Labor Day Weekend.......the end of summer!

That's what Labor Day weekend is supposed to signify, right? Growing up, we were always led to believe that Memorial Day was the beginning of the summer season and Labor Day was the end of the season.

As a child, the first camping trip of the year was always Memorial Day weekend. Albeit, the last camping trip was......you guessed it, Labor Day weekend. This weekend, I won't be doing any camping, but one of my sons is bringing his tent and children and camping in my backyard. He has promised all summer that he would take them camping but his job requires that he be gone out of town frequently and for at least a week at a time, and with a wife and 3 young ones (9,3 and 8 months) at home, it has been almost impossible to get away on a camping trip. I hope we have good weather. I don't care if it's somewhat cool, but if we get rain and thunder and lightning, I know they'll all be sleeping in the house and they will be disappointed that they aren't camping out! Amber is coming for the weekend too, so it's a good thing that the tent is big enough for at least 4 people!

My daughter, naive, wants to go up north to help mr. naive finish building the house he has been working on. She is anxious for him to get it finished, so he can come home and stay home, instead of just coming home for the weekend. I will keep Drew for her so she can go. Drew will NOT be sleeping in the tent! He will stay in the house with his Mema where it is nice and toasty and comfortable!

That reminds me; I better stock up on hot dogs, and s'mores fixings cause we'll be having a "campfire" at night and it is impossible to have a camp fire without marshmallows!!

I'm lucky!!

I must be one of the luckiest women in the whole world. Why, you wonder? Because I am blest with some of the best children and grandchildren. Most of my children live fairly close by. The only one who lives far away is in Kentucky and we talk every week on the phone. Sometimes two or three times a week!

My oldest daughter, Naive-No-More lives less than a mile away. She is a very smart lady! She is a mortgage loan originator/loan officer. She helped us get the financing for us to buy the house we live in now. She just helped us re-finance from an adjustable rate mortgage to a fixed rate at a decent percentage rate. She is awesome!

She also just made a "Grandma's Brag Book" for me. She is very talented and creative. It is made out of paper lunch bags and scrap book supplies! It contains pictures of her children, my grandchildren, Steve, Emily and Drew. Steve is a senior in high school this year, Emily a freshman, and of course Drew, who will be two in October. It is very hard to believe that she is old enough to have a child who will graduate from high school next May. Even harder to believe is the fact that I have a grandchild that old.

I took a picture of the brag book, but the picture doesn't do it justice. I have posted a few of the pictures contained in the album for all of you to enjoy too. Of course I think they are some of the nicest looking kids around!

Another trip to the ER

I spent the weekend at one of my son's home helping him care for his 3 children. His wife had to go out of town and he wasn't sure he could take care of all of them alone for a whole weekend. The oldest boy is 9, the next boy is 2 1/2 and the baby girl is 7 1/2 months. He has cared for them for a few hours at a time, but never the total care of all three for 2 days and nights. Panic set in and he asked for help. Of course I said "yes". This is probably only the 4th or 5th time in the last 9 years that he has asked for any kind of help and I couldn't have said "no" even if I had wanted to, which I didn't!

Amber was going to spend the weekend with us, so she went along to play with her cousins. Every thing went well......up until about 1/2 hour before we were going to leave. Then Amber fell in the driveway. She lost her balance (something about getting her feet tangled in the hose) and fell backwards and caught herself with her left elbow. Oh my, the screaming was awful. I thought that the neighbors would call the police. It was loud and looooonnnnng! We finally got her calmed down enough to check it out and we decided we should wait until today to see if it was feeling better. It wasn't! But we tried everything to try to entice her to use it normally. Going for a bike ride with Bumpa, usually a favorite activity. Playing video games is another big hit, but not today. So finally this evening, after listening to her complain off an on all day, I decided to call her mom and take her into the hospital emergency room. That was about 8:30 PM. It is now Monday morning at 12:50 AM, and we just got back. The doctor said he didn't see any fracture on the x-ray, but perhaps the radiologist would see something, and sent us on our way with instructions to ice it and give ibuprofen every 4 hours as needed for pain. If the radiologists sees something, the doctor said they will call and have us come back for casting of her arm. It is the humorous bone in her left arm and when the doctor told her which bone of hers hurts, she told him that she didn't think there was any humor in the whole situation. Eleven going on 19, with an attitude to match any full blown PMS teen-age girl!! I gotta go put her in bed before she gets even more of an attitude from being tired!

I should have stayed in bed!

Mornings and I could be better friends.....if morning just started later in the day!

