Celebrations and plants

 

The kids were all here this weekend to celebrate my birthday a smidgen early!  They grilled brats, brought lots of cooked broccoli and cauliflower, and Leon even made brownies!  I treated myself to half a piece along with some low carb ice cream!  I figured I could do that many carbs.  And then later, I ate a whole piece.  My blood sugar the next morning was not happy with me.  shoot.

The kids all pitched in and I got a gift certificate to attend a couple cooking classes at a place nearby that I'd been wanting to go to! yay!  And I received a mug that Maddy had made in her pottery studio she likes to visit!  

It was a great pre-birthday!

FYI: Leon must have leaned backwards to avoid the picture. He does that...

Some neighbors have this plant next to their patio and it has spread to my fence!  I noticed it also in my church landscaping.  I BELIEVE this is a flowering milkweed variation and I'm going to plant more.  It's so pretty!  And the blooms last all summer.

Aggie and Jen did some artwork on our patio Sunday and made some gorgeous pictures!  I didn't grab a pic of Jen's!  But I will.  These are Aggie's.

Anyway, it was a great weekend!  And Leon has just recently gotten into the Walking Dead, so he and I watched the first 4 episodes since Sunday, in addition to the movie Independence Day.  I've never binge watched that much in so few of hours before.  Hopefully I can start marching in place or something during the next episode!

I'm meeting one of my sisters for lunch today. :)  and my favorite cousin for lunch on Thursday!

Whew!  Life is a rush!

Needing a Baby Fix

Baby Aggie fix for the day! :) I haven't seen her at all today.  It's been a busy one.  But her mama sent me pic of what she's up to.

On Sunday afternoon, Leon's other family celebrated his younger brother's 8th birthday and he wanted me to join them.  They had a party at a hotel that had an arcade as well as a water park.  A lot of fun!

 I hung out with the twins, making sure they didn't try to jump into the deep end or go head first down the pirate slide.

Nova was especially dangerous.

With her twin, a close 2nd. Whew!  The lifeguard did NOT understand that a 3 year old couldn't follow directions around the ropes. Um... he's 3. and stubborn.

After the party and all the kids and their mom were up in their hotel room enjoying pizza, I went over to my mother-in-law's and stayed over on her couch.  We had a very nice time and I had breakfast with her in the cafeteria the next morning before going back to the hotel to help them load cars and bring Leon back home.

I was looking for a new FB profile pic.  What do you think about this one?

I went through all my BeReal photos and came across this one.  Not sure...

I took Meri's cat, Ranch, to the vet yesterday.  He's so curious!

and tall!

Then Vacation Bible School for the evening.  Tonight is our last night of it this year.  The kids have been excited all the way through and last night I got burned really good (bad) with the hot glue gun.  It's being packed away and let them use tape, darn it!

It took 4 freezer pops held tightly to get through the rest of the evening and to get home.  I only ate one.

Then took 2 Aleve as soon as I got home, holding ice onto the fingers until they kicked in.

Today isn't bad at all but the blister on my pinky is very large and tight.  Whew!  I can still type, but do I want to? Not really.

OK - the work day is mostly done and I need to pick up the stuff for tie dying tonight!

Seems less dangerous...  Maybe I should wear a hazmat suit for safety though.

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!

Weekend Blurries

On Friday, I spent some time with Meri and cleaned up the old dead landscaping from last year and picked up branches so I'd be able to mow on Saturday.

Around 5ish, I got to DUO with Maddy until Robb was ready to get ready for the bagpipe gig.

We left town and stopped for gas, because I have NO idea where my gas card is these days...  I'm thinking some random jacket I may have worn last time.  Or some random pocket in my purse...  

or under the seat......

THEN as we were leaving town again, I got a call from Meri. 

"Hey... where are you?"

"heading out of town for that bagpipe gig I told you about."

"yeah... it starts at 5:30."

"no it doesn't. It's 6."

"nope.  I know because I'm here."

"well...  then it won't start until we get there... because we're 20 minutes away."

We checked my notes from our former neighbor, whose dad was having the birthday and it said 6.

Then later I got a text from Meri that said, "oops - it IS 6."

So funny story.  One of her best friends was talking to her and said, "Yeah, my aunt got some guy to play bagpipes for my grandpa's birthday tonight!"

Meri said, "um, that's my dad!"  I keep forgetting Jess was related to my former neighbor!  So Meri invited herself to his yard party so she could watch the performance.  So that's why she was there.  She and Shub were perched in the back end of her car when we arrived.

Apparently the lady that hired us (former neighbor friend) had told everyone it would be 5:30 so that her sister who is perpetually late to everything would be there on time.  As it stands, it didn't start until 6:15, because that's when she finally arrived.

