My Daddy's Sending Me a Hug

These are four of my favorite pictures from this summer, maybe of all time! Ryan and his future brother-in-law secretly put together a DVD from Ryan in Qatar that was shown at Bonnie and Aaron's wedding reception. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day, and a very emotional experience for us all. (Aaron really made some points with the family for that one!)
In one segment, Ryan gave his family a hug on the DVD and talked specifically to Lainey and the boys about this long-distance hug. Aaron gave us a copy of the DVD after the wedding, so when we were babysitting Seth and Dylan for two weeks in August, we watched their dad on the computer screen often. I happened to have my camera one day when Seth was watching the video and listening so intently to his Daddy sending the hug. Hence the picture sequence (Look carefully at the computer screen.) Just wish I had taken one more picture when Seth was doing the hug motion. It was priceless!!! We thank God that Ryan and Seth's hugs are all in person now!

Serving Our Country

In May of this year, Ryan was sent on a four-month deployment to Qatar. It was kind of a scary thought at first, but we all adjusted to the idea, and by the time he left, he was ready to go. Now that he's back, Ryan says it's the best experience he's had so far in his 6 years with the Air Force. Qatar was a relatively safe place but it is still in the Middle East. He was a TCN Escort and there was one security situation that arose while he was there that he didn't share with us until he got home. Being the mom, I thanked him for that . . . his dad and I prayed him through the whole four months and have been blessed by how God worked in and through Ryan while he was there and protected his wife and two little boys at home.

"Barack Obama's President!"

Bonnie, Zanaya and Vanessa

An interesting title for a blog, don't you think?? Well, here's the story . . . I was blessed to have my beautiful married daughter here with me this weekend! Bonnie and I had some great one-on-one time together and some time with special friends that we don't get to see often enough. We had a mother-daughter Mexican dinner with margaritas Friday night, then went hot tubbing with Becky and Vanessa. Today Bonnie and I went to church together and then out to brunch with Blair & Gretchen and "Nama." Yesterday we went to the movie, "The Secret Life of Bees" and then out to Hills' for dinner.

Here's where the blog inspiration started - the Hills were entertaining the cutest little four year old that you've ever seen. Her name is Zanaya and she is African-American with quite the charming personality. Before we got there, Vanessa asked Zanaya if she wanted to see a picture of who was coming to their house. She showed her a picture on the refrigerator of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Drake from their wedding, looking at each other and holding up a thank you sign. Vanessa pointed out Bonnie, but when Zanaya looked at Aaron, she said, with lots of enthusiasm, "Barack Obama's President!" She did the same thing when we got there and we pointed to that picture of Aaron. "Barack Obama's President!" she exclaimed. Guess it must have been the lighting??? Aaron, you look so distinguished.

Zanaya touched our hearts with her smile, her curiosity, and her precious 4-year old faith as she sang for us some gospel songs that she learned at her grandma's church. I'm convinced that's why God made grandmas.

Ring Bearers and "COOKIES"

Bonnie was so excited to ask her nephews, Dylan and Seth, and a little cousin, Sam, to be the ring bearers in her wedding. Three little boys, plus cousin Emma as the flower girl made for a fun and entertaining day! In advance, Emma was thrilled to be asked, Sam wasn't quite sure what it was all about, and Dylan said he was going to be mad if it was like the last wedding he was in where he really didn't get to carry the rings. What is a ring bearer for anyway?? Now, Seth . . . that is another story. Bon and Aaron thought it would be so fun to have Seth, "Mr. Personality," as a ring bearer too, but as a 22 month old, we weren't sure how that was going to work out.

When it came to the rehearsal, Seth thought it was pretty cool to walk hand-in-hand with the big boys and of course he got lots of attention from the wedding party and all the adults. The fact that there were no guests in the chairs made for a pretty relaxing evening and we were thrilled with how he did.

The next day, Emma looked beautiful in her flower girl dress and the three boys looked snazzy in their white dress shirts, black slacks and brown ties. It was kind of a long day with all the pictures and everything, so we made sure to tell Dylan and Sam not to worry about Seth. "Don't MAKE him do anything he doesn't want to do. It's not worth it to make a scene and it doesn't matter if he goes down the aisle or not," we told them. When the time came, Seth really wanted nothing to do with walking with the boys, especially when he saw all 250 sitting in the white chairs staring at him. POPS said he could hear Seth shouting, "NO," from a long ways away. After Emma and the other two boys went down the aisle, Seth was standing at the back of the ceremony just staring straight ahead.

The next scene is priceless and I'm SO THANKFUL to have gotten the sequence on a combination of cameras. My dear friend Becky, who was also standing at the back taking pictures, leaned down to Seth and said, "Grandma Jo has cookies." Oh my gosh . . . Seth got the biggest smile on his face, yelled "COOKIES" and took off running down the aisle to me where I was kneeling towards him with the cookies! It was THE BEST - couldn't have written the script any better. Seth was a happy camper, the wedding guests clapped and were totally entertained, and we love to look at the priceless pictures of that special moment.

