UPDATES on Jacob and George

No pictures, just new info. Jacob has been having problems with his knee since he started basic and then during Airborne his shins started bothering him, so after talking to us and his sergeant he decide to opt out of his Ranger contract for now and pursue that later. The decision was made on Monday and by yesterday they had his orders and he was packing to come home to get his belongings together to move to his first duty station. The possible locations were Ft. Bragg, NC and Italy. He got Ft. Bragg (all of them that were not doing Ranger got Ft. Bragg) He is very excited, Italy would have been okay with him, but he is glad to get somewhere close to home for his first duty station. He hopped a bus late last night and got home this afternoon at 4:45pm. It is good to have him home. He reports to Ft. Bragg on Mar. 11th, so we will have to celebrate his 19th birthday early (which is on Mar. 16th). At this time the plan is for us to take him down for his report date. He will see the doc if his shins are still bothering him when he gets to his unit, but hopefully being able to relax for awhile will allow them to heal from whatever the problem is and he won't have to.

George is doing well. We got a letter yesterday. He did misunderstand and did not get Platoon Guide, but he was made Team Leader and is happy about that. There is the PG, Squad leaders (there are 4 squads in his Platoon) and then him. His job is to make sure his squad accomplishes their missions. The letter was dated Feb. 19th and he said they had an eventful day because they were in full ruck gear and all 33 of them were standing in a small hallway and his clumsy a-- hits the fire alarm with his ruck sack as he was trying to get it off his back. So, of course, he runs down the steps, cause they live on the 3rd floor and he had to tell the drill sergents what he had done, so they had to file outside and wait for the fire dept. to clear the whole building, which houses 2 companies. Surprisingly, he didn't get smoked (punished) for it at all. He is, however, the guy that now makes sure that people stay away from the fire alarm trigger. I almost peed my pants reading this letter. It was so funny - I could just envision it all happening and him running down the stairs in a panic.

My RHSS Mardi Gras Brunch and then a Baby Shower

My Red Hat Scarlet Sophisticates group had a brunch at the New Orleans Cafe here in Fredericksburg on Sunday. We had a great time and sang, Marie LaVeaux (if you could call it singing). The food was delicious. I had "Crabby Benedict". Which was Eggs Benedict on a flaky pastry, ham egg, and crab meat with homemade hollandaise sauce - Yummy!



Immediately, following that I had a baby shower to go to for a young lady that I use to keep after school when she was about 11 y.o. (now 28 y.o.). Well, she did not make it to the shower as on Fri. morning she had the baby. A boy (which we knew already)...Well after eating some wonderful food again (saved room as I knew I was going and the food would be irresistable (Greek). We loaded up my Explorer and a couple other vehicles with gifts to take to the house (she came home that morning), so I got to see the baby and ended up spending the evening visiting with them, taking pictures of her opening all of her gifts and eating more food for dinner. Again, Yummy! Got home and realized I forgot to find out what she named the baby. I do know he was 6 lbs. 9 ozs. He is adorable! I will advise of his name later. I am making her Baby Shower Thank You cards for her and gave her the first 20 of them and only have 80 to go. Plan to get them to her in a few days as things got crazy around here. I threw out my back (unknown how) and couldn't do too much on Tues., Wed. I had a doctors appt. and then Jacob called with good news - more on that next. I will also post a picture of the "Thank You" cards when I get some more made (forgot to take pics of the first batch).

Here are some of the pics I took of the baby, Irene opening presents and Grandma Sophia and new grandson.

My Ladies Stamp St. Patty's Day Cards

On the 20th I made my monthly run to the Westmoreland (Col. Beach) Sr. Ctr. to make cards. I refer to them as "My Ladies" and they get a kick out of that. They had requested St. Patty's Day cards this time, so I grabbed the sets I had new and old and one of the new SAB sets to use the Polka Dot Heart in it to make shamrocks (inspired by Sue Duffy)and the new heart punch. I also took several other punches to make the leprechaun face I made last year as pins, to put on the cards. They had a blast and for once I remembered to take my camera and take pictures of their creations. Last month and this time I did not create a card in advance, just went with themed items for them to use and let their own creative juices flow and made occasional suggestions when asked. They are a very creative group. Ruth can't stamp the images, but she loves to color them in and she loves flowers and butterflies, so we stamped her some of the flower images from one of the sets and she went to town...I put one of them together into a card for her (pictured below). For the longest she wouldn't join us and just watched us from afar and then started coming to the table to watch and last month we stamped a few images and she sat and colored them in, so we plan to do that for her from now on. She is an artist and likes to draw and we attempt to get her to draw a little something for us every so often. You can tell she once had a very good artistic talent and it is starting to come out again. You can see the joy on her face now when she is coloring in her stamped images. It is a wonderful site.

