Welcome Home, Grandieu

 What do you do on the day when the woman who has been like a grandmother to you for many years goes home to celebrate Easter with Jesus from the other side of the grave?

You talk to your bestie, and your daughter in love, and your mama, and your sister. You put on a pretty dress and go to the Farmer’s Market with some of your people. You find sweet friends to visit with, plus beautiful jewelry, freshly baked challah wreaths from your Easter table, and locally brewed coffee from small businesses. You go grocery shopping so dazed and confused that your son’s girlfriend has to come find you wandering in the auto parts section of WalMart and finish your grocery shopping for you. You celebrate the birthday of a dear friend’s miracle baby. You pick up a surprise gift from a generous friend of a t-shirt that you’ve been wanting. You laugh with a friend over your haphazardly made Easter dinner plans. You hug your people 73 extra times. You hang out with your ridiculously handsome husband and are grateful for having someone to share life’s burdens with each day. You prepare to feed your delightful assortment of family and friends and probably a few random strangers a big meal, hope you have enough forks, and are reminded anew of the many Many MANY blessings in your life.

Welcome Home, Mary Hover Parker, aka Grandieu. Your race is finished. I’ll see you when I get there.

Pantry Challenge and No Spend January: Day 24

 Day 24 of the Pantry Challenge and No Spend January, and also the birthday of our darling daughter-in-love,

Lauren

No frivolous monies were spent today!

Breakfast was a smorgasbord of all the breakfast-y carbs I found in the freezer:

Cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, cran-blueberry muffins, and pumpkin waffles. I added freshly scrambled eggs, #Dakenzie brought Starbucks, and Mark brought scones and chocolate croissants from Sweet Indulgence Cafe. Oh my happy tummy!

Lunch was a sweet surprise of Subway by Dan on his way home from a project at a friend’s house.

Dinner was homemade pizza and stovetop popcorn, with chips and drinks brought by the gang, while we laughed our way through “Rush Hour 2”.

I got some cutting and laminating accomplished, and Makenzie helped me cut them out the second time.

Overall, it was a pretty great day.

#PantryChallenge

#inthekitchenwithkristy

#ManCrewHouse

#nospendjanuary

#happyathome

#100HappyDays: Day 23

Day 23: Pictures of my people.
I love that technology helps keep us close across the miles. SO very grateful that we don't live in the time that if we lived 1500 miles apart we would never lay eyes on our darling daughter in love or our adorable grandson ever. I love this photo so much, motherhood looks so good on her. <3 br="">

#BabyCaden with his beautiful mama, Lauren

 If you like this challenge, head over to www.100happydays.com to sign up. You can choose a start date, your favorite photo posting platform and even a custom hashtag if you want to be more original. Do it, you might just decide you love it.

Baby Caden: 3.5 Months

Baby Caden is growing up WAY too fast for my taste. He's so stinkin' cute! When Pat saw this photo, he asked if human babies 'grow into' their hands, like puppies do with their paws. I had never thought about that before.
Things that make you go Hmmmm.
'Shua and Lauren, kiss that sweet baby from {Grand}Mama K please.

My Darling Daughter in Love

...is now a college graduate! Congratulations, Lauren Renee Bean! I am so proud of you! Major in Childhood Education and a minor in Psychology. You ROCK!

