Almost Friday......

:: Never has a week seemed so long. I am eagerly awaiting Grandparent's Day on Friday, which will also be my first chance to hold Lauren and kiss those adorable cheeks. I love time with my girls, and lately, it seems like so long in between visits.

:: We have talked about going up tomorrow night and staying for the weekend. Because we will need to be there by 9am, we would have to leave here at some ungodly hour like 6. YIKES. I could no doubt get up at 6 but being ready to go at that hour is another story.

:: It will be great to see them at CFC again, even if it is not Sunday morning.

:: We will be staying with Betsy and Kenny Ashley. (I miss my friend, too).
Talked with her this morning and she knows of two bassets that are being relinquished. A 2 yr. old female and a yr. old male. Since Zoe died we have talked about getting another dog. Not sure about a new puppy and a 19 mo. old. We do not know any details but we do miss our Zoe and would love to be able to have another beautiful basset to fill our lives.

:: I am very excited about this weekend, now all I have to do is get off this computer and get started packing more than just treasures for my 3 adorable girls. (packed them up as I got them) :-) I guess I had better work out a plan as to just when we are coming. I like to be spontaneous but Wm. likes a plan!

Drum Roll Please...........

:: Introducing grandbaby #6; Lauren Jessa Card. She absolutely beautiful and has a lot of dark hair. To me she looks just like Lael. Did you see the video on Jackie's site? I can not wait to get up there and kiss those adorable cheeks. (Friday's coming, Lauren, hold on!)



:: She was born at 4:23 AM on Sunday, March 25th. She weighed 9lb. 7.6oz. and was 22.5 in. Not as big as we originally thought but those cheeks are just like we saw in the ultrasound. Thank you Lord for this wonderful blessing.

more musings

:: I was thinking about some of the things I see Matthew do. (OK, I saw that cringe........here she goes with more Matthew stories) Well, partly because I am with only him all day long and partly because I am amused with his little antics (he is very intelligent, you know)

:: I mentioned how we have been learning some signs. He is doing quite well with this; especially when I say "Matthew do _________" and he turns around and signs "NO". I am amazed that he is wearing a 2T now perfectly. The length, around, everything is a perfect fit. When did he stop being a baby. I was talking with Susan the other day and said I was surprised he was not talking much yet. She came back with "Really, why does he need to when his grandmother anticipates his every move"? OK, point taken.
We are working on potty training. I am not sure he is ready or not. He definitely knows when he is wet or dirty but he does not tell me until after the fact and then he doesn't really tell me at all, just pats his diaper and points to the nursery. He will go and sit on the potty every little while but he refuses to leave it in the bathroom. Actually, he wants it in the linen closet in the hallway and he stops and gets it on the way to the bathroom. He also leaves the stool out by the washer/dryer and carries that in when he is ready to wash his hands or brush his teeth. (which is many times a day) I have always attributed this to the fact that his father is Mr. Clean but then there is the need for him to have every toy we have out on the LR floor at every moment of the day. This means climbing over (and sometimes on) things on the way to the window seat to watch the birds and squirrels. I don't get that. If we are going to be neatniks, let's go all the way, not just half way.

:: He has always been a very good eater but now he is doing even better. He decided he wanted to eat with the booster seat on the kitchen stool next to me rather than in the high chair. He no longer wants to rock but takes his blanket and goes in the nursery when he is ready for his nap. (I miss that he is not cuddly anymore) He is growing up too fast for me. Well all the kids are as far as I am concerned. I look at pictures of Lael with her new haircut and amazed how grown up she looks. Alyssa no longer looks like a toddler but a little girl. The last time we were there, I was very surprised at how she now wanted to be her own person and not do or wear what Lael did. Lael had gotten out an outfit like what she was wearing for Alyssa to put on and Alyssa said "I do not want to look just like you, Lael". I will pick my own clothes, and she did. :-)

:: Now the reason I wanted to update on Matthew was this: we watch only the last 15 min. of Sesame St. which is Elmo's world if he has not already gone down for his nap. On Fri. we were watching when Elmo's gold fish Dorothy had a picture of Van Gogh's Starry Nights in her fish bowl. He jumped up and ran to get a book that Aunt Donna bought him for Christmas, which was a board book of Van Gogh's paintings and turned to the page with Starry Nights and then took it to the television and held it up next to the fish bowl.
See I told you he was intelligent. Remember, he is only 19 mo.

From Blogthings:

The Part of You That No One Sees
You are balanced, peaceful, and sincere.You're the type of person who goes along to get along.And you're definitely afraid of rocking the boat.
Underneath it all, you fear your world falling apart.
You'll put up with a situation that you don't like in fear of changing it.
Disruptive and forceful people intimidate you - and sometimes exploit you.


Yes, that is definitely me......probably just as much of what people do see as don't though!!

much about nothing (edited)

* The weather is warming up considerably. We were able to walk yesterday afternoon and will go again today. I for one, can not wait for the snow banks to be gone. That said, I am not looking forward to the pond that I will have in my back yard.

* We are planning to go to Canton on March 30th for Grandparent's Day at CFA. Wm. has already asked for the day off and as long as there is no time sensitive mailings for Friday, we will be there.

