Grillin' in the rain

Tonight John faced the elements of thunder, pouring rains, and impending tornados to grill up some chicken for our dinner. He is like the mailmen, not rain or wind or dark of night will keep the mail from being delivered or in this case the chicken from being grilled. He set the grill up in the garage and the rest is history.

You can see how hard it was raining on this picture.

And here is the finished meal. We had twice baked potatoes and some California blend veggies to round out the dinner. Now we are enjoying a movie and some peanut m and m's. Great way to spend a stormy Friday night.

A post about cars

This post has two parts both involving cars in one way or another. The first part is about this good looking Cadillac driven by this good looking lady. My brother's friend (or maybe more than just a friend, who can say) gave this battery operated Cadillac to Tizita. It was being stored in her mom's garage since her mom got it as a bonus for purchasing a full sized Cadillac and it was looking for a home. Well, it has found its home right here in our garage amongst the other cars, trike, and big wheel. We took Tiz over to the pool parking lot today to give it a spin. We were a bit apprehensive on how Tiz would be able to handle the car. Well, our concerns were unfounded since she could drive it like she had been behind a wheel all her life. It took her no time at all to control the gas pedal, stopping within inches of curbs and other obstacles. She also had no trouble with putting it into reverse and then back into forward with the shift. We just laughed as she drove all around the parking lot with her Mimi strapped into the passenger seat. A big thank you to Vikki for thinking of Tiz!

The second part of the car post has nothing to do with a Cadillac and is not nearly as much fun as Tiz's car story. As you know, John is currently unemployed and living off the government. He has been going to various interviews but so far, no takers. Well on Monday he went to an interview at Beaver Dam Ford for a position as a car salesman. The interviewer seemed to think John fit the profile of a salesman very well and offered him a position on the completion of a training seminar. Today, John attended the first day of the seminar, by the way, this will be the last day of the seminar for him. He said it made his stomach turn and he knows he would not be able to sell a car. I am proud of him for giving it a try, but I am also relieved that he decided against the position. I know this is probably silly, but I always think of car salesmen as being shady, even dishonest. Sorry, if anyone reading this sells cars for a living. I still think they are shady, but I also know how hard they have to work because John would be making $100.00 a week unless he sold cars. Who lives on that? So, for awhile we will continue to live on our government! Time to do some more job searching and soul searching, we know there is a bigger plan awaiting us.

Tiz, twins, and Meghan

It was another fun Wednesday. First of all, Tiz had a great time in Preschool. We are learning about plants and the kids enjoy flower arranging. Here is Tiz with her pretty bouquet.
After Preschool we headed over to Lincoln Park to meet the twins, Meghan, Nana Lynne, and Melissa for a picnic lunch. The weather was sunny but a bit on the cool side, still a nice day for a picnic. It was so nice to have Meghan join us. She is usually in Kindergarten, but she had a half day of school so she spent time with us at the park. She and Tiz got along so well. Meghan takes charge and Tiz followed her everywhere and they both screamed alot. It was fun to watch them play together. The twins did their own thing which consisted of running the bases and a lot of swinging.
Here is Tiz giving Calvin a push.

We have to laugh at the girls when they swing in the baby swings like this. We call them diaper swings and tell them not to poop in their diapers. They were both squealing with laughter after that potty talk. I don't think this position is any too comfortable though!

And right before we headed home, the four kids posed for a few shots on the slide. It was a bit difficult to get them to all look at us at the same time with a smile, but we did capture this nice shot. It was a fun day and we are looking forward to many more summer park/play dates.

On our way home from the park, Courtney and I stopped at Herb and Pearl's house to dig out a few plants. Tiz enjoyed exploring the woods on their property and Courtney got many nice plants to take home to her gardens.

On a few sidenotes that I want to remember years from now:

John is still unemployed and things look pretty bleak on that front. It seems like there are fewer and fewer jobs out there by the day. I try not to look ahead, but it is hard at times. In the meantime, I plug away at my two jobs both of which I do enjoy which is a good thing.

My preschool year with Tiz is almost over and I feel sad about that. It has been such a blessing to see her every Wednesday and spend so much time with her. It has also been great to see her learn new things and make new friends. I will miss her next year, but I know she has to move on to her own Preschool without her grandma there. Although it will never be as good as my classroom!

Grandparenting at its finest

"Parenting is a necessity, Grandparenting is a luxury." John and I had Tizita from early Saturday morning until Sunday. It was another fun weekend full of grandparenting joys.
Bright and early on Saturday, I had to be at the Early Childhood Fair to man our booth. John brought Tizita over a bit later so she could partake in all the fun activities. This was a big moment for John since it was the first time that he had to get Tiz in and out of her car seat by himself. He passed the test with flying colors. Yea, Grandpa!
Anway, after they arrived we took Tizita around to all the different booths some of which included:

Stringing fruit loop necklaces which Tiz proceeded to eat up by the end of our morning,

Decorating a cup to be used for a flower pot,

Planting a flower in the pretty flower pot,

Mixing up and making playdough,

Petting a donkey named Lily, as well as a cow,

After we came home from our morning activities armed with lots of goodies, Tiz had to drive her car around. She had Elmo and Mimi in tow. It was still pretty cold and windy outside.

We decided to brave the wind and head to the park. Tiz gave Elmo a ride on her shoulders so he could join us at the park. Grandma carried Mimi.

At the park, Tizita had such fun sending Elmo and Mimi down the tunnel slide just before she would slide down. After about twenty times down the slide it was time to swing.

