weekend update.......

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

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

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.

Out of my comfort zone.....

Well, since we moved to Syracuse we have only had one vehicle and Wm. takes that to work. If I had a dr/dentist appt, he would take time off work and take me. This has changed. Once he got the job of Warehouse Mgr, he has worked overtime, worked a lot of Saturdays and he made arrangements with Susan to borrow one of her vehicles so I could use our car for the dr/dental appts. I went to the dr. this morning for a check up, bloodwork and a flu shot....Ok, I can do that. The stretching out of my comfort zone part came after I got home. Wm. called and told me to go to Lowes or Sears and look for a new refrigerator. Yes, ours did die and we did need a new one but for me to go alone was a real stretch. I found the info on our old one, looked up online for what I thought I needed and then went to Lowes. They had one that fit my requirements and it was an Energy Star which means an additional 10% off. I called Wm. at work and he said, if you like it get it. Now, the store has advertised next day delivery and free removal of the old refrigerator. Unfortunately, they were totally booked for tomorrow so could I wait till Sunday? I told them I would look somewhere else first to see if I could not find someone to deliver it tomorrow. They said, wait, we can schedule an emergency delivery for tomorrow morning.
We are now the proud owners of a 21 cu. ft. Whirlpool refrigerator to be delivered tomorrow between 8 and 12.

Amazing.....

I am still amazed by the things Matt says and does. I love to watch him play with his barn and Noah's ark and make the animal noises and make the people talk. (yesterday he had Noah's wife and he put her on the roof of the ark and called 'Noah, where are you?') I love to watch him dance to music on the TV and videos. He can be playing and not even paying any attention to the TV until he hears some music. Then he jumps up and dances. He loves to dance.
No, he is far from the perfect child.....already this morning he pulled the door off the TV cabinet and while I was putting it back on he knocked over the table in the LR with the marble top and lamp on it. How could a 2 yr. old do that you ask????? climbing on the table to retrieve the "mote" so he could see Thomas. YIKES
The squirrels and blue jays are still coming around. The blue jay took some shelled peanuts yesterday.....what would a bird do with nuts? This morning when we opened the door to let Matt and Susan in we had to stop the squirrel from coming inside. When we lived in Pulaski, we had one get in the house and let me tell you, that was not pretty!
Our fridge seems to be having some kind of problem. When Wm. took the ice cream out of the freezer last night it was melted. Then he pulled the fridge out, vacuumed the coils , put it on a cooler setting but this morning, it was no better. He said he will look at it again tonight and that I should have everything out of it when he gets home.....he has not been getting home until 7 or 8 lately despite going into work early. I had laughed at Dawn Meehan's blog (Because I said so) last week about her broken fridge. Think maybe it is Murphy's Law?

refuge.....

