Smooches For C

Our precious little Caroline is going to the hospital tomorrow. Having been there a few times myself, I wish I could spare her the anxious feelings and discomfort that inevitably come with such a visit. But we'll put our trust in the doctors to treat our dollie like a special guest--a VIP! We'll lavish her with love and attention when the scary part is over and she's safely home again. We send smooches. We send our prayers. We know she'll be ok. Crossed fingers! And Caroline, be sure to tell everyone Grandma B.'s strict orders..."Popcicles for the Princess C!"

Hair We Are

We look forward to Sunday Dinner with whatever part of the family is available for the day. Recently, our little grandsons were sportin' their first "long hair" in a long time. They usually have a nice clean buzz, compliments of mommy Erin. but not this day! Everyone was feeling a bit "camera hammy" with all that hair to display. Samuel wanted a solo shot. We knew the day he was born that he would probably always be Hair King. His grandma Thomas announced his arrival by saying, "just wait 'till you see that HAIR!!!" It was strawberry blonde, two inches long and standing straight up in a halo all over his tiny adorable head. Apparently, if given the chance, the hair will still stand up. Baby Enoch is our happy-making new munchkin! He has clear hair. He looks like grandpa, who has silver hair. The newlyweds are still alive. They both have very nice hair, so I let them have a picture in the post.

Mrs. Morris

Our little girl got married. It was a romantic, magical day! Mr. Morris swept her off her feet, then whisked her away to Cancun. He might bring her back Christmas Day--he might not. While we're shoveling and slopping around in the aftermath of their lovely, rainy-day wedding, they're dancing and prancing in the sun! Ah joy--we are comfortable with our marching orders for the next few days as assigned--DO.NOT.CALL.

Fake Finish

The Leadership Plan paper/project is officially written. BUT, don't get your hopes up--it's a FAKE FINISH! I still have to take photos and make a CD of artifacts for Tuesday night's 10-minute presentation (which means I have to buy playdough at the store so my kids can form shapes for photos!), outline that 10-minute presentation for delivery, make a graphic organizer for Monday's 5-minute presentation on the Leadership Plan. I have useless make-up blog entries to post for Instructional Design. Time for a new hat--Wedding Slave! From Tuesday on, I'm Jamilyn's Girl Friday until her wedding day, December 18th. Sheesh! Our little Puddle Duckie is getting married...fake finish.

Low Key Go

Day five following surgery and I'm feeling pretty low-key--recovering nicely and taking things one at a time. The weekend with out-of-town company was pleasant--lots of hands to do the work. Little grandsons in costume were adorable on Sunday. Auntie and Uncle approved of Dave and Emily's tasteful conversion of mom and dad's house to their own. I'm calmly cramming homework so as not to have too much to do on the road--due dates are due dates! Jamilyn will oversee the house while we're gone (thank you sweets). Pack, go...not that much to worry about. I'll see the surgeon right before we fly to make sure he still approves. Nurse practitioner/daughter Andrea in Virginia is giving him peace of mind. And me.

A New Park

The park at Eagle Point was ready to be explored. So Andrea, Caroline, Olive and I headed out for a new adventure. The slides were high, the bridges bouncy rainbows, with steps of all sizes and shapes to be conquered. Caroline and I ran up a grassy hill to flag down the ice cream truck for a dollar Dreamcicle. Caroline found courage to take a turn on the big, long slippery slide. She also made a friend, Brooklyn. They wasted no time getting down to business with a serious game of Princess. Olive was just happy to be out in the breeze, tasting everything and enjoying the wind in her hair. The playground proved to be "glorious!"

Summer Fun--Smith Style

Yesterday the family gathered at Em and Dave's for our first ever Summer Swim Party. A menu of yummy pizza, home-made salsa and cool fruit started off the festivities, followed by icy frozen treats and a refreshing splash in their beautiful above-ground pool. It was the perfect way to spend a sunny summer Saturday afternoon together! This is Emily. This is Dave. This is their awesome pool. This is the fam, in water-heaven! These are the happy, tired cousins attempting to pose for a pool pic. They've all had a TON of fun, but they're pretty much done. It was a glorious summer day spent with our happy family. Thanks Smiths, for sharing and showing us how to PARTY..."it's always better when we're together!"

