I am 2-teen, going on 16

I went on a walk with Aggie last night and introduced her to CORN!  We're in Iowa.  She needs to know what to yell if we drive past a corn field as opposed to a soy bean field.

For the moment though, she just yells, YEAH! if I ask her if she sees corn.

And yes, that's a small ear of corn she's holding.

She's pretty positive about a lot of things. 

She also yelled, YEAH! when I asked her if she sees a cow.

There was no cow.

I did call her out on the zebra and then she said Nah for the rest of the animals I asked about.

She's not as positive about potty training but we sometimes get lucky with her if Miss Rachel is on.  Then she'll sit on the potty for 30 minutes and surprise herself.

She loves the positive reinforcement of 2 gummy bears for a #1 and 3 for a #2.

This morning we got the babies out on the deck for their daily feeding in the fresh air. And Aggie talked me into picking another black eyed Susan for her.  It's not hard.

I'm easy.

She brings me vividly back to the days when my kids, the girls, especially, were so little.

I loved that.

Enjoying it while I can!

Teenage years are about a week away.

CatchUp Wanna Be Irish Style

 I had a weird day yesterday.  A feeling hit me that I haven't felt in 20 years and it knocked me off my feet.  It was not a good feeling.  

So once I got home, I got busy with work, folded some clothes, got ready for a cooking class last night and the feeling subsided.  I felt "in control" again.  MUCH better!

If that's an anxiety attack, I'm going to do my best to avoid them.

Anyway, the cars have been in and out of the shop with major issues for the past few weeks.  I'll be glad when all cars are functional again without the engine lights coming on or weird noises from under the hoods or near tires.  

In the market for a new or new to me lawn mower.  My dear brother drove here from western Iowa and mowed my yards a week ago Thursday and they're about due again.  What an awesome brother I've got!

While I tried out his mower, finishing the back yard, he used his gas powered trimmer and started in around my garden.  He accidentally trimmed up two of my 3 tomato plants that I grew from seed before he realized there were "wanted" plants mixed in with the tall weeds! :) I asked him to leave the last one as it was my favorite anyway.  They are NOT being productive plants anyway this year.  I guess I don't know what I'm doing with the garden.

His mower is a zero turn and I think I may be sold on that idea now.  It was very awkward to figure out and I almost drove over him a couple times yelling, "How do I stop this thing?" "PULL BACK!  Like WHOA NELLY!"

oh!  Treat it like a horse, huh?  okey dokey.  I've always WANTED a horse!  I'll name her Nelly, of course.  Or Mr Ed.  It depends on what name hits me as appropriate when I finally pick one out.

Aggie turned 2!!!!  We had her party at the Des Moines Science Center with all the major players of her life in attendance.  So much fun!

Then cake with just the immediate family and grandparents.  Her other grandma made the cake and it was SO good!  It had a raspberry filling! mmmmm  I went off my pre-diabetic diet and enjoyed a half piece.

OH - my A1C got tested again this morning and it's 5.5!!!  Dropped from 5.9 in 3 months!  yay!  I'm still pre-diabetic though and will have to consistently watch what I eat.  Keeping it low carb as much as possible.  I think I'll wait a few more months before I bring a few more carbs into my food though.

I got 2 things entered into the State Fair that just started.  Thank goodness my son-in-law takes such good care of clothing I've made for him!  I've been out of the sewing mojo for some time now.  I've STARTED a ton of projects but haven't gotten very far in actually sewing them together.  

That might be my new hobby.  Dream up and starting projects.  I need a friend whose hobby is to complete unfinished projects and we'll be the dream team!

I've got several ideas for Christmas gifts and once I push all the already started projects off my sewing table, I'll get going on them!

Wednesday night, I attended a cooking class in town nearby and learned how to chop veggies properly with knives!  It was so much fun and I've got 2 quarts of chopped veggies that I'll eat tonight.

Thursday night, I attended the cooking class again with a widow friend and we learned how to make Spring Rolls!  OOOH!!!  Those rice paper rounds made it so easy!  However with 8 carbs per wrap, I only ate one and made two other rolls using lettuce leaves for the wrap.  They were messier and I should have had a fork, but oh well.  The peanut sauce was DELISH and the chef deliberately left out the brown sugar!  So now we know we can!  I was too shy to ask, but someone else did. Whew! Thankful for their boldness!

Oh!  Last weekend, Leon and I met up with Maddy and Meri in Waterloo for the Irish Fest!  

