Happy Birthday!!!!!!

How the years just keep moving along!! One day you are a baby and then the next...



86 Years!!!



Happy Birthday Dad.
We love you!

Wedding Pictures

Lisa wanted me to post a couple of the pictures we got from Todd.

Steve

Funny Martini story

Since we started watching Martini I've learned a few things about having a dog. One thing I learned was that kennels book up WAY early for the holidays. I was basically laughed at when I asked the Petsmart PetHotel if they had any room for Martini over Thanksgiving. Resorting to plan B I talked to one of my friends who has 3 dogs (and 3 cats) to see if they could watch Martini for a couple days. Since we weren't sure if Martini had been around big dogs before she wanted to get them together to make sure it would work before agreeing to watch her.
I brought Martini over to their house after work yesterday. Now, this is the trial run... if things don't go well I need to find another arrangement for Martini in the next couple days. No pressure... ;) So what does Martini do after being in their house for 5 minutes? She poops on their floor! AAARRRRGGGG. I get her outside in case she needs to do anything else. It can't get any worse right? Well.... they have a pool. I figure it's night, it's November, the dog isn't going to want to go swimming, so no problem. She's running around the backyard and I realize that she's headed right for the pool and isn't going to stop - SPLASH! And now we have one very freaked out, very wet dog. And I get soaked holding her. That water was COLD!
Luckily it went better after that. We got her dried off and introduced her to the other dogs, one at a time to make sure everyone was going to get along. She even got to meet one of the cats. So everything was ok in the end. :)

Houseguest

Lisa and I are housesitting Martini for four months while her owner gets settled in NYC. Here she is relaxing on the couch.

Steve

Marjorie Williamson Irving

Marjorie Williamson Irving
December 2, 1916 - October 29, 2005

I'm sad to inform everyone that Aunt Margie has died today. She fell and hit her head this morning and died this afternoon. Grandpa has a trip already planned back to New Hampshire leaving November 2 and staying until the end of the month.
In the first picture she is in the upper right behind her dad, my grandpa. I don't remember just when this picture was taken right now. The other picture was taken at their grandson's wedding on June 12, 2005.

More pictures from Mesa Trip

Kody on our hike. I forgot to put sunscreen or a hat on him so I gave him my hat to wear. His cheeks were getting a little pink by the time we were halfway there. Isn't he soooo cute?


Remember I said I liked almost everything about the trip? Well, this is a picture of one of the not so good things about Mesa! The two dogs are very sweet and very good dogs but they are very good at one thing that drives me crazy.... being DOGS!! No matter where I went there they were. I would get up from a chair just to go into the other room and they would follow me. I would go outside, they would come outside. I would go inside, they would go inside!!! I would tell them, "Just leave me alone, stop following me!" but would they? No. Oh well, that's one of the reasons I'm not a dog person!!




Two more of Kody. If you click on the one on the left you will see he has put his Buzz Lightyear doll and his Buzz Lightyear cup into "timeout"!! When he acts up he gets a minute in the corner to think about it and he was doing the same for his toys!! He also loves to draw pictures. Most of them look all the same, little circles. Of course to him they are all kinds of things like Mom and Dad and Jessy and houses and dogs and hikes and all kinds of things. Come to think of it my aren't any better!!


The last one is of Jessy on her way home from school on Tuesday. I walked around the corner to wait for her to get out and started taking pictures as soon as I could see her at school. She spotted me and I thought she was going to die of embarrassment!! What are Gramma's for if not to drive the kids crazy! I kept taking pictures of her until she got too close to snap anymore. I thought this one turned out the best. How fast she has grown up!!

Home from Mesa

Ten days is a long time to be away from home and hubby! It was a great visit and I loved almost every minute of it but it is nice to wake up and be able to kiss my hubby goodbye as he goes off to work, to play with my ferret and then to sit down to my computer!

Darcy and Scott got back from their cruise on Monday and they had a great time. I won't write more than that as I'm sure Darcy will be posting about it soon. I have to admit it was good to see them again! Jessy went down to the airport with me and she was trilled to see them. She really missed them, even more than Kody did I think.

The week was fun and a LOT of work. I am just so spoiled that it is hard to have to be on all the time! One morning at 5:30am I woke up with three faces, two dogs and one little boy, two inches away from my face. Talk about waking up fast!! Ah yes, the morning starts early at the Wearing house!

