Catherine's birthday

 

We also have Lynn, Art, and Catherine's birthdays in April. We went to Teppanyaki with Catherine for her birthday, and AJ and Steph were there for their anniversary. There was lots of celebrating this month.

Birthday Month Carter and Connor!

 We started with Carter turning 41. I didn't get a picture, but we took him to Tepenyaki for his birthday. Funny Carter story. AJ had a jar of money that he said was for Carter. When AJ and Alex were looking in Aric's safe, they found a mason jar full of cash. Aric would put all his ones and fives in it, and then he would take Carter to a strip club in Vegas, and that was his tip money. I took it home because I knew Carter would be overdoing his laundry, and I told him he had one last gift from his dad. Just saying that made me really sad. Carter laughed and asked how long I had known he went to strip clubs with his dad. Then he asked what he should do with the money. I said I would leave it in the jar and keep it as a memory; Don told him he should use it as intended. Carter said, "I'm going to put it in the bank."

Connor loves Olive Garden, so we ate lunch there. Later, we went to Coconut Cove so the kids could play.

Vally is 8

 

April is the month of birthdays. Vally turned 8!

Spring

 

I asked the groomer to give Odie a short haircut, and she took it short! If I had to pick out Odie from a picture, I may not have. Fortunately, she's easy to identify with her inability to bark, three teeth, and all the chunks missing from her ears.

We got an AC installed at 512. Khloe was funny. When Don took the swamp cooler out, there was a hole in the wall, and Khloe was worried a puma would get in the house. 

Prom

 

My baby is all grown up!! He went to the prom with Meadow, and they looked so cute.

Cousin time

 

Birdie loves to play with her cousins, who are so good to her!

Polly has been sick for weeks, not eating, and in pain. At her follow-up appointment today, they said they thought the mass in her stomach was cancer. She's having an ultrasound in a couple weeks. I love that little doggie.

Catching butterflies.

It took years!

 About three years ago I made it to a 498 streak of walking 10,000 steps per day. I walked every day through COVID, breast reduction, infectious colitis..... I walked, and I walked. I was excited to make it to 500 steps, and then at 498 days, I had the reaction to Cipro, and I couldn't walk at all. I had to slide down the stairs on my butt because my legs didn't work. I remember Khloe saying, "Grandma, that's embarrassing," I told her I was just glad I could get down the stairs.  For a while, after I got better, I didn't do any streaks of more than 10 days because I didn't want to be disappointed when I lost my streak, but eventually, I started again, and here I am with a 500-day streak!

Easter 2024

Easter was early this year, March 31. Sean left on the 30th to go to Arizona with his girlfriend, Meadow, and her family. We had a family lunch on the 30th with some of the family and the grandkids. On Easter Sunday, we took Carter to lunch at Rodizio Grill. 

It was cool and rainy outside, so I poured all the eggs into the bounce house and let the kids find them. They were amused, and after they found them all, Khloe and Vally hid them again and again in the living room so that Connor and Birdie could find them again and again. They were cute.

 

Easter eggs and cousins

Khloe and Valley have been "babysitting" for Birdie. They take their work very seriously and come with books and toys!

Sugar eggs 2024

 

Jennie moved to Texas!

 

 Letter I wrote to Jennie.

Dear Jennie,

It has been seventeen years since our worlds collided. Never in a million years could I have imagined the twists and turns of our relationship. We have had some tough years, and your life has been incredibly challenging. Neither you nor Ryan were given the love and support you deserved in childhood, and I am so sorry for that.

After that night we met in the ER, I wanted so desperately to help you as you struggled to take care of three little kids. I seriously believed I could swoop in and be a grandmother figure to your kids, and your life would magically improve. I did my thesis to understand what it takes for people to overcome childhoods like yours and Ryan's. I was incredibly naive in my thought that I could fix anything. I had no idea what a roller coaster our relationship would become.

Here we are seventeen years later, and I am so unbelievably proud of you and Ryan, the life you have created, and the parents you’ve become. You two had the answers to how to overcome your obstacles.  While you didn’t have the opportunity to raise all your kids in your home, you have remained a constant in their lives and are wonderful parents to Jack. You are parents that your adult and almost adult children want to have relationships with you.

I am so proud of all you’ve overcome, and I love you like a daughter. I hope you are happy and have continued success in Texas, and we will see you again soon.

Jennie and Ryan bought a house in Lubbock Texas and moved! I'm happy they got a house but it's weird that they have moved so far away.

Sean and his sisters flew to Texas last week to see the new house and spend some time with Jennie, Ryan and Jack. They met a bunch of new Texas relatives.

 

Alex came for a visit

 

Alex had a work meeting in SLC so he stopped by for lunch. It was good to see him!

Bonnie

Right across the street from the care center Bonnie lives at was a K&W cafeteria. I hadn't been to one in 35 years. It was so funny because it hadn't changed a bit. Mediocrity and it's best!

The last few times I've met for lunch with my SLRMC nurse friends, someone has invariably asked, "Anyone heard from Bonnie." To which we all say no. Someone once said, "I heard she was in NC. I put that in the back of my brain and forgot it. On Monday, I was sitting on the couch at my Marjie's house, and I thought, hmm, I wonder if Bonnie is really in NC. I found her daughter's name on FB, found her email, and asked her where Bonnie was. Within a short time, she responded and told me Bonnie was in Burlington. I looked up the address; she was only 32 minutes away from my sisters and an hour away from Char and Art's new house in Creedmore.

Wed, Char picked us up, and we went off in pursuit of Bonnie. We found her at an assisted living facility. Bonnie's breast cancer has metastasized to her bones. She moved to NC because her daughter is here.

When Char, Jori, and I walked into her room, she was so shocked. Literally blown away. She kept asking, "How did you find me?" I said I don't really know; we just did. Someone told me you were in NC," Bonnie said, "I thought I was invisible; I felt like I had disappeared and no longer existed."

Today, Char, Jori Thomas, and I returned to Burlington to break her out of the facility for the day and feed her NC BBQ. When we took her home this afternoon, Bonnie stood tall and looked completely different. She smiled and said, "Look; I'm me again, not invisible." When I went to tell the nurse she was back, she said, "I saw her get out of the car, and I had to look again because I didn't recognize her because she was walking so tall.

This was part of our day out on the town with Bonnie.