Joys of Motherhood 1

"Oh NO, she found the butter!"

Thank GOD and Logitech!

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've definitely heard me whine about the fact that we don't get to see our grandkids often. Pop-Pop and I are literally stuck in the middle, geographically, about 500 miles away from everybody we love.

It's a dilemma because we feel if we move in one direction or the other, it's sorta like choosing between our kids/grandkids. Ever the teacher, I made you a visual aid to illustrate this concept. (Rachel and Travis have 3 dogs + Avery, so they've dubbed the new baby #5. That's TEMPORARY, so don't get worked up.)

So now you feel my pain.

I cried for a hundred miles
the last time we left SC.

So ANYWAY, we "visit" via our Logitech webcam a lot. Last night, Rachel and Travis called to ask if we'd like to sneak in a quick webcam before dinner. I dropped the super-secret sewing project I was working on, turned off the burner under the homemade veggie soup and we plonked ourselves down in front of the computer.

AND GUESS WHAT?!?!????
WE GOT TO WITNESS A FIRST!!!!!!!!!

As he's done hundreds of times,
Travis said, "Avery, what does the cow say?"
Before we could all chorus the answer,
Avery said, "Mmmmmmmmmmooo!"

We all sat there in stunned silence before breaking into a round of applause. Travis got him to say it over and over. Avery was so pleased with himself that he was shrieking in delight.

If you're not a grandparent, this might all seem pretty mundane. If you're a grandparent who sees your grandkids daily, it might be hard to relate. But for us, it was like witnessing a MIRACLE! Thank God (and Logitech) for our digital miracle!

HUGE NEWS!!!!!!!!!

LOOK TO THE LEFT!!
LOOK TO THE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!

The creepy floating
baby ticker is BACK!!!!!!!!!

Avery is going to be
a big brother!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, Nannie and Pop Pop are so excited!!!!!

CONGRATS TO
RACH AND TRAVIS!!!!!!!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

I thought you might appreciate if
THIS picture came up
when you clicked on my blog,
instead of that creepy Sleepwalker.

Back with more soon.
I am swamped with orders,
which is a GOOD thing.

Will...Post...SOON...

Hi and sorry for the long absence and creepy picture. It's called Sleepwalker.

We have been out of town, celebrating Avery's FIRST BIRTHDAY. It's just amazing to me that he is already a year old!!!!!!

Like an idiot, I forgot my camera. Hopefully I'll be emailed some great pics.

In the meantime...I'm off to bed soon. We drove all night and I got an hour's sleep before I had to go to work. Sleepwalking right now...but I don't look quite as creepy as that pic, hopefully...

Another PROUD MOMMA Moment

This is me after accepting the gorgeous award earned by our older son (Travis, Avery's daddy) for being inducted into his high school's inaugural class of the brand-new Dr. Ashby C. Kilgore Hall of Fame!!

I felt short.
But I still rocked the Steelers scarf.
You know I hate pics of myself,
so I blurred my face.
But you get the general idea anyway.

Travis was inducted for his outstanding baseball career at Woodside High School. He was team captain and MVP and led his baseball team to the Peninsula District Championship, the Eastern Region Championship and the State Semi-Finals in 1998. Also in 1998, Travis was named Peninsula District Player of the Year, Eastern Region Player of the Year, was a First Team All-State selection, played in the elite VHSL All-Star game and was named in the USA Today All-USA Team.

Good times.
Thanks for the GREAT memories, Travis!

Shameless Bragging Wednesday

Shameless bragging on my kid!
Please take a second to
CLICK HERE.
It will take you to the
ESPN Stats and Info blog with
INCREDIBLE graphics that our son
(Zoey's daddy) MADE FROM SCRATCH.

Using Photoshop.

He's self-taught.

And this is not even part of his
actual job at ESPN.

It's something extra that he does
because he enjoys the challenge of
teaching himself Photoshop skills
and applying those skills to an area
that interests him - sports.

Be sure to hover your mouse
over each player who appears to be
standing on a circle. You'll see
that player's stats pop up!

I hope you're as impressed as I am, LOL!

What a difference a few years
can make. If you're the mom of a
teenage boy, take heart.
More about THAT soon!

Thanks for stopping by.
Don't forget to click that link!

