How we celebrate Halloween

Four years ago this last July Fourth, we moved into our new house. We should have moved from our old house long ago. The neighborhood was going down the toilet at an alarming rate. The thing is, we had stayed for so long because there was a park across the street from us that our children had grown up with. Shawn loved that park and spent many a wonderful day hanging out with the kids from the neighborhood.
They could be a pretty rough crowd but they were almost always nice to Shawn.

Until that "DAY."

Shawn came running home, ran in the house and slammed the door. It took a while to get any useful information out of him. (It always does.) He eventually told me that one of the girls had told him that there was going to be a fight between some "gang" kids and that he needed to run home fast.

Of course I was very grateful to that girl.
The point is, that from that day on Shawn never again went across the street to the park.

Ever.

That was our cue.
We realized it was time to find a Realtor.
Our house was immediately put up for sale.
We couldn't find a pre-existing house we liked.
So we decided to have one built.
We did.
We loved it.
And suffice it to say we live in a much better part of town now.
I guess you could say that we are now among our own kind.

Back to Halloween.

That first Halloween I decided that since we were finally in a good neighborhood we could do what I had wanted to do for years.

Full sized candy bars.

I figured since we would be catering to a better clientele that it would be fun to give out better candy.
I had always given out the "good" stuff anyway. I never once had done the smarties/peanut butter kisses/dum dums, thing. It was always Hershey's or M&M Mars fun size.

But I had always thought it would be cool to go all the way with full size.

It wasn't too hard convincing Don. Well, maybe a little but he came around pretty quickly.

I also had another good idea that he did like.

How about serving hot apple cider to the parents.

I started that August.
Every time a store had a three for a dollar candy sale I stocked up. Before I knew it I had bags and bags of, full sized Snickers, Milkyways, Hershey bars and Hershey with almond bars. Butterfingers, Baby Ruth's, not to mention tons of Skittles, Starbursts and M&Ms.

We also watched the sales for Apple Cider.

Well the big night came. We decided to set up in the Garage. We put a couple of our small card tables out there. We had a great big pot on the stove in the house, heating up the cider and the crock pot outside acting as a nice hot punch bowl.

Oh, I guess I should explain that the extreme Halloween decor of days gone by had somewhat petered out by then.
After the first few years, it became pretty routine.
Most everyone was still happy to have a part in the setting up, but come November 1st, it was a problem to find anyone willing to help tear it all down.
And after a few more years, no one even really wanted to help set it up either.

Don never had really liked all of the dark, creepy, gruesome stuff anyway. I guess our kids had inherited all of the fun from me.

I'm happy to announce however, that we still DO the Graveyard. In fact Don himself set it up the other day.

Well, that first Halloween in our new house was a fantastic success!

I knew that handing out full-size candy would be fun, but Geeez, you would have thought those kids had never seen a real, full sized candy bar before. I don't think there would have been that much excitement if I had decided to hand out one dollar bills.

I know that there were a few that came back for seconds, but what could I do?
And handing out Styrofoam cups of hot cider to the parents?

SCORE!

It was even better the next year.
Apparently we had,
in the course of one Halloween season,
become,
THE COOL HOUSE ON THE BLOCK.

Here we are now ready to celebrate our fifth Halloween in our new house.
This year, I kinda had to win Don over again to the full sized bars. By July there hadn't been a single 3 for 1 sale.
I feared that with the doom and gloom concerning the ECONOMY that 50 cents was the best price I was going to find.
Oh well.
My reasoning is sound.
I figure that we spend a lot more than that on Christmas.
So why not Halloween?

At present I believe I have well over 370 pieces of full sized candy.
I do need to officially count it.
After the second year I decided that it would be handy to know just how many we had given out so I would have a good estimate of how much to buy the next year.
Last year we gave out more than 300 pieces and still ran out.
The big reason is because we have van loads of people from other neighborhoods. It sort of bugs me that we get all of these huge groups of, umm, imports?
Oh well, what can ya do?

I would really like to be able to dress up. But it's just too darn cold out there in the garage. I end up wearing all black and take a black eyeliner pencil and draw stars around my right eye.

Just like Kat Von D's tattoos.

Well, that,
in a nut shell,
is what Halloween has evolved into for me and Don.

It works for us.

Our neighbors tell us each year that we are their favorite house.

One other thing that I've always been really impressed with is just how polite most of the kids are.
The large groups of teenagers? Piece of cake. They are always extremely grateful and respectful.
I figure that, you can't really ask for more than that.

