Tag: Grandkids

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24

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There are many out there who remember the television series 24. We were so hooked on it that we used to have dinner parties with friends  at the beginning  and end of the season  so that the show became quite a huge tradition of watching this great show with close friends so that when we got together, it certainly gave us much more to talk about than the latest doctor visit. As you remember, each hour of 24 was marked with a tragic happening that could only be saved by one man…..Jack. Each hour was so jam packed with the CTU  task force trying to “rescue” certain folks or trying to figure out plots which would destroy the world. Well, this weekend was our own little 24 show. It has been a while since we babysit for a 4 year old for over a few hours. All I can say is that we are ready to call in Jack.  Each hour, I felt so lucky if I could come up with a chore that Noah could help with. His mom had told me that Noah loves to “help” so I thought of the chores which take me the longest, thinking that this might help me gain some time to cook (or even just brush my teeth.) if precious little Noah could go dust, water plants, or vacuum. maybe I could at least get the bed made or toast a piece of bread without having to go change the TV channel, turn on the bathroom light or come see  the 357th bird he was drawing. How can one four year old, drain you? By the end of our 24 hour assignment, I felt like I was my own CTU task force, but reinforcements nor Jack ever came.

On Friday evening we even considered going to both the 4 and 5:30 Good Friday service since the church was having the nursery open for kids 5 and under.

On Saturday, we broke a promise to ourselves that we had made years ago that we would  never, never go near another Chuck E Cheese, EVER! We stayed for 2 hours. Then at lunch, the cute little hostess at Chick Fila finally had the courage to come tell us that they needed our table after we had sat there for over an hour. We told her she had mistaken us for the people before us and that we had just arrived. Truth be told, we were still searching for Noah’s shoes in the play area that he had taken off  the minute we arrived and didn’t remember where he put them. I told Randy that I was not going to climb up the tunnel slide to retrieve the shoes!   This time it was his turn to do that. Besides, last time I got stuck and the  manager had to come rescue me from the tunnel.  That incident  reminded me of the slogan “a moment on the lips is forever on the hips” and why it should be my motto.

I love grandkids as much as the next Nana, but I’m thinking that we might have just discovered the idea behind Martin Luther King’s famous quote by the end of our 24 saga. As we drove away from dropping off precious little Noah (and yes, we did wait until his parents were home to do that although we were tempted at one point to just give him some Benadryl for a possible runny nose and sit him in front of a 4 hour movie at his house to wait for his parents to come home. Instead we bribed him with  Baskin Robbins every Saturday for the rest of his sweet angelic little life if he would just let us lay down for 15 minutes!), I looked over at Randy who “put the petal to the metal” as he began the famous speech, “free at last, free at last, thank God we are free at last.”  I just wonder how many grandkids MLK had kept the day before that famous speech?

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A Different Type of Christmas Carol

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It’s the dream of every (well almost every) grandmother to have a houseful of family over Christmas, and I am no exception. When our kids from Phoenix decided to come here for Christmas week, we were elated. Oh I could just imagine the sights and sounds we would get to have all around us. The grandkids are now 14, 6 and 3. Our 2 adult kids that live here have one child each, one 18 months, the other family 11 years. We have a granddaughter, 5 which lives in Orlando but was not blessed to see them this Christmas so one less to bake for.  So we have quite a span in ages. About a week ago, I began making cookie dough to put in the freezer so that all I had to do was unthaw and bake.  I made sure that I knew how to find the Christmas music stations on the TV so the house would be filled with “Ring The Bells, Joy to the World and Silent Night while we snacked on homemade cookies, made just for the precious angels that would be running in and out all week. Making sure to have just everyone’s favorite cookie made, I had my checklist all checked twice and made sure that everyone’s favorite was made and on the platter the minute they walked in the house. Isn’t it amazing how we conjure up what we feel like would be the perfect way to begin Christmas. Visions of a pretty platter of peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip and sugar cookies sitting out, while listening to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas playing in the background. The little ones would bring us the book,  Twas The Night Before Christmas while wiping sleepies from their eyes the first morning here. We would have the fireplace going with Frosty The Snowman movie on the TV while they cuddled on our laps. IS THERE A FAMILY THAT GETS TO ACTUALLY PLAY THIS SCENE OUT? If there is, please send me to them so I can see what that is really like!

