Spring Snow!

This is what we here in Wisconsin woke up to this morning. A winter wonderland in spring! The only good thing is that we know it will melt quickly! Sprng in Wisconsin, you gotta love it!
Check out the previous post if you haven't yet. It is about our first grandparent outing withTizu.

A Recap of our day at the Museum

Here we are all ready to start our adventure. This really made John and I feel like real grandparents because for the first time we were taking Tizu by ourselves on an outing. We did take her to my school a few weeks ago, but that was only for a short time! This was the real grandparent thing and we were so excited.

We started our day out at Toys R Us where Tizu picked out a yellow dump truck and pushed it all over the store. There was an older lady who worked there who kept following us around and talking to Tizu and asking us about her. She was really taken in by this sweet little lady. I would have taken her for a stalker, but she was too sweet for that. On our way out of the store with our truck, the lady brought Tizu a helium balloon. Wherever Tizu goes she captures the hearts of people. There is just something magical about his little girl.
After Toys R Us, we headed over to the Children's Museum in Appleton. What a great place for kids. Tizu has been there so many times that we just let her lead the way. We started with the trains, spent time in Kwik Trip, the Doll Hospital, the Firetruck, DaVinci Studio, the water area, the airplane, just to name a few areas. The time just went so quickly and before we knew it, our morning was over.
We headed over to Fazoli's for lunch. Tizu enjoyed spaghetti, breadsticks, oranges, and chocolate milk.
After lunch we had to return her to her parents!
Such a fun day with such a sweet girl.

This is the truck that Tizu picked out at Toys R Us where we visited before the Museum. She pushed this truck around the entire store and so we did the only thing we could, we bought it for her. Every girl needs her own truck.

Grandma and Tizu enjoying a book while sitting on this big old lady chair.

Here is Dr. Tizu in the Doll Hospital taking care of her Mimi.

Grandma and Tizu playing with some vegetables.

This is Tizu in the water area of the museum. The kids wear these cute little raincoats when they play in here. Even with this precaution, they still manage to get pretty wet.

Tizu made a beautiful butterfly in the DaVinci studio.

Here is Tizu riding on a Zebra.

Here is our little firefighter, Tizu driving the big firetruck. Grandpa would stand in front of the truck and she would yell, "Watch out, Gampa!"

Uneventful week

It has been an uneventful week around these parts. Rain and wind everyday with some snow predicted for Saturday. Did anyone ever say they actually enjoyed March????? What a foolish sentiment, indeed!

Getting back to the classroom after a week of spring break has been very easy. The kids are always excited to get back after a break and they play with all the toys as if they are brand spanking new. A three year old is easy to please in my classroom. We also made our annual donkeys out of yardsticks with a donkey head attached. The kids ride their donkeys into Jerusalem as we study the Palm Sunday story. Everyone always enjoys this lesson!

It doesn't help that I am on Tizu withdrawal either. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with Tizu (her mama and papa, too) and I miss her this week. So much so that I had to set up a play date for her with Grandpa and I on Saturday. We will go to Oshkosh to deliver a booster chair for her (this was my excuse to get up there) and take her either to the museum or the park depending on the weather. After that we will have lunch with her. Just knowing that I will be able to see her has made this week a good one. I am trying not to live my life counting the days between Tizu visits, but it is difficult. I think I need a hobby!

So, uneventful is good...

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

This is Tizu sitting on her potty in the garage! We were just unpacking the car from Door County and Tizu had to go, so Courtney just unloaded her potty chair, set it up in the garage, and Tizu did her business and then got back to her lawn work!

Tizu's first trip to Chamberland Park, Kraemer's Dairy, and St. Vinney's

On Thursday, March 19, Courtney and Tizu came to Watertown. Since the weather was nice we took Tizu to Chamberland Park for what I am sure will be the first of many visits. We had so much fun. Tizu especially enjoyed the many slides.
Since Courtney hadn't brought a hat for Tizu (not expecting outdoor activities) I found a hat that Courtney wore when she was just a baby. Fit her perfectly and kept her nice and warm.
While at the park we were joined by four other adults and four children. Of those eight people two of them were black beside Tizu. I think Watertown is becoming more diverse!