And Maddy - I told Brianna hello from you!  

She was glad that you remembered her and she says Hi back!

(daughter of former neighbor and friend of Maddy's from school)

Robb did a great job!  I think Shub realized that you don't stand even 6 feet away from a bagpiper tho.

And the dad turned 85 successfully!  Happy Birthday!

After Robb got done, we took off.  My friend, who hired him, had dropped an envelope into our car when we got there and Robb checked it as we drove away.  She gave him $35! 

Ten more gigs like this a month and I can quit my one of my night jobs!

Sorry - couldn't help quoting National Lampoons Vacation... :)

Saturday, mowed Meri's place.  The front tire of my mower kept going down, so Meri had to keep coming out to pump it back up with the tire pump.  If I turn the mower off, it won't turn back on...

It's one of the idiosyncrasies of this mower.

Then mowed our house on Sunday afternoon and I raced like the dickens around the back yard before the tire went down again.  We've GOT to get that thing fixed!

Robb and I visited with Ada through her nursing home window and I dragged one of the outdoor wicker chairs over because I only keep one of the folding chairs in my car.

ALSO, I opened the roof window of my car so I could get some fresh air and sun while I drove.  I broke something because now it won't close...  We had to tarp it for the night.  Hopefully our car guy can get it in today so we can get the thing closed!  Then we can just pull the fuse and not open it ever again.  I'm ok with that...

I hope you had a great weekend!  

Here's hoping for a hair cut soon...

Settling Down

Meri got the house that she really REALLY wanted!  She's SOOOOO excited and already has planned to pull up carpet and fit in her piano and she wants both of the remaining golden retrievers.

SETTLE DOWN GIRL!...  Her golden, Ellie, has been sick the last few days and she doesn't want the stress of TWO big dogs when she's trying to get settled in a new place.

 

Here's a pic of her house.  Being that it's on the main thoroughfare through town, Leon already has plans for lemonade stands on her yard.  Our dead end street doesn't get much traffic...  and the majority of customers that he gets live in our house...

I took Leon up to the car wash and library this morning and of course, he and I had to drive around the block to see it up close...  

Other things I've been doing.  

Sewing...

I've got an outfit done to wear this weekend for one of the days of our church annual convention.  It's a big deal and there will be thousands of women there.  My first one!  I'll show more next week.

I made the top, tank top (which I hate and will most likely not wear with this) and a skirt out of the L.A. fabric.

Cooking...

The Instant Pot has been busy.  I've made two failed attempts at making yogurt out of both coconut milk and almond milk.  So Meri will have to take some lactaid and just eat what I make her...

I made some actual yogurt with just milk and it's awesome!!!!  Not as tart as the plain that you buy in the store.

And I've canned a bunch of rhubarb sauce.   Ok, 8 jars.

 I've been adding it to my yogurt for a sweet treat!  SO GOOD!  

No additional sweetners needed.  The rhubarb has enough sugar for everything...

I've got a lot of whey saved from the yogurt making and am trying to sneak it into everything.  May make a loaf of bread later and use it in that.

Anyway, I've been a Susie Homebody in my spare time, with what time there is.

Last night, we celebrated Ryan and Jen's birthdays.  They're only two days apart, with her being older.  We grilled burgers.  I made pasta salad, potato salad, grapes, lettuce salad, tomatoes and cake.  There are lots of leftovers today.  YUM!!!  You can guess what I had for lunch today!!!

Anyway, I'll be out tomorrow so have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend Wampage

The weekend didn't start on time...  All day Friday, at work, was crazy and it lasted until 6:30 whereupon I crashed. Well, after making a quick pizza using hamburger and Bisquick.  Robb had a ton of chauffeuring to do over the weekend and he got back about that time to eat with me.

Oh and hey look!  Leon pulled out a tooth on the bus on Friday!  

We've been humming the All I want for Christmas song all weekend.

On Saturday, Leon and his little brother, Finn, came back to the house and we babysat most of the day while their mom worked.  

Leon and I played Battleship and Finn wanted to join in.  He wasn't too accurate with putting the pins into the holes I pointed at, so luckily we had a spare Battleship board and he took over that one.  He had a lot of fun until he spilled it.  But then he was meticulous on picking up all the little pieces, so that was ok.

The  game was fun for Leon and me tho.  Well, until I got a HIT!  So I guessed the spot after the hit and it was a miss.  Then quessed the spot before the hit and IT was a miss.  Then guessed the spot ABOVE the hit and IT was a miss too.  ummmm Leon?  Come here for a minute...

I covered up the bottom of my board and asked him if he could explain this...

Oh....  hmmm...

