That didn't stop my youngest grandson from giggling and grinning more often than not, though, even when feeling his very worst.

Yeah, I still have some work to do in mastering that new camera of mine. But you get the picture...for the most (precious) part.

Today's question:

When and why did you most recently laugh out loud (for real; no "LOL" funny business)?

How many children do you have? I have four children, all boys, ages 22-29.

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? Up until December 17th, 2011, I had two grandchildren: Kai (3) and Lauryn (1). However, one of my sons recently married a girl with 3 children: Haylie (13), Heidi (10), and Ethan (8, almost 9), so now I have five beautiful grandchildren!!

Any great grandchildren? Oh no, I’m much, much too young. ;)

What do your grandchildren call you? Grandma

After the initial elation, what was your first concern upon hearing you would soon be a grandmother? That I would know how to be a Grandma! I immigrated to Canada when I was 6, so I grew up without any extended family.

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? I babysat Kai and Lauryn about 4 days a week for a while, but now I see them once or twice a week on average. Haylie, Heidi and Ethan live in Fort McMurray, Alberta (I’m in B.C.), so I don’t get to see them as much.

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Just being able to spend time with them! I think when you’re a Grandma you can just enjoy them more. I teach them little songs with actions, make things with them, etc. I did this with my own kids too, but it was kind of busy at the time. I tried to write some of those precious moments down when I remembered to.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? I would say that it’s being a grandma from a distance—since my one son and his wife live so far away! However the time we do get with their kids is very precious because of its scarcity!

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. A recent conversation - Kai (2 at the time) to Lauryn, “Come here bean...come with me...come on honey.”

My 8 yr old grandson is such a free spirit. The other day a bunch of us were sitting in the kitchen when he nonchalantly sauntered down the stairs in a big white towel, in the buff. We all laughed! His response? “What?”

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? I tend to feed them, but then I tend to want to feed everyone! It’s fun to watch them play, and sometimes they just say the cutest things! I also like to do crafty things with the older kids. Recently the girls and I made a bunch of different glycerine soaps of various shapes and scents. We had so much fun! Another time we made a scrapbook album from scratch.

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? Well, there are so many things! We play hide and seek, which they love. I carry Lauryn with me and Kai either finds us or hides on us. When he gets close to our hiding place, we’ll jump out and I’ll say ‘BOO’. Kai loves it.

Sometimes I hide something of his, and he has to find it. He likes to tell me where to hide it first though, so it’s easy to find...lol.

We like to challenge each other to a duel, take 10 paces in the opposite direction and then pretend to shoot each other with pretend waterguns. Well, you know...he is a boy!

I also read to them and I love to bring the kids my delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies!

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? Once in a while we talk on the phone. Mostly Kai...he likes to tell me about his mishaps. “Grandma? Yes, Kai? I fall down and hurt my bum” Lol...

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? A strong sense of moral values.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Affection...or Fun...or both. (I know, I know, I don’t follow instruction well.)

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? To relax!

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? As the grandmother of a son’s child, it can be difficult to know when to help and when to back off. What I'm learning, and my advice? Just be yourself and relax!

Do you have a website or blog? What is it about? I have two blogs. My craft blog Beyond The Fringe Crafts features free digital stamps and vintage graphics, cards and various crafts. I also have an inspirational blog, Bubbling Springs and Random Things, that focuses on the bible and eschatology, and reflects some personal thoughts.

This grilling will now be permanently placed in the Grilled Grandmas Hall of Fame—AKA the Grilled Grandma Archives—under, fittingly, Grilled Grandma: Carmen.

Dear Readers: If you'd like to nominate a grandma for grilling—yourself or any other grandma—please e-mail me her first name and e-mail address and I'll take care of the rest. Thank you!

Jim and I had three daughters in a short period of time. There are 16 months between the oldest and the middle daughters, 19 months between the middle and the youngest. Which means, obviously, our daughters are very close in age. In fact, for one month out of each year—roughly mid July to mid August—the girls' ages are consecutive.

Which also means, obviously, I was one very busy mama while raising them. I felt hurried and harried much of the time, and I rarely stopped to savor the sweetest and simplest of moments with my three girls, from their toddler to their teen years.

I'm trying to not make the same mistake as a grandma.

Things are pretty clear cut with Baby Mac because as an eight-month-old, what he wants, he pretty much needs...and gets. With three-and-a-half-year-old Bubby, though, it's different. His needs are met; his wants are up for negotiation. That's where my tack as a grandmother differs from the tack I took as a mother. When Bubby requests my participation, my attention, I do my best to stop the busy work and savor the moment. As long as his requests are reasonable, that is. And most reasonable he proved to be during my recent visit to the desert.

