A VALENTINE'S DAY TUTORIAL TO MAKING VALENTINES--A BLAST FROM THE PAST

With Valentine's Day coming up

I thought it would be fun

 (kinda like poking my eye out

with a stick)

to craft a few Valentines

with my grandgirls when they 

were little.

This, of course, involved

GLUE & GLITTER,

the bane of my existence.

I set up "stations" before

they arrived at my house.

Look how handy these sweet

chalkboard plates
(that my daughter-in-love made me)
 came in!

Station One:

Station Two:

Station Three:

This involves scissors & a hole punch

AND a paper cutter which the girls

are NOT ALLOWED to use.

I gave them a very sweet, gentle reminder

about "HANDS OFF" the slicer/dicer.

SweetCheeks said:

Yohu wouldn't do that enyways, Nana.

That is a stooopid sighn.

Hmmmm...That kid was smart even

when she was little.

Choosing materials each girl started

crafting. 

Thing One

Thing Two

And, last but not least,

Thing Three

How did everything turn out?

How much glitter was spilled in the process?

How many fingers were glued to eyeballs?

How many scraps of paper were

glued to the floor?

Maybe at some point

in the future when I

TRULY RECOVER

maybe all your pressing questions

will be answered.......maybe.....

This post will make SweetCheeks

smile as she continues to recover

from her surgery.

She is getting as spoiled today

as she was back then.

She is doing really well-

in some pain but is managing

it like a trooper.

HAVE A WONDERFUL

VALENTINE'S DAY
from our little 
Bright Eyes!

ps- please forgive the quality of those old pictures.

To tell the truth, I am not much better

at photography now.....

A FEW POST-EASTER PICS---POST

We were lucky enough

to spend 

EASTER WEEKEND

with my daughter, Mimi and her sweet family.

MyHero took at least 75 pictures.

This was the closest he came to having

EVERYONE LOOK AT THE CAMERA 
and smile.
As you can see-
3 out of 5 made eye contact although
BigBoyE does not look too happy...

You know how there are bloopers?
We have at least FIFTY of pictures like this.
The kid in the dress is the goofball
that mugged for the camera.

I also have one picture
of three of my sweet grandgirls-

Look how big they are getting--
and SweetCheeks has glasses!

And their Mom, Tara---still beautiful---
shown here with her brother-
our youngest son...
fondly known as "Mama'sBoy"...

And here is his little guy..
flying off to see
Jack Sparrow @ Pirates of the Caribbean...
He was pretty excited when the
Captain asked him up to the front cabin
and let him sit in the pilot's seat.

No pictures of my oldest son
or his family.
Like me- he hates having his picture taken
so I only get pictures when his wife
shares them with me-lol....

For those of you brats that always ask
WHERE IS YOUR PICTURE
I say HERE YOU GO!

Next time I will brush my hair first....

Hope you all had a blessed Easter
and now we can move towards
Mother's Day!

This mama is off to the VA this morning
to mother a few veterans!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

PLEASE PRAY ABOUT THE CT SCAN SCHEDULED FOR TODAY

Good Morning!

Just wanted to share a picture of

MyHero with three of his granddaughters

at the annual

Daddy/Daughter Dance 

at their school

taken last Saturday night.

This will most likely 

be his last social outing

until his treatments are completed.

Sorry for the poor quality.

It was an Iphone in the entryway-

NO MOMS (or Nana) ALLOWED!

However,

that is not the real reason for this post.

I know- I know-

I feel like I am starting to sound like

A BROKEN RECORD!

We need some prayers here.

If you are not a pray-er, please

send us well wishes.

John has a CT scan scheduled today.

There were some small spots on his lungs

when he started this whole process.

They 'think' the spots may be from

something that he inhaled

when he had the severe infection

in his neck-

or a residual effect from that infection..

If that is the case,

the spots should either be gone-

or should have remained the same.

The spots were too small to biopsy

so the CT scan is the only way

they can track them.

Please pray there are no new spots

or that the ones that are there

have not enlarged--

or best case scenario--

the spots have disappeared!

I will let you know what happens

when we get the results back.

We are hoping to hear something

by Friday.

