Connor Aidan – a gdovin girl's perspective

it’s that time again!

Published on July 22, 2019November 17, 2020 by a gdovin girl

Back to School. This Grammie, Grandma, Mimi, Nana and GG has a thing about buying school supplies. I started when Tristan began kindergarten. And now she is 27; so it has been a bit since I began this tradition.

Supplies are winging their way as I write, to Alexander and Victoria. Marluce should be getting some packages as well. Mateo does not have his school supply list yet. I am still shopping for Connor & waiting for information for AJ!

Max and Abby attend the Khalsa Montessori school and the school shops for and purchases all of the school supplies so every one has identical supplies. Since I cannot buy school supplies for them, I will settle for school shoe shopping. After Abby and I picked up Maxwell from his coding camp, we hit the Hungry Fox for a real lunch that had no resemblance to a box lunch with a toy.

Okay, sooooo, Nana may or may not have, picked up some sandals as well as a new purse. Thanks, DSW!

A fairly successful afternoon of shopping, I think!

camp nana – over the rainbow

Published on June 1, 2017April 25, 2020 by a gdovin girl

Connor was our special visitor for our first day of camp 2017. Off to a busy start creating beautiful rainbows from bits of tissue paper and lots of glue. Max handled his own gluing and dutifully assisted Abby & Connor with dots of glue where needed.

Max decided on a miss-mash of colors in the shape of a rainbow, taking creative license. 20170602_144732 Connor took a more abstract approach to his canvas (paper) of work. 18871631_10209221513085627_783146094_n

Ginny went minimalist while Abby was precise and exact. 20170602_144755 20170602_144809 All in all, a succesful gallery of color, giggles and glue. And keeping with our theme, our quiet reading time was HOW THE CRAYONS SAVED THE RAINBOWS. 20170531_141210

Since Ginny attended camp after her nap time, she missed story time. When she arrived, Maxwell picked up the book and got her a pillow and read her the entire book. At one point,Abby and Ginny were giggling, and I overheard Max … “do you want me to keep reading the story or do you want me to put the book up and you can keep talking”. They chose the book.

What should little campers snack on during a rainbow of a day? Well, a rainbow of fruit, of course (with a couple of other food groups as well) Strawberries, cheese, pineapple, cucumber slices, crunch berries, black berries and marshmallow clouds. It was quite the success! 20170601_114713

Have you ever painted with spaghetti? Well, we did. And the results were nothing short of spectacular. After cooking and cooling the spaghetti, I placed it on a dish in the middle of the kids table. I then got busy setting up 4 plates with 2 colors of paint each, and when I returned to the table with the paint plates, there sat a tiny Ginny with a single spaghetti noodle hanging out of the corner of her mouth. But once she saw the idea, she was ready to go. Just in case, I did give her a little plate of noodles so that if she was inclined to grab another bite, she had un-painted pasta at the ready.

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The rest of the first camp day, was filled with music, legos and a short walk to find items in the neighborhood to make up the colors of the rainbow. 20170601_123814

After camp, loaded up my new pink Nana chair and headed off to watch Maxwell compete with his Indian Ridge Swim Team, where he took 3rd in the backstroke and the butterfly. He literally has never done the butterfly before, so his coach had him go underwater and watch another swimmer and that was his training. Off he went and was quite impressive for the first time. Looking forward to many more swim meets.

photo ~~stolen from~~ courtesy of Megan Mundle.

Camp Nana 2017 Kickoff

Published on May 31, 2017April 25, 2020 by a gdovin girl

Tomorrow begins the 5th year of Camp Nana in Tucson, formerly known as Camp Grandma in Leesburg for 2 years. It will be a short day, but for three and a half hours this tiny house will be filled with laughing and talking and some “he took my paper and she knew I was going to use that one!”. It will be loud and full of questions and quiet storytime and messy. Connor, Ginny, Max and Abby will participate in all things rainbows.

Rainbow art. Rainbow reading. Rainbow snack. Maybe some rainbow songs, if there is time.

And then, just as fast as camp noisy began, 3 of the little ones will be whisked away to a swim meet … another will return to his Vail family and there will be scarcely a trace of the afternoon, save for tissue paper pieces floating around; sticky glue residue on the tables and chairs and bits of snacks abandoned on little plates and something squished on the floor over there. Hmmm.

And as I drag the vacuum out, I will take another look around and picture the sticky fingers and messy faces and as though time had never even passed – I will hear his voice in my mind saying “good job, honey”.

Connor brings his Mommy to Tucson

Published on October 9, 2015April 25, 2020 by a gdovin girl

Such a treat to spend the day with my great grandson and my grand-daughter visiting all the way from southern Virginia. Reviewing these photo pages are guaranteed to bring a little smile to your heart. Enjoy.

my pleasure, baby Connor.

Published on August 20, 2015April 25, 2020 by a gdovin girl

My first letter from Connor. He drew the picture all by himself!

Mission POSSIBLE

Published on March 3, 2015April 25, 2020 by a gdovin girl

I met my husband 48 years ago. We were only 15. We are getting ready to celebrate our 44th Wedding Anniversary this coming Easter Sunday. But there is a dark cloud looming. Bob needs a kidney. He is in end stage renal failure – stage 5.

He has struggled over the past decade with numerous ambulance rides and multiple stays at hospitals, and several near death episodes. He is determined, but in order to be placed back on the UNOS transplant list (United Network for Organ Sharing) at the University of Arizona Medical Center, we must pay the $12000. deductible as well as about $1000 in funds transfer fees. Our son, Jeffry, has set up a gofundme page, and in only thirteen days, friends, family and strangers have donated just over $11k. Such remarkable people in this world. We need you to spread the word. If you can share this post and send a prayer, it would mean more than we could ever say. Here is the link to the fund: http://www.gofundme.com/bobneedsakidney

Six of our grand children say it better than we ever could.