I was born to have grandbabies.  I don’t know how good of a mother I was, but I know I am one damn fine Meme.  I love babies and grandbabies that are mine, are loved until my heart feels like it will burst.

I got to love Kaylie all by herself for 7 years and it has been only joy and love when I think of her.  She is a lovely girl and I can only see her becoming a wonderful young woman in time. 

Then, it is Peyton’s turn to come into our lives.  He was strong from minute one and was ready to take on the world.   I remember the first time I saw him.  Victor was holding him and I gasped, trying to hold back the tears.  I don’t know why I tried holding back tears.  They were joyful tears…all the worry and wait was over.  I could see his little face and I loved him already!

Yesterday, we celebrated his birthday at my house.  We had a little cook out and my brother, his wife and mom took the very long trip over here.  We had the balloons “sissy” (Kaylie) had blown up all morning and tied all over the place.  We bubbles, toys, food and plenty of laughs to fill the back yard. 

It was a lot of work, but it was all worth it.

Two years ago, Peyton couldn’t do much of anything except sleep and look beautiful.  A few months later, he was crawling…then walking and here at two, he is chatting like a magpie.  He repeats everything or gives it a fair shot.  He shouts “slug bug” for no reason…in his high chair or in a car, it doesn’t matter.  I think he just likes the sound of his voice and the words.

He is amazed at bugs, rocks and wiggles all over the place when he sees someone he loves walk in a room.  He is happy to toss food from his high chair and try and convince you it was a sorriful accident by adding..”oh oh.”  He can be made to eat anything by telling him NOT to take a big bite, then laughs at his defiance.  He giggles when you tickle him and it can only make you laugh back at the sheer delight in his voice.  He shares his cake with you, his kisses, his toys and will offer you a booger if he feel like you need one.  He is all boy.

He wears Carhartt clothing, cammo baseball hats and romeo slippers.  He looks good in flannel shirts and is now wearing Elmo underpants in hopes of learning to go potty BEFORE you get them wet.

He is smart, clever and knows he is funny.  He makes me laugh just looking at him.  His eyes are nearly black brown and they sparkle like Root Beer.  He can dance, he can even sing Happy birthday.  He loves his blue bankie and his binkie…and his Meme and Papa.  He has it all.

Here is my boy…Happy Birthday, my darling Peyton.

Mr. Hughes, Bill, was alone after his wife Ruth passed away.  I didn’t like him then and I still don’t like him, though he has passed some 30 years ago.  He was an obnoxious know-it-ALL and stuck his nose in our kid business until he had everyone arguing. 

Next to him, were the Hanes and three girls.  The oldest was in the same year as Randy, my brother, then the next in line was my best friend and a year ahead of me.  Then next girl was a year behind me…Patti, Barbara and Donna.  They were always happy to be out hanging out with us gang of kids. 

But the new neighbor…what were they going to be like?  We heard they were foreigners at birth.  This added  an aura of mystery.  Would they look funny, or talk funny or more than those things…would they like me?

Soon, our old friends moved out.  Auntie Kay and Uncle Bobby.. gone to a finer home.  Now here comes this new man and woman into our lives.  Mr. and Mrs. Mettler.  They had first names, but I wasn’t going to be allowed to use it.  After all, I was a little girl and we didn’t use first names.  I heard that the first names were Ulrich and Augusta.  wow.  Now those are strange names.  Would I like them?

The first day I met them, I fell head over heels in love with these two beautiful people.  Mr. Mettler was about 5’2″ and Mrs..shorter yet.  They looked like they could have fallen off of a wedding cake.  Mr. Mettler had a gray crew cut and he could fix everything!  Mrs. Mettler, she was the quietest, softest speaking woman I have ever met.    I knew they just had to love me back.

Mr. Mettler was Swiss and Mrs. Mettler was from Germany.  They still kept their thick accent, though they were Americans.  To top off the whole package, Mr. Mettler could yodel.  He could yodel his socks off.  When we would be sitting on the patio, mom or dad would hear him puttering around the yard and they would yell, “Ollie, yodel something!”  From somewhere behind his hedge, a string of the most beautiful musical notes drifting through the air.  I loved it.

I remember so many details about Mrs. Mettler, but the one that comes to mind is her tidiness.  Everything was minature and completely dust free and in its place.  If you look up tidy, it should show her house. 

Now, for the grapes.  Mr. Mettler planted a grape and in time, it grew over his patio.  It provided enough grapes for eating, making a batch of his famous wine and cool the house and patio like a natural air conditioner.  It was like my own Magic Garden.  I could sit there and be entertained by the hours just being with them. 

As with all things good, the Mettler’s grew old and needed to be with their children.  It was so sad to see them have to leave the block and move on.  I believe Mr. Mettler passed first, but was in his 90′s and Mrs. Mettler passed close to 99.  They didn’t get cheated out of life.  