After the park we walked over to Kraemer's Dairy for some fresh cheese curds and chocolate milk. Tizu was so thirsty she drank that yummy milk right out of the jug. A girl after her mom's heart. Courtney always drinks the milk right out of the jug. She also enjoyed a few of the fresh curds before we headed over to St. Vinney's for some toy shopping. There is nothing better than buying whatever you want at St. Vinney's and the price is always right.

Here is the cute little riding toy car that Tizu found and just could not live without. Total cost-$3.50. Happy little girl-priceless! She actually rode her little car quite a distance before hopping back into her stroller.

On Friday w went to the Milwaukee Public Museum. John and I have always enjoyed taking our girls and then Mallory to the Museum. Even though a few things have changed we still all have our favorite areas and we were anxious to share them with Tizu. We started out in the butterfly area. Since we arrived early we were in the butterfly area by ourselves. There are hundreds of butterflies of all varieties flying around. Tizu was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, but she warmed up to those butterflies after a bit. In this picture I have one on my finger. One did land on Tizu's pretty flower on her pants. Luckily it was in the back or she might have freaked out. We spent about 15 minutes in there just taking it all in before we moved on.

Tizu was very brave to go up this close to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. When Alissa was small she wouldn't go anywhere near the Dinosaur exhibit, butTizu actually seemed to enjoy it up close and personal.

When the girls were younger they always liked the igloo. They would go inside and just sit there for a bit so we were anxious to show the igloo to Tizu. Not sure she had the same feelings as her mama and Aunt Alissa but she is young yet and has time to develop a love for this igloo. Below you see Grandma, Grandpa, and Tizu in the igloo.
After our museum fun we met John's folks at the Machine Shed in Pewaukee for a late lunch. Tizu put on good show and kept us all entertained at the table. Here she is in her carseat enjoying some gummy worms compliments of Mamaw and Pops.
And a quick nap on the way home!
Pleasant dreams of butterflies, little one!

Door County, Beautiful weather, and the Children's Museum in Appleton

Hiking in Peninsula State Park.

A nice shot with Lake Michigan in the background.

Exploring the Lake Michigan shoreline at Cave Point County Park. This is one of our favorite spots in Door County. It is so pretty no matter what season.

Grandma and Tizu on our back deck at our condo in Fish Creek on our last morning.

A stop at the Packer Pro Shop. Tizu had a blast running around and checking out all the fun Packer gear.

Having fun in the tire swing at the park. This park is just across the street from Tizita's house and right on the lake.

Enjoying the beautiful weather in Oshkosh. Tizu and her neighbor Iree are up in the tree.

Here is Tizu serving Grandma and Grandpa at the little diner in the museum.

Dancing on the Vegetable stage at the Children's Museum in Appleton.

We really enjoyed our little mini vacation in Door County. It was so much fun to spend time with Courtney, Paul, and especially Tizita. We all had a great time hiking in our favorite state parks and eating at some of our favorite dining spots. Our condo was very nice, too.
The weather was sunny and just perfect for outdoor activities. On our way back to Oshkosh we stopped at the Packer Pro Shop.
When we arrived in Oshkosh we took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and went to the park to play.
Today we headed up to the Children's Museum in Appleton, what a fantastic place for kids! After a nice lunch we headed back to Oshkosh to visit a bit before heading home.

One preview picture

Here is one preview picture from our adventures in Door County to peak your interest and bring you back for more as soon as I get to my own pictures on my own computer.
Stay tuned...

Live from Door County

Coming to you from beautiful Door County with no photos. I am not able to get my photos uploaded for some unknown reason so just let me tell you we are having a wonderful time. Weather is perfect, hiking has been fun for all of us including Tizita, and our condo is great. We are off for some shopping in Fish Creek now. I will work on pictures later.

Cute hat and new coat

Here is my sweet little Tizita in her new Easter bonnet. She was off to somewhere important in her little blue car and as you can see she was drinking and driving! Just Grandma's diet coke though!

This is my new coat. I had eyed this coat up and tried it on a few times at Kohl's but at the price of $180.00 there was no way I was buying it. The last time I went out to Kohl's I was armed with $70.00 worth of gift cards from my students and I was in search of a new swimsuit. I saw this coat on the 80% off rack and picked it up for a mere $30.00. I was so excited. Although it is not a swimsuit, it sure is a cute coat. By the way I did find a swimsuit that night, too, so it was one of those rare successful shopping trips that leaves one feeling that they have won some type of shopping battle!
We are off to Door County in about a half hour. We will be heading up to Oshkosh to meet up with Courtney, Paul, and Tizita who will join us for our little get away to DC. It is a beautiful, sunny day out there, a perfect day for a trip up north. I will fill you all in on details later.

