Our daughter had a sonogram recently, and the news is out. They are expecting another boy in April. Baby J will be 20 months old when the new baby is born, so that means they will have two in diapers at the same time. Fun, fun!! We are excited, and of course all of the grandparents are excited. I think Baby J will make a good big brother once he makes the adjustment to having a baby in the house.
We had a great time shopping on Black Friday. I met our daughter and one of her best friends at Old Navy at 4:30 AM. We stood in line and enjoyed talking. When the doors opened at 5, it was very orderly going into the store. Next, we headed to Super-Target for the doors to open at 6. The line was enormously long. We heard one lady in line next to us talking about her horrible experience at Wal-Mart. She said people were rude, one lady threatened to “mace” her, and some were shoving. There’s no excuse for that kind of behavior. We were blessed to encounter only nice people. After getting the bargains at Target, we proceded to Mimi’s for a nice breakfast, then on to Lifeway Christian Bookstore. We finished our shopping at Baby’s R Us and then to the mall briefly. We had a wonderful time and it really was a lot of fun. The best part was being together in the wee hours of the morning, talking and laughing!
I want to tell you a funny story about my grandfather and dog food. When I was a little girl and my grandparents were visiting, my grandfather got up during the middle of the night for a snack. My mother got up and found him in the kitchen unknowingly eating dog food. I guess he thought it was some crunchy kind of cereal or snack. We laughed and laughed about that many times in the years to come. I’m sure a lot of you have funny family stories, too.
Are you thinking about engagement rings or maybe anniversary rings? Seems like a lot of people are right now.
Our son-in-law is so creative (I guess that’s the graphic design artist in him) when it comes to giving our daughter rings. When he proposed at their favorite coffee shop several years ago, he had previously been there and bought one of their chocolate candy eggs, taken it home and carefully opened it so he could place an engagement ring inside, and then closed it up so that it looked like new. Our daughter, knowing nothing about this, opened the candy egg at the coffee shop thinking that our s-i-l had just purchased the candy. When she saw the ring, he got down on one knee and proposed to her. So sweet!
Well, recently they celebrated their five year anniversary, and so our s-i-l being the creative person that he is, bought a book and cut out a section in the middle of it so that he could place an anniversary ring inside of it. You can imagine our daughter’s complete surprise when she opened the book!
I don’t think I need to tell you what a great s-i-l we have!!
Advertisers and also the entertainment industry target our children on a daily basis with products and also values that we may not approve of. It’s important as parents that we discuss these with our children because they are not always able to evaluate and think critically about these matters for themselves. They may take what is presented to them as the way it is. We need to protect our vulnerable children and teach them as they get older to think critically for themselves!
When our daughter was a teenager in high school, there were so many activities going on plus when she was home there were always a dozen friends wanting to talk or chat online. So one night every week we would have “Family Night” where for two or three hours we would do something as a family. Sometimes it might be playing a board game or maybe watching a movie all together. It really didn’t matter what it was that we did. It was just the fact that our whole family, all four of us, was together. Here were our guidelines for family night (or at least what I can remember):
I’m sure several of you do this and have great ideas. If you have time, I’d love to hear some of your ideas.
There are a lot of households that own at least some type of game system. One system that is very poplular is the xbox 360. In fact, our son-in-law and daughter own an Xbox. They are young professionals with a 14 month old baby and another one on the way, and they still enjoy playing a game on their Xbox from time to time.
If someone in your family is wanting an Xbox Pro System, keep in mind that Buy.com has an Xbox Pro System Holiday Bundle which includes Kung Fu Panda and LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure!
This has been such a busy week that I’m just now writing about the wonderful weekend we had with our daughter, son-in-law, and Baby J celebrating our daugher’s 27th birthday. It was fun watching Baby J, who is 13 months old, walking all over the place…and fast. He jabbered a lot and was very expressive, had a sense of humor, and hugged an Earnie doll (from Sesame Street). He’s such a cutie! One special time that we had together (teachers will appreciate this) was when he was looking at some baby books I put out for him. He picked up a book that my parents (both have passed away) gave our daughter 27 years ago. So Jackson picked up his mommy’s baby book about animals, turned the book until he could open it the correct way, looked at the first page, and then came over to Grandma (me) and wanted up in my lap so we could read the book. That was such a precious moment that I hope I never forget!
Back when I was in high school, my two best friends and I were known as the “Three Muskateers.” We were always together! We’ve gotten together just a few times through the years. Well, to my surprise, one of the muskateers was visiting with a friend where we go to church now. We were both so surprised to see each other this past Sunday! (understatement)
Years ago, we were on vacation in Austin, Texas, and we saw some of our dear friends who had moved away. We hadn’t seen them in quite a while, so to see each other in front of the Capitol Building was really a surprise.
Another year, we were on vacation in Colorado and were at the Outlet Mall in Silverthorne. Our daughter and I were looking at clothes, and I heard someone say, “Charla?” I looked up and it was a friend from college who had lived across the hall from me in the dorm. It had been years since we had seen each other.
Have you ever had an unexpected reunion with a dear friend you’ve known from way back?
If you have not watched this professionally done video, let me urge you to watch it. It’s very touching! Click here to watch SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL VIDEO TRIBUTE.
I remember what we were doing that day, and everybody I talk to can remember. We sat stunned as we watched on TV, and my eyes welled up with tears thinking about those poor innocent people on the airplanes. After the plane crashed into the Pentagon, reality set in that our country was under attack. I called our daughter who was in college over 150 miles away. We all were praying for God’s protection! We wanted our family all together, so we went and picked up our son and headed out to see our daughter. All people could think about was how this awful event would affect the families of the victims, affect our lives, and affect our country.
We still have a minivan that we had back then. During the week of 9-11, someone tied red, blue, and white ribbons on my antennae. The faded remains are now just little short shreds of ribbons, but I have left them on there to always be a reminder of that day!
I was remembering back to when we had our first baby. The labor room was a sterile, completely white room. There was a nurse who would come in and often right in the middle of a hard contraction she would put a blood pressure monitor cuff around my arm (she apparently had never had a baby). I was using the Lamaze method of childbirth, had really bad back labor, and was not happy at all with that nurse or Mr. Lamaze. It was all worth it, though, because we had a beautiful, healthy baby girl!
I think that probably most people played Bingo as they were growing up and many play it as an adult. When I was in elementary school, it was one of my favorite games. And it was a favorite of many of my friends, too. In fact, I still have my original Bingo game that I used as a child. I haven’t played it in ages, but I guess it has too many wonderful memories with it for me to get rid of it. My friends and I played Bingo countless times, I played with my family, and I played with various relatives who came to visit. Bingo is just an all-around fun game!
Now that Baby J has come into our lives (Baby J is our grandson who just turned one year old recently), I can just imagine playing Bingo with him in a few years. Children in this day and age are so into computer and video games, that he would probably prefer Disney Bingo, which can be found at Amazon.com and also at Drugstore.com. If you don’t have your own Bingo game, then those are two great places where you can purchase it and then start creating memories of your own as you play the game with friends and family…and maybe your own child or grandchild.