Grands, Vacations and Judgey Much

 Spent Friday evening with my grands.  Leon was working on a blue candy and his lips were totally blue.  Aggie was just hanging out.  Ryan described her as carrying around a beanie baby that sometimes cries.  

Remember those water babies of the 90s?  Kind of like that but she wets more and is a smidge bigger.

Leon rediscovered his love of the magnetic pieces and we each built some pretty amazing stuff before it accidentally fell down or he destroyed it.  I think he was a second away from doing a demolition. 

I'm petsitting Reedus and his feline siblings this week until Meri and Ryan (bf) get back from their cross country extravaganza.  So far they've hit the Kool-Aid museum in Hastings, Nebraska and totally missed the SAPP brothers truck stop with the robot toilets!!  They spent a day at the Stanley Hotel of The Shining fame.  They enjoyed drinks in the hotel bar and got a tour.  I can't wait to hear all about it!

I think they're canoeing today.

On Saturday, I met up with Maddy in Iowa Falls at a quilt shop.  She's very into quilting these days and has inspired me to get going on sewing again.  Hoping this will pull me out of my no-sew funk and into some fun projects.  The quilt shop recommended an embroidery shop and a coffee shop so we obliged and hit both before heading off in our own directions.

Ada called me at 12:30 and I suddenly remembered it was Monday!!!  We had a lunch date where I was bringing the food and I should have been there by 11:30!!!  WHOOPS!  And since she'd already told the chef at the nursing home that SHURRELY her friend was just running late, Ada needed food!  I stopped by a Kwik-Star and grabbed something quick for us both and she eventually forgave me.  But not before rubbing it in quite a little bit about how hungry she had been.  

The brownie I brought helped her get over it.

Off soon to pick up my State Fair projects and be either totally humiliated or pleasantly surprised by the judge's comments.   I'm banking on the first one.

Terrible Twos and Other Changes

The twins turned 2 years old this weekend!!  And we were invited to their party on Friday.  Ryan and I attended.

They got twin cars!  One was built before the other and they fought over it pretty hard.  But then their dad finished both and then they fought over each one individually.  If Luke was in one, then Nova wanted it.  If Nova was in one, then Luke wanted it.  We finally got them in their own cars and then they either played bumper cars and hollered when a wheel got caught on a carpet edge, or Nova stood on the car threshold and leaned on the door, tipping it over.  She did that repeatedly...  

 

That might explain her crabby looks when the cakes came out.

They each had their own cake, which were beautiful!  

Then on Saturday, I sewed my little heart out!  Well, I cut out 4 bridesmaid dresses!!  Then Maddy and Matthew invited me to go on a walk with them that afternoon.  Whew!  I needed a break from sewing, so that worked out.

We walked down a path I didn't know existed.  Well, I KNEW it existed, but didn't know how long it was and it's even longer than what we walked, 2.8 miles to a bridge that we'd always admired.

There were some lovely places to take pictures along the way.

The dogs looked great for Maddy and Matthew's pic, but we got Zola's butt for mine.

We turned her around for a better one.

When we got to the bridge, Matthew jogged back the 2.8 miles to the car.  Maddy, me and the pups started walking down the gravel road instead.  So I got in about 4 miles worth of steps on Saturday!  My legs were beat.  They were pretty sore on Sunday but much better on Monday.  I just need to keep walking!

Then last night, I worked on the yard.  I hadn't felt like working in the yard last spring out side of making sure it got mowed.  So last spring and this spring leaves, weeds and yuck junk needed to get cleaned up.  I drug around a big tarp, cut all the dead bits off the landscaping and raked it onto the tarp, then took it out to the yard waste place in town.  A tarp made quick work of the patio and around the front fence.  There is more to do though and it'll get done this year.  I hope.

Ryan started a new job this week and I'm keeping an eye on Leon.  Making sure he stays on task with his schoolwork and other stuff.  We've worked out a system that if he completes 90% of his responsibilities on a chart each week, he'll earn a wee bit of money.  If he gets 100% of it done each week, then he can make a bit more than base allowance.  He's gung ho now!  But still doesn't want to brush his hair.  That might be the 10% each day...

Meri's Ryan is also starting a new job soon!  Everyone's lives are changing!  More on that later...

Have a good Tuesday!

Who's Laughing Now?

We had Taco Tuesday last night!!!  It was so great to see Maddy and Matthew again!  I haven't seen them in person since before my quarantine about 3.5 weeks ago.

Jen baked some seasoned fish and I pureed up a can of chipotle peppers for her to add to some mayo, sour cream and other secret ingredients because I don't remember all she threw in there.  Oh my that was good for fish tacos!!  And it went fast.

I also made some spicy refried bean and had beef taco meat in the crockpot and all the fixings, thanks to the rest of my family!  The fish was the winner last night so there is plenty of beef left and that is OK!  Knowing my son, as I do, it will get eaten up fast.  He could eat tacos for every meal and 2nd meals in between.

Dylan, our renter, asked me about Wordle yesterday morning.  He'd seen everyone bragging about their word guessing smarts on FB and wondered what it was.  I explained it to him, because I just discovered it within the last week or so myself.  

There is one puzzle a day and only 6 tries to find the right word.  Example.

guess 1:  F R I E D         < lets say the R turns yellow and the E turns green.  That means the R is in the word somewhere else and the E is in the right position of the word.

guess 2: L A G E R     < E and R are both green. 

guess 3:   A F T E R          < ER is green, F is yellow

guess 4:   R E F E R       < bing bing bing!  You got it in only 4 tries!

So anyway, WORDLE is the puzzle of the day and it is super popular right now.

After dinner, we raced on the historic WORDLE puzzles from a year ago to see who could finish theirs first.  Meri's bf Ryan is very good at it!  As is she.  That must be how they spend all their dates...

Anyway, Dylan gave me a puzzle and said he'd like to see if I could figure it out.  So after I got stuck on the zeros, ones and eights, I made a new rough draft and printed out enough copies for everyone for last night.  

Robb would have loved this.  He was a math wizard!

We all sweated over it before, during and after dinner and actually came up with solutions for all of them!!  I'm so glad Matthew was a MATHLETE in high school!

Aren't we a smart bunch?!  I can't find the word S W E A R in WORDLE but I can certainly find the square root of a number!

The teachers didn't know what they were saying when they said we wouldn't always have a calculator in our hands when we're adults. HA!  Yes ma'am, we will...