I don't know if there will come a time when those candy bars get just too darn much to keep buying, but I can still rationalize that it's a lot less than what we spend for Christmas.

Halloween Forever!!!!!

It's HALLOWEEN Week!

Several years ago, at our old house, I innocently bought a few ghosts to hang in our front yard tree.

Little was I to know just what I had started.

Donald and Heidi came home from school that day and saw those ghosts. It just kind of snowballed from there.

It was a general consensus that while those three hanging ghosts were quite wonderful, they needed a bit more company.I headed to my sewing room. I got a large piece of plain white fabric, and we made several more ghosts to add to the tree.

I've searched my "archives" (several white, three ring binders) for pictures of those ghosts in the tree and so far I've come up empty. Too bad my DIL Lisa wasn't around back then. She takes picture after picture of anything and everything.

Well, by the time those ghosts were all hung we had given birth to many, many more ideas for our yard.

It was unanimous that a tree with hanging ghosts simply wasn't going to be enough.

We needed a graveyard.

The next day I went to Walmart and purchased several slabs of white styrofoam. Then I went to the spray paint aisle. I bought a couple cans of, very expensive, faux concrete look, grey.

This was at the height of all of those faux-finish ideas for walls and other surfaces you see.

It took a while (and a trip back to Walmart for more cans of the fake concrete stuff) but by that evening we had one heck of an old haunted cemetery in our front yard.

We were HOOKED!

From there, of course, we had to have a fake, dead and bloody man, take up residence in one of our lawn chairs.

We then decided that a coffin with a skeleton in it was simply a must!

The final touch was a table sporting a lovely white table cloth featuring a plate holding a bloody head.

My siblings, for years, had had a beauty school, women's practice head, sitting around building up dust.
Her name was Donna.

I don't quite remember how we came into possession of her (my best guess would be my sister Janice who lived about a mile up the street from us at the time.)

So Donna had the honor of being our bloody head on the plate.

Oh yeah, that was also when those bags of white semi-realistic looking spider webs became available.

I bought several bags of them.

Well, I guess it's not really necessary for me to point out that in the course of three days we went from,

your usual carved pumpkins by the front door and perhaps a few paper bats taped to the window, house.

To the COOLEST HALLOWEEN HOUSE for MILES AROUND!!!!!!!

There was only one small problem.

Courtney,

my youngest,

who was,
I think
5 or 6 at the time
was terrified of the entire yard.

That did put a small damper on things.

We kept everything up though. (I mean, after all that work? Wouldn't you???)
We just devised a system where we had her shut her eyes every time she went outside.

It really wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Really.

She didn't even have to be reminded.

The minute she even heard that front door open she had her hands over her eyes.

A FUN FACT;

Courtney is now a huge lover of all things dark and gruesome. She even went through a goth period. And she may have left all the dark clothes far behind, but she still loves all thing Macabre.

I'm sure it goes without saying that we made quite the splash that Halloween. It was the very best Halloween that any of us had had up to that point.

We had always enjoyed the holiday but after that year, Halloween, became an all time favorite with all of us.
I will give a few more glimpses into Halloween; Sorenson style, in a few days.

In the meantime, I would love to hear about your ways of celebrating.

A little more info I forgot to mention;

You may be wondering why I didn't just go buy those gravestones.

I couldn't because they didn't sell them back then. It was two years after that year that they first started appearing in the stores. Good thing too. By then my home made ones were on their last leg. I still think that somehow those companies owe me royalties for having the idea first.

It's back. No thanks to you-know-who

I will now offer a semi-apology to blogger.

I was finally able to get my blog list back.

After a lot of work I must point out.

So sorry blogger, for beating up on you like that, but, umm, wait a minute, I actually don't really feel sorry after all.

I never would have had this headache in the first place if blogger wasn't such a crummy second, no, third rate program.

But, I am nothing if not gracious.

So I will take the high road here.

I'm sorry blogger that I said so many bad things about you. I realize that you are nothing but a semi-crappy computer program who I'm sure tries it's hardest to keep up with all of the demands made of you.

Demands, that a finer, more sophisticated, program could do with one arm tied behind it's back, while at the same time doing 50 push-ups followed by 30 sit-ups, all the while whistling (in perfect pitch) The Star Bangled Banner.

I realize that it's not your fault that you are sadly oh so inferior.

So to make peace I will let all of my readers know that you are forgiven for all of your stupid limitations, lack of programming finesse, and just generally low quality aptitude.

I hope that we can bury the hatchet and that since you are basically the only game in town and I am therefore forced to use you, that we can continue with our working relationship and publish many future posts together.