* One day last week, I made a roast chicken for dinner. Now I really like it roasted and Wm. will eat it(he is not that fond of chicken unless we cook it on the grill) Anyway, Wm. went over there right after Matty went home. When his father picked him up, he asked Matty what Gramma had made for dinner because his hair smelled good. :-) I bought another chicken and will roast it for dinner tomorrow night and they will be coming over to share it with us.
I do miss not sharing dinners with Josh, Jackie and the girls like we used to. Lately, it has been dinner at Ponderosa. I am not complaining. I like Ponderosa and I love being with the girls (besides I don't have to cook)

* We went to see Wm.'s mom at the Home on Sunday afternoon and we took Matty with us. She was so pleased we came. I guess she has not had a lot of visitors of late. She was particularly pleased when Matty crawled up on her lap and shared his goldfish crackers with her. She said none of the other grandchildren except for Lael and Alyssa get that close to her. She sent us a thank you for coming and bringing Matty and reminding us that Lael and
Alyssa would sit on her lap and kiss her when they saw her despite the fact it is quite some time between visits. It made her happy. Me too! Aren't my grandchildren special?

*Matty is up from his nap now and is very ready for some lunch. He has been showing me things in his book and signing the things he knows the sign for. Sometimes I wondered if he was really paying attention. He is!



edit: First, thank you to all for your prayers for Cameron......he is coming home from the hospital today......Yes, that is definitely an answer to prayer!



Look at my poor sweet Matty. He slipped while tearing across the wood floor in his socks and hit the arm of his little recliner. (thankfully, he was at home when he did it)

Now something that has plagued me for a while. Why do people feel they need to be on their cell phones all the time. They text message in church during the sermon! (no not high school kids) There is a sign outside of the sanctuary that says turn off your cell phones but every Sunday at least one phone manages to go off. I am surprised to see that 9 out of every 10 people at the grocery store is walking around with the cell phone attached to their ear and talking the entire time they are shopping.
Don't even get me started on people talking while driving.......yes, I am a legalist and I was asking Wm. how they can blatantly break the law. He tells me that kind of law is a guideline. Guideline my foot!

musings

Yesterday's rain gave way to light snow this morning and now the sun is shining. If the temps continue rising, as is predicted, we may be able to see green grass very soon. YEAH!

Got to go to the Christmas Tree Shop yesterday. I just love that store. I really did not spend that much time there but I looked around a little. I bought some bird food, which was the reason I went. Matty loves to watch the birds and squirrels come to eat, and I love to watch him watching them. He will start out being very quiet and tell me shh but before too long he is knocking on the window and scaring them away. We have a window seat under our big front window and we sit there a lot during the day.

Speaking of Matthew, we are learning to sign. I met a woman in the airport who had a son Matty's age and she told me that when he became frustrated when she did not know what he wanted, he would sign it. We have some things down pat. Thank you, you're welcome, eat, look, listen. He has a problem with Mommy, he uses his index finger on his chin instead of his thumb. Friday I signed cookie and then gave him one and told him to do it. He held up the cookie and said "cookie". OK, that works too! :-)

I have an update on Cameron. He took a few sips of apple juice through a straw on Thurs. He said he was hungry and ate some pudding on Fri. Then yesterday he did get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Please continue to pray for him. Thank you.

Jackie emailed us concerning Grandparents Day at CFA. Wm. is going to ask for the time off when he goes in on Mon. Lauren should be born by that time so it will be a double blessing to get to go. I think we will just be going up and back the same day. :-(
So much for having time to catch up with friends. Hey, I will take a day over no time at all. I can not believe how much I miss them. I think I find myself missing Lael and Alyssa more than Morrigan because I saw them all the time when we lived in Canton/Madrid area. With Morrigan, I knew I only got to see her a couple times a year and had resolved myself to that. Don't get me wrong, I love Morrigan just as much as the other girls, I just do not get to see her as often with them living in Raleigh.

Pastor Lee is doing a 4 part series on the Ultimate Superhero over the next few weeks. If you want to listen to it, go to www.faithchapelonline.org

edit: I had forgotten to mention (and I am not sure how that could have happened) but Wm. took me to Red Lobster after we went to the Christmas Tree Shop. YUM I love that place too.

104

:: The weather here as run the gambit today. When we left for church it was gorgeous; the sun was shining! On the way home we had to go to Susan's to get Wm. keys for work out the car. A bearing is gone in our Explorer and Tom is going to drive it to work and have it fixed. We have Tom's car as a loaner :-) Anyway we ran into some snow but once we turned onto their road it was almost a blizzard. Now back home, there is sunshine again.

:: I did go to Super WalMart for groceries yesterday and it was really nice out then......sunshine and warm temps (I wore a spring jacket). When we came out the sun had gone down and it was freezing. This weeks weather sees Tues. with a high of 12 (hard to imagine that as a high) but Friday will have a high of 49. Wm. says typical March weather. At least now when I look at the calendar I see the official day of spring, so I have a little glimmer of hope that warmer temps are on the way.

:: I am eager for my little Lauren to be born (probably not as much as her mother is; but eager nonetheless) It felt strange holding Max as he seemed so very tiny. Granted, 7.5 is an average size, but after having Matt all day, everyday, he seemed so tiny in comparison. Speaking of Max, he has gained a over a lb when he returned to the pediatrician on Monday. And I would be amiss if I did not give a praise report here. Just before we got down there to see him, Max's umbilical cord caught on something and tore. They cauterized it with silver nitrate but it looked very painful and bruised. I talked to Jon last night and Max is doing very well and his belly button healed. PTL

:: Now I would ask that you would please pray for my friend Betsy's 5 yr. old grandson, Cameron. He is in Rochester and has been in and out of the hospital (CCU) for a very high white count, vomiting and fever. This has been going on for 2 weeks now and they have yet to make a diagnosis after many tests and even a spinal tap. Thank you for your prayers.