Our New Grandson

He was born May 21, 2009 at 5:24 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. Isn't he beautiful?

The Toy Nana likes Ebeanstalk

When my first daughter was little her two grandmothers naturally assumed roles. One was the toy Nanny and the other the clothes Granny. I like to do both.

One place that I frequently drool over is Ebeanstalk and they are having a giveaway for bloggers.

Here is some information about them:

Ebeanstalk is dedicated to a baby's development. And we select the best baby toys matched to a baby's development. To see great information on how a baby grows up, check out the info on our baby toys page.

Picking toys for a baby is not as simple as it sounds. Here are some quick baby facts:

• Toys for a newborn baby: A newborn baby is briefly looking at objects and attempting to imitate facial expressions. They can follow objects with their eyes and usually quiet down, when they are picked up.


• Toys for a three month old: They will enjoy ‘frolic play', reaching for objects and will repeat enjoyable activities. Believe it or not, they will respond to ‘no' (about half the time) and will start babbling.


• Toys for a six month old: They'll search for hidden objects (object permanence). They'll reach for themselves in the mirror, play peekaboo, crumple paper, roll from their stomach to their back and even respond to their name.


• Toys for a nine month old: They are pushing toy cars, playing pat-a-cake and looking for hidden sounds. The baby toys they are playing with are also getting more fun.

And you can get 15% off of your first purchase:

Just enter the code — TGS345 — at the shopping cart.

In just 3 days

I will walk across the stage and accept an empty folder in commemoration of an ending... and a beginning. Thirty years ago I graduated from high school. I was even valedictorian. Like most 18-year-old's, I looked forward to college. But, I didn't make it through my first semester before I had to go home because of money. So instead of hitting the books, I got a job typing and pasting up books.

I married a man who was in school and typed his papers for him instead of writing my own. At one point, when my first baby was 2, I even went to school for a couple of semesters. I couldn't find my niche though. I was sitting in Calculus I class one evening and thought, "Wow. I do not want to do this every day for the rest of my life."

So I raised my babies, homeschooled them, ran my own business for a while, and helped my husband with his.

All the while, the school bell beckoned me. I'm not bragging, but I'm a pretty smart cookie and I wanted to finish my degree. In the Spring of 2005, with three of my kids graduated, two in their senior year at a Christian school and one in middle school at the same school, I walked through the doors of college again.

I had decided I was going to write and I wanted my degree to validate my efforts. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to major in English or Liberal Arts, but I took classes that would apply towards either. I fell in love with English that first semester and declared my major. With the credits I already had, I earned my Associates of Arts in English in May of 2006 with a 4.0 GPA.

Then I transferred to the Online English program at the University of Illinois Springfield determined to finish my BA in 2 years, again with a GPA. I hit a couple of bumps in that road when I spent over 40 days in the hospital and had 4 surgeries in the space of 9 months. (Of course, none of it happened during summer break.)

So it took me 5 semesters and I only managed a 3.71 GPA, it's still cum laude and I still have that degree. So Saturday, I will walk across the stage and grasp that empty folder (the degree is already framed and on the wall). I won't shake hands because no one wants to catch swine flu, but I will finally finish.

Now to write.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a very hard holiday for me. When I was a kid, it was an obligatory acknowledgment of a very strained relationship. I'd hand Mom a card and stand there fidgitty while she read the card with her own discomfort. We'd sorta hug and both offer a relieved sigh that THAT was over for another year.

As the relationship healed, Mother's Day became a laughing time. We'd talk about the hilarious dysfunctional antics of my childhood and laugh until our sides hurt. Then quiet reflection would settle over our moods and we were thankful for time and change.

You never have as much time as you want though. My time with Mom was way too short. Shortly after she died, I was cleaning out her stuff and I found the last Mother's Day card I had given her. She saved it. It was in her night stand drawer on top of some other stuff. It was obvious that it had been read many times. I was so glad I had told her I loved her. So glad.

This is the tribute I posted last year: Tribute to Mom

Take time to write a card. You'll be glad you did.

The church in the former big-box store

We've all seen them. Those former big-box buildings that are now churches. We were passing one today and I got tickled thinking about what the announcements might sound like. It would be really easy to utilize the old intercom system:

"Communion, aisle six."

"Nursery, you have a call holding on line two."

"No waiting at altar four."

"Ushers please start your evening zone."

I know. I'm a sick little person.