Rainy Days and Mondays

Headband gals

Ready for our walk to the zoo.

How sweet is this little lady?

This is one of my favorite pictures of the girls!

The next line in that title is "always get me down" but that does not apply to my Monday. Since it is Monday and it has been rainy all day I am just using the first part of the title of the song. It has been a very good Monday all around. John just got home from the first day at his new job. The name of the company is Realtime Utility Engineers and he had a very good day. He reports that there are nice people and he has a big cubicle, no door or window. My kids were very well behaved today and they seemed to understand what I was trying to teach them. Of course, it was just the color brown so maybe they already knew about brown! I got my hair colored and cut by a new beautician. She did a fine job, I like the cut, now the test comes to see if I still like it as much tomorrow when I have to do it myself. So as you see, all in all a better than average day for me.
I am going to add some more pictures from our fun Saturday with Tizita. Enjoy!

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it's off to work I go

Tomorrow is the day that John starts his new job. I wanted to write the name of the new company, but it escapes me at the moment and I am too lazy to go downstairs and ask John. Here he is and he is not celebrating a Packer win since that did not happen but he is celebrating his last day of lay off vacation and his first day on the new job. He is celebrating with a fine cigar from Nathan which he says was the best cigar ever and a bottle of fine beer. I hope he has a great first day and that the new company is a good fit for him and his skills. I also hope he can work there for a good long time.
Be sure and check out past posts for new pictures of Tizita in case you haven't seen them yet.

Daddy's taking me to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow. zoo tomorrow, we can stay all day!

All tired out after the zoo trip

A family photo by the big globe. Tizita is busy with something

Here we are ready to take our train ride. The engineer assured us she has taken many trips with only adults riding so no need to feel foolish. Alissa and John stayed behind to take pictures.

Tizita is showing everyone where she was born

Look who is pushing Tizita? She was more than happy to let Great Grandma push her all around the zoo.

Here is the happy family ready to go in the zoo.


When you look at the photos you should start at the bottom and work your way up to get them in the right order. I am still working on things like that so bear with me.


The song title for today is one of my Preschooler's favorites. It has lots fun verses that have the kids acting like all the different animals. Anyway it started going through my head so I figured I would use it today and keep singing it while I blog this entry. One of the things we did yesterday was take Tizita over to the zoo which is right across the street from their house. She is no stranger to this zoo since she and Courtney go there on a daily basis. It is a small zoo, but a great size for little ones. I have included the pictures from the zoo trip. If you haven't checked out yesterday's post do so now, too, since it has some more pictures on it from our visit on Saturday. I also put a slide show up in the right corner with some new pictures so enjoy that, too.

What a wonderful world!

Four generations!

Reading with Grandpa and Grandma

Reading with Great Grandma Marge (Gigi)

Such a sweetie

Newest Packer Cheerleader!

Playing in the watertable that Uncle Nathan gave Tizita

Giving Grandma a drink of coffee

Getting a kiss from Auntie Alissa and she was sitting on her lap at the time.

Having fun with Grandpa. He is giving her a ride in the rocker. This is right after she touched his moustache and seemed to enjoy the feel of it.

First things first, Thanks to those of you who submitted a guess as to where we spent John's last day of lay off vacation. We parked at Korth County Park on Rock Lake and walked about a third of the way around the lake and back again. The picture was actually taken at Rock Lake Park. Paul guessed correctly when he said Rock Lake, but he didn't know where we were on the Lake. I am surprised that Mal or Pam didn't recognize this spot since I know they pass it on the way home from Lake Mills to Marshall. At any rate it was a wonderful walk around a beautiful Lake. Courtney and Paul used to live in Lake Mills and we spent many happy times there.


Now on to bigger and better things. We had a lovely time in Oshkosh today visiting with our beautiful granddaughter. She warmed up to all of us and put on quite a show. It is late and I am tired so I will include my favorite pictures and write more tomorrow. I know I will have some sweet dreams tonight!

Take the weather with you

Can you guess where John and I spent his last day of "vacation" today?

