Grandparent Names

I wrote in my blog a few postings ago, "What`s in a Name", about how I am going to have to start going by Genevieve instead of Gigi. There is one sweet boy that has another name in mind. Our Grandson just turned 17 months, a few days ago, and I think he has finally settled on names for me and my husband.

Already ordered one!

When we made the first trip to Texas in May to look at houses, our Grandson had settled on the name Papa for my husband, and that name has not wavered. He pronounces it Baba, and he is totally in love with his Grandpa. In Persian, Baba means: father; grandfather; wise old man ; sir. How smart is this baby that he is already speaking Persian. After our May trip, when we returned to Virginia, we would talk on Facetime, the baby would see me first, and start asking for Baba.  Cute? Yes, but also I was getting a little jealous.
I WANTED A GRANDMA NAME!!!!.

The top 10 popular Grandmother names are: Grandma, Nana, Grammy, Granny, Mimi, Gram, Nanny, Oma, Mamaw and Gran. At this point I would have taken any of these. Well, most of them. Not loving Granny, Nanny, or Oma. The new trend that I see is that Grandchildren are calling their Grandmas Gigi. That is not happening for me. When your name is Gigi, it is not an option for your Grand-babies to call you by your name. It needs to be special.

If I drank coffee, this would be my cup!

The name of my blog is "Busy Geemaw", and I thought my Grandson would just call me Geemaw. Nope! When I left Texas in May, it looked like the winner was Mamaw. Nope! When we moved down here in June, it went from Mamaw, to Nana, and back to Mamaw again. I didn`t think he would ever settle on a name. Then one day he called me Meemaw, and that was it. He hasn`t changed it since.
I am MEEMAW!

I should have known that Meemaw would be the official Grandma name for me, because both of my sons wanted that from the start. True "Big Bang Theory" fans, they both love that Sheldon calls his Grandma, Meemaw. Now, I am sure I will have to start singing "Soft Kitty" every time he is sick. Do I have to call him Moonpie, because he is nummy-nummy and I could just eat him up?  OK, enough "Big Bang" references.

I went to pick "Moonpie" up at Daycare last week. When I got to the door, he was sitting in his little chair at a table getting ready for his snack.  He looked up, saw me, and said, "Meemaw! He got up and ran to me.

Words cannot describe how it feels when that baby looks up at me and calls me Meemaw.

It just doesn`t get any better than that!

Wedding Invitations

When my daughter got engaged a few years ago and we started planning "The Wedding", I decided I wanted to make the invitations. My daughter picked her colors, sage and gold, and we knew that we wanted to use wedding cakes as the center pieces on the tables, so what would be better to put on the front of the invitations than a wedding cake.

I got into card stamping along time ago, over 20 years, and when I moved to central Indiana, 10 years ago, I met a very dear friend, Connie, she helped me jump into it with both feet.  After doing some research, and looking at many invitations I came up with a plan, Connie was such a great help in the whole process.

This was the sample card inside and out. 

I knew I wanted a cake on the front of the card, so I needed to decide how big, what color, and what to put on top of the cake. I decided that it would be three tiers, cream color with sage trim/icing, and a flower on top. This would be similar to the tall single layer, cream iced cake with sage lace, and a sage or gold handmade satin flower on top we were planning to have for the reception centerpieces.

  First, Connie and I made templates for the cake tiers. A lot of measuring and trial and error.  We cut our three different size rectangles using a paper cutter to make sure they were all exactly the same size. We got all three tiers the size and shape we wanted, and then we had to figure out the trim/icing. We decided on a lace trim/icing, and found an edge paper punch that was perfect.  We punched rows and rows of sage lace trim/icing. We layered the top tier of the cake with sage and cream lace trim/icing. This means that we had to make the top tier of sage lace wider then the lower tiers, so the cream lace would fit over top of the sage layer. All corners had to be curved, so we laid the lace on the top side of a rectangle tier, cut off the excess lace, glued it in place with paper glue, and used a corner punch on the top two corners. For the topper of the cake we used a small flower punch, one cream and one sage, offset the colors and put a sticky pearl in the middle.

This card was a sample, the top tier is a little crooked.

For the actual wording of the invitation, I went online and looked at hundreds of samples.  I ended up putting several of them together, and I really loved how they turned out. After the wording was done, I had to print it on a cream piece of card stock. I was able to print two per 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of card stock, cut them to fit on the inside of the invitation and punch decorative corners.

I really love the wording! Just like a government document the names have been redacted.