Yesterday, I didn't have the best start to the day. When I got up, I opened the overhead garage door to let my four-legged, fur-covered child out to go potty. I noticed something laying on the garage floor and upon closer inspection found 4 baby mice with fur, but eyes still closed scattered around one stall of the garage. The only thing that could be done was to find a pair of shoes and a receptacle to pick them up with. If I left them there, the dog would either eat them or try to play with them, which would end up killing them in the garage. YUCK!! I haven't even had my coffee yet, I thought! This is not how I wanted to start my day.

I must put the dog back in the house so she doesn't try to chase the mice after I release them. I find a dustpan and gently slide it under each baby mouse and walk down the bank through the backyard to the edge of our property and toss the mice into the adjacent empty lot full of deep weeds and brush.

Upon returning to the house I feel the need to wash my hands, even though I never touched any of the mice. I pour myself my first cup of coffee for the day and decide I need to go potty too. I rewash my hands and sit down at the computer to enjoy my coffee and visit blogs. But I hear a strange noise in the entry way. I investigate and discover that the dog has thrown up three times in the entry way. Freaking great! I WANT to drink my coffee! So now I have to clean up the dog puke and clean the carpet. Wash hands AGAIN!! Wonderful, my coffee is now cold. I pour it down the sink and pour a fresh cup from the coffee maker. Finally I get to drink my first cup of coffee.

Within a few minutes the phone rings. It is the Betty Ford Breast Center reminding me that I have an appointment Thursday morning at 8:45 for my annual mammogram.

Sweet! I love going there and having my "mammies mashed!" Two bad mornings in a row. Not much to look forward too, huh? Anyone want to go in my place?

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

While in a deep discussion with a friend, the above quote came back to me. I can't remember where I heard it originally, but it sure does say a lot.

I had to say some things that she found most unpleasant even though she needed to hear them. I needed to sit and really listen to what she was saying too. To sit and listen not only takes courage, it takes a LOT of willpower!

I don't know if our conversation (which I cannot reveal here) will help her make any of her decisions, but at least it cleared the air.....and that is a good thing!

Remembering...

As another August rolls around and my first (deceased) husbands birthday has just passed, I wonder.....

who'd you be today? Sitting here listening to a Kenny Chesney song and wondering about my first husband, Dave. He died too young. At the age of 34 of Malignant Melanoma.....a lethal form of skin cancer. I wonder who he would be today. Who would my kids be today? Would they be any different if they had been raised by both of us instead of just me? I'll never know the answer to that question. But still, I wonder....

Also, wondering about my stillborn grandson, Owen. We never got a chance to know him; to watch him grow; to enjoy him and who he would be today!

Ty at 2 months and Trenten with cast!

He broke 3 bones in his foot but is expected to make a complete and full recovery. That's the good thing about being young......you heal very quickly!
We don't know how long the cast will have to remain on his foot until he goes to the specialist Thursday. Hopefully it will be off by the time school starts in September!!

Meet my newest grandson, Ty Christopher. He was born May 29, 2006. This is him just the other day...he now weighs over 11 pounds. Not a whopper by a long shot, but a "keeper" for sure. His big brother thinks he is pretty neat right now. Of course, that's because all he does is sit in one place unless someone else moves him. He isn't getting into any of Trenten's "stuff" yet, nor does Trenten have to share any of his toys at this stage in the game. I figure in about 6-7 more months when this little guy is crawling around and touching things that belong to Trenten they will be having some major battles in their household!

This picture is an example of how much Trent does love his baby brother......now.


This is the little guy I got to spend my night with last Friday while they took his big brother, Trenten, to the ER for xrays of his left foot.

My little sweetheart!

This picture of Drew was taken at my house this past week. He is 21 months old and thinks he is quite grown up wearing "Bumpa's" workboots! Isn't he adorable?

I had him from Tuesday afternoon until Friday night. I volunteered to keep him while naive-no-more and mr. naive-no-more were in the northern part of Michigan building a house. I thought it might be hard to watch a little guy while trying to work setting trusses. Besides, all of my company left for Kentucky and Amber went back home and our house seemed rather empty without any little ones around. Now that his momma is back home and he won't be here all day, I know I will have "with'drew'als"! LOL

His folks got home around 8:45 last night. Drew and I were waiting for them at their house and Drew had his bath and was ready for bed in his pj's just waiting to see them before going "nite-nite"! I came home around 9:00 PM.

At about 9:15 my phone rang and it was my daughter-in-law. Their oldest little boy, Trenten (age 5) thought he could do a cannonball unto the living room floor. OOPS!! This required a trip to the ER and my services were needed to watch Ty (2 months old). I was there until approximately 1:30 AM when they returned home with a very tired little boy who was sporting a pretty blue fiberglass cast on his left leg. He broke 3 bones in his foot. Lesson learned: a cannonball should only be performed while jumping into a deep enough body of water! When hubby gets out of work today, we will go over to his house to see him and take him a small gift.....something to help keep him occupied while he recovers somewhat, and sign his cast. I will take pictures then and post them next time.

