"Deer" Clare Bear

The grandkids have been blessed with some lovely outfits from friends and family. Not long before Christmas, Kelly received a package from our friends, Don and Linda, for Baby Clare. It contained an adorable little velour outfit with the cutest black pants - complete with ruffled trim around the pant legs - a velour skirt in a coral/rusty tone - a onesie with a little deer on it in coordinating colors - and a precious little black velour beret.

Kelly had her dressed in the skirt, onesie, white tights, black Mary Jane shoes, and the beret for church. I proudly carried her up to Communion and I think nearly every eye in the church was looking at her as I carried her. She looked like a magazine ad! Thanks, Don and Linda, and all of our other friends and family, who keep my grandkids looking so spiffy!

The New Man in My Life...

Yes, it has happened. After almost 33 yrs of marriage, I have fallen head-over-heels for a younger, handsome man. Even though he is a man of few words, we get along great. He never complains and will usually do what I tell him to do. He loves to give me hugs and just cuddle while watching TV. Even though he is young, he still enjoys an afternoon nap and is in bed early, giving me time to watch my favorite TV shows or be on the computer.

His disposition is almost always pleasant and he seems to have alot more energy than my husband. He may be short in stature, but he is tall in personality!

"So," you may ask, "who is this mystery man?" This is his most recent picture. I'm sure you will understand why I love him!

Grandson Ryan's 2 Year-old Picture

Play Date

Terry, Kathy, Me, & Stan at the Rathskellar

Stan, Me, Debbie & Dan at Charleston's

Since the grandkids often have "Playdates" with their little friends, I thought we should have some, too! So, Saturday we decided to make a "Play Day" with friends and family.

We started the day off by picking up our friends, Kathy and Terry, who were in town for a few days so Terry could attend a Veterinarian conference. We picked them up at their hotel at noon and headed to the German restaurant, the Rathskellar. Talk about atmosphere! How often do you eat lunch surrounded by moose, elk, deer, and big horn sheep heads! After some tasty food, we took a little driving tour of downtown and then stopped at Buggs Temple. This is a relatively new place, located at the end of the downtown canal. It affords great views of the canal and of the Indianapolis skyline. The building was an old African-American Methodist Church, now renovated to house a casual eating place (The Grillhouse) and and upscale restaurant (The Tavern) on 2 of it's 3 floors.

Our next stop was Champs at Circle Center Mall, so we could watch the Purdue-Wisconsin game. (Purdue won!!!Yeah!) At half-time, we dropped Kathy and Terry back at their hotel with promises to do this again soon!

We then met friends at Charleston's Restaurant in Castleton - Dan and Debbie - for dinner. After a nice dinner, we all went to Carmel to watch our nephew, Gabe, play hockey. His team, New Haven, was in town for a couple of games over the weekend. Unfortunately his game didn't start until 9:15 pm! His team won and we enjoyed seeing him play. His parents - Jim and Sally - as well as his two sisters, Abby and Lyndsay, were there, too, along with Lyndsay's boyfriend, Steve.

We got home at 12:30 am and I spent all day Sunday re-cuperating! I woke up with a scratchy throat and voice, plus a headache and slight fever. Good thing we don't have "Play Days" every weekend!

Back in the Saddle Again!

Reese: I'm so glad I could stay in my house today in
my cute new PJ's!

Ryan: Now Grandma, tell me why you keep

buying shirts for me that say things like "Trouble is

my middle name?" I'm only 2!

Finally bit the bullet, so to speak, and bought a new camera yesterday. I haven't had much time to play around with it, but I took it with me this morning when I was watching Reese and Ryan. I was awakened this morning by a phone call and a sweet little voice on the other end saying, "Grandma, can you come and watch me and my brother today? My Mommy and Daddy have to go to work and my Mommy wants to know if you can watch us?" Then Kristy got on the phone and explained that she had received a call at 5:30 am from her sitter, who said her kids were sick. So Kristy had to institute "Plan B." As every working mom knows, you have to have a Plan A, B, C, and even a D sometimes! Obviously, Miss Tonya is Plan A, I guess we are Plan B,Plan C is usually Kristy or Joel has to stay home and in a real pinch -although Kelly has her hands really full with her two kids right now - Kelly is probably Plan D (sorry, Kelly, did you know that??? Tee hee! So if Kristy asks, you know she is really deseperate!) Now girls, I don't want to start any fights here and honestly, Kristy has never said anything about her alternative strategies...so I guess this is all of my assuming (and we all know where that gets you....)

Anyway, Reese and Ryan were good this morning. Ryan was actually tired and crawled up on the sofa and slept for about 45 minutes! I did get to try out my new camera, too!

Yesterday, I took Grace with me and we ran errands. She was also very good for me, which I am sure her Mommy will be delighted to hear! Hopefully when it warms up a little, we will be able to do more!

36 Scrunched-Up Cups on the Floor.....

Look at that sweet little face? How can she be guilty of the crime charged???



Kelly spent Saturday night with us as Keith was out of town. After church, I was checking my email, Kelly was busy was Clare, so that left Grace free to roam. I thought she was playing in the family room, but then I heard little footsteps coming down the hall from my bedroom. As she passed the office, I said, "Grace have you been in Grandma's bathroom?" She stopped, innocently looked at me and said, "Mess."

Well, that comment, coming from a 22-month old, was enough to make me go in and check. Sure enough, she had opened the cupboard under my sink and proceeded to rearrange things. She also found a box of Dixie Cups and took about 3 dozen of them out, crumpled them and put them back under the sink. Here is her finished work. I promise it wasn't that messy before!!!