On Thursday Jessy and I went over and hit a bunch of tennis balls around. I think around is the right word as we didn't hit them back and forth to each other much of the time!! I have never really played tennis much and it really showed! Jessy thought she was playing in two courts I think as she was hitting it to the next court a lot!! Good thing no one else was there! We had a great time anyway. After that I talked her into going over the Jamba Juice for lunch. Then we headed home and played Polly Fashion Dolls. That was the only day we played Polly Fashion.

On Friday the three of us headed off to the Lost Dutchman State Park for a hike. http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/parkhtml/dutchman.html

The park has a great Discovery Trail that is nice and wide and fairly flat and cleared with rock marking the edge of the trail so it is easy for Kody to walk on. We had fun playing in the water and picking up rock and then Kody took lots of time to toss all the rocks. Jessy got a little bored waiting for her brother to get done but think we all had fun anyway. It is real rough having 9 years between the two of them and finding things that they both can and want to do.
After the hike we drove down the road to Goldfield Mining Camp for the treat of the day, Ice Cream!! I got to sit and watch the birds at the feeders for a few minutes and they got to eat ice cream so all was great!

http://www.goldfieldghosttown.com/


Then it home for a much needed nap. Oh, Kody took one also!

Saturday started out early as always. Think that was the three faces in my face morning. Saturday and Sunday played out pretty much the same. Kody's normal morning starts out with " Boppies" (I don't think I am spelling that right, I can't remember quite what he says. Darcy you will have to correct it for me!!) That is what he calls Chocolate Milk!

(On a side note I remember when Jim was about that age and he would have "Hot Nop" before bed. That was what he called Hot Milk! Ah, the things that I remember!)

Back to the story; he gets his milk and then sits down and watches "Pigs". That is his favorite movie right now. Now normally it is called "Home on the Range" but of course we have to call it "Pigs"! I know he has seen it a lot as Jessy can quote the lines in it as it is playing!! We went outside and worked and played in the yard until his nap and then went to the park after nap time.

Now I have no pictures of them at the park and there is a good reason for that! This boy has no fear or even an understanding of fear! Full steam ahead and jump off anything and everything. I had to be with him all the time to keep him from killing himself or someone else! I was worn out when we got done!! I pulled a muscle keeping up with him and didn't think I could even walk after that but of course I had to! (Muscle was much better in the morning thank you for asking.)

When I tried to stop him and tell him no he just looks at me with this scowl on his face and says " You no talk to me!!" Wish I had got a video of him doing that as it is so cute!! I know I shouldn't encourage it and tried not to but it was hard not to laugh and give him a big hug when he did it!! Sunday we ended up at the school playground and I found that a more Gramma friendly place. He could do more without me rushing worrying! Now Jessy on the other hand did more climbing there as she loves to shimmy up the swing poles and sit on the top of the swings. I really don't worry too much about her as she has a sense of what she can and can't do and even though she really doesn't have any fear she is careful of what she does. Makes me feel better at least!! I really wished I had my camera to take a picture of her sitting on the top just as relaxed as if she was sitting on a chair! It has to be 10 feet high. She sure doesn't share her mom's fear of heights!

I'm going to go ahead and post this now and finish up tomorrow morning. I need to get outside and do things! It is beautiful out.

In Mesa Working

Well, here I am working as a grandmother babysitter for Jessy & Kody!! I will be here all week folks! Darcy and Scott are off cruising around Mexico having a great time I'm sure and what do I get to do? What I love to do, play with the grandkids!! Am I lucky or what!!
I was going to put some of the many pictures I have taken on here but then I figured out that I didn't bring the cables to download the pictures and the card reader here doesn't take either of my cards. Oh well, you all will have to wait for them.

I'm sitting here wondering why my arms are sore. Duh, I've been carrying around a two and half year old!! Even though Kody likes to walk on his own most of the time the little I have to do is making me sore. Does that mean I'm out of shape? Okay, everyone knew that already!!

We are having a great time. I was worried about Kody missing Mom and Dad but so far so good. The first day he didn't say anything about them and I didn't use the M-O-M word at all. Last night he took me around to every room and turned on all the lights and said "Mom's not here" in each room. He wasn't upset, he was just giving me the news. He likes to sit "In Daddy's seat" for his meals. Of course now he thinks it is "my seat". Everything is "My" just add the noun!

The first night he climbed into bed with me and as I am sleeping in Jessy's twin bed it was a tight fit and he moves all the time!! Needless to say I didn't get the greatest sleep! Thank goodness last night he slept in his bed all night so it was much better!!

