Tales of a Shoebox Princess

A picture I stole from facebook. Those feet are not Jim's and mine, those are Katie's and Christian's. So Jim and I get promoted from dad and mom to Granddad and Grandma! And all the kids get promoted to aunt and uncles!  (except Katie, who is already an aunt to Christian's nephews)(and besides, Kate will be promoted to Mom!) First of all, my official mother of the mother-to-be congratulations to Katie! And mother-in-law congratulations to Christian as well! Yes, I have known about this for a while, but Katie made me not broadcast it because she wanted to do it herself, which I guess I can understand. I can't wait to be a grandma! I had two fantastic grandmas from which to draw some lessons on how to be a grandma. Sadly both of them have gone on to heavenly things, one just little while ago. Grandma Hawley, if you're listening, you are going to be a great-great grandma! I wish I could have told you while you were still here. And Grandma Talberg, you a

Early this morning, before the sun was even sort of up, I went out to the van to hit the gym for some early morning exercise (I joined a club at the beginning of the year. I am not thin yet. I am blaming the club). The garage was pitch black, even though the garage door was open to the driveway, but I thought "Meh, I don't feel like turning on the garage light. I know my way to the car door and that way I won't have to turn the light off later." So I stepped into the garage. And promptly bumped into a box with a big squishy sleeping bag on it, which rolled to the side and bumped into something else. That bump triggered a tinkly musical noise...a music box. I don't recollect a music box in the garage. I wasn't familiar with the tune. I am familiar with horror movies though, and this seemed like the perfect opening to one. So I hustled my buns to Vanna White (the vehicle, who was NO help at all) and squealed the tires out of the garage. After I exercise