So far, the visit has gone like this:

The 14 year old arrives, gives us a hug, disappeared to the bedroom and worked on his hair for 30 minutes. Then left to go spend the night with his cousin. Haven’t seen or heard from him since. But we still have the 6 and 3 year old right?

Well, after having the 6 year old in our bedroom on a makeshift bed, he awoke this morning asking every 10 minutes, “can I open a present”! Literally, when we finally had to tell him that every time he ask that, we would take one of the presents out from under the tree and give it to someone else. So he rephrased the question to, “can I NOT open a present” telling us that he wasn’t asking “can I open a present now”, so it didin’t count so we couldn’t take any of his presents away since he wasn’t asking that question. After we got that settled and thought, “ok, we won that battle” he begins to stomp around the house singing,  “What do you do with a drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor, so early in the morning?”

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know what I would like to do with a little 6 year old that sings that song over and over 15 times.

Maybe if I offer them some homemade goodies, they will be more in the Christmas spirit. So I bring out all the homemade cookies, that are sure to put a sparkle in their eye. They look at them and say, “Nana, do you have any of those Little Debbie Christmas trees you gave us when you came to visit us?” What? They are choosing Little Debbie over Nana?

Everyone is gone for a couple of hours, even Frosty left (probably is sitting in the car at a park someplace to get some peace and quiet) so I am sitting here, listening to Christmas Bells Are Ringing. At least I can have visions in my head of what some magical family out there is experiencing with family. And I wonder why our kids gave us a CD of Christmas Vacation with Clark Griswald. Maybe because our family much more resembles that family that the families inside the pages of Southern Living.

Do we really think it was an accident that Grandma stepped in front of the reindeer? Hum….maybe she just couldn’t take listening to “what do you do with a drunken sailor” one more time!

Merry Christmas to one and all! May you and your family make some precious memories this year as you celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord! Because of Him, we can have life eternal, peace on Earth and Joy….we give Him thanks for the laughter and joy that fills our home this Christmas!

Daily Thoughts

Ya Ya Sisterhood

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Last night some of our kids came over for dinner. We invite them to come  quite frequently because they have our 10 month old granddaughter. That, my dear friends, gets them a lot of homemade dinners. For some reason, last night Princess Payton decided that she just wanted me. It was glorious. She even went to me before her dad..I loved it. When Cameron was trying to get her to say, “ya ya” she did so and quite clearly. When I heard her say it, I thought to myself, “why that sounds so much cuter than Honey, which was what I had told them I wanted to be called, when Payton was born.. So I told them that I wanted to change my name from Honey to YaYa. That way, not only does it sound so cute, but she can already say it, which makes it even better. The kids started laughing at me and telling me that I cannot change my name AGAIN! Apparently, they think that just because I have gone from Honey Nonnie, to MiMi (but decided against that since my mom was called MiMi and I thought it might be confusing). The kids told me that it was no more confusing that me changing what I wanted to be called 5 times before Payton turned 1. But I decided that I really do like YaYa and I’m sticking to it. So now the grandkids in Phoenix call me Nana (which I tried to change but they said “NO”),  our 10 yr old grandson, which lives here calls me Nana and our granddaughter In Orlando calls me Honey. I won’t mention what Randy calls me. But back to the story. I figure that as the grandkids get older, I will be able to bribe them by telling them that if they will call me a cuter name than Nana, I will buy them stuff. So as of today, I am Nana Honey YaYa….oh my, that kinda has a ring to it. Maybe I should go with all 3 names….NanaHoneyYaYa!  Will take them awhile to learn to spell it, but by then I will probably have found a new cuter name anyway.

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Nanalicious Lessons

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It feels like I have not written in months, when in reality, it has only been 4 days. Before I left to babysit in Phoenix, I had posted some lessons learned from keeping our 10 yr old grandson for 4 days. Also, I had written that upon my return, I would post more lessons learned after a week of keeping a 3 yr old, a 5 yr old and a 13 yr old. This is the lesson that I learned last week:

WHEN DETERMINING WHERE TO LIVE WHEN WE GET OLD, WE WILL MOVE TO OUR KIDS THAT ONLY HAVE 1 CHILD, NOT 3!!!!!!

There…that was my lesson that I learned.  After spending 5 days in Phoenix with these angels, I learned that I should have trained for a triathlon before attempting this challenge. I learned that I should have had a chiropractor on speed dial.

