November 16, 2009
Today was fun sharing our weekend adventures with the people at work and friends on the phone. It was like a trip down memory lane. We’d jump from one of our weekend adventures to someone’s remembered adventure from long ago. Had all kinds of smiles and grins. Just like the adventures in Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!, once triggered the stories flowed from one cherished memory to another. Rainy days, sunny days, cloudy days all had their special moments. It was a lot of fun!
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Special Moments | Tagged: child, Childhood Memories, children, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, Grandpa Do It, grandparent, grandson, kids, Memories, Places to Go, play, playing, Playing with Children, portland, rainy day | 
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Posted by mygrandmasue
November 15, 2009
Grandpa Ron and I had a great weekend in Portland with Austin, Bella, Madison and family! It had lots of surprises, twists and turns, yet it was a whole lot of fun and very insightful for us.
Austin is so much taller and so much more vocal! Bella is so much more a young lady as well – she’s four. I had fun one-on-one time with Austin on Friday while Grandpa Ron was serving jury duty. Then Austin, Bella and I went back to the Portland airport and picked up Grandpa Ron – practicing counting to a hundred and twenty five along the way.
Then on Saturday Bella and I went with Mommy to her Baby Shower while Grandpa and Austin went to the Vancouver, WA train station and watched trains move around.
Back in the hotel room Austin used the portable luggage holder as his own train. He climbed in, sat on the middle straps and showed us how he was moving his train – with air brake releases, clunking and sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ing and all. Sometimes he was the conductor and sometimes he was the engineer. It was a lot of fun watching his imagination at work. I do have pictures so I’ll get them posted – maybe tomorrow night. Now it is time to unpack and get to bed for bright eyes for work in the morning!!
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November 13, 2009
Today Austin and I spent two hours at the library reading lots of different books that he picked out. The day was rainy so we stayed inside! It was a lot of fun! He would pick several books out and hand them to me. Then we sat in the Children’s Room and read them together. Then he picked out some more. We read them. Then I thought he was done but he pulled out a book he recognised from school called Ladybug Girl by Jacky Davis (Author) and David Soman (Author, Illustrator) and he wanted to take it home to show Mom. BUT I didn’t have Mom’s library card with me and he had to write his name to get his own card, so the librarian suggested we either put it on 3 day save or go up to the Reading Room to read it. Austin decided to read it NOW so we made it up the stairs to the Reading Room only after side-stepping for Austin to grab a transportation picture book and a horse picture book as well. So that was another hour or so.
At the end we signed a hard-cover Grandpa Do It! I Do It, Too book and donated it to the library – since it is HIS library after all. That was fun, too!
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November 12, 2009
Santa Monica is getting the moniker of the West Terminus of Historic Route 66. From the LA Times article: “The highway’s original end point in 1926 was at 7th Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, according to Glen Duncan, president of the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation. A decade later, the road was extended to Olympic and Lincoln boulevards in Santa Monica.”
Here’s some fun stuff on Route 66.
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November 11, 2009
The San Diego Zoo polar bears are having fun. The polar bear trio, whose names are Kalluk (The Athlete), Tatqiq (The Princess), and Chinook (The Stalker), take turns in the Polar Bear Plunge. Here is the video cam. Learn some Polar Bear facts here. Here’s the Polar Bear Blogsite.
More info on the San Diego Zoo is here.
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1 Comment | Nature Activities, Places to Explore | Tagged: child, children, Chinook, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Kalluk, kids, nature, Places to Go, polar bear, San Diego, San Diego Zoo, Tatqiq, zoo | Permalink
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November 10, 2009
This last weekend Grandpa Ron and I saw two falling stars! Seeing one is special so we were really surprised to see two. Then I did a little research and it seems we are in the midst of two meteor shower time spans – the Taurids and the Leonids. November 10th is the start of the Leonid Meteor Shower with the peak on November 17th. Gee, we could probably see many more if we sat outside and waited for them! Here’s lots of info from universetoday.com. Becky Ramotowski in San Antonio records: ‘Shooting stars’ come out to play in her blog today. Also check out Meteor Mark.
