Moving on down the road....

I have had a great time blogging. As I recall, I began at Marty's urging shortly after I began chemotherapy and my hair was gone. It has been a great therapeutic experience, and I have loved documenting the growth and the antics of my grandkids and the animals. Now I find that I am ready to move on to a new project. So this post will be my last. I hope by sharing some of my life experience, I might have made a few readers smile here and there. I know Aunt Margie and brother Eddie and a few friends liked keeping up with family activities through the blog. I will try to keep you posted by email in the future.

Goodbye for now, and "God bless us every one." (Just saw The Christmas Carol this weekend; I don't recommend it though. Too violent and ugly for me. I will listen to David Archuleta's Christmas CD instead! Beautiful and the arrangements are great.)

:o) Ginny

Celebrating Birthdays

Marty and Mary Stella are the birthday gals.

What happened to Charlie's rolls???

Presents! Lots of presents!

Dotty and some of her daughters....

Dotty and some of her granddaughters....

Dotty, the birthday girls, and some of Dotty's great-grandchildren (Blake is the oldest at 16)

Ryan has himself some birthday cake. Yummy!

Last Saturday, Carrie's family and I went to Springfield and joined in the celebration of Mary Stella's and Marty's birthdays. Carrie and Tony have a new van, and the ride was a most pleasant one. Lunch was terrific at Charlie's, but there was one little disappointment....those wonderful rolls that everybody likes are now about 1/4 the size! Another sign of a bad economy?

Catching up....

Autumn in Quincy, October, 2009

We saw this blue heron in the field behind our house a few days ago. I am told it is an endangered species. Apparently he is looking for food. Mario got close enough to see him nab a mouse and scarf it down.

Chico and Kitty fight like cats and dogs, then wear each other out and go to sleep at my feet on the couch.

They also like the rocking chair.

Sometimes they like their own space.

Get back to your homework and phone calls Mario!

Chico likes his puppy bed.

Mario tries to scare the grandkids with his scary mask.

" Cora's Creations." That is the name I suggested to her for her future business, whatever that is. She loves to cook and bake. She made this cake with pudding in the middle without any help from me, and I heard it was very good.

Trick or treating....last stop at Grandma Ginny's. Cora as a baby, Nolan the fireman, and Hannah the leopard.

Saturday Photos

We took Makenna a Thomas the Train book.

Makenna and the bride doll sent from Mary Stella

Makenna and Poppo having fun

Time for a hug, Poppo

Chico wants in on the fun. (He took his first road trip.)

"Chico, don't bite. Be nice."

Chris and Maria leaving for a wedding

Makenna taking Chico for a walk...

and Chico taking Makenna for a walk.

Pics from the weekend

Dress up for game day and fight off the girls at QHS.

Blake's team's game was on the SIUE field where Chris played....

and it brought back many good memories for Chris, Mario, and me.

Blake is at the top of the circle.

After the game at Maria's parents' house with Nolan and Makenna
....these two little cousins could make some real trouble together!

Trying to get over our disappointment after the tough 1-0 loss by having some fun with family: Blake, Nolan, Hannah, Makenna, Grandma Ginny, Cora, Chris, and Maria

Season Over....

Sadly, the Quincy High Soccer team was defeated by Edwardsville, 1-0, last night in the regional final at SIUE. The game between the two well-matched teams was decided on a lone penalty kick awarded to Edwardsville with less than two minutes to play. One of Quincy's defenders was called for pushing an Edwardsville player in the penalty area. A couple of minutes before that, an Edwardsville player committed an obvious handball in the penalty area, but the referee chose to ignore it. Honestly, there is so much pushing that goes on throughout a soccer game that is not called; I don't know how a man can randomly decide that one particular little push will be the game decider.

So today we are moving on, knowing it is just a game we play for fun and educational reasons. But I can't help but remember back to Chris' senior year when his team lost in overtime in the super-sectional at East Moline on a penalty kick awarded to East Moline for something insignificant. The bottom line is if we don't put the ball in the net enough times to outscore the other teams we play in post-season, we are not going to advance. The person or people with the ultimate authority on the field will decide the game against us, and I am sad for the kids who work so hard every soccer season to be winners.

There's always next year....

We had a great short visit with Chris, Maria, and Makenna at the Ewersmanns. Makenna is talking a lot now, and she was all smiles for us. I will post pictures tomorrow. Time to rest. :o)

Blake's soccer team won their first post-season game today, 5-0 against Alton. They play in Granite City Friday at 6PM. We will all be there, along with Chris (and family?) to cheer Blake and his team on. Then we will go to the Ewersmanns for the rest of the evening. Mario and I are staying overnight so we can spend some time with Chris on Saturday morning. They are coming back for a wedding in St. Louis.
Sadly, QND lost their regional opener today, 1-0 at Riverton. We had hoped for good post-season runs by both teams. In soccer, you just never know what is going to happen!

Happy 4th Birthday Nolan!

Nolan's birthday party began with a walk through the pumpkin patch and hayride.

Then on to McDonald's for supper, cupcakes, and ice cream cones. O, and some good playplace screamin' and hollerin.'

