Christmas Dessert

We had our family Christmas gathering last Saturday. Part of every Christmas gathering for close to 30 years has been our special Christmas dessert. When our kids were very small, we decided that we would stay home on Christmas Day. To travel to family would be 3 hours. We also had late Christmas Eve worship which meant we wouldn't get to bed much before 1 or 2 a..m. Plus as a child I remember going to 2 sets of grandparents in one day and not getting much time at home with my new toys.

We discovered that our neighbors, the Mulvains, had their family in on Christmas Eve and were alone on Christmas Day so we invited them to come spend the day with us. Juanita volunteered to bring the dessert. It was a chocolate pudding dessert that my family loved and so for the years that they joined us for Christmas Day, Juanita brought "Christmas dessert." After their plans changed and they no longer joined us on Christmas Day, "Christmas dessert" remained part of our menu. As I fixed it the other day, I thought about this "tradition." Tonight, as I am finishing up the last of the left-over, I am thinking again about those Christmases shared with Jerry & Juanita and how this dessert has become a Hardwick family tradition.

Christmas

I enjoyed watching the grandkids open their gifts. The 3 littlest ones had fun playing with each other's presents. Everyone got along well with each other. It was chaos at times, but a joy to watch the kids play and interact. I thought about my grandparents watching us many years ago.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2008 started out with an absolutely beautiful snow. It stuck to each branch and weed. It looked like a fairyland. Then about 8:30 a.m. the snowflakes were large. It was a magical time before the temperature warmed and the flakes became small again.

The five grandchildren were all at church this afternoon. We attempted to take pictures of them....all together. We did accomplish getting all 5 in one photo. See the attempts here
.

3 of 5

What's Avery looking for?
As close as I'm going to get tonight!

To each of you, a blessed Merry Christmas! Enjoy your blessings! I will mine!

Big Shoes to Fill ?

12.18.08.Avery.myshoes

Avery is joining cousin William in toddlerhood. She's getting into things. Tonight as I was leaving, she got into the cabinet and got a plastic plate and the container of trail mix. (Silly us.....we didn't put the toddler lock on.) Evidently she was hungry. Before I left I heard Jenn exclaim, "Oh, Avery!" She had opened the container and had trail mix all over the living room floor.

Before Mom and Dad came home, Avery went into the kitchen. It was quiet and then there was this clunk, so I went to investigate. Fortunately my camera was in my bag on the table. I hope the video I took works. I found Avery in my shoe/boots. They are pretty heavy, but she was trying to make them work.

Shelby on TV

As a parent of a child who is often in the Peds unit at Rockford Memorial Hospital, Jenn was asked to speak at a breakfast this morning for the hospital's corporate sponsors. Shelby and Papa accompanied Jennifer. Shelby was interviewed by one of the local tv stations. Follow this link and click on the little camera to see Shelby on TV - WREX. After we watched it on the 5 p.m. news, Shelby said "But I said more, Grandma!"

Happy 10th anniversary, Jenn & Scott !

Ten years ago today it was much warmer.....in fact, we had the air conditioning on at the church! It was close to 70 degrees as Scott & Jenn got married. We didn't have to wear coats. Quite a contrast to today (11 degrees with a wind chill factor of 3 degrees)! Hard to believe 10 years have passed already!

I know that there have been some bumps and dips along the road, but you have perservered. You have 3 beautiful and intelligent daughters. Keep on "keeping on"! We love you! Happy 10th!

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving 2008

As in the past several years, we were at Chris & Heather's for Thanksgiving. Heather's parents and sisters were there too. The Martins were with the Martins this year. Tony & Julie were "tied" to Naperville (or 30 minutes from N'ville) cause Julie was "on call". As you can see by my pics, the kids, the turkey, and the kids were the focus of the day. As for the turkey, Heather tried "brining" the turkey this year. We think this is a keeper recipe! As for the kids, well, what else is grandparenting about! Happy Day!!

Happy Thanksgiving !!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all!! I am thinking of all of my family and friends on this day and giving thanks for all of you. While life is often hectic, I am grateful for each hectic moment and everyone in my life. Enjoy each other today!!!

Shelby, Shelby, Shelby.....

