Some sort of news: bad and worse

It's been over a year since I posted - yikes! I've noticed, though, that blogs have been taking a beating by Facebook. But I felt like entering something, not necessarily profound or interesting, but illuminating about me: everything I do (walking, standing, sitting, lying down, reaching, brushing my teeth, taking a shower, cooking, cleaning, deadheading my geraniums, etc., etc.) gives me pain EXCEPT (this is the worse part, depending on one's perspective) eating and talking.

You have my permission to feel sorry for me and love me anyway.

Our bodies are miraculous, but....

It has occurred to me that, when God was creating us, he must've decided to outsource the development of our digestive systems to someone who was a professional plumber, who figured to benefit bigtime from his design. I want to know why our intestines and organs weren't set up to utilize - totally - what we eat so that we wouldn't have to deal with leftovers that require regular releasing. Take a minute and think of the improvement in our world - in every facet imaginable. Does anyone have a plan that would accomplish such a thing? If so, notify me, and we'll take it to the logical place for such miracles: Hollywood.

pious persons attending electronic church service

picture-posting 101 - some cute, some not

I have now completed my training in adding pictures to my postings; we're talking heaven on earth.

After 6 months, I feel like posting. Wish I knew how to include pictures, but not of me.

Profound thoughts along with some that aren't: We have four children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, so we certainly qualify as experts at parenting, right? Does the sun rise in the west? Nevertheless, we do feel blessed with our brood - which includes our children's spouses and some grandchildren's spouses and a fiance and Significant Others - for which (as I've said many times) we take no credit or blame. I'd like to mention that, by the time our kids had kids, our kids began to admire us rather more, as in "How did you ever manage - make that survive - raising 4 kids who came in a five-year period?" I'm not going to divulge the answer to that - and don't anyone dare to think we put schnapps in their milk.

We had the good fortune to spend time over the holidays to have visits from a good percentage of our family, so that almost all have seen our new home (not Caleb [Kiara's fiance], Travis [Anna's S.O.], or Amiee [Derek's S.O.]). We don't have quite the accommodations we had at our old place; e. g., Burn and Mark slept in the bed in Bob's room, while Kiara and Stefan slept on the floor in there, one on each side. After they left, some Burks came: Elissa slept in the bed in my room, putting Ansel on the floor in the adjoining closet, while Barbi and Anna slept toe-to-toe on the sectional in the bedroom. . Tom took the sectional in the livingroom. Bren and Mark utilized the lodgings at Brad and D.A.'s house. The Burk's visit got extended by one day because of bad weather, so we appreciated that.

Still waiting for the profound thoughts? Me too. But here's one with some outrage: our old house has been on the market for about six months, and there's been nary a nibble, which is bad enough financially (think two heating bills and real estate taxes for starters), but this has been during the snowiest December, nay, the snowiest MONTH in recorded history, so - even though this place has snow-removal service - Bob has had to do some shoveling here in addition to trying to remove the snow at the other place, which is a corner house. The snowblower has been on the fritz for most of the time, despite having been serviced. The Crowning Touch is that, due to the position of each of these homes, we get the most snow in our yards of almost anyone else in the Moorhead-Fargo metropolitan area.

Maybe my next blog will be profound. This one was just long, and you're welcome.

Old Geezers that Go-Go-Go

We've been in our new digs almost a month now, and haven't done anything to get kicked out of the association yet. We basically like this place a lot and wish we'd made such a move long ago. Several guests have visited and given thumbs up on the accommodations. We're closer to a number of the places we often shop at - most importantly, DUANE'S PIZZA.

The reference in the title to us O.G.s that go-go-go is not meant to say that we travel a lot, but we did make a journey way up to Crookston (MN) - a whole hour away - July 15-17, for my 57th class reunion (50th, 60th reunions are so overdone, we wanted to be different). Our class in 1951 was unusally small compared to the classes of '50 and '52, which were half again as large: we were 42 depression babies. Not to say we were blah kids, although our class was not noticeably athletic: not a single senior on the basketball team! Soccer hadn't been invented in MN back then, nor hockey for girls. We were more musically inclined, always placing high in district and regional contests. However, no one suggested we try to organize a reunion choir or band; most of us don't have the lung capacity to sing or blow anymore. There were 17 of the 30 survivors in attendance, most with spouses along, so we made a nice size group for the banquet. We checked out the new high school (built 10 yrs. ago); our old school no longer exists, having been removed from the face of the earth. And there's a great Polk County Museum in town, consisting of at least 6 buildings, that was fascinating. My walker Rocky and I could only manage 2 of them before giving up. I brought my knitting to the hotel and actually knitted a few rows on the dish cloth I was making, about the only things I make anymore.

