My Grandbabies!

December 28, 2010

So I am a little slow getting some pictures of the grandbabies up, and now we have another one, Lucy, who was just born this week.  I have to capture some photos of her, so we will just do the other ones for now.

Everyone be jealous!  This Grandma had SO MUCH FUN playing, snuggling, and loving these babies when I went over for Shyla to have her baby.  My little toy bag and I came home so lonely, that I decided there should be some kind of law that Grandbabies have to live close enough to Grandma to play when Grandma wants to play!  Sounds good to me.

So here's my babies....

 This is Baby Jack...just turned two, and we are enjoying reading some of Eden's books.

 This is new Baby Britain...and she likes to snuggle Grandma!

We spent hours awake at night just playing and snuggling....we made Mommy and Daddy go to bed!

 This is Baby Eden trying to learn how to be a fishy..Grandma finally got her to do it just before I left.  Isn't she just the cutest?

 Eden and Jack playing with Grandma and Great Aunt Issy...we made the mommies and daddies leave so we could spoil them!

Baby Britain with her eyes open....she is SO Snuggly!

Oh My Gosh!

December 7, 2010

I have been home from snuggling the grandbabies for almost a week, and my progress on Christmas isn't going well.  Those house is mostly decorated, but still have to do the greenry on the stairs, there are some gifts wrapped, some still to get in the mail, dance costumes are a mess from competition, a CAM baking basket needs finishing in the kitchen, and the family Christmas letter isn't even started.

Dad is out of town, so for the next few days....it's just me and the girls.

The girls have started their duet...it will be so CUTE this year.....Andee is doing such a great job with it.  Cooper is still working with Ms. Traci on her jazz solo to get it perfect each Friday.

Last night Cooper bought Uncle Larry a really funny Christmas present....we have to get the other parts still.  Just one more thing on the otherwise endless list for Mom to do.

We are having some issues getting some of the things we wanted for the girls for Christmas, so I need to spend some time online tonight...maybe I will have more luck that way.

The new Grandbaby, Britain Lilly came on November 21.Six pounds 8.3 ounces, and 19 incles long.  She is so snuggly.  She likes to be awake all night, and Grandma enjoyed just holding her.

Eden and Grandma because buddies while I was there, and she followed me around all day.  I enjoyed chasing her while she tried so hard to run away from Grandma.  She just laughed and laughed.

Jack and Grandma had fun lining up ALL his cars.  They stretch clear across the front room and into the kitchen....then he walks down the line and messes them up.  He loves his trains.

I think there should be some kind of law that grandbabies have to live close enough to grandmas that they can play whenever Grandma wants to play.  Of course, I would never get anything done!

Baby Lucy will put in her appearance sometime soon.

We are so blessed as a family to have two new members.

All the pictures are still in the camera, so I will have to add that to my list too.  I'll put it right after refilling Dad's tiger tissue box on his desk!

When we unpacked the Christmas decorations, we discovered two snowman cookie jars with no heads.  I have the hats, but not the head.....there must be a snowman murderer who lives in my house.....NOT GOOD!

Got some snowflake material to make a new tablecloth for the dining room table.  One that will actually fit the table.  Don't you think it's about time since we have had this table since we came back from England about 16 years ago?

We are finally done with ear tubes...Cymbre's last one is finally out.  No more ear, nose and throat doctor!

Had to turn on the heater for a few minutes this morning...used the fireplace first, but then I was told in the rest of the house....I just hate that smell that is there when you first turn on the heater.  The girls have been putting their clothes in the dryer to warm them up before getting dressed....of course, they had to wait for the dryer guy to repair the element over the weekend, but we are back in business today.

Well, this is NOT GETTING anything done for Christmas, so I better go get busy.  Finding a lucky dog is on the list today.

Have a good day, and get out there and help someone.  There are plenty of Grandmas like me who need help loading cars!

Love you.

Mom

Homecoming, Cymbre's Eye and Ward Talent Show

November 3, 2010

I am finally done with the dance competition costumes this year!   Everybody do a little happy dance!  It has taken me five months to get all the pieces together, altered, sewn, rhinestoned, and finished! 

Had Cymbre to the eye specialist again yesterday.  She has developed a floater, and he said that if she had any changes he wanted to see her....so we went.

