Me

I went to the MACAC a little after noon on Saturday. I saw something on the neighbors driveway as I came home. Then I saw Sharon watering our neighbors flowers, they are gone to Colombia for a couple of weeks. As I got out of the car, Joelle came running yelling "Poppy". It was Joelle's overnight bag and a swim noddle I had spotted on the driveway After I greeted Joelle and Sharon, I told Sharon I would hook up a water hose so she didn't have to water using a one gallon water pail. They went into the house, it was hot. I hooked up the water hose and water for about 15 minutes before going into the house. Joelle's bag was in the entryway. Joelle was "sleeping over" for the first time in a long while. She seemed so excited which I didn't fully understand, it is not unusual for Joelle to be over at our house, but I guess she doesn't spend the night anymore like she used to.

As I said, her bag was in the entry and she was busy taking one item at a time to the back. I asked her where she wanted to sleep. Her "room" is closed much of the time to keep the cats out so I have shut the air conditioner vent. She informed me that she was sleeping in the big bed with Nana. That was cool because now I didn't have to get a ladder to open the vent in "Joelle's Room". Dinner was the usual, Luby's with Joelle getting her usual fare. I told her that we were going to let her rent a movie since she has been intrigued by the movie rentals from a vending machine at McDonalds. We went to Krogers in the outskirts of a thunder shower. Third time this week we have just missed a good rain by a couple of miles. I got the movie vending machine started, looking longingly at the advertised movies "3:10 to Yuma" and "Rendition", I selected "Childrens" as the category of movies to rent. It didn't take long. Joelle spotted "Barbie, Mariposa". I couldn't wait.

We turned on the TV when we got home. I noticed the Olympic women gymnastics was on. Joelle decided she wanted to watch that Saturday evening and watch the Barbie movie as she ate break feast Sunday morning. She showed me the "Hello Kitty" waffle maker on the kitchen cabinet. So, We watched gymnastics. Sharon was going to bake a batch of cookies as a special treat for Joelle. I don't know why Sharon couldn't ready the package, but I heard her ask Joelle to read her the instructions. My 40 years plus wife was asking my five year old granddaughter to read her the baking instructions! I heard Joelle say, "1. Separate 2. Bake 3. Enjoy." I went into the kitchen laughing. However, those were exactly the instructions on the package. I found, in very small print the oven temperature and baking length instructions. Joelle started getting ready for bed about 8:30, Nana too. I, of course, stayed up front to watch TV. Joelle gave me a good night kiss and reminded me NOT to make noise and wake them up. I agreed not to.

I was watching TV, when at about 9:30, I heard giggling and laughter coming from the back bedroom. It sounded like a couple of teenage girls having a slumber party, not Joelle and Nana. They were both asleep by 10:00.

I awoke at my usual time on Sunday, the crack of noon. The girls had eaten their waffles and were ready to go to our pool. The pool wasn't crowded so we had plenty of room to splash. Joelle had a Disney Princess doll, a boggie board and a noodle. She would kick back and forth using either the noodle board or the boggie board while telling me to teach the doll to swim. Joelle could really make a lot of progress kicking and she could usually touch the bottom. She also would jump into the pool just a few inches from me so I could catch her, but again, she could touch the bottom. We were at the pool about an hour before it was time to go. Sharon got a call from Petie telling us that Lisie wanted Joelle so we packed up and left. Lisie really did want Joelle. Sharon and stayed for just a couple of minutes before leaving, Lisie and Joelle having their usual romp around the house.

That's life in the fast lane! However, I think I can speak for Sharon, Joelle and Myself, a good time was had by all!

Today was Thursday, Library day with Joelle. I rolled up to "Cheers" at 2:10 PM. I call Petie and Chris's house "Cheers" because of some lyrics from the old sitcom "Cheers". This is the part of the theme song I base it on:

Sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. You wanna be
where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows Your name.

Today was special, Lil' Lisie Bear had finished her nap, so Petie and Lisie could go too. We arrived at the library, got two tickets to see the show (one for Joelle and one for Lisie) and had time for Joelle to read a couple of books, Petie was trying to read to Lisie, but she just wanted to motor. Joelle finished one book and most of another, despite being pestered by two girls who wanted her books.

