Watching Austin and Jett Play

Austin and Jett are my boss's two younger sons.  I have been watching them play games for years - baseball, football, basketball, and upon occasion  - Hooky.  


And when Larry gets a chance, he comes along too.

Living so far away from our families, we've missed getting to see our nieces and nephews grow up, so this fills a big gap for us.  
We also figure that you can't have too many people cheering you on from the stands, so we all win out.

I'm fairly good to go for baseball, but football and basketball - and now lacrosse?  I learn something new every year!

Last fall was  big for football.  


Austin made the middle school team and it was decided by all that each game would be fully attended by the home office...i.e. Laura and me.  Except for the game she had to miss when she was in the Netherlands.  My job that night was to let her know what was going on.  By texting.  And man, was it a nasty cold, drizzly night!  To add to the fun, I left my phone in the car, so for the first half, I was texting from Larry's PRE-HISTORIC phone.  But thank God Larry was there.  He'd say tell Laura this!  and then about half way thru my torturous texting he say now tell her this!!! and this and this!!  I was texting words that I had no idea what they meant!

Jett's team made it to the finals and Laura had to miss the next to the last game.  This time, I took Mary with me because Larry was at a horse show.  Mary knows her football, which is good because I was a texting fool that day too!

Jett with the Grizzlies

(And since it was an Important Game, we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch afterwards.)

I think that that was the week that I watched  FIVE of their games.  Me!!  Football!!

And now it is baseball season.   Austin is on two different teams this year, so we are trying to see as many local games as we can.

Austin - practicing with the Richmond Braves

Man was it dusty that day!!!!

Yesterday Larry and I enjoyed a totally new sports experience - we went to Jett's Lacrosse game!!

Jett with the Brigade Lacrosse team

It was so cool!  Jett and his team put on a great show.  AND it was a timed game with only a few time outs.  Just my kind of game.


It is so amazing to see how these guys have grown and matured over the last six years.  We can't wait to see where they go with all this.


And when they get there, we will be happy to say oh yeah, we've been watching them for YEARS!  
We think they're GREAT!!

Finding Raleigh and Sminky

Grey and Neve were upstairs this morning running back and forth and squealing with glee.

As I went upstairs Raleigh, my big gray cat, streaked down the stairs as if his life depended on it.

"What are you guys DOING?"  I asked.

"Finding Raleigh and Sminky!" they answered.

I looked at Sminky, trapped behind a lamp on Larry's desk.  She was not amused.

"See Mimi, Sminky's talking to us!!" Neve said excitedly.

Oh, she was talking alright.

I have personally never heard a cat hiss so loudly.

Five Months

My daughter Mary is getting married in 5 months.  


Our house is filling up with vintage china and linens and silver plate and mikglass vases and lacy hankies....  


Ok, anyone who knows me even a little knows that my house was already reasonably full of that kind of stuff.  Now there are even more lovely things....


And now it is filling up with dresses: Wedding, bridesmaid, flower girl, mother-of-the-bride...
And a beautiful wispy veil, and the current in-favor wedding shoes....


Oh and wedding cake shaped bottles of bubbles and little silver bells and votive candle holders and little tealights and many strings of white lights and and picture frames....


And so many hopes and plans and dreams...


Today Mary and I had a rare mother and daughter day.  We started out by going to see Titanic.  We just had to.  it was my first 3-D movie and I was reasonably impressed.  I have to admit that we forgot how LONG it took that boat to sink!  Was he filming it in real time or what??? We had lunch and hit Michaels for a little bit of wedding shopping.


Then we hit my spare room to inventory my cloth napkins for the reception.


I love vintage linens.  And I have been collecting them for QUITE a while.


I filled a hamper and we took it downstairs and started counting.
We counted out 210 dinner napkins and 114 cocktail napkins.  We figured, ok, we just won't be too picky about the design or fabric.
So then we went back upstairs and moved some stuff from the front of the china closet and pulled all the napkins off the napkin shelf.

We ended the count with 424 dinner napkins and 195 cocktail napkins.


Mary said "Wow!  NOW I can be picky!!"



But I can't help but think...Don't I have another stack of napkins somewhere?? 


Up next - TABLECLOTHS!!!!

What Could Be Better Than Oreos?

 A couple of weeks ago Grey had a not-even-realized-dream come true... his Aunt Miss Audrey took him - just him!! to TARGET all by himself  to buy the Lego Hero Factory that he had been talking INCESSANTLY about all day.  Did I say incessantly?  That doesn't even seem to cover the amount of time spent on that particular subject....


So we told Neve that he was going and that they would get her a surprise, but she was marveling that Mimi rented HOP the movie for her and she barely even noticed him leaving.


I should have known that it wouldn't last.


Neve came out of her I love HOP coma and said WHERE Grey?  I want to go Target!  


YIKES!!


So I pulled out the emergency vintage Ballerina cake toppers that I bought at the Back in the Day Bakery when I went to Savannah with my friend Sue for Mandy's baby shower.


