Musing About Family

Fiorella received a sweet card from her cousin Julie the other day, and it touched her heart. "We three sisters wish we lived closer to you," she said, and Fiorella could not help but think of what a joy it would be if she and her cousins lived in the same town and could help each other from time to time-- like now, when Fiorella is overwhelmed with responsibility. She also thought about how wonderful it would be if she and her own children lived closer enough together to help each other. Thus Fio could take Baby two or three time a week, which would reduce childcare costs for Bastrop son and bring her joy.

But tribal living doesn't pay off in the long run. One always has to follow the crops and the jobs. It's called survival.

Heartwarming Day

Sunday, April 29th, was the watershed day as far as Fiorella's grandmotherhood went. Texas son and his wife drove up from Bastrop to show off Baby's latest ambulatory achievement--she not only walks, but dances--but the best thing was that,  after staring at Fio for a long time as if to examine her soul, Baby finally decided Grammy was okay. She even let Fio feed her some baby treats and carry her over to her mother. This day will rest in Fiorella's heart forever.

From NCIS to Jane Perrine

SCREAM! Husband has been watching NCIS all day, and Fio is at the point that she'd gladly wipe out Gibbs herself just to get the TV turned off. What is about about men and TV power figures?
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Your Fiorella is planning to return to the Verizon store tomorrow for the third day running. It's a matter of getting her "new" cell phone set up. The problem this time is that she apparently needs to update something or other in order to transfer a picture to FB. You can bet the guys will be drawing straws when they see her coming--short straw has to take care of the stupid old lady.
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Easter is a-comin' and Fio has prepared mini-baskets of chocolate eggs for four neighbors who have been especially helpful to her. She's also given Stephanie and Lisa, her two favorite bankers, little bags of chocolate Easter coins. Now she's preparing for the family celebration, which will feature Baby WALKING!
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The bluebonnets are gorgeous this year--not ours, but the ones in the neghbors' yards and along the road.
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In case you're wondering how to say "Happy Easter" en el espanol, it's felices pascuas. Thank Jane Myers Perrine for that infromation. It's nice to have a friend who taught high school Spanish and is willing to share.

Here and There

An iron poker landed on the big toe of Fiorella's left foot last night when she was trying to keep the fire going. Guess who's in pain this morning?
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When a chubby-cheeked baby smiles at you, there's no way you can't smile back.
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Fio has finally come to terms with "amazing" and "awesome," the descriptive terms that have taken the country by storm and are apparently the only words HG house hunters know. As a linguist, Fio realizes she can't hold back the tide because living languages are always changing, but as her mother's daughter, she wants to scream at people to enlarge their vocabularies or sit down and shut up.
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Did Fio tell you she's finished printing out all her 2017 pages and putting them in a loose-leaf notebook? Starting from 2008, that makes nine years of them. Yeah, Fio is a never-give-up-the-ship kinda gal.
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It feels strange to sit on the couch in front of the TV without a telenovela playing, but Mi Marido Tiene Familia has run its course and Fio hasn't found a replacement yet. Give her time.

Christmas Carols

Fiorella plays the piano for about fifteen minutes a day to keep up her never-that-great-and-now-fading keyboard skills, and during the holiday season, she concentrates on traditional carols. Her favorites are Good King Wenceslas,  Silent Night, We Three Kings, Joy to the World, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Noel, Away in a Manger, It Came upon a Midnght Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Deck the Halls, Angels We Have Heard on High, Go Tell It on the Moutain, What Child is This, and O Come All Ye Faithful. Her mother's favorites were O Christmas Tree and I saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. And if you're wondering why Fiorella is reporting this information, it is so if Baby reads it when she grows up, she will get to know both her grandmother and her great-grandmother as more than names on a page.

DELIVERY DAY!

It's delivery day! Fio has finished feeding the mouths of all her charities, she mailed a check to the newspaper delivery guy last week, and as soon as she finishes this post, she'll be in her baby car taking chocolate kisses to Mazda and Click, with a side trip to Chase bank to deliver chocolate Santas to Lisa and Stephanie. These people have been good to Fiorella and giving them Christmas treats is the least she can do.
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Speaking of good people, Fernando, the guy who takes care of Fio and Husband's yard--and does his best to take care of us--took down one of our dead trees and we now have enough firewood to last through next winter. Fio always gives Fernando a Christmas bonus, but he deserves far more.
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The fire is lit, the stage is set, and the picture of Baby is hanging from the mantel, but FB will not accept Fiorella's photo. Must be Trump getting his revenge on Fio for last year's Christmas card, the one in which she compared him to Ghengis Khan.
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Qestions, Questions, Questions

