It opened last Sunday with the arrival of a grandson. Gran (Heather) and I will be running this fun-filled camp for the month of July. The rest of the campers arrive this week.
We started this camp when the kid’s parents moved to the other coast and regular short visits became problematic. Instead of short, day visits, we have the kids come out for a month in the summer, giving us 11 months to recover.
It’s a time to reconnect and build memories. It’s our hope that their time with us will create wonderful memories for them. Or, at least in their young adulthood give them something interesting to talk about in therapy, other than their parents.
The normal things will happen, meals, TV, books, games, trips to the park, art projects, woodwork projects, washing clothes, injuries, laughing, snide remarks about my taste in music, questions about why does my hair look that way in the mornings, and if they’re lucky I might total a car. Seriously, my two older grand children experienced their first automobile crash in the backseat of my car. I even got them a ride in a police car after that, but that’s a story for another day. Ah, fond memories.
So far this week we only have one grandson at camp and at 13 he’s mostly interested in food, football, buying football t-shirts, football cards, the football game Madden, going to the park to throw a football, talking about football and recently he’s developed an interest in football shoes. Personally I am sensing a theme.
One highlight of camp this week was the newly opened Levi’s Football Stadium offers daily tours, so we arranged for a field trip which was thoroughly enjoyed. He was allowed to visit the gift shop after the tour where Gran bought him — wait for it — two footballs. I am a little worried about the cost of the football as so far he’s almost hit a lamp in the house and his uncle was limping badly as we walked back from the park after a little game of catch. Still, we are saving some money, as it turns out that a $5.00 pack of football cards will entertain him for hours – way cheaper than movies or theme parks. Just wish we would have discovered that fact before the movie and theme park.
The next highlight of the week has been the cats. He was here at the house last year when they appeared and he’s been delighting in trying to get them to eat out of his hand. Come on, who can’t resist a cute cat? And he’s now determined to make them his friends.
There was one bad incident with the cats, well with one of the cats and a skylight.
I assure you no cats were harmed during the following events. Second, cats and skylights don’t mix. It goes like this: On Wednesday Socks kitty found out how to climb onto the roof. He also discovered that the skylight over the atrium is partly open to let in fresh air. Sock’s next discovery was that the screen in the skylight won’t hold the weight of a cat. I dare say that Socks was likely as surprised to find himself on the atrium floor, as I was, to find the skylight screen leaning next to the front door when I came home from work.
Now I would have thought that was enough fun for one week, but Thursday Heather discovered a “physical comedy” routine that ‘football boy’ found very entertaining. I was at work when it happened and found out about it by text message.
Around mid day I get this message, “You know what happened to the screen yesterday, well today is worse. From, B.”
My first thought was, “what can be worse than a cat falling through a skylight?”
My second thought was, “whatever it is, I hope it’s covered by my homeowner’s policy.”
My third thought was, “Why is the teenager texting from Gran’s phone?”
As I was preparing to drive like a maniac home, I received this picture of our brand new sliding screen door in the cat room.
Our brand new screen door. Good thing my many skills include screen door repair.
Yes, it’s been forcibly removed from the frame. At first I thought, it was the cats jumping at the screen, but after further text exchanges with the youthful football player I realized that it was Gran who had walked full speed into a closed screen door, knocked the screen out, and in the process knocked the lenses out of her glasses.
Even now days later, the mere mention of screens can bring on fits of laughter.
Friday we enlisted the services of Uncle K to help entertain, and allow us time to have some recovery from this week’s fun. Saturday I dropped them off to see a movie and went back to repair the screens. Yes, I know how to fix window screens. No, I won’t fix yours.
I have skipped over some of the fun we’ve had to keep this post short. Someday I’ll tell you about the bacon chocolate chip cookie incident and why our children are obsessed with checking expiration dates on our food.
We have two more grandkids arriving along with their two adults and all expecting a fun-filled time. Personally, I am hoping for a boring week, but just in case I am going to stop by the drug store and stock up on first aid supplies.
Well, Uncle and grandson just took a ladder out and are heading up to the roof to trim that vine I can’t reach anymore. Yeah, better bring up Google maps and refresh my memory on the fastest route to the emergency room.
Till next week,
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 
Hi Andrew Great Idea. Thank you for liking my poem Apartment! Peace and Best Wishes. The Foureyed Poet.
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That was a very entertaining read. Never a dull moment!!
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One or two dull moments would be okay by me…
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😀
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What a wonderful time you’ll all have, and I am confident the memories are for keeps! I have a very spotty memory when it comes to much of my childhood, but I have warm, very vivid and loving memories of time spent with grandparents. I hope it is every bit as wonderful as I imagine it to be.
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My grand parents had passed away by the time I was 12 so I only had a limited time with them, but I too remember it as been a warm loving time. We hope to create some good memories with some fun and some learning.
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Never a dull moment at your house this summer! Congratulations on the birth of your new grandson. ‘Sounds as if you’ll be having many more busy summers filled with grandkids.
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Yup, never a dull moment, but there are times that just a little bit of dull would be nice…
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I know all about screen doors, our tales of screen door woes unfortunately were at a vacation resort, after the third time, they were a little less than patient, but that’s what you get when you have a distracted mother-in-law and two excited children. 😀 I hope that your wife’s glasses cost less to replace than the skylight screen and the screen door, glasses can be the most expensive thing involved in whole incident. Have a great week at Camp Gran!
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Turns out they were able to just put the lenses back in, so that didn’t cost us anything. And Heather isn’t the only one who’s rammed into my screen – years ago I had a friend who walked into a similar screen door of my twice on the same night.
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😀
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I’d love to come to this camp!
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Me too, I’d love to be a kid in my camp. 😉
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I see a book in your future–How to Run Camp Gran. Do keep all the funny events in. Then, your readers will knows theirs can’t get more event-filled.
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🙂 well, it’s a possibility, there just might be a humor book in this.
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Dare I say your entire family seems to be a bit accident-prone? 😉 This was quite entertaining Andrew. Enjoy your time with family.
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Well, I do keep a well stocked first-aid kit and am constantly thinking, where is the hospital? 😉 We’re having a great time this week.
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I am beginning to have those same conversations myself as hubby seems to be taking a few more falls these days. 😉
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My wife is starting to a similar reaction. When I tell her I am going in the workshop she often says, “Thanks for reminding me, need to put band-aids on the shopping list.”
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Terry just can’t help cutting himself and his head seems to be a prime target.
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Yes, a very nice post. Thanks for sharing it
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Thanks – just one of those things that you can’t not share.
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…how delightful. they are going to remember these times like no other–and talk about them over many meals over many many years.
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It’s a fun time for all and I am sure we’ll be hearing about it for years and years.
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Super post Andrew. Enjoyed every line. Have fun☺
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Thanks. There is way too much fun happening here. 😉
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With having continuous visitation rights for much shorter periods I’m obviously missing out on a lot Andrew. I wonder if my daughter will let me see the grandson for a month in the summer then relax the rest of the year? This was a great post full of humour and such fun to read. Thanks
Hugs
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There are times I wonder which is better, short visits or the long monthly one, but we enjoy what time we’re given.
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An awesome post Andrew! Not nearly enough laughter around the house today—-you just made up for that. I’m anxious for your story to continue.
Ron
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Glad you enjoyed it. I am kind of hoping this next week won’t be as exciting…
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Humorous entry. Thank you
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You’re welcome, we’ve been having too much fun this week.
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Lovely post! I enjoyed it!
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Thanks, we’ve been having fun here.
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So am I from
this post of yours!!!
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