Thinking About My Life

My Grandpa Bob came to live in Lebanon about 3 months after Kasey was born. He's my father's dad and I had never met him until about 7 years ago, I guess. I knew about him all my life, but he and my dad were never close and didn't really have a relationship. Grandpa Bob and my grandmother divorced when dad was really young and their lives were just too far apart. So about 7 years ago, I had done a little research about the family and learned that his 2nd wife had died. That really made me think about things like what if my Grandpa Bob died, would I even know? And would I even realized what I had missed in my life by not knowing him? So I decided to take the first step and make that call to him. So I did and I am so pleased with how things have worked out. That first year, we took a long trip to Maine where he lived in the summers. He had 3 children with his 2nd wife and we got to meet all of them and their families. Being an only child, I now have 2 uncles and an aunt and a half dozen cousins! That was amazing to me. So over the years, we have gone to his home in Florida and he's been to our house a couple of times. He is now married to Carole and the last time they came up to visit right after Kasey was born, they decided to move up here.

I was never fortunate enough to remember my maternal grandfather, I do remember my maternal great-grandfather though. It is really nice to have my Grandpa Bob in town with us now and my Grammy Carole!

So what has got me thinking is that my Grandpa Bob has written all of these stories on paper. I think there is probably about 40 pages. He writes a lot about his military stories and they are really interesting. I love the fact that this is about his life and the things that were important to him. I will have something to give to Kasey to remember his great-grandfather. I don't think many people are that fortunate to have a document like that in their families.

I have posted Grandpa Bob's blog on my favorite blog listing, along with my favorite quilting blogs, so he's in good company. I don't always understand his blogs, they are usually political in nature, which I'm not really too up on, but I enjoy reading them and commenting on them. Keeps him on his toes. :)

So here are a few pictures, we went to a Mexican Restaurant for my Mom's birthday, April 22nd.
Starting at the left is Grammy Carole, Grandpa Bob, Nicky, my Mom, Me and Kasey. (bad pictures of mom and me, but that is the best I could get from Mark taking the picture and Kasey being onery!!!)

Here's Kasey playing peek-a-boo. He loves to flirt with everyone. We went to Hardee's yesterday and he walked around the whole restaurant and waved at everyone and said "bye-bye, bye-bye".

This is a good picture of my Mom and Kasey. We were at the Civic Center, they were having a showing of Eagles. It was really neat and he liked watching the birds.
So what I have been thinking about after reading Grandpa Bob's narrative, is that I need to do something for Kasey like that. I found an old scrapbook document that was called "Journal Jar". It has about 10 pages of double spaced questions that help you to document your life. So I have started a document and have been surprised about how easy the words flow when you just type in a question. Here are a few of them:

• Did you walk to school or ride a bus?
• Tell about your first car
• Describe your Sundays as a child

So I already have about 10 pages typed and it is just my growing up years. I think I am going to divide it up by 3 sections, my growing up years, my life before Mark and my life with Mark. I think it will be a neat way to document things I have done and what my feelings are. I have to get my mom started doing this. She has so many cool stories about our families and as much as I try, I can't remember some of them and usually get them all confused anyway! So, Mom, are you up for the challenge???

Blogging seems to be a great way to share your stories with your family and friends, but this is just one other way to do so. What makes it easier is if you are a fast typer too! I think it has made it so much nicer having the laptop too because I just take it where ever I feel like typing.

New Washing Machine, Cat Food and MicroFiber Towels

Well, here's a picture of my new washing machine. It's an LG. The really cool thing about it is that it has a delay timer, so when I want to wash something to put in the dryer for the next morning, I can tell it to start in 6 hours and it will start the load and be done when I get up and everything doesn't sit in the washer for hours getting moldy. The only bad thing is that it doesn't match my dryer. I can't really justify buying a new dryer just so that they match, can I? I am trying to tell Mark I need one and we can use that economic spending tax money on that... But he doesn't like the idea too much. So the little yellow sheet that comes with the dryer said that if you wash 8 loads a week, it only costs you $15.00 a year! We got it from Home Depot, they were a lot cheaper than Sears, plus they had a 10% off coupon and free shipping and handling. It was a good deal, they hauled the old one off too.

So I have to explain a couple things on the washer/dryer picture. The cat food is on top of the dryer because if it isn't up there, Kasey will eat it! That being said, when the cat jumps up there, she scratches the edge of the dryer (another reason we need a new one, right?). Then there is a note on the front of the dryer that says "KEEP THIS DOOR CLOSED". Which was only put on there because Nicky tends to leave the dryer door open all the time. There's a light inside which means it's on all the time when the door is open. The note helped some to reminder her to close the door... Ah, teenagers... :)

Then there was the cat food container that I found tonight when I came home. When we were at Sam's, I bought 10 lbs of cat food. Mark put it all in containers today and I guess decided to put the rest of it in the fabric softener container. He made sure it had plenty of labels on it, just in case we might decide to pour it in the washing machine as fabric softener! I was wondering if that would hurt the cat, but I opened the container and it doesn't smell like fabric softener, so he must have cleaned it out really good. I wondered then if he dried it out really good, I picture water in the bottom and the cat food in there and then it all MOLDS! YUCK!

Ah... husbands... :)

So the other thing I have to tell you about are my new microfiber towels. I love these things towels. I got them at Sam's - there are 32 of them in a package for $10, I have bought 2 1/2 packages (my mom and I split a package). I got a full package of blue and a full package of orange, then we split the green and yellow. These are wonderful for everything! Windows clean great with them and they absorb water really good. The only bad thing is that you can't wash them with fabric softener (also known as cat food.. ha) because it breaks down their absorbency. I just store them in a laundry bag and throw them in with something that doesn't need fabric softener. I have enough of them that I can go a month or so. Then my mom said she cut hers in 1/4ths and uses them as washcloths. So I followed her lead and cut them up, they work great in the kitchen. I even love the smaller size too.

So I think this must be the longest post I have ever made on here.

I am really excited because my Grandpa Bob called me today and wanted me to show him how to start a blog! I can't believe it, he just had his birthday this week (and I forgot !!! - bad Granddaughter!) and he's 85! (Hope that's right, maybe that will make him post a comment on his real age, he's either 84 or 85.) I think he's going to post all about politics, but I guess that will be ok. I will post a link to it on here when he gets it started.

Well, maybe my mom with post a comment too, she reads each one of these about 10 times but never posts anything, except these anonymous ones that say "what a beautiful child" or something like that. She tends to be a little proud of her grandson.

Kelly

Politics and Grandpa Bob's Reading Blogs

My Grandpa Bob said that he really didn't want to read my blog unless it has some politics on it. Well, politics is the last thing I want to write about, but I figured I better add something on here to make him wonder what this was about.

Here are some good blogs to read:

http://blog.hillaryclinton.com/ or maybe this one: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog/

But I have a feeling he might like this one better:

https://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/

Sure will be nice when the elections are over.

Kelly