AND THEN THIS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, for the past 16 months, Ed and I have been on what we call
The Mother Of All Debt Retirement Programs.

Guess what happened today?????

We paid off the very last outstanding line of credit we had...NO credit cards (haven't had them for over a year), NO Lines of Credit at the bank, NO credit ANYWHERE.

All we owe now is what is on our house...but...

OH MY GOODNESS...this is our current balance on ALL credit other than the house:

$000000000000000


I just want to run down the street screaming and yelling and dancing.

Maybe I will!

This Happened...And Then This Happened...

Today was Ed's BBQ for Distribution and Engineering, the group he manages.  Twenty people came over to the house for a lunch BBQ and staff meeting.  Ed could not have picked a more gorgeous day to have a staff meeting outside in the sunny air!

Ready for the hungry crowd.

Just sittin'.

Some of the crew.

And then, this evening, this happened!  My first bean of the year!

Good Day, Sunshine!

This has been a lovely week of sunshine and warmth...warm enough to wear just a t-shirt and jeans outside.  Since it has been so lovely, here's what we have been up to...

The first lovely day, I did all this...then took a bath and crashed into bed!

I set up my fountain in the front garden...it took me AGES to find the tiny connector part for the hose...which led to...

...going down to tear the shed apart looking for the connector, seeing the compost bin and realizing I needed to turn the compost...see the nice stuff in the red bucket?...which led to...

...finding and hanging up my main garden tools (and making sure my baby Meyer Lemon tree is in the warm sunshine)...which led to...

...taking a very small break and making sure the back covered deck, our Parthenon, was ready for the big BBQ for Ed's work group on Thursday( today!)...which led to...

A cleaned out and organized shed...finally...

...and getting the umbrella and BBQ ready for the day.  Whew!

The second lovely day...yesterday... I did this, and then crashed into bed.

...Was visited by the Cutest Girl In The World...

...who read me a story, quite loudly and with hand motions...

...Still reading...and wondering whether she should stand up on her own...which she did one time, but I didn't have the camera ready...

...Then we ventured outside in the front yard, to get some sun...and Grace is NOT a fan of the hat.  We had a little contest of the wills, and even though these pictures say otherwise, I won, and she kept the hat on most of the time...

...I really do NOT want to wear the hat...I need some time to think about it...Oh, okay then!  Have it your way, Grandma.
And I did.

Two good days...with sunshine!
Enjoy the warmth...I hope you have some good day, sunshine, too.

Mother's Day After

Today is Monday, the day after Mother's Day.  It's so cool to read all the Happy Mom's Day blogs and see pictures of my adorable extended families out there.

Mom's Day here began with a late phone call the night before, from Alison, telling us that Ray was moving back home with them.  What a nice Mom's Day present for her.  And for Eric, too.

Our day started out normally...getting up, having coffee and some healthy sort of breakfast, then getting ready for church.  Ed always goes 3 hours early to help set up, so I get ready with just Sophie for company.  So far a normal Sunday at our house.

At church, waiting for the service to begin and just chatting with others, someone came up to me and said "Hi there.  Happy Mother's Day!"  And it was Erin and Grace!  They had tried to go to their church, got caught in a big marathon race, knew they'd be too late, and came to our church instead.  Aaron and Charlie were there, too, of course.  What a sweet surprise on Mother's Day!  It made my day!

Then, later they all piled over to our house for one of those lunches where you all dig around in your fridge and eat what you find there.  Grace ate lunch, got so covered with food she had to have a bath, then napped, Ed sort of napped, Charlie dug in the dirt and played with his ''diggers" in one of my big pots, Aaron & Erin and Sophie took a walk, we all enjoyed some sun!! (amazingly).  Alison called and caught us up on what's going on at her house.  A perfect Mother's Day.

Charlie was playing in the dirt and had a runny nose.  Ed said, "Hey, you have something coming down out of your nose."  Charlie looked at him, gave a big sniff, and said, "There.  It went back up."  :)

Love to all of you, the best moms and aunts and grandmoms in the world.
Get a nap today.  You deserve one.

Big Day!

Last Thursday was a BIG DAY here at our house.  First, Charlie showed up early early to stay with me while Aaron and Erin took Grace down to Children's Hospital for her regular checkup with all the specialists and nutritionists, etc.

Charlie got into the chopstick drawer and did this while I wasn't looking...

Chopstick Charlie

I thought that was pretty cute and pretty smart!
Then Jenny and Courtney showed up for a great visit...

Courtney and Charlie

Then Ed came home for some soup and a bite of lunch and to say hi..

Ed with Jen and Charlie and Courtney, who I think just swallowed some soup...:)

Then Aaron and Erin and Grace came back home and had lunch and visited...and had the MOST amazing news.
Grace can eat normally...no food restrictions except those most 10 month olds would have.  Her little body is metabolizing food correctly.  What an answer to prayers we didn't even know to pray!

Jenny and Grace, Jen's first time to meet her.

The amazing cousin twins...Erin and Courtney

Photographer being photographed taking a photograph of Erin, Grace, Raye, Jen, Courtney

The girls that day

And, finally, Charlie early in the morning, after we measured him on the measuring doorway.
He wrote his name himself...and he is exactly 39 inches tall.

A BIG DAY... in so many wonderful ways!

Done and On

Last week I posted a blog about the sweater that Ed isn't going to get.

Here it is...done and on.  Not blocked, though, which will definitely smooth out the stitches.  But I couldn't wait to try it out.

(These pix also star the world famous Hardly Famous Used Goods sign from the old Alligator Soul Restaurant...may it rest in crunchy chicken gumbo jambalaya red beans and rice peace.)

Finishing the neck...pre-shower.  Lovely.

Hardly Famous, but all done.  The only change I made from the
pattern was to make the cuffs twice as long.   Post-shower, much better.

The back, in Zumba stance.  This is a very warm and cozy sweater, almost
like a sweatshirt knitted by hand.

Okay, that's enough pictures.

Grandbaby Date Night

Hi, there!

Last night Charlie and Grace came for a visit while their dad and mom had various things to do/attend.  We made a night of it.  Ed and Charlie played trains, played Scrabble, played Match the Shapes, played silliness, made popcorn, and generally wore themselves out...especially Grandpa.

Grace and I mainly kept her out of things she shouldn't be in (trains, Scrabble, Match the Shapes, popcorn...) and danced and shrieked and danced some more.  Grace especially loved listening to Ed's I Phone tunes and dancing the night away.  She also sings...very very loudly.  It is so funny.

Charlie and Grace had baths and a tiny nap (Grace), then Mom came to end the fun.  Ed said, "(relief in his voice) Hey, I see your mom driving into the driveway."  Charlie: "OOOOHHHH! NOOO!"  :)

They left at 9:44-ish.  We were in bed by 9:47-ish.  :)

We slept very well.

Dancing with Grandma is a blast!

Grandpa's got good dance tunes on that thing.  I especially like ABBA!  :)!!

Let's see if I can get this to stay on Gracie's head...I did it!  (He was very proud of himself!)