Newest McEwan

Meet Jack, the newest member of the McEwan family.

Happy Birthday Cricket!

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to the NEW Christy
Happy Birthday to YOU!

Looking good girl!

Another project.....Bring out the Power tools!

Kathy wants one of these. We have the board, we bought the circles, and we have tried to screw in those little hooks and eyes. We went to Lowe's and got a couple of different sizes. Michaels didn't have anything that would work. We did get the paint from Michaels though. We came home from Lowe's and tried screwing those little eyes into the wooden circles. Every one would crack. Then we realized the wooden circles probably wasn't even wood at all when we read "Made in China". I haven't painted the little circles yet. That might be a good project for the grandkids. Once Sherrill gets caught up on his work, this will be our next project. We still have Cindy's present that needs to be completed, and other projects to stain.
Now I want a woodworking shop. I wonder if Sherrill would build me a "lean-to" against one of the barns. How many of you have ever heard of a "lean-to"? Here is Wiki's definition.
A lean-to is a term used to describe a roof with a single slope.
One type of structure is free standing with only three walls and a sloping roof. The open side is commonly oriented away from the prevailing winds and rains. 

Isaac and School

Here are a couple of pictures Kat put on Facebook.
It's always a thrill to see Isaac in his school surroundings. He seems to be right at home. Who would have thought that Isaac would ever make it to school. He is one amazing little man, as are his brothers that help keep him going.

Kat is home from her gall bladder surgery. I can imagine how she must feel right about now!

Pictures from Sleepover

Right foot orange.

Olivia in HOME position.

Go Sethie!

Time to play cars!

Time to do some building.

Liv, always smiling!

Skyscrapers.

Play Ball.

Olivia, the pitching machine.

We danced.
Played cars.
Built things.
Played ball.
and ATE, and ATE, and ATE.

Meghan and Girl Dog

Girl Dog died last December, and not a lot is mentioned about her anymore. That was until Friday night.
Meghan went with Sherrill and myself to meet up with Wendy and pick up Cameron and Olivia. As we were traveling home I heard Meghan say "Girl Dog died. She's not at Papa's anymore. She started coughing up blood, and she died. So you won't see her."

It's amazing what a 5 year old can remember. I did know that she had died in December, but had no idea that Meghan would even think about her. She always did like Girl Dog more than she does Jack. That old Jack dog is just too mean, and the older he gets, the meaner he gets!

Merry Christmas Hangover

Now that all the excitement is over, it's time for the Hangover. Not the alcohol induced hangover, rather the "Oh did I really eat that much" hangover. The kind that kind of puts you in a stupor or "sugar shock" for a few days. But, don't have time for that. Have to get cleaned up, cleaned out, moved around, and get back to normal kind of day. No, not taking the trees down for a couple of days, just need to get the gifts put up, laundry done, and a good overall cleaning.

The house is quiet with the exception of the TV playing in the background, the washer spinning, and the hum from the four wheeler next door. I don't think they are going to be able to get Carter off that thing!
Seth turned it over yesterday when he was riding it. Just a few bruises and scrapes. Eli reminded me he turned ours over when he was just 3 or 4. I think he was more like 5, but that's not to be debated, only the fact that GRANDPA was supposed to be supervising. I do believe Tristen also did a "wheelie" when she was younger and it threw her off the back. Oh well, at least no broken bones or ER visits, so for that we are thankful!

I never realized how Christmas "really" went until last night when Sherrill was talking to his sister, telling her what we had gotten for Christmas. It came out of his mouth so smoothly........"Judy got two saws, and I got a cookbook, cooking magazine, waffle maker, lots of food and drink, butter, and honey and other things for the kitchen, and oh, some clothes." Who would have thought that this old woman would have been happy with her saws, and he was ecstatic over his waffle maker, it was of course, the one he had learned how to operate in the hotel's breakfast bar, that cooks for 1 1/2 minutes on one side, then you flip it over for another 1 1/2 minutes. He showed off his mad cooking skills as soon as he opened it!

We are blessed to have 6 marvelous kids, and their spouses (even when they don't like us some of the time),
17 adorable grandkids (that know we have their backs, and will ALWAYS take their sides)
and 1 special great-grandchild...... that we couldn't find yesterday!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, one that you will remember for many years to come.

