The Golden Blog

Oh wonderful Fall...asleep

John, Savannah and I returned home from two fun-filled weeks in Florida on Saturday night to a blustery cold-snap in the SF bay area. It truly feels like Fall arrived in full force, and early too! Here we were in sunny, hot, muggy, palm tree-lined Florida, bracing ourselves for the times we had to step outside and sweat to death, and now this: wearing layers, wearing socks in the house, turning over the summer garden to prepare the winter one, hosing down the patio to rid the evidence of Fall's debris, cutting the sugar pumpkin and dividing it into bags for the pies to come, putting out the Halloween decorations.

My thoughts continually come back to "get under a blanket and take a long nap". We didn't want to go out in the crazy wind and rain today, but Savannah had her violin lesson scheduled and there was no way around it. We drove the hour out to Stockton, and Savannah, being still on East coast time, fell asleep before the lesson time. Oh how I wanted to stay in the car and fall asleep to the rain hitting the car. It turns out this is the wettest date since about 1962 and is actually the tail end of a typhoon.

Savannah's good friend Sarah came over to play tonight. This typhoon was responsible for a big pine tree falling over in her back yard and creating an inconvenient situation for her parents. We were only too happy for Sarah to hang out with us instead of hanging out with frustrated parents. Sarah and Savannah played "dress up", and took turns "losing" their glass slipper so that the prince would find them and marry them. It was too funny. I gave them some camomile tea and they took turns calling each other "darling" and "sweetie". Sarah's mom came to pick her up at 9, and reported that the tree trimmer will be out tomorrow to buzz up the tree. All is mostly well then.

Poor John is still up doing his lesson planning for the morning. I however can no longer resist the covers and the pillow. Must reach..the...bed...zzzzzzzz

Southwest Florida

Greetings from Southwest Florida. John, Savannah and I are down here for 2 weeks. John is off from school for that time, and so we get to visit with John's immediate family, first with John's dad in Fort  Myers, and next with John's mom at Disney in Orlando, both 1-week visits. Furthermore Savannah get's to celebrate her 4th birthday at Disneyworld! Everyone says it should be free of the big crowds this time of year. We went to Socal's Disneyland for her 3rd birthday, (courtesy of a friend) and the crowds were definitely manageable.

We left our home on Monday night, after a lovely weekend visit with my dad and sister Karen in the Sierra 'gold country', and stayed overnight with Amy and company in Oakland. Her hubby Scott agreed to drive us to Oakland airport on his way to work at 5:30am the next morning(how sweet is that??), and we easily and relaxingly boarded our Southwest flight for a 7am departure like seasoned pro's. Savannah toted her new princess rollerboard, courtesy of grandma Dee, so we all had a bag to be responsible for. We also checked our monster-size BOB stroller at the gate, and anticipated the easy strolling days ahead at Disney.

Aboard the flight, Savannah sat between her mom and dad while we plied her with a new coloring book, snacks, and the movie 'Shrek', which John lovingly downloaded on my Iphone. We had a little Savi meltdown between flights in Albuquerque, but mostly we were set, and Savannah even took a long nap on leg 2 of 3 en route to Ft. Myers. That day, I read the entire John Grisham novel, The Street Lawyer. Good read! Didn't know I was such a fast reader. Must have been the training getting through all those thick Harry Potter books.

John's brother Thomas met us at the airport in the diesel Mercedes, sans a/c, sans working rear windows. But boy was the ride smooth through that humid Florida air. I enjoyed my first experience at the Red Robin franchise restaurant, and then it was on to the grocery before arriving to grandpa "Pops" home. We knew beforehand that Thomas and his dad lives on a steady diet of Mac-n-cheese, frosted flakes, and of course "Wendy's" chili. We picked up some produce from Publix, and continued our drive through the green, green, green landscape (as it is the end of the rainy season here) to our destination. I live in a dry, dry, brown type of land. My dead lawn is a perfect cross-section of the conditions in which we daily live and thrive. A breath of this palm tree-infused air is unmistakeably tropical in nature. It makes one immediately want to trade in the hippie-purple blouse and don a flowery shirt and flip-flops. I didn't have those things, but the sentiment was authentic.

