HOLLYWOOD GLITZY BOOK FAIR

It's puppy dog hands

Affection for the BIG RED DOG

Two important Hollywood Stars

Hollywood is alive in Clifton

Female Artist of the Year

I am posting pics and info for Diana today b/c she is b-u-s-y with the book fair at school. Papa and I went last night to the open house and what a show it was. Diana and all of her workers did a bang up job on decorating, setting up, and running the show. There were tons of people there for Hamburgers and Hot Dogs (Les helped cook) then the program and going into the book fair room to buy books. I helped judge the classroom doors contest which was a really tough job since all of them were so creative and student involvement was great. We walked the red carpet into the book fair room to purchase books. IT WAS PACKED (people AND books). A looooong line to pay out and room was very hot (a/c was out). Kids were running around everywhere and we could tell that everyone was having a great time. Teachers and workers were dressed like Hollywood; Clifford, the big red dog was even there to great everyone. Kids were down on the floor drawing their handprints on the "Walk of Fame" after they purchased books. As a grandparent, it was hard to keep up with just Diana's two kids. We got to go to Nolan's classroom and meet his teacher and also to see the work Nolan is doing in school. I can't wait to read some of his stories he writes in his notebook. He loves to pull my leg with some really big tales. If I act shocked, his tales get bigger and bolder. He has a big imagination. I just can't say enough on how proud I am of my two daughters- Mandy and Diana- as they are both involved in the school book fairs in two different cities. I would love to see Mandy's big debut too. It makes a mother proud to see her daughters following in her footsteps. Have you ever heard "She is her mother's daughter"? Wellllll, they really are. (Kind of scary) I just know how many sleepless nights they spend and the stress of getting it all together and setting it up, then be all smiles on the big production night. Believe me, it is all worth it, when it is all done, because the kids are the ones that benefit from it. Reading is so important and training children to read is what it is all about.

I challenge everyone to go to your local school book fair and check out what is going on there. It will totally impress you. This one was a huge success. Y'all get a big A+.

WHERE IS LESLIE? HAVE YOU SEEN HER?

This is a common thing at my house when Leslie and Nolan come over. We get busy talking or cooking or scrapbooking and look up and realize we have not seen Leslie for awhile. We call her-no answer; we look outside -but nowhere to be found. She is always in Grandma's closet playing and digging through the shoes. She has a fetish over shoes- especially Grandma's- for some reason. I have even gotten up on Sunday morning to go to church and find one shoe but not the other. Leslie has toys and things to play with and do here at my house but her favorite thing is to play in my closet with my shoes. I must organize it someday if she is going to continue to play in there. She gets so involved with the shoes, she doesn't hear us calling her. We have got to remember to look there first for her. If I still wore the really high spike heels like I used to, she would kill herself trying to walk in them. I may surprise her someday and put them in there. You know me, I never get rid of anything and yes, I still have all those shoes from my days at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. I hope she always remembers playing with my shoes long after I am gone.

WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT????

What a fun weekend we spent in Houston with my long time friend (really more a sister) since 1971. We even cut our fingers to make us blood sisters back then and the fun keeps getting crazier. We celebrated our Christmas and Birthdays with each other over the weekend. Never a dull moment with these 2. We went to eat at Sudies (seafood) Friday night and made ourselves so sick eating tons of fried pickles and oysters. My stomach was literally swimming by the time we got home. Then it was time to open presents. My friend/sister Joyce and I laugh all the time. We have so much fun together. She had gotten me so many beautiful gifts. She knows exactly what I like-of course, that is because she likes the same thing. She gave me a Jim Shore Witch and I love it. Everything I got was things I wanted so bad. We like to buy each other gifts through the year from Garage Sales. She is so lucky and finds exactly what I like. She also got me big necklaces, red ruby bowl, A picture frame with a picture of us back in the 70's inside (man have we changed) and victorian doll ornaments for my tree, and darling tins she really wanted to keep for herself. The next morning we got up to go to garage sales EARLY. People think we are really fighting b/c we try to beat each other up to the sale and grab what we like before the other one can get there since we both want the same thing. SO MUCH FUN. We just always have fun together. Love you Joyce. It seems our time together goes so fast and its time to go home. Wish we lived closer together. She gave me a red hat for my red hat society and we always get our picture made when we are together. She ran and got her a hat (she just thinks she is a pink hatter)LOL. That's ok. If she wants to play like she is under 50- I'll let her. Wonder what we will get into the next time we are together. We hope to go to Canton together next. Believe me, Canton will never be the same after we have been there.

