Being a Grandparent

Being a grandparent is so cool. This Friday we had Rebekah come over and sleep the night. It broke our heart when we left Katy's to see Jonah grabbing his shoes and running to the door. Jonah will get to sleep over later. Rebekah is so cute and fun. One of her favorite items now is the marble tower. A great toy building different paths every time. Rebekah calls them Narbles.

She sleeps real well in her own little bed. Not a peep until early morning. then she wakes up, climbs in our bed and hugs and hangs on to grandpa. Brings back memories from 25 years ago.

As a special treat on Saturday we took her to the same pony rides on Tampa where we took our kids growing up. The place has not changed much. This little mother-to-be reminded us of Brenda, not that she is a pig but big with child. At least Brenda is not dragging her tummy on the ground.

At first Rebekah was a little scared of all the goats but quickly got over it. This little buddy never left the tractor. It was his (or her - I did not check) special spot.

And finally the reason we went there. Rebekah was a natural. No hesitation to ride the pony. A big smile on her face the entire time. Again, reminded me of Katy from years ago.

I LOVE BEING A MOM (& Grandma too!)

I have the 3 most wonderful kids in the world. I can hear you saying,"How can that be?" Well, let me share a little about each one. They each have their own special talents that amaze me over and over again.


First let me tell you about Steven. He started out life pretty rough. A complicated birth, life-threatening illness, eye surgery as an infant...I could go on. He was our little man. He loved OshKosh overalls and his Little Tykes red and yellow car he drove. Always a sweet disposition despite some first class teasing and pranks by his older sisters, they now all have a great relationship as adults. A hard worker, driven to attain what he has set his sites on. An eagle scout, return missionary and soon to be college graduate. He is a tremendous repository of historical facts especially in the ancient world. Steve also has a gift for classical music and composers. He helps me out when I am looking for a particular piece, he knows who wrote it, when, where, who were their contemporaries, etc. He will be starting grad school soon working on his Masters. He is caring and helpful to all. I have lost track of how many times he is a little late because he stopped to help a sister in a bind or a stranger in need. How many guys are totally comfortable with little kids? He loves his niece and nephew. He and Rebekah had a blast building a gingerbread house together. I have to admit it is nice having him around, but I know he will be happier when he finishes school and moves out again.



On to Brenda -

Brenda has always made me laugh. She is the keeper of all the good family stories, and no one can tell them the way she does. When she gets started I laugh so hard I hurt. It doesn't matter how many times I hear them. Brenda was born 3 weeks late, hmmm, I should have realized that she was going to have a great sense of humor. Always the most independent of my children, she is a confident, caring, and intelligent mom-to-be. We both love to cook and so she started a family recipe blog. She is married to Michael Sperber, a wonderful son-in-law, who keeps me laughing also. They are both hard-working college grads with a beautiful home that was a real fixer upper until they took control. They love Dodger baseball and their dogs, Jetta and Kita. Brenda is someone I can confide in and ask for advice, I love spending time with her. We love to go to Home Goods and look at all the great stuff!

Katy and I have spent the most time together by virtue of her being the oldest. We share some of the same interests and talents. She and I are both musical and play piano, we love to sew and craft and be creative. The difference is...she is SO MUCH BETTER! I had to stop scrapbooking because my pages I worked so hard on paled in comparison to hers. Just ask her about the chalk thing. Creativity just comes naturally to her. She is not afraid to tackle anything. She and her husband Dan are both college grads. Katy is planning to student teach this year and finish up her teaching credential. Doesn't take years and years except when you have two babies during that time. Katy is a great mother, she is very wise when it comes to knowing what her children need. I am consistently impressed by how much she teaches them. You ought to see her reason with Rebekah, an incredibly cute but stubborn 3 year old, and not lose her temper. Katy always wins. Now, Jonah (18 mo) is beginning the temper tantrum phase, I know she will handle it just fine. Katy has started her own business (because school, 2 kids and managing a big apartment complex was not enough to fill her days...). It's called KdBuggie. She hand makes and sells baby items on Etsy.com.

