Going Backwards!

Charlotte loves her Goldfish!!

I'm going backwards in my blog, but I wanted to share some pictures of my darling little family from Urbandale. That would be Jim, Mandy & Charlotte. They came to visit me the weekend of August 1st. A high school buddy of Jim's had a party in Farley and I have the perfect place for them to stay. They weren't here very long, but it was great having them here while they were!

Sunday morning. Charlotte slept well, really she did!!

Tickle time.

She's a CUB fan. My camera just isn't quick enough to catch her smiles, but I love this picture anyway. She's such a cutie!!

Time for a change! She kills me --you tell her she needs her pants changed and she lays down on the floor and waits for attention. (Or at least she did at Grandma Joy's house!)

Smile pretty!

Charlotte followed me to the kitchen and I told her I wanted to take her picture. She immediately sat down on the floor and posed very pretty -- only like I said, my camera isn't fast enough to catch her darling grin. But she's still cute!

Sunday morning . . . Mandy and Charlotte were having a discussion regarding the bump on her chest. Everyone knows where that went to. Just glad all is well with that precious baby girl!

They took time for a family picture just before they left for Farley and a quickie photo shot!

Was it something I said??

Another pic of my favorite granddaughter!

Mother & daughter.

Charlotte found her Dad's keys (and we found them before they needed them)!

Helping Mom with the pants change.

It was really great having my kids home for a quick weekend visit. They arrived lunch time on Saturday -- in time for some pizza! They came in on Highway 20 and ran into the great Iowa bike trip. It took them almost 40 minutes from Menard's to my place and some detours. Jim said he wasn't even sure they were supposed to be on a couple of the streets they took, but no one stopped them! And they arrived in time to eat. When I ordered the pizza they told me at first they didn't know if they could even get here -- needless to say, they did! The pizza was good!

They were in town to attend a party. Jim's Best Man has a party for his birthday every year and this year they were able to attend. Charlotte met all kinds of little people and a lot of Jim's friends have growing families also. Sounds like they had a good time!! They must have - they got home around 2:00 a.m.

Sunday everyone made their own breakfast, napped, played with Charlotte and visited. It was great. I had chicken on the grill for lunch (with the help of son Jim). I don't do chicken on my grill very often but it sounded so good and it was.

Mandy had made an appointment with Marty and Wende for a quick photo shoot of their boys so they had to leave a little early. Plus, they had to get home and finish getting ready for the demo of their house wall. Barb took care of Petey for the weekend and Jim had already taken Odie to Bob's for the duration of the construction. I missed having him here for the weekend. He's a great companion.

It was a short visit, but I'm glad they came. Got to spend some quality time with Charlotte (you know she's the cutest granddaughter in the world)! I've already got plans for the next time they come. If they get here before the end of September we can go to the Art Market down on the River Walk. And I really want to take them out on the Spirit of Dubuque for a cruise one of these days. Something to look forward to.

My life is a bit boring at the present time. I go to work, come home and work on scrapbooks, get some sleep and start all over again. The shop opens on September 1st. I won't have a huge inventory of books, but I'm working on them and can continue after the opening. Don't know yet when the Grand Opening will be, but I'll let you know and hope that some of you can come and visit us. When making the books is no longer fun (and becomes work) then it will be time to quit making them and go back to just doing them for family and friends!

Sounds like another humid weekend coming up . . . wonderful! It's great for the electric bills! Hope all have a good one. I'll be scrapping!

Beautiful Sunday

It truly is a beautiful day outside! It's wonderful . . . you can actually open the windows and feel fresh air in your house. Please let it last . . . .

This will be a short post. One of my best friends in the whole world has passed on. Bill passed away Friday at home with his family. He had another stroke on Monday of last week (8.10). He was taken to the hospital and 'went to sleep' and never really woke up.

He went into a coma and did not recover. Hospice came into the picture on Friday. The family moved him back home Friday morning and he passed away around 5:00 p.m. He always said he was NOT going to die in a hospital. I guess he was right.

I'm sad. I'm happy. He's in a better place now. The last 3 years have been very hard on him. He was unable to drive a car and do what he wanted to do. He really wasn't able to do much of anything without some kind of help. He was able to take care of himself (of that all are grateful). God called him home and he is now resting and at peace.

