Not just surviving..........THRIVING!

I had forgotten how much I love being a mom until I arrived in Portland to watch two of my grandkiddies for about a week. I love taking care of them and figuring out what they need and how to make them happy! Here are some of the things we've been up to:

1. Going to Target for popcorn and toy isle looking. I love this because when I was a mom to a bunch of young ones, I could never really take the time to spend an hour just looking at toys. I LOVED it!

2. Playing with toys. I have eaten more meals of pretend food than you could imagine.

3. Playing super-heroes for hours on end. I made them superhero capes. Andi doesn't want to wear hers but Carter won't take his off. He actually wore it over his coat today and he got comments let me tell you! It was so funny. I made him a mask as well so the combination makes him invincible!

4. Going thru the bedtime rituals. Marching to the bathroom for teeth brushing.....singing the same four songs everynight while they fill in the words and run around me in circles. I get corrected if I get the order wrong! 'Grandma, what do you want to sing?' gets asked over and over. If I say the wrong song out of order I get, 'How about ___________'. We kneel for prayer.....this is just such a sweet time. then we sing I am a child of God. Then the lights get turned off, the fan gets turned on. I hear 'Make a silly face'. So I go out of the room and then I open up the door with a silly face. I hear laughter just spilling out of their beds. Priceless............

There are so many other things we've done but mostly it's just been about love. It doesn't really matter what we are doing or how we are doing it or where we are doing it. All that matters is that I am madly in love with my grandbabies - all of them!

Going to Target for popcorn and a lemonade: $3.00
going to McDonalds to play in the playland: $8.00
Buying new toys: $28.00
Being Grandma Z: Priceless

The Annual Palm Springs trip!

Me and Judes have begun an annual tradition of going to Palm Springs the week before spring break. The first year was under the guise of an art show she wanted to check out. However, we discovered that we had missed the art show all together. Now we just go to go! The pictures show you what happens on little sleep, late nights, crocheting, over shopping, and driving around in the convertible all night.............we put on these anti-wrinkle strips thinking we could erase our 'lines'. You be the judge.......

The Harmon Grandkiddies!

Paul had a meeting up in Portland for a day so I tagged along and got one day in with the Harmon family! We played hard for the day. Mac's is always a great place to visit. Carter just loved sitting in Ronald McDonalds lap. He figured out how to climb up all on his own. He was so proud of himself. I had a hard time getting a pic with ms. Andi! She's such a mover and wiggler. She did find a treasure or two on the floor of the playplace. She brought us a piece of chewed gum complete with the longest black hair you could find. For those of you who don't know our family, loose hairs are on the top of the 'nothing grosses me out more than this' list! Thank you to Carter and Andi for being such good sports about going to FAbric Depot. They were perfect angels. We also went to an old pancake house the next morning. It was soooo old. We dubbed it the breakfast shack. I'm pretty sure that the grease they cooked the food in was the original grease from about 1928. It was full plates of just good old food. I felt pretty yucky afterwards...........

The Stewart grandboys!

Ben had a hearing in Medford so he and his family came to visit. Ben's hearing got cancelled so he headed up to Salem until the weekend. So Sharon and the boys stayed and visited for about 5 days and we had such a great time. Ben came over the weekend so it was good to see him too! Never enough time with them! We went to the sports park open gym and let the boys run wild. They really enjoyed it. There weren't too many kids there so they got the run of the field. Grayson just loved the big yoga ball. He bounced and bounced on it. He bounced off of it. It was really funny to watch. Calvin just wanted to do what his big brother did. We went to Mac's and let them run around as well. Grandpa loves to meet up with us there for a little libation and a lot of his grandboys! Gray loves to play at the computer desk. He gets in the desk drawer and organizes things for me. Sounds a bit like his dad to me...........

The Andrus Grandkiddie!

I had such a nice visit with Summer, Joshua, and Reece and Sam and Nikki! I went to Utah in February and spent a weekend with Sam and Nikki and then up to Sumo's house and spent a few days there as well. Ms. Reece is just adorable and it was so much fun to get to know her better. I sure wish they lived closer! Grandkiddies and kiddies! Thank you to my kids and in-law kids and ms. Reece for a really great week. I am so bad at taking pics of them so I didn't get one single one of the grown-ups!

Fabrack Addict!

Paul has dubbed me a 'Fabrack Addict' This would be a play on the word crack addict. Only it's fabric. Has anyone ever been to Fabric Depot in Portland? It's the largest fabric store in the US. 7000 sq. ft. of beautiful, glorious fabric! Thank you Dani for introducing me! They have designer fabrics. They have designer patterns. I was truly shaking when I walked in! It is amazing! I also learned about the Puyallup Stiching Fair held in Puyallup WA every Feb. I just missed it. It's four days of demonstrations, designers, fabrics, quilting, crocheting, etc. I'm going next year - anyone coming?

Now the funny part of this story...........Paul was so excited for me to be getting fabric and patterns. He was excited that it makes me so happy to have a creative outlet. He asked me how much I spent - any of you who know Paul know that I don't really track what I spend very often and Paul is just happy to 'keep' me! I told him an estimate. He said 'Good. That makes me feel better.' I asked him why. He sheepishly told me that he won a bid on Ebay for a new set of golf clubs! I'm so happy for him! Just as long as he stays happy for me!

Giveaway - I'm playing!

My girls - two of them - have posted this on their blog and I went to play on theirs and they are booked! So I wanted to do this so here it is! This is the copy of On to the details of the giveaway...


The first THREE people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

My choice.

For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.It may be a story. It may be a joke book, autographed picture of myself, handmade bag, or a little invention of my own! I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows?

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind.


The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog.


The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!


Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!