I'm a new Nana!

Yesterday, at 1:23 Pm CST James Alexander Ramirez was born.He is 7lbs 5 ozs and 21 inches long, has a full head of dark wavy hair an oval face and his Mommy's nose!
He is his Nana's first grandson and his parents firstborn.

I received a call from Mandy at about 1AM CA time that her water had broke and she was bleeding and was on the way to the hospital.
I was excited for her but scared at the same time.
There is something about it being your child having a child that makes it a surreal experience.

I didn't hear anything else so at about 9AM my time I called onformation and got the # of the hospital.They connected me to her room but no one answered.I didn't know what that meant.I didn't know if it meant she was in the proces of delivering or if there was some complication and they had moved her.
I called back and talked to the nurses station.They can't give out any information but the nurse took a message."Tell her I love her and I know there is a gigggle in there trying to get out"She'll know what that means.
I used to say that to her when she was little and she'd be upset.It was my way of saying I'm with you in spirit.
I felt totally helpless and in a way left out.

She had told me when I talked to her that her Dad was going to the hospital and her Uncle and Aunt who had driven in from Georgia the day before. Sarah, PJ's fiancee was going to meet her and I didn't know who from Alfred's family.PJ had wanted to come home but there are some things happening on ship and he wasn't abnle to leave ship.

I was grateful she wouldn't be alone but sorely missed me not being there.
It was almost an hour later Sarah called and said she had been given the epidureal.From experience I knew it wouldn't be much longer maybe a couple hours.
Sarah said Mandy had asked her to be present in the room along with Alfred and she would call me as soon as she knew something.

Four hours passed and now I was really concerned.Mandy is very petite and I was concerned maybe she had to have a C-section.
I called the hospital again; just wanted confirmation if we had a baby or not.They can't even tell you that much(which I think is ridiculous) and the nurse agrred.
I waited about another half hour and couldn't stand it so i called Sarah's cell phone.it rang 3 times and a whispered, hurried voice-"Mom, she's in the middle of pushing, call you back".So, at least I now knew something and that was so much better than not knowing anything.

It was still another hour until I got the call from Sarah that I was a new Grandma and baby and Monm were fine.She said Mandy did great, was a trooper and she (Sarah) was so grateful to have witnessed his birth.She said it way better than swimming with the dolphins!Awesome!

So, we got our very own special Valentine's present!

It was a long and stressful day. Not only was i worrying about Mandy but we were trying to work out logistics with our buyer on a moving date.he is inflexible.We had asked for a one day extension because Bob's buddies would have to take off work to help us move if we move the day of close of escrow.
Bob was calling around to each one to figure out how we could work this.
Finally, we just figured we are going to have to make this work somehow regardless.

We are in a little bit of a bind because we have to be out the day of closing escrow here but our seller for the new house needs 45 days from the close of escrow on that house because they are movuing into an assisted living place and it won't be ready until then.

Originally, we were going to stay with his cousin in Oroville but she had a fire and her place is in the middle of renovations.She has a 5th wheel camper on her property but that isn't so appealing to us to be in there for a month or longer.
You can't use the stove or bathroom because they aren't hooked up so we would have to truck up to the house to use those facilities.
So I had to start calling around to find motels that would be accomodating for a long term stay.

That won't be cheap but it is what we will do.We are at the point we just don't want to have to worry about all this anymore.
We will put our stuff in a storage room up there and at least one good thing is we will be in town and can get around easily to the furniture store and other places we need to get things ready for the new place.We will explore Oroville and that won't be a bad thing.
Now, I need to mention that getting around Oroville is not like getting around the Bay area; getting around Oroville may take 15-20 minutes depending instead of an hour or more around here!
When we were there last week we think we may have been stuck in morning rush hour traffic because we had to wait about 2 minutes to cross over to get in the parking lot of the restaurant we went to for breakfast.We are thinking that may have been their morning rush hour!

We came back from the community we are moving to the night before around 5ish heading to the motel and there was a line of cars going up the hill in the opposite direction; we think that may have been evening rush hour, we aren't sure!

I am expecting a call from keisha today.She needs to interview someone from a different generation.Since I'm "old" I qualify!!!
I t was reminding me when I lived with them. I will never forget the day you could see the lightbulb go off in her head that I was her dad's Mom.
Up to that point her Dad was the most authortative powerful person she knew.And then, I had more authority and power than her Dad because I could tell him what to do and he had to listen to me because I was HIS Mom.