When he got back to his board, which he left on the floor under the desk, Finn had already found it and had moved some pins for him.  Yeah - this wasn't going to end well...  So we broke for lunch.

AND while Finn took a 2.5 hour nap, I got to sew.  Still on that top that I made a leggings out of a while back.  

I don't know what it is about this fabric, but it sucks to do a seam with my standard sewing machine.  The stitches pop and ploop all over the place.  So much so that I was kicking myself for not going with my initial decision of handstitching the hems into place.  So I serged the hems off and used up all of my hem tape to tack a new hem in place and then started handstitching it.  SO much better!  But taking forever.  

I'm about 90% done with the sleeve hems and I'm sure the hem hem will take all week with the amount of down time I have to actually sit...

After the boys went back to their mom's we had a nice birthday dinner for Robb's mom and Meri and Ryan were able to come.  And because my camera was too slow to come up on my phone, this photo is staged.  

I had HyVee make up some gorgeous little cupcakes, because WHO needs three leftover cakes in a two week span?  NOT THIS CHICK!

I'm just rather relieved there aren't any birthdays in our household NEXT weekend.  

I found the Last Supper pic on the right at a garage sale years ago and it's been there almost since we moved in here, 21 years ago.  But moved it a bit and added the Jesus knocking picture over the weekend.  This pic used to hang in our old church, then in Mom and Dad's home and THEN in her nursing home room up until the end.

And now it's mine.

My dad likes to think of it as, "What if Jesus came to visit your home?  What would you cover up quick that you would be ashamed if he saw? or would you even look up from your phone to answer the door?"

I love it.

Leon says that it looks like it's always been there.  And it fits the space well.

On Sunday, I started feeling like my old busy self.  After a taco potluck at church and picking up Leon from his mom's again, I did some housework and made a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent based on the Duggar recipe that I found many years ago.  I'd gotten lazy lately and been using store bought.  *GASP*

And while I'm at it, here is my favorite homemade salad dressing recipe.  Matthew asked if I had any made when they were here last weekend and that inspired me to make some this weekend.  

I always use Splenda instead of sugar so it's sugar free!

Sorry you missed it Matthew!

Spent some time visiting my bestie and will have lunch with her today.  I don't know what I'm going to take, (it's my treat today) but it will probably be pepperoni pizza from Casey's...  

Leftovers for supper.  And the chicken taco mixture is all gone...

I am very envious of my bloggy friends who have a menu planned for the week.  In my house, if I did that, someone would eat all of a main ingredient and I'd be stuck making some exotic dish using hotdogs instead...  really...?...

Oh!  We're down to just one dog now.  And he's depressed.  

pre-cone of shame.

Altho he has the run of the house now since the bladder challenged one has finally left.  Reedus has had some issues with chewing on his legs and it's only gotten worse.  The vet has chimed in, so has an old 4H friend who specialized in dogs.  Well, after I asked their advice.  

We found that if you baste lemon juice on the bandage (it was recommended) that Reedus loves it.  He also loves the Hot Spot spray from Petco.

Meri and I made a pepper flake puree mixture that we're smearing all over the dog bandages and dang it..  Reedus sort of likes it...  After a little while of licking it, he goes and drinks a LOT of water. 

So this MIGHT work...

But he's laying at my feet today all bandaged up so if his cone of shame head even goes near his hurt legs, I'm grunting the "ET" command and he leaves it alone.  At least until I'm out of the room.  I guess I'll be programming from the dining room until he's healed...  Silly dog...

He's got a meaty bone that I got from the store but he's leaving it alone today.  sigh.

Anyway, back to work.  Have a good week!!!

Another Weekend, Another Roadtrip

On Saturday, Meri and I headed back to see my parents again.  But we left at 5am because we had a job to do.

I brought my sewing machine, cutting board, iron and a slew of other supplies and we got to work on lining the coffin.  It's an inevitability and needs to be done eventually.  and my great honor.

We stopped at my sister's to get the key to the church and I saw my dad there.  Melanie said that he knew what I was up to, so he gave me another hug and said "Do a good job, she deserves it."

Whew...

So while Meri worked on stapling in the batting, I worked on other things that didn't really need to get done at this time...  I don't know what I was thinking...  I had started on the scarf thingy that drapes over the coffin, but I really should have started on the inside of the lid.  I can always do the scarf thingy when I get home.  

So Meri ironed the ruffle and started stapling that in, when we realized it almost 10:30 and we wanted to go see Mom and Dad.  

We visited with them and a couple sisters and a nephew and niece.  

Mom was confused as to why all the company every single weekend.  

Another sister was coming on Sunday too.

But you never know what could happen nor how soon.  Every minute counts.

