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Merry Morgan

Merry Morgan getting a taste of her first Christmas season which her brother Brody will blow out of the water.

 She is nine months old!

The best thing about 2008!

I can almost tell time by the color of my room, especially when I wake up. The southern exposure allows the sun to slowly creep through the blinds. Today it was about 630 AM, I guessed, as I reached for my spectacles on the table next to the bed. After all, I am a granny. Grannies wear specs. In my thick red framed glasses, I headed for the kitchen to brew up my big cup of coffee. As I french pressed the organic french roast into the cup, the sun greeted the whole countertop and slanted against the wall ---smiling.

Something was special about this morning. I felt a strong sense of gratitude. Maybe I slept well, maybe I ate well yesterday. I passed up the morning paper, which I usually read before prepping for work. It must be the cooler mornings and the end of summer, a promise that is coming to the desert in October, I mused while reaching for my journal.

But then, low and behold, as I wrote the date September 13th on the top of a fresh blue lined page, I remembered. My heart rejoiced.

Today is Brody's birthday! Today is his real birthday. We had celebrated on Sunday with a family party, but today belongs to him.

A note: Brody was born in 2008 and he was the best thing ever that happened that year! Somehow, I feel like the last nine years has gone faster than it did with Kenzie.

Another note: The thing about grand parenting is that you know these children have chosen your family.  This may sound metacrazy, (made this word up) but, so many times, I have experienced such a kinship with both of these kids. A kinship of souls. Daba would tell you the same.  I am forever grateful to my children for their children!  Let the birthday begin!

This guy is destined for greatness!

Zombie Magic

Brody very grateful and excited.  Nana, do you know that this IS the best one ever?  

As promised, I am back to report that I did not keep my promise.  We returned to the Halloween Spirit store on our next play date. And as luck would have it, Brody's 'most favorite anatromic, the very one he waited his whole life to own' was on --- CLEARANCE. Shotgun Blast Zombie had been a 2016 display and was waiting to be bargained for.

So here we were on a Friday evening (after a forty hour week in the office) and Brody and I are watching the sales person Ken in his bright orange uniform kneeling on the cement floor rewiring the Zombie, proving to us that this creepy creature still did fall to the ground, when the umm-- hate to say it, gun was pointed at the right spot. Actually, there were two Shotgun Blast Zombie's left in stock and Ken was taking parts of one and piecing them in with the other. Brody can describe the whole process. He has a mechanical mind coupled with a love of action, sound, electricity and light.  His Halloween bedroom is nothing less than spectacular. It's a recreated Halloween store complete with webs (spider ones) and a line up of less than attractive, what we used to call, in the old days--- monsters. A sign on his bedroom door says Enter at your own risk. I say it's a risk worth seeing. Brody is a creative genius!

After paying way less than he cost last year, we got the Shotgun Zombie back to my house. Brody was eager as ever to show Daba how it worked, a kind of live pin ball machine. The thing did fall to the ground and then came back up on his hidden plastic device, but that was it.  Then Daba was down on his knees (on the carpet) with Brody, both searching for the connecting wires that might not be connected. Brody soon came to the conclusion that Ken put the wrong Zombie or maybe the wrong Zombie parts in the box we had bought.

As I mentioned, it was Friday night and Kenzie's first high school outing to a football game. It was time to drop her off, so the three of us, I mean four (counting the broken Shotgun Zombie) got back in the Friday Night Nana Mobile and headed to the high school which was traffic ---jammed. After Kenzie texted and finally found her friends, Brody and I drove to the SPIRIT store, excited to get the Zombie back in order.  As we neared the store,we were surprised to see the parking lot darkened.  We jumped out of the car and raced to the window. We  looked in to see Ken counting his drawer (that's register talk.) He waved a 'we are closed wave' while Brody and I stood there feeling very disappointed about the broken creature and--- the salesperson.  As we were walking back to the car, Ken opened the store door and said "Hey, come back in the morning and I can help you."

