My "Moll", Almost the Tallest of Them All!

Molly had her first 6th grade choir concert last night. Ray wasn't able to attend, because he had a deadline to finish at work. He really wanted to be there, so I told him I would record it for him. I usually dread these things, mostly because it's almost impossible to find a place to park and to sit etc., and I wasn't looking forward to going all by myself. But last night I found a parking spot (less than a mile away), in a matter of minutes and there were plenty of places to sit when I got there too. Although the concert itself didn't last more than half an hour, it was really pretty good. Short and sweet.

Molly, (6thfrom the right in the back row), has been the tallest, or 2nd tallest kid in her class for at least the past couple of years. Right now, there is only one boy, (the one in the righthand corner), that is taller than she is...and apparently not by much. Molly doesn't seem to be self-concious about it though, like I was when I reached my full height, (about a 1/2 inch shorter than she is now), so that's a good thing. As a matter of fact, she wanted me to buy her some new black shoes with FOUR INCH HEELS! That would only make her 6 feet tall. Ummm...no. Molly already towers over almost everyone, and I also didn't want to see her trip and break her neck while climbing to the top of the risers on the stage. I did buy her a cute new pair of flats because with all of this growing she's been doing, her feet have grown too. This video is of the song "Hey Noah!" I'd never heard it before, but it was kinda cute.

Happy 21st Birthday, Ruth!

This is the only good picture I happen to have on this computer of Ruth. She's Ray's youngest daughter, and our second youngest kid all together. It's hard to believe that she was actually younger than Molly is now when I met her! Have a great birthday, Ruth! I hope you and Dan were able to go out and celebrate sometime tonight.

Now I'm The One Jumping For Joy!

I used this picture once for a Wordless Wednesday, but I'm re-posting it because it sort of describes how I feel at the moment. The two people in the picture are my daughter, Jessica and her son, CJ. Jess has been in the USAF for the past 6 years. She was planning on re-enlisting for the next four years, and moving herself and my grandson to the state of Georgia. That is, up until this past Thursday, (the day she was actually supposed to do the re-enlisting), when she woke up to all that snow that I posted about a few days ago. The whole Air Force base was shut down during blizzard-like conditions, and she wasn't able to go anywhere that day. She called me and said she thought that this was a pretty sure sign from God that she wasn't supposed to re-up for another 4 years. She didn't even get her car dug out until sometime on Saturday. I didn't really believe she was serious about not re-enlisting, but I was sort of hoping so in the back of my mind.

We have 3 grandsons. There is 5 1/2 year old "AJ", who lives with his dad, (my son Jeremy), in Arizona. Little "HD" who will be 1 year old on Dec. 23 lives with his mom and dad, (Ray's son, Dan and his wife T.) in Oregon. And then there is "CJ", who just turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. I sometimes feel more like a second mom to him than his grandma. He lived with us for 5 months while Jess was doing her tour of duty in Iraq. We had him from the time he was 10 months old until he was 15 mos. old. Which means he was with us for his 1st birthday, his first toddling steps, and probably a few of his first words too. That was all really hard on his mom, but Ray and I got pretty close to the little guy while he was with us.

For the past couple of years, Jess and CJ have lived in Rapid City, SD, (which is far enough from us already here in central MN), but we could get there in a day's drive at least, if we wanted to visit them. I was NOT looking forward to them moving all the way to GA! If we had all kinds of money, it might be fun to travel to three different corners of the country to visit the kids and grandkids...but unfortunately we do not.

Anyway, she called me tonight and asked if they could live with us. Of course, I said yes! Not that it would be a permanent situation, but at least until she can find a job, and an apartment for them. I'm so excited! She gets out in early December, and then she is DONE. I'm proud of my kids for serving their country in the military, but I think 6 years is enough. I'll have them home for Christmas! I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but Thank You, GOD for the SNOW!

From The "It Could Be Worse" Files...

My daughter, Jessica called on Wednesday night and told me they were in the middle of a blizzard where she lives near Rapid City, SD. I know we got a little bit of "Snizzle" today here in central MN, but this is what my daughter and grandson woke up to yesterday: The door on the left-hand side is her front door. That is the back of her car in the garage. She said there was not that much snow in most places, but it all seemed to drift in just outside of her front door. She was able to get out through the garage, but is still not able to go anywhere. Here is my grandson, CJ playing in the middle of the street, on a huge snow drift. Obviously, he doesn't have to worry about traffic, since no one is able to get through.

This is her short-legged dog, Bart, trying to figure out how to get down the stairs off the deck. I'm pretty sure she just let him do his business right there on the deck. He'd surely get lost in all that snow.