My Folk Art Pleasures

As promised yesterday, here are my Folk Art Pleasures quilt blocks thus far. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of photographs. For example, the stars on A3 are actually not solid black, but are very pretty dark blue prints. I also did not bother to press these blocks before I snapped the pics. I posted the original quilt at the bottom, so you can see what I've changed.

A2

A3

A4

B1

D1

D2

D4

The original by Lori
Hope you liked them and thanks for visiting!

Lori Smith Needs to STOP!

LOL, at least that's what my great friend Linda and I always say. Lori Smith (CLICK HERE) is a quilt designer/genius and she needs to be stopped, because her patterns are SO ADDICTIVE. That's a picture of her spectacular Pieces of Time quilt. We won't talk about the fact that I've completed all 31 blocks and it has STILL become a UFO, waiting quietly for me to jump in and tackle those borders. We also won't talk about the fact that I have her Heritage pattern, still untouched. But that's not really what this post is about.

So if you remember my Be Mindfuls, you may recall that I promised you a peek at a project that's near and dear to my heart. It all started with Lori again, and her wonderful Folk Art Pleasures pattern. I LOVE the pattern, but I also love Jeanne's idea (CLICK HERE to visit her Spiral blog) of redesigning some of the blocks to better fit my own life.

With apologies to Lori for muddling up her borders with letters and numbers, here is a pic of her Folk Art Pleasures (FAP) quilt.
Many of the blocks are perfect for me, just as they are. However, some will "fit" better if I change them. For example, see C4, the chicken one? I have no particular 'truck' with chickens. I never had one as a pet and I certainly don't eat them, so that's one block that I'm going to change. And there are definitely not enough (or ANY) cats in her blocks. And see B2? I'd like to be holding the hands of TWO little boys, rather than just one.

Thus far, I've only completed 7 of the 16 blocks: A2, A3, A4, B1, D1, D2 and D4. I'm working on A1, and that's my current Be Mindful project. I'll post pictures of my blocks tomorrow, even in their current, wrinkly/un-ironed state. But if you've made it this far in today's post, you deserve a reward. Here's a closeup of my version of A3 - it's FOSTER! Here he is in real life:
And here he is in a fabric tree. Check out his Mad Eye, LOL.
In real life, he doesn't go outside and he doesn't have red moons. But his eyes really do look like that when he looks at our dogs.

If you click on the Mad Eye pic, you can see some applique "warts". In particular, you can see the pencil line where his tail connects to his body. (I've since learned not to draw the bottom of that U-shape, because it's hard to turn it all under.) I guess I'm still Celebrating Imperfection. CLICK HERE to read the Warts and All post.

Check back tomorrow to see the rest of the blocks and thanks for stopping by!

Time Out for an AWWWW Moment

I think I've been extremely restrained thus far.
We spent a week visiting Zoey over Christmas
and I have not posted the first picture or
even a single Proud Nannie Moment.

However, THIS I just had to share.
OMG do you love her eyes, or WHAT?Click it to get even
more wonderful Zoey-ness.

And I need to snap some pics of that project
I mentioned the other day.

That will be an easier
photography subject for me.

At least the project won't be
zipping around like Zoey does!

WOO HOOOO Last Day Before Break

And I'm SO excited to see Zoey
and our families!!
On meds for the creepin' crud I caught.
Finished wrapping presents.Alllllmost ready for the holidays.
How about you??

How Cute is THIS?!

Check out our little Zoey!!
Please remember that
she only turned one year old in August.
Even from the time she was a tiny infant,
she has had her own vibrant personality.LOL, she was NOT HAPPY!!
(She had been dancing around
and fell. The assembled adults
all laughed at her.)
This pose makes me think that
the "hands on the hips" thing
must be genetic in humans.
She is WAY too young to have learned it!!

I'm so excited that
we get to see her over Christmas.

Holy Cow

You know how I feel about having my picture taken, so that's why I blurred my (nonphotogenic) face. The Facebook title of this picture (written by Rach, Avery's mommy) was

Avery is well over half the height
of his Nannie - sorry, Nannie.

LOL. He just turned TEN MONTHS OLD. AND NO, I HAVE NOT SHRUNK, if that's what you were thinking. AND NO, I'M NOT STANDING IN A HOLE.

