Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

This weekend was terribly exhausting, but a very happy one. Some of you know that this was the weekend we moved my Grandma to Grand Haven here in Eldridge. She is in what they call independent living. She has all the amenities of home, fridge, stove and microwave. She had a little apprehension leading up to this weekend, but in the end she seems to be really liking her new place.




We had nearly 15 people show up at 9am on Saturday to help move. It took only about an hour to move her from one place to the other. Now that is what you call good help!!! Everyone put in a lot of effort to make this a very smooth transition for my Grandma...And it worked! Thanks everyone!! She already told me this afternoon that she is looking forward to taking part in a few , of the many, activities Grand Haven has to offer. Of course one is the walking club and the other is a bible study. Both of those are near and dear to her heart. Seeing her smiling and happy makes me, and all of my family, very grateful to all who played a part in her move. These people being: Dad, Mom, Tony, Me, Taylor, Kaylee, Shell, Mike, Dale, Nina, Dave, Dylon, Neil, Mary & Dane. Unfortunately I didn't get everyone's picture, but here are a few that I took.

I left Gram's new apartment at 2:30 to go home and get Kaylee over to Tony's Mom's house for an overnight and for seven 12 year olds to have a slumber party. Taylor's birthday is Thursday and she will be 12 years old. Why not have 7 of her closest friends over for a sleepover??? UGH!! They were pretty good...We started the party by doing a craft, at Taylor's request. We made fleece pillows. I did a lot of the pre-cutting of the 16 pieces of fabric previously. All the girls had to do was cut the strips, tie 3 sides, stuff and tie the last side. They all wrote their name on the backside to help them tell which one was theirs. They all decided to sign Taylor's pillow with the sharpie. It went pretty smoothly. After the craft and presents we had Godfather's pizza and a Maggie Moo's calssic Oreo ice cream cake (Taylor's favorite) Enjoy the pictures!!

Meeting Mr. Rohan ~ road trip!!!

Last weekend Dad, Mom, Nana, Me, Taylor and Kaylee all piled into my Explorer and headed for Kirksville, Missouri. We were very excited to meet the new addition to the Syring clan.

We left Eldridge at 6:38am and weathered some really nasty icy roads until sometime after Iowa City. We arrived at Mike and Mara's around 11:30am. I can not begin to tell you how small he was...He reminded me, literally, of a baby doll! He was perfect in every way possible. Unbelievable considering he made his appearance 33 days early! Mara had to leave us for about 3 1/2 hours in the afternoon to take the mock board exam. I truly don't know how she does it. Go Mara!!!

The highlight of my visit has to be the honor of giving Rohan his bath before we left. I swear he just kept getting smaller and smaller as the clothes came off of him. When I did start cleaning him off I found myself having to clean the 3 rolls on his cute little butt because he doesn't have enough fat to fill it out! Did I mention he was tiny!!??

Anyway, we left Mike and Mara's house at 6:38pm arriving back home around 10:45pm. What long day...but well worth it!

A huge "Thank You" goes out to my Dad for driving the entire trip! Hey Dad, watch out for those deer!!!

~side note, my Dad did an excellent job in keeping everyone safe as he saw a deer along the road and yelled "deer"! Dad was able to slow to about 10 miles an hour and about 5 feet from it (no antlers and not too big, Thank God!). What does the deer decide to do??? The dumb thing decides to run into my vehicle! The deer ran along the side of my Explorer and ended up rubbing along the whole passenger side right to the rear tire. Then the deer kept running off. Thanks to Dad I only ended up with some deer hair stuck in my wheel well for a remembrance. No scratch or dings in the vehicle what so ever!!! WOW!!!

ENJOY THE SLIDE SHOW!!!

The Rohan Alexander Syring Shrine

Welcome to my work shrine of my new nephew, Rohan. I had one of these when Jackson was born too! Isn't that what a crazy Tanta does? We are traveling this weekend to meet the little guy and I can not wait! I even have a nickname for him already, "ROR" pronounced like the sound a lion makes (it's a long story). Anyway, I couldn't wait to show him off to all of my co-workers. They all think he is adorable!

Rohan Alexander Syring has arrived!

Congratulations to my brother Mike and his wife Mara on the birth of their son Rohan Alexander Syring! Here are a couple of pictures I took (a.k.a. stole) off of their website. If you would like to view all of them please see the link to their website. He is a adorable!! Mara you look awesome!! I'm a Tanta again!! :)

Arrived: 2:01am

Weight: 5 lbs. 10 oz.

Length: 18 inches

Christmas 2008

This Christmas turned out to be really nice. I was a little apprehensive at first since my family was not going to be home for Christmas. A huge "Thank You" goes out to my in-laws for going the extra mile to include my Grandma in all of the holiday festivities.


Christmas Eve started out by taking my Grandma to Christmas Eve church services at 4:00pm. After that we went straight over to Dick and Sherry's house where we celebrate Christmas with Tony's sister Lori. Her present to both girls was Cheetah Girls concert tickets that they went to 3 weeks before Christmas. Tony's brother Nick was able to make it home. He lives in Chicago and started a new job, so he wasn't quite sure when he was going to make it home.


Christmas morning consisted of the normal morning Santa routine. Santa brought the girls "Rock Band" which we all played a few times (more like 20) after all of the gifts were opened. The big items this year for the girls were a cell phone & stereo for Taylor and an MP3 player & CD alarm clock for Kaylee. I was suprised with a diamond (v-shaped) necklace I had my eye on when I was sick and sulking about not being able to join in on the fun on "Black Friday". Tony had picked out his present in September so we could pre-order it. Suprise, it was a new guitar for his collection. This one is a Kenny Wayne Shepard special edition. It arrived the Tuesday after Christmas which turned out to be ok since he was off of work for that whole week. the guitar is black with grey racing stripes down the middle and Kenny's signature on the back. It is gorgeous!!!


The rest of the day on Christmas consisted of a great brunch made by my mother-in-law. She makes egg casserole and sweet rolls. YUM!! Tony and I and the girls, and even, Dick & Sherry, all bought my Grandma a present so she could be a part of the gift opening. My Grandma was tickled pink and very grateful. Of course, the following week she made us all bread!!! That't my Grandma!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY 2009!!!