Tiz made sure that both Elmo and Mimi were pushed equally. She treats her "children" fairly.

After our park time, we took Gigi and headed to Culver's for dinner. Tiz enjoyed a root beer with her grilled cheese and we all had ice cream for dessert.
After some beauty shop and Grandma's new puffy hair style, one very tired little lady and two equally tired grandparents went to sleep!

What a wonderful day.

Before I was a grandma, these are the kind of days I would imagine we would have!

Another Wonderful Wednesday

Tizita came for her Wednesday preschool day and we had another fun afternoon. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we couldn't wait to get outside to enjoy it. We started out with a trip to Tizita's favorite park. Where we did some:
Swinging,

Selling tickets to Grandma,

Hanging out with the twins, Nana Lynne, and their mom, Melissa. The grandmas visited, the moms pushed, and the kids enjoyed the swings. It was a fun day to catch up with some good friends.

After our great time at the park, we walked home and continued our wonderful Wednesday by:

Posing pretty,

Visiting with Gigi and Elmo,

Telling secrets,

And laughing on the phone!

We were making more happy memories to add to our good times together. I really hope Tizita will continue to come to my class one day a week next year because I am going to miss hanging out with her on our wonderful Wednesdays if she doesn't!

A little of this and a little of that

It has been a very nice weekend, not only weather wise but on all other counts, too. Yesterday John and I went to Waukesha to take a walk around our old stomping grounds. We both went to Carroll University, then Carroll College and that is where we met and the rest is history. So, every so often, we like to go back and walk through memory valley.

We started our walk in Frame Park which is right on the Fox River and has a river walk that goes for a few miles on both sides of the river. There were lots of other people out and about on the lovely day. After walking the river walk, we had a picnic lunch and people watched for a bit. We then headed to Carroll College/University to check things out. We ended up at a track meet on the new track field. I hadn't been to a track meet since High School and it was fun and interesting. We got to see some pole vaulting, hammer throw, dashes, and distance running. I could not help but notice the similarities between a track meet and a swim meet. Each team had its own little area set up under the bleachers, a place to go and refresh yourself between events just like the swimmers do. I noticed the same camaraderie (hope that is the right word, not how I would have spelled it, but that is what came up on spell check) going on with the tracksters as with swimmers. I always thought swimmers were a different breed and I am thinking the same is true of the tracksters. The announcement of events, waiting for your event and your heat-all the same. Big difference is no water and no swim suits at the track field. It was indeed a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

We returned home to continue to get things ready for a city wide rummage sale happening in mid May. Watch out, I am selling anything that is not nailed down! We also enjoyed some good "monster" movies on the ScyFy network. Doesn't get much better than that!

Today was church and another beautiful day. We walked and did some yard work. Disaster movies on ScyFy today so we will do a bit of that, too. School starts tomorrow after our spring break. I am ready to go back as I usually am after a break, the kids are always ready to come back, too and they are always good. Looking forward to a busy, enjoyable week.

We started growing plants for our garden. This year our Mother and Father's Day gift is a garden dug by our kids and in-law kids, so we are starting some of the plants early to hopefully insure some success. Here I am digging away in the soil. Yep, we planted right in our family room-too cold outside! And here is John planting one of our many planters.
This is how everything looked in the middle of the planting mess.
And here are our tomatoes. They survived the transplant and now hopefully they will continue to grow until we can get them outside in our new garden. I am ending with a few more Easter pictures. Tizita always has so much fun with her Uncle Cheddah. Here she is in the nesco. We teased her about being our Easter dinner. Here are the proud grandparents with our sweet Tizita. And here are the lovely ladies all ready for church on Easter Sunday.
Finally, I will leave you with a picture of Tizita with her Aunt Alissa. Those two always seem to be up to something when they are together!

Easter fun and the zoo

We had a very nice Easter. It started with Tizita dyeing the Easter eggs on Good Friday. On Saturday after Alissa and Nathan arrived we had the "annual" Easter hunt although this year, I did tone it down quite a bit after protests about last year's hunt. Here is Tizita in her beautiful Easter dress before church.

Courtney and Paul returned to Oshkosh on Sunday evening, but we got to keep Tizita till Tuesday! What fun we had with our precious little lady. On Monday we headed to the Madison zoo. It was a near perfect day for a zoo trip.

Tizita took Mimi along to the zoo and she wanted Mimi to be included in the pictures.

Here is Tizita riding the tortoise.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch near the lake.

After our yummy lunch we got to ride the carasoul, still can't spell that word, two times. Tiz really enjoyed it!

We spent some time in the park/play area. Here Tiz insisted on climbing up the big rope ladder. I was nervous the first time, but as you can see she had no trouble whatsoever, keeping up with the big kids. She is really quite the little athlete!

After the zoo, we went to Ella's Deli for their famous teddy bear french toast and ice cream. We also rode their carasoul two more times! It was wonderful fun filled day!

Tiz fell asleep while watching dancing with the stars that night.

On Tuesday we headed up to Oshkosh where we were able to watch her during her dance
class. That was lots of fun! She is really a good little performer and I cannot wait until her recital in June. We babysat on Tuesday night while Courtney and Paul went out. More good times with Tiz.

On Wednesday she "taught" Grandpa and I many things in her "preschool." We did arts and crafts, calendar time, bathroom time, and some letter work. She is quite a mimic to my teaching methods, not all of them good. We took a walk outside even though it was windy and cold. We are now home and things are quiet. We will sleep good tonight!

I have come to the conclusion that there are good reasons that fifty year olds do not have children!