I want my children to know how much I love them all and appreciate all the years we have spent together so far. When they were small my biggest fear was them causing problems in school or becoming juvenile delinquents. Now that they are adults and those things, of course, never happened; my fear is that one day they will take their families and move to a better place than Los Angeles. This has a much better chance of happening than the delinquint thing. If it happens I know I will survive, but will miss them terribly. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who probably deserves more credit for children who turned out so great. He will just keep booking cruises and doing all the things that keep me so happy! We both know that Katy, Brenda and Steve and their families are and will continue to be the best part of our lives. We love them so much!
Thanks for all the great Mother's days!
Love, Mom

Stock tip

My best stock tip is to sell Bank of America stock, even sell short if you can. Everyone I deal with at that bank is a complete idiot. This chapter:

Last week Steven and I went into our local branch, Steven to cash in a CD to move to Wells Fargo, and Sue and I had our IRA CD's mature. I was undecided whether to leave the IRA's with B/A or move it to Wells Fargo. We went to the branch and no one was in the new accounts area. After standing about for about 5-8 minutes I went to a teller. Conversation went something like this: "Is anyone there in new accounts? No, what do you want? I have some CD's that have matured and I want to know what my options are. You mean the rates? Yes. I guess I can help you."

She then walked to the new accounts area with us. Steven went first and tried to cash in his CD. After about 5 minutes of looking at who knows what, miss friendly says "it will cost you $26 to cash it in because you are past the 7 day grace period". I said, what are you talking about, it is a 7 day grace period starting on 4/20 and the date was 4/24. It sure appears to me we are only 4 days in. "Oh wait a minute......wrong CD. This one looks like the one". the first one did not mature until November, hence the penalty. Steven cashed in the CD. Then she spent another 5 minutes looking at my account. "Oh, this is an IRA account. It is special and I can't help you with it. It has all sorts of other paperwork and stuff to do."

By now she made up my mind for me, the money is going to Wells Fargo. I said, then cash it in. She said she did not know how and I would need to come back another day.

Monday Sue and I went back to the branch and met with the manager, another idiot. She fiddles on the computer for over 5 minutes and says "the computer says you need to have the requesting bank request the funds." I said to give me a casher's check and she said she couldn't, I had to have Wells Fargo request it. I asked if there would be a problem that the grace period is about up and she said no, as long as it was requested before it was up.

We went to Wells Fargo and met with our friendly banker. She greeted me by name. Wow. She said the B/A people were nuts. She could request the money but it would take about 2 weeks to get processed and I would have issues with the grace period. She told me to go to the other branch in the area. We went straight over. Now we met a B/A person who actually knew what to do. She took the right paperwork out and got us cashiers checks. Now we have been to a bank 4 times and still need to go back to Wells Fargo to get the cashier checks deposited. We gave the manager of that B/A a mouthful of complaints about the stupid people at our normal branch. I told her most of my money had been moved because everytime B/A messes something up I penalize them by moving a CD.

We went back to Wells Fargo three days later, now our 5th visit to a bank. Angela took great care of us.

Now it is Sunday, 6 days after we cashed in and moved our CD's to Wells Fargo and low an behold, the B/A website still shows we have the CD's in their bank. I assume someday they will figure out the money has been moved. Before we left Wells Fargo Angela shows us on-line with through the website that our new IRA accounts were there.

So, I suggest anyone with a Bank of America account is flirting with danger, and dealing with a bank run by idiots. My term "nonthinkers" is just not strong enough for them. We have had nothing but good experiences with Wells Fargo. I was so impressed that only meeting once with Angela she knew my name the next time I came to visit.

Spring Break

Sue is on spring break so I took the opportunity to take three days off work. For all three days we had the pleasure of watching Rebekah and Jonah all day. What a blast this was, although we are getting reminded over and over again we are not as young as we used to be. I just don't know how Katy does this all day long, or how my dear wife managed three children all at once.

Rebekah and Jonah both love our backyard and want to spend all day playing, swinging, and sliding. Too bad our allergies would only take so much. Jonah kept escaping outside and would go to the swing, point at it, and look at us smiling. I am so weak, I can't resit either of them as evidenced by the Toys R Us bill.

We found a great park to take the kids. Neither of them had any fear at all. Rebekah loved the slide and played with the older kids. Jonah would climb about everything he saw and would try to step off a drop as tall as he was.

We learned that Jonah with all his food allergies he is okay with eating sand. He had a fist full in his mouth before I could get to him.

The interaction between these two is so fun to watch. Rebekah loves picking on Jonah, in this case with a carrot from the garden, but Jonah gets even.