Jake and Marie and the girls came home to Michigan for Christmas!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Jasper Ray

On Thursday, December 4th, 2008, Jasper Ray Viraldo was born to Jeff and Elaine. Their firstborn, our first grandson. Born a month early via c-section due to Elaine's diabetes, Jasper weighed in at 9lbs., 3 oz., with lots of fluffy black hair and his proud daddy's nose.
By the time they were ready to leave the hospital on Monday, little Jasper had gone from 9 lbs., 3 oz. down to 7 lbs., 13 oz. But after a bit of a slow start, he has gotten used to being here and is happy and putting weight back on.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Happy 30th!
Well, one of the important events that I haven't posted on yet was the fact that John and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last week, January 12th. Thirty years is practically a lifetime, I'm told.
I was in Grand Rapids on that day, babysitting for my new little grandson, Jasper (oh, goodness--another important thing that happened during my hiatus). Jeff and Elaine bought us a balloon bouquet and gave us a nice card. But on top of that, Jeff and John had conspired and made reservations at a wonderful restaurant in Grand Rapids called The Melting Pot. Jeff and Elaine had been there and told me about it, and it was really somewhere I wanted to go some day. So my thoughtful son passed on that information, and it was a deal! And for helping them out and taking care of the baby during the next few weeks, they also furnished us with a gift card that went a long way to help pay for the occasion.
The menu called it "The Big Night Out", a four-course fondue dinner. First course, chunks of bread, raw veggies, and Granny Smith apples dunked in the cheeses of our choice, melted in a pot right there at our table. Second course, a cobb salad--the only part of the dinner that wasn't fondue. Third course, of course, was the main course--about 6 different types of meat and a bowl of vegetables to skewer and cook in our choice of flavored oil. Many different sauces were arranged on the table to use, but of course we quickly forgot which one went with what.
And then to top all that off, the last
course was the chocolate fondue! They had many options, but we went with dark chocolate with pecans. There were bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, brownies, rice krispie treats, angel food and cheesecake a-plenty to drown in the wonderful hot chocolate. My favorite course, of course!
We asked
our waitress to take our picture, and then we took a few ourselves. Little did we know that we both still had remnants of chocolate on our lips for later!
Happy 30 years with hopefully many more to come!
I was in Grand Rapids on that day, babysitting for my new little grandson, Jasper (oh, goodness--another important thing that happened during my hiatus). Jeff and Elaine bought us a balloon bouquet and gave us a nice card. But on top of that, Jeff and John had conspired and made reservations at a wonderful restaurant in Grand Rapids called The Melting Pot. Jeff and Elaine had been there and told me about it, and it was really somewhere I wanted to go some day. So my thoughtful son passed on that information, and it was a deal! And for helping them out and taking care of the baby during the next few weeks, they also furnished us with a gift card that went a long way to help pay for the occasion.
The menu called it "The Big Night Out", a four-course fondue dinner. First course, chunks of bread, raw veggies, and Granny Smith apples dunked in the cheeses of our choice, melted in a pot right there at our table. Second course, a cobb salad--the only part of the dinner that wasn't fondue. Third course, of course, was the main course--about 6 different types of meat and a bowl of vegetables to skewer and cook in our choice of flavored oil. Many different sauces were arranged on the table to use, but of course we quickly forgot which one went with what.
And then to top all that off, the last
We asked
Happy 30 years with hopefully many more to come!
Where did the time go...and other ramblings
Wow--last published on October 13th? Holy cow. That was AGES ago! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's have all gone by with nary a word from me. Do I try to make them up or just pretend they never happened this year?
So, I'm sitting here finishing up a transcript and smelling dinner being fixed in the kitchen by my husband of now 30 years. The kids are both out of the house right now; it's just the two of us. Mmmm, smells good. So he finishes cooking, gathers up the plate(s) of food, and proceeds to walk past me in the living room and goes into the bedroom to eat while he watches TV! Why does no one in this house ever think of making dinner for ME?
There is excitement in the air around here, for it's only 25 more days until our Jonathan returns home from his mission. He will have been gone for 2 years and 5 days--735 days total.
I've had a couple dreams about his homecoming lately, and the one I had last night was verrrrry strange. It was almost time to go to the airport, but we hadn't checked the video camera to see if it was charged or even still working, for that matter. We also had no balloons or signs to hold! Oh, he was going to feel very cheated. As we went into the airport, out came Jonathan with some other people, and he was wearing the clothes of a "hippie" of the 1960s. He motioned to us that we should pretend not to know him. The next thing I knew he was in his regular clothes and we're welcoming him home. But he wouldn't even hug me. I was so sad. Must have been because we didn't have those balloons and signs.
So, I guess last night's dream was a warning to me. Make sure that camera battery is charged, buy balloons, and make posters in plenty of time to get to the airport!
I guess I'd better get busy and post about some of those other things I mentioned earlier. This isn't really that hard!
So, I'm sitting here finishing up a transcript and smelling dinner being fixed in the kitchen by my husband of now 30 years. The kids are both out of the house right now; it's just the two of us. Mmmm, smells good. So he finishes cooking, gathers up the plate(s) of food, and proceeds to walk past me in the living room and goes into the bedroom to eat while he watches TV! Why does no one in this house ever think of making dinner for ME?
There is excitement in the air around here, for it's only 25 more days until our Jonathan returns home from his mission. He will have been gone for 2 years and 5 days--735 days total.
I've had a couple dreams about his homecoming lately, and the one I had last night was verrrrry strange. It was almost time to go to the airport, but we hadn't checked the video camera to see if it was charged or even still working, for that matter. We also had no balloons or signs to hold! Oh, he was going to feel very cheated. As we went into the airport, out came Jonathan with some other people, and he was wearing the clothes of a "hippie" of the 1960s. He motioned to us that we should pretend not to know him. The next thing I knew he was in his regular clothes and we're welcoming him home. But he wouldn't even hug me. I was so sad. Must have been because we didn't have those balloons and signs.
So, I guess last night's dream was a warning to me. Make sure that camera battery is charged, buy balloons, and make posters in plenty of time to get to the airport!
I guess I'd better get busy and post about some of those other things I mentioned earlier. This isn't really that hard!
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