Neve was charmed.  She wanted to know what they were for and I told her that they were to decorate cakes or cupcakes.  So she decided it was time to make cupcakes.


Damn.  I walked right into that.


As I had neither the cake mix or more importantly, the desire to make cupcakes I thought for a couple of minutes and remembered that we had OREOS!!  and squirt-y PINK FROSTING!!!  And a pretty pretty pink depression glass cake stand.


So here's the technique - squirt pretty pink frosting on top of an Oreo.  Place on pretty pink cake plate, then let your grandbaby shove a Ballerina on top.  Then watch as she takes the ballerina off and eats the Oreo.  And then repeats the procedure...

Neve REALLY likes Oreos!   


Then Grey came back and it turns out that he likes Oreos wth pink frosting and ballerinas too!


Go figure.


And he had a very successful Target foray!!

After that we all went in and - God Help Me - we watched HOP.  


For the second time.


P.S. Turns out that Grey and Neve's mom and dad like pretty pink frosted Oreos with Ballerinas on them.  
However, they chose not to be photographed...

Paula Deen is Dead to Me

My friend Sue and I took off for Savannah a few weeks ago for her daughter-in-law Mandy's baby shower.
("My friend Sue" is the internationally recognised term for my friend Sue Feldmann.  True story!!  I talked about her all the time when I lived in Germany.)


Back when we both got invitations to the shower we had mentioned it in passing to each other.  Then we said hey, maybe we should go.  Then it was I Know!  Let's surprise Mandy!!  Then we remembered what it was like to be 8 months pregnant and decided that Sue would just give her a call.

Matt, Mandy and soon to be Charlie...OH and a statue of the guy who wrote Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I am a big fan of Mady's blog, MCUBED (http://mattmandymitch.blogspot.com/) and was excited to see her and Matt and their furry child Mitch.  We got the grand tour and inspected the nursery and petted Mitch profusely.  

Mitch

I was SOOO excited because that night we were going to eat at The Lady and Sons restaurant. Paula Deens' restaurant!

We hung out for a few minutes in the Paula Deen Store, which is attached to the restaurant.  I couldn't believe it.  I know that you have to strike when the iron is hot, but the level of Paula Deens' self promotion was SO over the top, I started to feel a little uneasy.


We were ushered to the 3rd floor for dinner and we chose the buffet.  What a disappointment.
Just a lot of tired mushy food.  Golden Corral could do it better.  Sue and I could do it better.


What a shame.


Thank goodness we still had the baby shower and more visiting with Matt and Mandy to look forward to!! 


 And a visit to the Back in the Day Bakery!!  We got some great ideas for lights at Mary's wedding.  And the doilies were just too pretty.

Gorgeous Chandeliers!!

Pretty Doilies!!

The  weekend ended way too soon and we can't wait to go back!


But we won't be going to Paula Deen's restaurant....

Just a Couple of Soldiers

It was the end of a very exciting Nationals game.  Hardly anyone went home early, so as we were walking out of the stadium we were packed like sardines.


We were walking by a young guy in a wheel chair and Larry suddenly stopped beside him and asked "Are you in the Marines?" And reaching out his hand, he shook the young guys hand and said "Thank you!"


An older gentleman walking with him in front turned around and asked Larry if he had been in the Marines.  "No", Larry replied, "I was in the Army.  My son was in the Marines - I think he joined them just to spite me!"


They all laughed and then we moved on.


But just for a second, I could see them, standing tall and proud.


Just a couple of soldiers.

Larry and Shayne

Trying to Set a Good Example

One of my co-workers, Amy, breezed through the home office this week to work a couple of days, then to head out to New York City to go to her friends' Art Opening.  She brought Christmas presents, a fabulous dress for us to preview, and a breath of fresh air!


The fabulous dress was for the Art Opening, and wow it was gorgeous!!  She asked us for advice about what kind of shoes she should wear with it - and we cheerfully assured her that the higher the heels, the better!!  (It wasn't like WE were going to be traipsing around NYC in sky high heels!)  (Ok, maybe we were a bit jealous that we don't have legs that go on for miles.)




Wow Amy!!  You go, girl!!!

                                                           
My Christmas present was a great book featuring TWSS (That's What She Said)  It was Michael Scott's favorite phrase back when he was on The Office.  I used to be quite adept at working TWSS into every conversation....


But now that I am a grandmother, and Grey and Neve are soaking up everything we say like little sponges, I've tried to dial it back a bit.  You know, be a better example. Reading the book was like a little visit to yesterday - BG - Before Grandkids....


So yesterday Larry and I were at the Nationals Stadium for a game and as we were wandering to our seats, Larry was very earnestly and VERY seriously explaining some random baseball fact.  He ended his story with "and that's how he would end up with a ball in his face."  Oh my...


THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!


Larry laughed all the way to our seats.


Thank you, Amy!!  


Come back soon!  Laura and I miss you like crazy!!!