This time last year we hit the 1000 game mark in our ongoing Scrabble contest. It is doubtful that we will ever reach the 2000 game mark, but we still enjoy playing.
This New Year’s Eve found my husband and I tied for number of games won for the year.
Sadly, I must report that he won the game yesterday – so he is the reigning champ for 2021.
But this year is going to be mine!
Happy New Year to my readers!
Those of you who follow my blog know by now that my husband and I are Scrabble addictions.
We have kept a record of our scores since 2008. Equally matched in skill, we usually remain only one or two games ahead of the other one.
Recently, however I seemed to be on a winning streak. As I was leading with four games ahead of my husband, he began to get nervous. If I got too big a lead it would be hard to catch up with me.
So when we sat down to play this week, he informed me he was out for revenge.
Boy did he get it!
For those of you who are not Scabble fans, you get seven letter tiles to make your words. If you can use all seven of the tiles in one word you get not only the actual points of the word you made, but an extra 50 bonus points.
He began the game by using all seven tiles and starting off with 50 bonus points. No big deal I thought. That early in the game I had plenty of time to catch up. But he did not stop there. Of the first six words he made, five were made using all seven tiles. Now he had 250 bonus points.
And the rest of the game was all in his favor! He not only won the game – he beat me by over 200 points.
Still, considering he had 250 bonus points I think I did okay.
Now he only has to win the next three games to be equal with me again.
Don’t think I am going to sit idly by and let that happen.
A few days before Thanksgiving I posted a blog from last year where I encouraged us to give thanks even in the midst of the chaos of 2020.
Can We Give Thanks in 2020…..2021?
Shortly after posting that blog my youngest daughter called to tell me she had some bad news. Our granddaughter had been sent home from school that morning, along with all her class, because they had been exposed to Covid-19 the day before. They would have to quarantine for Thanksgiving and would not be able to join us for the day as we had planned.
Of course, my first concern was that she and her parents would not get Covid-19 in spite of the exposure. But immediately I also realized what this meant for us. They would have to spend the day with just the three of them and my husband and I would be just two for Thanksgiving.
We have a large blended family but they are scattered all over the USA. We have children and grandchildren in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Missouri and Illinois. As the grandchildren have grown up and married with families of their own, our Thanksgiving gathering has slowly gotten smaller.
Moving three years ago to Michigan we only have one daughter nearby. And yes, she is the one who had to quarantine.
As I started to feel discouraged about that, I remembered my own blog I just posted.
So I began looking at what I have to be thankful – even as my Thanksgiving feast will only have two seats at the table.
Here are just a few of the things I found I have to be thankful for:
The more I thought about it, the more my list of things to be thankful for grew.
The best thing to thank God for is that we will soon be celebrating his coming to earth to live, to die, to rise again. That in the midst of chaos, He is there.
How did my Thanksgiving day go?
My husband worked with me fixing the turkey and all the trimmings, then quickly took some of it to our daughter’s home. We enjoyed the meal, shared a time of prayer and Bible reading, played Scrabble (we are Scrabble’s addicts), and ended the evening with a movie.
As we went to bed last night my husband said, “This has been a different Thanksgiving and I missed family, but in a way it was one of my favorites. I spent the day with my best friend doing things we loved to do. It caused me to really take a look at all the blessings God has given us and I am very grateful.”
The day ended well for me – I won the Scrabble game!!!!
My daughter sent me a picture of my granddaughter enjoying my pumpkin pie – with loads of Cool Whip.
And after almost a week – it appears my family are free of symptoms – no Covid-19.
Thank you Jesus!
Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile know that my husband and I are avid Scrabble players. We are very competitive and have kept a record of our scores since 2008. I tell my story in:
Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!
We have been known to wake up at 4 am and, not being able to go back to sleep, get up and play a game of Scrabble before heading back to bed. Since we play with a Super Scrabble board which has twice the number of tiles for a normal game and a much larger board, it can take us two to three hours to play a game It doesn’t help that we are so competitive and often take minutes to find the right word.
Currently we are at game number 928. We want to make it to 1000 games by the end of the year. Since there are only 78 days left in the year this means we can only skip six days without a game.
Since we are retired and winter is fast coming to our home in Michigan, I think we can make it.
Right now in our 928 games I have won 464, my husband has won 460 with four ties. Recently a friend said she did not think we could have that many ties or be that close in games won and suggested that one of us was letting the other win. Obviously while she is a friend she is not a close friend. Otherwise she would know how competitive we are and how we would NEVER let the other one win.
