Patty Johnson's Blog

The visitation was Monday from 4pm-8pm but we got there at about 3:30pm. It took me about an hour to get from the front door to the casket. It was really strange seeing my Grandma like that. It was nice to see all the flowers that people had sent and took look all the photo collages the we all made plus the slideshow was put together by the funeral home. Being there for so long was really emotionally draining plus Adam and I also got tired of chasing Lily around. They did have a nice lounge area with kids toys and a tv where we could hang out with and have some snacks. By the time we got to leave we all went to my parents house and we were starving. Lynn Spanbauer made this really yummy beef that was already nice and warm because it was in a crockpot. I quickly gobbled down 3 sandwiches and was better. We got home at about 10 and went to sleep, but I woke up wide awake at 1am and stayed awake for 2 hours because I couldn't sleep.
This morning we had to be at the funeral home by 9:30am. Lily and I aren't used to having to get up so early! We got there and basically stayed in the lounge area trying to keep Lily occupied. When it was time to go in for the service Lily was being a complete monster. Adam had to take her out basically right when the service started. I'd like to thank Aaron, Vanessa and Eric for moving to come sit by me after Adam had to leave the room with Lily. The pastor didn't know Grams but he got together with some of my family yesterday to hear stories about her. He put together a really beautiful speech that both involved Halloween and also how Grams loved to bake, sew, knit, crochet and be with her family. We had found a poem in a box of Grandma's most treasured possesions and Steve went to the front to read it. It's actually a poem that my choir teacher once put to music and we sang for a concert in the 6th grade. The Poem is here and this copy is actually in Grandma's handwritting which made it very special. After the ceremony we got to pay our last respects and all the grandchilden and great-grandchilden could give rose to Grams. We also gave a family photo that was taken at my wedding renewal (plus a photo of Braeden since he wasn't born yet) to Grams.
Then we proceeded to the Restlawn Cemetary. It was really really cold outside so we were only there for a little bit before making our way to Shooters for a nice meal. We were originally going to have a family reunion right before Christmas with in honor of Grams but since she didn't make it for that Shooter's just moved all our plans to today.
The meal was much nicer because it was a more happier time of day. All the children had fun playing together and running around finding pumpkins and goards. My friends manned the cameras and took a really big family photo of everyone there. (hopefully someone has a shot with less glare on the kids) The rest of today we just spend hanging out with family at my parents house. It was nice to all be together but sad because Grams can no longer be here. I'm going to miss her so much.

Lily was in the newspaper today for being one of the photos chosen for an article about dressing up for Halloween.Full article is Here but doesn't mention Lily. I was kinda nice that her picture was in the same newspaper as Gram's obituary. We got lots of copies of the paper today!

Since all the kids were in town ew all got to Trick-or-treat together!

Dad had to have the leaves done by Monday so Matt Danny & Lily helped out! All was well until Lily escaped from Matt and then I found her playing at the neighbors house across the street!

My Grandma passed away late Friday night. We have known for a few days that her condition was getting worse. My dad planned to stay with her overnight in her room and was holding her hand and then noticed that she was no longer breathing. She died peacefully in her sleep. I will miss her so much.

Today Lily woke me up at 8am! We went to the living room and started watching "Finding Nemo" together. Then, we both ended up falling asleep until 11:30am! Sweet. Adam came home for lunch as usual and then we played and watched Sesame Street as usual. My parents picked us up and we went to the Mall for the used book sale. We got some sweet books and mags and we got an entire cartload for only $20! After that we went to shopko where I got some killer deals on pants. Then, we went to my parents house to chill and play with the puppies. Lily fell asleep on the way home and Adam came home not feeling well so they both were napping. I actually got to get some stuff done (cleaning the kitchen & taking some notes) Yesterday, we had a little incident with the stove & a roll of paper towels. They don't mix just so you know.
Well anyway I found Lily on the stove tonight (don't worry we've moved stuff so she can't do it again) watch the video too it's cute VIDEO HERE

Today Lily and I skipped Playgroup because we woke up late and she was kinda crabby. But later in the day we took some time to play outside and blow bubbles with this cool Finding Nemo bubble blower I got for a buck at Shopko. After that we went and visited Grams for a little bit but she was having chest pains so after they gave her some drugs they had her lay down for a while so we left. Lily fell asleep on the way home with was nice because it was 2pm and she hasn't taken a nap that early in a while. Which was really nice because she went to bed at like 10:30pm! Which has been early for her.