I chose this favorite Jimmy Buffett song for today's post. Since John starts his new job on Monday we were pretending this week was a vacation week. We often get through the tough times by giving them a new name and looking at them in a different way, that way this last week of a lay off didn't seem so bad when we called it a vacation. We had a beautiful hike somewhere. I was just wondering if anyone would like to try and guess the location. I visit many blogs and they often have contests like name the location or name the photo, so here is my first blog contest. Not sure if there is a prize or not yet!
Getting back to the Buffett song. The weather this past week has been just gorgeous. Temps in the low 70's, no rain, and my favorite part, the cool nights just great for sleeping. The trees are starting to change color and the look of fall is in the air. I love fall except for the fact that it means winter is right on its tail. John and I both agreed that we would like to take this weather with us right into the new year, through next spring. And we will take the memory of perfect weather days like today with us anyway even if we can't take the actual weather with us. Neither of us buy into the whole global warming thing, but if this warm weather is caused by global warming we are all for it! So, Jimmy, we are following your advice and taking this weather with us.
Now go ahead and enter my contest!
Note to Tizzy: I am coming up to see you in about one hour! I am bringing your great grandma GiGi with me as well as your Grandpa John. You already met your Auntie Alissa and Uncle NTN. It is going to be one great day in the 'Kosh. See you very soon.

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Our Bible story for this week is Noah and the Ark. Today just as my 16 three year olds were settling down in their Jesus circle, someone came in and told us there was a rainbow over our church. We moved those 16 kids outside even quicker than they move for a fire drill to see the sight. I really think God sent us that rainbow at that time to show all of us, the kids and the teachers as well, that he still keeps all his promises. I could not have planned the lesson better. We came back in and did our story with our play animals and ark, sang our fun Noah songs, and ended with a discussion about God's promise sealed with a rainbow. The day just got better from that point on, why wouldn't it?
I just got off the phone with Courtney and I could hear all of Tizita's "talking" in the background. I can hardly stand waiting until Saturday to see her again.

Come Monday, it will be all right...

Today was an awesome day for a Monday and it was way better than just all right, but that Jimmy Buffet number seemed somehow a good choice. I took my class outside to play in the leaves today. We have some beautiful maple trees in front of our school and the pretty leaves were all over the lawn, so I decided we needed to experience that fall tradition of leaf throwing with the real thing. The photographer from our local paper drove up and took some pictures of us and there we were on the front page of the Watertown Daily Times. Free publicity for our school and a very successful leaf frolic all wrapped up in one! My kids were exceptionally well behaved today and all my lessons worked like the book always says they should. Let me tell you, that kind of success only happens once in a blue moon in the real world of teaching, so I am chalking this Monday up as one great day. Plus only four more school days until I get to spend time with Tizita again. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Another pleasant valley Sunday here in Watertown

Do you notice that I am giving my entries titles of songs? Wonder how long that will last! John and I took a nice long walk today which actually took us to four different cemeteries and no, we weren't really on a mission to visit cemeteries but rather to find some fall leaves, seeds, and nuts for my sensory table. Since cemeteries always seem to have so many pretty trees we went there to search for the fall items and we had luck. We found so many acorns with the little hats still attached as well as many oak and maple leaves. I put them in my sensory table along with some big tweezers, a bunch of rubber insects and worms, and empty peanut butter jars. Tomorrow the kids will enjoy catching bugs and putting them in the jars while crunching the leaves and breaking the hats off the acorns. After our walk we settled in for the Packer game. It is half time right now and things aren't going just too badly yet. John is watching downstairs and I can usually judge how the Pack is doing by how much yelling I hear. So far, not too much.
Note to Tizita: I hear that you do not like riding in your stroller too much. Don't worry you will get used to it and even come to enjoy it, I bet. The twins sometimes fussed in their stroller, too, especially when they noticed that I was pushing it instead of Nana Lynne. I can't wait to see you next Saturday.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Here's what you see when you look up in the rotunda of the capitol.

Here's how kids check out the beautiful rotunda in the capitol. The best way to see it is by laying on your back and looking up. Oh, to be a kid again.

This is outside the capitol. The farmer's market is all around the capitol square.

Our capitol building

Here I am, outside of Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Here we are enjoying our meal.

Here are our yummy chocolate nachos and yes, we did finish the whole thing!

Today John and I spent a very nice day in Madison. We started out by walking around the Farmer's Market on the Square, so many yummy fresh vegetables and other goodies. It was international peace day, seems like almost everyday is peace day in Madison. Both John and I agree that you should visit Madison a few times, but not too often or it will make you "soft" in the brain. Madison is a city of liberals! We took our tour of the state capitol building. Anytime we are in Madison we have to check out our capitol. It is such a beautiful building and today it was full of people just taking it all in. Lots of kids were just making noise because it echos so nicely in that big building. We then headed to State Street to look at all the fun shops and wierd people. We spent some time just sitting by the lake behind the Memorial Union. That is such a pretty spot.