And she was confused as to why her skin is getting so yellow.  

Tammy told her to lay out in a direct sun spot in the nursing home with next to no clothes on, but Mom didn't like that idea.  She WILL sit in the sun more though.  and drink even MORE water.  However even that isn't going to slow down what's happening to her.

I attempted to get a selfie with my folks and this was the best I could do.  Yikes, I suck!  

But I almost like this one better than the one my nephew took of us.

What is the deal with my hair?!  sigh...

Oh well.  

My brother picked up Meri and gave her a tour through an abandoned synagogue in town.  He works for the city and told me about it once.  I knew Meri would love exploring it.  After getting permission for Saturday, they headed out for an adventure.  What an incredible place!  Meri took tons of pics and Mark gave me a brilliant idea for a birthday present for Meri.  More on that later.

While they did that and Mom and Dad had lunch and their nap, I went back to the church with Melanie and company and after a quick lunch, I got back to work on the coffin.  Meri arrived after her adventure and jumped back into the stapling.    

She was SUCH a good help to me!!  And she took her part of the project very seriously as this was her gift to grandma.

However we had some moments of levity, when she tried a piece of my fabric artwork on as a cap.  She looks a bit Amish, doesn't she?

We worked until 2:30 and then went back to see Mom and Dad again.  My sister and nephew from Kentucky were there again, so we had some fun conversations.  Mom told Meri that her hair was beautiful and Meri showed her before and after photos of when she had to dye her hair for her role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.  Suddenly Mom didn't want to slight anyone so she said that Scott's hair was also beautiful and so was Tammy's.  "Did I miss anyone?" she asked?  

I raised my hand and said, you missed me!  She smiled and said "Yes, I did."

Sigh... to be dissed by your own mother... ;) lol

I really need to pay more attention to my hair.

After the visit, Meri and I stopped by my brother's house because she had forgotten some things in his car and she still had his head-lamp in her purse that he'd loaned her. 

He lives past the cemetery that I used to ride my moped through or use as a short cut to work as a teenager.  They've since closed off the roads that I used.  darn.  But I was able to show Meri my favorite tombstone.  

How many people have a favorite tombstone??...

Isn't this beautiful?  And it fits their family name SO well!

Then went back to the church again to wrap things up.  We didn't get as far as I'd wanted, but I have a laundry list of things to do this week and me with maybe one other will head back on Saturday to finish what's left.

Here's where we left it.  Lots to do yet, and I'm not sure I like how the photo pockets are puckering a little here and there.  It'll look different with actual photos tucked in.  We'll probably hot glue the photos in as well to keep them from falling out.

After cleaning up and packing up my sewing supplies again, we left the keys where my sister could find them and headed out.

On our way out of town, I remembered that I was going to take Meri to the Hard Rock Cafe in town so she could get a souvenir.  She has various collections of things and has had different collections all of her life.  As a kid, it was bells, then snow globes.  Now it's shot glasses (not that she's old enough to use them, but she's ready for when she turns 21...)

They didn't have one that she liked, so she settled on a glass and we took the opportunity for a pic with Johnny Cash.

We got home by 8:30 and Meri rushed home to take care of her dog who had been cooped up all day waiting for her.

On Sunday, everyone sang Happy Birthday to Meri at church and then she ran off to shop for the afternoon with friends.  Robb picked up Leon while I did some grocery shopping for Meri's birthday dinner that evening.

Then a quick visit with my bestie before cooking our hearts out for the dinner. 

Meri requested beef/snow pea stir fry and since we have people in the house who can't handle beef, we also made a chicken stir fry.  She also requested cauliflower rice and we made regular rice as an option too.  For dessert, Meri usually has an ice cream cake because she hates cake, but saw a recipe for Banana Foster's upside down cake and thought she'd like to have that this year.  So I made that.  It has dark rum in it.  Only 2 tablespoons and it cooks out, but the smallest quantity I could buy was almost a quart.  yikes!  I looked like a boozer in HyVee and wouldn't you just know it... I ran into someone I knew... sigh.

So Robb was chopping everything under the sun and I was cooking up a storm.  EVERY crock pot,  pot, pan, dish, silverware bit and china piece was used.  It took 2 hours this morning to wash everything up and get the kitchen back to normal.  But it was worth it. 

You only turn 19 once.

Besides plenty of Ginger Brew, we gave Meri a vacuum cleaner and a head lamp that Mark recommended for her explorations.  

Two of her friends came along for dinner and we all had a great time.  Maddy even DUOed with us after Meri had already blown out the candle, but we did a re-creation of the singing and blowing it out just for her so she'd feel like she was there.

Anyway, that was the weekend.  And as I've said before... I need another.