Back Breaking Catch Up

 Yeah yeah I know.  everyone and their dog has posted a pic of the Northern lights from last night! 

Here's mine.  But how many included their thumbs? huh?!

Or the same sky the next morning at 5:30am!?

Is the phrase, "Red sky at night, Sailor's delight" or some such thing?

The sailors in land locked Iowa are thrilled, I'm sure!

I dog sat for Maddy and Matthew almost two weeks ago now overnight.  My grandpups are so cute.  I failed to get a pic of them tho. shoot.

Leon's school concert was this Monday and about half of our little family came to see him eak out the tunes with the rest of the band.  I'm looking forward to the Christmas concert, but I'm suddenly thinking that this might be the only one this fall.  hmm  I'll have to check the calendar.

Leon is doing Mock Trial and is a witness for his team.  Three days a week, he goes to school an hour earlier than usual and it takes our whole family to get him out the door and arrive to school on time.  But it's a process and he just announced yesterday that he wants to try out for the school musical! COOL!  I don't know when they practice but I hope it's after school because this morning thing bites.

He wants to be an Oompa Loompa. And no, it's not Willy Wonka for the production.

Ryan and Jen attended a wedding this past weekend, so it was just the littles and me for Friday night and Saturday, with Meri and Josh coming over to be the voices of reason while I headed off to enjoy an ABBA tribute band with Maddy and Matthew.  I came back the next morning just in time for Sunday school at church.

What a FUN concert!  I stuck ABBA on my spotify and sang along on the whole drive home.

     Maddy used to listen to my CD of ABBA's greatest hits and sang Man After Midnight around the house until Robb told her to hold off on singing that as it wasn't appropriate for a 7 year old.

To complete our familial love for ABBA, when Meri took voice lessons when she was 7 or 8, she selected Money Money Money for her voice recital. LOL!  At least she just looking for a rich husband and not a booty call.

I was watching Dead Like Me the other day, as my latest re-binge watch and this popped up on the screen!  I do so love me some closed captions!  If it's not there, I just can't hear them.

Anyway, that's my BIL's name, so I sent it to my sister. LOL!

And I had to snap a pic of this to share with my bestie, Ada.  She owns the entire collection of North and South on DVD and we watch it together every couple years.  40 years tho!  Wow.

Yep - I'm old.  And that's ok!  I also loved me some young Patrick Swayze! Orry!

Oh, if you say Agg instead of Aggs or Aggie or Agnes, she'll correct you.

I said, Come on, Agg and she calls out, Aggs!!

Or if I say Aggie and she's being contrary, then she'll call/yell out No, Agnes! or vice versa.

A while back, I shared a pic of myself from high school  Well, here is Leon from a couple years ago and myself. Yep, we're twins.  A friend put this together for me.  His hair length is more my length plus these days.  Not sure if he's doing it for Lock of Love or just afraid of scissors.

I'm still working on Italian in the wee hours of the mornings and within 5 units of reaching Section 3. Whew!  It is funny how it's getting somewhat easier as time goes by.  However I haven't watched any Italian shows recently.  I need to do that.  It'll give me a sense of "I don't know what I'm doing" again.  Life's been a total rush lately.

For example, Leon and I are going with his Scout troupe this weekend to camp in a cave!  And then I'm attending a painting class with Maddy and Matthew.  I should have some doozy pics for you by next week!

Whew again.  I hope my back can take it all.

Good Moods!

 Buongiorno!
Am I still pushing forward on my Italian studies?

Si.

I do about an hour every morning on Duolingo (I'm not doing a commercial, it is what it is) and am most of the way through section 2. There are about 30 units within each section I don't know how many sections there are but DO know that there are tons of words that I don't know yet, as I find out when deliberately streaming shows with Italian audio and subtitles.

I have another app that I can speak into it what they said and get the English equivalent.  I COULD use google for it, but eh.  This applicazione is pretty cool.

Questo applicazione e molto bello.  *I'm probably not using the right endings on the words.*

And I've discovered, that much like English, each word can mean something totally different if you change the context or just think it differently. Perche, for example, can be "because, why or for".

Confusing much?

The show, LOL Chi Ride e Fuori, throws it and many other speedily spoken words all around and it's hard to keep up.  The pause button and the app are my friends these days and one 30 minute show can last up to 3 hours, broken up over the course of as many days.

Anyway, it's been an education and as based on my transcripts from high school and college, will probably level out to a B grade fluency after a few years.  And will never come in handy, much like Trigonometry, unless I keep streaming the shows in Italian.  and I'm sort of getting hooked on them, so that's ok.

I've got Duolingo until next October so I'm going to put it through the paces!

Communque...  (anyway)  Update on the kitchen cabinet.

I was straightening up the kitchen yesterday and stumbled on one chunk of wood that didn't get taken to my retired co-worker who is fixing the door.

