Ramblings of an Old Fat Grandmother

2008-10-05T19:41:00.005-04:00

If you are looking for old fat gramma, I am here:
www.xanga.com/oldfatgramma

Terrible Tues???????

2008-10-01T14:51:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was not one of our better days. It began with a flat tire on the Explorer.(the plan was for Wm. to take the tire to the tire place on the way to work and then have it repaired and put back on the vehicle at lunch. Matt decided he and Papa should not walk Ali yesterday before Papa left but they should go to the garage so Matt could work on a "project". Ali was upset and left the garage and came into the house. Matt came in later and Will took the tire and was off to work. After a few minutes I realized I had not seen Ali. Matt and I searched the house and then the yard (remember it is fenced in) Frantic, I called DH who said to check the garage. The door had been open and Ali was going in and out. She was not there either. Wm. came home from work and took the leash and Matt in the car to try to find Alice. After a while they came back. Apparently, the gate was not closed, we have no idea who left it open but Alice decided to take herself for a little jaunt around the neighborhood. They found her over in the next block, behind us.

Matt decided he would paint some more boxes and I would start the chili for dinner. That worked out quite well, so well in fact, I decided why not roast the chicken so I could make chicken and rice soup for Wed. dinner. We have 2 crock pots so I could try my hand at Suzy Homemaker. I cut up the celery and carrots and when the chicken was done I took it off the bone and started the soup. I had some carrot left over so I decided to eat it, raw carrot is good for you, right! I took one bite when I heard a loud crack. I hoped it was the carrot but I was certain it was going to be my tooth. Yep, my front tooth broke right off at the gum. (dejevu??? yes, I did the same exact thing nearly a yr. ago) I got an appt. with a dentist (I was not satisfied with the job they did with my bridge last year so I called someone else) My appt was 9 AM but after xrays, impressions, etc. I can not have the remainder of the tooth extracted or a new bridgework completed until 10/22. Yep, 3 weeks without a front tooth. Needless to say, I will not be going outside of this house until then.

Monday, was spent outside so we were sure not to miss the garbage man. If you remember, he told Matt he could dump the garbage. It was misting on and off and feeling cold and damp only aggravated my sinuses and arthritis. I had given Matt 2 little packages of choc. chip cookies one for Matt and the other for the garbage guy. Matt ate one pack and when it began to get late with no sign of the truck (we could hear him all around our street but not see him) Matt asked if he could eat one of the cookies from the other package. I told him he ate his and the other ones were for the garbage guy. He walked away but came back with a huge smile on his face and said "but Gramma, he doesn't know how many cookies are in his package!"

Susan and Stephanie take Matthew and Anthony to the zoo boo at Halloween. Last year I made Matt a Bob the builder costume. This year he asked if we could make a baby jaguar costume. This may take some thought!

super Sunday

2008-09-28T17:24:00.004-04:00

Today was a very good day. We went to Church of the Ressurection (not our home church) because Andrew, Kathy and John Eastmond were ministering there today. If you are not familiar with their ministry, "New Heart Ministries" you should check them out. Andrew teaches and ministers through his music in over 25 sates in America and other countries of the world. He has a wonderful gift and after the service he prays for/over anyone who desires it and stays until everyone has had prayer. We have known Andrew and Kathy for over 20 yr. when they ministered in a church we belonged to when we lived in Pulaski, NY. They spent the night with us and Andrew, a New Zealander, taught Joshua about New Zealand (we home schooled ) We had not seen them since we moved down here 3 yr. ago. It was so good to see that their son John now played guitar with his father.

Jon Christian got a call back for a second interview on Tues. I would appreciate your prayers for this. It has been 5 months since his job was sent overseas. He spends a good part of each day looking for another job. His severance pay will stop next month and although he can get unemployment for a yr; he would prefer to have a job. They have cut their expenses as much as they possibly can. Please pray that this is the job God has for him.

Friday, Matt and I spent a lot of the day cleaning. He loves to clean as you can see, he is washing the dishes and I have a dishwasher! He used to love to run the vacuum, but since we got the new one, he said it is too loud for him and he goes into the other room and closes the door when I turn it on.

from the pumpkin patch

2008-09-25T14:51:00.004-04:00

Papa told Matt it was time to cut some of his pumpkins from out of his pumpkin patch. I think he can be very proud of himself considering it was his idea to grow some pumpkins and he was diligent to turn them every day.

We have more tomatoes and cukes and few peppers still to be harvested but considering the fact we are fast approaching October, and that the nights have been getting colder, I am not sure how long we will be able to have fresh veggies.

We are thinking about going to NC the first week of Nov. I am missing the southern grandbabies and would love to see them again. Will told Matt we were going and he said "I want to go with you Papa". His mother told him it would be a very long ride. "I want to see Max and Morrigan, Papa. I will be able to go for a very long ride". It would be fun to take him but I am not sure he is ready to leave his Mama for a week.

Update on Jon: He did not get a call back yesterday. When I called this morning he was looking for a job. He says he spends most of the day looking and sending out resumes. Thanks to all those who prayed. I know God has the perfect job for him.

Stephanie came by this afternoon when she picked up Anthony from preschool. The boys have such a great time together. They play so well with each other.

afternoon thoughts

2008-09-20T19:21:00.000-04:00

I have had a lot of time to think this afternoon. I have not felt well for almost a week now. At first, I thought it was allergies or my sinuses. Now my arthritis is flaring up and the past few days I have had a lot of muscle aches. Not sure what it is but I feel horrid, I was sure I would feel better as the day wore on but the opposite has happened. I will need to get groceries after church tomorrow as I could not bring myself to go today.

Wm. worked on Matt's bed. Oh, it looks wonderful. It was put together once but he took it apart so it could be painted. I can not wait until it is completely finished and Matt sees it for the first time. Funny how this whole construction theme idea came from a lamp I got at the Christmas Tree Shop for $2 when he was a baby. Then I made the Bob the Builder for him to hang up his clothes (or in Matt's case, his broom and dust pan, don't ask) Then we made the cornices to look like road block signs and now Wm. made the bulldozer bed. I am so excited about this. I promise to take pictures as soon as it is painted and in the room.

ramblings of an old fat grandmother....

2008-09-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

First, I want to take a minute to say how thankful I am for my DH. I know I eluded to this on our anniversary but it goes so far beyond that. Over the years he has allowed me to stay at home with our children, homeschool - even when it meant he had to work 2 jobs. He has never had a vacation that was not either "homeschool related" or a working vacation. He allowed me to go back and get a certificate in interior design at age 50 because it was something I had always wanted and my parents felt business was the wiser choice when I was ready for college. Thank you Lord for this man of God you chose for me.

In one short week Matt has decided he likes to blend his paints. He is also a collector A collector of everything. Our walks amount to nothing more than a chance for him to pick up rocks, pinecones, etc all along the way. His well dr. visit showed he was 39 1/2 # and 41 1/2 " tall. That is the 96 and 97%. Ali is still his constant companion and he is forging ahead in his "school work". (his words, not mine) He knows the alphabet, numbers to 30. He still remembers all 27 of the signs we learned and can use them if I ask.

The weather has cooled down so walking has become much more bearable for me. Matt and Ali have no problem walking in any weather. Our little garden is looking pretty shabby now but we do have 5 orange pumpkins, a ton of green tomatoes (the storm the other night blew the tomato cages completely over and they are much too tomato laden to stand back up) There are a few green peppers and some cucumbers and even a few more hot banana peppers. This little garden turned out to be another blessing. I love that we had fresh veggies every day, and no I never seem to tire of fresh tomatoes and cukes.

Ike

2008-09-15T14:56:00.002-04:00

We got the very tail end of Ike last night. Rain and wind and then about 2:30, the power went out. It did come back on a little after 8 this morning though. Our yard was littered with tons of branches and sticks and Matt and I picked them all up, I am talking many, many arm loads of branches in both the front and back yards. Not any real damage, PTL.
Our neighbor, Don, was not quite as fortunate. He has a tree in his front yard that he was very proud of. He told Wm. how it was an Aspen and how it grew like a triangle.

When it came down, it landed on the wires. If you look closely you can see it is burning where it touches the wires. First, the fire chef came, then the fire truck which waited for National Grid to come. They waited 4 hours to be exact. (National Grid never did come) Finally, they just taped off the area and left. The news said there were 40,000 homes in the area without electricity this morning.
Exciting stuff going on right out side our house you say. I thought so, I thought Matt would love the fact that a fire truck was directly in front of our house. Not Matt, he wanted to play with the story reader video plus and the click start computer. I kept asking if he wanted to go outside. His answer, "Absolutely, when is the garbage truck coming" All righty then!

on my mind...........

2008-09-09T21:45:00.002-04:00

Allergy season has hit us full force. I can function with Nasonex but my poor Matthew is having a hard time. He has been taking Benadryl on the days his allergies act up on the dr. recommendation. It no longer seems to touch his symptoms. This morning he was sneezing non stop so I gave him his medication. Being a typical 3 yr. old he hates to have to blow his nose. He will wipe it but that will not alleviate the problem. I was getting his clothes out of the dryer from where the majority of his Benadryl ended up when he called me to tell me he felt awful. By the time I got from the dryer to the LR, he was throwing up gobs of phlegm.; all over himself, his blankie, the floor, the chair and me. So for the second time in an hour, I was washing his clothes (not to mention mine) as well as cleaning up the LR. From there, our day seemed to go down hill quickly. I feel so bad for him and at the same time, there is absolutely nothing I can do. He needs to blow his nose and refuses. On the up side, he has an appt. with the pediatrician on Thurs.

My wild little garden is bountiful of late. Every morning we go out and pick what is ready and Matt turns the pumpkins, which are now bright orange., to keep them well rounded. In the last few days all the tomato plants have become so heavy they are all tipping over the cages. Our cucumbers are finally coming and even the pepper plants have peppers on them. (not just the hot banana peppers) I am so very grateful for fresh vegetables every day. PTL
We did manage to get the cornices up in Matt's room (OK, Will got them up, I just held them while he screwed them in place) I was pleased to finally get the curtains up. I was not that happy once I hung them up and saw how wrinkled they were are. I do love the way the cornices turned out. I painted them to look like road block signs and I put plugs over the screws and painted them silver to look like bolts.

So now I need to take down the curtains down and iron them again.......I made the curtains back when Matt was still in diapers and the borders on the curtains matched the diaper holder. Now if I could just get the bed finished and put in the room, I would be one happy camper (Matt too)

We have been working on video games (included in the video story readers) for hand/eye coordination as well as learning the alphabet (he knows it and can count to 30 but this not only reinforces this but helps him recognize the numbers and letters on sight) I got the player and the story books at Ollies.

Not feeling well has not stopped him from keeping me in stitches as usual. Today, he came out of the bathroom and told me he had to turn on the fan because he tooted up the bathroom. Uncle Roy asked him if his legs were dry and Matt said no, it is hair on my legs Uncle Roy.......I am just a hairy guy. Where does he get this stuff???

Lessons I learned from a 3 year old

2008-09-04T21:55:00.000-04:00

This week was a short one so I thought we would do some different things. Tuesday we painted a lot of the day. He loves to paint and does a great job. "I am blending colors because you think it looks good Gramma, but I like my colors to be separate". Alrighty then! Yesterday we decided it was time to take down the crib. He was not using it anyway and it was just taking up space in his room. (Maybe a big empty space would be just the incentive we need to finish his bed, or maybe not) So we got in his room, took out the mattress and moved the bed to the middle of the room. "Gramma, I do not think this is a good idea for you try to do this; we better wait for Papa, he will know what to do". I should have listened, I tried to get the crib apart but to no avail. ("Gramma, you really should be wearing a hard hat when you do this kind of work" and yes, he did have his on) We gave up and went out on the porch just as Uncle Roy came to visit. "Oh, Uncle Roy, Gramma actually tried to take apart the crib when I told her she should wait for Papa, and she couldn't do it. I told her, but she wouldn't listen!" You will all be happy to know that the crib is down. Papa and Matt dismantled it at 5pm, yesterday.

Today after taking the crib to the cellar, and checking the garden so Matt could collect the veggies that were ready as well as turn the pumpkins (so they stay nice and round, Gramma) I suggested we give Ali a bath. I thought he would jump right on this idea.. First came the questions: Matt:"Are you giving her a bath in the tub"?

Me: "No, I thought outside would be a good idea, then I won't have to lift her into the tub."

Matt: "This is not wisdom, Gramma, I think you better wait for Papa" . (I am in the habit of saying this is not wisdom all the time to him, must be a little too much, eh)

Me: "No, Matt, I know we can do it, especially if you help me"

Matt: "For crying out the window, Gramma, I am just a little boy. (If you think I probably say for crying out the window all the time too, you would be right)

Well, it was a trial, Matt had a hard time holding Ali when I tried to spray her with the hose, he stepped in dog poop and had a meltdown. I had to stop with the dog wet and soapy to clean up Matt's crocs. Now we are talking vinyl crocs here folks, I had to wipe the dog poop off them, wipe them with disinfecting wipes, wash them in hot water and soap, spray Lysol on them and then put them in the sun to dry before we could finish Alice's bath. (Matt was giving me instructions on how to clean them)

I am thinking I should have listened to Matt's advice in the first place and saved myself a lot of work. I am learning that he is very intelligent for a 3 year old.

Tomorrow we are going out to lunch and to to Ollie's with Uncle Roy. Matt has some money and he wants to "buy" something for himself. When Uncle Roy left on Wednesday, Matt said "That Uncle Roy is a really great guy isn't he Gramma"? "He sure is Matty, he sure is"!

unexpected little blessings

2008-09-01T11:43:00.001-04:00

This weekend was one of quite a few unexpected little blessings.

Betsy and Kenny came down on Friday evening to close up Carol's pool on Saturday. Betsy told me that she would attempt damage control on my hair from when I went to Supercuts earlier this summer. Once she looked at it she told me she would do what she could but that it was going to take at least 2 more cuts before it would blend in like I wanted it to. (let me say right now, it was not so bad a cut that people would be pointing at me on the street and snickering, it was just not the way I wanted it and it did look exactly like the hairdresser's, hmmmm) I was disappointed but what could I do, nothing but let it grow out! Betsy told me to try to curl it towards my face (same thing the other hairdresser had told me). I tried it but it was just "not me". Anyway, to make a long story short, I colored my hair and when I was blow drying it, it blew away from my face and blended in perfectly. (blessing #1)

Saturday afternoon we went to get water at BJ's with Uncle Roy. I asked if we could look at Sears and see if they had any vacuum cleaners on sale that we could afford as our little one died last week. Matt and I tried to fix it but to no avail. We had gotten it at Aldi's for under $20 when we lived in Canton and had 3 bassets (which equals a lot of shedding) so this little lightweight (easier on my back) had served us well. I found a Eureka for 1/2 price so it was only $49 and has great suction. (blessing #2)

Sunday afternoon we took Uncle Roy and met Betsy, Kenny and Carol for lunch at Cracker Barrel (Uncle Roy's favorite and we were celebrating his birthday yesterday) We stopped at Wegman's to get some non dairy ice cream for Uncle Roy to have with his birthday carrot cake and found they had carrot cake ice cream (blessing #3) Ok, you may not think of it as a blessing but I am sure it was for Uncle Roy who was expecting vanilla tofutti.