We need to get this old boy well

so he attend some more dances 

with these sweet girls..

Also, pray he can keep his weight steady 

and even gain a bit of weight.

I don't know about most of you,

but praying to gain weight 

is not something

I have ever done!

It just kind of goes 

against the grain, doesn't it?

Okay-Now that you all have been 

so patient with me and my requests,

I want to show you something pretty special.

This is my 13 year old granddaughter, Lulu,

dressed up for her last 

Daddy/Daughter Dance

at her school.

Isn't she a beauty?

I might be a little biased-lol

I can look at her here and picture

what she might look like as a bride someday!

Here she is with her two sisters.

Ria has 2 more years of 

Daddy/Daughter Dances

and SweetCheeks has 5 years to go!

Is there anything sweeter than sisters 

laughing together?

There you have it-

another dance step in our lives.

Hmmmm...maybe the old boy will take

ME dancing when his treatment is behind him.

I think there is a special event 

coming up at the 

VETERANS CLINIC 

where I volunteer.

I've got the perfect little number!

Won't MyHero be proud to be

seen with ME in THAT?!!??!!

Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Have a wonderful, blessed day!

FINISH IT UP FRIDAY---FIVE FOTOS FOR FUN~and a couple of OLD SECRETS

I can hardly believe it

but I am getting my photo files

all cleaned up doing this

Finish it up Friday thing.

When I search for photos to use here

I am deleting some and moving others 

into their proper storage folders.

Whoo Hooo.

SO!

What is up this week?

MY LITTLE STAR---RIA

is off to a dance competition in 

Chicago.

She always takes a prize.

She is the most graceful little girl 

I have ever seen.

Even when not dancing

she moves like a dancer.

Isn't she a beauty...

with a little SASS thrown in for fun.

Makes me want to cut hearts out of leaves

when I look at her.

Don't you love this idea!?!

I HEART this little guy, too.

This old dollhouse sits under a covered "porch"

on the front part of our garage.

CJK- is fascinated by it and always checks it

to see if "fairies" are inside.

He KNOWS they are there.

On my side porch off the dining room

I have a glass topped table & chair set

 I bought from my

neighbor years ago.

I pull the cushions off it for winter

and it starts looking bare.

But-who says that a 

FRUIT CENTERPIECE 

won't work outside?

AND if you use fake faux fruit

you won't get "critters" eating them.

I send them  next door to eat the 

neighbor's pumpkins.  

I am a good neighbor that way.

Speaking of FRUIT---

Have you seen this little "trick"

on the internet somewhere?

Is that cute or what?

Cutie-pie clementines

with a piece of celery for the stalk.

source unknown

Well, there's my FIVE photos--

of course #1 counted as THREE pictures, 

I suppose.

I never was very good at 

FOLLOWING THE RULES

and I have the deportment remarks on my

old report cards to prove it.

I blame my father for that...

hey---gotta blame somebody.

He was a smart-aleck, too.

This is a TRUE STORY!

When I missed school I 

ALWAYS wrote my own excuses to turn in 

to the teacher in charge of truancy.

ONE DAY

I asked my MOM to write my excuse for me

because I was in a hurry.

When I turned it in they called HER 

to see if I had 

FORGED MY EXCUSE.

SHE was MAD at ME

for that!

Seriously?!?!???

Maybe if you are 

REALLY GOOD I will tell you about

the time I tipped over backwards in

Accounting class and my

full skirt and can-can

went up over my head.

I blame Charlie Watson for that!

He put his feet against the legs of my chair

when I went to push my chair back 

to stand up.

Pfffffttttt...

Mrs. Harkness never liked me anyway.

She liked me even less after 

THAT INCIDENT.

DANCING WITH THE STARS

Here's MY two STARS!

And they

BOTH DANCE!

Just got home late yesterday

and headed to the 

VA center this morning

to open up at 6:00am.

Have lots of news & photos to share

with you-

BUT- I need a day to catch up!

Meanwhile-

Watch for these girls on 

BROADWAY (someday)!

I'll see you later today!

SUNDAY SASS

Well, I am NOT going to church this morning!

Nope!

