December 03, 2013

Wherein I share a sibling sandwich and grandchildren that aren't mine

December 03, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

I didn't get to spend time with my grandsons or their parents on Thanksgiving. The miles are just too difficult (and expensive) for either of us to traverse at this time.

Making up a smidgen for not getting to see the parts of my heart that live in the desert was getting to share a warm and cozy (and filling) day at my place with many of my mountain-based family members, immediate and extended. That included two of my six siblings — my oldest (Jeff) and my youngest (Susan).

Forget the turkey and taters, this was the sibling sandwich of the day:

siblings on Thanksgiving

I don't believe we have ever...

November 21, 2013

Making mints and making memories

November 21, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

At Thanksgiving when my daughters were young, they enjoyed making cream cheese after-dinner mints as their contribution to the holiday meal. The recipe for the mints was super simple, super yummy, and a super tradition that makes me smile just thinking about it.

cream cheese dinner mints

A few years ago, when my eldest grandson, Bubby, was two years old — and my youngest grandson, Mac, was just an announcement emblazoned across his big brother’s T-shirt — Bubby and I made the cream cheese mints together.

November 19, 2013

The best things about being a grandma

November 19, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

Giving thanks for our blessings tops the Thanksgiving to-do list of many — right along with the grocery shopping, turkey stuffing, pie filling and more.

Naming those blessings can sometimes be a challenge, though, especially when our What I Want list far outweighs our What I Have list. Yet as grandmas, it's no chore at all to list and be ever thankful for our grandma gig, especially those parts we consider the best.

Here, straight from some of the Grilled Grandmas, are the very best things about being a grandma. They're by no means exclusive to grandmas, of course, as grandpas likely feel the same, equally believe these are among the best of the best blessings for which we grandparents give thanks.

best things about being a grandma

The best thing about being a grandma is, in their eyes, I am sooooo cool. —Jules

November 15, 2013

BBC-Dallas: A cute kids and conference quotes wrap up mashup

November 15, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

I am a blogger. And I am a grandma. The role of blogger and the role of grandma are huge parts of who I am — though not all of who I am, by any means.

As a blogger, I can never have too many tips that help me succeed; as a grandma I can never have too many pictures of my grandsons that help me smile. Today I thought I'd meld the two: combine highlights of my recent Bloggy Boot Camp experience with highlighted photos I recently took of my grandsons.

Consider this a BBC-Dallas wrap up like no other — the ultimate cute kids and conference quotes wrap up mashup.

Bloggy Boot Camp: Brand Edition, which I attended free thanks to winning the conference prize package from The SITS Girls, was two days jam-packed with technical and inspirational information from successful women and men who've been there, done that in the digital world.

The technical stuff would require, well, attending a conference to get the full benefit. The inspirational stuff is a little easier to digest out of context, so that's what I share in this wrap up (with a wee bit o' tech thrown in just for you). Some are direct quotes, some are just nuggets of truth, all are surrounded by a few fave photos of Bubby and Mac taken during my visit to their world last month.

boys and iPad

October 30, 2013

My grandson the hypnotist

October 30, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

Look into Mac's eyes, if you dare.

cute toddler

Hypnotic cuteness or biased grandma?

I say YES on both counts!

Today's question:

Have you ever been hypnotized? Do share!

October 29, 2013

Oh, how my grandsons swear

October 29, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

I didn't let my daughters swear when they were young. I didn't allow them to swear in my presence when they were older, either. For the most part. When they were teens, I did allow them one curse word — that word being crap — that they could use when they rilly, rilly, rilly needed to let loose with exclamations of an unsavory sort.

My daughter Megan is more strict than I am. Sometimes surprisingly so. She has a far more restrictive expected code of behavior than I ever did with my girls. That's mostly, I think, because she's a teacher and sees the horrid lack of respect many school kids have for others (and themselves) nowadays.

Because Megan is so strict — and I say that with genuine admiration, dear Megan — I'm pretty sure Bubby and Mac will never, ever be allowed to say crap.

That said, though, there is one exclamation the boys are allowed to say, and it cracks me up each time it comes out of their mouths. During my visit with my grandsons a few weeks ago, I caught Mac on camera uttering the mighty words of frustration when I was trying to get him to say fire engine or fire truck (and, no, it's not that mangled curse word):

Oh, nuts! Just makes me chuckle every time.

Bubby says it, too, and it's always so unexpected coming out of the mouths of those little boys that I can't help but laugh.

What's especially funny is that, as you can see from Mac's face when I chuckle in the video above, my grandsons have no idea why Gramma finds that so funny.

Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure either.

Oh, nuts!

Yeah... it's just funny to me.

Oh, nuts!

I admit it: It doesn't take much to amuse this grandma.

Today's question:

What chuckle-worthy pseudo curse words come out of the mouths your little ones?

October 18, 2013

Boys are just as crazy as girls

October 18, 2013/ Lisa Carpenter

What I learned this week:

Having had three daughters, the childrearing years my husband and I faced were filled with lots of drama, plenty of boy-crazy moments.

As they've had only sons (so far), I thought Megan and Preston might escape the thrills, chills, and tear spills associated with the crazy crushes on the opposite sex. Mostly because I didn't think boys were as crazy about girls as girls are about boys. I thought concerns about cooties — as well as indifference to cuties — was par for the course for males under the age of, oh, maybe 14 or so.

Then I saw something yesterday that changed my mind.

Mac and I walked to pick up Bubby after school yesterday. Bubby and his classmates ran around while parents mingled or talked to the teacher — Megan, my daughter and Bubby's mom, whom I wanted to touch base with before heading back home with her sons. Mac joined the big kids, and as I waited, I caught the following, a foretelling of what Megan and Preston have in store: