When your daughter is a hospice nurse 👀

Was watching my granddaughter this evening and when my daughter got home, I was getting ready to leave. "Here, you want this?" she asked.

"What is it?" I innocently queried.

"It's an advanced directive. You just fill it out and get someone to witness it, and it's legal!" She sweetly informed me. 

Ummm ... 

"Thanks .. ?"

Best gift of all

Before Christmas, a certain 4 year old went shopping with her parents to a store where she found a stone, hand carved heart sold to benefit women in need, in Haiti. It wasn't expensive or made from a gemstone, it was charcoal gray soapstone, but she absolutely had to have it to give to her grandma for Christmas.

At home this 4 year old picked out a box to wrap it in, and directed her parents how to decorate the box - she wanted 2 bows, ribbon tied around it, and the heart inside the box had to be wrapped in red tissue paper. 

On Christmas morning when she got to give the box to her grandma, she was so excited! Grandma was a little confused at first but when she realized her granddaughter picked out this heart, simply because it was a heart, for her - she was thrilled! And touched. And so, very, happy.

Grandma and this little girl have a very special bond and Grandma hopes it stays that way well into the future, even when the 4 year old is 10, or 16, or more. One thing is for sure, this grandma is so lucky to have such a wonderful little girl in her life. She treasures her, and will cherish that stone heart, forever.

There is nothing quite like the love of a child. Or a grandma, for that matter! 

Sneaks up on me every year!

I LOVE Christmas! But for some reason I’m still preparing up until the last possible minute and this year is no different. But I did manage to steal a minute (hour) to make this lil video. Enjoy!

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Have yourself a Merry little Christmas now! 💗💚💗🙏

Every. Damn. Day.

I pick up my phone, look at the screen, ask myself "what the heck am I doing?" as I tap the back with my fingers which takes a screenshot of my home screen. I mean .. I do this ALL the time! 

Or I put my fingers on my keyboard and look at my computer monitor and say to myself "what the heck was I going to do??" Generally it only takes a couple seconds to shake that off and remember just what I WAS going to do. It's the electronic version of walking into the kitchen and saying "why did I come in here?"

Yep, I do that too.

It's not like I've left my car keys in the freezer, or lost my way driving home from somewhere, or tried to drink the glass cleaner. Nothing way out like that, or dangerous. But those momentary gaps in thinking can be disconcerting!

But no worries. My kids being my kids - they will totally tell me if it gets worse! My daughter being a nurse looks at me with a clinical side-eye half the time anyway. All I have to do is mention I have a headache or my arm hurts or something similar and I get questions.

In other words - I am being monitored. Somewhat comforting .. ? Maybe?

What was I talking about, anyway?

I left the house and didn't die.

Not leaving the house has not been because of the pandemic. Well, yes it has - I mean - I started working from home because of the pandemic. Work was a source of social interaction for me, and I left my house to go to the office 5 days a week. My life was not exciting by any stretch of the imagination anyway, working from home increased my boringness exponentially. 

For the most part my trips outside are to go for a walk, go to a doctors appointment, or go to pick up my granddaughter from preschool. Generally speaking - that's it. Woo hoo!! Par-tay!

NOT.

But tonight I went out to a restaurant. A small neighborhood sports/tavern/restaurant. There were people at the bar, people at tables, servers making their way from customer to customer. It wasn't packed by any means which is fine with me.
You know what I didn't see? Masks.

Oh my gosh how refreshing! People were actually breathing the .. AIR. 

Where the heck is Art Linkletter??

Context: my daughter texted me about her daughter, and a back and forth they had. More context: the grandpa she is talking about? My ex-husband. (I'm not snickering at all!)

I mean .. 😈

There is no way in the world I could have come up with that physical analogy. Ever.

But damn if I don't appreciate it!!

 

In real life ..

A day or 2 ago, an interview with Steve Perry was posted online and some women promptly lost their $hit. Seriously. Reason being, Steve mentioned spending Christmas with his girlfriend. One woman I have seen on both Twitter and Facebook (who is kinda scary, frankly) is sure the interview is fake and no one has

been able to prove to her that Steve has a GF so .. 😳 No wonder Steve is so private, yikes! 

So I thought I would write a letter -

Dear Steve,

Some women on Facebook are freaking out because they heard you have a girlfriend. While I am a huge fan and can appreciate a sexy man whose voice could sing the pants off most women, I am not freaking out. 

