It's a girl! (Or, the winds of change be blowin'!)

Did that catch your attention? I've been wondering what to call this entry. It marks a change to my world -- my household just increased by one this week when a 14 year old niece moved in. She will be here at least through the end of the school year, and quite possibly longer. I haven't come up with a blog name for her yet, but will keep thinking on that. For those who know my family, this is my brother John's middle girl. I used to refer to her as my "mini-me", but I'm guessing she wouldn't like that to be her call sign here on my blog. :-)

Before she arrived, I emptied my former office and turned it back into a bedroom. Finally cleaning out the closet (it's been on my to-do list for YEARS) has led me to the conclusion that I have too much STUFF. I've already relocated some to the basement, sent some to DI (that's similar to Goodwill for those of you who are not locals), given some away, filled my big garbage can, and I'm nowhere near done with this sorting process. I tossed a bunch into my room (I now have to turn on the light before I dare walk from my bed to the bathroom in the middle of the night for fear of tripping on something), filled the guest room closet, and still have spillover in the kitchen, living room, and basement.

The amazing and wonderful parts of all of this? Neighbors and friends who just jumped in and helped. I am so grateful - I would never have been as ready as I was by moving day without them. A neighbor (and friend!) helped me pull off books and other treasures from 2 huge bookcases and stack them all in the living room. Then some men in my neighborhood came over to move the bookcases and a desk out to the living room. They also moved a dresser and an armoire. The next day, the neighbor who helped with the books returned and moved my CD collection from the niece's room to mine -- while I was at work! She came back again later that day and shampooed the carpet in the now empty room.

The next day I flew out to Kansas for a High School reunion and while I was gone, another friend moved all the books back to the bookcases because I simply ran out of time.

On Saturday when my SIL and niece arrived, two friends unloaded the van and one of them provided dinner on Saturday, the other on Sunday. In between, my neighbor (same one) invited them over for dessert Saturday night and her son came by to assemble the bed they had brought with them. All of this happened while I was still out of town. I am so very blessed to have fantastic friends who are always watching out for me and who extended their umbrella of watchfulness and care over my SIL and niece. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Stay tuned for the developing story! That's all I have time for now.

One of the nicest things anyone has ever wished for me

Years ago, as I was out running errands with Yevi's wife and daughters, the older one, (who was probably only 5 or 6 at the time) commented from the back of the van, "Aunt Holly, I wish you would get married". When I asked why she wanted me to get married, her answer tickled me from head to toe.

"Because then you would always have someone to play games with".

Isn't that a lovely wish?

BTW, she meant BOARD and CARD games, not MIND games. (I qualified that because I KNOW some of you will go down that path)

Home again!

I've just returned from a lovely visit with most of my family (we were missing the Texas branch). As mentioned in my previous post, I played games with the nieces and nephews, and even one brother and one sister-in-law.

The favorite games this year were Pictureka and Lego Creator (which I think is now out of print, but Amazon has some used ones). My brother got a Monty Python version of Fluxx for Christmas, which we tried out at a Saturday game night. It was VERY entertaining! Fluxx is a card game where the rules and the requirements for winning are constantly changing (i.e. in flux). One of the rules was that you could play an extra card if you spoke with an outrageous accent during your turn. My brother and his wife embraced this rule with gusto, as did their 12-year old. I love it that we can all cut loose and be silly together.

Tonight I introduced some neighbors to Pictureka, and it was well-received. If you live in my area and want to try it out with your family, invite me for a game night! :-) The age range is 6 and up, and it can easily be played as teams or individuals. We had 7 people playing as individuals tonight and it did not seem to take too long to complete. It gets faster as the players become more familiar with the tiles that form the game board, yet remains challenging.

My 7-year old nephew will now be referred to as "Gameboy" in future posts! (I haven't settled on a name for his older brother quite yet.) Gameboy and I tackled several games while I was home, starting with Pictureka and Lego Creator. The others were Racko , Battleship, Stone Soup , Blockus, SkipBo, and a Mario game on his new Nintendo DS. (He and I played the same game on the DS and traded the unit back and forth each time one of us lost a life.)

Good times!

Family fun

Since my last post I made a very quick trip to see my family and attend my niece's baptism. All told, I was gone just under 37 hours, so that works out to about half of the time on the road and half of the time at my destination. Short, but sweet. I visited my nephews, both of whom have grown quite a bit taller since I last saw them! The elder, RH, comes up to my shoulder now. He's only 9 years old! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised -- I've had cub scouts that are that tall. I was sorry I couldn't spend more time with the boys, but promised I would stay for a week at Christmas and bring several games with me. (I'm extremely lucky because ALL of my nieces and nephews like to play games)

A funny thing happened during the baptism. Apparently, just before the service started, my brother, Yevi, talked his daughter through the expected procedure. It went something like this: There will be a short prayer, then you will plug your nose with one hand and hold onto me with the other hand and just sit down in the water.

However, after the prayer, my niece let go of her dad's arm and started to turn away, and her dad quickly whispered that they weren't done yet. My niece got a little flustered, remembered most of what she was supposed to do, and promptly sat down in the water... essentially baptizing herself! My brother snorted (VERY un-baptism like behavior), and pushed her head down to make sure all of her hair went under, ensuring complete immersion. He then looked up at the witnesses, who nodded approval, and it was a done deed. We had a good laugh about it later. My brother said it as definitely a "first" for him to have a child baptize herself.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday to my niece, JBH! I look forward to being home for your baptism!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 12th birthday to my niece, KHH! I look forward to hearing your solo at the baptism on Sunday!