Bunco Night

 The third Tuesday of every month, my daughter, granddaughter and I play Bunco with a group of ladies from our church.  Bunco is a dice game that's very easy to play, but can get very loud whenever someone gets Bunco or Baby Bunco.  If you're not familiar with the game, check it out here.

When a person throws a Bunco, Bonnie the Bunco Bear is thrown to her and she gets her picture taken.  She can keep the bear until the next person calls Bunco which could be awhile or just a couple of minutes.

My granddaughter, Kyleigh

Me

 

 At the end of the evening, there are three winners and a loser.  This time I had the most wins and my daughter, Janice had the most losses.  The other two won most buncos and most baby buncos.  I've come close before, but this is the first time I've actually won a prize.

She's in High School Now

Kyleigh graduated from St. Paul's Lutheran School (K-8th grade) tonight.  Unfortunately, we were unable to be there because of our trip, but both sets of parents and her paternal grandparents were there to see it.

Janice sent me the following pictures:

Grad Photo

Kyleigh and her best friend

Ky and Lindsay with the Joy (the DCE)

Getting a hug from Joy

 Kyleigh starts her first high school sometime in June.  It's an online health class, but she has to attend in person on Mondays to take the tests.

Kyleigh also made the High Honor Roll with a GPA of 3.94.  Not bad for a kid who's dyslexic and has ADHD.

There's now a teenager in my family

This young lady turned 13 today.  She and her parents brought ice cream cups from Baskin Robbins to celebrate her birthday, each one a different flavor.  We'd thought about doing dinner, but she really wanted Chick-fil-A and there isn't one near us.

When she got home from school, this was waiting for her in her bedroom.  It's hard to see, but there are flowers too.  It came from her father and his girlfriend.

We gave her some cash, which she'd requested, and a cookie decorating kit that a friend of a friend was selling as a fundraiser to help with her husband's medical bills. 

 We've had both of our vaccine shots with the only side effects being a sore arm (me) both times.  Devin and Janice have both had their first vaccine, too.

Bahia Trip

Many years ago, Devin's family spent some of their vacations at the Bahia Hotel in San Diego.  Devin, Janice and Kyleigh spent a week there a few years ago and the others have always wanted to go back, too.  They finally got a chance to earlier this month. The whole family, grandparents, children and grandchildren all met there for a few days of fun and relaxation.

This is the view from Devin, Janice and Kyleigh's room. 

Kyleigh is part fish and loves the beach.  When she was there a few years ago, she met up with some friends from her daycare and they let her borrow their paddle board.  She's been wanting to do it again ever since.  Neither of her parents were willing to go with her, but her Uncle Adam came to the rescue.

Kyleigh also has three younger cousins on Devin's side of the family and they all love her and want to be around her as much as possible, so she got a chance to do some babysitting

They all had a great time and can't wait to go again.

July Activities/Pictures

July was a fairly quiet month.  I went to the grocery store, bank and drive up communion.  I also had a couple of medical appointments and we got takeout occasionally, but other than that, we've stayed home.

David's birthday was the 18th and Janice, Devin and Kyleigh came over with takeout from Famous Dave's, a favorite local barbecue place as a surprise for him.  Kyleigh received a perler bead kit from her mom for her birthday in March so she could make it for grandpa for his birthday.  BTW, he loved it.

Earlier in the month, Kyleigh attended a virtual Girl Scout Camp.  The theme was arts and crafts and they gave her a box with all the materials needed.  They made crafts, sang songs and did other fun activities and Kyleigh had a really fun time.  These are the crafts she made.  The item on the top left is a bandana and the one on the right is a t-shirt bag for carrying her sleeping bag.

She also made a chalk art heart on the sidewalk in front of her condo

and a vision board.  Instead of doing it on paper, Janice had her do it on the computer.  She's going to Disney World in May with her dad's family and that's the subject of the board.

Taz sometimes sits beside me while I stitch and usually sits on my scissors or something I need.  One night, he decided to move over to my lap.  (He likes to be close to people.)

Finally, Kyleigh had her Pom banquet last week and Janice sent me a picture of her receiving an award for "Best Performance" for the way she is always smiling during the performances now and goes full out.  She'd expected to win the one for "Most Improved" though.  She starts POM camp next week and there's a chance she may be the team captain this year.

June Activities/Pictures

There wasn't a lot happening in June since school was out and summer activities were either cancelled or hadn't started yet.

