Kristen's Birthday!

Today, we celebrated Kristen's 8th birthday. Well, that celebration started early Friday on her actual birthday, with the removal of her car seat. A kid has to be 8 years or 80 pounds in New Jersey until they can ditch a car seat, so Friday was Kristen's day!

She got congratulated all throughout the school day, and then I picked her up at my mother-in-law's, since Sandy was busy with Annual Craft Fair stuff at the Fairgrounds.




We went to see Bolt in the Sparta Theater - great movie, not-so-great theater, but hey, they enjoyed it.

Kristen got a passworded journal today at her party, from her Aunt and Uncle and cousin in Prague. This thing promised to be pretty secure, and I'll be darned.... let the videos speak for themselves...

Kristen opened it up with the password....


Then Freddy tried to break in!



When Kristen got back in, the "journal lady" told her there were previous intruder attempts.



Pretty cool! Kristen says "Thanks to Aunt Laura!"

Farewell Granny

On November 4th, two bad things happened.

Granny MacKenzie (my mother's mother, aka MB) passed away after a short stint in the hospital. She was 88 years old, and was the 66 year wife of Robert W. MacKenzie, a WWII veteran and just an all around classy gentleman. We love both of them very much, and were very privileged to be in both their presences for a long time. Grandpa will carry on, and showed some of that class last night around old friends, family, and our children, his great-grandchildren.

Granny was destined for a nursing home after what we thought would be a few days in the hospital due to some fluid buildup in her lungs. My mother and aunt made a few trips there to be by the bed, but I don't believe she ever regained consciousness after a few mini strokes, and died peacefully.

Granny was a (as my sister writes) spunky part of the family. She never thought twice about speaking her mind, and we always appreciated that. Her extreme taste for shrimp and cocktail sauce seems to have been passed to Kristen, and I'm sure Kristen will never forget many plates of shrimp the pair devoured together in record times. Freddy and Grandpa are still arm wrestling everytime they meet, much like I have for years with both :)

Granny, you'll be missed! We'll keep Grandpa company as much as possible.



Oh, and the other bad thing ? Barack HUSSEIN Obama was elected President of the United States. Already there's signs that his massive ideas for "Change" aren't going to happen... After all, Jesse Jackson needs his moment, too, doesn't he ? *smirk*