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Brielle's 1st Valentine's Party

First, I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

My sister, Jan had suggested along time ago that maybe she would come down and we would have us an old fashion valentine's party. So with a little planning and lots of baking on her part and Tammy, we had a party today.

We met at Culvers...exchanged cards ( Megan put her computer to work and did some awesome job on our cards) Ann-Marie's card to me...Outside of card,"Ours is a strange and wonderful relationship..." Inside, "I'm strange, and you're wonderful!" How true, How true!;0) My mother was real clever and put a $2.00 bill in our card. Jan had made these beautiful boxes filled with goodies. Louise has goodies inside a cute valentine bag. Candice gave the kids those giant hershey kisses. Ann-Marie loaded us down with colorful fuzz socks, a candle and of course candy. Tammy and the kids made us all frosted heart shape cookies.

We all had lunch, eat creamed filled cupcakes, heart-shaped cookies...and were stuffed!

The star of our party was beautiful Brielle. Candice had her outfitted in a gorgeous valentine outfit. The great aunts enjoyed taking turns holding her. She truly is a doll.

We missed Tammy and Caleb. (Caleb was home sick)

It's always so much fun whenever the family get together...in small or large groups. We left Culvers stuffed and with goodies to last at least until tomorrow. ( Actually a month)

Megan, the Actress

We all have to start somewhere...at least when it coming to acting.

My sister Louise had purchased 10 tickets to her granddaughter, Megan performance in the show, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Ann-Marie, Brett, Jeannine Gibson, a friend of hers, Cari & Dave Berg, Louise, Bruce, Gary and I were all able to attend. (A side not..Jan and Darryl would have been there, but Michael was going to help Darryl with his kitchen floor that same weekend. However that snow storm hindered that.)

What a delightful play. The kids all did a wonderful job. The singing was great. Megan did a wonderful job. Megan is only 11 and this was her first time at CYT. (Christian Youth Theater) I must say as a great aunt, I'm proud of her. Whenever I've been around her, she seems to be so quiet. It was a surprize to me when I heard she wanted to get involved in acting. But she did and did a super job in being in the Wonka Chorus.

Hats off to you Megan!!

Puzzles---Memories

Do you remember the very first puzzle you ever did? I don't. Some of you wise guys are thinking, "They didn't have puzzles when you were young." Funny!

For Christmas Lina and Billy gave us one of those large popcorn tin. All of you have probably received this same gift at least once in your lifetime. The difference with this tin is that on top of the tin was a 500 piece puzzle...the puzzle matched the design on the tin..a farm scene. This got me thinking about PUZZLES.

When Bob and I lived in Chicago on Kedvale Street. We had the sweetest Christian Norwegian landlady you could ever have..Mrs. Isacksen. She would always make her Sunday dinner on Saturday night. The smell would drift up to us on the second floor where we lived. Another story for another time. Dear Mrs. Isacksen was always working on a puzzle. One day she told us why she always had a puzzle in the works. "It keeps my mind off of me, and it keeps me from feeling sorry for myself." (She was quite elderly when we met her..her husband had left her...she raised her only son by herself.)

The next person I rememer doing puzzles was my wonderful sister, Kathy. She did many puzzles...some she even glued together and framed. (My sister Louise has one of those hanging in her home..a gift from Kathy.) My mother and her would often be doing a puzzle at our mother's house. When God called Kathy home to heaven, my mother just quit doing puzzles. I would get her one for Christmas hoping she would start it... couldn't do it...too many memories connected it to her daughter.

Now I do remember doing puzzle in Berean's Day Care with the K 3 & K 4 kids. I always enjoyed doing the easy ones. Hated it when they would take a large one with lots of pieces and couldn't finish it. Guess who got to finish it....?

For the longest time, I haven't done or thought about puzzles. (Tired of the word yet?) Well, when Gary and I got married, we would often visit his stepmom, Willie..yes, that's the name she goes by. Actually it's Willabelle. Everytime we visited her, there was a unfinished puzzle on her dinner room table. Gary and I would stay a couple of hours and sometimes work on her puzzle with her. We felt great when we left...we found maybe at the most 5 pieces that actually fit.

