Iowa State to a Bowl Game

I had to work until 12:30, then finish Christmas shopping for the Snyder side, last but not least off to Mike & Murts to watch Iowa State play the Minnesota Gophers for a 5pm kick off. Both teams record 6 wins, 6 losses...woo hoo. They played the Insight.com in Tempe Arizona (wished we could have been there) temps are steadily getting colder. Suppose to be negative when we go home. We had a good crowd with lots of good food. While the guys watched the game on TV, we played some games. I learned how to play Dutch Blitz.

Iowa State played a nail biter with a winning score of 14-13. Now we have a winning record. Way to go ISU!!

Baby Snyders Baby Shower

Cassie with her Grandma's.

The fun of going to a baby shower is meeting & holding the baby. Since this one was for my Grandbaby it was alittle different. Baby Snyder isn't due until late February early March and Grandma Yates won't be back until she arrives. Cassie's family held the shower at her Grandma's conference room at the care center. I had never been there before...we had many inches of new snow and I think I was driving on the sidewalk (oops)to try and find the parking lot.

We played 2 games, the first being given a roll of toilet paper and guessing how big Cassie and baby are. Ten pieces was the right guess, I took nine. The second game was 7 candy bars melted in 7 diapers.(hey, at least it wasn't baby food)Since I love chocolate I did fairly well with this one.

Kind of funny, I didn't know until the last minute what I was getting my first grandbaby for her gift...well I chose the same thing Cassie's mom got (a pak'n play). Mine went back for the car seat, still very necessary! Great minds think alike. It was a nice shower and baby Snyder got alot of nice gifts. Thanks to all you attended and sent gifts :)

Merry Christmas

It was a short night. Tia was excited and couldn't go to bed...it was 1am. Tara woke up scared of Santa at 2:30, good dad that he is laid down with her until she fell back asleep. He had just crawled back into bed when Tia asked if it was time to get up...4:30am. NO...go back to bed! She didn't, but left us alone until 6 when we all rolled out. The gifts this year were expensive ones, so there weren't very many under the tree. The girls were happy they got what they wanted. Tara opted for a DS and a camera instead of the DSI.(oh and of coarse a padded bra, yes they do make them small enough) They are not easy to find and my guess is everyone has one when they have to change clothes for phys ed. Tia was a little poop and couldn't stand knowing I went Black Friday shopping, she peeked in the car and found her present. The month of December was trying to decide whether to take it back, not give it to her until her birthday...or Christmas. She got it for Christmas, but has been disappointed we can't figure out how to download onto it. Have I ever mentioned I hate electronics, they are always such a pain to figure out. I swear I'm going back to college to learn how to run them all.

Gene and I went back to bed. The girls also got a Wii. Tia had it set up and played by the time I got up.

I made lunch thinking we would get together with Gene's folks. When I finally checked in with them, they thought they would stay home. We had tons of food and only made a dent in it. Guess what was for supper.

Tara learned how to play the Wii and thinks it is awesome, she played 2 hours straight. At around 2pm Tia started on her lack of sleep ugliness. I couldn't say anything and she would interpret it as a negative. Totally not what came out of my mouth. I kept trying to get her to sleep, but she wanted to drag it out. She booby trapped the Wii so Tara couldn't play when she was ready for her second round. Hymmm the batteries were missing and the disc was in backwards. It was a reallly long day for her, she finally went to bed at 10.

The temps are around 14F burrr cold. The girls also got new sleds, but due to rain all day the day before Christmas they are froze in Gene's car trunk.

Tara with ??

 

 

 

Okay he still needs a name. You can see already they are best friends :)

The present that eats presents

 

We really hadn't planned on having a puppy in the winter. Puppies, although adorable, are awful. They eat everything! Bark and tease cats as well as try to eat them. They are a full time job. I told Jeff if my granddaughter acts like Jake they better send her back :)

We lost our long time friend in 2009, Pete. He was a golden retriever that was dumped at our house. Very loving pet for the boys to grow up with. We had watched for another golden retriever needing a home for the past year and Gene ran across an add in the local shopper for puppies. I called and they had 5 male. We just so happened to be able to see them the following day and brought one home.