I am going to a volleyball tournament

with our sweet Ria.

She is our dancer-

-but also a volleyball player.

She might be little but she is a

FORMIDABLE PLAYER!
She made the POWER team yesterday!

She spent last night with us just hanging out.

I will take

her to her game today!  

You know I said I was missing church-

Never fear about that!

We will be praying at the 

GOLDEN ARCHES

this morning..

Not sure if that will get me through the

PEARLY GATES 

though!

Which begs the question....

I wonder if Colonel Sanders is there?

PLEASE!

No offense meant to 

ANY RELIGION 

so don't be sending me hate notes!

Thank you

and have a great Sunday!

ps. Think of this post when you eat your
CHICKEN DINNER
today!

Finish It Up Friday- Five Fotos For Fun

I am getting to the point where my

photo albums are getting cleared out.

That might be good or bad...

So Here We Go:

Let's COUNT shall we?

-ONE LITTLE BOY-

CJK

on the dock to nowhere:

That is using the Waterlogue application.

Here is what the original looked like:

Two Little Sisters Loving Each Other

while they wait for a snack after a hard

dance practice routine.

SweetCheeks  and Ria

Two All Togged Up

for a wedding.

Big Boy E & CharlesInCharge

THREE Little Schoolgirls

on their way to the car..

I promised to only show them from the 

knees up. 

I LIED!

Someone could NOT find their shoes!

How DOES that happen?

Lulu, Ria & SweetCheeks

The FOUR FINGER GRIP!

Little Miss Bright Eyes

And one more cuz she is
SOO CRAZY CUTE!

Now- I want you to go out and enjoy 

your day!

Here is

FIVE IN A ROW!

Don't be all sedate, stuffy, and safe-

be a little daring!

You just never know what might happen!

Yeah- That would be me...

I can hear my name over the loudspeaker now....

Pick Your Favorite PLAYHOUSE WINNER...and ANOTHER WINNER of Another Kind

I love that you all play along

with the 

PICK YOUR FAVORITES 

that I put together.

I am a couple of days late getting to this

because our friend Dr. Ball passed away

and we have had so much going on.

SO

WHICH ONE  Of THESE WAS THE WINNER?

First place with the most votes is:

GAZE AT THAT GAZEBO

Coming in at a close second is

THE LITTLE HOUSE THAT GREW

Coming in THIRD PLACE is:

SWEETLY STONED

I LOVE all THREE of THOSE!

~Thanks so much for playing along~

Here is another kind of 

WINNER!

We sat at Dance Competitions all day yesterday.

You have watched me brag as Ria won in 

every competition she has entered.

She got a Lightening Gold Trophy

(the highest she could get)

and came in FOURTH OVERALL!

That is huge- she is dancing 

with girls that have been

doing competitions for years and this is only her

FIFTH competition.

BUT THE SURPRISE IS!!!!

SWEET CHEEKS

in her 

FIRST EVER PERFORMANCE

got a 

HIGH GOLD

and SIXTH OVERALL!

I might or might not have teared up a little bit.

Little Miss Personality

came "alive" on stage!

It was so fun to watch!

Have a great Sunday.

We have another competition today!

Finish It Up Friday-FUN WITH THE FAMILY

THE BABYSITTER

Lulu is just getting old enough to babysit.

So, while she was here last weekend,

we had CJK come over so she

could practice.

Here is how it went!

Lulu is trying to read her book for school

and keep an eye on CJK.

He is VERY INTERESTED in her book.

He is SO interested that he says he can read it--

and starts with

Once 'pon a time....

She is not getting much reading done because

Bucko drops her book on the floor 

and gives her a 

GREAT BIG HUG!

That hug did not seem to get enough of a response-

Let's try 

ONE MORE REALLY BIG HUG-

along with the 

CHIN GRIND!

Ah- yes--perfect response...

Now- Let's just move along

to balancing on the 

Hairy Headed Sisters!

This is what they call an 

ACTION SHOT

in the movies.

Free of charge for you, of course-

And now that you have had fun with 

everyone else it is time to have

FUN WITH POPS!

 Yeah-That's they way we all feel, kid!

Sorry----