True Friendship

I'm proud of my little granddaughter.  She is loving, smart, thoughtful, intuitive and knows her own mind.  Granted, there are times we have to work around her knowing her own mind.  She's still only 5 years old, but I love knowing how kind she is.

There was something that happened while we were in Illinois this fall that made all of us especially proud of her.

After being a rather shy preschooler, she blossomed in kindergarten.  She is confident, enthusiastic and made many new friends.  I watched her on the playground as children sought her companionship and noticed (through a retired 1st grade teacher's eyes) how she was open to playing with everyone.

One night Tiffany told us that KC had just confided in her saying, "Mommy, Martha told me that I shouldn't be friends with Selina.  She said I shouldn't play with her, but I don't think that's very nice."

"What did you do?" asked Tiffany.

"Selina is now my new friend." said KC.

Tiffany informed us that Selina was a shy little girl who wore a scarf (often referred to as hijab) to school and was evidently Muslim. 

I don't think KC is aware of just how proud we are of her, but Tiffany let her know it was good that she was being a friend to everyone.

I like to think that the person she is now will still be the same person when she grows up.

Gigantic Lemons

Was it the rains when we were gone to Illinois?  Whatever it was, there were some humungous Meyer lemons on the tree when we returned.  They were the size of large navel oranges.

My brother, Dennis even brought some to work where his friend, Grant made us some lemon popsicles.  They were wonderfully refreshing.  Dennis said Grant added some mint to the popsicles.

I love how he reused wooden chopsticks for the sticks.

I also froze lemon juice in an ice tray so we'd have it available for water or tea.

I'm so glad we're able to make use of the lemons.

POSTSCRIPT:

From comments I just read, I see that people are confused by the Costco card.

What happened is  that we gave my brother all the lemons before I took photos of them.  Therefore, I asked him to take photos using something to show a size reference and send them to me.  He must have had the Costco card handy so he used it to show you just how big the fruit were.

Transforming T-Shirts to Blouses

I'm not a big fan of t-shirts these days.  I get hot quickly and the tighter crew necks bother me.

I also don't love the boxy look with the too long short sleeves.

This was Art's souvenir t-shirt from Petra, Jordan.  It's actually very tight at the neck, arm hole and hip.

I decided to try cutting off the sleeves and making it into a sleeveless blouse.  I could do this since the holes were tight to start with.

I also cut off the crew neck and slit the slides to make it more comfortable.

Feeling pretty pleased with the effect, I decided to modify another t-shirt.  I just cut the crew neck off and sewed it under.  I also shortened the sleeves.

And here's my last t-shirt blouse.  This was the t-shirt Art got free from North Face in Chicago.  It was much too tight for him after it got washed and shrunk.

I cut the crew neck off and also shortened the sleeves.

Yup...

Not bad...

I'm looking into my drawers for other t-shirts now.

Art is keeping me away from his closet!

Honokaa Reunion for All Ages

Art's cousins Beth and Judy who are about 20 years older than he is called while we were in Illinois.  Apparently there was a Honokaa High School Alumni group from as far back as 1938 who got together occasionally. It was an older group and their numbers were dwindling.  They decided to open up their get-together to younger graduates.

I wasn't going to go since it really is for Honokaa grads, but one of Art's classmates insisted I go.

The party was to be at the Treetops Restaurant in Manoa and I'd never been there.

Parts of the building where the restaurant is located was not in good repair but it's in a beautiful area that was once Paradise Bird Park.

I could see why the restaurant was called Treetops.

Our neighbor who also happens to be from Honokaa came along with us as well as a couple of his other classmates.  It's amazing how many of his Honokaa classmates live so close to us.

There were about 60 people there and eventually, Art saw several of his cousins and lots of other people who were related to friends or classmates that he knew.

They are all such lovely people and made me feel as if I was part of their hometown family.  Several people chuckled to see that my name was the same as Art's sister so my name tag had his sister's maiden name.

One of the surprises for me was the buffet luncheon.

It was excellent.  Frankly, most buffets that I've been to have been so-so.  This was wonderful and had everything we love, including Art's eggplants.

The amazing thing is that our group of  about a dozen youngsters somehow managed to be a lucky table.  Just about ALL of us won in the BINGO and door prize games.

Art came away with a Adidas golf shirt, Nike windbreaker and Honokaa Dragon hat!  And they were his size!!!  How is that possible?  Needless to say, he was a very happy alumni!


We loved our stay on the mainland, but this was sure a lovely welcome home.

Return to Hawaii

Too soon... it was time to leave.

I knew it would be difficult for KC when we had to leave, but it was Tiffany's tears that made my heart ache.

It seemed like only a week ago that we had arrived, but almost a month had sped by.

We were sure that we hadn't signed up for Economy Plus, but that's where our seats were and the leg room was truly ample! 

Instead of buying food at one of the airport kiosks we opted to just buy a meal onboard the plane.

We were very pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite good.

The flight this time was just short of 9 long hours, but finally... there was Oahu!  We thought it was raining because of the cloudy haze.  Unfortunately, it was stifling vog from the volcano.

Mom was happy to see us.  She had made Art's favorite nishime for dinner and there was a watermelon cooling in the refrigerator.

The following day we went to the market to get another watermelon that happened to be on sale.

Redbox had The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel available.  Yahoo!  Finally!

As we were waiting at the checkout, I was talking to KC on the cellphone.  I felt badly thinking I might be disturbing others in line. 

