Is there anyone out there?

a very good friend of mine challenged me to reconsider blogging-i wonder if there is anyone else out there who gives a darn?
let me know...

I apologize to all grandparents!

Dear Grandparent friends,

I am so very sorry! Prior to March 10 I would listen (politely)to you talk about your grandkids with a moderate level of interest - and then go about my way. No more - now that I have joined the ranks blessed to be a grandparent i pledge i will listen to your every word. I will stand patiently and look at every photo of dance recitals and soccer games and first birthdays. I get it - really! Our grandkids are not just that tug in our heart they are also our hope for the future.

For them we must do all we can NOW - to make this world a better place. Shame on us for making such a mess - from the air and water, to the economy, to prejudice and ignorance.Lets get our act together - for Audrey, and Allison, and Matt and Noah etc, etc.

Life changing event!

I am in day 8 of a life changing, future altering, perspective defining moment! Starting March 8 our daughter and her husband went in to the hospital to deliver their first child-our first grandchild. On Tuesday morning at 12:11 AM we joyously welcomed Audrey Jane into our lives - and the world has looked different ever since then!

I don't have the vocabulary to adequately describe the various waves of emotion I have experienced over the last couple of days.

In the days leading up to Audrey's birth I could not describe my feelings without choking up. As I thought about my "little girl" giving birth I just melted. She has been through so much, including some very serious health challenges, there were days we thought this experience might not come her way. I wanted to do what I could so she would not have to go through that pain.

I am so very proud of my daughter - she labored long and hard to deliver a robust 9 lb 3oz daughter. Even when it looked like a c-section was required she and her great Dr worked some amazing mid-wife miracles enabling a c-section to be avoided and our granddaughter to be delivered swiftly. Her husband was by her side the entire time, offering words of encouragment and love -he never waivered in his focus and support.

amazing-life altering-indescribable!

how do you feel when your daughter is about to have a baby!

it is an interesting place to be...waiting for your daughter to have a baby...
some days I am scared for her...i want to be able to take the pain away...i want to carry some of it myself..to lessen it for her.

Some days i get a little worried about the baby - will he/she be healthy? I realize we will face that fact soon enough - so i tend to not dwell on that for long.

Then there are days i that i feel overwhelmed with this renewed sense of urgency for our world...I want us to get things straightened out so these kids will have fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink, and I want wars to stop and ...and...

and some days i just tear up...

How do babies get here?

It is about to happen - the stork is about to deliver our very first grandchild!

Even though they look frail and delicate - rumor has it the stork is known to deliver babies all the way up to 10+ lbs! Amazing!

Anyone know how in the world the stork delivery story got started? Did some parent long ago just panic?

From Wikipedia:

In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. In Victorian times the details of human reproduction were difficult to approach, especially in reply to a younger child's query of "Where did I come from?"; "The stork brought you to us" was the tactic used to avoid discussion of sex.[citation needed] This habit was derived from the once popular superstition that storks were the harbingers of happiness and prosperity, and possibly from the habit of some storks of nesting atop chimneys, down which the new baby could be imagined as entering the house.

The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak is common in popular culture. The small pink or reddish patches often found on a newborn child's eyelids, between the eyes, on the upper lip, and on the nape of the neck are sometimes still called "stork bites". In fact they are clusters of developing veins that often soon fade.

The stork's folkloric role as a bringer of babies and harbinger of luck and prosperity may originate from the Netherlands and Northern Germany, where it is common in children's nursery stories.

in a split second!

I've been listening to Nightline, they are talking about the tragic airplane crash yesterday in Buffalo, NY. Seems as though the investigators are suspecting ice build up on the wings.

The experts say the plane likely lost control and crashed in seconds. Imagine that - one moment you are finishing your diet coke - the next second you are dead. I hope the people on the plane never even realized what was happening -after reading the paper today I am afraid their last seconds were terrifying!

Another reminder - cherish every moment - live with no regrets!

I survived this tornado!

On June 13 my family was in Tracy, Minnesota. We had driven there from Houston for my Grandmas funeral.

We were packing the car toreturn to Houston when the severe storm sirens sounded. My dad rounded us up and we headed for the basement. For the next 15 minutes we huddled under the pingpong table, wrpped ourselves in throw rugs and my mom had us sing Jesus loves me. My older sister said she was going to throw up. My grandma refused to come down to the basement until the last second at which time my dad picked her up and shoved her under the table.

The sound was deafening!

As we huddled together - we heard all the windows of the house explode, the kitchen cupboards pull off the walls, the chimney snap off the house.

Then suddenly there was silence. We crept up the stairs to find 75% of my grandma and grandpas house gone. We looked out to what would have been the backyard and allwe could see was lumber from the house that used to be behind her. In the rubble lay her neighbor - she was dead!

Here is an article from Wikipedia about the tornado:

The 1968 Tracy tornado was an F5. It struck Tracy, Minnesota on June 13, 1968. The tornado killed nine people and injured 150 others as it tracked 9 miles (14 km) through Murray, Lyon and Redwood counties in southwestern Minnesota.[1] It is one of only two official F5 tornadoes that have occurred in Minnesota, although several other tornadoes that occurred before 1950 are estimated to have been F5 strength.[2] The tornado destroyed 111 homes, caused major damage to 76, and minor damage to 114. Five businesses were destroyed and 15 damaged. The elementary school and 106 automobiles were also destroyed. A heavy boxcar was heaved more than a block in the storm. Winds were estimated at 261 to 318 mph.

Sirens sounded in Tracy at 6:55 p.m., just a few minutes before the twister struck. The siren was sounded thanks to a call to the authorities from Delpha (Mrs. Melvin) Koch, who saw the tornado from her rural Garvin home.[citation needed]