The inside pocket of the invitation was a little trickier. I used the same card stock as the card, and cut it at an angle with  the outside being about 2 inches shorter than the outside of the card, and the inside about 2 to 3 inches long. I then, using paper glue, glued the sides and bottom down. The glued edges were a about 1/4 of an inch. Make sure it is completely dry before you try to put the cards in them.

Make sure you use a good liquid paper glue. It was the only glue that held up to the pressure.

The Response and Reception cards were printed 4 per page and I used a program that let me print on the card sideways and upright.  The wording was also the result of the research of several dozen samples. They were then cut, so the banner label was staggered, and both could be read. We bought sage small envelopes for the response cards, addressed, and put postage on them.  The envelopes fit perfectly in the pocket behind the cards.

Should that say "have" been? OMG, a grammar error I found 3 years later.

The final step was the decorative ribbon. I bought 10 spools of cream ribbon at several fabric stores. Measured the correct length, cut them all, wrapped them around the card, and tied a bow.

CUTE, CUTE CUTE!!!!!!!

I was living in Indiana at the time so, I packed all the pieces, took a road trip to Texas, and we had a craft party at my daughters.  She invited her friends over, and we spent the evening putting the cards together in an assembly line.  All that was left to do was to address and mail them.

I did not save money or time by making the invitations, but I sure loved doing it. It was just one of the many things I was able to do to get involved in the process of planning our Daughter`s wedding while living 1000 miles away.

Baby It`s Hot Outside

We have been in Texas for eight weeks and the temperature for the last three consecutive days has been in the triple digits.

It is so hot the sun need a drink

Your may ask, "How hot is it"?

It is so hot that:

the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs

your seat belt can be used as a branding iron

the cows are giving evaporated milk

you can wash and dry your clothes at the same time

hot water is coming out of both taps

the birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground

no shirt, no pants, no problem

potatoes cook underground, just pull it out and add butter

the water buffalo at the zoo evaporated

the best parking space is determined by the shade instead of the distance

Satan decided to take the day off'

the Polar Bears are wearing sunscreen

everyone is wearing "sweat" pants

you actually burn your hand opening your car door

your clothes iron themselves

fireworks light themselves

you can get a sunburn through your car window

catfish are already fried when you catch them

you eat hot chilies to cool your mouth off

your dream house is any house in Alaska

you can make instant sun tea

today I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen

a corn stock turned into popcorn

your car overheats before you drive it

the temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly

                                                      

 Hot enough for you?

What`s in a Name?

As we were cleaning out our parents home, my sister Paula has been going through a huge box of old photos we retrieved from their basement. Paula has been sharing the photos, via text and email, with all of my siblings. A few nights ago she sent a picture of our maternal Grandfather. His name was Frank and he died about 52 years ago.

Grandpa Frank in the 1950s. Love the
doily on the chair.                                  

As the picture was passes around, we were talking about how young our parents were when they lost their fathers.  Our Mom lost her father (Frank) when she was 37, and my Dad lost his father (Ross) when he was just 21. As we were texting back and forth, I mentioned that our Mom got pregnant, with our brother Don, a few months after her father passed, and that Don would have most likely been named Frank if our oldest brother didn`t already have that honor. My parents did not seem to have an original idea when it came to naming their children. Everyone seems to be named after a relative or close family friend. It all stated with my oldest sister who was named after my Mom`s pen pal from England during WWII. That is a whole other blog.

Parents: Laberta and Paul in 1993

My Dad has had several kids and grandchildren named after him using either his first name Paul, or middle name Victor. My Mom on the other hand will not be so lucky. I just do not see the name Laberta being a big hit in the baby naming process for the next generation.

The Genevieves! I was 16 and Grandma was in
 her late 70s. I sure wish I was that thin again.

 I was named after my maternal Grandmother Genevieve. My initials were G. G., so my parents called me Gigi. As a child I did not like my name Genevieve, at all. It was an odd name, long and hard to spell. Not to mention the fact that no one could pronounce it correctly (Gen-uh-veev). I was called, Geneva, or it was pronounced Zhahn-vee-ev (French version), many times I was called Guinevere. For some reason, and I never understood why, but people would call me Gidget. It may be because the movie was made just before I was born, or maybe it was because my husband`s name is Moondoggy. Just Kidding! You youngins will have to Google that.

I hated attendance in grade school. Every teacher would get to my name, pause, butcher it, the kids would laugh, and I was humiliated. Out of the ordinary names can be hard on kids. Just ask Moondoggy.