Never attempt keeping 3 youngsters, at my age, without first buying earplugs, a great pair of tennis shoes and lots of benedryl (for the kids, not me)! I found myself running car pool with a roll of toilet paper in my purse, for Noah’s runny nose, (I couldn’t find any tissue), which really felt weird, when reaching into my purse for my wallet, grabbed the roll instead. The cashier looked at me, then looked at Noah and said, “I totally understand.”

Do not ever enter a restaurant without a bleach rag or antiseptic cleanser. I must have made 5 trips back to the silverware station for clean spoons after Noah kept knocking his onto the floor.

NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE without at least 3 pair of extra “big boy” underwear! Sometimes, the “big boy” forgets he is a big boy. Need I say more?

All in all, I can’t even begin to tell you how many trips I made up and down the stairs. When I brought the boys their milk for the night, I was so proud that I had bathed them, had them brush their teeth, and they were actually in bed without one boo boo for the day. I handed them their milk and Caleb says to me, “Nana, you have the wong cups. Noah has to dwink his out of his baby cup and I don’t dwink out of this one, because it is a baby cup.” I told him to just exchange them and all would be right in the world. He looked at me and said, “Nana, Noah’s uses the cup that looks like a cow uddor (Caleb doesn’t seem to see the need to use “r’s” so we never hear a “r” in the Dupree household), but it only has 1 uddor on it” So I ran back down stairs to find the cup with the 1 “uddor” on it.  (Are they really teaching 5 yr olds about cow udders in kindergarten now)?When I come back up, I bring two new cups of milk and promise God that when I turn 65, I will go to Africa to be a missionary, if I just don’t have to run back down the stairs again that night. Caleb tells me that I still got the wong cup for him, but he will use the one I bwought up. God is faithful! If I survive this week, I guess I will be preparing to learn how to live in Africa. I kind of feel like this past week was a great start for learning how to live in the wild.

When I plopped into the chair in the airport, waiting for my flight to take me home, I sat there thinking about how old this week made me feel. Why couldn’t I keep up like I could 40 years ago? My aching muscles and swollen feet reminded me that I guess I truly am not as young as I like to think I am. But after a couple days of rest, I’m sure I will be just fine and ready to tackle the next big challenge.

Upon arriving in Dallas, I walk off the plane, in my cute little wedge sandals, knowing that Randy will be waiting with open arms to welcome me home. Well, a few minutes after leaving the plane, I am walking so fast, that I hit a wet spot on the floor that has just been mopped. Whish…down I go right in the middle of Love Field terminal C. All the precious little 15 yr olds walking around me, come over to me and I hear people saying, “help her up, somebody, help the lady up.” I felt my face turn red and didn’t realize until I got up what I must have looked like, trying to get up by myself, having turned over on all 4’s and pushing my way to try to stand. It was a proud moment, I can assure you. But in the distance, there Randy stands, with a huge grin on his face. Was he that glad to see me or had he seen me fall? Could I feel any older than I had when the minivan that had dropped me off at the Phoenix airport was decaled with “nanlicious”? My dear sweet son-in-law thought it would  be cute to have this on the van as I drove it around all week.

Surely things will start to feel better as soon as I get to the house. Surely, as soon as I have a glass of sweet tea and sit down with my chocolate candy I had saved, I would begin to feel my youthful self again, well maybe after a good night’s rest. So settling down on the couch with my tea and chocolate, Randy brings me an envelop and says, “guess what you got while you were gone?” I glance down to see the giant envelop with giant letters forming the words “WELCOME TO MEDICARE”. I guess they think that we can’t see little letters unless they are the size of a large Vitamin.

I think that the Nanalicious van doesn’t look so bad after all. At least it didn’t have a handicap sticker on the license plate and with 3 kids in the back I didn’t feel as old as I did right then sitting there with the Medicare papers to fill out.

Wonder if the witch doctors in Africa take Medicare?

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Daily Thoughts

Grandkids, Grandparents & Guns

Chocolate Castles7 Comments

This weekend our 10 year old grandson, Sevy stayed with us for 4 days. Both Randy and I thought about  when our kids were young, how we would take a sack filled with Matchbox cars, or Barbi’s to grandmas house to entertain the little darlings for the weekend. The grandparents felt fortunate if there was a new Disney movie just coming out that they could take the kids to which would then take up a couple of hours.

We want to be sure that other grandparents out there learn a few new guidelines of how to spend 4 days with a 10 year old, without getting stressed out enough to double up on Geritol (or something stronger) or just “accidentally” leave the kid at Dave & Buster’s.

