SHE WILL BE Ansley

As you probably have heard, 

PaulA and I are Grandparents. 

yes, that was me shouting the good news from the rooftops

Our first grandchild 
Ansley Mary Hyatt

just kicking back on a casual Sunday Funday

 joined our family 9.25.17

Thank you Mama Chelsea, Daddy Austin and the Dear Lord Up Above

And so...

with little Miss Ansley comes all her firsts…

her first day

her 1st month 

her first Halloween

her first visit with Santa

wait til next year when she gets a good look at this guy

her first babysitters

her first pirate party…
coming this August

Knowing how quickly time flies,

we will soak up her first moments like Bounty, 

the quicker picker-upper.

anywhooo……

When holding precious Ansley 

and looking into those innocent baby blues, 

I can't help think about the future she will live in...

driverless cars,

pilotless planes (say it ain't so) 

new devices that make our smartphones look d-u-m-b

robots that wash our dishes without complaints 

(liking this)

linking our brains to a computer and living in a virtual world. 

(not liking this)

With so much promise and possibilities ahead for Ansley, 

the world is her mollusk…

or oyster, should she prefer.

I'm wondering what 

SHE WILL BE?

a doctor or dancer, 

a singer or surgeon,

an accountant or author, 

a cook or chemist,

a blogger or banker?

No matter where life takes her,

there is one thing I know for sure.
Unconditionally and wholeheartedly...

SHE WILL BE

LOVED.

Happy Anniversary to the new Grandparents

October 3rd marks our 36 year wedding anniversary. 

(yikes, we are getting up there.)

As cliche as it sounds…

time flies, marches, and waits for no one. 

John Mayer's song 

"Stop this Train"

about getting older 

and life passing at a rapid pace

couldn't be more on "track."

So I'd like to stop 

and reminisce about the early days

while John Mayer's song plays in the background.

The abridged story of how PaulA and I met goes...

I noticed him, 

notice me 

and the rest was

our history.  

An expanded version goes:

As I walked from my dorm 

to the cafeteria 

on the Redstone campus of UVM

I could feel a pair of eyes watching me from a dorm window. 

Then after I was in the cafeteria line…

the same pair of eyes were behind me in line.  

This went on for many meals that fall semester.  

(Hey, a girl's gotta eat.)

It was when our dorm floor had a party with his dorm

that we "officially" met,

(although we unofficially knew each other quite well )

and he asked me out.  

And how could I refuse that curly haired boy.

He had me at 

"Hello."

Anywhoooooo

Today these cool groovers who met in the late 70's are officially 

grandparents.

Welcome to the family

Ansley Mary Hyatt

It's hard to believe that 36 years have already passed

and we are grandparents

(which sounds old)...

but because it means we have a 

sweet grandbaby girl to love …

get me my cane and call me granny. 

I wasn't born yesterday….

 Ansley was (almost) 

but I can truly say

I definitely do not want to 

"stop this train"

especially when the passage of 36 years

has brought us our 

first grandchild.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to the New Parents

3 years ago, today,

Chelsea and Austin 

were married at the beautiful Swan House 
in Atlanta, GA.

Surrounded by family and friends…

they placed rings on each other's fingers 
and 

 vowed 

to have and to hold 
from this day forward.

Little did they know that
three years later,

they would have a baby girl... 

to have and to hold

from this day forward.

Meet Ansley Mary Hyatt

born September 25, 2017 at 5:12 am.

Anywhoooo…..

It is very fitting that on this special day,
their anniversary, 

Chelsea and Austin 
buckled Ansley into her carseat 

for her first car ride
and brought her home 
from the hospital. 

The next chapter of their life together 
begins now

as a family of three.


Happy 3rd Anniversary,
Chelsea and Austin.
This is one anniversary you will always remember
and the best present 
you could ever give each other.
XO

Talk Like A Pirate Day 2017

Shiver Me Timbers...

I can't let the day go by without acknowledging 

that today is

“Talk Like a Pirate Day."

It may be a fake holiday...

like fake news 

but arghly fun.

Ahoy there

seadogs, wenches,

pillagers and plunderers...

Don’t be scurvy scum. 

Join the fun.

“Talk Like a Pirate"

til day is done.

I hope me mateys 

have been talkin' the talk

or ye be

walkin' the gangplank walk.

Anywho ho ho

and a bottle of rum

Talking like Capt. Blackbeard isn't bloody hard.

Just takes some improper English 

and a few

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhs

Buccaneers, repeat after me....

(in a gruff and salty voice)

“Ahoy mateys.

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen.

Grab ye some grub and grog and 

join me on the poop deck."

Yo Ho Ho

Where's the bottle of rum?

Drink up, me hearties.

September Addition

It's September!  Back to School! 

New shoes, styles, supplies and smells!

Mums the word…but

back in the day

I loved getting the kids ready to go 
back-to-school. woo hoo

First was the trip to Staples which I would consider the 

Highlighter of the back-to-school experience.  

Oh my heavenly hole punch …I still love love LOVE 

the smell of that store.  

