Road trip to Bloomington, part dos

This is Tizita after Cheddah put her to sleep on Saturday night. She has been such a great sleeper for us and falls asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow! She always wakes up in a great mood, too.

Here are Alissa and Tizita at CJ's restaurant where we ate on Saturday night.

Our motel breakfast was awesome. Tizita enjoyed sitting at the high bar. We had waffles, bagels, cereal, muffins, milk, and juice.

Here we are ready to leave the motel. We were heading back over to the Hunter house to visit the dogs a little more at Tizita's request.

Tizita and Webster. It is hard to believe that this little girl was so afraid of dogs just a little bit ago. Granted these poodles are so laid back, no barking, licking, or jumping. That makes it easier to like them.

Poodle time was followed by some Wii dancing. Tizita beat all of us handily. She and Cheddah are dancing to Mashed Potatoes here.

I beat Cheddah in this dance off to a Beach Boys hit, although it was not handily, it was just by a hair.

After a little blanket swinging for Tiz and Cheddah, we headed home. After a stop at McDonald's for lunch and Rochelle for another Barbie, we made it home by 4:00.

It was a great weekend.

Our Road Trip to Bloomington

We just returned from a great weekend in Bloomington celebrating Alissa's birthday. One of the hightlights was seeing the beautiful moon, almost full. Courtney and Paul told Tiz to look at the moon each night and to know that they would be looking at the same moon in Ethiopia and thinking of her. We looked at the moon and thought about mama and papa tonight. Now getting back to our trip. We left on Saturday morning. Of course, we had to stop at Rochelle. We always stopped at Rochelle on our way to college visits and we couldn't go to Bloomington without stopping. Tizita picked out a Barbie doll and a few other goodies. Marge said we could shop there for hours.

We had our lunch at Wendy's. Both Marge and I agree that the new pickles they use are not very good. We prefer the dills.

Here Tizita is helping Grandpa move the luggage into our rooms. We stayed at the Fairfield in adjoining rooms and we could not be happier with the accomodations. We will return.

Tizita and Grandpa went swimming right away. Tiz has really become a great swimmer and both of them had fun. Alissa and Nathan arrived at the motel and we started the party.

Here is Tizita with the birthday girl. We celebrated with cake and presents in our room.

After the party at the motel, we headed over to Alissa and Nathan's to visit with Darrel, the poodles, and to see their new living arrangements.

Tizita decided that she really enjoyed the poodles, especially Webster and she asked to return again on Sunday before we left.

After visiting the Hunter home, we all went out to eat at a nice restaurant which used to the airport. Then Alissa and Nathan returned to our motel for a few beers.

Nathan put Tiz to bed. It was a great day. I will write more in the next post about Sunday, more poodle time, wii dancing, and our trip home.

Thank God it's Friday

Well, we made it through the first week without a hitch, but I am still saying TGIF because we need a few days of rest. It will be nice not to have to get up by 5:00 this AM. We may sleep in until 7:00! That will be nice for Tizita and for John and I, too. Vikki brought Tizita to school for me again today. Tizita had to spend the entire day with me today, but since it was Friday, I figured it would be all right and it was better than all right, it was perfect.
Of course, there was crafting going on again today.

After the playdate at Carlee's, Tizita and Carlee are attached at the hip. Such a sweet friend.

Cooper and Tizita had a great time in the afternoon. They played at the train table for quite awhile.

Here she is enjoying the train track they made.

Tonight we went to Culver's for dinner and then to Walmart for shopping. Tizita was so good at both places. We told her she could pick anything out as a treat for such a great week. After awhile, she chose some Polly Pockets. When we got home, she and Gigi spent quite awhile playing with them.

Tomorrow we leave for Bloomington to visit Alissa and Nathan. We are looking forward to our visit with them. It is Alissa's birthday so we will be able to celebrate that with her, too.

Thanking God for his blessings of a great week.

Another fun, full. successful day

This grandparenting stuff just keeps getting easier and easier. Tizita has adjusted so well to our morning routine. Our schedule goes like this:
5:00 I get up, showered, and start computer work
5:20 John gets up, showered and has breakfast
6:00 John leaves for work and Tiz wakes up at this point to give him a hug and say good bye
6:00 - 6:15 Tiz watches TV while I compute
6:15 Tiz and I have a race to see who gets dressed the fastest. She always wins.
6:30 I leave for school while Tiz moves to the living room to have breakfast with Gigi and watch TV
7:45 Vikki or Mallory bring Tiz to school and our day begins

Our evening schedule goes like this:
4:00 I compute and catch up on the days news, Tiz watches TV
4:30 We craft or play. Gigi also plays with Tiz.
6:00 John gets home and we eat supper.
7:00 We start to get ready for bed
7:30 John reads to Tiz, prays with her, and she falls asleep.

See how nicely it is all working out.
It is getting easier as time goes on. I think by the time we have to send her home, we will really be in a great routine.

Today Mallory brought her to school. She had a terrific morning as usual. After preschool she went over to her friend Carlee's house for a play date. I get to know many of my Preschool parents pretty well, but there is something about Angie (Carlee's mom) that I really like. I will miss her next year after five years of having her children in class. She reminds me of Courtney in many ways and in other ways she reminds me of the way I was as a mom. I knew that Tiz would have a great time with Angie and Carlee and she did. Angie returned her to school at the end of the day and we came home. We made a card/book for Alissa's birthday and then if was bedtime. John put her to bed again.
No photos today, but I did want to document today for Courtney and Paul.