There are 4 kids who live right next door to Pops and Thomas. They are 4,5,7 and 9. They LOVE Savannah, and they all remembered each other from her visit back in March. I already mentioned the dietary condition of the house we were staying in, so it was only appropriate for me to go next door and request a lasagna dish. Before I knew it, we invited the kids and their mother to share dinner with us, and with that, I also requested a big pot in order to hatch a double batch of mac-n-cheese. John and I made the food, and the mom brought the sugar-free koolaid, and regardless we all had a high kid-energy dinner, with Popsicles for dessert. Eat those outside..outside!!

Earlier in the day I went on a jog to get to know the neighborhood a little better, and work off those "Red Robin" seasoned fries from the night before. I got down the road, over a bridge and into a gated community with lovely sidewalks and ponds and slowed to a walk. Immediately to my right I read a sign which said, "It is illegal to feed or disturb the alligators". I started immediately back to my jog of course and watched the bushes. Yeesh!!

This morning mama Dee picked me up and we enjoyed a breakfast at Perkins restaurant. We talked a bit about Savannah's birthday plans and I said she will simply love to be with people, and go to Disneyworld. Dee thought of an additional idea- to include other kids at the timeshare resort in Savi's celebration. There is an activity center for the kids, and perhaps Savannah could share cupcakes and play for a while.

John and I are the only one's up now. It's 11:30 here. He is renting a mini-van to take 4 adults and Savannah up to Orlando on Saturday. It's only $50 plus 1/2 tank of gas. Tomorrow am I have a massage appt at 11am, as I have strained a shoulder, and after that it's off to the beach on Sanibel Island, famous for its white sand beaches and incredible sea shell collecting.

Tata,
Kathy

 

What happens when we harvest our watermellon?

We get out the acryllic paints!

After a tasty spagetti meal tonight with John and Savannah, John mentioned that one of his students was participating in tonight's JV water polo game at John's school (Freedom). John played water polo in High School and told the kid he'd come to a game if he quit clowning around in class and bring up his grade. Well, I guess that happened because we all jumped in the car and found ourselves at the outdoor pool with the JV women finishing their 4 quarters of fun, and the JV dudes warming up in the adjacent pool. We found a spot on the bleachers, just behind the one meter diving board, and surveyed the scene. There were parents, kids, coaches, officials, and dressed-up varsity water polo players there to support.
After moments of sitting with us, Savannah quickly magnetized energy toward two slightly older boys. They had fun playing 'monster' and 'try to catch me'. I told John I almost wanted to get her attention and say "be gentle to those older boys". How funny that I would want to say that. She's pretty darn outgoing I must say. Just wait a few years and then I will be thinking about how easy it was for her to think of boys as monsters, and to be run away from.

I learned that water polo has 7 on a team, including the goalie. They wear not-so-flattering swim caps with their number lasered on it. They play for five minutes each quarter. Hey! They're swimming the whole time and that's a lot of expended energy in my world! Much respect.

After we ahem...lost...the game, the Sierras walked over to the stadium as we heard the marching band practicing up under the lights. We walked on the rubberized track, chased each other around the astro-turf football field, and nostalgically enjoyed the band as they played and practiced to the direction of the band leader and his loud megaphone. According to Savannah it was a parade and we were to march behind them around the entire track. John saw another one of his students and waved. It was still close to 90 degrees out, and it was already 8:30pm! It was surely a slice of a high-school memory, all warmed up for me to indulge in.

I told Savannah that the track is for people to run really fast on. We were leaving the staduim at that point and she immediately bolted her teva sandles down the track at break-neck toddler speed. I didn't know she could run that fast. We took turns sprinting to the 'finish line', and then headed back to the car.

2009 Savi and friends

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