Merry Christmas!

Grandma Lou

My Grandma Lou passed away overnight, in the very early hours of this morning.  She was 93, and except for a stroke that came out of left field, she was healthy and living life to its fullest.  She was still very active in her community, participating in water aerobics, attending various events, eating out with her friends.  She will be so missed on Signal Mountain, and especially in our family.

   When "Dawson's Creek" became my television obsession in the late '90s, I started calling Grandma Lou "Grams", like Jen did on the show.  She loved the name and it stuck.

 I had the opportunity to say goodbye to Grams on speaker phone last night.  I told her that, of all the great memories I have with her, my favorite is the fact that, as an adult, she became my friend.  She supported me and always had my back.

Grams was an incredibly strong woman who asserted herself as the matriarch of the family.  She was opinionated, open-minded, and funny.  She had a story for everything (some of which we heard many times over the years).

 I'm so glad that my girls got to know their Grandma Lou.  They use her place mats to eat on, and the sweater she made for me when I was young has now been worn by both girls, too.  Every night, they sleep with the blankets she weaved for them.  I'm so glad to have those pieces of her in our house.

 She would always ask for "just half a beer in a glass" because she said couldn't drink that much.  Yet we all knew that, before long, she'd be back for the second half.  Never failed, and always made us laugh.

 There were a few years in my life, a long time ago, that felt almost defined by significant loss. This isn't new territory for me, but it's sure hitting hard.  As much as I knew she wouldn't be, I guess I just thought she would always be around.

 The girls have been asking a lot of questions, and I'm trying to navigate through answering them.  Emma asked if Grandma Lou was like a robot without batteries, and then asked if her heart is her battery.  Not sure where that came from, but I thought it was an interesting connection.

 Then they asked to look at pictures of Grandma Lou ... so we started looking through those taken in most recent years.

Grams saw a lot in her lifetime. She grew up near Purdue, went to college, was an Alpha Chi Omega, and had many stories to tell about her high-society social life over the years.  I think everyone who met her loved her.

 There was rarely something we'd all be doing that she wouldn't jump in on (eating a suitcase of White Castle burgers included).

 Although we lived far apart, Grams always seemed to be there.  Just last weekend, she called to wish Sara a happy birthday as we were on our way out to dinner to celebrate.  Sara was the last person to receive a birthday card from her, with $17 for 2017 (she'd made a note in the card that next year, Sara would get $18).  Grams still had plans.

 She was such an important and stable part of our family.  I am grateful to have had her in my life for nearly 37 years.

 I've kept this email she sent me a couple of years ago after a terrible Cyclones football game.  It makes laugh.  I've also kept the last voicemail she left me, and I'm glad I did.  Like all the others, it starts with, "Hi, Katie, this is your Grandma..." and ends with, "I love you."

We will love you and miss you forever, Grams.  Cheers ... to you for a beautiful life, well-lived, and to those of us who had the great fortune of being part of your journey.

Nine & Feelin' Fine

 

 Sara is NINE today ... last year in single digits!  She shows more and more signs everyday of entering tween-dom.  Sara loves 3rd grade and says her favorite subject is science.  She's still really good at math, too, and she loves to read.  This past year, she has gone from allowing us to read chapter books with her once in a while to wanting to read on her own all the time.  She always have at least two or three books going at once.  We are also so proud that she is a shameless Cyclones fan!

 Sara enjoys being involved in Brownies, and soon will be in her first play, "Peter Pan."  She is Michael in the play, and has been busy practicing her 15 lines.  We're excited to see her on stage!  Of course Sara also loves her phone (which, to her dismay, is closely monitored by her parents).  Sara still loves to draw and do projects, and can spend lots of time just quietly creating.  She has recently shown an interest in learning to play the piano.

We celebrated over the weekend at Benihana, her request, and had a great time enjoying the show and the delicious food.  Sara ordered hibachi shrimp and fried rice, and then rainbow sherbert for dessert.  She left with a fully belly and a big smile on her face!

We are so proud of our smart, funny, helpful, kind, opinionated, greatest-ever 9-year-old!