I consider us go-go-go-ers because we made this significant move, indicating that we have a lot on the ball. Oh, another geographic adventure is coming up soon: to St. Paul July 31 for the joint baptism of Dalila Jeanne Hansen and Ansel Thomas Cosgrove, our two newest great-grandchildren. Cousins Elissa - Ansel's mom - and Trygve - Dalila's dad - were baptized together also, 27 yrs. ago. How's that for sweet and touching?

I haven't learned how to add pictures yet, but Barbi's blog http://indecisivity.blogspot.com will give you a good look at both babies.

When I was merely a grandparent, I was in good shape and able to carry a baby and walk ad infinitum; now, however, I'm restricted to holding one in my lap while I sit. Sigh. It's still a thrill.

'til next installment - Gr. Barb

fruition

Yesterday, June 25, 2008, I played an integral part in two BIG EVENTS: (I wanted to use "visceral," but found it means acting from one's instinct rather than intellect, and I resented that): great-grandson Bruiser (Barbi's choice of a temporary name since E. and B. haven't settled on one yet; he gave his mommy a pretty hard time before arriving) Cosgrove arrived at 10:47 EDT in Boston, weighing in at a hefty 9 1/2 pounds and measuring 21 inches in length. Parents Ben and Elissa Cosgrove; Elissa is our daughter Barbi's daughter, thus deeply connecting me and Gr. Grpa Bob to Baby Bruiser. We hope/expect to meet the not-so-little guy sometime this summer, when he and Elissa come to Minnesota for a few weeks.

Secondly, I signed my name approximately 17 times to documents which made us happy owners of a townhouse a couple of miles from this house, which we also own and have lived in for 48 years. Anybody familiar with the term "cash flow problem?" We haven't even listed this house yet, as we're having some basement repair done first; possibly we'll be able to start having the house shown within two weeks or so. We've already moved a lot of stuff over to the "new" place (5 yrs. old) and having the carpeting cleaned there today, and the movers will bring over our furniture tomorrow. Then we'll start living there primarily; we've met a few of the neighbors and find them pleasant. I'm rejoicing in the all-one-floor design and the attached garage. Our daughters Brenda and Burna have been providing amazing and invaluable help the last week or so in packing, packing, and more packing, and sorting and discarding in the process. Our lives in the new place will start out fabulously well-organized. Burna even made a quadruple batch of oatmeal cookies, some with choc. chips, some with butterscotch chips, some with peanut butter (dearest to my heart).

Bottom line: our cups runneth over.

A lot of excitement for two old codgers

The months of May and June are being full of events and promising more to come. We've welcomed a new great-granddaughter - Dalila Jeanne Hansen, born May 1 to Trygve and Jeanne, joining big sister Chloe, who's 7; we've seen a grandson graduate from college - Kip Lee Hansen, son of Brenda and Mark, brother of Tryg and Per, from Minnesota State Univ.Moorhead in Mass Communications May 9; we're looking forward to a new great-grandson, due in a week or so to Elissa and Ben Cosgrove, Barbi's daughter and son-in-law in Boston. Barbi will go there June 16 to either welcome "Lumpy" (Barbi's choice of name that would be unisex) or to help wait for him.
We have a bunch of birthdays in our family in May and June, at least 9.
And now, Bob's and my so-called minds are trying to focus on selling our house that we helped build and have lived in for 48 years, intent on finding a place to live with no stairs (this one - a split-level - you can't live in w/o going down and up stairs, as there's no bathroom on the main floor). Also no snow-shoveling or lawn-mowing. If I had my druthers, I'd pack a suitcase and move tomorrow (into the townhouse Bob looked at and brought home a brochure with pictures) and not have to go through all the hassle. However, that's not an option at this point.