It could have been worse! There was a big container of Baby Powder there. Had she dumped that, I am sure I would still be cleaning up!

Dressin' Up

Reese in Holly's Halloween Costume

When my girls were younger, we had a big box of dress up clothes for them and their friends. Nothing fancy, just old clothes of mine and even some from Stan's grandma. At my mom's house, she had a big box of Halloween clothes that they used to get into when they were there. They always had so such fun, that I decided to get Reese and Grace some dress-up clothes. They now have a small collection of Disney Princess dresses, shoes, and accessories. Reese is particuliarly into bangle bracelets right now and both girls are taking after Grandma Linda with their love of purses. I know Great-Great Grandma Thomas would be proud!

Born to be Wild...

Two weeks ago Stan's cousins from Ft Wayne, Horse and Judy, and Judy's sister, Rita, and her husband, John, came for a visit. Judy and Rita's brother, Don, lives in Bristol, but he was in Indy for the weekend with his wife, Maureen, helping their daughter, Alisa, organize her house. Alisa is getting married to Kevin in April and has had several showers and lots of gifts to find places for, so they worked several days putting up new cupboards in her laundry room and re-organizing and sorting. Don and Maureen's youngest son, Jason, also lives here in Fishers with his wife, Laura.

The Fort Wayne group arrived at our house around 10:30 in the morning and dropped us off at 11:30 that night - then drove home! I don't know about them, but I was exhausted! Horse and Judy treated us to dinner at Loon Lake Lodge with the family. We really enjoyed seeing them...we love our cousins!!!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!!!

Okay, as usual, I am a day late and dollar short. Yesterday was Ryan's 2nd Birthday!!! Yeah!!! He was so proud of being 2. I saw him on Tuesday afternoon at Kelly's and the first thing he said when he saw me was "two, two." His official party is Sunday, when Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Doug as well as other family members from Fort Wayne, can celebrate with us. We did go out to dinner tonight - minus Holly, who had to tutor - with the entire family. Ryan seemed to enjoy his day!

I know I am bad with these late greetings. I guess I should have learned when my nieces and nephews were little. I was forever late with Deb's kids with cards. Three of the four birthdays were in April (often around Easter) and one in mid-May and the other at the end of May. It was always such a busy time for me due to graduations, weddings, our anniversary, Mother's Day, spring-happenings, etc. I can't remember whose birthday it was, but when she told one of her kids they had received a card from me, they said, without opening it, "yeah, and it says, 'sorry, I'm late...hope you had a Happy Birthday!" At that point I knew I needed to either get better about sending the cards earlier or at the very least, get more creative with the notes I wrote inside!

English Lesson

Okay, kiddies, I can't believe you don't know the Casey poem! It was written in 1888for the San Francisco Examiner and was a fictional account of a baseball team from a fictional town, Mudville. The team was in a big game and it was down to the wire when their heavy-hitter, "Casey," came up to bat. With all their hopes of a victory at stake, everyone was waiting with baited-breath with each swing of his bat. Of course, he struck out, and the hope of winning went down the tubes... Since it is too long to reprint in full, I will just give you the most well-known part at the end:

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

Now you know.....

...for there's no joy in Mudville....

Grace, last year, cheering for our Colts! What a sweetie!

Reese and Ryan cheer the Colts to a Super Bowl win last year!

As the old poem about Casey at the bat says: "for there's no joy in Mudville, for mighty Casey has struck-out." Well, that is the way our family feels tonight as our Colts lost in their play-off game against San Diego today. Stan and Kelly were at the game, Keith was on Reserve Training, but the rest of us gathered at our house to watch the nail-biter of a game. Guess it just wasn't in the cards this year. Since our team is out, we will have to resort to other activities on Sunday afternoons, like taking a nice nap. That sounds good to me! For my husband, I am sure he will begin counting the weeks until spring training starts. Go Cards!

Baby Face

I had been looking for this picture, because I remembered we had this family photo taken in September of 1977. Kelly was 21 months old, and now Grace, at Christmas, was 21 months. I wanted to see the pictures together to compare. At the time, we were still living just north of Fort Wayne and Stan was either just getting ready to go - or had just returned - from a 3 week UPS class in Iowa. I remember that was a long 3 weeks, as he couldn't come home the entire time and long distance was so expensive that I don't think we could talk every day. It's hard to believe that was over 30 years ago now and Stan was at the beginning of his UPS career. Anyway, look and see if you notice any similarities between Kelly and Grace!

New Year, New Purse...

I decided to change my background and title for my blog. I really can't take the credit for the title, as I saw a book by that name and thought "that is so me!" I love purses and must admit to a bit of an addiction for them. They don't have to be designer bags - in fact, I don't own a real Coach - but I just like different ones. Although I have many colors and patterns, it seems like I always fall back on my old standbys- the basic black bag. I treated myself to a new purse right after Christmas. It is a big, black bag that holds everything! I love it! I must also confess to being a bit of a costume jewelry lover (from my Mom and Grandma Thomas) and shoes, although I don't own as many pairs as I once did.



I am happy to pass this on to my Granddaughters, Grace and Reese. Grace loves shoes (she owns enough pairs to start her own shoestore, I think) and purses. Reese likes bracelets and purses, too.



Grandpa is passing down his affinity for hats to Ryan. He gave Ryan a Cardinals Hat for Christmas and Ryan proudly wears it!