Thankfulness, Sadness, and Strangeness

Hiya All,

Sorry it has been awhile since the last post, but things have been crazy on this end. I’ll try to get you all updated.

Thankfullness...
I made it back to Detroit for the holidays and stayed at Leo and Judea’s along with my nephews (Kyle, 11 and Alex, 5) and their border collie dog Gracie (Nick and Stacy took off for Cancun before I got there). The first night set the tone. After we watched Elf (I forget how much I like that movie) I’m crashing on the couch upstairs cuz the guest bed hurts my back. At 3:00 in the a.m. I hear Gracie whimpering in her crate downstairs, where the boys are sleeping on the aerobed. I get up and let her out and try to keep her from running all over the house with those tags jingling that sound SO loud at 3:00am. I let her out back to do her thing, where mind you I have no coat or shoes on in the frigid weather and then get her corralled back in her crate and head back upstairs to try and catch some Zs.

I’m on the couch for an hour when I hear footsteps on the stairs. Alex’s head peeps around the corner and I ask him what's wrong and he says, “Aunt Jenny, I puked.” So I go back downstairs with him and try to wake Kyle so he doesn’t roll over into the pile. Get them both up on the couch in the basement and clean up the mess and start up the laundry. Then I hurdle them upstairs to sleep in the guest bed that hurts my back. Kyle got in fine, but Alex, says we forgot about the puke on his shirt (about the size of a quarter—Aunt Jenny missed it), so we go to change his pj shirt and G-ma and G-pa wake up to see what all of the commotion is. Alex starts heaving again, all over the carpet in the computer room, so I toss Judea the trash can to catch some of it at least so it doesn’t all sink into the berber. We finally get Alex cleaned up and in bed with Kyle and then start to clean puke pile #2. At this point Judea and I are awake enuf where we are not going back to sleep. So we sit in the living room and chat. About 10 minutes in, I hear what I pray is coughing coming from the guest room. No such luck. It is now 5:20 am. We get Kyle up and moved into G-ma’s bed. We get Alex cleaned up again and bundled in a blanket in the living room and get the next load of laundry ready to go. Within the next half an hour Alex puked two more times—finally making it to the bathroom in time for the last one. Also, Kyle had to get up and leave his spot in G-ma’s bed b/c G-pa snores too loud. We were all exhausted. So, T-day was pretty laid back. Nothing fancy—there were even some naps. Got to meet Nanner’s new flame, Chris. He seems like a really nice guy. Kyle had the crowning moments at the dinner table though. I LOVE how he just speaks his mind…

“I love these cresent rolls! They are so warm and creamy!”
“I don’t mind the snow—I just want it when it is like seventy degrees out though.”

Nanner was coming down with a bug, so the next day Judea and I took the boys out to lunch at Applebee’s (Kyle’s idea of fine dining). He declared that I was coolest aunt in the history of the world when I gave him half of my steak--the boy likes his steak. We then took them on a tour of Meadow Brook Hall, which was all decorated up for Christmas, and then out to Canterbury Village. We came home in time to play some "Apples to Apples" with Aunt Wendy, Uncle Al, and Aunt Nancy.

On Saturday, Judea took Alex to the GC Santaland parade while Kyle, G-pa, and I went over to Aunt Wendy’s to help her install her new microwave. My job mainly consisted of blockading my furry nephew Sam. That was fine by me. The big oaf still thinks he is a lapdog and takes great joy in just standing on you and being petted. Kyle and I then went over to G-pa’s shop to see if we could fix a dvd issue he was having with his PC. Turns out the dvd was the issue. G-pa then took Kyle and I out to lunch at Culver’s (Kyle = “you know this place is kinda like one step up from fast food.” Did I tell you how much I love these kids?). G-pa then went with Kyle and I to the Meijer where Kyle picked out his belated b-day present. He wanted a board game, one that Alex could play too—these kids melt my heart. So, after Aunt Jenny agreed to “Beat the Parents” and “You Might Be a Redneck If...” We headed home. We beat G-ma and Alex home, so we put in Aunt Jenny’s new favorite movie, Tears of the Sun. Kyle is just about the right age to start understanding the social responsibility message. Aunt Jenny then made a lame-o dinner of hotdogs and chili for everyone. After playing Kyle’s new board games, we watched Christmas with the Kranks—that is 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back again.

By the time Sunday morn rolled around G-ma and G-pa were feeling icky enough to skip mass (translation = very, very icky). We hung around the home and made Aunt Wendy her early b-day dinner of lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, followed up with jello poke cake and peppermint ice cream. At about 4:00 I decided to hit the road back towards home. Normally, I can make the trip in 2.5 hours flat, door to door. It took me 3 hours to get from the I-275/I-96 interchange to Lansing, the road was so packed we never went over 35 mph on that stretch. After Lansing, the snow and the ice set in. So 4 hours and 45 minutes after I left the rents, I pulled into my humble abode.

Monday I woke up feeling like @$$. I dragged my hinder into work and held out as long as I could—til about 10:30. I made it home just in time to find out how useful it is to have floor drains in your garage. The coma ensued until the next day when I forced myself to make it the whole day at work. The bug then unfortunately made its way thru our team. By the time our team function for Christmas (dinner at SanChez followed by the suite for the Griffins game) rolled around that Saturday Michelle, my colleague, and her munchkins were sick. :(

I wouldn’t have traded a minute of my holiday though.
It was so nice to spend time with my family.
I am learning to appreciate them in new ways.
I’m lucky, loved and blessed.
Isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?


Sadness...
As with just about everyone else in the world right now, my company is facing extremely difficult times with its industry and the economy. This week was slated to deal with involuntary separations. Seeing as the project I work on got delayed a week ago—I was getting ready for the ole heave-ho. Luckily, I was spared, but there were a lot who were not. My prayers and best wishes go out to them. I am fortunate that I am in one of the growing areas of the industry. But seeing as just about everything depends on what happens on the world stage, everything is unpredictable. I don’t blame the company. I understand it, but I still don’t have to like it.


Strangeness…
If you know me at all you know I am a cookbook junkie—just can’t get enough of them. As of recent I have also taken a great interest in Michigan, its people, its resources, its history. While doing some Christmas shopping at the local B&N this past week, I found a book called Our Michigan, Ethnic Tales & Recipes. Right up my alley. So I was totally knocked on my keister last night when I read the dedication, as I am always drawn to do…

“Thanks
It’s impossible to mention all the people who helped make this book possible. But I do owe a special thanks to the people at the Michigan State Library for letting me check out bushels of material at a time, then letting me keep it weeks beyond the due dates without sending the sheriff after me.
Also, thanks to my fellow freelancing friend, Judy Eldridge, the people at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette, David Johnson at the State Photo Archives, Mary Flachsenhaar of the Detroit Free Press, Evelyn Cairns of the Mellus Newspapers and Christine K****** of St. Mary’s Rosary Society in B******.”

That last acknowledgement there was to my grandmother. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!!!!????!!! How the H-E-double-hockey-sticks did my grandma, my Busia, get her name in a book that I bought last night? At a national chain no less!! How is it no one in my family ever mentioned/talked about this? I called Leo and asked him. After I mentioned the author’s name, he said he did remember Busia talking about sitting down for a bunch of interviews with some lady talking about food and recipes (apparently Busia used to cater weddings—I never knew that!!). This book was first published back in 1979, and then again in 2006. I am still kinda in shock.


Miscellaneous...
I still have to post about Mykonos and Santorini as well as share the pics, but I need to talk to Nanner a bit more and make sure I have the timeline of the details right.
BTW - How come no one ever told me what a hottie Jason Statham was?

Until next time,
God Bless!