Away a While

If you've noticed that it's been a while since I posted, you're right. I was away for three weeks. On November 12 I flew to Kansas City to take care of and visit three of our grandies. Hubby joined me in KC, by car, and the we then drove to Austin, Texas for Thanksgiving. We returned home December 2.

You must forgive a little Nana indulgence as I post family pictures. While I like to blog, mostly to share quilt-y stuff, I occasionally like to put up a little personal news. That's so everything's included in the blog book I have printed each year. I've done this for several years now and look at it as sort of a diary - one that I hope my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will someday appreciate. I have my blog posts printed through Blog2Print.

So... the Kansas City Legoland saw me two days in a row, as I first took the 4 year-old grandson, and then the 3 year-old grandson. Since I had also done Legoland previously in September, I would have saved money by buying a season pass!

Tay, age 4

Aesa, age 3

Our 15 year-old granddaughter had her day too. What a sweetie, and so nice to hang out with! Here we were at Granite City for dinner.

me and Celina

A visit to KC isn't complete without at least one stop at our nephew, Evan's, pet store - Olathe Pet Shop. He's always ready to take most of the animals out of their cages to let children touch - snakes, lizards, scorpion, rabbits, and even a silky-furred chinchilla. Our grandsons love visiting!

Tay and a snake

Dan drove to Kansas City to join me, and together we took the boys to Cabela's. That was an eye-opening, first-time treat for all of us.

Tay and Aesa

And every time I'm in KC, I don't miss at least one occasion to spend time with my dear friend, Carla. Guess what we do? Ha! Go fabric shopping! Tammy at Marmalade Fabrics let us come by to check out her newest-in fabrics. That's a stack of Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics in Tammy's arms, and Carla's holding bolts of Anna Maria Horner's True Colors.

Tammy, Carla, me

Our daughter has a framed glass hanging in the entryway of their home. On it, she writes (with a dry erase marker) any funnies the kids come up with, and takes a picture of the child who said it. I had several occasions to jot down cute things. The laugh-out-loud one was this, said while mom and dad were both away on business. 

Nana: "It's so nice and quiet this morning." (The two boys had previously been very rowdy, so I said this as positive reinforcement for playing quietly.)

Aesa: "It's because Mommy's not here." (Let me tell you... Daddy rubbed that one in!)

Aesa

And in Austin, Texas...

From the patio deck of County Line on the Hill (restaurant). Great barbecue!

This is where we visited our recently-moved-from-Florida family.

Lyn, Austin, Brent

Austin, age 3-1/2

Dan, Austin, and Brent - three generations - on Mount Bonnell

In January, grandson #4 will arrive! More grandchildren means more traveling!

On a last personal note - hopefully the last medical concern for 2013! - I'm having a heart catheterization today, and stents put into both legs. After several months of testing (this is not related to my breast cancer drug, Arimidex), it's been determined that I have a 60 percent loss of blood flow in my left leg, and a 50 percent loss in my right. The docs are scratching their heads, because I have no risk factors for narrowing arteries in my legs. I have never smoked, don't have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure, I'm not overweight, and I'm active. Just another one of those "go figure" or "lucky me" medical diagnosis's, like breast cancer. There's no accounting for it.

My recovery is expected to take a week; in the meantime I expect to get to some sewing. So, my next post, for sure, will be about quilt-y stuff! Linda