365/365 - The end of Project 365!

Happy New Year's Eve!!

Marley, the Babas, and I celebrated New Year's Eve having a tea party with Marley's American Girl Dolls. From left to right are Amanda, Helen Mia, Josefina, and Gracie (pseudo American Girl).

Marley's day care lady, Junie, had given Marley an M&M cookie bar recipe and ingredients in a jar for Christmas. Actually Marley decorated the jar and helped put the ingredients in it. Junie also gave her "Snowman Soup" in a mug. Marley and I made the M&M cookie bars and hot chocolate. We all enjoyed a fun party. Thanks, Junie, the bars were delicious!

Thanks, everyone, for sharing Project 365 2009 with me. It has been an interesting project that I'm sure I will enjoy looking back on. There are so many pictures of just every day life that I would never have thought to take normally.

This year I will be continuing Debbie's Blog, not exactly like Project 365, but still trying to record the special and ordinary bits of life!

338/365 - Bethany's Singing Christmas tree

Tonight Paul and I went to the Singing Christmas Tree at our church with Marley. For the last few years it has been our tradition to go on opening night, and sit way down front (2nd row). It really is quite impressive from the 2nd row! Afterwards we go to Friendly's for ice cream. I hope she doesn't outgrow our "traditions" for a long time!




Note: In less than a month Project 365 will be done. I have really enjoyed doing it. Every now and then I look back to old posts and see things that I would never had recorded or taken pictures of - just every day life. But, I have basically decided not to continue it next year. Taking a picture every day is a little cumbersome even though I have really enjoyed it. I will still continue with Debbie's Blog though.

162/365 - Mason's first bath

Mason's first bath was a joint effort of Janelle, Mark and I. I was so thrilled to have been there for it. He was really good while getting his hair washed, but not too thrilled to get the rest of himself washed. So sweet! After his bath I was able to hold him while he napped for about an hour. Lucky grandma.

161/365 - Tired boys!

First day home. Tired boys.

160/365 - Mason's circumcision (Yikes!)

Poor little Mason had his circumcision today. The nurse was teaching us how to take care of it. Mark was having a hard time watching. He said he could relate too well!!

159/365 - Meeting Mason Joseph Radtke

Mason Joseph Radtke - 6 pounds, 10 ounces - 20 inches - born at 9:08 AM.

The pictures are self-explanatory.

(Again - this is posted by Paul - Debbie will be back in action shortly. I couldn't pick one picture - so you got three)

P.S. Mason was born on his due date.

158/365 - Waiting

Waiting.

(This is posted by Paul on Tuesday - Debbie is sleeping - she missed a whole night's sleep.)

77/365 - Grapefruit during "24"

I'm not sure how it started but for a couple of years now, every time the TV show 24 is on, I have to have a grapefruit. It usually takes me most of the hour to eat it - I eat the membranes and all. Tonight after I got home from Prims I remembered that I hadn't taken my picture of the day yet. I spotted the grapefruit and decided to take a picture and then eat it!

76/365 - Christmas Cactus (and Izzy)

Today's picture was supposed to be my Christmas cactus that was in bloom, but Izzy just looked so cute beneath it that I had to get her in the picture too!

75/365 - Stomach bug

Guess what has hit our house? Yep, the stomach flu bug. Paul woke up with it yesterday. Tonight he is starting to feel a little bit better; at least he has a partial appetite. I just hope that bug doesn't bite me!

74/365 - Dinner at Kris and Toby's

We had dinner at Kris and Toby's today. I had planned a corned beef and cabbage dinner at my house, but plans got changed when Paul woke up with the stomach flu :(

Janelle is 28 weeks' pregnant, baby about 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. I think she looks so cute!

73/365 - Dan and Joanie Charko's old house

We went for a ride to Vermont again today via Easthampton (Paul's new favorite hot dog stand). I wanted to see if we could find our friends Danny and Joanie's first house in Easthampton. I was surprised that we still remembered how to get there. I think they bought this house around 1972. When they lived there the house was red with striped cloth awnings, perfect grass and cement walks in the back yard. We had a lot of fun times in that house.

72/365 - Leslee at Noble Transcription

This is my friend Leslee from work. We had a rather historic happening this afternoon. We have always had pre-printed logos on the paper we use to print our reports (at least in the almost 12 years I have been there). We are soon (hopefully) going to a new system where we will be using plain paper and the logo will be part of the report template. So, this afternoon we got rather sentimental when Leslee said, "This is our last box of printed paper that I am putting in the printer." I said that I should take a picture to remember it. She agreed and posed with the paper. It was definitely a silly Friday afternoon!

71/365 - Hydrangea cuttings

These are hydrangea cuttings that I have been rooting since last September. Paul, Marley and I went to the Cape to visit Paul's aunt and uncle. His Aunt Judy has the most beautiful purple hydrangea plants along one side of her house. She gave me some cuttings, wrapped in wet paper towels, to bring home. She said they were real "easy" to root. I bought some vermiculite and put them in pots near a window in an unused upstairs bedroom (it was the only place I could put them away from Izzy). The only problem is that we don't have the heat on in that bedroom. In the beginning I kept them "misted" every day. But as the winter went on, and it was cold in that room, I wasn't as faithful. I'm not sure if they are still alive or not. I guess I'll know when I go to plant them, if they have any roots. I'll keep you posted.

70/365 - Recipe for Corned Beef

My son-in-law asked me to e-mail him this recipe for corned beef. It's a different way of cooking it, baking as opposed to boiling it. My friend Liz at Noble gave me the recipe.  My family loves it!

P.S. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

69/365 - One of Paul's found hot dog stands

I think Paul's nose can sniff out a hot dog stand....anywhere. He spotted this on one of his trips up to Eastampton to help Caroline (the lady we moved last week) find some of her things in the "millions" of boxes in the cellar of her new home. Today, on our way to the scrapbook store in Vermont, we went by way of Easthampton. I have to say, those hot dogs were pretty good!

68/365 - 99

Tonight we ate at the 99 Restaurant at the Mall (before going to Borders). It is only the second time we have ever been there. The first time, we were surprised to see that they served popcorn before the meal. Tonight, by the time I got done trying to get a decent picture of Paul (I was too close in the booth and too lazy to get up and get further away) he had eaten all the popcorn!

67/365 - Marley's last basketball game

Today was Marley's last basketball game, actually a makeup game. She is the one (the only one) with her arms up. She really does have that down pat; the rest of the game?....time will tell.

66/365 - Nick at the scrapbook crop

Today I went to a scrapbooking crop at my friend Janice's house. This is a picture of her grandson Nick. Three of her grandchildren live nearby and they usually stop in sometime during the day when she has her all day crop. Nick, especially, seems to enjoy hanging out with us "old ladies." Here he is arranging some of Carole's scrapbook "stuff." When he is around, he is usually helping out in some way. Tonight he was vacuuming up after us, putting away tables, going to get food, etc. We love having you around Nick!!

65/365 - Shirley Temple DVD's

Last year we bought an 18 movie DVD set of Shirley Temple movies. They are wonderful. Marley, the Babas and I have been watching them on Friday nights. We've watched most of them once, now we are watching them in numerical order.