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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

All of Jim's Kids (my grandkids)

I don't know what possessed Jim's older boy (another Jim). That is not his natural color, believe me. My Tim dyed his black when he wasn't much older than Jim is now and I did the same thing when I was 19 (huge mistake). We seem to want to be something we're not. I almost went bald trying to strip the dye out. Ended up the first time with a shade of red you'd never see in nature. Second time a beautiful but totally unnatural platinum. At least hair grows.

My natural color isn't much different than what it is now. I went from very blond to white without even noticing until someone else said something. It never was gray.

Back row, left to right:

Jim 15, Samantha 17, and Michael 14 (6 months older than Elcie) and one year ahead of her in school. Sam was born nine days after Ray and I married.

Front row: Jonathan of course.

I've never posted pictures of the older kids. Their parents are divorced, Jim's remarried. I wasn't sure how their mom would feel about it.

Jim says he has their pictures on MySpace and the kids each have their own. If they're there, it shouldn't be a problem having them here.

I don't see nearly as much of them as I'd like. High school kids have such busy lives. We've decided Jonathan must have been focused on dirtying his diaper. Look at that concentration.

Elcie's appointment went well. The surgeon agrees with the pediatrician. It's a harmless cyst and eventually it will disappear on its own. If it seems to grow or if the pain becomes worse, he'll remove it. He's one of these surgeons who believes "less is more" and doesn't cut any more that necessary. The leg he performed the surgery on at the end of 6th grade is doing well and nothing more is needed, at least for now. The other leg is doing fine. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, she has an internal brace in her right knee to prevent the bone from growing in the wrong direction (which it had begun doing). He lengthened the tendon once again at the same time but wanted to wait before doing anything with the other leg.

It's a relief. He said 90% of those childhood cysts are harmless but I was right (and so was the pediatrician) to get the second opinion. He's the expert in orthopedics and cerebral palsy.

Conferences with teachers today. I already have their report cards. Rebecca is doing better than I dreamed she would; Rochelle okay but I want to talk to her teacher about her attitude in class. Her conduct grades are fine but I worry about her lack of enthusiasm this year. She's always been the one who loved school the most. Probably just puberty but I don't want to miss any danger signals.

This is short but just received the pictures late last night. I'm heading out in a few minutes for coffee with my friend and then over to the school.

Thanks to all for the comments. Hope you like the introduction to some more of my local family. They're good kids and I think Samantha is one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. Not that I'm biased, you understand.

Take care everyone.

30 comments:

the stefanie formerly known as stefanierj said...

What beauties, Ann. You sure know how to grow 'em up there!

Kendra Lynn said...

You have beautiful grandchildren. :)
They all shine in their own way, don't they?

Have a great day.

Kendra

Anonymous said...

What a good looking group of kids!

Glad the Dr. visit went well. Hopefully the parent-teacher conferences go just as well. I have my very first ever parent-teacher conference on Thursday. I'm nervous!

Atasha said...

Oh the hair coloring. Is that what I have to look forward too? Hehehe..harmless though, right?
You're one busy woman Ann. Your family is beautiful. I'm glad the cysts is harmless. Take Care on your busy day! I have it in for me my babies are sick and so am I! It was a rough night

The Mama said...

What beautiful kids, you have such a nice looking family!!

Glad the doctors appointment proved you have nothing to worry about, that's a nice relief.

Hope the conferences go well!

Alice

Ms. Lori said...

Oh, Ann, they're all gorgeous!

I love that story about you guys dyeing your hair black -- I did the same thing in my early twenties. BIG MISTAKE! I looked like a zombie.

I think many of us natural blondes secretly wish to be an exotic, raven-haired vixen, yeah?

Unfortunately, few of us can pull it off without appearing (un)dead. ;-)

Nancy said...

I love the picture. I love the hair color. Sometimes we just have to try things to learn that it wasn't what we thought it was. Another life lesson.
Blessings,
Nancy

mreddie said...