Some people like the smell of cut grass, 

some like the smell of skunks (seriously) 

so it's not so cray cray that I would like the aroma of 

#2 lead pencil mixed with 
binders, file folders and filler paper.  

note to self:  Eau de School Supplies

bottle it…someone will buy it.

Next up were haircuts…trims for the girls…

and the ever fashionable bowl cut for Colin(boy).

Why did I bother taking Colin for a haircut...

I could have saved myself $ and time.

My set of Kitchen Aid mixing bowls were the perfect template.

just increase the quart size as he grows.

Taking them for their 1st day 
back-to-school outfits was fun...

mostly when they would wear what I suggested... 

but the trip to Bob's was the sole event for all of us...
for them...choosing new sneakers aka tennis shoes

for me...watching Colin dash around the store 

to make sure his new sneaks were up to the Colin challenge.

Anywhoooo…..

This September brings a heavenly addition into our world…

Baby girl Hyatt…

due September 24th

and we couldn't be happier.

Congrats to Chelsea-momma and Austin-daddy to-be...

In a true mathematical expression...
your addition will multiply the joy in your life exponentially.

I know…I know….

it might be hard to beat the smell of 

looseleaf paper in a Trapper Keeper…

but I'm prettttty sure...

NOTHING in this world 

beats 

the smell of a newborn baby.

Totally Satisfying Solar Eclipse

Did you see the Total Eclipse of the Sun yesterday?

It was awe-inspiring

mind-blowing

overpowering...

all those superlatives rolled up into one 

stellar cosmic experience in the sky.

Although I didn't get to experience the totality of the eclipse, 

I viewed the solar eclipse as a moment of unity…

when we all came together to watch something 

bigger 

than our collective selves.

Kumbaya experience on a national level.

I really wished I was in Nashville 

experiencing a 100 percent eclipse (lucky Colin)…

where day would become night for a couple of minutes. Instead I was in the northeast…

viewing a partial eclipse 

at 63 percent.

Either way, I wasn't prepared with appropriate eyewear glasses for viewing.

PattyO, told me she once safely watched a partial eclipse 

in a bucket of water.  

I figured why not give it a try?

That way I wouldn't be online today googling

"symptoms of eye damage from viewing the solar eclipse."

 So I got out the red bucket we use for the Pirate Keg, 

arrrgh 

filled it with water, set it out in the sun

and anxiously waited for the moon 

to nibble its way through the sun …

kinda like the cookie(s) I was nibbling while I waited.

I clicked away...

taking pictures of the bucket 

as the moon moved across the sun,

but on close examination...

the eclipse had an eerily familiar shadow…

hmmmm

apparently the bucket works better for a keg than an eclipse.

Anywhooo…

Whether you were 

overwhelmed or underwhelmed

by the eclipse

probably depended on where you were watching. 

and if you geek out on celestial events. 

Meteorologist Stephanie Abrams, 

reporting live during the eclipse,

cried during the eclipse.

I admit she had me crying along with her.  

Nothing makes me break down more than an emotional meteorologist.

Researchers reported that animals could change their routine 

or become confused during the eclipse...

so many humans flocked to zoos to watch their fellow mammals' reactions.

This Kat's behavior 

was hardly disturbed from the usual routine…

although I did go for the frig earlier than I normally I do...

And as I opened the frig door...

there it was 

staring me in the face

ahhh, a CORONA...

maybe not as bright 

but 

TOTALLY satisfying. 

Out of Left Field

This blog post might look like it is coming out of 

left field, 

and it is..

yesterday was 

International Left-Handers Day.

I find it fun to watch a lefty. 

Everything they do looks awkward to someone who’s a righty...

mainly because we do everything right 

while they are left in the dark.

Sometimes, however, the lines get blurred…especially in politics. 

There are some us who are right-handed and right wing, 

and others who are left-handed and left wing…

but there are also some right wing people who are lefties, 

and some left wing people who are righties. 

And also those…who are left or right of center. 

I’m so confused. 

I have nothing left to say that is right on that subject.

Anywhoooo.....

They say lefties are intelligent 

and historically some of our more 

influential and successful people are left-handed. 

That would include Clinton, Ford, George H. W. Bush, Obama, 

Hendrix, Michelangelo, Oprah, and Babe Ruth. 

Add PaulA to that impressive list. 

Saying “lefties are intelligent”…

is a left-handed compliment...but not in the
"left-handed compliment" idiom way.
huh?

PaulA comes from a family of lefties, 

...his mother and 2 other brothers. 

3 out of 7 siblings are lefties and

4 out of 7 of them brush their teeth with CREST.

I’m a righty who married a lefty so throughout our marriage…

I have watched PaulA write with a …

left hook

eat and use scissors, (he doesn't eat with scissors)
tie his shoes and 
put cards in envelopes the wrong way.
The one thing he does the right way...
is play golf.

If I was left to my own devices…
(mwhahaha)

I would make lefties conform and do things the right way…

but I also realize I should stop being so self-righteous, 

and accept that lefties (and PaulA)
have rights too. 

Right-handed Kat 

has finally left the building.