Happy Birthday Ryan

I still remember the day, Ryan. It was a Tuesday afternoon. I knew I would need to go to the hospital soon, but I wanted to wait until after the 5:00 p.m. rush hour. I called Grandma Annie to let her know what was going on, and then decided to take a shower. Your dad was busy playing with Rachael who was only 11 1/2 months old. He was determined to teach her how to crawl. But, the only thing he did was wear out the knees on his jeans. She just wasn't interested. My plans to wait until after the 5:00 traffic didn't exactly work out. If I had waited there would have been no need to go to the hospital. You were born a few minutes before 5:00 p.m. You were a beautiful little baby boy weighing in at 9 pounds 4 ounces with thick red hair. We were all surprised to see the red hair. We later learned that your great-grandma Hardesty (grandma Nan's mother) had beautiful red hair in her younger days as well as your great-grandma (grandma Annie's mother) who had auburn colored hair.

The only name we had picked out was for a boy. We both liked the name Ryan, but we just couldn't think of a middle name that sounded good with Ryan being the first name. We finally agreed that your name would be Michael Ryan, but you would be called Ryan.

You were such a good little baby. You would sleep a lot, and when you cried, you usually just wanted your bottle. Your older sister, Rachael, loved you. She would sit next to me in the harvest gold rocking chair and help me hold your bottle. When I would ask her to hold the bottle while I burped you, she would finish drinking the milk in your bottle. It was so much fun have the two of you so close in age.

You and Rachael sitting on your dad's tool box.


You were very proud of your new birthday cowboy boots.

You and Rachael playing in the rain.

The next few years added four little sisters. I never remember you once saying you wish you had a brother. And I always told you you were my favorite son! However, sometimes you wouldn't think it so funny when you would question a rule of mine and my answer would be when you get to be the mother you can make the rules. You would just smile and shake your head.

You enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked. I remember one time when Shannon got locked in the bathroom and you and Rachael sat on the floor and watched as I took the door knob off to get the door open. I believe you were four years old at the time, and the next evening when I came home from work, you had removed every door knob in the house except for the front door. We lived in the house without door knobs for years until we placed the house on the market to sell and the realtor suggested that it might sell better if the doors had knobs.

Entertaining your sisters.

Just having fun exploring.

Shannon, Ryan, and Lori

Ryan and Natalie making homemade ice cream.

Ryan, his five sisters and their great grandfather.

Relaxing with sisters, Shannon and Francie Sisters Rachael and Shannon share in Ryan's excitement at his high school graduation.

Ryan met his beautiful bride in high school.

Ryan walking me down the aisle when I married Bob.

Ryan and Bob working together on Ryan's house.

Ryan and his little girl, Hannah.

Ryan has another little girl, Gracie

(I can't find a picture right now, I'll

add it later)

Ryan's two little boys, Matt and Little Ryan

Ryan, I'm so proud to be your mom. Life was never boring when you were growing up. There were times I felt like the lady in a glass shoe, who had so many kids she didn't know what to do. You were all filled with mischief, but you never did any harm. The house was filled with laughter. You all liked to play and kid around. You have made me very proud. You are a wonderful son, brother, husband, and dad. Thank you for all the joy, laughter, and love you have given to me. I love you, mom

Pictures Taken No Time To Blog

Just because I haven't been blogging, doesn't mean that I haven't had anything to blog about. Fact is, I've been taking pictures for my blog, I just haven't had time to blog. So, to catch up all my devoted readers on my life, I'll do the abbreviated version.

We had work day at work last week. We started our day with breakfast that my friend and co-worker, Donna, prepared. She was the home economics teacher at the academy that I worked at many years ago. She has wonderful recipes. For breakfast she made homemade granola, fresh sectioned orange and grapefruit salad, homemade cinnamon rolls with maple icing, lemon poppy seed muffins with lemon glaze, buttermilk waffles and oatmeal waffles with grape/blueberry topping (she thickened grape juice, homemade of course, and added fresh blueberries) and we had a variety of juices and milk.

Donna preparing our breakfast!

I'm delighted to be the first to go through line.

There was enough food for everyone!

After breakfast we had to get busy working. We cleaned out cabinets, file cabinets, and rooms.

My boss got his black pants covered in saw dust so he used the vacuum to get it off.

Some even finished painting the door jams in the hallways. We filled two dumpsters and have enough left to refill them again as soon as they have been emptied.

After we finished cleaning we all went out to eat at King David's a Middle East Restaurant. The food was just o.k. for me. But I think everyone else liked it a lot.