Susan, Tom and Matthew came over to celebrate Susan's and Uncle Roy's birthday. Now if you will remember last week I mentioned that we got some clothes for Susan's birthday and that is where blessing #4 comes in. Well, this is not so much for Uncle and me as for Susan but in the last week, she has lost yet another size.(blessing #4) Yes, we do need to take back her clothes and get a size smaller but you have to admit, that is a good thing!

So, all in all, we had an excellent weekend shared with our family and friends and we still have today left to finish up some of the little projects we have been working on. No, not the bed, (I know, Matt will be in high school before we finish it)

Thank you Lord for all the unexpected little blessing you give us and we take for granted.

edit: I almost neglected to mention one of nicest of my unexpected blessings: I asked my DH to please move the furniture in the LR so we could clean behind them before everyone came for the party. He not only moved the LR furniture and cleaned behind it, he also mopped the LR, hall and kitchen floors.......an added bonus, especially with my back. *blessing #5

ORANGE

2008-08-28T14:12:00.001-04:00

Because we have two birthday cakes to make tomorrow, I suggested we make Matt's "orange" cake yesterday. He loved the idea. Now nothing with Matt is cut and dried. I keep the cake pans in the strange cupboard that has an angle so it is not only deep but also goes back by the stove. He insisted we take everything out of the cupboard to get to the cake pans.

Yep, that is Matthew inside the cupboard. You can tell it is him by his orange crocs.

This is the orange cake. We used food coloring to make the frosting.. He told me just use frosting on the top of the cake so there would be sure to be enough frosting in the bowl for licking. I told him we had to put frosting all over the cake so he asked if we could just make him a bowl of frosting for a snack. mmmmmm, NO!

Today we wrapped up the books from Susan B. and the crocs so we could send them to the girls. He loves to go to the cellar (I do not) and we needed to look for a box and paper and then after I printed out the mailing label from the USPS site, he took it to the mail box (by myself Gramma, I know how to do it and how to put up the flag). Tomorrow we will wrap up Mommy's and Uncle Roy's birthday gifts and then make their cakes. That should be an adventure!

It's over

2008-08-26T15:10:00.001-04:00

My vacation is officially over and there will be no more sleeping in . Gone are the days when I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it. Now I have resigned myself to doing things in Matthew's time frames. No more grown up conversations without hearing "why" to every remark I make. No more checking the emails or taking a peek to see who has changed their blog since the last time I looked. No more lunches in a restaurant or shopping for bargains. (at least not during the week) From now on my days are more structured and as nice as it was to be on vacation and have time for myself, I wouldn't want it any other way than this. I really did miss Matt last week and my sweet Wm. was kind enough to take me over to see him when he got home on 2 occasions. Last week I had to bake cookies on my own with no one to lick the beaters.
Sunday is Susan's birthday and Matt wants to bake her a cake. He really is quite the chef you know. We do cook quite a bit but his favorites are sweets (cakes, pies and cookies, oh my) Uncle Roy's 84th birthday is 9/3 but we will be celebrating it this weekend as well. Matt has already told Uncle Roy when he came over this morning, that he would be making him a special birthday cake. He told Uncle Roy that his would be a carrot cake and his mother's cake would be chocolate with chocolate frosting. Then he decided that as long as we were making cakes, we should make an orange cake for him with orange frosting with sprinkles. After all, we were making cakes anyway and his favorite color and flavor is orange and no one made him an orange cake on his birthday and.......................

I didn't get all I was hoping to accomplished on my vacation but I did make a big dent in what I had on my list. I also had a great time with my friend (speaking of friends, Betsy is coming to Syracuse this weekend to close her sister's pool so we will be seeing them ) a good time with Uncle Roy last Thurs. and again on Saturday when went to the mall in Auburn.. Wm. dropped us off at the mall so we could shop and he went to the Home to see his mom. She is planning to go back to Jim and Linda's to live. They are in NC this week on vacation but will be back soon. I feel bad that she can not seem to be satisfied any place. When we were there a week ago, I really thought she was liking the Home, and then I hear she is moving back in with Wm.'s brother and SIL.. Uncle Roy and I got some excellent bargains at Sears on Saturday. I had a coupon for $15 off on $75 on shoes and apparel. We had no problem with finding $75 worth of stuff but the cashier said what I got did not qualify for the coupon as some was on sale. The coupon stated sale or regular merchandise qualified so I asked her to show me where it said my purchases did not qualify on the coupon. She got all flustered and then ended up taking the coupon off. I could not understand why things were not going that well for me there but chalked it up to Sears. From there we went to JoAnn Fabrics where scrapbooking paper was on sale. I brought my purchases to the counter and the cashier told me not all my purchases qualified for the sale price........ what the????? I kept my cool and said "OK, but you had better change your sign where I got the scrapbook paper as it said any paper from $.29 - $.99 included in the sale". Yes, she did give it to me for the sale price and yes, I probably would have paid the original price if it came right down to it. Yes, I know in the big scheme of things saving $15 with a coupon or getting a $.99 piece of scrapbook paper for $.16 doesn't amount to anything. But it is the principle; why claim things to lure people in to a sale if you are not going to honor it. OK, I am getting off my soap box now.

And this is a three day weekend.......woohoo!!!!! Matt and I drained his pool and then let the air out. We put bleach in the pool and scrubbed it, inside and out. "Gramma, are we doing this because it is getting cooler out now?" "Yep, fall is on the way, my boy" ! "And then it will be winter, right Gramma" ????? .................. Let's not think that far ahead OK?

Good friends, good food and good bargains

2008-08-21T16:41:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. My friend got here from Canton at about 10am. Once I finished putting dinner in the crock pot, we left for a most enjoyable day. First, it was so good to see her after such a long time. We used to share the same office when I was the Office mgr. at the church.
We started off our day with a trip to Ollie's (the new outlet I was telling you about) For all of you who were waiting with bated breath to hear my review of this place, here it is: They have tons of stuff. Their slogan was right, "good stuff.....cheap". They have a huge book selection there. Lots of Bibles and inspirational books in addition to kids books, coffee table books, etc. I had been very happy buying Christian novels (Karen Kingsbury and Beverly Lewis) at my neighborhood "Books 4 Less" store for $8 new and $5-6 used) but yesterday I got 2 that I had not read before for $4 brand new. Woohoo!
From there we went to Olive Garden for lunch (it was right across the street) We had a great lunch and a chance to catch up on each other's family and grandchildren(OK, in her case she only has one granddaughter)
Then it was on to the Christmas Tree Shop for more closeout bargains. Did I mention how much I love bargain hunting????? Yeah, I thought I did! At lunch we were discussing the amount of construction on the thruway, and rte 690 and 81. I had the brilliant idea that I would cut across the city and skip the "big roads" as Matt calls them. Guess what, my sense of direction did not improve when I moved to Syracuse. So we ended up taking a tour of the industrial warehouse section of the city. I said it was to give us a chance to digest out lunch before the hunt began again......OK, I said it but we were in fact lost. I am sure this comes as no surprise to anyone from Canton, especially my son Josh.
I was sorry to see her go, I had a wonderful day and she never kept asking "why" when ever I said something!

Today, Uncle Roy and I went to lunch and then it was back to Ollies......I knew he would love it (DH would not) He did and we spent a few hours there. We never did get something for Susan's birthday but since we have another week we are planning to go on Saturday.

My poor Ali feels deserted......not only is Matthew not here but I actually had the nerve to leave her for 2 days in a row. She really wasn't that impressed with the chew toy I brought her back from my adventures.

making progress

2008-08-19T23:07:00.001-04:00

Well, I started my vacation yesterday. My plan was to get things done that I never seem to have time to work on when Matt is here. So, yesterday I did some touch up painting I had been wanting to get to for a while now. Today, I tackled some sewing projects that needed to be done. I got most of what I wanted to work on, finished. I did want to make some cookies but I had not gone to the grocery this weekend so I had no chocolate chips. When my DH came home tonight, we went to the store so I can work on the cookies. Tomorrow, you say? No not tomorrow. My friend from Canton is coming down to spend the day with me. Woohoo! She came down a year ago and we went to the Christmas Tree Store. She is into bargain hunting as much as I am. We are planning to make a day of it and go to lunch, and maybe to the new "Ollie's Bargain Outlet" that recently opened on the blvd. (Their slogan is good stuff.......real cheap". We will see. :-

On Thursday, Uncle Roy and I are planning to make a day of it as well. Susan's birthday is the 31st so we need to find something for her. I have not been one to shop till I drop, any more. Funny, when I lived in the north country where you had to drive just to go shopping, I was always up for it. Here, we have many choices (maybe too many) and while I like to go bargain shopping, but mall shopping does nothing for me. After they had a guy commit suicide in the mall last night at 6pm, I am not sure I will want to go again!

So the way I see it, I can enjoy myself with my friend tomorrow and then with Uncle Roy on Thursday, and still have 3 days to get the things I wanted to work on completed.

All that said, I do miss Matt. Poor Ali is beside herself. She is walking around the house like a little lost dog (pun intended)

The road to Abilene

2008-08-17T20:02:00.001-04:00

Today after church, we took the road to Abilene. No, not actually the road to Abilene. Wm. always used "the road to Abilene" as a lesson for our kids and for his employees back when he worked for the USPS. If you have never heard the lesson I will tell you the story. It is about a family who wants to go somewhere but because no one speaks up, they end up going to Abilene. No one actually wanted to go to Abilene but because everyone thought that was what the others wanted to do, no one said anything and they ended up on the "road to Abilene". When we got home from church, Wm. said what do you want to do. I said lets go somewhere. Neither of us made our desire known and we ended up at that Outlet Mall in Waterloo. I wanted to go to the Outlet Mall, just not today. Today I wanted to go to the Amish Market over in the same general vicinity. No not an authentic Amish market as it was open on Sunday (we know that would not happen). Another dead giveaway was the winery in one of the bldgs. This place had Amish quilts, furniture, sheds, etc. that they purchased from the Amish to sell to the public at their Market, which they have open 7 days a week. Now the drive there was gorgeous, along Cayuga Lake, but the market itself was rather disappointing. There were 4 pole barns full of furniture, etc. and tons of sheds etc. outside. There was also a lot of Adirondak chairs painted pink and turquoise and stenciled with "It's 5 o'clock somewhere". Will wondered how many Amish stenciled that on their furniture after painting it electric pink and turquoise :-)

Matt was here when we got back. They stopped to drop off a pair of pants I am taking in for Susan.(she lost more than 40# and she looks great, but she loves these pants) She will be in CT. this week and I am on vacation. Matt's other grandma will have him.

We have 5 pumpkins, too many green tomatoes to count, green beans and only one cucumber the size of a pickle. Maybe with more sun this week, the garden will ripen up some of its bounty. We can always hope, eh? My neighbor John shared more of his cucumbers yesterday.

Thank you all for your prayers for Jon Christian. He told me that he just found out he can collect unemployment for an entire year once his severance pays stops because they sent his job overseas. No, he is not looking to do that instead of working, but he is not finding anything that is a good fit for him. He is toying with the idea of starting a website company at home. He has done some of this from time to time while working for the paper.

nore musings

2008-08-13T21:54:00.002-04:00

I am pleased with the garden. My tomatoes are out of control as is the pumpkin patch. I love tomatoes but they are not ripening as fast as I would like. I know from experience that when they do, I will have more than I can possibly eat. My cucumbers have tons of flowers but no cucumbers; not to mention they are strangling my pepper plants. I still have no peppers other than the hot banana peppers. Despite the fact the pumpkin patch has sent out shoots through the fence into the neighbor's yard (yes, Will cut them back) there are still only 3 pumpkins

My "wild" tomatoes.

If you look close you can see the hot banana peppers. Yes, the fence has kept out the rabbits but it makes it nearly impossible for me to pull weeds.

I took this picture on Sat. evening. A lot more flowers are out now!
I am blessed by this little garden and how much time Matt spends every day checking it; it definitely pales next

to my DIL's! She definitely has a green thumb whereas mine is brown.

Best Day Yet?

2008-08-11T14:46:00.003-04:00

We love Mondays......OK, Matt loves Mondays. Because he gets to come back to Gramma and Papa's house? No! Why you ask? Because Monday is garbage day. No matter where we are in the house, he can hear when it turns onto our street. We have to go outside and stand at the end of the driveway and wait for both the recycling and garbage trucks to pick up our stuff. The guys from the trucks always talk to him and he loves it. For his birthday he got a garbage truck and last week we took it down to show it off to the garbage guys. Today they blew the horn at him when they were across the street but it was not until they stopped at our house did this turn into Matt's best Monday yet. They told him to promise them he would never be a garbage man but a doctor or a lawyer. Then the unthinkable happened. They asked if he wanted to dump the garbage into the truck. They explained that they did not have as nice a truck as his garbage truck was but once they hooked our can onto the arm, they let him push the lever up to dump our garbage into the truck; and then pull it back down to lower the can to the ground. He told them, "I can not believe you are letting me doing this. This is way too cool! I really can not believe this! " What could possibly top that? Probably nothing but we did have to call both Papa and Mommy at work to tell them about his experience. There was no way this kind of news could have waited until 5pm!!!!

Saturday William took Uncle Roy and I to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I had gone to the one in Raleigh a few times when we down visiting Jon Christian and his family. It is no where near the size of the Raleigh store but I had a great time scrounging around. I got some mosaic tiles that were a perfect match for my kitchen and would have made a fantastic backsplash had there been more. I bought all they had . I got 8 sq. ft. for $4. I also got some new handles for the bathroom vanity. I had changed the faucets but not the vanity handles or the towel bars and TP holder. Well, they are all changed now. We also put a cornice over the hardware for the shower rod. (I dislike seeing them as much as curtain hardware)

Yesterday, after church, we went over to the Home to see Will's mom. She was sick last weekend so did not make it to Matt's party. She was doing much better yesterday. She was really quite chipper. We rode down in the elevator with her when she went down for dinner and everyone was talking to her and she was talking to everyone. I was surprised to see she has become "Ms. Congeniality"

So another weekend has gone by and we have not worked on the bulldozer bed we are making for Matt's room. For the second week in a row, he has decided not to sleep in the crib and opted for the couch instead for his nap.

This morning, Matt and Ali were watching Diego (Matt may have been a little more engrossed than Ali)

contradictions????

2008-08-07T16:19:00.000-04:00

Lately we have been purchasing more at Aldi's than we ever did before. Eggs have been on managers special at our "neighborhood" Aldi's for the past few weeks. I use quite a few eggs in cooking and baking so I have been purchasing 2 dozen when I shop there. I found it refreshing that on the inside of the cover it said "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it". On the outside of the carton was a recipe for deviled eggs. Hmmmm
This week when I picked up the carton, there was recipe for Heavenly scrambled eggs. Maybe I was not the only one to have thought the other recipe strange. Or maybe it was just time for a change. Who knows.