Seems that the vitreal jelly that was detached at the back of her eye has totally detached now, and it is floating about her eye.  That's good in that it is no longer creating traction on her retina, but now her retina is extremely sensitive to detachment since the jelly is no longer there to help hold everything in place.  She is very lucky that it didn't detach the retina when is separated!  THANK HEAVEN for small miracles.  And thank goodness for priesthood promises that she will be ok.  This kid is so fortunate to even have her sight when technically her eye should have shattered when the yoga band hit her!

Cooper was crowned in a tie with her friend to be the sophmore princess at the homecoming dance....she was excited.  I took her to the hair dresser and got her hair done in an updo before the dance....and we bought her dress. Here's the photo of her dress, and her hairdo.

This is a picture of Cooper with President Meier and Bishop Bitter at her Game of Life Night.  It was a hugh success....we still get comments about what a great job she did.  Actually, it was a family effort, but we let her get all the glory.

Spent the evening tonight organizing some DVDs into a file box so that they take up less space.  Got this file box at the container store and it holds 100 DVDs.  I am putting the ones that I keep in the sewing room into the file.  Maybe then I can find the one I want, if I can just get the girls to put them back in the little file. 

Dad took the girls to YW, and they went on a scavanger hunt at the mall.  They seemed to have fun.  Cooper's team won again...as usual!  It is her favorite activity.

Guess this will be a short entry tonight....I am going to take my bath, and take my medicine, and go to bed while I watch the news.  I know, BORING!

More later....

Mom

We're DONE!

June 13, 2010

We are finally done with dance recital this year....THANK GOODNESS! I cannot take another day of how Kristin treats the girls. She allows Cooper to do everything, but Cymbre can't do anything. She breaks her own rules for Cooper, but Cymbre has to obey all of them, and some we don't even know about. And EVERY time I tried to talk to her or ask her something, I was told I was being disrespectful. Well, a parent has to be able to ask questions.....and I didn't need Hintze thrown in my face everytime I ask anything.

The inconsistancy at the studio was more than anyone ought to have to deal with.....she asked Cooper to dance her solos in recital...fine, but Cymbre couldn't dance hers. The rule was if you qualified to go to nationals, you could dance. So how come Cooper who didn't even compete because she was injured danced her solos in both shows, but Cymbre who did qualify for nationals in competition couldn't dance at all? She says she let Cooper do it because she was injured all season, but if she let Cymbre dance people would think she was playing favorites. EXCUSE ME????

Dad sent her an email when we got home from recital telling her that the girls were done. She lost her two best dancers.....around $5-6,000 a year, and several other girls are leaving the studio too. Now there are just a few things still to be sorted out, but Dad said she cannot charge anything to the credit card, and we needed money back for costumes we never received.....and she isn't to contact the girls or I.....THANK GOODNESS!

We think we have found another studio. They do off campus which is a big deal for the girls. And it's a bigger studio, so there are more girls who can dance at similiar levels as Cooper and Cymbre.....and we already met with the studio director for a couple of hours last week. She wants to see them dance this week...but that's just to say she has seen them. She googled them before we even got to the studio, so she already knew what they could do. She will let them student teach, and she was looking for a tap teacher, so we gave her Andee's number. Never know, she may end up there too.

Andee is still going to come to the house twice a month to work on hard tap things with the girls. We are still going to Mark Goodma's Tap University, and the new studio lady said that she would let Mark come and use her studio....that means he would finally have a place to come to Houston, so we wouldn't have to travel to get to him. This may be a good move for the girls afterall.

Moving is extremely hard, but they will make new friends, and we know some of the girls already there.....still I wish we didn't have to do this.

Had an interesting talk with a lady at recital....turns out she is a costume designer looking for a seamstress. She doesn't sew, but loves to glue on rhinestones.....she may come in handy someday. We exchanged phone numbers since I sew. You never know, something may come of it.

In other news....how very newspaper of me!

Cymbre's eye faded out while she was dancing and it took until we were at church to come back. I was beginning to worry we might have yet another problem....but thank goodness, no, at this point.

Cooper lost her contact while she was dancing yesterday...so we called and Dad brought the other ones when he came to see the shows.