A Perfect Day

The beautiful spring day we've all been waiting for finally showed itself this morning and lasted through noon. Now, clouds are pressing and the air is cooling, but well, we had the morning! Pretty gift lilacs on my table smell like heaven and mom's house--I wonder if maybe they are the same place. It's a perfect day for boys to camp, for best friends to reunite, for brothers to marry, for neighbors to emerge, for healing and for children to come home again.

She Doesn't Even Know

mormonmessages.org "My New Life" (in my list "other cool blogs" click Nie Nie) This is about one of my best friends, Stephanie Nielson. She doesn't even know we're best friends, but she's inspired me often over the past few months. I'm grateful for Stephanie's gentle, positive spirit and her honesty. I'm glad she lived.

Zoo Weather

Jamilyn's best friend Nathan is newly home from his mission to San Antonio, Texas. Today I made good use of him as my assistant Zoo Navigator/Grandsonherd. When the rain stopped, it was perfect zoo weather! I think the morning rain kept a lot of people away because we had plenty of space. Everything took a long time to do...getting ready for the car, gathering rain gear, getting in the car, stopping at Wendy's, eating Wendy's, getting out of the car, dressing for the weather, deciding where to go at the zoo, and going there! Four little boys are a lot to manage. But we had fun. Thanks Nathan. You were a great sport today.

One More Week

I will take one more week off school to overcome this infection. The pain medications for wound care are strong. They make it hard for me to concentrate. I think one more week to recover and to establish routine with healing will be good for me. I have let my concern for school and parents and report cards and upcoming conferences and even Master's classes fade into the background while I try to be realistic about getting well. My family has been great to support me in whatever ways I need. It was nice to have a weekend with Jamilyn at home. Kind neighbors have been available for a variety of needs. I'm getting used to hauling the mini-vac around with me. I can do hard things.

Welcome Pretty Lady

Olive Mary made her appearance just after 1:00 am Eastern Time in Concord, New Hampshire. She is a law school baby, born somewhere "on the road" between comfortable old home life and highly independant success. She has already had it her way, arriving a week ahead of schedule, with an air of mysterious anticipation surrounding her. She's got our attention, this little angel! I'm worried about wear and tear on monitors if we feel the need to send those "sweet sloppy kisses" via Skype! We just can't wait to paste 'em on her velvet-pink cheeks! Thank you parentals, for providing us with the ultimate pride gift--our grandparenthood, duplicated once again, to perfection!

New Topic

Ok. More about my life. It's been almost a year since my lumpectomy/sentinal lymph biopsy. It seems impossible that I've been blaming every ache, pain, physical glitch, illness, procrastinaiton, weight gain, and natural disaster on CANCER for an entire year! Why do I still have five (count them, five) doctor appointments this off track, all cancer related?? Is there something wrong with my brain too? It really feels like I should be moving on--adopting a new topic, if you know what I mean.

I'd rather focus on grandkids. Hyrum, Andrew, Caleb and I set out for our favorite Hogle Zoo last week after Hyrum got home from afternoon kindergarten. We didn't dilly-dally or lalligag. We were swifties! When we got to the zoo at 4:10, an obnoxious sign on the ticket booth told us that zoo gates now close at 4:00 pm, grounds at 5:30. Sheesh! It wasn't bad enough that we were LOCKED OUT of our own card-carrying zoo, but there were happy people INSIDE, enjoying the zoo and planning to continuing to enjoy it for another hour and a half! Fine. Being the good grandma that I am, I tried all the gates (rather violently), talked (somewhat rudely) to a random zoo employee about my opinion on the new policy, then whipped our car around to the Secret Southside Entrance that only kindergarten teachers and bus drivers know about and...the parking lot was completely empty, gates locked. Whaaa? No fair, no fun!

Plan B. Dash down the hill to Tracy Aviary where we are also card-carrying owners of a piece of the bird zoo. This time the polite post-it stated that "Tracy Aviary gates are now closed at 4:30" and it was 4:45. Aghhh! Two pieces of luck we still had going for us were: 1)This grandmother is not easily discouraged. She is not good at throwing in the towel on fun--this grandmother is resourceful and happens to know that Liberty Park (home of said bird zoo) has a killer playground with NO GATES and 2)She also has the most laid-back, adaptable grand kids on the planet. So the day was saved! We had loads of fun running ourselves silly from apparatus to apparatus at wonderful, gate-free Liberty Park playground until the sun went down.

The next day we wore ourselves out enjoying the zoo. We missed Caroline who is often with us on such excursions. Caroline is busy with other entertainment these days, in beautiful New Hamster!