Showing posts with label visit from Jer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visit from Jer. Show all posts

Monday, January 19, 2026

Visit

My youngest son and his fiancé came for a visit this weekend. I don't know if 'youngest' is really appropriate for someone in his mid 40's, but there you are.

They didn't bring the kids so it was a much more different experience than I've had before with them. I got to sit down and actually converse rather than have them dealing with all the kids.

I finally found out how they met, why they met, and how Jer's life has changed since they met. Jer is the kid that wore his heart on his sleeve. 

An Angelic child? Nope. Funny? Sometimes. A Pain? Yes. Hyper? Yes. 
Obnoxious? Sometimes. Big Heart? Mostly. Organized? Nope. Impulsive? OHHHH yes.

I could add more regarding my 'kid'. But I've settled on not trying to tell him on how I think HE should live his life. 

I'm the parent and I always want to see my sons do their absolute best.

Jer's relationship with Em seems to have pointed him in a different direction. He told me he was no longer going to be mad at the world. [Truly, I don't know what for.]

Sunday morning I took them to breakfast [they'd taken me to supper!]. Then I asked him if he'd like to visit Readstown's indoor Flea Markets. They were game.

Crazy Frank's has two stores in this small town. Two stores that are basically huge Garage Sales by Vendors. You can find baby shoes to antique glassware, toys, clothes, and absolute junk in both locations.

While we were in the first one, Jer said we should play a game next time he visits. The game would involve going into to these Crazy stores and purchasing an outfit from head to toe from the items we could find.

He put this hat on and modeled it for us. 



The crazy thing was, we walked around and found the most ridiculous clothes we could find. Future planning for the 'contest'. 

Jer had his eye on white and rainbow white jumpsuit. I started looking at some of the odd and crazy weird hats. Em picked up a pair of rubber cowboy boots that had daisies on them. We laughed and giggled as we went through all the booths and items.

I did find a 'monster toy' for a $1 along with a nice bud vase to add to my collection for $3, and a $1 old metal tractor.



We actually spent hours in both stores, enjoying wondering about who collected these things and how junky some stuff was and how nice other pieces were. I found a rocking chair that I fell in love with. Dangit! Sold!

The weather outside was rather horrid. The temps were below zero and the windchills pretty nasty. Plus it started snowing again while we were in the stores.

But we had a blast. 

The stores got seriously busy while we were there. It seems to be a place that anyone can go on a crappy day to browse through other folk's stuff on a subzero snowy day.

Thing is, my weekend would have been a bit lonely. I do get lonely once in a while so there is that.

So my weekend was full of laughter and chit chat catching up with one son who had been so distant for so long. [actually it was a mutual distance thing, I hadn't liked his attitude or what he was doing and he didn't care if I cared or not]


Saturday, February 18, 2023

Fun in ice


 My wayward son and his girlfriend came to visit on Friday. Of course Emily's little girl Amari was the highlight. I'm just a sucker for little ones...no matter what!

They call her Mari. And pronounce it Mar-eee. For whatever reason, Mari decided I was okay and made her intentions always clear with her hands with the universal 'kid' sign of UP! UP!

Come on, who cannot have their heart melted by a little one like this!


To be sure, she was also fascinated by my Skunk Hat. 


The trail was beaten down into pure ice and we all wore ice cleats except the little one. We took turns carrying her or steering her by her hood. It involved a lot of 2 year old gibberish and sometimes yelling by Mari. I told mom and son to let her holler all she wanted, we were in the 'wild' woods and it didn't bother me at all. 

After all, she has immense energy. Cold fresh air and a hike would be great for her after a 4 hour car ride.

To get into the ice caves/shelters is not easy on a good day. This day it was all ice from the recent rains. Mari has no fear at all. Here is a pre slide check. Emily is down the icy path ready for catching her daughter. Mari loved it.


Here Mari decides to run to me across the slippery ice.


Group shot. I set my little pocket camera on a mini tripod and set the delay for 30 seconds. I slid down the ice formation to the others and scrambled to get in the shot. My son was like: BE Careful Mom! And we all laughed when I slid past them to the dirt.


We ended out trek at Weister Creek's ice formations and headed back to the car.

My youngest, Mari, and I:

and Weister Creek:

I have to admit I had fun. It was a difficult hike with a little one and we did it. 

Next time I told them we'd take an easy trail that we could take a stroller on. Yeah...maybe!