Last Friday the High School where I work had the unique opportunity to host the letter of intent signing of the #1 boy's basketball recruit of the class of 2010.  Harrison Barnes signed with North Carolina in an assembly where he skyped with Roy Williams, his coach next fall when he becomes a Tar Heel.  By the way do you know what a tar heel is?  I looked up the word tar heel and this is what I came up with:

Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of North Carolina. "Tar Heel" is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams and students.

The exact etymology of the nickname is unknown, but most experts believe its roots come from the fact that tar, pitch and turpentine created from the vast pine forests were one of North Carolina's most important exports early in the state's history.^[1]

Because the exact history of the term is unknown, many legends have developed to explain it. Many believe it to be a nickname given during the U.S. Civil War, because of the state's importance on the Confederate side, and the fact that the troops "stuck to their ranks like they had tar on their heels".^{[  Ok}

^{Ok, well that was your English lesson for this blog}  

^{Harrison is a great role model for his peers.  I am so glad that I have had the chance to get to know him while he has been a student at Ames High.} 

^{This weekend our Waterloo family came for a visit as Iowa State had it's last home Football game.  Yeah we beat Colorado!!!When they come it seems that the other kids have the desire to come hang out as well, (those Regers  are fun to be around).} 

We invited Heather's grandparents and her dad over for supper on Saturday so that meant making lots of food.  Yummy sloppy joes and Dutch Apple Pie and a long awaited Raspberry pie for my hubby.

Julie Ann experimented making a mock wedding cake for Tarica and Tim.  It was delicious and she went to a lot of work to get it to perfection.  Tim and Tarica even "practiced"  cutting and feeding it to one another.

It was delicious!!

Tyler really loves his girl cousins.

On Sunday we went to our favorite restaurant, Hickory Park.  My kids order the same thing almost every time we go there.  Scott enjoying his grilled frank.

A saucy southern.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Addisyn enjoying her grandpy..

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Heather and Michael

Scott and Julie (aren't' they sweet)

Tarica was not able to be with us on Sunday so I took a picture of Tim with his twin.They are two good friends also.

I love my kids and cannot wait till they are all within driving distance of us. 

  I wanted to publish a brief update on my travels  to Spain over the past 11 days.  Again, it will be brief because this tired Nana needs to hit the sack early tonight!  After being awake for over 25 hours Sunday, I have hit my wall.  I have so many photos and videos to share with you from my trip to Spain but none of it is scenery or sites of Madrid.  Sorry folks, it only of our grandchildren!!!!!!    Tuesday night I beseeched the Lord on Julie's behalf to bring that little boy into the world in the next few hours and praise God, He allowed Samuel Allen Masson to be born Wednesday.

It was hard to say goodbye to Julie, Jesse, Sammy and especially the LP, aka Renae.  I so enjoyed being with that little girl (as well as the rest of the family).  Hopefully some of these videos will show you why!  What a hoot she is.  Ok, let me have the pictures do the talking.

I brought over a Minnie Mouse costume for Renae to play with.  She loved it.

This is a friend of Julie's, Bea and her son Jaime ( I probably spelled it wrong). She is a very sweet and caring and I'm so thankful Julie has her for a friend.  

Renae playing in her room after church on Sunday

The aftermath of a warm, just out of the oven, chocolate chip cookie

We visited my favorite cafe a few blocks away.

After Renae's brother was born, we went into the room and the first thing out of her mouth was, "I hold it". 

That lasted about 10 seconds.

Samuel Masson in all his glory.  Take a look at those hands!!

Renae, falling in love with her brother.

The growing Masson family.   

Doesn't he look like a little old man?  Does anyone other than me see Tim Reger in this picture?

                                                              This is Tim when he was a little older than Sammy is now.

Renae and I made a welcome home sign and placed it on the apartment door.

This picture reminds me of Renae when she was born, who reminded me of Julie when she was born.

Finally I got the videos to upload!!  Here they are.  Renae has a farm/song thing on the fridge and was having fun pressing the button and showing her goofiness.

Ever since our grandchildren were tiny babies, I have sung "You are my sunshine" to them.  So  listen carefully to Renae and you'll hear her rendition of the song.

Because I am a Nana, I will never get tired of hearing the cry of a new born baby.

 It's been almost a month since I've blogged so I thought I'd search through the pictures on my camera since the last time I blogged and just talk about them.

First, our daughter has a sister-in-law on her husband's side that blogs and she puts some pretty amazing food recipes on her blog.  You've seen the movie Julie and Julia?  Kari, (jkmassonfrance.blogspot.com) could be that girl Julie in the movie.  Anyway a few weeks ago, I thought I'd try her recipe for true Hungarian goulash.  This is the picture from her blog.   See those little whatcha jiggers by the goulash?  I didn't know what they were but they looked like little dumplings.  So I googled dumplings which eventually took me to a website which had a cool video on how to make Gnocchi.  Pronounced knee-o-key.  I'd been pronouncing it wrong all along.  Anyway, those little potato dumplings were just the thing to go with our Iowa version of French girl, via Atlanta, recipe of Hungarian Goulash.  My daughter in law Heather came over and helped with the meal.

For the Gnocchi, you start with potatoes which have been boiled,  peeled and smooched in a bowl.  If you google "How to make Gnocchi", there will be several videos to show you how it's done.

Then you roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into small pieces and place on a tray to dry.   Then you put them into boiling water and when they rise to the top of the pan, they are done.  They were the easiest things to make and was a nice side dish to the Goulash.  Now, back to the goulash... Our goulash, I had to use some thickening in it to make not so soupy.

After three hours!.... yes it took that long. We finally sat down to our meal of authentic Hungarian Goulash, Gnocchi and fresh cut green beans. 

A couple of weeks later was Labor Day and the Waterloo kids came for the long weekend.  But  can you believe this Nana did not get her camera out hardly at all!  But I did get a cute video of Taylor, who just so happens to L-O-V-E food. She can eat and sing at the same time.  What a talented little girl.  Have I told you lately how much I love being a Nana?

And one last picture, which was taken last weekend when Iowa came to Ames to play Iowa State in football.  Here is the group that was dressed for the event.  Only one stray Hawkeye in the group. (Tim wasn't being fresh, he was trying to hide the words on Tarica's T-shirt)  We'll turn her around someday.  We won't talk about the score.