In a Stitch!

Today was Mark's surgery day. He was an outpatient at Thunderbird. He had five "spots" removed from the left side of his face and neck. Four were benign. One was a basal cell carcinoma. The Dr. said he got it all. Whew! Since the worst one was so deep, they had to dig deeper and put him under anesthetic a bit deeper to avoid pain during surgery. As a result, it took him longer to really wake up. But he's better now. Just VERY scary looking. Ellie wouldn't even look at him. She was surprised by him when he walked down the hallway and she shreiked and ran for her life! She said he looked like a monster! Poor Ellie! Poor Grandpa! Hopefully, she isn't scarred for life. The picture is of him sleeping this afternoon. The other picture I took would curl your toenails! He has to sleep for the next several days in the recliner. He has to be in a semi-upright position on his back so as not to cause swelling/bleeding/rolling over on the wounds. Should be an exciting week. Not! Anyway, I'm grateful it's over and that it went well. Now to keep him down....no lifting, no bending over, no exertion, nothing! Rest!!!

Gorilla Cheese

I guess I should have explained gorilla cheese in the last post. When the kids were little, we'd oftentimes have grilled cheese sandwiches. For some reason, they thought we said "gorilla" cheese sandwiches. We decided to go along with it and it's always been gorilla cheese ever since. It got them to eat it, for sure, because everyone knows that gorilla cheese is WAY better than plain old grilled cheese!

Happy Birthday, Eliza!

Tonight/tomorrow is Eliza's sleepover. She turns 7 tomorrow! It's hard to believe that she's that old already. We started off the evening with a shopping trip to Michaels for her birthday present. She wanted art supplies. So she choose MANY items and a bag for carrying them. She wanted to cover the sketch book and the drawing book with nice paper, so we did that and then we tied ribbons on for bit of a feminine touch. She made labels for everything!


After we got home, Eliza wanted to help Grandpa rake the leaves in the front yard. It was already dark, but with the street light and the front porch light, it was good enough. She soon saw the neighbor kids and invited them to join in the fun. They all had a romp in the leaves after they were raked. They had a blast! Then they bagged them up and came inside.


Eliza wanted gorilla cheese sandwiches for dinner and she wanted to help make them. She did an excellent job. Dinner was tasty.


Then she organized her art supplies in the bag.

Now she's off to put on her jammies and watch a movie. In the morning, she's going with me to a baby shower. She's excited about that. Then we're off to the movies to watch "Bedtime Stories". She is SO excited!! It should be a great day. We have lots of birthday coming up, so we're in for some fun weekends ahead.

A Good, Unproductive Day!

Last night a while after they left here (read...11 pm!), Brian called to say that Abigail was throwing up! Poor girl! And would I be willing to watch her today since both Brian and Kamille had to work. I readily agreed, and Kamille brought her by on her way to work. Luckily for both of us, Abigail finished her throwing up last night and today was spent pampering Abby! We made her a bed on the couch and she had free reign of the TV/movies. She was a total couch potato. She wanted to eat shortly after he arrived, so I made her some dry toast. After she'd kept that down for a while, she wanted something else, so she had some applesauce. By 9:30 am, she was "begging" for some soup for lunch. We waited until nearly noon and she quickly devoured 1/2 of a can of chicken noodle soup (the noodles were Disney Princess shapes!). She wanted even more, but we waited another hour or so before she finished it off! By 3 pm, she was asking for a snack. So she had some yogurt. I think she's feeling better today! And I'm hoping/planning on her making it to school tomorrow. But it was a good day. Oh, the unproductive part....Abby wanted me to sit by her all day. Grandma, sit by me while I watch this movie. Grandma, sit by me while I eat my lunch. ETC! I got nothing productive done, but Abby and I had a great day together!

Sunday Dinner

Today was a great day. Church was early, so we got to have all of our kids and grandkids over for Sunday dinner. I think that will happen more often this year since we all have earlier church times. Yea!

We had a great dinner, with everyone contributing something yummy. It seems like, though, as soon as the kids get served, the parents fill their plates and the kids are DONE....heading off to play/cause trouble (not really!)/etc. They have such a good time together.

Here are some photos from the day. It's hard to believe how grown up the grandkids are getting. Matthew is really growing up....and FAST! He's halfway to his mission already!! As you can see, we have a fun, crazy time when we all get together. But that's what it's all about....being together, being yourself, having a good time and loving each other.

Fiesta Bowl Parade

Today we did something I didn't think we'd ever do again. We went and watched the Fiesta Bowl Parade. Back in the day (24 years ago to be exact), when Erin was quite young and twirling, we attended the parade (and several others) every year. We got to the point that we didn't really ever want to see another parade again. But Erin's girls are getting old enough that we/she thought they'd enjoy going. So that we did! And they LOVED it! All four of them watched the entire parade and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We asked them if they wanted to leave early, and all of them declined the offer. We got there over an hour early and stayed for the whole thing. It was a fun time!

The last time we went, Erin was almost 7! She said this is what we'll soon look like as a twirler! LOL!

Some of our favorite things were the horses, the bands, the big balloons and the clowns.


We liked this band's uniforms, but those shoes had to be a killer for walking in a parade!!








Before the parade started, we saw Sgt. Ben Moore, an old family friend. We had a good visit with him, but before we left, he made us promise we wouldn't tell his mom he rides a motorcycle at work. So if you see her, PLEASE keep it under your hat!

Back to Reality

The party's over....no more holidays here! Today was back to work day...house cleaning, class projects, Great Skate, etc. Jan and I worked again tonight on our Valentine class project. It's coming along. It will be cute when we're done.

Last night we went to Brian and Kamille's for dinner and a movie. We watched Miss Potter. Kamille and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Brian and Mark checked out about a quarter of the way into the movie! It was about the life of Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books. She had an interesting life and imagination.

Here's a picture of Abigail without her front teeth. Too bad she lost them AFTER Christmas, or she could have sung the song!


I've included a couple of pictures of Emma during her birthday sleepover last month.

I've started a new project for 2009. It's called Project 365, meaning you take a picture every day all year. It's supposed to be a snippet of your everyday life. It will go in a CK album designed for the project. There are places on each two-page spread for the 7 pictures for the week, as well as journaling spots for each day. We'll see how long I last!!!

I think we're going to go to the Fiesta Bowl Parade tomorrow. Many years ago, when Erin twirled, we went most every year because she was in the parade. When she stopped twirling, we all swore off parades. But we may venture out tomorrow.