Things I've Done, Never Done, Want to Do

Maybe you already know about these....maybe you don't:

I HAVE

1. Driven across the Golden Gate Bridge
2. Been to the top of the Empire State Building
3. Toured the White House
4. Been to a Beatles concert
5. Been to Times Square
6. Visited Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota
7. Seen the actual Plymouth Rock
8. Seen the place where President Kennedy was shot in Dallas
9. Eaten shrimp in New Orleans
10. Eaten dinner in the World Trade Center

I HAVE NEVER

1. Eaten a Big Mac
2. Purchased any Rolling Stones music
3. Been to Europe
4. Been to Door County
5. Been in the Big Fish in Hayward

I WANT TO

1. Visit Italy, France and England
2. Learn more Spanish
3. Lose 15 pounds
4. Attend my grandchildren's weddings
5. Have great-grandchildren

What we did on Christmas....

This picture pretty much shows exactly how our evening went:

First I crafted a perfect flower arrangement - which was difficult because these particular flowers were not in season - but I was a grandma on a mission.

Then I went outside to my mistletoe tree and picked a big bunch. I hung it in a doorway with a lovely blue velvet ribbon.

I had done my hair up earlier in the day so I would be ready for the big moment. Then I dressed in my finest green dress with sweet little pink ribbons.

Here comes Grandpa Jim and he is wearing a TUXEDO - I am so excited I almost fall over.

NOT!!!

If you look closely at the photo, you can see clearly that this is not us - we all know Grandpa doesn't have a mustache!!!! Almost had you fooled, didn't I??

Merry Christmas

XOXOXOXOXO

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone....

Grandpa Jim and I are just laying low tonight watching movies and eating fattening food. Can't wait until Saturday to see everyone.

Unfortunately, Fran, Chris and Annie won't be here....we'll be catching up with them on the 9th of January. The weather made it impossible for Fran to get to this neck of the woods.

What is your favorite Christmas song? Mine is O Holy Night. I also like Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You.

What Christmas song irritates Grandma Chrissy and makes her hiney hurt? That would be Little Drummer Boy - that song drives me nuts.

Hope everyone is having a good time tonight - I'll see you all on Saturday!!

Love Mrs. Claus (Grandma Chrissy)

Busy Weekend!

It was a busy weekend for Grandma! On Friday I had a whole list of things to do (drop stuff off for my sister, work out, get gas, pack bags, clean house - well, you get the idea). And I'm proud to say I got everything done that was on my list............EXCEPT I forgot to put one thing on my list so I FORGOT TO DO IT! And it was the most important thing - I totally forgot to go to Brody's Christmas program at daycare. Oh the shame. I gave Brody a big hug, told him I was sorry I wasn't there...he just wanted to make sure I taped it. Good thing Brett did - I'll watch it with Buds.

Dropped the dog off at the kennel and headed to Eau Claire for Ella's birthday party. Boy was that fun. Lots of kids, lots of food and LOTS of presents. I think Ella was in shock! Fugedaboudit!

After the party I was invited to dinner with friends. A friend of mine from Chicago just moved back to Eau Claire and we went to dinner at her new condo. Good food and fun.

Sunday Grandpa Jim had a bridge party and I went shopping with Debbie. Found some extra items for my DisneyWorld scrapbook. I got home in time to pick Cosmo up from the kennel and get home before it started to snow. Grandpa Jim got home a short time after I did.

Today (Monday) it is snowing and I need to go out and plow the driveway. I'm trying to wait as long as I can before it gets dark, because it's still coming down.

I finished my Christmas cards today - they finally got delivered on Saturday. I also played around with Mickey Mouse stuff for my scrapbook. Made some Minnies and Mickeys with my Cricut machine.

I can't put it off any longer - let's go plow!!!

Love you! G-Ma

Happy Birthday Ella!

Guess what today is???? It's Ella's 4th birthday. Happy Happy Birthday to Ella Kay. Tomorrow is the big party - I can't wait to see everybody there!

Have a great day Ella!!!

Love, Grandma Chrissy

Cold and Snow!!!

Welcome to winter in Wisconsin. Grandpa and I went outside this morning to remove some of the snow and it was two below zero.

While it was snowing last night, we went outside and sat in the hot tub. That was fun!!

Hope you are all shoveled out and back to normal.

I'll see most of you on Saturday at Ella's birthday party - can't wait.