At least Jim's Jim still has hair to dye. :) Glad Elcie's doc visit was what was expected and the other girl's school reports were good. ec

Ava said...

Hey!

I'm back on line!!!

Ava

Rowan Dawn said...

adorable kids! i am happy the cists is not a problem. one less thing to worry about.

Peter said...

You're a whiz Ann, if only more "natural parents" took as much interest in their kids half the troubles would go away as far as child rearing is concerned.

Anonymous said...

Nice looking Family. I think we have all done the hair color thing, atleast once.

Carole Burant said...

I'm slowly making my way through the blogs and catching up on all the posts I missed while I was away...I think I'll be up until 2 a.m.! lol What a wonderful picture of the grandkids...Jonathan is so adorable!! Glad to hear that the second opinion on the cyst Elcie has was the same as the first...hopefully he won't have to remove it! Kids these days seem to dye their hair every which colour...one girl I saw the other day had bright purple hair with orange streaks...at first I thought it was a wig but it wasn't!!

Unknown said...

you know i dyed my hair at that age too. raven black. i really liked it like that though. I did eventually strip it off, 4 years later. It looked like barbacued chicken. The same shade of red as the barbacue sauce on barbacued chicken but streaked with black and white.

The Cluck Wagon said...

Beautiful kids! I have never gone so far as to dye my hair black - just varying shades from blonde to light brown. I'm so boring.

Rowan said...

Granny, I had a cyst in my hand when I was young (around 12/13 or so) and it had to be removed simply because of where it was located was causing A LOT of pain. Had it not been hurting me so much and affecting my performance in band, the doctor would have let it disappear on its own. :)

Kids, I find, do strange things to their hair. Usually in that period where they aren't sure who they are and are trying to find out. Shoot, I dyed my hair pitch black with a blue sheen when I was 12-14. I looked like a ghost. Since then, I've been dying it red and it has always suited me. Some people even think this is my natural colour because I've had it so long. :D

If anything, orangey-blond is better than puke green. :D

Gina said...

Beautiful kids! You should absolutely be proud of your family!

Glad the cyst is just that and will hopefully go down on its own.

oshee said...

They are beautiful kids. It is good to hear things are going well currently, especially in school.

Anonymous said...

those are some beautiful kids you can be very proud of!

Andie D. said...

I don't know them, but I feel like I know them now through your post and I have to tell you....

I LOVE this picture. This picture is frame worthy! It shows the bonds that brothers and sisters have. They're all different, yet the same.

Love it.

Janice Seagraves said...

Hi Ann,

You've got great looking grand kids there, but you knew that all ready.

Janice~

Merle said...

Hi Ann ~ Great looking kids, nice to see them. I am so glad Elcie's cyst is harmless and should disappear itself.
I hope your school visit turned out well
Rochelle may get back to being interested in schoole, but it is probably her age. Take care my friend
Love, Merle.

Madcap said...

They're lovely kids, Ann. I'm glad the cyst isn't going to make a huge nuisance of itself.

Turtle Guy said...

I have a friend who dyes her hair. I much preferred "au naturalle" (sp? I'm an English guy, not a French guy... can you tell??)

So... why do people change these asthetic things to "enhance" themselves? (hair colour, tanning, so forth) What about the stuff inside?

Turtle Guy said...

Oh my, spelling is out the window today!

Carmen San Diego said...

What a good lookin bunch.

JBlue said...

Adorable picture.

RE: Rochelle and Rebecca. What is it with kids that you get one squared away and another one starts to worry you?

Susie said...

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to comment on this post, and blogger has been beyond beasty. Tonight it seems to be playing nice! Your grandkids are just so cute, (and handsome.) No wonder you're so proud!

Anonymous said...

I hope rochelle is doin ok.. but i gotta say it is so awesome of you to take the time to notice and go and take care of it if you can... your one awesome lady!!!

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

You have a very nice looking grandkids and isn't that how it is...we always want to have different hair or eyes. I always wanted to be a blonde and now it's finally happening...sort of...if you count grey.