SUPER BOWL BIRTHDAY ROCKIN' BAND BASH

We went to a Surprise Birthday Party for son Phillip turning 40 years old. (That makes me really old) combined with his annual Super Bowl Party over the weekend. It turned out not to be a surprise. It is really hard to do something like that for that boy. He has always been able to get information from us if he suspects anything. He always figures out his Christmas presents by asking questions and snagging us into hints. What a Con he has always been. He, however, did not know that we were roasting him. Now that was fun because he has been involved in funny situations since he was little. When he was 3 years old (we lived in Las Vegas) he and some little friends same age and younger decided to leave our fenced yard and cross a busy street behind our house and went to the Dunkin' Donuts to get some donuts for themselves. They told the lady they were going on down the street to get their mommies some chicken at Colonel Sanders then on down farther to get their dads some beer at 7-11.The lady thought they were so cute but decided to close the donut shop and bring them home. HE WAS IN DEEP POO POO. Another time when he was older, he and a buddy were playing in our garage and caught the garage on fire and tried to put it out with a propane torch. He thought it was a fire extinguisher. Never a dull moment around him. He has grown into a handsome, fine, successful man that is very loving, sentimental and family oriented. He and Holly had prepared tons of food for the parties this weekend. Phillip made his baby back ribs that just melt in your mouth. Nobody can do those like he can. Later that night, they all pulled out the rock band and I was amazed at how good they all do on it. Even as young as Nolan is, he takes after his Uncle Phillip, playing those drums. I had so much fun. It was a very full weekend and very tired when we got home. Was disappointed that the cardinals didn't win.

PLAYDATE WITH GRANDKIDS

What fun I had with Nolan and Leslie recently. Nolan had gotten domino building blocks from his other grandma for Christmas and brought them to my house. We used nearly all the dominoes on my long kitchen table to build a train. It took us about 30 minutes without even knocking any dominoes down. Amazing! When we got through, Nolan took the stick and started the dominoes to fall down. Fun, Fun. After we did that, Leslie had gotten some clothes from Camryn so she presented a style show for us. What a natural she is. She loved all of the clothes she had received. Days like this are what grandmas live for. Thanks to my children, I have so much fun with ALL my grandchildren- 12 in all. Ages from 21 down to age 4. There is always something going on with them and I love being a part of it. Keeps me active and I feel younger when I am around them.

WARNING, I AM VERY LUCKY WITCH

I am a VERY LUCKY WITCH today. CAUTION!!! When I got to Diana's house to go trick or treat with them, I was dressed in my real witch outfit and ready to go. She was spraying the glitter from a can on Leslie and Nolan and thought I needed more. She took the can and sprayed my hair, my clothes, my arms and legs - all over my body. We then left for the evening. I did stay at the car a couple of times to devulge in my bad habit (smoke). Welllllllll, she calls me this morning and reveals (while laughing her head off) that she was reading the spray can of glitter and it says: CAUTION: Do not use on color treated hair that has been colored in the last year and do not color hair until ALL the glitter is gone from the hair. It is also VERY HIGHLY FLAMMABLE. It says "Do NOT use heat curlers or blow dryer until all glitter is gone. I was going to just curl my hair today because it was clean BUT--Would you say--I am a VERY LUCKY WITCH. My daughter almost blew me up on my birthday. I am heading to the shower for the 3rd time now. When I told John Stanley about it he said " Cool, the kids would have said, look, how did that witch catch her hair on fire? She really can do spells. WARNING: always read the label on anything before using. I still have glitter all over my body AND hair after bathing. I am not out of the woods yet.

THE TRUTH REVEALED ON HALLOWEEN

It has finally been revealed - I REALLY AM A WITCH! I had no problem convincing little children after dark on Halloween night that I was. I had one child even tell me "I cackle like a witch when I laugh". I wore a necklace with lots of charms on it and let all the children pick a charm for me to cast a spell on them. They were all GOOD spells - like a key charm was "Bigedy, Bobbably, Boo- you have the key to my heart", then they would hug and kiss me. I cast spells on everyone I was with after trick or treating downtown, and got everything I had wished for in those birthday bags. I got a beautiful new watch from the love of my life, a scrapbook tote from Leslie and Nolan and a new witch for my witch collection from Diana and Les. That was the strange one - I love the Jim Shore collection and mentioned to my red hat friends the day before Halloween that I didn't even buy a new witch for my collection this year because they were all the same thing but I would love to have a Jim Shore witch if he even made one. Guess what- he does make one and I got it and Diana, I absolutely love it. She made me a beautiful chocolate birthday cake also.Thank you so much for all your hard work Diana. You made it a perfect day. What a wonderful day I had so I believe I really can cast spells sooooo WATCH OUT! You can see in the pics how I go up to the children and cast the spell on them, then they are ALL MINE. So now you see the REAL ME. (AN OLD GRANDMA WITCH)