12/15/08

Welcome to Iowa...

I checked the local weather this morning because we are under a "wind chill advisory" and the weather.com read, "-4 but feels like -27"....Yep NEGATIVE 27 degrees...Holy cow! I don't even wanna walk outside! Anyways, we had Christmas with my family this weekend, it was such a fun time! I have a little story about Christmas. When I was little, we had this cheesey little elf:

Not sure exactly where it came from but we have had it for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, as soon as the Christmas decorations were out, I would take the elf off the tree and go to my room and play barbies, or house with it. When it was time to put the decorations away, my mom would have to search my room because I would hide it from her. I don't exactly know what my fascination was with this dorky decoration. Anyways, this brings me to one of my Christmas gifts from my parents this year. A big(ger) elf Christmas decoration:Apparently there is a childrens book that talks about how the elf sits on the shelf and every night when kids are asleep it goes back to report to Santa on the good and bad things that the kids do during the day. Now, I don't know if the little elf has anything to do with the story, or where my mom even got the elf 15 or more years ago....
but I have to say, they do look a lot alike....


12/11/08

"Great Great Great" Woman

I want to wish my mom and dad a very happy 26th anniversary today, however, I know my mom is going to have a hard day because this morning my Great Grandma died at 105.... She was definately a Great grandma and we will miss her deeply - heaven is so lucky to be getting her!

A couple weeks ago, I got together all of the jewelery that my Great Grandma had given me over the hundreds of times I visited her when I was little. My mom found the neatest idea in a magazine, so I took all the backs off of the (clip on) earings and pins and glued those and some pendants and bracelets to a frame, one for myself and one for my mom..

12/1/08

Big Birthday!

Today my Great Grandma turns 105! That is one milestone I hope to never hit!! I remember when my cousins and I were little, every single day during the summer we would go visit her for a couple hours. I don't know if it was more to get away from day-care (both my mom and my cousins' mom had in-home daycares) or if it was for the ice cream. We really enjoyed listening to her stories and looking at her old pictuers. When we got new puppies, we ran all the way (ten blocks) to the nursing home to tell her about it, she asked to see them so we ran all the way home and brought them back and knocked on her window. She was inside her room smiling, clapping and waving - she seemed to be so excited for us. We took the puppies back home and got on our bikes to go back to visit with her. When she could leave for visits, she always came over for Christmas - as soon as she would get here, she would park her wheelchair in front of my piano and refused to eat until I played her a couple songs. The pictures are from her 100th birthday and sadly that is the last year she had her full memory - she was sharp as a tack up until her 101st birthday. We go to visit occasionally and she gets so excited when you walk into her room - you think it's because she recognizes you but she just gets excited to have company. My favorite quote she used to say to us everyday when we were getting ready to leave "Oh I could just eat you up but then I wouldn't have you anymore". Happy Birthday Grandma!

Tom and I with my grandma at her 100th birthday.
Five generations - myself, my mom, my grandpa and my grandma

Do you like the filter that I used on the last picture of Brooke, Dylan & Chelsea?