For example, "Gramma, can you play train with me?" was a reasonable request. So, despite not being one for typically enjoying sitting on the floor—and Baby Mac needing some attention, too—I busied Mac with some blocks, plopped down next to Bubby, and followed his lead of "You be Henry, Gramma, and I'll be Thomas." Moment savored.

Another instance: Bubby's bedtime routine typically features one bedtime story read. One night we finished the chosen book, and I stood from his bed to tuck him in, kiss him goodnight, and head out the door. "Can we please read this one, too?" Bubby pleaded, holding up a book. "It's soooo funny!" So I did, all the while savoring his snickers at "There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow," savoring his sense of humor, savoring the moment.

When Bubby asked, "Gramma, can we build a fort?" I didn't hem and haw about the mess it would make. Instead, Bubby and I together built the fort to beat all forts, with tunnels and secret passages and cardboard boxes blocking out the light. Moment savored...and video captured of Bubby and Baby Mac savoring the fort again and again and again, with giggles galore as they chased one another through tunnels and more.

At snack time, Bubby wanted his snack in the fort. At naptime, he wanted the bedtime story read—to both him and Baby Mac—in the fort. Both requests filled. Easily. Both moments savored. Surely.

At the park, Bubby asked if I'd climb up the play structure and "play pirate" with him. Baby Mac slept in his stroller, within viewing distance, of course, as Bubby and I climbed and slid and shouted "Look out, Captain! They're after us!" again and again. Moment savored.

Most mornings of my visit, Bubby woke me with a gentle nudge on my knee—except for the first morning when he slammed open my bedroom door and shouted, "GRAMMA! It's morning time!" (My freakout at his announcement led to knee nudges going forward, I'm sure.) One day when I woke before him, Bubby watched me from the open bathroom door and said, "Gramma, after you're done brushing your teeth, will you start your day with me?" Request easily filled as that was my intent anyway. The sweet moment of his request, though, especially savored.

Requests of "Will you jump with me, Gramma?" brought leaps and bounds of joy each and every time we giggled and wiggled and waggled about on the trampoline—which was pretty much each and every time Bubby asked me to do so. And my request to him one night to lie quietly on the trampoline and look at the stars together was enthusiastically met with a resounding "Yes!" That grandson of mine, he truly gives as good as he gets. Moments savored—by both of us.

One of Bubby's favorite cartoons is Olivia, which begins with the inflation of a pirate ship bouncy house. Once, a discussion of bouncy houses ensued after the program began, and Bubby gushed about the most awesome of parties he was scheduled to soon attend. "It's gonna be so cool! There's gonna be a bouncy house and pizza!" he raved. "Do you want to come, Gramma? Maybe you can ask PawDad if you can come!"

This was one of Bubby's few unreasonable requests. Not because I wouldn't be in town at the time of the party or because I'm sure the guest of honor wasn't expecting grandmas to join in. No, I thought it unreasonable—and, more so, surprising—that Bubby naturally assumed I had to ask PawDad's permission to go to the party. My I-am-woman-hear-me-roar sensibilities wanted me to explain to Bubby that I don't need PawDad's permission to go to the party, that I didn't need his permission to do anything. Women, I considered telling my grandson, don't need permission from a man to do anything—we can do anything we choose.

What I chose to do, though, was to not tell Bubby those things. There's plenty of time for him to learn such lessons—and woefully little time that a precious boy earnestly and enthusiastically extends to his grandma invitations to birthday parties with pizza and bouncy houses.

What I chose to do was savor that fleeting moment instead.

Today's fill-in-the-blank:

A moment I recently savored with my grandchildren or children was ___________.

I didn't mean to lie to you, dear readers, but I did. In this post right here. Today, though, I plan to set the record straight.

You see, in that post about filling my grandma bag for my trip to the desert, I mentioned an activity that used straws and pony beads for a nifty little activity to encourage counting and fine motor skills. I intended to pack those items in my grandma bag but hadn't yet done so. And once I purchased the straws and attempted sliding a few pony beads on them just to see how easy it would be for Bubby, the cussing and straw-scrunching that ensued made it clear the <cussing> beads didn't fit on the <cussing> straws and Gramma would need to make some adjustments to the craft.

So I did. And here's the skinny on the crafty counting sticks Bubby enjoyed making and counting with—and that garnered high praise from Megan, an early childhood educator who thought the idea was quite creative and useful for even a classroom of kiddos.