Today we met Del and Nancy French at the Airport Inn. Will took them into the airport with their van and Matt and I drove the Explorer home. All the way home, Matt cried, "I don't want you to drive". "You don't know how to drive Gramma" "Papa should be driving this car, why do you keep doing this"??? He cried all the way from the airport to the exit at Jones Rd. When I drove into the driveway, he calmly asked "If you had to drive why didn't you take me somewhere instead of just coming home? I am beginning to think there is no winning with him.

We have had some nice sized red tomatoes from our garden. The green bean are coming and the cucumbers are flowering. The pumpkins, they are amazing. Bursting with yellow flowers and at the last check, we have 3 pumpkins, I am sure we will get more. I was planning to take some more pictures of the pumpkin patch but it has rained most of the time since we got back from the airport. My neighbor John gave me some cucumbers on Mon. from his garden. He has one cucumber plant and it giving him more cucumbers than they can eat on a daily basis. He planted cherry tomatoes which are doing nothing yet. Neither are his bell pepper plants or mine for that matter. The neighbor next door to John, whose pepper plants are probably 5 ft. away from John's, are flourishing. The peppers are huge. Maybe they used Jackie's secret :-)

Jason's wedding, Matt's party ; Matt and the doggie door

2008-08-04T15:28:00.005-04:00

GF wedding cake
Double rainbow seen from the ship

Jason and Shelly
Papa and Matt
kids table at the party

I love this pix of Lauren!

Matt and Alice spent most of the morning going in and out the doggie door

Whirlwind weekend

2008-08-03T18:35:00.001-04:00

Our whirlwind weekend is coming to close. We left on Friday morning to go to Burlington for the wedding. I did not sleep well during the night because my stomach was very upset. I figured I could sleep in the car. Susan called early in the morning to say that Tom was not going as he had a stomach bug (yes, the same; Matt had it on Tues and Wed.) I was OK and not feeling much worse until we got to Rutland. We stopped there for lunch at Ponderosa and I decided to just eat mashed potatoes, safe right??? no butter, no gravy, may settle my stomach, right? Wrong!!!!! Going through the gorgeous Green mountains, I began to feel worse, Wm. had to pull over and I never got better. Needless to say, William and Susan went to the wedding, I stayed at the hotel and tried to sleep. Continually getting up and down to run to the bathroom, made it difficult to sleep. So needless to say, I have no pictures of the wedding, or the cruise ship or anything. Susan took some good shots so just be patient and I will share.

Saturday morning we made our way back to NY through the rain. Five hours is long time in the car when you don't feel well. The light at the end of the tunnel.......three of the most beautiful granddaughters in the world were here waiting for me when I did get home. Woo hoo. We decided to go out for dinner and Alyssa (a real girly girl) said " I need to go to the hotel and slip into a dress before we go to dinner". (I loved it!!) We went to our favorite haunt (of course, Kirby's) I knew my stomach could not handle the barbecue so I got chicken and linguini with no sauce. Did choke down a few bites.

This morning was my sweet little Matthew's 3rd birthday. After having breakfast with Grampa and her family, Lael helped me get things ready to take to the party. I made some potato salad, veggie tray, with dip and a fruit salad. Alyssa went with Grampa to walk Alice to the playground. I am amazed at how the girls have grown and how Lael seems to be up for handling big tasks, like chopping eggs for the potato salad, or making the veggie dip. Because of Alyssa's allergies, we had to wash the counters, etc. in between the salads so we would not cross contaminate.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the party, Susan had Matt's cake made but she also made cupcakes for Alyssa and Uncle Roy with no eggs or milk and a small round one that was gluten free for her father and Stephanie. Loved having every one together, would have rather I felt better, but hey, I will gladly take what I can get. I realize how infrequently I get to see my other grandchildren anymore. I am blessed to have Matt every day but it comes at a price. What doesn't?

Ready, set, go.......

2008-07-31T13:15:00.002-04:00

I am trying to get ready to go to Burlington, VT tomorrow morning. We are going up for Jason and Shelly's wedding. The wedding will be on a boat which will sail at 7pm sharp. It is a 5 hr. trip from here to VT and because of that we will staying over night and returning on Sat. morning.

Josh and Jackie are bringing the girls down on Sat. morning for Matthew's birthday. They are planning a trip to the zoo until we get home Sat. afternoon. We will all be together for dinner on Sat. night and then Sunday afternoon is the party. I am so very excited to have 4 of my 6 grandchildren together. Yes, I realize it would not be wisdom for Jon to come as long as he is still unemployed. I am praying that something will become available before his severance is up. Not just a job but one suited for him. He has worked for the paper for 10 or 11 yr. since they moved to NC. I don't understand the papers decision to cut out the entire ad department in 2 of their 3 offices. I am sure it must have something to do with people reading it on line and not subscribing to the paper.

Another project is finished. No, not the bed......maybe next weekend. Another bird house lamp. I love it. Both these lamps were the favorites in my birdhouse collection. There was just no place to put the birdhouse collection so making them into lamps was really a way to keep part of it and still get rid of my clutter. Yes, even things we love can be clutter if we really don't have room for it. I do so want to get the clutter outta here. The garage sale we had last month at Susan's made a huge dent in what we had.

A dog and her boy

2008-07-28T17:39:00.002-04:00

When we bought our house 3 yr. ago, it had a doggie door . Zoe would never use it so we put the cover over it and then I put the bottom of my hutch over it (I use it for recycling). Yesterday, William decided to try to see if Ali would use it. At first she was hesitant, however, before the afternoon was out she had been in and out more times than I can count. This morning when Matt came, he discovered Alice was using the doggie door. I am sure you can guess what is coming next. Yep, Matt and Ali both came in the doggie door. "Wow, Gramma, it is so fun to pretend to be a dog".

You will never believe how Matt's pumpkin patch is growing. Actually, it is more like overtaking the back yard. It is way beyond the frame that Papa and Matt made for it.

It goes on beyond what you can see in the picture but that was as much as I could fit in the viewer. You can only see the corner of the frame in the upper left corner of the picture. Matt checks the progress every day. So far we have gotten some tomatoes from the garden, but we do see evidence the beans are coming. We have some hot banana peppers but those were not our intention for our garden. Maybe my DIL likes them, they are coming down this weekend for Matt's birthday. I can't wait. I miss my girls! They are planning to go to the zoo on Sat. while waiting for us to get home from Burlington

Perks

2008-07-27T20:28:00.001-04:00

One of the great things about my "job" is the perks. Well, first is the obvious that I get to spend all day with my grandson. Another is that Susan added extra lines for both Wm. and I on her phone contract. Well, the other day she told me that I could get a new phone for free under the contract. I really did not need a new phone per se but at the same time mine was not holding the charge like it used to. It came yesterday, here it is: Pretty fancy, eh? How do you like it? It is a camera phone like the other one, it is just purple. I am sure I know of two special little someones who will think it is great because it is purple!
Wm. was working at the church Sat. morning. When he gets home I have to get groceries, a gift card for the wedding and I would like to look for a dress to wear. My friend, Betsy got one to wear to a wedding last weekend at Dress Barn for 1/2 off. I will look anyway.

On Thursday, Matt wanted to have another restaurant. So he began gathering things for his restaurant while I got the food he wanted to serve. Now while it started out as a great idea, it ended with the "waiter" taking off his clothes with the exception of the apron and underpants and sitting down to eat the food himself: All righty then!

Update

2008-07-23T21:30:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was my doctor's appt. for what I was sure was a sinus infection. It was and I am now taking my z-pack. I got the results back on my bone density scan and the bonivia has helped.

Today Matthew and I went with Uncle Roy to ToysRUs so Matthew could show us some of the things he wanted for his birthday. His first choice; well that would be a John Deere tractor with a canopy and dumping trailer. For only a mere $349.00 Yikes! He said "Please Gramma, it is really a fancy one". He had a shirt on today that said :If I am quiet, you had better come find me". You would not believe how many people came to us to ask if that was true. Uncle Roy took us to lunch at KFC/A&W Root Beer. Matt got a kids meal and we were very impressed how he sat right up and ate it. It has only been a little while that he has been actually eating chicken strips (nuggets, etc).

Speaking of Matt's birthday, it is Aug. 3rd. I can not tell you how happy I am that Josh, Jackie and the girls are coming down for Sat.& Sun. I miss the girls so much and to have 4 of my 6 grandchildren together is a real blessing. I don't think I have mentioned lately how glad I am to be a grandmother. I am not happy that Jon Christian, Donna, Morrigan and Max will not be coming. It was the plan that they would come for the week as we have Jason's wedding on Fri. night up in Burlington. Since having his job terminated, they did not feel it wise to plan a week long trip up from Raleigh. Please pray that he will find something else before his severance runs out.

Matthew wanted the theme for his party this year to be Scooby Do. I can not believe how much he likes that show. His cousin, Tyler, told him it was the best show ever and since then, it has been his favorite. I will interject here that I did not like it when his mother was a kid and I really have not changed my mind. Last week he told me that he could use a ham sandwich to calm his nerves. That took me aback, and it actually took me a while to realize he was quoting Shaggy from Scooby Do. (the biggest hint: he hates ham)

A thousand thoughts

2008-07-20T13:23:00.002-04:00

OK, so maybe not a thousand thoughts but a lot of unconnected thoughts.
When we got Alice, she had had 11 puppies and needed to be spayed. Wm. took her to for a check-up a few days after we got her. I was supposed to call and make an appt. to have her spayed sometime in the next week. I didn't. You probably know where this is going......yep, she is in heat. We have never had a dog in heat before. Poor little girl is confined to the kitchen I really feel so bad for her and guilty. At the time, my reasoning for not calling was that Will would have to take her and I didn't know how busy he was and when the best time for an appt. would be. I know, pretty pathetic, right?

We put up a bigger pool for Matthew 'cause he wanted to "swim". He could not be happier, yesterday he spent the entire day with the exception of his nap and lunch (and the 20 min. we went across the street to my neighbor's garage sale) in the pool. I am glad he likes it so much but it was sooo hot and muggy, I just wanted to be inside in the air conditioning. (I am so thankful this house has central air; yes, I realize I may have mentioned that before)
We worked some more on our projects......OK, Wm. worked on the projects, I helped as much as I could, which was not a lot. Hey, I held it up so he could fasten it up and I hung the curtains once he was done. I could not be happier with the way this looks. Don't you love it? I never liked seeing the hardware for the curtains. It is the same as the window seat he built when we moved in. (Like you really needed me to tell you that!)

William put the new faucet on the bathroom vanity. It looks sooo much better than the gold ones that were here when we bought the house. Now while they were totally functional, who wants gold faucets??? Can we say ugly?

Now we still have more projects to work on, maybe next weekend. we can work on Matt's bed again. I think that maybe tomorrow after church,we will go to the Home and see my MIL. Tomorrow, Jen and Eric are having Eleora dedicated.

more ramblings

2008-07-17T15:26:00.002-04:00

The pumpkins that Matthew and Papa planted are gradually taking over.

Hopefully this will mean a big pumpkin for Matt and toasted pumpkin seeds for us.

Our garden is coming along, but it pales in comparison to my DIL, Jackie's.

There are now peppers on the pepper plants.........however, what I thought were red peppers turned out to be hot banana peppers.......yikes, who would have thought. They are the only peppers we have yet.....wouldn't you know! Tomatoes are on each of the 6 plants, I can't wait, I love tomatoes.

From Matt.com:

Matt rode his tricycle while Papa and Alice walked along. Can you guess what he got? Yep a donut with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles. FYI, the bakery is at least 3 blocks away from our house and he rode there and back.

One last thing, I have been looking for new recipes I could make that were GF. I found 2 new ones we had the other day. They were great and you don't have to have celiacs to enjoy them. First, I took corn on the cob, melted butter (OK, buttery spread from LOL) and mixed in some brown sugar. Brush the butter mixture on the corn and wrap in aluminum foil and grill for 20 min. YUM! The other was apple pork kabobs This recipe came from gluten freeda.com. It has a combination of garlic and apple jelly and honey which you would not think of as a tasty choice.......but it was fabulous. So glad I tried it.....it is a keeper.

a few days of rest???

2008-07-15T15:59:00.002-04:00

Well, let me begin at the beginning. I took Mon. and Tues off with Matthew and his other grandmother watched him so I could go to the dr. I knew the chances were slim of getting in on the same day you call thus the two days off. There was always the off chance that they would have an opening or cancelation and I could be seen on Mon. I have been bothered by what I thought was a sinus infection for the past 2 wk. I thought it might go away on it's own. OK, maybe I just hoped it would go away on it's own. Well, it didn't. I called the dr. office on Mon. morning and the first possible appt. with my dr. is Tues (of next week) Now I could have seen another dr. (which is probably what most people would have done) but I opted to wait. Hey, I waited this long, what is another week.

So I thought I could get some rest but that was not the case. Ali has been like a lost soul without Matt. This morning, I went back to bed after making Will's lunch. I got up an hour later to Ali having chewed Matt's new orange goggles to bits. (she is a chewer when she is bored) Guess that is the reason her last owners kept her caged most of the time.

Anyway, I cleaned clutter from the kitchen yesterday and then made cookies for Susan's family and Uncle Roy as well as a GF cake for Wm. Today I decluttered the office. YIKES what an ordeal that was. You can actually see the computer desk. Now I have always said that a clean desk was a sign of a sick mind. It was backbreaking work, but well worth it. The office looks good now.

Back to normal tomorrow!

musings

2008-07-11T12:58:00.002-04:00

I am very thankful to have a "job" that allows me to stay at home, spend my day with a very special young man who keeps me on my toes. He has inherited the "mr clean gene" from his father and is constantly wanting to clean up something I am especially thankful for a wonderful husband who makes me feel very blessed to be his wife. He is a jack of all trades, a fantastic father to our 3 grown children and grandfather to the six most special grandchildren ever. He loves us and he loves the Lord. Tomorrow is our 34th anniversary. Yes, I am very blessed!

The rain is good for our little garden,

however, my sinuses and arthritis are flaring up because of it.

The hot muggy days this week have kept us out in the kiddie pool for a big majority of our day. We do come into the cool air conditioned temps inside for lunch and naps. It seems way too hot out there for Ali but she insists on being wherever Matt is.

Right now we have no big plans to celebrate our anniversary......we'll see what happens. We thought about going to Cooperstown for the day but all our projects from last week are still waiting to be completed.

Happy Anniversary, my sweet William and thank you for 34 wonderful years. I love you!

update

2008-07-07T15:50:00.002-04:00

It certainly was a gorgeous weekend. Friday found Wm. and his brothers moving his mother back to the" Home" at her request. She was not happy spending so much time alone while at the same time wanting Linda and Jim to continue living their lives as they had before she moved in with them. Friday afternoon we drew up plans for the bulldozer bed we are making for Matt (for our house) Some of you will remember that we made a castle bed for Morrigan. Poor Wm. has to change my drawing of what I want it to look like to some plans so he can build it.

