Engaged

Here he is, our baby Jeremy J. (Jo Jo), son number three, the sixth child to join our family --


Jeremy with Grandpa when Grandpa was just "Daddy".



And here he is again, all grown up and very recently engaged to the girl of his dreams.

photo swiped from Jeremy's Facebook page (not official engagement photo)

Labor Day Weeked fun

                            Baby shower for Emily (my oldest daughter), hosted by one of her sweet sister-in-laws.

Among friends who came, was Tamara, who was a high school buddy and who now lives in the same town as Emily.

                                                    Her sisters were there to celebrate.

Lauren is also bursting at the seams, and is due to give birth the same time as Emily (end of Sept, beginning of Oct.) -- give or take a day or two.  It'll be a very exciting time for this Grammy. It'll be like having twins. They both are having girls.

The next day, we joined other family members for a delicious fish fry at Pat and Leslie's house. Here is Grandpa with his Texas siblings, (L-R: Stuart, Donna, Pat, and Sharon).

wrapping up summer

Before school started, we did our annual summer theatre outing with a few of the grandkids (and Jessica --just back from the Carribean). 

We were entertained by a very funny production of "Alice in Wonderland" at Houston's Miller Outdoor Theatre. Jessica for treated us to lunch at a yummy Asian restaurant in the Heights.

We squeezed in one last family outing with all our Texas babies (8 of them), and two baby bumps (Emily and Lauren are due just a few days apart from each other -- last week of Sept. and first week of Oct.)

Toledo Bend Park was a nice respite from the terrible heat and drought we've been having. It even rained the last night and morning we were there. We were hoping those rain clouds would have followed us home to Houston, but no such luck. 

lots of fun in Bemidji!

We just got back from Bemidji, where we visited our oh-so-sweet Minnesota grandkids.

Colby is a very inquisitive, delightful and funny 2 yr. older who says to baby sister, when she knocks over his blocks, "You bad baby. You go to your Mama!"

Saige, age 1, is anything but a bad baby. She is a very sweet and happy natured baby who is trying to talk.

With such beautiful--much cooler than Houston--weather, we enjoyed outings in and around their beautiful resort-like town.

I was able to personally present to our son, 3 albums containing the first 23 years of his life. This was my big summer project.

Traveling home, minus the 3 albums, our load was lighter, but our hearts heavy, as the airplane took us further and further away from our Minnesota loved ones. We sure miss them. Thank goodness for Skype.

walking down memory lane



Emily and Lauren walking in R.I. with their Grandpa (1980)

While it's been too hot to do much outside, I've been taking some pretty sweet walks down memory lane via some of my journal entries from 1980, when my two oldest, Emily and Lauren were almost 5 & 3.

"Emily put her arms around Lauren, hugging her and saying,'I love you, you little monkey'."

Late one night, after we all were asleep, Lauren started throwing up. When I went into the girls' room, I found Lauren pathetically begging, "Emily, clean me up."  Emily was absolutely repulsed, and cringed in the furthest corner of her bed.

"Emily is getting concerned with her looks, wanting to look pretty all the time. The other day, she walked very proudly up to me to display a new hairdo.  She had wet the front part of her hair and parted it down the middle. She told me it was her "sweaty" hairdo."

Lauren, on the other hand, had her own concept of personal adornment. "She loved her library book, "Where the Wild Things Are", with illustrations of huge hairy monsters.  During naptime, she called down to me, saying that her hands needed washing.  I was shocked to discover that she had drawn black "hairs"  all over her arms, so she could look like her favorite monster."                

wrap-up of a hot, sweaty June

First of June, we said "good-bye" to Jessica and Lady as they headed off for a fun filled summer in the Carribean with Walter. You can see how much fun they're having here.

Then on Father's Day weekend (Sat.) Grandpa and I participated, along with 2,000 supporters, in the prostate cancer awareness 5k (3 mi.) race in downtown Houston.

Grandpa was awesome, winning a medal for a 3rd place finish in his age division. The triple digit heat really slowed me down, and I missed getting a medal in my age division by one place. I was so thrilled for Grandpa to get a medal; he sure is a winner in my eyes.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we headed down I-10 to spend the rest of the day celebrating this sweet grandson's 7th birthday. (Love that boy!)

We wrapped up June with Jeremy flying in from Utah for a week's visit.  It had been a long time since he'd been home, and we've been really missing him. It was so good to hang out with him.  We took Jeremy, along with his brother Carl,  to the Jamail Skate boarding park overlooking downtown Houston, and had fun watching all the action.

We spent a day at Schlitterbahn in Galveston, where Jeremy persuaded his Dad to go on the most scary water rides, like the very tall waterslide. I hope Emily and Lauren's blogs have photos of our day on the beach at Galveston, where the grandkids (Jeremy's neices and nephews) had fun playing in the water with him, and throwing beach mud on him.) I had forgotten to bring my camera.

June bride

From this cutie of a baby girl ...

to this beautiful June bride ....

my neice, Kristyn (photo, courtesy of her cousin & wedding photographer, Lauren)