Year in Review and Wishes for the New Year

It’s New Year’s Day and time to look ahead to a fresh new year. Before we do that, though, let’s take a look back at 2011. I have a lot of pictures to share, and I didn’t get Christmas cards or a letter done, so if you don’t mind...

January found us moving Jessica and Bradley into their own home about 15 miles away after living with us for over a year. Jessica found out in late November 2010 that she and her boyfriend were expecting a baby, so they started building their new life together. We have enjoyed getting to know Scott and he’s an amazing partner for Jessica as well as father to Bradley.

I still kept Brad during the day while Jess worked full-time. I must’ve blinked, because all of a sudden, he grew from a baby to toddler.

  

   

At the end of April, I left my early morning job in preparation for caring for Bradley and the new grandboy we were expecting. It took a few weeks for me to sleep past 4 a.m., but it’s all good now.

In May, our son Nick was hospitalized suddenly after becoming quite ill. He’s doing great and living a healthier lifestyle now.  He was able to join us for Halloween this year, in costume even. Don’t ask who he was supposed to be – just a generic character from a video game – I can’t be more specific than that…

Greg and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in May, and I turned 50 in July. We celebrated by attending the  Bob Seger concert in Omaha. It was a great show! 

I’d like to say I’m none the worse for wear at 50 years old, but in May I fell down the deck steps, landing on my knee, and I’ve been hobbling about ever since. That, combined with the arthritis, has slowed me down a bit.

The injury kept me in my chair for a few weeks, and I wanted to be productive, so I dug out my crochet needle, invested in some yarn, and turned on YouTube for instruction. Many hours spent over several weeks found me with a pile of dishcloths for Christmas gifts, a blanket for Silas, and some winter scarves. My nephew Wyatt saw the yarn and things I was working on, and asked me to teach him, so with a few quick crochet lessons, he was on his way.

We had a fun week in June when my nieces from Sioux City visited. Tay got to go to Vacation Bible School with Randy’s kids, Reese and Brad became friends, and we enjoyed a day at the zoo.

The last day of July, at 3:26 in the morning, Jess and Scott welcomed their baby boy, Silas Paul. He’s our sweet love-bug.

    

 

In September, Jessica, the boys, and I went to Sioux City for a visit. One of the fun things we did was visit at the shop where Alan works. Bradley saw all the motorcycles in the window, yelled “GO!” and ran to the door. He wanted to sit on every bike, and was thrilled when Uncle Alan finally let him on one.

Bradley had his second birthday at the end of September. He’s a big fan of Cat in the Hat, so Jess constructed a giant hat for his cake.

Halloween was our usual fun time with Randy’s family joining us for a quick supper then trick or treating. The weather was awesome and it didn’t take Bradley long to figure out the whole “trick or treat” scheme!

In November, Jess and Scott put a bid on a house here in Benedict, and closed on it a few days before Christmas. They moved enough things to be in their house for the holiday, and the past few days have been spent painting, packing and unpacking boxes, and getting settled into their new home.

That pretty much sums up the past year for us. What do we look forward to in 2012? We know we’ll enjoy those grandboys who live just down the street from us now. They grow so fast and we don’t want to miss a minute of it. I have a list of craft/sewing/decorating projects to tackle. Greg plans to build a covered patio in the backyard. (He’ll be building lots more things if I can give him part of my list, but I’ll have to be sneaky…)

We are incredibly blessed with a happy healthy family and more, and we thank God daily. We wish you many blessings also in 2012, and if the world doesn’t end on December 21 like the Mayans say it will, we’ll try to get real Christmas cards done!

Introducing the New Grandboy…

You know when the phone rings at 10:15 on a Saturday night that something is afoot. It was Jessica calling to let us know that she was on her way to the hospital in Lincoln. Contractions were 3 minutes apart, and had been going on like that for two hours. She’d had so much “false” labor over the past several weeks that she wasn’t counting on staying at the hospital, but stay she did, and at 3:26 Sunday morning she gave birth to the sweetest little boy!

His name is Silas Paul Robinson and he’s so cute we could just eat him up! Everyone thought Jess would have at least an 8-pounder this time, but he was a lean 6 lb., 13 oz., and 19 3/4” long.

Mama and Daddy are both very happy -

and his big brother Bradley just adores him!