We (OK, Wm) got as far as cutting it out. In between this project, we did a few other projects that have bothered me since moving in. Wm. and Uncle Roy got the cornice done for over the window in the LR. This mimics the window seat, ie, white beadboard. (have I mentioned lately how much I love cottage design???) Just needs to be painted and put up.

I did a lot of touch up painting this weekend and we put up a chicken wire fence around our little garden as our backyard neighbor, John, (who shared with us from his garden last year) had rabbits eat all of his beans. We saw evidence of them starting on ours.

I dumped the kiddie pool, cleaned and refilled it. Good thing too as we have been in it a lot today and no, not me, Matthew. He hates to get water in his eyes. I got a pair of goggles at the $ store in orange which is his favorite color.

When he was not in the pool, he has been playing with his matchbox cars in the shade of the front porch. Matt put Ali inside(she didn't mind at all sleeping inside in the air while we sweltered in the heat outside) She likes to take his cars and that gets him very upset. He has quite a few matchbox cars but it was just in the last month he has been really playing with them for any length of time.

Now if I just had a couple of more 3 day weekends, maybe I could get the rest of my projects finished.

Welcome to Matt's Restaurant

2008-07-01T14:44:00.002-04:00

Welcome to Matt's Restaurant. May I take your order?

Today's menu consists of Pepperidge Farm goldfish, 100% natural fruit snacks, gingerale "tea" and make believe coffee. Notice the beverage table with the coffee maker and teapot.

This entire "restaurant" was his idea, right down to the apron and the towel for his arm. He put Alice on the front porch because "dogs are not allowed in restaurants, Gramma".

I love his imagination!

Matthew's quote of the day

2008-06-26T16:26:00.002-04:00

Susan bought Matthew some lunchables for his lunch this week. We tried the mini hot dogs. Included in the box was a fun size butterfingers and juice. I gave him some goldfish crackers; put the hot dogs on toothpicks instead of the rolls provided and took out the candy bar. He ate the goldfish crackers, drank the juice, but didn't touch the hot dogs and then asked me for the candy. I told him he had to eat all the hot dogs before he could have the candy. "I tried", he said "I took a bite, Gramma, but when it was in my mouth, it felt like something I was not supposed to be eating"!

update

2008-06-24T16:03:00.001-04:00

The garden in front is filling in nicely; guess the hot, humid weather is good for something. The vegetable garden is really growing too. Yesterday we were out there looking at it when Matt said "hmmmm, that's strange" What I asked. "Someone has planted a hill of cucumbers in my pumpkin patch, strange, very strange". How do you know they are cucumbers? I asked. "Oh gramma". he said, like I was the most stupid woman on the face of the earth, "see the hill of cucumbers over there in the other garden, next to the pepper plants, well they are cucumbers and this hill has the same plants growing in it......they are more cucumbers" "That is very strange".
Today we saw some birds using the new bird bath. We have a family of cardinals, blue jays and a ton of sparrows.

I got the last shot in the series this morning. Hopefully, I am good for another 9 mo. now.

"Gramma, come quick and look at this crazy dawg". She can be crazy alright.

Matt had another growth spurt. He has grown 2 1/2 inches..
Lastly, I finally got the window seat recovered. I had cranberry corduroy on it but it showed every dog hair. Last week I found this material which matched the couch at JoAnn's for $12 a yard, marked down to $6. When I got to the checkout, it rang up $3 a yard. Oh, I do love a bargain!

garden notes

2008-06-20T15:23:00.000-04:00

With all the rain we have been having our little garden is really coming along. Matt and I survey it every morning. Yesterday he had all he could do not to pick the little tomatoes we had on three of our plants. Each of the three had 2 small green tomatoes on them. He began telling me what was growing where in the garden: 6 tomato plants, a row of radishes, two rows of beans, a hill of cucumbers and 4 pepperoni plants. 4 what I asked, "pepperoni plants" No, I said, 2 red pepper plants and 2 green pepper plants, "Oh, I would like it to be a pepperoni plant" he replied. :-)

Uncle Roy took us to Kohls and then out to lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken on Wed None of the clothes Susan got me for my birthday fit. I exchanged them and Uncle Roy bought me a new watch for my birthday. My old one was really becoming tarnished. Most jewelry does with me no matter how much it costs. (the main reason you rarely see me wearing any)

Stephanie came on Thurs. afternoon with Anthony. The boys played for a while. I like it when Matt has someone his own age to play with. I love watching them interact with each other. Alice licked Anthony on his face and he got hives where she licked him. After they left and Alice was licking Matt, I said " I was very sad to see what happened to Anthony's face where Alice kissed him, weren't you Matt"? He responded with "oh Gramma, it won't kill him ya know"! Alrighty then! Stephanie said that it must be something in the dog saliva as when his grandfather's dog licks him, the same thing happens.

update

2008-06-15T23:03:00.003-04:00

I honestly think that since I said I was going to take a break from blogging, I have actually blogged more than before. OK, not blogged exactly, more like just the pictures. Yesterday, was acknowledgement of Lael's (and Jackie's) birthday.

Today was Father's day. It was also my birthday. We had a BBQ here with Susan, Tom and Matt, Uncle Roy and Will's mom. Susan brought an ice cream cake. I made some salads and Will made some Hoffman hot dogs and coneys and some hamburgs. However, we did not use our good china and crystal.......more like our best plastic and paper plates :-) We had a great time of fellowship with family. I had gotten the "Bucket List" for Uncle Roy, and Matt got the same one for Papa. We just finished watching it.

I got some great new clothes from Susan, Tom and Matt and a gift certificate from my north country friend to Christmas Tree Shop. Yep, that put a big smile on my face. Uncle Roy is taking me shopping this week and I got a bird bath from my sweet William. I had one when we lived up north but it cracked

All in all, it was a great day for a Birthday/Father's Day celebration.

Happy Birthday, Lael

2008-06-14T13:08:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, smartest, sweetest, creative, helpful 7 yr. old in the world; Gramma and Grampa love you so very much and we could not be more proud of you.

The pumpkin patch

2008-06-13T13:44:00.003-04:00

This morning before he went to work Papa and Matt put in a pumpkin patch. "Cause Gramma told me I could have my own punkin patch, Papa"!

swimming and exploring

2008-06-12T17:08:00.001-04:00

Taking a break

2008-06-11T11:42:00.002-04:00

I have decided that I will take a little break from the blogging world. I will be posting pictures off and on over the rest of the summer.

Conversation in the kitchen

2008-06-09T13:21:00.002-04:00

Gramma: What do you want for lunch today?

Matt: How about pudding, one cup of white and one cup of chocolate?

Gramma: OK, but I think you need something else too.

Matt: Oh, right, a spoon!

Food for Thought

2008-06-07T22:37:00.004-04:00

I receive a devotional from Liveprayer online. I really like these as they straight forward and you definitely know where Bill Keller stands. An excerpt from this morning's devotional really hit home for me. I want to share it with you.

" In this politically correct world we now live in where the Truth has been exchanged for the lie, we have been conditioned to not say anything that someone else may find offensive. I am sorry, but the Bible IS offensive to those who reject it and always will be. The TRUTH will always be offensive to those who live in rebellion to it. God told us to preach the Gospel, not make people feel good. Paul warned about those who were simply"tickling the ears" of those who heard them. THE PROBLEM WE HAVE TODAY IS WE HAVE TOO MANY EAR TICKLERS AND NOT ENOUGH PREACHERS!!!"

Interested in reading the rest of this? http://www.liveprayer.com/

Update

2008-06-03T11:07:00.002-04:00

I figured it was about time to update again. Not a lot to say but judging from the rest of my posts, I guess that is usually the case.

I have had a headache since last Friday. I mustered enough energy to go to the Christmas Tree Shop, but not the grocery :-) I did go get water for the water cooler at BJ's so I picked up a few things there on Sat. I did get up and go to church on Sunday morning but I came right home (I had told Will that I would get groceries on the way home from church ) Oops!
I was still feeling bad yesterday but last night I really felt horrid; not just the headache but it was the worse indigestion I have ever had (I do take a Rx for that) and if that was not enough I was very sick to my stomach. NO, it was not something I ate. We both at the same thing and Will is fine. (kabobs on the grill w/rice.....he had onions and peppers with his beef but I had mushrooms and zucchini)

On a brighter note, I will be getting the euflexxa shots in my knee beginning a week from today.

Prayer request: Jon Christian is now unemployed. He had worked at the paper, The News Observer, in Raleigh since they moved down there 10 yr. ago. He worked in the ad department as Sr. Ad Designer. They have eliminated the department and it is all computerized and done in Cary for Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Cary. They did give him a severance package but he would like to find another job ASAP. Thank you for your prayers.

Happy Birthday, Jon Christian

2008-05-28T14:46:00.004-04:00

It is very hard for me to believe that my first born is the big "40 " today. I am very blessed by the man and the father he has become. (yes, I was definitely a child bride) Ha, ha who am I trying to kid, I am older than dirt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JON CHRISTIAN
May 28 , 1968

I love you, you have made your mother very proud

weekend projects

2008-05-26T16:52:00.004-04:00

We finally got the anchors put in the swing set. The last few days Uncle Roy has been pushing Matt on the swing while I was the anchor Susan actually bought the swing set. Matt's other grandparents got him one of the wooden sets with the fort etc, like Papa and Nana got for Josh and Jackie's girls. Wondering why the small slide is there........because I refused to allow Matt to bring the step ladder from the garage (I can do it, Gramma, it would be OK with Papa) and this became his second choice for a ladder. Aside from being safer, he swings out on the trapeze, comes back to the slide, and then he slides down. Very creative, that boy!

The other project we worked on was putting the annuals in our garden in the front. I raked out all the old mulch Saturday and then weeded it. This morning we went to Lowes for some plants and mulch. I do have a few more plants that will be coming up this summer. Two of which I think are mums.

Betsy and Kenny Ashley came down on Friday night to open Betsy's sister, Carol's pool on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, they all came over (and both Betsy's and Carol's dog)so everyone could meet our little Alice. Funny, Lisha and Zoe were born only days apart and had been great friends since they were puppies. Alice and Lisha became fast friends as well. We were outside in the yard and all the dogs (and Matthew) were running and playing. We moved into the house so Betsy could cut the back of my hair when Alice turned into an absolute wild dog. Our LR is not very large, we have an 8ft. window seat on the front wall, 2 recliners as well as a table and lamp on the other wall; the TV armorie is on the third wall and a love seat and 2 ottomans make up the fourth. Everyone was sitting in the LR when Alice began racing around and jumping from one person to the next if she could or just running up and jumping on them if she could not. She just kept running like some wild dog. Betsy said it was like a little kitten would do. Anyway, I was mortified,; everyone else was hysterical. On Sunday afternoon we ( Wm. Uncle Roy and I) met them (Betsy, Kenny and Carol) at Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was great to see them again and my hair looks terrific!

Snip-its.........again

2008-05-22T11:18:00.003-04:00

Matt went to Snip-its again last night. Papa worked until 6 so it was 6:15 before they left here. His new haircut was little more than a trim but at least he is not shaggy anymore. Papa told Matt if he was a good boy, they would stop at (old) MacDonald's for dinner. This is the strange part. Matt got a kids meal with chicken nuggets and fries. (he does not usually eat chicken nuggets) and he ate the entire meal as well as some of Papa's salad. It was 8:30 before they got back here, 1/2 hour past his bedtime! No, Papa did not take pictures but Matt let me take this one today.

Ya gotta love Snip-its.

disappointed

2008-05-20T13:58:00.001-04:00

I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon this morning. It has been 9 months since I had the euflexxa shots in my knee and it can be repeated after 6 months. I was hoping that I would be able to start the series of shots today. They did give me a cortisone shot ( 2 actually) while they waited for the authorization from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Now we are hoping for next week. Being the pessimist I am, I can see the authorization coming on Wed of next week because they are only in the Liverpool office on Tues, meaning I would need to wait an additional week to start the series of shots.

Papa dropped me off at the doctor and he took Matthew to IMS to see where he works. It has been all that Matt has talked about since Papa asked him if he wanted to go.

After work today, Susan and Papa are taking Matt to Snip-its to get his hair cut. He told me during lunch that he was going to go with Papa alone; "you and mama are not going". I said Mama likes to take pictures and his reply was "well, Papa knows how to take pictures you know!"

adjustments

2008-05-15T21:15:00.004-04:00

I realize there is a time of adjustment for Alice to get use to us and to our home. She came from a breeder in Hastings, NY. No, not of bassets but of golden labs I found that a little strange but here is the story we were given. They raised golden labs, their teenage daughter wanted a basset hound puppy. They finally got her one and then she wanted to breed her. A year ago, Alice had 11 puppies, they kept one and then their daughter lost interest in both Alice and her puppy. There were getting rid of both of them.

Alice was crate trained. Yes, that is good but she was never a house dog. When she was not outside (200 acres where she could run free) she was in the crate. Getting use to being inside is hard for her. At first, she wanted inside until you let her out, when she wanted to be inside again. She is a counter surfer (3 of our other bassets were as well) and she is a Houdini wannabe. She escaped through the spindles on the front gate when Matt and I had her on the front porch with us. She had no collar on and Matt and I were barefoot as we chased her through the neighborhood so I had to carry her home. Other than that she has been very good. Well, she does seem to have a paper fetish and rips up every scrap of paper she finds.

She follows me around all day. It has only been in the past few months that Matt has stopped following me to the bathroom, now Alice does. I have finally stopped Matt from unrolling the toilet paper but yes, you guessed it, Alice now does. What really surprised me was when she came running into the bathroom after pushing open the door and jumped right on my lap!

All in all, she is a very sweet girl. She adores Matt and he always wants to be with her. We walk her a couple times a day and he takes a turn holding the leash. For never having been on leash other than when she went to the vets, she walks pretty well, even for Matt. She still has not barked, PTL.

2008-05-13T21:36:00.002-04:00

We have a new addition to our family. We got a beautiful little girl basset hound, Alice, who is 3 yr. old. She is adorable and she absolutely adores Matthew. She was outside when we got there to pick her up. We took Matt along because if she did not like him or he did not like her, it would not have been possible for us to get her. Once we got out of the car she made a bee line for Matthew. All the way home, she rode with her back feet on the seat and her front feet on Matt's car seat, licking his face while he giggled with contagious laughter. They ran around the back yard together for a while when we got home. She has yet to bark, PTL
Anyway, here are some pixs of Alice and Matt and Papa in the backyard.

I love her markings. Zoe was also tricolor but she was predominantly brown with a little white.

