Each year when spring starts to show its face I think, crap. Why? Because I have serious allergies, the weather behaves like a manic-depressive, and it reminds me of mud. Rain plus the leftover deadness of winter. I love the snow in winter and around D.C. I always feel like we didn’t get enough. (With the exception of the 2009/2010 winter.) I love summer when it’s warm enough for the beach and the fall feels so good and is so pretty.
Poor spring. I’m hard on you but there are days when you prove to be so lovely and so uplifting that we can’t help but say you are beautiful. Today I walked the dog and felt the cool sun on my face. Last weekend I hiked through a park with my family and the dogs. It’s a time of newness when we watch as things grow and bloom all around us.
I was thinking of all this because of my nephews. They are just the sweetest boys. They are still kind of little but growing up fast. I love visiting with all of the family to see how all of the kids are growing and blooming. Even my neighbors and friends kids are delightful. Another year, more new skills, and the things that come out of their mouths just make you smile. It’s that same feeling of spring. I don’t want to leave the last season but a little reminder of something new makes you enjoy where you are and what you are doing.
So last weekend my nephew Harmon said something to me that made my heart grow a few inches. I was telling my brother that I might want to hire the girls (my nieces) to come down and help me with some landscaping work on my house. Harmon asked if he could come and I told him that he was too little but that in about ten years he would be my go-to guy. “What’s that?” he asked. “It means when I’m old and need help with heavy stuff, I’ll call on you,” I replied. And then Harmon said, “Oh, okay. Well, I’ll come down and help you and you don’t even have to pay me.”Love it. Love him. All those years of presents and trips have paid off. I’ve got my ticket now and am no longer worried about my old age. My nephews are going to have my back. Awesome.
But for now I am going to enjoy the fact that they are still little. Harmon and Tyler, we can linger a little longer in this season—you don’t have to grow up too fast.
I am blessed.
Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.
(Proverbs 29:17 ESV)
I had an epiphany this morning. I found something that Grendel didn’t want to eat. Now don’t get me wrong, we’ve been through the puppy phase and he’s come out of that pretty well and avoids some of the random things he used to eat, but he still counter surfs and eats some bizarre stuff. So naturally I was blown away after seeing what was left on the coffee table this morning.
He did not touch the banana. Bananas not only are food but they are loaded with sugar, something he definitely likes. I’m thinking that maybe I should take him to the vet. After all, he will pretty much try anything including:
75 Advil tablets.
He once grabbed a bottle off the counter, chewed through it and barely survived. Cost me a bundle that one did.
Dead fish and random seaweed.
You got to watch the pups when they are young and first go to the beach. The stuff comes out eventually. Yuck.
Drywall and a plastic electrical socket cover.
I can only imagine that he was sticking his tongue in the socket getting shocked and just not realizing the connection. What a huge dumb—.
Arthritis cream.
I put this horrible product on my hand once. It practically burned my skin off but for some reason he gave it a go. I found it on the kitchen floor with the packaging all torn off and the tube chewed open.
Cold ice pack.
You know those gel packs that you stick in your freezer and use for sprains? I left one out on the coffee table the other night only to come home the next day to see a corner of it ripped open. Yum!
Books.
When the Grendel dog was a puppy he took out half my graduating class in my yearbook. He also destroyed my chemistry and anatomy books from college. I didn’t care as much about them but I did have to throw out some others. I guess he thought knowledge was power and eating it would be good.
I won’t mention the other gross stuff he still eats (I have two cats in the house—just saying). So now we can add bananas to lettuce and carrots as his no-go items. What is the weirdest thing your dog has eaten?
I love studying my family’s history. My mother’s uncle “Peek” spent years compiling the Andrews, Van Cleve, Patterson, Clapp, Stokes, Wright genealogies. His hard work is richly preserved in a red hardbound book that I keep as a cherished possession on my bookcase. I have read it cover to cover and have discovered myriad interesting characters ranging from inventors and soldiers to pioneers and statesmen.
Uncle Peek managed to delve a little into my father’s lineage so I know who my great-great grandparent’s are on his side. On both sides I’ve got a lot of French—which explains my adoration for all things cheese (and wine)—a good amount of Irish and Scots-Irish, all mixed in with a bit of German, Dutch, and English. An American mutt for sure.
(Okay, so weird segue here but keep going, you’ll get it.) One of my favorite shows to watch is the one where celebrities trace part of their family tree. It’s called, “Who do you think you are?” I’ve cried at the end of every episode. I love the history, the discovery of family you never knew—the story of your people and their struggles and triumphs. Good stuff.
Last weekend as I was purging my filing cabinets and watching the show, I came across some old family documents and decided to take a shot at ancestry.com. There has been one mystery that my immediate family has been wondering about for almost 50 years. Back in the 60’s my dad’s older brother disappeared. No reason for it at all. Friendly, warm letters were written home to their father from his travels and then nothing. My grandfather hired a detective agency to no avail. He just dropped off the face of the earth.
Last weekend I plugged Uncle John’s name and birthday into ancestry.com and found him! Yup. That’s right. It took some searching but I found enough information to go on and called some people in Florida where he had been living and where he passed away last year. All of the sudden, within a couple of days, I had compiled hard evidence and some background on John and felt it was time to call Dad to let him know.
Right now we know that this brilliant Cornell graduate decided to spend the better part of his life as a migrant fruit picker. He was quiet, kind, and very religious. I was very glad to hear that he was right with God before he passed. My dad is going to get some of his things next week—maybe a diary! The story continues and yes, I think I’m going to cry. It’s too unbelievable not to. Tune in—maybe Dad will come back with some interesting stories to share.
Share your interesting family history here. I want to hear your stories!
From the Observation Deck 