(Even though those posts will be less than they could be if a better program were available.)

Tearing my hair out over here!

I am so pissed off at stupid blogger.com right now I just may quit this blogging thing all together.
Late yesterday I tried to change someone's address on my blog list to show her new blog.
I added her and hit save. That worked. Then as I always do I went to change the name.
You may have noticed that I list my friend's blogs by their names instead of the name of their blogs.
So I write in the name change and hit save.
NOTHING!
It just froze and wouldn't do anything. Alright I thought. I'll just do hers over again.
Well guess what happened?????
The entire list was GONE!
As in obliterated, destroyed, vacant, nothing but one big fat VOID!!!!
I was so mad,
no, not just mad,
furious,
no, not just furious,
I was so
PISSED OFF
I actually whispered the F word.

That's right!

I know, I know, SHAME ON ME!

Well I took off to go to Costco with Don and our boys.
As soon as I got home I came upstairs to try again.

I had to start all over from scratch.

Good thing I got so many comments on my post yesterday. I didn't have to go searching.
I add the first blog and change it's name. It worked! Hooray!
Blog and changed name, number two.
No troubles.
Blog number three, number four, numbers five, six, seven, eight.

I'm really working up a head of victorious steam here.
I'm feeling good to have so much of my blog list back intact.

SUCKER!

I go for number nine. Don't worry I won't say whose blog it was, I realize that it had nothing to do with it.
Blog accepted.
Change name.
Delete name of blog.
Put in person's name.

FREEZE UP!?!?!!!

Oh no. Watch out for that F word. And maybe not even quite so whispered this time.
(It was pretty safe though, Kelly was the only one around and he is certainly no stranger to dropping the dreaded F-Bomb.)

I pulled myself together. I started all over AGAIN.

Same old S _ _ T . AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
Three more times.
Same thing each and every freakin time.

Need I point out that I was more or less a blubbering idiot by now.

So now here we come to this morning. It's a new and surprisingly sunny day. I am woken up by a phone call.
It's 7:45.
I should point out that due to a bad night's sleep I wasn't really ready to wake up.
Oh well. That's okay. I can wake up now I guess.

What do I do next?

If you guessed turn on the TV and finish waking up to the Today Show, you would be almost right. Because that's exactly what I almost did.
Then it occurred to me that hopefully the stupid problem I had had yesterday with getting Blogger's cooperation in redoing my deserted blog list must surely be fixed by now.

Foolish ME!

I came upstairs.
I favorite list my blog.
At first I'm even a little hopeful that the blog list will actually be there in it's entirety and it will all turn out to have been a really bad dream.

Uh huh, right.

Of course it wasn't there.

I diligently plodded on. One name, check, two names, check, three, four, five, six, seven.
Whoo Hoo, I'm on a roll here!

I forget to knock on wood.

And here it comes, from out of nowhere, the big FREEZE!!!!!

Instant anger and frustration.
From happy to F word (whispered again this time) in zero point eight seconds.

Well I am here now to admit defeat.

I am overcome. I know when I have been bested. I realize that I was foolish to even try.

I wave my little white flag.

And suddenly realize that there is something that I can do.
I mean is this a blog or what?
I stay right where I am seated and start to write.
As is usual for me, my three or four sentence explanation of what happened has turned into a few hundred sentences instead.

I'm sorry for that.

At this present time I am seriously tempted to just pull the plug on my beloved blog.
I doubt I will.
I actually think that having a blog is somewhat therapeutic.

Plus it's the closest I'll ever come to a written journal.

But for today, at least, I am totally defeated. I wish you all a fond adieu and promise to still read your blogs.

The end.


For now at least.
Don't worry, my brother Mike is on vacation but he can fix anything computer related so maybe there still is hope for me.

lex's new dress

Remember my post I did a few posts back about Alexandra's birthday and all the fun I had with her?
Remember that I talked about making her a dress or two?
Well, I didn't actually make her a dress from the fabric she had picked out.

Yet.

I realized that Saturday evening that I couldn't make her requested dress because I hadn't gotten any lining fabric.
For my non-sewing readers that would be the fabric that goes on the inside of a garment. It helps cover up the inside seams and gives a garment a nice finished look.

Long story short.

I grabbed a piece of fabric I had had for quite a while and selected one of the patterns that Lex had liked and whipped up this adorable little number.

It turned out so cute, don't you think?

Initially there was a small problem with the neck being too big. I had to do some cutting up and re-sewing to the back of it. I added a few button holes and, of course buttons, and

Voila!

perfection!