Stretching out my Mother's Day

2008-05-13T13:41:00.003-04:00

I had a very enjoyable Mother's Day weekend. Yep, the entire weekend! Susan took Friday off work and took Matt (Tyler and Aunt MerryBeth went too) to Medina for a "Day out with Thomas". This meant my weekend began in Fri. Uncle Roy and I went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then to the Christmas Tree Shop (I do love a bargain) and then to Big Lots. I was elated. I love to find bargains and my sweet William hates those places. He will take me but he stays in the car and there is no fun searching for a bargain alone.
Saturday, Wm. got the tub surround up finally after a lot of frustration from the not so square walls. Saturday night we took my MIL to Kirby's for dinner. They have the best BBQ ribs in town (OK, maybe the dinosaur BBQ is better but I rarely go there.
Sunday afternoon Matt came over to bring his card and gifts.
We did not even try to out for dinner on Mother's Day. Instead we went to Tassone's for the all you can eat crab legs on Monday night. (( found a gift certificate Matthew had given me for Grandparent's Day last year).
I was a little sad only having one of my children and one of my grandchildren with me for Mother's Day but Alyssa called and I talked to all the girls, yep, even Lauren :-) Jon and his family are at the shore in NC this week but I did hear from them too.
I loved being a mother but I really love being Gramma!

early Mother's Day bouquet

2008-05-08T13:52:00.003-04:00

I got an early Mother's Day bouquet from Jon, Donna, Morrigan and Max.

Hmmmmm...... I guess the standard has been set :-)

musings

2008-05-04T18:05:00.002-04:00

Wm. went to Canton this weekend to help Josh put privacy fence in the back yard. When we started thinking about going we were both going. Jackie and the girls had gone with her parents to a wedding on LI and I really did not see myself helping with the fence. My knee is in desperate need of another round of Euflexxa shots in it and my back has ached every day since I broke it 14 yr. ago, Riding is not easy for me although knowing my sweet grandchildren are waiting at the other end, does make the trip more bearable. The more I thought about them not being there, the more I thought staying home and accomplishing something was better than going and not seeing them but having to do my weekend chores on Sun. when we got home. I opted to stay home, and do something while Wm. went by himself to help Josh. Did I mention we were in the middle of putting in a new tub surround in our bathroom, our only bathroom? No? Well, we were. Last Sunday afternoon, I told my DH that the caulk around the tub was loose almost all the way around. He went in to scrape off the old caulk and then zap, the tub surround was gone. Now we never liked it in the first place and there were a couple of small cracks in it. Once it was gone we went to Home Depot and Lowe's looking for a replacement. Lowe's were special order and that would have added an additional 2 wk. to the project.
You have no idea how thankful I am to have my DH back home working on the bathroom tub surround. The fence went in without any hitches and he came home on Sat. night. Now he was gone 12 hours, which makes for a long day but he is home and I am so blessed. Not just because he is finishing up the bathroom and soon we will be able to take a shower again; but also because I just love having him here with me. There are only so many sponge baths a person is willing to take. :-)
Did I mention I got a bread machine and I have been making gluten free bread for Wm? Until today I have been using a mix from Wegman's but this is getting expensive. I think I mentioned before that gluten free pasta is $3.50 for 6 oz. Wegman's has 2 different bread machine mixes, one is $3.50 and the other is $6.00. (it also takes 1 egg and 5 egg whites to make this bread) .

New Look

2008-04-26T19:06:00.003-04:00

Got my hair cut this afternoon. I have only had hair this short once before in my life.

So, what do you think?

Stuff

2008-04-24T14:23:00.003-04:00

I am very certain that is not really an ideal title for a post, likewise, I am not even certain that the abundance of thoughts overcrowding my head will come pouring out in a way that could even be construed as entertaining. Now, you must have known I was going to post whether or not I thought the content was post worthy.

The weather in Syracuse has been gorgeous. This is the 9th day in a row that temperatures have been in the high 70 - 80 range. My backyard neighbor's trees are filled with blossoms and his flowers are beginning to come up along the back fence between our properties. Not to be outdone, the small pathetic little garden adjacent to our front porch is starting to show some life,. My hostas have broken through the soil as well as some of the other plants we have there (if I knew what they were I would tell you, I love the way they look but have no idea what they are; something I transplanted from the back yard when we first moved here.) In case you have not realized it yet, my thumbs are not green!

Matt and I want to have a vegetable garden this year. In the past, we have had them but stopped when we had 3 bassets (one who was a digger) vying for backyard space. Now with "the girls" gone and Matt big enough to help me out there, this seems like a good time to put one in. I love fresh vegetables and would love to be able to walk out and pick some instead of waiting for my neighbor to share his overflow with me. Matt wants us to have a garden "like Little Bear has"
With the weather being as warm as it has been, Matt has been wanting to spend every waking moment outside. We really need to invest in some new outside toys. He still does play on the Little Tykes slide that we got from our neighbor last year but it is small despite the fact it said it is suitable for ages up to 5. We have the crocodile see saw but that does not work the best with only one child on it. I found a little sun umbrella for the table but that is not a lot of fun, unless we are having a snack or our lunch out there. Our back yard is totally fenced in which makes it a perfect play yard for Matt, the drawback is he has grown enough that he can open the gate so we are forced to keep it locked. He stands there shaking the gate and screaming, "let me outta here, I want to go in the front yard"!

a study in contradictions

2008-04-18T11:32:00.002-04:00

Matthew seems to be a study in contradictions. While he loves to put on his yellow rain boots and splash and stomp in any mud and water he find, he loves to clean. He sweeps the dirt off the back deck, swiffers our floors, cleans the toilet (no, he does not touch any cleaner; we use the wand and the flushable brushes ), washes dishes and is always straightening things. He checks under the couch and TV cabinet for dust bunnies with a flashlight.
He also finds it necessary to "read" the directions on the Fresh brush flushable package every morning before he cleans the toilet. (Only contradiction I find there is most males never want to read the directions)

He really surprised me this morning. He was drawing on the chalkboard and I wrote his name at the top of the board. He spelled out the letters: M A T T; "that is my name, Gramma". Then I wrote: PAPA, MOMMY, GRAMMA, DADDY and ROSIE on the board. I did not say anything, just wrote the words. He spelled out each word and told me what it said. I knew he could say the alphabet and that he could recognize all the letters but I had no idea he knew what the letters spelled. He can count to 20 as well as recognize the numbers from 1-20. We try to work our letters and numbers every day but this really showed me how much he is absorbing. Makes this old fat gramma very proud!

On another note, yesterday we went with Wm's brothers and sister and their spouses to the Apple Vali country club to celebrate his Mom's 85th birthday. It was a gorgeous ride through the hills to LaFayette. We all had the all you can eat Prime Rib buffet. The buffet was excellent and there were a quite a few choices; not a lot that were gluten free though!

Freaky Friday???

2008-04-11T20:58:00.002-04:00

What a day this has turned out to be! It started out great. Matt cleaned the bathroom before he even ate his breakfast. He had some cheerios for breakfast but soon decided he wanted to make an omelet. Need I remind you he is only 2 1/2? What 2 yr. old wants to make an omelet? Yes, we did make a cheese omelet We watched Little Bear and then he wanted to make a craft......his idea was to make an itsy, bitsy spider. I dragged out our craft supplies and he decided we should also make rain and sunshine. Alrighty then! It took a few minutes but we did decide on a plan. It worked out great but no, I never got a picture.

From there we watched a video and he wanted to sit on my lap. His allergies were acting up all week and his nose was running and he has been sneezing up a storm; sitting on my lap to watch a video was something he has wanted to do all week. Part way through the video, I realized he was asleep. I got up and carried him into the nursery and put him in the crib. This was where things got out of hand. He immediately jumped up and climbed right out of the crib. (something he has not done before which is why we still have the crib in there) We spent the next hour getting him calmed down and back in the crib for his nap. He was not about to sleep so I got him out, gave him some lunch, which he did not want (he had asked for Frito's and white dip. "I absolutely love Frito's, did I tell you that, Gramma?"

After a few attempts at getting him to sleep, I finally put him back in the crib and told him to stay there and rest if he was not going to sleep. This is when he shouted at me "Why are you making me spend my whole day in this bed?" What???? Talk about dramatic! From the first time I put him in the crib until he made that remark was maybe 2 hours.

Papa came home from work a few minutes early today and took Matt with him to the grocery store. The back seat in the car was down on one side and up on the other for his car seat. When he got in, he stood on the side that was down and said, "Oh, this is splendid".

After today, I will need tomorrow to recover!

Whirlwind weekend

2008-04-06T17:00:00.006-04:00

We had the opportunity of going to Canton on Fri. for Grandparents Day. The experience was bittersweet for me. I am so blessed that we were able to go and see the girls and share in Grandparent's Day with them but because we had to get up at 5:30am to leave by 6:30am, I was definitely not rested. Keep in mind, I am not nor will I ever be a morning person. I hate to get up and lately I am not doing too well with riding either. 3 hr. drive is a longer ride than I can tolerate well any more.

I found this picture of Josh with my father on Grandparent's Day when Josh was in 6th grade. I asked if we could get a picture of Lael with Papa. I am planning on putting the pictures together.

Not to be outdone, my little Fancy Nancy, aka Alyssa wanted a picture with Papa also and he was not about to say NO.

We had promised the girls they could pick out a place for us to eat lunch. They chose McCarthy's in Canton. Once we got home, both girls wanted to stitch their badges from the wildlife center on their respective back packs. We had a great time. They. especially Lael, loves sewing. Once the backpacks were done, Lael wanted to keep sewing. We had no material for her to use, so being the resourceful girl she is, she remembered a long skirt in the dress up closet which had the waist band ripped and it was torn down the side also. It was one huge fuchsia silk-like rectangle. She decided to make herself a little purse. She did this entirely on her own. I am so very impressed. Below are a couple of pictures of her with the new purse.

Alyssa was not quite as taken with sewing as Lael. Alyssa and I read Fancy Nancy a couple of times.

Didn't get to see all of our old friends from CFC but feel very blessed to see those who were there.

Love/Hate relationship

2008-03-30T14:55:00.003-04:00

I absolutely love clean sheets. On the flip side, I hate how bad my back hurts after I change the sheets on the bed. It would seem to me that breaking your back 14 years ago, by now you would not still be feeling repercussions from it. I love the jersey knit sheets and pillow cases. I used to put flannel sheets on in the wintertime but now I simply use knit ones all year long. I even talked my DIL and daughter into using them.

I love how excited Matt gets when we cook and bake. I was never a great cook and baking was minimal. Now before you gasp, you have to realize that my mother rarely cooked and when she did she would never have let us help her. In fact, a lot of what I learned now was by trial and error as my mother never showed me how to cook (or clean or take care of a house, or even be a mother) It was easier for her to do it herself than to have the mess we would make if she allowed us to help. So even now for me, cooking and baking is more of a challenge than a joy.

Right now, the biggest challenge for me is trying to cook gluten free. Now, Wm. has been on this diet before and we managed to get by. Honestly, Betsy always made Wm. pies, cakes, biscuits at the same time she made goodies for the rest of us for Thurs. and Sun. night fellowship. Well, we are down here, Betsy gave me her gluten free cookbooks (I gave mine to Stephanie who was recently diagnosed with celiacs also) so if I don't step up to the plate and bake, there will not be anything. I am OK with brownies, and cake; we are still at a loss for bread. Stephanie borrowed a bread machine from her neighbor and tried a bread machine mix from Wegman's. She said it was not too bad, so maybe Jackie will make Papa a loaf in her machine if we bring up some mix when we come for Grandparent's Day at CFA. (actually, she said she would when we talked about it when we were up for Lauren's b'day) Heath food store gluten free bread has a texture not unlike cardboard, in fact, it has that cardboard taste as well.

I absolutely love all six of my grandchildren. I hate that 5 of them live far enough away that I can only see them periodically. I love, love, love being a grandmother. I love having Matt here all day while Susan works. I love teahing him to cook, bake, paint, etc. Being with my grandchildren is a joy for me. My doctor asked me a few weeks ago if my grandchildren were my hobby. I told him they were not a hobby, that I enjoyed my time with them. He suggested I get a new hobby. (maybe I should consider a new doctor)

Happy Birthday Lauren Jessa

2008-03-22T21:50:00.002-04:00

This morning we went to Canton to celebrate Lauren Jessa's first birthday. Her birthday is actually on Tuesday. She is such a good baby, she had a smile all the time we were there. This year seemed to whiz right by. I find it hard to believe she's already one and walking all over. All the way home Matt kept reminding us that Baby Lauren is 1 now!

Papa and all his kids in Lauren's new wagon.
Off and running.
Matt and Papa watch as Lauren's gifts are opened.
In the middle of the presents.

Matthew with many butterflies from the Elefun game. He didn't quite grasp the concept of catching them in the air and not picking the butterflies off the floor :-)

Cataract surgery

2008-03-17T16:44:00.002-04:00

I must admit I was very apprehensive about the surgery. I went up for prayer yesterday at church and as only He could have orchestrated it, the woman praying for me had the surgery done at the same Speciality Surgery Center as I was scheduled for this morning.
Wow, talk about well organized, this place was unbelievable. You were assigned a nurse to be with you pre-op, one for the OR and one post- op. After they took my vitals, put in a line for the IV, the massage therapist came to give me a massage to relax me before surgery. Yes, friends, you heard me correctly. The anesthesiologist came in next to explain the sedation. Then I was off to surgery (OK, after about 10 different eye drops) Surgery took about 15 min. and afterwards they took a picture of what I thought was to be of my eye. Turned out a picture of me and the surgeon (I guess someone thought that was good idea) and then on to recovery where they went over post -op instructions with Wm. and I while I ate my breakfast. Yes, they made me cinnamon toast and I choose cranberry juice, my normal breakfast drink. Then they gave me a case with some more eye drops, a patch for night, oh and did I mention a frame for my picture, a pen and a magnetic clip for the fridge???? Could they have done anymore?????? Well, how about a little African violet :-)
The best part, I can actually see clearly instead of trying to see through a haze over my eye that made it look like I was looking through wax paper. Now, I have to be quiet for a few days.....no Matthew until Thurs. and I am scheduled for a recheck of my eye tomorrow morning at 9am.
Thanks for your prayers!

laugh for today

2008-03-11T13:04:00.004-04:00

I will try to make this post short, I know I have a tendency to ramble on and on (why do you think it is called ramblings of an old grandmother)????

Before I start, I am sure there are those of you who are very tired about hearing my Matthew stories.......fair warning, I am about to tell another one. (Hey, realistically, I am here for 9 1/2 hr. everyday with him alone; is it strange I would blog about him too; this is my day people)

OK, here goes the story and the laugh: Matt has been standing up to go potty regularly since last Fri. So when he said "Gramma, I have to go", I said "run like the wind" (his favorite line) and stood him in front of the toilet and put up the seat. He said, "no, I need a potty seat". "Now Matt", I said, "you have been standing up like a big boy to go potty for a while now, you just stand up and go like the big boy you are". He immediately began crying. With a bit of frustration in my voice, I said "Now, why are you crying" His answer? "Because I have to poop"!

