It's been a great 30 years.... 

30 awesome, lovely years....

Years that I would never give back.....

But now it's time to pull the plug...

No.... not him, He's good for at least another 30 (many more I hope)

Pulling the  plug on the waterbed.

Our new Tempurpedic comes today....yay!!!

After much thought, reading reviews, and many visits to the stores

Guess what we finally bought today?

Here's a hint

It's a cloud

"Tempurpedic" cloud that is.....

to be delivered Saturday.....

I cant wait, more to come

A glimpse of our Christmas

Our Christmas 2011 on PhotoPeach

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning is very quiet at our house now days.... just Rick and I (with a sleeping 20 year old). 

I miss the excitement of the kids waking up in the morning, jumping on our bed, and all the crazy present opening, That has changed (as it should), now we eagerly await the festivities to begin....

A big feast at mom's enjoying time with family, 

then back to our house for and evening with just our kids. 

With all that in mind.... I reflect first on the reason we celebrate,

Hope you celebrate the CHRIST in your Christmas,

 many blessings to your family from ours

 

And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, Which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." - Luke 2:10-12

A touch of Christmas

We had a little touch of Christmas in our home last night.

My daughter playing Christmas carols on the piano

My granddaughter and husband dancing.....

What more can I ask for.

Such joy in my heart

Click the arrow to watch video

Hope you are finding joy in this week leading up to Christmas

Remember to take some of the chaos out of your life and just dance.

Here it is...finished project

A couple months ago I did a blog called encourage me please

My daughter's old room was in desperate need of a makeover!!!

Here's the blog site below to help you remember before you read on.....

click on link below

 http://jackie000.blogspot.com/2011/10/encourage-me-please_26.html

It's no wonder our granddaughter was terrified when we tried

 to put her down for a nap in this mess.

You think they are too little to notice...but they're not

BEFORE 

AFTER

The big chair actually belongs in the living room, but now that it's in there we think it might stay, after all grandpa & grandma need a spot to rock the grandbabies and read them stories.