Of course the rest of us, do, too, and we can’t wait to get to know the little guy!

 

Grammy Tammy

Loss

This evening another huge hole has been torn in the fabric of my family. We mourn the loss of my eldest cousin, Barbara Allen Moore, who passed away from leukemia after a brave fight.

Barbie (and only our family called her that) was very close to my mom, who I think considered her to be more of a younger sister than a niece.  Barbie was at our house a lot as a young bride, seeking advice from Mom or doing little make-overs on us with her Avon.

I babysat her kids, then when they were almost grown up, she babysat mine. As adults, she and I became good friends. Our interests and hobbies were the same and we could talk for hours upon hours about gardens and birds and needlework and cooking. She sang in my wedding, too.

She was direct and to-the-point most of the time, calling a spade and spade and moving on with her life. Here’s what she had to say about herself in her Blogger profile:

“About Me: I am a mother, grandmother, artist, cook, baker, tomboy, feminist, writer, reader, shoe junkie and teacher. Life has often been very hard but I can't seem to lose my optimism or cancel my dreams or give up on humankind. It's just not in me to say stop when it's so much more fun to say go, go, go faster! Live life like you mean it!”

And this is what she wrote in her Facebook profile:

“I went on "my travels" a few years ago. Me, my old truck and Carlos Santana. We drove thru 12 states, talked to a lot of people, got lost, got found, saw lots of stuff. What I mostly remember was the women who were astonished that I would be driving around the country all alone. "What if you get a flat tire? What if your truck breaks down? What if you get lost?" were the most common questions. "I could never do that." was the most common reply. I had spent my entire life raising children, first my siblings then my own and it was time to take a break and just be alone with me. I had a great time! There was the old Navajo on Rt. 66 who had worked the railroad in North Platte the same time as Grandpa Bob, the giggly girls in California, the gas station attendants in Oregon who laughed at my astonishment over them pumping my gas, checking the tires and fluids etc. When I voiced my surprise they said "You’re in Oregon now ma’am, we do things different here". Camping by the ocean in Washington after assuring everyone that Nebraska did exist and no we didn't have an ocean. Seeing the aquaduct system and fruit tree groves in California. No, I won't spend time in Wyoming again. Stayed in the mountains in Colorado w/ my brother and enjoyed the museums of Santa Fe. Now, at this time in my life when the challenge is to just get up everyday, ignore my dread disease, and live, I remember that trip and how much fun I had. How it opened up the wanderlust in me, how the call of the ocean still rings in my ears. I have a list now of places to go and see and a plan to do it. So in the long scheme of my life I've learned that now is the most important thing and what I learn is the next. Cooking, sewing, painting, gardening fill my days and I am somewhat content.”

I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with Barbie recently. She was in the hospital and on the mend after being very ill. I noticed how much she looked like Grandma Adams. I’d not seen that in her before, and it brought me comfort. We had a wonderful visit - I made her laugh, and she made me cry. It was all good.

I hope she and Debbie and my mom and Grandma are sitting around the table with glasses of iced tea, laughing and chatting and solving the problems of the day. She will be sorely missed down here.

 

Why Was I in Trouble? She Said It Was Okay…

This is the story of two little girls, a screen door, a knitting needle, and fly season on a hog farm a long, long, time ago…

A little over two weeks ago, my cousin Debbie passed away, leaving an ache in the hearts of those who loved her. I take comfort in my memories of our time together when we were kids, growing up like sisters. This is one of my earliest memories of us together.

I think it was the summer I turned four years old, but I may have been five. Aunt Sherry and Uncle Jack had moved their family from Nebraska to a farm near Mahaska, Kansas, and I was delivered there to spend a few weeks. I remember the big house and yard, and also walking a dirt/gravel road to Sunday School at a small country church. Barbie was the eldest child, and in charge of us getting there and back.

Anyway, one afternoon I awoke from my nap and found the house empty and quiet. I wandered around looking for any of the family, and finally found Debbie in the back entryway, sitting at the open door. There was a full screen door – one of the old wooden kind on a spring that creaked when it opened and banged when it closed.

