The day you become a parent for the first time (well, for every time actually, right?) will always be remembered. And it is not different when you become a grandparent. We’ve been incredibly blessed to welcome twelve grandchildren into our family, but today we are celebrating the one that started it off! The one who taught us all of the ins and outs of how to become Grams and Pops. And today this little smiling imp
turns twenty-two!
Ellie is in her last semester of college, doing her student teaching in Art Education. She’s all the things – kind, compassionate, smart and quite beautiful! She’s hard worker and a great big sister – and we love her to the moon and back!
Happy Birthday, Ellie! You’ve done a great job of leading the way!
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Mondays are for memories – Finding an old hard drive
One thing about transitioning from full-time RVing into a house is you get the opportunity to sort through all of those drawers and baskets that you’ve been stashing random things in for the last 20 years. One of the items that turned up is my original back-up portable hard drive. And I found some treasures there!
This first set must’ve been the Thanksgiving of 2003. We (Gary, Josiah & I) drove the Lizzie (our new RV) to Ohio, Lara flew in from California (I think that’s where she was!) and we celebrated the holiday with Toby, Tammy and little Ellie (all of 9 months old). Some of the pictures were taken in T&T’s apartment and some in our new RV, The one of the seven of us standing in front of the blank wall was in their still-being-built home!
This set is from our last Christmas at our home in Jamison, PA – not too many pictures, and none are very good – but they are oh so sweet to me!
Oh my – the memories!
And this final picture is our family in March of 2004.
It might be the last time we were all together before we “ran away from home” August 1st of that year. I honestly can’t remember why we were all together. But I do know our family has grown in so many beautiful ways between then and now –
(And we’re missing DIL Abigail in this picture! Oh, and that’s Ellie on the end holding her little sister Everly!)
In the middle of sorting and deciding what to keep (and where to put it!) and what to donate, it was a very sweet walk down memory lane for which I am very grateful!
Have a great week, friends! Stay safe – I hear there’s lots of snow going on around the country!
We made it to Three!
That’s Day Three of this new year!! I hope you’ve had a good start to this New Year – ours has been a little sniffy and bit cough-y, but we’re still anticipating a good year! But before we get TOO far into this new year, I’d better do a bit of catch-up about our Christmas! Because it was on the quiet side – but delightful nonetheless!
We enjoyed a beautifully simple Christmas Eve gathering, complete with carols, readings and candlelight with our new community.
And then Christmas morning, we got an early start, heading to Waco to spend the day with our Texas kids!
(Gotta love Christmas morning traffic!)
They saved opening their gifts until we arrived (needless to say we were greeted with great joy!).
and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the paper tear and listening to the shouts of glee as presents were opened and enjoyed.
In true Conrad tradition, everyone stayed in their jammies all day! We played a couple rounds of Bingo
(Yes, Gary is taking advantage of the relative quiet and catching a quick snooze!)
and then we settled down to watch the Christmas ‘classic’ (?) ELF.
(First time for me. Maybe next year we can watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Now THAT’s a Christmas Classic!)
It was quite the lovely day!
The next morning Pops and I took Anderson out for an early Birthday breakfast (he turned 7 on the 29th).
Then we took a short Birthday shopping trip to Walmart. In true seven year old fashion, he chose – a fake snake (to scare Meemaw), a slinky (because his brother got one but he didn’t), one of those pin art sensory toys (because it was “so satisfying”?), and of course – Legos. Cause what’s a birthday without some Legos! It was a fun morning, one-on-one with Anderson and we were so glad we had the chance to do it!
We also stopped to see where Josiah is working these days (he started a new job this past summer), so it was fun to see him in is workday habitat (even though it was incredibly quiet given the holiday).
We were heading back to Lindale by early afternoon (not wanting to drive in the dark really is a thing when you hit 70!), and snuggled back into our sweet little house by dusk. It was a quick trip – but oh, so special!
Our first Christmas in Lindale. Filled with community, nearby family, and sweet memories. A very good beginning, I think!
