December 31, 2008 by Melanee.

My kids almost left today, but the snow storm interrupted their flights. I found out Marlene’s flight was canceled as I was easing up to the arrival entrance at the airport. The drive to the airport was stressful. I had to pull over to clean off my wipers because they froze up with ice as I tried to maneuver I-91 through the blinding snow storm. The line at Southwest was humongous. Marlene called Southwest call center while in line and changed her flight for tomorrow and got into my waiting car. Then we drove in the blinding snow storm home.
Pat, Ashley and Lydia’s flight was on time, but I didn’t want to chance the highway again. Pat was able to change the flight at no cost for tomorrow too. They were willing to give up their seats for those stranded at the airport from the canceled flights.

So we get to celebrate the new year together for another night. I don’t mind having my family for another day. Lydia is too much fun. I am loving it.

PS: I have talked to Anya and Kevin on the web cam three times now since they returned home. Anya showed me her nightgown she put on that night that I got her for Christmas. She looked to pretty. Kevin was fascinated that he could see Grandma on the computer. What fun!

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December 28, 2008 by Melanee.

Having my girls and their families here have filled my home with sounds of family-laughter, cooing over the babies, crying babies, children screams when they get what they want for Christmas, eating, conversations, and so much more.
Christmas day was so wonderful to have my home full. We literally have filled each room and are walking over all the things that have been brought in the house. Chaos to the max. I am exhausted, but a good exhausted.
Traditions were carried out such as caroling at my parents home during Christmas Eve-along with the customary lobster scare usually done by my brother Aaron. He was not there due to adding a daughter to his family on the 12th, so Brad did it. The grandchildren screamed as the live lobster was brought into the living room.

Small boxes of cereal were put in the tree because Santa brought cereal to me as a small child because we only got sugar cereal on my birthday and Christmas. The lobster was eaten for Christmas breakfast which was my father’s tradition and what I remember all my life. So I served Egg Strata, pineapple, melon, and Mallory made strawberry scones along with the lobsters that my family, my parents and Rachel, Schaun, and Ellen all ate. So good!
Rachel makes ornaments for all the grandchildren each year. My girls have quite a collection. She made a special ornament of a portrait of Joshua who we lost in June for each grandchild to display on their own Christmas trees someday. I gave Rachel the ornaments that I organized for all the grandchildren to make for her for her wedding shower.

A new tradition that has been established is to visit Kev’s grave site. We talked about funny things that he used to say, like “The Webster Bus is leaving”, My son’s in law talked about the talk with “Dad” to ask permission to marry our daughters. He talked to Wendell about marrying a juke box-(Mallory-she is very musical) We shed some tears.

I got the best gift from my girls and their families. A web cam! Now I can talk to my grandchildren live! Pat set it all up and I have been practicing everyday to log into Skype and call my kids. This will help me be a long distance grandma.
A homemade ice cream cake has been put together for Mallory’s birthday for Monday. We will enjoy the celebration.
Tradition! (quote from “Fiddler on the Roof”)

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December 19, 2008 by Melanee.

Plans have been in the works for all my girls and their families to be here for Christmas. Ashley and Marlene have arrived and we are awaiting the arrival of Leah and Mallory in three days.
Being together as a family for Christmas is what it is all about. My granddaughter Lydia is here and she is the most adorable six month old. She is so happy and curious of her world.

Marlene almost did not make her flight yesterday. I thought I was being smart by making her connecting flight during the winter in Las Vegas instead of Chicago or Denver. Well, Las Vegas had their first snow storm in 17 years the day before she flew there. Her flight was delayed. I was on the Southwest web site checking the updates and refreshing it about every minute. Her connecting flight ended up being delayed too, so she just made it by minutes. I think the plane actually waited for her which was an answer to our prayers. I picked her up at the airport at 1:15am and got home by 3 am. We are waiting for the delivery of her carry on bag -that had to be checked last minute- that didn’t make it, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to make her flight.

We are now cozy and warm in our home while a big snow storm in adding about 10 inches of snow on the ground. We will be getting another snow storm on Sunday.
My level of comfort is high now that my girls are here and I look forward to our Christmas holiday together. I thank the Lord for my blessings.

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December 13, 2008 by Mallory.

So it’s been getting longer and longer since someone has posted something, so I figured I would post something just so that it doesn’t look like we’re dead. Things have been going well for us. We’ve put up our small amount of Christmas decorations and now that it’s officially after Thanksgiving, I’ve been listening to Christmas music non-stop. As my family knows, I have a firm belief that Thanksgiving needs its time and I won’t listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but after Thanksgiving….it’s Christmas all day, everyday. After Thanksgiving, I bought an 80 gb iPod to put all my music on–it was refurbished and cheaper. (I have TONS of CDs and I was tired of having to change out the CDs in the car once I got sick of them. When I would bring them to CT for Christmas, they would take up 10 pounds of my 50 pound limit!) So I’ve been busy ripping my CDs onto the computer so that I can have them on my handy-dandy hand held mp3 player. I can also have it on shuffle and listen to all sorts of different music instead of just one type at a time! It’s so nice! Well, it’s kinda annoying having to take up time to put the CDs onto the computer, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Maybe I should’ve been doing this all along, but there’s not much I can do about that now.

Wendell is starting his finals now. It’s nice because during finals, he doesn’t have clinic, so he’s home more. He’s been a bit stressed, but it’s good. We’ve had a goal to try and make our apartment cleaner (unfortunately, both of us have not learned how to stay clean and organized…I’ve had this problem all my life.) This week, we’ve done better in the living room, but our bedroom is atrocious. You can’t even walk through it. But that will change. It’s hard to keep the place clean when both of us go to school/work and when we get home, we don’t want to do anything. But it’ll get better. We’re determined.

We are also continuing to try and eat healthier and I am trying to lose weight. Wendell already lost all the weight he needed to lose, but he’s been trying to support me, so he’s eating healthier. It is REALLY hard to keep going when it’s the holidays. I did really well up until we left for Thanksgiving…fortunately though, I only gained 2 pounds from Thanksgiving, and I’ve lost 1 of them. I’m down to losing 19 pounds now. You can’t tell too much, but I can fit (tightly) into some pants that I had no hope of wearing last Christmas! My ultimate goal is to be at my goal weight by next Christmas. I’m choosing to do it slowly and steadily. Hopefully that way I can keep it off. I really just want to be healthy and fit. So we’re doing well and things are great. We’re really busy and we’re trying to improve our lives a little bit each day. Hopefully we’re getting better! Until next time!

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