Ian

Ian Edward Miller was born at 9:36pm on September 10, 2008. He weighs in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and is 19 1/4 inches long. Of course he is absolutely beautiful! He and Heather are both doing fine.

My Grandson

He is on his way for sure now. Heather's water has broken and she is 3cm dilated. It could be hours before he gets here, but it is finally happening!! Hooray!! I can hardly wait to meet him. When we first found out Heather was pregnant I was really hoping for a granddaughter. I have more experience with baby girls. But I'm sure that Ian will be a great joy in my life. Stinky little boy!

Baby almost on board

Do you remember those little yellow and black signs from 20 some odd years ago? "Baby on board". Did we secretly hope that the idiots on the road would avoid having a wreck with us? Yes, I was guilty of sporting one of these signs. Our first child was born in 1984. The second came along in 1986. Those signs were easy to find then.



Fast forward to 2008. Most likely before the end of this week we will need to find one of those signs for our grandson. Heather has been miserable for the last 4 days. She went to the doctor today. She has dilated to 2cm. They did a stress test on the baby. He is fine. Her doctor predicts that she will not make it to the end of the week.

Wonder if they sell those signs at the dollar store?

Que sera sera

It seems that the closer it gets to the day that Sarah leaves for England, my mood goes bluer and bluer. I know that this is a dream come true for Sarah. She is so excited about going and all I want to do is cry every time I think about her leaving. Add on the fact that my eldest will be giving birth in less than 4 weeks, I'm almost surprised that I haven't fallen completely apart. The other evening I was talking with my sister on the telephone and did fall apart. Scott has known that I've been feeling sad, but something that my sister said set off the tears. Today I cannot even remember what she said, but I remember my reaction. Crying. Hell, I'm crying now while I write this. These are happy things happening to and for my children. I should be happy, right? I really hope all of this will pass, soon.

Lest I sound like a whiner, in the grand scheme of things, my problems are small and I am grateful for my husband and daughters. I am thankful for my life and my problems.

Squirrels

Veruca Salt: Daddy, I want a squirrel. Get me one of those squirrels, I want one!

Mr. Salt: Veruca dear, you have many marvelous pets.

Veruca Salt: All I've got at home is one pony and two dogs and four cats and six bunny rabbits and two parakeets and three canaries and a green parrot and a turtle, and a silly old hamster! I WANT a SQUIRREL!

Mr. Salt: All right, pet. Daddy'll get you a squirrel just as soon as he possibly can.

Veruca Salt: But I don't want any old squirrel! I want a *trained* squirrel!

Mr. Salt: [wearily] Very well. Mr. Wonka? How much do you want for one of these squirrels? Name your price.

Willy Wonka: Oh they're not for sale. She can't have one.

Veruca Salt: Daddy!

Willy Wonka: [imitating Mr. Salt] I'm sorry, darling. Mr. Wonka's being unreasonable.

From Charlie and The Chocolate Factory 2005

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Veruca would be welcome to the pesky squirrels in my yard. They aren't exactly trained. It was more that they had me trained. For a while any way.

I love having a bird feeder in my front yard. The front window of my home is large and is perfect for watching the birds while they feed. That is when the birds could get to the feeder. I had a bird feeder on a Shepard's hook, placed near my red bud tree. The tree is beautiful in the spring when the purple buds bloom. The feeder became more a squirrel feeder than bird feeder. I would fill the feeder up in the morning and it would be empty by early evening. I knew that the squirrels were eating the bird seed. I would look out the window toward the bird feeder and there would be a squirrel perched on the feeder eating to its little hearts content. I would go outside to chase her away. The look she would give me could have been bone chilling if it were coming from a larger animal. You might be wondering how I knew it was a female. That will reveal its self in time.

I became frustrated with buying bird seed and having it eaten up in no time at all. Not buying the bird seed was not an option for me. There were times the birds were actually able to get to the feeder. The solution seemed to be a bird feeder that is suction cupped to the front window. Excellent! I thought now the squirrels will not be able to get the bird seed and you know what? I was right! The little buggers cannot get to the bird seed on the window. That does not mean they didn't try.

One afternoon I had not opened the living room curtains yet trying to keep the sun from heating the room up. I am the only one home at the time. Sitting on the sofa, playing a word game on my lap top when I hear a noise at the front window. It sounds as if someone or something is trying to cut the screen. I peek out of the curtains and there she is, clinging to the window screen with her tiny squirrel paws. She is attempting to climb the screen to get to the bird feeder attached to the window. It is obvious that she is a she, possibly a recent momma. Only one problem, the screen only goes up about 26 inches. There is another 30 inches of window to get to the feeder. This did not stop her. She would climb to the top of the screen and try to jump to the feeder. That didn't work. She attempted this feat numerous times with no success. It was funny to watch. The window feeder is still in place, but larger birds, like cardinals, won't perch on the feeder. I love when red birds come into my yard. So what to do next?

