And 4 became 23

"Tell me a story Nana about how our family grew." Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Nana was was a Mommy and she had four children. And then she met a man who was the Daddy of three children. Before long the children married and had children of their own, and our family grew and grew. Now there are 10 grandbabies and one more waiting to arrive in September. Of all of the men in the world I could have married I chose a man who could have been a cradle mate. He was born in Patterson NJ and my parents lived in Patterson but I was born in the next town over. But the coincidences don't stop there. Three of our children - in fact our oldest children - share a birthday. Mike, Sara, and Katie celebrate on September 20th. Son-in-law Mike and I share July 16 and grand-daughter AJ and sister in law Steffie celebrate on September 17. Now for the drum roll. Felix Gill arrived this week on brother-in-law John's 65th birthday. Completing the synchronicity - our 7 children would have been stair steps starting with Mike and ending with Peter, with Sara, Katie and Ted filling in the 10 year gap between Kama, Meagan and Peter. So welcome Isabel and Felix - Jon, Jason, Alex, Ashton, Teddy, Ashby, AJ, and Madi can't wait to meet you! Grant Lee when you arrive in September there will be a crowd waiting for you!

I thought I was braver

I have always thought I was pretty calm, not prone to dramatics, it was a self image I liked. Yesterday proved me wrong. There are scary things that leave me speechless and crying for help in a little squeaky voice. Yesterday morning while eating breakfast I got an email that there were problems on the project I am supporting, so I headed up to the office to log on and get to work. In about an hour we hear Zed throwing up. Not one little oops but several times and the he was a little quavery mess hiding under my desk. Near lunch time I finished up and headed down to the kitchen to clear the counter and get organized for lunch. What I was wearing: golf skirt, shirt, bare feet. What had arrived for lunch? A 3 foot black snake was snuggled up on the rug in front of the kitchen sink and because I was reaching for dishes on the bar I almost stepped on him. Act 2. I run to the other side of the counter and start "screaming" for help. Well not actually screaming. According to my hubby I was squeaking some sound that I thought was "help! Help!". The two guys amble down to see what was up. Finally seeing what I was pointing to they lept in to action. Hubby goes out to get a shovel. Son goes to get something to pin the snake down with. I maintain my role of being s quivering mess. The heroes return armed--- and the snake is missing. A search ensues. One of the heroes leaves for golf something. The son continues the search - under the dishwasher, in the cupboards. Not many places for a snake to hide EXCEPT the air duct directly under the sink. Act 3. I stand at the end of the counter staring at the vent while we exchange thoughts on ways to drive the snake back into the kitchen. I turn down the temp, turn on the fan, we put down cardboard, lay out bacon. No snake. I google options. No help. I call my Terminix guy. He can do ants but no snakes. The scene now has dishes on the counter no lunch me standing at the end of the counter one eye on the vent, one looking at my iPad time ticking away. Solution needed to to keep snake from sneaking back in. Pantyhose to the rescue. Son unscrews the vent, notices the space between the vent and the floor that leads to the crawl space, hope now arises that snake has headed home but to be on the safe side he slides the vent cover into the knee high pantyhose, knots it on the end and screws it back on. Ok it is tacky but I feel safer. And I now think the suddenly sick dog was probably the result of him licking a spot of (oh gross) snake slime that while not fatal is toxic. Today all is peaceful. Happy puppy. No snake.