My Godfather Ben

I remember this visit so clearly. My Mom, Grandmother, brother Tony and his friend Ricky went to San Diego California for a nice long visit. We mainly stayed at my Uncle Ben & his wife Dee's house. Here Uncle Ben and I are sitting in their living room. Uncle Ben was so excited that we had come out there for a visit. He was still training the troops at that time (Navy of course). It was so cool to see him in his Naval attire, I always have liked a man in uniform! Anyway, the thing I remember most about this visit is how excited Ben was to show us his turf. We went to many different places around San Diego, Knotts Berry Farm, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Padre's ballgame, Tijuana Mexico and he even took us up to Disneyland. One place we didn't get to was the San Diego Deer park, which Uncle Ben referred to as Bambi's deer park. He took us to the ocean swimming, which still is one of my favorite things to do. My love of the ocean started on this trip. Thank you Uncle Ben.

Well Hell

Uncle Ben

In our lives there seem to be people that leave their imprint on some of the simplest everyday things that we do. It's been quite a few years now that my Uncle Ben is gone. But every once in a while, when something goofy happens, I still hear his voice in my head saying "Well, Hell!" He had the right delivery for this phrase...and for some reason (even though I don't like swearing) I liked hearing him say that. Go figure. Above is a picture of Uncle Ben disembarking from his naval ship for the last time, and being saluted off. He ALWAYS had a story to tell, and was ready to help ANYONE who needed help. He did not judge people for their circumstances, and I know he loved all his nieces and nephews dearly, and we all loved him back. I always felt a special bond with him, he was my Godfather and always made me feel special. I love looking at pictures of him and hearing stories about him. We all have a favorite Uncle Ben story. My next few blogs will be some of those stories.

I just need to share and remember him. Maybe feeling a little nostalgic because we moved the loveseat that was Uncle Ben's to the family room in the basement , so it is no longer in the living room, and he would have said..."Well, Hell, you should have done that a long time ago!" Haha good one Uncle Ben.

YEAH!

I finally found the type of Sofa I had been looking for, plus ended up getting a rocking/recliner love seat to match! The sofa also has recliners on both ends, and a drop down table in the center. And even got a discount for the whole deal. Thanks to Kristin for helping me find this. She has such a knack for what goes together. My color scheme is going to be browns and blues. I still need to get some throw pillows that will help tie in the blue chair with the new brown furniture. Oh yeah, and I noticed a bonus, our cat Riley is color coordinated to match the room!

CASTLES

I have always had a "thing" about castles. I would love to go to a real castle and stay there for a week! I imagine the reality of castle life would not be as good as the "romantic image" I have of the real thing. Of course, my Knight in Shining Armor would need to be there also. So I guess I will never get to see a real castle, because my Knight lives on a farm, and does not like to travel other than "armchair" touring with Rick Steves on PBS! Which by the way is a lot cheaper and safer ! haha

Granddaughter, Daughter, Daughter, Daughter

A night of memories!

We spent a night from 5 -11p.m.

scrapbooking together at Archivers in Omaha

What a night.

My girls have so much creativity,

Looking at the pages they scrapbooked, we traveled back to many wonderful memories

Swimming Beach at Virginia Beach , VA

Airport in Omaha and Atlanta

MS" size=5>Las Vegas

Car trip to Washington DC

Baby pics

Sister photo's

Starting high school photo's

size=5>All scrapbooked in one night. wonderful

And Amber let us all use her new toy!

Which is going on one of my most wanted lists

5>the  Cricut...what a wonderful helpful machine for making letters and designs.  Makes scrapbooking a lot of fun.

Sweet Baby Face

Ok..so I admit it

I can't get enough of this Baby Face

So wonderful to see the reminder of Kaiya's mom Amber

in Kaiya's own sweet baby face.

Her smile just brings sheer joy to see

And now she coos, and the start of laughter!

Oh , the joy of it all.

And yes, she enjoys "church singing" as we found out last Sunday at Mass...with every song, she started to coo!