I've been a Grandma for six months!

Today I am celebrating my six month anniversary as a Grandma! A Grandma to the sweetest, most precious little lady ever! So far, being a Grandma has exceeded my wildest dreams. So, today, I take a moment to Thank God for bringing Tizita into our lives and I ask Him to make me worthy of being her Grandma. (Although I have done that everyday since she has been home, but today is special) This weekend we are heading up to Door County with Courtney, Paul, and Tizita. I am looking forward to spending a few days with my sweet girl. Please read the previous post if you have not done so.
As a side note, I no longer have my love affair with March. I am officially saying it is not anywhere near my favorite month. I was taken in by one very nice day which has since been followed by a week of high winds, cold temps, a boatload of rain and some snow. So speed by fickle March, bring on April!

Happy 6 month "Gotcha Day" Tizita Desta

FYI-I wrote this entry on Sunday the 8th as you can tell by the date and I uploaded it Sunday as well even though the actual "Gotcha Date" is Thursday, September 12.

It was six months ago today, September 12, 2008 that our precious little Tizita Desta came home to Oshkosh, so I wanted to take this time to send out a special blog on this memorable day.
In ways it seems like Tizu has been here forever. She has become such a part of our lives that we cannot even remember life without her. In other ways that night of September 12 seems like only yesterday. The memory of seeing her walk off that plane with her mama and papa are forever etched in my mind. What a day that was! At that time we knew very little about her except her name and birthdate. We had two pictures of her, but that was it. We just didn't know what to expect, but she has surpassed our wildest hopes and dreams. We just love her to pieces and are just so darned tickled to be her grandma and grandpa.
I wanted to take a few minutes to document all the things that she has accomplished since she has come home.

• Tizita has learned who her mama and papa are, no mistake about that. She has bonded much better than any of the books led us to believe she would. She is secure in their love and knows they will always be there for her.
• Tizita is learning her colors. As a preschool teacher it is very important to me that she learn these early and she is doing that. I think she knows most of them now, but I know she is especially good at yellow and green.
• She has wonderful fine motor control. She holds a crayon correctly and is learning to cut.
• She has a great sense of humor. She understands how to make us laugh with her silly antics and often exhibits humor which is beyond her years.
• Tizu loves all music and has a great voice and sense of rhythm. She sings to me on the phone and there is nothing sweeter than that voice of hers.
• Tizu has learned about Jesus and she has learned to pray. She can tell you Bible stories and sing Jesus songs. She is very good in church.
• She is starting to string words together to make sentences.
  
• She is very kind and caring. I love watching her take care of her mimi (doll). She shows so much compassion.
• She knows many, many animals and their sounds.
• She loves "I spy" books and can often find the objects faster than I can.
• She has grown taller and gained weight. She is a healthy little girl.
  
• She has gotten to know all the relatives and calls us all by name. I wasn't sure I wanted to be a grandma at first. I thought maybe a mimi or a nana or a shishi, but when she learned to say grandma I was sold on that title.
• We have successfully babysat for Tizita a number of times and we have taken her places by ourselves without mom or dad. These are the sweet moments of grandparenting that I was looking forward to the most.
  
• Tizita knows what she wants and just how to ask for it. She is persistent and even if I don't understand her at first she will patiently wait for me to get it.
• She already knows some letters and numbers.
• She is a good natured girl who seldom has any outbursts. When she does get a bit ornery, Courtney just takes her in her arms and whispers gently to her and before you know it, Tizu is happy and cooperative again.
• Tizu is well on the way to being potty trained.
  

The best part of all is that she knows this is where she belongs. She knows that we are her family and that we all love her unconditionally. She has touched out lives in ways we never imagined. There is no doubt that God matched us up with the perfect little lady and for this we thank him daily. So, Happy Gotcha Day little Tizita Desta!

A Wonderful day spent with Tizita

We are just wrapping up a most wonderful day spent with our precious Tizita. What a hoot that little lady is.

Here are Tizita and Elmo. Elmo is wearing the new raincoat we bought for Tizita!

Here is Tizita's new raincoat and umbrella. We also got her matching rainboots. Now she is already for April showers.

