Sam-Care Time!!!

One of the greatest joys of being a grandmother is the occasional chance to have the care of your grandchild! I got this chance with Sam for TWO WHOLE DAYS this past week! Well, at least while his Mama and Daddy were working....but I got to spend the evenings with him and his parents as well, as I stayed there with them from late Wednesday night through early Friday evening.

Actually, I didn't see anyone when I arrived in Baldwin at 11:40 pm on Wednesday. I just let myself in and crept downstairs where the "Mother-in-law Suite", as Scott calls it, is. What a bright, cheery room! I was very comfortable, and was asleep in no time. I set my alarm for 6:15 and went upstairs to catch Sam having a little snack with his Mama. Luckily he was nearly finished, because I proved to be a bit of a distraction. I found out Sam and I have a similar love - oatmeal for breakfast! I made some and we were busy with that when Mama had to leave. We really didn't need the distraction, though, as Sam was ready to face his day.

And what a day! Since he was at our house this past weekend, I knew just how busy a boy can be, but when you have the total care of him it is a bit more demanding. Fun, but demanding. It takes approximately 30 seconds for him to disappear and get into something! Luckily he took a couple of good naps for me that first day and I was able to do a little baking and some laundry for Sally and Scott. We even got a nice walk in before it got too hot outside. What a nice neighborhood for walking! It was no time at all and Mama was home for the evening, with Daddy getting there about an hour later. We were rewarded for the wait by a wonderful grilled steak supper - yum!

After giving Sam his bath and putting him down for the night, Sally and I went for a walk. What a nice night for that. It had rained earlier in the day so the humidity had diminished. Oh, I forgot to say that Sam and I spent a bit of time down in the "Mother-in-law Suite" when the tornado siren went off in the afternoon. I think, by the looks of the TV weather reports, that it may have been a bit wild south of Baldwin, but we didn't get anything worse than some wind and rain.

On Friday Sam and I had a bit of an agenda, as we loaded up and ran into Hudson to WalMart for some things and then stopped back at a quilt shop on our way home to pick out some material to make room-darkening curtains for his bedroom. We found some cute material and took it home (yeah, we paid for it!) and got the curtains cut out and pinned together (I had gotten a dark quilted material for the backing so light is minimal). I brought them home with me to finish up and will mail them back this week. I haven't gotten a chance to work on them yet as I had to do the farm monthly reports yesterday.

Mama got home a bit earlier than on Thursday so we had some more visiting time before Daddy got home. Scott had me thaw out some chicken (see picture of Sam gnawing on a leg bone!) and he grilled it for our supper after he got home. He had also scavenged some steps from work (they had been discarded) for replacing the ones on their deck. These are closed steps, where the existing ones were open, and thus more dangerous for little boys and dogs. Scott is pretty darn handy and I'm sure will have them in place and looking great in no time.

Speaking of Scott's handy-man skills, he did a wonderful job on closing in their dishwasher - can't tell it wasn't part of the original kitchen. Also, Josh had repaired our car-charger for the cell phone, and it worked on the way up, but I couldn't get it to work the next night when I plugged it in. Scott took it apart and found that the wire had pulled out again and by using some super glue and some stuff he called liquid electrical tape, he got me up and going again. Thanks Scott! (and Josh, for the original repair!) What would I do without my boys?

After a nice supper, Gatfly had to head for home. It was a wonderful time and I was so glad that I was able to go and spend some time with Sam, and his family. I left at 7:06 and turned off highway 10 here at home at 10:12 pm. Not too bad, considering I stopped to fuel up in Baldwin and for coffee/potty stop in Marathon City.

All in all I had a wonderful two days and appreciate the guys covering for me at the farm. Thanks Dan, Roger and John!!

Oh - I probably should have done this earlier, but a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our kids for the wonderful new camera! I'm still learning how to use it, but it is so great to have the newer features - Thanks a bunch!