After a few purchases, we went over to Cheeseburger in Paradise to enjoy a dinner from Alissa and Nathan. We enjoyed a few beers and some delicious food while listening to Jimmy serenade us in the background. Our waitress, Alissa recommended the chocolate nachos and we could not resist. (Mostly because her name was Alissa and it was even spelled correctly!) Well, she did not steer us wrong-those chocolate nachos were so yummy! We then checked out John's new office building which is just a few blocks from Jimmy's place. All in all, a most enjoyable day!

Courtney and Paul's Journey

There is a very nice post on Courtney and Paul's blog today about their trip to Ethiopia. I thought you might like to go over and take a read. The pictures are awesome so even if you don't feel like reading all the info, you can take a look at them. Here is their address again: vanaukenadoption.blogspot.com

My first refrigerator art

Imagine my surprise today when I opened my mail and found a beautiful picture made by little Tizita during one of her art times. I immediately put it up in the place of honor on the fridge. I hope it is the first of many, many masterpieces created by Tizzy. We can't quite tell what it is, but she chose some lovely colors. I think it is more a work of modern art.
I talked to Courtney today and she said they took Tizita swimming today for the first time and she really enjoyed it. To those of you who know anything about Courtney, you know how important swimming has been in her life and how much she wants her children to be swimmers. Courtney, herself began swimming at about one year and used to cry when we had to leave the pool or listen to instructions before we could get in. She started swimming competitively at age eight and continued right on through college. Her first swim team coach taught her so much more than just proper swim strokes, starts, and turns. He taught her as well as all her teammates to set goals and then go after those goals, not only in the pool, but in life. That has stuck with Courtney, Thanks, Scott! So with this first visit to a swimming pool today, Tizzy is on her way.

If it's Tuesday, then this must be Grandmaville

No news from Grandmaville today regarding Tizita except what I read on Courtney's blog which is certainly fun, but it makes me want to be there spending time with her. In the meantime while I wait patiently until Saturday, September 27 when I can go visit her again, I will throw myself into school and give my students the attention they deserve from me. I have to say that during those first two weeks of school while Courtney and Paul were traveling my attention was not always directed toward my class as it should have been. I know none of them noticed, after all they are only three and four and I know how to meet and greet parents so they didn't notice any distractions either, but I know I wasn't there mentally as much as I should have been, so I fixed that. Today was actually the best Tuesday so far. We had Teddy Bear day and made little wagons out of shoeboxes. We took our bears around the block in their wagons. It was a fun day. John did a lot of yard work today and then grilled steaks for us which were waiting for me when I got home. This is what I will miss most when he starts his new job!

In need of a Tizita fix?

Courtney and Paul have been adding pictures and details about their days with Tizita on a regular basis so I will send you over there if you need a Tizita fix. vanaukenadoption.blogspot.com
John accepted a new job today. He will start work on Monday, Sept. 29 at a firm in Madison. He will be doing his usual CAD work but with electricity instead of subdivisions. I figure this is a good thing since we will always need electricity! So here's to hoping that he can stay there until he can retire or expire, whichever comes first!
Anyway it feels like a huge weight has been lifted with this new job. I am glad we still have two weeks though, I have things John has to do around the house yet for me before he joins the working world again. Mal and I both know that the reason he got this job is because we helped him pick out new clothes before this interview. We took one look at him in his old suit which is so big for him and decided he needed a makeover and that is why he got this job!

New Look for My Blog

My Grandma says, "Thanks for reading my blog."

