Improving Barbara

I don't actually have many pictures of me because I'm usually behind the camera and I don't like showing off my expanse. However this is a picture of me with Mother and you can see my "before" I decided I was really ready to start losing weight to improve my health and self confidence.

The above picture is of me on Mother's Day with my most beautiful Mother's Day corsage. Yellow roses (of course) provided by my loving daughter Lauren's family. They also sent a wonderful magnolia to Mother (Grandma) to wear. I feel loved!

This was my old hair style. Okay, the other profile picture of me was from years ago.

As a reward for having lost weight, 18.6 lbs at this point, I treated myself to a new haircut. I love it! If makes me feel better and Dad even loves it and says it makes me look younger. Yay!

This shows the back of said hairdo.

So that is me so far. A work in progress and, for the most part, enjoying my life right now.

Grandma's Brag Book

What can any grandma say about her grandchildren? I personally have 13 of the most handsome/beautiful, smart, talented, and all together amazing grandkids in the entire world. (Of course some of that has to do with their outstanding parents.) For the last 10 years I have been blessed with at least one grandchild a year and so here is my chance to show them off.


On the right is #1, Evan . He was born in 1997 and taught me how absolutely wonderful it is to be a grandma. I was blessed to be at his birth and as special and wonderful each of my kiddos are, there is something about being the first.
#3, on the left, is Adam born in 2000. Both of these fine young men are sons of Lauren and Mike.

#2 is Taylor , born in 2000, son of John and Amy.

#4 is Jonas, born in 2001. I wish I had a better photo, he was wearing an eye patch in this one. He is John & Amy's second.

#5 is Mason, born in 2002. John & Amy's third.

#6 is Brian, born in 2003 to Lauren & Mike.

#7 is Leah, born in 2004 to Frank & Tracy. If you will note, at that point my 3 youngest grandchildren were blonde, brunette, & redhead. Again, I wish I had a better picture.

#8 is Sullivan, born in 2005, to John and Amy.

#9 is Rebekah, born in 2006 to Frank & Tracy.

#10 is Alex, born in 2007 to Jon and Stephanie.

#11 is Jack, born in 2007, twin to Alex.

#12 is Carrington, born in 2008 to John and Amy.

#13 is John, born in May 2009 to Lauren & Mike. John wasn't due until the first part of August and weighed in at 3 lb 4 oz. At this time he is still in the hospital, but I feel confident he will be coming home by the time his due date arrives.

Well, there they are, 13 of the most wonderful children in the whole world and the absolute joy of their grandmother.

Update on Lisa

With basketball over, Lisa moved on to bowling. This is by far her favorite sport and the local Special Olympics group is able to offer bowling on most Saturdays. Three games each time, at no cost to the athletes. Grandma Haren always went with us to watch and cheer Lisa on.

March 25th, Lisa celebrated her birthday. We asked Uncle Cale, Aunt Diane, and the rest of the Haren clan to join us at a Mexican restaurant and then to come back home for cake afterward. Everyone came (Grandma, Cale, Diane, Tyler, his girl Tori, their baby Andrew, Jake, Autumn, Dad and me) Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me so we didn't get any pictures there. Uncle Cale suprised us by paying for dinner. It was a nice surprise! They also got Lisa her own basketball and some clothes. It was very good.

There was a local bowling tournament on May 9th. Bowlers from several counties came and there was a good turnout. The groups are made up of 4 bowlers with similar skill levels. Grandma and I went to watch and Lisa took the blue ribbon, first place, in her group. That's when we learned she would be going on the the State Special Olympics in Richmond for bowling.

Lisa brought home the bronze medal from the State Games. She left for Richmond on Friday morning, June 12th. There were all kinds of activities planned for the athletes and Lisa seemed to have had a great time. There was a dance on Saturday night after the games were over and after that they went back the dorms where they were staying and had a pizza party. She returned home on Sunday and enjoyed showing her medal to everyone here. I am so happy that we have a good Special Olympics program in this area.