My mom is on altar guild at our church and today we took Tizita along to help Gigi with cleaning the church. Here she is sweeping the floor. She can operate that carpet sweeper like a pro.

After cleaning the church John and I took Tizita over to my Preschool classroom. It was like she was in her own private children's museum. Here she and grandpa were fishing in my boat.

Sliding down our little slide.Building with the pegs. This took much concentration on both our parts.

Today was a very gloomy, rainy day, but this little girl brought so much sunshine into our world today! What a blessing she is to all of us.

I am loving the month of March

During the month of March I have always done a unit on Weather since March in Wisconsin gives us a little bit of everything-snow, rain, wind, sun, clouds and everything in between. For that reason it is the perfect time to let the kids take a turn at being our daily weather person and reporting the weather to us. We also talk about lion days and lamb days to see if the old saying, "in like a lion and out like a lamb and vice versa" has any truth to it.
Today was a beautiful day, definitely a lamb day. It was sunny with just the right amount of wind and temps in the high 50's. A most perfect spring like day. Since I have Friday afternoons off I took a nice four mile walk today with my favorite tunes playing on my ipod. Just what the doctor ordered for all of us suffering from cabin fever.
I have decided that March is probably one of my favorite months since it brings with it the hope of warmer weather when it offers us these teasing days like today. I am so thankful that I live in a place where we experience the four seasons. Sometimes in the midst of snow, ice, and cold I find myself wishing I were in a warm climate, but then along comes March and with it the knowledge that spring and then eventually summer will get here sooner rather than later.
I can now start to get some of my spring clothes out and put away a few of my sweaters-no need to do this too quickly since I know there is more winter to come, but I can at least begin the process. I can also start to think about the biking that John and I will be doing in just a short time. I can start to plan which trails we want to ride this season. We can also enjoy walking again without needing to bundle up in layer upon layer of clothes. Oh, yes, I love March! Bring it on!

The Bachelor is dead to me, for now

I waited with such anticipation for the season finale of The Bachelor. Two hours of the show itself where Jason would choose either Michelle or Molly to be his wife or maybe it would be DeAnna. The excitement was almost too much for me. Then after those two hours there would be a special one hour "After the Rose" special. All day my mind kept going to thoughts of those three hours of TV I had to look forward to. I had watched all the episodes of The Bachelor this season primarily because I really liked this Bachelor. (Don't care for him anymore) I liked both Molly and Melissa which I guess was the same problem that Jason had in the end, huh...
ABC had been airing these previews that showed DeAnna surprising Jason in New Zealand and right after that you saw a clip of Jason just bawling and hanging his head over he balcony. Put two and two together and one figures that somehow DeAnna will get him back and he will leave both Molly and Michelle in the dust. I should know by now the most obvious conclusion is never right. Another preview shows the host saying that there will be no live audience at this "After the Rose" special because it is just too dramatic. Wow! Who wouldn't be sitting on the edge of their seat?
My mom and I got our usual seats for the show discussing which girl we thought he would choose. The part about DeAnna visiting was nothing-that preview was certainly deceiving, so we knew that he would choose either Melissa or Molly. In the end he chose Melissa and as they happily jumped into the pool together I figured, "Well, this ended happily ever after."
Fast forward to the "After the rose" which was six weeks after the proposal to Melissa. Long story short, Jason breaks up with Melissa on live TV and not five minutes after that break up he is kissing Molly and telling her he made a mistake and he loved her. My mom and I were so mad at him for dumping someone on national TV, but we were even more upset because we think it was all staged. Now if my husband is reading this he will be laughing and wondering what took me so long to figure this out, but that is neither here nor there.
At any rate, we have sworn off the Bachelor, he is dead to us! I apologize if you do something more valuable with your time than watch TV, like maybe read, because I know this post won't mean anything to you, but I felt I needed to document it.
I just don't see how one cannot find their true love after six weeks filled with time in New Zealand together, numerous time in the hot tub together, helicopter rides, and bungee jumping. After all isn't that how most of us found the man of our dreams
Oh, I should add that the scene where he was bawling and hanging over the balcony actually ocurred after he send Molly off in the limo and five minutes before he proposed to Melissa. Those kind of emotions should have given him a clue that he might have just made a mistake. No man should be crying like that!
One last thing, Melissa, if you are reading this, you are better off without him!

