HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A WONDERFUL DAUGHTER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHELLEY!

You are the age that your dad and I FEEL like we are! The thirties are a wonderful time and I don't know what happened to the years in between!

You are a very nice daughter to have. I love it when you just call in the morning or whenever to talk or tell me something funny or SMART that Matthew has said or done. I know that I can call you anytime and you will put up with me and love me. Thank you for that! You are truly a friend besides being my daughter.

I also think that you are a wonderful mom. You and Bob have given us a very sweet grandson. He means the world to us. I can't remember not having him here. He is so loving and such a nice boy and I know that he gets it from being with you and Bob. You are so kind to him - who wouldn't respond to that?

I respect the kind of person you are and all the things that you are good at and all the things that you accomplish! You are a wonderful artist. I love your books. You are also a good businesswoman. It takes drive and determination to accomplish all that you do with your work and still have time to play with Matthew! We love you so much and we couldn't begin to tell you how much! Hope your birthday is the best ever!

A FUN DAY WITH OUR GRANDSON!

I did a terrible job with my camera today! I kept forgetting to use it or just not having time. The pictures that I did take are terrible. Matthew always seems to be moving too fast and I miss getting his face. Terry was working at home today and I took Matthew for the day at our house. We always have a great time with him - he is just so sweet and easy to entertain. We played with our treehouse and plastic Australian animals and we played with our small plastic train and I read Matthew quite a few books. He listens and responds so intently to books!

He ran around Grandpa who was doing our income tax at our round table in the family room. Grandpa also let him use his big exercise ball and he loved that. He and Terry have so much fun together. Then Matthew and I went for a walk down to the school playground. We swung on the swings, went down the slide, and Matthew climbed on the bridge between slides. He got to see the school buses, touch one, and talk to some people going in to the school. We had a fun walk and I only carried him a little of the way! He loves to walk by himself now. No stroller! When we got home, he watched a little of Dora, the Explorer and sipped juice from my big Weight Watcher cup. (We couldn't find his in his bag) But he loved my cup and it worked just fine. After we watched Dora, we went upstairs to lie on Grandma's BIG bed. We laid there for awhile and Matthew ALMOST fell asleep and so did I, but then he just sat right up and was raring to go! So we went outside and blew some bubbles on the front porch. At dinner time we took Matthew with us to go get Great-grandpa from the nursing home to take him to dinner. Shelley and Bob met us at guess where? - LOGANS! Surprised?

CELEBRATING TERRY'S BIRTHDAY!

Friday was Terry's birthday. Even though we had already celebrated last week on his sister Barb's birthday, we celebrated again on Friday night with Shelley, Bob, and Matthew. Shelley and Matthew were in Arizona all last week and we were in NC the week before that, so we haven't seen them much lately. It was great to get together with them again. We went to Brann's Steakhouse and had a long, leisurely dinner together. Matthew had fun playing with his grandpa's pens, ipod, and helping open his presents. He got an exercise ball, a golf shirt, and some good golf balls. Matthew especially enjoyed it when the waitresses and waiters came to the table to clap and sing to Terry. It was a fun night spent with people we love. Interesting pictures will follow later!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TERRY!

I just want to say "Happy Birthday!" to my wonderful husband. I hope this birthday is the best one ever - you deserve it. You are always doing things for other people and you love doing that. You love people more than anyone else I know - you put me to shame that way. I love living with you and doing things with you. You are my best friend ever!! You always love me unconditionally and that has been very freeing for me over the years - almost 37 now. You are the BEST!

SNOW!!! (in spring?)

                                        View from my front porch

This is what I saw when I woke up this morning! We got about 3-4 inches of new snow overnight! It has been sort of like spring all week and then this!!

     Looking out my front door

This is the end of March and I think maybe, looking back, that March came in like a lamb. Not good! Well, I have to look on the bright side (and it is bright out there) - look at these beautiful trees! Did I mention that I love trees? What a wonderful, snowy day!! (and spring is coming!)

