UPDATE!

Hey guys! Sorry for the lapse in updating....school has started =(. Grandma's been doing well! Here's the latest:

Last Sunday we went to the Fairchild Gardens in Miami. It's the largest botanical garden in the continental U.S., and Grandma loved it! We repeatedly heard "Well I've read about these, but

I never dreamed they actually existed!" or "Well I've heard about these, but I've sure never come close to seeing one!" She loved it! She was very inquisitive of what everything was, how it got there, etc. It was, overall, a thrilling experience! (We have an awesome video interview, but it's not uploading right now...it'll have to come later!)

In other news, we've discovered Grandma loves being pampered. Every time we wash Grandma's hair, she tells us how it's such a luxury! W e recently put her hair in curlers,

and the kids put lotion on her feet, and she insisted she had better treatment than the King of England and the Queen of Sheba :)

More to come! Soon...I promise!

Shopping Trip!

Yesterday we went shopping for some school supplies (which turned out to be unnecessary, since school was canceled due to the hurricane!) Grandma thought it was quite an adventure.



It started out with us riding in the car with the music on and Grandma started dancing!

Needless to say, we got quite a kick out of it :)

She got a little upset when Jace started bouncing up and down, so she reached over and held him down!

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful, but humorous. Leave it to Grandma to turn potentially boring adventures into fun ones! When we got to the store we were waiting for Jace to try on some shorts. He came out with one pair and Grandma said "Well, I guess if you like them those are nice. " And after he walked away she turned to us and quietly said "Well actually, they're pretty ugly!!". She was really good about making sure Jace's pants weren't too baggy -- she insisted that he wear them up to his belly button =). She was a better influence than most.




Jace took a pretty long time to try stuff on. Grandma was sitting on a cart type thing, but she was getting pretty impatient. We gave her a u shaped pillow, which she put on backwards, said she was choking, and started screaming! (Not very loudly, of course) She's such a character! Then my dad started a pillow fight with Kenyan. Grandma observed them from a distance, then said to Alyssa "They're embarrassing! Let's get outta here quick." Oh what fun. She thoroughly enjoyed having her hair washed in the sink last night, and kept insisting we were spoiling her. She was really helpful this morning as we were getting up for our church meetings that start at 8:30. She went in to wake up Jace, sympathized with him (because getting up was clearly so awful!), then laughed at him when he fell off the bed! When we got to church, our friend's little girl was sitting by us and she asked me to hide her dolls from her so she could find them. I did it a few times, and when I started losing at this game Grandma came to the rescue!! She'd caught onto our little game, and I guess she wanted to be a part of it! When the little girl wasn't looking Grandma got a really sly look on her face, reached over, snatched the dolls, and tucked them under her arm! The poor little girl had no idea what was coming! Oh Grandma.

When the kids found out there wasn't school tomorrow due to the potential Hurricane Fey they (well I guess I should say 'we'...I was just as excited =] ) ran around yelling, and cheering, and of course, telling Grandma! When they'd calmed down enough to explain to her what was going on, she made a confused expression and said "Oh my! I don't know whether to be terrified or excited!". When they assured her that she was indeed supposed to be excited, she started screaming along with them! She is so fun, and we're so glad she's here!! :)


P.S. Unless your username makes it REALLY obvious who you are, I'd appreciate if you guys signed your comments so we can tell Grandma who's keeping up with her!! Thanks!

Kick Hard, Swear Loud......

So I guess it didn't occur to me to explain the title of the blog. Generally kicking and swearing isn't something we condone. Yesterday Grandma and I were talking about a little boat we have and how we wanted to take her out on the lake in it. She refused, saying she didn't go near water because of what happened when she was a little girl. Aria and I kept up the conversation, trying to convince her to go in the boat or at least to the beach, she said "Boy I tell you, you're not gettin' me in. I kick hard and I swear loud!" Everybody thought this was hilarious, and it pretty much summed up her attitude with a lot of things, hence the title. =)

It was really great to get emails from everybody, even if it wasn't really saying anything! Feel free to add comments..Grandma wants to hear from you guys!

Sunshine State Welcomes Kathleen!

Hey guys! This is Bridian (Neals second child), and as I'm currently the most frequent computer user, I'll be doing the weekly updates! Hopefully this blog will help everybody keep tabs on Kathleen. I'll be referring to her as Grandma, though you guys may know her as mom, aunt, great-grandma, second cousin, whatever.

Grandma had a nice flight to Florida. She's only been here a few days, but her favorite things so far are listening to us play the piano, help around the house, and find ways to get out of eating her dinner. It's actually pretty amusing. She'll tell us she just ate, that she's full, that she's allergic, that the rest of us should eat it, her excuses are endless =). She's big into sneaking food off of her plate onto ours. But don't worry. We feed her good! We have a dry erase board in her room where we write out her daily schedule (including the date and the fact that she's in Ft. Lauderdale), which has been really helpful. When she tries to say she ate or she just woke up we just show her the schedule and she stops arguing! She has her own bedroom, and frequently asks how the heck all her stuff got here. She's sure got an attitude, but she is sure fun to have around. That about wraps it up for tonight...keep an eye out for the next post!