Julia Grace

Baby Julia Grace has arrived.  She was born Saturday morning at 11:02, and weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz.  She looks somewhat like Stephanie but has a look of her own.  I got here late Thursday evening to help with Stephanie and will be here until this weekend.  The new family of four is doing quite well.  Stephanie loves on Julia a lot, but isn't too happy when her mama holds Grace.  I really think she'll adjust just fine; she is a very loving little girl.  

Home Again, Home Again

We had a great vacation.  The house was wonderful; we were across the street from the beach but we had our own heated pool and the kids spent more time in the pool than on the beach.  The house had ten bedrooms and lots for the kids to do--hammock swings under the house, a ping pong table too, a gazebo and a basketball court behind that.  I think we'll rent the same house next year, but a little later in the year.  The grandkids are getting too old to take out of school.  Below are some pictures of the pool and house from the first days.

Random Thoughts

It's been another busy week at school, finals week.  We had our end of semester pizza party on Wednesday, and my coworkers surprised me making it a going away party, too.  I had told them I didn't want a going away party, and didn't even tell anyone there that I was retiring until the past couple of weeks, when I figured it would be too late to plan anything since everyone is gone after this week.  

My assistant, Liliana, graduated from our nursing program on Tuesday evening.  I was so happy for her.  She is from Romania and really worked hard to learn the material in a second language.  She takes her state boards in July and has started looking for a nursing job.
 
After watching Downton Abbey for three years, we were very disappointed in this season's finale.  They could have just found another actor to play Matthew.  We have found other shows on PBS, which are quite good.  We love the show on PBS, Call the Midwife. I think Chummy (one of our favorite characters) is coming back Sunday. We tried Mr. Selfridge and weren't too impressed, but there was one that was just three episodes ending this past Sunday, Bletchley Circle, that was really good. There is little decent drama to watch on network TV, so PBS has become a wonderful option. We really need to make a contribution!

We are leaving Saturday for Gulf Shores.  We'll drive about eight hours on Saturday then stay in a hotel and drive the rest of the way on Sunday.  We don't get the house until 4 so there's no need to rush.  My daughter from Boston gets in a little after noon, so we'll probably meet her somewhere for lunch.  I'm really looking forward to vacation, but I feel bad that our son and his wife and baby from Cincinnati cannot come because they are having their second baby on May 25th.  I told them we could swing by and pick up Stephanie and take her to the beach with us, but they said no.  I'll be posting lots of pictures next week.  

Our addition is moving along.  They did the excavation this week and poured the first round of concrete, and they put in the new furnace and air conditioning units.  They will rewire our electricity next week while we are gone, so we will have air conditioning when we return.  It's been so cool here that we've been fine without it. 

Johnny on the Spot

Well, it's Wednesday and they have not broken ground yet.  We do have a Johnny on the spot that they delivered Monday.  Rain is predicted for tomorrow and Friday, so they don't want to pour concrete.  The HVAC man did come this morning and he is going to install the new air conditioning units and furnace for upstairs next week.  We will be leaving town on Saturday, and he assured us we would have air conditioning when we get back on the 19th.  

 

I spent all afternoon Sunday, into the evening, digging up flowers in the garden where the addition will be.  My sister in law came in town in the afternoon and my son and his girls came for dinner, then I went back out and continued digging.  My daughter and our other three in town grand kids came then and we filled bags with flowers for them to take home and plant.  My daughter got home and it was starting to get dark, so she opened the mini van and told her kids to hurry up and plant their flowers.  She got a knock on the door at about 9:30, from the police, telling her that all of the doors and the hatchback of her minivan were wide open and the lights were on in it.  Apparently, the kids got finished and just came in the house.

Yesterday was my mother in law's 92 birthday.  That is why my sister in law came in town.  She, my husband and his brother and his brother's wife went out there for lunch.  I didn't go because I was working.  She is very confused these days, but at least she is content and not complaining any longer.

We had a ceremony Monday for Outstanding Professional Award, and I finally won.  I think I have been nominated about seven or eight times, so I didn't think I would win.  But I did.  I was kind of shocked.

My two assistants, Liliana and Monica, who nominated me.

