Schools Out For The Holidays

The Grand Puppies

Suprise, I Have A New Sisterf

Landry Marie Waters

Going Through Boxes In The Attic

Many years ago, when our son moved out of our house we packed up many boxes of clothes, toys, sports memorabilia into the attic.Books also.

She was fascinated by the lamp that held all of his Happy Meal toys that he collected over his childhood years.

She like to ride in the attic his first bike, that didn't have the training wheels.

Today she and her dad went to the attic and he was looking for his weight bench and his weights and his boxing bag that were stored over in the corner.

He opened a box that had his collection of baseball and football helmets and his favorite team jerseys.

She was so fascinated with all of these things and wanted to try them on.

So he put on his old favorite Tennessee Jersey and a football helmet. As we looked at her with his items on all the years drifted away and our little grand daughter looked a lot like our son when he was 9 years old.

Chloe age: 9

A Surprise For Poppy And Grandmother

The middle of last week on Wednesday we received a call from our Grand daughter. She was so excited that she had a surprise for us that we would have to wait until ."Friday when we picked her up from school to see.

You will think that it is so cool and you will love it as much as I do.

I'm going to hang up now Poppy before I end up telling you what the surprise is.

The next day she called me back after school and I knew that the secret surprise was eating her up and she was wanting to tell me so bad what it was. I told her that I was busy and had to go and do something for grandmother.

So Friday finally arrives and I have to wait for her to have her soccer practice and then when she is getting into the car she said, "Look at me Poppy." To my,  surprise was the sweetest little face looking back at me with a pair of new glasses.

I picked them out all by myself and I sure can see the board much better.

"Poppy, What do you think." I said, "Sweety you did a wonderful job on picking out your glasses."

Picking Out A Pumpkin

Every year Chloe like to pick out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. She also likes to have one at Thanksgiving time for the table center piece.

So, the other day we went to the grocery store and at the front door they had several big boxes filled with squash, acorns and pumpkins.

She got so excited and she knew that fall was just around the corner.

Poppy, I know that it is a little while before Halloween, but can we get one today to practice on.

Please, Please, Please.

I bet Grandmother would sure like some of these flowers!

Or Maybe these.

Getting Ideas For Halloween

Her favorite Holiday is coming up next month and she can hardly wait.

She hasn't decided what she wants to be this year but she is looking to get some ideas.

The stores have started putting out Halloween things and she is busy looking for something that strikes her interest.

The other day we went shopping and as usual she wanted to shop on the Halloween isle.

Poppy, "Look, They have a lot of new things here this year, they have never had these things before."

There is so much to choose from, I'm glad we started looking earlier this year, aren't you!

I sure love this large skeleton, it makes me think of Bonzy doesn't it Poppy

Look at all of these different skeletons! I like this one of a cat, and the one of a dog as well.

Which one of these door decorations do you like the best, and would grand mother let us put it on the front door.

Hey Pop, look at these books!

First Week Of Soccer Practice

Two days of the week she has Soccer practice. The coach has fourth grade boys and third grade girls to train this year. When the team is ready the boys and the girls will be playing together.

It has been fun to watch them practicing. Some are experienced and many are just beginners. He is patient with each and every player.

Chloe said, "I have learned a lot in one week. We have learned defense, offense, how to move the ball, drop, kick and catch. How to kick the ball around the field and run at the same time. .How to run side ways around the Gym as well as regular running. When I get through with a practice I am tired but most of all I'm so hungry.

Well we have to learn quickly so that we will be ready for our first game next week.

First Week Of 3rd. Grade

Well the teachers survived their first week of having students back and Chloe survived as well.

She said , "I must be getting older, because Summer passed so fast, it seemed like it was only a couple of weeks off and back to school again.

She has really been looking forward to going back this year, and learning more. She loves school and is ready for what ever they can teach her.

This year she wants to play Soccer and is looking forward to being on the team.

Happy Fourth Of July

I had worked on the deck several weeks ago with the Pressure Washer, cleaning the deck back to its original condition.

I knew that the fourth of July was coming up and I wanted it to be perfect for the fourth.

On the day of the fourth, our town always put on a big production of fireworks for as many people that want to come it is free to sit and watch.

Usually, there are over 5,000 people that show up for the event. But today, we had a huge storm come through that may have turned some people away. As the time of the event was to start a 6:00 p.m. another big rain came again. You could see people leaving expecting the event to be a washout.

Fortunately, for the ones that stuck it out the evening turned out to be cooler after the rain and the show was wonderful.

We had a few friends over, and the beautiful thing for us is that we have a deck side view. We can sit and watch the ducks on the lake and see the crowd of people, yet not be in the crowd at all.

New Grocery Carts For Kids

Kroger's New-Kids Grocery Carts

Our local grocery store (Kroger's) has gotten smarter for today's market. They got new children's carts that look like small cars for little children to ride in with their parents to make it much easier to shop. They think that they are driving the buggy and they are more content.

Then they found a bigger basket with a race care sitting on top of the basket and the children were sitting up much higher and the baskets were bigger for more groceries and that baskets were much easier for the parents to steer through the store.

