Baby Steps!

Awwwww.....how precious is this!!!

There's more than PAINTING at Bisque It!

I don't know if you are going to laugh or throw up after reading this!!!

You know I do birthday parties at the studio......and for the most part they are manageable with parents that are responsible, loving, caring, helpful, etc.

The following names have been changed to protect whoever needs protecting.

Today's party was a bit different to say the least! Now I am not saying this parent was not responsible, loving, or caring. The birthday girl "Mary" was very sweet and she had two VERY active siblings. (one boy and one girl, about 6 and 7 yrs old, i am guessing, we'll call them Susie and Johnny.) Only one of her friends showed up for the party, but that seemed to be ok with Mary. The two young siblings were not extremely interested in painting. The have more funny beating up on each other and screaming "MOM!" She finally sent them outside to play! (Who am I to judge responsibility?)
At one point Susie runs in and says Johnny is in the dumpster!!
Mom laughs.....doesn't phase her. I am thinking, "this dumpster is about 6 feet tall and GROSS!!"
Next thing I know they are both inside again, beating on each other, running around. I tell them, loud enough that mom can hear, that they need to find a chair, and not be running!
Back outside they go....and this time birthday girl, the one friend and her little sister go outside with them. That leaves mom inside painting along with the friend's mom who is also painting.
Ahhhhhh...it's quiet....we are all enjoying it! I figured they knew where their kids were, they let them be outside, they are the parents.
(If you have a weak stomach you might want to stop reading now.)
Five minutes later...........3 or 4 of the kids come running in....."Johnny is in the dumpster again and he is EATING A PIZZA!!!!"
WHAT?? I say!
Mom's comment: chuckles, and says, "He is my wilderness child!"
At this point I have to say something. "Do you realize that is a huge dumpster with all kinds of garbage from the pizza place? I am not even sure how he was able to climb in there!"
She kinda shrugs and tells the kids to go tell Johnny to get out of the dumpster!
At this point I think maybe it is time to finish the clean up....painting is done, presents opened, birthday cookie ate. (Oh, another note about Johnny, he helped try and blow out the trick candles and ended up spitting all over the giant cookie!!! I don't know if anyone saw this but the mom was sure to announce it to everyone! Wasn't hard for me to turn down their offer to a piece of the birthday cookie!)
Well this was my entertainment for the day.....fortunately no other customers in the studio at the time!
Don't think this is the norm for our parties......99% of the time they are a great time for all and not a disruption to other painters. Guess we have to throw in the outrageous on occasions just to check our sanity and patience!!

Poor Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae is not feeling good :(

Dad was spoiling her as usual last night......always sharing a bite or two from his plate.

He decided to give her a real treat and let her have some meat off the pork steak bone!

Ellie, you were only suppose to eat the the meat, not the whole bone!!

Dad thought he would let her chew a bit and then take it away from her, like he has done so many times. Ellie thought it was just too good and before he knew it she had ate the WHOLE bone!!

This did not set well in her belly, poor girl.

Dad talked to the vet last night.....he said the next 24-48 hours would be critical. That's scary!

She had a rough evening and didnt sleep much throughout the night. Dad said she struggled to breathe a couple times in the night.

This morning she is a better.....she barked a couple times, caught her frisbee once for dad and then again for me later.

Get better Ellie, you have to take care of Gramma Pat!! :)

(Looks like we need to have a photo shoot, Ellie, this picture is a year old!)

Father's Day Weekend...Part 1

We are having a Father's Day Weekend! Shane and Ashley drove up this afternoon and since Shannon and Mike will be going to the lake on Sunday, we decided to have a pre-Father's Day cookout at our house on Saturday!

I am not a cook, I don't like to cook, I don't pretend to like it, and it's not a secret to any of my friends and family. But this afternoon I actually had FUN in the kitchen!!

Shannon suggested we have shish kebobs.....sounded good to me but had no idea how to fix em. Always seemed like more prep work than I cared to do.

Max started out helping in the kitchen....cutting up the chicken breasts and steaks. Then Shannon and I tackled all the veggies: red, green, yellow, orange peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions. Then the assembly.....we looked so professional, and check out these beautiful "bobs"! DANG! I took a picture of the grilling, but I must have used Shannon's camera. Send them to me, please, Shannon.