1. Forget the Barbi’s and Matchbox cars. Just be sure you have enough power strips in the house that will handle all the sweet childs “toys’, so you don’t blow a fuse and end up without any electricity. Be aware that any grandchild over the age of 6 will probably tell you that they can and do try to fix anything on your computer or television that will give them access to more games and cartoons. We are now doing research on how to get our tv and computer back to our settings.

2. If you don’t have the cartoon network; GET IT…even though you might have “SpongeBob Squarepants” song embedded in your brain for the rest of your life, just having it on will give you time to shower and get breakfast ready. And….FYI, luckily for all of us grandparents, you will be glad to know that they are 13 Seasons of SpongeBob, each season having 18 episodes..Ain’t life grand?

3. There is no need to “tuck them in bed and read them a story”. All they want to snuggle with is their Ipad, cell phone and Xbox controllers.

4. They have an uncanny way of finding any chocolate that you have hidden away  for those times when you need just something to tide you over until the next football practice, which will give you 2 whole hours of quiet; but cannot seem to every find the other shoe that will allow you to be on time for their golf lesson,or football game.

5. When you ask them if they might want to play dominoes or cards, they will probably ask you if that is an app on your phone!

6. Accept the fact that you will gain 5 lbs the weekend you have the little angel s in your home, due to the fact that you will be eating fast food the entire time. If it doesn’t come from Chick Fila, McDonalds or Pie 5, they don’t want it.

7. Do not ever believe, I repeat, “DO NOT EVER BELIEVE” the sweet little innocent darlings when they say that they wish you would take them to Academy “just to look” at any thing. They are lying. They know when they look up at you and tell you that you are the best Nana in the world, that you will end up carrying out what ever it was that they came to “just look at”.

8. And last great lesson  for the weekend; be sure that you are in good standing with your neighbors. You don’t want them calling the cops when you are out on the driveway, having target practice with the air rifle that they “just went to look at”. Also be aware that sometimes those pellets ricochet and can hit objects that were not intended to hit…thus the new dent in the car.2015-04-12 09.09.58

9. Be sure that you go to bed by 10. Their day begins about 6 a.m. and they like cartoons on the minute they go downstairs. They do not ever like the house void of background noise, so neither should we. After all, if there is quiet, they might hear you tell them to do a chore.

10. Take lots of pictures of them with your phone. One day you will need some evidence to embarrass them to bribe them to come see you in the nursing home.

So these are the lessons that we learned over the last 4 days. I leave Tuesday to fly to Phoenix to babysit 3 more grandchildren. Will write the new lessons I learn there, when I return.

Daily Thoughts

Yoga Van

Chocolate Castles5 Comments

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Just coming back from visiting our daughter and family in Phoenix, I am still trying to figure out why I gained weight over the last week. The entire week I was there, Jodi kept trying to inspire me with her new tales of what exercise class was doing for her and how, if I, would just go with her to class, I would feel better and have more energy, with less cravings. As I drank the awful shake she had made me try of flax seed, kale and cucumbers, I began to ponder that she might be right. she immediately tells me that I would probably need to crawl to the back of the van as we were headed to pick up her mother-in-law for lunch and she is not able to crawl to the back. (Has Jodi remembered that I am not still 35?)Mind you there are 2 baby seats with wires in the middle seats so it takes great agility to step up over wires to the DVD’s and with nothing to hold on to but the baby seats, all the while stepping over school backpacks, discarded McDonald, Chick Fila sacks and water bottles on the floor van.
When I thought about it, I informed little miss, “Yoga Guru” that I didn’t need to pay to exercise, I got all the muscle stretching that I could stand right there in the van. I also reminded her about the quick trips to the back of the van to grab Kleenex to wipe the little darling’s noses got me in a position that took me hours to get out of, made my case in point.
During the week in Phoenix, there were times that I would go in to potty (I know, TMI) only to discover that the toilet paper that was there just a few minutes earlier had been yanked and carried off by the 3 year old to take to his mom for wiping his nose. So there I would sit, trying to figure out if I should yell for help, drip dry, or use one of the used pull ups that was in the trash can (NO IT WAS NOT MY PULL UP).
The visits they are achanging. With them now having one teenager and 1 elementary child, plus a VERY strong willed 3 year old, our mother-daughter times were now complex. We use to be able to put them down for a nap while Eric stayed home with them and we would escape. Now, because there are no more naps, and because the school age kids go and get out at different times and the 3 year old only falls asleep while watching videos while she drives around in the van, our mother-daughter time is limited to van riding. We kidding about finding a drive thru salon for pedicures, and found ourselves riding around eating salads from our laps, so Noah wouldn’t wake up. It made me realize that I have to find something here in Dallas to keep me in shape so my body will stay in shape for the next visit of crawling back and forth in the van. As soon as Noah would wake up, he would cry for a certain toy which we would see had been thrown in the very back and guess who got the joy of crawling back over the seats to retrieve it..?
My idea for a mini-van commercial:
“No time for exercise? No extra money to join a gym? Buy our van, your body will thank you! Stretching and muscle building while you carpool. Great way for grannies to keep up muscle tones while visiting their grandkids. Plenty of door pockets to hold Depends for times when you sneeze as you are crawling over the seats to wipe those little precious noses”.
Mini-Van’s….buy them for your health.