We watched knives being forged from railroad ties

Bohran, tin whistle demonstrations and Myth telling

Maddy and Meri were the only ones who enjoyed authentic Irish cuisine.  Leon ate up most of my Food dollar bucks on lemonade, corn dogs, gelato, burgers, fries and fried cheese curds.  No, I wasn't keeping track...  But I did end up with a burger and a few curds.

We saw the Trinity Irish Dancers from Chicago!  And reminisced about when Meri took Irish dance classes when she was really young.

Lots of quality time with my girls!

Leon climbed 3/4s of a wall!!!  The last time he'd tried this sort of thing, he only got a few feet off the ground.  So he's improving!!

Maddy wove some fabric and may have just struck on her NEW hobby!  She's got a lot of them too.  Like Mother, like daughter!

Enjoyed the Highland games!  They're throwing a 28 pound rock as if it's a discus throw!  Some got it as far as 34 feet!  Mine would have landed on my foot.

The girls got to pet some Irish dogs!

It was a fun day and I put in over 5 miles in walking. My watch confirmed!  Leon was beat!  And now he's thinking twice about attending the State Fair with me because of the walking...

:) Maybe I'll bring him in with a stroller! LOL!

Well, back to work.  Meri's car is in the shop today and I'm working from my bestie's nursing home library for at least the morning.  Trying to be inconspicuous and quiet.  She and I have lunch plans but I'm working and she's got her morning schedule.

I've got a mile in so far today just walking from the car fixing place!  

THAT should work off any carbs I picked up last night or decide to eat today.  sigh.  I have no idea how this whole thing works yet.

When Energy Levels Matter

 

Well, it's been a while since my birthday!  Seems like yesterday.

I met up with my favorite cousin Julie at the Zombie Burger!!

Oh my goodness, the fun talks we had!  It's so great to talk to someone without having to avoid certain topics and who gets me on every level of life!  I love that chick!

Afterwards, we thrifted a little and LOOK what I found!  Magnetic tiles for a road for only $5!  I sent Jen a pic and she said GET IT!  THAT'S A $50 toy!

No worries, it was already in my cart!

Got home and was playing with Aggie on it when Jen got home from work.

Um Val...  you should have saved that as a gift for Aggie's upcoming birthday! It's on her birthday wish list!

whoops.  Guess who's spoiled in MY household right now?...

but it was only $5!

:) Here she's taking care of her babies.  We sit on the porch with them a little every day and she fusses over them while trying to wrap them in a blanket and feed them. 

Then they fall on their heads on the floor.

Here's the banana tree I brought back from my Kentucky sister's house a year ago this past spring!  Isn't it lovely?!  They're not indigenous around Kentucky either, but Tammy has several pots of them on her deck, pulling them in each winter.  I'm going to try to keep that up with this one. So far so good!

Within the last couple weeks, I invested in a smart watch. It had been a while since I'd had one and the prices were a LOT lower than what I had been expecting. This one is amazing.  Besides counting my steps, it keeps track of a ton of different things.  The phone app even will keep track of my calorie intake each day.

Well, was I in for a surprise on Monday!  I had a horrible night that night, waking up half way into sleep in order to be sick for a while.  I was so miserable from several hours awake feeling icky,l that I slept in until 6!

Can you imagine?!!!

So I was sick and NO energy.  I sat on the deck with some bone broth for breakfast for over an hour before trying to start work.  Mostly lethargic.  A co-worker knew I was wanting to go take a nap but I had things that had to get done.

At 11am, my watch suddenly buzzed and said, "Your energy level is draining too fast!  You need to take a break and rest!"

Whoa.  Who are YOU to tell me what to do!?

My watch.

So I took a break and slept most of the afternoon.  Uggh.  I WAS drained. How did my watch know?!

Here's the graph from the app from when I went to bed around 7pm that night.

as opposed to my energy levels yesterday when I got a 1.5 mile walk in yesterday morning!

I guess I WAS sick, but seeing my energy all spelled out and what walks do for recovery is amazing!

So I walked again today and before work, besides the walk, I'd taken the garbage out, cleaned out the van, moved a bunch of framed stuff up to my new office and pulled some weeds!

On Tuesday even, just moving the frames would have zapped all my energy!  So I'm feeling so much better now!

Ok, so I spent the last two days working from Meri's house so that the excavation people could get into Meri's basement easily.  They didn't even come Wednesday but I was so busy with work, that I spent the entire day there anyway, working from her dining room table.

Here was my view.  We were keeping her cats in the living room so if the guys showed up, the cats wouldn't get lost under the house with the basement door open.