The Mettler’s moved away and we got a wonderful new friend, but he hated the grape.  He hated the arbor, the mess and the work.  Obviously, he didn’t know the love that grew with the new green vines every year.  One day, he cut the arbor down, level with the ground.  It was all ripped off the framework of the arbor and torn down.  I am surprised he didn’t hack it wil an ax and set fire to the stump.

Several months later, mom heard what he had done and warned him…keep that news away from my daughter.  He asked why?  She told him about the love I had for this arbor and the caretakers of the arbor for all the years.  He said, “well, she can have it if she wants it.” 

We happened to be in Seattle and bless Mike, he went up and dug up the stump.  It was a about the size of my forearm, and a bit of a root, but it was mine. 

I brought it home and talked it into please growing and keeping all my memories alive of a life ideal for a kid to ever grow up in.  My neighbor up here, laughed his socks off at my “stump”.  He kept saying, it won’t grow.  It won’t ever get big again! 

Well, he was wrong.  It grew and grew.  It was  happy to have wings again.  It knew that somewhere, Mr. and Mrs. Mettler was looking down and smiling while my grandbabies play under a canopy of leaves and grapes.  I sip iced tea in the summer and think of them.  I have a porch swing under it and I rock and give thanks that I experinced the people in my young life that were so loving (except Bill Hughes) and helped all of us kids remember times…happy times of Kick the Can and Hide go Seek.

Time passes and we all grow up and leave.  The neighborhood changes and changes, several times over.  Mom stays the course for about 58 years, until she finally moved out.  She was the last one to leave.  It was time.

I am going to go out in a few minutes and sit under my arbor.  I will sip my tea and think about all the wonderful neighbors I loved.  They were all characters, from Esther and Bill Hebrank, the Stuart’s and Mr. and Mrs. Parrish.  I am a lucky woman.  I hope I will make a good memory for some little person and they will blog about me, a grape arbor they built from my grape start I gave them and will remember me with kindness and love.  If I can pull that one off, I will have done it all.

A friend, by my definition is pure gold.  They don’t ask anything of you but love, understanding and a shoulder for support in times of need and they give back to me, equal amounts.  They don’t care if you are a size 4 or a size 20.  They hug you anyhow.

My oldest friend is Allison.  I met her in Kindergarten and we traveled the whole school system together.  We don’t see each other, but it doesn’t matter.  My friendship with her doesn’t need to be seen, but I know every year in October, I will get a birthday card and in Decemeber a Christmas card.  Like clockwork.  She would send postcards when she was in Italy and traveling Europe.  I would write letters of cradle cap and diaper rash.  We moved in different circles, but Allison is my constant.  I will always know she is there for me. 

Then as life moved me along, I ended up with Pallas and Flora.  I can’t think of two more glorious friends to have in life.  They would do anything with me, for me or anyone in my family.  They have taught me patience (I didn’t have much) and an appreciation of too many things to mention.  Pallas is a gifted artist in so many ways and her humbleness is short of amazing.  If I had half of her abilities, I would be screaming, “LOOK what I did!  I am wonderful!”  She quietly creates the most beautful of things and never mentions them again.

Flora.  Oh, she is my treasure.  Her and husband Ben are my family.   I used to watch Flora like a hawk.  She taught me to be giving and more thoughtful.  She makes me laugh and laugh easily at my antics.  She is giving and I can tell her anything and everything.  She loves me just for who I am..no more, no less.  There was a time I had surrounded myself with people that always made me feel as if I was, well, stupid!  Flora was the one that first one that  said, “are you kidding?”  She gave me self worth, something I never had before.  

My surprise friend is Sherri.  Many years ago, I used to frequent a jewelry store.  Met the owners and as years went on, the children took a huge role in the business.  Peggy, Mike and Frank were the kids and Bonnie owned the store.  There was another girl, but I had only slightly known of her.  Then, I heard about Sherri opening a knit store and who she was…the missing daughter!  I went in to visit Bonnie and the rest and there was Sherri.  She is my instant friend.  Once you meet Sherri, you have to love her.  She gives off such an energy of love, all you do it take it and run.  We chat online and visit at the store went I can pull a baby off my thigh.  Peyton is NOT a kid that does well in a yarn store.

Then there is Tennessee.  How would I ever get to Tennessee?  In October a few years ago, my father died.  It wasn’t long after that and I bid on some fiber on Ebay and because of a dentist appointment, I missed the bid.  I wrote the lady and she sold me some of the same fiber, but not at the bidding price, the cheaper price.  She didn’t have to, but she did.  I thought, wow…what an honest dealer.  Her name was Glenda.

