What a sweetheart!

We were lucky enough to have Miss Angie come over for a 2 Day Sleep Over, she is such a sweetheart. I have had other Grandmothers tell me how sad it is when they get too old to do Sleep Overs. I try not to dwell that far ahead, and just make the most of the time she loves to come over now. Seriously, this girl would stay a week if she could. Jenny is still a bit young, and when it comes to the 2nd day of her Sleep Over, she is starting to ask when Daddy or Mommy is picking her up. Still she does pretty good herself.

I was a bit worried about having Angie over since I was still sick, but knew that she gets exposed every day at school to germs ...way worse than mine ( if that is possible ). We had a lot of fun making Protein Shakes, watching movies, and racing cars with the Poppa. They all love their Poppa. I am thankful every time I see Jeff with the kids, that he is such a GREAT, SAFE, HEALTY and GOOD Grandfather! That is a huge deal and I am so blessed that he loves them as much as he does his own kids.
Of course when I grew up my Dad's Father had already passed away, so I never knew him. Only heard the stories. There we lot's of stories :) Wonder what stories my children will tell about me some day? I can only imagine :)

The only Grandfather I had was my Mom's Dad, and he was the one who abused me. So seeing what a difference a healthy and good Grandfather can make, is nothing short of a Miracle to me!  I really am blessed to have Jeff, and so are they! 

 Sunday we went to church and then came home and she wanted to crochet with me. She still isn't comfortable with  crochet hook yet, but loves crocheting with her fingers. So she made lots of cute Friendship Bracelets. She is so cute, she just kept wanting to make more and more for her friends and then she thought she could give them to kids at school that looked like they needed a friend. Jeff saw all the multiples she was making and laughed. Then he said " Can't tell she is your Granddaughter can you? "

When she was finished we packead them all up. Man I sure could have used this little worker, when I had my business years ago! :) Just kidding, Brad and Amy called it my Sweat Shop! :)

It seems like every time the grandkids leave...I wish we had more time. Angie and I were going to sew and create a couple of other things but we simply just ran out of town. 

But I am just very grateful that we have the time to talk, reinforce the values, morals and standards that her parents are teaching her. The old saying  "It takes a Village to raise a child is so true" , I am still forever grateful for the many Village People who helped me teach and train my children, especially when they didn't want to hear it from Jeff and I. 

"So matter what you do, your time and effort will never be wasted when you spend it on a child!"

Good Night dear friends!

 

A piece of my history!

When I was a little girl, I can remember staying the night at my Grandma Johnny's house. I used to love crawling up in her big bed and listen to her tell me stories of her past or of her kids when they were little. Her home was a safe place for me as a child and to this day, how grateful I am of that. Just knowing when I was in her home that I would be safe and protected made me have nothing but really FOND memories of her home.  She had a beautiful home, 3 stories and I always hoped that some day my home could look and feel like hers.She had glass doorknobs on many of the doors, I still wish I had those. I loved how she would tell me stories about the furniture and then she would laugh and say " if only this table could talk, all the stories it would tell".
She got sick after I graduated from High School and then she came to live with us for awhile. I still remember being her full time nurse while she was at our house. By the time I left home to serve a mission for my church, she had to go into a nursing home, my Mom could no longer care for her by herself. It was a sad day when they had to tell her that she would ....never go back to her home again! She didn't get to pack things up that she wanted or that meant a lot to her. She just left and never came back.
 When Jeff and I got married, she told me that before they sold the house, that she wanted to give Jeff and I anything out of her home that we needed ( that would be her wedding gift to us ). We got her 4 poster bed, this beautiful chest of drawers ( below) and a few other pieces of furniture, that still are a very important part of our home now. I always tried to get my home to look,smell and feel like hers. I wanted people to feel safe in my home and a place they can be happy and have fun.
Recently we gave Amy and John Grandma Johnny's chest of drawers, because they needed on for their bedroom. It did my heart good when I saw it again, after John painted it. He did an amazing job, and I know my Grandmother, Amy's Great Grandmother would be very proud that it is now in her home and something she is using!
 
Then the next photo is of an old Singer Sewing Cabinet that you could open and pull out a table to sew on. I thought it would be a great little piece of furniture for our soon to be Granddaughter's room, I had no idea how beautiful it would be though after John worked his magic on it! So sweet!
I think making your house a home is a lot of hard work and something that you have to constantly work on. So grateful that both of my married kids, love things from my past,  and also love making their house a HOME that is safe and full of wonderful memories!
Good night dear friends!

"May this Home be blessed with the Laughter of children, the Warmth of a close family, Hope for the future, and fond Memories of the past"

"We inherit from our ancestors gift so often taken for granted...Each of us contains within...this inheritance of the soul. We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise."

Day Nine

We got up a bit early and started off from Topeka, Kansas today. Our goal was to make it into Denver, Colorado, but that didn't quite work out... so we ended up in Colby, Kansas just about 1 1/2 hours from Denver because when we checked the weather of Denver it didn't look good. Last night they had 8 inches of hail and even a tornado touched down there. They were Tornado warnings and they were predicting high winds and more storms for this evening. My brother called and suggested that we stay in a town closer, instead of driving onto Denver. So we ended up here in Colby, Kansas. We were glad to be in a place that was safe for the night. The trip was not real exciting but still beautiful non the less. Lots of wheat, windmills, farms and farms and farms. Here are a few photos to show you the beautiful landscape of Kansas.

As we tried to get our stuff out of the car,  the clouds and winds were coming in fast and hard. I think the winds are something  normal here in Kansas. I can't imagine living in such winds. I told Shirley that I don't like the winds and the storms. It reminded me of the movie The Wizard of Oz, we had everything here except the witch riding a bike with Toto in the basket!  :) Here we are trying to get out stuff out of the car, it was crazy. Once we got everything in safe and  sound, we headed out to a clothing store and just tried on clothes for a couple of hours, it was soooo much fun.Last but not least ...we went to dinner, then came back to the hotel and I got my swimming in. We will get up in the morning and see if we can make it a bit further then we did today. I just have to be home by Sunday, that is when my flight goes back to Seattle!  I am sure we will make it by then!

Good night dear friends!
“the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”
― Norton Juster
 

“It's funny how, in this journey of life, even though we may begin at different times and places, our paths cross with others so that we may share our love, compassion, observations, and hope. This is a design of God that I appreciate and cherish.”
― Steve Maraboli,