Roadrunner

Ten years ago today we lost my grandma. You may remember a little about her from my previous posts. She is the biggest influence on my life, even to this day. Not one single day goes by that she is not thought of or talked to or about. Lately, I have caught a few minutes here or there of her favorite soap operas and can hear her talking about these people that she came to know. This was her vice. She did not leave the house until they had all finished and the mail had come. The one exception to this was vacation. She took vacation with us every summer. We had a pretty standard routine. Laughlin, Yuma,Phoenix,Bisbee (where she grew up) and the capper, Disneyland. Through Arizona and Nevada she stayed in the hotel and watched her soaps, made friends with fellow hotel guests and let me and my sisters sleep in her bed. She always brought a train case packed with anything you could think of medicine wise. At Disneyland she rode few rides. Pirates of the Carribean, Small world and the Haunted Mansion . After an exciting day of rides for us the best part was still to come. We would find Grandma at her bench on Main Street, shopping bags pooled at her feet. We'd head back to the hotel and she would unveil all the treasures she had found for us.
Eating out was so fun. She was partial to Tom Tates, where she was almost thrown out for feeding us off of her plate from the buffet. And Sambos, anyone remember that? I wish these prices were current......
As I get older, I am more and more grateful to my parents for making that possible. Family vacations are great memories and they are made all the more special for the fact that Grandma was a part of them. This has been on my mind recently as we get ready for our vacation at the end of this month. I am filled with love and admiration for my husband for allowing me to continue these memories with my children. My mom will be here two weeks from today to go away with us. Our kids are so happy that Grandma will be with us and I am so happy to follow in my mothers footsteps. With every passing year, she becomes more and more like her mother. It makes Grandmas being gone a little more bearable when I am reminded so much of her by my mama. I hope that my kids will look back on this time in their lives and remember how much they are loved as I do. I miss you so much Grandma and when we buckle in for our trip this month I know you will be with us too. All my love always, Matilda

Fort Lindgren

When we moved into our house we had this big, unruly tree stump. We weren't sure what to do with it. It was half dead and collected all the trash that blew through the alley. Well, this weekend Pete was ambitious and started cutting away at it. Our neighbor offered to help pull it out using his truck next weekend. Well, guess what has way more power and weight behind it. Me. After a small misstep, I fell on the center and guess what? Huge chunks of it fell off. Although my self esteem was bruised for a moment, I quickly recovered some pride when I realized that I am becoming more video game like in real life. I liken it to stomping on a question block, Super Mario style.
The hole we now have has been a bonanza for the Boulevard Boys. They carefully arranged all the dead stumps and made it into a fort. All good forts need a sentry.
Of course when the crowd gets real rowdy, a shovel comes in handy. Hopefully the weather turns nice again tomorrow and they can get a little bit more use out of it before all the debris is hauled away this weekend. The bonus is all the extra room we will have for the garden this summer. Or maybe, I will finally convince Pete how badly we need chickens. On another note, the boys school had family night tonight. We attended three different seminar/classes. One on homework routines,one where we just did yoga(Hans refused participation) and one on bedtime routines. Not surprisingly, Hans is not getting enough sleep. I really enjoyed what we learned and the activities they had for the kids. Olive was willing to go to the childcare room and enjoyed it.
It was fun to see some of the kids from the boys classes with their parents. Unfortunately, Pete always seems to be out of town during school functions and I have had more than one person ask if I am a single mom. One of them was one of the four lesbian couples I met this evening. I love that my kids go to such a diverse school. It is truly a mixed bag there and I like that my kids have learned so much about other races and religions. I do have to say that there were a few kids that my heart absolutely ached for. They looked so sad and alone. One boy, Oscars age ate dinner with his mom, who had headphones on the entire time, listening to her Ipod. I wanted so bad to ask if he would like to sit with us. Absent was a student from Hans' class that had asked if I could take her to family night with me. I would have too. Oh, some of those kids keep me up at night wondering about them. Pete's lucky that I listen to him, or else we would have a house of kids. More than we do already that is. Let's leave this evening on a light note. Food picture! It's been awhile, huh?

Johannes Peter Lindgren - Age 7

Hopefully he will grow in the same teeth his Dad has now.

Boys

I grew up in a house that consisted of mainly females. The oldest of three girls, I led a charmed life where no little boys were around to ruin the atmosphere. We played Barbies and kitchen. We loved to play school with the dozens and dozens of obsolete textbooks my Grandma would buy for us. We played Ms. America with bags of fabric. Wrapping them around us like a strapless dress and taking turns walking through Grandmas front door so she could applaud for us. We once came up with a great idea when some of our parents friends were visiting with their three boys from Australia. Playing county fair allowed for a kissing booth! Beauty parlor was fun but not as great as when my aunt turned it into a short play for us to perform. Most of the humor was over our heads but we loved to be the center of attention. Especially when the play called for cocktail glasses and Coors beer cans. We had our fair share of teasing and roughhousing from our Dad. Maybe even more than our fair share. But mostly we had a pretty strong female influence from our Mom and Grandma.
When I had Oscar it was such a novelty! What do you do with a boy? His first years were all sticks and army guys. He carried a stick everywhere he went and when his mini backpack of army guys was accidentally left on a plane once, it was nearly a crisis until I was able to procure some more. Things were dismantled and studied from an early age. Hours could be spent in the dirt. I worried that Siobhan would miss out on the sisterhood that I had. Who would she divulge her deepest secrets too? Who could she cry too when things were just not fair? I needn't have worried. Oscar and Siobhan have been each others confidant and support for as long as they have been together. I am so amazed at how well they can get along and how much they love each other. This has extended to Hans and Olive as well. I am happy that my girls have each other but cannot imagine their or my life without our boys. Watching this has made me wonder what it would have been like to have a brother. What kind of influence would that have had on my life.
Maybe, like Olive, I would have been fascinated by a boys obsession with "potty humor" and learned to write the most hilarious words first.

Maybe we would have taught him about fashion week. Or maybe, just maybe, he would have taught us a thing or two........