February 01, 2023

Pic of the week: Cozy Callie

February 01, 2023/ Lisa Carpenter

Temps at my place this past week have been downright frigid. “Below freezing” doesn’t begin to describe it, with many mornings registering a …

January 28, 2021

Chameleon cool

January 28, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

My bonus grandson James, who will be 13 in April, lives pretty much half of the time with his mom and half of the time with his dad, Brianna, Benjamin, and Robert. The specifics of the shared custody changed recently, and the new configuration resulted in it making more sense for James’ pet chameleon, George, to reside full-time at Dad’s house.

January 14, 2021

Pic of the week: Wild connection

January 14, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

My grandson Benjamin’s favorite place in the world is the zoo. Many of my favorite photos of my favorite two-year-old are those taken in his favorite place.

To wit: This wild connection—and perfect pose by both for the camera—Brianna captured during their visit this week.

September 11, 2020

Summer 2020: What I didn't tell you

September 11, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

July 25, 2020, marked the eleven year anniversary of Grandma’s Briefs. During many summers, I’ve taken a break from blogging from Memorial Day through Labor Day, to allow me time to enjoy summer fun without being obligated to publish anything.

This past summer, I chose not to take a break. I figured that with Covid restrictions and all, I’d have little to do and lots of time to write about the little I might do and see and ponder.

June 26, 2020

Blooms and birds: Sights that soothe Covid chaos

June 26, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

Here we are several months into the pandemic, and Colorado seems to be faring relatively well. We’re one of the few states with falling or stable cases of Covid-19, thanks to (most) folks wearing face masks, adhering to social distancing rules, and refraining from congregating in large groups.

Stay-at-home orders have been gradually relaxed in my state, though not yet completely ceased, and staying home as much as possible is still recommended.

Which suits me just fine, considering the chaos far and wide on pretty much every front imaginable. I’m more than happy being confined to the …

February 10, 2020

Callie!

February 10, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

Callie!

There’s a new kid in town, er, at Gramma’s house, and her name is Callie. If you follow Grandma’s Briefs on Instagram or Facebook, you may already know the story. If you don’t, well here it is …

February 03, 2020

Goodnight, sweet boy

February 03, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

Goodnight sweet boy

Thank you to everyone who left kind and caring comments regarding my dog Mickey on last week’s GRAND Social post as well as on social media. Unfortunately pancreatitis proved to be too much for my 15-year-old baby. Mickey passed away on Wednesday, January 29, 2020.

January 27, 2020

Sick old man

January 27, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

Sick old man

My old man Mickey has been quite sick since Friday morning. To say he feels under the weather is an egregious understatement.

After a long day of no appetite and atrocious symptoms Friday, I called the vet late that afternoon and secured an early Saturday appointment. Blood work, x-rays and a bloody (literally) exam confirmed pancreatitis.

October 25, 2019

Grand fun: A Bearizona visit with Arizona boys

October 25, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since Jim and I visited our grandsons (and daughter and son-in-law) in Arizona.

Hard to believe, too, that I’ve not shared the stories of all we did (other than make bracelets) during that visit. But with Benjamin’s milestones to mark soon after our return — such as his first haircut and his first birthday — details on our desert visit to see Brayden, Camden, and Declan were put on the back burner.

With temps hovering just below freezing and a snowy scene outside my windows as I write this, today seems an especially ideal day to recap one particularly grand fun-in-the-sun outing we had our grandsons at the outset of autumn. That being the day we spent at Bearizona Drive-Thru Wildlife Park, located about an hour south of the Grand Canyon.

September 19, 2019

Six blessings of my dog's senior status

September 19, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Our dog is getting old. Depending on the chart used, Mickey — the pit-pointer we rescued at six weeks old — has reached senior status, hovering anywhere around 80 years old to 93 or so.

Mickey’s advanced age is obvious in myriad ways. The bold brown coloring on his face has gone gray, he has trouble on stairs, he sleeps much of the time, he rarely gets excited about even his once most favorite things … including squirrels needing his exuberant escorting out of the yard and …