God's Handiwork

The View of our House from Across the Street
November 9, 2008

WOW! Every year I marvel at the beauty of fall in Ellensburg!! We have the awesome opportunity each day for a couple of weeks to look out our kitchen window, and now our living room windows, at the gorgeous October Glory Maple trees that surround our corner lot. Thanks to the neighbors who planted the trees, we enjoy an amazing view and continue to marvel at the wonder of God in the incredible colors of autumn. In this picture you can see our house in the background, but looking out from our house, we can see about 12 October Glory's that brighten our neighborhood and remind us each day of His creation. For some reason, this year the sunshine and the October Glory season has extended into November and for that we are thankful!

Wrinkles

One of our favorite activities with the grandsons while they're here is hot tubbing. Dylan has learned some confidence in the water and Seth is pretty much a "wild man" with NO FEAR!! Good thing it's a small hot tub cuz he has no problem stepping off the ledges inside the tub when no one is looking. He rarely sputters and of course someone is always there to help him. I think he'd probably swim to the other side by himself if we'd let him.

Last visit the hot tub felt really good on one of those cold nights, and the four of us stayed in for quite awhile. POPS thought we were getting wrinkled and that it was time to get out. Dylan agreed that his skin was getting pretty wrinkled. I told him that I love his wrinkled skin and that I love him when he isn't wrinkled too. He informed me that he loved me when my skin was wrinkled, which was all the time because I'm old. "The only time you won't be wrinkled is when you die," Dylan informed me. We laughed and I decided that it's OK to be wrinkled, in or out of the hot tub!!

Thank God for Elmo!

I don't really believe in using the television for a babysitting device (ha! ha!) but it sure comes in handy for grandparents. In the summer I purchased "Elmo in Grouchland" and it became an instant hit when Seth and Dylan were visiting for two weeks after Bonnie and Aaron's wedding. Both boys enjoyed the video, on TV or on a portable DVD player in the car. Seth liked it well enough to ask for it when he woke up in the mornings. He'd usually only watch for 20 minutes or so (long enough for me to make his breakfast) but he very clearly said "Elmo" when he wanted to see it. I forgot to mention that Seth has several Elmo characters at home including "Tickle Me Elmo" which is really a riot.

As Seth's vocabulary increased over the last two months he was able to make it very clear to us by saying "I want Elmo!" I have to confess that I did let Elmo do the babysitting probably more often than I should have, but it is "G" rated!! The most memorable was on the trip back to Vegas. POPS and I flew down with the boys on 10/19 and we saved Elmo for the flight! Seth was totally entertained for about an hour on the plane. Whew! The other passengers sitting around us were amazed at how "well behaved" he was. Thank God for Elmo!

A Package Deal - "BOP & BOP"

Fast forward 2 years (I will fill in the blanks later) . . . as you know, we are now the grandparents of 2 little boys. In addition to our precious Dylan, Ryan and Lainey blessed us with Seth Christian on 9/23/06 and he is such a Glaser and such a joy! But, he is also TWO-years-old and a strong-willed little guy, just like his dad was 26 years ago. More on that later - I want to share about our grandparent names.

"Grandma Jo" and "POPS" worked great for all of us until Seth started talking. You can imagine the thrill for Roger when Seth first said "Hi POPS!" over the phone to him several months ago! Such an easy name to say and he definitely knew who he was talking to. However, "Grandma Jo" is not so easy to say, so since we go together - a package deal - "POPS" has evolved into "BOP" and Seth now calls us both "BOP!!" He doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet, but "BOP" seems to be one of his favorite words. He can put more emotion into that one little word than I ever thought possible! We just got a phone call (my favorite thing) from Seth earlier this evening and he had lots to say, in his own language. He started most every sentence with "BOP . . . " to get my attention and then he'd jabber away for a little while until he thought of something new. At the end of our "conversation" I was laughing so hard because he was saying, "BOP - go to your room" over and over and over. I think he loved that I was in hysterics.

We just had the privilege of having Seth and Dylan here with us for a week in October. There's never a dull moment when they're here and we miss them when they've gone home. Our hearts are full of unforgettable memories with those two little boys and there's nobody we'd rather be than "BOP" and "BOP!!!"

The Birth of "Grandma Jo" and "POPS"

I've been talking about blogging for a long time now and I finally "bit the bullet." I've been inspired by Tyson and Tracy Smith's "RAM"page and now by Bonnie and Aaron's blog, "The Drake Duo." What a fun way to share news and just to keep up with friends and family.

As you can tell by my title, this blog will primarily be about the blessings of "Grandparenthood" - the greatest gift of growing older! We became instant grandparents to five-year-old Dylan when our oldest son, Ryan, married his beautiful wife, Lallania on 4/29/06. We actually fell in love with Dylan before that when we first met him in 2005. What a precious little boy God brought into our lives - full of love and hugs and fun. And we continue to be amazed and blessed by him.

Without the experience of babyhood with Dylan we needed to quickly come up with grandparent names that would work for all of us. Up to that point Dylan didn't really have a name for me except for "Ryan's mom." I still remember that conversation with Dyl when I asked if I could be his "grandma." He promptly said, "No, I already have a grandma." "OK," I said, "can I be Nana?" Again Dylan said, "No, I already have a Nana." "Well," I replied, "I'm not going to be 'Ryan's mom' forever, so we need to come up with something else." Don't think we decided on anything for sure that day, but later Ryan, Lainey and Dylan came up with "Grandma Jo" and "POPS" which has been perfect . . . . until now . . . .