Merry Christmas to All.......

Happy Birthday Brother James!

Happy Birthday James!
Why is it almost every picture I have of you there is a child attached to you?

Happy Birthday from the Kids!

Happy Birthday Kat!

Happy Birthday Kat.
Hope it's a great one!

Grandma's Second Annual Sleepover

Fun time at Grandma's house.
We pulled out the Twister Move game. You play twister to music, with the DJ calling out the moves.
You should see it in action. I have it on video, but haven't been able to get it uploaded. Those kids were fun to watch, Mandy too! Cameron kept giving up on us. Olivia just liked dancing, and Meghan and Mandy took it seriously.
Now they are laid back watching Dr Seuss. Cameron has the cot, Meg the chair, Olivia a mattress on the floor, and Seth the couch. They are beginning to wind down a little. To make it all even better, I just chatted with Tristen on facebook. I didn't even think to ask her if her computer has Skype. We could ALL have talked to her. I guess next time we will have to have a "Skype" PJ party. We could even do it on Google Plus! Let's figure this out.

We will be home all Christmas morning, so you can find us on Skype. Give us a call!

guess what grandma! I my first bag at school it looks really good thanks for teaching me how to sew

How's Blake?

Little Blake had tubes put in his ears yesterday morning.
Hope he's doing OK.
Take care of that little one Kelli!
Love you.

Grandkids......

So, I get a call last night from one of my loving grandkids. The conversation goes like this.
"Grandma, mom sent me shopping with her debit card. I have spent all MY money this week, and don't have the money to buy her and dad a present. Do you think it is wrong if I use HER debit card to buy their presents?"
Me: "Yes, that is wrong".
"Awww........What am I going to do now?"
Me: "Guess you will have to make them something!"

What is this world coming to? Have we really spoiled our children this much? It was kind of funny though.
At least he was thinking about them!

McEwan's

Christy and Kurt let the kids open some of their presents from friends and family today. Kurt will be working Christmas day, so the kids get to open presents twice! How cool is that?
She learned fast how to get the kids to "zone out".

Mandy The Baker

Mandy came in from work this morning ready to do some baking. She started with the fudge, and I started with the "sit down job" chocolate covered pretzels. We both finished up about the same time, then she started with her Peanut Butter Delights AKA (do do balls). She made them, and they ended up looking like they came from a constipated cow. They were so dark in color, and real dry. Usually we save the "mistakes" and Sherrill always eats them, but these were beyond repair. So, they were dumped in the trash.
I guess I'll have to blame the burner on the stove. I had told her it was boiling too fast!

Next she did Rice Krispie treats. You can't go wrong with them! They were perfect. We still have pnut butter blossoms, brownies, lemon coolers, and I want to try some of those little Mexican wedding cookies.
I'm moving a little slow today. Think I'll go rest.

Time to start baking everyone!

Busy, Busy Day

As much as I hate this place, this is where I spent a lot of my morning. It was time to do the monthly food run. I usually have Christa, but today I had Mandy for my ride-a-long. We went through that store in no time. Our cart was loaded down as usual. Everybody must be spending their money on Christmas, because there were lots of meats on sale. We wrapped presents and ate lunch while the Young and the Restless was on.

After lunch we started back working with the power equipment. Sherrill had left instructions to cut more wood, for the second project, so that's what Mandy did. We are going to let the kids assemble them at the sleepover this weekend. Then Mandy pulled out her Dremel and started sanding down the wood with that little thing. She had a blast. We have so many projects going, so much saw dust, wood, saws, glue, drills, you would think we were a bonafide workshop! The spirit is finally hitting Sherrill!

Tomorrow I guess we start with the food, (cookies, bread, desserts, all the good stuff). 

Just 6 more days........get busy!

NEED ADDRESS ASAP!!

I need address for Wendy, Cindy, Kelli, and Kathy. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

blegens

hi everyone well we havent been up to much but here is what we have been doing mom and dad are working and mom is getting her christmas shopping done. dads working and he went fishing today. nate has been doing homework and playing games on the computer. I've had basketball games that i go to then i have to do homework and i have semester test to study for in every class. but thats about all we have been doing.

Just us!

Ok, mom here goes the update on us.

