Run Frank Run!

 I don't have to tell you how crazy my life is... But I'm going to.

Almost 3 weeks ago, we took on Leon's twin siblings.  Each 1.5 years old.  Well, one think she's 16.  Not sure when they'll go back to their mom.  It depends on events this week.  

Ryan is currently not working, so the timing is perfect and he is proving what a great dad he would be for more toddlers in the house.  He's doing a bulk of the caring of them.  I currently have my feet up and am working from my garage office, where it's quiet and I don't have kids climbing on me for attention or passing gas in my lap.

Today is the first day of school for Leon, so he's juggling the kids inside right now while Leon gets to work on his online classes.  Not a lot scheduled today but he does have a live lesson via zoom in a little while.  Hopefully the noise barrier won't be broken by the twins while he's on.

Here are his first day of school pics featuring a mask he made last semester and treasures.  

He holds it on by biting a bit of duct tape attached to the inside...

The kids and I rented a cabin a couple weeks ago and I'll tell you about that another time.

We're making new memories and creating a new life in memory of Robb.

He's always in my thoughts.

Oh, the reason for the Run Frank Run title.  The twins LOVE Frank the cat that lives here too.

To death...

Run Frank Run!

Dreaming of winning the lottery

Can't win if you don't play.  Isn't that what they say about the lottery?

then darn.  I'll never win it.

Other stuff while we await a Covid test for Meri... If positive, then we have to get tested too.

cripes.

Leon has had projects for online school, one involved planting bean plants and then letting one not get watered for 5 days.

The dying one actually did better until the last day when it was a half inch shorter than the other ones.

But he documented each day faithfully and now all those plants are dead.

We even transplanted all 3 of them into a big pot of dirt, but they couldn't stand the change.

Our 4H leaders son got married a couple weeks ago and we attended.  She's the one that I did alterations on her dress two weeks before.  

I made a new top from my stash to coordinate with my brown maxi skirt.  And while I worried that I was going to sweat to death, no need...  

It was outdoors!  And a nice breeze.  WOW.  What a beautiful afternoon at a vineyard.

Thankfully the reception was indoors however we sat at a table underneath an air conditioning vent...  Yikes!  The masks were the only thing keeping me warm!  and my new shirt.

All the bridesmaids and groomsmen were from my kids high school, a year or two younger than Maddy.  So it was like Old Home day.  Even the pastor used to be the principal at the Middle School!

I'm sure every single kid in the wedding party had to visit his office at least once in his principal career.

And weren't these hors d'oevres thingies cute??  and delish...  There was a pearl on the cheese meat sticks...

The NEXT day, I attended the baptism of this little guys baby brother, Shiloh. 

My nephew and his wife make cute kids...

Another project for Leon this past week, included writing his own little ditty and clapping out the tune singing Do, Re, Mi type notes.  

under duress...  He was NOT happy to be recorded *gasp* singing...

And then visiting with Ada at the nursing home.  We had a ledge jumper...  It was only 2 feet up.

Not a real problem, but he did need my help when he walked across the wall and planted himself directly on the glass for Ada's benefit.

She loved it!

and look what I found in a stash of pics from my mom?!  Meri is such a cutie!

And I also found one of Robb and I for the college spring formal almost 33 years ago!  

My old stucco porch behind us.  

Whew!  We were young...

 Anyway...  That's it for today.  I'm going to try and do better posting each day.  Need to get back in the habit so I can create books of my blog posts for each year.  Got 3 done so far...  from 2009 - 2011...

Need another grand to get the rest caught up...  SOMEDAY... When I'm rich...

Post Easter Tuesday

If you're staying away from eggs these days, close your eyes.

But this is a breakfast that I wait all year long for.  The unlimited egg salad bagels, the week after Easter!

Here's my recipe.  It's not fancy, so don't mock me! nor criticize the amount of cholesterol I'm eating...

Easter eggs - 3 - peeled, rinsed and run thru the egg slicer in two different directions.

Mix a couple globs (probably 1/4 cups) of Miracle Whip or equivalent. NOT MAYO! and a good squirt (probably a tablespoon) of spicy brown mustard.  I couldn't find the horseradish or I'd add a tiny bit of that too.

