Dance baby Dance...

Maddie is taking tap and ballet at the Centre of Performing Arts... along with her best friend and cousin, Bailey. I do hope she enjoys it.. and will continue... I have such fond memories of hanging out at the dance studio with Courtney... I want to be like Millicent when I grow up...she has such energy and is such a giving person...

Have you ever seen 2 such cuties?

Vacations Galore...

for my kids and their kids...

Rik, Cindy, the girls, Cindy's parents and family went to disney world last week... Sophia actually flew down with Sandy and Joe. Rik, Cindy and Maddie drove down. From the photos it seems everyone had a great time.

Courtney, Spencer and Zeke are at the beach with Spencer's family. I hear from a very reliable source that Zeke has no fear of the ocean. From the video and pictures Julie sent via cell phone this is true. I told you he was a sand person.. takes after his mama and Nana for sure!

Maddie, movies and more...

I took Maddie and Sierra to the movies yesterday. It was Maddie's first time going. I'm not sure if she was a fan of the movie but she sure did love the popcorn. An hour into the film she was asking to go back to my house. A visit to the bathroom for a potty break did wonders for the attention span... she discovered toilets that are self flushing.. a novel thing for her.. although I must admit they are still novel for me too!

I of course took pictures of the day as any self respecting YaYa would do *minus the bathroom break of course!*

Once we were home and had lunch Sierra and Maddie played in the pool PawPaw put up for the kiddies... I would love to say it's an inground but I'd be lying.. so, it's the next best thing for a 3 year old.. a blowup pool that is just big enough for her and Sierra to play in comfortably.

It's a BoY!!!

Although I want Courtney & Spencer to enjoy the trials and tribs of a daughter I couldn't be more thrilled to find out they are having another boy! Zeke will be an awesome big brother... I'm so excited to see their family expanding even though we don't see Courtney, Spencer and Zeke as much as we'd like ... Courtney assured Sierra she would have a girl one of these days...

Fun summer days...

Monday I went to watch Zeke... Sierra and Shelly went along.. after Zeke woke from his nap we went to the park down the street... Zeke loved the slide and swing but I think he loved getting his feet in the sand more.. That comes from his mama and his nana.. I can't stand sand... it was hot so we didn't stay long. When Courtney came home we all went to lunch... such fun !!!

Hurrah!!!

I've lost 2lbs ... so that's a total of 4 lbs since beginning Wii fit 36 days ago... of course, if you count the 6 lbs I was told I gained the first week then you can say I am still 2 lbs over... and still obese.. but I'm working on it every day...
Today I clocked in 30 minutes but only got credit for 15 because I stopped the free step after 15 minutes and 1300 steps!!! Wow... that's a good deal of exercise for me... add in the yoga and aerobics and I'm clickin' right along...Thank you kids and Rick for buying the set up for me... maybe this time I'll actually stick with it!

Windows Vista and me...

not so friendly.. I think they invented Vista just to annoy me... just when I have finally learned XP, Vista pops up on new computers.. now I have to train all over again... this old dog isn't good with change...

Thinking I should have paid Geek Squad to put everything back on the other computer... this one I think is too "high tech" for me ... hmmmmm.. add to that is the fact that my period key squeeks..... as you can see I use it a lot... so, squeak, squeak, squeak... all day.. every day... till the new keyboard arrives... AND, I don't even like the feel of this one ... it's like a laptop keyboard.. flat.. sigh.. today is my whine day I think.. so, I'm going to my corner to sulk...

New computer...

arrived today... who knew the warehouse was in my backyard and I could have driven over to get it myself?
Now I can decorate here and things will be spiffy!

First trims...

... what can I say? Sophia was ready? Cindy was ready? I was ready? NO! to all...

We decided to give Sophia a trim before their trip to Disney next week...I mean, afterall, a girl needs to SEE Mickey, right?

After a couple of weak starts I managed to trim the bangs without too much of a fuss on Sophia's part. Of course, I save the little sprigs of hair for future DNA sources! haha!

The zoo and more

Sunday we went to the zoo with Rik, Cindy, the girls, Christopher and Michelle. What fun! It was hot and crowded so we only went through one part. I love the zoo.. especially in the fall and hope to go back then.

Most of the animals were hiding in the shade but we managed to snag a few good photos...

Mountains and friends

So.. I decided to take Carol up on her offer of a trip to her cabin in the mountains. I love the mountains.. I went with the condition that I might stay only one night.. I'm a YaYa that misses her g-k's more than I can say.. so, Brenda, Carol, Jenna and I take off for the mountains. Carol pulled their boat behind her car. She's much braver than I would ever be.. she only swayed a couple of times.. the real challenge was finding a parking lot with plenty of room to turn around in when we stopped for lunch... or so I thought.. I never even dreamed of what she was going to do with that boat once we got to her place.. She had to park it in the reserved lot for trailers and boats... by park it I mean she had to BACK IT IN!!!!!! YIKES!!! Brenda and I sat crouched in the car while Jenna directed the backing.. finally I decided to call out my directions from the car.. then slowly got out and helped.. a tiny bit.. Jenna did a great job of directing actually.. with lots of shouts of stop now.. and hand signals she finally got her mom parked and unhooked.

After resting a while we decided to venture out.. Carol showed us the college, Montreat, that Josh attends. Beautiful campus. She also showed us where Josh will live with several friends this year. Not satisfied with showing us the house from one side she decides to drive to the front on the house.. only one way in.. or out.. so she had to back.. Did I mention Carol and backing aren't exactly a great combo.. Jenna had to shout at her about a rock wall a couple of times before Carol realized she couldn't do a 3 point road turn on such a tiny drive... so.. she tried backing again.. by this time we are screaming with laughter because I could literally touch the wall once I rolled my window down to check things out.. with much pulling forward and reversing... my head getting slapped by tree branches she finally managed to get us out of there.. alive.. with no scratches on Brenda's car and no one injured! Such fun.. such fun... we found a coffee shop that Jenna suggested.. so quaint and cozy... Brenda bought lots of goodies and sadly, that's what we ate for our supper.. not one bite of a real meal.. just cookies and cupcakes.. not such a good thing for my low cal life change.. but it didn't hurt... and felt so good to be "cheating" with 2 close friends.. Jenna's young.. it didn't have an effect on her .. at all! ha! As we were leaving Jenna confessed that she told us to come to that coffee shop because she didn't want to be seen in the college hang out with 3 old women.. AHEM.. I "resemble" that remark missy! When we got back to the cabin it started to rain so we all settled in and watche "The Secret Life of Bees". I recommed it if you haven't seen it.

Yesterday Brenda, Carol and I went out shopping for soap.. yes, soap.. I couldn't stand in the place for much longer than 5 minute shots but they did find what they wanted eventually.. and once we figured out to ring the bell for the owner to come so they could pay.. and after we had to listen to his life story... we were once again on our way.. Found a great place for lunch, did a little shopping and then we went back to the cabin. Brenda and I packed the car and headed home.. such a fun time..and one I'll repeat.. maybe even for longer times .. we'll see...

The closer we got to home the faster I wanted to get here. There is nothing like home in my book. I actually like it here and don't care to travel much further than 2 hours away at any given time. I called Rik to let him know I was home and he brought the girls over for a quick visit. Ahhhhhhhh.. such a wonderful homecoming I had!!! Gotta love the babies...