Sunday- Luke and Jacob wake up with low grade fevers and I give them just a bit of meds. There are fine in 4-6 hours.

Monday- Luke wakes up and has pink eye, He goes to the Doctor. He has pink eye and Strep.
3 hours later Me, Jacob, and Cat were at Wal-Mart and then Jacob starts crying and pulling his ear. So back we go to the Doctors, Ear infection right. Nope Strep! So Luke and Jacob gets short.

Tuesday- Luke's home from school, but all is well

Wednesday- Ken complains of a little sore throat, and Catherine says she's sick. (Drama queen). We go to St. George to look at a horse. The horse is nice to Kurt and the lady owner, but kept trying to eat me. The 16 hands horse with 2 inch teeth did not like me. Oh well, I got to eat at the Cracker Barrel

Thursday- Pick Ken up from school early for a Doctors appointment. Him and Catherine both have strep. They both get shots.

Friday- The kids go back to school for there party's. All is well except Catherine can't walk, because of her shot.

Saturday- I wake up and have a sore throat. So I guess it's off to the doctors for me. To hopefully get a shot.

We have just a few more presents to get and then were done and ready for Christmas. This has been our week in review.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

It looks like it's going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas!
Sherrill is working today, when he should be in Santa's workshop.
The ONE present we were all working on is completed, but still needs a little "tweaking". We are going to make another one, and see if that turns out better. I'm quite sure the presents won't be ready by Christmas, but they will be there one day. Just know that "Dad" worked hard on it, as well as Mandy, James, Abby, and even ME! Perhaps next year I will make the Christmas presents, and let him be in charge of birthday presents. He's a little stressed now with moving Mandy, working, and keeping up with day to day events.

I'm still waiting to hear about........
1.  How's Kelli doing working night shift.
2. What the Blegen kids are up to.
3. When Olivia and Cameron can come.
4. Are the McEwan kids over strep?
5. Is Chris off restriction?
6. Has everyone finished shopping yet?

Gotta go get this day started. Been up since 7 listening to Christmas music.

8 days 'til Christmas!

Thought for the day......

Kind of makes you think about Sherrill and Jack!

Pictures from Christy

60 something degrees in Goldsboro, and 6 degrees in Cedar City, Utah. How crazy is that?

Last of packages FINALLY mailed.....except one, or two, or maybe three

I've spent the last two days at the Post Office. Thank goodness Dudley is just down the road. Me and Mandy went to the Goldsboro Post Office last week and had to stand in line forever! You know the flat rate boxes.... I carried one in today and the lady said, "Did this start out to be a Medium.  Why, yes it did, so what if I stretched it out to a large. My dad taught me how to pack REAL good! I was so happy with all the stuff I could cram in there. I think it weighed near 20 pounds.

I still have presents to make, grocery shopping to do, then of course all the food to prepare. I still don't know where or when we are celebrating. We'll either go to mom's Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day.
I guess I better start making some plans.

Power tools put away for awhile

Well, Sherrill has gone back to work, so the power tools are put away for a few days. It's sad. I had all kinds of bright ideas, and the weather has been so nice. I guess I am back to my sewing projects!

Today I have presents to wrap and get in the mail. Gotta go to work.
Have a good day everyone!

Almost Christmas?

Shouldn't fall leaves be gone if it's almost Christmas?

Sherrill keeps raking them up, and more keep coming.

Power Equipment, Day Three

Sherrill got up early this morning ready to go to work. He waited until after lunch for Mandy to get home from work and up and running (she goes to work at 4:00 am). He got her here, and they started to work. No major disasters, just a few mis-cuts. I think they were having a "bonding" moment for awhile there. Sherrill even told her she could go into business with him......S&M is what they would call it. After the cutting, Mandy and I started with a redesign, and gluing. Sherrill tried to supervise then. We kept sending him outside for bricks. Yes, bricks were involved. By the time we got our first one almost completed, he decided he wanted to make a bunch more, but had cut up all of his wood. So, the next project was putting together the scroll saw. They accomplished that in no time. Now it's ready for a test run.

