Dreaming of green grass...

Some days, like today, it's hard to believe that this....

Actually has "THIS" hidden underneath all that white stuff!! Can you tell...I'm through with winter and sooooo ready for spring and summer?!

Now, that's a LOTTA SNOW...

I thought we had a lot of snow, but check out these pictures of "A" and "K" that their Mommy sent today!! Amazing amount of the white stuff literally right out their front door!!!

Our H E R O...

Speaking of "random acts of kindness"...a guy just came by with a blade on the front of his pick-up and plowed out the TONS of deep snow in our driveway!!! :0) I feel like jumping up and down!!!

It would have taken HOURS by hand (our snow blower is "still" in the repair shop!) :0(

He would only take $20....I think Jim would have paid him $100!!!

This second picture shows you how it's "piling up!" The snow is now higher than our front porch! On a very bright and cheerful note---yesterday was December 21st---the shortest day!! No where to go but UP from here!! :0)
I'm not sure, but I don't think "Global Warming" has hit here yet!!!

Baby it's C O L D outside....

3 degrees today, but a magical "winter wonderland" outside....

A special concert....

With the "mountains" of snow we have piling up outside, it was fun to "escape" yesterday afternoon for "K's" Christmas concert. In my opinion, there is nothing sweeter than little children's voices singing, they give it their "all!" Nana forgot her camera (my bad!), and "K's" Mommy remembered her camera (good news) but her battery was still at home in the charger (bad news), :0)...so, luckily our good friend Shawna had her camera and captured this precious moment when "K" was introducing their next song! (Thank you, Shawna!!)

Oh, my goodness....

And, it just keeps coming!!!!!

Oh, the weather outside is FRIGHTFUL...

Just opened the front door...this is what I see!! Oh my goodness, it is snowing like crazy and it is supposed to continue ALL night! :0( The good news is....it's up to 21 degrees!! Heatwave!!

Remembering....

My Mom

A MOTHER holds her children's hands for a while,

Their hearts FOREVER!

From my earliest memories, December 15th has always been a special day in my life. On December 15th my Mom, and her twin sister, were born. She is gone now, I can't celebrate her birthday "with" her, but I will always celebrate her birthday. She was my Mom, my role model, my shelter in a storm, my soft place to fall, my unconditional love...she was my everything.

I strive every day to be the kind of Mom to my children that she was to me. If I can accomplish that, I will know that I have done my very best.

I love you, Mom.

The "HURRIEDER" I go, the "BEHINDER" I get....

Imagine my surprise....

...when we were walking out of Barnes and Noble today and I saw this on the table!!! Oh my goodness, Starbucks isn't just a place to drink coffee??!! :0) Acutally, I picked it up and read the synopsis and it sounds like kind of a neat story. Today is a "bittersweet" for me...I'm trying to soak up all the "L" hugs and kisses I can because we leave tomorrow! I'm going to miss "L" and his Mommy and Daddy soooo much, but yet it is always good to get home, too!! They just live way too far away!! The biggest wish on my Christmas list is that the job opportunnity in the northwest will happen...soon!!! :0)

Our daily outing...

Every morning "L" insists that Nana and Papa to take him to Barnes and Noble to play with the train and get coffee at Starbucks!! Oh wait....I guess it's more like Nana and Papa insist that we go to Starbucks at Barnes and Noble to get coffee and "L" gets to play with the big "Thomas the Train" table in the children's area. It's a "win-win" for all of us!!! :0) **NOTE: We have yet to find a "free-standing" Starbucks in Michigan!:0( How can that be???

Only O N E a day?....

"L" is starting to get the idea of the little red felt bags hanging on the Christmas tree...you just get to open one per day and have the surprise inside---this whole "Advent Calendar" thing is new to him, and it's soooooo tempting to want to open more than one! He searches and searches for the correct number on the bag and "almost" always can find them for himself! The packages under the tree are also a little TOO tempting, but so far he's only managed to sneak over and open one! :0)

How do you spell F U N?....

Well, if you're 3 years old you spell it

"C H U C K E. C H E E S E ' S !!"

We had a great time today---lots of tokens and nothing but time....it was perfection!!! I think you can tell from the pictures that this has to be one of "L's" very favorite places!!!! (Nana and Papa had a lot of fun, too!!)
SHOULDER UPDATE: First day out of the sling, first movement since surgery.....VERYYYYY painful!! (I guess we are seeing the painful side of shoulder surgery that everyone had warned us about!!) Like I said earlier...this isn't for sissies!!! Hoping for a little less pain tomorrow!

This little boy....

