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Terrible Tues???????

Yesterday was not one of our better days. It began with a flat tire on the Explorer.(the plan was for Wm. to take the tire to the tire place on the way to work and then have it repaired and put back on the vehicle at lunch. Matt decided he and Papa should not walk Ali yesterday before Papa left but they should go to the garage so Matt could work on a "project". Ali was upset and left the garage and came into the house. Matt came in later and Will took the tire and was off to work. After a few minutes I realized I had not seen Ali. Matt and I searched the house and then the yard (remember it is fenced in) Frantic, I called DH who said to check the garage. The door had been open and Ali was going in and out. She was not there either. Wm. came home from work and took the leash and Matt in the car to try to find Alice. After a while they came back. Apparently, the gate was not closed, we have no idea who left it open but Alice decided to take herself for a little jaunt around the neighborhood. They found her over in the next block, behind us.

Matt decided he would paint some more boxes and I would start the chili for dinner. That worked out quite well, so well in fact, I decided why not roast the chicken so I could make chicken and rice soup for Wed. dinner. We have 2 crock pots so I could try my hand at Suzy Homemaker. I cut up the celery and carrots and when the chicken was done I took it off the bone and started the soup. I had some carrot left over so I decided to eat it, raw carrot is good for you, right! I took one bite when I heard a loud crack. I hoped it was the carrot but I was certain it was going to be my tooth. Yep, my front tooth broke right off at the gum. (dejevu??? yes, I did the same exact thing nearly a yr. ago) I got an appt. with a dentist (I was not satisfied with the job they did with my bridge last year so I called someone else) My appt was 9 AM but after xrays, impressions, etc. I can not have the remainder of the tooth extracted or a new bridgework completed until 10/22. Yep, 3 weeks without a front tooth. Needless to say, I will not be going outside of this house until then.

Monday, was spent outside so we were sure not to miss the garbage man. If you remember, he told Matt he could dump the garbage. It was misting on and off and feeling cold and damp only aggravated my sinuses and arthritis. I had given Matt 2 little packages of choc. chip cookies one for Matt and the other for the garbage guy. Matt ate one pack and when it began to get late with no sign of the truck (we could hear him all around our street but not see him) Matt asked if he could eat one of the cookies from the other package. I told him he ate his and the other ones were for the garbage guy. He walked away but came back with a huge smile on his face and said "but Gramma, he doesn't know how many cookies are in his package!"

Susan and Stephanie take Matthew and Anthony to the zoo boo at Halloween. Last year I made Matt a Bob the builder costume. This year he asked if we could make a baby jaguar costume. This may take some thought!

super Sunday

Today was a very good day. We went to Church of the Ressurection (not our home church) because Andrew, Kathy and John Eastmond were ministering there today. If you are not familiar with their ministry, "New Heart Ministries" you should check them out. Andrew teaches and ministers through his music in over 25 sates in America and other countries of the world. He has a wonderful gift and after the service he prays for/over anyone who desires it and stays until everyone has had prayer. We have known Andrew and Kathy for over 20 yr. when they ministered in a church we belonged to when we lived in Pulaski, NY. They spent the night with us and Andrew, a New Zealander, taught Joshua about New Zealand (we home schooled ) We had not seen them since we moved down here 3 yr. ago. It was so good to see that their son John now played guitar with his father.

Jon Christian got a call back for a second interview on Tues. I would appreciate your prayers for this. It has been 5 months since his job was sent overseas. He spends a good part of each day looking for another job. His severance pay will stop next month and although he can get unemployment for a yr; he would prefer to have a job. They have cut their expenses as much as they possibly can. Please pray that this is the job God has for him.

Friday, Matt and I spent a lot of the day cleaning. He loves to clean as you can see, he is washing the dishes and I have a dishwasher! He used to love to run the vacuum, but since we got the new one, he said it is too loud for him and he goes into the other room and closes the door when I turn it on.

from the pumpkin patch

Papa told Matt it was time to cut some of his pumpkins from out of his pumpkin patch. I think he can be very proud of himself considering it was his idea to grow some pumpkins and he was diligent to turn them every day.

We have more tomatoes and cukes and few peppers still to be harvested but considering the fact we are fast approaching October, and that the nights have been getting colder, I am not sure how long we will be able to have fresh veggies.

We are thinking about going to NC the first week of Nov. I am missing the southern grandbabies and would love to see them again. Will told Matt we were going and he said "I want to go with you Papa". His mother told him it would be a very long ride. "I want to see Max and Morrigan, Papa. I will be able to go for a very long ride". It would be fun to take him but I am not sure he is ready to leave his Mama for a week.

Update on Jon: He did not get a call back yesterday. When I called this morning he was looking for a job. He says he spends most of the day looking and sending out resumes. Thanks to all those who prayed. I know God has the perfect job for him.

Stephanie came by this afternoon when she picked up Anthony from preschool. The boys have such a great time together. They play so well with each other.

afternoon thoughts

I have had a lot of time to think this afternoon. I have not felt well for almost a week now. At first, I thought it was allergies or my sinuses. Now my arthritis is flaring up and the past few days I have had a lot of muscle aches. Not sure what it is but I feel horrid, I was sure I would feel better as the day wore on but the opposite has happened. I will need to get groceries after church tomorrow as I could not bring myself to go today.

Wm. worked on Matt's bed. Oh, it looks wonderful. It was put together once but he took it apart so it could be painted. I can not wait until it is completely finished and Matt sees it for the first time. Funny how this whole construction theme idea came from a lamp I got at the Christmas Tree Shop for $2 when he was a baby. Then I made the Bob the Builder for him to hang up his clothes (or in Matt's case, his broom and dust pan, don't ask) Then we made the cornices to look like road block signs and now Wm. made the bulldozer bed. I am so excited about this. I promise to take pictures as soon as it is painted and in the room.

ramblings of an old fat grandmother....