A couple we know had purchased a "squirrel proof" feeder. My first thoughts were, yeah right, squirrel proof. Well I decided that the 20 bucks for the feeder would be well spent if it worked and then it was only 20 bucks if it didn't. I've lost 20 bucks playing Texas Hold'em, I could take it. My husband and I, well actually my husband moved the Shepard's hook to the center of the yard. Together we filled the feeder. It takes more than one pair of hands to deal with it. The feeder is spring loaded. The way it works is if anything heavier than a bird perches on it the spring causes the wire cage to shut off the feeder holes. So we are set. Feeder is full, set on the hook. Now I wait for the birds.

Were birds the first visitors? Nope! It was the squirrels. My first thought was well she can't get to the feeder since the Shepard's hook is in the center of the yard. How naive I am at times! She climbed that pole like she owned it! She jumped onto the feeder, her weight caused it to close off. I was so excited! It was going to to work!! It was so much fun to watch her trying to figure how to get into the feeder. She tried so many times and the feeder foiled her each time!

So now the squirrels seem content with taking what bird seed they can from the ground and I get to enjoy watching the birds. It was a good 20 dollars spent.

I Don't Like Spam!

As I sat eating a tin sardines, (skinless, boneless, water packed) the other day, I got to thinking about some of the foods I will not touch as an adult. Foods, that as a kid were staples of my diet. Now I know there are some folks who turn their noses up at sardines. I live with two of those kind of people. My husband and daughter have been grossed out by my sardine and saltine cracker eating. I usually eat them when no one else is at home. Sardines are a great source of protein and are low in calories as long as they are packed in water, not oil.



So what are some of those "foods" that I ate while growing up? Vienna Sausages. In the south vienna is pronounced vi-een-er, not vee-anna. The list of ingredients is kind of straight forward:



Chicken, Water, Beef, Pork, Salt, Corn Syrup, 2 Percent Or Less: Spices, Natural Flavorings, Dried Garlic, Sodium Nitrite.



I guess the scariest ingredient is the sodium nitrite. It is a preservative that keeps meats pink even after they have been cooked. Of course as a kid I didn't know about such things. I just knew that my daddy was eating vienna sausages and saltines so of course I wanted one.



Another "food" was Potted Meat. The ingredient list is far scarier for this one:



Beef tripe, beef hearts, chicken, partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue, water, salt, mustard, vinegar, dried garlic, sodium erythorbate, natural flavoring, sodium nitrite



I don't want to analyze these ingredients at all. Potted meat was usually eaten on a sandwich. Colonial white bread, potted meat spread on one slice of bread, mayonnaise spread on the other and placed together. If you wanted to be healthy you could put a piece of zero nutrients iceberg lettuce on the sandwich. You could eat the potted meat with saltines if you wanted. Hmm, there is a pattern developing here. Saltine crackers go with everything it seems.



Some of the other things I don't eat now that I'm a grown up are, fried pork rinds, bologna, Spam, dried beef and regular hot dogs. I actually love hot dogs. Nothing better in the summer, but they have to be Hebrew National, all beef, 97 percent fat free.


I'm really not a picky eater, let's just say I'm choosy.

Don't Call Me...

Grand maw, granny, mee maw or any of the other monikers that grandmother's get placed on them. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about becoming a grandmother. Grandparents have special privileges that parents don't have. At least that is what all of the lovely folks who take my SilverSneakers classes tells me. "Oh, Sonya, you are just going to love being a grandmother." I have a few weeks until this new status is achieved.

Technically I am already a grandmother. Heather married a man with a couple of sons. Michael lives with them so Heather has been helping to raise him for a few years now. Michael calls me Sonya and that's okay. I also have a grand-dog named Butters. When Heather first got him she was still living at home. For some reason I became Nono to Butters. Whenever Heather comes to visit now she'll ask Butters if he wants to go to Nono's house. He gets all excited. He's very smart and he behaves very well when he visits. Just like a grandchild. When he is at his own home he can be a naughty little guy. Barking at everything, knocking his water bowl around.

All of my grandparents are deceased. My dad's parents passed away in the mid 1970's. I'm not sure of how old they were when they died. I did not spend a whole lot of time with them. I have some memories of them though. Granny Crowe was an awesome cook and believe me no one left her table hungry. If you did it was your own fault. She made the very best coconut cake. I remember watching television with Papa Crowe. We watched wrestling and roller derby. As a kid I wanted to join the roller derby. I was hell on wheels with my skates.

My mother's mother passed away in 1990. I spent a lot more time with Granny Coggins. Whenever we visited from whatever Army base we were living at at the time, we stayed with Granny Coggins. She was also the chosen babysitter when my parent's and my aunt's and uncle's decided they needed a weekend in the Smoky Mountains. One of those weekend trips resulted in the arrival of my baby brother nine months later. Mother swears it was the pancakes and mountain air. I have a sneaky suspicion it was something else, but we won't go into that here.

So my grandparenting adventure will begin soon. I cannot wait to meet Ian. I hope I get to be the cool grandmother, just don't call me Big Mama.