Exploring Rockford & Chillin' with the Grandkids

Today we drove around Rockford and looked at neighborhoods. We looked at a house for sale in the heart of town. On a corner lot, built into a hillside, the four-bedroom two bath house at first glance seemed ideal. The driveway though was treacherous, uphill and a sharp turn to the right to drive into the garage. I had nightmares of an icy driveway with us sailing over the edge into the neighbor’s home or worse yet, backing up on ice, losing control, and tumbling over the six-foot rock wall that fronts the property onto the street. Of course, in this scenario there would be a passing car crushed by our Subaru. The rock wall does not extend up above the driveway which would stop us from tumbling over. Whoever designed the property was clearly not as fatalistic as me about driving in winter conditions.

We spent two hours this afternoon with Caleb and Charlotte. Charlotte read “Are You My Mother?” to me while Joe and Caleb played chess. Then we all played The Floor Is Lava. I spun the color dial while Joe and the kids jumped from color to color. Then Joe and the kids and the dogs wrestled and tumbled on the floor. I informed Joe that he better not complain later if he was sore since he is a grown adult and choosing to rough house. They all enjoyed themselves. I decided to take a nap and returned upstairs for dinner to find them playing Toss the Burrito.

We had also brought back from the family reunion a ball toss game. The balls are a very lightweight plastic and when thrown at someone do not hurt in any way. The target is supposed to be a separate netted game where the participants score points based on which hole the ball falls in. My cousin Doug sent it home with us for Caleb and Charlotte. The reason we know the balls do not hurt when they hit a person is that Doug and Joe “tested it” at the reunion. Please remember that both men are over seventy years old. Doug gleefully told me the game was safe, “I through the ball as hard as I could at Joe, and he said it didn’t hurt.” I asked Doug, “Why didn’t Joe throw the ball at you to test it?” Doug, “It was my idea.”

My cousin, Doug, is one of my all-time favorite people. He and Joe connect, and I swear the two of them could talk the other one into anything. They are both sweet souls. Well, except for the ball toss idea.

So anyway, Joe, Caleb, and Charlotte were throwing the balls at each other. Thanks, Doug.

While we were spending time with the kids, Megan and Jeremy were taking a much-needed break. We had a severe storm blow through last night. I woke up at 11:30 pm and it sounded like someone was moving all the furniture in the family room above us. It took me a moment to figure out it was thunder and not a police raid gone wrong. I texted Megan and she confirmed that there was a storm. I heard a three more loud rumbles (this is the first time I have heard one of the several storms that have occurred since we moved in to the flat). She told me this morning that it lasted until 6:30 am this morning and that she had not slept at all. The children arrive at around 7:30 am on Wednesday mornings so there was no time for her to sleep.

Charlotte and Caleb had soccer practice and a game each this evening. Usually, their games are staggered so the family is away from home for two hours (1/2-hour practice, 1/2-hour game). Tonight, there was an hour between games, so Jeremy took Charlotte and went to her soccer game. Caleb and Megan stayed home for the hour between matches. Caleb came down to our flat to build on the Lego table. He was cool with Grandma getting a photo for the blog.