Halloweening All Over The Place!

I went to an Art exhibition with Maddy last week!  She had a couple free tickets and it was awesome!

So many beautiful pieces all over this place and everyone dressed to the nines.  A silent auction that I was outbid immediately on but Maddy held in there until we left.  Still don't know if she won any of them.

And I got to see the actual puppets used during the Sound of Music movie!  The puppeteer lived in town and lots of his puppets were on display.

Got back on time Saturday for a sewing meeting with ASG.  I got inspired to organize my office/sewing room and after 6 days of organization, it's back to a bit of clutter here or there.

Aggie MAY have been in here investigating new buttons I put in her button boxes.

On Sunday, my entire clan headed up to Maddy and Matthew's for lunch, then we visited the Halloween train and trick or treating around the park.  

Just me and my girls!

Meri and Josh

Aggie did great for the photo until she turned around and saw the ghostly blow up thing.

Then she freaked.

Aggie got lots of fun stuff and now knows how to beg for candy.

She practiced on me again this morning.

Trick or Treat Gah!

No candy here!

After trick or treating, we played blind hide and seek on the playground equipment.

Trust Maddy to find a musical instrument!

And Meri and Josh were supposed to be blind folded, but I guess they deemed that a safety concern and were using their eyes. Cheaters!

After most left, Leon and I stayed around so he could sell some Scout stuff in town. He got several sales and is looking forward to hitting some other nearer towns on Saturday with me.

Anyway, great weekend!  And I'm geared up for the next one!  

Got some more Halloweeny stuff lined up!

BOO!

Grandma went to the fair and all I got was...

Leon and I were GOING to go to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, but due to conflicting schedules between me and a video game, I went alone.

NOT a big deal!

It was actually quite liberating!  I decided to park at the capitol building and take a city bus ride over to the fair. There and back was only $3!  and how easy was that!  I did get a sales pitch about some health stuff on the bus ride because I asked the person where they worked that they get to travel all over the world.

I have their business card now.

And I chatted with some folks on the ride back.

The bus dropped us off AT the gate and picked us up there.  In the past, I've walked several blocks just to get to the gates and then on the way back to someone's yard where I'd left my car. If I remember which street I parked down.  This way is a WINNER! and I'll do it again next year.

I believe I was in the actual fair grounds for 1 hour.  I  visited the 4H building and got pics of my nieces projects.  Found them SO easy because they have a project locator on one end of the building!!!  Where was THIS all my life?!  You just have to know which county your kid is from. I guessed wrong. I guess she's in the county next to the one I grew up in. oh well.  It was easier than going down every aisle!

Then I walked through a horse barn to get to the adult sewing stuff and GUESS WHAT?!  I got ribbons on both items I submitted this year!

Matthew's jacket got an honorable mention!

And his PJ bottoms got 2nd place!  YAY!

I really need to get back into sewing so I'll have more current entries next year.

I walked through the business booth area and found my obligatory annual yard stick that will be lost or taken before next years fair.  Signed up for a few freebies to increase my spam cell calls and then got some cheese curds.

You know... there are NOT a lot of diabetic friendly food choices at the fair.  I think everything is geared towards steering you TOWARDS diabetes.

I tell you what...  going to the fair without the boy was a WHOLE lot cheaper than taking him with. And he agreed with me when I got home. 

I brought him back a bag of caramel kettle corn on the way out of the fair and he was oh so thankful for it!

Grandma went to the Iowa State Fair and all I got was a lousy bag of kettle corn!

:) He loves that stuff so all was good.

My brother is bringing me his old riding lawn mower today!!!

He is a pretty swell brother!  We're going to try that one more thing on my mower and if it's a failure, we'll roll it to the curb. (after taking out the battery)

I'm not strong enough to take that bolt out so I'm leaving it for him. Something about a possible sheered key, like I'm going to know how to fix it after he leaves.  Well, maybe I will be able to if he explains it to me.