The BIG Trip~Days 5 and 6

Dad really liked his knife that we brought him. It was shaped like a motorcycle on the outside and really sharp on the inside...LOL Another post about our trip...I want to be sure I remember everything! Let's see, Day 5 was Friday, and Miss Cindy Freeman came to spend the day. It was game night, so throughout the day I was busy, slicing and dicing, preparing for that, but we had a great time playing Scrabble, Farkle and such, all while chatting and carrying on as only she can do : ) Game night arrived and so did the Hanna's, #27 AKA Hepker (who brought pixie sticks and Mountain Dew, OH MY!!) and later, Lizzie arrived to hang out. We ate pizza, laughed and enjoyed ourselves very much! Mike passed out the pixie sticks to the kids, much to our horror...but they did quite well. When they got rowdy, we just sent them out to run it off : ) We played 80s trivia which I stink at since I was still living happily under a rock back then...LOL, played several games of Farkle with Dad and then he went to hide from us when we got to being too silly for his taste. We eventually sent everyone home to sleep off the toxic effects of too many pixie and and way too much giggling. Saturday was Lauren's bridal shower and Kelly, Jodi and I went while Mom stayed home with the kiddos. She gets a saint's honor for that job. The shower was lovely, and full of emotions since Lauren was moving here. They had a cute New Mexico theme and so the house was decorated in chili's and cacti, and we ate chips and salsa, tamales and quesadillas. YUM~O! After that, we went back home and just relaxed for a bit. Kelly, Mom and I worked on Marleea's picture albums for the funeral. (For those who may not have heard, Lee and Marsha Bell's daughter was killed in a motorcycle accident the night before I left for IL, and Marsha asked us to make some albums, not only for them to have, but to show at the visiting hours before the funeral) Mom and I stayed up WAY too late chatting and laughing together, which is something I really miss about living here. Anywho, I guess that about sums up Days 5 and 6. Thanks for reading and I'll try to get another post up about our big trip soon!

~K~

Catching up with us MeYeR's

Hello to one and all, it has been a busy, BUSY few days for us here. Put on your seat belts!!

~~The delightful Miss Lauren spent 10 days visiting us and surprising 'Shua for their 6 year (yes, 6 YEAR) anniversary. He was, of course, delighted to see her and was a tad reluctant to return to work the following Monday since she was still here...LOL! Us girls had a ball, visiting back and forth, shopping, playing games with the kids, and I had the fun of introducing her to the crunchier side of life...she just kept saying, "You DO that?? Bless your heart, woman!" Ha ha ha~ We spent a happy morning prowling the local farmer's market, eating at Sonic, shopping for 'after the wedding' clothes and having "The TALK"...ahhh, the joys of being a mother-in-law-to be!! The boys taught her how to ride the dirt bike and she really enjoyed the dune buggy as well. She cooked dinner for us about 3 times and all I can say is that 'Shua will never go hungry, that girl can COOK! We took her to the racetrack on Saturday and she thought it was great...so maybe after she moves here, that will become a regular occurrence...that would be fun. She was a hit at game night and did a great job keeping up with the jokes and laughter....man, I have MISSED her! She and 'Shua picked out and bought their new bedroom set and managed to cram it all into his TINY room, and also purchased a lovely bedding set that is super comfy and gorgeous.
Lauren making Pepperoni Pizzaz....YUM~O
~~Pat went home with Lauren amid a flurry of activity and anxiety. We ended up not being able to get gate passes so he had to go it alone with Lauren, but they seems to manage alright without our help. : ) He was packed and ready for almost 5 days before he left and I was starting to wonder if he was going to come unglued with all the excitement. He is safely with PaPa and Grma now and is having a ball already. Tony came over to see him right away and promised to take him out a few times this summer and he is looking forward to that. Lauren also promised to visit often and since he just adored her, that suits him just fine. We are missing his blur of activity already and the house is much quieter without his boisterous laughter and commentary.
Titus is going to Miss Pat the MOST, I think, they are great Buddies!

Airport Goodbye at the last second! Look how tall Pat is!
~~Dan and 'Shua both got new tats this past weekend and now that they are healed and looking good, I'll add pics of them at the end. They also found out this week that when this job in Hurley ends in Aug/Sept, they will be going to Tularoso, which is about the same distance, but the opposite direction, so it looks like we will be continuing the 4 days on/3 days off pattern for quite a while. 'Shua is a bit concerned about that since he doesn't want to be leaving Lauren alone 4 days a week, especially right after they get settled here, so that will have to be worked out. Things to pray about, I guess.

