Where Were You When.....

I meant to start writing this post about an hour or better ago but got delayed because I had a little battle here I got engrossed in for a while with, of all things, the stinking printer!

I still haven't figured out what's wrong with it but well, it won't print! And actually that's not completely true as it will print out one of those tester papers -ya know those things that are supposed to let you know if it is all lined up properly -but it won't work if I try to get it to print out anything else!

Clate's girlfriend was here last night and had printed some stuff and she had mentioned to me at that time that it quit working for her but this morning, I tried to get it to print and it worked just fine and dandy. But tonight, when I wanted to print out a test copy of the photo collage page that Pastor Carrie and I had spent all afternoon on Thursday working on, trying to get a bunch of pictures all set up, organized and such, then it decided it wasn't going to cooperate with me.

I did one of those troubleshooting things and it keeps telling me that the printer isn't turned on, but it is -I can see the light flashing there like it does when it's getting ready to print! But it's being really obstinate apparently and something isn't telling something within the printer someplace not to print! So I sent a message to my neighbor -my real troubleshooter -to see if he can come over sometime in the near future and see if he can find the problem. I know he's gonna mention to me again about getting a new printer but right at this point in time, that's not in the cards for a week or so according to my checkbook!

But anyway, that isn't what I was originally going to write about here tonight. I had something totally different in mind before I sort of lost my bearings and got off track with this printer problem crap!

I was gonna ask if you can tell me where you were on a specific date and year -like 14 years ago today on August 19, 1997?

Sometimes, I can't remember where I was yesterday but baby, I definitely do remember where I was and what I did and what I wanted to do too that day!

And it all had to do with a baby too!

Because a little bit after 7 a.m. that particular morning my other ex-son-in-law -also named Bill too, I might add, had phoned to tell me that I was officially now a GRANDMA!

My daughter had been admitted to the hospital shortly after midnight and at 6:30 a.m. that day, my first grandchild, my older grandson, Alexander William, came into our lives!

I was in the process of getting ready to go to work when "Big Daddy" (which was and still is our nickname for that particular son-in-law, phoned Mandy and me with what was the most exciting news -ever -for both of us! My grandson! Mandy's nephew! And both of us were hugging each other, crying tears of joy, dancing around and laughing -all at the same time!

I hurried up and finished getting dressed and before I left for State College, I phoned the office where I was a part-time employee at the University and told them I would be in sometime that day but at that point in time, I just couldn't say exactly when because I planned to stop at the hospital before I went on to work so I could be one of the first of the family to see this little guy!

Actually, he wasn't very little as I think -if I remember those details correctly -he was very long -like 23 inches in length -and he was a big baby weight-wise too as he weighed in at very close to 9 pounds. (The weight I don't remember offhand tonight probably because when I think about that morning and how excited I was, I still get lost a bit on those details even yet today!)

I got to the hospital then shortly before 9 a.m. and there he was, all wrapped up so tightly in those receiving blankets with this little hat on his head and his eyes shut as tightly as he could possibly get them!

Big Daddy had just laid him back in his bassinet but immediately went and gathered his son -my grandson -up and handed him to me saying "I know you're just itching to hold him and here he is!"

Boy, was that ever the truth too! I'd only been anticipating this big event for over the past 8 months ya know as Carrie had told me about the "big news" on Christmas Eve and that made that the best Christmas present ever too!

I remember too the day in April when Carrie had the sonogram that showed what my first grandchild was going to be -a boy or a girl -so we'd known then for the past 4 months that it would be a boy. Carrie, I recall, was a tad disappointed at first because she had really been hoping for a girl but I tried to appease her by saying "little boys are awesome too, ya know." Her response to that had been "But I really am into bonnets, Mom!"

By the time he was born though, she had enough little boy outfits to clothe him in a whole new outfit I think several times a day for at least the next several months and I figured he'd probably outgrow many of 'em before she'd even get a chance to wear them on him -cause yes, I thought she must have that many outfits stashed in the room for him!

We laugh about that first day with Alex still today though because after I'd held him a good bit, Big Daddy's father showed up and I figured it was only fair that I relinquish my hold on this gorgeous little fellow and let his Grandpa have a turn at him too then.

But I just sat there the rest of the morning, just staring at him, in a bit of a state of shock I think.

I just could not take my eyes off him!

I sat there and kept putting off leaving to go to the office because I kept telling Carrie and Big Daddy that I was waiting for him to open up his eyes so I could really get an even better look at him! But he absolutely refused to do that!

And the funny part of the waiting for him to open his eyes didn't end that day either!

Every chance I got to stop by their place for a quick visit with my "Little Prince" -which was my pet name for him then -and still is to this day even though now he's not a very "little" guy (but he's always gonna be my Prince, ya know), he always had his eyes shut when I would stop in!

Finally, when he was three weeks old and I had made a quick stop to have another "look-see" he actually did then open those eyes and looked straight at me!

We still joke about that to this day that Grammy had to wait three whole weeks to see him with his eyes wide open!

So anyway -it's now a day after his birthday -his 14th to be exact -and when I think back to this time back then, it's so hard to believe how quickly those 14 years have flown by and especially how big he is now too!

He's now taller than I am and I'm 5 ft 6 but he's also now taller than his mother too and she's close to 5 ft 9 inches tall! His dad is tall too -about 6 ft 2 or 3, at least and big built and I think Alex is going to be built very much like his Dad is. He looked so much like his mother when he was a tiny baby and in most ways, even today, he still looks very much like her but yet, from different angles, he looks a lot like Bill too! And that's definitely not a bad thing that he resembles either of his parents because my daughter, Carrie, is a very pretty young woman and Bill is quite a handsome man too!

Those 14 years now have whizzed by so fast, it just makes the head spin and so hard to believe he is this old -already!

He's also a really good, very nice young man too -easy to be with, funny too as he has a great sense of humor. He constantly is an amazement to his mother too with respect to school and his grades as he is also an honor student at his school, did play in the elementary school band (trumpet) and on several occasions, even had solo parts at some of the school concerts. A boy scout -he's very into working on the various stages of scouting and this weekend, he's away -on his birthday, no less -at a special boy scout camp!

Between the hours his mother works and the distance from where I live to where they live, I don't get to see him all that often, but during the summer vacation, we do try to arrange overnight visits whenever possible.

Alex is -and always has been -very good around Maya and Kurtis and watches over them to keep Maya from beating on Kurtis at every chance she gets. For an only child, he's very well-grounded and only slightly "spoiled" since he's the only grandchild on his Dad's side of his family and lives closer to those grandparents so they have had more opportunity to do more for him and with him from day one.

But the bottom line in all this is that he is one very special young man in my life -just as he was that bright morning 14 years ago and his Grammy J is extremely proud of him!

Yep! Best thing ever since sliced bread -or as my neighbor and good friend up the street always says, "If I'd known grandchildren were so darned much fun, I would have had them first!"

Truer words -never spoken!

Happy Birthday a bit late Alex and hope you and old Gram get to celebrate many, many more too!