To Kill an American

I don't usually get politcal here but read this ariticle written by an un-named Austrialian Dentist, and thought maybe others would like to read it also. You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)


"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.<>So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."

HEAT WAVE!!!!

We, along with half of the country, are under a heat wave! Today the temp is supposed to reach 95 degrees with a heat indices of 110. But, it's summer! What do we expect? I think the environmentalist who have been screaming about global warming and all the pollution we have put in the air, are forgetting about the heat waves in the past centuries.......could they blame those heat waves on global warming?

I leave these thoughts with a message I saw on a sign out front of a local church:

"You think it's hot HERE?"

You Are A Poplar Tree

People tend to look up to you, and it's a bit lonely at the top. Inside, you are not always self confident, but you show great courage. Mature and organized, you are reliable in any situation. You tend to have an artistic or philosophical outlook on life. You are very choosy in love and take partnership seriously.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

Jerks!!

I wonder how my husband ended up as loving as he is! We had his entire family, Mother, Sisters, Brothers and their families to our home for a cookout and to visit our daughter, Rachel who is visiting from Kentucky.

Everything was going smoothly.....until after we had eaten. Then they wanted to take pictures. I think most of my readers are aware of the fact that both my husband and I had been previously married and both brought children into this marriage. I brought Michelle, Brian and Doug and he brought Jeremy and Rachel. We both think of the five children as "ours". There is no mine and yours...they are "OURS"! Together we share 14 grandchildren. These fourteen special grandchildren should be considered his Mother's great-grandchildren. However, his sisters and mother think NOT!

Here is a prime example: When it was time for the picture taking, they announced that they wanted a picture of their mother with the great-grandchildren. Our granddaughter, Amber (11 years old) was also here. When she went up to where they were seated for the picture taking, one of the sisters said "NO, it's just the great-grandchildren". Hubby's brother said "What do you think Amber is? She's a great-grandchild too! The sister said, "Shut your mouth and leave it alone, no, it's just the great-grandchildren." Amber heard this and walked over to my hubby and climbed up on his lap and sat very quietly.

This is not the first time this has happened to this same little girl! Years ago at another grandchilds birthday party someone said the picture was just to include those who were born into the bloodline of the family. I pulled Amber out of the sitting and was livid. I wanted to tell them all that their mother wasn't born into the bloodline of that family either and she should get the H____out of the picture too then. I bit my tongue to keep peace in the family and thinking that this little girl was only about 5 at the time she wouldn't understand. I was wrong.

This time, later that same day, she asked her Bumpa (that's what the grandkids call Grandpa) why his sisters and mom don't like her. It broke my heart to hear her ask this question. Hubby answered her and told her that sometimes people don't think before they speak and it hurts others feelings. She said okay, but I can tell that she isn't really satisfied with this answer. We assured her that she is very special to us and we love her and God loves her. She smiled, but I could still see the hurt in her eyes.

I told Hubby that as far as I am concerned that is the very last get together I will ever attend for his side of the family. If my birth grandchildren are not considered family, than I am not either! So, there will never be another need for me to attend a family function!

How would they all feel if I treated Hubby's birth children and birth grandchildren in that manner? Rachel told me I should tell her and Jeremy when I will act the same way that they did and then do it at the next family gathering, and see how they like it. I told Rachel that I could never treat her and Jeremy that way! Not even to teach her Grandma and Aunts a lesson. I love them too much to ever do that to them, even if they knew I didn't mean it and was just trying to show others how it felt.

There are plenty of more incidences similar to this one in my history with the family, but this one is the final straw.

So, this is my official resignation from Hubby's family that I once thought of as my own. Every last one of them.....well, except for his Grandma and his brothers and their wives. His brothers' wives are the ones that stood by me through this mess!

And my final thought....glad to be free!!

My plate is full......

I am taking care of Drew this weekend. It has been planned for a long time now. His momma and daddy (naive and mr. naive) are on a canoe trip. I also have Amber this weekend. Today she had an orthodontist appointment at 9 AM. She didn't want to get up. And on top of this, if this isn't already enough, the funeral for my children's grandmother is tomorrow and our daughter and her husband and 3 kids are on the way up here right now.

So when it is time for Drew to go to bed tonight, I will take him to his house and put him to bed there, which means that I will have to stay there overnight also. We don't have enough pac-n-plays to bed two babies down and I think the confusion of it all would just be too much for both babies and neither one would settle down to sleep. And heaven knows that none of us wants to sit up all night entertaining babies!!