I am glad you have found someone since you and I cannot be a thing. There are some fundamental things that make that impossible. I mean - you like spicy food, I do not. You can sing (so I’ve heard) and dance, and I can do neither. You’re a guy who is a bit hyper and wants to go, go, go, and I am more of a homebody. You are of a certain age, and I am 10 years younger, which still makes me too old for you. When I win the lottery and do some nips and tucks – I will still be 10 years younger than you, and while I am close enough in age to understand things like – you wanting to show me your etchings, there are other things I could not bring to the table at this point. I mean, I wouldn’t be doing any jogging or beach volleyball, things like that. But maybe the biggest deal breaker, Steve – you are a morning person and I am, most decidedly, not.

 

So, there you go, we can’t be a thing. I wasn’t worried about you finding someone you could ‘be a thing’ with but since hearing you have a girlfriend I don’t feel like I need to let you down easily. 

Thank you for all the music, Steve. Past, present and future! I am grateful you have come back to sing for us again. 

Love & Respect,

BetteJo

I just love her 💖

4 yr old granddaughter: Grandma when I am a full grown up person, I am going to come live at your
house with you.

Me: You are?

4 yr old: Yes! Will you come get me to bring me to your house?

Me: Well if you are a full grown up person you will be able to drive yourself to my house.

4 yr old: But I don't know how to get there!!

She's got a valid point. 

Embracing aging. Or not.

Do I embrace aging? Oh HELL NO .. and .. YES! I mean - I am glad to be here to age and not taking a dirt nap some place. But since Covid and working from home began, I don't look in the mirror as often or as closely as I used to because I don't put makeup on all the time. So when I do - sometimes it's a little shocking.

Posting pictures of myself has never been a thing. If you search this blog going back years - you will find very few photos of me. Never liked selfies and certainly didn't post them here if I did take them. Generally speaking any selfies I do take usually include my granddaughter. Making memories, even though the pics themselves make me cringe a bit. But she doesn't care if I have lines on my face or an uneven skin tone. She loves me just the way I am.

However, by the time my mom was my age (she is gone now so I can post this) she had 2 facelifts, a nose job, and an implant put in her chin. My mom was fairly vain, and had married a man who was 12 years her junior. No doubt that factored into it. But also? We just don't have nice, elastic skin. So I almost feel like she was just trying to even the score with the first facelift, so she was attempting to look like what her contemporaries did. She hated her nose so had that changed, and had a prominent overbite - hence the implant in her chin to offset the overbite. The second facelift was keeping young for her husband. And her own vanity.

Just my opinion, of course.

Would I do all that? No. My nose is my nose and braces took care of my overbite. But would I get one facelift - take care of the eyes and neck as well? You betcha. Because of weight gain and loss over the years my skin is much looser than I would like. It shows on my face. 

I know, fellas. This is making you want to line up for a date again .. 

So I am trying to accept my face, as is. In this pic - I am still tired, still have circles under my eyes and a crooked smile. But I do have makeup on and oh my gosh - EYEBROWS! 

People just don't understand how important eyebrows are. Just sayin'. 

If I'm online (this time of year) - I'm probably shopping.

Christmas shopping online is something I've been doing since it was possible. I never got the shopping gene, I have always disliked crowded stores, waiting in line to check out, walking from one end of a mall to the other searching for stores and specific items. Not to mention the fact that Christmas shopping where I live is frequently done in snow storms and frigid temperatures. Ugh!

Not my thing.

So as soon as online shopping started to become a thing - I was on it. My porch would be piled high with boxes many days of the Christmas season and I loved it! But it does take more time than people who don't do it, think. I will search for a specific thing for as long as it takes. It's rare I don't find what I am looking for.

Didn't get my tree up until yesterday - a week later than I meant to, and am still finishing up my gift shopping.

Almost done, though!

The cats are pleased because they've never met a Christmas tree they don't want to sleep under. One cat I had who has since passed away, Jake, she used to climb the tree every year. At least once. I miss her, she was a sweet kitty, but I don't miss that!

Hmm .. seeing the picture it looks like I need to fill in some spots with lights. And yes, I need to fill the holes in the wall from where I used to have cat shelves, but the tree. is. up! I feel accomplished!