Jessy is getting out of school half day so we are going to go hit some tennis balls around. Jessy is taking tennis lessons now and loves it! Thursday and Friday there isn't any school so tomorrow we will be doing more of the same and a bunch of other stuff like playing Polly Fashion Dolls! We will have a granddaughter/grandmother day. Now isn't that the best fun you can even think of? Friday I hope to take the two of them hiking and then up to Goldfield to get some ice cream. Goldfield is a tourist goldmine town in the area. I like the place, small not real busy and quiet. There is one place where we get the ice cream that has a outside patio that overlooks a place that they feed the birds so I'm happy just sitting there!! I have no idea what we will be doing this weekend. Kody takes a nap right in the middle of the day so it is hard to go anywhere too far away. Might try for the zoo but I don't know yet.

Well, I better get some housework done before the fun starts again! Signing off from Mesa Arizona where the weather is wonderful!!

Happy Birthday!!

Shannen will be 18 years old on Friday!!

Happy Birthday, Shannen

We love you!!

More Family Pictures from Steve & Lisa's Wedding

Here are a few more pictures from the wedding.
Kody running, as always;
Scott & Jessy
Tammy, Jim & Steve;
Paul & Jim;
Grandpa & Cory looking like a mature college student!
click on the picture to see what I mean!

Mr. and Mrs Steve M. Anderson

It is so hard to believe that Steve and Lisa are Married now!! What happened to my little boy?
It was a beautiful wedding. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! I didn't get many pictures so for good ones we will have to wait for Todd's pictures to come in. I will put some of the ones that Paul and I took so you can see how beautiful everything was!

It was a busy, busy weekend. Jim was in all week and we got to spend some time together while I was taking him over to the dentist for a root canal. Just what everyone wants to do on his vacation! Darcy and family came in in the early hours of Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Jessy. We had about 15 people over for cake and ice cream along with chips and dip etc. I had a great time and hope everyone else did also.

Sunday morning Lisa and Janet and her mom came over to have the hairdresser do their makeup and hair. I didn't get any pictures of that but Steve did so he can post some of the funnier ones if he dares!! Then it was a mad rush for everyone to get showers and get dressed in time. We had the truck all packed with things to take when all of a sudden we remembered that we had to take Lisa's wedding dress!! That would have been embarrassing to arrive at the ceremony without the dress! I don't think Lisa would have thought it was that funny though. Paul had to take everything out of the truck and put it in the van! We had put the dress next door at Pat & Scottie's so it wouldn't end up with little boy fingerprints all over it! There wasn't an empty room in the house to put it.

We all took off around 3:45 to get to wedding site for pictures. That has got to be the hardest part of the wedding, getting all the different pictures that everyone wants. Steve and Lisa had a good list of all the different groups and even with that it was a pain. You need about 4 hours to get everything done! As it was we didn't have four hours and you could tell that Lisa was getting a little stressed when they were still taking pictures and the guests were already arriving! As always everything worked out and Lisa got back into the bride's room and out of sight while Steve wandered around trying to look busy!

The setting was beautiful with lots of little lights on the trees, the waterfall and all the flowers everywhere. It would be hard to find a prettier setting.



Then after all those months of waiting it was time! Darcy walked in with her Grandpa looking so handsome in his tux! Mom would have been so proud of him!







Talk about handsome and beautiful, that is the happy couple! I watched Lisa walk in and thought again how lucky we are that Steve met and fell in love with her! Steve looked so happy waiting there for her. They should have a wonderful life together.

The rest of the ceremony is a blur to me! I started crying and hardly stopped thoughout the whole ceremony. It was beautiful. They gave each of the mom's a rose, three roses for the three moms and then Lisa's mom and I lit the candles for them to light the unity candle with. It was very, very moving for me! The minister told about them meeting and starting to date and then things they loved about each other and what each other meant to the other. Just well done and very touching!

Afterwards it was party time. There was lots of great food and lots of talking and even some dancing. I was surprised to find out I had a dance with Steve while Lisa was dancing with her dad. It wasn't fair, Lisa and her dad practiced before! It was fun anyway. It was so good to share a little alone time with Steve and tell him how happy I was.


All in all a great wedding. Thank you Lisa & Steve for all your planning that made for a wonderful evening for all! I know how much work goes into these things and you did a great job!
Good Luck and Lots of love for many, many years!!







Family pictures: Darcy & Jessy; Steve & I; Jim & Grandpa; Ron & Cory

Guess who is 11 years old today!!

Jessy Kristan Anderson
September 22, 1994

Happy Birthday!!!!

I love you!

What I really want to know is, where did the time go?

Important Day Monday!!!

Monday is: Talk like a Pirate Day!! Check the above link to get ready for this very important holiday!!