Reedus was roaming free with me in the dining room.  

Back to the yard issue.  The water line between Meri's house and the street hookup had corroded beyond repair and flooded her yard.  It was basically lake front property with a big water bill.  Her basement sump pump was running NON-stop and at one point couldn't keep up with 2 inches of water touching her furnace.  And the sidewalk was flooded.

Thanks be to God for other situations that made this a doable fix and His timing is always best.

They finally arrived to finish the job yesterday and her yard now looks like a missile testing site.

In that spot where the puddle is, later became a gaping hole and then buried again a few hours later.

Currently the rider mower would get lost or high centered in any of the peaks and valleys that is her yard, but they're coming back today to level it out a bit more. whew!  

It will be nice when things calm down.

Then at the local farmers market, Jen, Aggie and I went to last night. The food truck had this on their menu for a few minutes!  Yikes!  The food truck gal was scared to death of it but didn't know what it was.  It's roughly 2 inches long!

So I took the pic and did a google pic search. It's a Cicada killer wasp!

Sheesh!  I wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with that scary thing!

Oh and I need to enter some stuff in the fair a week from tomorrow.  I've started about 5 projects and don't have ANYTHING ready.  I might just enter one of the jackets I made for Matthew, but who knows what my energy level will be this next week!

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!

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!

Tacos and catching up

Leon and I attended the Iowa Cubs game against the Louisville Bats on Friday night!  It was a lot of fun catching up with some college friends.  I hope more are able to attend next year!

My sister-in-law dropped us off with the intent of eventually finding a parking spot nearby and joining us but no luck.  Every single lot was full and she wasn't in a state to walk several blocks.  At least I got to visit with her for the drive from our parking ramp over! 

Leon didn't understand the game but was totally in it for the food.  Thankfully his dad gave me some money to keep the kid happy and boy did I!

He got a big slice of pizza right at the beginning and then ate half my peanuts.  Then we climbed over a fence barrier to our left, three more times to either find a restroom or more food and drinks.  He had seen a sign for Raising Cain's chicken fingers but apparently it was just an ad because there was NO booth for it.  He settled for a generic BBQ booth and only ate a teeny bit of the $14 plate of chicken strips and fries.  I ate the rest, not wanting anything to go to waste...  And since I'm counting carbs and blood sugar these days, I'm still working it off.

sigh.  The things I do for these kids!

It was delicious.

Ok - since a month ago, when I last blogged.

1) I did NO sewing.  I hope to remedy that this week.  I need SOMETHING to send to the fair.  I should actually sign up for some tickets today.

update: DID!  Signed up for 6 entries. Not sure if I'll have that many but we'll see.

2) Meri has a new boyfriend and I finally got to meet him a couple weeks ago. He's coming for taco night tonight too.  We like him. and she really likes him.  So things are good.

3) Leon and I visited with Maddy and Matthew and went on adventures in paint 

and boating!

4) Leon is out of school!!  and as far as we know, is now in the 8th grade.  You can't tell ANYTHING by those new fangled report cards. M=met expectations, N=nearing expectiations, S=sweet but trying, etc.  He is sleeping/gaming away his summer.  It's a challenge to get him out into the sun much less bed but we're doing our best! Thus the bribery with ball game food.

Come outside little boy!!...

5) staying as positive as I can about certain situations in my life right now.  

Robb would have said, "yep - told you."

6) possibly buying another car later this summer!  The current cars are nickel and diming us to death. One car will only drive smoothly if you put in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and only if you put it in and fill it when it's around 1/4 of a tank.  Then you're good (maybe) until it's back down to a 1/4 tank.  weird.  Another needs new tires.  Another rattles when you start it and needs new tires too.

never ending.

7) I did something stupid (and almost died) with my riding lawn mower and that story is for another day.  Now the front tires look a wee bit bowlegged.  With any luck, Meri's new BF will help me bend it back into place today. I hope.

8) Leon and his middle school band played during Memorial Day out at the cemetery.

9) same day I realized that my blood sugar was way too high. That darn drunken peach cobbler.  

It's SO sweet!

and delish.

eh - I needed a wake up call.

10) Aggie's other grandparents came for a day and helped us all tear down the Eagle's nest from in front of our house and put up portions of it for a deck for Aggie's little house back in the yard. It's adorable!

pay no attention to the wheelbarrow!  it's not still there. This is an older picture.

and she is adorable too.

Just Grandma and Aggie

She is a stitch and a half!

Anyway, back to work and other things!  I hope you're having a beautiful week!

Eat a taco tonight!