Alexandra loves it.
Lisa loved it so much she went out and bought some nice black tights and shoes to complete the look.
And Alexandra now has an incredibly darling dress that I'm sure she will wear and wear and wear.

What can I say?

10 points for me.







And now a word from our sponsor

That would be ME.

I seem to be losing my readers left and right.
I don't know if it's because my friends just aren't posting or don't have the time to read my posts anymore, or what.
I realize I'm just being whiny here, but I miss the comments I used to get.
I really enjoy reading your thoughts and getting to know you better.
I'm also aware that there are people out there that just like a bit of non-committal blog reading.
I understand that.
In fact ,at times, I indulge in a bit of it myself.
I guess I'm just asking for you to leave a comment now and then so I know you're out there.
Hopefully I'm not coming across as too needy
(oh my gosh am I really stooping this low?)
So please?! PLEASE?! PULEEEZ?!
Just leave me a freakin' COMMENT?!?!?!

Thank you very much.

Lorelai

Today is a special day indeed.

Five years ago today on Oct 19th 2004

Miss Lorelai Leigh Sorenson came into this world.
And the Sorenson family has never been the same.

Here she is still in the hospital meeting her big sister Alexandra.

I would love to say that it was love at first sight for big sister Lex,

but. . . . . . . .

you try being the object of all the parental love for two years only to have the rug pulled out from under your feet with the arrival of a little usurper they call your new sister.

Lucky for us all, little Lorelai turned out to be quite the scrappy one. In other words she survived the love of her big sister Alexandra.

Things were never quite the same for Lex, but she did start to realize that there were worse things in life than sharing the stage with a younger sister.
And now I'm thrilled to say these two little girls are true sisters in every sense of the word.
Of course there are scrabbles.
But there is also much love, consideration, generosity, and hours and hours of shared fun.
Alexandra and Lorelai truly love each other.

Lorelai is a complete original. .

She keeps us guessing, and always laughing

And just two years ago Lori became a big sister herself.

It took her no adjustment time at all to fall completely in love with her new baby sister Elisabeth.

No sister could be more loving, more attentive, or more concerned for the welfare of that new sister than Miss Lorelai has been.

Lorelai is known for her quick little temper, but she is also known for showing so much love to those of us that know her best. She will learn to deal with that short little fuse, and in a few years we will all laugh when we realize how grown up she has become.

She will always walk to the sound of her own drum. That's one of the things that make her so special.

And we,

her family,

will continue year in and year out to love this precious girl that has brought and will continue to bring us so much fun, so many laughs, and more love than you would ever imagine possible in such a spunky little girl.

Happy Birthday Lorelai. I love you more,

every minute I'm alive.

All my Love

Grandma!

Happy Birthday Jeff

Tomorrow Oct 17 is my

son-in-law Jeff's birthday. He will be 31.

As luck would have it the only pictures I could find of him are from his and Heidi's first year of marriage.

Somehow though, I have a feeling that Jeff will enjoy seeing these pictures of him when he was in his prime.

In other words before 12 years of marriage,

before two (precious, sweet, adorable, beautiful and intelligent) little daughters.

And before being let go from a job that he figured he would have for years, and maybe even for life. (with several promotions along the way of course)

Yes it's been a long hard year for Jeff

as well as for my daughter Heidi

and for my darling grandaughters Abbey and Lindsay.

But they have made it through and are that much older and wiser.

So yes, it's fun to see pictures of young, innocent, Jeff.

Newly married with his whole life before him.

But I think I like 31 year old, a little roughed up around the edges, a little heavier perhaps, maybe not the exact hairline of 10 years ago

But.

We love him.

We wouldn't trade him for anyone else.

He fit right into our family.

Just like a lost puzzle piece.

We love his sense of humor.

We love his quick mind.

I particularly love all of the little inside jokes that we both share.

(Mother Sorenson, Hefe,) You know inside stuff.

We love him, sometimes, even in spite of himself.

Because after all, no one is perfect.

So Happy Birthday to you dear son-in-law.

I hope you have a great day doing all the things you love best!

Tons of love Susan

We need your prayers for Elisabeth

My son Donald has been sick most of this week. It has been semi established that it's the swine flu. Semi as in he has been to the doctor and the doctor told him unofficially that it is.
Today, Lorelai and i went out and had an incredibly fun day together.

Sadly, when I brought her back home we found Lisa laying in their recliner, with a fever. She is really sick.

