Tuesday Night at Cheli's

Tuesday night was a relaxing night out with the grandkids and Shel and Bob....

Cheli's is a sports restaurant partly owned by Chris Chelios of the Detroit Red Wings. It is close by our house and it has become a favorite restaurant of ours. It has lots of TV screens and the guys like watching the basketball, hockey, and football games there. Not that we are there that often! This particular night the screens were all showing the Red Wings game that was going on. What we didn't know was that every time the Red Wings would score, a LOUD buzzer/horn would go off in the restaurant and everyone would cheer/ hold their ears. Did I say it was LOUD??? It was deafening!! There is no warning when it will go off because it goes off as soon as a goal is scored. We weren't prepared for it and, needless to say, neither were Matthew or Nolan. Matthew was scared to death and cried and then covered his ears the rest of our time there. Poor Matthew! Nolan was peacefully sleeping in his car seat when the horn went off. His eyes stayed closed but his whole face changed and his lip puckered up like he was going to cry and then he just fell back to sleep!

Terry holding Nolan

Here is Nolan peacefully sleeping with noise going on all around him! The place was packed and noisy and every TV (about 50 of them) were on full blast! Other than the loudness of the night, it was fun, relaxing (for me) and always a joy to be with Shelley, Bob, Matthew, and Nolan!

We Finally Figured Out How to Use Our Web Cam!

Web Cams are wonderful when you haven't seen your grandchild for over a month...

It was awesome! Shari was in Knoxville and I in Clinton Township, and we were talking on the phone trying to figure out how to get our web cams to work so we could see each other. We ended up leaving Skype and using Tokbox instead. All of the sudden Shari popped up on my computer! She has to wear earphones and hold a little microphone, so holding Esme' was awkward. Esme' had just awakened from her long nap and she was so cute. She kept staring at the computer screen. I was waving to her and throwing her kisses. She was so cute and getting so big! The talking was a tiny bit delayed and at times the picture of the other person would freeze for a couple of seconds, but it was so worth it! :) I can't wait to use it with Shari again and to try it with other people, too.

EIGHTY - NINE!

Happy Birthday!

Thursday, January 15, Dad (Grandpa or Great-Grandpa to some) turned eighty-nine. It was a very frigid day in the Detroit area. Many schools were closed because of the cold.We had gotten lots of snow in the previous week and it was so cold that it didn't melt at all. Icicles and hills of snow were everywhere and also slick roads. It was so cold that we kept the birthday celebration small. The little kids like Matthew and Nolan weren't going out in this cold weather! 

Dad looked great! We took him to a chinese restaurant on Jefferson near the nursing home at three in the afternoon - sort of a lunch/dinner. It was just immediate family this time.

Here we have Terry, Sandy, Ken, Dad, and Barb. I had to go around the table for another picture to get everyone in.

Here are Terry, Sandy, Barb, Ron (who had open heart surgery four weeks ago) and Aunt Shirley. I am the one in the mirror who is taking the picture! We had a nice time together eating chinese food, eating birthday cake (chocolate!) and reading our fortunes. We don't get together enough and it was fun to just have a relaxing meal and get to catch up on things. Dad got some clothes for presents and lots of cards. These birthdays seem to come along faster each year - it seems like yesterday that I was blogging about Dad's 88th birthday!

A Quiet, Relaxing Beginning to 2009

A Railroad Town!

It has been a nice, quiet, and relaxing week after the crazy, busy holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas! Terry has been home much of the week. He worked Monday and has had the rest of the week at home. He took some vacation time this week. We spent New Year's Eve with friends and had dinner with Shelley and Bob and the kids on New Year's night. Other than that, we have been home. 

After Thanksgiving, Terry bought an "N" gage train and decided to build a set for it. Our grandson, Matthew, has LOVED trains almost from the day he was born! Who knows what makes people have a passion for certain things! But trains have been a passion with him for his three years. That got Terry interested in owning a train so that he could play with Matthew with it and someday it could be Matthew's. Someday he will be old enough to be responsible with it. So...Terry began planning our train set. By the way, notice what is being used to hold the track down! :)

These pictures are backwards (you would think I could get pictures in the right order by now after blogging for a year, but no!) Terry bought several train magazines to learn how to build mountains and lakes and roads, etc. It is far from finished, but he has made good progress on it this week. I think it is relaxing for him, and that it good. I have been able to do some of it with him, but for the most part, he has done it on his own.

It has pretty much taken up our kitchen table for the past week. :(  If it isn't one thing, it's another! I haven't minded so far, though, because it has been fun seeing it come together.

This was the very beginning of a mountain with a tunnel going through it. 

We have bought several buildings for the set. Most of them had to be put together like a model car. All of the pieces had to be punched out and glued together. We worked together on these and now they probably will need to be painted, which I may end up doing.

Everything had to be laid out and layers of styrofoam glued on ready to be carved. I will add more pictures to show our progress. I have no idea where we will put this whole setup!! The only room we have is in our small basement which is now a disaster area. That is a bit of an incentive to clean it up, so that will be our next project!  :)