CALL ME GRANDMA JUNE!

This post has been rattling around in my head for awhile now. I actually waited longer than I had intended and thus was not able to announce our news quite the way I would have chosen. Never underestimate the power of facebook when it comes to spreading information.

So, what is this aforementioned news you ask? I am going to be a grandma. Yes, you heard me correctly...I am going to be a grandma. As Jeff and I have shared this news with family and dear friends, we have received a number of different reactions and understandably so. It is not an easy thing to find out that your daughter (or granddaughter, niece, cousin, etc.) is pregnant before she is married. One runs the gamut of emotions...surprise, fear, disappointment, concern. I have observed others as they have dealt with similar situations, but I now know firsthand. I have had almost 8 weeks to digest the news, and my thoughts and emotions have evolved along the way....and here are a few of my thoughts.

I am pretty excited to meet this little one. Babies are a blessing! I look at the ultrasound picture of this precious life and am amazed. I don't believe God makes mistakes. We do, all of us, make mistakes on a daily basis. We make choices that we regret, wish for opportunities to do things differently, hurt people both accidentally and purposefully, are careless with our words, and thoughtless with our actions. But God doesn't make mistakes...ever! This little one is being knit together even as I write these words. Yes, I am definitely excited to meet my first grandchild and hold this little miracle in my arms.


I am proud of my daughter. This has been a big surprise for her, not quite what she had planned. She is 20 years old, three semesters from graduating from college and yes, not married. She made choices that I wish she hadn't made. That being said, she has handled herself remarkably since. I am proud of her boyfriend Heath. He has taken what could be a very scary situation, one that many a young man before him has tucked tail and run from, and has been as responsible and supportive as we could possibly hope for.

I am thankful for family and dear friends who love and support us no matter what. They faithfully encourage us and pray for us. There is no doubt in my mind that this baby will be incredibly loved and cherished.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE GRAVES!

I recently read a facebook update on my cousin Nancy's profile. She did not send Christmas cards this year and was requesting not to be deleted from other's lists. It got me to thinking...this could be a possible explanation for the rather small amount we received this year (to the four of you who have not crossed us off yet, thank you!) This got me to thinking a bit more that I could post a Christmas Letter blog and perhaps a few people might add us back to their list...so read and enjoy the fascinating news of the Graves family in 2009!

Yes, the year passed right quickly, seems they are flying by now that we have entered our middle-ages! I feel like a quick blink and Christmas 2010 will be here. Jeff is still working at Western & Southern Financial. He was promoted to Sales Manager in March. I would love to tell you that he enjoys his job but alas, he does not. He finds managing adults who don't always know how to act like adults very taxing at times. Some of the seedier sides of the insurance industry also bother him a bit. Nonetheless, he works hard, complains minimally, and is almost always in a good mood. He is as handsome as ever and has a lovely head full of salt & peppery hair these days.

I continue to work for the county prosecutor solving crime...well, actually not, but I help with all the administrative work that is necessary to prosecute the criminals. I am thankful to have a job in this economy, and that's pretty much all I'm gonna say. Beyond work, I pretty much pour myself into my family, often more than my children would prefer, and faithfully keep up on my facebook and reality TV time.

Brittany is a sophomore at the University of Southern Indiana. She is in her third year and could be a junior, but changing majors twice takes its toll. She is now majoring in graphic design and loves it.. She has a terrific boyfriend, Heath, who we like very much. He has a carmally beard, a horse named Trigger and a big green tractor...all of which is perfect for our little country girl! We miss having her at home and look forward to her visits and all the liveliness and fun chaos she brings with her.

David is a senior this year and will be graduating in May. He is excited to shake the dust of Indiana off his boots, yet seems to be applying to an awful lot of state colleges...hmmmmmm. He did very well on his SAT's and the acceptance letters are pouring in. He wants to major in film and has been the director of various video projects he and his friends have done for school. He's currently sporting some really cool "Buddy Holly" glasses and continues to enjoy being selectively quirky.

Christian is in the 7th grade now. He is currently 5'10" and seems to grow another inch every week. He played football this year and loved it, which has motivated him to work out quite a bit. I recently caught him admiring himself, and upon teasing him about it was promptly informed that he looks like a god (informed by him of course!) Life with Christian is never, ever boring and he continues to provide us with daily laughs, tears of joy and fear, and lots of moments of sheer bewilderment!

Well, that's a quick update on each of us. We are all greatly looking forward to Christmas together and wish each of you a wonderful day as well. Now go add me back to your Christmas card list! ( :

A FACEBOOK MOM

I thought I'd better fire off a new post lest you think I've fallen off the blogging wagon again. I've actually had a few brewing around in my head but between the demands of my ever growing laundry pile, back to school mayhem and trying to watch every Olympic event, I have yet to put pen to paper, so to speak...

