Sharing a birthday with Minnie

 They say it's my BIRTHDAY!

It's YOUR birthday TOO yeah!
Ok, maybe it's not YOUR birthday too.

Each of my kids has either messaged, texted or called to wish me Happy Birthday!  My sisters have in our messenger group, I even had lunch with one of my sisters and her kids on Tuesday as she was passing by!  And then several of my FB friends are joining in with the well wishes today, so my birthday-tide is almost complete! Bwahaha!

I'm having lunch with my favorite cousin today at Zombie Burger!  and then perhaps some thrifting before I come home.  Hopefully I'll have the traditional Zombie photo with her by tomorrow.

Here was my morning with Aggie before she left for daycare.  She insisted on watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and as luck would have it, it's Minnie Mouse's birthday too!  or at least that's what the episode was.

Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse!

and I only know how to spell this because I always have the subcaptions on. I'm old now.

Here is the project that made me go get a tetanus shot a few weeks ago!  

I finally got the final spring IN!

Just about ready to start padding it out and covering it with Robb's jeans.  BUT I've still got those pesky state fair projects to complete.  I don't have a single one done yet. shoot.  I should probably get going on that huh?

Anyway, back to my birthday-tide!  It feels DIVINE!

Celebrations and plants

 

The kids were all here this weekend to celebrate my birthday a smidgen early!  They grilled brats, brought lots of cooked broccoli and cauliflower, and Leon even made brownies!  I treated myself to half a piece along with some low carb ice cream!  I figured I could do that many carbs.  And then later, I ate a whole piece.  My blood sugar the next morning was not happy with me.  shoot.

The kids all pitched in and I got a gift certificate to attend a couple cooking classes at a place nearby that I'd been wanting to go to! yay!  And I received a mug that Maddy had made in her pottery studio she likes to visit!  

It was a great pre-birthday!

FYI: Leon must have leaned backwards to avoid the picture. He does that...

Some neighbors have this plant next to their patio and it has spread to my fence!  I noticed it also in my church landscaping.  I BELIEVE this is a flowering milkweed variation and I'm going to plant more.  It's so pretty!  And the blooms last all summer.

Aggie and Jen did some artwork on our patio Sunday and made some gorgeous pictures!  I didn't grab a pic of Jen's!  But I will.  These are Aggie's.

Anyway, it was a great weekend!  And Leon has just recently gotten into the Walking Dead, so he and I watched the first 4 episodes since Sunday, in addition to the movie Independence Day.  I've never binge watched that much in so few of hours before.  Hopefully I can start marching in place or something during the next episode!

I'm meeting one of my sisters for lunch today. :)  and my favorite cousin for lunch on Thursday!

Whew!  Life is a rush!

May July 4th Be With You!

 I'm going in to get my Gold Star driver's license soon and started panicking a little.  A few people have said that it would be difficult however Maddy said it was easy.  I'm not seeing the difficulty yet.  Most of the documents are in my 2024 tax envelope besides my passport.  I'll be stopping by my safety deposit box to grab my SS card but I did make a call to DOT and they said as long as I know my SSN number, I can sign a waiver.  Eh - I'll see if I have it instead.  Now, do I know where the key to the safety deposit box is?  maybe.

Update: I got my gold star paper driver's license this morning!  Yay!  Take your tax papers in to use as the SSN.  Easy peasy.  Maddy was right.  If you've got a set appt, you get RIGHT in!  They skipped from 725 to 789 (my number) almost immediately!  I almost missed it.

The red/white/blue shorts I made for Aggie turned out cute!  They're pretty loose on her around the legs.  Maybe because I'm so used to seeing her in legging shorts and these are NOT leggings.   Whoops I don't have a picture of them!  I plan to make more shorts similar before the fair.

Today (and yesterday) was a DOOZY at work!  Whew!  nonstop chaos.  Maybe I can get to the project I was trying to get to on Monday tomorrow...  It needs to be done by Monday or Tuesday and I do NOT plan to work over the weekend!

Update: Still not done with the project. The crisis from yesterday flowed over to today. Eh - that crisis is done for now.  With any luck the other issue will be a ten minute project. Crossing my fingers!

The leftover Easter lily plants from church a couple years ago, finally bloomed!  Are they pretty?!

They run on their OWN calendar!  and my outside is the hothouse for them.  I finally planted the ones from this past Easter but it may have been too long before planting.  They may not make it.

Last night, Aggie and I used ALL of Leon's magnetic tiles and built a beautiful building!  She loves playing Godzilla and destroying it, not leaving one tile on top of another.  She can be brutal.

Getting out my red/white/blue banner to hang on the front of the porch soon.  I guess it needs to hit the dryer for a bit to shake out some wrinkles.

Have a wonderful 4th of July!!!!

Thank you to all the men and women who made/make my country free!

Boxy but they're good

Back in the day, Robb saw that the Volvo wagon was THE used car to get and lasted a super long time.  

Remember the movie Crazy People! LOL!  We quoted from it all the time.

So even before we were ready to purchase another car, he did all the research.  

He and I did a road trip several hours away to test drive one.  It had a wasp's nest inside it and was really run down inside.  We ended up passing on the test drive. :\ 

Another time, we finally got a test drive in one, again, a couple hours away and it looked good inside and out.  And wouldn't you just know it?  It felt super uncomfortable for him to drive.  The seat just hit his back and butt wrong.

All the research just doesn't pay if you don't even know if you're going to like the feel of the driver's seat!

Anyway, we're looking to add to our fleet!  Jen found this model on Marketplace and while I was waiting for the owner to get back to me on the size of motor and gas milage question, I googled the gas milage for that style of car.  

Google says 22 as a max, which is not terrible.  My minivan ranges from 18 - 24 depending on if I'm letting it warm up on a cold day or driving on the interstate. 