Hope you enjoy the new look of my blog. I thought it was high time to change the look and the name since I am no longer a Grandma in Waiting! Thank you for coming with me on this journey and for sticking with me during the long hall. I especially want to thank a few special blog followers at this time:
Thank you to my very good friend, Connie who has supported me unconditionally through every phase of my life. Her words of encouragement over the past year have been priceless. I look forward to visiting Grandmaville with her.
Thank you to my newer reader, Verna, the mom of Alissa's good friend, Kim. Thank you for checking in on me so much and always taking time to leave such kind, encouraging comments and for keeping me in her prayers.
Thank you to Kim, Verna's daughter. Thank you for your kindness and compassion. We won't tell Alissa how often you cry tears of joy for me, right? I am so thankful for the luck of the draw that made you and Alissa roommates that first year at IWU. I appreciate all your comments, prayers, and words of encouragement.
Thank you to my old college roommate, Joan who has been such a support to me during this wait for Tizita. Thank you for your kind words that helped me know this would all work out just fine and it did.
Thank you to Badger Girl even though I have never met you. You gave me many helpful kind comments that made me feel so much better on some pretty rough days. You have a gift for the right words.
Thank you to my grandma sister, Shari who has been there from the beginning of our adoption journey. We met through the Ethiopian forum. I know God helped us find one another. You have helped me more than you will ever know with your understanding of this whole process. You were my special angel. I can't wait to meet you and your family very soon.
Thank you to another grandma of little Mehandis. Again we have never met, but your words also helped me during this process. Your little grandson is so handsome. I look forward to keeping in touch for many years, Diane.
Thank you to my friend, Lynne who has so kindly shared her grandchildren with me while I waited for my own. Thanks for your kindness and listening ear during this process. I look forward to sharing grandma times with you and having my own grandchild this time.
Thank you to Melissa, Lynne's daughter, the mom of those precious three children who I practiced my grandma skills on.
Thank you to Tizita's other grandma, Pott for her calming words as we waited out this adventure. She often understood things that only the two of us could. I look forward to grandmothering this precious little girl together.
Thank you to Kari, Paul's sister for reading my blog and leaving supportive comments. I know Sofie, Celia, Stella, and Tizita will have wonderful cousin times.
Thank you to Gretchen for her prayers and encouraging words.
Thank you to all of you who may read this blog but not leave comments, that is okay, too.
I especially want to say thank you for the prayers during Courtney, Paul, and Tizita's travels when I was really on edge. The power of those prayers gave me a wonderful calm, peaceful feeling.
Of course I need to thank my family:
My niece, Mallory for always making me laugh and helping keep my mind off of stressful things.
My daughter, Alissa who adds the comic relief to my days and Nathan, my new son in law for letting me come and play wii when I need diversion
My mom who is always supportive and willing to listen to anything I have to say
My husband, John for being the other half of this grandparent thing. another new adventure for us to share together.
And of course, to Courtney, Paul, and Tizita who were the inspiration for this blog in the first place.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
I Hope you continue to read about my adventures as I embark on my new role here in Grandmaville.

Wedding Proofs are in

Kim, this one is for you! You look beautiful

Mr. and Mrs. Hunter

The beautiful Illinois Wesleyan campus

Our family

A proud Dad

Sisters

The beautiful bride

As if I don't have enough pictures to peruse this weekend, Alissa got her proofs and I have been enjoying looking at all of those beautiful photos this afternoon. It is nice to relive those happy memories of Aug. 30. I will post a few of my favorites here.

I talked to Courtney before the Packer game today and Tizzy was learning to say "Go, Pack, Go". I could hear her babbling in the background. She had her first bath last night, slept well, and went to church this morning. Good stuff!

Fun with Tizzy

Eating Rocky Roccoco pizza
Three generations

Finally a picture with grandma! She is wearing an old outfit of Courtney's on this picture.

Here is one of many cute faces

She mastered this ball game very quickly

Happy to be home

She already knows how to pose for a camera

We had a wonderful morning playing with our precious Tizzy. She gives high fives, does the sign for more, does so big, shows us her tummy, teeth, and nose, throws balls, jabbers constantly and has some pretty funny facial expressions. I will share some of my favorite pictures here.

It is actually quite amazing how quickly she is getting used to her new surroundings. She runs around the house like she has been there forever.

Good morning and what a fine morning it is

pointing to her balloon

Here she is checking out Grandpa John

Here is Tizu walking to meet us with her mama

We woke up today in our overly priced yet beautiful hotel room feeling so good about being grandparents to our gorgeous little Tizita Desta! Today I will share the pictures of the four grandlparents waiting at the airport. After our large $6.00 beers and one bloody mary we felt much calmer and ready to meet Tizu. (Tizu is the name they called her at the Care Center so we will most likely be using that name as a nickname) I will also post a few more pictures of her again.

We are headed over there after breakfast to visit with her some more. I will post about that visit later.