Great friends, Parent's Weekend and more...

Again, I want to say that I have the best friends in the world!

My "girls" from OWU days got together a few weekends ago, and, unbeknownst to me, planned an afternoon of helping Tara. I thought that we were going to go shopping or some other girlie thing....when, in reality, we were going to do service. The big surprise was getting to do this with a college friend that I hadn't seen since graduation some 30+ years ago. What a blessing! We cleaned and reorganized Tara's house while she was at work. With Jane's expert eye, her living room and dining room look like a new place! And Laurie, Cindy and Linda cleaned and reorganized the kitchen, porch and dining room. It is nice for Tara to feel a little like she is starting over. It looks great!! I can't thank them enough... Now, if I could only have miracles like that happen in my house :)

We had a great Easter...all three girls were here, including my 2 sisters. Wonderful.

Last weekend was Parent's Weekend at Grove City. The last after 11 years of having daughters there. Kelsie's sorority came in second at the All Campus Sing!! Very exciting...they were so cute!! May 14 she graduates...can't believe that our baby is graduating from COLLEGE!

Yesterday Carli and I went to Columbus--Carli's "vacation" from PT school...spring break. So, we went out to lunch, spent time at Easton and Ten Thousand Villages...and got cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory (I highly recommend the Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake). Grace was great, and loves having so much attention from her aunt and grandma!

What a week! We spent spring break at Hilton Head Island, SC. The weather was great and we enjoyed eating, shopping, bike riding and the beach. With Grace along, it wasn't terribly relaxing, but we did laugh a lot!

We got home Saturday afternoon, saw "Les Mis" in Cleveland that night, and then it was time on Sunday for the big party! Grace was so cute in her Grace shirt and tutu. She loved the cake (and so did we...thanks to Lynn Hackett..she makes the best cake in the world!). Was nice to have family and friends here to celebrate. 3 of Tara's college friends were here...including Lisa's husband who surprised her with an early return from Afghanistan!

Please keep Tara in your prayers...as I type this she is at an Urgent Care. She is really having problems with her Grave's Disease. She isn't sure that her terrible pain is from the disease, her meds, or something else. Any way you put it she is miserable. I am praying for a solution/treatment.

I'm a slacker...

That's what I'm told by my daughter. Guess it's time for an update.

Things have been rather crazy in the Gerber household. Kelsie is a senior and does things like call her dad (notice she didn't call me) and says "if you need me, I'm in New York City". Oh to be young and crazy again! She and a friend got $15 bus tickets and her friend's brother lives in NYC...what's there not to like about that?

Carli is doing her clinical at Wooster Community Hospital, so she and Jeremy have been staying here quite a bit to save on gas money. And mom's cooking probably isn't too hard to take, either! Actually, it's kind of nice to have more people to cook for again. It's so hard to cook for just 2. Jeremy starts a new job in Akron next week, so they might be staying apart for a while since their apartment would be much closer to Akron.

Tara has had a tough winter. She has had some health problems and so has Grace. Grace got tubes in her ears in February and seems to have lots of colds. But she still is one happy baby! She is getting ornery and loves to get into our cupboards and drawers. Time to baby proof the house :)

The opening day of the Dariette is always a good time...see photos above!!

Gary and Sally moved last weekend...exciting to have new neighbors! We had to go check out their new house...Grace liked it a lot. We had lunch together. Very fun!

It is so much fun now that Grace realizes who she knows! Jeremy was working on his upper body strength by swinging her around!

Tubes!

Grace's last meal before "fasting" for surgery. Yummy Italian dinner with Tara's friend Lisa.
Yes, honey, tomorrow is the big day!
Got some good medicine...now I'm ready to go!
All finished!!

Grace was a little trooper when she got tubes in her ears on February 1. We are so thankful that she didn't get sick, have any major drainage from her ears, or seem to be in any discomfort. She was a little "off" on Tuesday, but was her old self on Wednesday. The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to get to the car on Tuesday morning due to the ice! The sidewalk was like an ice rink, and it took us some time to chisel the ice from the car. Thank goodness there weren't many people on the road at 6:15 am.

We just hung out on Tuesday, and when I thought that I would be driving back home the weather got even worse. The ice in Columbus was absolutely amazing. So...I decided to stay (secretly hoping for a snow day). My great job share partner said that she would work for me Wednesday if I couldn't make it back. Thank God I didn't have to worry about school. It was good that I was there...right before we went to bed a sizable limb fell on the back of the house. What a noise it made! We both jumped...and went to check it out. Tara could hardly get off of the back deck to go look. It didn't appear to do any damage. Sleeping that night was fun, too, because of the ice hitting the windows and the roof.

Another thing to be thankful for was that we didn't lose power. We had a nice lunch and then I decided to head for home. The roads were slippery but not as much traffic as usual. After being with Grace (and Tara) for 2 days, I really miss her!

Grace's first sled ride! She enjoyed it and I don't think that she wanted to stop. Only problem was she couldn't put her arms down in her snow suit :)

Todd's uncle passed away unexpectedly this past Friday. He had cancer, but his death was not expected this soon. I babysat Grace until Tuesday when we went to the calling hours in Cochocton and did the baby swap. She missed her mommy but was not lacking for love and attention at Grandma's house! Aunt Carli watched her on Monday night when Ted and I both had meetings.

Of course she did things for the first time when mommy wasn't around. Guess she just wanted to show off! You forget how much time and energy that babies take...I was very tired last night.

Grace has had many ear infections that antibiotics are not fixing...so she is getting tubes in her ears on February 1. I'm going down to "help"...it's a good excuse to be with her again...

Looking forward to this weekend when my brother will meet the moving van...2 doors down from us! I have never lived close to him as they have been in CT for 35 years and were in Delaware before that. Will be nice to have him and Sally close by.

I know that not everyone gets to stay home during a snow storm, but I could really use a snow day!

Happy New Year!!

2011~~

Had a great Christmas with all 3 of the girls home and now a grandbaby. Doesn't get any better than that this side of heaven. I can't see how heaven can even be better, but guess we'll figure that one out some day. It is hard for our human brain and emotion to imagine what heaven will be like.

was so fun with Grace, even though she didn't really know what was going on. She was just her usual happy self...even though she is battling ear infections. This morning Tara had to take her in again...hse has never been fussy, the only clue that Tara has is that she doesn't eat/drink like normal. Welllll...this week she ran a fever and is really fussy. She was put on another antibiotic on Wednesday, and this morning was given injections...I feel so bad! I remember those helpless feelings that you had when your kids were sick. Pray that she gets over these infections once and for all!

We had a nice New Year's...missed my college friends, but his year just wasn't meant to be for us to get together. So...Carli and Jeremy and Carli's friend, Rachel, came over for the weekend. We ate lots of good food and were babysitting Grace as Tara worked the entire weekend. Grace had lots of attention and we had a great time. Kelsie went back to GCC already on Sunday. Miss her when she's not here.

It's a good thing that we don't know the future. We have lots of changes coming this year at church...and I'm sure with life in general. Here's to 2011!!