Mom is back in AZ

Back in Arizona

Yes, I'm back in Arizona after a wonderful 3 week visit in Minnesota. It was very cold and sometimes stormy but I enjoyed every minute of it. I took my Christmas cards home to write on them and I kept so busy that I didn't have time to even sit down and fill them out. My days were filled with lots of fun things to do and I hope everyone will understand that sending cards was not a top priority to me. Maybe next year!!

I spent time with all my kids and visited in the grand kids homes and did lots of fun things with them. If you have read the blog, I even went along bowling one night. Christmas Eve we were at Sue's and Christmas Day we were at Bonnie's. We baked Christmas cookies with the grand kids and one day, Sue and I made 13 batches of caramel corn(she had made 20 batches alone before that which is very hard to do alone)

Sue, Julie, Bonnie and I drove down to Council Bluffs to visit Steve, Peggy, Jere & Gina and family. We also got to see, for the first time, Peggy's new granddaughter, Ava. What a doll she is. She has a personality that is so great and is adorable. I now consider her one of my great grandchildren. In fact, until April, she is the only great granddaughter. We drove home and were going along just great until we got to Ames. Iowa. There we ran into ice on the road. What should have taken us 5 hours to drive home, took us 7 hours. We were very glad to get to Northfield.

I had lunch with friends and coffee with others. Dinner with really good friends and got to do lots of visiting. The very best news of all that I had when I was home happened on New Years Day. We were invited up to Scott & Ami's (Bonnie's son and daughter-in-law). As soon as we got there, Ami said"Scott go show your Grandma" He didn't do it right away so she said it again-"Scott, go show your Grandma". He went to the bedroom and brought out a little "onesie" outfit. On the front it said"I was worth waiting for". I looked at Ami and said" Is this what I think it is?" Yes, after 2 years of waiting and trying, they are going to have a baby in September. That's the second good news for this year. Josh and Whitney(Annie & Jeff's son and daughter-in-law) are going to have a little girl in April. They too, have been waiting a long time and I am so happy for both couples. That means that I will be great grandma for 10 wonderful children. God is good.

I arrived back in Arizona this last Tuesday and had lots of mail to catch up on, plus the time change, plus all the activity I had experienced, so I've been going to bed early and getting up late. It has been cool down here while I was gone and is still cool so I didn't miss much while I was away but it is good to be back. My friends have been good, as usual, with invitations to go with them to beer and buffalo wings at the local Terrace Green restaurant, pie and coffee, Ed took down my Christmas decorations and fertilized my orange tree and all the things true friends do for friends. I am a very fortunate gal.

This morning I had breakfast with Caldwells and Adams and caught up on all the news they had. This afternoon I'm going up to watch the ball games and tonight I've been invited over to Ed & Norine's to play a board game with 4 other friends and have lemon pie. My cup runneth over. I guess I need to watch the pie invitations more closely or I'll have to shop for new clothes!!

This next week I start ushering for the concert series and it looks like my days will be busy. It's good to be back but I really did enjoy my weeks at home even though I encountered 2 snow storms and an ice storm. I didn't mind the COLD weather cause I was dressed warm and my house was warm(most of the time). I did have furnace trouble but Jeff took care of it for me. Thank you to him.

Until next time--Love to all, LaVerne