Grandparents

I had the most wonderful grandparents in the world! Each one had great qualities they shared with me.

My maternal grandmother was an 'old French woman' She lived with us, spoke French to us, loved us and made the most wonderful French pastries.... I remember her coming into my room every morning, touching me on my shoulder and saying "Wake up, Judeeeee, Wake up!" with her wonderful French accent! My parakeet learned to speak with that same accent! She never left the house without her very proper black cloth hat and gloves. She was also a very poor, humble woman, who did very delicate hand work--quilting, embroydery, etc. This grandmother was a practicing Catholic.

My maternal grandfather died when my mother was 16, therefore I never knew him, sadly.

My paternal grandparents were very wealthy. My grandmother never left her house without her very proper mink hat, stole and black gloves (in the winter)--White hat (not mink! lol) in the summer. From her, I learned proper English Etiquette, how to behave in an all adult environment (there were no games or other things to play with at her home), and the love of Canasta--as well as how to play for blood! --They took their Canasta very seriously! roflol This grandmother made wool oval braided rugs. That is the only 'craft' she did. Theses grandparents were very Protestant--she was active in the Woman's Group and he was a Deacon.

I adored my Paternal Grandpa. He was short, round, bald and walked with a cane. Oh! He never went outside without a hat. Whenever they came to visit our house, Grandpa always took each of us out for our 'own' walk. That was our time with him, that no one was able to spend with us. When we visited his house, he would take us to the ocean with him and he would go clamming. I loved going, but hated the clamming. *shivver!!!* We would spend time in his backyard tending his garden, and his bees. They had a 'real' woodshed.

I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to really KNOW my grandparents, and that my parents encouraged our relationships with them.

Ready...Set...Go!

Poodle and Pig are both getting ready to Go! Poodle leaves Monday, and I think she is as ready as we can help her be. She will be a super missionary because she has never met a stranger! At our class this last Tuesday, the teacher had everyone say what they like about or have learned from her. I took notes, and will post those at a later date. But everyone told the truth, and had great insight. I cried.

Pig's soon-to-be-ex-boss asked her what it would take for her to stay there. She said she would think about it...but when I talked to her, she is almost positive that she will be moving to the West Coast and work for the huge internet company. They are giving her big bucks, lots of financial incentives, but more importantly, it will be work she likes doing. Oh! They are going to pay for an airline ticket for her Cello! good stuff

Good Things

Well! Good things have been happening around our family this last few days.

First, Pig has a New Job! Yeah! She starts work for the BigNameInternet Company the middle of February! I feel this is a great move for her, and more importantly, so does she. She was prepared mentally and spiritually for this opportunity, and when they offered her the position, she knew to take it.

Second, WorkHorse and his wife had the offer they made on a house accepted, so it looks like they will be homeowners as of March 1!

Third, Work Horse has a new job. He leaves the Air Force the first of Feb, and starts his new job this Monday, since he is on Terminal Leave.

Fourth, Poodle leaves for her mission in 10 days! Yikes! We go to the Temple tomorrow night. It is a full session, too.

So! good things happen to those who wait.

Life Changes

Big changes in our lives.

Our car was a nice little Toyota Corolla. 140,000+miles. Since dh is a clown, we were stuffing it full every Saturday for the birthday parties, etc. and tearing up the upholstery. So, the opportunity arose to trade that little puppy in for a van. So our new car is a Grand Caravan--yep, us of the soon-to-be-empty-nesters are the proud new owners of a mini van! lol One of the back seats will be coming out so that we can fill the back with clown garbage (I mean STUFF) without ruining the upholstery.

Poodle will be leaving us on Jan 30 to enter the MTC on Feb 1 to serve in the IL Chicago North Mission. I miss her already. We are best buds. We have taken a Religion class together the last 3 semesters, and we always have tons of fun and learn a ton together. I will miss her.

To Crash A Party!

What fun I had tonite. Poodle and I took the Sisters to their appointment. However, she wasn't home, so the Sisters asked me if I would take them to a Wedding Reception. Certainly! Well, we drove around a bit, but couldn't find the place where it was being held, so we went back to the Sisters' apartment, found the name and place of where it was located, and zipped back there! Of course the dancing had just started so all the old people had already left! lol We went on in, and visited. I saw several of my friends there and visited with them too.

I should mention that although I know both the bride's and the groom's parents, I would never consider myself friends with them so the fact that I wasn't invited didn't hurt my feelings a bit! But it was a break in the day. And I got to spend the time visiting with people I haven't seen in quite some time.

He's Here! (No, he's not!)

DraftHorse and his wife, Worker Bee, along with their new 3mo came 'home' for New Years. So we cleared our calendars... They showed up on Thursday night, and we stayed up until 12:30. Friday we all went to work and left Draft Horse and his family the apartment. They made a fast trip through PackRat's work with the 3mo to show him off...and an equally fast trip through my work. Saturday--a day we had off, they decided to go up to the the mountains so they could camp and be close to snow. We visited about 30 minutes because it took them about most of the day to just get their act together enough to come over to the apartment. WorkerBee's mother (I'll call her Cobra) brought Worker Bee's 5yo (I'll call her ThePrincess) up, so we had a 5 minute 'Christmas' where the ThePrincess opened everyone's presents. Her other grandma kept her close, so I didn't get to play with her. Bummer We did go out to dinner--they paid. I think the reason we went out to dinner is because WorkerBee thinks my house is too dirty. She is really anal about cleanliness.

Sun we all went to church in the mountains, but again we had no opportunity to visit. The other grandma kept the beautiful ThePrincess close and didn't allow her to sit with us. We were together, but not together, if you know what I mean.

On Monday, the day Poodle had asked for the day off, and both PackRat and I also had cleared to spend with that family, they stayed up in the mountains to take Cobra up to the snow "she has never been to Yosemite ". Tuesday, they finally showed up at about 9 pm on their way back to LA. DraftHorse came in the house to get what they had left here--then he got in the car and left.

They are Suppossed to come up and visit this weekend. We will see. But nobody is clearing calendars again. They can visit our world, but we are through being the "on-call relatives"

Either you visit or you dont. Make up the mind!

The Best Gift EVER

I was pretty bummed this Christmas because my dd#3--the one who ALWAYS comes home, couldn't make it this year. So, the 3 of us planned to visit with some Altheizmer's patients on Sunday after Church. Well, Saturday, we got a huge Suprise! dd#3 came waltzing in the front door! Yep! She was able to get Monday, Dec. 26th off and took the 27th off with no pay. How exciting! Plus, she brought her 150 pictures from her trip to Israel in November. So, Sunday, after Church and etc., we spent the rest of the day SCRAPBOOKING! We had so much fun! Basically, what we did was do kind of quick LO sketches and matched the pictures up with cardstock and some printed paper I had on hand. Then, yesterday we went to the LSS and purchased $50. worth of stuff to finish up the pages! Yikes! But she has a good job and can afford it! lol

We DID do one page, tho! lol It has tons of 'bling' but we had a ball doing it! It was truly the Best Christmas ever!