Monthly Archives: August 2016

What’s Going On

Well, I’m just sitting here wondering where in the world Summer went. It came in a blast of rain and heat and is leaving the same way.   I had so many plans.  Some came to fruition, others went by the wayside.  Like I totally missed our state fair again this year.  Every year David and I say we want to go, but this year we had a nasty bug and were waylaid for a couple of weeks, so we missed it.

I wanted to go to the zoo.  Haven’t made it there.

I’ve wanted to go on a picnic somewhere besides our backyard. Haven’t done it.

I have been swimming a whole lot more since it’s been so hot and humid this Summer.  But because of the heat and humidity, our lawn grows tall enough that we could bale it before we get the energy to go out and mow.

We tried to buy some more land which would have meant more mowing and I was wondering, “What are we thinking?”  Luckily, we didn’t get it.    They wanted way more than we were willing to pay.   It was all David’s idea.   But I always go along with him.  We are partners in crime, after all.

I took care of dogs and chickens all Summer.  Plus fed the Hummingbirds to the point we use about a five pound bag of sugar every week just for them.   They say animals are dumb?  Then why am I doing all the work, feeding, cleaning after them, taking them to the vet?  Molly hurt her eye somehow so we took her to the vet yesterday. I made an appointment for the morning and went to put her in the car, but she refused.  She weighs eighty-eight pounds so I couldn’t lift her.  I begged, pleaded, and gave her treats, but nothing was getting that dog into the car so I had to cancel the appointment and make one when David was here to get her in the car.  So, guess what?  Time for the appointment, she hopped right up into the car and David looked at me like I was crazy.  Go to the vet, she acts like everyone there is her best friend wagging her tail all over the place.  Even sat still while the vet put drops in her eye.   Get her home, she doesn’t want to get out of the car.  Crazy dog.  But I love her.

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I guess she knows who is boss.

Our garden has overflowed with cucumbers and tomatoes.

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I would go out and pick them one day and the next…….

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Bam!  More. I can only eat so many so David has taken at least a half bushel to work with him and given them away.

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This is my puny try at freezing some tomato juice.  So much work. So little produced.  Considering I don’t even use tomato juice very often, this is plenty for us. I have a friend who cans enough food for her and her husband to last all winter.  I admire her and she puts me to shame, but I’m not ashamed enough to do what she does.

I have three little hills of cucumbers and they have produced enough for David to have all he wants and to take to work and give away.  I am so glad those people like our produce.  I hate to throw it away.

We have had two of the grandboys a couple of nights this Summer which isn’t much, but they and their parents have busy schedules.

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So they had these toothbrushes that lit up when they used them, so we turned off the lights and they demonstrated them for me.  It’s so easy to entertain Grandma.

We did manage to go to one auction.  It rained the entire day so I spent most of it in the car knitting while David stood out in the rain and bought a few things.  He got this for me. Five hours later.

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A cute little Adirondack chair.   As I sat in the car, they sold a boat right in front of me for $500. It was a really nice boat too.

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I’ve knitted socks.   Oh, yes I have.

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David tried a new hairdo.

When we were getting our porch built a couple of years ago, one of the men working for our contractor brought me a flower since he saw I liked flowers.  He told me I couldn’t kill it.   Well, I watered in and kept it protected and watched it die down for the winter and it didn’t come up the next year.  This year it didn’t come up either, at least for a long time. Then one day I saw some leaves where a bare spot use to be, and soon the plant was growing taller and taller, so David made a cage around it so the rabbits wouldn’t eat it.  Now it is a beautiful big plant and I looked up what kind it is.

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It’s called a Passion Flower and is so beautiful.  They only bloom for one day, but there are several flowers on the plant.

We are going to see the Ark in Cincinnati this week.  It’s an exact replica of the one described in the Bible.  There is a zoo there also so I get to make my trip to the zoo.   Thousands of people have already visited it and it just opened this Summer, on Dave’s and my anniversary.

Tomorrow I will start decorating the house for Fall.  Before we know it, it will be election day, then Thanksgiving(hope I will be thankful who got elected) and then Christmas.   Time is coming quickly.   Did you know time comes. it doesn’t go?  I learned that this year.   You can’t stop it.  It’s going to come so make the most of every day and give God the glory.

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He’s provided some glorious sunsets this year.