God Bless you Bill. You are missed.

Happy 4th!

July 4th -- It's little Miss Innocent!

Charlotte conquered the ottoman over the weekend!

A 4th of July outfit! So cute!

Playin' with Mom on the 4th!

The Davis Family @ the parade!

Charlotte loved the flags!!

It's a great spot to see the parade!

Petey got a lot of attention on our way to the parade.

Wave that flag Munchkin!!

Just before we left for the parade!

Mandy, Charlotte & her beads!

A little girl and her big puppy!

Getting ready to head home.

It was a beautiful weekend for a holiday! A bit warm on Saturday, but a great day for a parade. I drove down to Ankeny on Friday night and stayed at the Hotel Barb. Barbie was on vacation in Wisconsin (someplace), so I took advantage of her Hotel!!

Got up Saturday morning, got ready and headed to Urbandale and Jim & Mandy's place. Of course the first thing I did was drive by their house at least 2 times! Their street is one that is used for staging for the Urbandale parade. It's a pretty neat parade. Spent some time with the family while different ones were getting ready. Got acquainted with my granddaughter again. She's such a cutie! I love her to death!!

We walked a few blocks to where Jim & Mandy usually hang out for parades. On the way I took a tumble! Actually I fell down! Mandy says I hit a bad spot in the sidewalk and it was all downhill from there. I had my camera in my left hand and it hit my face when I went down. I had a wonderful bruise on my face for a couple of days!! Banged up my left side a little, but it didn't stop us from getting to where we wanted to go! Mandy gave me a hand up (thanks so much for that, otherwise I'd still probably be laying there). Now that would have been an attraction!!

We found a spot and camped out. Jim got hung-up a couple times on the way. Everybody wanted to pet or touch Petey. He was quite the attraction! One of the floats on their street was for a doggie place (technical term) and they gave us a yell and threw a milkbone to us for Petey. It even had a bow on it!! That was cool. Jim, Mandy & Charlotte shared a blanket, and I got to sit in a chair that Jim had brought for me. It was a great place to watch a parade! But it was really, really, really hot!! Lots of candy thrown our way (we had two young boys near us and they had a ball grabbing as much as they could for their plastic bags!). Charlotte got some beads and all of us got water from different people. We made sure Petey had plenty of that. We had brought soda for the adults and water and juice for Charlotte. Mandy finally couldn't stand the heat any longer and moved herself and Charlotte under a tree behind us. The view wasn't as good but it was a bit cooler. Finally Jim, Petey and I joined her. Lots of nice people around to talk to. One lady came over and gave Petey some more water. He was looking pretty beat. He finally just laid down on the cool earth and rested. Talked Jim into getting a car to bring me and the dog home. He brought mine back and it doesn't have a child car seat so Mandy and Charlotte walked home. The air helped Petey a little bit. We couldn't even get him up on his feet, so Mandy carried him partway to the car. I pushed Charlotte in the stroller and Jim came and got Petey. He did walk to the car from there but he looked pretty bad!! Once we got back to their house the air really helped him! He's fine.

Jim made pizza for lunch and we basically just vegged out the majority of the afternoon. We went to Goodwill and left a load of things there and then onto Valley West Mall. Did a little shopping (got Charlotte some new jammies and a new top) and played in the playland for a bit. Actually I think we stopped there so Grandma Joy could rest. Decided to go out for supper and went to a BBQ place. Good food, great company but a little strange. We sat on the bar side of the place and they had a couple of ladies playing and singing music. From what we could figure out it was a lot of people that got together for a class reunion. There were a couple of floats in the parade with reunions on them. The ladies even played a special song for Charlotte. She was so good!!

Watched a couple of movies and then headed home. Jim called me on the way and said if I hurried I could probably catch the end of the NASCAR race. I had it on the radio and did get to see the last 3 laps. Go Kevin!! Did some laundry and picking up that Barb asked me to do and went to bed.