It all started out very innocently. On the days Papa goes to work at his normal time, Matt and I go on the porch and wave and tell him goodbye. Papa flashes his lights, toots the horn and Matthew giggles and waves. On Friday, Matt brought a piece of toast out with him. By the time Papa left, Matt had finished the toast and had only pieces of crust left. He set them on the porch railing while he waved. Almost immediately, a blue jay came a took a piece of toast and then another one came and took a piece. Then a squirrel came and took the last 2 pieces of crust. By this time, Matt was so excited he wanted to go inside and get more food for the birds and squirrels. Once inside he decided he should give the squirrels some nuts from a can Papa had but was not eating because it had no salt on it. We took the can outside and Matt lined nuts up along the railing. Two squirrels came and began to carry away the nuts. We went inside and watched from the front window. Matt was giggling and clapping and despite all the noise, the squirrels were not deterred from their gathering.
After lunch we were sitting on the porch with the can of nuts and a squirrel came right up to me. Matt instructed me to give him a nut and the squirrel took it right out of my hand. We eventually went inside but the squirrel came back and wanted more nuts. So he sat on the back of the chair and tapped on the window. Well, let me tell you, Matt was ecstatic. Yes, we took more nuts out to him and this little ritual continued throughout the afternoon.
When we went to the grocery store on Sat, Wm. bought some shelled peanuts so Matt could put them out for the squirrels. While it is fun to watch Matt with the squirrels, I am afraid to let them eat from his hand. We have compromised by setting the nuts on the railing once they tap on the window to let us know they want more. The problem now looks like they are always there. Once they take the nuts away, they are back for more. This could end up being quite expensive not to mention our contributing to over feeding two squirrels and two blue jays. :-)
It was good to be back in church yesterday.....seemed like forever since I had been there. Actually, it was only 2 Sundays.
We have decided to go to Raleigh to see Morrigan and Max on 11/10. Our original plan was to go down at Thanksgiving but the timing was not a good fit for Wm.'s new job. So our hope is to get to Canton before Alyssa's birthday so Wm. can see the girls. I will come for Alyssa's party with Tom, Susan and Matt because Wm. is working that Saturday. That is becoming more the norm than a once in a while thing. When he worked in Inkjet, he rarely worked overtime not to mention I could count on one hand the Saturdays he worked in the previous 2 yr. Now, he seems to be going in earlier, working later and Saturdays. He is much happier with this job and that is what is important to me.

the final episode

OK, yesterday was my dental appt. for the extraction as well as the addition of the tooth to my exsisting bridge. I had the tooth extracted and the only complication was that it did not stop bleeding. The dentist first thought that the gel would be enough to stop it.....two stitches later it was still bleeding. It did eventually stop, (some 5 hr. later) PTL. Now I am trying to shake off the headache I always get when I have Novocaine. The bridge worked out very well......I am sure it will be less painful when the socket is healed......l0l!

Today when Matt wanted me to build him a tent with the cushions from the couch, I remembered that in the cellar was a Dora and Boots tent the girls had at our house. Oh, my, what a hit that was. He spent the remainder of the morning in there, giggling and peeking out so see if I was watching him. Wish I had thought of it before this..........like maybe last year.

the ongoing saga

Just in case you have been wondering about how I made out with my tooth.....here is the ongoing saga.....................
They took impressions on Tues and I was supposed to be getting the roots/ remainder of my tooth out and the new tooth added to my existing bridge on Fri. The dentist office called on Wed. to say the lab was not happy with the way the impressions came out and I had to come in yesterday to have new impressions made. I did that but needless to say, it will not be ready on Friday but not until Mon. Another weekend with no front tooth. YIKES. And if that was not enough, the glue will no longer hold it in!

weekend update

Saturday morning found Wm. at work and I got to sleep in.....I love Saturdays. Actually, I just feel so tired that I welcome anytime I can sleep in.
I broke off my front tooth (at the gum line) when I was eating leftover pizza for breakfast. YIKES! First panic set in, I don't do well in emergency situations. Anyway, once I got over the initial shock, I began calling around to find some one to look at it. There are some emergency care dentists listed in the yellow pages but no one could look at it then. Out of sheer desperation, I super glued it back in place. Now, before you get all excited and think I have absolutely lost my mind, I will tell you that my tooth had broken off before. They had done a root canal, so there was no pain and the tooth I broke off now was a composite, bonded tooth.
When Wm. got home, we went to pick up Susan and Matthew to go to the apple farm. It was great. We usually get apples over near where Susan lives. Abbott's Apple Farm had apples, a store with ice cream and all kinds of apple desserts and of course hot cider. They had animals, goats, sheep, pigs, calves and rabbits for the kids to pet and feed. I am not sure who had a better time, Matt or Papa.
Still wondering about the tooth? The super glue fix only lasted until we got home from the farm. Needless to say, I was not in church yesterday. My appointment is tomorrow morning.
Thank you Lord that I was not in pain.

more musings

Monday evening found us using one of our gift certificates from Matthew for Tassone's. Oh, I do love the all you can eat crab legs. Uncle Roy went with us. If you remember, he had certificates too. They were not as crowded as they usually are on crabby Monday; but for some reason the service was slow. Wm. and Uncle Roy waited patiently while I got my fill. We did not see the guy who brings his own butter warmer there this time. (he also said that he eats 45 knuckles) Yikes, who can do that and why would they let him??????