When I got home, Bob and I went over to visit an elderly church member (she is 96 years old). While we were visiting we got word that one of of church members had been in a serious accident and was on the way to the hospital in Syracuse. He had been airing up the tire on his wheel barrel when it exploded. We headed for Syracuse. When we arrived he was being treated in the emergency room and we were ushered to a family waiting area where we met his wife. She was handling the situation quite well, but was thankful that we had come. We stayed with her for a couple of hours. They wouldn't let her see her husband until they could stabilize him. She wanted to have him anointed, so Bob called the head elder and he came to the hospital. The doctors allowed Bob and the elder to go into the room and do the anointing. He was in an induced coma. Before we left they allowed his wife to go in and see him. I went with her to give her support. He seemed to be resting peacefully. His jaw was shattered, his hands required many stitches and there were broken bones. He was taken into surgery the next morning. He is now recovering in Intensive Care but he is expected to make a good recovery. Our prayers have been with this sweet, sweet couple. They have had us over to their home for dinner many, many times over the years and had invited us again, which has been postponed this month.

The very next morning we received a call that this dear sweet lady that we had just visited, had passed away. We were asked to prepare a dinner for the family on Friday evening. I made Mazidra for them and carob rice crispy treats (most of the family is vegan).

I welcomed the start of the Sabbath on Friday evening. Bob and I relaxed in front of the fireplace and enjoyed reading. Something we don't do together very often. It seems that he is gone from home in the evenings, and I'm gone from home during the days. We enjoyed our evening together very much.

Bob's goal is to read his Bible through every year.

This fireplace mantle was an anniversary gift to me from Bob when we lived in California. Just before we moved to New York, we were in the process of building a new home and I had seen this fireplace in an antique store and mentioned to him that I would sure like to have it in my new home. He later went back and bought it and put it in our storage unit with the rest of our stuff and surprised me on our anniversary by taking me to the storage unit and showing me this beautiful gift. We never completed our new home in California before we accepted the call to New York. We shipped the fireplace along with our furniture to New York. It looks perfect in my old farm house that was built in 1881.

Sabbath proved to be another busy day. We went to two churches afterwards Bob went to Syracuse to do a presentation on visitation for the members in the area. I went to a friends wedding. That evening, friends of ours came over to visit. We had a great time together thinking up outreach programs the church could do to reach the community.

Sunday was a busy day with laundry, cleaning, and cooking to do. We attended the funeral of the lady that passed away earlier in the week. Sunday evening, Ryan, Lisa, and the kids came over for dinner. We had invited them to come over to celebrate his birthday (two days early). We had curry vegetables, sweet rice with mangoes, cake with fresh peach topping, and homemade maple/walnut ice cream. Matthew brought homemade donuts that he had made earlier at home. They were really good!!

Eating dinner together.

Gracie's favorite part of the meal was the mangoes!!


After supper, Lisa, Matt, Gracie, Hannah, and I went upstairs to play and read blogs. Grandpa, Ryan, and Little Ryan went outside to work on Genie, again! Gracie and Hannah wanted to play hide-n-seek and grandma found them under the bed!! I won't have to use the dust mop under these beds. I had so much fun letting the girls hide and then trying to find them. Little Gracie would just squeal with joy when I would find her.

Matthew set up my new scanner and now I'm going to be busy going through pictures so I can do a Happy Birthday blog for Ryan whose birthday is October 30.

Adventures at Grandma's House

It all started Saturday evening when the dads, Ryan and Andy, were getting ready to go home and the kids wanted to stay at grandma's. Both dad's had brought extra clothes and pajamas just in case and I was just as excited as the kids at the possibility of them spending the night.

Hannah and Madeline wanted to hold the dolls that had just come home from the hospital before brushing their teeth and saying their prayers. The boys know how to get ready for bed without my help, but I still tucked them in bed and gave them a kiss on their forehead. All went well until 11:00 p.m. That's when Gracie woke up crying and nothing I did would settle her down. I rocked her, I held her, I changed her diaper, I got her a drink of water, and nothing seemed to help. All in all it was a very long night with a short amount of sleep.

Gracie had real tears.

We all enjoyed our breakfast of waffles with peach topping and maple syrup and then Bob and little Ryan were off to the Roosevelt Church for a work bee. Matthew wanted to stay home with me and learn how to make "Monkey Bread".

Gracie liked playing in the kitchen trash cans.

Madeline and Hannah watch Matt make the "Monkey Bread".