First, I want to take a minute to say how thankful I am for my DH. I know I eluded to this on our anniversary but it goes so far beyond that. Over the years he has allowed me to stay at home with our children, homeschool - even when it meant he had to work 2 jobs. He has never had a vacation that was not either "homeschool related" or a working vacation. He allowed me to go back and get a certificate in interior design at age 50 because it was something I had always wanted and my parents felt business was the wiser choice when I was ready for college. Thank you Lord for this man of God you chose for me.

In one short week Matt has decided he likes to blend his paints. He is also a collector A collector of everything. Our walks amount to nothing more than a chance for him to pick up rocks, pinecones, etc all along the way. His well dr. visit showed he was 39 1/2 # and 41 1/2 " tall. That is the 96 and 97%. Ali is still his constant companion and he is forging ahead in his "school work". (his words, not mine) He knows the alphabet, numbers to 30. He still remembers all 27 of the signs we learned and can use them if I ask.

The weather has cooled down so walking has become much more bearable for me. Matt and Ali have no problem walking in any weather. Our little garden is looking pretty shabby now but we do have 5 orange pumpkins, a ton of green tomatoes (the storm the other night blew the tomato cages completely over and they are much too tomato laden to stand back up) There are a few green peppers and some cucumbers and even a few more hot banana peppers. This little garden turned out to be another blessing. I love that we had fresh veggies every day, and no I never seem to tire of fresh tomatoes and cukes.

Ike

We got the very tail end of Ike last night. Rain and wind and then about 2:30, the power went out. It did come back on a little after 8 this morning though. Our yard was littered with tons of branches and sticks and Matt and I picked them all up, I am talking many, many arm loads of branches in both the front and back yards. Not any real damage, PTL.
Our neighbor, Don, was not quite as fortunate. He has a tree in his front yard that he was very proud of. He told Wm. how it was an Aspen and how it grew like a triangle.

When it came down, it landed on the wires. If you look closely you can see it is burning where it touches the wires. First, the fire chef came, then the fire truck which waited for National Grid to come. They waited 4 hours to be exact. (National Grid never did come) Finally, they just taped off the area and left. The news said there were 40,000 homes in the area without electricity this morning.
Exciting stuff going on right out side our house you say. I thought so, I thought Matt would love the fact that a fire truck was directly in front of our house. Not Matt, he wanted to play with the story reader video plus and the click start computer. I kept asking if he wanted to go outside. His answer, "Absolutely, when is the garbage truck coming" All righty then!

on my mind...........

Allergy season has hit us full force. I can function with Nasonex but my poor Matthew is having a hard time. He has been taking Benadryl on the days his allergies act up on the dr. recommendation. It no longer seems to touch his symptoms. This morning he was sneezing non stop so I gave him his medication. Being a typical 3 yr. old he hates to have to blow his nose. He will wipe it but that will not alleviate the problem. I was getting his clothes out of the dryer from where the majority of his Benadryl ended up when he called me to tell me he felt awful. By the time I got from the dryer to the LR, he was throwing up gobs of phlegm.; all over himself, his blankie, the floor, the chair and me. So for the second time in an hour, I was washing his clothes (not to mention mine) as well as cleaning up the LR. From there, our day seemed to go down hill quickly. I feel so bad for him and at the same time, there is absolutely nothing I can do. He needs to blow his nose and refuses. On the up side, he has an appt. with the pediatrician on Thurs.

My wild little garden is bountiful of late. Every morning we go out and pick what is ready and Matt turns the pumpkins, which are now bright orange., to keep them well rounded. In the last few days all the tomato plants have become so heavy they are all tipping over the cages. Our cucumbers are finally coming and even the pepper plants have peppers on them. (not just the hot banana peppers) I am so very grateful for fresh vegetables every day. PTL
We did manage to get the cornices up in Matt's room (OK, Will got them up, I just held them while he screwed them in place) I was pleased to finally get the curtains up. I was not that happy once I hung them up and saw how wrinkled they were are. I do love the way the cornices turned out. I painted them to look like road block signs and I put plugs over the screws and painted them silver to look like bolts.

So now I need to take down the curtains down and iron them again.......I made the curtains back when Matt was still in diapers and the borders on the curtains matched the diaper holder. Now if I could just get the bed finished and put in the room, I would be one happy camper (Matt too)

We have been working on video games (included in the video story readers) for hand/eye coordination as well as learning the alphabet (he knows it and can count to 30 but this not only reinforces this but helps him recognize the numbers and letters on sight) I got the player and the story books at Ollies.

Not feeling well has not stopped him from keeping me in stitches as usual. Today, he came out of the bathroom and told me he had to turn on the fan because he tooted up the bathroom. Uncle Roy asked him if his legs were dry and Matt said no, it is hair on my legs Uncle Roy.......I am just a hairy guy. Where does he get this stuff???

Lessons I learned from a 3 year old

This week was a short one so I thought we would do some different things. Tuesday we painted a lot of the day. He loves to paint and does a great job. "I am blending colors because you think it looks good Gramma, but I like my colors to be separate". Alrighty then! Yesterday we decided it was time to take down the crib. He was not using it anyway and it was just taking up space in his room. (Maybe a big empty space would be just the incentive we need to finish his bed, or maybe not) So we got in his room, took out the mattress and moved the bed to the middle of the room. "Gramma, I do not think this is a good idea for you try to do this; we better wait for Papa, he will know what to do". I should have listened, I tried to get the crib apart but to no avail. ("Gramma, you really should be wearing a hard hat when you do this kind of work" and yes, he did have his on) We gave up and went out on the porch just as Uncle Roy came to visit. "Oh, Uncle Roy, Gramma actually tried to take apart the crib when I told her she should wait for Papa, and she couldn't do it. I told her, but she wouldn't listen!" You will all be happy to know that the crib is down. Papa and Matt dismantled it at 5pm, yesterday.

Today after taking the crib to the cellar, and checking the garden so Matt could collect the veggies that were ready as well as turn the pumpkins (so they stay nice and round, Gramma) I suggested we give Ali a bath. I thought he would jump right on this idea.. First came the questions: Matt:"Are you giving her a bath in the tub"?