I'm Back

Wow with getting the girls back to school, finding out I'm going to be grandma and the computer getting struck by lightning blogging was put on the back burner. I really should have found time, because alot has been happening and my memory isn't what I'd like it to be.

I'm going to try to go back and do some catching up :)

Merry Early Christmas 09

 

I can't believe Gene talked me into this one! Tia with an early present.

October Babies

 

 

These little ones were the only two to survive of Five. With them being born so late in the year it was hard for momma to keep them warm. We brought them in the house and starting nursing them back to health.

Welcome to the Family

 

 

 

Exciting news Jeff and Cassie got married. It seemed kind of spur of the moment. Maybe just because I wasn't invited. They are planning on renewing their vows in a year, so hopefully they will remember their good ole mom.

Curt was also home, so we got a new family picture. We are still missing Tim, need to photo shop him in :(

Congratulations kids!!

Mom & Dad Snyder's 60th Anniversary

 

Nykki and Ryan

 
 
 
 
Tory Hovick got married and it was a great time for Kathy's family to visit.

The Family Picture

 

We needed a family picture for Tara's final homestudy. This was the best we could do. We really enjoyed camping this year and made the Iowa State football games a good excuse to go camping. We went up to Ames on Friday night, enjoyed the game on Saturday and went home Sunday morning.

The Raccoon

 
Not sure exactly why this big guy decided to hang around our back door. The boys were putting our new roof on. They thought the raccoon was scared of Tara's dog Barkley. It hung around for a full 24 hours. I hoped it didn't have rabies.

Iowa vs Iowa State

 
 

Okay this was a sucky hot day...and it got worse...we lost. We did enjoy camping in Ames. We went down to the stadium Friday night and watched the 10pm news. We were a very brief part of the sports.
Tia was a little gaga over seeing Shawn Johnson at the game.

The First Iowa State Game of 09

 
 
 
 
For the last several years the first game of the season is on Thursday before Labor Day. I lose a day of packing and camping. We had to decide if the girls were staying home or going (it was a school night). We did take the girls and they did very well with it. They both can get very ugly when they are tired(as can't we all??) Iowa State won, but it wasn't the game I had expected. Gene still has so much hope for them, me I'm hanging on the fence (and it feels like by a thread). We met Mike and Murt to ride up in their truck. It was late when we got back to their house and when I went to start my car I realized I had ran my battery down. So that took extra time to jump start it.

The size of our tomatoes

 
 

I wanted to take a picture of my tomatoes to remember how big they were this year and Tia volunteered her head. Too funny!

We were also able to celebrate Dad's birthday with his first cousin's the Lents brothers.

Tara Still Wonders Why We Preserve

I pulled weeds in the tomatoes and then decided to check our sweet corn. Tara went with me as I pulled the wagon. It is ready. We loaded it until it wouldn't hold any more and Tara pulled as I kept it in the wagon. I put her and Tia busy shucking and I started washing and cutting. Up until this last year it has been Tia's favorite vegetable(now I think it may be green beans). Gene planted the corn in an odd spot and he didn't think it would produce anything. We would have had alot more if the dogs and coons would have stayed out of it. We were able to get maybe 20 pts which will taste very good this winter. Tara thinks we should just buy fresh all year. She tried to cut the corn from the cob and decided it isn't an easy chore. I was getting kind of grouchy by the end of cutting. I thought I would get salsa made Friday night, I finally got it done Sunday. I was given several peppers, different kinds and I was too chicken to see whether they were hot or not. I was told I had hot and mild banana peppers. The only ones I knew what were, were the jalapeno. I was going to take a picture of how large my tomatoes are this year and Tia decided she would use her head for a guage. Too funny!

Tia had a sleepover Saturday evening. She is being moody and couldn't decide whether she should go. There wasn't anything but work at home. I told her she might as well. it started at 3 and she took off with her dad to haul hay home. She also was trying to get out of hanging laundry up. We are having beautiful weather again and we like to hang our laundry out to dry. I took two phone calls wondering where she was. Meanwhile Cassie called to see if she could stop. When Tia heard, she was going to stay home to visit...10 minutes later after I had called to give regrets she's ready to go. Ugh!! When I dropped her off they were in the middle of a scavenger hunt, her partner had high hopes of winning.

