Our Grown Up Girls

Well, the time has come and Jane Gracen, age 3, has begun preschool and our Kate Sinclaire is a new kindergartner. I must admit that while we hope and pray for our grandchildren to grow and be healthy, I kind of hate it that they are getting so big. It is unbelievable to me that our Tess is in the 4th grade, because not only was I a fourth grader at one time, but after working in an elementary school for 7 years, I GET what a fourth grader is...and they are half grown up.

I have been there when each of our little darlings has gone to preschool on their very first day. Sarah was a bit afraid that Jane would be the first Martens girl to be uncooperative at preschool, but I was pretty sure she would be just fine....and as it turned out, she was a little hesitant to get out of the car, but after a little convincing from Mom and Dad, she made it inside and quickly began playing and we were OUTTA THERE......now there were a few tears from Mom, but that's totally understandable...her baby....going off on her own.....for the first time.......we've all been there.

I reminded Andy not to grill her too much when he picked her up because when he was a new kindergartner and got off the bus every day, I would try to "grill" him on everything that happened during the day and would get the same response, "I can't, Mom....I'm toooooooo tired." Actually he always had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for him for lunch and was headed quickly for the basement to watch Sesame Street......he had no time for me and my questions.......ugh.

As we left Sarah mentioned that I had another three years to wait until our next little princess began preschool. That would be Amelia, who is only 4 months old...going on 5, of course......I spent the afternoon with her yesterday. I just held her and fed her and loved on her until I about wore her out. For now, that's all I want from that sweet baby....plus, my clothes smelled like her when I got home and I reveled in that baby smell.....and didn't ever want it to leave me.

I don't want time to move so fast........for my sweet, precious girls. But in the meantime, I am anxiously awaiting all of their stories of their adventures in school........and kind of wish I were them.........:)

Drama, drama, drama

My two oldest granddaughters, Tess and Kate, are going to Drama Camp at North Kansas City High School this week and next for a couple of hours each morning. I was intrigued when I read about this camp earlier this year. It sounded like something the girls would really enjoy, but it was kind of an expensive investment.

I thought about it and decided to ask their Mama, Sarah, if she thought it was something they would enjoy. At first I thought just Tess might be interested, but then Sarah read the pamphlet and said it looked like something Kate would enjoy, too, so I suggested Sarah ask her.

Kate's response went something like this: "Oh, Mom! That's ALL the stuff I love to do!" So we enrolled her, too.

So now we are three days in and let me just say that these girls are having the TIME OF THEIR LIVES......they are so excited every day and I can't wait to hear every day what they did. Next Thursday evening at 7 p.m. they will be performing Sleeping Beauty.......it's a musical, of course, so how can they go wrong?

Tess has the lead as the evil queen...and she is THRILLED. Kate, of course, is the sweet, nice queen - and a GOON....whatever that means.

So far so good and of course, the Martens are all about DRAMA and we can't wait to see what our 4 girls do in the future concerning "performances".........yea drama!!!!

Family, Family, Family

I LOVE my family!!! I love my parents, my siblings, my children, my in-laws, my out-laws, etc. etc. etc. You get the picture.

Over the last several weeks we have had the opportunity to go on vacation with Sarah's parents, Andy, Sarah and crew, Miss and Ben and newbie Amelia, and of course, my hubby.

We went the first weekend in June to our annual family Bennett Spring camping sware'. It was miserably HOT, but we still had a great time, soaking up a lot of Ken, Ann, Andy and Sarah's air conditioning in their wonderful cabin......newflash on this for next year later in this post......

We fished, we dreamt of fish, we cooked fish, we ate fish, we played with fish.....well, we FISHED!!! We also fed fish......the girls always love doing that as you throw a few morsels to the huge fish tanks and they all go crazy and look like boiling water. It certainly WAS boiling!!!

Anyway, we capped off the trip with our famous fish fry served with fried potatoes, cinnamon/sugar biscuit balls, watermelon, brownies, etc. etc. The girls put on one of their famous glow in the dark necklace/bracelet shows and it was fantastic as usual. We laughed until we nearly wet our pants....well, speaking for myself, that is.

NEWSFLASH....IT WAS SO HOT THAT LOREN HAS ALREADY RESERVED AN AIRCONDITIONED CABIN FOR US TO STAY IN NEXT YEAR. THIS IS A TURN THAT I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER WITNESS IN MY 38 YEARS OF MARRIAGE...WOO-HOO!!!

