Ayse's "pose"

Notice the position Ayse seems to prefer to spend time with her people. Compare to Greg and Kim's latest blog showing the picture of Greg with Ayse from last November.

By the way, Greg, she sure is shedding right now. I told Dad I was going to brush her and collect a ziplock bag of hair to bring to you when I come. Dad said you'd probably think that was funny after you got past the idea that maybe that was all that was left of Ayse (a.k.a. Coyote Bait).

Making Herself at Home

Ayse's starting to make herself right at home now...just took some time to get adjusted. She's pretty comfortable around Abby so she's able to spend most of her time around the family now. Here she is with "her dog".

Okay, okay -- not too close! She's not really very fond of dog kisses though!

And here helping Daddy in his office...

...and sleeping in Mom's favorite chair (now baptised with calico cat hair)

...and in Dad's chair (at least the cat hair doesn't show up quite as much here, until you sit in the chair with dark slacks!)

My, what a messy, messy eater she is! It seems she can't eat without spilling food outside the bowl. She's now sharing the food dish with Reyna -- never at the same time; they barely tolerate each other so there's still room for improvement in that area!

Boston Baby!

I've been getting requests for Kim's "belly update" from our time in Boston, so here are some pictures from the shower.

These dear friends of Kim's did a wonderful job blessing Greg and Kim (and all of us) with a fun shower for little Nathanael!

The shower was in the church, and this is what greeted us coming in the door -- a "clothesline" of onesies, each with a letter from Nathanael's name with a corresponding picture beginning with that letter.

The whole "theme" surrounded the alphabet and primary colors!

A beautiful, very soft, Aunt Ann bear!

The perfect going-to-church outfit for our little man.

Posing for the measuring of Greg and Kim's combined girth for everyone to guess the circumference.

Nathanael cooperated by moving and kicking around (and having hiccups) so Grandpa and Grandma Gimple could get in touch with our little grandson!

There Is Hope!

I saw the first sign of my surprise lilies starting to push up through the cold dirt. It's good to see they're trying to make their way into the coming Springtime. I bought some seed potatoes, corn seed, and spinach seed at Bluestem on Saturday, so I'm getting ready for things to come. Of course, it'll be quite some time before those corn seeds can go in the ground, but it's just a little over two weeks until we'll have a chance to put the potatoes in on St. Patrick's Day. And I saw a very large flock of Canadian geese V-ing their way north! Yippee for Spring!

Good Grief!

Thanks, Larry, for the phone call to try to help me figure out my picture-posting issue. In the process of Larry's help, I noticed that I was supposed to click to accept the Terms of Service, and I had been forgetting to do that. Oh, well, I bet I'll remember that for awhile now! Glad it's solved.

And in addition I got to have a wonderful talk with Larry and with Galena, too, so that made it all worthwhile. :-)

Now here are the pictures that were supposed to be with the previous post:

Who do you think my new grandson will look like? His mommy...

or his daddy?

Whichever, he's bound to be a cutie!

Merry Christmas to all you dear ones that I won't get to see this Christmas, and can't wait to get to see the rest of you!!

2010 Dreaming!

It just hit me that we'll have an eight-month-old little boy to liven things up next Christmas! How exciting!

Okay -- frustrated! I can't get my blog to upload pics any more. I tried on Nov. 19th for Daddy's birthday and thought it was just a temporary glitch. Now I wasn't able to upload pics again! I browse and choose the pics as usual, but then the Upload button does nothing.

Any suggestions? (If so, I have a couple of cute pictures to share with all of you.)

BRRRRRRRR!

Winter arrived with a vengence. We're just fortunate that we didn't get the predicted snow but instead had rain, sleet, freezing rain, and just an inch or two of snow. Many others all across the state (and beyond!) are dealing with blizzard conditions with these 30 MPH winds. Very, very cold out there. Everyone stay safe and warm!

Great timing for us in that we're replacing our main floor heating/air conditioning unit this week. That means I stay in my office during the day with my door closed and a space heater to stay warm and able to work. Dick has stayed home this week to be available for any decisions that need to be made, so each afternoon as soon as the workmen leave, he starts the wood furnace. We're really thankful for that -- especially last night when the winds blew in! (Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad since we didn't have hardly any wind -- makes such a difference.)

We had a really good time with Drew and Carrie and Greg and Kim over the week of Thanksgiving and celebrated our family Christmas together at that time in Erie. We all drove this year so we were very thankful for good travel conditions and safe arrivals there and back home.

Now it's time for me to get motivated and organized for the rest of our Christmas season. With all the frost and snow around, maybe I'll get in the mood today to get with it. We're looking forward to seeing lots of the rest of the family during the week of Christmas. Family is such a blessing!