104 Years Ago Today

 September 10th 1920 - My mother, Bessie Jane Boyle was born.  At her funeral her minister expressed it this way, 'She bounced into the world.'  He went on to say, "her years spanned such incredible eras in our nation's history, most that radically affected her culture here where she was born and reared and later where she came back home to live.  Somewhere along the way she resolved to live out her changing times with energy and optimism. Maybe it was born of her years as a navy wife, living in Boston or Brooklyn or Providence, Rhode Island or her time living in Sicily.  Or maybe it was something just born in her to engage her life actively one day at a time.  However she came to that way of living, it served her well throughout all her days.  Moreover, it stands as a model for our own way of doing whatever it is that gives us fulfillment in life."

I know she loved being a mother.  Moma and Daddy were married almost five years before I was born and they were thrilled to be parents.  She was 33 when I was born but it was 25 years later when I think she found her greatest joy. That's when Mary was born and she became a Grandma for the first time. 

Nothing gave her more fulfillment than these 4 children! 

Holding Mary for the 1st time

And here she is in 1980 holding newborn Matt.

And when we added Jonathan in 1984

Then in 1987 with all four of her darling grandchildren.

For her there was never a more true statement than

"Happiness is being a Grandparent"

Monica's Milanesa

 Our daughter-in-law, Monica, is a fabulous cook.  We discovered that soon after they moved to the US when she made delicious gnocchi, hand shaped pasta made from potatoes.  Now she has started her own small business making and selling Argentine food.  

Milanesa are well seasoned, breaded chicken cutlets.  They are pounded thin, lightly breaded and cooked quickly.  Monica bakes her own bread and makes a milanesa sandwich.  

For dessert she makes a very typical cookie called alfajores.  Here is a perfect description I found of them.  'Irresistible Argentinian Alfajores are a soft, sweet and crumbly shortbread sandwich cookie filled with dulce de leche', which is caramelized milk.  It tastes a bit like caramel.

So fun to see Monica using her cooking skills while John hones his small business talents to promote and expand their reach.

During the summer they have been successfully selling once a month at their apartment clubhouse.

I am proud of them.

 

Frozen - Broadway Comes to Boise

Months ago we bought tickets so that Isabella and I could go see 'Frozen' as a part of the 'Broadway Comes to Boise' series.  A couple of weeks ago, John told me that she didn't really want to go because she wasn't 'into' Frozen any more.  I reassured her that this was not like the Disney movie or like some of the plays we've seen produced by local children's theatre groups.  This was like something you would see on stage in New York or London.  That seemed to have convinced her to go. And it was 'simply magical'!

Monica and John got her a very fancy dress for the occasion.  I think she looked adorable.

I love that they gave a special welcome to those who were seeing their very first Broadway production.

The voices and choreography were outstanding!

 The set design was clever and so beautiful!

It even 'snowed' on the stage.

So many mesmerizing scenes.  Our favorite was the 'Let It Go' scene just before intermission.

My two favorite characters were Olaf, the magical snowman and Sven, the reindeer. The actor who brings Sven to life every night makes you forget that there is a person inside that costume - a very strong and very flexible person!  I still don't understand exactly how he does it.

Isabella had a great time and now thinks she would like to go and see 'Wicked' in the spring.

Another memory making 'Grandma and Isabella date'.

Notice how tall she is.  It seems possible that she will pass Grandma before she turns 10 in 2025.

The play was the Saturday after the 1st week of school so on the way to the theatre, I asked Isabella to rate her first week of school on a scale of 1-10.  Without hesitation she replied, "A 10".  After the play when I asked her the same question about Frozen her comment was, "7".  I don't think that is because the play wasn't wonderful. Just an honest assessment that she LOVES school!

Way to go Mrs. Bergman!

A 3rd Grader and a Kindergartener

Yes I know that it is cliché but oh so true!  

Time flies!

Seems like such a short time ago that our Isabella was born and now she is a 3rd grader.  These photos show her fun, sweet personality so well.

I remember when I got the call from Mary that Jackson was joining our family.  Now that adorable boy is a kindergartener.  And yes, these photos clearly show his spunky side!

And the poses illustrate the differences between boys and girls. 

My photo albums are filled with photos of Mary posing with a big smile and her brothers making silly faces.  It must be genetic!

School Shopping With Isabella

 Continuing the tradition, Isabella and I went clothes shopping at the mall again this year.  She is growing up and turning into a 'pre-teen', at least that is what she tells me!  Lots of things are 'boring' now which makes me kind of sad but I also know that it is normal.

Truthfully she reminded me a bit of shopping with Mary when she was this age and into her teenaged years.  Pulling out an outfit that I liked was the 'kiss of death' no matter how cute I thought it was!  Isabella decided that she would punch things that she didn't like.  With Mary it was more of an eye roll.

She loved the snacks we had at Wetzels Pretzels.  Our mall has 3 locations and there was a line at each of them.  Unfortunately they were out of our favorite 'pizza bitz' but the pepperoni pretzel is basically the same thing.  Must have been good since we ate the whole thing!