Add to chopped up eggs and mix well.

While you're doing this, you should have already popped both halves of a plain bagel into the toaster.

Then scoop the egg mixture onto the bagel as you eat.  Sometimes you end up with more egg mixture, sometimes more bagel, but improvise and finish it all.

YUM...

Also, we picked up Leon's school books yesterday from his teacher in the parking lot.  He will have assignments and other things to do to fill his day this week.  WOOHOO!!!  

(Yesterday, he and I sewed together a FortNite ghost plushy.  At this rate his room will be too full of plushies to find his bed...)

So with the books, came about 7 different apps or websites to get into for him to be able to access Epic, Prodigy, etc.  He was so excited, until we couldn't find the right app or other things popped up for him to have to do. UGGGG, I have to eat supper???!!

We'd get an app to work once, but then when he went back into it, he didn't find the right thing. 

*WHAT are you doing in Samsung and Google settings?!!!*

So this morning before he comes down. Yeah - it's 8:30 and he's still sleeping.  He's staying up as late as summer during this Covid thing...  

Correction - he JUST came down.  and he's thrilled!! 

I spent an hour this morning getting all the apps set up and he's able to get into everything now.  repeatedly. yay!

So... ON to the day!  May it be a great one!

Some People's Kids...

Maddy sent me this pic a couple days ago.  Apparently she talks about Duke a lot at school and Robb said that she even has a framed pic of him on her classroom desk.  So one of her students and her mom painted Maddy these truly sweet pieces of art!

Leon said that the one on the left is Duke in the Savannah.  But Maddy said that it's Duke walking off into the sunset.  Isn't this the sweetest?

I wonder where she'll hang them.

THEN of course, there's Leon.

This is the Mother's Day picture that he made for his mom. lol!

And THIS is why he sleeps on our bedroom couch every once in a while...

He's had a rough couple weeks at school and Tuesday I had to have a text talk with one of his neighborhood "sometimes" friend's parent about an incident on the bus.  As a girl that Leon has adored all year was getting off the bus, Leon called out after her that he loves her.  The neighbor boy said, "Well, she doesn't love you back!"

and that's when and where things went horribly wrong.

We're working on temper control over here...

Ipodosauruses and where to find them

 Leon is the proud owner of a, way older than him, ipod.  At one time, I think it started out as mine, then later one of the other kids.  Maddy had it at college for a while as her school email was the last associated with it.

Every time Leon went into the email, she'd get an alert on her phone that someone was trying to hack into her google...  So I set Leon up with his own email account and have sent lots of things to it already.  Shared it with family and I hope they will too.

It's not something you'd guess for an email address.

He's an odd duck... ;)

The main function that I wanted to do for it was to get a phone of sorts set up for him to call family.  So far no dice.

I did found a website to download apps for it, as the available apps for this (non-upgradable) version of ipod are hard to find.  I downloaded a Star Wars game and One Epic Knight game for him.  He's enjoying it on car rides.  

Another thing he's enjoying is the camera function.

  

After visiting my bestie yesterday AND having a kid try on a tuxedo jacket that I'm altering, Leon and I visited an old metal bridge nearby and went for a nature walk.  

Or in his case, run.

Lots of destruction on the path from the recent flooding.  

But it was a fun time.  He took TONS of pictures, including the one at the top. 

And just so you know, he posed for this shot.  

It's VIP week for him at school this week.  He filled out a poster and I printed off lots of photos of him growing up for the bulletin board.  He wanted a pic of him reading one of his favorite books for the poster so he's pretending to either read or act surprised by something Dog Man did.

Don't know which.  I'm sure he'd tell you.

He brought along Darth Vader's little Princess book to read aloud for his class as it's one of his faves too.  It's all about Darth Vader raising Leia from childhood on and the mishaps of raising a little princess if you're a dark lord.  We've got the whole set of Darth Vader comic books.  They're a stitch!

I'm planning on going to have lunch with him today at school.  I've gone several times but this year was definitely not as many as kindergarten.   Looks like pizza for lunch, yay!

I can restart my diet tomorrow...

