The Misadventures of a Rather Silly Family
This website is not working properly. I will post a short blog and hope one of our smart boys will notice and try to fix it up. I really wanted to write a blog today, but it is hard. Can someone please figure out what is wrong?
Early in the spring Dale went out to the greenhouse in the backyard to see how things went over the winter. Don’t be fooled by the fact that we have a greenhouse in our backyard, we are not great at gardening. The greenhouse belongs to Kurt and when he is able to have a house with a yard he will want it back. Dale left the greenhouse door ajar to air it out, and when he went back in a few days (or weeks) later a bird had built a bird nest in a large flower pot. I am sure the bird thought it was an ideal place to build a nest, dry, protected from the wind and since we had a dog in the backyard protected from cats and racoons. Later we noticed three tiny eggs in nest, this was about the time that we needed to close the door in order for the greenhouse to warm up so we could start our seedlings. Dale opened up a vent and then closed the door as he left the greenhouse. We hoped that the bird was smart enough to find her way back. She was and like a good mother bird incubated her eggs. Unfortunatley only one egg hatched. I assume that the bird fledged on schedule and flew away. We took a picture of the nest with the eggs and when the bird never came back emptied the unhatched eggs out and saved the nest.
Now we have a birdnest in a dried flower wreath on our front door. We discovered it after we had the inhabitant of that nest fly past our heads as we went out the front door. Twice we made the mistake of not warning the bird (by knocking on the inside of the door) before we left the house by the front door and the tiny little renter flew into our house. The first time with a very little amount of encouragement we got the invader out. The second (and I hope last) time it happened I got Landon to come up and help me herd the nervous bird back outside. It was really funny. I had the door open, the bird was in the music room fluttering against the window. I had Landon try to get the bird to fly towards the open front door, which it did, but then turned left at the door and flew into the living room. A merry chase ensued. The bird found several safe perches, the grandfather clock, the schrank behind all my nutcrackers, behind the couch and in the corner behind the guitar cases. Landon did his best, but it looked hopeless. The bird just wouldn’t fly out the wide open door. Finally it saw the light outside and made a getaway. Whew, what a relief!
Today Carolyn heard a faint peeping when she came in the house. She pushed her fingers past the front of the wreath and saw there were three tiny beaks open to receive their lunch. I tried to get a picture but it is dark back there and the camera is too close to be able to focus. It is adorable, and now I have three little birds on my doorstep. “This is a message to you ou ou. Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing’s gonna be all right”. Bob Marley, how did you know?
…a tool that would render loud stereo’s quiet. You know, similar to the thing that they had in the Harry Potter novels to put the lights out. I would also like a magic lariat like Wonder Woman that would make people tell the truth, I promise I would only use it on family members. Just daydreaming…
Saturday night, after my 13 miler, my legs ached so badly that I had to take some Tylenol. Sunday morning my knees hurt a little, but I didn’t need to medicate myself. Monday we went for a 15 miler and my legs didn’t get achy that night. My knees still hurt some, but I know that will go away. We have today to ride and then it will be harder because all the days after that in the 10 forecast have about a 60% chance of precipitation. I am not a hard-core cyclist and don’t ride in the rain if I can help it.
This Friday night I have agreed to go on our ward’s family campout. Dale needs to be there and I need to show my support. I am not a fan of camping anymore, although we went a lot as a family with young children. It is a great way to take a vacation with children. I will be taking my kindle, a blanket, a chair and an umbrella to the camp ground. I will be wearing my rainproof walking gear and my hiking boots. We will actually be staying in a cabin that has it’s own bathroom (a must for us older folks). There is a queen sized bed and we will be bringing our own bedding. Doesn’t sound much like camping does it?
This is a La Nina year. Colder and wetter than normal. There is a huge snowpack in the mountains, well above normal. It has been so cold this spring that we avoided doing any yard work. We really haven’t worked that much in the yard since we got back from Germany. We cut the grass and Dale built a lovely retaining wall in the backyard. We weeded and put in our vegetable garden. It needed so much more. This spring we are paying for our neglect. Yes, five cruises and several trips to visit family members later we realize we have been negligent.
The solution of course is several sustained days of work. We finally got some sunny days that dried out the ground a bit and we have both been out in the yard working. We go to bed each night with dirt deeply ground into our nails and backs aching. It will take us the whole summer I’m sure, but we are making some progress.
Since the days have been warmer and sunnier we have wanted to go cycling. My bike was stolen last fall and so I needed to go get a new one. We went to the grand opening of the new REI in town and looked over what they had on hand. I found a really nice Marin brand bike that was just perfect for me. I don’t need a top of the line really expensive light-weight component bike. I got a basic bike that I added fenders to. I think I will get a rear carrier that I can hook a shopping basket to and then I can go shopping on my bike, the Olympia Farmers Market makes a nice ride. I could also ride to the library and Fred Meyers. Dale wants me to get ready to go on a 68 miler with him sometime this summer. We did a 13 miler today, and I did fine. I don’t know if I can do a 68 miler this year.
This has been a busy spring for us, and it won’t get any easier until after the 10th of June when Liz and Mark get married. But it has been a good productive kind of busy.
I am looking forward to enjoying our lovely yard and many fun bike rides this summer.
It happens way too quickly for my tastes, the lose of innocence in children about Santa Claus. This year Regan, age 7, no longer believes. She shared this with her mom this weekend and is now excited to be one of the “Big Kids”.
I say, bah, humbug!
