Help! The Ceiling Is Falling!!

Yesterday evening, our grandson Kindon brought his mommy Sara and daddy Jeremy over to eat dinner at our house. In fact, Sara cooked for us (burgers and hot dogs on the grill). After we had eaten and they hung out for a while, it was time for them to go home. Mike and I walked them out to their respective vehicles and as we walked back in the front door, there was a rumble and a crash and parts of the living room ceiling came tumbling down on our heads. When the dust had settled (and there was LOTS of dust!) slightly more than half of the suspended ceiling tiles had fallen down. Upon inspection we discovered that when the suspended ceiling was installed (some time prior to our purchasing the house 28 years ago) the grid had been supported by wires that were nailed to the original plaster ceiling (instead of by screws which is the correct way to install suspended ceiling grid) and a couple of the nails had pulled loose and allowed the gridwork to collapse. Needless to say, the next few evenings will be spend repairing the gridwork and replacing tiles, and we'll have to order replacements for the tiles that were broken as they fell. After that is finished, we'll be reinforcing the gridwork in every other suspended ceiling in the house to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

We are very thankful that the ceiling didn't fall five minutes earlier when Kindon would have been underneath it and could have been seriously injured by falling tiles/gridwork. Maybe now things could just calm down a little bit and not be so interesting for a while.......please, God?

The World's Cutest Grandson

I love being a grandma. It's even more fun than being a mom (and I loved being a mom, too). The best part is that after I'm done spoiling my grandson completely rotten I get to send him home. Since Kindon is currently our only grandchild he gets plenty of spoiling.

Last year at Christmas he was really a little young to "get" the idea of presents, but we thought surely this year at 2 1/2 he would grasp the concept. However, we were very surprised when he showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in opening any packages at all. We got together on Christmas Day at my parents' house, and after a sumptuous dinner it was time to open presents. Kindon had a stack of packages but was completely uninterested in any of them. Repeated efforts throughout the day failed to entice him to see what might be inside any of the pretty packages. Finally, very late in the afternoon, we were able to convince him to open one package which came from my sister in Florida. The package contained a gift card holder which played music whenever he opened it, and that finally got his attention. He opened and shut the card numerous times until we were all thoroughly tired of hearing the repeated music. But despite his delight with this gift he still wasn't interested in opening any more packages. Eventually before he went home he managed to at least open everything.

There is never a dull moment when Kindon is around. A couple of weeks ago I was taking care of him for the day because Jeremy and Sara were both working. After a quick trip to the bathroom I looked around and he was nowhere to be seen. Upon further investigation I found him kneeling in the kitchen sink, happy as a clam and soaking wet, with the cold water running full force and the sink sprayer spraying water all over the kitchen. He wasn't very happy when I took him out of the sink, stripped his wet clothes off and dried him off. I put him in his spare clothes but didn't have a spare pair of socks for him so he had to go barefoot until I could get his wet clothes dried. Every few minutes he would come over to me and lift up his bare foot to remind me that he didn't have any socks on, and I would remind him that he was the one who got his socks wet in the first place. I have to give him points for creativity, though, since this was one thing that none of my four kids ever thought to do when they were little.

When Kindon was born, I told Jeremy that if he was as smart as Jeremy had been that he and Sara would definitely have their hands full. It appears that my prediction was correct, because Kindon is very smart, and he is indeed a handful at times. But he is a delightful little boy and he has brightened all of our lives more than I can say.

Did I mention that I love being a grandma?

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

Okay, so it has been a couple of months since I actually posted a blog entry here. I haven't really forgotten to post, but life has been REALLY hectic for a while (even more than usual). Right after Thanksgiving I had a request from my grandson's mommy to knit Christmas stockings for her niece and nephews. She picked out the patterns and I bought the yarn, and I thought we were good. Unfortunately along with everything else going on, it took a lot longer than I had expected to get the stockings done, so I was knitting every spare moment right up until Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, my Aunt Pat had fallen and broken her hip at the beginning of December. Due to pre-existing medical issues she wasn't able to have surgery immediately to repair her hip, and her condition rapidly deteriorated. Unfortunately she passed away in early January.

Right after Christmas I left for a week on a mission trip with three other members of my church, along with my brother, Ron. We had an incredible week doing drywall finishing, painting, and cleanup at two houses in Slidell, LA, which had been heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina. An awesome experience, but, again, not much time for blogging.

Then just as I thought things were going to calm down and be reasonable again (I'm not sure why I ever think that any more), my dear husband Mike suffered a serious heart attack on Super Tuesday, right after voting. (I think that definitely says something about our choices in this election!) He was transported to Carlinville Area Hospital for initial treatment before being transferred to St. John's Hospital in Springfield. During catheterization it was determined that he had a 90% blockage of one major artery in the heart and a stent was placed at that time. The Springfield doctor said that the excellent emergency treatment he received in Carlinville did much to reduce the severity and long-term consequences of the attack. He was released from the hospital on Friday, February 8, and has been doing very well ever since.

So now that I've pretty much given up on the idea of my life ever being calm and under control, I decided that the first thing I needed to do was get the blog going again. I still have lots of cool knitting tales and grandson stories to share, and one of these days I'll actually figure out how to post photos here too.

Meanwhile, Mike's doctors have said that it's important to have plenty of fiber, so I guess I need to go buy yarn.