These were our crafts yesterday. We actually started the backpack last week but it took a while for him to catch on to sewing. We made a fire breathing dragon and the dragonfly, was his idea. Susan said he must have the craft gene, she said it skipped her. :-)

When he went down for his nap, he said "lets make worms when I get up". Looking forward to it, I guess as long as I can come up with a plan.

new project

2008-03-08T20:10:00.004-05:00

How do you like my newest craft project???? Now all I have to do is get it wrapped and sent off. I am pleased with the way it came out. I guess it was a good choice as I read on Sue's Xanga that she took 700+ pictures when she was down at Leslie and Matt's. The only problem will be which of the 700+ pictures to put in it!

good, better, best

2008-03-05T19:58:00.002-05:00

I had my physical this morning for clearance for my cataract surgery. It was pandemonium here before I went. I was trying to get ready and Matt shut the door to my bedroom and went into his room.....not a good sign. Instead of checking right then I asked him what he was doing and he hollered back coloring. There is a an easel in his room with paper and crayons so I continued to get ready. When I went to check on him, no more than 5 min. he had colored all right, on the front of the dresser and the arm of the futon. That is what I get for leaving a 2 yr. old without supervision for even 5 min. Thank God we had some Mr. Clean erasers!
Good: The physical proved I was in better shape than I thought. EKG was good as well. BP was 112/78. (not bad for someone who has always had high BP)
Better: My labs were all back in the normal range. This means that my blood sugar level was no longer high. I was also concerned about my other eye. My doctor checked it and said while the cataract was worse than it had been, it was only a cataract. (Yesterday I began to have floaters in my left eye, which seemed to come on fast; I had convinced myself it was something sinister)
Best: I had to get weighed on my way in. The nurse usually tells me what it was. Today she did not. I was certain I had not lost anymore weight. The doctor said 10#. Woohoo!

ramblings.........

2008-03-03T10:13:00.004-05:00

I wondered about the wisdom in posting this picture of Matt. However, when Jackie posted the "fashion sense" picture of Alyssa last week, I decided it was too funny not to share.

His clothes were in the dryer from washing dishes (this happens at least 3 x's a day). I suggested he go to his room to get something on. This was what he came out wearing. Granted, he did put something on, barely! As I was laughing, I felt I had to capture this. What a riot......maybe the "fashion sense" is shares with his cousin, Alyssa, is the bond he has with her. He talks about all the girls and Max but it is Alyssa that he talks of most. Maybe because she is the closest to him in age.

For as long as I have been referring to myself as "old fat gramma" to the kids, Jackie has told me it would come back to bite me one day. It did once with Lael when she was with Papa and we got separated. When she spotted me she yelled across Hacketts "I can see my old fat gramma!". Matt seems to say it alot. Yes, Jackie, I know, you warned me and I turned a deaf ear. We had been talking about what the real names were for Mama, Daddy, Papa etc. He knows them all.....all be me. When I say, "what is gramma's real name"; his answer is always "old fat gramma". Now this morning he was pretending to walk across a tightrope on the lines in the kitchen tile. I said "wow, you are doing a great job on the tightrope". His answer? "Try it gramma, just put your big fat foot on the line and pretend to walk on the tightrope". OK, it may not be as funny as it used to be!

I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map!

2008-02-28T11:10:00.005-05:00

I mentioned before how Matt has started to watch the old Dora videos we had for Lael and Alyssa.......yesterday we watched Noggin on Demand where we saw Dora and Super Map.

He was running around the house singing "I'm the map". So while he took his nap, I got some things together and we made Super Map when he got up.

Well, what do you think, one crafty gramma, eh? Today, he got out a pile of coffee filters and when he was done playing, I did not want to throw them away. So, he made some butterflies with them. He got bored with the painting long before the butterflies were done but I think they look really cute anyway. We got some new paint brushes that are filled with paint but it takes a lot of coordination to make them work.....you have to push in the middle of the brush at the same time you paint......difficult even for an old fat gramma but this 2 yr. old held his own!

Morrigan turns 6

2008-02-26T11:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, my little southern princess turned 6. I had planned to post yesterday but unfortunately never did. She is on her way to Disney World with Donna's sister, Suzanne, who took her last year. This time she will be staying for an entire week! Dinner with Cinderella, as well as another trip to the Bibbity Bobbity Boo Salon.

Max is having tubes put in his ears while she is gone. His surgery is scheduled for 2/28. Please pray for Max regarding this routine surgery. Thanks.

Well, it just would not feel like my blog if I failed to mention what Matt has been up to today.

He got all the ribbons he could find in my sewing box and put them out on the LR rug. "Be very careful, Gramma" he told me, "the LR is really a snake pit". "Are you afraid of the snakes, Gramma?" I said I was but he assured me not to be afraid, he would save me!

couldn't resist

2008-02-22T11:25:00.005-05:00

I couldn't resist posting this picture of Matt in the shirt he wore this morning. Isn't it a riot? My DIL, Donna, has always insisted this was true. Jackie, I just wanted to make sure you knew it was true, also! :-)

Haircut

2008-02-21T08:50:00.002-05:00

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about how much Matt disliked having his haircut a few weeks ago. We finally retrieved this from the phone:

random thoughts of an old fat gramma

2008-02-19T10:56:00.004-05:00

Because he loves to draw and paint so much I guess it should not have surprised me when Matt drew some actual faces. He made some circles, then added eyes, mouth and hair. It was not the usual scribble drawings he has been in the habit of doing. This was actually recognizable as faces. They were good enough that Wm. asked if I drew them. I guess the surprise was not that he did them but that one day his drawings were scribble drawings and the very next day it was a perfect face. I love it! Maybe have just forgotten how quickly a toddler absorbs and learns and grows.

I think I mentioned that I was redoing the nursing mothers and family rooms at the church. I ordered the gliders and we picked them up on Sat. Now we have just 1 week to put them together (one down, three more to go) to be sure they are not broken or have any parts missing. After one week, they belong to us even if they are broken. (I find that to be a strange policy but I guess it works for Penney's) Now we need to find the time to paint the rooms and set them up. I am excited about this. Right now mothers are nursing in the same chairs we have in the sanctuary. I think that they will be much more comfortable in the gliders and ottomans. The rooms will have different paint colors and while the gliders and ottomans are all cherry, the cushions are different in each room. Oatmeal for the nursing mothers room and sage green for the family room.

Wm. has been extremely faithful to the celiacs diet. He even checked the caramel creme candy he eats all the time. Guess what??? They have wheat in them. Who would have thought. I actually thought they were 100% sugar! Matt and I made a wheat free cake yesterday. Wm. ate it but so did Matt who proclaimed it "dewishes".

Cowboy Matt????

2008-02-13T11:10:00.004-05:00

Wm. always says "what goes around, comes around". Lately, Matthew's favorite video was one Lael and Alyssa used to watch at our house when we lived in Canton, "Cowgirl Dora".

As you can tell, Cowboy Matt likes to get right into it! :-)

phone fiacso

2008-02-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind where you can not believe that you actually did something.....something very, very stupid! I had one of those days this weekend. If you remember back just after Christmas, I washed Wm.'s cell phone.......well, believe it or not, I actually washed his new one. Now I am not making excuses for myself but Wm. was already gone when I got up on Sat. morning. I decided to do the laundry. I made the same grand assumption I did last time, that his cell phone was with him and not in his work pants in the hamper. Doesn't she check the pockets I hear you asking yourselves. Yes, she does. Unfortunately, Wm. had his cell phone in the pocket on the leg of his pants, like the carpenter jeans have. And no, I never checked that pocket. I have no idea why not, other than I thought the phone was with him, like it usually is.
When he came home and I told him what I had done, he wasted no time telling Susan. After all, she paid for the phones and has us on her plan (a perk for watching Matt). When I washed the last phone, she got Tom a new one and had Wm.'s # put on Tom's old phone. (the old one was a camera phone so it was not that old) She told Tom who said I had better check ALL the pockets before I do the wash and then he said "Dad needs to take responsibility for taking the phone out of his pants pocket at night when he gets home".
Yes, we will both be more responsible in the future. What about a new phone? Wm. ordered one on ebay like the one he had. The shipping was twice the phone price!
Lesson learned (I hope, anyway)

Happy Birthday, Max

2008-02-09T22:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Max

Our sweet Max will be a year old on February 10th. I feel very bad that we will not make it down for his birthday. Love you my sweet boy. Have a wonderful day!

very busy 2 yr. old

2008-02-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

It gets a little more difficult everyday for me to keep up with Matthew. He goes nonstop from the time he gets here around 7:30 until he goes down for a nap at 11. After his third breakfast, at 9am we put dinner in the crockpot. He drew with his crayons, then with chalk on his easel. Then he "cooked" in his play kitchen. Then he washed dishes (plastic ones) in the sink. After which we needed to dry his clothes in the dryer. (this is getting pretty old now and I probably should tell him he can't play in the sink.......on the other hand, other than the frustration wet clothes causes me, he is not hurting anyone and he absolutely loves playing in the water) He insists he is not playing in the water but "doing the dishes". We had three bathroom runs (quick, Gramma, run like the wind) Then we made a tent in the living room from the cushions on the couch. Then we played with the cutting board and knife set (Melissa and Doug) he got for Christmas from Lael, Alyssa and Lauren. He absolutely loves this and plays with it throughout the day. Time for juice and a snack and then some more drawing. Time for a nap (yippee).OK, not before we read the Van Gogh book 3 xs and the feelings book once. Well, I start to read a sentence, he finishes it. This afternoon we made cookies, krispy treats and a pudding pie. Did I mention he loves to cook? We no sooner finish one thing until he wants to make something else. I thought we could take it easy for a few days because Papa's doctor put him back on the celiac diet. I said "Papa can not eat cookies anymore, Matt" to which he replied, "Daddy can". Daddy and Mommy gave up chocolate for lent, so it we tried our hand at oatmeal cookies. This is only the second time I ever made them. He also has a thing for jumping.....off the windowseat, off the couch, from area rug to area rug......you get the idea. My heart is in my throat during our gymnastics. First we jump, then we tumble. Yep, the more active Matt gets, the more this old fat gramma feels her age. OK, maybe not my age.......by 6 pm, I feel about 80.

He sampled the cookies which he delcared to be "dewishus" (delicious). I finally put curtains up in the office, I have had only a blind there since we moved in 2+ yr. ago. He came in the office and announced, "Gramma, you got some new, ah.....curtains". I said "Yes, I did". He said "Oh, they are lovely". Now what 2 yr. old says lovely??????

Really missing the girls! Morrigan and Max both have birthdays this month. This will be the first time since she has been born that we have not gone down for her birthday.

edit: After reading this outloud, I realized it sounded like I was not happy with my "job". Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, there is nothing I would rather be doing!

Saturday morning at Snip-its

2008-02-03T18:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning found us at Snip-its, a haircutter for kids. Matt hates to have his haircut. In fact, he was sounding like a broken record "NO HAIRCUT!". I tried to trim it a few times but it was so difficult with him trying to dodge the scissors. Susan cut part of it when he was asleep, however, he moved unexpectedly and there was chunk missing from the front.

Anyway, yesterday we took him to Snip-its. We did not tell him before hand it was to get a haircut. He wanted Papa to go also. When we walked in, he began by examining the place (we were the only ones there) We were certain they would need all three of the staff there to hold him down. They asked him if he was ready for his haircut and he lost it. Despite the snip-it cartoons running on the TVs, the receptionist blowing bubbles and giving him a lollypop, my poor little Matthew sobbed most of the time they cut his hair. He kept sobbing "Mama hold you", "Gramma hold you". Papa, well when the crying started, he went outside to wait in the van. By this time, a lot of kids had come in for haircuts.

It was a little shorter than we had wanted it to be but on the upside, he won't have to go back real soon.

2008-02-01T18:04:00.000-05:00

It never ceases to amaze me everyday as I watch Matthew learn and grow. I feel that my job with Matt is the same as it was with Josh when we homeschooled: to fan the flames. I used to be surprised at how much Alyssa loved to draw. That seems to be the same vane Matt is in now. He draws on the chalkboard, the whiteboard, paints on paper and draws with crayons. He will color pictures I print off the web but he does not care one bit about coloring in a coloring book. He must draw, paint, etc at least 15-20 pictures a day. No, I can not save that many. I do save the best each week for his parents. I date them and write what it is when he tells me about the picture (something he does more and more of)

Wm. learned that he has to go back on the diet for celiacs disease again. This will put a real cramp in Matthew's afternoons. Every afternoon he wants to bake something.

I have my consultation for cataract surgery on 2/12. Ah, to be able to see again will be refreshing.

I will leave you with this picture. Where are Matt's clothes? In the dryer, where they always seem to be as he absolutely loves playing in the water. What is on his head? A net bag that the starfish came in. Why is he wearing it on his head? I have no idea. I laughed the first time he did it so he decided it must be funny to wear it.

Are menus really necessary?

2008-01-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

I found Sheri's confession about not planning menus very interesting. She is sooooo organized that I naturally assumed this carried to all parts of her life. I must confess, I never actually plan menus on paper. I think about what I would like to have, factor in what is on sale and then I too, fly by the seat of my pants. The last few times at the store, Wm. accused me of just cooking the same 5 things every week, just mixing them up. Not true, although it may seem like that. I try to cook things that will allow me to have leftovers for his lunch and leftovers for Uncle Roy. Reading some of the comments on Sheri's blog, I feel a little twinge of guilt for not planning menus. That probably would cut down on all the quick runs to the store for something we have forgotten. I like the prices at WalMart but Wm. does not like their produce or meat. Wegman's have great produce and meat but the prices are higher on a lot of things. Too many choices in both stores and going to WalMart almost always means spending more that you plan (face it, who won't wander into the retail side of the store). Wm. has always said that it all evens out in the end so just shopping Wegman's is smarter. I think that as long as we need vitamins, band aids, etc from the retail side anyway, why not get the groceries that are cheaper at WalMart then. Maybe you just can't teach an old dog new tricks!
On a lighter note, I heard something this morning that I have never heard before. Someone begging to clean the toilet! Matt loves to clean anything, yes, even the toilet. (well what can you expect, his father is Mr. Clean) I finally was worn down enough that I gave in and he was jumping up and down singing "yea, I can clean the toilet". Well, at least someone can sing about it!

2008-01-25T11:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had another MRI of my neck to monitor the growth that PTL, has not been increasing in size. This usually takes about 25 minutes for the test. Because I will not stick my head into a closed MRI, we need to go to East Syracuse to the open MRI. It was snowing hard and Wm. was late picking me up but we still managed to get there on time. Once there however, we waited and waited and waited. Over an hour. Now Wm. had not had any lunch so he was not a happy camper. Once out there, yes, the open MRI is in a truck like it was in Canton, I was freezing. My head was throbbing and the jack hammering of the machine only exacerbated it. I took the opportunity to pray for strength to get through the test. After it was over, the tech informed me that my doctor had called and asked we do it again, this time with dye. YIKES! I was grateful for making it through the first time. Obviously, I made it through and on the way home Wm. decided to stop at Kirby's (our favorite restaurant) for an early dinner. (no point in his going to work as it was 4:30) Yum, all you can eat shrimp Thurs!
I had Matt in the morning and I told him he could not take a nap as his other grandmother was going to pick him up at 11:30 (nap time is 11) He wanted me to hold him in the rocking chair and when I looked down at him he was holding open his eyes. I asked him what he was doing and he said "trying to keep my eyes from going to sleep"
He was back this morning but for some reason, he is slapping, kicking and pushing, no definitely not normal for him and not behavior to be tolerated.