Well, I have been taking a break from Potty training Lily for quite a while now. Mainly because she treats her little potty like a bath toy....dragging it into the bathtub whenever she gets a chance.
Well, tonight I was busy hanging clothes and Lily was watching Sesame Street. She started trying to take off her pants and said "pee-pee" a few times. I asked her if she had to go pee-pee and she immediately ran to the bathroom. I helped her take off her diaper and reassembled her potty. I placed her on it and she went potty right away like it was nothing new. I was so proud of her! She's becoming a big girl so fast!!!

Lily and I went over to my parents house for lunchtime. Adam stayed home to watch his soccer game. Becky, Mark, Nick, Braeden were there too along with my parents and Steve. Lily had fun playing with Braeden and showing him how to work this singing skeleton my mom found in her Halloween stash.
After everybody else left we came home and joined Adam who was taking a nap. We all slept until about 6:30pm. We just kinda hung out tonight watching tv and I did some more stuff with my trivia notes. Lily had fun watching Play with me sesame and singing along to it. So cute!

Steve drove up here all by himself to visit Grams. Lori stayed home with the kids because they had a soap box derby kinda thing to go to. We went to eat at Bill's and had lots of yummy pizza. Then, I dropped off Lily and Adam at home because they were both tired, and went to my parents house to chit-chat. Then about an hour and a half later I went to pick them back up on the way to go visit Grams. She was really happy today which was a nice change! After that we just went to my parents house again to hang out and to have some random cake and cookies. We got home and I started organizing some of my trivia notes. After about an hour Aaron finally got a hold of me and invited me over to watch "Over the Hedge" with them. Since Lily had slept until about 7pm I knew she wasn't going to sleep anytime soon so she went with me. We didn't end up starting the movie until after midnight and with all the pausing and stuff we didn't get back home til 2am! Lily was pretty good but she was more interested in chasing their cat up the stairs constantly. She ended up falling asleep in my lap right at the end of the movie.

Well, we currently have a new roommate living in my basement and driving Crazy nuts...a chipmunk. While I was doing laundry a few days ago I saw Crazy chasing chippy underneath one of the mattresses we have propped up on the wall. My first thought was "I don't wanna know what that was" thinking it was a mouse or a rat or something but then the chipmunk popped out and just sat there until Crazy chased him again, this time under the washer & dryer. My dad has a live trap and I'll be attempting to catch chippy once Dad finds the trap.
I finally got Adam to agree to watch a movie with me tonight. Adam is really picky about movies and finds all sorts of reasons not to watch them with me. Somehow I got him to agree to watch "The Break-up" starring Vince Vaughn & Jennifer Aniston. Don't be fooled by any trailers that you see or even the box itself that says "one of the best american comedies in years" This movie sucks! It's not funny at all it's depressing. They spend the whole movie fighting and trying to fool each other that they really want to break up but neither of them do but at the end when you think they will finally end this stupid movie and they will end up together...They don't.

We took pictures of Lily in her Halloween costumes today because they are having a sort of contest in the newspaper. First we she wore an elmo costume then her pink care bear one. She really likes the care bear one and didn't want to take it off so she ended up wearing it to the nursing home when we visited Grams.

Lily and I went to Mead park today & had lots of fun on the slides!

Lily was being really good and sitting in the living room watching "Garfield The Tail of Two Kitties" so I decided to go in the kitchen and do the dishes. A few minutes later I heard a weird sound and then Lily came running into the kitchen with my cell phone. Then, I heard my dad's voice. Turns out Lily called my parents and put them on speakerphone to talk to them. She was talking up a storm to them and they of course were talking back. Of course they were kinda worried that I wasn't saying anything so they told her to go find mama and that's when she came running in the kitchen. Silly Lily...I guess I have to put them phone up higher from now on.
Update: Lily was counting my toes today and counted up to 6!!!

