Nice while it lasted.


I had a five day weekend this week - took Wednesday off to do my pies and Thanksgiving preparation, and then our office was closed on Friday. I like five day weekends but they make it twice as hard to face those Monday mornings.
More winter weather is coming in tonight and tomorrow - went out yesterday and bought myself some boots at Payless - the ones I've been wearing are in sad shape and not very warm either. Got my Christmas cards at a brand new store - oh did it ever put me in the Christmas shopping mood. Those songs they play over the pa systems in the stores really set me to humming ~ and I don't know about you, but once I'm humming Christmas songs that's it. Time to get out the plastic. :)
And so, tomorrow morning the clock will ring at 5:20. The bathroom heater will go on, as well as the hot water for my shower. Kasey will be up and at 'em, and a new week will begin. It sure was nice while it lasted. Kasey agrees. It's nice to know that I have something in common with a 3 year old - besides us both loving and missing his mommy and daddy.
God bless your week my friends and may His love and protection be with our troops wherever they serve.

Ice chips and lots of love.

Well, the phrase "just a little bug, honey" was brought forth around here today. Haven't said that to a child in years. But this morning, as Kasey's little tummy decided to reject his morning dinosaur eggs oatmeal, the days of toddlers and their fragile little tummys came back without a doubt. I am not his mommy and when a little kid gets sick, they want their mommy. This morning, he seemed to know that Grandma had some experience with this sort of thing and so he was fine in letting me handle the ice chips and blankies and the "just in case" towels.
This afternoon, as he lies on the couch, and I am breaking the 2 1/2 hour max TV rule (Laurie says it's ok :), he is doing much better. His tummy is better - he lifted his shirt and showed it to me. (I just want to give him one of those toy catalogs that have been coming every other day in the mail - know what I mean?).
And so we have passed our second crisis - the first was a rash from the laundry detergent we were using - free of everything but just not liking Kasey. Grandma went and bought some Dreft - something else we haven't seen around here in awhile.
And he is talking about when he will see his mom on the webcam tonight.
There's a rain/snow mix falling outside - a good day for being inside and on the couch with a warm blankie and lots of attention. This hour's movie is Peter Pan. Yup, I think Kasey knows that Grandma knows how to do this.
Ice chips and lots of love.

An Abundance of Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving my friends. It's a busy morning around here - lots to do, lots to do. But never too busy to pause and wish all my friends a wonderful day. I am praying that no matter what kind of feast graces your table today - Turkey or Ham or something traditional to your family - may you find many blessings to be thankful for.

Kasey is a busy boy this morning - and I am smiling at the blessing of having him here. Scott and Veronica will be here later for dinner. More smiles.

God bless you all, and may He bless our troops wherever they serve.

Love,

Sue

Haircut Day

Last weekend when we were online with Stephen and he saw Kasey on my webcam, he instant messaged and said, "time for a haircut." I laughed and replied, "message received."

And so, after a rather crazy week, today Kasey got his hair cut. What do you think? His mom thinks it looks good - we sent the picture to Stephen too. I expect he will concur it looks good.

We were also supposed to sleep in this morning. At 6:40, I had this paw in my back as Lily stretched out and made herself comfortable. I turned over to try to get comfortable. By 7 am I was sitting at the dining room table writing letters. Beats staring at the ceiling with a paw across my chest. Kasey was up by 7:15 and asked me just a few minutes ago if he can sleep in tomorrow. Yes, Kasey can sleep in. Can Grandma sleep til 7? We'll see.

Have a blessed Sunday.

May God bless our troops.