Engagement Portrait

Lisa and I had our engagement picture taken a couple Sundays ago (by Todd of course). It was a kinda scary preview of the wedding day pictures! Lisa's hair kept getting blown into her face and Todd had to keep telling me to "stop squinting", "try looking alive", and "smile!". It wasn't that long of a session, but by the end of it my face was hurting from smiling. Yep, I sure am looking forward to ALL those pictures! ;)

But I like how this picture turned out! So maybe it will be worth it.

Steve

Countdown!!!!

The Countdown has started! Congrats Steve & Lisa. Relax and enjoy these next 11 days!!! We love you!

Back From Alaska!!!

Wow, what a wonderful trip!! I think I will break this down into a few posts starting at the beginning (a very good place to start).
We left the house at some extremely early hour like 4:45 am or something. We had set the alarm clocks but of course we were both so excited that we didn't need them and got up even earlier than we needed to. Paul had arranged for a towncar to pick us up instead of the van so we had a straight shot to LAX.

The plane trip up was non stop and so smooth that we would forget we were even on a plane. I got to sit in the window seat and although there were a few places that were covered with clouds over all I had great views of the trip. It is like looking at the ultimate map when looking down and you know how much I love maps! Next trip we take I think I will bring a map along with me to double check where I am.

The picture above is of the first views we had of Alaska from the plane. What a cold looking area! We were wondering what we got ourselves into!!! Luckily that isn't what the rest of Alaska looked like in September.

We landed, got our rental car and headed out of Anchorage to Wasilla. I can tell you, coming from weather in the 90's to upper 50's it seemed cold!! We kept trying to remember it was still summer and wasn't really winter already!

What surprised Paul was all the trees. He wasn't expecting anything like that. For me it reminded me a lot of New Hampshire where I grew up. Lots of birch trees and some spruce. It is beautiful. Another thing that we hadn't thought of was that we got to see the fall colors! We got two trips in one this way. The trees in Archorage/Wasilla area were just starting to turn colors. The birch and aspen a golden yellow. Not much of any reds as they didn't have the maples etc. but the yellows were wonderful.

We stopped in Anchorage and got Birds of Alaska by Armstrong http://www.globecorner.com/t/t34/17050.php so we could ID any of the birds we saw. I figured that way I wouldn't be trying to ID something as a bird that never ever gets up to Alaska!! It would limit the amount of mistakes I could make. I will be posting the bird list on http://plymouthgardens.blogspot.com/ soon. (Hopefully!)

Our cabin in Wasilla was great. We were a little surprised that it was right off a main road as the web site had it looking like it was out in the woods more but the traffic wasn't anything like the freeway we have here at home. It was set back from the road with trees between so wasn't bad at all. I guess everything looks like it is in the woods as there are woods everywhere!
The cabin had everything we needed with a kitchen, bathroom and what we really needed that night.... a bed!! We called the kids, told them we would see them in the morning and sacked out for a long winters night nap (in the summer). If we thought the added evening daylight would bother us we were wrong!!! It didn't get dark until 9:30 while we were there but we were fast asleep long before that.

More later.

Quail Botanical Gardens

I was looking through some old pictures and found the ones from Mom and Paul's visit a little over a year ago. Here is a shot of Mom, Paul, and Lisa standing in front of some very large bamboo!

Steve

Off to Alaska Soon

Thought I would share all the places we are planning on staying while we are up in Alaska.
As you know we are leaving on Thursday, September 1st and coming home on the 10th. We just can't wait to see everything!

We will be flying into the Anchorage airport. We have a nonstop on the way to Alaska. We will be renting a car for the whole time we are there so we will be able to get around to see all the great spots.

We hope to be able to do a little birding while we are there also! One of the birds on my list is the Rusty Blackbird. I was reading that were lots around right now so it should be easy to get! I have a couple of others on the list but nothing real "special" just regular types that we don't get down here.

The first 5 nights we are staying in cabins right near Paul Jr and family in Wasilla. Check out how nice the cabins look! http://www.alaskalogcabins.com/ .
We will be spending lots of time with the family here and also doing a bunch of side trips around the area. I know they want to show us how beautiful there home is! It is such a different place from Southern California! One of the places that we want to go is the Matanuska Glacier outside Palmer. http://www.matanuskaglacier.com/ Palmer is the town next to Wasilla. Paul is very interested in walking out on the glacier.

After those wonderful 5 days we are heading up to Denali National Park http://www.nps.gov/dena/. They don't allow cars into the park so we have booked a tour package for our three nights there. It is run by Denali Backcountry Lodge and is called the Denali Backcountry Safari. http://denalilodge.com/newtrip.html

We get to go to the end of the road and then spend the night at the Lodge there. We go out to Wonder Lake that late afternoon. http://www.wildnatureimages.com/DNP%20Wonder%20Lake%201.htm They talk about the pink "alpenglow" evening light on Mt. McKinley. It sounds wonderful!