Meteorshowersonline has a scientific page on both Taurids and Leonids. Have fun!
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November 8, 2009
Grandpa Ron and I had a great time at the California State Railroad Museum yesterday in Sacramento, CA. We wandered through the Lincoln Exhibit and learned many new tidbits of information. For example, neither of us knew that Abe Lincoln floated down the Mississippi River on a flat boat to take items to market in New Orleans. It gave him a small impression of how large the United States is and helped ground his firm belief that railroads were a way to unite the country. The name of the exhibit is “The Rail Splitter and the Railroads: Lincoln, the Union and the Golden State.” It will be showcased in the Museum’s Theater Mezzanine Gallery through February 15, 2010.
We also got to tour the inside of the beautiful Gold Coast Observation car which was a special treat not normally offered during regular visits to the museum. From the museum website: “Georgia Northern No. 100 Gold Coast Central of Georgia 1905 Private Car Ex Central of Georgia No. 97; Georgia Northern No. 100; Lucius Beebe & Charles Clegg’s private car. Gift 8/1969 of R&LHS, Pacific Coast Chapter. Restored by CSRM to 1948-50 appearance.”
Here’s the special Kid’s Corner.
We were there for a special Trainmaster Reception event for museum donors. We had a really wonderful time meeting other patrons of the museum and tapping our toes to the music of the Black Irish Band as they sang lots of railroad songs along with their Irish and Italian numbers.
The museum is a great place to take the grandkids and family – the kids get to see up front and close just how big the train cars are! Train rides are also possible. Here is visitor information. Here is the 2009 Calendar of Events.
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November 7, 2009
Grandpa Ron (with a little bit of my help) finished installing his Davis weather station last night. It was fun to get readings on the wind gusts! Now we won’t be guessing when those cold winter winds blow down the Eastern side of the Sierras any more – we’ll have an accurate reading of just how fast they are going! We discovered we need another data-logging piece in order to become part of the on-line WeatherLink, Weather World ‘Round net, or the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather net. We do want to be a part of it though, so looks like Santa knows what to bring this year! This will be fun! It will be fun to see if the grandchildren will catch the weather-fever! It could be a fun family activity.
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November 4, 2009
Jim Henson’s world famous Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Grover, and Oscar with all their friends will be partying big time! Today Sesame Street is celebrating Big Bird’s birthday. Then on November 10th children’s television longest running program Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a brand new program format and two new books. Over 30 stars will be in the shows this coming year including Cameron Diaz, Michelle Obama, Adam Sandler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kobe Bryant, Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Ricky Gervais, and Greg Kinnear.
The 122 Emmy Award winning program is changing smartly with the times. “While maintaining an emphasis on the importance of literacy and numeracy, the new season kicks-off “My World is Green & Growing,” a two-year science initiative designed to increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment.” (From Link here.)
Have you noticed Big Bird On Google? It’s really cute! Check it out here! (I don’t know how long it will be there.)
Happy Birthday, Big Bird!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
October 20, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2009 
Media Contact: Susan Winter
grandmasue.grandparon@yahoo.com
Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too! Finalist in USA Book News National Best Books 2009 Awards
Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too! is an Award-Winning Finalist in the Children’s Mind/Body/Spirit category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards sponsored by USA Book News.
LOS ANGELES – USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS” 2009 AWARDS (NBBA) on October 20, 2009. Over 500 winners and finalists were announced in over 140 categories covering print and audio books. Awards were presented for titles published in 2009 and late 2008.
Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists.
Keen says of the awards, now in their seventh year, “The 2009 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States. With a full publicity and marketing campaign promoting the results of NBBA, this year’s winners and finalists will gain additional media coverage for the upcoming holiday retail season.”
Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Penguin, W.W. Norton, Revell, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Thomas Nelson, American Cancer Society, Greenleaf Book Group, Sourcebooks & hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding NBBA competition. Keen adds, “NBBA’s success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”
USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. USABN Magazine Online is the monthly electronic magazine e-mailed free to a large cross-section of the book buying public. JPX Media, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com.
A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National “Best Books” 2009 Awards are available online at www.USABookNews.com.
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MyGrandmaSue 