Questions:
When we reach that milestone who will be ahead in the total number of games won?
What should the winner of the most games receive as a prize?
What should the loser of the most games have to do for ending up behind?
Any ideas? I would love to have your input on these questions.
March 22 was a day I will never forget! My husband had fallen a few days before that, got a lump on his head. The lump went down after a couple of hours and he felt okay. Because of the coronavirus and all the conflicting reports we heard, he decided it did not require him to call his doctor or go to the hospital. However, Sunday morning he got a terrible headache that would not go away and became nauseated.
I drove him to the local emergency room in our small town and they told me to go home while they checked him and they would then call me. About an hour later the doctor called and told me a CT scan had shown a brain bleed (a subdural hematoma). They were rushing him by ambulance to the larger hospital in the capital (about 20 miles away) and they had a neurosurgeon standing by to examine him.
What a day that was. I posted all the details of that day in my post:
What a week that was. By the end of the week it was clear he was going to live but the diagnosis for just how he would live was not clear. Because of the uncertainty of the future – and all the things they warned me could be, I posted what I thought would be my last post and prepared myself to take care of my husband.
But God had other plans!
It was amazing to me all the people around the country who began to pray for my husband. I will always be grateful for all the calls, texts and encouragement I received, including many from my family here at WordPress.
Things they warned me to prepare for:
On Wednesday after his surgery on Sunday a case manager called me to discuss transferring him to a nursing home or a rehab center.
But God had other plans!
Within 24 hours of that call (on Thursday) they called back and said they were going to transfer him from ICU to a step-down unit for a few days and then would send him to the rehab center in the hospital. I should anticipate at least seven to ten days of rehab therapy before any consideration could be given to bringing him home.
But God had other plans!
Within 24 hours of that call they informed me they were sending him directly to the in-hospital rehab center that day (Friday). They still were not sure how long he would have to be there.
On Tuesday the next week I got a wonderful call! I could bring my husband home on Wednesday – after only four days of rehab.
He came home looking very weak, very tired and clearly needed a walker to get around. The next week he could not stand bright lights, loud noises and complained of a constant headache. He was speaking but very slow and often had to stop to search for a word. It was a good thing for me to be able to give him my complete attention that week.
But God had other plans!
Every day he grew stronger. We went for followup therapy after a week. He had meetings with a speech therapist, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist.
Their verdict after 45 minutes to an hour with him.
Speech therapist – he needs no further therapy.
Occupational therapist – he needs no further therapy.
Physical therapist – he needs no further therapy.
They said to go home and just keep doing what he was doing.
Now – six weeks later:
I worried that he would never be able to go down to his art studio that he had worked all winter to create. He had painted a beautiful mural on the wall of the Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina. We had enjoyed several weeks there a few years ago and we loved the whole area. He was just putting the finishing touches on it when he fell. Would he be able to do the stairs? Would he be able to paint again?
So thankful he is back in his studio and this was his first painting when he began again.
Being Scrabble addicts we have kept our scores since 2008 and are very competitive. Would he be able to still compete?
Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!
Yes! He is back and we are enjoying our competition.
What can I say? To God be the glory! Great things he has done!
Each day is truly a gift from God. We start each morning saying “Thank you God for another day!”
So – I’m back. Thank you to all you have followed me in the past and I hope you will continue to enjoy the “ramblings” of this Grandma as I continue!
Those of you who follow my blog know that my husband and I are Scrabble addicts. We are very competitive and our final scores are often very close.
Recently I beat my husband by just 15 points. He decided he wanted to add the scores again to make sure no mistake had been made. While I was more than glad to do this, I said to be fair if we were going to check the scores of this game, we would need to check those games where I lost by just 15 points.
So I agreed with his new rule. Going forward any game where there was a difference of 20 points or less, we would add up the scores again.
He may regret making that rule.
This week we played a game and when it ended he was ahead of me by just five points. I insisted he check the scores again.
To his great disappointment he found that he had made an addiction mistake in his score giving him ten more points than he should have.
By subtracting those ten points, I now won the game by just five points.
So be careful what you want to change – it may turn against you.
(And I’m still laughing at this!)
Well I did it! I won the last Scrabble game of 2019 – making me the champion!
My last post told the tale of my husband’s effort to catch me.
My husband did his best – but couldn’t catch me. He tells me he is now depressed. (A joke only – he’s fine.)
But guess what his New Year’s Resolution is? You got it!
To beat me in 2020.
Happy New Year to all my readers!
Those of you who have followed my posts for awhile know that my husband and I are Scrabble addicts. We play with a super scrabble board. It has more spaces for words than a regular Scrabble board and 200 tiles instead of 100.
