Summer, turns me upside down

Ah, the wonderfully lazy days of summer are upon me. This is the first summer I've not done something--classes, teaching summer school, travel--and I'm finding it hard to get motivated to do much of anything. I have been reading and puttering around the house and yard. I've been trying not to spend hour upon hour idling away time on the Internet. I've been good about going to the gym. And that's about it for June.

To recap the month:

The 70th wedding anniversary in Kansas was quite enjoyable. Since we don't have children, and I'm not the one who started the company, I was able to mostly blend into the background, thus avoiding most uncomfortable conversations and a splitting headache. The luncheon on Saturday was wonderful--larger than originally planned with 75 friends and family attending, including Paul's aunt and uncle on his father's side. They were traveling from Ohio to Oklahoma and planned the trip to coincide with the gathering. I love Paul's Uncle Tom--he's a bit of a renegade among my very straight-laced inlaws. He is loud, he drinks, he smokes, he is opinionated. I find him harmlessly amusing--a breath of fresh air and a great conversationalist. I think the rest of the family thinks he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Of course, they also think I'm a bit flightly as well (it's the liberal arts degree). I was able to have dinner with my girlfriend who lives in Emporia and see her new baby (and husband and 3-year-old). Paul and I had a fantastic time at the Royals baseball game. The final score was 16-11--obviously not a pitcher's duel but entertaining for the crowd.

After "The Event," Paul's grandmother, who was having trouble before that weekend but refused to visit the doctor until afterwards, was admitted to the hospital. She was in for a few days to have a variety of tests. She was released with some medicines for sciatica and the heart trouble she was having. Of course, if you ask either of Paul's grandparents how they're doing, all they will say is that they're "doing fine" or "getting better" so we don't know exactly the state of her health right now. But as I was telling one of Paul's cousins, while I know that at some point we will be in Kansas for a funeral, Grandmother has been saying for the past 20 years that she might die at any time. They stopped snowbirding in Texas because she didn't want to die down there. At our wedding almost 7 years ago, she mentioned that she didn't think she'd live to see great-grandchildren (she now has five). Last summer, she said she didn't think she'd make it to this summer's celebration. I know she is going to be right at some point but in the meantime, I'm very thankful that she's simply crying wolf.

My mother came to visit for five days shortly after we got back from Kansas. We had planned to do some little projects around the house--even had it all planned out. Instead, we went shopping. And then we sat and read. And then did more shopping. And got pedicures. And I got a fabulous pair of shoes that I'll probably only wear a few times but they were fabulous. My mom agreed and bought them for me as an early birthday gift. With any luck, she'll forget that she did that and I'll get something else fabulous and wonderful in November. Maybe while wearing my new shoes.

Last weekend, Paul and I spent time at Paul's parents' cabin near Chama, NM. They've had the place for about 20 years but we haven't used it much in the past four years after the inlaws bought their sailboat in Maryland. The lady who co-owned the cabin with them passed away recently and Paul's parents are now mulling over buying the other half, letting us buy the other half, selling the property, keeping it but renting it out. I'd like them to keep the place (and I know Paul really wants them to do so) but our offers to buy have fallen on deaf ears. Paul thinks his mother won't let his father sell it as long as we have interest in it. So, I've invited all my family and friends to visit the place and hopefully, we will be able to use it more often. I should throw the offer out there to all those in Internetland as well. Want to visit Northern New Mexico? We've got just the place.

We finally had rain this week--the first since last October. Unfortunately, it came in an hour-long deluge on Monday evening. Tuesday, we had a nice rain at the house but the Downtown area got pummelled. I spent most of Monday evening wandering around the house looking for leaks. Ever since the big rain in 2004 when we had several serious leaks, I get a little twitchy when the skies darken. Thankfully, the house stood firm, the inside stayed dry, and it was wonderful to get the rain, even in deluge form.