I'm sad for Donald and Lisa to be so sick but that isn't the problem here.
They have been taking heroic measures this week with Donald being sick. They've probably gone through at least a gallon of hand sanitizer. And when Donald has used the phone he wipes it down with a disinfectant wipe.
So please know that they have done everything possible to prevent spreading his sick germs.

We are pretty worried right now though. If Lisa has caught what Donald has got then it's a far gone conclusion that the girls will be next.

If that happens it is almost assured that our precious little Elisabeth will also get sick. We are so scared for this to happen. Elisabeth is medically fragile and if she gets this flu she will have to be admitted to the hospital.
We don't even want to contemplate what could happen after that.

So please, pray along with us that our Elisabeth will be safe.
I know the power of prayer.
I think that most of the time we all realize that she is doing as well as she is because of all of the love and prayers that have been sent our way.

So please help us and pray for our special little angel Elisabeth.

And thank you in advance from the bottom of all of our hearts.

Lex's turn

Miss Alexandra turned seven on Oct 4th. I decided that this would be a birthday to give her something other than toys.

She was still feeling just a little sad that Lorelai and I had spent an entire Saturday together.

Grandmother/Granddaughter days have been a favorite for both of them since Lex's first one at the tender age of three. To show you what I did for her, I will share the little letter that I inserted into her birthday card.

Grandma Sorenson, would like to invite
Miss Alexandra Louise Sorenson
To a day of fun and fashion.
Starting next Saturday the 10th of October at 11:00.
We will start with a visit to Jo-Ann Fabrics where Alexandra and Grandma will look through Pattern Books to find a pattern of Alexandra’s choice. Finding the right pattern will then be followed by carefully selecting the right fabrics, notions and trims with which to make a dress that Alexandra will have designed.
Following the trip to Jo-Anns Grandma and Alexandra will then go to the restaurant of Alexandra’s choice for a nice Birthday lunch.
After the lunch Grandma will drive Alexandra back to her home and will then set about making Alexandra’s dress for her.
Please RSVP no later than five minutes after reading this letter.
Lots of Love from Grandma Sorenson.

I can assure you that once she realized just what the letter was saying she became extremely excited. So excited that I realized I had my RSVP answered way before the five minutes were up. Although I still pointed out to her that she needed to officially give me her answer.

The Proprieties MUST be observed after all.

A little tweaking was needed with the time. Lex had a soccer game that same Saturday at 1:00. Even though Donald and Lisa have more or less decided to not have her continue with soccer, we all agreed that it was important for her to finish out the season.

Consequently, we moved the time back to 2:20ish.

I went over a little before 2:00 so I could be there when Lex got home from soccer. Well that, and to visit with Lisa and Elisabeth a bit.

It took a little longer for us to leave on our date than had been planned but it was okay. I figured that she must be pretty hungry after soccer so I moved our late lunch to the front of the line.

At first Alexandra wanted to go to Azteca.

We had just been there for her birthday dinner the week before. I steered her in the direction of a different place to eat. With a minimum of manipulation we happily decided that Applebee's would be perfect. Lisa and I had gone there with Shawn and the girls one night in May because both our hubby's were working overtime that night.

Alexandra had been less than thrilled with the children's menu offerings. I did what any good grandma would do. I gave her several bites of my steak and baked potato, much to her delight. So when I mentioned Applebee's she quickly remembered how much she had loved that steak and potato. I told her that was fine. It was for her birthday so if she wanted a grown-up dinner then brother, she could have one.

Lucky for me they were still running their 2 for 20$ dinner and appetizer special.

Our food took a while to get to us, but eventually it came and we enjoyed our picks. I got the shrimp and fries by the way.

SIDE NOTE: I can not believe how much food restaurants give you. I think there were close to 22 shrimp there. Plus fries and coleslaw. I don't think I even finished half of the shrimp and I probably only had 7 or 8 fries. Too much food. And if you ask for a half order they look at you like you have monkeys flying out of your ears. Aaaand, if they actually do have half orders they are maybe a dollar less. What a scam!

Well, Lex and I just sat there and ate and talked and talked and talked. I love one on one time with my granddaughters. It's amazing just how much of a real conversation you can have with a young child.

Since it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner we decided a new term was in order for the meal we had just enjoyed.
Alexandra came up with Linner I think, and I put forth Dunch for her consideration. She thought that the whole topic was so funny that we branched off into a whole other topic of conversation and never did decide on the proper term.

Well, we crossed dunch off our list and headed to JoAnn Fabrics.

Alexandra was a natural when it came to choosing patterns. She took the easy way out and decided she would have one of everything. I could so relate. I have more patterns that have never been used than ones I actually do make into something.

