Grandma Day

Today was Grandma Day because Danielle came to play.

Here she is doing tummy time in the morning with her pajamas on.

And here she is doing tummy time in the afternoon with her jeans on. Danielle just LOVES tummy time and is very happy down there on the floor. She reaches and wriggles, reaches and giggles.

And here she is exhausted and lying on Grandma's bed. What a fun day!

Green Fingers

Unlike my parents, I have not been blessed with green fingers. My dad always had a lovely garden with rose bushes, dahlia's, fuschia's, a butterfly bush and loads more. My mom's garden in the summer looks like it came out of an English gardening book, all full of color and bloom. On the other hand, I can't get anything to grow, but I'm very successful at getting things to die.

My latest house plant was a big bushy rubber tree. I bought it because it reminded me of my childhood, there was nearly always one in the living room, and this one was a particularly fine specimen. For a few months it continued to be just as glorious as when I bought it but over the last few weeks it has been losing leaves at a rapid rate. They fall off so easily yet there is still evidence of new growth. Is it just because it's wintertime, or am I the original house plant killer?

President Hinckley

Last night, the world learned of the passing of our dear prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. Whilst those of our faith recognized him as a prophet, seer and revelator, we also knew him as a dear, sweet man with a terrific sense of humor. That's probably what I'll remember the most. When he presided at the dedication of the Preston, England temple in 1998, he was so full of humor despite the occasion being very sacred. I will miss him as the President of our church, but am thankful for the long life of service he gave us all as an example and that he is now with his beloved Marjorie. I know that the truth will go on and shortly a new president will be announced who will also go forward with faith. The Church is in safe hands.

Lots of snow

Nope, not where I am, of course (another thing to be grateful for), but in upstate New York,
where my little Katelynn is. Today in Arizona it has been raining quite heavy though and someone at Church asked me if it reminded me of England. Quite a bit, I told her.
Actually, here in Arizona we are blessed not to have any weather extremes, except for the heat. No hurricanes, earthquakes, tidal waves, avalanches, yet we do still have four seasons; warm, warmer, hot and hotter!
As Brent and I tell our folks. It's a hard life, and someone's gotta live it!

Instant Pancakes

This morning I cooked a batchload of buttermilk pancakes, some Brent and I ate for breakfast and the others I bagged and froze for those crazy mornings and quick snacks. My grandmother, bless her, who I always remember when I was a child to have a table full of freshly baked treats, would probably turn in her grave if she could read this, but my pancakes came out of a box. Shock horror! And they weren't the kind of pancakes where you add milk, eggs and oil, no, they were the type of pancakes where you just measure out the mix and add good old water.

They tasted great with some butter and syrup on them, but it got me thinking about all the other convenience foods I'm grateful for where you just have to add water; gravy granules, custard powder, jello, instant mash, stuffing mix, cake mix. The list goes on. I was raised to know how to make these things the proper old fashioned way, if I had to, but I wonder if my grandaughters will have that knowledge. The more I think about it, I realise that we really do live in a world where everything is instant. What do you think?

My Song of the Moment

Well, I'm quite proud of myself, if I may say so. For someone who never touched a computer until I was 32, I think I have done pretty darn good at figuring out how to add music to my blog when there wasn't a button to click on above my text box. I admit to having done a little research, but now I know how to do it, well, its easy peasy.
To the title of this post. The song you can listen to is my current song of the moment, I can't get enough of it. I apologise to my family who may not know me as well as they think they do, and I'm sure that all my Diva friends (you know who you are!) will be laughing at this, but I have a confession to make. I came out of the closet years ago! Yes! I admit, I'm a HUGE Donny Osmond fan. I love him, can't get enough of him, want to listen to him and watch him pretty much all of the time, much to the amusement of my children. Sooooooooo, if you are on the opposite side of the fence, you might want to sign off now because I'll be showing some Donny moments periodically on this blog. I'm in Donny depression right now you see. No concerts scheduled until July. Aaaarrrgh.
Anyway, go ahead. Listen to the great music opposite.

My grandaughter Danielle

Okay, for those of you who haven't see a piccy of my Danielle, here we are on Christmas Day. She was almost 4 months old and in her pretty best dress that her great grandma bought her.

My New Blog

I've read a few blogs belonging to other people and really liked them, so I thought I'd have a go myself. It's kind of like a journal, but I've never been very good at keeping those, so we'll see if I'm any better at this!

I've been really stressed this week as I was anticipating taking my Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) class. I failed it in November. It was awful. First, I've never been involved in caring for coronary patients in my life, so I hadn't a clue about all those rhythm strips or heart drugs. I kept reading the information but instead of it sinking in, it just floated in my brain and wasn't available for recall. Secondly, I'm finding that as I'm getting older, I've started to have a fear of test taking. What? I never had that when I was young, but I certainly do now. Anyway, I passed today by the skin of my teeth, so the age of miracles isn't dead. LOL. When I renew in two years though, it'll be a group test so that will take the pressure off. Something to look forward to, eh?

Olivia sent me a little video of my granddaughter, Katelynn, practicing her words. She is 18 months now and I miss her so. I told Olivia that she needs to have her first trip to the hairdresser. Her hair is so fine and wispy, just like her mommy's was. She apparently likes to sit in her car seat. Definitely NOT like her mommy on that one.

Anyway, here it is.

And a picture of Katelynn's mommy at about 21 months old, for you to compare her with.