The Little Red Car - and God's Grace


I used to have a car - one of those cute little compact SUVs that you see all over the place. My car was different though - it had Army and Veteran and Navy stickers on the back of it and a yellow ribbon magnet. It had a two star banner decal in the back window. This is the car that I came to love as it plowed through the harsh winter weather that is Western NY from November until March or April. It took countless road trips to see the kids, last summer taking all of my china and silver to Laurie.
Yesterday, on the way to work, this all changed. We were rear ended by someone who had no clue how to drive in rush hour traffic - and within the period of 5 or 10 seconds, this little car was totaled. But that's where God's grace comes in - Ron and I walked away. We were shaken and sore and took a trip to the hospital, but we are not injured any more than a good case of whiplash.
There are blessings in everything. While minding our own business, stopping when we needed to stop, paying attention to the traffic, etc., etc., someone else was not ~ yet we were blessed - because GOD was watching and protecting. In the aftermath, I can remember sitting there and being so incredibly thankful. Nevermind that this was our only vehicle, that we could not drive it, and that there was metal and glass all over the place. We were alive. The car is sitting in the lot at the collision shop. It's not a pretty sight, and the insurance adjuster found over $11,000 damage in the front end of the car - didn't even get to the back of it with it's rear wheels totally bowed in and bent.
But Kasey and I had our night time ritual without missing a beat last night - bath, ice cream, book, and bedtime. And grandma was in bed within a half hour of Kasey's bedtime.
Back to work tomorrow. God is good.
And His grace - it's an amazing thing, isn't it?
God bless our troops and those of us who wait.

Loose ties.

A year and a half ago I lost a dearly loved cousin - her name was Tina. She was 50 years old and she died of graft vs. host disease - a terrible complication of bone marrow transplants in leukemia patients. She fought a valiant fight, but we lost her. It was Heaven's gain, surely, but the light in the world seems a little less bright without her. At the funeral, my cousin Nancy was one who spoke of who Tina was - and what she meant to her. They shared the same birthday and they were best friends as well as being cousins.
Another light went out in our world on Thursday morning as Nancy also was taken from us. She had a very serious auto accident last April, and although her fight was also valiant and she returned home from the hospital just 2 weeks ago, on Wednesday morning she went into cardiac arrest and was without oxegen far too long. When the doctors were sure, the heroic measures were ceased and Nancy passed away.
Now, although our relationship was always close when we were kids, life was in the way - the ties that bound us together were still there, but not tied quite as tight. When we would get together it would be like we were never apart - could catch up with ease.
Tomorrow afternoon, my sister will fly into town, stay at our house over night and on Sunday we will head to Ohio for the wake and funeral. A chance for Chelle and I to catch up, but it would be so much better if it didn't have to be for Nancy's funeral.
There is a loneliness in me tonight, has been since yesterday. But there is also thanksgiving for the grace by which God saved Nancy. He took her from our world for His kingdom in heaven.
But we have her life to celebrate and we will do that. Together, on Monday, as a family.
Ron and Kasey will be ok here by themselves for 36 hours - grandpa knows the way to Kasey's school - and he knows how to make Dinosaur eggs oatmeal.
Family ties - they often feel nearly UNtied - and yet, at times like this, we know that God has kept them intact.
God bless our troops - may His love be ever with them.

Have you hugged a Veteran today?

Nearly four years ago, when Laurie left military service (for a brief period of time :-), I bought a bumper sticker that said, "Have You Hugged a Veteran Today?" I put one on my car - and one on my desk at work...under the one star banner. It remains today - at work it is displayed now beneath my TWO star banner. At the time, it was my way of honoring Laurie's service, and that of her dad who is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War - US Navy. And it still does honor them. I am so proud of those who have served - and who STILL serve. They, God willing - will one day also be veterans.
This morning I received an email from Ron at work - it was simple. "Happy Veteran's Day, Army Grandma." My reply to him was simple as well - "Happy Veteran's Day NAVY VETERAN, ARMY GRANDPA."
We are free because of these men and women - present and past.
When I watch the miniseries, "Band of Brothers," (it's one of our favorites) I think of what it must have been like to freeze in the forests of Germany in the winter; or in other battle fields, to try to at least make it out of the water and onto the beaches of Normandy and Guam without being killed in action. My Uncle Bill was injured at 17 years old at Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War - he limps, but is proud of his service - in fact worked as a civilian for the Army until he retired some years ago. Thanks Uncle Bill.
These things, and others, are cause for thanksgiving - because by the grace of God and the courage of these men and women, our country is free. And this, after all, is what makes us who we are - America.

Is it time for bed yet?