One of Devin’s scripts was picked by Coverfly, a website that helps screenwriters, to be performed as table read during a Zoom meeting.  The script was Orson's War, a behind the scenes look at the making of War of the Worlds.  Sean Astin played Orson Welles and all the comments were positive.

Kyleigh died her hair again, this time with maroon.  She does it every summer with Janice's permission, but usually does blue.  The maroon definitely shows up better.

I did a lot of cleaning and decluttering in my office/craft room this month and put a basket for filing back on my desk.  Even though it's not really big enough for him, Taz has taken up residence in it.  He spends quite a bit of time there when I'm using the computer and is there right now.  I guess it's a case of "If I fits, I sits".

I also cleaned off the Cat Tree in the living room and after David put him in the tree a couple of times, he now spends part of most evenings there (instead of on our bed).  He even uses the steps to get up and down.

May Activities/Pictures

I only had one picture to post in April so I decided to skip the April posting and add it to May.  I was thinking that there would only be one or two pictures for May also.  Boy was I wrong!

These are Kyleigh's and Janice's cats.  Kyleigh's cat is the one on top and is our Taz's brother.  Janice has had her cat for several years now.  They started out enemies, but are now friends.

On Mother's Day, Janice, Devin and Kyleigh came by to deliver groceries.  They also brought fresh baked homemade cinnamon rolls and Kyleigh hid a homemade card in the groceries.  I didn't get any hugs, but at least I got to see them.

Kyleigh is a member of the POM team at school and one Saturday they surprised her with a visit and a goodie bag.  Janice made her actually get dressed that day.

I've shown pictures before of Taz sleeping on David's chest.  Well, his new thing is to curl up on the newspaper. 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyleigh spends every other weekend with her father and his mom.  This particular Friday, they went bike riding which they do a lot when she visits.  Her old bike was getting small and the brakes were going out so they bought her a new one.  Unfortunately, she hit a patch of water and fell.  In addition to the scrape on her arm, she also bruised her face and hurt her leg

When Kyleigh got home on Sunday afternoon, Janice took two more pictures showing the damage in more detail.

 

Our church has been very proactive in providing worship opportunities by streaming all the church services and posting a Pastor's POD (Promise of the Day).  The one thing they hadn't figured out was communion.  Finally Saturday, 5/16 they did their first Drive Up Communion.

This week was Kyleigh's last week of school and she went to her homeroom on Wednesday morning to turn in her books and pick up her supplies.  Each student was scheduled a individual 10-minute visit.  In addition to turning in her books and getting her personal items, Janice took a picture and then the teacher danced the brand new 7th grader out of the classroom.

It's hard to see in this picture, but Taz is lying behind my laptop and is guarding a partial package of Ritz Crackers that he found there.

We let Taz outside for a little while most mornings, but once he comes in, he's my bosom buddy and after bothering me for awhile, he curls up somewhere on my desk and falls asleep.  This is where he landed this morning.  Unfortunately, he's about to be woken up so that I can get to the pile of mail underneath him.

And that was our May.  We spent most of our time at home.  I did go grocery shopping a couple of times and we drove through a drive-through occasionally, but mostly we stayed home.

March Miscellaneous

 Since the Corona Virus scare started in earnest in mid-March, most of our March activities were cancelled, but I still have a few pictures to show.

The middle school youth group at our church meets on Sunday afternoons.  As part of the meeting, they usually provide some kind of service.  This time they painted props for this year's VBS. Janice was asked to attend to help prevent any paint fights!  (They're still meeting via Zoom.)

 

David and went out to pick up breakfast, dinner and salad packages from our local Norm's.  They were giving you the raw ingredients to make several meals with each package.  We both wore masks that David had here for using when he was creating dust.  We also wiped down our hands and everything we touched.  The steaks we got were the best we'd ever tasted so the following week, Janice went back an got more.

Our cat, Taz has been very people oriented the past few weeks.  There was one day when he really didn't want me to use my computer, but in the end after a few yells, meows and pushes, we settled on a mutually acceptable position.

Last night I caught him in this unusual and weird position on David's stomach.

Finally, yesterday (3/31) was Kyleigh's 12th birthday.  Since we're all self isolating, we couldn't join her for breakfast, so Janice ordered two Polly's Pies' cinnamon rolls for us and four for them to be delivered by Door Dash so that we could all eat breakfast together on Face Time.  We also got to watch her open what presents were available.  Her favorite present is sitting on top in the picture below.  We haven't given her ours yet, but will when we can get together again.