ONE WEEK OLD

Little Isaac is growing already! This is the latest picture from Renn.

NEW ARRIVAL

Welcome to our world little Isaac Michael Patch. He was born December 2, 2009, weighing 8 pounds and 2 ounces. Keira and Renn are thrilled with their new little boy. Through the miracle of cell phones Renn send us pictures immediately. Then Becky rushed to the hospital and took more for us! Read Becky's sweet blog  for her take on the whole scene. Then she also posted on the Froelich Family blog as well. Great pics! Thank you Becky.

We are all very excited for this new little arrival! For one thing, we have another grandson to carry on the Patch name! We keep trying to buy Jack off to change his name to Patch, but so far his father is very opposed. Go figure.

Keira and Renn, congratulations and we can't wait to be with you! Send more photos and I will be happy to show them off here for all to see!

Bye Bye Birdie

I just stripped the rest of the meat from our Thanksgiving bird. Tomorrow it will be a week. Better use that meat up! I will throw the bones in the crock pot tomorrow for soup. It can simmer away while I am busy outside the kitchen. Tonight I made turkey pie and that is in the oven. Won't Dad be happy? I haven't cooked since Thanksgiving. Seriously, I guess it is time. So here is my super simple recipe for Chicken or Turkey Pie:

Prepare a pie crust or purchase one

Two cups of cooked, cut up chicken/turkey or 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 can (16 oz) Veg-All (mixed vegetables)

2 cans soup, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Potato

Bake in a pie crust for one hour at 350 degrees.

Easy as pie!

Dad always wishes this was apple pie, but he does like it.

We are still waiting to hear from Renn and Keira. They went to the hospital this morning for the baby to be induced. Come on baby boy, we are waiting for you!

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS

Rain, rain, go away! I would rather have sun on Thanksgiving Day!

Yes, it is raining here once again. Sigh. But not freezing rain! Smile!

When Thanksgiving rolls around I find myself thinking of years ago when we were all much younger. (And our children were children and our grandchildren had not yet come to life.) Dad and I both wanted our own mother's Thanksgiving dinner, so we went to Patch's at noon, and Winspear's at 3:00. Talk about gluttons!But it was wonderful to have all our family close by so that we could enjoy being together. You all really were lucky to have so many cousins on both sides of the family to play with. And you had wonderful grandparents that loved you as well.

What really comes to mind for me, is standing at the sink in Grandma Patch's kitchen and looking out the window at the driveway, wondering when the rest of the family would arrive while snow flakes peacefully fluttering to the ground. She commented that the snow in Minnesota often seems to arrive right around Thanksgiving. I don't know why that little scene is so memorable to me. It is odd, the little things that stick in our minds.

So here it is, Thanksgiving again, and all thoughts turn to home and family. It has been many years since our family was all together for Thanksgiving. The past couple of years Dad and I have spent the day alone. This year we found out that my cousin Mark's son Daniel lives three hours away in Manassas, Virginia, so we have invited him and his wife and 18 month old daughter to join us. Dad will be happy, he will have a little blond girl on his knee again!
Dinner will be the same, of course, with all the old standbys, as mentioned in my other blog. We got all the chestnuts cleaned for the chestnut dressing! It took years for your dad to decide that he liked it, so now we have to include that as our specialty!

As usual, you will each be having your own celebration in a different location, and in a different state!
Jennie will be driving with Cousin Laura to the Armbruster home in South Carolina.
Matt and Anna Marie will be having her family over to their new home as they now have their oven working.
Polly and Chris will have a full house with their family and more! Plus, Becky and Travis are driving up and bringing friends from Buffalo.
Renn and Keira...I don't know for sure, but I assume they will be with her family somewhere, and most likely at Renn's house.
Grampa Jim will be at Linda's, I am sure, as all her kids are there this year.

Amidst all the food and fun, I hope you will have some Thanksgiving memories of your own to savor. And always bear in mind how much we love you all and we are so thankful to have such great kids and grandkids!

