Monday, October 15, 2007

Way to go Mom!





My mom is an artist - a really good one! You've met her before - she was the 83-year old lady zip-lining through the rain forest in Costa Rica last March with us!


She has been drawing or painting and creating as long as I can remember, and she starting taking oil painting classes at least 25 years ago. The Senior Center in her town has several excellent classes and the teachers are professionals. She started with light houses they had visited and little English cottages and has grown in skill and widened her scope to encompass pretty much anything that takes her fancy!


A year ago she was invited to do a month-long 1-woman art show in the Center's art gallery and she got busy preparing for it. The opening reception was Oct 5th and the show has received great reviews! Hubby and I and went down to help her set up all the food for the reception and a lot of people came and ate and oo'd and ah'd over all the artwork! It was a lot of fun and a great success! (The only bad part of this was my total lack of thinking ahead that I may want to use these photos I took - they are not at great angels or in perfect lighting, but you get the idea!!)


I'm really proud of her - at an age when a lot of folks just sort of curl up and wait to die, she is excited about her life and about truly living every day of it. She is a widow now, and although she misses daddy every day, she doesn't want to miss anything that might be new and interesting. He didn't want her to stop living life just because he wouldn't be there to share it with her.
I'm proud to say she is my mom!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Welcome MissA


Well, I am sooo happy to report that this sweet family








has now become this beautiful family!








MissA made her entrance Sunday night Sept 23! She weighed in at 7lb 10oz and 19.25" long! She is really pretty and although in the week that has passed, MissC has fallen in love with her, she wasn't too sure why mommy was holding that baby! She had spent the night with her aunt and uncle and they had just arrived at the hospital Monday morning, so this was her first introduction to her own real live little sister!

This beautiful little girl is our 4th granddaughter and although raising 2 boys was fun, granddaughters are a whole new adventure!

When gd #1 came a little over 5 years ago I didn't really know how to shop for girls - we didn't get to see her too often, so my skill level stayed rather static til MissC came along 2.5 years ago! Babies R Us is a blast and I went to work on honing my skills! Shopping for # 3 was fun, but again - they live far away so I don't get to see her often. When I went to do a little shopping for MissA so I'd be ready when she came I realized I have hit my stride. I have to be careful not to go overboard - all those little clothes are soooooooo cute!!! Sparkly and flowered tennys are so fun and it's a good thing that Babies R Us is far enough away so that I can't just stop by any old time!! HA!!

Welcome to the family MissA! Love, Grandi & Poppy