 That night Zombie slept in my car and bright and early when the doors opened Saturday morning, we were back. The Zombie was rechecked and after some shuffling about we were on our way. I love this part of the story.  As we were driving away, I asked Brody what had gone wrong with the Zombie. He told me Ken had mixed up the parts.  Nana, you know what Ken told me? He told me 'my bad.'

It was a sweet ending. Brody didn't have to lose trust in the retailer he so admires.  And as the saying goes the customer was right and this time the salesperson knew it. (Smile)

Waiting for the store to open  on Saturday morning.

Back in the car after Zombie was repaired.

Happy as can be!

Grand Opening/Overnight

Hello to  my 52,000 plus visitors.


It's Thursday night, one day away from Brody staying overnight.  His recent announcement was that every other Friday night he plans to stay at our house. The other Fridays he'll stay at Mame's, his other grandma's house.

Tomorrow night he and I are planning to go to the grand opening of the Halloween Store, the national seasonal attraction--- SPIRIT. I was thinking today how I really don't like anything in the store, really I don't like anything at all in the store. But Brody, loves everything, mostly the anatromics, or the electric things. Some are so gross and ugly, so gross and ugly I have to not look at them! On the other hand my eight year old grandson Brody loves almost all of them, which is so contradictive to his personality. He is kind and sweet!  He doesn't see the SPIRIT store things as evil or ugly or scary, to him it is just plain old interesting and entertaining. Do you know that there is actually a thing that is meant to be displayed on Halloween called the Limb Eating Zombie Boy?  Yes, Brody owns it and he already has it displayed in his bedroom (now Halloween room).  You will never guess who bought it for him. I don't want to tell you, but it was me.  I don't think his mom will ever forgive me for that purchase. And I can't believe I did such a thing. This year I told him I am not buying any of them. I hope I can hold to my promise!

Last year on one of many trips! 

Another blast from the past trips to SPIRIT.   Oh Joy! Are you kidding me?

Fantastic February!

Morgan Grace is here. She arrived in late February, a few days earlier than expected.  Here are a few first photos.  Check back to watch her grow.

  Is that you dad?  Yeah baby girl, it's me dad a little tired but oh so happy!

                                                Our Mini beauty born 4 pounds 13 ounces.

Pinch Me Thoughts

Today I checked on PLAY WIT ME NANA

and lo and behold I have surpassed 50,000 views!

Oh, but it has been a long time since my last post. A  long time again.
My blogging hobby has become like my vacations, once or twice a year.

I will not let this continue. I will take more vacations. I will blog more. Submit my poems. Read a poem or more a day......

I have been working hard at work like the rest of the working world.  I didn't forget my blog, just haven't made time for it.

I know when I sit down to blog it takes time and I love it so I sit for a long time tapping out words and looking at my pic files for something that might inspire someone else.

I will blog again. I will blog again.......

For sure, I will blog again.

A third grandchild is on the way.  I can't wait to see her. Sometime in March of next year she will make her debut on this very blog.

Yes, pinch me.

It's true. This is real life. Another round of Play wit me Nana is about to begin and continue....
And now for that picture......

2006 Kenzie and her baby doll.

New granny vids and old journaling

OK, so this clip was a year ago. Not much has changed. I still have the hat. It was a gift from Grandparents.com after I contributed to their then new blog site.

And it is Saturday, a year later. (Kenz isn't asleep in my bed today. But a week ago today the two of us were having our annual vacay in San Diego.)  Today I was up and at em, took a walk around the neighborhood, came back and wrote a poem.  What I really want to post today is something I clipped from a journal entry from long ago. My family members and friends will know the names and places. I don't know the year because I tore this page from a journal and put it in my clippings box, but I think it was 1979. Michelle was a toddler. The two of us traveled to Chicago from the desert. I have pictures from that trip, but this snapshot below is something I treasure. All the more reason not to destroy my old journals.

