He's here

May I present to you, my Grandson, Vincent Austin Marra! He was born Monday, August 25th at 7:17pm. He weighed 8lbs 4oz, and is 20.5 inches long. I am so happy I'm beaming. Really, I wish you could see my face. Already they are home from the hospital. I went this afternoon to pick them up. Mother and baby doing well. Grandma on the other hand is a bit of a mess. But I was that way before so I can't blame them. We had 8 people in the waiting room when she was delivering. I snuck by her doorway which was a little bit open and heard him take his first breath. When we finally got to go in and see him he was bright eyed and looking around wondering where the hell he was. He even moved his eyes in the direction of the person talking. He's a genius I just know it. My son-in-law is an artist and drew this on Meg's board in the hospital while we were waiting for his debut.

Here's mama and baby bonding. Isn't it a beautiful thing?

And so he's not left out here's my son-in-law giving him his first bottle. Meg can't breastfeed because of her medicine she takes from the liver transplant.
And here's just one last picture of him because I can't get enough. Sorry.You'll be seeing him alot around here.

Still Waiting

I keep putting off a new post thinking that I'll be able to show you my new grandbaby any day. Well, it still hasn't happened. But I did take my daughter to the Dr yesterday and if she doesn't go into labor by next Monday then they are going to induce. So it will be soon!



I've been staying busy knitting. The Summer of Socks is almost over and this will probably be my last pair for the summer. I'm making them for a guy at work who has said he wants a pair. I hope he likes them.
One of the perks of having my mom live with me is I got a cleaning lady! It's so wonderful. I usually divide my cleaning into sections. I do certain rooms on different days of the week. On the week that she comes I don't have to do anything. It's great. I have free time that I didn't before. And Suzanne, in case you're wondering she lives in Elburn and comes highly recommended by me.



I've also been busy with two of my nieces. I had them all day a couple of days ago and we made cookies. Thanks to Tanya's recipe for Peanut Butter surprise cookies. They turned out great. I have never tried anything from her site I didn't like. As we were smooshing the cookies down we were singing the Cookie Mash instead of the Monster Mash. They had lots of fun.



And finally, we got our first tomato. I'm not a good gardener. I hate the heat. But sometimes I go out and weed and try to keep things alive. It is fun to see things growing. And here is my Karen keeping me company as I wait for the little one to arrive.

What a beautiful Buzz!

Have I ever told you I love the Stones. I really, really love the Stones. It might be because they are older then me and still going strong. That they are even still alive after the abuses they have put their bodies through. I don't know, but whatever it is it makes me really love them. Especially Mick! Tom and I go to all their concerts, he thinks it's to have a nice date night with his loving wife. I think it's so I can plan how to sneek backstage and wow Mick with my womanly ways. Sorry Tom. It's just a dream really because I am now a middle age, overweight, almost Grandma. EEE GADS. Really the only thing I could wow him with now is I could make him my killer lasagna or knit him a pair of socks. I don't think that's what he wants. Luckily it is what Tom wants. Anyway, my son, just bought me this video that just came out. Oh, how I love to dream.It really is very good and has great duets with Christine Aguilara, Jack White, and Buddy Guy.
Now on to what I've been doing besides dreaming of me and Mick. I have been working on these socks. I got the kit from The Loopy Ewe in my sock club. This is a killer pattern. It's taken me almost 2 wks of knitting, and I'm not even half way done with the second one.

The pattern repeats every 24 rows so you can't memorize it.I also took out my sewing machine and dusted it off. I made my mom some curtains for her bathroom. Now remember I haven't sewn for years.I really want to start quilting. There is a nice quilt store just a couple blocks from me and I'm trying to hold back. Do you think Mick would like them????

Playing Hookey

I took the day off of work today so I could get ready for my daughter's baby shower. We have people coming in from out of town, including my favorite twin girls! So today I went shopping. If you've never been to Geneva, Illinois you are missing lots. Especially if you're a shopper! It's a quaint little town with tons of great shops. I don't think you could do it all in a day. Maybe a weekend. So today I'm taking you to some of my favorite shops. Before we go we have to get cash, lots of cash.

The first stop is The Little Traveler. It's been around since I was a kid and I'm not going to tell you how long ago that was! It's grown since then but it keeps getting better and better.My husband says my eyes light up when I walk in here. You'll see why. Oh, aren't these pretty?I must stay out of this department.Ahh, yes, this is where I need to be today.They have the cutest baby clothes. And I'm all about that today. Oh, man I can't wait. Here's something that would great in my dining room. Just in case you wondered why I took a picture of it. Ooops, $2800, can't afford it this trip.

I don't need to go in this room. But I did anyway and bought some copper ornaments because the colors I'm using this Christmas are copper and sage.Darn I wish she was having a girl. I could do girly things so well.I'll have to stick in this corner from now on.

Next stop the Paper Merchant so I can get wrapping paper and ribbon.They have the cutest cards here.

Ok That's done. Now I need to go home and wrap everything. I'll take you to more Geneva stores later. It's a lot of fun. Even Ellen DeGeneras had a segment on how fun it is.