Shelby.hospital

Seems like an appropriate title after the past few days. A week ago yesterday, Shelby wanted me to go with her (and Mommy) to Swedes (another hospital in town) as she was to have an upper G.I. There was some fuss made, but for the most part, Shelby did what she had to do....drink the barium, not once, but twice. Once while surrounded by a huge machine (intimidating to most) and several technicians and a doctor. I was impressed with her spunk and how taking the many x-rays (we had to wait for it to work its way through!) became a game.

Tuesday she (and Mom & Dad) went to Chicago to see the drs. at Children's and have an abdominal ultrasound. I saw her before she (they) left and it was "old hat" to her. Cheerful Shelby who had been without food and water since the evening before took it all in stride.

Thursday, I picked her up from school about 11 a.m. as she was to begin "the clean-out" for the upper endoscopy and colonoscopy schedule for the next day. When I arrived, she was sitting at the school secretary's desk with pink reader glasses on. When I walked in, Shelby said, "Can I help you?" I said I was Shelby Martin's grandma and I was here to pick her up. Shelby took off the glasses and said, "here I am, Grandma!" Shelby has the school staff charmed too. We went to her house and Mommy handed her the first dose. Shelby said, "Grandma, it tastes like Sprite." Oh, baby..... by the time the 3rd dose was needed, Shelby called me on the phone, "Grammie, I can't do it!" We talked, me at one end and Jenn at the other, and got her to take the 3rd dose. By this time, she was not feeling the best from the effects. At 11 p.m., I had been called to their house. Shelby had a temp of 104.8 and was headed for the ER. They admitted her pretty much right away and put her on i.v. antibiotics. By 8:30 the next morning, the fever was gone.

The anesthesiologist did not want to sedate her after the high fever and elevated white count, so she did another day of ice chips and popsicles. Special friends & family and her school principal came to visit. This morning, the tests were finally done and at this point all looks well. Jenn posted that she wiped a "single tear" as they left Shelby "asleep" for the test, and brave Shelby did what she had to do.

Papa, the sisters and I arrived to visit after she had returned to her room. She was playing computer games, fine with it all. Sure, she'd like to be home, but ..... Riley crawled in bed with her and the two chatted and played games. Shelby's friend, Kate, called and we listened to their conversation about boys and who likes who (aren't you supposed to have this conversation when you are 16, not 6!?!). Her resiliency ..... it amazes me!!!

Shelby, you are an inspiration. I wish I could take this all away from you. But since, I can't, I'm proud to be your Grandma. God love you, special little girl!! (Enjoy the pictures I took this morning.)

Babies, babies....babies

I have always loved babies. Ask most anybody. Right now, I have 3 grandbabies. (William probably will want out of the "baby" classification soon. He's 2 1/2.) Yesterday was a special day in that I got to get all 3 of them dressed and ready for their days. Chris is out-of-town, so I'm on early a.m. duty to take William & Katie to daycare. (Mommy leaves early for school.....as William told me this morning, "Mommy doesn't go to work, she goes to school!) I get to get them up and dressed and give them their morning milk/bottle. It's a special time with them. Then it was on to Avery. Mommy, Daddy, & Shelby were headed to Chicago. I got her dressed and brought her up to our house for the day along with sister, Riley, who was still not feeling the best.

Sometimes, it's hectic with 3 little ones, but I know all-too-soon they will be older and not need the extra attention and snuggling.......and they won't want to be held! Riley's 9 already and Shelby's 6 1/2. They are a different kind of fun......but too big to lift or hold (the legs cry out quickly when they are on my lap!). I'm trying to enjoy all these stages......they are going by sooooooo fast!!

Saturday night they were all here for Riley's birthday party. It's still a challenge to get all 5 in one picture, but here's some cute ones:


Miss Katie in her cranial band to deal with a flat portion of her head from weak muscles. It all has technical names, but I don't remember them right now.









Here's me with the birthday girl as she opens her American Girl doll. She's been working on me for months for this one!













I guess I don't have many pictures of them together. Here's Avery eyeing Katie in "her" walker. William lays claim to that walker too.

They are fun! I love babies!

Happy Birthday, Riley !!!!