For over 40 years I had never met anyone, other than my Grandma, that had the name Genevieve. Then about 10 years ago I went to work in a school in Indiana. There was a lady named Genevieve working in the lunchroom, and I was so excited to meet another Genevieve. During the 7 years I worked at that school there were two students named Genevieve, and two Moms named Gigi. I was at a store in Texas a few weeks ago, paid the cashier with my credit card, and as I was walking away the lady next in line called out "Genevieve". I thought I forgot my card, and started to walk back to the desk, only to find out she was calling her teen aged daughter.  Then a few days ago I took my Grandson to daycare, lo and behold there is a little 18 month old Genevieve in his class.There are now at least three Genevieves in Texas.

As I have gotten older I realize that I will have to transition from being called Gigi, to the more mature Genevieve, and I am ready for that. It is a name I have grown to love.  (But I still need to spell it in my head when I am writing/signing my name. I cannot stop in the middle and pick it up again without starting over. Too many e`s and  v`s.) I would love for one of my children, nieces, or nephews to pass the name on to the next generation. Genevieve is showing signs of a revival, in the US in 1916 it was ranked 76th and it`s highest ranking. When I was born (year not included) it was ranked 603. Now in 2014 the name Genevieve is ranked 219, close to the 214 raking in 1936. I am happy that it is becoming "popular", we need more little Genevieves running around this world.

Visit to the "White Elephant"

No fireworks for us this year.

My husband and I went back to check on the house we are "selling" in Virginia. We decided to go over the July 4th holiday weekend, so we could spend more time getting things done, and visit some of our favorite spots. We were going to leave Thursday evening and come back Sunday afternoon. Didn`t quite work out that way.  Our flight Thursday was canceled because of "weather", and we didn`t get out until Friday morning. The nice part was hardly anyone was traveling on the 4th, so getting around in the airports was easy.

It was nice to get back to the house, and the best part was sleeping in our bed. Boy, do we miss our bed! After watering the plants, and checking out the house we realized we needed to do some flower bed maintenance, finalize the arrangements shipping our car, return cable boxes, and most importantly bury St Joseph in the yard.

Landscaping was easy enough, because the deer eat EVERYTHING, we just planted boring green bushes in a few spots to replace the eaten flowers. It was hot, so I bought the plants in the early morning and planted them in the early evening. Easy Peasy!

The first few times you see these beautiful creatures in your yard you think they are so adorable. Then they eat everything in your yard, and all you can do is picture them hanging on a hook and having a deer burger for lunch.

Returning the Verizon boxes, not so easy peasy. We had 8 boxes in the house, a lot I know. In May we returned 5 and Verizon still had not credited our account for the returned boxes. UPS has a deal with Verizon that they will ship the boxes back for you, and all you have to do is take the boxes, cords and remotes to UPS, they will box them and ship them to Verizon. Sounds simple, right? When we took in the 5 boxes in May, Amy our UPS agent, gave us some invaluable advice. Amy said to track the boxes with the tracking number, and as soon as they are received, print the information that has when, where and who signed for them. I guess that Verizon is known for saying that they did not receive shipments. Well guess what, they had no record of receiving our 5 boxes. Because of Amy, I was able to give them tracking numbers, branch location, date, time and name of the person that signed for them. After about 5 calls, and 45 days from the date they received the boxes, we got our credit. Now I was shipping them 2 more boxes, and I will be making the call this week to see why we have not been credited with the return. You can be assured I have all the tracking information. Thanks Amy!

Type of trailer our car was shipped in.

The car mover came early Saturday, and took the car on its 1300 mile trip to our little abode in Texas.That was the easiest part of our, trip. The car arrived safely in Texas the following Wednesday and we have happily returned the rental car we had for over a month. Happy Husband!

The best part of the trip was my husband burying the St. Joesph (Patron Saint of real estate) statue.

We bought the "Authentic St Joesph"
 Comes with prayer and instructions.
Faith sold separately!