Before I forget, here's my latest socks. They are the Nutkin pattern in Wollmeise yarn in the colorway of Spice Market. I really like how they turned out.

This last week was the 1 yr anniversary of my father's death. I'm choosing to write about him because he led a very interesting life. In my later years I came to be very proud of him, in my teens I rebelled at his old fashioned ways. But when all was said and done, he was always there for me. And no one can take that away from him. My fathers family came from Sweden, his Grandfather was the kings horseman. When my father was 4 yrs old he was visiting his Grandfather and whenever the king would pass by all the children were supposed to run in their houses to not disturb him. Well, my father was a bit of a rebel (like his daughter) and he stood by the side of the road when the kings coaches came by. He waved at the king and said "Hi King", not really knowing that the king was someone special, the king stopped his caravan and sat and talked to my father. I'm sure he got in trouble for it later but it led to lots of family stories for the rest of his life. My father also quit school at 17 because he didn't understand English very well so he kept being held back in school. He had his father sign him into the Navy. Three weeks after being stationed at Pearl Harbor it was bombed. He was in the head when it happened. He said he knew right away so he went to wake up the other guys on the ship. Since he was a newby they thought he was imagining it. They quickly believed him. The ship he was on he had just traded with another friend to be on. His friend wanted to stay on the Indiana so my father went to the USS Reid. The Indiana was sunk that morning. His friend didn't make it. A lot of people didn't make it. Even when my father was dying he always said he thought he was so blessed because he should of died that day. He went on to fight in the war. A couple of weeks after he was stationed at a base the USS Reid was hit and sunk. Two times he escaped death during that war.Then he met and fell in love with my mother. They were married for 56 yrs. He went back to school and became a math teacher and she a nurse. They raised 3 children and helped me raise my 3 children after their father left.

And he had a knack for running into celebrities. I'm telling you wherever he went someone famous would be there as if they were just waiting to meet him. Here he is when my husband and I took him and my mother to Washington DC when they opened the WWII memorial. We were at the Navy Museum and in walks Tony Curtis.

This would happen all the time with him. He was a private pilot and one time he was out in California, I'm not sure if I'm getting the story completely accurate, but somehow he ended up giving Buddy Hackett a ride to Chicago.

He was obsessed with having everything taken care of for my mother and us before he died. He'd call my husband over and have him fix things he couldn't do anymore. About a week before he died he woke up, which he seldom did at the end. He asked for my brother. My brother lives in Cincinnati, about a 6 hr drive from here. We called my brother to come home thinking he was going to give us words of wisdom to live with for the rest of our lives. My brother drove here and sat beside my dad and asked him what he wanted. He said "Tell Jody the extra batteries to the camera are in the camera bag". We all just cried with laughter.

We didn't agree on politics or religion, in fact, far from it. But we did agree that love is what really matters. I miss him so much.

I was going to post a picture of my most recent socks but I accidently erased it. So you'll have to take my word for it that they turned out beautiful.

Busy week

Oh, what a busy week I've had. I went with my daughter to her Dr appt and got to see my Grandson on ultrasound! It's so fun to see the little guy. I wish I could see him in person. But only 6 more weeks! I'm getting terrified that we won't be able to get her to the hospital on time. Because of her liver transplant we have to take her to downtown Chicago, which is about 1 hr away in no traffic. And since this is technically her second delivery (She had a stillborn baby last year) it will go a lot faster. I'm going to make a list of all the hospitals on the way and give one to my son-in-law too. I'm throwing her a baby shower in 2 wks and preparations are going well. Thank God I decided to have it at a local Country Club so there's no cleaning or cooking! That was a good decision on my part. And it's not that much more expensive.

I'm in a group on Ravelry (Reclaiming the House) that gets you inspired to be more organized. I joined the decluttering challenge and I've been busy going through all my drawers and cabinets to get rid of things I don't need. With my mom moving in and bringing her treasures my house has become very unorganized. But I'm zipping right along with the best of them.

Can you stand it? Of course the other 10 million gadgets that I never use went into an empty picnic basket for safe keeping. You never know when I'll need them.

I got 2 boxes of goodies from swaps I joined. The first one is from Deborah in the BBQ swap.

The next is from Nancy and it's for the Summer Swap.Finally, I survived the Taste of Chicago. I purposely work evenings so I don't have to deal with the millions of commuters everyday to downtown Chicago. It is usually of very relaxing time riding the train back and forth to the city. Of course, there's always Sox and Cubs commuters to deal with once in awhile (cubs fans are the worse). But every year for a week and 1/2 there is the Taste of Chicago. It's a total nightmare for commuters. It's 90% drunk college students trying to show everyone how cool they are (eyeballs rolling). The worst night of all is July 3rd when they do the big firework show. They have armed security on the train throwing people off left and right. This year someone on the train before mine apparently died of alcohol poisoning! This is what it looked like trying to get on the train at 11:30 at night.

But I survived it thanks to my knitting friend Mary who finally found me and we just sat there and knit while everyone else was throwing punches.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

This just makes me happy!