Friday, June 19, 2009

Leaving my darlings ...




A rare occurrence happened on Sunday. All eight of my grandkids were at my house to celebrate my son's birthday, and even more of a miracle, we managed to get all eight of them to give us a decent pose for this photo. Believe me, it took a bit of coaxing. The biggest problem was the little blond in his big brother's arms on the left. He did NOT want his photo taken; he wanted to get down and play. But when he saw the entire adult entourage jumping up and down and yelling "whoo hoo" he thought it was funny enough to crack this smile.

Anyway, I will be flying off to England, France, Switzerland, and Italy next week and leaving Boppa behind to fill the void! This is my first international trip EVER and is the final class I will take in my pursuit of a Master's degree. I can attest that dreams do come true ... it may take a few years (I'm 55), but never give up!

I want to thank my wonderful husband for encouraging me to do this! If you'd like to follow my trip, I have a blog dedicated to this trip:

http://www.jeanniesgrandtour.blogspot.com.

Bon voyage!

Friday, June 05, 2009

Catching up on the months



This is my new desktop photo.

It has been a busy spring but I've been trying to see the grandkids as much as I can. The littlest one (blond) has stayed with us a couple times, once because Mommy and Daddy went out and once because Daddy was in the hospital and Mommy needed to stay with him. He was such a good boy ... until we went to breakfast and his 2 year old cousin walked in.

The two year old didn't do anything. It seems to be a competition for attention. The two year old doesn't know he's in this competition. He just goes off and does his own thing. He's such a cute kid (the one on the left in the wagon). His big brother is coming down from Tennessee this weekend. I accidentally called the two year old "Bubba" one day, and he told me, no, his older brother was "Bubba."

The four year old is going through a "hair" stage -- it won't stay down. He is so smart! He just finished a year of pre-pre K -- a two hour program 4 days a week at the local rec center. He also finished his first season of t-ball. We all think he's a natural athlete. Believe it or not, he loved playing catcher, especially tagging people out at the plate. Of course, in t-ball it doesn't count, but it did to him! He's on the right in the wagon.

The five year old graduated from pre-K (and I missed it, being in class that evening). She loves attention. Apparently, she sang the loudest at the graduation ceremony. That girl doesn't know the meaning of stranger (and we have to watch her for that). She is all registered for kindergarten, which is just a few blocks from her school

The baby (4 months, almost) is smiling and cooing, and ready to roll over. She seems to have a very sweet disposition. She smiled really big for her Boppa yesterday when he got down on the floor with her.

The oldest (14 year old) will be going to high school this year! He'll be getting on a bus early to travel about 15-20 miles north to attend a school with a culinary arts program. Hope it works out and keeps him happy at school.

The next oldest (13 year old) will be in 8th grade and in the gifted program at middle school. He played ball this spring and improved quite a bit. He is turning out to be a nice young man.

I will be leaving for a month (overseas study) and will miss them. So I've downloaded Skype and told them to download it so I can see and talk to them while I'm gone. Then on Aug. 8, they will be joining me at my graduation for my Master's degree. Woo hoo. I hope I set a good example for them to follow.

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