Daily Thoughts

Woad (oops, Road, sorry, Ive been around grandkids to long) Wisdom

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Our friends back in California sent us home with this blessing last week, “we are so glad you are going home before we all sound like Paula Deen”. Seems that our friends there pick up the southern words of ya’ll and all ya’ll quickly. Stopping back by Phoenix to break up our trip, (who am I kidding, we stopped to see the grandkids)I found myself leaving Arizona sounding like I was 4 yrs old again. Randy looked at me kind of funny when I ask him if he wanted me to pack some “sammies” (sandwiches) for the woad. The first 100 miles driving out of Phoenix I was humming “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog” from Mickey’s Club House. Of course, Randy picked up a few of the grandkid habits also. He wanted to know how old is too old to run around the house in underwear, but I assured him he pasted that age many moons ago. 

We did gather quite a bit of wisdom on this trip. Here is some that you might want to print up to take along on your next adventure around the states.. We traveled another 3600 miles in the last 25 days so we feel that we are almost “travel experts” after having now put about 9000 miles on the car since February. Of course you don’t have to take our advice, but if you don’t you might just be very “sowwie”.

1. Do not spill M&M’s in your car. They might not melt in your hand, but trust me on this, they do melt in the car.

2. Do NOT, I repeat, Do NOT, eat spicy green chiles while on the road, the trip home will take double the normal driving time.

3. Use your grandkids as needed,. I had a chocolate craving while on the road so into Wallyworld we went. When the cashier was checking us out, she stared at me as if to think, “lady, your shorts are already to tight, I don’t think this is really what you should be buying.” To take the focus off me I causally mentioned that we were on our way to see our grandkids, she smiled and said, “of course you don’t want to show up there without candy, do you?” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that candy, plus another stop for candy would never make it to Phoenix. It wasn’t my fault that she thought the candy was for the precious little darlings.

4. Be sure to pack the next larger size of clothes that you have in your closet. We learned that eating fast food 3 times a day, plus all the snackies that we brought along, does tend to put a few ounces on our well  tuned bodies…

5. When staying with our kids/grandkids, you need to remember that the television will never be tuned to anything but cartoons so have your favorite TV shows recorded at home. You will NEVER have the opportunity to watch them until you return.

6. Eat at all the restaurants that you have been dying to try while driving. Once you get to the grandkids house, you will need to buy TUMS to help digest McDonalds or Taco Bell that completes their daily diet plan..

7. Increase your data plan on your smart phone before leaving. The little sweet darlings only love us for our phones and thus, every game app has now replaced all my exercise and health food recipes app.

8. Take lots of plastic zip lock bags. Because several tubes of cosmetics “blew” driving from 6000 ft down to 1000, we had such fun cleaning up shampoo out of everything in the bag.

9. Be sure you have lots of Kleenix on hand as you walk out the door to head home. No matter the different life style that you have to adjust, it is just never easy to leave grandkids, twust me on this. Maybe singing a little song will help, “hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog.”

