Right left for work, I headed around to the front of the house where I liked how the sun coming up and shining through the trees actually seemed to turn some of the leaves red.

Then I threw on some clothes, dragged a comb across my head, and headed to Striebel Pond to see what goes on out there in the very early mornings. As soon as I started my walk, I caught this shot.

Then I spotted the swans and was chagrined to see that the kids were still sleeping and Mom & Dad were just beginning to stir.

I headed to the bridge from which I often shoot and saw the geese and ducks were stretching, honking, quacking and generally starting their morning toilette.

Around the northeast end of the pond I saw the sun shining on the flag from a different direction than I'd observed before so I snapped it.

And before I completed my walk, I saw that the sun was already obscured by clouds but it still made for a pretty morning photo.

Visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry to see what other people do in the mornings; or better yet, take some photos and show us what you do in the mornings.