March 14, 2009

Time has flown by again. So far this year has not been too bad. It is finally turning a little warmer. We've had a lot of rain and high water.

I have been working on a blanket for new Baby Fiedler. It is a boy and he will be joining us in June. Not sure what his brother thinks yet. Don't know if he is ignoring the issue or doesn't fully understand.

I've been trying to use my camera more. On several websites they are running a Photo A Day or a Photo A Week challenge. I have been trying to take more photos of things, but am about 24 days behind. I was lucky enough that my first 45 prints were free from Archivers. Hopefully I will get more free photos so I can keep getting them printed.

I picked Dylan up to play today. After I picked him up, he wanted candy. I told him I didn't have any and he said Papa did and he wanted to see Papa, so that is where we went. By gosh, he was right, Papa did have candy. We spent a couple hours over there playing and exploring.

The layout above is the beginning of Dylan's big adventure. I finally figured out how to extract him from a photo and then I can put him in any photo. Who knows where he will explore next.

Happy New Year

It has been a while since my last posts.

Thanksgiving was great. Karen and her family came home for a few days. Great meal as usual. December was a month of health issues. Mom had surgery and has come along great. I had a horrible cold which kept me from (1) going to see mom the whole time she was in the hospital. It didn't let up until Christmas eve day and (2) it kept me from delivering my Christmas cookies/treats. We also had an ice storm at the same time which didn't help matters. Now you might not think that is such a big deal, but for me, it was. I don't bake. I don't bake because if I bake, I eat it. This year I had a couple great cookie recipes so I bought the stuff to make the cookies and I also bought chocolate and melted it and molded candy, dipped cookies, and covered pretzels. I fixed 2 pages for the 2 neighbors I always get things from and then got sick and never delivered them. Most of what I made, I threw away because they were no longer fresh. My family did, however, get to enjoy them. I hope to make something for Valentines or Easter and get to the neighbors.

Christmas was very nice. Once again, the whole family was together and mom and was pretty good. I had Garth, Aimee, Dylan, and Dane here Christmas Eve to do our gifts this year instead of Christmas a.m. Normally I have Christmas here, but we had it at mom and dad's this year.

It is snowing here again today. Lots of snow yesterday. Roads were horrible. I'm sitting here in my kitchen looking out my big windows and watching the snow fly. It is very pretty out there.

Garth & Dane are in a bowling tournament this a.m. and I believe all day.

I had Dylan last weekend. We had a good time. I have a chair in the family room that is quite a ways away from the wall, so I put his toys back there. That way they were out of the way. Anyway, he loved it back there. We sat in that area for a long time just talking and playing. He had a hard time sleeping though. He kept waking up and making sure I was there. He then asked if I would lay with him, which I did. He snuggled up to me and said "Gamma, I love you very much." That is something I will always remember.

I am hoping to get some card making done and some scrapbooking/picture editing done this weekend.

That pretty much brings me up-to-date.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just a couple days away and I can't wait. I love the food and my favorite is oyster dressing. If I only got to eat one thing, that would be it. Karen and family are coming up for the holiday. Looking forward to that also.

Garth, Aimee, Dylan, mom, and dad came over and we put up lights. Poor Dane and I were freezing, but Garth was toasty warm. We will be ready for the lighting of the houses either Thanksgiving night or sometime this weekend.

I am sitting here waiting for a tow truck as my Rav would not start this a.m. I called at 7:00 and I was next on the list. It is 10:00 now and still no tow truck. This was not how I wanted to spend one of my last 2 days of vacation time. On top of that, poor Baby Girl (my cat for those of you that don't know) got sick all over everything. It has just been a great morning.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

Flashbacks of The Blair Witch Project

A couple weeks ago Bren said she would go with me to take some fall pictures and knew a really good place. She had scoped it out previously. It was down a very pretty road and we found it easy enough. She thought it would run by the river. Needless to say after tramping around for a while, across bridges, up steps (what's with the steps), we found the river. We couldn't get down to it, but we could see the river. Trying to find our way back was a big of a challenge. At one point, I told Bren this trip reminded me of the Blair Witch project movie. I just needed a video camera, tears and snot running out of my nose. OK, maybe that was too much information, but if you've seen the movie, you have a good idea what I am talking about. We did find our way out.