So, that was June in a nutshell. I don't have any real plans for July--perhaps a trip back to TX to visit people there. Paul is going to a conference in Florida but since neither golfing or sitting on a beach is very appealing to me, I'm not going to be going with him this year. (Next year the conference is in Hawaii; I'll probably be more willing to sit on a beach there.) At some point, I'll upload all the pictures from the past month. In the meantime, I'm going to get back to my book.

A short respite

The trip to Kansas went really well. It was wonderful to see the inlaws and we survived with minimal stress. I'll recount the weekend and post pictures of the cutie kids and the cutie grandparents soon.

My mother has been in town since Friday and will be here for a few more days. We're enjoying a wonderful visit with her--Paul made her come to our weight-lifting class Saturday morning (he called it the "Death Class" as a way to intice her) but she and I went shopping in Santa Fe today and that made it all better. Tomorrow, we're doing a few handy projects around the house. Mom, me, and power tools. Bonding was never more frightening.

An update on "The Event"

The trip to Kansas was quite enjoyable and we enjoyed visiting with all of Paul's family. The "all" of the family is only 23 people, including us and the three babies, so it's not a terribly large group of people. And as I mentioned before, they are pretty enjoyable to be around.

For the most part, I was a non-essential to any conversation. Paul has the new company, a cousin and his wife are adopting two children from Russia this summer, Paul's brother and sister-in-law have the four children and are moving in a few weeks. I could basically hang around on the fringes of any conversation, not necessary and much less stressed at the end of three days as a result.

We went to KS a day early to take in a Royals game. A recent heat wave made for a rather sticky evening. At one point, Paul and I looked at each other and had to laugh--we were both mopping sweat off our foreheads with extra napkins. Living in the desert, we're spoiled by the "dry heat." After the sun went down, a little breeze cooled us off and we were able to enjoy the game. Neither team's starting pitcher was very good (and neither team is that good either). As a result, the game was a high-scoring affair with a final score of 16 to 11, in favor of the Royals.

Let's all celebrate and have a good time

So, we're off to Kansas for a family reunion celebrating the 70th wedding anniversary of Paul's grandparents. Their actual anniversary is in April but this was the easiest time for all of the family to gather together. I typically enjoy Paul's family--there aren't that many of them, they aren't terribly loud or obnoxious, none seem to belong on Springer (none of which can be said for my own family).

But as is the case when we visit my family, it's just too many people in too small of an area. One (or both) of us typically ends up with a splitting headache because there are just TOO MANY PEOPLE around and we have to be "on" for the entire time.

And let's just be honest here--Paul and I are borderline hermits. We keep to ourselves, quietly going about our business at home, venturing out to the occasional dinner with friends or various meetings. But usually, the lights are low, the shades are drawn, and we don't even answer the telephone. If we didn't have jobs (and we didn't enjoy the basic things like food), we'd probably cross that line to full-blown hermits. This makes it difficult when we have to be around more than two other people at a time. And then be entertaining and intriguing and engaging. And then act like the other people are entertaining, intriguing, and engaging. Because, really, after about 10 minutes, I've gotten caught up on your doings, you know all about me, and it takes about seven more minutes for you to figure out that we're really dull people with a happily boring life. And we're in a town of about 100 people so we can catch up on all their doings within the half-hour as well.

I'm hoping to meet up with a friend who moved to Kansas from ABQ. She was the band director at my school for three years and we were great partners in crime. Plus, it's a great excuse to escape the inlaws. Not that I don't love them but as I've mentioned to Paul, my own family drives me batty. Why wouldn't his?

At least we're guaranteed some ice cream at some point in the weekend. Paul definitely inherited his grandfather's sweet tooth. Owen loves his sweets--ice cream, chocolates, cookies. One year, we had six pies for eight people, thanks to Owen. We got to have pie for breakfast. And it was good.

Five years ago, we had a big gathering for the 65th wedding anniversary. This party isn't as large but in the past five years, ther have been three weddings and four babies born so at least the family will be bigger. His grandparents are 93 and 92 now--we don't know how many more trips to Kansas we'll be making. And this one will be a celebration.