Fortunately, I was able to help her narrow it down to two different patterns. One being a pattern I already had at home.

Next up fabric.

I cannot overstate enough just how much she loved picking out fabrics. It was harder to narrow down the fabric selection than it had been the patterns.
She was so taken by all of the costume sparkly satins and sheers. There was this one rather gaudy, but still beautiful, (in it's way) shiny red metallic looking red square with a black background fabric that for a minute I wasn't sure if we would get out of the store without buying at least a small piece of it.
Fortunately cooler heads prevailed (mine not hers) and we decided that it would have been very nice if we were planning to make a costume but not really appropriate for a school or church dress.

We eventually settled on a darling dark blue diagonal plaid corduroy and a lovely pink snowflake embossed (with sequins) corduroy. There wasn't a lot of the blue but I should be able to make it stretch for the dress pattern she liked.

There was plenty of the pink.

So much so that I got enough for a dress for both her and Lorelai.
Lex was having such a great time that she didn't mind at all being generous.

Alexandra was having so much fun that every time I mentioned that we should probably get going she insisted that we would be cutting short her date with grandma, much too soon. Watching her have so much fun made it just that much more fun for me.

We did finally finish up at JoAnn's. A quick walk through the Halloween aisle stretched out our visit long enough that Lex had to agree she had definitely gotten her money's worth.

Besides, we still needed to go have hot chocolate.

Lex made sure that she didn't miss out on any of the wonders that Lorelai had been shown the Saturday before.

Starbucks here we come.

We not only enjoyed a hot cocoa, but I decided to go one better and let her pick out a pastry for us to share. She chose a nice thick slice of Pumpkin Bread.
I tore it in two and let her have the biggest half.

As we drove to Starbucks it was already starting to get dark outside. Alexandra felt most satisfied that we had been gone long enough for it to turn dark.
I told her, as we were walking into Starbucks, that by the time we came out it would be really dark.

And it was.

This was a clear sign that it was time to take my little Princess home.
So I did.
She was bursting with details of our day and couldn't wait to impress mama and daddy with all that we had done.
She probably did take a tiny bit of a perverse pleasure in telling Lorelai all that we had done.
It doesn't take much for Lorelai to feel ill used, and sweet little girl that she is, Lori wanted to show her big sister the Pez dispenser she had picked out for Lex while out grocery shopping that afternoon with the parents.

I swooned over that Pez dispenser to let Lorelai know that she was still just as important to me as always.

Being a bit of a Diplomat is a big part of successful grandmahood.

All in all it was a great day spent with a great little granddaughter.
I think a precedent has been set.
I doubt I will ever buy another birthday toy for these little sweetheart's birthdays again.

And that's fine with me. One on one time is so much better than some toy that will never be played with longer than that first week.





Here I am saying goodby to a sad-that-she-didn't-get-to-go-Lorelai.

Lorelai and me are pretty good company

This last Saturday Donald and Lisa had a lot on their plate; Orchestra practice, Dance lessons, etc.

And then to top it all off, a sick little Alexandra.

Donald called at about 8:45 AM wondering if I could help them out. I agreed to take Lorelai to her dance lessons so that Donald could stay home with a sick Lex and a (thankfully) healthy Elisabeth.

I always enjoy one on one time with each of my five grandaughters. So spending the better part of a Saturday with Miss Lorelai was fine with me. It was a bit of a tight squeeze getting her there on time because Don had just taken my van to get the tires rotated. I called him on his cell and explained that I needed my car back A. S. A. P.

He did me one better actually.

He not only got my van back to me in record time. But he picked Lorelai up on the way so all I had to do was race off to get her to dance lessons by ten. I'm pleased to report that she was there in time.

WARNING: Shamelessly Bragging Grandma Ahead! Proceed with Caution!

Lorelai has a very small class. It was only her and four other little girls. I pulled a chair up to the window so that I could sit comfortably and watch her do her thing.

She was just so beautiful. Lisa had put her hair into the sweetest little bun with a crocheted cover attached to a big pink bow. She was simply gorgeous. I tried to not be too smug, the other little girls were cute too, just not as splendid as MY grandaughter.

(What do you think? Too obnoxious? Too bad.)

And then the class started. I was so thrilled that I not only had the prettiest child out there but also the best dancer. I was SO proud of her. She actually listened and watched the examples of the teacher. (A darling, lovely, ethereally graceful, young woman)

Tap dance was first.

The teacher showed them to heel toe and heel toe. Lorelai did heel toe and heel toe. The other little girls pretty much just went stomp, stomp, stomp.

