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