Whistle in the Wind

Whew!  The wind was so brutal this morning!  I made Leon wear snow pants to the bus stop instead of stuffing them into his back pack.  But I haven't owned snow pants since... I don't think I ever did!

When I was a teenager and wanted to go sledding, if I felt the need, I doubled up on layers of pants.  Maybe a pair of sweats under a pair of jeans or vice versa.  

Woe to you if you wore a brand new pair of cheap jeans out onto the slopes!  You'd end up with blue legs from the leeched blue dye as things thawed.

But I looked so awesome out there in them...

Anyway, at the bus stop this morning, I held Leon's face to my coat as the wind whipped around us.  A neighbor lady that usually waits with us and her kindergartner was parked in a car across the street waiting in warmth.  She pulled over and asked if Leon would like to wait in her car with them.  

YES PLEASE!!!  Then I went home and waved to him as he got on the bus from across the street, behind a glass door.  I don't think he thought to look for me.  Oh well.  He's at school, safe and sound now.

So much to do...  So much to do...

Is it the weekend yet?

Misadventures of FS

Leon's cousin in Georgia sent us Flat Stanley to visit for a week or so.

It came in the mail when Leon was just ready to get on the bus so Stanley had to spend the day with me. 

I showed him snow.

and how to do the dishes.  oh joy!  Not like he's going to take over for me while he's here...

THEN Leon finally came home from school!!! YAY!  Although he just wanted to bury FS in the Legos.  But FS looks like he's having fun, so that's the important thing.

Leon said that he got into a little trouble at school yesterday.

"What happened?"

"Well,  I just wanted to have fun and show XXXX that I was really strong."

"and??..."

"I bent a spoon to show XXX that I was really strong."

Meri and Briar burst out laughing and I glared at them.  Leon smirked and asked why they were laughing.  Well, Meri punted and said that Briar had told her a very funny joke.  Leon asked her to tell him the joke.  

"Knock Knock"

Leon says, "who's there?"

and Meri started chasing him around the room.  She couldn't think of anything else to say.

It appears to have worked and Leon's misbehavior at school was not rewarded with laughter.

I hope.

Later, after his dad went to work, Leon and I went on a walk, starting with our Eagle's nest.

I don't know WHERE that kid learned to smile...

Meri started the walk with us, but she didn't plan ahead and got super cold about a half block away and went back.

We walked to the park and Leon would just howl like a wolf for the pictures on the jungle gym...  REALLY?

I texted Robb and asked that he come get us after ten minutes as it was cold and there were wolves.  Well, wolves in Leon clothes.

 We found over turned garbage cans, from the possible tornadoes on Thursday, so we uprighted them and put some strewn garbage back in them.  

Then played imaginary ball!

Leon hadn't planned ahead either and is wearing my mittens... 

Watch me RUN Grandma!

It must have been a tornado because look at the porta potty!  Yikes!  I'm hoping no one was in it.  What a way to go...  

I wasn't brave enough to check.

So anyway, FS is off to a good visit at our house and hasn't even blown away yet.

sigh... I have no idea how we're going to entertain him today... 

I have a meeting today or I'd take him to school and have lunch with the boy today.

Maybe tomorrow.

Those are far away

You know how you have to explain things to a child several times?   Reminded me of this clip from Father Ted, of which we were HUGE fans and still love to rewatch them when we can.

Father Dougal reminds me of Leon...

With a plethora of windmills all around us,  we were driving in the countryside on Saturday afternoon,  he referred to the ones far away as baby windmills.  He wanted to pull one from the grass and take it home...

Needless to say, we don't have a vase big enough...  And I had to show him what they were like up close so he'd understand.  So we trespassed on a small road that leads you straight into a cornfield to the windmills themselves.  It was kind of creepy but I knew if anyone was going to sneak up on us through the corn, the scary music would start up so we'd have a head start.  So I let him explore just a little...

He must not have been paying attention because he said this was a Mommy one.

Ah, forget it!  Find me a vase.

Murphys Law Revisited...

