Took the kids to Huntington Beach yesterday with a friend of mine and her kiddos. We had a great time! Grant LOVED the water and cried the entire way back to the car. Katie made sand angels! It was a good 80 degrees out and the beach was pretty much deserted on a Tuesday winter’s afternoon. Great for us!

Katie turned three this weekend!  We had some friends and family over on Saturday and had a ‘Build Your Own Sundae’ party for her, complete with an Ice Cream Cone pinata!    Sunday, we went to an old friend’s house to celebrate his daughter’s second birthday.  Katie made some new friends and had a lot of fun at both parties.

My little Grant is 6 months already.  That boy loves to eat his toes, roll over and giggle with Mommy.  He is so content and happy.  If I didn’t go check on him during his nap, he would just lay(lie?) there eating his toes until he realized that he is hungry for real food.   We introduced him to baby food last month and he is loving it (though not the green beans so much!)  He sticks his thumb in his mouth between bites. 

He’s not really cross-eyed… just in this picture! LOL

I had the pleasure of knowing my Great Grandma on my mom’s side.  She died in 2003 at the age of 105 1/2.   When she would write us letters, she would sign them GGR (Great Grandma Randall) and her age.  So, the last letter/card I got said GGR105.  Also, EVERY birthday, you could expect a card with $5 inside.  It didn’t matter that I was close to thirty years old, Grandma still sent me $5.    Every Christmas, she would buy socks and Avon earrings in bulk and you could expect to get a pair of either one.  LOL

My mom was going through my grandpa’s things the other day and came across a 15 page single space typed story of GGR’s life.  It starts with some of her first memories in 1904!  My mom brought the story over for me to scan in.  I haven’t had a chance to sit down and read it yet, though it is at the top of my list!  I want to make sure I have no interruptions so I can soak in all of this precious family history that Grandma Randall was wise enough to write down for us to read.

There she is in the middle of us back in 1984.  I’m the dark haired dork doing bunny ears on my brother.  Like my plastic shoes?

I’ve known Lisa since I was a year old!  We used to play Atari and Nintendo together (diddo-dido), have fun sleepovers (twy to fly) where I would ALWAYS fall asleep first, and make fun of the neighbors (King Caller, Flubba, CONCEPTION! and Coco-Crotch).  Whenever I would ask her ‘Guess what?’ she would answer ‘You got your period?’.  When I finally did, she didn’t even guess right!

Today is her 34th birthday and she is STILL older than me!  Happy Birthday Lisa… Here is a walk down our memory lane!

I’m still pissed she got to be the princess when I had to be the clown.  I really was crying in this picture!

At the bus stop… I think she’s getting a headache because I won’t stop talking.  What a surprise.

Oh my.  Way too close up.

I was Elvira and she was a hockey player.

Before my graduation party.

Flaring my nostrils at the camera.  She knows I’m weird and still loves me after all these years!

Posing at Olan Mills.  I used to work there and got free pix when the photographers were bored.

Newport Beach Hard Rock – early 90’s.  I think she finally got rid of the bangs in 2000. 

Pregnant with Grant, doing our prom pose.

At her wedding last month.

I love you girl!  Twy to fly!

My childhood friend Lisa got married this weekend!  As much as I love weddings, I was happy to NOT be involved in this one.  This is her second marriage, and I was co-Maid of Honor at the first one.  This time, it was a smaller wedding, and she & hubby opted to have only one person stand up for each of them, so I dodged the bullet her sister had the honor this time.

Anyway, it was beautiful… outside at a hotel overlooking the beach.  Who knew it would be almost 100 degrees outside!  Both hubby and I are sunburnt!

I had a cousin of mine take Katie for most of the day (they went to the beach and the mall), and drop her off during the reception.  That way she didn’t have to sit through the ceremony/lunch, and just arrived for the dancing – her favorite part anyway!

Congrats Lisa & Matt!  Now hurry up and have some kids!

Well, the funeral is over.  It was a very nice service and I got to see many loved ones.  Back to normal life, I guess!  Here is my current to do list:

1. Reschedule dental appointments.  Yuck.
2. Get this house back into shape.  After first being sick, then spending time scanning photos and making boards for the funeral, I really need to catch up!
3. Call my friend and wish her a happy birthday.  I almost forgot with all of the drama going on!
4. Post some more Stampin’ Up! rubber stamp sets on Ebay.  I am really cutting down my collection.  It’s so overwhelming when you have too many supplies, and limited time to make something!  I already got rid of 50 sets last summer, and I have about 30 more that are ready to go.
5. Start on the scrapbook for my friend’s wedding present.
6. Call Subway and report their bathroom door.  We stopped by to take Katie to the bathroom last night, and when I opened the door it slammed on her head and she has a giant goose egg on her temple!
7. Finish my book… I’ve been reading it forever!
8. Actually use my Grocery Game list.  I signed up and right after my grandpa passed away, and I have yet to go through my coupons and print a list to shop with.
9. Go to a new restaurant and use my buy 1 get 1 free meal… I just got my new Entertainment Guide and there are so many restaurants around here I didn’t know about!
10. Scrub the cradle crap off baby’s head.  I’ve done this a few times with baby oil and a tooth brush, but it keeps coming back.