Despite my busy life, and foot long to-do list, I have squeezed some time into my schedule to become a Facebook mom. I resisted for quite some time, thinking it inappropriate for someone my age (this of course was fueled by my daughter's insistence that it was not an activity for elderly people--like me!) She was wrong! I have found gobs of friends and family members on there, many of whom are older than me. It is really quite enjoyable, and I've reconnected with a lot of people I had lost touch with. Both my teenage children have agreed to be Facebook friends with me as well, so I guess they must not be too embarrassed!

I have two favorite Facebook applications... I love flair! For those of

you who are not Facebook savvy, these are little buttons with funny
sayings that you can send to people. These are two of my personal favorites.

My other favorite...this instant messaging thing. Apparently people have been doing this for a number of years, but it's new to me and I LOVE IT! It's way better than texting because I can type way faster than I can text. Of course, the person you want to chat with must be on Facebook as well, and that's hit or miss, but I have had some lovely chats with old friends. My one fear is that I will become "that person." You know, that person who when everyone else sees they're online, they quickly dash away before they can be cornered. We've all met them, but nobody wants to be them!

Moral of the story: If you don't have a Facebook page, go get yourself one, and remember to request me as your friend. I promise not to stalk you!

GAINFULLY EMPLOYED!

This past year I entered the job force again. I will admit it was a humbling experience applying for jobs and realizing I might have to take something I felt completely overqualified and way too smart for. I don’t think I’m really a first impression kind of gal. I think you need to get to know me to love me. It might be the way my voice changes into a 4-year-old's voice the minute I walk into a job interview, or possibly the fact that I begin shrugging my shoulders uncontrollably with each sentence I utter. Then again, it just might be the annoying laugh that bubbles forth at everything the interviewer says. I don’t normally suffer from these undesirable ticks in my everyday life, just when I’m trying hard to make a good first impression. Brittany says it's my Walmart wardrobe, but I disagree. I feel certain that just shouts 'thrifty and resourceful!

Despite the trauma of my job search, I was eventually able to land a good job, with good benefits, which I quite enjoy to boot. I work for the county Prosecutor’s office in the child support division. Basically, I spend my days attempting to squeeze money out of dead-beat parents in a variety of ways. I could make it sound more glamorous if I tried, but it's not, nevertheless, it’s more than moderately satisfying. In our quest to better serve the needy children of Warrick County, our office recently attended the Indiana Child Support Conference. I learned many things, one of which is that, as a whole, child support workers are a rather dowdy and somewhat cranky group. This of course does not include the festive foursome who partook a bit too freely at the open bar and ran up and down the lobby halls laughing and screaming until security escorted them back to their rooms. Fortunately it was only about 9:30pm, so it didn’t wake me up, it just disturbed my pre-bedtime nap a little bit. They ran us at a pretty grueling pace… seminars starting at 9:15am running straight through to 3:30pm, with only a 2-1/2 hour break to dash out for lunch. Whew! I was exhausted let me tell you. The highlight of the conference was discovering there was a Trader Joe's pretty close to the hotel, which enabled me to spend the gift card I had been carrying in my wallet for the past year.

All in all, I am quite satisfied with my job. Unlike my short stint in the mail room of a large corporate office, which made me want to stab myself in the temple with a fork, I like what I'm doing, genuinely enjoy the people I work with, and feel pleasantly valued and appreciated. I don't believe you can ask for too much more than that in a job.

A funny thing happened to Jeff a few weeks ago...

Due to budget constraints, we celebrated our 20th anniversary very economically. We spent the day at Barnes & Noble, reading and drinking Starbuck's goodness! It was thoroughly delightful, and there was nary a child to complain about how boring bookstores are. The only blight on the day was the loss of Jeff's cell phone. We searched high and low, even asking several patrons if we could dig through the chairs they were sitting in, but alas, the errant phone was never found. Fortunately David's best friend, Joseph Lin kindly provided Jeff with a phone he was no longer using. It would be impossible to describe the unique friendship that David and Joseph share, but let's just say that they share a mutual love and fascination for flatulence. Oddly enough, they get a kick out of their cell phone rings for each other that replicate the noises one might make...okay I'm having a very difficult time talking around this, their cell phone rings for each other are a series of loud, obnoxious farting noises.

