Dinner with Pop

Caro and I left our house at 5:30pm , called Pop to let him know we were on our way and arrived at his house around 6pm. He was ready. He got himself into our car and off we went to try out the just opened William McBrides near Raritan Valley College. We ordered drinks, dinner and added on a potato leek soup. Just as Caro and I were finishing splitting the soup, our dinners came. Caro ordered a Cobb salad, I ordered a vegetable panini and Pop ordered a spicy seafood fra diablo.It was a little after 6:30pm when Pop got that look on his face...Caro asked, "everything ok Pop?" That made me look at him. He was sort of gagging, not really coughing. Caro gave him the soup cup to spit into (usually he just gets up and goes to the bathroom by himself). He had a tremendous amount of thick mucus that he was gagging out (sorry). Pop is 89 and has been a smoker all of his life. When we asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital, he said he didn't know ( That was scarey...Pop always knows what he wants to do). We asked waiter for the check, took food in take out containers and got Pop back into car. He continued with the gagging. I decided mentally that if we got to Route 22 and he had not improved , then we were going to Somerset Emergency room. As we approached 22 , I said to Pop, "I'm going to the hospital, ok?" " Gdammit, take me home", he said. I then told him that if he did not improve by 6:45 I would take him to the hospital kicking and cursing. He was very shaky going into his house...got the lights on , opened the door to the garbage can and did his thing again. " I think that did it",  he said. And then he lit up a cigarette, "Are we gonna play kismet or what?" he said.
Three cigarettes and three Kismet games later He was fine and we were wrecks! Left him about 9:30pm, kissed him goodbye, told him to call us if he needed us or to press his I've fallen and can't get up button, and yelled to him as we were leaving, "GOODNIGHT DICK!

Memorial Day in Middlesex

Middlesex did not apply for a permit to close Route 28 this year so the parade route started from Victor Crowell Park and then down Delaware .

Although Diego has lived here most of his life, this was his first Memorial Day parade. Caroline did not have a chance to flash her dazzling smile before I took the picture.

Doug Rex stands for the American Flag (Lillian Dooley in red, off to the side.)

OMG! Look at me. Red, white and blue, jewelry, makeup,hat, and a handsome young man on my arm!

I look like all the other OLD people.

Cool, but what kind of Army jeep is that, anyway?

This parade was about 20 minutes long but it had unique floats. You could tell that although small a lot of effort went into it. Excellent reproduction of our 911 monument.

I believe that the Memorial Day Parade would not be complete without Miss Little League.

Half the town marches in the parade. ( just kidding.)

This was a cool, animated float. (by the way, we had torential downpours around 6AM and it seemed that we might not have the parade, which started at 11AM)

The temperature is expected to reach 90 degrees today with pop up thunderstorms. I hope we get all our good grillin' in before . The menu today consists of BBQ ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, homemade potato salad and deviled eggs, corn on the cob and angel food cake with strawberries, blueberries and cool whip or ice cream.

Samantha in wonderland.

Look at that face!

Too bad you can't hear the conversations.

What fun.

Can you find Samantha in this picture?

Clara Louise Cooper's Christening

A Wonderful Day! A Baby sent from God! A truly wanted and loved child!

The priest was about 45 minutes late, a small applause broke out when he appeared.

Seven babies were baptized today. Not one of those babies cried. It was a miracle.

Clara being baptized with the holy water.

The twins were in beautiful dresses with their hair in buns. They looked so mature and grown up. Then the party began downstairs!

You would not have wanted to be on a diet. Everything was delicious! It was just the right assortment of foods - something for everyone!

Doug Rex escorted me to the event and enjoyed himself.

Carl and Angela with sweet baby Clara Louise.

And just so Clara would know that I had attended her Christening, I asked Angela to take our picture.
God bless you and keep you Clara Louise!

At what cost doth fun be had?

Huh? What I really meant to say was that I had fun shopping with Emilie and her friends at the Somerset Scrapbook Expo. You had to know your prices to get the really good deals. Walked and shopped from 10am until about 1pm. Went to lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. Had two Malibu Bay Breezes (Emilie bought me one) the petite sirloin and the blonde brownie for one. The other girls were done shopping, but I was determined to make a day of it (I had brought my own car) so I went back into the Expo and shopped until 5pm. Really until my feet hurt so bad that I almost couldn't walk!
Here are some of the goodies:

Found goodies for my new grandson (found some for Kamryn last year, now all I have to do is find it :)

Four packages of acrylic stamps for $5.00 for all...$1.25 each....Wow!

The new trend in scrapbooking- using designer tape. The entire box was $20 and there is enough for both Emilie and I, so we split the cost. Another great deal!

When I went back for a second round I found this free make and take. A clear glass square, special clear glue and a graphic/ or picture and walla....you have jewelry.

Cool Month cards with February misspelled on one and missing January, but cheap enough that I can be creative with the mistakes.

Samantha's Preschool class is having their end of the year class picnic at Colonial Park on Monday and Kamryn is coming. I bought two sheets of these stickers so I could make each of them pages.

And just an overview of everything! And I think I shopped conservatively with upcoming projects in mind! How do you think I did?

Two Months Old

It has been only two and a half years since I have taken care of an infant all day. I remember it as not being too hard a job!  (selective memory, like childbirth memories?)  This is the third time I have cared for Kellen all day. Kamryn stayed home to go to the doctor for her allergies and to spend a day with just Mom. Sam was thrilled to have Kellen all to herself. (highlight- Kellen pooped twice!) No really, the highlight was giving Kellen his bottle all by herself.

Look at my baby Samantha, all grown up and feeding Kellen! (slow down time)
Kellen was fussy so we took him to the mall, to walk around. I am officially old - a young mother offered to help me open the stroller base that held Kellen's car seat. (at the end of our adventure I couldn't fold the damn stroller up, so I turned it over and put it in the front seat, completely open)

We then came home,fed Kellen, changed his diaper and he fell asleep on his tummy and slept for two hours.

 We woke him up, gave him his reflux medicine , tried on his two month old crown, took a few pictures and then fed and changed him again.

Then Daddy Tim came to take the two month old boy home and I got this wonderful shot of Kellen on his Dad's shoulder!

Just to let you know that after a nap now, a good nights sleep, only Sam tomorrow, another nap and a good nights sleep AND I will be ready to do it all over again (with Kamryn also this time) on Thursday.
I am not getting old , I am getting better!

Rainbow!

It was there for a minute and then it was gone! Roy G Biv - red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet!

From drought to flood

I have these lulls in my life, where either I am not inspired, nothing is happening, or I have just crashed and need a break. I go from here to "I can't fit everything that happened into one day." This is not a complaint. It is just an observation.You have actually experienced my lulls, as you read my blog or not when I haven't posted for several days. So that said, here was yesterday.

Kamryn and Kellen did not come yesterday. That left Samantha and I with a whole day to play.

A Spring walk in the park!

A haircut. Samantha is going to be a flower girl in her Uncle's wedding on Saturday.

Lunch with Grandma at Friendly's, grilled cheese and corn and of course The Happy Ending!

THE DAY ISN"T OVER YET!!

Samantha and GP goofing around on the steps while Grandma planted flowers.

Then at 5:30pm off to Angela and Carl's to see Miss Clara Louise Cooper! (no dinner mind you)

Got home around 8:15, made some noodles, watched the Good Wife and called it a day!