Doesn't this picture look like something out of that movie?

No sooner did I get home, than my friend Mauna called and wanted to know if I wanted to go out and take fall pictures. We didn't get lost and I actually got some pretty decent pictures.

Last week I got the cutest poem in the mail telling me that Garth & Aimee are expecting a baby next June. I am so excited. Now I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

This was a short week for me. I'm trying to get in all my vacation days, so I was off Thursday, Friday, and then this coming Monday. Nothing big going on. I mowed for, hopefully, the last time, did some scrapbooking, and plan on doing some more.

Bonfire

Last Thursday (16th) was Dane's 24th birthday. In celebration, we had a bonfire. It is the first one we've had at this house. It was a great night for one. Not cold, but cool enough the fire felt good, slight breeze and a clear night. Entertainment was provided by Ethan who told very spooky stories about werewolves with big eyes and big teeth, haunted castles and an assortment of other entertaining things. Ethan gets very animated when telling stories. Dylan was totally enthralled. He just sat there and watched Ethan. I'm sure he had no idea what Ethan was saying, but was enjoying it it anyway. At one point Dylan did get up and was "telling" a story also to Aunt Benda (as he calls her). The layout shown is Ethan telling the story and Dylan listening. Jordan also played soccer with Dylan. At first, Dylan always keeps his distance from Jordan. In fact, he wanted nothing to do with Jordan at first. Later, Jordan was all he really wanted. Jordan could "kick big" according to Dylan. They played for quite a while.

I had Friday off to do a few things around the house, including getting the furnace serviced and making an appointment to get the fireplace (keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer) working so I can actually use it without opening a window and turning on the fan. That kinda defeats the whole purpose.

Saturday was a crafting day. I made several cards and got 3 layouts done and also watched Dylan for a few hours.

Today, hopefully, Bren and I will take a drive and I can take some pictures while the leaves are still on the tree.

Through the Eyes of A Child

Garth, Aimee, Dylan, and I went to Menards to check out new lights for the house. I was pushing Dylan around looking at the lights. It was neat to watch him admire the lights. He was so fascinated, but as you can see, he was not touching. It is so much fun watching him see things that are new. He kept saying "Come on Gamma, over there, let's go see." On the way home, we stopped and they picked up their pumpkins. Sunday Brenda and my friend Pam and I went to Joann's for a candy making class. It was not the best class we have taken, but it was nice to get out with friends. I did get a couple more scrapbook layouts done. I think I'm going to do another blog that has nothing but my card/scrapbook creations. I just need to take the time to create it.

Zoo

I had a great week. On Monday, I took Dylan to the zoo along with dad, mom, and Brenda. We started out at the playground where Dylan played for a while and I did a bit of refereeing and trying to keep up. We had some lunch and then made our way over to the zoo. It was a really great day. Weather/temp were perfect. We wondered around the zoo. Dylan wanted to ride the Merry Go Round and the "sish" (fish) is what he picked out. Doing a ride that goes in circles is not something I tolerate very well, but for Dylan, I would do it. He was so excited to ride, but about 30 seconds after getting on the "sish" he wanted off and go very upset. So before the ride could start I moved us back to a bench that we could ride on. He kept is face buried in my shoulder and then looked up and saw the Puma behind us and decided that is what he wanted to ride. Needless to say, we did not change seats. From there we wondered around and got a Popsicle which was almost as big as Dylan. We rode the train and then ended up in the gift shop. The rest of the week was very quiet. Dane had a wisdom tooth removed on Friday and I went with friends up to Plymouth to a scrapbook store and then on the way home we stopped at Lakes of Winona and ate at the Boathouse restaurant. Today Bren and I went to Jefferson Point and had a nice lunch, walked around there a bit, and stopped to visit Mark/Mary Tuttle to look at his photographs. Someday maybe I will be able to take photos like that. That is one of the things on my "Bucket List."

Mom & Dylan