Mama On The Move

Well, Linguine has had quite the adventure.  He is not allowed outside, he is an indoor cat through and through.  But he wants to go outside.  Wants it with every fiber of his being.  He sees birds and geckos out there and he just knows if he could get to them, he would be a mighty hunter indeed. Well, a stray cat wandered through our yard this week.  He looked remarkably like Linguine.  In fact, I've seen this cat outside before and thought Linguine had escaped.   Fettuccine also has an identical twin out there but that's not relevant to this story. Anyhow, Linguine did not think this new cat looked like his long lost brother.  He thought this stranger cat looked like the devil incarnate and was filled with the burning need to eliminate his evil twin from the planet.  He busted out of prison and took off after his doppelgänger.   Kerry was in the yard and saw this portion of the proceedings. 

Emily’s 23rd birthday has arrived!  Since she’s off in Texas and not here for us to celebrate with her, we have to find ways to make an impact on her far, far away. Last year we sang a song in a Hamilton style.  This year Katie picked another song she knows Emily loves - City Escape -and wrote lyrics to go with it.  Kerry and I found the song to be very fast paced and we despaired of learning it in time (we only had an hour).   After practicing while making dinner and trying about five separate times to record ourselves (at least one of us would flub it somehow).  We usually find the mess ups to be hilarious and try to include a few in the finished project.   We may not be the most talented singers on the planet but we sing with gusto and that's more important!

Katie’s been mixing her metaphors again.  This one popped out of her this week. Kerry was making a new recipe he had found for chicken.  He mentioned that he was only supposed to cook the chicken for 20 minutes.  I was skeptical.  “That doesn’t seem long enough,” I said.  “I don’t want to eat undercooked chicken.” Katie joined in,”Yeah, I think you’d better cook it an extra 10 minutes.” Kerry insisted the recipe called for 20 minutes in the oven and that’s what he was going to do. Katie responded, “Well, we’ll find out if it’s done soon enough.  And if it’s not, he made his bed, he can eat it!” 😂 The chicken was delicious by the way.

We took advantage of the lack of tourists on the island to spend a weekend at the Hale Koa in Waikiki. We usually avoid Honolulu as much as possible because the traffic is horrible, streets are crowded, and the wait to get into any restaurant is interminable.   But right now it's quite nice.  We spent a nice weekend walking around, checking out places we don't normally visit, just being tourists while everything is slow. On Saturday morning, Kerry and I got up and went for a walk, only to get caught in a sudden rainstorm.  All the normal paths back to our hotel were blocked off because they are limiting entrances to make sure only registered guests are on the grounds.  Where we normally could have scooted down a side path back to the hotel, this time we had to walk all the way around the hotel to the front entrance. We got very wet. Ben, Noelle, and Katie came down to have brunch with us.   Katie stayed and spent the night with us. We spent a lot of time just floating in the in

Ben and Noelle finally got an ultrasound which allowed them to see the baby clearly. And they were finally able to tell the gender! Baby Boy had his legs spread with great pride and was hiding nothing. When Noelle said, "It's a boy," the doctor responded, "That's not a boy, that's a MAN!" 

We are getting Katie's high school transcript together to send along with her college application.  She was looking over the classes she had taken and noted, "Archery, harp, and ballroom dance.  I sound like a medieval princess!"

This morning Katie was standing in the middle of the living room looking like she was deep in thought. She sighed, “I’m going to be twenty years old in three months.  I’m not sure I’m okay with that.” “I’m going to be fifty-five in two months,” I responded dryly. “Yeah, I’m okay with that ,” she chirped.

Because school has been cancelled for the entire rest of the academic year, the school where I work has decided to post pictures of the teachers on the school website. Each of us will be holding a sign with one word on it.  When all of our pictures are in order, the words will form one long paragraph of encouragement to the students. Representing my importance to the school, my word is "the".  I'm only a part time teacher, and I'm new.  I certainly wasn't going to be given the word "didaskaleinophobia". So here it is: Give me a little word - I'm going to make it in BIG letters!

I had bought a bag of small fingerling potatoes recently.  It was a "medley" of several different colors of potatoes - red, yellow, white, even purple!  They looked interesting and since we are having to stay home all day, every day right now, even something as minor as a new potato can add interest to an otherwise long dull day. I was getting the chicken ready for dinner when Kerry came into the kitchen and said, "Can I do anything to help?" I told him, "Grab that little bag of potatoes and start cutting the big ones in half for roasting.  The smaller ones will be fine as they are." When he cut one of them in half and discovered it was purple in the middle, he held it out towards me and said, "What kind of potatoes are these?" "I don't know," I responded.  "What does the bag say?" "She said to cut up the potatoes." He may not survive this quarantine......

Here is the latest picture of my first grandchild!!!! I need a few more exclamation points. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No idea of the gender yet, but he/she is the size of an olive. Due date November 29th!

Masks are the latest thing in fashion today! We had a lovely lady from our church offer us masks that she had made out of scrap material in her house.  Thank goodness, because I never have been able to sew well.  A button.  I can sew on a button.  I've always wanted to be able to sew.  I've just never enjoyed lessons.  So I want the ability to sew without having to do that whole learning process. Unfortunately, God hasn't granted me the magical ability to sew without slogging through the basics so I have to depend upon the kindness of others to provide me with life saving masks.    When I took this picture, I told Katie she looked like she was stalking me. So she did this for the next photo, because that's so much better.

Ben and Noelle are both taking classes on line.  Ben is trying to finish up his Bachelors.  Noelle has started work on her Masters.  They are only in their early 20's and I guessed they would want to wait until they finish their degrees before they try to start a family.  I also wonder sometimes if they are going to decide Hawai'i is too expensive for them and realize they could afford a bigger house on the mainland.  If they pack up and leave, a BIG part of the reason why we moved back here will be gone. Well.......... Ben Facetimed us today.  I knew something was up the minute my phone rang.  Ben never Facetimes us.  Of the dozen thoughts that ran through my head before I answered the first was "They are having a a baby."  The second was, "They are moving off the island."  Of course, there is a pandemic taking over the world and we are all having to social distance from one another.  He might actually just be tired of not seeing anyone but I didn't