Here’s to another Summer.  Good-bye, Summer, you were really special.  Bye

 

 

 

 

Simply Words

No pictures today, folks, even though I have several on my camera.  The past three weeks have been kind of fuzzy to me. After we took the Grandboys to the Children’s Museum, I got sick the day after and am really not feeling completely well yet.  I coughed and hacked for two weeks until my head and my teeth hurt and only after David started coughing and hacking did I decide to make us appointments to see the doctor.

I really like our doctor, I just don’t want to see him anymore than I have to.  He examined us both and put us on antibiotics steroids and inhalers.  I don’t like inhalers at all.  So we are finishing up these meds and I still have a cough and am blowing my nose. so there will probably be another doctor’s visit in my future.  When I was growing up and got sick, the usual remedy was a shot of penicillin and that usually made me well.  I don’t know what has happened to penicillin, but I am going to ask my doctor if he still uses it.

During these two week our tomatoes and cucumbers have gone wild.  I have picked so many and given so many away and they still keep coming.  I froze a little tomato juice.   I use to can tomatoes, but I quit that a long time ago because it seemed all the work wasn’t worth the product.  Plus, it’s always so hot when it’s time to can.  Yes, I am lazy.

My sock pile is getting bigger, however.  I have knitted and knitted when I felt poorly and some people are going to get several pairs of socks come Christmas.  I love knitting socks now.  I can almost do it with my eyes closed.  I can’t wait to get more yarn.  I have become a complete yarn addict.  At least I feel like I am accomplishing something while I’m sitting here.

David and I are planning a train trip this year.  Riding and sleeping on a train has been on my bucket list forever.  We will get to sleep four nights on the train and I can’t wait.  When we took the ferry to Alaska. I slept better than I ever had before.  Last night I had a dream I was sleeping on a train and it rocked just like the ferry did.   Alicia Paulsen on her blog, Posey Gets Cozy. just took the train trip we are going to take.  The train goes though mountains and Glacier Park and though the west.   Her pictures are amazing.  The dining car looks just like I envision it with white table cloths on the tables, sitting by a window eating your meal while the scenery goes by.  Looks like pure Heaven.

The grandchildren have all gone back to school.  Whatever happened to Summer?  June and July flew by.  I blinked and it was August.  Now August is half over already.  I really don’t think children should have to start school until after Labor Day.    I remember one year we got out of school on May 6th and didn’t return until after Labor Day.  It was a long, lazy(well as lazy as you can get on a farm) and wonderful Summer.  I would spend my days reading, playing with the animals on the farm, helping in the garden, helping my mother freeze corn. We did one hundred pints one Summer.  I got to do a lot of day dreaming too. Do kids have time to day dream any longer?  Day dreams are what inventions and literature and beautiful music come from.  If you are constantly bombarded with noise from an Ipod or looking down at your cellphone all the time for the next text, you really don’t have time to day dream.  A whole generation is losing out on the chance to just sit and day dream.  We are hooked up to social networks and are less social.  There has to be a middle ground somewhere, but when I go out and all I see are people sitting together with their eyes on their cellphones instead of connecting to others, It makes me kind of sad.  People even think you are kind of odd if you aren’t carrying your cellphone around with you everywhere you go.  It’s like life support for some people.   And now the Pokeman phenomena is driving people nuts.  Grownups racing around looking for an imaginary little creature.  What has happened to grownups, anyway?  Why do grownups now act like children?  I’m not being judgmental, I am just curious.  My parents would think the adults of today were acting very infantile.   My parents came from the generation when you had to work hard just to live and raise your family.  Family was the most important thing, too.   They didn’t have time for playing very often.  A family vacation was a real treat to be saved for and then you didn’t take another for a few years.  Now people think they have to vacation all the time.  My thoughts on vacations are they are fun, but they always make me glad when I get home.   When I am on vacation, I am thinking of home and when I am home I am planning a vacation.  I’ve gone on a lot of imaginary vacations in my mind.  Some have come true.  Others may never happen.

I am looking forward to cooler weather.  We have had rain, heat and humidity for weeks now.  I really feel sorry for the people in Louisiana. They are really having a hard time of it. Our town was flooded a few years ago, so I kind of know what they are going through.  Just think of losing all you own, all of it underwater, the mud and dirt in your home.  I pray for them that the rains will stop and they can start the clean up and get back to normal as quickly as possible.