Happy Birthday John (Grandpa)

John had a special gift with him on his birthday this year! And here she is. She woke Grandpa up in the morning with our musical birthday cake and so began his special day.

When John got home from work we celebrated with tator tot hot dish, which by the way was not my best ever. I cannot seem to care for a grandchild and cook at the same time. The Snickers cheesecake was very good though. Tiz is singing to Grandpa here.

The two of them eating cheesecake together.

After dinner, it was goody box time. John went 10 for 10 which puts him on the leader board with Mallory and sets a high standard for the rest of us this year. Tizita kept track of the goody box items for us.

This is the beautiful card that Tizita made for Grandpa at school today. I think it was by far his favorite one. After gift opening, John read books to Tizita, said prayers with her, and put her to bed.

Finally, he ended his day with a cigar while scraping some leftover ice off of the the driveway.

Pretty near perfect way to spend a birthday, I would say!

Day 2 of our Grandparents Adventure in Babysitting

Our second day of our adventure in babysitting is almost over and it has been a very good one again. Tizita came to school with me this morning (Actually she was dropped off by Vikki again) and again enjoyed creating things with her friends. She is always a ring leader in what is going on with the crafts.

She is doing so well in picking out her outfits the night before and then getting ready for school on time. This is the cute outfit she chose for today. She really needed everyone to know that she was five!

Snack was a birthday party treat brought by Courtney. Tiz enjoyed the cupcakes.

After school, Mallory and Gigi picked Tizita up and took her to Mullens for lunch. Things went very well there, I hear. They also stopped at the Dollar Store where Tiz picked out a beef stick. Mallory stayed at our house till 2:00 and played with Mallory. From what Tiz tells me they had a swell time.

I came home after school to a fort made in our living room.

Tiz requested another bath, this time with food coloring, so that is where we are now. She is able to occupy herself for a long time in a nice warm bubble bath.

When John gets home, we will have a birthday dinner followed by snickers cheesecake and the opening of the goodie box. What a special gift to have Tizita here with him for his special day!

Just as a footnote, I write these posts for Courtney, so she can see what Tiz has been up to these days, so please bear with me if they are a bit on the boring side.

Note to Natnael - I heard that your mama and papa got to spend some time with you today. Your mama says you have pudgy cheeks just perfect for Tizita to lovingly pinch. She is excited to meet you and pinch those cheeks.

It Takes a Village

I have been on a roller coaster of emotions with the whole Ethiopian trip coming up so quickly. I can only imagine how much bigger the roller coaster must be for Courtney and Paul! Anyway, I made some arrangements to make Tizita's stay here in Watertown as stressfree as possible for all of us. I am finding out that it takes a village to take care of this little lady for ten days. It seems much harder for a grandparent to care for a grandchild than for a parent to do it, must be the different mind set!
Anyway, I am going to go back a bit on this post. I am starting on Friday, Dec. 30 when we headed up to Oshkosh to redo Tizita's room as part of her Christmas gift. We worked all day Friday and the end result was very, very nice. John feels it is a bit too pink for his tastes, but what little girl does not enjoy a pink room? We also moved the playroom into Tiz's old room and we made the old playroom a room for Natnael. We were pleased with all of our work and so were the Van Auken family when they arrived home on Saturday from their Christmas in Minnesota.
John and I went to Vitale's for New year's Eve. It was very nice, we joined Courtney and Paul back at home for a few beers and all four of us were in bed before midnight.
We went to church on Sunday and spent some time with Tizita while they packed and got organized for their journey to Ethiopia.
Monday was very bittersweet as we said our good byes. I felt so sad for Tizita because she knew they were leaving, but I really don't think she had any concept of how long they would be gone. Courtney and Paul left around 7:00. We packed up and came home to Watertown to begin our adventure in grandparent babysitting with Tizita.

Tiz spent a good two hours crafting with Gigi while watching some TV and unwinding. It was a very relaxing afternoon for all of us.

After the TV/crafting time, Tiz made some pudding. She made vanilla and chocolate and double whisked them. She put them into fancy glasses and we all enjoyed the pudding.

Tiz even helped with the dishes after our pudding adventure.

Bedtime was easy except we both were a bit teary eyed during her prayers. We looked at the moon just as her papa had told her to do and that helped.

On Tuesday, I had to call on my village to get Tiz to school so she would not have to come as early as I like to go. Vikki kindly offered to bring her so I took her up on it. Tiz had a great day at school. All her old friends from last year were so happy to see again and they rekindled their friendships very quickly. Tiz brought her camera to school and the girls enjoyed looking at all the photos. Before school she had taken a few of Gigi in her underwear, but she did not show those to the girls! Gigi was concerned she may have shown them to everyone at school. We needed to delete those! Other than that, our day was fantastic.

During my afternoon class, Tiz asked me if I was tired of teaching because I had to do it all over again in the afternoon. I was tired, but I didn't tell her that! She did fine after being with me for both classes but tomorrow I am again using my village of Gigi and Mallory to take Tiz to lunch at Mullen's and spend the afternoon with her.

After supper Tiz took a nice warm bubble bath. I gave her some light sticks to use in the bath and we turned the lights off. It was calming and relaxing for her and me. John did bedtime duty and she was out very quickly.

Thank you to my village for helping me with this adventure!

Stay tuned for the next installment.