WOW, I can't believe it.....Riley is 9 years old today!! Well, technically, as I just told her, not until 11:22 p.m. tonight, but who's counting!! And Chris and Heather celebrated their 9th anniversary on Thursday, the 13th. Actually, they are celebrating last night and today. They got away for an overnight. Their lives are busy, busy with jobs and a 2 1/2 year old and a 7 month old.

Speaking of busy, Jenn, Shelby and I spent yesterday morning in the x-ray lab at SwedishAmerican. Shelby had an upper G.I. She did great and things look good, but we still don't have an answer to her tummy pain. Tuesday, they will go to Chicago to see the docs there and Shelby will have an ultrasound. We'll see what that finds.

9 years ago was busy what with the wedding, gift opening the next day, getting the baby's room ready the next and her birth, and meeting our first grandchild the next (16th) . Whew!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RILEY NICOLE !!!! I love you!!! Grammie

Halloween

Here's our little Halloweeners.

Katie, our ladybug.

William as a dragon.













Shelby, alias "Hannah Montana"

Riley, alias "Miley Cyrus"

(Mr. Bones is there too.)







And, this is Miss Avery. She was not feeling good. I got her pumpkin hat on, but that was about as far as she was willing to go.

I had taken her to the doctor earlier in the afternoon, but the doctor said she just has a pesky cold.


The weather was beautiful and Riley, Shelby, and William all got to trick or treat.

It's DONE !!!!!

At 5:10 p.m. on Saturday, November 1, our deck was put back together! Well, almost. We do have some work to do on the deck skirting, but the deck floor and railing on back on strong and sturdy. Thomas worked hard and it's back together !!!!!

Here's another view. Thomas is admiring his work. It's been a long road with lots of lessons and setbacks. But now we will enjoy!! Thanks, Thomas!!!

My Babies ??!!?

We celebrated Chris's 34th birthday last night. Where has the time gone? Seems like just yesterday that we (Thomas, me and Bill & Bonnie Starnes) were watching Thursday Night Football at our house when I announced, "I want to go to the hospital.....now!" Five hours later, Christopher Andrew arrived....all 9#, 10 1/2 oz. of him!!!

Well, babies they are no longer.


And here's Jenn with their girl babies (William was busy with something else at the time!)!

Riley, Katie, Jenn, Avery, & Shelby

They are my kids!!!!

P.S. Prayers for Shelby, please. She was admitted to the hospital tonight with a fever, diarrhea, and goofy liver numbers.

Birthdays

Within the past 8 days, Thomas and I both celebrated birthdays. Both birthdays were low key. Our son-in-law, Scott, had shoulder surgery on my birthday. His surgery went well, but there was more repair than his surgery on the other shoulder almost 3 years ago. He spent some uncomfortable nights and days, but is doing better now. And my Mom had an angiogram on my birthday! She was in the hospital for tests and this came about rather quickly. We found out it was more because of the doctor's schedule. Fortunately, her angiogram had good results, but it caused us some excitement for a few hours.

On Thomas's day it is hard not to remember 9/11/2001. I spent the day at Jenn's helping as she had to work. We all did have supper together before Thomas, Jenn & the big girls went to the open house at the girls' school. When they returned, I had Avery in bed and we had cake & ice cream.

Heeeere's Ashlyn!!

As Grandpa Tony said......."heeeere's Ashlyn!" We received this picture this morning from Grandpa. Just like her Daddy, she has lots of hair, only Greg's was blond. She looks like a precious bundle.

By the way, we have a length now - 21 3/4 inches.

Welcome to the world and to the family, Ashlyn !

"Great"-grandparents

A call from Grandpa Tony this morning informed us that Ashlyn Leigh Hardwick was born at 9:28 a.m. today, August 15, 2008, to Gregory and Jennifer Hardwick at Midwest City Hospital, Oklahoma. Ashlyn was born by c-section and weighed in at 9# 4 oz. !!!! Following in Hardwick style...Thomas was a 9 pounder, Chris was too, don't remember Greg's birth weight, and William was a 9 pounder too.

Congratulations to Greg and Jennifer!! When we get a picture, we will post showing you all our first great-grandchild!!!