It's been a wild and crazy weekend around my house. And all of the sudden it was Monday...

On Saturday I spent the morning at the high school helping out with the district solo contests. That was pretty fun! LOTS of talented kids in Iowa.... Here are just a few actors who came from Iowa... So you see? We got talent here!

Lara Flynn Boyle * Ashton Kutcher * Cloris Leachman
Donna Reed * Elijah Wood

Anyway, then between Maddy's performances, I went home and attached her skirt to the bodice for the prom dress. I couldn't wait for her to get home so I could try it on her! When she finally did, we put it on and I used stick pins to close up the back and get a feel for where the zipper should go. I had to run downstairs for something while she admired herself in my mirror and she yelled out, "I broke the dress!"

I should have took this as an omen...

All she had done was bend over a little and all the pins went "poke" and came apart. Nothing was actually broken... just the inpromptu pin zipper. So she let me have the dress back and I basted in the supposedly invisible zipper. She tried it on again. It took everything in my power and the many "under my breath" words to get that zipper up. I think I sewed a wee bit too close to the teeth... Anyway, finally got the zipper closed...

and then she inhaled.... Pop pop pop! The zipper didn't come apart at the basting, but at the zipper teeth themselves. The zipper was toast and apparently way too weak for this dress. I went to Walmart since JoAnns was already closed last night and we got a more substantial zipper. Will get it in tonight and also give her a little more breathing room...

So that was my first "Anything that can go wrong will"...

Yesterday was breezy. That's an understatement. It was gale force winds. Meri and Tiffany went and flew kites in our back yard and had a blast! Only one of the kites were working right, so they shared.Notice the trampoline in front of them. I either need to replace the bouncy part or stitch it up. Too many big boys have jumped on it at the same time last summer and tore some tabs off just a bit...

Yep - That's a unicorn flying above us!

Take another look at the trampoline this morning! The wind during the night shredded it and I'm going to have to stitch up the whole netting...

That will have to wait until after Easter and Prom, don't you think?

That was my second "Anything that can go wrong will"...

The last one... Because of the wind last night, the girls couldn't bring all the dogs in. Ellie (the hopefully pregnant) Golden Retriever would NOT come in for anything. In the dark, Meri could see she was playing with something out in the dark. She got Tiffany and together they managed to bring in Ellie. Then got a flashlight to find out what she was playing with.

Yep - the wind had blown one of my deck cushions off our deck furniture and she had been ripping it apart in the yard...

GREAT... (Dripping with sarcasm if you didn't notice already...) (Where's the "sarcasm" font??)

The Great Wind of 2010...

Oh my... The wind the last couple days has been horrific! I keep remembering the big storm a few years ago that grabbed a window in my living room that had been left open a crack. I managed to grab it as it was ripped from it's hinges, then fell outside on the yard. There was no tornado or anything. Just a lot of wind and rain. So I'm fearful now of the rest of my windows whenever there's wind.

Just thought I'd show you some of the left over problems the wind caused us. We live just across the street and behind one row of houses from corn fields. Yep... We're Iowa, remember? The fields are blown clean now. They look REALLY nice and tidy!

But yesterday I saw a whirling Tasmanian husk devil (is that what they call them?) swirling around the back yard deck when I was in at lunch. I tried to take a pic, but it looks like all the leaves are on the ground. Not very impressive...But today, as I look out the back windows... There are corn husk drifts under our deck and against the fence!Seriously... DRIFTS of husks!OH! You know what that is right above these words???? Yep SHINGLES! The front of our garage where the wind was the worst looks like a perm... Shingles curled up and ruffled. Kind of pretty if you're a hairdresser. Not so pretty if you're a home owner!

Front yard got hit too. But you know what? It covers up the piles of dead leaves that WERE smothering the rose bushes... Too bad THEY didn't blow away.Nope - our house is a magnet... For leaves, corn husks, Christmas trees from neighbors, garbage bags from someone up the street, you name it!

I think we've got our weekend cut out for us! Too bad it's not with scissors and sewing machines... (Well ... maybe just a little! Gotta get that outfit done!)