Thanksgiving Break

We had a great Thanksgiving break!  Although we squeezed in a dentist appointment, the rest was mostly just fun.  We had a fun time visiting Kansas family for Thanksgiving.  Too much to eat and drink, but lots of laughter and memory-making ... perfect visit!  We made it back yesterday evening, and then spent today hanging our outside lights and preparing to head back to school tomorrow.  We cheated a little bit by putting up our tree and inside decorations before leaving for Kansas, and I also took the girls early last week to see Santa.  That's not something I usually do before Thanksgiving, but the idea of beating the lines was just too tempting.

We like going to see Santa at Willow Bend, where they have a fun snow globe for the kids to play in and stuffed arctic animals to look at on the way to see the Big Guy.

 Emma really wanted me to take this pic of her winking.

 They let me put them in matching outfits.  It was a pre-Christmas miracle.  Let's hope we have a repeat for other upcoming holiday events.

 Willow Bend will be getting a Crayola Experience this spring.  Sara went to the one at MOA with my mom and sister, and I'm excited to take both girls here when it opens.  In the meantime, there's lots of advertising for it at the mall, including a life-sized box of crayons!

 Silly faces!

 Cute pic with Santa this year.  This one was the first picture they took.  Emma asked for a pop-socket for her phone, and Sara asked for the book Wonder.  My plan to beat the long lines worked: we were through the snow globe/polar bear paws in ice + other such attractions/Santa visit + pic/picture purchase in under twenty minutes.  Win!

The next few weeks will be exciting and busy.  We have Sara's birthday, a visit from my parents, and of course lots of shopping to do.  I love this time of year!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend Steve and I got some rare time away as we headed to Waco for the ISU/Baylor game.  We had a HUGE alumni tailgate with other alums from all over (many from our DFW club attended).  It was a super windy day, but still beautiful, and we had the best time.

 Of course someone was giving away delicious smoked pork.  Only at a tailgate with Iowans...

 We did not stop at Magnolia, but someone who tailgated near us had gone to get cupcakes.  I didn't have one, but they looked pretty.  He said he waited 45 minutes for these cupcakes ... no, thanks.

 We had awesome seats among a sea of Cardinal & Gold inside of McClane Stadium.  On top of the fun and camaraderie, the win made it a great day to be a Cyclone!

 *still windy*

On Sunday, my cousins Tim and Emily were in town from Hawaii and Minnesota.  We took advantage of the nice afternoon and spent some time catching up outside at Katy Trail.  It was fun to have some familiar faces in town for a bit!

We're out of school for the week, and will be heading to Lyons tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with Steve's sisters in Kansas.  Our week is already going by too quickly ... yesterday was filled with putting up the tree and some much needed R&R.  Working on a little more of the same today before we hit the road tomorrow!

another photo dump

Here I am again, playing catch-up.  Story of my life right now!  I can't believe we are staring down Thanksgiving.  Our day-to-day has been a contest with the current to stay above the water ... I'm sure looking forward to breathing a bit next week.  I have a lot of work I could be/should be doing right now, my I'm going to spend a few minutes doing this instead.  

Last month we hit up an ISU game watch for the TCU game.  It was an amazing victory!  Not shown: someone's fireball shots as the fans in Ames rushed the field.

 A former player, James Reed, was in attendance, so we had to take a little celebrity photo.

 We enjoyed carving pumpkins and making what was possibly my best batch of pumpkin seeds ever.  Nobody walked through the kitchen without grabbing a few!

 Somehow, in the midst of the October Cyclone victories, "Dilly Dilly" became the ISU rally cry.  Even Bud Light got into in on Twitter.  So of course we had to have a Dilly Dilly pumpkin.

 We had a cooler Halloween evening, but at least the expected rain held off.  Our neighborhood was SO quiet during trick-or-treating.  I don't know if it was the weather, or the Tuesday night, or the World Series, but it was weird.  Maybe we just hit the wrong streets.  Still, the girls came home with enough candy to last a lifetime.

 Fall soccer season ended.  Emma will play again in the winter with her friends and beloved Coach McAlister.

 The 3rd graders at Sara's school presented a really nice Veterans Day Program last week.  Sara was proud to have a speaking part, and she did a great job.  It was fun to watch her - she was totally in her element performing on the stage!

School has been crazy-busy-great.  Many people told me that my second year as principal would be harder than my first, and I'm finding that to be very true.  I have a variety of theories on why this is.  Still loving my job very much, but finding myself a little more thankful for Amazon every single day.  Mostly I'm just trying to keep my $%*& together so I'm not a terrible parent by the time the evening rolls around, and I'm sorry to say I'm not being super successful in this arena.  Forever a work in progress... Anyway, that's all for now.  Back to Amazon to check a couple more things off my list!

