I Repent

This morning I realized it'd been AGES since I posted anything here. I realized it because I went to read Ruth's blog about her vacation.... and loved it. Then I followed the links to Praveen's blog... and Praveen the one who rarely posts entries had posted two since the last time I had...

AND then I went to check out Sandhya's blog and sure enough, she had also posted since I had.

With new posts on both of theirs and none on mine I was shocked. I saw my errant ways...

I have been neglecting this blog. I repent.

I have posted two new entries below.

Kuwait

Nathan arrived in Kuwait around the first of the month. He's with the 1st Cavalry, 3rd Brigade - "Grey Wolf".

He went earlier than the rest of the guys to "download" the equipment and vehicles" from the ship that carried them over. Funny how they call it downloading, huh? Well it gets funnier... after that they "uploaded" it all onto flat bed trucks to transport it to the camp.

Nathan is a Bradley driver, so he is there to take care of his company's Bradleys and make sure that they are maintained properly.

After the other guys arrive they'll all head "north".

Am I worried about him? Of course I am. I am his mother.

Nathan At Ft. Hood, Texas

These photos were taken when Jay and I drove down

to see Nathan at Ft. Hood, Texason the weekend of August 18th.

We knew he'd soon be leaving for Kuwait

and wanted to see him before he left.

Mr. & Mrs. Praveen Krishnan

Ruth & Praveen's Fulton Wedding Photos

June 10, 2006 - Fulton, Missouri USA

The Happy Couple

Jay, Ruth, Praveen, Me

Jay and I with Ruth, Praveen and the other "kids".

The Sisters - Naomi, Rachel, Rinnah, Esther, Ruth, Rebekah

The Brothers - Amon & Nathan

The Whole Gang

Front Row: Patrick (my grandson), Praveen, Ruth, Neal (my grandson), Rebekah & Garry

Back Rows: Esther & JT (her boyfriend), Naomi & Dane (her boyfriend), Nathan, Amon, Me, Jay, Rachel & Dan, John & Debbie (Jay's brother & wife), Rinnah.

Esther's Prom

Esther and her boyfriend, JT, went to the High School Prom this past weekend. She looked beautiful!

Neal is a month old!

This photo was taken when Neal was 10 days old.

It's one of my favorites.

I can hardly believe that Neal is over a month old! Both he and Rebekah are doing great. His eyes appear to be blue. (It takes awhile before their eye color becomes obvious.)

Finally.... Newspaper Wedding Announcement

I finally got Ruth and Praveen's wedding announcement in our local paper. It took me awhile to find the courage to open up the computer files that have hundreds of wedding photos in them. I knew I'd have a hard time trying to choose my favorite because there are so many really good ones.

They changed the wording that I sent in to conform (I guess) to the way that these announcements are usually written. In case the print is too small to read, here is what it says:

Ruth MacVittie and Praveen Krishnan were married Dec. 25th, 2005 in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India.

Parents of the couple are Jay and Debra MacVittie of Fulton and Santhana and Prasanna Krishnan of India.

The couple spent a month in India where Ruth was welcomed into the groom’s large extended family and circle of friends. They also traveled around the country with Ruth’s mother and several close friends from the states.

The couple hosted a reception at their home in Pacifica, Calif., on Feb. 26. There will also be a reception in Fulton on June 10, 2006. For more information or to RSVP please see the website at www.ruthandpraveen.com or call Debra at 642-8271.

The bride is a 1997 graduate of Fulton High School and a 2002 graduate of Webster University in St. Louis with a degree in business management. She is working as showroom manager for BSC Culinary in San Francisco.

The groom is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India and later received his masters in Software Engineering from The University of Texas. He is currently employed as a Lead Software Engineer at Demand Tech in Redwood City CA.

The couple resides in Pacifica, Calif.

Receptions, Two Down, One To Go...

Not everyone is lucky enough to have THREE wedding receptions like Ruth and Praveen. The first was of course, in India, BEFORE the wedding, which was different from what we were used to, but it was a blast. The second one was a couple weeks ago at their home in Pacifica, CA. The thrid one will be in Fulton on June 10th.

They had a HAT contest at the Pacifica reception. (She is definately her mother's daughter... or maybe I should say I am definately my daughter's mother... at any rate, a hat contest sounds like great fun to me.) Don't you just LOVE Praveen's hat? Doesn't Ruth look beautiful?