Matt put the two pans of "Monkey Bread" in the warming drawer to raise.

This is the Monkey Bread I made. We ate it for dessert after our lunch.


This is the Monkey Bread Matt made. It turned out perfect and he saved it to take home for his family to enjoy.

The girls didn't want to be left out, so we made pumpkin cookies. We made half the dough plain for Madeline because she doesn't like raisins, and we put raisins in the other half.

Gracie liked watching the girls make cookies from her highchair.

I bought more nuts for the nut bowl and the kids enjoyed cracking and eating them. Hannah is showing you her favorite of the nuts. (walnuts)

When little Ryan got back from the church work-bee, he mowed the lawn for us.

Madeline and Hannah played house outside under the grape arbor. They came into the house and asked for bowls and spoons. Then they wanted water. So I poured a little water in each of their bowls. Soon they were back for more water. This time I just filled a plastic pitcher with water and sent them on their way. They were pretty excited about the amount of water I gave them. It took a joint effort of both girls to carry the pitcher and get two doors opened and closed without spilling the water. But, they did it!!

They are such good friends. They remind me of my cousin Carla and I when we were little girls. We spent summers and weekends together all our childhood life. We were always having fun together. I remember two years before she died, she and I were helping my mother move stuff out of her house, and we were driving over to rent a U-Haul truck. As we were driving together, Carla commented, "It seems like old times, Cece. You and me in trouble with your mom for doing nothing." And, we laughed and talked about all the fun times we had growing up together. One or our favorite things to do was imitate grandma playing the "Storm" on the piano. Our grandmother was a concert pianist and we always requested her to play the Storm for us. Then we would take turns, one playing the high note keys imitating the gentle rain, and the other playing the low note keys imitating a thunderstorm. Grandma would always holler at us from the kitchen and tell us not to be banging on the piano, at which we would respond, "We're not banging on the piano Grandma, we're playing the Storm". I'm so thankful for the time we spent together and the memories we made. Carla died of brain cancer two years later.

Grandpa and Matt went over by the side of the barn to work on some of the trees that grandpa had taken down. Lola and Punkin went too, in hopes of finding a critter under the logs when they were moved.

Grandpa used the chainsaw to cut the trees into logs.

Punkin waited patiently for critters.

Matt loaded the wheel barrel.

And stacked the wood behind the barn. This wood won't be ready to use until next year. It has to season first.

Punkin and Lola waiting while everyone goes into the house for lunch.

We had homemade potato soup with cornbread for lunch and "Monkey Bread" for dessert!

After lunch grandpa and the boys moved Genie over behind the barn, so it will be in place when grandpa has time to repair the barn roof.

Gracie loves Punkin and Lola and gets so excited when she sees them. The dogs get excited too!!

While I was watching Gracie play with the dogs, and grandpa had gone to do some visiting, the other four kids decided to explore the basement of the big barn. Now, I want you to know that I will not go into that basement, because it is way to scary for me. When I realized that the kids were in the barn basement, I called them out and told them it was too dangerous and scary for them to play down there. They told me that it wasn't scary, it was fun. I agreed to let them continue their exploring of the barn basement if they took the dogs with them. This is the entrace to the basement.

With Gracie now taking a nap, I thought I would relax and work on my crochet project (I'm trying to make a blanket for my new little grandson that is expected to make his arrival in early December) while I sat on the porch and kept an eye on the kids. The girls were having fun playing with their new water balloon balls and the boys were having fun filling the balloons with water for them. Then Matt got a bright idea and decided to fill the balloons from the water hose which was next to the house and close to the chair on the porch that I was sitting in. It went well for a few minutes and then the balloon slipped off the hose and the water from the hose went spraying everywhere and guess who got it?


Then the boys decided to go and fly their kites.


I had gone into the house after the water hose experience, but it wasn't long before I heard voices calling. I went outside to see what they needed, and didn't see anyone. The girls had gone into the house to play, and it was just the two boys outside. I called, and they would answer, "Up here grandma". And I would call out, "Up where?" "Up here grandma" was their reply. I kept looking and looking, and finally I saw the top of the tree branches moving back and forth while the rest of the tree branches remained still. As I looked I saw Matthew. He was 25 feet up in the tree. Then I asked him where his brother was, and I heard little Ryan's voice, "over here grandma". "Where", was my reply. After receiving instructions from a voice in a very tall tree I saw little Ryan in another tree that was even taller than the one Matt was in.

If you look really close you can see little Ryan.

My weekend was filled with memories that I will always cherish.