Just have to show you this close up of one of my masterpieces.....so colorful! Along with the kabobs we had corn on the cob......definitely summer time cookin here!

And that wasnt the end of it......I went all out and fixed a dessert!!

As Mr Food says....."OOH IT'S SO GOOD!!!!"

I actually used a recipe he showed on tv the other day.....wow, talk about good and SIMPLE too!! Unfortunately I didnt get a picture of it, you'll have to take my word for it, but here's a link to the recipe: http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/features/mrfood/19793519.html

Count 'Em.....

In my previous entry I mentioned how we packed and unpacked our vehicle at least a dozen times......ok, here's the story!

I forgot to mention another reason for our trip to Indy was to deliver and pick up kitchen tables from Fort Wayne to Carmel to Indy.
Shannon and Mike bought a like-new kitchen table from her friend in Indy, who just moved to their new place in Carmel (or that area, it all blends together for me.) She had not been able to get there to pick it up. Well when Shane heard Shannon was getting rid of her table he grabbed it. (This table has been around awhile.....Max and I bought it shortly after getting married, Shannon and Shane have had it at various apartments and homes over the years.) Up until this weekend Shane and Ashley had been using a small patio table for their kitchen table......remember the days when you took anything to fill your first apartment.
Ok, ready to count?

1. We packed the table from Shannon's house on Thursday night then loaded our weekend luggage on top and around it. (For some reason Max and I cannot travel light. We have two suitcases, one cooler, one snack bag, one "my stuff" bag, one breathing machine of max's)
2. First stop, Shane and Ashley's apt in indy....unpack car completely to get the table and chairs out.
3. Repack our vehicle with luggage, etc.
4. Friday arrive at Days Inn, unpack vehicle.
5. Saturday, pack car leave Days Inn.
6. Arrive Jameson Inn, Castleton, unpack car.
7. Sunday, leave Jameson Inn, pack car.
8. Stop at Jackie's (shannon's friends) unpack car.
9. Load Shannon's new table and chairs and repack car.
10. Arrive at Shannon and Mike's, unpack car and their table and chairs.
11. Repack our luggage into car.
12. Arrive home, unpack car!
and throughout the trip we accumulated a few bags from our shopping! :)

Phew.....phew.....phew!
Now you know the rest of the story!!

Getaway Weekend!

Don't ya just love the sound of that? Sure is nice to just getaway from it all and relax. Max and I did that this past weekend. We spent 3 days in Indy. The Vintage Indiana Wine Festival was going on downtown so I twisted Max's arm and that was our main purpose. We wanted to take Shane and Ashley, but Shane was in a wedding that weekend. Max is not a wine drinker......much rather have his Diet Pepsi! But he liked the idea of R&R. The festival was downtown so I thought we would splurge and book a hotel downtown within walking distance of the festival and anything else we might like to do downtown.

We got there Friday afternoon.......checked into the Days Inn downtown, old hotel but then downtown Indy is old. The place was clean, tv worked, a/c worked....what more do you want? We walked the downtown area Friday afternoon.....late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, window shopping, hit Border's downtown.....neat layout in an old building. Of course we didn't have any problem killing a coupla hours there...........picked up a pop-up book for Miss J (adding to a collection we are keeping at Gramma's) and found a cloth book for Kate's Kart too! Max and I decided every time either of us went to a bookstore we would grab a book for the Kart! (Krista, we go to the bookstore often......it's Max's second favorite shopping stop, second to Sam's Club).

Anyway, Friday was fun......longer walk through the downtown than we thought, but we can now cross "exercise" off our list (like that was on our weekend to do list).

It stormed Friday evening......still storming Saturday morning. Wine Festival started at 11 am and as we were having continental breakfast it didn't look like it was ever gonna quit raining. The event was under tents, so a little drizzle and sprinkles would have been ok, but we are talking about a downpour that morning!!

I figured the Wine Festival was not gonna happen...bummer.....throw away the $40 we spent on tickets....double bummer. Back at the room I was looking on the Internet for something else to do and it seemed everything was north side of the city. I suggested we change hotels, and stay up north, find something we can do inside where it was dry! So I cancel Saturday nights reservation, booked a room at another place up in Castleton area and we pack our bags. (oh, i will have to tell you the story of how we packed and unpacked our vehicle 12 times during this weekend).