"They gave me bunches of ice cream!" (Nolan usually gets the little kid's freebee with Grandma, so this was BIG.)

A bit crowded, but nobody seemed to mind.

Grandma and Grandpa Dede (top right), and Grandma and Grandpa Lovell (bottom right), and Grandpa Mario (back center)

Nolan is delighted with the police playset we gave him. Blake was reacting to the "100 pieces" part. Carrie said Nolan and his buddy played with it most of the evening and put a lot of people in jail.

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Jerry Lovell always know just the right thing....lots of Spiderman stuff, making Nolan a happy birthday boy.

The Dede grandparents gave Nolan a cool remote controlled vintage VW bus/truck. Sure to be a hit.

The puppy has a whirlybird hat on making Nolan smile.

Big brother Blake gave Nolan a hand. He had a great birthday.

He already wants to be 5.

Sunday afternoon....

Blake's team came outa the shoot shootin' yesterday and scored 9 goals. They play Tuesday at Chatham and Thursday here. How fast the season has gone! Post-season begins in Alton the next Tuesday. They are 16-2-1. When Chris played, his team was 19-4-1 if I remember correctly. We are hopeful that Blake's team will have a long post-season run. It is very hard to get to the State Tournament; everybody knows that. But if our team comes out mentally ready for every game, it is possible.

Brrrrrrr. That's all I have to say about the weather here. Mario is taking Chico for a walk. He gets snipped on Wednesday, so maybe some of that boyish energy will wane a bit??? Kitty has sure mellowed since his neutering. He has a sweet, gentle personality and would sit on your lap (or chest if you are resting) all day and purr if he could.

I am finishing a book today called "The Help." A very good read. Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 60's, it is the first novel of the author; I must say it is a very entertaining, informative book.

What happened to the Cardinals? I saw in the paper today that they are through already. I missed the first two losses. Outa the loop I guess on knowing about the national sports scene. I have all I can handle keeping up with these grandkids. :o)

I will never get used to how rough these two animals play. Chico has lost a little chunk out of his nose from before Kitty got declawed, and now I see Kitty has a little tear on each ear. Chico's favorite thing to do with him when they are playing is to drag him across the floor by his ear. I get up and separate them, but I think when they get in this mood, one of them is going to the man-cave downstairs. I can't take it! They are really very much like two little kids. I just gave Chico one of the toys to play with, and he took all 20 pieces out of the base and scattered them all over the floor. Then he looked at me like "I'm done" and left the room.

One Nolan story for ya....hope this doesn't embarrass anybody. Nolan came in the house last week and said to Carrie (with a big smile on his face), "HI Big Booby Mommy!" Not quite sure that she heard him right, Carrie said, "What did you call me?" "I called you Big Booby Mommy," he repeated. "You can't call me that Nolan. That is not appropriate." (a word she has to use frequently with a bunch of little boys in the daycare, I'm sure). "Well," said Nolan, "Caleb told me you have big boobies." He is one of the older boys, but a little too advanced in his knowledge of female anatomy I think. At least a little too young for it to be backyard daycare conversation. Always something goin' on with Nolan. :o)

Everyone in the house is sleeping but me (Mario, dog, cat). So I will read for awhile and try to write something from the week that might be of interest....

Nolan is almost 4 (Oct. 13) and Carrie and I have both observed that he is coming out of Crabbyland. He was here for a few hours twice and all smiles. He played well with the buddies and the sisters with no dramas or traumas. And he is going to pre-school with no tears or hanging on to anyone. Yeh for Nolan!

I look forward to a nicer day tomorrow. It was cold and rainy here yesterday and today, and I am not enjoying the treks outside nearly so much with Chico. He is oblivious to the rain and cold. In fact, just like a little boy, he wants to jump in every mud puddle and water hole he can find. So when we come in, I have to take him to the bathtub and scrub him off. Since he can now jump out of the tub, this scene could be filmed for one of those comedy shows. I am soaked, the floor is wet, and Chico looks like a drowned rat by the time he gets cleaned up.

Just 3 more regular season soccer games, including one Saturday at noon. Please shine, sun! This team could do well in the post season if they put their minds to it. They are 15-2-1 after losing this week to QND 1-0. They didn't decide to play hard til after QND scored according to most who were there. And none of those shots went in. So it was a "wake-up call" as the expression goes, to begin every game with the highest level of play you can muster. Hopefully the bad game is behind us.

I enjoyed having lunch with Judy and Linda today at the new Japanese restaurant Fuji. A good quantity of healthy food for a good price, and they entertain you by cooking at the grill right in front of your group.

Anyone out there who cares to pray for Chuck....he needs a job in Jacksonville, Florida. Any job will do. Thanks.

Have a good weekend.

We had a good Saturday with the three grandkids.
Blake's team lost their championship game 1-0 in the last 10 minutes of the game on what Blake described to me as "not a good goal." But not too much time to think about it because QND is on the schedule on Tuesday. The cross-town rivalry, 2nd round, is always a good, hard fought game. Hope the weather is good.