Me: "No, I thought outside would be a good idea, then I won't have to lift her into the tub."

Matt: "This is not wisdom, Gramma, I think you better wait for Papa" . (I am in the habit of saying this is not wisdom all the time to him, must be a little too much, eh)

Me: "No, Matt, I know we can do it, especially if you help me"

Matt: "For crying out the window, Gramma, I am just a little boy. (If you think I probably say for crying out the window all the time too, you would be right)

Well, it was a trial, Matt had a hard time holding Ali when I tried to spray her with the hose, he stepped in dog poop and had a meltdown. I had to stop with the dog wet and soapy to clean up Matt's crocs. Now we are talking vinyl crocs here folks, I had to wipe the dog poop off them, wipe them with disinfecting wipes, wash them in hot water and soap, spray Lysol on them and then put them in the sun to dry before we could finish Alice's bath. (Matt was giving me instructions on how to clean them)

I am thinking I should have listened to Matt's advice in the first place and saved myself a lot of work. I am learning that he is very intelligent for a 3 year old.

Tomorrow we are going out to lunch and to to Ollie's with Uncle Roy. Matt has some money and he wants to "buy" something for himself. When Uncle Roy left on Wednesday, Matt said "That Uncle Roy is a really great guy isn't he Gramma"? "He sure is Matty, he sure is"!

unexpected little blessings

This weekend was one of quite a few unexpected little blessings.

Betsy and Kenny came down on Friday evening to close up Carol's pool on Saturday. Betsy told me that she would attempt damage control on my hair from when I went to Supercuts earlier this summer. Once she looked at it she told me she would do what she could but that it was going to take at least 2 more cuts before it would blend in like I wanted it to. (let me say right now, it was not so bad a cut that people would be pointing at me on the street and snickering, it was just not the way I wanted it and it did look exactly like the hairdresser's, hmmmm) I was disappointed but what could I do, nothing but let it grow out! Betsy told me to try to curl it towards my face (same thing the other hairdresser had told me). I tried it but it was just "not me". Anyway, to make a long story short, I colored my hair and when I was blow drying it, it blew away from my face and blended in perfectly. (blessing #1)

Saturday afternoon we went to get water at BJ's with Uncle Roy. I asked if we could look at Sears and see if they had any vacuum cleaners on sale that we could afford as our little one died last week. Matt and I tried to fix it but to no avail. We had gotten it at Aldi's for under $20 when we lived in Canton and had 3 bassets (which equals a lot of shedding) so this little lightweight (easier on my back) had served us well. I found a Eureka for 1/2 price so it was only $49 and has great suction. (blessing #2)

Sunday afternoon we took Uncle Roy and met Betsy, Kenny and Carol for lunch at Cracker Barrel (Uncle Roy's favorite and we were celebrating his birthday yesterday) We stopped at Wegman's to get some non dairy ice cream for Uncle Roy to have with his birthday carrot cake and found they had carrot cake ice cream (blessing #3) Ok, you may not think of it as a blessing but I am sure it was for Uncle Roy who was expecting vanilla tofutti.

Susan, Tom and Matthew came over to celebrate Susan's and Uncle Roy's birthday. Now if you will remember last week I mentioned that we got some clothes for Susan's birthday and that is where blessing #4 comes in. Well, this is not so much for Uncle and me as for Susan but in the last week, she has lost yet another size.(blessing #4) Yes, we do need to take back her clothes and get a size smaller but you have to admit, that is a good thing!

So, all in all, we had an excellent weekend shared with our family and friends and we still have today left to finish up some of the little projects we have been working on. No, not the bed, (I know, Matt will be in high school before we finish it)

Thank you Lord for all the unexpected little blessing you give us and we take for granted.

edit: I almost neglected to mention one of nicest of my unexpected blessings: I asked my DH to please move the furniture in the LR so we could clean behind them before everyone came for the party. He not only moved the LR furniture and cleaned behind it, he also mopped the LR, hall and kitchen floors.......an added bonus, especially with my back. *blessing #5

ORANGE

Because we have two birthday cakes to make tomorrow, I suggested we make Matt's "orange" cake yesterday. He loved the idea. Now nothing with Matt is cut and dried. I keep the cake pans in the strange cupboard that has an angle so it is not only deep but also goes back by the stove. He insisted we take everything out of the cupboard to get to the cake pans.


Yep, that is Matthew inside the cupboard. You can tell it is him by his orange crocs.

This is the orange cake. We used food coloring to make the frosting.. He told me just use frosting on the top of the cake so there would be sure to be enough frosting in the bowl for licking. I told him we had to put frosting all over the cake so he asked if we could just make him a bowl of frosting for a snack. mmmmmm, NO!

Today we wrapped up the books from Susan B. and the crocs so we could send them to the girls. He loves to go to the cellar (I do not) and we needed to look for a box and paper and then after I printed out the mailing label from the USPS site, he took it to the mail box (by myself Gramma, I know how to do it and how to put up the flag). Tomorrow we will wrap up Mommy's and Uncle Roy's birthday gifts and then make their cakes. That should be an adventure!

It's over

My vacation is officially over and there will be no more sleeping in . Gone are the days when I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it. Now I have resigned myself to doing things in Matthew's time frames. No more grown up conversations without hearing "why" to every remark I make. No more checking the emails or taking a peek to see who has changed their blog since the last time I looked. No more lunches in a restaurant or shopping for bargains. (at least not during the week) From now on my days are more structured and as nice as it was to be on vacation and have time for myself, I wouldn't want it any other way than this. I really did miss Matt last week and my sweet Wm. was kind enough to take me over to see him when he got home on 2 occasions. Last week I had to bake cookies on my own with no one to lick the beaters.
Sunday is Susan's birthday and Matt wants to bake her a cake. He really is quite the chef you know. We do cook quite a bit but his favorites are sweets (cakes, pies and cookies, oh my) Uncle Roy's 84th birthday is 9/3 but we will be celebrating it this weekend as well. Matt has already told Uncle Roy when he came over this morning, that he would be making him a special birthday cake. He told Uncle Roy that his would be a carrot cake and his mother's cake would be chocolate with chocolate frosting. Then he decided that as long as we were making cakes, we should make an orange cake for him with orange frosting with sprinkles. After all, we were making cakes anyway and his favorite color and flavor is orange and no one made him an orange cake on his birthday and.......................

