Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

Snack time

Tony, Abby, Sarah, and Ellie



Rob, Grace, Clay, and Izzy

Getting Ready for Halloween

I forgot I had this decoration.  I made it in 1995.  It is supposed to hang up and have strips of white fabric or plastic trash bags hanging from it, but we have always just set him on the shelf. 

Izzy was all ready to go to Trunk or Treat at church.

We didn't get a clear picture of the Ainas, but this one is cute.

Lunch with Liz

I had a doctor appointment this morning.  Since I was off for the day, Liz and I decided to have a lunch date too. 

We met at The Coffee Quarter for a relaxing lunch. 

It was fun to have some Mom and Daughter time.  We both had a ruben sandwich - Yum!

Thanks Liz for a fun lunch!

Tomorrow it is back to work. Which means my 30 minute lunch will be: line up students and walk them to the cafeteria, go to the bathroom, quickly eat lunch, and then pick students up and go to recess. 

In my mind I'll be remembering my relaxing lunch with Liz!

Our Weekend

Saturday is a busy day. So much to do in one day.

 Gary, Tony, Abby, and I headed to the navy base to do some shoppping at the navy exchange and lunch at the food court.  It is nothing big just pizza, chinese or premade sandwiches and salads, but my granddaughters love it! Of course we don't have a mall here so this is a fun thing for them to do with Grandma and Papa. Then we went grocery shopping. 

Abby loved driving the cart! She also enjoyed getting to pick out some of the groceries. I did a Target run on the way home while they headed home to put up the groceries - smart planning on my part ;-)We did some cleaning and laundry.  I graded papers and finished my lesson plans for the week. 

On Sunday we went to church.  I'm teaching the 7-8 year olds and I have Izzy in my class.  We are preparing for our annual Primary Program which will be next Sunday.  We had practice and the children sounded so good when they were singing.  Izzy and Abby did a great job when they each said their part.  Izzy loves her new boots from Aunt Susie.  Getting this girl to stand still for a photo is often tricky. 

We were even able to convince Liz and Clay to join in the photo.  Izzy decided it would be fun to squat down for the photo! Love her!!!

 

Susie and Scott are in Key West having a blast!  They sent these fun pics of their trip.

The rode around the island on these.

Our weekend was chilly and rainy, but they are having awesome weather for their trip. Enjoy!

We can't wait to see them at Thanksgiving!

Throw Your Tooth on the Roof

 

 

Each quarter we teach a multicultural lesson.   My students enjoy learning about how people in other countries and cultures live.  In third grade sometimes students say, "That's weird!" when they find out that people in other cultures do things differently.  We talk about how people in other countries might think the things we do are "weird" too.

 

   This week, we read a fun book called, Throw Your Tooth On the Roof.  It is about tooth traditions all around the world.  My students were fascinated about the different things that children do in other countries with their baby teeth when they fall out. We found that many countries throw their baby teeth on the roof.  Some have a tooth fairy (United States of America, Canada, Australia, and England), some put their tooth out for El Raton, some bury their teeth, some recite verses or sing songs too.  It was fun learning about different ways to do something.  

 

 

We read the book a few times, students used a graphic organizer to help them keep track of the different tooth traditions. They wrote about tooth traditions around the world and then each student made a tooth representing the tooth traditions in a different country.  They had a great time. 

Lovely Fall Weather

We've been having some lovely fall weather.  We are outside most evenings.

We all enjoy the porch swing

Ellie loves bubbles!

Abby and Ellie both had fun chasing bubbles

Ellie can now drive the little power wheel all by herself! She is so excited!

Ellie and her daddy head off to go on a walk in the woods.

Ellie can now climb up on the little slide all by herself. 

She's getting so grown up.

We went down to the patio area the other night.  Abby and Ellie loved looking at the lights and swinging in the dark. Abby is already on the swing.

The girls had a great time singing and swinging!

Abby stopped to pose for a photo on the way in. 

She is all about horses now and that is hay for her horse that she is carrying back for her horse to eat.

 

 

 

Dementia Stinks!

 

Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph.D in neuroscience from Harvard University.

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what's it's like to literally lose your mind...

Still Alice is the new book for our book group. 

It is well written.

It is written from the point of view of the woman who has Alzheimer's. 

I read it this week.

I cried a lot while I read this book.

When I was in college, my Granny, who was suffering from dementia, moved in with us.

 

Now my Dad has dementia.  It is hard talking to him on the phone.  Sometimes he knows who I am and other times I have to remind him.  He gets easily confused and repeats stories.  I am grateful that my siblings, who all live much closer than I do, are able to visit him.  We have monthly conference calls so that all four of us are on the same page about Dad.  We are doing everything we can to help Dad stay in his home.  It is where he wants to be. 