Ok - back to work!  Have a beautiful day!

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!! * :)

Weekend Wrap-up

We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday on Saturday. 85 years old!!  It was great seeing everyone and meeting a new grand-nephew as well as an older grand-nephew that I somehow hadn't met yet.

Then on Sunday, I found a substitute Sunday School teacher and went with Maddy and Matthew to Minnesota.  They still had two yarn shops in the annual yarn hop to hit and then their mission was complete!!  I think Maddy had hit her limit that Friday when they'd gone but Matthew found lots of Cashmere/Merino wool blend fibers for his spinning hobby.  Don't you love Maddy's sweater?  She knitted it and used Matthew's spun yarn for the patterned part.

And then, they were so gracious (and patient with me) to stop at the Burnsville SR Harris so I could browse a bit!  

I found a few great pieces for 50% off and also a doll pattern kit for Aggie in the $2 bin. 

 I got it cut out last night.

BEFORE she came upstairs wanting to watch BEAST with me at my desk/sewing table.

Comfy, ain't she?!

Looking forward to taco night and a little light sewing today!

Not Your Grandma's!

 Maddy invited me to join her on Tuesday for a paint by number event.  She'd had a PBN done of their two pups from a photo and it was amazing! 

 All in pencil!  It really made me wonder how they did that!

She took a set of paints and I did took a different one and off we went!

Anyway, we had a ball, drinking our ciders (slightly alcoholic...  I had the honey crisp one) and painting away.  Matthew joined us after a while but didn't jump in with a paint brush.

I think it turned out super!  

I had supper with them and then hightailed it home. 

 It's not your grandma's paint by number!!

Sew behind

So I hightailed it back to Iowa from Kentucky and made it to Maddy's house JUST in time to head out to the barn quilt painting night nearby.  We were each given a free token from a drink. :)

and then got to work!  Matthew arrived later but watched us work while he enjoyed a drink too.

Our finished products.  Mine graces the entryway table.

And because Matthew's sister was getting married over the 4th weekend, I dog sat the "girls" for them at their house for 5 days.  I DID come back home to have an outting with Leon on the 4th though. 

and I got to see Aggs a little too!  She is walking now!

 I borrowed Maddy's kayak and then piled Leon's in with it and we went to a lake nearby.  Had a great time!  We didn't figure out the kayak launch thingy until we got back from exploring the lake though.  It would have made getting into them easier and not gotten my feet wet.

And every time I want to get a pic of this kid, he tries to strike a pose to discourage me.

And when he's NOT looking like an alien, he comes off looking like a child model!

While dog sitting, I did as much sewing as I could.  I finally finished these compression leggings!  I started them 3 years ago at a sewing workshop, using a flat-fel stitch with my serger.  I screwed up and left my blade on and it practically had fallen apart on me when I tried them on back then.  Plus they were super tight.  But I guess that was their intent anyway.

So I pulled all the seams apart and just serged them up like normal.  I felt like Sandy in the last scene of Grease.  REALLY snug!  But wow, they made my legs look great!

Since then, I've cut them into shorts length, and they'll be the bottoms of my swimsuit for the cruise.

Of course, now, I can't find them... but I'm sure they'll turn up.

And through one of my widow groups on FB, I met up with another widow who is staying the summer in the town near where Maddy lives.  After a false start to watching fireworks together, due to absolutely NO parking within 1.5 miles of the lake, we met up a couple days later to go on a cruise around the lake.  I had seen where Maddy had been on it a few times and it looked like SO much fun.  Maddy had encouraged me to actually go on the cruise while I was there, so I did with my new widow friend and her boyfriend.

However we never left the dock...  We sat on top of the boat sipping on drinks for 1.5 hours until we saw the "captain" plug the boat back in. Um hey...  are we NOT going out?  Nope, something was wrong with the starter and if we wanted to wait until 4pm, we could go out then or get our money back.

