Oh WOW!

Wow! It's been almost a year to date that I last blogged on my site. I even had to ask Lainee how to login...that's pitiful!

So here comes the update...not really anything new has happened for me in that period of time except that I have an additional adorable grand daughter Mikayla Leilani Monson. That makes 4 beautiful little girls for Andrew! Linda (4), Zoe (3), Kylee (2) and Mikayla now 6 months. The are so fun to have so close and keep us laughing.

Linda is the head princess and getting so tall and is getting ready for kindergarten. I hope she will be able to leave her best friend - Teddy Bear at home, when it's time for school. Teddy has undergone massive reconstructive surgery this past year. New vinyl ears to replace the worn through ones, a newly stitched nose and other worn spots.

Zoe lets me know consistently, "Nana, I A-woe-a" Translation...I'm Aurora ~ as in Princess Aurora. She has this glint in her eye that tells all of us that we better keep one step ahead of this child whose brain never sleeps!

Kylee scolds me if I try to help her with the words to "Patty Cake", "No, Nana I bake it!" She tells me. Here best friend is always with her...that is her finger in her belly button! When she gets ready for bed she has to pull one arm out of her sleeve to make sure she has access to "belly".

Mikayla ~ well what more can be said than just "shoe-button eyes" she is a doll and has a ready smile for anyone who talks to her.

Jessica and Matthew moved to Hawaii in August and she will graduate in April ~ cum laude from BYU- Hawaii. We are all hoping to attend the graduation.

Lainee is working and looking for Nanny jobs. She loves all the clients she currently has and keeps busy with all her friends.

Grandma Bette is doing fine. She's frustrated that her clock is upside down. She's awake most of the night and tries to catch up on her lost sleep during the day. I am hoping that getting her to Hawaii will turn her clock around.

I have my finger in way too many pots trying to find the thing or things that will create the most positive impact as well as cash flow. I am totally sick of dealing with sick vehicles and look forward to the day when I have a new - reliable- safe car that will all but take care of itself.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Don't Drink the Bubble Bath & We're Goin' Fishin' Thunder Thighs and All!

I had always heard that Grandchildren were terrific ‘cause you can send them home when they wear YOU out. 

At our house that can sometimes come sooner than later if you have a Zoe to keep in your sites! I told Andrew and Dawnalyn that they could possibly have problems in the future. If Zoe ever has a sassy or potty mouth...which I would hope that she NEVER will...it will never work to wash her mouth out with soap...SHE LIKES IT! Yep, this child makes a bee line to my shampoo, lotion and bubble bath to DRINK IT! They even found her mouth full of Desitin recently and the rest of it was spread all over her giant teddy bear. 

Recently the girls came to the house and I realized I had to unload the dishwasher and watch Zoe and Kylee at the same time. Kylee was strapped in her stroller with a piece of bread, she would be fine until the bread was gone. Now the trick was to keep track of Zoe a.k.a "Dennis" as in Dennis the Menace. 

I had made adjustable aprons for the girls for Christmas. I put the apron on Zoe, adjusted the ties, sat her in a chair just her size and then tied the apron strings to the chair. I gave her a book and told her to tell Nana a story. This worked until I walked out of the room for a split second...I came back in and she had done a "Houdini", twisted herself facing the back of the chair but the apron still facing forwards. How does this child contort her body? Through it all she is adorable and has side glances just like a Cupee Doll.

As we were riding in the car yesterday Linda was whispering something. Lainee asked her what she was saying she piped up, “Fishin’, fishin’ fishin’ ~ Nana will you take me fishin’? How can a Nana say no to that? We had planned on going today but it started to rain. We will go when I locate my fishing license and poll. When will I ever have a home that could be the Center Fold of Better Homes and Gardens?

That leads us to Kylee. If you have seen this child you would know that her parents are starving her to death….NOT! She is my “Chunk-a-wunka!” What a cuddly ‘butter ball’ as Grandpa Mitch would have labeled her. Hey ~ he used to call me “Thunder Thighs” when I was learning how to walk and I still have them! Kylee’s thighs are soft, chubby and squishy and everyone wants to squeeze them and emote over how cute they are…mine look the same as hers and no one says they are cute! What’s up with that?

 

 

 

Grandpa Mitch's 88th Birthday Anniversary

Well our favorite Aquarius would be 88 on Monday, January 26! What are you doing for Grandpa Mitch's birthday? In the past we have let balloons go with Happy Birthday Grandpa written on them. We have cooked his favorite meal and had pie for dessert!

What are your plans? Do you have any stories you would like to share...feel free to add them to the comments on my blog.