Yesterday afternoon Matt and I had a tea party on the veranda. The beautiful plastic "china" was something left in the toy box from the girls. He was delighted when he discovered it. While he napped, I made some mini loaves of banana bread; after I rescued my mini pans from the basket on Matt's bike. :-)

miscellaneous musings (edited)

Wm. was just saying that we lead a very boring life..... a very predictable one. Well, seeing our days and weeks have begun to run into each other, I guess he may be right. Not today! After church, we stopped at Super WalMart to get groceries and a few other things. (OK, that part was very predictable and boring) When we got home I decided to go out to the garage and paint an armoire I want to use in the office. Wm. was going to see his mother. Then he decided to call her and invite her for dinner. She asked if Matty was coming too so he called Susan and invited them for dinner as well. He had to go past Uncle Roy's house on the way to get his mother so he brought him for dinner too.
Very unpredictable and very spontaneous. We had a great dinner (pork roast) Susan brought a cake and we all laughed and laughed. My mother in law told me something that my husband never did........she made him take accordion lessons! Then she told us he hated them but it was not until she heard him play "Lady in Spain" that she let him quit. This all started when I told her that Wm. said one thing he always regretted was never learning to play the piano. She said she knew that but she wanted him to play the accordion!

Matthew, in his new shirt with his new blankie that Betsy made him, watching Dora. His cousin Tyler brought him the shirt back from his vacation to the Jersey shore. I remember "the girls" watching Dora (in fact I still have the Dora tapes they loved and now Matt is loving them too) I love it when Dora asks if you see something and he jumps up and down and points at the screen, saying "I see it Dora, I see it.....right here"

weekend update

We had a very productive weekend; well sort of. I got a lot accomplished just not what I had planned to do. The rain on Saturday kept me from painting. (not raining at BJ's or the mall though)
Sunday after church we went to Cracker Barrel to have lunch with our north country friends, the Ashleys. They were on the way to Rochester to see their new little granddaughter Norah Rose. It was so good to see them.....I do miss the north country family and friends we left we came to Syracuse. I don't miss driving a lot to go shopping, even for groceries. I really miss Josh, Jackie and my three little princesses! From there we went to the Christmas Tree Shop and low and behold, ran into Betsy and Kenny.
Betsy made Matt a small afghan like the one she made him when he was born so he could carry it around without tripping over it. Oh, I didn't mention he likes to walk around with it over his head (and it still drags on the floor) Not sure why he suddenly needs to take the "blankie" with him every where he goes not to mention the "paci". We tried to keep it just for naps but he will try scaling the dresser to get it. Anyway, the "new little blankie" was a big hit. He left his other afghan in his bed and the paci on the dresser.
Did I mention that Matt gave us a gift certificate to Tassone's for Grandparent's day? I thought it was one until I took it out of the envelope and it was two. Susan said she did that because she had given Uncle Roy 2 gift certificates for Tassone's for his birthday and he would not want to go alone!
She is a good daughter don't you think?

another update

Wm. started his new job on Monday. I think he will quickly adjust and end up liking it much better. He was never one to just sit around or pretend he was busy when he wasn't. That pretty much sums up what they did in injet a lot of the time. It was either feast or famine; either they had no work at all or tons that all needed to be mailed the same day. The warehouse manager position requires his full time attention. Things are coming in and out all day long and there is no time for sitting around. (thank you Lord).
My knee is much better. My question now is why didn't we just go with the shots last time rather than the surgery which didn't seem to help anyway?
I feel like a lot of other bloggers in that I am very happy to see summer leave. The heat and humidity just seem to zap all my energy. I absolutely love autumn. I love the cooler temperatures, the gorgeous colors and I actually feel like I want to cook, bake and find new projects to work on.