Well, I needed to get back to the pups, and they had other plans too, so we parted ways and I headed back to Maddy's.

This is the paddle boat part that WOULD have been working, if it had started.

And this is the boat.

Someday...

Anyway, I didn't get as much sewing done as I'd wanted over the 5 days, but that's ok.  As long as I get two/maybe three things done by fair time.  I've got more snaps on order for a toddler jumper, need to do the buttonholes on the jacket for Matthew and stitch up a coat for me.  And then after the cruise, hem a dress for Maddy for her other sister-in-law's wedding!  So many weddings!

I guess that's what Saturdays are for.  Sewing catch up.

Life and how we *spend* it

 What a weekend!!  Where to begin...?

Leon was here!  We watched another episode of one of our shows and he rode his scooter over to Meri's to meet me there to care for the cats.   I'm still pet sitting.  While I was working outside, I saw him cross the street and as soon as I turned my back for a second, heard him start screaming.  He'd hit a patch of gravel at the end of the sidewalk and wiped out.  He had scrapes and dings all over and just wanted to go home.  I helped him to the car, finished my chores and took him back.  He claimed he wouldn't touch his scooter for probably 3 months.  :) that changed the next day.

On Saturday, he went with me to a couple garage sales in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, he attended a meeting with me and our pastor to get ready for confirmation classes coming up.  He's growing up!

There were also free carousel rides and yes, I rode one too!  I was so afraid it was going to break with me on it, I clung to the pole!  I won't be doing that again.

I made 9 trays of flavored dehydrated cucumber slices and ate a whole quart of some just this morning.  I may need to ease up on the salt for future batches if I'm going to plow through them like that again.

I got to hold Agnes a lot this weekend and I think we've imprinted!  

She calms down when she looks me right in the eye and she's smiling more!  

I had planned to burn branches but the breeze kicked up late in the day so that plan was cancelled.

Reedus being lazy.  Yeah, I always lay down to eat too!

Maddy and Matthew came on Sunday and we all got coffee after church and hung out with Aggie for a while.  

The dogs all had a play date in the backyard.  

Like Maddy's bones costume?  She got them all matching ones for Halloween!  Cute.

Speaking of Halloween... It's not even September yet and it's all up at Sam's Club!  While I am loving it, yikes it's too soon!  Leon has already decided that I'm going to sew him a Link outfit, like from Zelda.  We'll see how it goes.

I took him back to his mom's yesterday and when I got there, they noticed smoke coming from my engine...  !!!  Looks like an oil leak somewhere is leaking onto the engine and causing the smoke.  I've got some long car rides coming up this week and don't want to get stranded on the side of the road!  I put in a call to my car guy but no answer yet so put in another call to a different company and have an appointment set for tomorrow.  We'll see what we find out.  Hopefully nothing too expensive.  I've already got the rider lawnmower in for repair this week too. 

Living is expensive! shoot.

Wearing Out Grandma!

A weekend or so ago, I house/pup watched at Maddy and Matthew's about an hour away from here while they were out of town visiting his family.  I had a great time with my grandpups and tried to take as many various pictures of them to make Maddy and Matthew jealous of the time we were spending together. :)  I sent them throughout the days.

Zola looks so grown up with my bifocals.

and Daisy in a hat!

I got costumes for them but since Daisy was MUCH bigger than the child sized shirt I'd bought, I made it into a cape.  And I lied to them about a squirrel being out there.  They're so gullible...

I was there from Friday morning until Sunday night.  On Saturday night, we had a movie night and while it LOOKS like it was an all nighter with a few inappropriate movies, we only just binge watched the Derry Girls's latest season.  They loved it as much as I did, I'm sure!

That night, I put the girls to bed and got into bed myself and that's when they started the twilight bark.  I had Taylor Swift on their google home speaker and turned it up remotely but that didn't help.  They're huge Swifties but not when they have to go outside JUST one more time.  So I pulled on some pants, jacket and pair of socks.  I didn't put on shoes because I was only going to give them 3 minutes to do their business.  