My best buddies from work (who are still at Meramec, since so many have left)

Speaking of Meramec, we've been in the news quite a bit lately.  Two weeks ago a students was accosted in the ladies room, and luckily she screamed and a teacher heard her.  They called campus police and told the student who attacked her not to come back, but they failed to tell anyone on campus what had happened.  Five days later, the student who had attacked the girl came back on campus, and they finally arrested him and put him in jail.  The girl's family went to the Post Dispatch and the news channels and told them what had happened, since the school was keeping it quiet.  It happened in my building, and I didn't know about it until I saw it on Facebook.  We got lots of bad press, and this past Monday our president resigned.  I'm sure he was forced to resign--he'd pulled some doosies in the past year and I think that keeping this quiet was the straw that broke the camel's back.

My Kindle shot craps last night.  I didn't realize how dependent I have become on it.  I read on it, play games and read the morning paper.  I was lost without it, so I stole RW's.  I ordered a Kindle Fire from Amazon first thing this morning.  Hopefully it will come before we go on vacation.  I think I can get the internet on it, so I won't have to bring my laptop on vacation.  

Retiring!

I finally did it.  I turned in my letter of resignation yesterday.  Or, I should say my letter of retirement.  My dean was very nice about it--acted like he was crying and really going to miss me.  I think part of it was an act because he is under so much pressure to eliminate positions and was really kind of relieved.  I had told him before Christmas that I was retiring this summer, but he couldn't do anything until it was official.  He gave me a big hug and told me I had done a wonderful job and the school would miss me.   

I have so many things I'm wanting to do when I retire--write in this blog more regularly, go out to lunch with friends, plant more flower beds, visit more with grand kids, go back to church, read some books I have been wanting to read for ever, sew more for the grand kids and figure out how to use my serger.  I would eventually like to do some volunteer work, maybe a couple of days a week.  I'd also like to join the Smocking Guild of America; they have meetings once a month in Crestwood.  They have a program called Wee Care, and they make smocked preemie gowns for babies who don't make it to be buried in.  I've thought about opening a shop on Etsy, but I really don't want to have to do something.  I just want to sew when I feel like it. 

We only have one more week of school, then finals week.  Then we leave that Saturday, the 11th, for vacation.  We're renting a different beach house this year, so it will be interesting to see how that works out.  The house has two separate floors, each with five bedrooms.  I think maybe we'll put all of the grandkids on the top floor and us adults on the first floor, haha.  The house has its own pool and basketball court and a really nice looking picnic area.  We'll get back on Sunday, the 19th, and on Thursday, the 23rd, I fly to Cincinnati to help with Stephanie when the new baby is born.  Chellie will have a c-section on Saturday, the 25th.  It seems like I'm just about already finished working, but I'll be there some in June.  I have about eight weeks of sick leave which I'll lose, and about three weeks of vacation that I'll either use or get paid for.

They are breaking ground for our addition on Monday.  We've been cleaning out the garden to get ready, and we have lots of day lilies and hostas to get rid of.  I've moved some stuff but don't have anywhere to put a lot of it.  A guy came yesterday to take the old air conditioner out and the utility companies came this week to mark place in the yard where the lines are.  I'll take pictures as we go along.

Wordless Wednesday

Evil

I just talked to my daughter in Boston, and we had said how fortunate it is that her children are with their father in California visiting their other grandparents this week.  She talked to Corinne last night, however, and C already knew all about it.  I can't imagine how children can deal with all of the shootings and bombings and terrorism that goes on now.  When I was a child my biggest worry was who would win the Irish-German basketball game on St. Patrick's Day, and what to wear to the school picnic.  I don't remember hearing of anyone being killed, until I was in eighth grade and JFK was shot, and a senior in high school when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed.  By then I knew there was evil and people were capable of killing one another for no reason (except for war when they are trained to kill the "enemy"). 

And when I raised my children I don't remember such violence.  We adults know that the chances are so slim of us being the victim of shooting or terrorism, but children don't have the maturity to realize this.  It must seem like there is terror lurking everytime they go out now, like to a movie theatre or to watch a parade.  They know at Sandy Hook twenty little children were killed in their own school.  In a safe place in an upper-middle class neighborhood.   And their was a woman in our neighborhood who killed her two children and then herself last summer.  My St. Louis daughter was on vacation and she asked us not to talk about it when they returned.  And the little eight-year-old Martin who was killed at the marathon.  I've seen a couple of things on other peoples' blogs and Facebook, and I'm repeating them below.  I know what they say is true, there are so many more good people than the few psychopaths, but how will little children process all of this?



To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.’ ~Mr. Rogers.