A smiling lady behind us had folded these two origami cranes.  Perhaps she had heard my conversation with KC.  Perhaps she just wanted to do something nice.  She offered the cranes to me and said, "This is for your safe travels."

I'd been feeling sad about leaving our old home in Illinois.

But I'm also feeling happy to be back home in Hawaii.

Snapshots of Memories

There were a lot of this and thats during our trip.

There was that Special Friends Day where Art joined KC for lunch at school and bought her some books at the school bookstore.  It was a PTA money making project that we were happy to support.

It doesn't matter how long you live in the Midwest.  When the colors of the season are at their peak, you still marvel at its beauty.

KC loved walking around the neighborhood to pick up the leaves that nature had painted just for her.

And, yes!  We did stop at Ikea and Trader Joes to pick up a few necessities to bring home to Hawaii.  OK... maybe I didn't really need that water kettle, but it only cost $9.99, for goodness sake!

We also stopped in the woods for a quiet walk.

We were gathering memories to bring back to Hawaii with us.

Today is Veteran's Day.
To all the veterans who serve and served our nation with bravery, a sense of duty and distinction... thank you.

Ed's Surgery

My son-in-law hurt his 2nd metatarsal on a ski trip last December.  That's the toe next to big toe.  Unfortunately it didn't heal properly, caused quite a bit of pain when walking and needed to be corrected.

I was touched that Ed is comfortable enough to have his mother-in-law with him before the surgery.

He was not allowed to eat or drink anything as of midnight.  The surgery was unfortunately delayed until around 2:00 PM the following day.


The nurse tried twice to insert a needle for the I.V. and couldn't manage it.  I remember something like this with our son when he was dehydrated.  I'm guessing that's what was happening with Ed.  Ed never flinched... not even the flicker of an eyelash.

The nurse finally gave up and called a more experienced nurse who was able to get the needle in quickly.

When I've had surgeries, I've let them know I don't like needles and I'm a wimp about pain.  Sometimes, being stoic might not be the best thing...

For such a little toe surgery, Ed's entire leg had to be put into a very hard and large cast.  He had a rather painful weekend before he was able to move around again.

I'm remembering the surgeon telling Ed before he went into the O.R., "It's really an easy surgery.  You don't have to worry a bit.  When it's all over, I won't feel a thing."

And he was right.

Chicago Botanic Garden

One of our favorite places to visit in Illinois is the Chicago Botanic Garden.

 

Tiffany loves to take KC there whenever she can.

Children are given an activity nature "BINGO" sheet where they attach stickers every time they find something that is listed such as fruits, seeds, squirrels, etc.

The chrysanthemums were in full bloom.

I don't know what it is about water lilies that always draws my camera.

There were so many things KC wanted to see.

These bushes seemed to be on fire.

KC insisted on getting a map of the gardens and asked her grandpa to show her where we were throughout our walk.

The maple trees were spectacular in the sunlight.  The weather was crisp and perfect.

And here's a butterfly we don't see in Hawaii.

The Sensory Garden had lots of smells and textures to experience.

We had a rather uninspired lunch at the garden cafe and then went out again to explore more of the garden.

The English Walled Garden is one of our favorite places to spend a quiet time.   Some tea and scones would have been perfect here.

We were texting Tiffany as we entered the Japanese Gardens.  She warned us that we'd been out for such a long time that KC might get too tired to walk.  If this happens, somebody might have to carry her.

We turned right around, walked through the rose garden and headed straight for the parking lot.

It was a perfect day!

Returning to Andersonville

Due to a confluence of difficulties on this trip from KC's school schedule, to new cars that shouldn't be on the highway to an on-going bathroom renovation we would not be able to visit my dear friend, Peggy (Meggie's Musings) who lives a few hours away from us.

However, we wanted to see her daughter, Julie's new store in Andersonville which is in the northern end of Chicago.

Coincidentally, this is the neighborhood where we lived for over a year when we first arrived in Chicago in 1974!

And here is Julie's pet store.  It's called Jameson Loves Danger and is on 5208 North Clark Street.

There were so many wonderful things for pets that we couldn't resist getting treats, toys and poop bags for our granddog, Mungo and our neighbor's dogs as well.

This dog was getting a bath.  We were amazed that he stayed there very obediently while being blow dried.

We had not brought Tiffany back to Andersonville in decades so we took this opportunity to show her where she started her life.

Tiffany was only a couple of weeks old when this photo was taken in Andersonville.

We lived on the 2nd floor of a two flat owned by a very sweet, elderly German landlord who treated us like we were his own.  He'd make us a cabbage and meatball dish which we loved and offer Art some rather strong German beer.

We regretfully moved to a suburb 4 months later, but continued to visit our old landlord until he passed away when the kids were still very little.

And here it is!  West Farragut Street and all its memories...

This photo was taken in December of 1975, a couple of months before our move.

It's hard to describe the feeling of walking down a street we hadn't seen for several decades.

And yet... in the rustling of the fall leaves I could hear a jovial, welcoming voice saying, "Ahhh... Art, Kay, you bring Stefani to see me.  Stay a while... I have some candy for her..."

Lots of Aloha for Our Local Guy!

Oh what a relief it is!

It happened again!  We were finishing our dinner here in Hawaii and we got the early news that President Obama was already re-elected!  (Hawaii is always the last to finish voting.) We'd been expecting a long, stressful night.

The local news were reporting that Hawaii voters were still waiting in line by the hundreds to vote because they had run out of paper ballots!

Photos taken of my television

Oh my gosh!  I'm so relieved.

I'm so happy!