I didn't get all I was hoping to accomplished on my vacation but I did make a big dent in what I had on my list. I also had a great time with my friend (speaking of friends, Betsy is coming to Syracuse this weekend to close her sister's pool so we will be seeing them ) a good time with Uncle Roy last Thurs. and again on Saturday when went to the mall in Auburn.. Wm. dropped us off at the mall so we could shop and he went to the Home to see his mom. She is planning to go back to Jim and Linda's to live. They are in NC this week on vacation but will be back soon. I feel bad that she can not seem to be satisfied any place. When we were there a week ago, I really thought she was liking the Home, and then I hear she is moving back in with Wm.'s brother and SIL.. Uncle Roy and I got some excellent bargains at Sears on Saturday. I had a coupon for $15 off on $75 on shoes and apparel. We had no problem with finding $75 worth of stuff but the cashier said what I got did not qualify for the coupon as some was on sale. The coupon stated sale or regular merchandise qualified so I asked her to show me where it said my purchases did not qualify on the coupon. She got all flustered and then ended up taking the coupon off. I could not understand why things were not going that well for me there but chalked it up to Sears. From there we went to JoAnn Fabrics where scrapbooking paper was on sale. I brought my purchases to the counter and the cashier told me not all my purchases qualified for the sale price........ what the????? I kept my cool and said "OK, but you had better change your sign where I got the scrapbook paper as it said any paper from $.29 - $.99 included in the sale". Yes, she did give it to me for the sale price and yes, I probably would have paid the original price if it came right down to it. Yes, I know in the big scheme of things saving $15 with a coupon or getting a $.99 piece of scrapbook paper for $.16 doesn't amount to anything. But it is the principle; why claim things to lure people in to a sale if you are not going to honor it. OK, I am getting off my soap box now.

And this is a three day weekend.......woohoo!!!!! Matt and I drained his pool and then let the air out. We put bleach in the pool and scrubbed it, inside and out. "Gramma, are we doing this because it is getting cooler out now?" "Yep, fall is on the way, my boy" ! "And then it will be winter, right Gramma" ????? .................. Let's not think that far ahead OK?

Good friends, good food and good bargains

Yesterday was a great day. My friend got here from Canton at about 10am. Once I finished putting dinner in the crock pot, we left for a most enjoyable day. First, it was so good to see her after such a long time. We used to share the same office when I was the Office mgr. at the church.
We started off our day with a trip to Ollie's (the new outlet I was telling you about) For all of you who were waiting with bated breath to hear my review of this place, here it is: They have tons of stuff. Their slogan was right, "good stuff.....cheap". They have a huge book selection there. Lots of Bibles and inspirational books in addition to kids books, coffee table books, etc. I had been very happy buying Christian novels (Karen Kingsbury and Beverly Lewis) at my neighborhood "Books 4 Less" store for $8 new and $5-6 used) but yesterday I got 2 that I had not read before for $4 brand new. Woohoo!
From there we went to Olive Garden for lunch (it was right across the street) We had a great lunch and a chance to catch up on each other's family and grandchildren(OK, in her case she only has one granddaughter)
Then it was on to the Christmas Tree Shop for more closeout bargains. Did I mention how much I love bargain hunting????? Yeah, I thought I did! At lunch we were discussing the amount of construction on the thruway, and rte 690 and 81. I had the brilliant idea that I would cut across the city and skip the "big roads" as Matt calls them. Guess what, my sense of direction did not improve when I moved to Syracuse. So we ended up taking a tour of the industrial warehouse section of the city. I said it was to give us a chance to digest out lunch before the hunt began again......OK, I said it but we were in fact lost. I am sure this comes as no surprise to anyone from Canton, especially my son Josh.
I was sorry to see her go, I had a wonderful day and she never kept asking "why" when ever I said something!

Today, Uncle Roy and I went to lunch and then it was back to Ollies......I knew he would love it (DH would not) He did and we spent a few hours there. We never did get something for Susan's birthday but since we have another week we are planning to go on Saturday.

My poor Ali feels deserted......not only is Matthew not here but I actually had the nerve to leave her for 2 days in a row. She really wasn't that impressed with the chew toy I brought her back from my adventures.

making progress

Well, I started my vacation yesterday. My plan was to get things done that I never seem to have time to work on when Matt is here. So, yesterday I did some touch up painting I had been wanting to get to for a while now. Today, I tackled some sewing projects that needed to be done. I got most of what I wanted to work on, finished. I did want to make some cookies but I had not gone to the grocery this weekend so I had no chocolate chips. When my DH came home tonight, we went to the store so I can work on the cookies. Tomorrow, you say? No not tomorrow. My friend from Canton is coming down to spend the day with me. Woohoo! She came down a year ago and we went to the Christmas Tree Store. She is into bargain hunting as much as I am. We are planning to make a day of it and go to lunch, and maybe to the new "Ollie's Bargain Outlet" that recently opened on the blvd. (Their slogan is good stuff.......real cheap". We will see. :-

On Thursday, Uncle Roy and I are planning to make a day of it as well. Susan's birthday is the 31st so we need to find something for her. I have not been one to shop till I drop, any more. Funny, when I lived in the north country where you had to drive just to go shopping, I was always up for it. Here, we have many choices (maybe too many) and while I like to go bargain shopping, but mall shopping does nothing for me. After they had a guy commit suicide in the mall last night at 6pm, I am not sure I will want to go again!

So the way I see it, I can enjoy myself with my friend tomorrow and then with Uncle Roy on Thursday, and still have 3 days to get the things I wanted to work on completed.

