Declared Sane!

Cordelia has been so excited for Mother's Day. When I saw her a few days before, she was so excited about the gift she had chosen for me. She wasn't happy that her mother was making her wait until Sunday to give it to me but she kept it a secret. That is NOT easy for Cordelia! She is pretty much an open book.

Yesterday when she arrived at church I was already up front singing with the Worship Team. I could see her delightful smile when she spotted me. She held up a small bag and pointed at it. Isn't that just too sweet? I love how she gets so excited to GIVE gifts. She had to wait awhile, though. During the sermon the Worship Team goes down and sits with family. As soon as I got to her she said, "Grandma, open your present!" Then, she started opening it for me. It was a beautiful orange necklace. Maria said Cordy had shopped quite awhile before she decided the necklace was just the right thing. It was lovely and I put it on right away.

What I really loved, though, was the card she had made for me. On the front was a picture of me and Cordelia together.

Don't you must love it?

I also love her 3 year old signature.

The words she asked her mother to write are so precious!

I was especially excited to see that I am sane!

I enjoyed touching base with each of my own children yesterday.

Mike and I also went out of town to enjoy a meal out with my mother, sister and nephew.

I love feeling connected with my family.

I am most certainly a woman most blessed.

I do NOT take it for granted.

The Strength of My Mother's Character

There is is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child - and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own.  

Robert Brault

That quote really made me think about my Mom. Because of Mom, I have never, ever had even one moment in my life when I did not feel loved.  I also witnessed her motherly love for children to whom she did not give birth, children who needed her. It is from her that I learned how to love others.
   
My Mom taught me so much - how to read, sew, crochet, even how to mother. Most of my favorite things I learned from her. 

My best parts come from my Mom!

The thing I believe my Mom taught and displayed best for me is strength of character. I'm pretty certain my siblings would agree with that statement. Never have I known my Mom to try to do anything less than the right thing. Never ever! I have seen my Mom endure some very trying seasons in her life. She knows what it means to carry a heavy load, yet her strength of character always shines through. 

In case you can't tell, I am really proud of my Mom; I always have been. She's beautiful, kind, talented and supportive. I and my siblings really hit the Mom Jackpot!  I love you, Mom! I thank God for letting me be mothered by you. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Cardinal Bling

Mike and I have matching rings! Doesn't that sound romantic? Well,  not so much.

Those of you who know Mike may have noticed that he doesn't even wear his wedding ring. He has lots of excuses but the truth is, it just bugs him to wear jewelry. So, you may be surprised that we got these matching rings...rings that fit neither of us.

Funny, huh? These were given out at one of the Cardinals' games we attended. They are replicas of their World Series Rings from 2006. I thought they would be just a plastic, adjustable ring but these are heavy rings! 

Since we will never ever wear these rings (I hope), they have become decorations at our house. Maybe I could make a Christmas ornament out of them or use them as napkin rings. I could wear my with a light scarf pulled through it. Do you have any other ideas of how I can use these pieces of Cardinal Bling?

Grandpa Red's Footstool

Elise recently become the next kid to really, really love my grandfather's footstool. I thought I had posted about that footstool before but I couldn't find it so maybe I didn't so now I will. Can anyone say, "run on sentence"?

My Aunt Michelle gave that footstool to my Grandpa Red maybe almost 50 years ago. I remember it when I was pretty young. I used it in lots of adventures as it could be flipped out and opened up in a variety of interesting ways. I think I pretended it was a boat a lot. Well, I was among the first group of grandchildren to play with that footstool but I most certainly wasn't the last. Many generations have enjoyed it! It has been reupholstered and it doesn't have all the adjustability it once had, but it still is precious to me.

When my Grandma Rose died and her house was sold, I didn't hear anyone wanting to claim the stool. My Aunt Michelle said that I could take it home so I did. I couldn't bear to think of it going to a dumpster! I don't think of myself as the owner of the footstool, but rather the keeper of the footstool. I know that I have cousins who played with it. My children and many of my cousins' children also played with it. Now, my grandchildren are enjoying it. I doubt very much that my Aunt Michelle ever dreamed of this footstool being a treasure to future generations but it certainly is!

Gateway Arch

No trip to St. Louis is complete without a trip to the Arch. It is really pretty awesome. It is officially the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It serves as an accent piece for all of downtown but it is really more than that. It is unique in its symbolism, its structure and its history. When you first see it, you just can't imagine that people are IN it.

The Arch was the dream of Eero Saarinen.  It commemorates President Jefferson and his Louisiana Purchase and St. Louis' role as a Gateway to the West.


The closer you get to it, the more you feel compelled to take photos of it.



I took many, many photos of it. Lucky for you, I'm too lazy to load them all into this blog post, but I'll give it a pretty good go.


The Gateway Arch is in St. Louis for a reason. St. Louis served as the last stop at a city of any size back when people were heading West. It sits right by the Mississippi River, symbolizing the gateway from the East to the West. Here are some fun facts I learned:

• It is 630 feet tall and is our tallest national monument.
• Construction began in February of 1963. Working from the two bottom legs and meeting in the    middle at the top, the last section was put into place in October of 1965. 
• The Arch weighs over 17 tons. They used 900 tons of stainless steel to build it.
• It cost $13 million to build. 
• It is really sleek and cool-looking (I added that fact myself)

It is so very photogenic! I couldn't hardly stop from taking photos as it makes just pretty much anyone feel like a professional photographer!

Isn't the simplicity of it just beautiful?!