Fall Fun

We've been enjoying our fast-paced fall, especially the last couple of weekends when the weather has been beautiful and we've had our windows open.  This week the girls received a Halloween package from Grandma, complete with lots of projects and candy eyes.  Today we made pretzel/almond bark ghosts, and although they didn't really turn out like the Pinterest version, they are still cute and tasty!

 Probably the most exciting thing about this fall is that our Cyclones are WINNING!  After the totally unexpected win over OU a few weeks ago, they've just kept going.  Today, for the first time since 2005, they are in the top 25.  We always love them anyway, but it's especially fun when they win.  We've been wearing our Cyclones gear around town with lots of pride - and for the first time in a long time, we aren't wishing away football season!

A couple of weekends ago we had family pictures taken, which we hadn't done in a few years.  Everyone was a good sport for me, and the pics turned out great.  It gets me thinking about Christmas cards (which is exciting for me) and planning for the upcoming holidays (which is a little stressful for me), but it all adds up to more fun on the horizon! 

Monday Funday

Our last couple of weekends have been busy with soccer games-soccer practice-soccer pictures, new tires for me and a new car for Steve, bad Cowboys football, an AMAZING Cylones win, and the usual cleaning/shopping/etc. tasks.  So today's holiday came at a great time.  Steve had to work, so the girls and I headed to the pumpkin patch.  It was really ridiculously hot, but we had a great time and finished our trip with fro-yo.

 This pumpkin patch is great.  You pay to park, but then all other activities are free (excluding food/drinks/pumpkins).  But I love that the girls could play as much as they wanted without having to fork over tickets for everything.  We all enjoyed a break on the hayride.

 The girls did the hay maze twice.  I stood on a platform and caught Sara when her head popped up at one point.  Emma was in there somewhere.

  Neither was super amused that I made them stand for these pictures, but I think they're cute.

 

They were much happier to pose with the Peanuts gang in search of the Great Pumpkin (which is playing now as they both struggle to keep their eyes open).

Emma has her costume ready: she is going to be a cowgirl, and gathered items we already had around the house.  Sara wants to be Mal from Descendant's, and while I'd like to think I could piece together the costume, I think we all know I'll probably end up buying the one in the bag from Party City.  It's just easier.  So glad for our Monday Funday Halloween kick-off today!

As Good As I Remember

2017 marks the 100 year anniversary of my sorority's Iowa State chapter, and planning for a grand celebration has been in the works for a long time.  Last weekend, Rho Chapter Alpha Gams from near and far gathered in our beloved Ames to celebrate the Centennial and walk down memory lane.  I flew into Des Moines Friday afternoon and rode with Brooke and Leigh to Ames.  The night started casually enough, but had to end at one of our old favorites, Paddy's.  The floors seemed a lot stickier and the drinks a lot cheaper than they did back in the day!

 Saturday morning we attended a brunch with sisters from pledge classes spanning many decades.  These ladies are two of my all-time faves.  Although I'm super jealous of all of the fun they have together in Kansas City, I'm so thankful for their loyal friendship.

 Saturday afternoon we visited the chapter house, and it looks amazing!  So much work has been done since we left, and as we walked the halls and laughed about our many crazy stories, I found myself feeling so thrilled for the collegians who are in the midst of some of the very best years.  We had to take a sign pic ... climbing up didn't used to seem so hard.  Pretty sure I got bruises this time around.

 I was so excited because my mom and sister drove to Ames to hang out with me for a few hours on Saturday.  We had lunch, shopped at the bookstore (well, Melissa didn't shop), visited the house, and had a couple of cocktails with my friends.  It was so fun to see them!

 Saturday night was a dinner and dance.  Apparently the DJ didn't believe that a women-only party would do any dancing, but he hadn't met the Alpha Gams.  Young and old and in between were on the floor all night and it was a blast!  We may or may not have ended the evening teaching the collegians a thing or two at a house party.

It was the very best weekend.  I love my life now, and I wouldn't trade it, but being in Ames always reminds me that if I had to live four years over again, it would be these ones.  The place, the ladies, the fun ... just as good as I remember!