I've been tagged:

2008-01-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

I am not into these games any more than I like games at showers; I was making a statement but I guess that can be #1.
I have broken most of the bones in my body.....not my hip however, so the doctors say the Boniva is doing it's job.
I lived in the same house from the time I was 1 until I moved out to get married. (My parents lived there until they died)
Wm. and I have lived in 12 houses since we got married.
When our kids were small, we moved every 2 years (upward mobility)
I have always wanted to work with stained glass.
I went to college for business because my parents did not think art or interior decorating was worthwhile. I decided I wanted to get my interior decorating/design degree and was 50 when I did it.

OK, because everyone has been tagged already, I will take a cue from Sheri and just say if you read this and have not been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged!

On another note, we have pretty much mastered the potty. He needs very little prompting from me anymore. That was certainly a trial. Not this time because it only took a week once he decided to try. When I was trying before he was ready to learn, he would scream and cry and that was the trial.
Matt still loves to cook and bake. When I put him down for his nap a while ago, I told him we could play when he got up. His answer was he wanted to bake a cake when he got up. One with frosting. Then maybe play.
He still remembers his signs. I thought he may have forgotten them since it has been a while without using them. I would ask him what the sign was for all of the 32 signs he knows and he remembers all of them. :-)

Please pray for my grandson Max. He is 11 months old and has had an ear infection since Christmas. He is on his 4th antibiotic and none have worked. He spiked a fever of 104 yesterday and his lips turned blue. Donna called the pediatrician who called 911 as she said she could hear him wheezing. Max and Donna went to the hospital in the ambulance and Jon followed in the car. They administered oxygen to Max on the way to the hospital. Once there however, they decided it was not pneumonia. They gave him 2 shots. He has to have 2 more today and 2 more on Tues. Please pray the doctors at Duke can find what out wrong with Max and why none of the antibiotics they have tried are working for the ear infection.

2008-01-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

We have made some real strides with the potty training situation. We have a few accidents but for the most part, we wear our "big boy" pants all day with the exception of nap time.
Yesterday, most of our wet accidents came from playing in the kitchen sink (doing dishes) and splashing our clothes with the water. He takes his clothes off and says "wet clothes in the dryer, Gramma". While I was putting his things in the dryer, he came in behind me with a small plunger (one I got for him at the $ store so he would leave the one in the bathroom alone) stuck to his stomach. I admit it, my frustration from him being constantly wet from playing in the sink gave way and I could not stop laughing. Just when you think that you can not take anymore, he does something that makes it all worth it.
I love being gramma.
This is from this afternoon......must be he has a new fascination with sticking the plunger on his tummy. Wm. said it looked staged, but he really did this himself. It was much funnier yesterday when all he was wearing was his "big boy" pants!

2008-01-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

I miss the girls; I mean I really, really miss them. It seems like forever since I saw them. In reality, I know that it isn't, but knowing it doesn't stop the feelings. I love being a gramma and I love having Matthew here with me everyday. I love watching him grow and learn. On the flip side, being this far from the girls (I do realize that 3 hr. is not that far) I am missing out on watching them grow. I check Jackie's flickr more often than I should hoping for a glimpse of the girls in a new photo. I have resolved myself to the fact that we will only get to see Morrigan and Max a few times a year; the girls, however, I saw nearly everyday when we were in the north country. So not seeing them for long stretches, really bothers me. There are a lot of reasons for not seeing them as much as I would like. The drive, the weather in NNY in the winter, the fact that Wm. has to work some weekends. Oh, I know they have their own lives up there, it was our choice to move to Syracuse but none of those reasons (excuses) make up for the simple fact..... I MISS the girls!

2008-01-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

Conversation in my kitchen this morning:
Matthew: Oh, no, just look at this mess!
Papa: What mess, what are you talking about Matt?
Matthew: Just look at this kitchen, what a mess, where is my broom?
By this time, I went into the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about. I had cut up some celery for Wm.'s lunch and there were a few leaves from the celery on the floor under the cabinet that pulls out for the trash. (honestly, I am talking about in the toe kick of the cabinet) I was expecting some horrid mess when I heard all the fuss he was making.

Later on this morning, he was "washing" dishes in the sink while I was getting his breakfast on the plate. I don't understand where this new fascination with washing the dishes came from but he is happy so I tend to let him go ahead and "wash" away. I did ask him to only use one side of the sink and to only "wash" the plastic dishes, so he won't get hurt. He is very good about leaving the china and glasses in the other side of the sink and only "washes" the plastic in the other side. This afternoon, when he got up early from his nap, I was still in my pj's but my clothes were laid out on the bed. So I made the decision to put him in the recliner watching Blue's Clues, while I got dressed. It was only about 30 seconds later when I heard his footsteps in the kitchen. I asked what he was doing and he shouted back "washing my dishes". By that time, I was dressed and hurried to the kitchen only to see him with many more dishes than were originally in the sink. I said "where did all those dishes come from?"
"Plastic dishes from the dishwasher, gramma" . (Insert a huge Matthew smile here) The dishes in the dishwasher were already clean!!!!!!

glimmer of hope

2008-01-04T13:35:00.000-05:00

Today I have had my first glimmer of hope as far as Matt ever being potty trained. We have tried many times but he was never interested. This morning, I decided to try a new approach: we simply took off his pull-up and just wore his sweat pants. I was trying him on the potty every 8 min. like I saw Melisa write on her blog that she was trying and he had dry pants when I put his pull up on at 11, so he could take his nap. After his nap, he sat on the potty and then wanted his pull up off and we continued as we had this morning. Unfortunately, I came into the office to get some markers when he came in and said "Look Gramma, wet pants". I was not a happy camper to say the least. He said "Need dry pants on now, Gramma" to which I replied "pull ups". We did have 2 hr. this morning and 2 this afternoon with dry pants. But I am starting to think his mother may be right. She said he is in the largest size pull ups (a 6) so is his next step Depends? :-)

On becoming my mother (+ edit)

2008-01-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

I have always told myself I would NEVER be like my mother. I am sure we all say that when we are young. However, now that I am an old fat woman, I find myself doing the same things my mother used to do. This is strange to me as it is not things that I would normally think of a genetic traits; just silly things she used to do that I am now doing as well.
Like what you ask? Well, New Years eve day, I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry as one should not start the new year with a dirty house or with dirty laundry. (my mother's rule and now that I think of it I am sure my grandmother did the same thing) I found myself stripping the bed and washing all the bed linens not just the sheets. Maybe now that I am thinking about it more rationally as I write, I am just following a family tradition and not turning into my mother.

On a lighter note, Matt is back today for the first time since Dec. 21st. I missed him so much but was also glad for a break to rest up a bit. He told me this morning that he NEEDS to make some cookies today. I actually did not bake any without him so it was part of the plan for this afternoon. I took the time when he was gone to sort out the toys he no longer plays with and put the ones he does into new storage containers for easy access. (blocks together, books together, etc) I was awed at the amount of "baby" toys we have. *Looking for anything for Lauren, Jackie? :-)

In my eagerness to clean up and do the laundry before the new year, I washed Wm.'s cell phone with his jeans. Now, that is bad enough in and of itself, but last week my SIL said she washed her cell phone. I remarked to Wm. "how can anyone be stupid enough to wash a cell phone with their jeans, doesn't she check the pockets?" I did check the pockets, all but the side pocket on his carpenter jeans......besides, I thought he had the cell phone with him at work. I guess not! Now it is bad, but not as bad it could have been. Tom got a new phone for Christmas and he will have Wm. number put on his old phone. I am so grateful for that. Also I probably should apologize to Karen, I guess anyone can be stupid enough to wash a cell phone with the jeans!

edit: allow me to brag for a minute here......we were making the cookies and Matt was telling me what to put in, he said 2 eggs and I said right; then he changed it to 4 eggs and I said no silly, 2 eggs. Once I started up the mixer I knew something was wrong. He just looked at me and said 4 eggs. Then I realized I had doubled the recipe and did indeed need 4 eggs! Well you can call it coincidence if you want to but I think this just shows that all our work is paying off; he is one smart boy!

2007-12-26T12:15:00.000-05:00

I trust that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were very fortunate this yeas as although Josh's family was at Jackie's parents and Jon's family was with Donna's, we were able to spend Christmas eve with Susan, Tom and Matthew. Uncle Roy joined us for dinner and gift exchange.

Susan, Tom and Matt gave us a new digital camera with a small portable printer so we can really share our photos :-) I never liked the quality that I got from our regular printer. This one , however, prints out a perfect 4x6 print in a matter of seconds. Maybe I can become a better photographer in spite of myself!

Matt and Papa whipped the cream for the pies. Papa let him lick
off the beaters. Truth be known, he dipped his beater in a few times!

After church on Sunday we had a get together in Camillus with Will's brothers, sister, their spouses and of course his mother. We had a sit down dinner which did surprise me. We all had a great time. Thanks again, Karen and Jon.

Christmas Day found us at Jim's open house. I was concerned as it was the first time he had done it since my sister, Susan, had died. It was very relaxed and we did enjoy our selves immensely.

With all the family time and in the midst of all the presents and wrappings I hope you all took the time to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas and took the time to thank Him for our greatest gift.

Matt.com

2007-12-20T11:35:00.000-05:00

Been waiting for another episode in the continuing story of an old fat grandmother's day with an active 2 yr old? OK, here goes:

Matthew and Papa made this little snowman before Papa left for work this morning. Matt said we needed a carrot for the nose. He chose a baby carrot as it was a little snowman. Then while he was helping to make more Christmas treats, he decided that his snowman needed eyes. So we were thinking about what would work for eyes and he said little cheese crackers. And look at that, they are perfect.

He wanted me to come in his room with him, something he has not wanted me to do for the last few days, so he could "cook" my breakfast in his little kitchen. So this morning I dined on crispix cereal and celery sticks that he "cooked" for me. Oh, yum!

We were going to be alone for Christmas as it was the year for our children to go to their in laws. Susan called yesterday and wondered if I wanted to make Christmas dinner here on Christmas eve so we can exchange gifts. Great idea, I am on it! We are inviting Uncle Roy also.

On another note, my MIL is moving from the "Home" on Saturday. She will be moving in with Wm. brother Jim. He bought the building where they had the store and lived in Mottville. This is something she really wants to do. She has become disenchanted with the "Home" lately and wanted to get out. I am praying she will be happy there as they are both working.

On Sunday, after church (I am on nursery duty again, which I really enjoy) we are having the Card family Christmas at Wm.'s brother Jon's new house is Camillus. It is a beautiful house and there is room for us all. Definitely, something we lack here. This house is very small, but then again there is just the 2 of us.

On Christmas day, my BIL, Jim, my sister's husband, is having an open house. This was something my sister did every year on Christmas day. This will be the first time since her death that he has had it. We are going, but it will seem strange with her not there. She died on Christmas Day 2002.

Christmas present exchange

2007-12-16T10:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was special day for this old fat gramma. Will, Susan , Matthew and I travelled to Watertown to met Josh, Jackie and the girls at the mall. The temperatures were very cold but the roads were bare and combined with the new portable DVD player Susan brought along for Matt, the trip could not have been better. Actually, we managed to get there early. Now as many times as we have met in Watertown, we have never been there first. (OK, there was an accident so J&J had a 25 minute unplanned detour)

Josh made some rules:
a) no family pictures in Target
b) no opening gifts at the mall or restaurant

I was not a happy camper but did abide by his decision. I had some gifts I wanted to see their reaction to.
We visited Santa so I could have a picture of the kids together, (Santa was in the mall, not Target) Lauren was in the store with her mother, not that Santa had a big enough lap anyway. As you can see by the picture, the kids were reluctant to sit on his lap with the exception of Alyssa. Lael said at least his beard was not a fake one! From there we went to Applebees for lunch. It was not easy to keep 4 hungry kids entertained until they brought our lunch. These restaurants are not designed for large parties with little kids, especially during the very busy lunch hour with all the shoppers wanting a sit down meal opposed to fast food in the mall.

While we were waiting for J&J and the girls, Susan and I went into Steve and Barry's (I actually thought was were we would find Jackie anyway as it was not only at the entrance where we were supposed to meet them but also her very favorite store. They were having a great sale......everything and I do mean everything was $8.98. I bought a leather (yes, real leather) jacket for Josh and Susan got the same one for Tom. I gave Josh what I thought was his jacket at Applebees so he could try it before he went home. It was a perfect fit. However, when I got home I realized I had given him the jacket Susan got for Tom and it was a size smaller than what I had gotten for Josh. I have felt horrid ever since I realized what I had done. But, Josh and the jacket are in Canton and we are here with the larger one. Hopefully they will have one at the Steve and Barry's here that she can exchange for the right size.

All in all, it was a great day. Oh, I do love being a gramma!

I got it

2007-12-13T11:15:00.000-05:00

That's right, after cancelling my appt. two days in a row, I finally was able to get the brace for my knee. It is ugly, and cumbersome and will not fit under my jeans. However I am able to get up and down without help and it is the support I need so my knee does not "go out" anymore. Last week at my appt. at the well clinic, the nurse told me this was only putting off the inevitable, and that I would eventually need a knee replacement. :-(
The weather here is horrid. Snowing like mad and the ground that was grass yesterday and even this morning is now totally covered in snow. 3-6 inches by this afternoon. Remind me again, why do we live here? I hope it clears up some by late this afternoon as I have another appt. at the well clinic. Not to mention a meeting in Watertown on Saturday with the three most beautiful girls in NNY (and their parents) to exchange gifts and have lunch. Susan, Tom and Matthew are coming with us.....err, we are going with them in their van, it is a trial run for the DVD they got for the car. (the girls seem to like theirs and Anthony loves the one in their vehicle......anything has to be better than the trip Susan and I made with Matt coming home from Canton when he screamed and cried the entire was because the sun was in his eyes)

I like......

2007-12-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

edit: They cancelled my appt again today. My poor Wm. went to work at 5 something this morning! Dare we try for tomorrow?