Ruth just posted some photos of the second reception on her blog, and another link to her albums at Shutterfly. Here are the links:

RUTH'S BLOG

OTHER RECEPTION PHOTOS

The debut

Since I've been wanting to post here for a really long time but simply am short of time to post something nice, I'm starting off with this picture. Debra and Angela wanted to see it when they heard about it but I'd totally forgotten and just spotted it today in my folders. It's an informal invitation the the wedding that happenned and it's based on a poster of an Indian -English movie with the Indian beauty ( and Praveen's favourite actress- though she simply cant act) Aishwarya Rai. When I made this, I hadnt met Ruth in person and only had pictures to work on- so it doest really look like her to think of it. Now I feel it looks like Esther( Does anyone else think so?). Anyway, will be back for more, I promise.

Spring Flowers, Snow Showers

Spring is my favorite time of the year, and one of my favorite things about it is how the bulb-flowers which have been dormant, below the surface of the ground all winter, pop their heads up and bloom....when almost everything else still looks "dead". Daffodils are one of the first to "smile" at me each year... And I LOVE them!

Just a few days ago I took these pictures of the first spring daffodils. I have a small grouping that are minatures and many more scattered around the yard that are full sized The ones above are the minatures. The little purple flower is a crocus, commonly one of the very first flowers to bloom in the spring time.

Then...for a couple days, I've known snow was on the way, and sure enough it was here when I woke up this morning. Now, I am NOT a lover of snow, although it's not so bad if I don't have to go out in it. BUT when it snows on top of my flowers...well that is not a happy thing at all.

These are the full sized daffodils growing on one side of my house.

Poor things!

This is the garden right in front of my house. We put it there because a long time ago we had to chop down a huge oak tree and needed to disguise the mess it's trunk left. You can see both the daffodil and iris leaves coming up. These haven't bloomed yet.

This is looking out from the house towards the yard (and "woods"). There is a very small creek that defines the yard. (We mow the yard, but stop at the creek, where the "woods" begin.)

The good thing about this snow is that it was much less than the first forecast I heard of 8-12 inches. That's a pretty rare occurance here in Missouri, and I prefer to keep it that way...RARE.

Mommy & Baby...doing well.

I forgot to mention that Rebekah and Neal are both doing quite well.

Rebekah had to have a c-section after 15 hours of labor on a pitosin drip, but she is recovering from the surgery better than anyone I've ever seen. She DID decide to spend three nights in the hospital after the birth, just because it seemed easier to have the nurses around to help with the baby so she could get more rest. She could have gone home earlier.

Garry has been back and forth between Beks (their restaurant) and his wife and new son. He says that when he's at Beks, he keeps thinking he should be with his family and when he's with his family, he keeps thinking he should be at Beks. Without Rebekah there to help with the restaurant, more of the management falls on his shoulders, but he's not complaining. We all hope she stays home with the baby for awhile. Beks will do fine.

Garry keeps saying that he can't believe how good looking Neal is. He's a pretty proud daddy. And of course, you can see that he IS a beautiful baby. Now, you know, all parents and grandparents think that about their off spring.... But this time it's really true. (Spoken like a true grandmother.)

I've incorporated a morning visit with Neal & Rebekah into my routine, right after I go to the gym for my exercise class.

So, that's the scoop on Rebekah and Neal.

More Baby Photos

Here I am holding Neal when he was a day old.

This is one of my favorites, taken on that same day.

Below is a series of photos that Naomi took when Neal was 3 days old. I love these! They are so REAL.

Really MAD!

Practicing "that look".

Boy that was TIRING!

Life is good again.

You can see more photos of Neal as well as the rest of the family at www.mommac.com

I'm a Grandma again!

Rebekah and Garry's son (and MY grandson) arrived this morning at 7:31. You can see photos of him at www.mommac.com

He was almost a week late, so everyone, especially Rebekah is relieved that he's finally here. He's so sweet and calm! (oh, and CUTE)

I'll tell you more about him soon.

Proud of Myself

Okay, I can't help patting myself on the back. I get such satisfaction out of figuring something out that I know little about, but through trial and error.

Specifically, take note of the poem on the sidebar at the right. As far as I know there is only one way to add things to the sidebar and that is through editing and playing with the html in the template. I know NOTHING about html except what I have figured out (and tried to remember). So I copy and paste and preview and then when it's not what I want, I do it again...and again...and again. All the while hoping I don't really mess something up that I can't "put back". (I almost did that once and it really freaked me out.)

