Saturday, February 26, 2011

Grandpa Mitchell's 90

I am so, so far behind on blogging. I wish I could keep up with blogging, and housework, and everything better, but I've been just plain tuckered out the last few weeks. Part of the reason for that is that my Grandpa turned 90 on February 20th of this year, and we drove up to Topeka to celebrate him and his 90 great years. Unfortunately, we don't make it to Topeka, KS to see my Grandpa often, but I LOVE it when we do get to see him.

Here's the birthday spread. The cake has a hunky picture of Grandpa on it from when he was younger. I think my aunt wanted to add it to show how handsome he's always been.

This is Lyd with her second cousin, Vince. He's two, and his mom, my cousin Melanie, is expecting a daughter in 3 months. The girls loved him.

This is some of the crew at the party. I was taking the picture.

My Grandpa requested this shot because he wanted a picture of the oldest and youngest guys at the party. Raymond Mitchell- 90 years old, Josiah Hazelet- 6 months.

Looking at picture albums
 Before Grandma Mitchell passed away (it'll be 10 years ago in November), she started giving things to me and my cousins. They were things she specifically wanted us to have. (I have a yellow porcelain bird that is kept up high, out of reach from grubby little hands. There is a little piece of paper on the bottom telling me who Grandma received the bird from.) I truly believe my grandma knew it was almost time for her to go to heaven. One of the things she gave my cousin Melanie was her picture collection. She told Melanie that they would work on organizing them together, but shortly after that, Grandma died when her brain aneurysm burst while she was speaking at a church function. So, Melanie was left to finish the task on her own. But, instead of simply organizing the pictures, Melanie made scrapbooks for all of us, and gave it to us this year at Grandpa's party. They are so neat and well-done. Sentimental as I am, I'll cherish it forever! (Thank you, thank you Melanie.)
This was the day before Grandpa's party. My dad's cousin was telling Julia that she knew someone else named Julia . Julia was happily surprised by the news.

This is my bro and my little Lyd. Alex's middle name is Ray--after my wonderful Grandpa.
We had a wonderful,wonderful time in Topeka. I only wish we would have had a little more time. It was a whirlwind of a trip. One of my favorite things about it: Lydia pronounces Topeka as To-pizza. Love that.

                                                                                                           Thanks for reading, Amber


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Family

In a little less than a week, I will get to see my Parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my brother, my mother-in-law, and my step father-in-law. I won't get to see them all at the same time, but I will get to see them all for a short time. My grandpa turns 90 on the 20th, and I am excited to celebrate him, his life and his accomplishments. Dave, the girls and I will be driving to Topeka KS, for a very short trip, and then turning right back around and coming home. It'll be great to see everyone, but it is also a little bittersweet for me. I guess I've just been missing my family. Not just missing them like, "I wanna see you for a few hours," but missing them like..."hey, let's do life together". Almost unbelievably, there was a very short time when my parents, my siblings, my sibling-in-laws, and both sets of Dave's parents all lived in the same town, at the same time. We hung out. We saw each other at church, we randomly got together on weekends, we had surprise run-ins at the grocery store, and sometimes family would stop by our house to see our girls and love on them for a while. I miss that. still.

Maybe someday we'll all be back together again, living in the same place, at the same time, but honestly, we're all so spread out, that I have no idea how we could find a common ground. (Our immediate families are in WY, OK, MO, LA and TX) But, like I said, maybe someday....hopefully someday.

But, for now, I will enjoy seeing them when we can get together on weekends and holidays. I'm sorry to be complaining about it on my blog...but I'll be chalking all of these wishes up to mushy Valentine's Day thoughts about family, love, and loved ones. So (please don't) sue me. But, please do eat a lot of chocolate on Valentine's day, thouroughly enjoy your loved ones, drink in the blessings God has given you, and love like life is poetry in motion. But, don't get all mushy about it like I do. It just comes across as complaining. Know that I love you, blog reader. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sunday Comics

Happy Super Bowl EVERYONE! I hope that you all eat a lot of wonderful treats and enjoy a great game. Who's playing again? (Just kidding.)

I thought I would share some of the things my kiddos said this last week. I think my girls are hilarious. I guess you can judge for yourselves. :)

On Thursday after dance class, Julia saw a tall woman with a big fur coat on. Julia looked at her for awhile, and after the lady said hi, Julia said "You're big."
I tried to cover the flubber, but I don't think I did a good job. After we got in the car, I talked to her about telling women that they are big. We talked about how only men and kids like to be told that they are big. Women, not so much...
When we got home, Julia told Dave "You're big" right in the middle of one of his sentences. He was confused because he thought she was interjecting something into the conversation they were  having. I had to tell him about the previous conversation we had, and then he understood that she was giving him a heart-felt compliment.

That same evening, Julia told me on the way home, "In dance class, I thinked about you. It was wonderful. You're so wonderful." My heart melted.

On the way home from school Tuesday, Lydia and Julia were fighting. I told Julia to be kind, and I told Lydia to stop yelling YES over and over again. Lydia quietly said "ok, I won't yell yes. I'll just yell no."

On Thursday morning as I was doing Julia's hair for school, she said, "Mom, are you almost done with my hair? My legs are falling off."
"Why are your legs falling off, Julia?" I asked.
"Because I have to stand here so long while you're doing my hair. Are you almost done? My arms are breaking off."
"Julia, I say that my arms are breaking off when I am carrying something really heavy and I am trying to get you to hurry so that I can set the heavy thing down."
"Oh."

Dave and I have been telling the girls that we get to go to the super bowl party today. Julia asked me yesterday, "Mom are we still going to the bumble party?"
"You mean the super bowl party?"
"Oh, yea."

Lydia just keeps asking, "Are we going to my party, Mom?" We've corrected her a few time, but she's pretty sure the whole Super Bowl Party thing is in her honor!

Thanks for reading our Sunday Comics. Go Packers! Go Steelers! Go Packers a little tiny bit more than Steelers. Love ya all, Amber