Quickie Post

Just popping in to say that I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you live where Thanksgiving is celebrated or that you're at least having a nice Thursday! My arms have been too full of baby to type much - Pop Pop and I are in our glory! Hopefully, I'll have some new pictures to post soon. In the meantime, here's a couple of cute puppies just to make you smile!

ATTACKED BY A POLAR BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

These pictures were taken by an onlooker, who was powerless to stop the attack on this poor man! Fortunately, the victim is expected to make a full recovery. Prepare yourself, then scroll down to see!

Sorry, I just HAD to, LOL!
May your troubles always be smaller than you imagine.
Still no power in CT where our granddaughter Zoey is, BTW!

Still No Power in CT

The good news: our field trip was maybe the BEST one ever!! This class was SO well-behaved and that is not just me saying that - that came directly from one of the chaperones!! I was proud - they listened well, paid attention, were respectful, followed the rules, etc!

The bad news: there is STILL no power where our daughter-in-law, Sarah, our son, Trevor and our little granddaughter, Zoey live! Thankfully, Sarah's parents were able to loan them a kerosene heater (which is scary, but necessary). And also, Sarah's parents' electricity came back on yesterday, so maybe there is hope in the offing.

It's hard with no electricity when you have a baby! Fingers crossed it will be back on soon. This has been since Saturday.Trevor said they have police officers stationed at both ends of the local gas station - it's one of the few that has power and also has the ability to use credit/debit cards. He said that the line is several blocks long in both directions 24 hours a day! The police are keeping order...(for $132 a day, or whatever. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my post from Saturday, Oct. 29).

Yikes

Poor Zoey, Sarah and Trevor are without power from the big snowstorm in CT. Their house was 56 degrees yesterday afternoon, and you know it was colder once the sun went down. They can't go to Sarah's parents' house, because they are also without power. Keep them in your thoughts - no power and no heat is rough with a 1 year old in the house.Sarah liked my kindergarten-teacher-idea of painting with pudding. Looks like Zoey liked it even more!

Hi and WOW!!

How did I miss AN ENTIRE WEEK???? Okay, first of all, we went to GRANDBABYLAND!!!!!!!!!! This time, it was the SC version of Grandbabyland, so we got to see Avery. I've decided to put a spin on the usual Nannie pics - I am the least photogenic person on earth, so I blurred my face in this one. But I just HAD to show you how HUGE he is!!!!
he is only 8 months old!!!!!!!!!!
We had a FABULOUS time, I can't tell you how much fun we packed into our visit!! Of course, I was uber sad when we got back.

I was also uber sad because I let my husband talk me into stepping onto a scale while we were there and O M G!!!!!!! Therefore, I've been exercising every morning before school.

And now it's ARL time. Here's a link to a post if you want to read about ARL.

This year, I have 130+ 4th and 5th grade kids to place in jobs and lots of new challenges.

So between ARL spreadsheets, ARL ID badges, ARL job lists to post, SmartBoard activities I've created for my class, in addition to exercising each morning, I have not been on the computer much. Anyway, I am BACK and will try to post again tomorrow or Sunday. I'm sorry if you've been checking, only to find NADA!

Lke Father, Like Daughter

Hey, it's Zoey's FIRST WRITTEN WORD!!!!!!!!
This was sent to me by her proud daddy. Not bad for 13 months old, eh?

Oh, and PLEASE GO HERE and check out the AWESOME animation her daddy, Trevor, did for an ESPN blog!! Click that arrow and make sure your speakers are on! Nannie/Momma is just bursting with pride over her two great writers!!

Evening conferences tonight, so I need to get going early to straighten up my messy classroom. Company's coming! LOL

How Did This Happen?

Avery's mommy requested a
monkey Halloween costume for him.
I'm making him this one,
except the felt is a gold/camel color.He will look cuter than this boy,
because, well, he's just cuter, LOL.


And here is a real tear-jerker,
at least for me it was.
Zoey is wearing this costume.

And here is her DADDY, wearing it in 1983.
(Same exact costume...with the eyes repaired.)
I made it for him.
That's my mom holding his hand.
She has been gone since 1991.
How did this happen,
that I somehow "lost" 28 years??
Where did that time go?
It's hard to comprehend how time flies...