Debbie was sitting on the floor in front of that screen door, methodically punching holes in the screen with a knitting needle. We chatted for a minute, and she invited me to have a try at the hole-poking. I questioned the wisdom of this activity, but Debbie assured me it was okay and lots of fun. I was hesitant because I really didn’t think it was a good idea, but she was confident that it was okay. She was older and she lived there and she was quite convincing, so, I took a stab at it, so to speak.

You know what? It was fun! Poking that needle through the screen and seeing a perfect round hole appear was almost like magic!  I was hooked!Debbie ran and got a second knitting needle and we both sat there together and punched holes to our hearts’ delight.

I have no idea how long we did this, but we were running out of screen on the bottom section of the door when Aunt Sherry came walking up. One look at her face and I knew that this was definitely NOT okay. It was summertime on a hog farm. Fly season. We had just opened up the entire bottom half of the screen door.

Oh, Aunt Sherry was mad.

Debbie got spanked first. I remember telling Aunt Sherry that it wasn’t my fault, that Debbie had told me it was okay, and I really was innocent. Yeah, she didn’t care. I got spanked, too. Then we were sent to Debbie’s room.

My memory of this incident ends there, but I have always proclaimed my innocence. They just laughed at me over the years whenever I reminded them of the injustice of my being held liable along with Debbie for this crime.

Here are the three of us about 40 years later:

I will forever be an accessory to screen-door mutilation.

Summer Revue

It has been awhile since I caught up with you all here. I hope someone will read this and that you haven’t given up on me since my last post a couple of months ago!

‘Twas a busy summer, and Bradley has kept me running for most of it. When he took off walking at 8 1/2 months old, I knew I was in for trouble. Not the way I’d planned to spend the summer, but no complaints here. It has been an enormous blessing to watch him grow and learn.

Instead of me writing a novel to catch up on the past few months, lets do it in pictures, shall we?

Went to Sioux City to celebrate Reese’s first birthday,

and Taylor’s third birthday.

Took Randy’s kids to Little Diggers:

Greg built a new swingset for Bradley:

We took a field trip to the Lincoln Children’s Zoo:

There was blue rock shooting (Ben, Alan, Nick),

and target practice:

Of course there was swimming!

(Brad and Jess)

(Taylor)

(Taylor, Grace, Reese)

and Abbie stayed a few weeks.

We took Abbie home to Texas where we enjoyed our first visit to Joe’s Crab Shack…

At the county fair, Bradley fell in love with the baby chicks in the FFA animal tent:

At home, he LOVED sweet corn!

We got to know Scott a little better.

Let’s not forget the flowers

and the vegetables in the garden. Bradley has become an accomplished tomato-picker!

So there you have it, a glimpse into what has been a fun and busy summer around here.

I have several projects planned for this autumn, and there will be fun galore with the grandboy as we prepare to celebrate his first birthday in a few weeks. I hope you’ll stick with me as I get back into the blogging groove!

Birthday Day!

Today is Greg’s birthday. We celebrated with the kids last night by having supper at Vincenzo’s in the Haymarket in Lincoln.

I pulled out the camera, much to my family’s dismay. Too bad for them, I don’t mind their dismay. :o) Unfortunately, I married Earl Hickey…

 

and birthed Earl Jr. …

whose sister birthed another little Earl…

Despite the eyes-closed photos, we had a wonderful meal and enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate Greg’s birthday together. There was veal parmigiana,  baked cannelloni filled with spinach and chicken, raviolis, and chicken fettuccine. This feast was preceded by an appetizer of crab/artichoke bruschetta (YUM!), and topped off with the sharing of a couple of orders of crème brulee.

Yesterday morning on the way to Little Diggers, I was telling the kids about Greg’s birthday coming up. Wyatt asked me how old Uncle Greg would be – I told him 51. He said, “Ohhhh, fifty – one…” Like it was so ancient. Then he asked me how old I was. I told him 48. “Oh, 48. That’s good!” Like I am so much better off than Uncle Greg… 

Happy Birthday Baby – wishing you many, many more!

Preparing

Last weekend I had the kids here for a couple of days and we dyed some eggs to get ready for Easter.

Each got their own bowl of eggs and cups of dye.

Grace took a photo of the final product.

They really wanted to display them, so we piled the beautiful eggs in a basket to put on the table. I forgot to put them in the frig before I went to bed, so these eggs were decoration only…

Bradley watched all the fun, listening and learning for next year!