On Friday we will be driving back down to Anchorage to spend the night before a Saturday morning flight back to the "real world"!

We should be coming back with many, many pictures and lots and lots of great memories!
This is the biggest trip that Paul and I have taken together. It is the first time we will go on a plane together. We should have a great time! We will let everyone know when we get home safe and sound and happy.

Happy Birthday!!

Guess who is having another birthday tomorrow!! Have a great day! We are so proud of you and pleased you are in our family.

Ron and The Girls

Ron, Cory and Casey were here for a too brief visit this past week. They left this morning. Both girls start their school next Monday so they needed to get back to get ready for it.
Cory is at Berkeley and Casey is a Senior in High School. She is taking several college classes also. I forgot to ask which classes she is taking this year!
They will be back down for Steve's wedding so won't be as long as it was last time. It has been 18 months since they were able to come down. It was really great to see them again. There should be some rule that no one can live more than 8 hours away. They live about 16 hours and that makes for a very long drive! At least now with Cory being about half way Ron and Casey get to stay there for the evening before taking off again.
Ron was looking forward to enjoying some of the restaurants up in Berkeley area. He doesn't get much variety up in his area! He said there were lots of great places with great prices. He loves all kinds of food and loves to try new things.
Ron and I spent hours just sitting outside and talking and watching the hummingbirds and scrub jays. He can talk about all kinds of subjects that he has been reading about. He has always been a avid reader and now he uses the internet also so there is unlimited amount of information to learn.
Looking at the picture you have to know that it was taken on Grandpa's driveway. Casey is the taller of the two girls really. They are on a slope so Casey looks shorter. I'll have to find a better place to take pictures!!
I wanted to get one with Grandpa but he still wasn't feeling well so didn't stay outside long enough for me to think about taking the picture! Next time we will have lots of pictures.

The Wearing Blog

Here is the Wearing personal blog. I hope to keep it updated and also have Jessy add stuff when she wants- so no promises about what will be there.http://wearingsinaz.blogspot.com/

Cory's new blog

This is Cory's new blog:
http://breakingnewsfromberkeley.blogspot.com/

This is Misty, Jessy's new bird. I wasn't planning on adding any more animals to the zoo but she decied that she wanted to join the family on her own. I found her in our back yard when the dogs were tring to jump on her. She couldn't fly away and none of the neighbors said that she was theirs. So now we have 2 dogs, 2 cats and a bird. Jessy really likes having her. I think it reminds her of Mattie's house.

The Wearings 2005

This is the latest picture of the five of us. It took a long time to get all of the kids to actually smile on the same picture. Kody had a 103-104 fever that day but it was the last weekend we could get them done while Brianna was still here. Over all I think it turned out well.
Posted by Darcy.
(I need to figure this group deal out more as it came up with my ID on it and not Darcy's! Until that just add your ID in the post. Thanks Me)

Shannen in Hawaii

The Gilmores

Last week Gramps had a visit from the Dot & Dick and their son, Gary and Grandson Gregory.

Happy Birthday!

This Kitty is sharing a home with the Birthday Girl!
Happy Birthday, Tammy.
Hope you had a great day even if you were at work!

Chinese Silk Tree

Okay, I have to admit defeat. I was trying to grow this tree in a large pot but I was always forgetting to keep it watered so it just didn't grow. In fact I almost lost it several times so I gave up. We had been talking forever about getting a tree for the back of the yard but just never did anything about it. Well, Saturday I asked my Super-Handiman Hubby to dig a hole so we could put the tree in. Guess what, that silly man did it even though it was a million degrees out and it hurt his shoulder. What a guy! (thanks, love!)
It is a fast growing tree (not that you could tell when it was in the pot!!) so it should be giving us good shade in a few more years. Between the maple and this one that should do it.
This will also give the birds one more place to sit and maybe a good blind for me to hid behind to take pictures of the orioles on the hill!

I'll start and everyone can jump in as they want to!

I have set this up in hopes that all of us can use it to let everyone know about all the exciting things (or even the boring things if that is all that is happening!) happening in all our families. Please post pictures of houses and trips and kids and kats and dogs etc. I hope that I can get it set up so all of us can post easily but if you have a problem let me know and we can work on it!! I have sent everyone a email with all the information I think you need. Lisa, Scott, Tammy and all the kids, this is for everyone so don't be shy!!