In the course of the fiber coming here, she mentioned her father had just passed in October and her mother was visiting in the state of Washington.  A few more emails and we found out that our fathers passed a few hours apart.  Then we were hooked on each other.  Emails were almost daily.  I flew to meet her and Perry a few years later and we have been sisters since.  I have visited 3 times and attended the Celtic Festival in Jackson.  I love Tennessee.

New friends…I count three on that hand.  Nancy (yes, another Nancy) and I are more like Thelma and Louise.  If there there is anyone louder than me, it is her.  We traveled the entire states together in 10- days and laughed until we cried.  Never a cross word or a sharp tone.  I think we were cut out of the same cloth.  Our humor is so similar, it is uncanny and gets us into all kinds of fits of hysteria.  We are often uncontrollable!    I can call her and say, “Help” and before the phone is laid back in the cradle, she is there.  Never asks questions…she knows she is needed.  She has the most generous heart of anyone I know.  She is the kind of friend that will pull a sliver out of your butt and not laugh..until it is over!    She loves gin and Dr. Pepper, but not together.

Jackie.  She is the other half of Terry and Jackie.  We love them so much, we got them to buy a house three doors down.  We exchange house keys and share our grandbabies with each other.  Terry, is a teddy bear standing about 6’5″ and weighing in less than a Toyota pick up.  When Mike was in the hospital, Terry came every day to visit us and see if there was anything I needed.  He is a love.  Then Jackie moved up here and she is a spitfire.  High energy and gets things done.  Love them.

My newest friend is Tori.  I was blindsided by her friendship.  Never saw it coming, and from such an unlikely source.  I joined facebook and there she was.  She added me to her friend list and we started to write. 

I didn’t know Tori all that well through high school.  She was always bubbly and energetic, but we had different classes and friends.  I had the honor of having her father for English in 9th grade and he was a lovely man, and teacher.  He was the coach for football and I learned to love football early on. 

Tori and I write every morning and I have come to enjoy these letters.  She is such a positive person and brings out the best in me.  We chat about fighting fat, raising our daughters and now, we have grandchildren to brag about.    I am hopeful we will get to visit sometime during the summer.  It will be fun to see what 40+ years has done to us.  I know, for me, I am just rounder!  She looks the very same. 

I write this to tell these people that are in my life that I cherish each one of you.   Sometimes we forget to honor those that have done so much for us.   Because of you, I think and hope I am a better person and a better friend.  I have accepted your love and many kindnesses and I hope, I haven’t let you down.   My world would be such a bleak place without you.  No matter what is tossed to me in this uncertain path we all walk, I am stronger, wiser and more capable for knowing you men and women in my life.

I can walk 3 miles out to Ediz hook and back and never crack a sweat, but this is 11 miles and on the beach.  The tide was out, so that was a plus.  We could use the harder packed sand for better footing, but it was still difficult to complete my goal. 

I packed OJ, muffins, good camera and extra lens and binoculars.  I had my camera backpack, everything having a good place for storage.  I used my hiking boots.  They were well worn and surely, no blisters to think about.   I seem to always gets blisters, whether it be my hands in gardening or feet for walking…take your pick. 

The sand was easiest to walk on, but there is a slant to the beach.  You are constantly leaning to keep from falling over.  By the time we passed the three mile marker, I had blisters on one foot…the entire heel and my big toe.  Hm.  This wasn’t looking good.  I figured on the way back, I would be leaning the other direction and the other foot was be blistered, too.  (note…I was right)

Literally, I limped to the base of the light house and kissed the park bench hello, like and old friend.  I dug out the OJ and the muffin and thought, why didn’t I pack a turkey sandwich…sure the Mayonaise might have gone a bit punky, but I was willing to chance it.  I wanted more…more time to rest, more OJ, more food…and anything to take me off this lousy beach and get me home.  But, it was time to leave.

I snapped pictures and pulled on my socks.  I was barefooted in the cool, damp grass of the lighthouse trying to will my feet to heel.  I gathered up my wits (took longer than I cared to admit) and prayed for a miracle.

We began walking back.  I made the first 5.5 miles without resting, but on the way back, the blisters were on the other foot and I had to stop several times and sit.  The last half mile was of beach was totally miserable.  I was almost stumbling.  Then I remembered…hey, I went down a steep path TO the beach.  Will I have to walk UP and steep path..of course.  What an idiot…I could feel my mind racing.    Flashes of excuses were running through my head…chest pains…yeah, that might get someone’s attention.  I mean, the path was big enough for a small car…then I snapped back to reality.  It was my “white whale”…I was going to conquer it, if I had to crawl on my belly and at several times, I thought I might do that very thing.

We got to the path and I almost teared up.  I swear, it was a 45 degree slope.  Mike kept telling me it was hard packed dirt and would be easier…a piece of cake.  Cake…I like cake. 