So, I wanted to put the poem there and I did...but the first part of the first word of each line was in the margin, overlapping the white border and it looked really horrible. (I had already figured out how to change the font size, so I had it pretty small.) I just couldn't figure out why the text higher up had a neat little margin but the poem resisted. As you can see I figured it out. How? I'm not sure I can remember. BUT I am sure I can figure it out again if I ever need to.

So, how come I can sit here for hours messing around with something like that that really isn't all that important? I don't think it's the actual "finished product" as much as the sense of satisfaction I have from knowing I have done something that I didn't know how to do before.

I'll write more about that poem and the Red Hat Society another time. I DID want to share my thoughts on that, but for now I'm just going enjoy the good feeling of accomplishment.

PS - I am expecting my next big feeling of accomplishment to come soon....when I finally figure out what's going on with my (Canon) printers. I have learned how to tear apart print heads and clean their "innermost parts"... I have realized that an inferior black ink will effect the quality of RED. I have a CIS system that is being very stubborn and have reverted to refilling cartridges, but at least I have found some made for the purpose that are very simple to refill. Since I have tried everything I can think of to nurse the poor thing back to health, I will sometime soon do surgery on the CIS (continuous ink system which feeds ink from bulk bottles, not cartridges). If it dies, oh well. Sometimes there are fatalites on the way to accomplishment, right?

Gambling

Once a year, and only once…. I “gamble”. Some might not call it that. Some might call it “making a charitable donation. I call it like it is….gambling, but for a good cause.

Here is the deal. Our high school “senior parents association” has a fund raiser every year to raise money to throw an “all night senior party” for the kids after they graduate from high school. It’s sort of to keep them off the streets and give them a fun safe place to celebrate. It’s a very big deal with lots of great prizes and activities that kids that age would like. It’s expensive though.

So….one innovative idea that they’ve come up with the past few years is to have this dinner… They serve a really nice dinner (this year it’s prime rib) and sell tickets to it for $100.00 per couple. They limit the tickets to 300. That means they raise $30,000.00 through ticket sales. Part of that goes for the food and decorations. About half is used for the senior party, and the rest is given away as tickets are drawn at the dinner. The grand prize is $10,000. They also give smaller cash prizes…a couple $1,000 and several 500 and 250 dollar prizes. Local businesses also donate prizes that are given away.

With all the prizes they give, chances of winning something are something like 1/8. Chances of winning the grand prize of $10,000.00 are 1/300. Now what better odds are there? Certainly better than buying a lottery ticket. That’s why once a year, every year, I buy a ticket to the Fulton High School Senior Parents dinner.

No, I’ve never won anything at all…not even a stupid T-shirt or tickets to a movie. But, the money I’ve spent in an attempt to win has gone to a good cause. And besides…this might be my lucky year.

The dinner is tonight.

Later....

The results of my "investment":

Well, we didn't win the 10,000K BUT we DID win.... $250.00. And that's better than we've ever done before.

Prasana & Santhana's Fulton Visit - Photo Album

I just finished making a "photo album" with the photos that were taken when Prasanna and Santhana came to visit us here in Fulton. You can see it here:

http://deb6525.tripod.com/prasanna_santhana_visit_fulton

Back Row: Prasanna, Santhana, Jay, Me, Kyle, Dane, Garry, Dan.
Front Row: Praveen, Amon, Jared with Rebekah behind him, Ruth, with Patrick and Rachel behind her, Rinnah, with Naomi behind her.

Jared, Patrick, and Kyle are Rachel and Dan's sons. Dane is Naomi's boyfriend. Garry is Rebekah's husband.

Grandma Again...SOON

Rebekah's baby is due soon! The date her doctor gave her was March....umm 3rd, or 5th, or 7th. I really can't remember, all I know is that it's soon, and my bet is on it being sooner than the doctor thinks. I'm sort of thinking that Valentine's Day, Feb. 14th would be a nice birthdate.

We all had a little surprise a couple weeks ago when Rebekah had her last sonogram and the doctor proclaimed the baby 100% BOY. Until then, everyone, including the doctor thought it was almost certainly a girl. That was what the previous sonograms indicated. So we all made our rush to return pink stuff and look for cute "boy stuff".

The baby was going to be named Lydia, after two great-great grandmothers, one on my side of the family (a favorite relative of mine who died when I was pregnant with Rebekah) and one on Garry's side of the family. Oh well. You can always name the next baby that, right, Rebekah? Now, it looks like the baby will be named Neal, a family name from Garry's side of the family. I'm not sure of the middle name yet.