Cymbre's magic Tinkerbell tape seems to have worked for holding her kneecap in place, but it doesn't like to be under tights....so we will have to come up with something to do about that....maybe Jeff will have some ideas when we see him again. I need to find a place to order some of it....it's a kinesiology tape....whatever that means.

I have to go get some bloodwork done again tomorrow morning....and I am finally getting my blood sugar down where it needs to be. They better not mess around again with my thyroid medicine....I hate that when they do it.

Cooper looks really great in her new glasses.

We have dentist appointments this week, except for Cooper...she wants to wait until after she gets her braces off to have hers done.....he promised her she would get them off before she goes back to school. We'll see.

The housefly that we have been chasing for a week finally met his demise this morning....I managed to get him. He was really enjoying landing on Cymbre's pop tarts every day, but NO MORE! He made the mistake of landing on the faucet when I was standing there this morning, and paid for it with his life....and yes, there were animals hurt in the making of this story! And no, I don't care.

I have video of the recital, but didn't get it off the camera yet, so you will have to wait to see Cooper's solos, and Cymbre's and Cooper's groups. They say patience is a virtue!

Well, that's about all I can think of right now....

Everyone get out there and do something nice for someone else this week....do it for a stranger. Make their day.

Love you all bunches.....and Grandma needs to SKYPE GRANDBABIES!

Mom

The Pestilence Continues!

October 12, 2010

Ok, so when Dad comes home again he has to go to Lowes and buy me some better pestilence fighting tools!  I had to use the vacumn to catch a lizard, who then promptly figured out how to get out of the vacumn. I had to brush him out from behind the toilet tank with a wooden spoon, and he ran across the wall.  So then I had to hit him off the bathroom wall with the plunger!  He got flushed this time.  AND, when we came home from dance, there was this hugh grasshopper on the glass part of the back door.

The only tool I had to attack him was the mop!  So I hit him, and OF COURSE, he flew.  The girls were screaming that he was on me, but they didn't tell me where.  SO, then I was jumping around like some deranged person!

I think sanity reigns supreme at the moment, but who knows what lurks just outside the back door tonight!

It's time for Dad to come home....I'm just saying!!!!!

PS  I hear you all laughing!!

Goopy Scissors! CAPTURED Lizard!!!

October 10, 2010

So now I had to wash the scissors with goo gone because we used them to cut the sticky back velcro pieces to put on the file folder games for the grandbabies.  That stuff makes your hands stink!  And there isn't much I have found that takes away that smell on your hands, but the stuff works great at getting sticky stuff off scissors. 

We have now finished several sets of the file folders games....Cymbre will be displaying them next weekend for YW in Excellence program.  We still have some more to do for the value project, but she has a good start.  And the best part, is the Grandbabies will have them for Christmas.

I caught a lizard in the vacumn tonight....of course, Dad is NOT here when I need to catch the dumb thing!  So we got the vacumn out, and sucked him up...then I left the vacumn running for a few minutes to make sure he was good and in the canister....and now I will wait a day or so until he is dead, and then empty him into the OUTSIDE trash can.  I sure hope that canister opens from the bottom instead of having to shake the stuff out from the top....that could be bad!

I have our home teachers on call this next two weeks while Dad is gone....who knows what's going to go wrong, but something ALWAYS does!

We have to take Cymbre down to the medical center in the morning early.  Her eye still goes out, so the doctor wants to make sure that everything is still stable.  I think he just wants some more information to share at his next medical convention where he goes to teach.  Seems to me, they should pay me for her to be a case study.  Who knows, maybe they will take some more of those really cool pictures of the inside of her eye.

I FINALLY have the two tap costumes done and rhinestoned.  MAJOR accomplishment...now on to the jazz one.  I am still waiting for some of the parts to get here, so I have been crocheting on the baby blessing blankets for the coming grandbabies.  My hands are certainly letting me know how they feel about all this crocheting....I pack them in ice some nights.  I really should cave in and go back to the doctor.  They have hurt me for over a year since the locker incident the beginning of last school year.  The physical therapist gave me the name of the best hand guy in Houston, but I think they will just tell me a steroid shot, and I am not sure that I want to peel myself off the ceiling!  And those shots will really mess up the blood sugar stuff that is finally getting to be where it needs to be most of the time.