Slept in on Sunday morning. I was tired!! Couldn't figure out why my left shoulder was sore and then remembered the fall. I finished my laundry, folded, packed everything up and left for Jim & Mandy's around 11:00 a.m. Charlotte was being a bear when I got there, but took a short nap and was just fine. It was rainy and gloomy all day. The kids had planned to go to the pool for a couple of hours but the weather kinda put a stop to that. Jim, Charlotte and I took a nap while Mandy slaved in the kitchen. She made a fantastic dinner for us. Vegetable pockets, grilled chicken, baked beans (Mandy's beans are great) and cheesecake with fresh strawberries for desert!! It was great! I had a great time with my granddaughter. I fussed about picking her up and Mandy told me if I didn't try I'd never know how she would react. She reacted fine. We had a great time.

I drove home in the rain. Nothing exciting, just lots and lots of rain. Sometimes fairly hard but I got home safe. Drug my bags upstairs, turned on the air, and basically lazed the rest of the evening away. Monday was a holiday for me, so I did some scrapbooking, went and got groceries (with a little help from a friend) and did some more scrapbooking. I called a friend to help drag my stuff upstairs. Caught him on his lunch hour so picked him up and put him to work. Grabbed him something to eat from McDonald's and got all my stuff taken care of. He even brought up all the extra laundry I had taken with me.

I've been keeping busy with the scrapping. The Shoppe opens September 1 so I have a few things I need to complete. I have about 10 books ready to go. Let's just hope this goes over well. I'll be disappointed if I don't sell some of my stuff. I'm locked into a contract for 6 months so . . . if nothing goes well, will pay my monthly rent and give it up. But I do think there will be some people interested for Christmas gifts. Hope so anyway!

It's raining here again today. Gave up shutting down the air. It gets just too stuffy in here without the air on. Electric bill will tell the tale of that adventure!

Won't be long and school will start again. Where did the summer go? Looking forward to a couple more campfires at my sister's and maybe a couple out-of-town trips with a friend. Time will tell.

You'all take care!

Comment??

Well, it's almost July 4th!! Where has the time gone? Half the year is almost over, and I haven't accomplished much of anything . . . yet.

Our website went 'live' this afternoon. It was a very exciting day for me. I've learned some new skills regarding a website. I am now the webmaster for our agency site. I still have many things to learn, but at least I can get into the site and make changes, if necessary. We're still in the mode of adding pictures and additional information to the links section. It has been a learning experience for me. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I've signed my vendor agreement for The Shoppe at Kennedy Mall, Dubuque. The store will be opening September 1st. Wished I could say that I'm ready, but I'm far from it. I have some books completed, but many more to go before I'm ready. We should find out this week how we're going to price and label our product. It's not hard work, but is much more fun when you have the pictures to insert on each page. I'm hoping for success for this venture.

Has it been hot enough for everyone? I hate to see my next electric bill! I came home for lunch today so that I could put the air on. I hate coming home and not being able to breath!! Sounds like this is going to be around for a while. And it's only June not August!!!

My social life has been a little boring, of late. I have no one to blame but myself. It's just easier, on most days, to just come home and veg out or scrap!! I've been trying to organize my supplies a little better lately too. Any volunteers to help??

I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and family over the July 4th weekend. Haven't seen my granddaughter since she started walking, will be great to see her and her new puppy and Jim's old dog too!!

Guess that's about it for today. Like I said, I'm pretty boring on a good day.

CAMPSITE!!

Tristan!

Ron & his forgotten cake!

The cake!

Mike & Barry after dark!!

Baiting Jackson's hook.

Campfire!

Barbie gettin' some sun on Sunday morning.

The creek!

Jackson got some new cars!

Glee & Beth

Tristan & his Mommy!!

Jackson and his new friend "Wormy"

Ron & his chicken!!

The shirt Barb gave Ron!!

It's the Memorial Day Weekend and Glee invited a whole bunch of people to celebrate Ron's 60th birthday with her. It was an absolutely beautiful day and evening for a party at the Creek!!! The pictures range from full sunlight to the campfire itself. The fire picture was probably taken around 10:00 p.m. The water picture was taken this morning around 11:30 a.m. when we went down to clean-up. It's such a peaceful place. You can hear the water running, the birds are singing, and if you're real lucky, see an eagle soaring high above you!