Family Night

Last night we got together at Scott & Jenn's. Chris & the kids came. Heather was in Cedar Rapids helping a friend. It was a fun time. The kids played great together. We were able to be outside. The skeeters stayed away. Pizza was good. It was very enjoyable to watch our five grandchildren be together and to play with their aunt and uncles and each other. Here's some pictures. Riley and Shelby each helped take some of the pictures.

Family Night

Riley's overnight

Riley's overnight

Riley reminded me last night that I HAD NOT posted HER "date" pictures..... so to right this oversite, here are the pictures from Riley's date with Grammie. We went to Paint n' Fun, but she had some different items on her agenda. We went to several stores and had lunch at the mall. She came home with several music cds to share with Shelby and some Hannah Montana stuff. Riley is growing up so FAST !!!

Something new at Norman

There's something new at the corner of Darwin & Norman...a shed!! We decided to add this little shed for our garden tools and tillers. It's nice to have these things in close proximity to the garden and it's nice to have a little more room in the garage!!

The Campers

Both Riley and Shelby attended YMCA camps this summer. Actually Riley attended 2 camps, but we did not get to go to one of her programs because of threatening weather. They both enjoyed their week-long experiences. They attended each day coming home at night. Riley did get to spend one overnight. Here are some photos of their program nights.

Riley at camp 2008

Shelby's camp program

Interesting Skies

I took these photos after a storm the other day. It was trying to clear up and the sun shone and illuminated only the tops of the trees and houses in the neighborhood. I thought it was quite interesting.

After the storm

Juliet.....alias Riley Nicole

Riley as Juliet

Riley just completed two weeks of Totally Arts Camp. The program was yesterday. She had two solos with the chorus that opened the program. The chorus did several "Schoolhouse Rock" songs. Then she played Juliet in a skit. I did get a few pictures of that. She is growing so quickly and learning so many new things. Good job, Riley!!! Papa and Gram are proud of you!!

Grandpa-to-be

Grandpa-to-be Tony

Tony forwarded to us all the ultrasound pictures of his soon-to-be born (August) granddaughter, Ashlynn Leigh. So today we had to tease him a bit as he held niece, Katie, for the first time. Gee, Tony a grandfather!!! Ummmmm.....that makes us "great" grandparents - wow!!!??? Congratulations to Greg and Jennifer!!

Man and his children

Happy Father's Day! Thomas celebrated today with all of his children. Can you tell they are related!?! We were all together except for Tony's wife, Julie, who was on call, and Tony's boys who live in Colorado and Oklahoma. It was good to have them all together and it's always fun to watch the grandkids together.


William "tried" to watch the move with Riley and Shelby. I don't think he's into that laying still stuff. He's got things to do.









And Avery had to check Katie out closely, especially when Mommy or Grammie held Katie. But Avery likes Mr. William and wanted to be with him....when she could catch him.

Happy Father's Day, Thomas!

Does this look like happy!

This was a few hours before Shelby was released from the hospital on Friday. She didn't want her picture taken and she wanted to ride this trike in the halls, not just in her room where she was confined.





She was much happier a few days earlier when she and Grammie had a date. First we had an overnight and Shelby did some "dress up". The next day we did Paint n' Fun and Club Libby Lu at the mall where she turned into Hannah Montana. She kept the hair-do on even during lunch at Red Robin.

A date with Shelby

Thankfully, she is now home and we have a procedure to follow the next time a virus strikes.

And Miss Avery is 1

Miss A is 1 already. We celebrated last Saturday, April 5,

Avery's 1st birthday - 1

on Sunday, April 6,

Avery's 1st birthday - 2

and on her birthday actual birthday, April 9, we had supper with Avery and her sisters and Mom. Daddy was at work and Grandma didn't take any pictures. Avery did have her first pudding both chocolate and vanilla. Time marches on.....too quickly!!

Also on April 9th, we welcomed Ryan David, son born to our "other" son, DJ and his wife, Jill. Welcome little Ryan!

William is 2

William's 2nd birthday

William's 2nd birthday party was yesterday with a "farm" theme. He dressed appropriately in his farmer bibs. He was oblivious to the attention his sister got. He was excited to have everyone at his house. Enjoy Mr. W's happy day!

For the Aunts and Cousins

Our babies....one for Grandma Marian and one for me. Pictures of Grandma Marian and others holding Miss Katie coming up!