Happy New Year, friends! As we look forward to the newness of this year – may this still be our prayer –
Blessings,
T’was the weekend before…
…the weekend before Christmas when I boarded an airplane pointing north to surprise my sister for her birthday. The plan was hatched back in September when I realized (with alarm!) I wasn’t going to see her again until May. Too long, my friends. Too long. So I started checking flights and conspired with my niece to facilitate actually getting me to Joie’s house. Tickets were bought, pick-ups and deliveries were confirmed, and the plan set! Now I just needed to not spill the beans for the next three months! There were a couple of close calls during those months and we didn’t quite pull off the “jump out of the cake” type of surprise, but my precious sister was still delightfully surprised when I showed up at her birthday brunch!
And what a fun Sister Weekend we had!
Joie & Fitz recently moved from their 4 bedroom turn-of-the-century farmhouse into a lovely 2 bedroom home – all on one level! So we’ve both been going through some housing changes – major downsizing for her, and a bit of upsizing for me! It was great to see their lovely new home and marvel at how they managed to make it feel just perfect for them! (Now I need to get her here to Texas!)
But we didn’t just sit around marveling at the cute new place!
We helped out with the Christmas concert at their local Christian school,
mostly helping with the reception following the concert, but thoroughly enjoyed the young students as they gave their best for the Lord!
Yes, there were ukuleles. So fun!
Along with doing some of our favorite things – like puzzles
and watching the birds at her feeders while sitting comfortably inside,
we (Joie) also made a giant batch of caramel corn to feed to the Senior High Youth Group who were meeting at their place Sunday evening!
(I watched carefully and brought home the recipe, so you never know…)
Sunday brought a little dusting of snow – just enough to remind me how very pretty it is, but also how much I don’t need to ever drive in it again!
It was a perfectly delightful weekend, that filled my heart with sister love! We drank coffee and ate chocolate and shared our hearts. And missed Elna, of course!
We ended our time together with a meet-up with her daughter Abby (my ride to the airport) and her crew at a giant 40 ft. wooden slide-The Big Slide Mount Tabor Park At Rocky Ridge! What a fun way to end the weekend!
I convinced Joie that we really did need to give it a try and with a lot of encouragement from her grandchildren, we did just that!
Not too bad for a couple of old ladies!
If you’ve been stopping by this little corner of the internet for any time at all, you know how close we sisters are. Now that Elna is waiting for us in Heaven, Joie and I are working out this ‘new normal’ for us. We are so blessed to have each other – and this very special weekend was just a precious reminder of that very fact!
Amen.
In a real time note – it IS Christmas Eve! Pretty quiet here at our little place, but we’ll be heading to Waco in the morning to spend Christmas day with those Conrad Cowboys (and their folks!). This is the first time in 20 years we’ll be going to bed in our HOUSE on Christmas eve. So many firsts – so many blessings!
Have a great Christmas, dear friends! May the gifts and glitter of these days never outshine the beauty that is the birth of Jesus!
Thanksgiving 2024
I’m not gonna lie – it was a lot of driving –
Some of it lovely –
Some of it not so much –
But all of it was worth those lovely days we spent with our Ohio kids and grands!
We helped out a bit at Lara’s house,
and celebrated Thanksgiving Day with friends of Lara’s.
It was a lovely day!
Friday Lara was working, so we ran some errands (yay – a Costco!!) and generally enjoyed hanging out with Alex!
And then came Saturday – the day that ALL the Ohio Conrads got together!
Miles Traveled – 2042
Dollars spent – Who’s counting?
Dollars saved in postage (Christmas deliveries!) – $40.00 +/-
Memories made – Priceless!
It was a last minute decision to head north for Thanksgiving – but we’re oh-so-thankful that we did! Hoping your holiday was filled with love and gratitude also!
PS – We also enjoyed bonus visits with friends in Nashville both coming and going. No photo documentation, but it was still a delightful break in our travels! John & Rosie – we are thankful for you guys, too!