I like the little white Christmas lights. Tastefully done decorations.
I dislike the houses that feel it is necessary to push the envelope. You know the houses I mean.....enough lights for the entire city , not one but many of the blow up Christmas decorations that seem so popular. Why is it that a holiday is a signal for some people to lose any decorating sense they may have had and go with the "more is better" rule. There is a fine line between tastefully done and over done.....and then there is over the top! Do you think maybe these people never had any decorating sense to begin with? Hmmm

I like to schedule my dr. appts. for the last one of the day so Wm. knows in advance and can go to work early to compensate for leaving early.
I dislike when they change my appt. the same day it was scheduled for. I really do not understand they(dr. offices) will charge for the appt. if you do not give them 24 hr. notice for having to cancel or reschedule your appt; yet they can call you the same day and expect you to just readjust your schedule to accommodate them. (yes, that does sound bitter and can you hear me saying it through clenched teeth)? Wm. went to work very early this morning so he could take me to Syracuse Orthotics at 4 to get my knee brace. They called at 11 to say they were changing my appt today for the same time tomorrow. Hey, wait a minute, we just had to go through a lot to make today's appt work. :-(

I like that Matt is talking more, entertaining himself without my coaching him.
I dislike this means he is growing up. I also don't like when he is about to do something he knows he should not do and tells me close my eyes and go in the other room (I don't think so)
Guess he does not know that is a huge clue that I need to stay right there!

more musings

2007-12-07T18:28:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow my baby will be 31. He will probably not like me calling him my baby but like it or not, he always will be. 31, Yikes. I know that turning 30 was traumatic for him last year. Now imagine how I feel knowing he is my baby! (insert smile face here)

I went to the well clinic yesterday for my elevated blood sugar level. This is actually a pre-diabetes program to learn how to deal with this problem before it becomes one. Now, it sounds like an intelligent thing to do, however, they were somewhat surprised that my doctor had sent me to the program seeing the test results showed that my levels were just 2 points over the norm. OK, I understand that I do show signs that it could go from pre-diabetes to diabetes very easily.....likewise it could simply remain status quo. I am hoping with the knowledge obtained in this program, I can better keep it from progressing to diabetes.

The brace I had made for my knee has come in (they make them in Texas) however, I can not pick it up until Monday. So with a brace for my knee and better nutrition (actually, they said my diet was not that bad; who knew) I will soon be able to keep up with a certain 2 yr. old!

hurting

2007-12-03T11:17:00.000-05:00

I am hurting today, just walking is painful. For years my "boys" have always called me the queen of klutz but the fall I took yesterday in church was one of my most ungraceful ones yet. I was carrying the Bible bag, my purse and a present for Eleora. I was going through the door into the church from the narthex and someone stepped on the back of my boot. It was an accident (however my mother always used to say that it doesn't hurt any less because it is an accident) Anyway, when he stepped on my boot, I fell forward on my knees and then on my face not to mention scrunching Eleora's gift. Oh, people were gracious to help me up and Wm. was glad to know that my knee had not given out but I fell for a reason. I made it through church and limped around the rest of the day but today it seems to be even worse.

Most of shopping is done now and I need to do the wrapping. I used to love wrapping, did I ever mention I had a job wrapping gifts at Christmas? Now it is painful for both my knees and back to stand for long periods. It could be the arthritis, it could be the fact that I am getting old.
I have Lauren's and Max's Christmas stocking to sew too. We will be going to Watertown 12/15/07 to have lunch with Josh, Jackie and the girls and exchange our gifts. I am excited for that.

My sweet little Matt has a bad cold. It is not slowing him down any though. He wants to make chocolate chip cookies after his nap!

Amazed

2007-11-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

I never ceased to be amazed by this 2 yr. old. We read a lot everyday as well as go over our letters, numbers, signs, etc. Nothing too serious, he is, after all,only 27 mo. old. Today when we were looking at the numbers 1-10, he pointed to each number and then told me the number, then he showed me on his fingers how many that was. When we go through the alphabet, he tells me the letter and the sound it makes.
This afternoon, he was drawing at his easel. After about 4 pictures, he decided to use markers instead of crayons. I started to take the tops off the markers when he said, "Matt will do it, self, no help Gramma!". I said "what did you say?" so he signed NO HELP! The signing thing may have backfired, what do you think?
No, just kidding, I like that he knows 32 signs, I love that he is saying everything, now doing everything without my help, that means he is growing up way too fast for me.
I watched him today while he played in "his" room (he calls it that, not me) He was cooking with his kitchen, making a hamburger with lettuce and tomato, talking to himself about putting on his "ove glove" which is a little pot holder so he does not burn his hand on the stove.
Maybe I am just amazed at him because I see him everyday....the other grandchildren I do not. Whatever the reason, I would love to keep him little just a while longer but I am afraid he has other ideas. :-)

one proud Papa

2007-11-26T11:07:00.000-05:00

Two adorable grandchildren from Raleigh
Three gorgeous girls from the north country
and one fantastic little boy from Syracuse = one Proud Papa!

This is the comforter Jon and Donna picked for the guest room and the headboard we made Felt Snowman Matt and I made this morning. I cut out the shapes and Matt glued them on
Aren't we sooo crafty?

Black Friday

2007-11-24T09:22:00.000-05:00

The older I get the less I like shopping, even on nice days. I had not been out of Black Friday for at least 6 yr. It is just too crazy and people are pushing and shoving and downright rude. No, I am happy to wait it out at home in a nice warm bed where I can sleep in......who wants to get up in the middle of the night to be at the store by 4 am? Every year they seem to open earlier.....but 4am, come on now! No, I did not face the crowds at 4 am but I did go at 4 pm, after Wm. came home from work. I was not going to shop, just pick up my pictures from Target and get a card for the shower I have to go to this afternoon. To our surprise, the store was not that crowded. Wm. said it must be a lull between the early morning mob scene and the after dinner shoppers. Whatever it was, we ended up getting pj's for everyone (new pajamas on Christmas eve have always been a family tradition, one we have continued with our children's spouses and our grandchildren). Now our Raleigh family is finished and I have a start on the rest. I have never even started my shopping until after Josh's birthday. We did however bring his birthday gift with us when we went for Thanksgiving dinner. He wanted a turkey fryer. We did get one but his father wanted to be sure they had started cooking dinner before he brought Josh's gift in. No, we are not too sure about fried turkey! Yesterday morning, I made my Christmas lists, I am on a roll now!

Thankful

2007-11-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

We went to Canton today to share Thanksgiving dinner with Josh and his family. The weather was yucky up and back but we had an excellent time with the girls.

Jackie served a fabulous meal and Lael is taking after her mother, becoming quite the little hostess. For all of you who were impressed when Jackie said she was making sausage stuffing with her homemade bread, I just wanted to say it was fantastic. Everything tasted so good but then my mother used to say that you enjoy a meal more if you don't have to cook it. (I am very thankful that Jackie loves to cook and entertain)

Lael set the table and poured all the beverages.

Alyssa, the little artist and sweet little Lauren

Grampa and his girls.

I am so thankful for all the wonderful blessings in my life, that I seem to take for granted every day. Thank you, Lord.

Home Again, home again, jiggity jig

2007-11-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I am home from NC. The weather was great for the most of the week. We ran into rain in PA on the way down last Saturday......then again I do not remember going through PA when it was not either raining, snowing, or backed up with construction. Anyway, we spent most of the week in shirt sleeves. Friday it was cool and rainy but not cool by NY standards. Saturday night on the way home, Wm. said is that snow on the ground when we came through Tully. I said I am sure it must just be frost. His remark was since when do we get 4 inches of frost! Snow? Can't be snow yet?!!!! Must be just because of the hills in Tully but when we got to Baldwinsville and Wm. had to shovel a path across the back deck so we could get in, the realization set in that indeed it was snow! I shall try not to whine as we have had fantastic summer and fall and it is, after all, NY.

Morrigan goes to school all year round but she was on her track out (3 week period off school which she spends at the Y.) Monday was a holiday so the school and Y were both closed and Morrigan spent the day with us. We went to the discount fabric store and then she wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch, something she is not in the habit of doing.

Gramma and Grampa with Morrigan and Max

Morrigan Liliana

Grampa and Max

Our plan was for Wm. to put down a new laminate tile floor in the kitchen but when he and Jon went to purchase the tiles, they found it was special order so needless to say, the floor did not get done. We did get some material and covered the headboard in the guest room to match the new comforter we got them for Christmas. We purchased enough material to make matching valances for the windows. Another glitch came when the sewing machine would not work. Jon had taken a day off work to help Wm. with the floor and because that was not happening, we spent the day trying to get the sewing machine to work. I ended up bringing home the material and will mail the finished valances back down.

Jon and Donna took us to Red Lobster for Wm. birthday (OK, so Red Lobster is my favorite, he is flexible) Friday we went to lunch with Donna's parents. Morrigan is spelling everything, the way Lael is and Max is as much a mama's boy as Lauren is a mama's girl. We had a wonderful time in NC; but I am glad to be home for a little while anyway, Thanksgiving we are going to Canton to have dinner with Josh, Jackie and three of the most beautiful girls in NNY.

to my sweet William

2007-11-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, William. I am so very blessed to be your wife. You are the best husband, father and grandfather anyone could ever have. Thank you for loving me all these years. I love you so very much!

more ramblings

2007-11-07T20:28:00.000-05:00

The last few days Matthew has been wanting to cook. No, not with his little kitchen, although he does play there throughout the day, he wants to cook in my kitchen. OK, before I go any further, I feel I need to clarify this; his "cooking" consists of making breakfast; baking cookies and cupcakes, making popcorn. Now before you gasp and say, is she crazy?; I assure you I am but nonetheless, he does not touch the stove. He puts the bacon in the microwave. He told me yesterday, bacon cooks on #4 and popcorn is 333 and the big "go" button. He likes to whisk the eggs in the measure cup before I put them into the pan and on the stove. Most of the time, he does not even eat his egg, he just likes to whisk. * this is not something we do everyday*
He mixes the cake batter for the cupcakes and even puts them in the mini muffin tins as well as the cookie dough on the cookie sheets. He never liked to hear the mixer going so I was very surprised he wanted to mix the cookie dough. He put the chicken in the roasting pan and put the seasoning on it for Papa's dinner on Mon. and then put ham in the pan to bake complete with glaze yesterday.
He has become quite the little helper. Today he asked me if he could clean the toilet! He put away 12 rolls of toilet paper this morning. OK, that was a near disaster. He opened the pkg. and was just about to put an entire roll in the toilet. I asked where he thought it went and he said toilet paper goes in the toilet. Then he remembered it went under the sink :-)
I love that he enjoys helping even though it is a lot more work for me than just doing it myself. He really enjoys helping so I guess my job now is to fan the flames. I remember my mother never allowing my sister or me to help her, she always said it made more work for her. The truth is when we got married, we didn't have a clue how to do anything. So regardless of how much of a mess he makes or how much longer it takes for him to do it rather than me, I will continue to explain how to do something, and then let him do it!

Saturday morning William and I are off to NC to see Morrigan and Max. I have not seen them since Max was born and am so ready to go see them. I really miss them. Well I miss all the grandchildren with the exception of Matt. I really do love being a grandmother. We will be in Raleigh from the 10th to the 17th.
William will be 61 on Friday!

Alyssa's party

2007-11-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

Susan, Matthew and I drove up to Canton on Saturday for Alyssa's party. Will had to work (he also worked on Sunday) so the plan was to trade vehicles with him on Friday night and drive our vehicle to Canton. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men......Tom said the noise we thought were the tires on the Explorer was actually some seal on the passenger side rear wheel. Because it is rear wheel drive, Tom did not think we should drive it to Canton. He called and had Driver's Village order the parts and he drove into work today to get it fixed. The plan was to have the oil changed in it today because of going to NC on Sat.
Alyssa's party was a birthday festival complete with bounce house and cotton candy machine. We had hot dogs and baked beans (which BTW, were fantastic) Matt loved running around outside but he was not too sure about the bounce house......I found that strange as all he does here is jump on the couch, the beds, etc.
Here is a picture of the birthday girl and her cake. You already know I am not much of a photographer so we will need to wait till Susan sends me the ones she took. Jackie made an Alyssa safe cake to look like a cloud and the cupcakes were balloons floating in the sky!

Bob the Builder

2007-11-01T11:46:00.000-04:00

I tried to get some pictures of Bob the Builder before he left for his other Grandma's last night. He was not the most cooperative (surprise). Tom got a couple more and I will share them as soon as he shares them with me. OK, so I am not the best photographer but you get the idea and you can see the shirt that I worked so hard to sew........what do you think?
Saturday will find Susan, Matt and Gramma heading to Canton again for Alyssa's birthday party. This year Josh and Jackie have asked that we give her art supplies, books, etc. While I understand their position, how excited can you get over construction paper and paint brushes? Last week when we were there I got Alyssa some play dough, and believe me that made her very excited......she loves that stuff. Lael and Matthew love it too!

weekend update.......

2007-10-29T11:53:00.000-04:00

I had a fantastic weekend. We went to Canton to see three of the most beautiful girls anyone ever saw..... our north country princesses. I am awed at Lael's reading and spelling ability. My little golden haired princess will be 4 on the 31st. Her party will be on Saturday. Since Grampa will be working on Saturday (the first of the month) we went up so he could see her.......OK, all of them! I will be coming to her party with Aunt Susan and Matty. I love the way she is with her baby sister. Both girls are so good with Lauren. Lael can even change wet diapers. When did these girls grow up???? Little Lauren is mama's girl but she did let me hold her a little. She let Grampa hold her a little more! Of course, aren't they all partial to him. Matt and Morrigan too. Wm. has never seen Max, so we won't know until 11/10 when we head to NC for a week.
Saturday night we went to Winthrop with Betsy and Kenny Ashley and Deb and Bub Regan for dinner at Goose Landing. We stayed with Betsy and Kenny Sat. night and caught up while I sewed appliques on Lael's jeans. Sunday morning found us at CFC (felt good to be back, see old friends and hear Pastor Rick preach) Don't get me wrong, I love Faith Chapel, but being back at CFC felt like going home again! Because Eric and Jen Trelease were at CFC also, I even got my Eleora "fix" on Sunday morning!
I have still not finished Matt's Bob the builder shirt. He is going to be Bob the Builder for Halloween. This means going to our house and to Grandma and Grandpa Hubbard's house. I bought a yellow sweat shirt and have been sewing orange squares on it for a week. Yes, this may be overkill or a bit excessive but no one else will have a costume like his :-) Besides, what are grammas for anyway if not to cater to every whim their grandchildren have!

mind of his own

2007-10-25T11:28:00.000-04:00

Matt definitely has a mind of his own. Case in point....... yesterday we were raking leaves in the back yard. When I raked them into "his" hole, he got upset, threw down his rake and pulled the hood up on sweatshirt. He said no pictures! I tried anyway, but this is what I got...

Today's pictures were not much better......."Gramma, I said NO pictures!"

finally

2007-10-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

We did get out new refrigerator on Saturday but there were some complications. I look forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning......this morning, however, I was up at 8 because the delivery man "might" come that early. 8-12 was the projected time of delivery. By 12:01 Wm. was home and wanted to know where the new refrigerator was. He called Lowe's who said the delivery manager was at lunch. Wm. called back at 1 and was told it was on the afternoon delivery truck. They told him that the salesman failed to change the date back to Sat. for the "emergency delivery date". Apparently the delivery program is set up for the next day or the first available date if the next day delivery is filled. (does that make sense?) We could expect delivery between 1 and 5pm. At 6 pm, the truck driver called and asked if we could accept the fridge in the next 30 min. Now, if you know my hubby, you know patience is not his strong suit. By the time it was delivered he was nearly at his wits end.....and then.....yes, there is an "and then"; the fridge was 1/2 in. too wide to fit into place so he had to take down the panel that made it a built in!
Well, we did get it on Saturday, just not when they promised and not without a lot of work to get it in place and not without having our patience tried.