My Grandkids are cuter than your Grandkids!

Tonight my son-in-law Jason posted some pictures on FaceBook of my Minnesota Grandchildren. They were great pictures. I made a comment on his pictures: My Grandkids are cuter than your grandkids! And it's true! At least to me and that's all that counts.

Here's some of the latest pictures and you can judge for yourself.

Sydney, age 5 1/2

Pumpkin Patch, October 2010

Jakob, age 4 1/2

School Picture, October 2010

Mercedes age 2 1/3

modeling at home, October 2010

(I included this one so you could see her face)

Mercedes, I LOVE this photo

Indian Summer fun day, October 2010 Shiloh 8 months

October 2010

Now...don't you agree that I have the cutest grandkids ever?

The mystery grows!

Just a quick note today....was it because January was left behind and February has come that my birthday pot has grown so much? Saturday it had six green spears....on Sunday, February 1, I noticed there were now eight spears above dirt line! The tallest spear is 8" tall. I figure soon my Birthday Pot Mystery will be solved.



I'm getting ready for a trip to see my Dad and his wife, Willie. I love my Dad so much (I love Willie too!), and wish we lived close enough to visit weekly or even daily! I live about 1 1/2 hours from the CA/Oregon border and Dad lives about 1 1/2 hours from the CA/Mexico border. California is a very long state. Liz, Sydney and I will drive to Sacramento, a 5 1/2 hour drive on Wednesday. We'll do a bit of business for the shop and then stay at Liz's friend, Brilynn's house. Brilynn has a new baby girl named Rylie and we haven't seen her yet. At the crack of dawn-thirty on Thursday we'll drive to Redlands where Dad lives. It's about a 7 hour drive, maybe more depending on traffic. Thursday night Liz will drive to the Ontario Airport and pick up Jason & Beka and my two Minnesota Grands. Oh joy! I've missed them so much even though it's only been a month since I saw them last. Mercedes had her first birthday last week and we'll have a cake and celebrate while we are in Redlands. Lots to pack into that little trip....going to see my friend Kris and go to her Quilt Shop in Brea, going to the park where Bill and I met and get pictures of my kids & grandkids in the tree we met in (that's another story), Disneyland (!) and spending time with some friends who moved last year to So. CA. In between all that we'll hang with the folks, celebrate Mercedes' & Willie's birthdays, etc. We'll begin our drive home on Tuesday, probably spending another night in Sacramento. I don't know if I'll have Internet access, but I'll be sure to share afterwards if not before.

What's a Grandma to do?

Saturday Mr. Scottie Dog and I will fly off to the Land of 10,000 Lakes [although anyone who lives in Minnesota will be quick to point out that there are lots and lots more than 10,000 lakes in the state. I guess they settled on 10,000 because it sounded good, kind of like Heinz 57 slogan was picked out of a hat and Wonder Bread "builds strong bodies 12 ways." White, spongy Wonder Bread is a high sugar & carb nightmare. South Beach Diet says you are better off eating a cup of ice cream once in a while than eating white sandwich bread!]. Back to flying off to the Land of 10,000 Lakes....on Saturday morning for 3 weeks with the Minnesota kids and GRANDBABIES! This means Sydney has been trying to sort out the trip.

GRANDMA: "I'll be at Jakob & Sadie's house for awhile, but you can talk to me on the computer."
SYDNEY: "But why can't you talk to THEM on the computer at YOUR house?
G: "Because I have to do that now. When I go visit them I can hug them on my lap and kiss them."
S: "But I want you to be with me."
G: "I love to be with you and take you to the zoo and read you stories, but Jakob lives far away and I need to go to his house to see him for awhile."
S: "Why don't you take me to the zoo?"

So today we went to the zoo after I picked her up from Pre-School. I'm busy trying to tie up all the loose ends before I go. We went for ice cream after the zoo---after all, I need to leave her with special memories for while I'm gone. Tomorrow we will do a craft project at the store (I will be making the same Fall Leaf Window Clings with Jakob next week) and on Saturday when Liz and Sydney drive us to the airport I'll give her a little Hello Kitty tote bag with some fun goodies (new socks, hair clips, glitter pens, magnets, etc) for her to have while I'm gone.

When Daddy came to pick up Syd at the store to take her nap she hugged me and said, "Fanks for the ice cream Gwamma. You got me ice cream because you love me!" Yes, Sydney, I love you.

What's a Grandma to do when she has grandbabies in two so very far apart cities? She splits her time. I'll probably cry when we take off, saying good bye to Sydney....but Jakob is waiting for Grandma and Grandpa. Sadie doesn't know much about it all yet, but when I see her in the WebCam, she smiles and lights up when she sees me. I can't wait to snuggle with this 9 month old...I'll even be glad to change some diapers. Jakob and I will walk to one of the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota just 1 1/2 blocks away from home, we'll go to the zoo and we'll probably even go out for ice cream....These are the things Grandmas do.

Cousins at Play

When I was a little girl (about a hundred years ago!) my dad would read me the Sunday Comics. We lived in LA and the LA Times had a very large Sunday comics section. Dick Tracy had this fantastic watch.....I think it was his 2-way wrist radio. In 1971 the college I attended had a computer (just one). They had to remodel TWO classrooms in order just to HOUSE the computer. It was that big. Flash forward to 1973 when Mr. Scottie Dog was then working for Radio Shack. I remember he called several people he knew because technology had finally reached the future.........Radio Shack had come up with a 4-function, hand-held calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide for ONLY $129.99!!! And people ran down in droves to scoop up those calculators. A few years later one of our friends had a watch with a calculator under the face....Technology on the march into the future. Now they give away calculators that do more than that early Radio Shack one! And it's the size of a credit card!
In 2008 my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter Sydney "plays" regularly with my 2 1/2 year old grandson Jakob. Not unusual you say? Well, it is, because they live 1578 miles apart! Sydney lives in Eureka,CA and Jakob lives in Savage, MN. Here they are on Tuesday. They show each other their puzzles, sing together and chatter. What is funny is that the kids were busy chatting here on Skype and their moms (MY kids, Beka & Liz) were chatting away on the telephone.
Grandparents---if I haven't convinced you yet: RUN, DO NOT WALK TO YOUR COMPUTER AND SIGN UP AT http://www.skype.com/.

BTW....skype doesn't pay me.

Mother's Week

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I feel as though this past week was Mother's Week. For an entire week I had all my kids and grandkids around. I loved it! I pretty much played hooky from Scottie Dog Quilts much of the week. On Thursday Sydney's Preschool class had a field trip to the Sequoia Park Zoo. We packed up all the kids, put 3 car seats in the car and went off to the Zoo!



Jakob was fascinated with the washing station at the petting zoo.










Sydney was happy to introduce him to her special friends, the flamingos.





Mercedes spent most of her time in a sling. She's 3 months old now and such a darling pixie. She smiles, coos and likes to snuggle.

It was an idyllic week. More next time.