August 29, 2012: Morey Thomas Roscrow III

 "When a baby is born, so is a Grandmother"

Morey Thomas Roscrow III was born on August 29, 2012. He weighed in at 7lb 9.6oz and 19 inches long. Mom, Dad, and Baby are all doing well.

This grandmother will be flying down on Saturday to practice my spoiling skills. And I'll be taking my camera for non-stop photo ops. Expect this space to be filled with baby stories for a while.

They Seek Him Here, They Seek Him There...

Where to begin....

We have been busy the past couple weeks. Our warm weather came and went. For a few days it was in the 90s. We even used the air conditioner while we had a houseguest. Friend Ian stopped in for a visit as he finished up a business trip to Portland. While he was here, he and John drove over to the Olympic Peninsula to see what they could of the Elwha and Glines Dams restoration project. And then they went up to Hurricane Ridge to have a look around. John took osme lovely photos along the way. Ian will return with Gill later in September and we will all go to Maui for a week's vacation.

The baby quilt is packed and ready to go. I will leave for California on Sept. 1 to try out my Grandmother skills for a week. Baby Morey is due this coming Tuesday and there are plans to ensure he arrives this week. I am working on a special wall hanging for him as well , but I expect that will become a Christmas gift at my present rate of project completion.

John brought a nasty cold back with him on his last trip to California. He has spent the past week in a miserable state while it resolves (just in time to return to the not-so-friendly skies). Our mutual schedules will be catch-as-catch-can for these next couple months. He, of course, will do his twice monthly trips to the Bay Area and I will be doing some traveling as well. Besides my Grandma trip, there will be a conference in Los Angeles early in October and then the trip to Indiana in late October. Fortunately, we will both be in Maui at the same time! Roosevelt will need to sign up for frequent vistor status and rewards points at the kennel (if only such a plan existed) as some of our trips are at the same time.

On the home front, Autumn is beginning to show a little. The trees are losing leaves and there's a slight chill in the mornings. It was 46 on my way to work last week. And sunset is just at 8pm now. We have decided that instead of prepping and staining the deck as it wants on an annual basis, we will have it rebuilt with composite material. So, we have contacted our local contractor who built the shed and he will come around for a look. We also want hime to install concrete on the side of the side of the house and locate a stone mason to look at the deteriorating pillars out by the gate. Always something, it seems.

Dinner at the Cafe of Life....

A full plate. That's what we've got just now. My dad has been placed in a facility for Alzheimer's patients and I am trying to facilitate all that needs doing with a 2000 mile gap. There are some truly wonderful folks out there, though, without whom this role would be much more difficult. My sister and I will go out in October, if all goes well, to visit him and to clear out his home before selling it.

Our grandbaby is due very soon. The 28th is the expected date, however, he may decide that he'd like to make an appearance sooner than that. Predictions are that he is a large baby (over 9 pounds is the latest professional guesstimate). I am waiting to reschedule my tentative flight plans at the drop of a hat. The good news is that the quilt is done (I'm finishing the binding today), so it can go down with me.

As if we don't have enough things going on, we persist in self-imposed stress in the form of trying to give a home to a dog-in-need. Since our experience with Buddy, the coonhound, we thought that perhaps what is needed is a younger dog, one that is not trained to pursue small animals (i.e. Roosevelt). So, we thought we had found our fellow this past week in the form of a 10-month-old "Lab", recently arrived from a high-kill shelter in Georgia. We presented all the required documentation and went out to meet him on Thursday. Neither of us is very good at turning down a potential animal, so we agreed to bring him home for a "trial", expected to last a week.Described as "hardly barks" and "doesn't notice cats", we soon discovered the truth. He is an adorable dog. But he is, after all, only 10 months old. He barks (a lot), he was not calm and collected upon seeing dear Roosevelt, and he is not yet house broken. And, he definitely is not a Lab. He appears to be a large proportion of hound with a bit of pit bull thrown in. But he is also affectionate and definitely trainable. But that will be for someone else to do. We just couldn't accommodate all that he needs at this stage. We returned him yesterday. And we have both agreed that a dog will have to wait until there is someone at home full-time. No more browsing the rescue web sites. We won't, we won't, we won't.

I spent all day yesterday in a watercolor class. It was so much fun. Hopefully, it was just what I needed to inspire me to carve out some time just to immerse myself for a few hours a week in that space. I will try.

Today, we will reclaim the house, put away the dog bed, and bring out the items that were quickly hidden as "puppy-proofing" occurred. John has more to do in the garden than one person can manage, I fear. But the weather is delightful and he'll do what he can do. I got some shelves for the garage and maybe (maybe), those can be assembled and put to use. So, full plate. Would we have it any other way?

Fly Me To the Moon...

One of our friends is a pilot and invited us along to dinner last evening. We flew from Bremerton up to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Wow! It was crystal clear and a smooth ride as we looked at this beautiful countryside. It really brings home just how much water there is and the lushness of the greenery. Once there (30 minutes by plane - 4 hours by car), we walked into the town and ate dinner on the waterfront. We returned just as darkness was setting in. Good friends, good times...

Things are Heatin' Up...

We're having a heat wave....at least the kind they have up here in the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures will reach into the 80s today. And it's absolutely beautiful. Surely a day to pinch ourselves and be thankful that we live here.

John is back from a week in California. He'll spend time this weekend working on the electricity for the shed and maybe a rain gutter or two. The garden is yielding loads of peas and he dug up the potatoes last night. Still waiting on the squash plants to flower under their tents. And we actually have a couple of homegrown tomatoes!

I am going to a friend's bridal shower this weekend so I'll be out shopping some time today for that gift. And I have a quilt project in mind for the grandbaby, so I'd like to work on that a bit. I worked from home yesterday which turned out to be a good thing in more ways than one. In the afternoon, we received a call from the local hospital where my father lives and he had come in to the Emergency Department appearing confused and saying he wants to be placed somewhere. Nevermind that this was all in the works when I left a week ago. He has forced the issue with the locals now and we will see where it leads. For the weekend, he is admitted to the hospital to rule out any physical basis for his apparent confusion. After that, they will reevaluate him for appropriate placement. I will facilitate what I can from this distance. At least he is safe.

We have put in an inquiry about a dog (actually 3) that we saw online at a couple shelters. I think we would like to share our lives with one again. We just need to be more careful about screening for behaviors around cats. Lesson learned there. Meanwhile, let's see what today brings...