Rebekah is still going into Beks every morning to do the baking and to generally oversee the restaurant. She complains about being tired, but of course she is tired! It comes with the territory. Other than that it seems like she is doing well.

We expect to have a healthy baby grandson very soon.

Sons-In-Law

While sorting through my photo files I came across this picture of my three son-in-laws. It's much better than the one I previously posted because they are ALL looking at the camera!

They're a great bunch. (is three a "bunch"...or should I say "trio" or something?) Anyhow, they are simply great, all three of them. I love them all like sons and I'm so glad my daughters snagged them....er I mean brought them into the family.

New January Family Photos

These photos of Esther and Rinnah were taken on the weekend of Esther's birthday at our house.

This one of Rebekah (and my new grandbaby) were taken in the kitchen at Beks a couple weeks ago. I hope to get an updated photo of her because she is growing that baby very quickly now. The doctor says it weighs 6 lbs 4 oz and there is still another month until it's scheduled arrival.

The photo below was taken at a party that Jay and I went to last weekend. I wish he'd smile more! Usually I pinch him to get him to smile in pictures, but I must have forgotten.

Too bad the photo-taker cut the tops of our heads off!

I hate that gold crown that shows when I smile...

Happy Birthday Praveen!

I'm happy and proud to call Praveen my son-in-law. By traveling to (and around) India with him and Ruth, I got to know him so much better than I could have any other way... It takes time to get to know people and our time with Praveen has been limited to his short occasional visits to Fulton. BUT we made up for all that on the trip. I feel now like I've known him for years. He's a really FUNNY guy. I never knew that before. I always knew he was smart and good looking....(and had good taste in potential brides) but never that he had such a great sense of humor.

Another thing that I learned about Praveen is that he's thoughtful, considerate, caring, and conscious of the needs of others. Throughout the trip I watched him making sure that everyone's needs were being met...and not just needs, but desires too. With so many friends and family there, it was quite the juggling act, and he never once dropped the ball. (If he did, I didn't see it.)

I watched him be the diplomat. Balancing the needs and desires of those closest to him: his parents, his new bride, and tradition. And...he pulled it all off with grace.

Praveen knows how to have fun. . . . . . . . .

Not only do I like & love Praveen, I respect him. He's a great guy who I look forward to growning closer and closer to in the many years ahead.

Today is Praveen's Birthday. I have added him to my rather long mental list of (immediate) family birthdays, and unlike my other two son-in-laws', his will be easy to remember. It's the day after Esther's birthday. That makes FIVE in January. (Nathan, Esther, Praveen, Nathan, Seth, and Jay)

January only rivals September in the number of birthdays in our immediate family. In September we have six: (Rachel, Naomi, Amon, Rebekah, Kyle, and Ruth)

He knows how to fly a plane too!

We used to have a "September Birthdays Party" and sometimes, weather permitting, a "January Birthdays Party", but times are changing and the family is getting more spread out and harder to get together too often. Lately, with the factors of distance, jobs, and school, Thanksgiving is the main time that EVERYONE makes it to town at the same time. Now we have to factor in the two boys who are in the military and it even becomes harder to get everyone together.

So, the new plan starting this year is to have a mid-year "family reunion". This was Ruth's idea, and a good one. In June we'll all (try to) be here for Ruth and Praveen's Fulton reception on the 10th and then we'll spend the following weekend at a campground where we'll just relax, party, and float on the river. Mind you, this campground is not only tent camping, they have cabins too.... a pre-requisite for me in choosing a site. (I did the tenting thing when I was a kid and had enough of it. Now I insist on a "real bed" with four walls around it.) Hopefully this will become an annual event that everyone (including the boys) will plan ahead for.

I hope the rest of my family can catch up with me on "knowing Praveen". The June camping trip-family reunion will be a good time to get a start on it.

My three son-in-laws with Jay ... It seems that none of them are looking at the camera.

Thanksgiving 2004

Part of the family including Amon's girlfriend, Megan, Rachel's husband, Dan, Naomi's boyfriend, Dane....and of course, Praveen!

Happy Birthday Esther

Esther is my "baby". Today is her seventeenth birthday. She changes the color and style of her hair fairly often, but one thing never changes and that's her big smile.

Happy Birthday, Esther, I love you.

Here's Esther with all 5 of her older sisters, taken at Beks during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2005. Rebekah is the one in pink, obviously pregnant. Rinnah and Rachel are behind Rebekah and Naomi and Ruth, behind them. Taking "girl pictures" is one of our family traditions but it's hard to get all 6 of them together at the same time!