I don't have a clue as to when I will have time to post again. Our daughter and her children are staying with us through this coming Wed. before heading back to Kentucky. I suspect that by the time they leave, I will need at least a day to sit and recover.......I'm tired just thinking about all of it!!

I've been tagged....

by Chesney Girl, so here goes!!



In my purse/wallet
~Cell phone
~Bandaids
~keys, lots of keys
~pictures of grandkids
~tic-tacs

In my Refrigerator
~Ice Tea - sweetened
~Salad
~bag of baby carrots
~This week's left overs
~ketchup, mustard, mayo

In my Closet
~Mine and Hubby's clothes
~Shoes
~dirty laundry
~Luggage
~Wedding dress

In my Car
~Not much...I just cleaned it out
~Dog's travel water bottle
~Dog's leash
~Umbrella
~Garage door opener

My Bathroom Pic!

After visiting http://anonymousassclown.blogspot.com/, I have posted my own "bathroom pic of the day!

What do y'all think?

Where are the other ones?

While coming home from a shopping trip today, I noticed several single shoes in different places along the side of the road. They were all different shoes from what I could see; they weren't the mate of the previous shoe or the next shoe lying in the road.

It made me wonder. What happens to these shoes that they get left by the side of the highway? Do people hang their feet out the window and their shoes get blown off in the breeze? Does someone else in the vehicle get angry with them and throw a shoe out the window? Do they fall off the back of a pick-up truck that is packed with moving boxes?

Or are they simply waiting to have someone find them and take them home to meet up with that "lone" sock that we all have found on occasion in our washing machines?

Life is funny.

The passing of a great woman.......

my acquired children's grandmother passed away last night in her sleep. It was a blessing. She has been in a long term care facility in Kentucky for the last 5 years or so. She had Parkinsons. This woman was my husbands ex-mother-in-law and yet she accepted me and genuinely liked me. She was a very kind and gentle person......the kind when you meet for the first time, you instantly like and know that they have a good heart!

Our children are having a rough time with this. Our daughter that lives in Kentucky has seen her grandmother on a regular basis. Our son, who lives in Michigan, has not. He is regretting the fact that she didn't get to meet his newest son who was born May 29th and that he didn't get to see her recently. We didn't get to see her when we were in Kentucky last week either. It didn't work out for us to be able to get over to the facility she was in. I'm sorry about that too! Our daughter probably has some regrets, too, although I have not been able to speak with her at length as of yet.

The funeral will be back here in Michigan since that is where she was originally from and where her dear departed husband is laid to rest too. The funeral is all pre-paid and pre-arranged by her. Before her Parkinsons was too bad, she made all the arranagement herself so her family wouldn't have to deal with it. Now all we are waiting for is the family to arrive from Kentucky whenever they can make it here and how soon the funeral home in Kentucky can arrange to have her body delivered here.

This was truly a woman who brought laughter and happiness to those around her while she was living and will surely generate a lot of tears with her passing. God rest her soul!

Asking for prayers!

A friend of mine is going through some very rough times right now. She is a single mom, raising 2 beautiful little girls. She and her girls are in need of prayers for strength, wisdom, healing, knowledge and understanding. Please add her and the girls to your prayers. Thank you!!

The party's over!

I'm back home again. And I'm glad. Two vacations back to back are not a good idea for me. I didn't even get caught up from the Denver trip before heading off to Kentucky. I'm bone tired and I have so much to do now.

It was really great to finally meet our little grandson. Here is a picture of him with his Daddy. The kids have grown so much since we last saw them a year ago. The baby is a real cutie! And he wasn't the least bit frightened of us.

This next picture is of my Hubby and granddaughter from up here. She went with us to see her cousins and Aunt and Uncle. This picture was taken where they are blasting away the mountain to put in a new road. She and Hubby are each holding a piece of rock from the blasting area.




We printed this picture out for her and did a little write-up so she can take it to school and tell her classmates about her trip to Kentucky.

I'm off again!

Well, I'm leaving for Kentucky on Wednesday morning. I'll only be gone a few days. We are making the trip down to finally meet our 5 1/2 month old grandson. We are looking forward to holding him and seeing his reaction to us.

The usual granddaughter is going with us as well as our dog. They both travel well, but have not had to share a backseat for such a long road trip before.

I have posted some new pictures of my trip to Denver for you all to see while I'm in Kentucky. I'll try to take pictures of the mountains there too and not just my grandchildren. Our daughter's other two are 6 and 4 and we haven't seen them for a year. I'm sure they've grown!

Be back on Saturday!