Holding Katie

Papa meets Katie

Katie.William.0314.2008

Tonight Papa got to meet 10 day old Katie. Thomas finally felt he was over whatever he had enough to meet the little miss. We also got to observe big brother William caring for his baby sister. Enjoy the pictures. William is going to be a great big brother!!

HOORAY !!!!! Good news

Shelby got a good report in Chicago today. Cysts, liver, spleen - unchanged. Number that needed to go up DID and those that needed to come down DID !!!! Yippeeeee !!! She will be going back to school tomorrow.

THANK YOU, THANK you, thank you all very much for your prayers and concern!!!!!

Tomorrow is Chicago

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Shelby (and her parents) goes to see the doctors at Children's Memorial in Chicago. It is a scheduled visit. They will do an ultrasound to check on the status of the cysts. Then she will go to Liver Clinic for a check-up. Dr. Alonso said Dr. Superina (surgeon) will also be at clinic. She will have labs drawn there. We'll see if her counts are holding, raising, or lowering again. The Chicago docs will have a look at her situation. Please keep Shelby and Jenn & Scott in your prayers for safe travel and a good check-up for Shelby.

For those of you interested in more technical information regarding Shelby's medical status, check out Jenn's blog accessible from this page, lower left, under "Links".

Everybody's home

Katie and her parents got home last evening about 6 p.m. Mom, Dad, Katie, and William spent their first night together. I hope to get up there this evening to see her and William. Last night I went to bed. I was tired.

Cautiously, Shelby's numbers are up. She had labs this morning. Of course, that is good since she had the injection on Thursday. Let's pray this continues without more intervention! Labs will not be drawn again until Tuesday when they go to Chicago.

By the way, Shelby wore a face mask to the lab this morning and Mommy said she was very brave! Way to go Shelbelle!!!

Shelby came home

The (white blood cell) medicine went in and a couple of hours later Shelby got to come home. She is to be careful (yeah, right) because of her low platelets and possibilities of bleeding. She was bouncing around in usual Shelby style when I was there. Avery, Riley and I left Mommy and Daddy and Shelby to get some rest tonight. Jenn was some better. Hope more sleep will help her.

Avery is doing a lot of coughing so we'll see how her night goes. Riley's throat is a little sore, but not temp, so let's hope it's not the start of what everyone else has had. I talked with Chris. He, Heather, and Katie are doing good. I also talked with Grandma Peggy and William's doing fine too. The girls should be able to come home from the hospital tomorrow.

Let's continue to pray that Shelby's numbers change. My thanks to all of you for your prayers and kind emails!

Update on Shelby's status

Shelby's platelets and white count dropped even further this morning. Dr. Alonso in Chicago was consulted. She, too, feels that this is Shelby's body's reaction to the virus. They are going to give her an injection through her i.v. of some med to stimulate her white blood cells. Possibly then she can come home to wait to see how this works.

Thomas is improving, but still coughing. Avery continues to cough and Jenn feels downright rotten. Baby Katie is beautiful.

Visiting Shelby

Chris and I went up a floor from Heather and Katie to visit Shelby and her Daddy. She had two phone calls when we were there. One from my sister, "Auntie Lu" and one from Andy from church. Andy is also a morning news broadcaster for one of our local television stations. Shelby wanted to know if Andy was on tv when he was talking to her!

As you can see, she looks fine and she acted her usual Shelby. But those numbers were lower this morning. Dr. was supposed to come in tonight, so I'll let you know what the outcome is.

Meeting Katie

I did get to the hospital this afternoon to meet Miss Katie. Here she is:

She's a cutie with long fingers, just her Mommy, Daddy, and big brother, William!

Here she is with her Daddy!


Big brother showed up later with Grandpa (Umpa) & Grandma (Gaga) Slater. He was very interested in the new toy he got, but not-so-much in his little sister. Chris will be posting some pictures, so check out his blog (listed on my blog) later.

We'll call her Katie

First of all, a correction.....Katie was 8 lbs. 12 oz., 19 3/4 inches long. I had gone to bed at 9 p.m. cause I thought I had better get some sleep when I could. Chris called at 9:45 last night, so his call woke me up. Chris called this morning to say they had a good night until the train of doctors, etc., came through. Hopefully, I'll have more pictures to post later if I get up to the hospital this afternoon.