Batty Widdle Kid

The red-winged blackbird costume got done.  WHEW!

He hated the beak, so it stayed in my purse in case he changed his mind.

I sewed the wings to the back of one of his black t-shirts (which he wants back in mint condition) and tacked it onto the shoulders so it would lay across his shoulders right.  There were little handles for his hands to hang onto it. 

Kind of like a bat...

Which is appropriate for THIS pic. 

FYI: He's showing off that he's missing ANOTHER front tooth!

It fell out at school and he joked saying that he threw it in the teachers trash.

Ummm you better not have!

He didn't.

He's loving the wings!

Meri and Jen were able to come with us.

Whoops - caught her in a yawn.

Does that make anyone else yawn?

Or is it just me?

So the wings have been used and his lines were delivered and I could hear and understand them!

Good.

He's at the 1.38 mark.

We went out for ice cream afterwards and it's the teacher's own fault today that the kids went to bed so late last night. 7:30 performance!

They're in for a DOOZY of a day!

Not rare at my house

Leon's class had an "informance" yesterday that I got to attend.   He was so thrilled that someone he knew was there!  He gave me the biggest hug ever when they filed out of the room at the end...
So Sweet!

An informance is something new as of last year.  The parents/grandparents get to sit in on one of the child's music classes rather than have a full blown concert.  

They played "Chase the squirrel" and Leon was the "dancing squirrel"...  I tried to capture that on their video that they posted on FB.  

Sorry for the tilt...  The schools video was on it's side and I couldn't get a copy of it right side up.

Apparently dancing squirrels are pretty rare...

It's BOO time...

We are responsible for one of the treats for Leon's school Halloween party.  Leon wanted zombies.

I found these online.  He agreed to them, so here we go...

I found an old green plastic binder and unfortunately for me, I'd sent most of my crafting supplies and circle cutter to Maddy...  So I took a smallish plastic cup and traced around them with a marker in the plastic.  

After cutting them out, I gave them a good soak in soapy water and let them dry off.

Then that's when the magic happened.  I found some craft paper and glue and went to work.  Two at a time.  

Leon jumped in and decorated two as vampires so my theme branched out a little.

What do you think?  Hit or miss? 

I did a stupid thing and Pam sprayed the inside of the cupcake liners...  The cupcakes shriveled up inside of the liners when they cooled off.  So I'll be redoing that this afternoon.  

Trick or treat night is tonight in our town and tomorrow night in Meri and Ryan's.  We/Leon will have candy coming out of our/his ears...

I could live with that...

FORTUNE-ately.

SOOOO....  Leon had a really bad day on Friday.  Resulting in Ryan having to pay some big bucks to replace a kid's glasses...  Both were at fault, but still...  Instead of revenge tactics, Leon is now learning some alternative ways to deal with bullies.  I know I had to when I was in elementary school...

So after some serious talks with us, we then open his book bag to reveal this.

holy cow...  How can you stay MAD at this kid?

So, while he may not be street smart, he's a good reader!  

I sent it off to his dad and aunts and got funny responses.  "...  so he's super smart then?" "He is CRAZY smart!"

It's the first test people and we've been reading with him all summer!  I'm sure it will level off.

Reminded me of when Malcolm in the Middle family realized what a genius Malcolm was and Dewey asked if Malcolm was a robot.

On Saturday, I attended the monthly sewing meeting and did NOT actually win the bag challenge.  Darn.  So I confessed that I still had scraps leftover of the original bag.  

I probably would have if I'd won also...  Just as well then.  Had a great time and got some fabric from the free table to dream up a sewing project with!

Robb sent me this the other day.  Apparently, Leon got some glass kits to decorate and dolled up his grandpa in a big way!  Robb is winning at Grampa'ing!

I spent part of Sunday afternoon sorting and decluttering my walk-in,  crawl-over things closet.  Leon helped by climbing way to the back and finding long packed away treasures.  Like these!  Meri's triplet kittens; Sarah, Elizabeth and Hillary Duff.    

When Meri was 3, she found these three stuffed kittens in a campus book store and after I told her she could pick just one, she agonized and sobbed, then choked out "But they've *sob* never *sob* been *sob* *sob* apart!!" So $60 later...

