CATCHING UP....(sorry, this one is kind of long!)

SUCH a miracle!

Well, sooo much has gone on in the last couple of weeks, I am just kind of behind everywhere.  I have had such a busy week.  Sometimes I am afraid that you all think that I must think that I need to keep you aware of my every movement, haha, but I guess I will just say again that I write this blog mainly as a journal of my life after my kids were raised.  You will never know how much I wish I had done such a thing when I was raising my kids, and how I envy all you young gals who are doing so now.  I have also found that I "do" pictures in a whole new way now too.  After 37 years of taking pictures, I have boxes and boxes of pictures that are not in albums.  I started off doing pretty good, but somewhere along the line it got away from me.  Now I have more than I could ever possibly sort through, and truthfully what is the point of countless photos, some of the same old thing just with a different turn of the head etc., haha.  Now I take my favorite pictures and put them on my blog which is then printed into a book.  The only pictures I develop are for the ones I carry in my purse (grandma's brag book) and a VERY few chosen few I display in my house.  The rest are stored in folders in my computer.   I print my blog into a book at the end of a year and it is set aside just in case any of my kids or grandkids might be interested someday.  I have actually found myself looking back through the books myself to see what went on for certain holidays and birthdays etc., or even where I might have had certain seasonal decorations placed in my house etc., haha.  Guess the old memory is going.  Anyway, having said all of this I will attempt to catch up here with what has been happening, and where my head and heart are at.

My 10 days at Mel's raced by and I enjoyed every single minute.  Saying good-by to Mel (and Mike) is always difficult, but I am afraid having added little Samuel to the equation it will now be worse than ever.  I felt very good about how they were all doing however, I just know they are going to be wonderful parents.  It was fun watching them both discover the wonders of a sweet little baby.   We drove straight through on the way there and back this time and now I wonder why I haven't always done so, haha.  Soo much better.  We were taking 2 days to get there, and 2 to get back, which meant 4 days of travel.  Really cuts into your time.  And I honestly think Melody had a good way of describing it.  "The drive is just long and boring and BAD....It is definitely a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being just awful.  But at least it is over in one day.  To do it in 2 days it is still an 8.  So why have 2 days of an 8, when you can have 1 of a 10??"  haha  I couldn't agree more.  THOUGH....16 hours in a car, is a LONG LONG time.  Anyway, for as long as I am able, I will do it this way.

Mike & Mel have decided to come for Thanksgiving this year instead of Christmas and I am kind of a mixture of feelings on that.  Mainly good, so I guess I will fix my mind on those.  It is closer than Christmas for one, and it is my year to have my sons.  Years ago I got all of my boys to get on the same schedule of spending every other Thanksgiving with their in-laws.  That way both families get their times, and we can all be together every other year.  I always felt bad for those people who had to rush from house to house on a holiday, and never really relaxed anywhere, so this has worked well for us.  And believe it or not, my whole family has not been ALL together since last Christmas.  I cannot begin to tell you how much that bothers me for some reason.  Now of course I see them all on a pretty regular basis, but putting us all together for a meal just doesn't happen much anymore.  I guess they are all just busy with their lives, and we don't exactly live close by each other, so it is what it is.  But needless to say, when it does happen, I will be grateful, and guard the opportunity with my life.  It is one of those things that I honestly never saw happening to me or my kids, but it has happened nonetheless.  I think we will get one other day while they are here to have a Meet and Greet for baby Sam where all of the rest of the extended family can come by and meet the baby.  There are just soo many of us that I don't want to include it all on Thanksgiving Day, as then my family wouldn't get their time to be together just us.  Do you know what I mean?  Anyway, I am looking forward to this, and already have begun my mental anyway, preparations for it all.

We got back late on Sun. night and it was soo good to sleep in my own bed.  On Mon. I unpacked and did laundry, a little grocery shopping, and caught up with everyone on the phone....Tues, I got my gray roots done, haha, and then went to my grand daughters volleyball game.  She is doing soo well, and I am so glad she has had the opportunity to play.  It is weird being back in the gym where Mel played for 4 years, and where both Joe and John played basketball as well.  How times does fly.  Here are a couple of pics of her...

It is kind of dark, but you get the idea....she is the tiny one, number 3, lol

She plays back row (like Aunt Mel)...waiting here for the serve

Practicing her serves

Down & ready!

Oh, and my new cleaning lady came on Tues.  I had to let George go...I felt bad for him, as I think his crew will probably lose a lot of business for him while he recovers from his stroke, but not only weren't they good, they were quite rude.  Sooo, that was that for them.  I discovered this new woman and so far I just LOVE her.  By far the best I have had since Nina.  She is a hard worker and definitely wants to please me, which is working well.  ; )  Guess we will see how it goes, but when I got home on tues. night and discovered she had cleaned out the INSIDE of my refrigerator,  I felt like it was like the good old days.  I won't lie, I am excited!

On Wed. I went to my mom's.  I took her out to lunch and shopping to get slippers for my step dad.  We also ran to the bank, and to the pharmacy.  It was good to see her and catch up a bit.  My step dad is to have surgery on Tues., and I covet your prayers for him.  They have discovered cancer in his small intestine, and without the removal of it he will be in a lot of pain and discomfort.  They surgery will be difficult in that he is 87 years old and does have lung cancer as well, but most of his discomfort in the last few months have been coming from this.  So we are hoping this will improve his quality of life for a while.  The surgery will take 3 hours and he will be hospitalized for at least a week.  Most of my time next week will be spent there. 

Yesterday, after a little shopping, (suddenly I needed some warmer tops in a SMALLER size) I went to have my nails done and then went and picked up my grandkids Lindsey and Jeffie and went to go and see the movie Dolphin Tale.  We ALL loved it.  It was an inspirational, feel good, kind of movie that I always like.  I enjoyed seeing them and catching up with their lives a bit.  Lindsey is class president again.  Such a student she is, and I love to see her taking such an active interest in what is going on.  She is getting to be so grown up.  I just had to tell you something Jeffie said to me.  "Grandma," he says, "Did you have a happy birthday?"  After assuring him I did I said, "Jeffie, do you know how old Grandma is?"  and he said, "No, but probably pretty old."  haha  So I said, "Well how old is pretty old Jeff?"  and he said, "Oh, I don't know....28?"  lol  Soo of course I said, "Your right!"  haha

I just had to tell you really quick too that my wonderful hubby FINALLY got our wireless internet connection set up so that my connection is sooo much better.  I have been sooo frustrated as I just kept getting thrown off, or it would just take forever downloading pictures, or just getting from one thing to another.  I have just not been able to visit and comment as much as I would like as it was just taking soo much time.  I am sorry if it has seemed as if I haven't been by some of you.  I have, I promise.  But now I shouldn't have any excuses.

Today I have to leave for Jenny Craig in a couple of minutes (who knows how I have done with all the time away....how I hate dieting, but that is another post!) and then I need to pick up a gift for my niece Jessica who is 25 years old today.  We are having dinner tonight with them to celebrate her day.  The week-end looks just as full, but guess I don't need to post about that until I have lived it, haha.  I will say I am sooo looking forward to church on Sun., and seeing that other set of grandkids.  I've missed them.

How blessed I am.  How grateful I am.  What a loving and mighty God we serve.  May you all enjoy this GORGEOUS Fall weather we are having (at least we are here anyway) and remember to praise the One who blesses us all!

LOVE this one....

Oh, of course I put together a little video of baby Sam....How I love him, and miss him sooo.  : )

Free picture slideshow made with Smilebox