Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sweetness


Sam at http://farmgirlsam.blogspot.com nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. My first award!!!! Wow! Do I have to make a speech like the folks at the Oscars? I hope I don't trip up the stairs!!



It seems I just have to answer the following 5 questions:

1.  Cake or cookies? Hmmm, will have to say cake, especially Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake!

2.  Vanilla or chocolate? Depends, ice cream - vanilla, anything else - chocolate

3.  What is my favorite sweet treat?  York Peppermint Patties - I'm addicted

4.  When do I crave sweet things the most?  The better question would be, when do I not?

5.  If I had a sweet nickname what would it be?  I can't imagine anyone giving me a sweet nickname but I guess it would have to be ........ Peppermint Patty!  HAHAHAHAHA!

Thank you, Sam, for the nomination. I really appreciate it. Now I will have to look over my blogs to see who to nominate and that will be hard. I enjoy everyone's blog that I follow. 

I have started walking a little bit. Saturday I decided it was time and since the Hubs wanted to be here the first time I walked with Bandit (our 75 lb Husky), I thought it was a good time to try. The Hubs trained Bandit for bikejoring (sort of like dog sledding except he rides a bicycle and we only have Bandit as pull dog). Bandit loves the action of it and loves being able to get out of his yard to the street and beyond. He knows all the direction commands such as gee (right), haw (left), whoa, and his favorite one, hike. This one means go, boy! With the Hubs long work hours lately, they haven't had much time to do this. So when I put the lead on him Saturday, he thought he was going for a run. Not with mama! I do good to walk any distance. We made a lap around a short distance here on our street and bless his heart, he kept looking towards the street wanting more. The Hubs took him for a good run and when they got back, he happily plopped down on the porch and took a nap. On Monday, Bandit and I went for another walk. He did really well; he doesn't pull me and he listens to the commands. But he really didn't want to come back to the house. I'm having trouble with my low back when I walk so I'm trying to take it easy and slow until I get use to it. Knowing Bandit enjoys it even if he has to come home before he is ready gives me the incentive to get out and walk.

I am making progress on Jordan's blanket and I got a delivery of some yarny goodness last week to make another blanket. Photos will be going up soon.

This past week I have been babysitting my desktop computer through one crisis after another. I have used up a lot of hard drive space over the past years and it hasn't been very happy with me. I have had to hold my breath each time I go on it hoping it will make it through another session without crashing. (By the way, I do my blog and and blog reading on a laptop which has plenty of space.) I help out a couple non-profits in our town and part of the use of desktop is for that. Tonight I am babysitting the removal of some more files to hopefully free of quite a bit of space. Thank heavens for the young man across the street. He came over and got me started and is looking into a bigger hard drive for it. (This is the same one who checked on me when the power went out. How wonderful to have such sweet neighbors) I'm not totally computer illiterate but I'm not brave enough to do anything to one with someone else holding my hand.

Okay this post has been very wordy and no pretty photos. I promise to make up for that with the next one. I'm leaving Sunday to go stay with Abby and James for a few days. Doug (SIL) has to go back to work on Monday and she asked if I could come stay with her for a couple of days so she can get use to him not being there. Hmmmmm, of course I will.

Now before I forget. Here are my nominations for the Super Sweet Blogging Award.

http://grayseasailor-onesaylorslog.blogspot.com
http://www.crochetkari.com
http://coalvalleyview.blogspot.com
http://knitsofacto.blogspot.com
http://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com


Of course, everyone who reads my blog and gives me such great support is entitled to this award. I don't know what I would do without each of you.

Have a super wonderful day. As always, thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Sharon





Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Visiting Sweet Baby James

This weekend we went to visit our newest grandson, James. He is officially one week and 3 days old and oh my, what a wonderfully, sweet bundle of love. He is so tiny. I think I expected him to be bigger because his birth weight was 9 lbs 11 oz. I forget that babies are tiny no matter their weight. He loves to be held and cuddled. His Mom and Dad are happy to oblige and Grammy, Grampa and Great-Gran enjoyed the holding also.

I can't tell you how proud I am of my daughter. She gave birth at home which was the plan. James had some issues breathing after birth and the ambulance was called for transport to the hospital. When the EMT's arrived, he was breathing, actually crying. Poor Abby. She said he was blue before he started breathing and this was so traumatic for her. I wrapped her in my arms when she was telling the story. I can't begin to imagine what she had to go through. After 48 hours in the hospital, he was given a green light and they brought him home.

All is well now and this sweet little boy is healthy and so, so gorgeous. I might be a little bit prejudiced (heck, I'm a lot prejudiced) but he is such a wonderful little man and a wonderful addition to our family. His mommy and daddy are over the moon with him. Abby loves holding him and feeding him and he already knows his mommy's voice and touch. Grammy adores him!