Next month we will be making Easter cards, of course. I plan to create one or two cards for them this time, but I will also take enough for them to create their own designs (and I know they will). I will try to remember to take my camera again and take more pictures of their creations to share with you.

The Busy Bee's Get-together

My Red Hat "Busy Bee" group went to Pinkadilly Tea House for this months gathering and I was co-host with Bobbie and we love to go all out for the girls with party favors and nice door prizes. Our Queen Mom stepped down and the Vice-Queen has taken her place as Queen and I have agreed to be Vice-Queen/Secretary (I just fill -in when she is not there, but I also now do the newsletter each month). Anyway, I just had to use the new Stampin' Up! set called Just Buzzin' By for our treat bags, plus I had found the little bee figurine with heart that says "Bee Mine" thru Oriental Trading and just had to get them to put in the bags (you can just see him at the bottom left of bag). Bobbie also found an adorable bee hive cake mold and made a honey cake (pictured below)for the outgoing and incoming Queens.

Just Sharing Some Pics

This year has been a dull one for snow so far. The top picture is the most we have gotten to date (taken 1-28-09), but you never know we may get a late one that is better. The next two pictures were taken at dusk the same day....isn't that sky beautiful. The upper one was take out the front door and the bottom was from the dining room window (higher view), so that is why it is a little darker, plus it was getting darker quick.

Just a few geese in a field on my way to Colonial Beach.

Coming home from Col. Beach Sr. Ctr. on 1-30-08, I was passing this field and it was full of geese.....I couldn't get over the numbers of them, so of course I had to stop and take a picture, unfortunately I had not taken my camera so I had to use the one on my cell phone, so they are not very good, but you get the idea.

Melodye's Birthday Dinner

Saturday night a bunch of us got together and took Melodye out to dinner for her birthday (which was actually Sun.). Mary didn't make it as she was not feeling well. Here is the gang.

Left side(front to back): Melody and Lydia

Rt. side (front to back): Me, Margarethe, Gayle

This is a baby afghan that Melodye is working on. Isn't it beautiful! I'm the only one in the group that doesn't knit. I tried - I have absolutely NO talent or patience for knitting or crocheting and as I have said before, "Why should I knit when I have so many friends that knit so beautifully and I can buy the yarn and get them to make things for me or sometimes I get them as gifts - which I love!

Cards n' Such

Saturday morning Margarethe and I made a run to our favorite litte stamp/scrapbook shop in Madison, VA called "Handcraft House" It was their Super Stamping Saturday and for a minimal fee you could go around and make various items of your choice. Such Fun! Here's what I made.

This is a paper bag card/album. You can't see it very well, but the background on the cover and the sheet on the inside left have some shimmer to them. They were made using a sprintzer filled with water, a couple drops of distress ink refill and some PearlEx powder (we ironed it to dry it quickly).

This one is using a new glitter substance that looks like sand. Just use glitter glue and sprinkle on the substance and "Wallah" a sandy beach.

I love the elegance and simplicity of this one....I gave it to my friend Melodye

that night for her birthday.

This was a mini album made using the Iris fold technique and a Bind-it-all.

George is Officially a Soldier!

Here Harold is talking about the families history in the military.

The administering of the oath.

George signs the final papers. (At least for now)

A final goodbye hug (Yes, I did get one after I took this picture)

Sorry for the delay in getting these posted, but I have been staying busy since he left. As of Wed., Feb. 4th, George is officially enlisted into the Army, like his little brother, Jacob. However, he has gone to Ft. Knox, KY for his one-stop training for Basic and Abrams Tank Crewmen School. We talked with him today and he is doing well and so far he is still excited about the whole thing. As soon as we have an address for him, I will e-mail it to the family and close friends.

Jacob is still in Ft. Benning and started Airborne School last Monday. He will be graduating on Feb. 21st. We will not be going down for that as the indication is we would not get anytime to spend with him as he will probably be moved over to Ranger Pre-training that same day and not be given any real leave time. His Sergeant will pin his wings on in our absence. I'll see if there is any way he can get someone to take a picture for me and e-mail it to me for me to post. He has been jumping from a 35-ft. tower this past week and this week will do more of the same and the third/final week they will move on to a 250-ft. tower the final week and make their jumps from the plane as well and then graduate. I still can't understand wanting to willingly jump from a perfectly good plane.