On to Ballet

Lori tried her hardest to match her moves to her teacher's. She paid close attention to each new step and did her best to replicate it.

And cutest of all,

each time it was her turn to dance, using the new step, up to her teacher, get a high five and then go back to her spot, Lori would continue to do the new step all the way back from her high five. All the other little girls ran back.

I have one more thing to brag about so stick with me here. My second oldest grandaughter, Lindsay. My daughter Heidi's youngest, has been in ballet since she was younger than Lorelai. Lindsay has so much raw talent it's amazing. She has such poise and grace and ability it just blows me away.

Yes, yes, I know, I am one LUCKY grandma!

Well as delightful as they were, Lori's dance lessons came to an end. Did I take her home after that?

Are you kidding???

Of course I wasn't ready to hand her over. And she wasn't ready to end Lori and Grandma time either. I decided that a quick trip to Starbucks for some hot cocoa was definitely in order. We got our cocoa and sat at a small table to enjoy a cozy moment.
Lorelai wanted to blow bubbles.
I told her that she couldn't do that until her cocoa was at least half empty. I got her a straw to facilitate the emptying of the cocoa and then to use for a bubble blowing device.

She blew plenty of chocolaty bubbles and a good time was had by all. With minimal mess to the table, thanks to plenty of napkins.

Next stop JoAnn Fabrics.

Lorelai was excited by all of the beautifully colored and textured fabrics. I went in to JoAnn's to buy a piece of knit fabric I had seen there the previous day, but hadn't bought, because I didn't have my 50% off coupon with me at the time. I showed the fabric to Lorelai. She wasn't nearly as impressed as I had thought she would be. Instead she pointed out a different pattern that was next to the one I was planning to buy. The one she pointed out was a cute little black knit with red cherries all over it. It hadn't been there yesterday. I had to agree that the cherry print was indeed the better choice.

Who knew that she would be such a handy little person to have along when it came to picking out fabric.

We got all there was of it.

She told me that yes, I could make her and Lex something out of it, but was most adamant that I make something for Elisabeth as well. Have I mentioned yet what a dear and generous sister she is? Her sisters are never far from her thoughts. Especially little Lizzy.

Well fabric shopping left us ready for some lunch.
Time for McDonald's.

For Lorelai; Happy meal (cheeseburger, no onions or pickles, fries, not apples, and soda instead of juice) It went without saying that of course I would be getting a Happy Meal as well. How else would we have a Happy Meal toy for poor sick Lex. Lori really does think of everything.

We sat in a nice little booth. We talked and talked. Many different subjects were discussed. Lorelai favored her fries to her hamburger but in the end it was all consumed.

There was a slight controversy over whether to bring her drink with us or not.

(My vote no.) I knew that once her little bum hit the car seat headed for home, the drink would be all but forgotten and the chance of spillage too great.

(She voted yes) She still had lots of drink left and I think it seemed too great a loss to her for it to just get thrown away.

We compromised.

I told her she could bring her drink, but as luck would have it, wink, wink, there were just too many things to carry (she had also insisted on bringing the empty Happy Meal boxes along.) It quickly became apparent that something had to go.

Goodbye unfinished drink, we will miss you.

Well, that was more or less the extent of our Grandma - Lorelai day out. Of course I came in and hung out for a while. I had by now realized that our little date would make for a perfect post, so I asked Lisa to take a picture of us.

She did.

I did.

And I now have yet another of my best Grandma moments recorded for posterity. And you my friends are lucky enough to have the opportunity to have a peek into my delightful weekend.

It's going on twelve years now and I still have yet to find a downside to this whole Grandma business.

I'm pretty sure that's because,

there is no downside!

Shawn's morning shows

I know that in many of my previous posts I've made it quite clear that Shawn LOVES watching TV. Some of you may be wondering about the kinds of shows that he likes to watch.

The answer is, Practically EVERYTHING.

He loves action and "shoot em up" shows.
Keifer Sutherland's 24 is a big Shawn show.

He loves children's programing. Mr. Rogers being a favorite.

He loves game shows. Old shows. New shows. Half hour comedy shows.

There is one category of shows that Shawn is particularly loyal to.

Mom's shows!

That's right. He loves nothing more than to come into my room in the morning and sample a bit of what I'm watching.
Now I don't really think of myself as a big TV viewer, but in the morning, I like to casually watch TV.

For years, I have watched the Today Show.
Shawn's morning viewing had mostly consisted of, PBS kid's "educational" shows.