Barbie beat me to Glee & Ron's, so I had to find my way down to the campsite by myself! And I did it with my car intact!! It really is an awesome place to be on a beautiful sunny day. People came and went during the day. Jim & Diane and Erin and Lucas were down early and Grandpa Jim and Lucas just had to go fishing! Lucas kept asking where Jackson was. He told us he was older than Jackson and could tell him what to do . . . they played together all day and had a great time. Jackson even got to go fishing when he got there. He ran around with his fishing pole for the longest time before Karsten, Jim and Lucas took pity on the boys and baited hooks and did some fishing from the bank at the campsite. Lucas caught a pretty good sized fish! He was excited, got it off the hook and threw it back! Finally the moved the boys to the bridge and Jackson caught some too! A great day for the little ones!!

There was food galore! Nothing tastes as good as brats on the grill! I ate way to much, but it was a party. Without cake . . . Glee forgot the cake in the frig back at home but with everything else that was there no one went hungry! All Ron's brothers were there. Some of their children came. And Don joined us for part of the evening. Friends of Glee & Ron's were also there to help celebrate! I just want to know who's birthday is next so that we can go back!!!!

Got home a little after midnight (Doug was sleeping in his lawn chair) when we left. Check out the picture of Mike and Barry and you will see Doug's 'lawn' chair!! I think he probably went home cuz he wasn't there this morning when we went down to clean up! Clean up was a breeze and the fire was still burning when we got there! Picked up the cans and bottles and enjoyed the great weather. I got the picture of the creek this morning. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's pretty cool! I love the sound of the water running over the rocks. It's so soothing. After picking up we decided it was a great place to have our lunch. We went back to the house, packed up brats, buns, potato chips, beans, cheese and pop and headed back down. Lunch was as good as last night's supper!!

I had a great time and am looking forward to the next campfire!!!

Charlotte

Mom, Dad & baby. When I try to get pictures of people I sometimes have a problem with not hitting the button fast enough. Charlotte looked away just as I took this one!!

Getting ready to open presents.

Charlotte's party dress! Happy Birthday Baby!

Dad had to see how Charlotte was doing on her cake!

Charlotte enjoying her ride, compliments of
her Mommy & Daddy. Jim made the ride
and Mandy painted it! It's darling!!

I gave Charlotte some snacks in her Easter basket and
Barbie got a picture of it. She likes them!!!

Easter Sunday. Charlotte & her Easter hat!!

Here, take the darn hat!!

Charlotte enjoying her birthday cake!!

Charlotte enjoyed opening her presents very much!
So did Mom & Dad!

Barb asked for a bite of cake!

Grandma got a kiss!

Charlotte checked everything out thoroughly!

A video for Charlotte!!

These are some of the new pictures I have of Charlotte. They're from her birthday party and Easter. The ones from Easter Barb took and sent to me. She's such a wonderful subject to photograph. We had a great time at her party. She's so much fun to watch. Can't you tell in the pictures that she had a great time!! I'm hoping to get copies of other pictures from Cheryl and Jesse and Mandy's camera. Mandy takes wonderful pictures and if you ever have a special event you want remembered with pictures -- call Mandy. Mandy Marie Photography! She does a wonderful job.

It's a beautiful day outside today. If I had a yard maybe I'd be out there. I'd like to think I would. I'm doing spring cleaning a little at time. Hopefully when I have my back and legs checked out they can tell me what my problem is and I can walk and rest better. Some days it's not worth getting up for -- but then laying in bed can get painful too. Don't let anyone tell you that the golden years are wonderful -- or maybe I haven't reached them yet???

I'm working on scrapbooks. Aren't I always? Barb and Glee both think it's an obsession and not an avocation!! They're probably right. My craft room (second bedroom) looks like a tornado hit it. I have papers all over the place. Stickers piled everywhere and books of every kind, but when I'm finished the scrapbook usually looks pretty good! Of course then the cleaning up has to be done too. Hate that part!!

NASCAR is on tonight. I'm planning on using my grill for supper. I have some brats that are just waiting to be eaten. I picked up some twice-baked potatoes and some green beans -- that's my supper. Makes me hungry thinking about it.

Enjoy the pictures of my darling granddaughter and her family. Check out Facebook for more. Some of the ones I wanted just wouldn't copy into my blog. Probably an IDOT problem!