 Grampa and James
 Sweet Baby James
 Grammy and James
 
Great -Gran and James

We had a wonderful visit and lots of snuggles and cuddles with this new baby. The trip was very tiring for me. The weather was sooooo cold and this didn't sit well with my RA. BUT I would do it again and again and again just to be able to hold James and cuddle with him. He is well worth all the aches I have to put up with.

Yesterday I spend most of the day in bed recovering from the trip. This is standard procedure for after trips. No matter where we go, I need a day to recover and get over the aches of the trip. I relaxed and slept most of the day and today I am much better and even able to do some work around the house. The bad thing about having RA is the necessity to learn to pace yourself. I have never been good at that. I've always been one to start on something and keep going until I had it finished or well on the way. While I'm very good at procrastinating on starting a project, I do work hard to get them done once I start. Pacing myself (working for a while and then taking a break before starting again) is annoying and breaks my rhythm, then it takes me a while to get going again. Oh how wonderful getting older is! :)

Today is not quite so cold but very, very windy. I looked out earlier and the sky was such a pretty blue. But there was a level of dark clouds right above the strip of blue I was looking at.





I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my post about my birthday. Thank you so very much for the birthday wishes and thank you for the comments on the storyline. I enjoyed that post very much and I look forward to doing more posts on my history and that of my family. I think blogging is a wonderful way to remember those times and to have a place to revisit those memories.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me today. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you might be.

Hugs,
Sharon



Wednesday, February 13, 2013

February 13, 1951 to February 13, 2013

Today is my birthday. I am 62 years old. That number seems so unreal to me. In my mind, I'm not that old. I really don't know what age I am in my mind but it is certainly not old enough for Social Security. If I could get my mind and my body together, maybe I wouldn't think about that number so much.

It's hard to imagine having lived 62 years in this earth. There have been so many changes to the world in that time. Our first TV was a huge box with a picture in black and white and I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. I happily sat each day watching Captain Kangaroo and all the cartoons. Now you can get TV programs sent to your smartphone and watch anywhere you want. Amazing!

Our first telephone was a rotary dial that came in black. You had your choice of colors if you chose black. Wow, party lines. Those were the pits when you really needed to use the phone. But they were great for getting all the lastest gossip as long as you could get the receiver off the set without alerting the ones talking. I'm not saying I did that but I'm not saying I didn't.

We put a man on the moon the year I turned 18. It was thrilling to watch even if my Dad did insist that it was all filmed in the desert out west. That same month, my little sister was born, the only sibling I have. She was my graduation present. I really, truly wanted a car but she has turned out to be the best graduation present I could ever have gotten.

Computers! I wanted to be a computer programmer when I graduated from high school. Then computers filled whole rooms and had to be protected from dust and heat. I was so excited about the propect of doing something in this new and amazing field. But, my Dad didn't think a college education was all that important and so I went to work.

Vinyl records went to 8 track tapes which went to cassette tapes which went to compact discs (CDs) which have now got to MP3. Transistor radios were so popular. If you were lucky enough to have one, you were "it". Now you can listen to the radio on your computer, play music on your computer, watch movies, videos, talk face to face to someone far away. Again, amazing!

I found some old photos of my Dad and Mom and I. I thought you might like to see them.

 Mom and I - Easter - probably 1956
Isn't she beautiful?
Dad and I Christmas 1956
And my Dad was so handsome.

I haven't learned how to crop photos on the lap top so there is white space below the photos. I love how young my Mom and Dad look and they were. In 1956, Dad would have been 26 and Mom would have been 25. So young. I didn't have a child until I was 25 and here my Mom already had a 5 year old. We lost Dad in 1981 to cancer. My Mom is still going strong at 81 and is still as beautiful as ever.

Speaking of my child. My daughter was born 36 years ago yesterday, possibly the best birthday present I have ever received. Today she is a mother in her own right having given birth on Saturday to the newest grandson in the family. I wrote about that here. If you've been following my blog, you know how excited I've been and how very, very happy I am to have a new grandson.

But back to my daughter. I was so excited to be pregnant. I was working as a bookkeeper in a food distribution company and was looking forward to being home with my baby. The picture below was taken at Christmas just before my last day of work. I am wearing my one of my bosses' cowboy hat. Fun times.  :)


Abby was a chubby cheeked little chipmunk when she was born. She had red hair and I was so happy for that. I love redheads. Her hair is still red, a dark auburn and so lovely and thick. It snowed the day she was born and there was a chemical leak at a town north of us that got into the public water supply. We stayed at the hospital a few extra days because she was so jaundiced, the doctors didn't want her to leave and we weren't sure about the water quality at home.  I was told I could check out and come back 3 or 4 times a day to nurse. Nope, I decided to stay with her until I could bring her home.