Today we hung out all day at home. We were waiting to get ahold of Aaron because we were supposed to go to his out to do some trivia stuff. We did end of cleaning our house which was nice til Lily destroyed it as usual. We finally got ahold of Aaron at about 10pm which was too late to really do anything since Lily goes to bed shortly after that. Here's some cute pictures from today. The one with Adam and Lily is of them "honking" there noses like in Ernie's Honker Ducky Dinger Jamboree.

Adam surpised me and took a 1/2 day off of work today. We went to the new Hudson's in Plover with my parents. We got there at 4:30 before the crazy rush even though they were still pretty busy then. We finally got to have our Fried Dillys (not as good as Katz in Houston but yummy anyways)
After dinner, Adam dropped Lily and I off at my parents house so we could hang out there while he went to play darts at Opy's. They ended up winning 7 to 5 so Adam was pretty happy.

After playgroup I hung out at my parents for a while. We didn't do much beside relax and eat some of Dad's yummy grilled cheese sandwiches. Lily tried on her elmo costume today and I think she likes the fur (she doesn't have the head part on in the photo) Lily, Mom and I also went shopping for a little while while Dad took a nap on the couch. Sounds like he has the same annoying cold as I do. It snowed a little bit today and I was excited. Then, when I was coming out of work at Fair Wisconsin it was snowing alot. There was snow and icy slush on my windshields and I was totally unprepared so I didn't have an ice scraper. It it really wintery already?

Well, Lily refused to take a nap during the day today. Our plan was to eat dinner and then have Lily go to sleep because she was super tired. While I was cooking Adam called me into the living room and I saw this
The poor girl didn't make it to dinner. She fell asleep watching "Finding Nemo" She did wake up at about 10 and finally got to eat.

On Sunday Adam, Lily and I went to the Nekoosa Giant Pumpkin Festival with my parents. It was basically a big craft fair with lots of pumpkins. They had lots of Giant pumpkins. The one below that Lily is sitting on weighted 1,030 pounds! They also had a guy carving pumpkins. As you can tell Lily wasn't in a photo mood but oh well. We had fun there and then went to Taco Johns for lunch. Oh how I miss having one of those in town. After we came back to town and did a little shopping I took a nap for like 3 hours so I was awake until 4am last night!

Lily and I went to the Friday playgroup today because they were having a puppet show. The puppeteer was actually my friend Heidi Corcoran's mom, Pam. Lily was really good and sat and watched the whole puppet show! It was really cute. I talked to Pam for a while and found that Heidi is getting married in December. Congrats! The rest of playgroup was fun besides Lily and Savannah fighting over the green chair (Lily got pushed down as usual) When we were leaving Lily went to give Harrison a hug and they clunked heads. Kids are so cute.
Adam had his first night of dart league tonight. I hung out with my parents for a while. We went to Perkins and then went to visit Grams in the hospital. Perkins was yummy but it took an hour to get our food and we all just had pancakes! They don't really know what is wrong with Grams except that she has an infection somewhere. After that we came home and Lily and I watched some Sesame Street and then did some coloring while watching "Curious George"
Here's a cute picture from yesterday...Lily climbing on Adam's chair while he plays WoW.

Well, Lily and I just took a little drive and she fell asleep reading "Baby Mickey's Nap" how cute is that?

I don't know how I feel about the new sesame street character yet.  Her name is Abby Cadabby and she is the daughter of a fairy godmother.  Today was the first day she was on and they showed her "poofing" to Sesame Street, her new home.  Today she had to learn how to play hide and seek and count to 10.
This is what they say about why they brought her onto the street...
I don't know why they don't think Zoe is a girly girl.  She wears a tutu all the time and is all sparkly.  Do they think she isn't girly enough because she hangs out with Elmo and Baby Bear who are both boys?  Hmm

Adam had a party on Friday to meet his new dart league teammates. Lily and I chilled with my parents for a while. Then, on Saturday we went to Stratford. We went there to get my memory card for my camera and to just hang out with the fam. It was a beautiful fall day outside on Saturday so we spent some time playing outside
We of course spent some time in the hot tub relaxing. Adam's mom found a bunch of his old Sesame Street books in their basement so Lily was Super Excited. They are from 1984 which must have been before Elmo was really popular because he is only in one of them. But Lily loves going through the books naming all her Sesame Street friends!