update

For the first time in 15 yr; I got a haircut by someone other than Betsy. Let me start at the beginning; even after we left Canton, Betsy still cut my hair. Either she would stop on her way to or from Rochester to visit her grandchildren or she would cut it when I came to Canton. She had no idea when she would be coming down and I don't know when we will make it up again until Alyssa's birthday. So yesterday, I went to Super Cuts and got my hair cut. Considering how apprehensive I was going in, it really looks pretty good. Who knew?

I finished the shelf I was making for Jen and Eleora's shower. I was very happy with the way it came out..... My DH is doing an excellent job of showing it off so I could take the picture, don't you agree? What you can't see are the fish on the top of the shelf so it goes with the theme in her room. (very creative, eh?)

PTL.....Great News..... PTL

I have great news, I have been praying for this for a while now. Wm. has a new job. Well, technically, he is still at IMS (Immediate Mail Service) but he will no longer be working in Inkjet. He will be the Warehouse mgr. He will be working alone, something he is pleased about. It should also have a considerable raise. Not exactly sure what "considerable" is in their eyes, but we are grateful for anything we get. He should be starting in a week or two, depending on how long it takes for them to find a replacement for him in Inkjet (will that be possible)?
We are very pleased about this new opportunity and thank the Lord for his continued blessings!

Matt has reminded me of 4 more signs he knows.....WOW 27!

Family time.....

Josh, Jackie, and the girls stopped on Friday and had lunch with Matt and me on their way to Rochester. I love when the kids are together!

Saturday we celebrated Susan's birthday with cake and ice cream. Uncle Roy came too......If there is cake, he doesn't want to be left out :-)

Sunday turned out to be a horrid day for me. I woke up with a terrible headache in the middle of the night and things went down hill from there. I spent the entire day in bed with the exception of frequent trips to the bathroom.

Today, Josh, Jackie and the girls stopped on the way back home. We went to the mall in Auburn (Jackie's favorite) but left empty handed. We did stop at Payless on the other side of Auburn so the girls could get shoes.....I had promised them on Friday that they could have new shoes when the came on Monday. Susan, Tom and Matt came at 3:30 and we had some cake and ice cream to celebrate Uncle Roy's birthday. Obviously, he came too. The plan was to have a cook out but time was very limited and we decided on ice cream and cake.....OK and chips and juice, cookies and Italian ice!

This is Susan's birthday......Matt thought the cake on Uncle Roy's plate looked better. Actually, he took the frosting off of most of our cakes!

Baby Lauren with Aunt Susan. She is sporting Lael's newest treasure we got at the mall...I guess we did get something after all.

Alyssa and Matt in the "big hole" in our back yard where they removed a tree. This spot is a favorite of Matt's. He runs around the back yard and then yells to me "Matt's in the big hole".

These next two are 4 of my 6 adorable, intelligent grandchildren. Did I mention I love being a grandmother? Did I tell you Lauren is rolling over and saying Mama?

Now honestly, have a ever seen a cuter bunch?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN

Today my sweet Susan is 37 years old......I am certain she won't mind that I told you how old she is......on the other hand, I feel ancient saying it. Nonetheless, this is not about me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN MICHELE

Update *edited

Lunch for the workers at church on Saturday went well. Susan not only drove me there but stayed and helped me set up, serve and clean up afterwards. They all thanked us for a great meal so I guess I did OK. We decided on making one of the favorites from the pastors luncheons at CFC ; grilled chicken Caesar salad.

I stopped at the Thrift store on Fri. night when we went to Wegman's for the fixings for Saturday's lunch. I was very excited.....I found a Fisher Price Kitchen for Matt for less than $5 and a workbench. The kitchen has been a real hit.....he has played with it the entire morning, stopping only for breakfast.