So there you go.  Nothing too exciting, but life goes on as usual.

My grandpa who has been very sick and hospitalized the last few months, finally passed away today.  I say ‘finally’ as he had bone marrow cancer, severe pneumonia and heart problems and has just been miserable.

Below is a story I wrote to him for his 80th birthday.  Tomorrow he would have been 82.

It seems like I spent more time growing up at Grandpa’s house than my own.  While I have both good and bad memories (being hung by the meat hook and learning to swim by being thrown into the pool – both by Grandpa), the good definitely outweighed the bad.

 

I loved going to my grandparent’s house.  The first memories were at Reedview.  There was always someone there and I always had fun.  Sometimes Grandpa would have the sheet strung up in the garage and he would video tape all of us singing and dancing (and sometimes even picking our noses).  We would go swimming in the pool, watch movies, or Grandpa would teach us how to gamble.  And why not? There was a mini-casino in the play room complete with roulette and craps tables, a slot machine and even a pool table. When I would spend the night, we’d always go out to breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy.

 

Holidays were wonderful – always a packed house.  At Thanksgiving,  there would be tables full of food, and people everywhere.  One year Grandpa decided to have a “Turkey of the Year” award. He knew everyone would vote for him, so he made the prize a hundred dollars.

 

Christmas Eve was a night to remember… with either Great Grandma R playing the piano or one of the kids using the player piano rolls.  Everyone would sing along.  We would go back Christmas morning to unwrap our presents.  They were always very generous.  One year grandpa had a tree decorated with a deck of cards!

 

My friends loved going to Grandpa RC’s house.  We’d have swim parties there and everyone loved RC.

 

Grandpa even built us a tree house with a racetrack around it. 

 

When Grandpa and Grandma moved to MV, there was even more stuff for us to do.  By that time he had a Bingo Board, and he would let us invite our friends over to play.  We would take out the pink hippo around the lake.

 

It seemed like twice a month we had get-togethers… either for holidays or birthdays or weddings. 

 

Vacations were the best.  The year I was old enough to go river rafting, Grandpa broke his leg going down the river, and where did he go to recoup? Yes, Reno.  Then we went to San Diego.  Then we went to Hawaii.  I remember being on a bus going to a luau, and Grandpa got the whole bus singing… “Oh, you can’t get to Heaven”.  The next year we went on a cruise from Florida to Nassau.  I remember being at Disneyworld and Grandpa rented a wheelchair for us to push him around in. 

 

How lucky I was to have grandparents that threw Halloween parties for their grandkids.  When I was about 14 they told us we could each bring 4-5 friends.  They had the whole house decorated, complete with a graveyard in front.  There was a DJ and we danced all night. 

 

I wonder if anyone else has a grandpa that eats cereal over ice cream for breakfast.

 

When I was 17, we were on Family Feud together – FOUR TIMES! I’m so glad I was included in that.  It was so fun.

 

Grandpa always told me I was his favorite… but don’t tell the other grandkids.  Well, one day the grandkids were talking amongst themselves and it seemed that Grandpa told ALL OF US that!  Hmph!  When I talked to him about that, he told me that “I just tell them that so it doesn’t hurt their feelings…. You’re my real favorite.”  I know he was telling me the truth.

 

Over the years my mom has told me stories about her grandparents.  I can’t wait to tell my children about my memories of growing up at Grandpa’s house.

 

Grandpa, thank you for giving me such wonderful childhood memories.  I love you!

Last year, Katie and I picked up my friend Jenn, and we made the trek up to Vegas to visit Shannon and her family.  We decided this year to go to Jenn’s and have another slumber party, this time with ALL of the kids.  Well, last minute, Shannon couldn’t come due to a sick kid, so it was just me, Katie and baby that headed out to Palm Springs. 

We only stayed over one night, but we had a blast.  The kids played, we ate and had a chance to talk, and just had a great time.  One of her boys is about 2 1/2 years older than Katie, while another one of her boys is just 2 months younger.  Of course we joke about hooking our kids up with eachother someday, so just in case, we’ve got a couple of good pix for the Engagement Photo.