Fiorella's been Christmasing all day, starting from early morning, when in between reading the newspaper, she she couldn't stop staring at the picture of Baby, the one she'd hung from the mantel over the fireplace. What about making use of some of those gold chocolate bar wrappers she'd been collecting for a couple of years?  How about paving the front edge of the mantel to give Baby a background worthy of her? How about putting charming Christmas cards on either side of her picture? 
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Fiorella is still struggling with the tree, the one she thought she'd have to spend just a couple of hours on. And her other decorations aren't as far along as she had hoped they'd be. And she didn't put much time in on her book today. And her left foot orthotic isn't working like it's supposed to. And where are house elves and magic wands when you need them?
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Fiorella is sick and tired of slimy politics. Everything is so venal now, so lowest-common-denominator, and Fio is afraid for herself and for everybody else. How can we survive as a nation and how can we survive as people?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Fiorella and Husband are off to Brother's house to enjoy a family get-together. Daughter and  Austin son's family, as well members of Brother's wife's family will be there too, but the star of the celebration will be Baby, the most beautiful, charming, intelligent child in the whole wide world. Fio is bringing with her the family christening gowns so Baby can try them on, but it's been almost ten months since she was born and the gowns may be too small. Fio hopes not. A century of  infants in Fio's mother's family wore those gowns, and Fio hopes Baby can too. It would be a blessing.

Christmas Gift

Fiorella bought her granddaughter a Christmas present yesterday--her first piano, a roll-up electronic keyboard. Fio herself would have given her eyeteeth--if she'd had any at ten months of age--for a gift like this, but it wasn't till she was nine that her family acquired a piano, and although she's no concert pianist, she still enjoys playing and hopes Baby will have the same experience.

Speaking of Christmas, Fio's got to pull her decorations down from the garage shelf soon. The first thing to go up, of course, will be the tinsel garlands along the entrance to the driveway. Then Fiorella will put together her aging fake tree and load it with lights and ornaments, along the way, attending to swags and displays. Yes, Fio goes insane every Christmas, but it makes her happy.

Of course, one of the most important aspects of Fiorella's Christmas is composing the greeting card. Last year it had a political theme, but this year, it will center around Baby, which is only right. Christmas is a celebration of birth.

More Than You Wanted to Know About Fiorella

Fio has done many dumb things in her life, and sometimes those memories jmmy open the doors of the past and tell her what an idiot she has been. But still she marches on--what choice does she have?
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Fio picked up one her romances and started paging through it. OMG--it's good! So good that she forgives herself for having her theater director say "practicing lines" instead of "running lines."

Fiorella has always known she was one who stood apart. Maybe because Mother preferred it that way, maybe because Fio was born that way. It doesn't matter. It is.

Fio has a full tank of false bravado that shakes and quivers when challenged. Maybe that's why she always felt safe on stage or behind a podium--because everything was choreographed and she knew her role.

Fio hopes that in the future, every unwanted fetus will be placed in a machine that will incubate it to term so it can be adopted by a loving family.

Miscarriage

The heroine of Fiorella's telenovela had a miscarriage, which opened wide the memory gates that time had built around Fio's own miscarriage.

She remembers how, with her dripping blood all along the way, she and Husband had to wind their way alone through the entrails of the dimly-lit night-time hospital because her obstetrician didn't show up at the back door like he said he would. How she didn't know she was having a miscarriage and went into surgery thinking the doctor would make her bleeding stop and all would be well. How afterwards she was assigned to the maternity wing because the other wards were full, and some senile old nun doddered in and asked what she had, then turned huffy when Fio said she had a dog and a guinea pig. How when it was time for her to leave, the staff member helping her down the hall said the hospital wouldn't let her have a wheelchair because then she'd  feel sorry for herself. How one of her neighborhood friends told her that the miscarriage was God's way of saving her from having a deformed baby.

There are some of the better memories Fio has. The worst are even worse.

Fiorella Staggers On

Austin son, wfe and child visited yesterday and Fiorella was thrilled. Baby is wiggling around, making noises, and responding to everything now. Fio got to hold her a lot, and she didn't even wince at her grandmother's Halloween face. The same can't be said of Son. He kept telling Fiorella how awful she looked.
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Later in the afternoon, after they had left, Fiorella grabbed the pruners and went outside, but her limited  vision, the heavy heat, and a determined mosquito drove her back inside again.Then, in the evening, she ran her hand across the remains of the dried blood butterfly gauze and accidentally hooked her finger in it, pulling enough of the bandage loose than her wound started to bleed again. Pressure and a Hello Kitty bandaid took care of the situation, but Fio is doing her best to move around as little as possible.
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It's twenty days now since Fio has been able to work on her novel, and she is not happy about the time loss. Each day that passes, she's losing touch with Phillipa and Bram. Wish her well.