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Happy Valentines Day

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

We are still in Phoenix with kids and grandkids. Wanting to do our part and not be a burden financially to them, Jodi and I sat down to discuss the situation. When she began to tell me what they were treating us to for Valentines, I remarked that I didn’t think that was fair to them as we were staying free for over a week, using their water, washing our clothes with their laundry soap and so on…she begin to tell me that that was their payment to us for the babysitting we were doing and for the groceries we had already bought. It went downhill from there. We began to itemize, for fun, going back and forth, things that they had bought and things that we had bought. Bargaining began. She offered me turn down service if I would do her laundry. She even offered a mint on our pillows, if we wouldn’t mind picking up the mints next time we went to the store. I told her that I would do her laundry if we could have air conditioning in our room. Randy walked in and as he sat there and listened to us, he spoke up and said that he thought it would be cheaper if we stayed in a hotel as we got free breakfast without having to take  turns playing basketball in the park in the afternoons. We could snack our way through Costco for lunch,without having to change 2 dirty diapers in exchange for lunch provided by the Duprees, which usually consisted of Tortinos Pizza or cus of Macaroni & Cheese.

Spending our Valentines day with 3 little precious darlings, ages 12-1 1/2, might not be as romantic as we are used to, but where else can we sit down to eat with valentine stickers stuck all over our arms or a lego wedged between our toes under the table? Next Valentines Day might be a little quieter, but this Valentines day is special. There is nothing quite like having a grandchild wrap his little arms around you and tell you that you are his favorite valentine in the “whole whhoold”. unless Randy gets me a new phone for Valentines, That wins over the grandchild. Sorry Caleb, but Pops wins “favorite valentine” this year.

 

 

wit

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This is one of the 3 reasons I’m not posting on the blog for a few days. The other 2 have taken over all the computers and ipads in the house. Things will return to normal on Tuesday!

Daily Thoughts

Grandson’s Imagination Leads to a New Blog

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This past weekend, our kids from Phoenix came to visit since they had a holiday on Monday. Jaden, the 11 yr old came with a story he had written for school. That was our dinner entertainment one night, listening to his story, which was absolutely great. The imagination of this young man amazed us all and humor, well, let’s just say that we were all loving the laughter and smiles that the story brought. He wanted to know if he could post it on my blog, when I suggested that he form his own blog. That way, he could put the story or if he decided to make it a series, he would be able to post them whenever he wanted. Thus, http://www.myfictionallife.com was born……He ask me if I would post and share this new blog site and of course, being the cool, great grandmother I am, I am doing just that. Where did the years of Sesame Street and Pippa Pig go and when did Jaden get old enough to be able to write about a time machine which takes him back to Roman days, with gladiators; which is where the time machine took him. As I pondered this question, I thought to myself, “self, where does the time go such as when I didn’t need support bras or pantyhose, or “did I really live during a time when there was no QVC or microwave ovens?”The answer; time just goes. No one exactly how or  when it happens, but it does. The times that we think will be there forever, they go faster and faster. My point today is this…..write down special memories because even though you might think you will remember everything special, with that wonderful memory of yours, that also goes….trust me on this. So take note of special times that come along. Enjoy it when that 3 yr old grandson sleeps between you and lays his feet and legs over your face. Listen, really listen to the stories that your grandchildren  and children make up, (unless they are in their 30’s, then you might seriously think about getting help for them) it is just so incredible to listen to their imagination.  At our age, our imagination only involves thinking about a whole night sleeping without having to get up to go to the bathroom, or trying to imagine what I use to look like before I had to use 3 layers of makeup to cover up lines. On crazy days, I do imagine winning the grand prize on Wheel of Fortune, but that is only when I feel really bold and “out there”.

So if you are so inclined to “go wild” and show those grandkids they are not the only ones with an imagination, write a story about something crazy you did when you were their age, or get out pictures of the “younger years” and share memories with them. They might just surprise you and ask a question or two before running off to the computer or TV, well…..at least you can “imagine” them being interested……

Use one night a month for you and your spouse to sit and write down some dreams and talk about things that you both enjoyed before you had to be home to catch the 6:00 news. Randy and I make a special night each January to have special snacks and make a bucket list of things that we want to do in the new year. We do NOT, not EVER, list “get more exercise” or “eat healthier” as those don’t sound like fun, so we don’t list them, plus we know that the next year, we would not be able to check them off our list. So we plan day trips, or vacation places, or name something that we would like to begin. We are taking our Omega 3’s religiously so we will be able to remember the fun plans that we have made, but just in case we do forget, we have written them down….we don’t want our imaginations to get bored this year. We are determined to let 2013 be a year of at least completing half of our yearly bucket list. If we don’t make that goal, we will just change the yearly list to say 2014 and start over. After all, at our age, we will probably forget what or where our imaginations took us.