Cassie was here when we got home and visited for a couple of hours before heading to her grandparents. I drove her to the highway, it was getting dark and her drive is long enough without getting lost. Cassie and Jeff enjoyed the day at the State Fair. Jeff headed back to Cedar Falls to be ready to work Sunday.

Marj called and Bob's cousin's will meet in Murray Sunday for dinner. The boys were small the last time I saw Tom and Polly. They had met Tia one day while I was working. They live in Illinois. They all have August birthdays, so there was ice cream and cake to celebrate.

Friday August 21st the First Day of School

Tia was up at 6:15...way too early. Then her alarm went off at 6:25 waking Tara up. So unusual for her to be up and perky at this time of day. I was off to work. Gene saw that they got on the bus. So far we are off to a good start. With the exception that Tia had home work already and yeah it was something I was suppose to do. Excuse me...I did my time. Not sure who this teacher is, but not on the first day of school!

Open House for School

The girls are way excited! The back packs are ready and they are waiting for me to get home from work. I thought it was from 6-8, we were early. It was 7-8 and we had the best parking space(front and center). We have some new rooms this year and I forgot to take time to check them out. I got Tara an activity ticket to watch Tia's sport events. I forgot to give them lunch money though. We delivered Tara's stuff first and visited Mr. Van. Then onto Tia's locker. That was easy. Figuring out how her schedule goes wasn't easy for me, glad she's the one doing it. Tara has a friend from last year that moved to Florida and she is back. They were glued to each other. I forgot to get a phone number. They will have to have a sleepover.

I had went expecting them to drag me out after unloading the book bags. It was the opposite. They would have stayed all night, I was the one dragging them out. None of us had had supper and I was starving. I'm glad they are excited :)

Cassie Comes to Visit

Cassie is a nanny in Norwalk and staying with her grandparents in Grandriver until she and Jeff get an apartment in Des Moines. Jeff found out he got on full time in the Pleasanthill Hy-Vee. They are pretty excited. I'm finding out she is a picky eater and this maybe a challenge to have things around she likes. Cassie has such a long drive and we are storing her bed until she needs it. She ended up spending the night. Wonder what she thought waking up and having four cats staring at her. Since the weather decided to give us some heavy rains I am glad she decided to stay.

The Final Leg of a Journey

I was hoping to have a picture of a guy who helped make this journey possible. I totally forgot and didn't get a snapshot. We had our last post placement visit with Bill. It was painless and enjoyable. We got to reminisce about our past year... I don't think Tara quite knew what to think. Now to pick out 4 pictures of Tara to send to China.
I had a half day off, so we celebrated with Chinese buffet and school shopping. We still haven't found Tara a new book bag. But they both have a couple of cute shirts.
Thanks Bill for being part of the delivery team to bring me a beautiful baby girl :) even though I wasn't there when she was a baby, she will always be my baby.

Table Rock Lake

 
 
 
 
The best time of the year...VACATION. Best yet is vacation at Tablerock. The most relaxing time. Friends and family we go with enjoy shopping and shows, we love the lake. Amazingly this year I am not still floating as I have in the past. Since Gene's folks are getting older he didn't want to leave them for the whole week, so he came down Monday. I drove Jeff and the girls down bright and early on Saturday. I got alot of moaning from them, but it was a great drive. We got there first and was able to unwind before everyone else arrived. Weather was beautiful, we had a couple of overcast days, a couple of humid days and a couple of perfect days! Our good friends had a new boat and we got to break it in. The old one has a special place in our hearts, but wow. The new ones ride is amazing. There were a few bumps, but most rough water was smooth. We visited most of the marina's and ate lunch on a floating restaurant. We all skied on 2 and some of us on one. The wake board was used and the tubes abused. It was all good...well almost. While the jet ski ran it was good, right up until Tuesday. The 3rd cylinder went bad again.(time for another overhaul, Gene is learning to do it himself this time). We had minnow races Thursday evening, what fun. white rain gutters, ice water and minnows. Contestants were given a cup, the cup was given a minnow with a name. The winner was Kristi with her minnow Jaws. Second runner up was Mike with Holy Crap. Tara got to name her minnow first (she wasn't sure) so hers was "I don't know". Thank you Sue and Carl for a fun evening!