Well, I have rambled on long enough.   I think it is my fuzzy mind still clogged with the cold and it doesn’t help that yesterday, while running to answer the phone, I had something slippery on my feet and I did the splits running to the radio to turn it down and then I did the splits running to the telephone and laying on the floor, I finally got it answered and it was our internet company. Our internet had gone out again, the second time this Summer and I find I am lost without it, which makes me wonder about myself.  Anyway.  I got the phone answered, but today I have a badly sprained toe with bruises and my thighs hurt.  But, we have our internet back and I get to ramble here on my blog.  So all is good.

Hope you are having a better time than me.  Bye.

Fun With the Grandboys

We took three of our grandsons to the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis Friday.  We started early in the morning by taking them out to Steak and Shake to eat since the food in the museum is so expensive.  Then we drove clear to the top of the parking garage which was packed and parked our car.  It’s been a few years since we took one of our grandsons to the museum and it had changed a lot.

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Dinosaurs at the windows.  Oh, my.

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The Bat mobile was of special interest.  The boys kept saying they wish they could drive it.  Not sure that would be a good idea!

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There was an exhibit of replicas of Chinese statues that were found some years ago. The real statues were life size and so were the replicas. They also had some you could put together as a puzzle. The boys enjoyed this exhibit.  I could have stayed there a little longer and read more about them, but with three boys it’s go, go, go.

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Someone had placed sun glasses on this one.

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What I love about the museum is that it is truly kid friendly and children can climb on most of the exhibits.  As you can see, our grandson thought this was fun.

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Is there a resemblance here?

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There was a Hot Wheels exhibit and cars to climb in.

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Handsome lad.  “Grandma,” he asked me. “Do you think I am handsome because I have red hair?”   “I just think you are handsome,” I replied.  All my grandsons are handsome, but I am not at all prejudiced.  And I do love red hair.

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Dressing up was part of the fun.

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From race car driver to king in one day.

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There was merry-go-round riding.

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David got to be a kid again.  I was taking pictures and then a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was in line for the ride. I looked behind me and there was a long line of people.  Oops.  “Just watching.”  I said.

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More race cars to climb in.

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There is a magnificent Chihuly chandelier hanging right in the middle of the museum.  The last time we were here they were just putting it together.

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Leftover pieces were put in the floor.

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Me standing on Chihuly!

On the floor below this there was a rotating couch people could sit on and look up and see the beautiful colors.

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Looking up at Chihuly.

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This is what you saw from below. I was entranced by this.

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An exhibit about Anne Frank where I would have liked to spend more time, but boys.  Go, go, go. This picture of Anne was made up of hundreds of photos of people.  Her story still saddens me.

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There was a maze where, really, I was afraid I would never get out of.  I kept the boys in my sight at all times.  They knew where they were going.

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There was an exhibit and show about the space capsule that Gus Grissom, the second man in space,  flew in..  The capsule was lost at sea for thirty-eight years.   Thankfully, they were able to save Mr. Grissom, but he later died in a fire in a space capsule.  It was very interesting, and the fact I  remember when this happened made it even more interesting to me. I was twelve years old at the time and space travel was new and exciting.

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There was a train exhibit.

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Pretending to buy and sell train tickets. David and I are going on a train trip this year. Can’t wait.

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Okay, I hate my picture being taken, but David stalked me and got one that doesn’t make me look too horrible.  I won’t delete this one, David. Ha. And who is that woman photo bombing me?  And why do I look so contemplative?

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So I took another picture of my sweetie.  So, is this sign describing the bear or David?  Hmmmmm.

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The boys got all excited about Spiderman and tried to point him out to me.  I could not see him and they kept saying, “There, Grandma!”  Finally saw him and took his picture.  There was so much more we saw and a lot we didn’t get to see.  I would go back again.

It was a fun day.  We stopped at the gift shop and let the boys buy some things and then the museum was closed and we left. When we got back to the car, there were very few cars in the parking garage and the upper deck was empty except for our car.

Driving  to the restaurant to eat that afternoon we saw this.DSCN3642

It had been raining all day and the sun was coming out again.

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A perfect ending to a perfect day.  Hope the boys had as much fun as David and I did.

Here’s to Grandboys and museums. Bye.