Neither one of us is Catholic, so the fact that he was burying the statue shows you just how desperate we are to sell this "White Elephant".  So, he takes the statue out to the "For Sale" sign and starts to dig with a small hand gardening shovel. I am watching as he hits rock after rock and he is cursing up a storm. He leaves and goes into the house to get a big shovel. Now he is digging a new hole with the big shovel and still hitting rocks and still cursing. I had to walk away because I was starting to see a little too much humor in this drama, and after all he did have a shovel. About 30 minutes later we were in the house eating lunch and I asked if St Joseph got buried? He said, "Yes". I asked if he said the prayer over it? He said, "I read the card in the kitchen". He said maybe I should go do it since I was Lutheran, which is "Catholic Lite". I told him that I was not Catholic and did not believe that St. Joesph would help sell the house. Then, I could not hold my laughter any longer. I was laughing so hard I was crying as I told him that all I could picture was a non Catholic, cursing while digging a hole, to bury a Catholic saint statue, and reading a prayer from a card in the kitchen, all to help sell his house. Just how desperate are we? It still makes me laugh just thinking about it. I just hope St Joesph see the humor too!

Pillow Headboard

This headboard is by far the easiest to make. I bought both standard and Euro pillow shams that matched the bedspread in my guest room. Then, I went to World Market and bought four decorative hooks. The bed skirt that came with the comforter is blue checked and I was lucky to find ribbon that matched it exactly. SCORE!!!

These were the Euro shams I used for this bed in our home in Indiana

Measure a few inches from the ends of the sham. Cut four pieces of ribbon as long as you need to make the size bow you want.  I folded the ribbon in half  and I then used little safety pins to hold the folded end of ribbon to the sham. Then I tied a bow with the ribbon to make a loop to hang it on the hook. One bow on each side of the sham.

Hooks I bought at World Market and I think they were just a few dollars a piece.

I then held the pillow up to the wall to measure the distance between bows to mark for the hooks. I hung the hooks with anchors and then hung the pillows.  These are great headboards because they look great, and you can sit in bed and read leaning back on the headboard.

Indiana headboard using the Euro Sham

In Indiana I used the bedspread, skirt, shams, quilt and curtains that came as a set.  In our house in Virginia I decided to buy a red bedspread to go with the skirt, quit and shams. I then bought material that matched the back of the quilt to make curtains. I also used the standard shams as the headboard instead of the Euro shams.

Virginia headboard using the standard sham

I love how easy it was to change one or two items and you can get a different look.

Love the red! And the bear!

Apartment Life Update

It has been a little over a month and we are now, unfortunately, settled into the Texas apartment. I am still hating on the girl upstairs. Now, I not only get to hear the bouncing hyena every morning at 6 AM, but she has decided to do early morning house cleaning at 7 AM, and starts with the vacuum cleaner. I use to love staying in bed on Saturday mornings, no more. As I am writing this she is up there pounding away at something, or maybe she is just marching in place. Who knows, but I really want her to STOP!!!!!!!

When you are sick you get to sit a pool , in your PJs,
 with your blanket and pacifier watching Sesame Street.

Last night was a long night, couldn`t sleep, slept on the couch (when I did sleep), and my husband left at 4:30 AM for a flight to LA. Whoopie, the hyena upstairs, started her jumping and running at 6 AM, and my daughter called at 7:30 AM to see if I could babysit my sweet sick Grandson. Of Course! The day was just as long as the night, but I loved every minute of holding that sweet baby all day. He is feeling much better this evening, must have been Meemaw magic. I am pooped and ready for an early nights sleep.

Speaking of poop, we have been collecting the pooch poop bags in a trash bag on the patio. It has been in the upper 90`s and the 100`s the last week. I cannot tell you what cooking pooch poop smells like. Hope the girl upstairs is getting a whiff. Payback for the bouncing hyena.

Being cooped up in a small apartment means we need some entertainment in the evening. It is hard to find things to do when you don`t have your stuff. So, we decided to watch a very popular TV series. We bought the first 3 years on DVD, and when we went to watch them we found that our the DVD player was not hooked up. That is because they gave us a player that is not compatible with the TV, not very helpful. Instead of exchanging it for a working player, they just left it in the apartment and laid the wires on the table. Lucky for us our daughter is close and had an extra player that was compatible. Love having family close by.

Still trying to get use to the whole Central Time thing.  Most of my family is an hour later (blue), and my son in Tucson (tan) is two hours earlier. As you can see by the map, Tucson would only be one hour earlier (red ) if they recognized Daylight Savings time. Indiana saw the light (no pun intended) several years ago, come on Arizona, come to the "dark side", or is it the "light side"? My son is not bothered by my forgetfulness, but the rest of my family may be getting tired of the late night calls and texts. I won`t even get into all the TV shows that are on an hour earlier and how that is so hard to get use to. Over 50 years in the same timezone means it may take more than a month to get use to the new timezone.
 I just need a little more time (pun definitely intended). Sounds reasonable to me.