And so it begins...

Greg and I are on "vacation" together this week and will spend our togetherness doing some renovation in the master bath and bedroom. Just a little spackle and paint, and a ceramic tile floor in the bathroom. Oh, and new light fixtures, and a new shower head, and a new exhaust fan, and my favorite thing of all, no wall of mirrors over the tub!

No more having to see ourselves as we get out of the shower, or as we sit for other necessary activity... Yea!

The mirrors came down easier than expected. We did have to heat them to soften the glue, but then they popped right off the wall. You can see where I scraped the glue off the wall, and took some wallpaper with it. Greg is covering that with spackle and assures me it will paint out with no evidence it was ever there.

So I didn't get any real "before" photos. These were taken after we ripped up the carpet and took down the mirrors.

I'll update as we progress...

Ninety years old

We celebrated Grandma Regier's 90th birthday yesterday. Just a small family gathering, but she got to meet her two newest great-grandchildren, Case and Taylor.

A simple cake with white frosting and real purple roses. I wanted to put 90 candles on it, but we didn't want to set off the fire alarms. :o) There was one candle for every decade. Grandma got two of them:

Jeff and I help her finish them:

Meeting Case William Anderson:

Meeting Taylor Rae Regier:

A hug from her oldest great grandchild, Nick:

What do you see?

When I worked at Head Start, I made a little color identification activity based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin. There is a little bear cutout on the front of a manilla envelope, then various colors of construction paper are inside. The text goes, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a (color) bear looking at me." You repeat this line as you go through each color of paper in the envelope. I think Wyatt may have done this at preschool last year, because he picked it up really quickly today when I was playing this with Grace. This video is Wyatt's version of the activity. It's not a great video - Grace and Garett were back and forth and in front of the camera, but I think Wyatt did a great job anyway and I wanted to share with everyone. :o)

4th of July

Just a lazy morning, puttering in the garden, watching the birds, enjoying the nice breeze.
I've also made the sangria for later...


A few photos from the yard this morning:

clematis

pink asiatic lilies

black-eyed Susan

volunteer sunflower from bird seed

pair of finches

my newest bowling ball

the front sidewalk

Tammy needs...

Okay, if you go to Google.com and type in "(your name here) needs", Google will show you what you need. Here goes:

Tammy needs:
Constant care
Your prayers and good wishes
To know
The help of other dog lovers like you and I
More opportunities to be creative
All information by January 5th
To balance out

Hmmm...

What do YOU need?

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

It's official.

She's no longer a teenager.

As of 3:21 p.m. today, the girl is 20 years old.

Born on a Tuesday, 6 days overdue. Labor and delivery full of stress and drama, but everything ended up okay.

When she was newborn, I called her my "angel baby", convinced I could never be mad at her. Ha!

She has provided our family with spunk - she's the risk-taker, the one who makes me cringe with worry. Sometimes with good reason.

She's also brought laughter and fun.

She's compassionate and kind and loving.

She knows all the words to the classic rock songs we love, and we crank the car stereo and sing our lungs out together.

She steals my library books and (gasp!) reads them!

She's creative and dramatic and musical.

She can quote almost the entire script of a movie after having seen it once.

She is still finding her way in the world and I feel privileged to be along on the ride once in awhile.

Welcome to the Family!

Cousin Jeff and his lovely wife Shannon have added a new member to our family - Case William Anderson was born on Friday, June 22. We cannot wait to meet him!

Congratulations to the new parents, and to his GRANDMA!

First day of summer

This is what a slice of it looks like in my back yard. :o)

More than meets the eye...

We're looking forward to the new Transformers movie due out the first week in July. At the theater we try to decorate the candy case to reflect either a current movie or the season. We just put away our pirate treasure chest and set up "Transformer town" last night. These are Nick's Transformer toys, circa late 1980's. We had such fun setting them up last night, playing with transforming them from cars, planes, etc. to robots. He still remembered how to operate each one - "Yeah, I didn't spend hours playing with these..." he told one of the guys. :o)

Can you tell which are Decepticons and which are Autobots?

(FYI -The construction paper skyscrapers are intended to look cartoon-ish.)

We finished the display at about 8:30 last night, then had several guys come to see the late shows - it was fun to hear them talk about the toys, remembering their own, or how they watched the cartoons when they were kids. Tonight we had several small boys ask their moms to buy them. :o)

Being Crafty

I had to wait to post these photos of Ben and Abbie decorating bowling balls. They made them as a surprise for their parents. I made one, too, so Tonita snapped this photo just before they left last night. (I wasn't unhappy, she just took the picture before I was ready. :o) ) We used GE Silicone II (in a caulking tube) for the glue. The kids each chose their own stones. I used some glass pieces I purchased last summer.

(Grace just loves these - she calls them "pretties" and rubs her hands over them again and again.)

My other roses

The other two rose bushes are blooming now, and both are the correct color. :o) The yellow is from my co-workers when my dad died. The orange rose was a mother's day gift a long time ago. The one that bloomed red last week, also has some white buds, so I'll get the correct color roses after all.

Cabela's Adventure

We fulfilled one of Ben's dreams today when we took him to Cabela's near Omaha. When we first walked in the store, the greeter wanted me to apply for a Cabela's card. I told her no thanks, that we live 100 miles away and just brought the kids to see the store. She gave us each free tokens for the laser shooting ranges instead. :o) We walked through the aquarium and Ben knew which fish was which without looking at the signs.

Then we went back to the shooting range and each took a turn shooting at the fake animals. Greg won a free turn. We can't figure out why. Ben and I each had more points than him, but he got a free turn. :o)

Then we found the animal display and had fun finding all the little hidden creatures.

Ben and Greg shopped while Abbie and I took a sit-down break in the cafe. We could have eaten bison, ostrich, or several other kinds of exotic meats if we'd had lunch there. Instead we chose to share a piece of chocolate cake. :o)

Now Ben REALLY wants to go to the Cabela's near Forth Worth, so be prepared Tonita! :o)

I'm so proud

And so should their parents be! :o) This is what happens on a 13 1/2 hour-long drive home from Texas. We must entertain ourselves...

The Graduate

We're in Texas right now, having attended Caleb's graduation yesterday and the church banquet in his honor today.

Lots of fun family time and an abundance of good food as is usual with our family gatherings. :o)

Pride

I think this photo should be the poster for Father's Day 2007. Doesn't he look happy?

(The jacket looks great, Al! LOL)

Introducing...

Taylor Rae Regier

Friday, May 25, 2007

2:21 p.m.

7 lb., 4 oz.

20"

Another birthday!

I know Jan is spending her birthday in Denver with Jeff and Shannon. She will become a grandmother next month and we're all so excited for the entire family!

Confused?

I have a rose bush that usually blooms with white roses. This year, they are blood red. What happened?

I'm posting these photos for Lesley, my friend from England. She is a phenomenal gardener and I think I'm correct when I say she has a special affinity for roses. The first is the usual color. This photo was taken last summer.

The second is what is blooming right now. They are beautiful, but what happened to the white ones?

Baby birdies

These baby birds were hatched in a nest built in our Christmas wreath that was mounted on the garage. Yes, the wreath was left on the garage until way after Christmas. Okay, it's still up. I was going to take it down several weeks ago and I noticed the mama robin up there. I figured there were eggs, so I left it alone. This photo was taken a few days ago. I didn't see the babies today, but I'm not taking the wreath down until I know they've flown away. :o)

Twenty-six years ago

We were so young, and had a great deal of growing up to do, but we did it together.

Happy Anniversary Honey!