                          The trees in our yard and across the street

Oh, and another thing to be thankful for - Terry was sweet enough to shovel and clean off my car before he went to work! Oh, and one more - Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow..."

Birthday Lunch

Monday some of our family got together for lunch at a restaurant on Jefferson to celebrate Terry and his sister Barb's birthdays. Their birthdays are only about a week apart and as you get older it isn't quite as important to have the celebration all for yourself. 

We had a nice lunch with a really good birthday cake. Terry picked up his dad from the nursing home. He enjoys getting out and being with people as often as possible. Ken (Terry and Barb's brother) and Sandy came, Darlene and Earlene (Terry's cousins), Aunt Shirley, Aunt Bev, and Aunt Muriel, and Ron, Barb's husband. Happy Birthday, Barb and Terry!

Barb got to blow out the candles because Terry had been on the phone (surprise, surprise) and didn't hang up in time to do anything but watch.  :)

O.K......I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF!!

Actually, I was at Partridge Creek Mall the other night and I decided just to LOOK at Janie and Jack's and a couple of other baby stores. WELL....I had a ball! Finally I decided on these two little outfits that coordinate but are a little different from each other. One is a one piece outfit and the other is two pieces. There is a little hat that is reversible and goes with both of the outfits - how cool is that? So I sent them to Shari today. It made me feel good - like it was really going to happen. It is so very hard to picture a child that hasn't been born yet, you know? I can't wait to see her in these clothes. No, I didn't get the usual pink. I'm sure I'll find something, though! Another time....soon.

MORE PICTURES AT THE LAZY FIVE RANCH (See Post Below)

Here are some more pictures that I was able to upload after the fact of the day we spent at the Lazy Five Ranch in North Carolina. I wrote about this a couple of posts down on the page. There were lots of ostriches!

There were three beautiful zebras at the ranch. I just think that they are so amazing!! Animals like this just make evolution look stupid.

It will be a.......GIRL!!

Today Shari had another ultrasound. She is now 16 weeks into her pregnancy and today was the day to find out what gender the baby is. It is a GIRL!!  I am very pleased because now we will not only have a grandson, but a granddaughter, too. Shari and I were looking at girl clothes in some of the children's stores in North Carolina where she and Mark live. We thought that the girl clothes were so cute and there was so much more for girls than boys. So now we can have fun shopping for a little girl. I will have to restrain myself a little because I love little girl clothes and dolls, etc. etc. I just love being a grandma and can't wait to hold this new granddaughter! :)

North Carolina (Part 4 - The End)

While in North Carolina last week, we decided to go to a ranch that Shari had heard about from some relatives who had gone there when visiting after Christmas this year. They had to occupy themselves while Shari worked some of the time they were there. This ranch was very cool because it had  A LOT of animals just wandering around on the premises. You could drive your car along a designated path and these animals would just come up to the car. We purchased a bucket of food and the animals would put their heads right in our car windows and eat the food from the bucket! Here is a Llama that came up to Terry's window. He had the bucket at the time.

The ranch was beautifully landscaped and laid out. It was also a beautiful day to wander around. You could drive for awhile and then there were other areas to walk around and see different types of animals. I wish I could upload all of my pictures -  you wouldn't believe the animals that were just wandering around, but my program here wouldn't let me upload any more pictures. It is being difficult today! Here are Shari and her dad just relaxing on a swing.

When we were riding on the trail, we were in our pickup truck. All three of us were riding in the front seat with Shari in the middle. (Mark was at a job interview.) Anyway, I was talking to Shari and watching some of the animals come up to Terry's window. Mine was rolled down also, but I didn't have the bucket of food. I heard a noise and turned toward my window right into this face staring at me!! I screamed and tried to roll my window up! We were laughing so hard. This animal (whatever it was) had a huge wet nose and big horns - pretty scary!

This is the last picture that I could get to come up. This is a ram and some baby deer. I actually have a better picture of the deer close up, but I couldn't get it to load. 

We had a great day and lots of fun seeing animals up close like we did. It was much better than a zoo any day!