Dad is in Norway and Liverpool this week, and then home just for a day or two and off to the SEG convention for another week.  I am bracing myself for no sleep, and trauma!  You would think after almost 32 years, the trauma would have stopped by now, and I would have learned how to sleep when Dad is out of town.  I guess it's just knowing his body is in the house that makes it so I can sleep.  I even set the alarm, but still spend most of the night watching TV or sewing, or on the computer.

So, what do you think that lizard thinks about being inside the vacumn canister?  Do you supposed his Mom is out there somewhere in the dark of night looking for him?  Is there some sort of lizard police that she would call to help her.  Do you suppose she even knows he has met his final demise?  And that I don't feel bad about it either?  Is she camping outside my front door waiting to run inside the very next time the door is opened?  Maybe he has a little family of baby lizards waiting for their Daddy to come home, maybe bring some dinner.  Maybe he has a baby girl waiting for a princess tea party, but her Dad will never show up....TOO BAD little lizard! (I know, somewhat harsh, but I don't put up with the little things in my house!)  Do you suppose that he is allergic to the dust in the vacumn with him?  Does he like to live in see through houses?  Did he eat dinner before he was captured?  (I don't care if he is starving!)  I know, harsh!  Maybe he was sucked through those dyson wind tunnels and lost conscienceness, and doesn't really know where he is...I don't think I have a lizard hospital in my vacumn, but this isn't the first one I have sucked up either....who knows what they may have going in the the hoses!  And why do lizards like to come in my house anyway...they live OUTSIDE!!! Not in a house with carpet, air conditioning, and furniture.  I mean have you every really seen a little house outside with all the comforts of home and lizards coming in an out?  Come to think of it, why would you even look for a house like that outside?  I have never seen them carrying brief cases, and looking like they were actually doing anything worth while either....they just like to hang around the doors and invite themselves in at the MOST INCONVENIENT times!  And if you don't see them come in and catch them right away, they like to hide in the moss in my ficus tree right by the front door, and then when I am dusting the thing, they suddenly decide that it's time to come out of hiding and SCARE the CRAP out of ME!!!  Do you know how hard is it to keep your wits about you and catch a fast lizard when you are scared to death because the thing just tried to walk up your arm or your leg?  Speaking from experience....it's NOT EASY!!!  I usually am jumping around making sure the thing is not on my person anywhere.  And DAD is never here when it happens to be my protector.  What is with that anyway??  Maybe we should build a little one way lizard door so that they can only get out!  I have tried sweeping them out the door once or twice, but the vacumn is a more reliable form of capture.  And when was the last time you saw lizard spray at Lowes?  I have not seen a lizard trap by the mouse ones at the store either!  So I use the only form on LONG HANDLED capture that I have at my disposal...gotta love that vacumn!

And on a more serious note:  I have heard this song twice now this week, and both times I cannot sing along because I feel the Spirit so strongly.....so I want to share the words with you once again.

It's called:  Lord, I Would Follow Thee

Savior, may I learn to love thee,
Walk the path that thou hast shown.
Pause to help and lift another,
 Finding strength beyond my own.
Savior, may I lean to love thee--Lord, I would follow thee.

Who am I to judge another
When I walk imperfectly?
In the quiet heart is hidden
Sorrow that the eye can't see.
Who am I to judge another?  Lord, I would follow thee.

I would be my brothers keeper,
I would learn the healer's art.
To the wounded and the weary,
I would show a gently heart.
I would be my brother's keeper--Lord, I would follow thee.

Savior, may I love my brother
As I know thou lovest me,
Find in thee my strength, my beacon,
For thy servant I would be.
Savior, may I love my  brother--Lord, I would follow thee.

I love this song, and I think about it often as I am helping someone who needs my help.  Most of the time it is a stranger I help.  I cannot sing this song, at least not the whole thing because the Spirit touches my heart so deeply and I am overcome with that wonderful warm feeling I get when I am close to my Heavenly Father.  I sat in the lobby the other night and heard 17 stakes of YW and some General Authorities singing this song...needless to say, the tears were filling my eyes as they are now just thinking about this experience.