This was so worth the time and elbow grease it took to scrub it down with Clorox spray. The workbench is out on the porch (yes with all the other toys, Susan) so we will go out after lunch and see how we like that.

I had been thinking about how many signs Matt knows now. 21 come to mind right away: Mommy, Daddy, baby, eat, drink, sleep, bath, ball, stop, go, water, milk, please, thank you, your welcome, all gone, more, friends, story, help and potty. He can count by signing but sometimes gets confused as it is different than counting on your fingers. I am so glad we worked on learning some of the signs because although he can say all the words now, it definitely saved us a lot of frustration when he couldn't. Even now, if I can not understand him I ask if he knows the sign. If he does, he shows me.

*I just thought of 2 more signs he knows.....yes and no!

Tomorrow will be my last shot of Euflexxa. While the pain is so much less than it was before I started them, my knee "went out" on me last night. That was one of the reasons they opted for surgery the first time. Please continue to pray that the shots will be all I need. Thanks.

more ramblings from this old fat Grandmother

First, my knee is beginning to feel better ....I was very surprised how the pain had returned following the second shot.
I was really enjoying the cooler weather and now it hazy, hot and humid once again. Nice for Matt to be able to use the pool but not so good for me. The air has been on for days now and I have not been able to do any laundry. I really enjoy doing laundry.....yeah, it is somewhat therapeutic and I like feeling like I have accomplished something.....I love smelling fresh clean clothes. Anyway, the air has been on and Wm. asked me not to run the dryer when the air is on. I really have no idea why other than it may blow a fuse, or trip a breaker or whatever it does. You can see I am really up on the mechanics of the house. This was not a problem with the washer/dryer when it was downstairs.....technically it still is. (the washer/dryer we put upstairs is one unit so it would fit in the old linen closet)
I mentioned before that the church was putting on an addition and that on Sat. the home groups were preparing meals for the workers. Well, yesterday someone called to tell us they were going to ask families to make the Sat. meal. Wm. volunteered us for tomorrow. I am glad to do it would just rather have had a little time to prepare. Wm. said I should do what I did for the pastor lunches I made for CFC when we worked there. That should work! I always enjoyed doing that but then again I always a month to think about what I would serve. Now the only problem I see is that we have one car and Wm. will already be at church working when I need to bring the food. OK, Susan to the rescue????? If she can't take me, she will surely let her father use one of the vehicles they have to drive to church so I can get lunch over there.
State Fair opened down here yesterday. Wm. wants to go.......I think we were just there when Josh was Matthew's age.......does it really change?

Two of three

I had shot #2 this morning. I did not have the surgeon and it was not quite a painless as the first. I am pleased to say that I have a lot less pain since I got the first one. They told me that for a small percentage of people the shot works right away, for most however, it takes up to a month after the 3rd and final injection. I went shopping with Susan on Saturday and walked all over the store. On Sunday I walked from the car to Wegman's and then around the store. Before this Wm. had been letting me out at the door and then I would do what I could but he went and got most of the groceries and brought them back to the cart.
Matt was thrilled he was going in the "big blue car with Papa" this morning. In fact, he was so excited, Papa had to take him to McDonald's for breakfast while I finished getting ready for the doctor appointment. Papa said that when they pulled in, Matt began singing "old McDonald had a farm". All the way to and from the doctor's, which is only short ride from the house, he kept telling us "red light......stop!" Green light......go! (he signed it too) He is getting so good with his signing.
I took Darlene's advice to Danica about getting a treasure box for Jamison and found a note card box with a hinged top and it works perfectly. So far, we have collected some rocks, tiny stones and 2 feathers. He loves finding things and then saying "Hurry, treasure box" I love it. Thanks Darlene, I would have never thought such a small thing could bring so much joy to one little boy.