Jenn reported this morning that Shelby is unhooked from the i.v. meds at the moment and sits by her door as she is still confined to her room. Her platelets have dropped even more. Hopefully, some kind of decision will be made today to give her platelets or something !!!!! I hope to meet Katie and then go see my Shelbelle this afternoon!!!!!

Katherine Madeline Hardwick

Phooey on those doctors. Heather's water broke, so they HAD to do the c-section. Miss Katherine Madeline Hardwick arrived at 9:07 p.m., March 4, 2008. 8#, 14 oz. 19 plus inches long. We're all relieved.

Welcome to the world, little girl!! We're looking forward to meeting you!

Update

No baby yet....the docs want to wait until tomorrow??!?? And Shelby's white count and platelets are dropping lower. Pray, people, please.

Even thicker.....

This morning at 6 a.m. Heather called. She'd been up sick all night and dr. wanted her to come to hospital to check for dehydration. I got there and Chris was not feeling well also. They think they came down with the stomach flu William had at the end of last week. Heather was getting i.v. fluids and nausea medication to stabilize her. They were trying to get in touch with her dr. If Heather stabilizes (the dehydration was causing some contractions) I assume they will still wait until tomorrow to deliver the baby. Chris is huddled in a corner with blankets trying to get warm and get some sleep.

Got William to daycare and returned home to check on Thomas. He does not have a urinary tract infection (good), but the nurse told me "flu" is everywhere. So, we'll keep on top of his temp and hope he will perk up in a day or so.

And Miss Shelby - her temp went up last night so another day of antibiotics. When she can get off the antibiotics, they hope her white count and platelets will come up on their own so they don't have to do other procedures. It's kind of a wait-and-see situation right now. To talk to her on the phone, she sounds fine. She loves to get calls on the "hospital phone" so give her a call if you will.

Oh yes, Jenn - she's not as achy today, but is coughing and sneezing. And Avery is an altogether different baby from yesterday. She's not 100%, but she is crawling all over and chasing (would you believe) quart jar canning rings. She loves to chase them. She is so much happier than yesterday even though she didn't sleep good for her daddy last night.

I love them all, but right now I'm glad I don't have any more kids! I don't stretch that far!!?!!

The plot thickens

As for Shelby, her temp has been below 100 most of the day. Her white count and platelets are not responding though. So if these counts are not improved tomorrow, dr. said they will give her some kind of medication to try to elevate the white cells. She still is confined to her room at the hospital. Looks like her fever and cough were/are viral. Avery has it. Papa Thomas is sick too with those symptoms plus a possible urinary tract infection. Jenn is achy and has a cough.....SO..............it's been a busy day. Scott was with Shelby last night and today. Jenn is there tonight and Grammie had Avery this afternoon and is keeping an eye on Papa. Spring, where are you???!!

Evening update

The shift has changed from Mommy to Daddy at the hospital with Shelby. Temp is up again; but Jenn learned that there was a snafu in the antibiotic dosage and so Shelby did not get as much as she was supposed to today! Also, looking over the lab numbers, Shelby's ammonia level is elevated again (like last summer, but even higher), so that will have to be dealt with tomorrow with the dr. (I keep shuttering as to how someone outside of the medical staff has to be on-top-of a patient's hospital care. It is quite scary. )

Let's pray that Shelby and Daddy and Mommy and Riley and Avery (and Grammie) all get a good night's rest!!

Shelby update

As I indicated in my email yesterday, I will post any updates on Shelby's current hospital stay here. Her ped. g.i. thinks this is viral; however, her AST and ALT numbers were quite high and her white cells dropped to "1". Not many of us get a liver panel done when we have a virus. Shelby does. There is concern about the "1"; so when I went to see her this morning, I had to put on a mask and gloves. This is limiting visits which Shelby is not happy about; but it's for her safety. She's confined to her room which means no playroom. There's a sign on her door that says "no flowers, vegetables, fruits, etc.. There's a word for this - neutropenic, maybe.....I forgot the spelling already. Anyway, Shelby has also developed a cough, so they are trying to collect a sample to check for RSV.