Love, Grandma Chrissy

Green Bay Packers

Hello Kids - I'm back from Green Bay to see the Packers. I'm pretty sure that I am a Packer good luck charm because every time I see the Packers at Lambeau - THEY WIN!! Maybe I should start going to every game. Here are some pictures from my trip. This guy is called "St. Vince" and he is a very famous Packer fan. I didn't know who he was when I asked to take this picture - I just liked his costume. This is the view from our seat. We were in row 40 at the far end of the field. It was really cool because every time the Packers scored, it was right in front of us!

This is me before the game. It was probably more than an hour before the game started but you can see people were starting to file into the stadium.

There are thousands of people out in parking lots cooking food and having tailgating parties. I thought that you would enjoy the picture of this goofy Packer bus.

It's Grandma in front of Lambeau Field. As you can see I was happy to be there. It's exciting to go to Lambeau Field for a Packer game. I hope you all get to do it someday!

This is the first picture I took. We were only parked about 3 blocks away from the stadium and walked over. We did alot of walking to see everything before the game.

Hope you enjoyed my Packer photos.

Love, Grandma

Monday Night Football

Ok kids - watch the Packer game on Monday night and you might see me in the crowd. I'm going to Lambeau Field for the Packers/Ravens game. I'll be in green with a packers hat - I'm sure I'll stand out!!!

Yesterday there were geese swimming in front of our house - and today there is a thin sheet of ice across the entire bay. It was 4 below zero this morning when we got up.

I'll post pictures from the game on Tuesday night.

Go Pack!!

Birthdays!!

December is a busy month for birthdays in our family.

December 1 - Jim's brother David
December 4 - Aunt Angie
December 6 - Uncle Tony
December 11 - Ella
December 19 - Uncle Christopher
December 24 - my sister Cathy

Big Happy Birthday to everyone!!

Things I Like and Don't Like

I don't like:

1. brussel sprouts
2. tomatoes (but I like everything made with tomatoes)
3. crust - unless it is a good piece of french bread
4. rap music
5. loud mouth people
6. betrayal
7. below zero temperatures
8. driving at night in the rain
9. reading instructions
10. my crooked teeth

but I do like:

1. gloomy days (either rain or snow)
2. fire
3. pepperoni pizza with mushrooms
4. Hondas
5. watching movies
6. computer games
7. reading
8. the ocean
9. getting my back rubbed
10. laughing

and I LOVE

My Family

what are things you don't like? what are some things you do like?

Love Gram

Great-Grandpa Romie

Some sad news today...Ella's great-grandfather passed away last week. Let's all keep thoughts and prayers going out to Ella, Aunt Angie, Uncle Jason and Angie's family.

Romie was 90 years old. Ella was his only great-grandchild. Before Ella was born, Grandpa Romie and Jason built a cradle together for Ella.

Ella was lucky to know her great-grandfather. I hope I live long enough to meet my great-grandchildren - that's my life goal.

Say a little prayer tonight for the Schuh family.

Love you all, Grandma Chrissy

Disney World

Hi Kids - Grandma is back from Disney World. I had a great time with Ali, Tony, Ryan, Cassidy and Grandma Tonya. I took over 1,500 pictures. It was hard to just choose a few to show you here, but you can look through all of them when you come to my house. Here's me with Mickey - he's my favorite Disney character. Here's a picture of Cassidy after having her face painted.
Here's Cinderella's castle at night - it was all decorated for Christmas with millions of white lights. It was beautiful!

Here we are in China at Epcot - we had to try on lots of different hats and things and then took pictures...I have lots of pictures with lots of different hats.

Here is a picture showing a statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Here's a picture of Allison, Cassidy and me on our way through Space Mountain.

Here we are with Pinocchio in Magic Kingdom.

All the girls wore a Tinkerbell t-shirt that day.

We saw a short stage play of Beauty and the Beast.

McQueen from Cars - this one is for Brody.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at Animal Kingdom.

Mickey Christmas Hats!!

We sure had a good time. I LOVE Disney World - everyone in the whole world should get to go there at least once in their lives - even if you only get to go there as an adult - it's so much fun and there is so much to see and do. It is the happiest place on earth! Thanks to the Boerger Family for inviting the Grandmas to travel with them.

I had my picture taken with Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, Tigger, Eyeore, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch and a few others. I don't have those pictures back yet....we have to order them from Disney.

Miss you all - I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. I ate turkey in Animal Kingdom in Africa!!

Love from your Disney lovin' Gram

HELLO!

Today I spent the day getting ready to leave tomorrow.....I am meeting the Boergers in Minneapolis tomorrow night and we fly to DISNEYWORLD on Saturday. My suitcase is packed and my camera is all juiced up and ready to go. I made some lasagna and chili and cookies for Grandpa Jim so he doesn't starve while I'm gone.