 Making Adjustments For Heavier Items

Then the got smaller baskets for shoppers that wanted to just make a quick trip through the store for just a few items and not have to carry the portable baskets around.

Finally they got children's grocery carts just like the big ones, but just right for a child to push and not get bored while shopping.

Yes, their are some little kids that get a little out of control pushing them for the first time and they may bump into you but they are learning how to shop.

We have seen them in the store for the past few trips and our nine year old grand daughter begged to go shopping so she could use the cart to shop. She has a smaller one she plays with at home but this new cart let her feel more grown up compared to the toy cart or other carts in the store.

 Filling Up Her Cart

She wanted to hold the grocery list and get items as she went down each isle in the store. We started out in the Produce Department. The first item on her list was the seedless watermelon, but it wasn't the first item as you came in the door. I explained that you shopped according to what came first in the store and then struck the items off of the list so you didn't miss items as you shopped. Next was the pineapple, I explained to make sure that it was firm and not soft and that the green on top looked fresh and not dried out. Next were cucumbers, I told her not to pick the large ones but to make sure that they were firm. We came to the watermelons and she asked why some had large yellow spots on the bottom. I let her know that is where they lay on the ground as they grew. I showed her how to thump them to hear how to pick them from the thumping sound. (when we got home it was perfect.) I showed her how to get the bags to put the vegetables in and how to tie them up. Then we went to the Meat Department, where she selected some different selections of meat. I let her know to put it inside of a plastic bag and tie it up to keep the other groceries from getting wet in the basket. As she shopped she was smiling, because she was learning how to be a good shopper and to find items on sale and pick quality items. As she shopped she had to adjust items in her cart to keep the heavy items on the bottom and lighter items to the top. When we got to the Dairy Department her basket was almost over the top and she started adding things to my basket. She looked up at me and said next are eggs and how do I pick them out. I said, grandmother likes cage free eggs, and she likes them to be brown. What are cage free eggs? Why are they better? How do you pick out them? After I selected the eggs, I showed her how to check for any cracked eggs before putting them in the basket.

 She Is Still A Little Kid At Heart, Checking Out The Toys

Yes, this first time took a little longer, because of her many questions and learning to read the isle boards to find items in the store. But Kroger's you have hit the mark with this basket, you get the attention of the younger buyers as they learn to shop and yes they add things that they want to their baskets as they shop.

 Ready For Check-out

When we got to check-out I let Chloe give the Cashier our Kroger's Card and the coupons and when it came time to pay, I gave her the money to complete the purchase.

She couldn't wait to go to summer camp on Monday, and tell to all of the other kids about her own shopping trip to Kroger's and their new shopping carts.

I believe you made a new customer for life today.

Picture Perfect

My grand daughter has always hated to have her picture taken, because she said, "You are just snapping away all the time.

I guess it goes back to when I was young and we only took pictures on Special Occasions or Events and we had so few pictures of us growing up. When our son came along, we took many pictures of him and we are glad to have all of the ones that we took.

 Such a Beautiful Little Girl

Now with grand children and the smart cell phones it is much easier to take pictures of everyone that maybe we have gone mad at taking pictures.

I started this blog in 2007 when my grand daughter was born to be like a Journal for her of her years growing up. As she gets older she can look back on the years and see her journey of growing up and the changes that she has made over the years.

Stories or things that she has said, I have blogged them so that she can remember them.

 Flexing her Pecks

So I got me a new Smart Phone and as usual, I have had to spend many days learning where and how to use everything on it. I loved my other phone because you could zoom in and take a close up picture of someone when they were smiling and they never knew that the picture had been taken.

The other day I was taking pictures with the camera on the phone and accidentally hit the phone volume button and it increased the picture size, but I was unsure of how to make it go back to the original size. So I hit the volume button to lower the volume and the picture went back to the original size. I found out that you could zoom out to five times the original picture while taking the picture. 

So today, I finally got some great close ups of my grand daughter.

Happy Father's Day

My Dad

 My father-in-law

Sometimes I feel like Father's Day is all year long. I have been fortunate to have been married to the same woman for almost forty-four years. I have been blessed to have a son and a grand daughter and my son has us another grand child on the way. What more could a father want?

My grand daughter asked me the other day, "Poppy, what do you want for Father's Day." I just told her that I have Father's day all year long but I would just love to have time to spend with my family and enjoy them all together.

We live in such busy time and we all have things to do everyday, but it is great when we can take time to enjoy each other all over again.

My dad, was a great father to me and I have always tried to pattern his example when raising my family. Sometimes everything is not perfect like you want it to be but that is life.

In 2004 my dad died and two days later I lost my mother as well. They had been married for over sixty years and I just hope that I can live as long as they did for us kids.

When I married my wife, I gained a father-in-law, who has been the best father-in-law that a son-in-law could ever want. After my dad passed, he was like my substitute dad and I have always felt that I could go to him and he would guide me in the right direction. For this I have always felt blessed by both of these "Special Dads."

I just hope that my example to my son and his children is one that they can follow and they can be thankful for.