For the last year or so though, he is much more likely to have his TV turned to the Today show, than Zaboomafoo, or Sesame Street.

Why?

Because the Today show is what MOM watches.

For several months, I have passed up the Today show in order to spend time with Stacy and Clinton as they teach me "What Not To Wear."

So guess what has become one of Shawn's new shows?
You guessed it, "What Not To Wear."

I have watched the "View" for years.
At least since Lisa Ling's days.

What does Shawn usually watch come 10 AM?

Of course. The View.

The other day, my middle son, Kelly, asked me if I was aware that Shawn was watching "The View".
In other words a show clearly meant for a, mostly female, 28 to 65 year old demographic.
I answered him that
of course I knew that Shawn watched it.
Kelly had only one question as he looked at me with a very confused look on his face.

WHY?

Silly middle son Kelly.
He knows as well as everyone else in this family knows, that Shawn is a true,
dyed in the wool,
fanatical,
never, ever to change,
Mama's Boy.

Such a mama's boy that he likes to do as many things with me as possible. I rarely run errands without him as my tag along. He shadows me, wherever I go in the house, for at least several hours a day.

His dad or siblings will ask Shawn if he wants to go somewhere with them and his first question is almost always,

"Is mom going too?"

His acceptance of their invites is in direct proportion to my willingness to come along.

There have been so many times when things will go back and forth.

No. Shawn does not want to go to the store with dad.

Oh? What's this?
Mom has suddenly announced that she has decided to join in the adventure?

Count me in too!

Ooops, mom has suddenly remembered something she still needs to do at home so she has just told dad she guesses that she won't come after all.

Open the car door! What was I thinking? Of course I don't want to go!

WHAT?!? Mom just changed her mind and decided that, the thing she was going to do can wait. She is NOW going after all?!?

Hold that Van! I'm coming too!

This is a small but extremely accurate portrayal of how things work for Shawn.

So, yes, he likes to watch the shows that he knows I watch.

Sometimes though, I have to be very careful.

Last week, if you watched even ten minutes of TV the whole week, I'm sure that you saw Mackenzie Phillips talking about the, hmmm, shall we say, highly, HIGHLY, inappropriate, um, intimate, relationship she had for many years with her own father.

It suddenly occurred to me that Shawn was upstairs, in his room, about to watch the View.

Oh NO! Not on MY watch!

I raced up the stairs and told him that the View was not appropriate viewing for him that day. I had to mention,
Adult subject matter,
Subversive language,
Extreme Violence.

Trust me, these are words and terms he KNOWS.

One of his most passionate activities is reading parental warnings on the back of every movie he can get his hands on. No surprise that the video department is his desired location in whatever store he finds himself in.
Even though he is not allowed to watch R rated movies, they are by far his favorites to research the backs of.

They always have the very best warning phrases after all.

Anyway, back to the View and it's Offensive Subject Matter.
I've decided that I should probably have a little talk with Mr. Shawn. We need these little talks now and then to remind him about not watching inappropriate shows.
I don't want to outlaw the View for him because, well, you know how it goes, the things that are forbidden become the most desirable and all. He just needs to know that this particular show isn't always the best choice for him.

Hopefully it shouldn't be too hard a sell.

It's not all that difficult to direct his attentions to one or another of his millions of DVDs or to just plain have him change the channel.

I don't want to completely deprive him of his desire to watch his MOM shows. And he really isn't a stranger to my telling him that he can't watch whatever it is I'm watching because of it's; Adult Situations, Disturbing Language, Creepy Content, (as you can tell, over the years, he has come up with a few of his own warnings.) or Elicit Drug Use.

If he seems a bit unconvinced I simply remind him of the last two Harry Potter movies. He insisted he wanted to see them and they both scared the jeebees out of him. There are a few other things he has snuck and watched that have later really scared or otherwise disturbed him.

So it's fair to say that he has a pretty healthy respect for the things I tell him he can't watch.

I guess it all comes down to the fact that I will always be needed to monitor his viewing habits.
Not a big deal to me of course.
Don and I have known for at least 22 years that Shawn is going to be a full time parenting job.

We will never have an empty nest.

And it will probably always be prudent to keep an eye on whatever it is that he's watching.
We don't mind.
With Shawn, the rewards so outpace the challenges that it is seldom ever an issue.
I will continue watching the view, and I will continue letting him know if it's not a good day for him to be watching it.
He will continue to be my shadow.
We will continue to take advantage of all of the wonderful programs the ARC sponsors.
Because after all, even Mama's Boys need some time away from mama.