Weekend Snake Guts

How would you like to come around the yard mowing and find this?!  

I must have caught it unawares while zipping around the apple tree...

I took the pic and sent it to Robb.  He texted back.  "We'll move."

Well, it's DEAD now...!  So we don't HAVE to!  I'll just protect us with the lawn mower.

On Friday, Leon and I went on an adventure and returned four of the mannequins from the grad party to their rightful owners.  I still have two left, but that lady lives a long ways away, so it will wait until the next sewing meeting.  We had some good conversations on the way but he mostly had his nose in his tablet...

He was mostly excited about the "fun place" that I promised that I'd take him.  When we got close to it, I realized that we'd been here before!  

He had been invited to a birthday party here back in preschool.    

He didn't remember and had a blast running all over the place.  I found a nice place to relax and realized that I should have charged my phone on the way down.  The percentage was at 8%...  sigh...  I got some pics in before it died.

 

 I dug out some quarters and he and I played some air hockey.  It was close...  Then later, he was playing with a boy and I found some more change.  He asked the boy to play it with him and then he got creamed.  I may have been holding back...  But Leon didn't care and was just excited to be playing the game with his new friend.

Loads more running around and bouncing and suddenly we'd been there an hour and it was time to take him to his mom's for the weekend.  darn.  I dropped him off and headed home.

My niece, Bethany, arrived the next morning and spent until this morning here with Meri.  They mostly avoided the house and spent money.  But they did play some board and card games with us in the evenings for a bit. 

I spent my free time sewing.  I made two pairs of black leggings and let the girls pick which ones they wanted.  Will make more of those now that I have Meri's size perfected!  Easy peasy!  Two hours later a new pair is done.

Meri was asked to sing with a small group of people for a funeral grave side service.  So right after church, she ditched us and ran home to practice with them in our living room.  I found that she DOES care what people think of our house!!  When we got home after lunch out with Bethany, she had done a bit more tidying...  Nice...  She's going to have to have more friends and their parents over more often...  She and a couple of the guys from the group have decided to start a new singing group called Dead Set.  Not sure if they're get a LOT of funeral gigs with that name, but I liked it.

Robb and I took Bethany to lunch at the pub where Ryan works.  It was early enough that we were the only customers there for almost 30 minutes, so Ryan was able to sit and visit a little.  He also brought us out some jalapeno cheddar balls to try out.  Oh...  those were delish!!!!

Bethany had to leave this morning, so she and Meri went to Meri's favorite coffee shop before she hit the road and Meri went to work.  I've got a TON of fettuccine noodles left over from Bethy's favorite meal last night and am wondering what to do with them.  

But not for lunch.  I have a lunch date with Ada today. :)

Keeping It Classy

I spent a break raking outside yesterday.  We're those people who's yard is all prime for Halloween and Thanksgiving with leaves everywhere and Sedum looking beautifully brown.  Then we're too busy to do anything about it and wait until Spring to do the raking.  

The yards all around look pristine, but ours looks like hell.

So I took a load of yard waste out to the landfill yesterday.  Probably the first load they've seen this spring.  I've got many more to go, but we're taking baby steps.  There is lots to do.

But look what I found in the Clematis plant!  I KNEW there was still a missing egg!

The dye had faded.

I don't dare even ASK if I should eat it.  What with the weather being 5 degrees one day and 60 the next, then back to 32, then up to 57.  Yikes.  It's been crazy, but not uncommon.

I live in Iowa.  If you don't like the weather, wait a day.

The guy for the leaky dishwasher is coming today.  WOOHOO!!!  However I AM getting the swing of washing everything by hand now.  Got it down to a science.

1) fill one sink with soapy water and the other with clear.

2) empty the dishwasher.

3) wash dishes in the right sink and drop them into the clear on the left.

4) load them up into the dishwasher to dry.

5) wash off counters.

done.

JUST like when I was a kid.  Except then, we had about 5 handy maids and someone was drying with a towel and putting away while you did step 3.

We've gotten spoiled.

AND we have a leaky toilet...  It's not around the base, but under the tank.  YUCK.  And here I thought the mat kept getting wet from carelessness of some people...  I apologize.

Our plumber will be by tomorrow and will even install the bidet that I had given Robb for Christmas one year.  It's been sitting there for over a year now and we've been afraid to install it ourselves.

We don't have the best of luck when it comes to using pliers on pipes and such...

The parts for the broken dryer came yesterday and I popped them in.  NOT sure if it's working yet.  It could be that the batch I put in was too sodden to be certain.  I'm doing laundry today so we'll see.

Also, yesterday over my lunch and part of the evening.  I dug out the yards of black satin that I'd gotten from the free table and made 8 table runners for Meri's graduation party.  SO quick and easy to make with a serger!!!!  bingity-bangity-boom.  They're done and I get to mark off one thing on my massive "Do before graduation party list".  

PLUS, I was getting sick of always thinking about prom sewing and needed a break.  Back to that today.  

But won't cloth tablecloths and satin table runners make the grad party classy?  sweet...

The power I hold

A few of us went to Meri's school vocal concert last night.  It was relatively short compared to the combined, vocal/band concerts.  Those can last all night... And Leon was with us.

We kept him busy with a tablet and the goat simulator game with the sound off.  Every now and then, he messed with the settings and all of the sudden music and goat sounds came from our row.  YIKES!  SHUT THAT THING DOWN!  

 The vocal director looked sharply at us once or twice...

Loved the music!

AND, Meri surprised me last night!  I knew her acapella group was going to sing at the end of "A" concert but I didn't realize it would be the first vocal concert of the year!  WOOHOO!  It wasn't even on the program.  

Since they'd JUST formed, they picked a simple song that everyone knew and they could easily harmonize with.  Coincidentally, it was also Meri's co-acapella leader's mom's birthday yesterday, so they sang to her from the stage.

After the concert, I was planning on going with Meri and stopping at the store for a few things.  Found out she had made plans to go out for ice cream with friends instead. 

oh.

So I left her a little money and she was upset that I seemed disappointed.  Being disappointed is more harsh than being mad, in her eyes.  Robb and the rest of us were out the door before she caught up with us and said, "plans changed, let's go!"  So she and I did a smidge of shopping together and got ice cream after all, just us two.

That inadvertent "mom guilt" is powerful stuff!