So goodbye to the 40's and hello to 70+ degrees. I hear we might get some snow while I am gone....that's too bad :( I'll be warm in Florida. :)

I am taking my laptop so I should be able to post some pictures during the week.

Love you, Goofy Grandma .....get it???? Goofy???? ha, ha :) :)

Scrapbook Camp

Hi Kids!

Grandma went to scrapbooking camp this weekend with Aunt Allison and her best friend, Wendy. It was Camp Alexander in Wisconsin Rapids. We stayed in a cabin just like this one. We slept in bunk beds on sleeping bags.

If you look closely, you can see the turkey...it was on the trail on the way to the lodge one morning.


We wore our lounge pants all day long and even went shopping at Wal-mart in our party pants!

Here is our work corner - right next to the smelly bathroom.

Here is the rest of the lodge room - there were about 28 other ladies there.

We had A LOT of food to eat!

We had a great time and I got alot of work done. I'm still working on my scrapbook of our house. We are going again next year.

Love, Scrap Gram

Pizza!!

Carbone's Pizzeria of Mankato is officially open. Here is what the place looks like from the outside. We have more signs coming. It is inside of a downtown mall. We traveled down there last week to check things out. We ate pizza for lunch. Our manager has done an excellent job of getting things ready.

When you walk in the door, to your left is this game room. On the other side of the door is a game room with pool tables and a big screen TV.

This is the bar area

When you walk in the door, this is what you see

I hope all of you can travel to Mankato sometime and eat pizza with me!

Love you, G-MA

Great-Great-Grandparents

I introduced you to your great-great-greats, Christian and Julia Sands. Here is a little information about their son, William. William was my grandfather. I called him Grandpa Sands.

Here is a picture of my Grandpa Sands from his wedding to Hilda Josephine Tollefson. I spent alot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Sands. They lived in Eau Claire and Hayward. When I was born, my Grandpa was Sheriff of Sawyer County. Here is a picture of me sitting on his lap at the Sheriff's Office in Hayward.

Here are a couple more pictures of me with my grandma and grandpa:

I think this picture was taken on Christmas the year my sister was born. Cathy was born on Christmas Eve and so they were all at the hospital. Looks like I was pretty happy with my new baby doll.

This is me snow-shoeing with my Grandpa Sands. He used to take me everywhere. I got to ride with him to the dump to get rid of the garbage from the restaurant. I worked with him in the garden and I remember being with him in his garage when he built stuff.

Grandpa and Grandma Sands had five children....Constance, Marvella, Ruth, William and Arliss. Ruth was my mother.

My Grandpa Sands died when I was only 8 years old. I still miss him. My Grandma Sands lived until she was 91 years old.

If you have any questions about them, leave a post for me.

Love, Grandma Chrissy

Scrapbook Camp

On Friday I get to go to scrapbook camp with Allison and her friend Wendy. We get to scrapbook all day in our pajamas and eat lots of food. Aunt Allison even makes me to go Wal-Mart in my pajamas. I'll take some pictures to share with you. I'm really looking forward to it.

This year I am working on a gift for Uncle Rolfie. It's a small scrapbook of our trip to the Dominican Republic. I hope he likes it.

I am also going to keep working on my house scrapbook showing all the work we have done here both inside and outside.

Tomorrow I am driving to Mankato with Grandpa Jim. We are just about ready to open the Carbone's Pizzeria and he wants me to see how much work has been done. My camera will be with me tomorrow also.

I need to go pack all my scrapbook stuff in the car - talk to you all later!!

Love, your scrapbooking G-MA

Ella's Uncle Mark

Ella's Uncle Mark was featured on TV last night - he had a bone marrow transplant five years ago and he got to meet his donor for the first time. See the video here:

http://www.wqow.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=4289153&at1=News&h1=Local%20Man%20Meets%20Marrow%20Donor&flvUri=&thirdpartymrssurl=&rnd=56358153

Grandma is Obsessed

Help me!!! I am obsessed with The Pioneer Woman and her FOOD! I'm on a mission to cook every single one of her recipes.

If your parents are not feeding you properly, make them go to the following website to look up some recipes:

http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

And don't let them use the excuse that they can't cook....there are step-by-step instructions with pictures! Just the way grandma likes it.

I can personally recommend several of her recipes. I'm getting fat just thinking about what I am having for dinner tonight: baked lemon pasta, mushrooms stuffed with brie, spinach salad, and the dessert - bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

You kids might not want to make whiskey flavored sauce until you are 21 ( or with adult supervision)!

