One Hundred Bucks Old (almost) and Still Young At Heart

Okay, I don't care how old she gets, she's still pretty dang cute! Here is my Granny B at her 100th B-Day party. She would like you to know that no matter how old you get, it's still all about the Benjamins, baby.

Except for the hot, hot, heat and Granny's fear that we might run out of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the party was a blast! And it wouldn't be Granny without a bunch of her stories, so here are a few of my favorite questions from the "How Well Do You REALLY Know Granny" game.

1. Where did Granny hide when she didn't want to do the dishes?

Answer: Under the house.

2. What game was Granny playing when she fell off the roof?

Answer: Piggy Wants a Signal (I have no idea how to play, but just the title makes me laugh)

3. What did granny eat that made her so sick she had to crawl up the steps to the house?

Answer: Chewing tobacco (if her cousins could do it so could she, right? Wrong!)

4. How long was Granny's engagement?

Answer: One day. It was during the depression and they put it off because no one could afford to get married. After a date one night my great-grandpa said, "Billie, let's get married tomorrow." She agreed, and the rest is history.

5. What color was she married in?

Answer: Blue

6. What were the names of her triplet cousins that were used in a political campaign?

Answer: Tom, Dick, and Harry...I kid you not.

7. What did her dog Ozzie love to chew?

Answer: Bubble Gum--Bones are for babies!!

8. If you were to stay the night at Granny's, what would you be served for breakfast the next morning?

Answer: Bacon, scrambled eggs cooked in the grease, cinnamon toast, and hot chocolate or coffee, depending on your age.

9. What is Granny's most famous near-death experience (although she has had several, only one is the most famous)?

Answer: When her family was rushing to the storm cellar and Granny began to be sucked up in the tornado. Just in time, her dad reached up and caught her by the ankle and pulled her into the cellar.

10. After giving birth to her only son (my granddad), how many days did it take before Granny could even lift her head up again?

Answer: Eleven days. He was a big baby. Let's call this her second closest near-death experience.

Uncle Ani REALLY wanted to know who was her first kiss, but she "forgot", so we'll all just have to keep wondering...

I love you Granny!! I hope your birthday wishes come true!!

Happy Times

This weekend we are celebrating Granny B's 100th B-day!! I am so excited to see all the fam. This is how excited I am about it: so excited that I am blogging about my excitement instead of packing my suitcase like I should. Maggie-I'll see YOU at the airport.

We're In a Home!!!

Okay, so it's not a house...it's an apartment. But it is really nice, and to us it is home. It's only three years old and it has a lot of windows--and sunlight actually comes through them! Our last apartment at the Vineyards was in many ways like a dungeon, so the sunlight truly is a big deal to me. The kids are sharing their own bedroom and they love it. And Adam and I love it, too! Now if we could just get all of our stuff organized. The easiest thing to do would be to throw it all in the trash. It is tempting...

Could Things Get Any Crazier??

That seems like a dangerous question to ask these days. We've been having the worst luck lately. And last month when I found myself stranded with a flat tire the day after we were kicked out of our apartment for flooding, a man told me "At least things can only get better." Well, I wanted to believe him at the time, but looking back I can see that he was dead wrong. Because we got two more flat tires this month, Katelyn ran away twice, and as you may have read in the previous post, we are still homeless. In fact, I am becoming a little paranoid with fear of what might go wrong next. But I'll try not to let my mind wander...

We were coming home from Orland on Monday. We had made it just as far as the Grapevine and the sun had just gone down and we got a flat tire going more than 80 MPH on I-5 on an uphill. Luckily it was a rear tire and Adam kept control and pulled into a rest stop. It was pitch dark, but he was able to put on the spare and we continued very slowly on our way, still over 100 miles from home. We hadn't gotten very far when we hit a huge pothole that ripped apart our spare. This time there were no exits for miles and not much shoulder to speak of. So here we are in the middle of the night stranded on the downhill half of the Grapevine with cars and semi's zooming right past us. I thought we were going to die. We ended up paying $200 for a tow down to Castaic and $75 for a new tire at Benny's tires (I highly recommend Benny if you ever need a tire at midnight in Castaic), but it was worth it to get home safely.

Wednesday was Adam's birthday. I had high hopes of getting Katelyn to take a nap, so I locked the deadbolt and laid down with her. Well, I accidentally drifted off and when I woke up, Katelyn was gone...completely. I searched everywhere I thought she might be: the elevators, the laundry room, every floor--I was pretty frantic. Finally I went to great grandpa's apartment to see if she had stopped by there. He was out on his balcony and I thought I heard her voice from down below, but I couldn't see her anywhere. Finally I spotted her off in the distance (good thing I was wearing my glasses). She was lounging in a lounge chair in the BBQ area by the parking lot. I ran down to get her and carried her all the way back up. Maybe I would have spanked her in my confusion except that she had pooped in her pants and I didn't want to get any of that on my hands. Well, it turns out that the deadbolt automatically opens when you turn the door handle...go figure. Now I can't let Kate out of my eyesight for fear of what might happen. That was her 4th time running off. The last time was on Zach's blessing day. We were all outside taking pictures. One minute she was playing near the bushes, the next minute she was gone. Half our ward was looking everywhere for her. She had gone inside the building to the mother's lounge before finally coming out to wander the halls and someone found her. I don't understand why she does this and I don't know how to get her to stop. This time I finally told her flat out "If you keep running away you could die and never see me again." As punishment she gets no TV for the rest of the week and she got no treats yesterday (including Adam's B-Day chocolate peanut butter pie). She also got the longest time out ever! During which she got into some silica gel (you know, the stuff that comes in new shoe boxes and says "Do Not Eat!") and she ate it. Well, luckily it didn't take her long to realize that it wasn't candy and she brought it to me to tell me that it wasn't good for her. The internet said it makes your tounge feel funny, so she must've known that something wasn't right. She had to drink a bunch of water to dilute any of it that she might have swallowed. Anyway, after yesterday I feel like the worst mom ever.

Adam and I ate at Orange County Mining Company for his Bday dinner. The view was gorgeous as usual. We rented a movie and ate his Bday pie and ice cream. I won't say what I got him because it hasn't come in the mail yet and I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I think he's gonna like it!

Well, that's the end of my marathon post, and Katelyn is driving me nuts trying to take control of the computer. I can't wait until I have some better news to report!! Say a little prayer for me, please.

Homeless

Well, I'm not the crafty type. I don't scrapbook or do any of the things that I associate with blogging, but I want to give it a try anyway. I don't have any cool news to report in my first post. In fact, right now we are sort of homeless. There was a slab leak in our apartment and when they broke underground and into the walls to fix it they uncovered a bad mold problem. We were in a hotel for about 2 weeks until they finally told us we would have to move out. We had to move everything in 5 days. Adam did it all on his own for the most part with a lot of help from his mom and some help from his dad, a brother and a brother in law. They had to wear mold masks so they wouldn't get sick. While Adam was packing things up I was at his parents' house doing laundry. I had to wash and disinfect everything we own because it all smelled moldy. We've been living back and forth between Adam's parents' place in Orange, CA and my parents place in Orland, CA. Katelyn understands that we can't go home because "our house broke and it smells like mold." Right now we are in Orland and we'll go back to Orange County on Monday. We're stopping in Rocklin on our way back so Adam can interview with a chiropractor there. If he gets the job it could be a good opportunity for him to learn how to market. With all the craziness that has been going on in our lives, our future feels very uncertain.