But the owner got back and said 24.  Not sure if she's lying or what.  I guess we'll know more when we try it out.  Probably not until next week.

Wish us luck!

Weekend Activities AKA I need a nap

Friday night, I went to Maddy's town to attend one of their free summer concerts with her!  They try to go every week but Matthew was out of town and Maddy didn't want to go alone.  She got more knitting in and we got a lot of chit chatting in.

The Death Stranding birthday party for Ryan and Jen, on Saturday night was a lot of fun!  

SO much pizza and goodies!  Leon had even made a cake.  I made the buttercream frosting for it.  Thank goodness Maddy brought a veggie platter.  I made a salad using lettuce and the toppings of a couple slices of pizza & said vegetables.  

mmm  and snuck a few boneless bbq chicken wings.  I need to knock THAT off!

Meri and Josh were there too and even Aggie joined in on the living room fun as Ryan forged his way into the sequel for the game.  Even though Matthew was several states away at a conference, he was able to connect via Twitch and watch the action too.  He texted several times about events going on in the game.

Sunday, after church, some church friends stopped by and helped me work on my rider mower to fix the bent wheel.  They ended up using the two parts I'd purchased after all and identified another crutial piece that got bent also. The front axle.  I asked a neighbor for a tool I didn't have and he came over and fussed over the mower along with Seth.  So much grease!  I felt so bad for getting them into the nitty gritty of it all.  I thought it was going to be a quick fix.

Seth will be back later this week with a pipe wrench to see if he can bend the axle back into place.  

In the meanwhile, I mowed the front yard afterwards and it handled SO much better than it had been doing!  Instead of a ten point turn at every corner, it was only 3!  PROGRESS!!!

Oh, plus they tightened the steering wheel!  So it's not so jiggly! Whew.

While Aggie and Jen played in the kiddie pool, I pulled thistle weeds out of my hostas and cement hill and finally planted my hydrangea plant that Meri gave me for Mother's Day.  It actually broke apart into two plants! So winner winner!

I opened a bag of mulch that had been sitting there all last winter to spread around it and low and behold there was a mass colony of ants living inside and they spilled out all over my tennis shoes and gloves!  Yikes!  and they were biters! 

That was about when I decided I'd had enough for one day.  Besides sweat was dripping off my face like a faucet was on.  I left my shoes on the porch so the ants could go find another home.  yuck.  

OH and I sprayed the air conditioner with the hose a lot!  I'm guessing that's why it's not keeping up very well with the heat.  It was pretty dirty.  So now we wait again to see if it made a difference.

Got a lot of weeding in this morning before work.  If I can get 30 minutes of weeding in a day, I think the yard will be good by Christmas.  You know.  Under a foot of snow.

above: dressing up with Mom
below: reading to herself.

I cried at church yesterday. Widows being given back their sons.  I'm not jealous but well, maybe.  It's a widow thing.  Always rehashing the actual day, wondering if I missed something or didn't pray at the right time or not do the right things.  And wouldn't you just know it?  The first service I hadn't brought tissues to the pew with me.  Even though I didn't get Robb back, God has been taking good care of us and Robb is having a beautiful time while he waits for me to catch up.

Well...

Back to work Mr Zook!  Thanks Dave!  * Robb always rolled his eyes at me for quoting that old Sioux City car dealership commercial!! * :)

Death Stranding, concerts and birthdays

 I'm looking forward to a great weekend!

I'm heading to Maddy's tonight to attend a concert in a park.

Then hanging with Aggie over lunch tomorrow so Ryan and Jen can go on a birthday date.

Probably mow my house that afternoon.

THEN the sequel to the Death Stranding video game came out on Ryan's birthday and we watched/played it as a family 3 years ago.  Love me some Norman Reedus!!  AND Mads Mikkelson although I know he won't be in it much this time.  Ryan usually runs the controller and the rest of us watch.  Restarting that tradition tomorrow night!  We'll probably play once a week until we're through it. * 6 months later *

Sounds boring huh?!  Not really!  It's exciting to see where Norman's character goes and where the story line goes.  And I KNOW who that child is and am anxious to see what becomes of her!

And we'll have food to celebrate both Ryan and Jen's birthdays this past week.

Did you know that the official Leon's Day was on Wednesday?  It's halfway between here and Christmas so it's NOEL backwards!  But who actually gets their own day and it's not their birthday? 

My grandson!

I'm starting Christmas shopping now!

And will start lobbying for a Valerie's Day.

Have a beautiful weekend!

She GETS me!

 Ah Aggie girl!

We were relaxing yesterday afternoon, her in her chair and me in mine.  I believe we were watching Aggie Videos that I have on a private Youtube playlist.  She's finally relaxed on the Beauty & the Beast kick a little!  Her video watching reperatoire is increasing.

She adores watching movies/slideshows about herself.

I used to love home movies too when I was a kid.  My dad would pull out the old 16 mm movie projector and a sheet would be hung on one wall, every weekend.  Usually Friday or Saturday night. 

I LOVED it!  

I'm sure my youngest sister didn't as she was only in a couple but with 7 kids, it was a riot to see our antics throughout the years.  Eventually someone had to go to work on that night or had a date and the movie watching became even rarer.  I remember being the ONLY one to set up the projector one lonely weekend and watch the movies by myself, crying that our family was disintegrating.

It wasn't!  Just people were getting too busy with their lives. Bummer. 

I started showing Aggie some other videos I have on Youtube, like Leon pounding on some metal plates with wooden spoons. 

She was inspired!  And since we don't have those plates anymore, I found some pots and spoons for her to be a star herself.

She had to watch the video when I had it done and I'll have to add it to her private playlist.

I SO get her!