When you get close to those big legs, you realize it is very, very large! The weird thing, though, is that there is a LOT to see underground! Yes! Underground, between those big legs, you go down, down, down. There is a museum, gift shop, place to watch a movie, etc. It just looks like the Arch is sitting in a pretty park. You don't even see the entrances down into it until you are right by those big legs. These are people heading down below. You have to go down before you can go up.

To go up inside they line you up and walk you even further underground.

You are then assigned a little door to wait by.

5 people are squished into one little pod type elevator thingy.

There is room for five bottoms to sit down, but not exactly room

for five pairs of legs. It's pretty cozy.

When the door closes, it is a see-through door. You can't see outside but you can see the stairway and mechanical equipment along the way. Seeing that stairway made gave me comfort somehow.

It is a 4 minute ride up to the top.

When you climb some stairs the last part of the way, you still don't see out.

Once in that top part of the Arch, it looks like this:

I didn't realize I took photos of so many people's bottoms.

No I am wondering how many of their photos have my hinder showing!?

Never mind....let's not think about that.

Anyway...

It takes all my courage to lean on my tummy to look out those windows.

We texted Maria from the top. 

It was mean of us as she is afraid of heights.

She told us just that text made her palms sweat.

This post is likely making her palms sweat as well!

Here, let me take you back outside for a second. This is an underside shot of those windows. 

It is a weird feeling to be able to look down at that angle.

Why would we do such a thing?

Because the view from up there is so beautiful!

You could see the City of St. Louis to the West.

 The flooded Mississippi River was to the East.

And the park was right below...straight down below....Yikes!

I was quickly ready to come back down.

On the East side of the Arch, as I said, is the Mississippi. We walked down a lot of steps to the road that runs along the river. The problem was, we couldn't get that far because the river was rising up to meet us instead. Luckily, we'd had the riverboat cruise experience on a previous visit as they'd closed down due to the flooding. The river actually looked pretty dangerous with lots of uprooted trees and such floating down.

Usually you can walk right out to that dock.

There was a lot of water!

I'll leave you with this photo of the guy who just canoed up as far as he could get.

We don't know his story but we were intrigued. The photo isn't very good but in the

far left of the photo is a duck that seemed to be his pet.

You've got to like a guy with a pet duck, don't you?

A Vacation From Our Vacation

OK, you have all been so very kind with letting me tell you about our trip to St. Louis. I'm not quite done yet, but I thought we'd take a day off to show you some other things that make me happy... namely, two cute little girls.

Cordelia likes black olives.

And she knows how to use them.

Cordy announced to me that when she turns 18 she will be an adult. She also told me she doesn't yet know who she will marry. Then, she told me something I did not know. Apparently age 9 is the official age for becoming a "big kid". Now we know, huh?

Elise likes black olives as well, but she still has to eat them in little bits. 

I really don't care for black olives. Sorry, but that is truth. I do, however, love providing them for those who do enjoy them.

Ducking for My Life!

We saw 5 baseball games while in St. Louis! And guess what? I took a lot of photographs!

One of the highlights, for me, was the last game when my life was threatened. Yep, it could have been lights out for me. Or at least, I could have received a terrible headache.

Mike and I were sitting down the first base foul line. Actually, we were pretty far down, off the side of right field. We had to watch the game rather turned to our left toward home plate and most of the action. Well, Yadier Molina decided to send a little attention our way. It wasn't a real high ball, more of a direct hit to us. I saw him hit the ball our way but really, I thought it was going to fall far before it got to our section. It was I was wrong. The guy in Mike's line of view stood up and so Mike couldn't see where the ball was. I could see it, though. I was just watching when all of a sudden I realized that it was going to hit me in the head. I ducked! Well, I didn't have a glove with me and I need my hands to start IVs and to perform other nursely duties. I still think it was the best course of action.  Here's my favorite part of the story, though...

This young man was behind me and he was READY! When I ducked, I heard a loud smack. I turned to see this boy smiling from ear to ear! He was sooooo proud. Just look at him, all Cardinalled up! People came around to congratulate him. I'm sure he will remember that moment for ever. 

At an earlier game Mike and I got our moment of fame. Mike actually missed it. I was elbowing him saying, "Mike! Mike! Look!" He was distracted, watching a baseball game or something, and by the time he gave me his attention is was no longer on the big screen. Luckily, I had been ready for it and snapped a photo.

That day was a very slow game. It was misting on us, a light rain that you didn't really notice until you realized you were wet. It was 53 degrees and felt even colder. The teenage girl by Mike was wearing little shorts. I could see her goosebumps! I had several jackets and was just sitting on one. I offered it to her but she insisted she wasn't cold. Right. I don't think those goosebumps were because the game was so exciting.

We actually left that game early. I never thought I'd see the day Mike left a Cardinals game early but he was cold, wet and sick. 

This is what it looked like as we walked back. We couldn't see the top of the buildings.

We watched the rest of the game in our room.  Mike watched it on television.

I watched it live, out our window, while drinking coffee and crocheting! I could see it well enough to say spoilers like, "And he swings and misses!" because the television view was delayed by a few moments. I'm kind of mean, aren't I? It didn't matter. That game did not end well.

OK, I've read that bloggers shouldn't make posts too long because people don't have very long attention spans these days. I don't want to bore you but I took soooooo many baseball photos! In fact, when the play was slow, I took photos of people around me, kind of on the sly. Anyway, I'm going to stop writing words now so if you click out, you won't miss anything vital. However, if you are brave or crazy about baseball or just like to finish what you start, you are welcome to scroll down through some more of our photos.