What you'll need:

10 extra-long pipecleaners (I used 10 as I figured counting to 10 would be reasonable practice for Bubby, who's three and a half. You could go higher, if desired.)

pony beads

1 or 2 index cards cut into squares an inch or so in size and neatly numbered 1 through 10

clear tape

What you'll do:

Fold up about an 1/8-inch on the end of each pipe cleaner and twist around itself so there's no pokey parts to stab little fingers. On one end of each pipe cleaner, tape a numbered square; laying the pipe cleaner across the back of the number and securing with a single strip of tape works just fine.

Your work is done!

Now give your child the pipe cleaners and a bowl of pony beads with instructions to add as many beads as the number on each end.

Bubby thoroughly enjoyed adding beads—picking out "special" ones—then counting them over and over on their sticks, just to be sure it was right. I enjoyed watching his intense concentration as he threaded beads then carefully counted.

Once all pipe cleaners were filled, we pulled off the beads and started all over again. In fact, these photos were from Bubby's second day of playing with the sticks (just after waking, I might add, hence the jammies and adorable bedhead hairstyle).

There! Record set straight: Straws don't work; pipe cleaners do.

Today's question:

Did you—or your children—use an abacus to help master counting?

Enjoy your Sunday!

When my plane landed and I turned on my phone to text Jim that I'd arrived, my e-mail automatically downloaded to my phone, and one was an e-mail from Jim's brother-in-law requesting prayers for Jim's sister, who had gone to the hospital because of heart pains.

Then, yesterday morning I received an e-mail from Klout that I had earned a special "perk"—a director's cut of a video starring and directed by Emmy-nominated Elizabeth Banks, made for the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women movement.

I'm not incredibly superstitious, but I think three's a sign...that I'm supposed to share this with the women in my life:

For more information about women and heart disease—which, as mentioned in the video, kills more women than all forms of cancer combined—visit GoRedForWomen.org.

Have a heart-happy day!

Today's question:

How has heart disease affected you or the women in your family?

For example, when I visited Bubby and Baby Mac last August, I encountered a haboob that delayed my return home:

Then, when Jim and I drove to see our grandsons last October, the return trip featured an epic traffic situation that left us sitting—literally, at a standstill—on the interstate for three hours:

And last night, as I attempted to make my way home from a week with Bubby and Baby Mac, a blizzard threatened my return, resulting in delayed arrival (and fears arrival wouldn't happen at all, courtesy of the pilot stating as we prepared to take off into the storm, "We'll give it a try and we'll see what happens"):

Okay, okay...the photo above isn't an actual shot of last night's snowstorm, but you get the idea.

Yes, like the Postal Service, neither haboobs nor treachery on the highway nor snowstorms of any significance can keep me from my appointed rounds with my grandsons. But...all of the above and more sure as <cuss> muck up my return home after each and every visit anymore, without fail.

I've had enough, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

Well, at least not until April, that is. For in April I take my next trip to the desert to play full-time grandma again, and I won't let <cuss> conditions of any sort keep me from getting there.

Getting home, though, will unfortunately surely follow what has become this long-distance grandma's traveling protocol. Especially considering that April is typically one of the snowiest months in the Rockies; I can pretty much tell you now getting back home afterwards isn't going to be easy. Or fun.

My grandsons and their parents can still count on me being there, though. Like I said, it's not the getting to them that's the problem, it's getting back home again. But the USPS pledge gives no guarantee nor particulars on the return of its postmen. The same shall apply to the long-distance grandma pledge, too—whether I like it or not.

Snowstorm photo: stock.xchng/tes

Today's question:

What obstacles do you anticipate encountering in your travels this weekend—even if only to the grocery store?

Cats and the other creatures don't bond with kids quite the way dogs do. Having missed out on witnessing my baby or toddler daughters bond with a beloved canine, I'm continually delighted to see such with my grandsons and their dog.

Roxy was Megan and Preston's baby long before Bubby and Baby Mac came along, and despite having to relinquish her spot as most loved and adored to first one then another human kiddo, Roxy has always been a patient, dedicated, attentive, gentle, and entertaining buddy to the boys.

You couldn't ask for a better family dog.

I'm sure that Bubby and Baby Mac couldn't imagine their home without goofy girl Roxy.

In all honesty, I couldn't either.

Today's question:

What dogs—or other creatures, if no dogs—hold a prominent spot in your family's story?

How many children do you have? Between my husband and me, we have 6 kids. Three are his and three, mine. His are all biological: Michael, Melissa and Colleen; I have one biological son, Rory Taylor, one adopted daughter, Maggie and a step-son, Nick, that I consider my son.

How many grandchildren? What are their ages? We have 5 grandchildren, 4 girls and a boy. Sacnite’, nine; Micah, six; Aurora, two ½; Clara, two; and Violet, one.

Any great grandchildren? Nope!