All that said, I do miss Matt. Poor Ali is beside herself. She is walking around the house like a little lost dog (pun intended)

The road to Abilene

Today after church, we took the road to Abilene. No, not actually the road to Abilene. Wm. always used "the road to Abilene" as a lesson for our kids and for his employees back when he worked for the USPS. If you have never heard the lesson I will tell you the story. It is about a family who wants to go somewhere but because no one speaks up, they end up going to Abilene. No one actually wanted to go to Abilene but because everyone thought that was what the others wanted to do, no one said anything and they ended up on the "road to Abilene". When we got home from church, Wm. said what do you want to do. I said lets go somewhere. Neither of us made our desire known and we ended up at that Outlet Mall in Waterloo. I wanted to go to the Outlet Mall, just not today. Today I wanted to go to the Amish Market over in the same general vicinity. No not an authentic Amish market as it was open on Sunday (we know that would not happen). Another dead giveaway was the winery in one of the bldgs. This place had Amish quilts, furniture, sheds, etc. that they purchased from the Amish to sell to the public at their Market, which they have open 7 days a week. Now the drive there was gorgeous, along Cayuga Lake, but the market itself was rather disappointing. There were 4 pole barns full of furniture, etc. and tons of sheds etc. outside. There was also a lot of Adirondak chairs painted pink and turquoise and stenciled with "It's 5 o'clock somewhere". Will wondered how many Amish stenciled that on their furniture after painting it electric pink and turquoise :-)


Matt was here when we got back. They stopped to drop off a pair of pants I am taking in for Susan.(she lost more than 40# and she looks great, but she loves these pants) She will be in CT. this week and I am on vacation. Matt's other grandma will have him.

We have 5 pumpkins, too many green tomatoes to count, green beans and only one cucumber the size of a pickle. Maybe with more sun this week, the garden will ripen up some of its bounty. We can always hope, eh? My neighbor John shared more of his cucumbers yesterday.

Thank you all for your prayers for Jon Christian. He told me that he just found out he can collect unemployment for an entire year once his severance pays stops because they sent his job overseas. No, he is not looking to do that instead of working, but he is not finding anything that is a good fit for him. He is toying with the idea of starting a website company at home. He has done some of this from time to time while working for the paper.

nore musings

I am pleased with the garden. My tomatoes are out of control as is the pumpkin patch. I love tomatoes but they are not ripening as fast as I would like. I know from experience that when they do, I will have more than I can possibly eat. My cucumbers have tons of flowers but no cucumbers; not to mention they are strangling my pepper plants. I still have no peppers other than the hot banana peppers. Despite the fact the pumpkin patch has sent out shoots through the fence into the neighbor's yard (yes, Will cut them back) there are still only 3 pumpkins

My "wild" tomatoes.

If you look close you can see the hot banana peppers. Yes, the fence has kept out the rabbits but it makes it nearly impossible for me to pull weeds.

I took this picture on Sat. evening. A lot more flowers are out now!
I am blessed by this little garden and how much time Matt spends every day checking it; it definitely pales next

to my DIL's! She definitely has a green thumb whereas mine is brown.

Best Day Yet?

We love Mondays......OK, Matt loves Mondays. Because he gets to come back to Gramma and Papa's house? No! Why you ask? Because Monday is garbage day. No matter where we are in the house, he can hear when it turns onto our street. We have to go outside and stand at the end of the driveway and wait for both the recycling and garbage trucks to pick up our stuff. The guys from the trucks always talk to him and he loves it. For his birthday he got a garbage truck and last week we took it down to show it off to the garbage guys. Today they blew the horn at him when they were across the street but it was not until they stopped at our house did this turn into Matt's best Monday yet. They told him to promise them he would never be a garbage man but a doctor or a lawyer. Then the unthinkable happened. They asked if he wanted to dump the garbage into the truck. They explained that they did not have as nice a truck as his garbage truck was but once they hooked our can onto the arm, they let him push the lever up to dump our garbage into the truck; and then pull it back down to lower the can to the ground. He told them, "I can not believe you are letting me doing this. This is way too cool! I really can not believe this! " What could possibly top that? Probably nothing but we did have to call both Papa and Mommy at work to tell them about his experience. There was no way this kind of news could have waited until 5pm!!!!

Saturday William took Uncle Roy and I to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I had gone to the one in Raleigh a few times when we down visiting Jon Christian and his family. It is no where near the size of the Raleigh store but I had a great time scrounging around. I got some mosaic tiles that were a perfect match for my kitchen and would have made a fantastic backsplash had there been more. I bought all they had . I got 8 sq. ft. for $4. I also got some new handles for the bathroom vanity. I had changed the faucets but not the vanity handles or the towel bars and TP holder. Well, they are all changed now. We also put a cornice over the hardware for the shower rod. (I dislike seeing them as much as curtain hardware)

Yesterday, after church, we went over to the Home to see Will's mom. She was sick last weekend so did not make it to Matt's party. She was doing much better yesterday. She was really quite chipper. We rode down in the elevator with her when she went down for dinner and everyone was talking to her and she was talking to everyone. I was surprised to see she has become "Ms. Congeniality"

So another weekend has gone by and we have not worked on the bulldozer bed we are making for Matt's room. For the second week in a row, he has decided not to sleep in the crib and opted for the couch instead for his nap.

This morning, Matt and Ali were watching Diego (Matt may have been a little more engrossed than Ali)

contradictions????

Lately we have been purchasing more at Aldi's than we ever did before. Eggs have been on managers special at our "neighborhood" Aldi's for the past few weeks. I use quite a few eggs in cooking and baking so I have been purchasing 2 dozen when I shop there. I found it refreshing that on the inside of the cover it said "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it". On the outside of the carton was a recipe for deviled eggs. Hmmmm
This week when I picked up the carton, there was recipe for Heavenly scrambled eggs. Maybe I was not the only one to have thought the other recipe strange. Or maybe it was just time for a change. Who knows.