She still has a temp. This morning with motrin it was 100.7. She also had a chest x-ray. Didn't hear those results yet. She did eat a GREAT lunch. She has discovered pizza and ate a personal pan size cheese pizza for lunch plus more. So we'll hope that the antibiotics help some and things will improve and this will only be a short stay. Riley and Avery are rolling with the punches.

And by the way, Happy 32nd birthday, Jenn!!! Some way to spend it, huh?!

More Snow

Feb. 26 snow

Yes, we got more snow tying or beating a record of winter 78-79. I remember that winter. We didn't have any thaws in between and the snow was quite high. This year we've had several thaws so the snow is not stacked as high. I am getting weary of it and longing for Spring (it's only three weeks away). However, yesterday's snow was absolutely beautiful!! Enjoy the beauty that nature painted. Oh yes, there's a picture of a man feeding his birds, too!

60 years of marriage

Sixty years ago today, my parents were married. Of these sixty years, Mom and Dad shared 52 years, 8 months, and 27 days. My Dad died November 18, 2000. As their oldest child, I have been reflecting on the 58 years, 5 months and 18 days I shared with them. Not that I remember much of those first few years, but different events have been floating through my memory these past few days.

A couple of weeks ago in my continued effort to organize around here, I found several video tapes unmarked. When I checked them, I discovered they were copies of some video taken at the 50th wedding anniversary celebration we held for my parents 10 years ago. In 1998, February 22nd was on a Sunday. We went to church together and then gathered at Bruns Restaurant in New Lenox with more family and friends for dinner and a little program. I know videotaping the event was not in my thoughts then, but fortunately someone else had the idea. Unfortunately we did not get all the "speeches" taped. I wish we had my uncle's as he was a young teenager when my parents were dating and I remember really enjoying what he shared.

Anyway, I put the video on dvd for my Mom, my brother and my sister and mailed it off for them to view on this day and remember. It was fun (and tearful) to see Dad. He was beginning to have some health issues then. Mom's maid of honor and her husband are now gone. A couple of my aunts are no longer with us. Mom's Uncle George and Aunt Mabel are gone, and a few others I noted. We all looked a little different 10 years ago, especially the grandchildren. It is a fun look back......and an opportunity to remember. I'm glad I found this video.

Happy 60th anniversary Mom & Dad !!! I love you!!

Shelby gets her ears pierced

Last Saturday was the big day. Shelby called in the afternoon all excited. She asked if Grammie would come when she got her ears pierced later that afternoon. We gathered at Walmart, picked out her earrings, and after some hesitancy, she got the job done. After all Shelby's already been through, this was a piece of cake, but that's hard to explain to an almost six year old - WOW almost six years old already !!! Go Shelby !!!!!

Shelby gets her ears pierced

Snow, snow and snow

We are getting a snowy winter this year and it's the kind of snow I like....the kind that clings to the trees and bushes and even the weeds along the roadside. This last snow was just beautiful. It really clung to the trees.

Winter snows

I really enjoy the early morning when we are often out cleaning off our driveway. Several snows ago, the moon was out when we were outside. Here it is in the trees west of our house before the sun came out. The snow really is beautiful!

Open House at William's daycare

I got invited to an open house at William's daycare. Happy Hearts Playcare is where William goes for daycare. I enjoyed seeing him in his element and seeing some of the kids he is with daily. His best buddy is Noah who is also a blonde little guy. A lady from Kindermusic was there to share what she offers. She uses all sorts of items to help the kids enjoy and feel the music. William enjoyed it and Grandma enjoyed watching William.

Friday night with the grandkids

We watched William on Friday night and cousins Riley, Shelby, and Avery stopped by. So, hail, hail, the gang was all here. William was great with Avery. He will make a great big brother. The big ones were all taken with "High School Musical 2". William didn't join in until Shelby sat on the cushions which were supposed to kekep children away from the tv and video player. Ah, well, it is Grammie and Papa's house!!

Baby in the sink

When I first saw the sink in our house I said it would be a great sink to bathe a baby in cause it was so deep. Riley and Shelby were too big at that point. Somehow I never got to bathe William in there, but today Avery got her tubby in Grammie's kitchen sink! She liked it and I liked it too cause it saved my back.