Today is BoyChild's 24th birthday.  Two days ago was BabyGurl's 25th birthday.

We dont do much in the way of celbration any more ...... especially with BoyChild being away this year ..... so I thought I'd take you back a few years. 

BabyGurl's first birthday.

BoyChild's first birthday .......

You can tell, we didnt do big parties back then either.  Just a homemade cake and family, with a few small presents.  (While they were small, we kept the gifts small - it was a good idea - they never expected "the world on a silver platter").

Here's a couple more pics just because I found them in the album and decided to share.

Ma and Pa celebrated 49 years together today.  Well, they didnt really do anything special to celebrate, but ... they are still together after 49 years! 

 This is from about a year ago.

No.  Not late December back in '63.  Last night. (This morning actually)

About 1:40am my phone rang.  It was dad.  Mom wasnt feeling well.  She'd been up twice to the bathroom to throw up.  The third time she got so weak and light-headed Dad needed some help getting her back to bed.  To top this all off, they were keeping my great-niece (their great-graddaughter) who is four months old, because my niece had whatever it appears my mom now has. 

So I took off over there (I'm less than two miles away thank goodness).  After letting her rest a bit, we were able to get her up and back to bed.  So I settled in for what was left of the night in the spare room - which is where Gabbie was.  By then it was about 2:30am.

Gabbie is such a good baby.  Mom said she would likely not wake til 6am.  Sure enough, almost on the dot she woke up.  I leaned over her bed / playpen and started whispering to her and she began smiling, and in a minute was laughing out loud.  Her laughing woke my mom who woke my dad to go see about Gabbie because she could hear her.  I called down the hall that she was laughing and we were fine.

I got her up, fed her, changed her and she went back down for another nap.  While I was feeding her Dad was looking after himself the best he know how - he put some canned biscuits in the oven.  When Gabbie went back to bed I fixed us some eggs to go with the biscuits.  When we finished eating, Mom got up for a few minutes and made her way to the kitchen to sit and have a bit of water.  She usually drinks a whole pot of coffee in the morning but she said even that didnt taste good.

 I was planning to bring Gabbie to my house when she woke up from her  nap.  But .... my nephew called (he's almost 15) and needed my dad to come get him and bring him so we could fix him some breakfast.  He lives with my brother and his new wife.  (Side note: my  niece has her own house but her husband was at Natl Guard training this weeknd so she was staying with my brother and his wife because she was so sick). My brother is a firefighter and today was his shift.  Well, after he left (at 6am) for work, his wife woke with the same crud that Mom and my niece had.  So my dad went to get my nephew - about 20 miles round trip I think. 

We fixed him a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (he ate all five).  He had an errand to run, so my dad took him to do that.  In the mean time I went through Mom's fridge and found a pack of chicken and put it in the oven so my dad would have some lunch (my Mom usually cooks a big Sunday dinner).  I knew if I got that much done he'd be able to manage to open a can of beans or something to go with it.  And Mom surely want going to eat anything.

So .... Dad and Nephew arrived back from the errand.  I was feeding Gabbie.  She proceded to throw all six ounces back up.  I think she has some sinus drainage and that caused her to spit it all back up.  That six ounces seemed like about sixteen.  On me and the kitchen floor.  Dad mopped up the floor, I mopped up me and Gabbie.  I got her a bath and changed her - then I had to come home and change, so she and I got in the car and came to my house.  I changed - she played and giggled and talked and laughed and had a good time.  About two hours later my niece called and said she was on her way to get her.   She was feeling better, and Gabbie's dad was on his way home from drill, so they were sure they could make it through the night.  Of course I told her to call me if they needed me.  And with instructions to call Gabbie's doctor tomorrow and see if they can get her some baby allergy medicine.  She has sneezed and sneezed and sneezed all day long.  I think she has allergies or sinus and the drainage was what was making her spit up so much.  In spite of all that she just laughed and laughed.  Did I mention what a good baby she is?

So, now I am home - watching a MacGyver marathon.  I do love me some MacGyver!!

She also took a quick catnap while she was at my house.
 

I dont have anything interesting going on right now, so I thought I'd tell you a story that happened long ago, that I was reminded of at Mom and Dad's house on Sunday. 

We went out to eat one night and as was our custom we let our children tell the waitress their own orders (of course we'd worked it all out before she came over to take our order, but never-the-less they liked telling it to her themselves).  The kids were about four and five at the time (or maybe five and six, who knows?) 

My son went first and he ordered a burger and probably some fries and when she said "and what would you like to drink?" he replied "red tea". 

So I had to explain ...... some of our family like sweet tea and some like unsweet tea, so my Mom keept two pitchers of tea in her fridge.  The sweet tea was in a red pitcher and the unsweet in a green one.  Therefore, my son was ordering sweet tea.

We still often refer to it as 'red tea' and 'green tea' even though those two pitchers have long since bitten the dust.  Now the two pitchers in her fridge are identical (clear Rubbermaid pitchers) with a piece of masking tape on each one with 'sweet' and 'unsweet' written on the tape.

Sunday BabyBrother was refilling his glass and he pulled the wrong one from the fridge and had to put it back and get the other one.  He said to Mom "I sure wish you still had the red and green pitchers so we could tell which was which without pulling them all the way out first!"

