Grandpa Savage

Today is the 15 year mark since my grandpa was called home to heaven. I often get teary-eyed thinking about. Not because he's gone, but because I didn't really know him.

Grandpa died of lung cancer. The doctors gave him 3-6 months. He lived for well over a year longer. He passed on Father's Day 1994 when all his kids were home. I was 14 when he passed away. 6 of those years we lived in Dayton, Ohio. He lived in Hammond, NY. That is a 14 hour drive. Needless to say we didn't get home much.

What do I remember about him? Grandpa was a farmer and he took naps all the time. He would come to a family function, eat and then go find a place to lay down. He would also stop dead in the middle of the road if he found a returnable bottle/can. (He left $8000 in the bank just from those). I went to Bingo with him & my grandma one time. All he did was swear when someone else got Bingo. But, he did love his family. That's what I remember about my grandpa.

An upcoming adventure

In 2 1/2 weeks we will be embarking on an adventure. Where to? We are going to Dayton, Ohio to visit my brother, sister-in-law & nephew. Maybe a few friends, too. I am so excited because we rarely get to see each other.

On the other hand, I'm not so excited because we'll be traveling with our 2 little ones. Ian is recently potty trained so that means more stops because of his little bladder. A 7 hour trip could easily become 10,12,15..... You get the picture. Addison is still in diapers, but hates the car seat! When she's had enough, she screams bloody murder until you get her out. It is not pleasant!

So, in the meantime, I will be praying that our trip is safe, but also that we hit nap times just so. A sleeping baby is a happy baby!

I will have pics of our adventures to Ohio and the many things we'll do while we're there. We are planning to at least go to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and the National Air Force Museum. (Yum, astronaut ice cream.) Maybe we'll hit the Cincinnati Zoo. None of it matters, though, as long as it's spent with family. (I'm sercretly hoping to go to the Mongolian Grill & I hope we don't eat @ Waffle House!)

Addison Jael & Mommy

People have always said that Addison looks like me, and she does. I just didn't know how much until my mom found a picture of me @ the same age Addy is. (Sorry the pics are a little blurry.)

Michele:

Addison:

for the love of strawberries.

It's strawberry season in WNY!

On Wednesday morning I bought 5 quarts of fresh picked strawberries. YUM!

Ian helped me make 17 half pints of freezer jam later that day and it turned out so good!

You can bet we'll be making more! There's no way this amount will last the whole winter, let alone the summer! Ian is such a big helper. Addison is too, but her idea of helping is to try and eat the berries as I'm processing them!

Out of the mouths.....

My handsome dude has some funny ways of pronouncing certain words. He also says some funny things. When we're going somewhere in the van, he'll make up a song. It's usually about farms & cows; his 2 fave things. As is typical, we were driving to church on Sunday. Handsome dude was singing away and I wasn't really paying attention. But then, something caught my attention. He started singing, "God bless me for doing good things!" and then continued his song about cows. He had spent the weekend with my husband bc I was @ a conference, so I looked at the hubs and asked if he had taught him that. He said he hadn't. I guess kids pay more attention then we think.



Pretty girl is starting to say more words now, too. Her fave word right now is HELLO! She says it with gusto! She hasn't quite got the difference of a few common words yet. For instance, we call her grandpa, Papa. She says this quite well, but thinks this is also the word for baby and puppy. If she sees any of the 3 she yells: Papa, Papa! She also pats her belly and says Papa. (My dad has a big belly!) It's too cute!

change of plans....

So, I was planning on telling you a story this weekend, but my plans got changed. I'll have to tell a different one.

Friday afternoon I was planning to have a relaxing weekend. Not do too much, ya know? Well, my mom called me at 3pm to tell me that my grandma was in the hospital with chest pains and did I want to ride along to see her. My grandma lives in Potsdam, NY. We, live near Rochester. It's a 5 hour drive on a good day. I was not about to take the babes with me. So, I called my hubby and asked if he could have Saturday off from work. Praise the Lord, he said yes! He stayed home with the kids.

My mom and I headed out Friday evening, spent the night in Watertown & then proceeded to Potsdam in the morning. We went straight to the hospital, where we sat for 41/2 hours waiting for the doctor to tell us what's going on. My grandma was the LAST patient on his rounds. He finally came in and told us that she had had a bad asthma attack, but she should have a stress test to rule out anything else. He then proceeded to send her home..... (We did not know that my grams has asthma! When did a doctor ever diagnos that? My gram needs a new primary care doc.) We got her set up with a nebulizer and she was fine. Oy! What a weekend.