Today we met Del and Nancy French at the Airport Inn. Will took them into the airport with their van and Matt and I drove the Explorer home. All the way home, Matt cried, "I don't want you to drive". "You don't know how to drive Gramma" "Papa should be driving this car, why do you keep doing this"??? He cried all the way from the airport to the exit at Jones Rd. When I drove into the driveway, he calmly asked "If you had to drive why didn't you take me somewhere instead of just coming home? I am beginning to think there is no winning with him.

We have had some nice sized red tomatoes from our garden. The green bean are coming and the cucumbers are flowering. The pumpkins, they are amazing. Bursting with yellow flowers and at the last check, we have 3 pumpkins, I am sure we will get more. I was planning to take some more pictures of the pumpkin patch but it has rained most of the time since we got back from the airport. My neighbor John gave me some cucumbers on Mon. from his garden. He has one cucumber plant and it giving him more cucumbers than they can eat on a daily basis. He planted cherry tomatoes which are doing nothing yet. Neither are his bell pepper plants or mine for that matter. The neighbor next door to John, whose pepper plants are probably 5 ft. away from John's, are flourishing. The peppers are huge. Maybe they used Jackie's secret :-)

Jason's wedding, Matt's party ; Matt and the doggie door

GF wedding cake
Double rainbow seen from the ship

Jason and Shelly
Papa and Matt
kids table at the party

I love this pix of Lauren!



Matt and Alice spent most of the morning going in and out the doggie door

Whirlwind weekend

Our whirlwind weekend is coming to close. We left on Friday morning to go to Burlington for the wedding. I did not sleep well during the night because my stomach was very upset. I figured I could sleep in the car. Susan called early in the morning to say that Tom was not going as he had a stomach bug (yes, the same; Matt had it on Tues and Wed.) I was OK and not feeling much worse until we got to Rutland. We stopped there for lunch at Ponderosa and I decided to just eat mashed potatoes, safe right??? no butter, no gravy, may settle my stomach, right? Wrong!!!!! Going through the gorgeous Green mountains, I began to feel worse, Wm. had to pull over and I never got better. Needless to say, William and Susan went to the wedding, I stayed at the hotel and tried to sleep. Continually getting up and down to run to the bathroom, made it difficult to sleep. So needless to say, I have no pictures of the wedding, or the cruise ship or anything. Susan took some good shots so just be patient and I will share.

Saturday morning we made our way back to NY through the rain. Five hours is long time in the car when you don't feel well. The light at the end of the tunnel.......three of the most beautiful granddaughters in the world were here waiting for me when I did get home. Woo hoo. We decided to go out for dinner and Alyssa (a real girly girl) said " I need to go to the hotel and slip into a dress before we go to dinner". (I loved it!!) We went to our favorite haunt (of course, Kirby's) I knew my stomach could not handle the barbecue so I got chicken and linguini with no sauce. Did choke down a few bites.

This morning was my sweet little Matthew's 3rd birthday. After having breakfast with Grampa and her family, Lael helped me get things ready to take to the party. I made some potato salad, veggie tray, with dip and a fruit salad. Alyssa went with Grampa to walk Alice to the playground. I am amazed at how the girls have grown and how Lael seems to be up for handling big tasks, like chopping eggs for the potato salad, or making the veggie dip. Because of Alyssa's allergies, we had to wash the counters, etc. in between the salads so we would not cross contaminate.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the party, Susan had Matt's cake made but she also made cupcakes for Alyssa and Uncle Roy with no eggs or milk and a small round one that was gluten free for her father and Stephanie. Loved having every one together, would have rather I felt better, but hey, I will gladly take what I can get. I realize how infrequently I get to see my other grandchildren anymore. I am blessed to have Matt every day but it comes at a price. What doesn't?

Ready, set, go.......

I am trying to get ready to go to Burlington, VT tomorrow morning. We are going up for Jason and Shelly's wedding. The wedding will be on a boat which will sail at 7pm sharp. It is a 5 hr. trip from here to VT and because of that we will staying over night and returning on Sat. morning.

Josh and Jackie are bringing the girls down on Sat. morning for Matthew's birthday. They are planning a trip to the zoo until we get home Sat. afternoon. We will all be together for dinner on Sat. night and then Sunday afternoon is the party. I am so very excited to have 4 of my 6 grandchildren together. Yes, I realize it would not be wisdom for Jon to come as long as he is still unemployed. I am praying that something will become available before his severance is up. Not just a job but one suited for him. He has worked for the paper for 10 or 11 yr. since they moved to NC. I don't understand the papers decision to cut out the entire ad department in 2 of their 3 offices. I am sure it must have something to do with people reading it on line and not subscribing to the paper.

Another project is finished. No, not the bed......maybe next weekend. Another bird house lamp. I love it. Both these lamps were the favorites in my birdhouse collection. There was just no place to put the birdhouse collection so making them into lamps was really a way to keep part of it and still get rid of my clutter. Yes, even things we love can be clutter if we really don't have room for it. I do so want to get the clutter outta here. The garage sale we had last month at Susan's made a huge dent in what we had.

A dog and her boy

When we bought our house 3 yr. ago, it had a doggie door . Zoe would never use it so we put the cover over it and then I put the bottom of my hutch over it (I use it for recycling). Yesterday, William decided to try to see if Ali would use it. At first she was hesitant, however, before the afternoon was out she had been in and out more times than I can count. This morning when Matt came, he discovered Alice was using the doggie door. I am sure you can guess what is coming next. Yep, Matt and Ali both came in the doggie door. "Wow, Gramma, it is so fun to pretend to be a dog".

You will never believe how Matt's pumpkin patch is growing. Actually, it is more like overtaking the back yard. It is way beyond the frame that Papa and Matt made for it.