She told him she'd never been able to find those exact kind of pitchers again.  I think maybe they were Tupperware.  Hmmm ... maybe I could go online and find them.

Here's most of the family that gathered yesterday for lunch at my cousin's house.

And here is BoyChild holding Gabbie for the first time.  She was six weeks old Wednesday.  BoyChild decided yesterday he was ready to hold her.  In fact his exact words were "I'm feeling frisky, let me hold her."

BoyChild called me at work this a.m. about 8:45.  (He is off today - and I resisted the urge to wake him at 6:30!) He was on his way to MickeyD's for a biscuit and wanted to know if I wanted one.  I said "sure, bring me a bacon biscuit."  So he did.  AND .... he brought me a diet coke too (that's the only soft drink I will drink - wasnt it sweet of him to remember?)  Actually while I was waiting on him to get here I went to the breakroom and made me a cup of tea, but when he showed up with the diet coke I drank that instead.

Didnt get any real details about last night, except he had a good time.  They just went to dinner and he had her home by 10:00.  Of course he didnt arrive home til 11:30 (I heard him when he got home).  He said he ran into a buddy and they rode around a while.  Ah, the things he could do with that gas money instead of riding around.

This morning he has gone to Wally World for some more dog food .... and socks.  Who knows what else he will decide he just has to have while he is there.

BabyGurl has gone to Best Buy to get a tv converter box so she will be able to continue to watch tv after Feb 2009.  I went online and got her one of those 'coupons' for $40 off, so the box should only cost her about $20-$25.  She'll make very sweetly ask BoyChild to hook it up for her later today.

When he got home from work ..... he washed his truck .... in the dark.  Uh huh.  You read it right.

He came home and started washing the truck.  He said "I know I'll miss spots and it will look like crap", and I said "son, if you cant see it well enough to wash it, how is anybody gonna see it well enough to know you didnt wash it?" 

He assured me it was very dirty and must be washed .... because there were lights in the parking lot and everyone would be able to see. 

Okie dokie son.   Whatever you say.

My son works swing shift.  When he is on days, he has to leave home at 5am.  Today, he is on days.  He is very quiet when he leaves.  Occasionally I will hear the door open and close, or hear his truck start up, but mostly I dont ever know when he leaves.  He's very quiet.  Because I dont get up til 6:30.  Clock goes off at 6:20, I get up at 6:30 and get in the shower. 

So ... this morning he left very quietly and I never even heard him.  Then at 6:35 my phone rang, and he asked if I would put some of his blue jeans in the wash before I went to work.  (For the record, he usually does his own laundry, but that's another story).  So I said ...... I DONT GO TO WORK TODAY!!  But I will wash your jeans."  He said "thank you". 

Normally, calling me at 6:35 would be perfect timing.  Except of course on my OFF DAY!  And even then it wouldnt have been so bad except I stayed up a couple of hours late last night since I knew I could SLEEP LATE because I am OFF today! 

Apparently he has big plans tonight since he needs clean jeans.  (He gets home at 6pm and you can bet I will get me some details.  After all, he woke me up at 6:35 on my OFF DAY, so the least he can do is make it worth my while!)

Well, except for the judges “stamp of approval”, it’s all a done-deal for my son and his (soon to be ex) wife.  They signed the papers yesterday.  They’ve been married four years (as of this past Monday) and have been struggling for about half of that to try to hold it together.  No one (including either of them or myself) is pointing a finger of blame, but the sad truth of it is, it’s over.  They are still civil when in group situations (they have many mutual friends, most of whom they both had long before the marriage) and they will spend quite a lot of time in each other’s company because of that. 

There are no children (thank goodness!) just my two grand-dogs, Shelby and Natty.  Shelby went with her mom  and Natty is now living at my house with me and my son and my daughter and my other grand-dog Lady Belle.  It’s a full house (trailer) for sure!!   But we all get along amazingly well, so it’s not putting a strain on any one (except maybe my water heater!)

You already know that last January BabyGurl came back home.  Now, BabyBoy is returning as well.  BabyGurl and I are in the process of cleaning out his room (which we have taken over as storage / office space).  He came by today and got what we had boxed up for yardsale and took it to the local thrift shop for us.  He calls it the "quarter store" because many of their clothing items are indeed 25 cents.  It's actually run by the Baptist Association. 

So ... life will be interesting.  He is bringing his dog, so that will be two dogs at my house now.  I'm not an animal person (I dont hate 'em, I just dont have the time or inclination to have one).  He says he's not sure how living with his sister again will work out.  I told him with her work schedule and his work schedule, they are not likely to be home at the same time anyway, and if they are they will be asleep.

One of the challenges will be sharing the bathroom.  BabyGurl's bathroom is very small and she pretty much has all the cabinet space overflowing (actually there's not much more than a 'medicine cabinet' in there anyway).  So I told him today I would make room in my bathroom for his stuff.  I said "what do guys need? razor, shaving cream and deoderant?  what else?"  He said "that's it!"  So, maybe this wont be so hard after all. 

I also told him I'll have a few little "projects" for him here and there.  Some hedge cutting, a little house maintenace, etc.  He's fine with that.  He works swing shift so he has off days during the week (and nobody to play with on those days) so he'll be looking to keep busy. 

Keep checking back.  I'm sure there will be interesting tales to tell over the coming days!