They've STILL never been apart.

Meri and our pastor.
and Sarah, Elizabeth and Hilary Duff.

Leon called Meri and we sent her a pic.  She was thrilled that they'd been found.  I didn't realize that they were missed...  

On Sunday after church, we took Leon out for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant and he ate almost the entire sweet & sour chicken by himself.  

He didn't understand his fortune (Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise - he decided he didn't need to be those three things when he grows up)  but did enjoy riding on the dragon/lion statute later.

Also that afternoon/evening, we watched the Goonies with him.  "Don't say those bad words!"

He loved it!  I knew he would.

Ok, ON TO the WEEK!!!  I hope it is a quiet one...

Pocketful of Firsts

Once upon a time when my girls were little, my parents were visiting.  My mom had read somewhere that if it's important to make memories by doing things out of the ordinary with your grandkids and they'll remember it all their lives.  So she did.   She had a tea party underneath our dining room table with the girls!  The memory I remember most is helping her up from under it afterwards! :)  

So Friday was the last weekday that Leon would be home for a while since school just started today.   I ordered a pizza and we had our lunch underneath the dining room table!  He ate one slice with me, then the other 5 slices at the living room desk to watch "his Youtube"...  I finished eating under the table and then struggled to get out from under it.  Yikes!  52 is kicking my patooty!

Later that afternoon, he asked if he could watch some Youtube from my bed.  No problem...  I was working with my laptop at the love seat that we have in there and he had the volume low.  A little while later, I noticed that Youtube was over and the Firestick menu was up repeating the same old same old. 

 He was snoring softly...

Woke him up after I was done working and since Ryan and Jen didn't like his cut, Robb and I took him to a lady that they wanted us to take him to and he got two hair cuts in the same week!

This one is a keeper!

And he was SUCH a chatterbox and pleasant this time around!

I'm sure the nap helped!

I got a lot of sewing in over the weekend and will show you my project tomorrow.

But today was Leon's first day back to school as a big time First grader!!!

Ryan and Meri were there to take him, as per our tradition of being chauffeured to school on the first day.  He'll ride the bus home. 

 It was the first one that I wasn't along with but at least I got my black eyed susan pics in!

And I can see I really should have weeded the front...  Oh well!  It's going to snow soon.

AND the pic from his classroom as they delivered him to the classroom door.  

Poor Meri!  Chopped out of a selfie!

She had a nice time visiting Maddy and Matthew over the weekend in Wisconsin and is getting settled back at her place again.

Looking forward to an interesting week!

Making Memories with Leonisms

"I was playing the quiet game with just me."

"What do you call that job where you, where you, um, where... where you have dinosaurs in your bones?"

I don't know, but it sure sounds like a fun one!

Me: (in speaking of Leon's brother) "Does he scream all the time at bedtime or can he be a cuddler?"

Leon: "yeah, he's pretty much a player."

He never ceases to make me stop and think, "What did he just say?"

His school supplies just got all labeled and bundled up in his backback.

School doesn't start until Monday so we've got one more weekend to make some summer memories.

His first grade teacher will be able to do a couple things this year with Leon in her class.  

1) have her hands full with him   2) be able to write a book by the end of this year.

But for sure, it'll be a year to remember.

Shark Boy and Busy Gal

Whirlwind.  Leon's brother has left the building... with his mom.  They may be back later.  Things are murky.

Getting him to bed last night was SO much easier!  I snuggled with him until I "thought" he was asleep, then climbed into my own bed.  He sat up and patted the side of the couch that he wanted me to come back to...  At least he wasn't screaming!

It just occurred to me how ironic this pic is.  His name is Finn.  Our nickname for him is shark boy.

Today, besides work, I need to repair a mower tire, mow, pick up Leon from his dad's, visit Ada and get school supplies for Meri.  Did you know that culinary students needs to purchase a $300+ knife set?  With any luck, it will last forever...  AND a $70 garnishing set.  AND two different colored chefs outfits?  Yes, we'll be spending the big bucks today...  Leon will probably be with us.  Not sure yet.  

Is it Saturday yet?...