I'm totally diggin' this Grandma stuff. *sigh* And one of the best things is being able to see and enjoy things all over again through the eyes of a 4-year-old. It's sweet.

Last night Chris and I and Dustin, Emily and Eva and Deborah and Gary all braved the VERY cold temps to watch Williamsport's Thanksgiving Parade. Did I mention that it was EXTREMELY cold? What were we thinkin'? But, dang it, sometimes you just have to get out in it and we did. And even though we all experienced moments of pain and torture, we all also managed to have FUN!

See? Grandma No. 1 (aka "Bobbie" to Eva and "Deborah" to me) is also reliving her childhood vicariously through Eva. It's a joyful thing.

She is just one of THE most delightful and easy to delight children. I even thought that beFORE she became my granddaughter. Which makes the fact that she's my granddaughter even more wonderful. I'm smitten. Can you tell?

We all met at a little Thai restaurant for dinner beforehand. Mmmm. That was good. We chose it because, well, we all (most of us, anyway, but Chris is coming along...) like Thai food, but also because the restaurant was located on the parade route and we could easily just park once and then hang out. After the parade, we went into the Bullfrog Brewery and got a little something to warm our spirits, if not our bodies. Deborah and I got Bailey's coffees, Eva got a hot chocolate and the rest of the clan got an icy cold beer. Hmmm. Well.

Matthew and Martha were waiting for us when we got back home. They'd had car troubles and had to have the ("new") car towed back to Mel's - for the 2nd time. I won't go into the whole long story, but if that didn't make for a bad enough day, as I greeted Martha in the kitchen as they were standing over some freshly-consumed pizza, I went to wipe what I thought was a smear of pizza off her lip and here, it was a bleeding wound she'd gotten that day when a ladder fell on her face. Yikes! Poor girl. She was a little red and swollen in the nose/mouth area, but we were all so very relieved to see that her teeth had not blackened and fallen out and felt that, at this point, they probably weren't going to. So we got her bandaged up and sent them out the door at around 9:30 p.m. - Martha hadn't even been back home yet for the day.

We'll see all of our beloved children and grandpeople/pets again this weekend. They all plan on coming over to watch the PSU game this afternoon. We'll feast on leftover "pigroast" from our church's anniversary celebration in August. Time to get it out of the freezer. And tomorrow they'll be back after church to share a meal. I'm about to go make the cheesy cauliflower chowder for that meal. After I do the song service. Which is going to happen right now.

Bye. Happy weekend!

And that's November for ya. The mums are still going, but we're getting snow squalls, too. I kinda love it. I guess I'm just a fan of all kinds of weather (except tornadoes!). Of course everyone loves perfect weather days. But I don't mind a rainy day. And brutally cold days are just an excuse to stay inside curled up with a book or a movie or your honey (or any combination thereof) especially since we have one kickarse woodstove. And I'm always excited when we get our first snow - and our first snow that sticks. Which this one won't. But we're expecting squalls all week. Chris went and had the snow tires put on the car this a.m. After having to go work all winter for 4 years, I have learned to trust the snow tires. I'm driving to cards tonight, but no worries. Besides, it will prolly only make the road just wet - in most places. Where I live in Huntersville, though, can sometimes NOT be like most places. Where there's wet roads below, there's often slick/icy roads up here.

We had an online pajama party at SIStv Friday night. Betcha didn't even KNOW you could have an online pj party! We had all sorts of games and contests - and prizes. I got to be "The Bossy Scrapper". That's a game where a Fashionista goes online (and signs in) as this anonymous persona and "bosses" all the participants around (kinda like "Simon Says") and has them use certain scrap supplies and put together a layout. Of course, everyone's layout turns out differently. Here's the one I did ahead of time, just to make sure it would all "work":

I LOVE that photo of Matthew and Taco! Since we were also presenting SIStv's "The Night Owl" collection, those of us Fashionistas that were participating were to incorporate that somehow into each of our games/challenges. So I had each person I was bossing around use a dark color for their background (like "night") and then for their title they had to have the word "owl" or "night" in the title, or something related to either of those two words. Hence, my title of "Ggrrrowl (Not)". :) Fun stuff. It took about an hour and a half to play. We all had a fun time and it wasn't toooo hard for me to step out of my comfort zone and be bossy. Heh.

Well, enough typing. I'm off to work on some projects. Chris is - of all things - golfing. Yep. Well, if he can play today, then so can I! But I'll be warmer and drier! ;)

We've got a new bi-monthly challenge going at SIStv. It's called the "Haute Spot". The first challenge was to create a layout using some sort of math equation. So that's the one I did, above. (Click image to see it larger). Chris has suggested that it should be 4-2= TWO happy families! :) But I like it the way it is! :)

Wow! It's been a busy week! But one thing we did was have dinner Friday night at M&M's new rental house. I can't believe how much they've done all week - and while working, too! There's a little collage of their 1st floor area. (Click image to see larger) I didn't get any good ones of the kitchen area. Except for this darling pic of little Taco, "playing cards" with us and looking at his beloved Matthew:

Awwwww. I feel another scrapbook layout coming on...

I have TWO new classes starting today, so I'm going to get going on those. It looks to be another FULL week! Enjoy!

They're home! Home in Watsontown, PA! Exactly 30 minutes from our front door. I'm breathing a big sigh of relief and pleasure. Okay - I think I can believe it now - that Matthew and Martha have officially moved from AZ to PA! They talked about it off and on for several years, especially after visiting here or after hearing about family events/funerals that they weren't a part of. But, when they started talking about it after they were married (here at our house in PA last summer), they seemed pretty serious. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but over the next months it became clear that this was going to happen! And we rejoiced the day they pulled into our driveway from AZ - for the last time.

Now, after 4 months of living with us, finding jobs, getting a second car and renting a house, they are now OFFICIALLY and finally living on their own in PA! Ahhhh - another big sigh of relief and satisfaction. The relief is just knowing that they are now nearby and are going to be a REAL part of our lives, like, up close and in person. The satisfaction is that God has really provided all their needs for them, it went really well with them living here - we all survived quite nicely - now they can leave the land of limbo and start their new lives here and I think they're pretty happy.... Yes, ahhhhhhh.

Chris helped them move yesterday, as did Dustin. And I did in a small way - I brought the doggie "home". :) We got pizza and popped a bottle of champagne open to celebrate. All is well. God is good.

I guess I can believe it now... :)