The next weekend involved a driving trip to Hesston, Kansas, where we celebrated with all the Martens Clan at their first ever official family reunion! It was so well planned and run that it was just seamless. We got to see folks we had never seen, hadn't seen a long, long while and some that were RELATIVELY familiar!! What a great family my husband has........I love them all.

At the end of this weekend, we also got the privilege of meeting up with the Wiens side of the family.....that being the family of Loren's biological mom. Now these folks were pretty much unrecognizable to any of us because we have never met them. What a blessing it was that cousin Lois opened her home to all of the Wiens clan so that we could connect, take pictures and enjoy each other. I luckily got to ask some questions about what Loren's mother was like since he doesn't remember much about her. Now THAT was a true blessing. I think I would have LOVED her and hopefully she would have LOVED me......someday I look forward to meeting her in heaven and asking her LOTS of questions......and giving her a big hug!

Loren and I often talk about how fortunate we are to have our kids marry into such WONDERUL families, too. There's the Haskamp Clan and the Greiner Clan and all their extended families. I venture to say that it's not a common occurrence when so many people from so many different parts of the midwest can say that we are all good FRIENDS.......

Thanks to the Martens, Greiner's, Haskamp's, Turley's, Goodliff's, and Staves Clans for calling us FAMILY....... If you haven't gotten together with your family lately, we would highly recommend it. XZD Goat!!!!

Mom

Adding To The Fold

It's May 16 and there's a new girl in town....Amelia Rose Haskamp....very much loved and wanted child of Missy and Ben Haskamp and we couldn't be happier. She is our 4th granddaughter - we don't seem to know how to make boys in this family. But who cares? She's healthy and beautiful and so, so wanted. We thought for awhile that Miss and Ben might not be blessed with children, and that would have made me soooo sad because they will be GREAT parents...just like our son and daughter-in-law, Andy and Sarah. They have THREE girls...woe to Andy....:)

Amelia was stubborn, but finally came into our lives in the wee early hours of April 21. She was tall, slender and had a shock of black hair...very unusual in our German family. Her eyes are dark, but we are hoping they turn into her Daddy's GORGEOUS blue eyes with looonggg eyelashes. Her mamma and daddy are adjusting slowly to parenthood as we all did. She kind of has her days and nights mixed up, but that's normal, too.

She has already make her first "road trip" - unfortunately to her Daddy's uncle's funeral in Glasgow, but that was great fun for her as she was held and caudled all day by all of her relatives.....much to the chagrin of her parents. But how could they help it? I can't.

Welcome, dearest Amelia Rose Haskamp. You made this Grandma a very, very happy one.


Love, Grandma

President's Day Weekend

Today is Friday, February 18, the beginning of a long, holiday weekend. "What holiday?", Loren exclaims. When I explain it to him, he just rolls his eyes. You see there is no President's Day in the Westlake Hardware world. Too bad. It's a nice break in the middle of this horrible winter wonderland we have been in for months.....oh, yea, I hear it might SNOW again on Monday. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

This weekend, our son-in-law, Benton, is going camping - yes, I said camping - with one of his sisters and his brother. Soooo, that leaves the little Haskamp Mama all alone, so she is going to come spend part of her weekend with us...woo-hoo. You see, our time without our precious new "package" is running short, so it will be nice to have some adult conversation before the blessed event.

In addition, our Tesseroo is playing her last official basketball game tomorrow afternoon, so we will be headed to Kearney for that. We have soooo enjoyed watching her grow in her understanding and physical ability while playing this crazy sport. I get tired just WATCHING the girls run up and down the court. I think she has really enjoyed it and I will truly be sorry when it is over. Plus, I get to see my other two little angels when we go to games....yea, girls!

On Sunday, we will be surprising our Grandma Turley with a birthday luncheon as yesterday she turned 88....wow....88. She is doing great and we are blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday with her and our dad.

Sarah is going to attend a youth function out of town with the youth at their church. We are very proud of our Sarah and her part in the future of the Kearney Methodist youth and we are sure they LOVE her.

Andy will be with little girls and join us for the fun on Sunday. All in all, a great weekend is planned....yea for President's Day!!!