LIFE'S A BEACH

It has been raining here for the past three days, and the first came with 60 MPH winds. We really took a beating. They schools were closed, as was Dad's work. Streets were flooded, including ours. Today I decided to see what the beach looked like. I walked out the boardwalk where there are usually stairs. But look! The stairs have been washed away! The tides have been really high and damaging.

The skies are still gray and the rain keeps coming.

Can you see the Pier Cafe down the way? The pier has sections washed out. Notice how far the water is up. I am sure the sea took back lots of sand with this storm. It also washed boats out that were pulled up by the sand dunes. The neighborhood watch e-mail indicated that several kayaks had washed down the shore and could be retrieved at McDonalds.



The tide is still coming in here. See the people down the beach with kites!


Our house and yard are more than drenched. the yard is so waterlogged that there is water pooling. It is better today and in these pictures than it was yesterday when it was several inches deep.

Here is the side yard, still immersed. The driveway is one big pool of water as well. We can't reach our mailbox, it has a lake around it. Dad goes out in big rubber boots to retrieve the mail.

The first night of the storm we lost power for several hours just after dinner. We watched movies on Dad's laptop that Becky loaded on last summer. Thanks Becky!

Today I finally left the house for the first time in over a week. It was so nasty the past few days I didn't want to go anywhere. Today I went to Sam's Club and the grocery store, then Dad and I went out for Mexican food. The Mexican food here never lives up to my expectations. You think I would learn.

You think I would cook! Hahaha!

A KISS TO BUILD A DREAM ON

Give me a kiss to build a dream on, And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss. Sweetheart, I ask no more than this: A kiss to build a dream on. (Louis Armstrong)

FAMILY

AND FRIENDS

OUR OCTOBER FEST BEGINS

On October tenth, 2009, our darling girl, Rebeccah Louise Froelich, was married to Travis Pitcher of Orem Utah. I left home on October 5^th so I could get there early. After the wedding, I flew to Arizona to spend a week with Matt’s family. I got some flu bug (don’t say Swine Flu) and was down for the count the whole week I was in Arizona. I came home on Tuesday, October 20^th, still feeling kinda crummy. Mostly I am TIRED and still coughing. So that is my excuse for such late reporting of such a monumental event!

Becky and Travis picked me up at the SLC airport on Monday, October 5^th. I had met Travis before at Renn’s wedding, but didn’t really talk to him much. All I knew for sure was that he is very tall and has curly blonde hair. And that my granddaughter Becky is madly in love with him. After an hour long trip back to Provo it became apparent to me why she adores him. Travis is the real deal. In him I see honesty, thoughtfulness, kindness and purity all wrapped up in a big smile. He rather glows with goodness! Becky chose very well, I believe.

Upon arriving in Provo Travis's car broke down and his dad came and delivered us the rest of the way home.

I wish I had a picture of Travis and another young man pushing the vehicle off the road into a parking lot, and of Becky steering and learning for the first time how it feels when there is no power steering. Oh the trials of being young and broke!

We arrived at Becky’s apartment and what was soon to become “the love nest” after the wedding, of course. Polly had been there a few weeks earlier and, with some help from Travis and Becky, painted the whole interior. Everything looked nice and clean. The apartment is a unit in an old home in downtown Provo that has been divided into three or four apartments. It could use some work, to say the least. But for Becky and Travis it will suffice for a while until they feel the need to move on. First apartments are supposed to be memorable so they stand as a point of reference for when you achieve more in life.

Travis rode off on his scooter to go to work and Becky and I were left alone. Becky had been experimenting with cooking and had homemade rolls (she needs more work in that area) and homemade squash soup. The soup may sound a bit odd, but let me tell you, it was fabulous! The squash soup was pureed and then finely chopped ham, apples and pecans was sprinkled on top. Very gourmet. I hope she will serve me that again some day.

OK, I am taking too long on all of this. Let me just say that I was happy to be there a couple days early as it gave me time to spend with Becky before the mad crush.

Aren't they cute! More later...

Photos by Lisa! I swiped them from her blog. (Click there to go to her blog)