Grandpa Meets His Grandson

Wally had not met Nolan yet. And although we see lots of pictures on Andrea’s blog and we Skype, there’s nothing like real thing! 

Cute Guys!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  We were in Brooklyn, NY with all our kids!  Wally’s Mom also joined us.  We arrived late on Wednesday night.  Kenny and Becky and Wesley drove in earlier that day.

Andrea did a wonderful job preparing our meal.  She got started early with pies and before I ever left Denver she sent me a picture text of her apple pie…and she had a little helper…who also made a pie!

This pie never made it to our dessert time…I think it got eaten before Thanksgiving Day!

Here is Ben taking the turkey out of the oven…scrumptious!…

Here is our table all set…

Becky made our name cards…

And they included a scripture verse on the inside to share after the meal…

And the family gathers…

Oops, I cut Kenny off, so here’s a better shot of him

Of course, after the meal there are a lot of dirty dishes…

Now here’s something I had not seen in quite awhile…

And finally, those pies.  Andrea made apple. pecan topped pumpkin and a pecan pie for her Dad.  Grams made her raisin pie…

We had a great day, lots of talking and sharing and laughter.  Plenty of food.  A round or two of Snorta (that’s a game by the way.  And of course grandkids!  

Trees

In my new neck of the woods, there are actually a lot of trees!  (Imagine that!!)  This year the fall colors have been absolutely gorgeous. A few weeks ago, on the way home from church, I took some pictures.

This is University Blvd. which I now drive rather regularly. There are a couple of neighborhoods that I love to drive through, the trees are mature and gorgeous! This is near Bonnie Brae.

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This year I missed our own Autumn Blaze Maple tree blooming.  But there is one behind our apartment.  I can see it from our balcony.

This is the outside of our neighborhood. I loved to walk around the outside and crunch the leaves covering the sidewalk. These are Ash trees. Just gorgeous! 

This is the sidewalk

Gypsy liked crunching the leaves too!

These trees I enjoyed inside our gated neighborhood

The leaves have been falling…and falling…and falling.  We have had two wet, heavy snows…It did not stop the leaves from falling, just delayed their activity a bit.

This tree is outside our living room window and I love looking at it.  It’s a honey locust tree and the tiny millions of leaves are miserable!  But I still like it!

When the snow disappeared, the leaves resumed their falling!  This is what it looks like at the Polo Club as the leaves are falling…

Someone blows the leaves out so that the mowers can come along and mulch the leaves!

That’s a lot of leaves!

Then someone else follows up blowing the sidewalks and drives clean!

Can you believe there is another contractor responsible just for blowing out the gutters!  The last week we have had 60 degree days but a lot of wind.  I walked into the office today to hear one of the residents leaving a message.  She wondered if something could be done about all the leaves that were piled in front of her garage door!!  Suggestions, anyone??

Thankful Thursday

Wow!  I’m actually getting my Thankful Thursday post done on Thursday.  Perhaps I should be thankful for that and call it a day.  Except I would love to share with you how well Mom is doing and the rehab center God provided to us.  Yesterday morning I read this in Psalm 115:1b~”But to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth,”  and I knew I wanted to do just that…Give God the glory!

Mom had a tough six days in the hospital.  Sunday, medical things began to improve and they were talking discharge on Monday.  So we needed a rehabilitation center for Mom to go into.  I had looked at one on Friday and overall I thought it was nice.  It was a nursing home/rehab and the rooms were small and definitely more “hospitalist”.  But not bad. 

Then a friend of Mom and Dad’s told them about Azure.  She had stayed there and Mom and Dad remembered visiting her.  Wally and I went and looked at the facility and it was truly, very, very nice.  More like a hotel.  On Monday there was a snafu with the insurance.  I called Robin and told her we needed to pray and literally, another phone call was coming in before I got my sentence out.  It was the case worker at the hospital and everything was worked out…in just a matter of minutes! 

I believe God led us to Azure and made it possible for Mom to be there.  I am very thankful, as the other members of my family.  And we give God all the glory for His help and His mercy!

Thankful Thursday

An old song has been floating through my mind this week, I think we used to sing it at our youth singsprations…

“I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day
I don’t borrow from its sunshine, for it’s skies may turn to gray
I don’t worry o’er the future, for I know what Jesus said
And today I’ll walk beside Him for He knows what is ahead.”

“Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand
But I know Who holds the future and I know Who holds my hand”

Monday night my dear Mom slipped on the third step heading into the basement.  Her knee hyper extended and down she went.  She said she never knew such excruciating pain.  She called for Dad.  She said that as she lay there with her leg pointing out to the side and Dad approached, that she saw a knowing look in his eye…”I can just pop that knee right back in place”.  We have laughed about that many times.  She yelled, “Don’t touch it” and then more calmly, “We better have help.  Call 911 but tell them we don’t need any lights or sirens!”