What do your grandchildren call you? Granny Angel, Granny, or Angel.

How often do you get to see your grandchildren? Our 2 ½ year old granddaughter, Aurora lives in the same city—in fact just a few blocks away. We see her every week or two. Sacnite’ and Violet live in Fayetteville Arkansas and Micah and Clara live in Fairfax Virginia. I go over to Arkansas every few months to visit and they were here for the Christmas holidays. They may be moving here sometime next year. I see the two in Fairfax about once a year.

Beyond the initial elation, what most concerned you upon hearing you'd soon be a grandma? The news for each felt a bit different. With our mixed family and the distances, I was initially concerned about whether I’d get to see Micah as much as I’d like. He has three other grandmas! I guess that’s been my concern about all of them—just getting to see them as much as I’d like. Sacnite’ is my son’s step-daughter. I knew about her since she was two and knew she’d be my granddaughter when she was about 5. She lived in Mexico with her mother at the time and I didn’t get to meet her until she and her mom got their visas and moved to the US when she was 7. Her sister, Violet, now age one, is my only biological granddaughter. I was able to go to her home birth—that was amazing. I had had Rory Taylor at home also. Sacnite’ and I talk via the Facebook video and that has been fun. I used to fly to Virginia at least once a year to see Micah and Clara, but with the poor economy, I just haven’t had the money. They came to visit us for 5 days after Christmas last year (2010) and I haven’t been able to see them since. I do regularly talk with their parents and see photos, but it’s not the same as being with them. Micah knows me, but I doubt Clara remembers much about me.

What is the best thing about being a grandma? Being able to play with them and not worry about “teaching” or behavior that much.

What is the most challenging part of being a grandma? Dealing with their parents! I don’t mean that in a bad way—it’s just that they all have their own parenting methods, and I have to remember about what that is for each family! I am very careful not to give unasked for advice or suggestions and am lucky that all the mothers like me and aren’t overprotective.

Describe a recent time that one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud. Micah says the most interesting things. His mother often posts these on Facebook. His latest one was after his mother told him that Storm troopers (his favorite thing is Star Wars right now) always obeyed orders and most likely also obeyed their mothers. He said, “But mom, clones don’t have mothers!” (Most of the storm troopers in the stories are clones.) When he was smaller he said at the dinner table “It’s okay to eat baby lambs, because they taste good.”

Violet was here for the Christmas holiday with her family. She is still very clingy to her mom, but her smiles and laughs light up the room! She loves to play Peek a Boo and will hide her head on her mom’s shoulder and then peek at you and go “Bwaw!!!”

Sacnite’ and I played board games and I had so much fun with her. She loves to pretend “cheat” and laughs when I catch her.

What is your favorite thing to do with grandchildren who visit your house? Really depends on their age. I like to play games with the older two and just watch the younger ones play dress up or read books to them.

What is your favorite thing to do when visiting grandchildren at their house? Reading, taking a walk, playing with their toys with them. Occasionally watching a movie.

How do you maintain the bond between yourself and your grandchildren between visits? I send interactive e-cards to Micah sometimes. I also write letters. When Micah was into fire trucks, he wanted me to send him photos of different kinds of trucks by e-mail. He doesn’t like to talk on the phone and they don’t have video capability at present. As I said earlier, I talk with Sacnite’ on Facebook Video and sometimes to her mom and the baby on Skype.

What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren? That life can be fun, there are interesting things everywhere, that reading is important.

What is one word you hope your grandkids think of when they think of you? Smiling.

What is one thing you wish you had learned earlier as a grandparent? Knowing what my limits are. There are reasons most people have their children in their 20’s and 30’s! I can do 4-6 hours pretty easily, but if the child needs to stay overnight, it’s very tiring for me if they stay too long the next day unless I’ve prepared for it.

What one bit of advice would you give a new grandma? When agreeing to keep your grandchild, get specific information about parents’ wishes and the time they plan to pick up the child. Keep toys and books at your home—of course you can lend them, but have enough for spontaneous visits.

Do you have a website or blog? What is it about? I have a blog that I work on intermittently. I tend to go in spurts and starts. Before I was working full time, I had designed my own website and loved taking care of it. My current blog is mostly about art that I make, but I’ve lately started just writing thoughts as well. The URL is: http://angeltnart.blogspot.com/.

This grilling will now be permanently placed in the Grilled Grandmas Hall of Fame—AKA the Grilled Grandma Archives—under, fittingly, Grilled Grandma: Angel.

Dear Readers: If you'd like to nominate a grandma for grilling—yourself or any other grandma—please e-mail me her first name and e-mail address and I'll take care of the rest. Thank you!

Today's question:

Where have you found fun the past few days?