can't believe I'm gramma-ing...

Yes, I am. Grant is here. Samuel, my eighth child, all grown up and married and in the Army Reserves, is training here in New York state for the weekend. He lives in Virginia but is still stationed in NY for the Reserves. This means frequent visits:). His wife Grace is working home in Virginia, so he brought their little guy here with him. Samuel arrived at four a.m., and put little 18 month old Grant to bed in the Pack and Play in Sonja's room (Sonja is still in Germany), and there he sleeps. Sam left to go to his unit, and won't be back until tomorrow night.

So, when Grant wakes up, in a strange bed in a strange room, he'll see strange faces. Hopefully he'll adjust quickly and love us to pieces, as we do him.

And hopefully this old granny can keep up with him.

Yesterday, I was really bad. We had company coming over for dinner, and the PLAN was: wake up early, get our rear ends to the store to get some food, namely a pork roast to put into the crock pot quick to make pulled pork nachos. Well. Things moved slowly here, and then we got invited over to Karen's pool. Karen and Hobie are our dearest friends, and their pool is not only fun and fantastic, it's warm and welcoming at their house. So of course I blew off our previous plans with a simple text back, and voila, we were headed to Karen's!

Then, as plans usually go, a monkey wrench was thrown in, but not a bad one. I won't get into the details, but we ended up bringing Davian, my niece's 8 year old, and his little sister Anne, whom I babysit for, to Karen's with us.


Anne, Karen giving Davian pointers on how to dive in, and Miss Camille...my baby! How did she grow up so fast?

Anyway. We enjoyed some lovely weather, with good company, then it was time to rush to the store, get home and clean the house, and make dinner, and have our company come over. Margaret is married to Adrian, and they are parents to little Wulf. Adrian's mom, sister, and her little boy were visiting from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. So they were coming for dinner, along with Ben and Ashley and their little girls, our my niece Katie and her husband Dave, and Davian and Anne, Emily, Abigail, and our younger kids.

It worked. It was busy, but it worked. We ended up having hamburgers, hot dogs, coneys, and a huge tossed salad. Paul grilled it all. Margaret made a beautiful chocolate cake, and we also had sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies that I bought, no cookie making time for those who lounge in the sunshine with friends.

It was a really fun and fantastic evening, and it went by too fast.

Tomorrow, a trip to the beach, Lake Ontario, yay! I hope Grant likes it, doesn't eat all the sand, and takes a little nap there when he gets fussy. I feel a bit rusty, but hey, I used to take a dozen kids to this beach all by myself, give or take. All sixteen, for sure.

Anyway. Next week our daughter Kathryn is visiting from Oregon with her husband Darius, who is Adrian's brother. They are expecting a baby in December, and Kathryn is going to look so cute!

Sonja will be coming home from her Norway/Germany trip (she is also visiting Amsterdam, and France!). So it'll be lots of fun and busyness.

Today, we'll probably stay home and get acquainted with Grant. So yup, I'm gramma-ing. :)