While we are all out in the garage I spot the project samples I purchased last year for the presents he was SUPPOSED to make for birthday presents. Did you realize you didn't get one this year. Anyway, Mandy took the samples off the shelf and Sherrill decided he could make these! So, he's off to Lowe's to buy more molding, more wood, and screws. I think this first project has given him the confidence to try something new. Maybe I will be able to get him out of that chair in front of the tv and get him involved in building things. Wouldn't you just love to have a little toy wooden train for your grandkids one day,
especially one that your dad built?

Wish all the 9 year old  boys were here to help. They would LOVE this stuff.

Day Two of Power Equipment

The saga continues......
Yesterday James and Abby came over with the kids. We spent a couple of hours working on Cindy's Christmas present. Abby was working out the design, James was working with measurements, and I was mostly just supervising (how surprising is that?). I realized I needed a table saw. Ours burnt up in the fire, so I ordered one online that was on sale, and Mandy went and picked it up last night. It was too late to do anything then, so we started back after lunch today.

We needed Mandy's help to put the thing together. First they had to build the table, then attach the saw to the table. It went pretty smoothly. They got it fired up, and cut some wood. They were working with little pieces of molding, trying to cut a 1/4 inch groove in each piece. Sherrill would start the cut, pushing the molding to Mandy, and she would pull it on through. I was sitting in the dining room looking out the sliding glass doors, and Sherrill fell to the ground and was yelling. Mandy stepped back, and I ran to the kitchen to grab a clean dish towel, I just knew he had cut off a finger! I went out there and yelled that here was a towel. Sherrill got off the ground, stood up and said, I don't need a towel. I asked him what was he yelling for then, and he told me Mandy didn't grab the wood, and it jumped back at him and hit him the upper leg. A couple of inches more, and the family jewels would have been damaged.  He was fussing, Mandy was stressing, and I just came inside. They got the molding cut, now I need Abby again to help out with some design flaws, and we will be off again! Sherrill is going tomorrow for more wood to make one for the other kids. He is hoping the next ones will go smoother. Mandy and I have both decided that Sherrill is NOT allowed to operate the table saw without supervision.

Here's a couple of pictures of the two workers!

Blake, Kelli and Derrick

Did you see these on Facebook? There's a lot of other ones too! Be sure to check them out.
That Blake is such a ham. Every time he sees a camera, he smiles. Someone has trained him well!
Miss you baby Blake and Kelli!

Sherrill and the Power Equipment!

Sherrill got up this morning and asked the question,"What's on schedule for this morning?" He asked, so I was ready to start my list! We went out last night and got my scroll saw, that I wanted last year. So, I was ready to put it together and go to work. Well, after I saw the frustrated look on his face after just taking out the pieces of the stand, I decided to give him a reprieve and tell him we would wait until Mandy got home to help. That put a smile on his face.

Next project was trying to screw little hooks and eyes into 1 1/2 inch wooden disks. It couldn't be done by hand, so I told Sherrill to pre drill little holes for me. His drill needed to be charged, so I told him to go to my closet and get MY drill.(Yes, I bought myself a drill last year). He drilled the first hole, put the eye in, and the disk cracked. So, we got the smaller size eye. He tried to drill another hole, but has problems holding the disk and drilling the hole. So, now I have to go find some type of clamp to hold the disk to drill the hole.

Now I have to figure out the next project. Sherrill keeps running outside hiding from me. I am determined that this year he WILL participate in the whole Christmas process. He will no longer be allowed to sit back, write a check, and think that is all he has to do for Christmas. He is going to be responsible for the adult Christmas presents, and I will do the grandkids. Fair enough isn't it?
Seth is inside with me, and Meg is outside following Sherrill around. I'm sure they are up so something out there.

Well, I have to get back to another project. Only 15 days 'til Christmas!

Let the shopping begin.......

Mandy went out shopping with me today. The first place she wanted to go was Target, of course.
That was fine because she let me have her employee discount! We just about filled up the back of the
Rendezvous! We came home, unloaded, she wrapped while I visited with a lady from church. She left to go pick up the little munchkins, then me and Sherrill went out shopping again. He asked what was for dinner, and I told him fast, a piece of chocolate cake! That's what I ate too.

By the time I got home, the bottoms of my feet were burning. I don't know what that was from. After a quick shower, I'm ready to go again. Well, maybe I'll just sit back and wait for the little kiddos.

Photos from Mandy

Any other Christmas photos out there?