Don't worry - I'm going to the gym starting on Monday so I can keep cooking with the Pioneer Woman!

your food loving Grandma Chrissy

Ella's new pictures

Too Cute!

Riding with Dad

Playing in the snow with Daddy

Ella's Halloween - Disney Princess

Snow Bunny

Playing in the snow

Green Bay Packers

Happy November! Grandpa Jim and I raked leaves AGAIN yesterday. I think we are just about ready for winter.

Did you watch the Packer Game??? Not very much fun was it. I went to a Packer game in Green Bay a few years ago. Here's a picture of me with my friends at the Packer game.

I got to see Brett Favre play that day and we won the game. We had alot of fun.

Just remember, you live in Wisconsin. You are a Packer fan. It's the law. Did you know that I own a share of the Green Bay Packers - yes indeedy - I have a stock certificate to prove it.

I hope you all had a great day! Don't eat all of your Halloween candy at once and brush your teeth.

How many days until Disney???

Love you, Grandma Chrissy

10/31/09

Ok - the first children to post their Halloween costumes are:::::: Cassidy and Ryan

That's Cassidy as Lola - Hannah Montana's BFF

And here is Ryan as Freddy Krueger or some other awful maniac killer - what a surprise!!!

Looks like they had fun!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween to my favorite ghosts and goblins. Email me pictures of you in your costumes and I will post them up here so all of your cousins can see.



We don't get any trick or treaters out here in the woods, so I didn't even buy any candy. We are having some friends over for dinner tonight instead.















Here is a picture of your great-grandma Ruth. She was my mom. As you know, she died way before you were born. She LOVED Halloween. She was very sick with cancer and had lost her hair, but she still wanted to celebrate Halloween - so we painted a skeleton on a suit of long underwear and we put white paint on her face. She scared lots of kids that year - and loved every minute of it. She loved to have fun!!


Here is a picture of Great-great-Grandma Ruth with Allison, Brett and my brother Bradley. Grandma Ruth made all of those costumes - I told you she loved Halloween!!

Have loads of fun trick or treating tonight. I hope you get lots of candy.

Don't forget to Brush Your Teeth before you go to bed tonight!

Love of Lots from G-ma Chrissy

Yes, Bootie

Yes, Cassidy, those people are your actual great-great-great grandparents. I have a few more pictures of them if you want to see them sometime.

I'm the only one who can post photos. If you want me to post a photo - just email it to me and I will post it.

Ancestors

Hi Kids: It was kind of a yucky day today - kind of rainy and windy so I thought I would give you a little flashback....your great-great-great grandparents. Let me introduce you to Christian and Julia Sands.






Christian was married before Julia and had a son, Sever. His wife died in childbirth. Julia came by covered wagon from North Dakota to work for Christian as a housekeeper.

They eventually married on January 7, 1880. This is their wedding photo. Julia was only 17 when they married. They had TEN children.











The eighth child born to Christian and Julia was your great-great grandfather, William Colonel Sands. They lived in Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin. Pleasant Valley is just south of Eau Claire. You are probably related to most of the people in Pleasant Valley.

Hope you enjoyed your ancestor lesson for today.

If you have any questions for me, just leave a post!! I've got more where this comes from.

And guess what, tomorrow is Halloween - can't wait to see pictures of your costumes.

Love you lots,

Grandma Chrissy

Duluth

Grandpa Jim felt sorry for me because our Disney trip got cancelled so he took me to Duluth for lunch. This is a picture of the city of Duluth as we were crossing the big bridge.

We drove along the north shore of Lake Superior and even though it was cold and windy, Grandpa Jim stopped the car so I could take pictures of the lake - hope you like them!

I thought this one was pretty with the red leaves in front.

Check back tomorrow, you never know what I will be doing!

Big hugs and kisses to all of you

Love, Grandma Chrissy

Let's Get This Party Started!

Hi Kids - This is Grandma Chrissy and this is my new blog....this is a way for me to let you know what is happening up in Hayward. I think it will be alot of fun. I'll try to post pictures and say funny things.

Yesterday I had to rake leaves. Cosmo helped. I also emptied and refilled the hot tub with brand new water.

Today is Fran's 13th Birthday - Happy Birthday Fran - hope your day is a great one.

Hope everyone in the Boerger household is feeling better. I can't wait to go see Mickey Mouse!

Scoots, Buds and Evie - sure had fun with you this past weekend. I miss our Mondays :(

Ella - Cosmo misses you - and so do I! You looked so cute in your flower girl dress - we had fun didn't we?

Love you All,

Grandma Chrissy