Thursday, September 30, 2010

Ten Years Ago Today, I Married My Best Friend!

(l to r: Joel, Dan, Jessica, me, Molly, Ray, Sarah, Jeremy and Ruth)
This was our entire blended family, 10 years ago today. Joel, (my son) was 17; Dan, (Ray's son) was 16; Jessica, (my daughter) was 18; Molly (my daughter) was 3 1/2; Sarah, (his daughter) was 19; Jeremy, (my son) was 21 and Ruth, (his daughter) was almost 14.
A lot of things have changed for this family in the decade we've been together. We now have 2 sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law and 3 grandsons. Jeremy had recently been married, (just a few weeks prior to our wedding), but that marriage unfortunately ended in divorce. He is the father of our oldest grandson Alex, who was born in January of 2003. Grandson #2, Christian was born to Jessica in October of 2004. Sarah married the love of her life, Brad on May 21, 2005. Dan married TeriAnna in the fall of 2006 and their son, Hayden was born just before Christmas of 2007. Ruth married her husband, Dan in August of 2008, and sadly, they lost a baby in Ruth's 5th month of pregnancy. It was another grandson, named Jeramiah. Oh, and do you see that cute little flower girl in the picture between us? The one that barely comes up to my waist? Yeah. That's my baby girl...at age 13 she now stands just a 1/2" shy of 6 ft!! For reference, that's about as tall as Jeremy was, (and still is, I presume), in the picture.
Jeremy and Alex are still living in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and Sarah and Brad make their home in northern Minnesota. Jessica and Christian are currently living here with us, and Joel lives in the town I grew up in, which is about an hour west of here in central MN. Dan, TerriAnna and Hayden are MUCH farther west, in the Portland, OR area, and Ruth and Dan live about an hour toward the SE of us, near the Twin Cities.
Ten years may not seem like that great of an accomplishment to most people, but considering it was the second time around for both of us, (he was widowed, I was divorced), and the fact that we were in our forties, I think we're doing quite well. We've decided to celebrate our decade of togetherness, with a short "getaway." I think we're long overdue for one. We can't afford to do a real vacation, so we're just going to drive north about 2 hours, and stay in a jacuzzi suite at a moderately priced hotel. We plan to enjoy an anniversary dinner on the way there, and then go for a nice drive after we leave the hotel on Friday. The Fall colors should be about at their peak where we'll be about that time, so it should make for a lovely day. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, with a high of 68 degrees. It was even warmer than that on our wedding day, and to my recollection there have only been one or two anniversaries that were NOT absolutely gorgeous days. I think we picked a pretty good date. I will definitely take pictures (of the scenery) and post them here for all to see.

In the past ten years, we've definitely had more "poorer" than "richer," but fortunately, we've also had a lot more "health than sickness" as well. And for the most part, we've enjoyed much more "better" than "worse" times too. We intend to be together "until death do us part," and as long as we keep trusting in God, who put us together, I'm positive we will do just that. Happy Anniversary, Honey!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

September Sunday Sunrise

I was sleeping peacefully this morning, at about 6:40 AM, when I was rudely awakened by our two dogs, apparently needing to go outside. I reluctantly rolled over, and got up to let them out. Opening the front door, I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen since we moved here. I grabbed my camera, and stepped back out on my front porch...in my "grandma pajamas."
This is the first picture I snapped:
As I was admiring the beauty and quiet of this lovely Sunday morning, I heard a flock of Canadian geese, loudly honking up above. And then...before I could say, "Thank you, God for waking me up to experience this beauty," I heard "BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!!! And then I hear the honking fading away...and one lone goose, (likely wounded from the sound of it), descending to the field next to us...honk...honk...honk...honk...
Still enamored by the gorgeous sunrise, I changed the setting on the camera for more light, and you can see a dark blur next to the driveway. That's "Jake," our Springer/Choc Lab mix. I think all that shooting scared the bejeebers out of him! He SHOULD be a good hunting dog, but he doesn't know that. On the other hand, "Finn" the little Papillon didn't even flinch.

I set my camera back to the original settings to take ONE more picture...because despite the noisy hunters, and the poor wounded goose...it really was an amazing way to start my day.



Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday Funnies ~ A Couple of Quick Quips from CJ

(CJ's first day of kindergarten)

Life with my grandson, CJ in the house is never dull. He keeps us all laughing...whether he means to or not. Here are just a couple of things he said this week:

Tuesday, CJ was watching a TV commercial in the other room and came up to me and asked, "Grandma, how old are you?" "52," I answered. And then he asked, "Is that over 18?" I guess he wanted whatever it was they were advertising but it said, "You must be over 18 to order..."

Wednesday, Ray and I took him to the grocery store with us. When we got to the checkout, the lady asked him, "Would you like to ride on the pony today?" CJ looked at her and said, "No thanks, we're kinda broke right now." This mechanical pony costs a penny, and she was even going to give him one to use!



Thursday, September 16, 2010

Let's Hear it For My Daughter, The Cheerleader

This is my 13 year old daughter, Molly. Yes, I said thirteen. She just started the eighth grade a couple of weeks ago. Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think that I would be the mother of a cheerleader some day. When I was that age, it never even crossed my mind. That was for the popular girls. Anyway, when Molly came home last spring asking if she could try out for the cheer leading squad, I gave her my permission, but didn't really expect (or want) her to make the team. She'd never done anything like this before, and there were so many girls trying out.
She went to the practices and did her try-out, and came home with the wonderful news that she had made the JV football AND the JV Boys Basketball cheer leading squads! OK, now what? Would she actually stick with the rigorous practice schedule all summer? Would we find the money to cover the cost of her uniform, shoes, and the program itself? We did, (with a little help from a friend), and she held up her end of the bargain and practiced hard all summer, only missing a couple of times because of camping with the family, etc. She's worked hard, and become quite good at it.
Because of Molly's size, (5' 11"), she has the important job of lifting the "flyer" up and the responsibility of catching her when she comes back down during their stunts. She takes her job quite seriously, and has even gained quite a bit of muscle in her arms doing it, much to her surprise. While she was practicing all summer, of course, my grandson CJ was around to watch and listen to her. I'm pretty sure he has most of her cheers memorized as well.
Here is a picture of them: CJ, (who just started kindergarten and can't spell his own first name yet), now knows how to spell the words, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, P-R-I-N-C-E-T-O-N and R-O-W-D-Y, too.


I'm very proud of Molly for the commitment she's made to being a cheerleader the past few months. She seems to really enjoy it, and it's good exercise for her too. I'm also hoping it will be a positive incentive for her to keep her grades up this year, and in the future. She needs to maintain a certain GPA to be able to stay on the team. In the past, she has struggled with getting assignments in, so I'm really hoping and praying this will be the motivation she needs.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Welcome to Grandma's Front Porch!

Pull up a chair, and set a spell. I'll put the coffee on and join you out on my little red porch, in just a minute...

My first blog, "I'm Losing It!" started out as a weight loss journal, a way to document my success...or lack thereof. Somewhere along the way, my little blog evolved into something completely different. I started doing book reviews, product reviews, and writing about my life in general. I've found it to be a great creative outlet for me, as well as a way to let people know what's up with our family.

Since I've taken a bit of a hiatus, both from my weight loss journey as well as that journal, I thought it would be more appropriate to start up a brand new blog for other things, and when I'm ready to get back on the weight loss wagon, I'll get back to posting about that on my other blog. In the meantime, enjoy the view...



Yes. This is the actual view, taken from my front porch on my birthday this year.