I couldn't find any brand new baby pictures. Here is one of her at 3 weeks.

See the red hair!

And another one at 4 months on a trip to the local zoo with her Mommy. Not a very good one of Mommy.

My Dad didn't want us to take her to the zoo that day. It was in July and very hot. He was worried that she would get sunburned. Turns out she was the only one of us (Mom, my sister, my grandmother, a couple of aunts, I think) that didn't get sunburned. 

My daughter is very special to me. We have had our problems through the years. She has always been determined to do things her way and for a while, didn't even want to listen to someone who might have good advice. But now I can truly say, she is a beautiful, loving, talented and still determined (but in a good way) lady. She will be a wonderful mother. I am so proud of her. Happy Birthday a day late, my beautiful daughter.


Whew, long post and a little bit rambling but that's what happens when you get old. As always, thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you might be.

Hugs,
Sharon

Monday, February 11, 2013

We have a baby!

We finally have a baby!!! Born on Saturday, February 9, 2013, weighing 9 lbs 11 oz and 22 inches long. Born at 3:28 PM CST. What's that??? You want to know what the baby is?????? Well, okay!!!! Meet my new grandson, James Braxton Grainger.


I am absolutely, 100 percent in love. He had a few problems right after birth. He was born at home which was my daughter and son-in-law's choice. He was having trouble breathing so the ambulance was called. When they got there, he was breathing fine, crying and pinking up. They decided to go on to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. He checked out fine but the doctor want to keep him for 48 hours to make sure there was no infection. He has aspirated meconium at delivery so they wanted to be sure pneumonia didn't result. He got a complete checkup and he and Abby came home today.

Mom and baby are doing great and I know both Abby and Doug are happy to be home. The most important thing is that James is healthy and Mom is also. She's really tired and weak but she will be fine now.

I  haven't been able to get down yet to see him. I had some kind of virus on Saturday so we didn't got down Sunday. It looks like now it will be the weekend before I can get my hands on that bundle of joy. I'm just so happy he is finally here and is healthy and that Abby is fine also.

This was made just after they came home so she could post on Facebook.


Wow, I'm a grandmother to 4 now, 2 girls and 2 boys. Life is great.

Hugs,
Sharon

Thursday, February 7, 2013

And.....we are still waiting.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. We are still waiting on Jellybean to make an appearance. Abby had an ultrasound today and everything is fine. Jellybean is just fine and so we wait. She has had her membranes stripped twice now. Hopefully, tonight, tomorrow, maybe Friday. This Grammy is getting anxious.

I've not felt well for a couple of days and really don't know what's going on. I was fine Monday. I actually got the laundry done and put away and worked in the office. I was tired that night but not overly. But Tuesday, I woke with a really bad pain in my low back and in my shoulder. The shoulder I can understand. There is deterioration in the joint and it hurts most all the time. But my low back doesn't usually hurt in the morning. I took it easy all day Tuesday and felt a little better but then Wednesday, I woke with a severe headache.

I use a C-Pap machine at night and I have a new mask that I started using Tuesday night. I like the mask as it doesn't leak as much as the old one. I'm not sure if that is what gave me the headache or if it was something else. I checked my BP and it was fine. Anyway, I spent most of the day in bed and then the rest of the day in the recliner. I haven't done any crocheting or cross stitching this week. I feel like a slug.

I have a few rows done on Jordan's blanket and I'm working on small granny squares with the leftovers from Jellybean's blanket. I need to get out the sewing machine and patch a pair of jeans and zigzag the edges of my cross stitch fabric. So much to do and being a slug doesn't get the job done. I also have not walked very much so far this year. One of my intentions was to start walking every day and that hasn't happened. See, I'm a slug.

I hope your week is going well and you are doing all those crafty things you enjoy so much. I've been visiting blogs and seeing all the great things you are doing. It makes me want to get so much done.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope each of you have a great day wherever you might be.

Hugs,
Sharon


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Still waiting

So the due date has come and gone and we are still waiting. I talked with Abby last night. She had an appointment with the midwife on Thursday and everything is looking good. If she hasn't delivered before Monday, she will have an ultrasound.

It would seem that Jellybean is going to be as stubborn as Abby. She was a determined child and had to do things her own way and learn about life herself with no help from Mom or Dad.

Anyway, just a quick update to let everyone know that I am patiently (NOT) still waiting.

Thanks for all you comments and good wishes.

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs,
Sharon