There is something wonderful about seeing children delighted with the idea of Santa Claus. On our recent cruise there were several members of FORBS (fraternal order of real bearded Santa’s) on board. I was tickled and took pictures of us with Mr and Mrs. Claus. I was excited to talk to my grandchildren about them.
Now that Regan no longer believes, I can see the handwriting on the wall. She is now officially out of young childhood. How many years before all of the grandchildren no longer believe? There are 5 left under Regan.
I have always delighted in the Santa Claus legend. I love seeing the excitement in little faces and feel their anticipation in my own stomach (that’s where I always felt excitement). Please, it needs to last a few more years for me.
I need to remember that after that excitement and anticipation is over I can still feel the love of the Savior in my own life and that should be enough. Childhood is so fleeting.
…so sorry. I don’t mean to burden my readers with this. Dale is tired of hearing it and I don’t like to go to my children because I don’t want to prejudice them about extended family. They can make their own decisions regarding who they want to let into their lives.
This is ongoing and so sad for me. My siblings don’t get along. I enjoy being with my sisters and my 93 year old mother. I don’t hold grudges for things in the past, and if I did I would have plenty of reasons to not want to be with my siblings.
My oldest brother doesn’t understand mother’s disability and chooses to think she is able to remember that she just told us something. If she was able to remember things like that, she wouldn’t repeat herself. It really bothers him. He wants us to make her stop.
The other brothers annoy mom in different ways. They are sometimes over-bearing and bossy. She likes to feel like she is the boss in her own home.
My sisters and I all agree that mom needs lots of help and support. They can be a little alarmist about some things that happen and that is always hard for me. I like to put perspective on things that come up and try to see things in a different light.
What I don’t like are the emails that go back and forth. They are often harsh and sometimes bad language is exchanged. Mother would not approve.
We all have the same goal, just different ways of seeing how to get there.
I hope things are resolved before someone is not here anymore. I have my doubts, they don’t seem to care much about each other. As far as I am concerned, I have been hurt so often that I am a little shy to get too involved with the bickering.
So I created a new list of Funny Gifts for the Greatest Abersold Family Tradition, to be held Christmas Eve 2010 at Mom and Dad’s house in unincorporated Thurston County, Washington.
I started by taking last year’s list and shifting the list one spot. I had to do a little shuffling with the list, as my original list had Kurt giving a gift to himself. I arranged the list so nobody gives a gift to a person they have given a gift to since 2007, the year we revived the tradition.
The list is as follows:
Porter gives to Grandma
Hayden gives to Dale
Kurt gives to Hayden
Mark gives to Porter
Carolyn gives to Grandpa
Leslie gives to Carolyn
Dale gives to Dixon
Dixon gives to Leslie
Grandma gives to Mark
Grandpa gives to Kurt
…but I have. Sometimes you feel strongly about something. You speak your mind and find out someone out there doesn’t agree with you.
It used to be that you spoke out only to those people around you and then they could disagree or agree with you face to face. That makes it a little easier to explain yourself further.
I blogged about my grandson who is strongly affected by playing video games. I also posted on facebook saying that I hate video games, a very strong word charged with emotion. I should have said I strongly dislike video games, somehow that just didn’t convey my feelings. Two of my extended family members disagreed with me. That’s fine, I just wish I could have explained myself better, but that would take a face to face with questions and explanations.
The thing that bothers me was the tone that was set. They obviously use video games for entertainment and were trying to justify that to me. I’ve already stated that people will believe what they want to believe even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I believe there is plenty of evidence for me to see that my grandson shouldn’t play video games ever. If you want to use them, fine, you don’t need to convince me. Nothing will ever justify the use of video games to me for this child. This child has behavior problems that worsen when he plays video games.
You don’t have to justify or explain yourself. I will not think that you are a bad parent/grandparent if you allow your children/grandchildren to play video games. I have never liked video games, much to my children’s dismay. I always felt like they took time away from other worthwhile pursuits such as reading, playing outside and doing things together as a family. I am sure that with a few controls such as type of game and amount of time spent that video games will not harm most children. However that does not hold true with this particular child. He shouldn’t ever play video games.
I think when Leslie told me that he was sneaking into a closet with the Nintendo DS and playing it, I realized that this child has an addictive personality and he needs to stay away from anything that has the ability to be addictive.
They may be okay for you and your family, they are not okay for this child.
My daughter Leslie just called and told me about an experiment that she has conducted. I am going to start this by saying that results may vary because children vary so much. If you want to try this your results may not be so dramatic.
Her number five child has always had some behavior issues that we had not been able to figure out. For the longest time we thought he had a sensitivity to milk, and he still may have, but she just discovered that playing video or computer games causes Turner to act out in ways that were not acceptable. He would not want to go out and play, not want to be with people and just be generally miserable.
He had played a lot of video/computer games lately because they have been so busy. She put a stop to it because school started and things needed to be very regimented at their house (five children in school and music lessons). It took about two weeks, but she said he is finally starting to act like a normal little boy. She needs to write in the blog the problems she has been having. He would find a Nintendo DS and then sneak into a closet to play it. That sure sounds like addictive behavior to me.
Now the Wii is put up for the school year and the DS’s are put away. She has to log-out of the computer every time she uses it so he can’t play any games.
I am glad I didn’t have to deal with those kinds of things when my children were growing up. I am not as perceptive about things as Leslie is, I’m sure if we had had those kinds of games I would have let my children play them.
This is good to know. Don’t let your children play video/computer games. Ever!