By the time we got to the new motel, unpacked, settled in and planning our days activities the sun came out! So, yep, you guessed it.......we headed back downtown to the Wine Festival.




The festival was at the White River State Park, nice grassy, tree lined park in the heart of Indy. But with all the rain ground was soaked and with all the people we basically were sloshing around in mud! But after a few wine samples the mud didn't seem to matter much!




Did you know there are at least 21 wineries in Indiana? I was surprised.....and even more surprised at the variety of wines. We sampled a wide variety, found i liked the sweet wines the best. And wouldn't you know it, my favorite sample of the day was a Grapefruit wine made at a winery in Carmel, and they don't sell outside of their winery. Shane and Ashley have been given the name, address, phone number, and instructions to be sure and pick me up a bottle on their way home! It was a fun time.....relaxing......and am inviting the whole fam damily next year.....its even kid friendly!





Sunday we met up with Shane and Ashley for brunch.........nice to visit with them for awhile before heading north. Oh and we even had a chance to get a whole bunch of kisses from Frank! He is getting longer too!!

It was a nice relaxing weekend! Looking forward to out next getaway to the Smoky Mountains with the kids....fun time!!!

My Little Artist!

This is one of my favorite candid shots of Jaden!

As promised, I just had to share a bit of my day to day life as Gramma J! Jaden is growing up at the studio and learning the tricks of the trade as she goes. Right now she LOVES all the colors of paints! And she watches everyone else pick out their favorite colors so she figures it must be the thing to do!

As you can see, she keeps an eye on me to see how far I will let her go! Think she has me wrapped around that sweet little finger? Like I tell everyone, she isn't spoiled, just LOVED!

I've been TAGGED!

What was I doing 10 years ago today?
Hmmm....1998...Well I was teaching 6th grade Language arts 10 years ago, so I had just finished my second year. I was probably just enjoying the start of a summer vacation. And of course being a mom for the summer....two teenagers....YIKES!! how did I survive?

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. spend the morning in my pjs (Wednesday is my day off so I try to have a lazy morning!)
2. spend gift card at SteinMart (this has been burning a hole in my pocket since Christmas!)
3. go to Sam's Club (yuck! This is Max's job, but I am out of cleaning products at studio.)
4. go to bank, cash the $310.10 check I found on my desk last week! (pays to clean my desk, literally!)
5. supper at Chinese Restaurant (I am hooked on Strawberry Chicken!)

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. ICE CREAM
2. anything chocolate
3. pretzels
4. yogurt
5. ICE CREAM

Five things I'd do if I was a millionaire: (this is tough!) after saving some for a comfortable retirement, of course:
1. help my kids be a little more comfortable
2. college fund for grandkids
3. give to charity (Kate's Kart is tops for me!)
4. build a house
5. take a crazy family vacation

Five places I've lived: it's all about family :)
1. Garrett, IN (Franklin St.)
2. Auburn, IN - what was i thinking to move so far away!!!
3. Garrett (Harrison St.)
4. Garrett (King St.)
5. Garrett (Second St.)

Five people I tag:
Will have to save this one until I know other bloggers.

This was fun, Thanks, Shannon and Krista.

Where to start....What to say......

Maybe I should start by explaining the title to my blog....I fell in love all over again!
Anyone that is a gramma knows exactly what I mean! That's right......having a grandchild is like falling in love all over again, and you all know what a great feeling that is ;) Guess that pretty much explains that. But rest assured that is not the end of it. You are going to hear a lot about "life as a gramma!"

So what is blogging exactly? a diary without a key? a personal journal for the world to see? a place to vent? a place to entertain? Well since it is pretty new to me I will go will all of the above and follow the example of the two people that got me started, Shannon and Krista.

Shannon has been blogging for some time now, I just never really understood what she was doing.....thought it was one of those "kid things". And Krista, she is an amazing person who I have just recently gotten to know, (more later about how I met Krista), but who will be a friend forever. So you two "pros" have to help me out here!

Have I officially become a geek now? (my friend in New Jersey would be proud). Have I embarrassed you yet, Shannon? (you know I will eventually, sorry, mom's are suppose to do that!)

Oh I think this is gonna be fun!