January 27, 2026 Lunch

 Lunch With Grandson #4

Lila

With Son and DIL in Australia, we are to be checking on GS#4.  We are, also, cat sitting Lila, DIL's 15 years old American bobtail.  She sleeps either by my head or Hubby's head at night.  When I sit down she will get in my lap.  Other times, if she is on the sofa and I get up, she claims my chair.  I put off visiting the loo so I so not lose my seat. But, I digress.  This post is about sharing lunch with GS#4. 

Youngest Grandson will be 20 in about 3 months.  He moved from his mother's home to Son's home a couple of weeks ago.  He is attending a nearby community college.  He chooses to live there as there is bus service nearby at Dad's place.  You see, GS#4 chooses not to drive. Why?  According to him, "..it's the other people on the road.."  Wish I had noted those same folks are on the road if he is just riding with someone else.  

GS#4 is the only grandkid within 200 miles.  The other 4 are spread from Waco, TX, to Arkansas, to Colorado, to Melbourne, Australia.  So our Son and DIL were empty nesters for about 2 months or less.  GS#3 moved out in August.  On and off Arkansas came to visit with her German Shepherd.  The last visit was for about 3 weeks.  She left and GS#4 moved in with them within two weeks.  So technically Son and DIL are still not empty nesters.

Now, there is another side to the empty nesters.  That's grandparents.  We moved to this area to be with our grandchildren.  We spent weekends travelling from one soccer field to another to cheer for our grands.  We sat in 100 degree temps to watch swim meets.  We bought bleacher seats to watch football games, basketball games, and track events.  We attended plays and choir presentations.  Hauled kids to practice.  Brought or made meals when the parents had business meetings or travels.  

Some days we were tired from the activities. At times, it took most of the week to recover.  Especially as we aged.  Thankfully, GS#4 chose to leave sports for the fine arts.  Well, except his senior year he tried football.  He hated it.  It was one of the hottest falls on record.  We took our stadium seats.  He ran less than 10 plays the entire season.  We were there.  Because we love him.  We donated the stadium seats the day after his last game.

His last year in high school my 84 year old Hubby took him to lunch at times.  Every Tuesday and Thursday he picked the boy/man up from school and took him home.  Often they stopped to grab some ice cream or other fast food.  Grandpa would purposely do things just to aggravate GS#4. Grandpa was there for him.  GS#4 came to appreciate the quite, gentle man. Grandpa became his safe place.

So today it was time to take GS#4 to lunch.  Even with the possibility of slick sidewalks, we made our way to the car.  We drove to him.  Then we drove to Haymakers for lunch.  Burgers and tater tots.  A double order of tater tots so he would have them to reheat in the air fryer "back at home".  We chattered about football, Super Bowl, new coach for Pittsburg.  Stuff I don't really care about but he loves.  After lunch he guided us to his school.  Cause Grandpa may drive down to pick him up some evening.  

Not sure what we will do when this last grandchild truly leaves the safety of his parents' nest.  Only time will tell.

Thanks for stopping by.

Janice 

May 22, 2019

Yesterday afternoon our grand daughter spent some time with us.  She and I worked to design her graduation cap.  Because I had purchased the logo stuff for the party decorations, it was easy.  She wanted the pig and the word Arkansas.  Used the printable fabric for the design.  Cut out close to the full word leaving a white border around the edges as the cap is maroon.  Last we used fusible webbing to adhere the fabric to the cap.  The other edge of the cap will have the words, "Woo Pig Souee!"  printed in glitter paint.

Once that project was finished we went to the parking lot to inspect the damage to her car.  Seems another of the seniors was not paying attention and rear-ended her car.  Her car was still drive-able.  The person that hit her had lots of damage including smoke coming from the car.  The smoke was probably steam from a ruptured radiator.  We are just glad there were no injuries.  After petting some of the neighborhood dogs, we headed back to the apartment to work on the flags for friends project.

Several of her friends will be attending various colleges.  We came up with a basic design that we can use for the logo and names to put on the flags.  It is pretty plain as granddaughter really is not a frilly sort of girl.  Simple, clean lines are her preferred style even in clothing.  She told me the background color.  Then we experimented with different fonts and colors for the name.  A college logo was available for download for free so I grabbed that.  I added an additional outline of white for contrast to the background color.

Once the design was decided Ri needed to leave.  It was time for her to meet her boyfriend.  He had been working at McDonald's all afternoon.  A bite of dinner and I was back on the computer working to locate additional free logos for different universities and colleges.  One additional flag was put together just needing to confirm the letter format from Ri.

This morning was semiannual doctor visit followup.  Also, needed to provide sign out and transport from school to home for one grandson.  Since I had more items from the party to pickup from Son's house that would accomplish two things on the 5 item list.  I had completed one flag so that could, also, be delivered to the same house.  And there were a few more fresh peaches to be gathered.  While it was not on the list, DJ barked me into taking her squirrel hunting.  It was a good day as we spotted 5 or 6 squirrels along the shady streets.  DJ was so excited but willingly headed into the house when we returned.

Next up was a fabric store stop for one last roll of printable fabric.  I looked for a specific color of stretch fabric.  Not to be found, drat.  Another stop at the clothing store and I was ready to be in my easy chair for a while.  Oops, I forgot to pickup the new prescription.  After a bit of time off the hoofers, I headed out to get the meds.  OMG $445!  Nope, not today.  Seems there is a $415 deductible I need to cover.  After that is will be only about $48 a month.  I may just have to hurt.  Just saying.

Guess I'll just work on a few more flags.  Ya'll be safe out there.  Later.