We got rid of all that crazy clutter, took the big shelf off the wall, 

painted a soothing khaki green color and made it simple. 

~~~

We finally finished and we love the results but more importantly

 our granddaughter LOVES the new room. 

(being warm and all cozied-up)

We surprised her with a  new little toddler sleigh bed, and toddler size rocking chair.

 Audrey loves the space without all the scary clutter. 

She had her first sleepover the other night

 (remember before the makeover, she was terrified to be left in the room alone...poor baby)

She couldn't wait to get into her new bed with all her "softies". 

She went to bed without a hitch and slept through the night... 

Mission accomplished, let the sleepovers begin  :)

I want to keep the walls uncluttered, thought this was perfect.

Hoping to someday have many more grandbaby photo's surrounding the saying,

"Grandchildren complete life's circle of love"

In June there will be one more photo to add to the wall,

 Audrey is gonna be a big sister.

We are thrilled  :)

Annual progressive dinner

We were trying to figure out how long our family (on my husbands side)

 has been doing this "progressive dinner", we decided it's been at least 10 years.

None of the kids were married when we started this tradition so in the beginning we were all able to be there. Now, with two sets of married kids living out of town its a little harder for them. We always have a good time traveling to the three Hemmer siblings homes enjoying good food, conversation, laughs and in the end we play a game involving an ornament exchange.

This year things got kind of wild... It's so fun

A few photos to share of our evening

Brianna ( my daughter) & Chris

 My niece Kellie and her fiance Michael

My niece Jill and her boyfriend Travis

First stop, appetizers at Rick's sister house

Everyone's home is so beautifully decorated, here is one of susan's tree's

 On to our house for the main course....

Wild rice soup and sandwiches

 The "Kid" table....they'll always be "the kids"

Some of us adults and granddaughter Audrey

Last, but not least to Rick's brother's home for desserts

 Their upstairs tree

After dessert the ornament exchange game begins

Audrey was very excited to be the first to pick a bag

It took her quiet a while to decide,  she ended up with a pig ornament, she seemed ok with that.

It was a fun night as always, we miss the ones who couldn't make it this year, in less than a week we'll all be together again.... then it'll be everyone, cant wait.

Pathetic

 Photo taken today December 16th 2011

If you look real hard you can see the remnants of snow

 in the corner of our front yard...Pathetic

Same week last year 2010

This is what a Minnesota winter is suppose to look like in Mid December

Sadly there is no talk of snow for Christmas this year, I can hardly stand it.

Bah humbug

Got a "new" book

For my birthday this year my family got me a "Nook"

with a sweet green cover

I never asked for it so it was a big surprise, 

and I love it!

I downloaded my first book, 

it's a book I've been dying to read...

"Out of Oz" by Gregory Maguire 

It's the 4th in the "Wicked" series

Things I love about my "Nook"

*I can make the font larger so I can read without my "readers"

*It can easily be held with one hand

*One swipe of my finger on the screen turns the page.

*Hands-free reading if I want to prop it up to read while I eat lunch.

*Dont even have to leave the house to get a new book

* No need for a book mark... it remembers what page I read last

Broad daylight

The moon....

in broad daylight

This week on my way home from the cities I spotted the moon in the sky

The silo was an added bonus.

 I pulled over, grabbed my trusty Sony DSL

and captured the moon (and silo) in all it's beauty.

A time to Remember

The Angel of Hope is one of more than 50 Christmas Box Angels throughout the world that are gathering places for anyone grieving the loss of a child of any age, for any reason.

Amazingly there is one just a few minutes from my sister's home. Each year on December 6th at 7pm, my sister, her husband and their 2 children go to this place to remember Isaac...their baby boy who died minutes after his birth.

This year I was able to join them

A little history about this statue

The Christmas Box Angel Statue was introduced to the world in the book The Christmas Box, a worldwide bestseller and hit television movie by author Richard Paul Evans. In the book, a woman mourns the loss of her child at the base of an angel monument. Though the story is mostly fiction, the angel monument once existed but is speculated to have been destroyed. The new angel statue was commissioned by Richard Paul Evans, in response to reports that grieving parents were seeking out the angel as a place to grieve and heal. The monument was dedicated on December 6, 1994-corresponding with the date of the child’s death in The Christmas Box

Around the base of the angel statue are individual pavers each block is engraved with a childs name .

On December 6th of each year (7 p.m. MST) a candlelight healing ceremony is held at the base of the Christmas Box Angel monument. After a few remarks, and a moment of silence,  the attendees are invited to leave a white flower at the base of the angel statue.

Remembering Baby Isaac.... Always in our hearts

To the "big city" I went

Every December I travel  up to my sister's home in Champlin, MN 

 We have a sister's shopping day.

We always have a great time but the time always goes too fast

first stop...

The "round barn" 

A gifty kind of place,

 a little spendy but fun to look anyway

I told my sister I wanted to go somewhere I had never been for lunch

 Potbelly's is a yummy sandwich and soup place...I'd go again

We spent all after noon shopping then later in the evening we went to 

"The Angel of Hope" candle light healing ceremony

More on that later...

I got to hang out with my niece and nephew Sam & Jensen as well, 

they are growing up to fast, but still have time for aunt Jackie  :)

Next day.....

I felt like such a big girl as I ventured into downtown Minneapolis

 to have lunch with my oldest son Brice.  

He works somewhere in this gigantic building

I had a bit of time to roam the Nicolette mall 

 Bought some Christmas ornaments here.... loved this store.

Downtown is beautiful with all the tall buildings 

 After lunch Brice walked me down a few streets to the big Target store

then he had a meeting to get back for, so we said our good byes

See ya later Brice

 Two story Target

Macy's window display 

I had a great 2 day adventure, now I'm back in safe little old Rochester. 

I like it here, but the cities is still a nice place to visit.

Decorated

The house is decorated...

Inside...

 and....
OUT