 

Since we moved to Maryland, I have spent part of many of my summer vacations in Indiana visiting my parents.  Sometimes Gary or the girls would go with me.  Sometimes just me.  I enjoyed my summer visits with my parents.  I would take my mom out shopping.  We would cook and freeze some meals.  Mom and I would try out new recipes. We would get some of my favorite Evansville, IN foods; Wolf's BBQ and Donut Bank.  We would read, talk, relax, and reminince about the past.  I would jot down notes as my parents talked about their lives.  My dad loves to tell stories, especially about serving in WWII.  I took a digital voice recorder and recorded some of his stories.  I am grateful for those summers together where I could spend some very special times with my parents.  It is sad to see the changes in my Dad.  He is happy with his life and that is good. 

 

Dementia stinks!

34 Years!

Wow 34 years is a long time to be married.  I can't believe it has been 34 years.  Sometimes it seems like we have always been together. Yet I can still remember our courtship (mostly by phone calls and letters), wedding, and those early years of our marriage so clearly.  Where did the time go? 

Here we are 36 hours after our wedding getting ready to head to Crete, Greece where Gary was stationed at Iraklion Air Station.  

 

We had lots of fun exploring old ruins, swimming, snorkeling, and hiking

We lived there for two years.  We like to call it our two year honeymoon :-)

 

Then we moved to San Antonio, Texas where this little cutie, Elizabeth, was born.

After only 22 months in Texas, we moved to Japan.

 

Then this little cutie, Sarah, joined our family.

Elizabeth was happy to be a big sister and loved to help with her baby sister.

I've been looking through old photo albums and hope to scan in some photos of the many places we've lived and add to the story of our family.

Fast forward and here is our family.  This photo was taken at Thanksgiving last year.  We will be doing another family photo shoot this year at Thanksgiving.

 

My sister, Susan, and her husband, Scott have their airline reservations to join us again at Thanksgiving! We love having Thanksgiving together.

Can't wait to see them again! We are going to make the family photo shoot an annual Thanksgiving tradition too.  Life is always fun with those you love beside you.

We have had many fun adventures in the last 34 years and are looking forward to many more. 

Memories

 

A friend, Chris Judd, who served his mission in Germany while we were there, is back in Germany now for a visit with his wife and they sent me some pictures Saturday afternoon.

This was our house from December 1990-July1993.  Our address was Im Dom 48.  In the back, the house looks like a two story house with a full walk out basement. 

A balcony ran along the whole main floor in the back too. It was great for entertaining. We had lots of fun times with friends here. The backyard there ended in a forest area - kind of like what we have now. The girls loved to go exploring. 

 

Behind the garage was a separate grill room with a grill that you could raise and lower to the fire pit. It looked like this grill, but was in a separate room

 

 

We lived in a German neighborhood and the girls found lots of friends to play with.  You can play Barbie and Nintendo and lots of games outside even if you don't totally understand all the words.  The enjoyed walking up the hill to the bakery to buy fresh bread and pick out gummies from the great selection the bread lady had in her store. 

It was during the Gulf War.  Interesting times. 

We traveled as much as we could although the war kept Gary very busy at work and traveling. 

 

This was the view from a lookout not too far from our place looking down at the town of Idar Oberstein. The Church in the rock is just a little right of center in this photo.

 

  Felsenkirche, or Church in the Rock. This a Lutheran Church built under the Alte Schloss "Old Castle". To the top left you can see the Neue Schloss "New Castle". Each is in ruins.
Legend has it that the two brothers who lived in the old castle argued over a girl and one brother threw the other over to his death. In penance he built a church where his brother died.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Idar-Oberstein is the gemstone capital of the world.  There are gemstone mines, museums, and lots of jewelers in the area. 

 

We had some great times while we lived here.  We had busy weekends camping, visiting castles, exploring gemstone mines, salt mines, Hitler's Eagle's Nest, exploring Germany, visiting France, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Liechtenstein.  Lots of fun times and great memories!  Thanks Chris for sending the photos that brought back a flood of memories. It is hard to believe that it was 20 years ago!

 

Weekend Fun

Sarah baked a Mississippi Mud Cake for my birthday celebration. 

She thought it would be cute to decorate the cake for me too.

The girls found mini instruments and sang Happy Birthday to me.  They even put my big floppy sun hat on me "like they do at Mexican restaurants" they said.  They are so much fun!

Abby did tell me that I would be getting old boring presents because I was old.

Sarah, Tony, Abby, and Ellie got me this pretty grandchildren necklace.

Liz made me this cute sculpy summer scene

She is amazingly talented.  

 

Izzy is taking after her mom with artistic talent.  She created this cute little pig for me. 

I was able to stretch out my birthday celebration for a week.  My birthday was actually last Monday.  I had the day off from work.  Gary had PT and a doctor's appointment. 

 

 Liz and I went for pedicures. Ellie wanted a picture with my toes too. 

Fun toes

Liz, Sarah, Abby, Ellie and I went out to lunch.

I got my hair cut.

My substitute teacher had my students make cards for me and they were great for her too!!

Gary got me the Kitchenaid mixer I wanted and a Keith Urban CD.

Everyone is over today.  There is pork in the smoker and in a little while we will have yummy food together!