On numerous occasions I have silently watched as Zoe comes into Grandma Bette's room and walks over to the "large as life" picture of Grandpa and puts her chubby little hands on both sides of the frame and puts her cheek up against Grandpa's face and just smiles, then tips her head back and looks at him then kisses his mouth. This little girl knows her Grandpa Mitch! We have always said that he has been up there choosing all of his grandchildren "off the top shelf of spirits".

Happy Birthday Celebration on Grandpa's 88th Birthday!

Christmas Poisoning and A Happy New Year!

It was great to have all the family this year for Christmas. Grandma Bette Loo wanted to have Clam Chowder for our Christmas Day lunch meal so I went all out and got all the fixin's for the big kettle I usually make. You don't realize until you are in the throws of the shopping spree just how expensive clam chowder is to make. Suffice it to say, the chowder turned out yummy as usual...or did it?

I made the kettle full on Christmas Adam (that is the day before Christmas Eve). We all tired a large bowl of it and it was great...especially with bacon bits and butter on top to stir in. I had to put a halt to the "testers" otherwise there wouldn't be enough for Christmas lunch.

I put the kettle in the fridge and there it waited patiently for our Christmas meal.

Lunch time arrived...late and I told everyone that they could help themselves to the chowder in the kitchen. Grandma Bette was served a big heaping bowl of it and ate every last spoonful. Matthew then sat in the big cushy chair with Jessica on his lap and proceeded to eat his bowl full. He asked me with a bit of a strange look on his face, "Mom, why did you add carbonation to the chowder?" I laughed and said he had weird taste buds and why would I ever add any carbonation to chowder. Jessica took a small taste and said, "Yeah it does taste carbonated".

YIKES! I went to the kitchen to find that the kettle of chowder had "risen" like a possessed kettle of witches brew! It smelled like someone had added yeast to it ... needless to say I dumped the ENTIRE kettle of chowder down the drain.

The next morning I began receiving phone calls from the kids asking if anyone had been sick in the night, being especially worried about Grandma Bette. Everyone had had stomach cramps and other not so polite ailments after having consumed the chowder. Even Kylee (not yet 1 year old) had eaten some of the soup part of the chowder (not the clams). Gratefully, neither Kylee nor Grandma Bette experienced the effects of the POISONING via Clam Chowder.

One of Lainee's friends told me the same thing had happened one time to a batch of her mom's chowder and they determined it was bad clams. I did recall that one large can of clams that I used was dented! Beware of the dented cans of fish products! LESSON LEARNED! And a very Happy New Year to you...Manny, Moe and Jack! (What movie?)

P.S. I redeemed my self on New Year's by making a not so "killer" yet extremely delicious batch of White Chili! No trail of bodies on the way to the bathroom with this batch!

Hey, you with the money in your mouth...what's your last name?

Yesterday was "Beauty Shop Day" we took the little girls for their quarterly "get the bangs out of the eyes day". They have such darling faces I like to see them without looking out from underneath long bangs. Linda volunteered that Zoe would go first. So Zoe hopped up into the chair. When Cammy got finished cutting Zoe’s hair we were astonished at how much she looked like a picture we have of Grandma Bette Loo when she was the same age. So now our new nick name for Zoe is B B Loo in honor of Great Grandma B D Loo!

These little girls just keep me giggling. Today after dinner and church we went to the visitor’s center at the temple. The missionaries were so impressed that the little girls know so much about Jesus, the prophets and apostles...due to the good training of their parents!

As one of the sister missionaries looked on, I said to Linda, "go and point to the picture of the prophet, President Monson." She walked up to the picture of him and pointed. I then said to her, “tell the sister missionary your name. She said, "Linda" I said, "tell her your last name" her reply was, "And Teddy". So she knows Jesus, all the apostles and the prophet but thinks her last name is "And-Teddy. I guess it's up to grandma to start at the mundane life basics like...what is your last name?

I had promised the little girls that they could have some watermelon after we got back from the visitors center. Of course I forgot but they never do. As we focused on who was going to cut the watermelon for them - Linda found a handful of money. We got side tracked from the watermelon because of her desire to count "monies" into our hands. Zoe then needed to be part of the money grab. We of course had to make things even so we counted out equal coinage to each of them. Zoe immediatly put all her money in a safe place...her MOUTH!

It's past N A P-T I M E (for Nana) can you tell?

It was this BIG!

This is a REEL fish story! And it only cost me my cell phone!

Yep, we - Andrew and his family of sweet girls decided to go fishing this evening at Quail Res. We got the to the lake about 5:00 pm. It was really windy... hence the city is called Hurricane.

