****STICKY POST****

One of my favorite bloggers and on line friends is doing what he can to make a difference in the fight to end Alzheimer’s.
Currently over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. I know my family has been directly effected by this devastating disease, and from I just read unless we find a way to change the course, 16 million Americans could have Alzheimer’s by 2050.
So if you feel you can help out my man Vito to hit his fund raising goal, please pay a visit to his donation page.
There is no donation too small or too big!

Been up since before dawn, up as in off the couch and out of the living room I don’t think there was ever really a down time for more then 20 minutes last night. Not that I am complaining. I am happy to let my daughter get the rest she needs while she can. Tomorrow I am back to work and then Tuesday she and the baby are going home. The house is going to feel so empty when they leave. At least I am only a phone call and about fifteen minutes away.

I took the first night shift last night with Rebecca so my daughter could get some much needed rest. First let me tell you, my granddaughter can hang ! About 2:30, 3:00am she gave me a look that said, hey grams whats up, all wide eyed and bright. Then she decided to really kick it and stay awake till 5:00am this morning. At that time Bethany wanted to be up for a while so I handed her over and took my sorry self to bed for a while. I am with out a doubt feeling my age this morning.

BUT, oh my goodness is she the sweetest little thing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My granddaughter, Rebecca Lynn was born 12:15 this afternoon.

Both Rebecca and Mommy are doing well and should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow.

This grandma is too tired to write about the experince tonight. I have been up for over 40 hours straight and MUST go to bed.

Our daughter Allison has always loved horses. About two years ago we signed her up for riding lessons and she did great. But I did not! Seeing my little girl, only six years old back then, way up on a full size horse totally freaked me out at the time. So we decided to wait until she got a little older.
Today was her second lesson. And as she did two years ago, she was awesome. She was very focused as she sat up on the horse and used her commands with full confidence. More then once the teacher called her a natural and said she will have no problem handling a horse that is a little more active next time. I am so proud of her.
Part of taking lessons is to learn how to fully take care of the horse and watching her walk him into his stable and help unsaddle and feed him was really sweet, her face was so filled with pride.
I came home this morning feeling really good. After trying to get her interested in a number of other sports, we finally found what is right for her.
I am so proud. Did I say that already?

My daughter saw her doctor this afternoon and there has been no change from last weeks visit.
She is still dilated to two and the baby is still in the ready position.  And she has still been having mild contractions every so often but nothing steady.
The doctor said the same thing today as she did last week, you could have another week or the baby could come tomorrow so have your bags ready.

Okay, now I know for sure she is having a girl!
Stubborn even before birth.

The weather man says it’s going to be 90 degrees and muggy today.
The perfect day to sit in a nice cool theater with my dad, my sister and a Stephen King movie.

I went with Bethany to see the doctor this afternoon and she is dilated to two and the baby is the ready position.  She has been having mild contractions for a couple of days now.
Our doctor said she could stay that way for two weeks or she could go tomorrow, there is really no way to know for sure. But she told us to have her bag packed and ready. 
My stomach is in knots !

I don’t think my daughter is going to be pregnant much longer. She is having all the signs of this baby coming soon. She lost her mucus plug about a week ago , she is carrying much lower all of a sudden, her lower back hurts so bad it brings her to tears and has been keeping her up at night the past couple of days. The big sign to me is that I called her about 10:00pm last night and she was scrubbing her tub. From my experience the only time a woman scrubs her bath tub at 10:00pm is when she about to go into labor.
It would be kind of fun to have a 4Th of July baby, if not she sees the doctor tomorrow afternoon, I hope she has news for us.

20 years ago today I became a mother.
I was only 17 years old and scared to death.
I had no idea how much that tiny little baby was about to change me and my whole life.

I sure did a lot of learning along the way!
Many mistakes were made over the years and some pretty hard times were had but never, ever was there a lack of love.

For a lot of years Bethany and I were a team that had to grow up together.
I used to feel guilty about that, like I robbed her of having a real mom when she was young.
But now, I realize that those years help create the very special bond that we have today and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter, who I truly enjoy spending time with. We still make one great team.

Our weekend at Cedar Point with the kids was a blast.
Way too many pics on Flickr.

Last evening we enjoyed some birthday cake that Allison helped mix herself the night before, her best friend Emily came over and after dinner she opened a couple of birthday gifts. A box of floam, a swimming toy turtle for her pool and a Nintendo DS game. It was a nice low key birthday.

She has no idea that we are surprising her and my nephew with a trip to Cedar Point tomorrow. Both have never been there. As long as the weather is nice, and so far the weather man says it will be, we plan on staying late enough to catch the fireworks before heading to our hotel.
I just hope they both really enjoy it. I know we will enjoy taking them.