The 3 Bs: Bingo, Birthday, and the Beach!

Two weeks ago I went with my grandma to the VFW for a night of BINGO. I had never done this with my grandma before, so I thought, what the heck - my grandma is a great person to hang out with (such an active almost 80 year old!). Just to give you some background to this - my grandma is a BINGO fanatic. We have been playing the game for as long as I can remember at Christmas time. It takes us over 2 hours to play, as there are just a ton of gifts (garbage bags upon garbage bags full). You never know what you're going to win (you touch it you take it!), but it could be anything from a sweatshirt to a pot, bath towels to aluminum foil. The possibilities are endless! My grandma starts shopping for items on clearance the day after Christmas (for the following year!) and generally will not pay more than $3 or $4 for any item. What always strikes me as funny is the fact that there are certain individuals at our party (I won't name names!) who complain about having to play - yet, they don't like it if they don't win. Seems a bit ironic to me!! Anyway...Monday nights at the VFW post in downtown Holland are smoke-free and I didn't have anything else going on, so - game on! The first thing that struck me was the fact that I had to be at my grandma's house at 4:30. BINGO didn't start until 6:00, but I guess the "good seats" are a hot commodity at the BINGO hall, so we had to stop by Wendy's to get our dinner and get to the VFW early to reserve some seats. I really wasn't quite sure what to expect upon arrival. I had conjured up some thoughts in my mind prior to going and what I saw was pretty true to form of what I expected. It was a group of mostly older people - one oxygen tank, a few missing teeth. I think I may have seen one or two mullets. I had to laugh, because everyone seemed to know each other by name and as we sat and ate dinner, my grandma gave me the low down on everyone around - "that lady tries to pick fights with other people," "that guy is retiring from the post office," "the woman over there has no money but pawns it off her kids." It was rather comical. The place still reeked of smoke, even though Monday nights were smoke-free, since every other night of the week gamers can smoke and on Monday nights they're still allowed to smoke in the bar area and outside (where the doors were propped open). Yuck. A few minutes before 6:00, the place was almost full (it could have been because the jackpot tonight was huge - $4300 so all the locals had to come out to test their luck). I am glad that a few months back when we vacationed in Las Vegas I played BINGO at the casino or I would have been lost! This BINGO is not for the weak of heart! It's intense! Not your typical horizontal, vertical, and diagonal BINGOS. We're talking things like diamonds, cover-alls, capital Ts, something called 'little joe," and much more. If you want to almost guarantee that you will never succumb to Alzheimer's, this is the place for you. You play about 15 cards at once (and more if you want) and the caller waits for no one! Your brain operates at full speed. I hate to admit it, but there were a few occasions where my grandma would finish checking the number called on her cards (which by the way, she had more than I did!) and then spot a number that I forgot to mark on my own card! Sheesh!! It took about 3 hours, and although I didn't win a game (my grandma did but had to split the pot with about 7 other people - and then, true to grandma form - gave me her winnings), it was a lot of fun (and someone did actually win the jackpot! - although, the lady about had a throw down with the caller over whether or not it was legitimate). Grandma - love ya lots!

We celebrated Grant's 2nd birthday this past Sunday at my parent's house. It was supposed to be out at the state park where they are camping for two weeks, but with the volatile weather, we really didn't care to have a bunch of people at the beach sitting in the rain. Grant sang happy birthday to himself all day long and when asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, the regular response would be "eat birthday cake!." You'll notice in the pictures that Grant isn't always fully clothed. Unfortunately, while we were eating dinner he had a major blowout. You just have to chuckle at the whole thing. Grant was sitting on a booster seat in a folding chair on the end of the table. As we were eating, he told me "I go poop mommy." He normally does a pretty good job of telling me after he's done his duty, so I figured he indeed did fill his pants, and I'd change his diaper after dinner. Well.....about a minute or two after his report to me, my cousin Lindsay (who was sitting at the table behind us) said "Kim,...Kim...KIM!" pointing to my son. I looked over and (I hope you're not eating as you're reading this!) poop was just bubbling up out of his diaper, over the top of the chair, down the back and onto the floor. It was honestly just like a volcanic eruption, and it just kept coming! My first reaction was to try to block the downpour with my dinner napkin, but that didn't get me very far. My aunt started chucking wet wipes from my cousin's daughter's diaper bag. My sister ran the other way. She claims it was to help, as she came back with a bucket of water and vinegar, however, I think it was also to help herself escape the situation (just messing with you Kathi!). I looked over to my dad to make sure he wasn't paying too much attention to the situation, as he would surely gag. He has NEVER changed a dirty diaper in his entire life and never plans to. We tried to wipe up what we could as it kept spewing out of Mount Grant. Once things settled down a bit, we weren't exactly sure how best to clean the G-man up in the basement on carpet, so Eric carried him upstairs (still sitting in the folding chair and booster seat) and into the bathroom where it didn't matter if number 2 got all over the linoleum floor. After scrubbing to get the stain out of the carpet (baby wipes work wonders, by the way!), I ventured upstairs to visit my mom and mother in law in the bathroom. My mother-in-law was elbow deep in the toilet rinsing a towel used to clean Grant and my mom had a can of disinfectant in her hands spraying down the booster seat and chair. Hilarious! So, his clothes needed to be immediately thrown in the washing machine and Grant was left opening presents and eating cake in his skivvies (which is what he loves anyway!). He got a ton of great presents and we had a great time. Thank you everyone!


As I mentioned earlier, my parents are camping out at the state park. I love the beach (so does Grant, but we're still working on Eric!), and thus, eat up the opportunity to go and visit when my parents are out there (some might call it mooching!). Grant played so well in the sand and along the lake by himself and also with his buddies Reese and Ava (and Jack and Colton if you can count 2 month olds!). It was very relaxing and the weather was absolutely beautiful! We were also so very excited to have my sister Kathi and her husband Chad home from Pennsylvania for the weekend. They had the chance to spend some time out at the lake Sunday and Monday, so it was great to catch up with them. Grant loved it, too. They took him swimming, read books to him, played in the sand, built him a fort, etc. Thanks for spending time with us Chad and Kathi! We look forward to seeing you again in about a month!

Grant in his beach get-up and brand new backpack chair!
My sister Kathi, Grant, and Reese (and Reese's mommy Marcy in the background)
My parents, Eric, and Grant down by the channel throwing rocks in. Grant loved doing this, but it made me so nervous, as he would want to stand by the railing!