Grandma's Moves In & Other Random Events

So I guess I can't change my wallpaper to a Christmas theme, if my last post is from Halloween. It's just that I'm finding that I'm much more a blog READER than a blog WRITER. I just can't think of much to report, but here are a few of the random things that have been happening in our lives recently...


This is my darling soon to be 89 year old Grandma--Prudence "Donna" Packard. Even though she goes by Donna,-- Prudence fits her so well. She is the queen of "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."


I think I have a little bit of that in me as well--don't you think I am a bit of an old soul? However, I have also come to realize that I have a long way to go to be up to Grandma's standard. (Main lesson: don't even think about trying to clean out the fridge when she is around.)


We are so happy that she gets to spend part of the winter with us. It has been interesting to learn more about her life from hearing her stories. Also, despite my protests, she is such a big help to me. She takes her morning walk every morning with Isaac on his big wheel leading the way. She rarely lets a dish sit in the sink for more than 3 seconds. Right now she is in San Jose spending the holidays with her son and I am finding it is much harder to keep up with the laundry & kitchen without her! Plus I have no idea what's going on on The Young and the Restless, which she watches everyday at 11:00. :)




As if we don't have enough commotion in our house in the morning. . . here is a scene in front of my house recently at about 5:45 am. We were rudely awoken at that crazy hour by all our fire alarms going off. They are SUPER LOUD! I didn't smell smoke, but I couldn't turn them off either. What could I do? I had to call the fire department. They came (& saw me in my bathrobe--lovely!) and determined... that they had no idea why they went off...dust might have triggered them?



I'm just including this picture because Curt loves it. It's a slice of life in our kitchen. Isaac is just laying on the bar watching Josh make his own egg salad sandwich (which his Grandma Keller taught him how to do-- Thank you very much Carol!)

These would be the eggs that he has just hard boiled & yes they are from our chickens! Hooray! I have stopped buying eggs for the most part.

This would be the sand that finally replaced the weeds as groundcover in our playground. Yeay! Even Ian likes to spend a lot of time out there. I think there must be something therapeutic about sand, or maybe he is just trying to avoid practicing the piano.... But there is definitely something magnetic about the sand that makes it stick to my children & come inside my house (in pockets, shoes, dumptrucks etc.) I do however think it's a worthwhile price to pay to get the kids to play outside. And that water is not a lake, but simply flood irrigation which is how we water our backyard every two weeks. Are you getting the picture? Dogs & kids & sand & water and dirty kitchen floors. But my mom did it somehow & I don't remember her complaining. (Well maybe just occasionally. :)

Well, I'm going back to gearing up for Christmas. I need to get wrapping! Merry Christmas everyone-- chances are you won't hear from me again on the blog until 2009!