I whined and whined all the way up the hill.  I finally saw some rangers and thought…valet.  These guys were here to get my car and meet me, so I didn’t have to walk the final 50 yards.  I smiled and said…”Valet?  I got $2 for the guy you can run and get my car for me!” 

Well, we got in the car.  I kissed the heated seats in the car and whimpered.

I got home and I couldn’t get my legs out of the car.  I tried.  They were all stiff and ached like nothing I have ever experienced.  I hobbled down the stairs and landed on the sofa.  Then the cramps came…I had thigh cramps…it was amazing.  Didn’t know you could get spasms that high up. 

I finally put myself to bed by 9pm, with two tylenol and the electric blanket it on.

Did I have a good time?  The best!  I loved my day.  I accomplished something I have always wanted to do.  Will I do it again…no.  I will boat by…I may even leap overboard and swim to the lighthouse, I will drive it, I will skydive to the lighthouse, but I won’t walk it again.  I might rethink it IF I have that turkey sandwich in my backpack, better shoes, extra pair of socks…screw the camera, I can buy a postcard and nice bottle of wine to celebrate another journey.

Mike and his friend Terry are at the neighbors, improving OUR water view. They are cutting the apple trees lower so we can see the water during the summer. Nice neighbor. Mike has the tendency to make one cut per tree, which is usally 6 inches above the ground! Obviously, the man doesn’t know Mike that well.

Now, moving to baseball. I love baseball. I love watching kids play it, pro’s play it and even men who think they can play it. That is one thing daughter Sallie and I have in common….she is usually rabid about it. She gets rabid about other teams, too. She loves to see a brawl.

Then, down in Montesano, I have Peyton and Kaylie. Here are some pics of Mr. P and his new wheels.

Then, he moved on to bird feeders. He built a really great one and put it on the deck. In a few days, we noticed that there were several little birds using it. Success!

I love these little guys.

I ran down and grabbed my camera and got some cute shots, but this one, with seeds flying is my favorite.

I love the elephants. They are so massive.  Something special about them.

We were with Kaylie and Peyton and we were not disappointed!  Peyton squealed and said, “OOOOOOOOHHH, looke Meme, Monkies!”  He didn’t like the whale much…it just scared him when he swam by.  He was getting more relaxed as the day went.

Kaylie…she is one special young lady.  Such a good sister to Peyton.  He is lucky.  She would take his hand and explained the new and unusual critter he was viewing.  I loved watching those two interact. 

Then, they moved to play area.  So much to do, but the slide was Peyton’s favorite.  I remembered how to use my camera as a video and caught him coming down.  Watch how he walks …on tippy toes and sort of hops …running up the ramp to go down again!  His hair ended up, standing on end, from the static electricity from the plastic slide.  You couldn’t touch him without giving him a jolt!

The other day while we were just about to walk out the door to take my mother home, the phone rang.  Literally, we almost let it ring and kept walking.  I would have because I believe nothing ever good comes over the phone.  Mike, on the other hand, would leap into flames to answer a phone.  Good thing he does, as I don’t and never respond to an answering machine, either.  OK, I know this is an illness.    It isn’t getting better either.

Anyhow…these people wanted to come to Port Angeles to test drive.  They were from the Lake Sammamish area, so we said we would take the car to them.  Deal..we met them the next morning and they wanted the rig.  Immediately, it was over.  They had cash and we met at their bank.  They signed, we signed and we took the check and ran.

Now, we had never bought or sold a car outside of a car dealership.  Her are 4, relatively intelligent people, all sitting around the bank table trying to figure out who gets what and where do we all sign.  I kept seeing..”the seller has 5 days to report the sale”,  or we would be still liable if they ran over a flock of children in a crosswalk.”

Last night, I went online to check out the website for the State of Washington Licensing.  Yep, sure enough.  There it was…all we needed was three things…license number, vin. number and the buyers address and name.  I knew we were screwed..we had none of the three things.

My mind flew into over drive.  I thought…hey, the insurance company would have that information…oh, better yet, our insurance card!  Yep, sure enough, Mike found the card and there was the vin. number!  whoo hoo.  1 down.  Then the license.  I remember the letters were like XYK, but didn’t know the numbers.  Aha…let’s blow up the picture of the trailblazer sitting in our front yard.  We looked in the files on Mike’s computer and there she was.  We blew the shot up to 200% and clear as a bell…we could see 495.

We are cooking!  The buyer’s name…easy.  We bought from Hubler and sold to Kubler.  How simple to remember that.  We got the computer and looked up Kubler and got his address off of white pages. 

I punched in all the numbers and like a well greased wheel, in about 3 minutes, we were happily done.

I really need to go to CSI school and join the men and women of the Miami team.  I would consider New York, but too cold and I am not a New York kinda person.  I am not a Las Vegas person either…I wouldn’t have a paycheck.  Miami..at least it is warm.  After this winter, I am ready to be a snowbird and warm up.