Ok, I think I have it all figured out. The secret to getting a good night's sleep is to get ready for bed before I put Kasey in bed. Then, if I should happen to drift off while I am telling Kasey his bedtime stories or scratching his back while he tries to keep from closing his eyes, at least I can sleep through the night in Kasey's bed and Ron can wake me up when my alarm goes off in our room. Makes sense to me anyway even if Ron isn't keen about getting out of a warm bed at 5:20 am to climb the stairs to wake me up without waking Kasey up. Yeah, now THAT'S the hard part.
For some reason Kasey couldn't get to sleep tonight, so we finally made the executive decision to let him sleep on the couch in the family room. I think he's lonesome up there in his room all by himself. It worked the first week and part of the second, but the novelty of having his Uncle Scott's room has worn off - now he just wants to be on the same floor as we are. And so, whatever it takes to give him - and us - a good night's sleep, so be it.
He talked to his daddy for 10 minutes this morning and to his mom for at least 5 minutes tonight. Some nights, if Laurie gets 10 seconds of conversation with him she is lucky. So much to do when you are three and you only have an hour before bedtime.
And so, I am finally off to bed - just might get to stay there tonight. Lily will need to sleep on her own bed on the pillow in the corner tonight cause I plan on stretching out. I AM the number one female in the house after all.
Just ask Kasey. :-)
God bless our troops.

And so it goes.

Well, unless you haven't had access to a radio, a tv, or the internet, you know that Barack Obama was elected President yesterday - and so it goes. America, you have stood up and you have spoken. And really, isn't this what we are all about? I am not saying that my vote was for him, but for America, for our troops, for all of us as a united people. I have friends who dearly wanted John McCain to win - I am amongst them. BUT, in our nation's 232 year history, we have always found that freedom wins out over choice...doesn't it? What matters in the end is not Rebublican or Democrat or Liberal or Conservative. It's DEMOCRACY. Freedom.
God bless our new President elect - he will need God's wisdom, and strength, and faith. Just as we all do.
And may He bless our troops as they think about their newly elected commander in chief. May they look to him with confidence - and look to God for His blessings and love.
God bless America - our home sweet home.

Those 4 little words.


I know, I know...I've been awol. But oh what a wonderful time we are having here.
Kasey has been here for a week now and grandma is learning the ropes of having a 3 year old here full time. We have a pretty good schedule going - Kasey and I. Well, at least it SEEMS pretty good until I look at the clock in the morning and realize we are running a little late. I am only getting up 20 minutes earlier than usual - I might make that 25 minutes earlier this week and see if it makes a difference. Last week we did well on Tuesday - his first day of preshool. Grandpa went with us to take pictures and I didn't cry until I got to the car after we dropped him off, hung up his coat, took the pictures. You know...all that good stuff that moms usually have the blessing of doing - I can tell you that Grandmas treasure these things just as much.
Wednesday we were on our own and it went well; Thursday would have been great if I hadn't remembered halfway down the road that we (ok, it was me that did it) left Kasey's backpack sitting by the door - so we came back for it and I figured that I might as well grab my coffee mug sitting next to it. I was still at work in plenty of time.
Friday was Halloween - and someone said to me at work when they saw me with out a costume that they had expected I would be the one person in the office to dress up. All I could say was that at least Kasey's Batman costume made it to daycare - in his backpack, which I actually remembered.
Only a couple of times during the whole week did Ron and I hear those 4 little words -
"I want my mommy. " But this weekend we heard them a few times - including at 5:30 this morning when we were supposed to be sleeping but Kasey and I had some time together instead because he was missing mommy. Morning time, when the house is quiet and dark, is a good time to remember who is really in charge here. Not grandma, or grandpa, but our Father.
Thank you, God for that reassurance. Help me to seek that every minute of the day.
Everything is good until I hear those 4 little words. When I do, and it's usually at night, I just do scratchies on Kasey's back and tell him a story and remind him that his mommy is thinking of him that very minute.
Laurie calls every single day - and Stephen has called twice already as well. When he called this afternoon, Stephen said his R and R is scheduled - though not for awhile - but he will fly here and then take Kasey to where Laurie is so the three of them can spend the time together.
It's funny - Stephen and Laurie keep thanking us. And Ron and I just give thanks for the blessing of having this wonderful little boy here.
I know that the weeks and months will fly by for Ron and I. But may each day that Laurie, Stephen and Kasey are apart bring them closer in heart - God strengthen my soldiers and their little boy - and give them your peace.
May this be so for ALL military families who are apart.