Friday June 6th 1978, 79 or 1980

Chelle and I have been in Evergreen Park with MA, Denise, Marcia and Joni. We've been out to dinner with dad for a smorgasbord. Today to Brookfield Zoo. Last night over to Jeanie Roche and Kevin's with Carmen for a nice visit. My God. Grandma Peg has died. I had a last visit with Peg at Toy and Bills. It was quiet and contemplative. I will always remember and want to remember her shriveled body, her chin, here beautiful white fluffy hair, her long gorgeous fingers. Peg. Such a monumental woman. Her life long enough for her. It's strange how she died two days after we arrived June 2.  My running has diminished regretfully and I am smoking again. Modify these behaviors. Sunday, Paul graduates from 8th grade. Chelle, Marcia and I will move ourselves up to Big D's for a few days. I think I need three weeks for this visit.

Summering thoughts

I love my job. I love my life.

Can you say this? Can I say this? Something to think about. My daughter Facebook posted an Oprah soul session today that was really good! Oprah was saying... there are no failures. There are only lessons to be learned. She said if you are feeling uncomfortable doing what you are doing and being like uggggggggg, it is a sign that you should be doing something else.  I am not quoting it exactly, but that was the essence of the message. She was preaching RELAX!  Even in the difficulties of jobs and life we are all moving ahead. We are  where we  need to be  to learn. We need to relax and learn the lessons we need to learn. I'll listen again and post it to my home page, if you want hear it.

The heat is on.

My best laid plans to get up and go to the Canyon today were set aside. At 6AM it was  79 degrees, will be 98 at noon and 101 at 6pm. Ah, that's hot stuff. We are in the winter of desert. This is the seasonal flipside of living here. If it were someplace like Chicago or Buffalo we'd be trapped indoors unable to wander in fresh air for several months of the year. Even when I tell myself I like the heat, part of me is screaming you have got to be kidding me! I remember years ago a neighbor telling me that she was looking out her big picture window into the back yard. She said everything looked so beautiful, but it was all an illusion. Her children could not go outside to play. It was all so beautiful but too uncomfortable to enjoy. I do try to make the best of summer. The best of it is to take little trips away from it. I have one coming later this month. The pictures I take will be ones I can actually be present in and the smiles will be real.  Hail to the snowbirds! Will I be one someday?

Just got a call from my grandson Brody. Nana, can I come over today?  Haven't seen him since last Sunday. Here's a recent his parents posted.

A very COOL guy!

   

Memorable Space (a short poem)

Enjoy some Onomatopoeia

Lodore Falls shown within Cumbria
(grid reference NY265188)

"The Cataract of Lodore" is a poem written in 1820 by the English poet Robert Southey^[1] which describes the Lodore Falls on the Watendlath Beck just above Derwent Water in Cumbria, England. The poem is a masterpiece of onomatopoeia, employing some of the most clever and evocative language ever used to describe a natural feature. When seen in its entire form, the body of the poem does look like a waterfall.
The Powell Expedition named a canyon on the Green River in the U.S. state of Colorado the Gates of Lodore after this poem
  (from Wikipedia)

(A note from Nana)  I know Poetry Month is over, but I found this poem in THE MAGIC GARDEN volume 7 of the Book House collection.  I am very grateful to my mother Joanne who  passed this collection to me a long time ago. She read her children many stories, fairy tales and poems from these books. So grateful to have been under her desire for her children to know literature.  CM

Here is the masterpiece.....




THE CATARACT OF LODORE

by Robert Southey

"How does the water come down at Lodore?"
  My little boy asked me.

Advancing and prancing and glancing
    and dancing,
Recoiling, turmoiling, and toiling
       and boiling,
And gleaming and streaming and steaming
         and beaming,
And rushing and flushing and brushing
         and gushing,
And flapping and rapping and clapping
         and slapping,
And curling and whirling and purling
        and twirling,
And thumping and plumping and bumping
         and jumping,
And dashing and flashing and splashing
         and clashing,
And so never ending, but always descending,
Sounds and motions forever and ever are
       blending,
All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar,
And this way the Water comes down at Lodore.