Rock Warning Plus Tidbits

Fio went out in mid-afternoon to tow her little red wagon full of creekbed rocks along the driveway and shore up problem areas, but she received  a stone cold reception from her troops.  In fact, she received no reception. They totally ignored her, which sort of scared her. What had she done to estrange her wonderful rocks? She laid out a few new recruits, then stopped and considered. It was so hot out, and the air was so still. OMG--the rocks were telling her to go in and gulp down some water, that she wasn't safe out in the heat today! Thank you, my darlings.
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Fiorella has never been knocked unconscious that she knows of. But after the fact, does one ever realize one has been unconscious?
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Let's spend less on museums and more on affordable housing, on the furure rather than the past.
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You do realize, of course, that if Fiorella couldn't write on Blogspot, Facebook, Documents, or her lista amarilla, she'd scratch what she wants to say on sidewalks and cave walls. Do you also realize that Fiorella, who started this blog very cautiously, now regularly spills her guts and tells you things no one else knows?
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All good things in Fiorella's life are referred to as Baby--her dog, her laptop, and her granddaughter. Rejoice with Fio.

Swimming In The Family

Austin son sent Fiorella a picture of himself taking Baby into his wife's family's pool for her first swim, and all I could think of--aside from how sweet my son is and how cute my granddaughter is--was how my mother, who never learned how to swim, was determined that her daughter would learn. Somehow Mom, who didn't drive, got me to lessons at a big, scary auditorium-type pool in Akron, and then, when we moved to Texas, enrolled me for lessons with the local YWCA.

And now, here's Mother's great-granddaughter being introduced to swimming when she is just six months old.

Greetings!

We're having two Easter celebrations this year, yesterday with both sons, their wives, and Baby, and Sunday with Daughter as well as Minnesota son and wife. Chocolate bunnies are rampant.

HAPPY EASTER! CHRIST IS RISEN!

Pre-Easter Scribblings

Fiorella was out tossing rocks across the driveway when one of her neighbors came walking down it with cookies in one hand and an Easter lily in the other, Fio was overwhelmed. Sure, she had delivered a small Easter basket to Neighbor a few days beforehand, but if this was tit for tat, Fio had been solidly out-tatted. Especially since Neighbor also promised Fio a big load of rocks.
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Two of Austin son's dogs got bitten by a snake yesterday, and she prays they are doing well. Thank  you, God, for vets.
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While Minnesota son is talking electronicsand other male mysteries over with Husband today, Fio plans to spirit his wife away to Papi's Pies for a treat.
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Fiorella hasn't been as circumspect as she'd hoped, but her chocolate bunny consumption is way down from preceding years. She's also kept the Peeps in check. But come Easter morning, all bets are off,
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Ah, Easters of the past. Dying eggs the day beforehand, wearing a new dress to church, Easter egg hunts. Will Baby experience these, or are they now out-dated?

Traveling

Hooray, hooray! Hip, hip hooray!
Son and wife arrive today
To visit us and also meet
Their two-month niece, our Baby sweet.
God keep them safe along the way
And bless us all, I humbly pray

Formal Announcemnt

Say it out
Loud and proud
Scream and shout
Dance about
Be as joyful as you can
Because, you see, a gram I am!

Rock Time

Fio doesn't know what happened, but yesterday she accidentally deleted a long post she was writing for today. Tuesday was just that sort of day. The landline went out again, and it took forever for Fio's cell to charge up so she and Husband could call to wish Baby a happy one-month birthday. Also, Husband was trying to reach Scottrade to get a copy of whatever it is that the IRS wants, and Fio was trying to reach Allstate to get copies of their auto insurance cards, which she has somehow misplaced. Also, Fio has been on-and-off sicky for the past fews days.

And what does she do when all the world has turned against her? She goes outside and tosses heavy rocks around. It's a matter of power and control.

Pretty Pink Dress

For about four months, Fiorella has been casting sidelong glances at the little girls' dresses in Target, and now that reality has struck, she finally went into the appropriate department to look through the baby clothes. But there wasn't that much of a selection, and Fio was picky--only the most beautiful little dress in the world would do for Baby--and she finally found it, pink and pretty with a wrapped rose at the waist. She'll try to add a picture of it to this post, but don't count on it. Fio is uplifted by her grandmotherhood, but her electronic skills are still rock bottom.