It goes on beyond what you can see in the picture but that was as much as I could fit in the viewer. You can only see the corner of the frame in the upper left corner of the picture. Matt checks the progress every day. So far we have gotten some tomatoes from the garden, but we do see evidence the beans are coming. We have some hot banana peppers but those were not our intention for our garden. Maybe my DIL likes them, they are coming down this weekend for Matt's birthday. I can't wait. I miss my girls! They are planning to go to the zoo on Sat. while waiting for us to get home from Burlington

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Perks

One of the great things about my "job" is the perks. Well, first is the obvious that I get to spend all day with my grandson. Another is that Susan added extra lines for both Wm. and I on her phone contract. Well, the other day she told me that I could get a new phone for free under the contract. I really did not need a new phone per se but at the same time mine was not holding the charge like it used to. It came yesterday, here it is: Pretty fancy, eh? How do you like it? It is a camera phone like the other one, it is just purple. I am sure I know of two special little someones who will think it is great because it is purple!
Wm. was working at the church Sat. morning. When he gets home I have to get groceries, a gift card for the wedding and I would like to look for a dress to wear. My friend, Betsy got one to wear to a wedding last weekend at Dress Barn for 1/2 off. I will look anyway.

On Thursday, Matt wanted to have another restaurant. So he began gathering things for his restaurant while I got the food he wanted to serve. Now while it started out as a great idea, it ended with the "waiter" taking off his clothes with the exception of the apron and underpants and sitting down to eat the food himself: All righty then!

Update

Yesterday was my doctor's appt. for what I was sure was a sinus infection. It was and I am now taking my z-pack. I got the results back on my bone density scan and the bonivia has helped.

Today Matthew and I went with Uncle Roy to ToysRUs so Matthew could show us some of the things he wanted for his birthday. His first choice; well that would be a John Deere tractor with a canopy and dumping trailer. For only a mere $349.00 Yikes! He said "Please Gramma, it is really a fancy one". He had a shirt on today that said :If I am quiet, you had better come find me". You would not believe how many people came to us to ask if that was true. Uncle Roy took us to lunch at KFC/A&W Root Beer. Matt got a kids meal and we were very impressed how he sat right up and ate it. It has only been a little while that he has been actually eating chicken strips (nuggets, etc).

Speaking of Matt's birthday, it is Aug. 3rd. I can not tell you how happy I am that Josh, Jackie and the girls are coming down for Sat.& Sun. I miss the girls so much and to have 4 of my 6 grandchildren together is a real blessing. I don't think I have mentioned lately how glad I am to be a grandmother. I am not happy that Jon Christian, Donna, Morrigan and Max will not be coming. It was the plan that they would come for the week as we have Jason's wedding on Fri. night up in Burlington. Since having his job terminated, they did not feel it wise to plan a week long trip up from Raleigh. Please pray that he will find something else before his severance runs out.

Matthew wanted the theme for his party this year to be Scooby Do. I can not believe how much he likes that show. His cousin, Tyler, told him it was the best show ever and since then, it has been his favorite. I will interject here that I did not like it when his mother was a kid and I really have not changed my mind. Last week he told me that he could use a ham sandwich to calm his nerves. That took me aback, and it actually took me a while to realize he was quoting Shaggy from Scooby Do. (the biggest hint: he hates ham)

A thousand thoughts

OK, so maybe not a thousand thoughts but a lot of unconnected thoughts.
When we got Alice, she had had 11 puppies and needed to be spayed. Wm. took her to for a check-up a few days after we got her. I was supposed to call and make an appt. to have her spayed sometime in the next week. I didn't. You probably know where this is going......yep, she is in heat. We have never had a dog in heat before. Poor little girl is confined to the kitchen I really feel so bad for her and guilty. At the time, my reasoning for not calling was that Will would have to take her and I didn't know how busy he was and when the best time for an appt. would be. I know, pretty pathetic, right?

We put up a bigger pool for Matthew 'cause he wanted to "swim". He could not be happier, yesterday he spent the entire day with the exception of his nap and lunch (and the 20 min. we went across the street to my neighbor's garage sale) in the pool. I am glad he likes it so much but it was sooo hot and muggy, I just wanted to be inside in the air conditioning. (I am so thankful this house has central air; yes, I realize I may have mentioned that before)

We worked some more on our projects......OK, Wm. worked on the projects, I helped as much as I could, which was not a lot. Hey, I held it up so he could fasten it up and I hung the curtains once he was done. I could not be happier with the way this looks. Don't you love it? I never liked seeing the hardware for the curtains. It is the same as the window seat he built when we moved in. (Like you really needed me to tell you that!)

William put the new faucet on the bathroom vanity. It looks sooo much better than the gold ones that were here when we bought the house. Now while they were totally functional, who wants gold faucets??? Can we say ugly?

Now we still have more projects to work on, maybe next weekend. we can work on Matt's bed again. I think that maybe tomorrow after church,we will go to the Home and see my MIL. Tomorrow, Jen and Eric are having Eleora dedicated.

more ramblings

The pumpkins that Matthew and Papa planted are gradually taking over.




Hopefully this will mean a big pumpkin for Matt and toasted pumpkin seeds for us.




Our garden is coming along, but it pales in comparison to my DIL, Jackie's.

There are now peppers on the pepper plants.........however, what I thought were red peppers turned out to be hot banana peppers.......yikes, who would have thought. They are the only peppers we have yet.....wouldn't you know! Tomatoes are on each of the 6 plants, I can't wait, I love tomatoes.

From Matt.com:

Matt rode his tricycle while Papa and Alice walked along. Can you guess what he got? Yep a donut with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles. FYI, the bakery is at least 3 blocks away from our house and he rode there and back.



One last thing, I have been looking for new recipes I could make that were GF. I found 2 new ones we had the other day. They were great and you don't have to have celiacs to enjoy them. First, I took corn on the cob, melted butter (OK, buttery spread from LOL) and mixed in some brown sugar. Brush the butter mixture on the corn and wrap in aluminum foil and grill for 20 min. YUM! The other was apple pork kabobs This recipe came from gluten freeda.com. It has a combination of garlic and apple jelly and honey which you would not think of as a tasty choice.......but it was fabulous. So glad I tried it.....it is a keeper.

a few days of rest???