       

Poem -Scattered Me




Collage by Neci Monahan.

Scattered Me

The puddles follow 

they lead the way

shiny bowls full of

juicy sky sing me

one of the songs of

Zion plays in my head

the rain left town then

left me a stack

of poems to scatter I

watch my black Dansk clogs

step in Spring  yellow

Palo Verde sluff that

 snuggles the curbs

    in a strange land

the parking lot of

the day job.

CM

In The Playroom

In The Playroom                             

 

 

It's puzzling

I study you playing
all wonder and wild
humming like a song
boy enthralled in the wood
in pieces of cows and 
blue cars in the corn 

Wonder guy
sweet pumpkin delight
happy tender two
million dollar smile
what greater love

In my niche
shoeless on the playroom floor
Bears Buzy Day 
There's a Monster In My Closet
And that Grinch
he had a  wonderful awful idea.
I have a Love Song For A Baby
that's getting so big

All these mornings I run circles
around the orange tree, hearing you growl
listening to you fuss, I want to stay at Nana's
Boohoo, we want our appendix out too!
(Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans) 

I have found paradise, my Paris
that pays big bucks 
in hugs and in laughter
so fruitfully full of
storybook ending,
little words with big meanings
brand new crazy nouns
(dars and frucks)

Sad goodbyes then nice quiet
for  Nana, a granny, an ole girl
that needs a rest
from your round brown 
beautiful eyes, reflection
a chance to piece together  
your future your smartness
but mostly your now. 


CM

 

 

                         An oldie, when Brody was 2 and spending mornings with his Nana.

POem MOnth day 18

                          a     bed      pretending

And each house had its

particular role to play.

 Old guy, I better

get us a cleaning person.

 

You do try, never

a sink full of dishes,

but crumbs & enough dirt

to turn our soles dark.

I am out the door early,

then back for sleep.

A house is very good

at pretending

to be

a bed.

 

 

C.M.

 

 

 

 

 

A Poem from Kenzie

Brody

 
You smile at me, toothlessly,
like a jack-o’-lantern does on
Halloween night.

You laugh at me, happily,
like a tickled baby monkey
does at its mothers sight.


You cry at me, uncontrollably,
like a human being does
when he loses a fight.

You wonder at me, unknowingly,
like a curious cousin does
to one of a greater might.


by Kenzie

 



a long time ago that really wasn't that long

 

 

e.e. cummings to you

Today, my celebration of poetry  comes form 100 selected poems

by e. e. cummings. I cannot make it through many of his poems

being diverted by my lack of connection to his world. Others

sit real pretty. Here's one that resonates.  I did not adjust the temperature

of his punctuation. He was clever that way  used the space the lower

case vs. upper cases. Love the parenthesis!   CM

___________________________________________________________________________________

Spring is like a perhaps hand
( which comes carefully
out of Nowhere )arranging

a window,into which people look ( while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here )and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to 
and fro moving New and
Old thingswhile
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

e.e.Cummings


___________________________________________________________________________________

yes Word ignore these rolledtogether words
These unlikely   spaces( I see you have red-lined them)
Learn what I keep  learning noteverything in life
spills the same and some things don't evaporate.
                                


  CM

poem day 9 /Mega phone

The Daffodils laugh
out loud
 love trumpets
 golden yellow
spoonfuls
Only know joy
Know joy only
megaphone
Whoever is listening
Whoever can hear


C.M.

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Kenzie and her babies chillin in the playroom 2007





 

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Thanks.

 

 

 
 
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Amazon  = Amazing.

Poetry Month April 2016 Poster

Go have some fun    www.Poets.org

POEM 6

Another decade will end

add 4 to 16  (10 thousand steps a day)

1200+ days and it will be time to toss away another

wall calendar armchairs in white sand a pink sunset  

still setting across a deep ocean you have not written.