We topped it off with Strawberry Funnel Cake Bitz.  Delicious, especially for our strawberry loving girl. She also enjoyed the 'frozen strawberry lemonade' - just like in the photo!

Our shopping was as successful as our snacking!

I love all the fun clothes we found.

I think that Isabella and Monica did too.

The black sweatshirt was something that I liked and amazingly she did too.  The flowers reminded me of the stylized flowers that were popular during my teenage years. I had similar flowers on my bed spread.

However I won the 'Best Grandma Ever' award for one purchase.

A Taylor Swift shirt for our little Swiftie'.

Isabella starts 3rd grade on Wednesday.

If I were to guess, I'd say she will be wearing this Taylor shirt!

Two Champions

For soccer loving people like us these last weeks have been spent enjoying game after game after game.  The European Football Championship, commonly called the Euros AND the Copa America happened during the same weeks.  National teams from Europe compete in the Euros and teams from South American countries (with a couple of guest teams, like the US, Canada, and Mexico) compete in the Copa.

With multiple games every day it has been a soccer lovers dream. Games from Europe in the morning and then in the evenings from the US.  I printed out brackets to keep track of all the results and dutifully filled them in each day.

No surprises who are two favorites were. 

Spain in Europe

Argentina in the Copa America.

Both teams won all their games leading up to the final so both were favorites.

There were some thrilling games.

Including a shoot out that had me pacing the floor.

Thanks to the heroics of Emil Martinez, Argentina won that one, even after Leo Messi missed his shot!

This was likely Messi's last international tournament as he has reached the ripe old age of 37 - normal retirement age for a professional soccer player.

He didn't have the best tournament but is always a threat on the field.

Then in the championship game he was injured and subbed off.

Broke my heart to see him crying.

But his teammate Lautaro Martinez scored and that was enough to see the team lift the cup for the 16th time and the 2nd time in a row.

As team captain, Messi could have lifted the cup on his own.  Showing his true class and team spirit, he invited the other two 'old guys', his age mates Otamendi and Di Maria, to lift it with him.

Messi will forever be one of my all time favorite players.

On the field he has been mesmerizing and off the field, from all I can read and observe, he is a genuinely nice guy and a great father and husband.

Monica was thrilled to see her country lift another international trophy.

John and Isabella are big fans as well. Lots of happy smiles at their house!

Meanwhile in Europe, Spain kept racking up the victories.

Eventually defeating England in the final.

This year the Spain team had some fantastic young talent.  #17 is Nico Williams (age 23) and the young man on his back is Yamine Yamal, who turned 17 the day BEFORE the final.  And is a 1st team starter for our beloved FC Barcelona. 

I love that he still has braces!

He was named Young Player of the Tournament, was the youngest player to register goal involvement in a major tournament final and his goal against France in the semi-final was voted the Best Goal of the tournament. 

It was a stunner!

Nico and Yamal are good friends.

We would LOVE to see Nico join his buddy as a Barcelona player!

Fingers crossed.  

¡Viva España!

George's contribution was to wear the appropriate shirt while he watched each game. 

Spain in the morning

Argentina in the evening

Worked like a magic charm!

Two games! 

Two shirts!

Two victories!

Working Woman

I really did enjoy working for the US Census in 2020.  I love talking to people so the part time job as a census worker was a natural fit for me.  When I got an email saying that the Census Bureau was looking for part time workers, I decided to apply and I got the job.  

What does a Census worker do in the years between the decennial census? Well, collect information on employment and unemployment, health, crime, education, consumer spending and much more.    The particular survey I will be working on is called the Current Population Survey. Each month, during the week of the 19th, I will be asking carefully selected households about their employment, hours of work, earnings and other demographic and labor force characteristics.  The "unemployment" report that you hear about in the news at the first of each month comes from the survey I will be involved with.

Before I could start work,  I spent a week in training in Burbank.  First time I have even flown into Bob Hope Airport.  Much nicer to fly into this small regional airport than into LAX!

The foothills around Burbank actually look a lot like our foothills.

Except for the palm trees!  

All week the Californians apologized for the hot weather, noting how hard it must be on Idahoans.  We had to tell them that it was 10 degrees hotter in Boise right now.  There is a heat wave with 'dangerous' temperatures every day.

I spent the next 4 days, 8 hours a day in class learning all I would need to know to use the laptop to record and transmit responses; encourage participation and work with my team.  

I was glad to find out that my 'old brain' can learn new tricks!

The government rents office space from one of Netflix's beautiful buildings.

It was their 'animated division'.

The whole week wasn't work and studying as I did get to watch some soccer games in the hotel lobby bar, including an Argentina game.  Fun!

I got back on Saturday and the 'survey' week started on Sunday.  

You receive 'cases' on your laptop that you are supposed to interview during the week.

Some challenging cases, some easy and cooperative.

Truthfully, I still believe that the number of 'nice' people far outweighs the number of 'not so nice' people.

I come home exhausted every evening.  The 100+ temps don't help.

I am really glad that I'll only be working about 9 days a month.

And I have a new appreciation for full time working moms.

How do they do it?