Wednesday morning Mom had surgery.  She had shattered the femur bone just above the knee.  They inserted a plate and I counted 11 screws on the x-ray.  A long recovery lies ahead of her, eight weeks without weight bearing on the leg at all! 

“You never know what a day holds!”  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that said this week and even said it myself a time or two.  Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”  Again,  Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps".

How thankful I am to know that the Lord walks beside us as Mom heals and goes through rehabilitation.  He has His goodness prepared and laid aside for each step we will take. 

This one of His “goodnesses”.  Mrs. Loyd.  I heard my Mom introduce her to the nurse as “my dear friend of 50 years”.  Mrs. Loyd was the first one to come to the hospital and she has come by everyday this week!

Pray for Mom, she has some tough days ahead of her!

hApPy biRtHdAy

Wow, 29 years ago today, I was just embarking on the wonderful journey of Motherhood!  God gave us a beautiful little girl, Andrea Michelle.  My sister Robin has a tradition that on her kid’s Birthdays she tells them the story of their birth.  I always like to look at the Baby Book.  I suppose we are trying to reassure ourselves that this really happened!  Or maybe to just remember….Robin did call me recently to ask about a detail she could not remember!  I think too we see a pictures like the ones below and wonder if that is really us!

Here is Andrea celebrating her very first Birthday!

So here is Andrea’s Birthday story.  She was born two weeks late…an event repeated by her two brothers.  We were living in England at the time as Wally was in the Air Force. The base with the hospital was an hour away.  We actually drove to Lakenheath AFB to meet a friend who was flying in on a mission and then right out again.  I felt my first contractions while we visited with Mike.  After he left, we thought it wise to stop into the hospital for a check.  They hooked me up to a machine to measure contractions and kind of laughed at me, asking, “what contractions?”  And they sent me home.  (I look back on that and think “where were their brains?  I was two weeks overdue after all!”)

Anyway, around 4:30 am we were awakened with the big contractions I guess they wanted.  Wally loves this part of the story because he gets to drive like a Nascar driver heading back up to Lakenheath.  It was rainy and we lived in a tiny English village with lots of narrow windy roads!  And we were driving a little BMW in those days.  He pulled on his black leather gloves, strapped on the seat belt and away we went!  My baby book says Wally was timing the contractions at 80 mph!  I think it was his favorite part of the delivery process! 

We arrived at the hospital…in record time, I’m sure…and they put us to the task of walking.  I remember it being a very small corridor.  Finally, Andrea arrived at 8:54 am, weighing 8lb. 5oz. and 20 1/2” long!  I do remember both Wally and I just being in awe and overwhelmed at this little gift we were now holding! 

Andrea arrived on a Wednesday morning.  I had been attending a Ladies Bible study on base on Wednesdays.  Wally was in the Security Police and so he called the base and asked for a patrol car to stop by the house and make the big announcement of Andrea’s birth.  I remember the ladies all telling me later, that when they saw the Patrol car stop at the house, several thought they were getting a ticket for where they had parked and were so relieved to find out differently. 

Being far away from home and friends and family, I have always been thankful that Andrea was a good baby.  I had one baby book given to me as a gift, and Andrea just seemed to do what the book said she should be doing.

It is such a blessing to have  29 years of memories of a little girl growing into a lovely woman.  The fun and laughter, the hurts and tears, the surprising delights and all the love along the way have so abundantly filled our hearts!  We are very blessed!

Happy, Happy Birthday Dear Daughter!

Psalm 37:5

“Commit your way unto the Lord,
Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass”

These are a Few of My Favorite Things!

Well two of them anyway.  Two of my best girls, Elaine and Nellie!  They got along just great together!

Elaine is pretty smart, I showed her how to honk the horn…she picked up on it real fast.  Guess Grandma isn’t too smart!

Sweet Girls!

Happy Birthday Elaine!

Today our little granddaughter turns two!  She is such a cutie.  And this is such a fun age…okay, they are all fun ages. 

We last saw Elaine in August on a very fast trip her Dad made to Denver.  Ben was kind enough to tuck Elaine in as his carry on !

The trip was far too fast.

Now isn’t that a sad picture?!

Sometimes I get a phone call and when I answer it all I hear is two year old babble and maybe a word that sounds like “pooter”!  She wants to Skype! I love that!  But of course I didn’t figure that out, Andrea had to tell me.  The last couple of times she has been busy doing a little dance on the chair. She likes her shoes tapping and clacking!  Andrea has told us many cute “shoe” stories lately.  She really loves her shoes.  So for her Birthday I made her a “shoes” card.  I think it turned out very cute!

HAPPY BIRTDAY ELAINE!

  Thank you for introducing us to the best thing in life, being Grandparents!