....is trying to figure out how this darn thing works!!! Sarah got the snow globe out, with the Christmas decorations, and "L" wasn't too interested in watching the snowflakes swirl around...he wanted to figure what makes them swirl! :0)
UPDATE: The shoulder is now totally "awake" and the patient is doing well! (NO throwing-up from pain meds and we call that GOOD!!!)

On the road to recovery...

Jon's shoulder surgery was today, and Sarah just called to tell is it went well, we stayed home with "L". The doctor told her that once he got "in there" it was pretty much what he expected--no big surprises.

(I will back-up a bit--he has had shoulder pain and problems since he hurt it in 8th grade football. It wasn't getting any better and he knew that it was time to get it fixed! Since he makes his living as a golf pro he has been hesitant to do the surgery because he knew that he wouldn't be able to swing a golf club for a few months, but he finally reached the point where there was no choice!:0)

They repaired the bursa sac (Bursa sacs are fluid-filled membranes within and around the shoulder; they cushion the joints and help minimize friction), and attached some anchors with suture attached precisely into the socket of the shoulder.

It's hard to believe that they will release him later today...I'm not sure what kind of procedure you would have to go through to be kept in the hospital overnight?? My theory is that they want you out of there before the "block" wears off and then your family can deal with the patient in pain and agony! :0) But, we are ready---sooooo many people have told us that shoulder surgery isn't for sissies, apparently it ranks right up there in the "pain level" department during recovery. However, once a few months have passed and physical therapy is completed we know that he's going to be so happy to have a "fully functioning" shoulder that doesn't hurt!

So, this was the major reason for our trip east (besides surprising him on his birthday) and we are ready to help! (The last time he has surgery was when he had an umbilical hernia at age 1. The doctor told us to try to keep him "quiet!" Ha, there is no keeping a 1 year old "quiet!" :0)

I don't think we will have that problem this time...we're planning for lots of quiet time & pain pills for the next few days!

Updates later...

BIRTHDAY & "SNOW"DAY....

Two parties on Sunday---Sarah threw a "birthday" party for Jon and "L", and Mother Nature threw a "snow" party for Michigan!! The snow threatened to put a damper on the birthday party, but we said NO WAY! It did manage to seriously deplete the guest list, though---only those that lived less than 5 miles away were able to make it. (Many others tried and ended up turning around and going back home after multiple accidents and slide-offs on all of the roads!)

"L" had a great time and got soooo excited with every present he opened!! Three year olds really get what this whole "birthday thing" is really about, and he loved it!!

Sarah took much better birthday party pictures...I will post them later.
The snow continues to fall...this was about 3 hours ago! :0) We are going down to the mall later to let "L" RUN... we don't want any "cabin fever" here!

We did it....

Sarah, Jim and I planned a big surprise for Jon's birthday---Jim and I flew to Michigan last night--3 days earlier than he expected. As soon as we landed and picked up our luggage we drove downtown (Sarah left a car for us at the airport)...we walked into his party at about 11:45 PM and he was SURPRISED (shocked is more like it)!! Sarah and all their friends knew that we were coming and they all managed to keep the secret, it was great!! We haven't been with him to celebrate his birthday for many years so this was a special treat for all of us!!

We had a fun day today, shopping and decorating..."L" loved hanging the ornaments on the Christmas tree...

Papa helped him do the high ones...

You probably don't remember....

...this ELF, unless you've had LOTS of Christmases (is that a word??), like me! I saw this picture on the web today and was immediately taken back to Christmas at my house many, many years ago when I was a little girl. We had 2 or three of these little elves. They were made of felt with hard plastic faces---and big, pointy ears. I remember loving to tuck their legs up under their arms! We also had lights on the Christmas tree that bubbled...and silver tinsel! Oh, wow, I think I'm really "dating" myself!! :0)

Feeling thankful....

....that we got our Christmas tree up and all decorated!! It's a bit early for us, but we leave for Michigan at the end of the week and when we get home Christmas preparations will be in "full swing" so I decided this was one thing that could be done early!

We had "K" and "R" for the night on Friday so we thought it was the perfect time to put up the tree and they were very happy to help! All the decorations ended up about 3-4 feet from the ground, (it was so much fun watching them decide where to hang what) but with a little rearranging it looks perfect! They both tried to convince me that they could stand on a chair to put some higher up on the tree because "they do it all the time at home!" Sure they do!! :0)

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY"...

"Life is too important

to be taken seriously!"

Today marks a special day in our family....Baby "L" turns three, and I guess that means we are going to have to stop calling him "BABY L!" He is a big boy now, even though it seems like only yesterday that Jon was calling to tell us about his arrival!!

We are going to be a few days late, but we are heading to Michigan next week to celebrate with him and his Daddy--who turns 33 next week! He had an early birthday dinner last night and, as you can see, the waiter thought he should wear the traditional "birthday hat!"