Well, let me begin at the beginning. I took Mon. and Tues off with Matthew and his other grandmother watched him so I could go to the dr. I knew the chances were slim of getting in on the same day you call thus the two days off. There was always the off chance that they would have an opening or cancelation and I could be seen on Mon. I have been bothered by what I thought was a sinus infection for the past 2 wk. I thought it might go away on it's own. OK, maybe I just hoped it would go away on it's own. Well, it didn't. I called the dr. office on Mon. morning and the first possible appt. with my dr. is Tues (of next week) Now I could have seen another dr. (which is probably what most people would have done) but I opted to wait. Hey, I waited this long, what is another week.

So I thought I could get some rest but that was not the case. Ali has been like a lost soul without Matt. This morning, I went back to bed after making Will's lunch. I got up an hour later to Ali having chewed Matt's new orange goggles to bits. (she is a chewer when she is bored) Guess that is the reason her last owners kept her caged most of the time.

Anyway, I cleaned clutter from the kitchen yesterday and then made cookies for Susan's family and Uncle Roy as well as a GF cake for Wm. Today I decluttered the office. YIKES what an ordeal that was. You can actually see the computer desk. Now I have always said that a clean desk was a sign of a sick mind. It was backbreaking work, but well worth it. The office looks good now.

Back to normal tomorrow!

musings

I am very thankful to have a "job" that allows me to stay at home, spend my day with a very special young man who keeps me on my toes. He has inherited the "mr clean gene" from his father and is constantly wanting to clean up something I am especially thankful for a wonderful husband who makes me feel very blessed to be his wife. He is a jack of all trades, a fantastic father to our 3 grown children and grandfather to the six most special grandchildren ever. He loves us and he loves the Lord. Tomorrow is our 34th anniversary. Yes, I am very blessed!

The rain is good for our little garden,



however, my sinuses and arthritis are flaring up because of it.


The hot muggy days this week have kept us out in the kiddie pool for a big majority of our day. We do come into the cool air conditioned temps inside for lunch and naps. It seems way too hot out there for Ali but she insists on being wherever Matt is.

Right now we have no big plans to celebrate our anniversary......we'll see what happens. We thought about going to Cooperstown for the day but all our projects from last week are still waiting to be completed.

Happy Anniversary, my sweet William and thank you for 34 wonderful years. I love you!

update

It certainly was a gorgeous weekend. Friday found Wm. and his brothers moving his mother back to the" Home" at her request. She was not happy spending so much time alone while at the same time wanting Linda and Jim to continue living their lives as they had before she moved in with them. Friday afternoon we drew up plans for the bulldozer bed we are making for Matt (for our house) Some of you will remember that we made a castle bed for Morrigan. Poor Wm. has to change my drawing of what I want it to look like to some plans so he can build it.

We (OK, Wm) got as far as cutting it out. In between this project, we did a few other projects that have bothered me since moving in. Wm. and Uncle Roy got the cornice done for over the window in the LR. This mimics the window seat, ie, white beadboard. (have I mentioned lately how much I love cottage design???) Just needs to be painted and put up.

I did a lot of touch up painting this weekend and we put up a chicken wire fence around our little garden as our backyard neighbor, John, (who shared with us from his garden last year) had rabbits eat all of his beans. We saw evidence of them starting on ours.

I dumped the kiddie pool, cleaned and refilled it. Good thing too as we have been in it a lot today and no, not me, Matthew. He hates to get water in his eyes. I got a pair of goggles at the $ store in orange which is his favorite color.

When he was not in the pool, he has been playing with his matchbox cars in the shade of the front porch. Matt put Ali inside(she didn't mind at all sleeping inside in the air while we sweltered in the heat outside) She likes to take his cars and that gets him very upset. He has quite a few matchbox cars but it was just in the last month he has been really playing with them for any length of time.

Now if I just had a couple of more 3 day weekends, maybe I could get the rest of my projects finished.

Welcome to Matt's Restaurant

Welcome to Matt's Restaurant. May I take your order?

Today's menu consists of Pepperidge Farm goldfish, 100% natural fruit snacks, gingerale "tea" and make believe coffee. Notice the beverage table with the coffee maker and teapot.

This entire "restaurant" was his idea, right down to the apron and the towel for his arm. He put Alice on the front porch because "dogs are not allowed in restaurants, Gramma".

I love his imagination!

Matthew's quote of the day

Susan bought Matthew some lunchables for his lunch this week. We tried the mini hot dogs. Included in the box was a fun size butterfingers and juice. I gave him some goldfish crackers; put the hot dogs on toothpicks instead of the rolls provided and took out the candy bar. He ate the goldfish crackers, drank the juice, but didn't touch the hot dogs and then asked me for the candy. I told him he had to eat all the hot dogs before he could have the candy. "I tried", he said "I took a bite, Gramma, but when it was in my mouth, it felt like something I was not supposed to be eating"!

update

The garden in front is filling in nicely; guess the hot, humid weather is good for something. The vegetable garden is really growing too. Yesterday we were out there looking at it when Matt said "hmmmm, that's strange" What I asked. "Someone has planted a hill of cucumbers in my pumpkin patch, strange, very strange". How do you know they are cucumbers? I asked. "Oh gramma". he said, like I was the most stupid woman on the face of the earth, "see the hill of cucumbers over there in the other garden, next to the pepper plants, well they are cucumbers and this hill has the same plants growing in it......they are more cucumbers" "That is very strange".
Today we saw some birds using the new bird bath. We have a family of cardinals, blue jays and a ton of sparrows.

I got the last shot in the series this morning. Hopefully, I am good for another 9 mo. now.

"Gramma, come quick and look at this crazy dawg". She can be crazy alright.



Matt had another growth spurt. He has grown 2 1/2 inches..
Lastly, I finally got the window seat recovered. I had cranberry corduroy on it but it showed every dog hair. Last week I found this material which matched the couch at JoAnn's for $12 a yard, marked down to $6. When I got to the checkout, it rang up $3 a yard. Oh, I do love a bargain!