I saw Andrew take his Blackberry out of his pocket and put it on the blanket. I had a thought go through my little brain that I too should take my cell phone and my fishing license out of my pocket. Nah, was my next thought...it's too windy to go in the water then I will be cold.

I cast in first and made about 3 casts. My 3rd cast got caught several feet out into the water but close enough to walk out and release it. Andrew held the line since he was in his shorts and I was in my board shorts. To keep him from getting his clothes wet I said I would walk out and unhook my line from being caught. I reeled in my line and exited the water to partake of the pizza we had brought with us for dinner.

I reached for my pizza and realized at that moment that I hadn't taken my cell phone out of my pocket when I had waded in to release my line. I drew the drenched device from my pocket and dismantled it "gutted it like a fish" in hopes it would dry out. (Does anyone know how to turn the little pink sticker back to white?)

I had to go back in and fish some more to make certain I got my money's worth of fishing since I just ruined my recenlty replaced cell phone!

I cast in 2 more times and caught one. It really was a nice size fish as you can see from the picture. It is the first official fish I have ever caught (in my adult life). What makes it official is the fact that we kept it. The hook was actually in so firm that it took us a while to get it out.

I wish we had a video of the little "city folk" trying to get this fish off the hook, string it on the fish line and decide who was going to gut the fish. Andrew tried to be brave but every time the fish would twitch he would jump in the air. Dawnalyn and I where having a good chuckle at his expense. It was much like the lizard in Hawaii ... but that is a whole "nuther" story!

Andrew "gingerly" but the line through to string the fish, I think it was only 4 attempts. I then held the fish to try to get the hook out. I had to use his pocket scissors as pliers to get the hook out.

As we took the fish to the car Linda looked at it and said, "oh cute sish" (can't quite say her "f's" yet). She even pet the poor dead thing. We put it in a zip lock bag and proceeded to call various friends to see who knew how to gut a fish!

I tried my home teacher Bishop Wilson...no answer, I tried my current bishop...no answer, I tried Randy Trimble...no answer. Andrew said he had found gutting instructions on You Tube and would attempt it using the video instructions. Randy, good friend that he is, called back and said he had gutted fish many times and would "walk Andrew through" the process. As we drove home I said, "Darrell Jim always goes fishing. Let's drive by and see if he is home". I went to one home in his complex and it was the wrong place. They told me which house was Darrell's so we rang the bell.

Darrell Jim you are my HERO! He took the poor dead beast to the sink and proceeded to prepare it for Grandma's dinner. He did say I had to scale the fish before I cooked it - which I fortunately knew how to do.

We took it home…scaled it…then cooked it for Grandma Bette’s dinner. I didn’t taste fishy at all…I hope not for being fresh from the lake!

I think unless it is trout…and a big one…we will just catch and release from now on!

It really was …. THIS BIG!

(I’ll know tomorrow if my cell phone is functional or not…so please don’t think me rude if I don’t answer. And yes, I know I need to change the outgoing message from the 4th of July holiday!)

It really was a nice sized Bass! Aren’t you proud of me…a little validation would be nice Matthew!

Am I alone in this?

So, is it just I or does anyone else have a psychotic possessed laptop that has a cursor that freakishly goes anywhere it *%#&^ well pleases? I mean, as I am blissfully (not so much any more cuz of the *%#&^ cursor) typing it just pops up in the middle of a previously typed word and does its own little devil dance on my page. Popping in and out of where ever it wants. I used to be a really fast typist but now with all the backspacing and CTRL Z functions it makes me crazy to type e-mail and other documents. Thank heaven I don’t have a masters thesis to type on a bloomin’ lap top!

I finally find out where the *%#&^ (notice 5 characters not 4 – you figure it out) cursor has jumped to…get it back to where it is supposed to be and then within several key strokes it is back again to it’s “devil dance”.

Somehow I thought a laptop would simplify my life…it has only made my hair whiter!

I guess I really answered my own question…that’s why they call it a “Cursor”…see it just did it…it popped up 3 lines! Maybe you can hear me screaming?

Am I there yet?

I've finally arrived...so I'm told. I hear that blogging can take the place of journal keeping and scrapbooking. Anything to eliminate the guilt associated with not doing either of the previously mentioned tasks. Although I must admit I did just add my name to a Relief Society Enrichment list to learn how to scrapbook using computer technology. We'll see how that goes!

I'm sure I will learn quickly through my techno-kids how to add pictures to my new blog spot, so please be patient with them :)