Feeling the Spirit, just like at this moment, is something that comes very easily for me when I am out doing something for someone else....it has always been that way for me, and my hope is that my children might have a little glimpse of that feeling each day as they are out in the world hopefully helping someone that they see needs some help.  Just this past week I was in the grocery store and saw an older lady struggling to reach a thing off the top shelf....I stopped and asked her if I could help her.  With tears in her eyes, she said that no one ever asks her that.  I felt the Spirit so strongly at that moment, and then I just had a thought about that scripture that goes like...."if you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" and my mind could picture the Savior standing there in the grocery store.  Had I not stopped to help, I would never have had that experience that day.  A simple act of getting something off the top shelf brought my Savior's Spirit so close to my heart.  These kinds of experiences happen to me often....sharing a happy meal with a street person, giving a water bottle to some hot road construction workers, helping an older woman put her groceries in her car.  I guess I learned how to do these things when I served as the RS president while we lived in England all those years ago.

So, get out there are serve someone...step out of your comfort zone.  You don't have to put yourself in any danger to find someone who could use your help.  In all the years I have been doing things like this, no one has every yelled at me or threatened to call the cops.  Just do something today.

Love you all, especially my GRANDBABIES!!!

Mom

A Busy Week!

October 1, 2010

My goodness, it's been a busy week around here.....Cymbre has been down with bronchitis, Cooper has been at dance until her knee began hurting to much....she hurt it at solo rehearsal on Saturday, and now she can't dance for a week. She did something to the tendon right by her kneecap! I still think dance will kill her one of these days! When she dances, it's all or nothing, and that is sometimes what hurts her I think.

Dad finally didn't have to put Cymbre in the car and drive her around for an hour freezing her out with the air conditioner last night. She just managaed to sit in the steam in the shower, do her medicine, and slept in the recliner. We also put vicks on her feet and socks, and never heard a cough out of the kid. THANK YOU ANITA!! We all got some rest last night!

We have gotten to skype our Baby Eden a couple of times this week, and Baby Jack was with her once....It's always VERY EXCITING to this Grandma to see those cute little babies. I am so looking forward to going to play with them when Shyla has her baby! However, I just don't think it's fair that she stays at the computer and talks to Grandpa, but crawls away to play when it's Grandma. What is the deal? We so enjoyed hearing Baby Jack sing us songs and tell us the alphabet!

They have adjusted my insulin yet again....and this time it is working, but some days now my blood sugar gets way to low! It's a fine line to balance everything, but I am feeling better most of the time.

Dance costumes are coming along, and Cymbre's tap one is finally down to just finishing up the jewelry. It's even rhinestoned. TOOK FOREVER! I am thinking about entering it in the costume contest to see if I can win again. We'll see. I am working on Cooper's now, but hers is mainly taking in a top, and hemming pants, and rhinestoning. Parts of the jazz solo are beginning to arrive, so that will be the next one. Then the duet. We have the dresses for those, and the feathers for the hair, so hopefully, that one won't take to long either. After all, I do have to take time out to go play with the GRANDBABIES!!!

Cooper is doing much better at driving, but we haven't really gone out to practice this week....Dad needs to take her this weekend.

We are glad that it is jammie church this week. We love General Conference weekends!

I must get the jacket made for Cooper for her homecoming dress....and hem the dress.

This sounds like all I do is sew! That's not true most days, but lately it is the truth!

The girls want to do their solos in the ward talent show....that should be interesting. No one at church has ever really seen them dance, so they will be a hot topic of discussion I am sure. Oh to be a fly on some peoples wall! Particularly those who love to gossip!

Cymbre's eye hasn't gone out in the last couple of weeks....guess we are doing a good job not bumping her around. THANK GOODNESS! She sees the neuro opthamologist this month. He will probably want to take some more pictures of her eye insides to show at his meetings. They talk about her all the time from what he says. Too bad they don't pay us to see her.

Well, must get busy...have to get my Halloween goodies in the mail to those lovable GRANDBABIES! Maybe this time I might put something in for their parents too....we'll see.

Everyone needs to get out there and do some service today....pick up some trash, give a worker a water bottle, buy a happy meal and share it with a homeless person, take a cookie to a teacher, but do something.

Love you all bunches and bunches.

Mom

PS.. The fire truck just pulled up in front of the house....am I on fire? Better go!