We have kept a record of our scores since 2008 and are very competitive.
As we come to the last day of 2019 I am one game ahead of my husband. He is determined to end this year with a tie between us as we did last year.
So this evening we will play our last game of the year.
If he wins and we end in a tie – all is well.
I did it!
But if I win – I will end the year two games ahead.
Champion!!!!
Of course, you know I’m rooting to win and be the champion for 2019. However, if the last two games are any indication of how it will go – I’m nervous.  Most of the time our scores are very close but the last two games he has not only won but beat me by over 150 points. NO!
In our game last night he had three seven-letter words. For those of you who don’t play Scrabble playing all of your letters in one turn adds 50 extra points to your score. NO!
The game tonight will be our 829th game since we started keeping scores. This year we played 136 games. My husband has figured out that if we play 171 games in 2020 we will reach 1000 games.
So – while I am sure I will at some point today or tomorrow be more serious about goals for 2020 – for now that seems like a worthy goal.
Think we can make it to 1000 games in the coming year?
Think I can win the game tonight and be the champion?
We still see.
For all my readers, Happy New Year! May the coming year bring you God’s peace and joy!
If you follow my blog you know my husband and I are avid Scrabble players. Very competitive, we started keeping a record of the scores of our games in 2008. We laugh that we are actually addicted to the game.
Thankfully we are evenly matched. It would be no fun if one of us was much better than the other. We go back and forth on winning the games. Usually we are never more than one or two games apart. A few years ago my husband actually pushed way ahead of me with a seven game lead. I was so discouraged as I did not know how I would ever catch up with him again. (Do you think losing too many games of Scrabble to your husband would be good grounds for a divorce?)
Some of our kids bought us a Super Scrabble board a few years ago. The board has more squares to play on and twice the number of letter tiles as the regular Scrabble game. We have used it so much that it is falling apart. We have it taped together but have agreed for our Christmas gift we will purchase a new one next month. We also need a good Scrabble dictionary as our present one is falling apart.
This week we played our 800th game. After eleven years that is roughly 73 games a year or 6 games a month. Since I did not retire until 2013 we are actually playing more games each month now. Winter finds us playing more games as we hate going out in the snow and cold. Summer finds us making road trips so the games take a back seat for a few weeks.
When we played that 800th game I was two games ahead of my husband and he was really hoping to win the game. I beat him and that put me three games ahead for the eleven years we have kept score.
He threatened to never play again. But he was only joking as I often whine when I get behind more than two games that I do not want to play any more.
In the 800 games played we have actually tied three games. When I told one friend of how close our games are she felt one of us was just being nice and letting the other one win to keep our scores close. However, she clearly does not know us. We are very competitive and would never willingly let the other one win.
I am thankful that my husband and I share this common love. Along with giving us hours of enjoyment, we figure at our age (71 and 79) it may very well help keep our minds sharp. When we get to 1000 games we are going to have a party! (If we continue at this pace, that means we will be 74 and 82. Who wants to bet me we will still be going strong in three years?)
Do you and your family play board games?
What games do you like?
Are you addicted to any games?
Are you a good loser? Good winner?
I have often shared how my husband and I love Scrabble. For us it is almost an addiction.
For those who follow my blog you have already read about this, but if you are new and interested, here are the links to my stories behind our addiction.
Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!
I Owe My Scrabble Addiction to an Out-of-work Architect
This past weekend we realized how much we do love Scrabble!
Our power went out this past weekend. After fifteen hours without any electricity, service finally came on again, only to go out again in three hours. We had planned to play a game of Scrabble after supper.
When we started the game it was still light out and with the curtains all open we had no problem seeing the board.
Most Scrabble games take anywhere from one to two hours depending on the number of players.
But not for us!
Our games go on forever.
First, we have a “super Scrabble” board. This board is much larger than the normal game and it has twice as many tiles.
Second, we are very competitive and not only want to win but want to get as high a score as possible.
So each play may take minutes as we rearrange our tiles over and over trying to find the right word to get the most points.
We also play defensively so we need to play where our opponent does not have a chance to play on a triple or quadruple spot on the board.
So as the evening proceeded the sun slowly descended in the sky until it was dark both outside and in our house.
Did that stop us?
Not at all!
Out came the candles and the flashlights and we continued on in the dark. This only slowed our game down more as we could hardly see our tiles.
Over four hours later we finally finished the game and used our flashlight to find our way to bed.
Oh – by the way – I won!
Grandma's Ramblings 