"Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles"

Ten years ago Robert Lawrence Trotter, the love of my life, the husband of my youth was suddenly taken home to heaven after celebrating 32 years of a wonderful marriage. It was such a very empty, painful, sorrowful and lonely time for me for such a long long time. Not just months but years. God had made us one when we got married and now half of me was going on with everyday life without him. BUT NOW....TAKING THE WORDS FROM THE SONG MIRACLE OF MIRACLES IN THE SHOW FIDDLER ON THE ROOF I CAN SING AND SAY....

"BUT OF ALL GOD'S MIRACLES LARGE AND SMALL THE MOST MIRACULOUS ONE OF ALL IS THE ONE I THOUGHT COULD NEVER BE, GOD HAS GIVEN A GRANDSON TO ME."

Now whenever I hold my grandson Sam, I feel a wonderful comfort and realize this precious gift from God. In the quietness of me holding Sam while he is sleeping, I feel the soft tenderness of a loving God bring to my mind and perhaps I hear God whisper in my ear..."I have given you a part of Bob back."

So I end my Thanksgiving blog with the song of "Miracle of Miracles" in my mind and heart. And I might add that goes for Ann-Marie, Brett and my whole family.

Weekend With All The Grandkids!

With Sam just a little over three months old, I was looking forward to having all three grandkids, Saturday November 7th. On Friday evening, Gary and I drove to Byron, to pick up Andrew and Brigitte. After having supper at Giuseppi's Italian Restaurant & Pizza, we headed home.

Andrew and Brigitte get along pretty good. There are times they just need to be doing activities apart from each other. Like on Saturday morning Grandpa and Andrew rode their bikes from Roland Olsen Park to Harvard. Stopping only to have lunch in Poplar Grove. In the meantime Brigitte and I took care of Sam. While Sam slept, we had our lunch out on the deck. After Sam woke up and had his lunch, we took him out for a ride in his stroller. Brigitte loves to play Sorry. Here we have her telling Grandpa how to play the game. I had played the game with her the day before.

When we picked up the kids on Friday, Brigitte love her new toy...Leapster. She played it all the way to our home and then some.

I dearly wanted a photo of the three grandkids. Something I thought would be an easy task actually turned into a mess. When Andrew and Grandpa got back from their ride, I had Andrew sit in the recliner with Sam in his lap. I then asked Brigitte to sit next to Andrew. "I'm not sitting next to him!" she said. "Well, then just stand next to the recliner." was my reply. 'I DON'T LIKE TAKING PICTURES!!" she said with tears running down her face. Well, I knew right away that Brigitte the first one to have gotten up that morning was way over tried. So I knew that this photo was not to take place.

But after Andrew and Brigitte had taken a shower and put on their pj's I was able to capture a natural photo with Grandpa holding Sam and Brigitte and Andrew looking at him. They both love Sam so very very much.

Brigitte will make a great mom someday. She wanted to take over every duty that belonged to an adult. "I can hold him standing up." "I can carry him out to the stroller." "I can, I can." she just kept telling me. While I was feeding Sam his bottle, Brigitte tried his little jacket on and to our amazement it fit her...somewhat. During the stroller ride, Brigitte was in charge of pushing it.

Here we have our two very handsome grandsons!

Gary enjoys making pancakes when the grandkids come. I forgot to get some cool whip. They both love to put cool whip on their pancakes. This time Brigitte put peanut butter on her pancake while Andrew used the traditional pancake syrup on his.

I do believe now that I think of it, that Brigitte used peanut butter on one of her pancakes and syrup on the second one.

Sunday morning we got ready for church. We weren't sure if Andrew recovering from a cold should go. When he decided to go back to bed, I ended up staying home with him. Believe me when I tell you that I got his cold that very morning. But I'm getting plenty of rest so I can enjoy events coming up.

As always it was another fun time with our grandkids...ALL THREE!

Sound of Music - Fireside

We all know that the Fireside is an expensive place to eat and see a play. But we also know that it is well worth the moeny...if of course you have the money.

When I knew they would be having the Sound of Music I really wanted to go. So we gather some of the people we thought might like to go and made plans..well the plans we made for a Friday, October 30 fell through. Which I was not happy about. The Firseside didn't do a matinee on that Friday. Because my friend Jackie had already made plans for Saturday, she would not be able to attend the Saturday matinee. And we were all looking forward to spending time with her. (A side note: Ann-Marie and I met Jackie at Granite City for lunch on Friday.) We'll have to do better planning in the future.

Here we have Colleen, Jan and Betty doing some shopping in their unique shops.

The shops are always fun to browse through. Some of us had a few items we wished we could have. Like Jan. She just loved these decorative Christmas boxes.

Ann-Marie found several mugs she liked that related to being a mom.

She especially liked the one that said, "New Mommy Two Blessed To BE Stressed."

My sister Louise who has more money than some of us, purchase this beautiful picture. "To Grandmother's House We Go."

And again, if you know anything about me, you know that I am a snowman collector. Well, here's my purchase. The comment some of us made were, "That could be Grandpa and Grandma with Grandson, Sam."

My sister Louise is just herself wherever she go and whoever she's with. She had us all laughing. We could truly say that she was our entertainment for the evening...skip Sound of Music. But the meal was so delicious...right to the last bite.

Here's the gang: Me, Louise, Betty, Jan, Colleen and Ann-Marie.

The play was excellent. Even if not all the songs were sung from Sound of Music. It's always amazing to me how they can take a small stage and bring it to life like a real movie.

County Fair in Watertown

On October 23rd, Gary and I headed to Watertown to enjoy an evening with my sister Jan and her husband Darryl. Mainly I was going to enjoy the County Fair that was for ladies only!!! The members of her church put so much work into this event. The evening was so filled with fun, food and fellowship Of course what's a fair without trying to guess how many items are in a jar.
Before the fair started, we all had a sandwich from Cousins. Then the men had to leave.


What a great performance that Jan and Susan did with the song, "There's a Hole in Your Bucket..."

I had a small part in this...I cut the hole in the bucket.

It was so nice to see Betty again. We had fun making cards for the Fall season.

Wow, if you ever get a chance...you must try funnel cakes. They were the top of the line.

There were many booths to visit. I got to an Avon booth to purchase bubble bath. The baked good table dug into my wallet also.

There were prizes to win from each of the booths. Books, Avon products, homemade cards, etc. Well, for me, I got the best prize of all!

I won a bag of popcorn!!! But I must say, if I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have purchase a bag. But since I just LOVE POPCORN it was no problem for me to down two bags! But I must say, Betty and Jan kept putting their hands into the bag...especially Betty. I kept asking her if she wanted to take one of the bags. "No, I have popcorn at home." was her reply while she put her hand into the bag to get more popcorn. What a way to end an evening...laughing.

Then our men came back and helped cleanup the place and got it ready for Sunday morning!