The misadventures of a day with Mallory

Both Mallory and I had the day off yesterday so we spent it together. I have always enjoyed spending time with Mallory. She keeps me in the loop and keeps me young. She helps me with my ipod, facebook, wii, and other technological problems that I encounter. She also gives me the latest scoop about fashion, makeup and hair. In return I hope that I give her some sound advice about life in general mixed with a good amount of humor. Yes, we always have fun together and yesterday was no different.
We rented some wii games and started our day with those. Mal is always so much better than I am at all wii games. I start out thinking, "this time I can do better than she can," but it just never happens. Young people just have a knack for that kind of thing that us older folks do not possess. We did some shooting, animal crossing, and cooking with mama. After the excitement of that and eating a bunch of sweetart jellybeans which by the way are awesome, we headed to the library to get Mal a book that she needed for speech class. It was listed as being in the library, but we could not locate it on the shelf. Luckily my friend Lynne is the Children's Librarian and she came to our rescue. (No, we were not checking out a children's book for a sixteen year old! We just happened to go to Lynne for help) She found the book for us and all was well. I never seem to know the right person in high places, but this time I sure did. Thanks Lynne for saving the day.
We went to St. Vinney's (actually I had to drag Mallory there, she claims she gets hives from St. Vinney's) I needed some cars and trucks for my classroom. It was a disappointing trip since they were reorganizing and washing everything and of course, they were in the middle of the toy vehicle section so the choices were limited. I did find a few items for the classroom and then we had to hurry out because, sure enough, Mal was getting itchy!
When we got back to my house we worked on some of our crafting. We made a few cards. And, yes, Alissa you will be getting one soon! Mallory is a very careful crafter and has a great eye for what looks good. I, on the other hand, get carried away with glue and often forget that less is more.
We made Mal's favorite casserole for dinner and then she was off to her foot skills for soccer. The very best part of hanging out with Mallory these days is that she has her caddy and she is now the driver! I love her heated seats.
So that was our day. As Mal was leaving she said, "Now that was a good day!" and that is all I needed to hear!
My day did end on a sour note with the finale of The Bachelor! What a dumb ending. I am not watching it again. (Do not hold me to that!)

Cats revisited!

To the best of my recollection, it was 13 years ago that I thought it would be a fine idea to go see the broadway musical Cats when it was at the Marcus Theater in Milwaukee. When you purchase tickets for such an affair you can't know that the Packers would be playing for the NFC championship against San Francisco on that very same day at that very same hour. Needless to say, John was not very excited about missing that milestone game to see Cats, but like the good husband and father he is, he agreed to go as long as we taped the game and no one told him the results until he watched it himself. More on that later...
We were driving our bronze colored Lemon, 00ps Neon, and as John was pulling into the Windsor Hotel parking lot, a cab came out of nowhere going very fast and hit us and took off our cowel. I should also mention that it was snowing very heavily at the time. So while John waited for a police officer to come and write up the accident report the girls and I headed into the theater. I remember watching the accident action out of some big windows and wondering what was taking so long. John did miss the whole first half because he had to wait until intermission to come in. In looking back, he was probably thankful for missing part of it. We did notice there were many men sitting with earphones on listening to the game during the performance. Obviously John was not the only man dragged there by a wife!
Cats is a story in itself. I had no idea what to expect and didn't really enjoy all those cats up there in those scaggily looking outfits. We don't even like animals all that much, what was I thinking? But this is not about a critique of the play itself, so enough of that.
Anyway it finally ended and we headed home leaving our front cowel with our license plate behind on a street in Milwaukee. I think we stopped to eat at a Red Lobster which was uneventful. As we were driving home, John kept turning the radio to a different station between songs so he wouldn't hear anything about the Packer game still wanting to keep the final score a surprise. This seemed to be working quite well until one announcer talked right over the song and reported that the Packers had won the game. Not that that was bad news, but it was the last straw for John! And that folks is our day at Cats. Meow, Meow...
Anyway the whole point of this is that Cats is back in Milwaukee and all Alissa could do yesterday was talk about how we all needed to go back. Cats became the focal point of all our conversation causing much reminiscing and laughter. Meow, Meow...
We did have a very fun day yesterday. John and I shopped and spent gift cards which always makes for a good shopping experience. Why is it though that we always end up spending more that the gift card? We met Alissa for dinner at McGinn's, a little Irish bar that has fantastic food. We shared a few pitchers of beer and enjoyed our dinner and Cats conversation. Always a good time when we spend it with Alissa!