~~Things that go bump in the night!! I was woken up this weekend by an incessant knocking on my door and a grouchy male voice demanding that I 'Come and see"....since this never bodes well around here, I rapidly found my glasses and stumbled out of my room to see what was soooo important.....Brace yourselves: It was a large black, hairy tarantula...YIKES! Apparently, Jodi had found it sashaying across the playroom floor and woke 'Shua up to kill it and he wouldn't until I saw it...wrong person to ask, I made him catch it so Dan could see when he got home from his side job...LOL! Lauren said she was sleeping peacefully, then heard "tarantula' and thought to herself that the boys must be watching Animal Planet or something and then she heard someone say, "Keep it." and decided that she better get up right away and investigate...LOL! Poor thing! She SOOO happy to be moving here. ..ha ha ha~

Hello, Hairy!! YUK~ he got, UM, "relocated" shortly after this picture was taken...ha ha ha!

~~I guess that's about it for big news...so I'll add a few pictures and remind everyone that I love them and miss them and then sign off. Phew, hopefully next week won't be so full, I'm looking forward to some time to sew, read, bake and possibly even scrap a bit...Muahahah, as IF!

*Love to all, *

~K~

Simple Woman's Daybook~Guest Post again....Lauren this time

Ladies, this is my soon to be daughter in love and as she is visiting this week, I thought I'd give the writer's pen to her and see how it goes. So without further ado, the Lovely Miss Lauren!

FOR TODAY....June 16th, 2009 (yes, we know we're a day late)
Outside my window... it beautiful and warm I love the sun we don't get much in Illinois

I am thinking... How much I love vacation
I am thankful for... OH, the list is very long....I am most thankful for my family; My loving mother who is my best friend, my father who adds his two cents in when its needed, my older sister who I have been able to watch and learn from my entire life, my twin whom I could not live without, and my loving christian fiance who I love more and more each day.
From the kitchen… :-) I guess it all depends on who is cooking. Pocha? Or mama?
I am wearing… Sweet new jeans and a peach striped shirt that is so comfy.
I am creating… a new me
I am going... to move to New Mexico and begin a wonderful new life with my new husband
I am reading... Bag of Bones by Stephen King..... helpful hint: Its not that good ;-(
I am hoping... to be a the wife Joshua will be proud of (she will be!!)
I am hearing... just about everything ....
One of my favorite things... Most of all dance but I guess you have to have a partner who would partake in the festivities (and Joshua does not) boo hiss
A few plans for the rest of the week… Take Kristy out and hopefully spoil her and celebrating my 6th year anniversary
Here is picture thought I am sharing...picture this Sicily 1934 (a quote from the Golden Girls...my favorite show)

This post is written in response to the call towards the simple life. If you want to read more posts in the same style, check out Miss Peggy's website at www.thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com Thanks for reading!

A Little Bit About Lauren

Ahhh, Lauren. She makes my heart smile. She is engaged to my 'Shua and is soon to be my 'daughter in love' ...and I can't wait! When people ask me if I like Lauren and if she's a good match for 'Shua, I always have the same reply, "I adore her and if I could hand pick the wife for Joshua out of a million girls, I'd pick Lauren every time...she's just right for him!" She has a heart not only for people, but for God. After spending a week in Memphis with her as my bunk mate, I really got to see her heart in action. She is tender, compassionate, loving, gentle and kind, but had just a touch of spunk and sass to her, too. ; ) She's a mite stubborn, which will help her in being 'Shua wife, since I have often accused him of being a mule...LOL! She loves children, the elderly and the infirmed and is studying to be a nurse so she can help people all the time. She is a twin and has an older sister and bro in law with a baby so she is an auntie, too. My kids absolutely love her, in fact, Joshua didn't want to bring her over for a while because he didn't want to have to share the attention....Oh my, I had almost forgotten about that!! She tends to break easily so we are all protective of her, which she hates, but we just don't want her to get hurt. She loves to sing and laugh and play, write, study and take pictures. She is a great friend, a trustworthy confidante and a growing Christian. Like I said, she makes my heart smile...that's my Lauren! I love you, sweet girl!

Love,

Mama K