Here's one more shot looking out off the deck:

And one more parting shot of my grandson, CJ, just because he's so cute and this grandma misses him so much. He seemed to enjoy playing in the snow, even if it was only November 5th.

My "BEEF" Against School Fundraisers

Which of these two summer sausages would you rather buy??? The one on the top is all beef and weighs in at 24 oz. I picked it up tonight from Walmart for $5.47.

The one on the bottom is a whopping 12 oz., is made of beef and pork products and was purchased for $9.50 by my husband's aunt from the school fundraiser that my daughter's school put on.

Every time I have ever allowed any of my children to participate in these ridiculous rip-offs, I have been thoroughly embarrassed to deliver the products to the friends and family that were gracious enough to want to support my child's school, once we get them. I understand the whole fundraiser thing, and generally speaking, yes, you do end up paying double what you would in a store...but this is really insane. Half as much product for almost twice the price...and to top it off, it's not even all BEEF!

I won't do it again. Do you know what Molly got for her effort? A "Laffy Taffy" candy. Whoopee!! That was worth it. I bought Christmas wrapping paper, because I have learned that they can't screw that up too badly, and they have actual samples of it in their book. She sold a bag of candy that cost $9 and looks like something I could get for $1.25 at the local Dollar Bell. She also sold some "food preparation bowls" to my sister. They look okay, but they were a bit spendy at $11 . The only other thing she sold was a magazine, but she still has to fill out the paid voucher that was enclosed in the box to make sure the magazine actually gets delivered to the person that ordered it. Yeah, right. Give that responsibility to my ADD -DD. (I'd better go find it and get it filled out for you, or you'll never get the magazine you ordered, Bonnie.)

Week 30 Weigh-In ~ A "Moving" Experience

Well, I decided to go weigh in tonight even though I had decided to weigh in every other week. I had gotten on my home scale and was encouraged. It appeared I was actually down close to 40 lbs total. I was down CLOSE to 40lbs! To be exact, after losing 1.8 lbs this week, I'm down a total of 39.4!!! I just can't seem to break that 40 mark, but then it took me a LONG time to get over the 20 lb and 30 lb marks too, for some reason.

Honestly, I have no idea why I lost anything at all this week. Let's see, I had McDonald's, DQ, Pizza Hut, Halloween candy...a rootbeer float at church...and probably more that I shouldn't have. I'm pretty sure it has to do with moving and staying up all night last night to get it done.

My hubby and I had to get everything out of the house and garage before today. We had some wonderful help during the day on Sunday. Ruth and her hubby Dan are still here, so they were a big help, (especially to Ray with all of his stuff), and then, after church, our friends Lisa and Donnie called and asked what they could do to help. After we'd all had our lunch, I called her and they, (along with three of their older kids), met us at the old house. Not only did they help us with getting things packed up, but when we delivered the refrigerator they were buying from us to their house, they invited all 5 of us in to join the 8 of them for a wonderful dinner of pot roast and potatoes and corn, before bringing a load out here to the farm and helping us unpack it. You can't beat that, can you? Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You were a real blessing, all of you.

At about 10:00 last night, Ray and I decided to go back to the house alone. I really wanted Molly to go to bed, and figured the other two were awfully tired anyway, after all the moving they'd already done for us the past two days. So they might as well stay here with her and go to bed too. We were hoping to get everything in one load. Yeah, right. It didn't seem like I had much left in the house, but I'm pretty sure it was a full van-load. We were both driving vehicles, each with a trailer in tow, but we still didn't have enough room for what was left. We brought that load back and went back for another. By then, all that was left was the garage stuff...but if you know Ray...that's a LOT of stuff.

I lost track of how many trips we made after that, but by the time we got back to the farm the 2nd or 3rd time, it was going on 5am! We were both exhausted and my body hurt so bad I could hardly move. Ray was running on empty by then too, but he told me to go in and go to bed and he'd make ONE more trip. He did, and he pulled in the driveway at about 7:00 AM! He never did go to bed, he and the kids went off to work. I went back to sleep for a few hours after they and Molly left. He's now sleeping in his favorite place, (sitting up on the couch), and I'm pretty sure I won't get him to move until morning. But we're officially here.

Holy Tricks and Treats, Batman!!

This is my 4 yo grandson, CJ all dressed up for Trick-or Treating with his trusty sidekick, the "dog-wonder", Bart. They didn't actually take the dog along, because with that costume on, Bart's legs aren't long enough to reach the ground. They are pretty cute though.

Here's a couple more:

Batman doesn't look too happy here. Perhaps because his trusty sidekick isn't with him?