I got them all harnessed up again and we headed out the door.  We stepped out on the patio and I pulled the door shut.  And suddenly thought to try the door.  It was locked.

I was outside with the dogs, no shoes, no phone, no keys...  It was 10pm.

Thankfully the neighbor across the drive had their lights on so I rang their doorbell.  The girls thought there was stranger danger going on and wouldn't let me near the door with the neighbor standing there.  I had to yell my dilemma over their barking and he was quick to grab his phone and a pad of paper and then ducked out of sight while I sat at his picnic table.

The only phone number I had memorized still were Robb's and Ryan uses that phone now and never has it handy.  And then Meri's number.  Those are the only other phones on my plan so that's why I had them in my head.  So I called Meri and got Maddy's number.  Whew!  Maddy answered and gave me the code for their front door. WOOHOO!  We got back in, but since the girls hadn't done their business yet, I put my phone and the house keys in my pocket and we went right back out.

On Sunday, I attended church a couple miles away and did some garage sailing that afternoon.  

The girls and I had a great time and Maddy and Matthew had a good trip too.

We had dinner together and then I headed home. 

Whew! A weekend to remember!

But I don’t want to be a pirate!

Maddy and Matthew invited me up for last night and today.  I'm working from their guest room today and will head home tonight.  

I get to hang with my peeps grand pups all day as they sleep on the bed behind me.  So far so good for them!

Maddy made Robb's Bavarian pork loin for supper last night (delish!!) and Maddy and I are slowly getting to the point of series Virgin River that she hadn't seen already.  We'll get there eventually but not on this visit.  I make a guess at what's going to happen and she says coyly  in a sing songy voice, "I don't know..."  

Yes you do!!!  Why must you keep me in suspense!!!   

Probably because she doesn't do spoilers like I do.  accidentally...

And here's a spoiler.  The episode I'm on made me cry...

I'm slowly getting through the series Seinfeld again.  That series does NOT make me cry, but between laughing out loud or rolling my eyes at some of their situations, I'm cringing.  I still love the show, but so much of it must have gone over my head when I saw it when on the air. Maddy pointed out that almost all of their dastardly situations could have been avoided if they'd just had cell phones. (It's SO 1990s...) Well, MOST could, but not all.  Some of those situations could still happen today but not to me because I have a different set of morals. ;) 

Meri gets to take Reedus to work now!!! She got permission from her boss and now her shop has a new unpaid support dog!  He's enjoying the attention immensely and I'm so glad Meri can have him close by each day.  She works such long hours and Reedus needs more attention.  Plus she can sic him on mean customers and say, "If he's willing to chew his OWN leg up, just think what he could do to yours!"  

Just kidding.  He'd just beg to be petted and then drool all over them.  Reedus is his father's son.

Not sure what he's chewing on in this pic, but who's a happy boy?!  Reedus is!!!

And an old friend asked me to supper last weekend.  And we had so much fun laughing at the different filters on her phone.  She truly is a nut.  She's moving out east next fall/winter.  I'll miss her.

The sewing for the dresses for the wedding is coming along...  A wee bit more hand work on the bride's dress, with maybe more adjustments on the length of the hem... We'll see when she tries it on with her cowboy boots on Friday.

Three of the bridesmaid dresses are done completely, with one waiting for a fitting and one yet to be started on.  I need to corner Meri for her measurements before starting that.  If I'm still hemming hers on the morning of the wedding, so be it.  

I've got two weeks...

and speaking of weddings...

Happy Anniversary to Maddy and Matthew!  Today they're celebrating five years!

I just wish I'd brought a card for them.  I guess this is it.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

I'm heading for home before they go out and celebrate tonight.

No one wants a third wheel on their anniversary date!!

But wouldn't that make a good episode for Seinfeld?