She would come to me with,"YOUR son did this" and the gleam in her eyes that her Dad could actually get in trouble was pricelessIt wasn't Nana my dad did this but, Nana , YOUR son did it.
It was really cute how she would lobby me for her side.And the spin she could put on something to make it to her advantage.
It was one of those "aha"' grandparent moments. Nana, the negotiater! Jimmy Carter had nothing on me with the peace talks let me tell ya!

I have so enjoyed grandparenting Keisha. She just makes my day every day.
I hope I have the same opportunities with James.

In that spirit I called Steph to tell her about james birth hoping upon hope we could reconcile whatever the differences she has with me, which I still don't understand. Its been New Years day 2004 since she last communicated with me in a scathing e-mail sent to me and Dan.
Neither Dan or I understood it and we still don't except there is a lot of venom in her attitude.
We both have reached out to her many times; we miss her presence in our lives as well as Hanna.
I've missed so much of Hanna's life and its a huge regret.Those years can never be made up.

Steph answered the phone and couldn't have been more cold to me.She curtly informed me Sarah had called earlier and told her about Mandy-goodbye.

So a happy day had stabbing sadness; the moment was so poignant to me.Life is so short and whatever her problem is with me could be so easily resolved if she would communicate.
She has her right to her feelings whatever they are but they should be based in fact and truth.
And I am really sad that Hanna is the one who is really missing out.

Yesteerday, I went the full circle of grandparenthood. From expectation, happiness and celebration; remembering the special moments with the grandchild who is allowed to include me to the sadness for the one who isn't.

Just another day in my life that seems to be ordinary with its unordinary events.

been busy!

I have neglected my blog recently because I have been tied up on other projects.

Bob decided to put the house up for sale after he retired right after the holidays.

Now, it wasn't as simple to just call a realtor and put a sign in the yard.
As I've mentioned in the past this house was lived in by a hoarder who kept everything for the last 20 years he lived here.
Although he had slowly been disposing things in the time I had been here and was making some strides, he had a long way to go to make this house "sellable".

We had to go through and collect all the paper that had accumulated in all the places he had them stuffed.Filing some, just throwing out some and collecting together what needed to be shredded.We aaalready had burned up one shredder so we found a service you can take boxes of papers to and they shred it for a fee.For $45.00 we got all of it done at once and they dispose of it if you want or you can wait and carry it home and dispose of it yourself.Since the last thing we needed was more of something to dispose of we chose the former option.

Next we had another dumpster delivered and this time he was ruthless in his disposal of all these possesions.I actually was quite proud of hime.

We then rented a storage shed to take all the boxes as they were packed to get them out of the house.
The old Mazda truck(that he had used as a makeshift stortage shed) was pushed out on the driveway so the garage was cleared out. He is waiting on his pink slip because somewhere in all this mess it was lost.(Imagine that!)

I purchased a new, inexpensive vacuum with the dust cup (since the old one quit) and set about cleaning this place the best I could.What a job that was but it was really rewarding as well.

This house now looks like normal people live here! I had almost forgotten how it should be.

The house went on MLS on a Wednesday and the realtor started receiving calls with a couple of hours.Thursaday he had 2 appoinments and 2 more were set up while he was here.
At the end of the day we had 3 offers! Still no picture with the MLS listing, still no sign in the front yard!
We had an open house last Sunday and received 4 more offers.

We accepted one from a firm that flips houses as it was a full cash offer with no contingiencies except that we be out by the end of the month.
I felt bad in a way for the young families who were interested in the house.Even in its condition it would have been a good, solid starter home and this is a great family neighborhood.But, we didn't want to wait until they could secure financing.

So, off we go this wek to Oroville to select our new home and prepare to move.
We will be getting a new home most likely and all new furnishings to go with our new life together.

What an adventure its been!

And to add to this new journey I am expecting my first grandboy anyday now back in TX!
Our family is excited about his arrival and if he gives me half the joy Keisha has I will be one blessed Nana!
And, keisha is growing up so fast.She started learning cursive writing this past week.Doesn't that make her like an upperclassmen or something?!
Who told her she could grow up? I know I didn't.

Time moves on...