The show was dumb, in my opinion, but Joelle said she liked it. It was some woman singing about an opera singing dog or something like that. Lisie was motoring the entire time. She always has the most beautiful smile. She came over to me several times and I was so proud that everyone noticed what beautiful grandchildren I have. Petie and Lisie were in and out of the room a couple of times and Joelle always looks around several times to make sure I am still there. She knows I am very protective of her, but she doesn't know I would not dare leave her in the room because there is more than one way out. She may check a couple of times to make sure I am still there, but I almost never take my eyes off of her so I know she is still in her place.

Joelle read two books after the show but still wanted to read more. Lisie was ready to go. Petie made the great suggestion of checking out the books so Joelle could read them at home. We would be back within two weeks to return the books. A thunder shower was in progress when we left and I almost dove on the curb in front of the library for a quick boarding because of the lightning.

Traffic was not bad yet, so we got back home fairly quickly. Joelle and Lisie were both snacking on Lisie's pop corn when Lisie climbed onto my lap for a short time. Joelle told me that Lisie wanted to go with us because she loves me. Wow, what a compliment! I told Joelle that I loved Lisie and her very much too. Joelle than told me I was the best Poppy she ever knew. I know I am the ONLY Poppy she has ever known, but I have never had a better gift than that. I also know that I am not at the same level as Nana, but she has earned her place in the lofty heights of admiration. However, she dearly loves what she has done to accomplish those metals.

I love it Cheers.

Well, summer is really here. This is probably going to be a bad one weather wise. I'll bet we haven't had an inch of rain since March. However, the good thing about summer is the weekly trip to the library with Joelle. I really had fun with her last year and an looking forward to this years weekly trips.

Thursday was the first library trip. I picked up Joelle and took off for the Spring Branch Library. However, I notice that this year, the journey to the library was different. Joelle read the entire way. We had such interesting talks last year and I am really going to miss that part of our outing. That had been one of the few times that we were together without anyone else involved. Oh well, there is always the library itself.

We got to the library, and Joelle grabbed two books from the shelf and we sat down. Last year, Joelle wanted me to read the books to her, even though she really knew every word. She just wasn't sure that she would know every word and she was afraid she would be embarrassed if she came across a word she didn't know. She read two books while we waited for the shirt painting class to open. The class was limited to twenty people, so we got our ticket before Joelle read her books. The lady in front of us got 7 tickets even though she only had one child with her. She told the ticket person the others were coming.

The shirt painting class finally opened and we went into the room. We brought a plain tee shirt with us as instructed. At least two thirds of the children didn't bring a blank tee shirt but were given one by the library. There were 3 children who had not arrived soon enough to get one of the 20 tickets, and were wait listed to see if all of the lady's group would arrive. They did not and all of the wait listed children we given a place in the class.

The class started and Joelle and I were seated at a table with a cup of water and about 6 different kinds of brushes. The class leader had jars of paint and each child stood in line to get colors of paint on a paper plate. Joelle got white, yellow, green, brown, blue and her favorite color, purple. There were stencils on a table so I picked up a frog, a horse, stars, and trees. Most of the children were using stencils. Joelle did not want to use them, instead she wanted to paint her own design on the tee shirt. She started out painting a house with white walls and a yellow roof. She then drew a chimney and put in a door. After adding a sidewalk, she painted grass. Then she really started getting creative. She added a variety of modern art designs around the house. When she finished, she had created, in my biased opinion, the best looking tee shirt in the room. Several of the other mothers also told her so. I was intrigued by what the boy across from Joelle drew on his shirt. He drew a tank with smoke coming out of the barrel, a man with a gun and another man, between the tank and the gunman, laying on his back face up. The face was colored brownish red. Looks like Blackwater has a future recruit.

I told Joelle we had time for her to read a couple of books before we had to head home. She selected three books. we sat down and she read all three books. She wanted to read another but I told her we had to leave. It was already 4:15 and I knew traffic would be getting bad soon. The trip home was mostly silent. Joelle was reading. I really miss the conversational part of our outing, but really enjoyed watching my Little Princess growth in her creative side.

We got back to Petie's house and went in. Lil' Lisie Bear was puttering about, she had been asleep when we left. You could tell Lisie made a mental note that Joelle had come in with me, which means that Joelle had been out with me and Lisie had not. Lisie immediately began bring me toys so I could play. Later, as she pass by, I picked her up to give her a big hug. To my surprise, she hugged me back and lingered for at least 30 seconds. She just put her little head on me and snuggled. That was so special.

I am so glad summer break is here.