This story does have an ending. My suggestion: TRY STARTING A PUZZLE. It's fun! No time limit..The one Gary and I recieved from Billy and Lina...finished it yesterday, February 6, 2008...during that wonderful snow storm we had. Find a place that you can leave it and work on it when you have a few minutes. Some of you with younger kids..perhaps you have already done this. Puzzles are really relaxing, engages you in conversation with the person or people you are doing it with. And most of all you can do it at your own speed..finish it in a day, month or even perhaps a year.

Enjoy the pictures from our own experience with a PUZZLE.

Super Bowl Sunday!!!

My late husband Bob and I have always been BIG BEAR FANS!!!... Along with some dear friends of ours Dan and Judy Waggoner. When Bob and I were first married, we lived in Chicago. We lived in what was called an English Basment..you got to see people legs while they walked past your windows. Dan and Judy live on the third floor of this home.

One day we needed some sugar (or something like that), so Bob knocked on the door of Dan and Judy. Never had met them before. Low and behold they had attended Moody Bible Institute also. We became dear friends and did so much together. One thing we always enjoyed was watching the SUPER BOWL TOGETHER. I must confess, there are very few woman that I have met over the year who truly love to watch football. I mean really WATCH it...from start to finish. MY FRIEND JUDY WAS JUST THAT PERSON.( She would make this homemade chocolate sauce for ice cream that was out of this world.) Now the four of would WATCH the game from start to finish. And of course we have always been Bear Fans!

Let me fast forward our lives...Along comes this baby girl, Ann-Marie. We just loved her to pieces. Now this child of our was in no way a tom boy like I was. The poor child had to put up with my screaming at the TV whenever a football game was on. She especially didn't enjoy the nights that Bob and I watched Monday Night Football. Her she is trying to sleep while her wonderful mother is yelling, "GO, GO, Go!" at the top of her lungs.

This year Bob's brother Jim had a Super Bowl bet going on for the Trotter Clan. Jim was putting the money up front and all we had to do was post the team to win and the total score of the game. So I did my posting: Giants to win and total score 53. Ann-Maire: Patriots to win and total score, (are you ready for this?) 72! I posted back to her: "Are you nuts!, If the Patriots win and the score is 72, I'll give you $200.00 TOO."

Sunday Brett, Ann-Marie, Gary and I had made plans to watch the Super Bowl after church that evening. Gary and I had left at 4:00 p.m. (Gary has choir pratice at 4:45). The weather was fine when we left Rockton...starting snowing when we got into Rockford. Ann-Marie's church had already cancelled their services..ours got cancelled after choir practice, so we had a real fun time coming home.

Getting to my lovely story..When we got home we all enjoyed a little supper. The fourth quarter was coming on and I told Ann-Marie she had to sit down with me and watch the last quarter. (She had been on my computer till then...what a surprize!!) So like an obedient child we sat together on the couch. I'm doing my yelling and all she has to say are comments like, "Now tell me again, why are they throwing the ball?" or "Why isn't Eli Manning catching the ball?"

I will give her a gold star for actually sitting with me and perhaps I could give her a gold star for being funny. But I will not give her a gold star for enjoying or even wanting to watching the game. Nevertheless...WE DID WATCH IT TOGETHER.

Can't wait till 2009 for SUPER BOWEL 43! Ann-Marie, want to join me? SAME TIME..SAME PLACE.

More Neices and Nephews!!

We have had a very snowy winter. I have often told people that my photos would have been a lot less had my mother and father had given me just one sister and perhaps one brother....but as you all know, my mother and father gave me 6 SISTERS AND 5 BROTHERS. Often I have asked my mother if she had ever stopped to do the math on how it would affect the growth of our family. (Doesn't look like she did)

This brings me to what my February project is: TRYING TO ORGINIZE ALL THOSE ZILLIONS OF PICTURES. You will be seeing some really old pictures of our family from time to time. However, since Tammy, my niece just had her 40th birthday, I decided you should also see some more of my wonderful neices and nephews when they were young. Hence these are all first cousins to most of you.

I love the ALL GIRLS PICTURE!!! Aren't they cute? And can you believe how short Jeff and Justin use to be. ENJOY!!!