So... shortly after Jeff started using Joseph's phone (and before he had changed any of Joseph's old settings) he made a trip to our bank. He was at the teller window, innocently making a deposit when David called for a ride home, causing the cell phone in Jeff's front pants pocket to begin loudly "ringing." The teller discretely pretended she didn't notice while Jeff frantically fumbled around trying to turn it off, but I'm betting that she had something to say about it after he left.

Jeff changed the settings on his phone later that day, and has been avoiding the bank for awhile.

A BIRTHDAY BROUHAHA!

I had another opportunity this past weekend to really cherish one of the family pets... It was on Mother's Day no less, just an extra special little gift for me. The culprit was Calli, normally our least troublesome beast. Mother's Day also happened to be someone's birthday this year, so I was busy frosting cupcakes, which I had for some unfathomable reason decided to decorate in the image of the birthday boy. Traditionally I use colored coconut for the hair, but due to a coconut aversion I painstakingly shaved Hershey bars with a vegetable peeler to produce a nice mound of brunette locks. About 2 hours into the project I finally began the decorating process. I was sitting at the kitchen table and had a cookie sheet full of cupcakes on the kitchen chair next to me, which seemed logical and handy as well. Just as I was picking up steam and the M&M's and chocolate were flying, I heard David sternly reprimanding Calli for stealing a cupcake. How she did this without anyone noticing, I do not know, but unbeknownst to us, she's a fairly stealth creature. I quickly picked up the tray to get it out of harm's way only to notice that not just one cupcake had gone missing, but 11. Furthermore, their was evidence in the form of 10 partially chewed up cupcake wrappers behind the recliner in the family room. Yes, this was accomplished in a matter of probably less than 10 minutes. I was incredulous and appalled at the incredibly piggish behavior of a beloved member of my family, a creature I lovingly feed and care for (okay, not really, I pretty much leave that to others, but I do buy the dog food and remind people to brush and feed her!)

Suffice it to say, the offender was banned to the out of doors for the next 48 hours, perchance the red velvet cake were to make an appearance in an altered form! I'm pleased to tell you that in the end everything came out okay (no pun intended) and both beast and birthday boy survived!

AFTER A BRIEF HIATUS...

I was reading Andy’s blog yesterday and the Indiana Update link caught my eye. On a whim I hopped over there and started reading through some of my old musings. I had already forgotten a lot of the things I’d blogged about and it inspired me to get my rusty brain and fingers going again. With a memory like mine, it might just be the only way I’ll remember my life!

The past 9 months or so have been difficult times for our family. There have been some big changes. Jeff has changed careers, I have joined the work force again, Brittany left for college (I use the word ‘left’ loosely, since she’s home every weekend, nonetheless I miss her a great deal Monday morning thru Friday evening!) David started driving, and we discovered that Christian will need enough dental work to put the orthodontist's children through college, just to name a few. It has been an emotional roller coaster for all of us, but I must say, I have discovered I am a much more resilient person than I believed myself to be.

Being that I’ve been on the shelf for awhile I thought I’d ease back into this with a few updates on previous posts...

Date: March 16, 2006 - "My Husband Turned 40..."

I believe I referred to Jeff as old in that blog. I will turn 40 in just a few months, and have changed my opinion. It's not really old at all. I must confess however that David made a comment recently about Jeff and me being middle-aged, and the real bummer was that he wasn't being purposely insulting, he really thinks we are!

Date: September 14, 2006 - "My 4th Grade Casanova!"

To date, Christian is still single, and is still easily nauseated by thoughts of romance. He is obsessed with the WWE. He currently aspires to be a professional wrestler and is busy honing a few moves. Several stuffed animals have suffered life-ending injuries at his hands.

Date: October 16, 2006 - "Our Pets!"

We have added to our menagerie. Calli and Lucy have been joined by Indy and Peyton. While they technically belong to Brittany, they are not allowed in the dorm and thus reside in our home. I am no more of an animal lover now than I was then, I'm just too tired to care! And they do have their cute moments.

Date: November 26, 2006 - "Leadfoot Gets Busted!"

Brittany (aka “Leadfoot”) never did make it into that speeding ticket deferral program. Her first offense was followed three weeks later by a second speeding offense, which was then followed by a third offense 10 months later. She has officially received the most print in the Spencer County Herald. David is now driving, and while he has remained on the good side of the law, he did sideswipe a Trans-Am, removing a stripe of paint off both cars.

Well, I am off to clean my carpets. Three dogs and a cat take their toll, and my mother-in-law arrives this coming week. To add to the pressure, Jeff's brother John and his wife Kim are visiting as well, for the first time. Kim's daughter once commented to her, "Why can't you just be like Aunt Jody and not care how the house looks!" I am still attempting to discredit her...