In the last week, there has been one of each of the following: a birthday, a holiday, and a funeral. I haven't wanted to write at all. But life must go on, and with a Goose to take care of, it IS going on right in front of me all the time (usually starting before 5:00 a.m.) and so I feel compelled to post this in an attempt to get back to normal ... whatever that is.
I have just uploaded many, many photos into my Flickr account, so for a full update, click on any of the pictures below (including the fantastic ones from Nana's fancy dancy camera). For the short of it, here's just a taste of our life of late:
First, there was a visit from Mama & Baby Bird (for more on this family, check out MB's super cool website -- of which I'm not at all jealous -- at www.deltabirds.blogspot.com). Baby Bird & The Goose couldn't seem to time their naps so that we could actually leave the house together AT ALL (except for a fun trip to Pancake Pantry), so we mostly stayed at home and played outside. Each time The Goose would wake up from one of his naps, The Bird would be down. And then as soon as Bird was up, Goose was down again. Argh. But it was still a fantastic visit and I now have a new boyfriend:
In the middle of the Bird visit, we got the news of Pappaw's passing, so we headed to Newton for the funeral. I am tempted to wax sentimental here and post a bunch of stories about my Pappaw, but where would I even start? I have so many good, sweet memories of him. But I do want to write that I was most touched at the funeral by how many people came up to me and said what a kind man he was and how much he loved me. I actually learned a lot about Pappaw during this trip home. I learned that he was a FOUNDING member of the Red Hat Deer Club, where on the wall there hangs a trophy in his honor: the rear-end of a deer. Many of the deer club members were at the funeral and a couple were pallbearers. Although I didn't see it, I heard tell that as the funeral procession passed down the highway on the way to the cemetary, there was a big buck standing just off to the side of the road. I don't think Pappaw ever killed a deer, but obviously they are still taunting him.
While we were in Mississippi for the funeral (and subsequently for Thanksgiving), The Goose enjoyed all manner of large farm equipment (including the grave-digging tractor at the cemetary). I mean really, what could be better than a large, loud tractor with enormous wheels?
And then there was the lawnmower love affair:
The Goose's newest thing is to take a set of keys, pick out a good one, and then look for a key hole (any key hole -- on doors of houses, cars, lawnmowers, or vacuum cleaners ... what's that? You didn't know vacuum cleaners had key holes? Whatever.) to stick the key into. As you can see from the above lawnmower picture, he is leaning down as if he's going to start her up, in just exactly the right place.
There was one other favorite four-wheeled device at the farm, my old Red Flyer Wagon:
As a child, I used to stick all manner of baby dolls, Barbies, stuffed, and real animals into this wagon and pull them all over the yard. Once I even hitched a dog named Fluffy Elaine to the front of the wagon in an effort to have her pull me around in the yard. Now I have a real baby doll to pull. Luckily, however, I do not attempt to cut this baby doll's hair.
That job is left to Husband. And although I know many of you will scoff at our decision to chop off his long, curly locks, it was deemed necessary after my mom's cousin Johnnie Mae asked what her name was. Here's a before picture:
And here's an aftershot:
I know, I know, I know. I loved his curls too. But here's the thing: They only looked like that first picture RIGHT AFTER A BATH. Then they just fell into a mangy mop sort of thing and it did sorta give him a feminine edge. We loved him with curls and we love him with his big boy haircut and anyway it's just hair and it grows back, people.
As a final note, I encourage you to please click on any of the above pictures to see more, especially those from Nana's camera, which span pages 1-3 of my photostream (that means that you have to actually click on the number "2" which is located in a box at the bottom of the first page ... and then you have to actually click the number "3" as well). Of course I'm not implying that some of you really would need directions to do something so simple, I'm just trying to cover all the bases. These photos are just too good to miss, as is all of life with a Goose.
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!