I sent him this pic with a message, in case he hadn't started yet.

bummer - he had.  BUT he is nothing if not creative and had already started working on a solution!

So it's happening!!

I better do his wife's pant hems...

My nephew from Chicago, had business in a town nearby and had let me know some weeks ago when he found out.  As luck would have it, his visit landed on our weekly taco night with Meri, Josh and my household!  

After supper, we played a rousing game of Ticket to Ride!!  It was a lot of fun even with Aggie trying to build her own little train track with my trains and accidentally knocking them and other stolen cards onto the floor.

Needless to say, I did NOT win, but she wasn't the cause of it. I misunderstood a rule and accidentally kept a card to build a track from LA to NYC.  sigh.  I was only 5 trains from doing it but then my nephew ran out of trains and I didn't get a chance to do it.  Oh well.  I beat him!  The bonus of longest railroad did that for me! whew!

Meri floored us all with twice as many points as anyone.  I don't know exactly how she did it, but she's played it more.

Anyway, back to work so I can get over this hump day!  I've got some Christmas music playing from the google home in Leon's bathroom and that is putting me in a good mood.  It's nice to just yell in there, "HEY GOOGLE! PLAY SOME CHRISTMAS MUSIC!" and it knows exactly the spotifys to play!  Again, not a commercial.

Hoping something puts YOU in a good mood today!

Halloween Traditions and randomness

Friday night was Aggie and Jen's daycare Halloween open house.  She got to paint a pumpkin, play some ring toss and lots of fun stuff.  The tattoos on her arms are still there even after a few baths.

I think she was protecting them.

Oh!!!  and she doesn't just call me Gah anymore!!!  I've graduated to Gah-ma!

Last night, while making her and Leon grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, she practiced by chanting, "Gah-ma Gah-ma Gah-ma Gah-ma"

WHAT?!  

*gah-ma gah-ma gah-ma*

I guess she's just practicing... to drive us crazy.

On Saturday evening, the kids, grands and I went to Living History Farms in Des Moines!

Meri got her obligatory pic with the Taylor tombstone there.

Aggie got candy.

And lots of photo ops to go around!

We haven't been here in years and in the past, they had volunteers sitting outside each of the little buildings in this museum of a town.  I'd always thought it would be cool to open the buildings up and let people see what's inside, like they do on school field trips.  Well, this year they did!

We got a lesson on how to use a printing press, another on how to make a watery tonic of some sort at the pharmacy and a quick class from the blacksmith as he pounded out a red hot piece of steel.

The story tellers were awesome and one of them, in particular, had been there for 30 years.  The kids and I recognized her voice, which was loud and clear.  She told one about a ghost that tugs on your thumb nail.  In the past, she'd told the memorable ones about the purple egg, the nonguama and the tailypo.  Those stories had stuck in the kids memories ever since and probably gave them nightmares, but they/we loved them!  There was no kettle corn to munch on this time, but that's ok.

We rounded out the evening with dinner at Perkins.  Their pies looked delish and some of the kids had some.  I enjoyed them from afar.

I got the rest of the Halloween decor put up Sunday, or was it Saturday?  Eh - over the weekend.  I had quite a little list of to dos this weekend and only skipped a few.

but the web turned out pretty cool!  And there's a ghostly thing on the porch and a very large spider in the lilacs under the pergola.

Someone closed a cabinet door a LITTLE too hard Sunday evening and it fell apart in pieces, some splintered.  This is the remaining cabinet door.

So yesterday, I called an old retired co-worker of ours that lives nearby and fixed another cabinet that had broken many years ago.  He has glue and clamps. :) and knowledge.

He agreed to fix it for me in return that I hem a couple pairs of his wife's pants. No problemo!

A little bartering never hurt anyone!

*I hope I don't screw up the pants!*

I found this photo over the weekend of the girls in my small church school.  I was the only senior that year.  All the other girls were in various lower grades with one of my sisters to the far right.  I showed it to Leon to see if he could tell which girl I was. 

Believe it or not, he currently looks almost identical to me!

Now.  Which one am I?

I had told him prior that when I was a little girl and couldn't take care of my hair, my mom had us get pixie short hair cuts, so he assumed that in high school, I still couldn't manage my hair...

um yes I could.  The pixie only happened a few times and I was REALLY little then.

In this photo, my hair was down to the lower/middle of my back.

I'm the one with long hair, 3rd from the right.

Anyway, back to work!  Have a beautiful day and SPOOKY week!!!

Attempts to thrive on neglect

 We had our first frost of the fall a few nights ago so all the outdoor plants had to come in.

They sat around the entryway until I finally had time to find their winter spots in the house.

I've got the stackable plant where the aloe plants are going nuts in my office.  I am making a note to break off the fronds and use the aloe more.  Papercut? I got you!

I saw a video where someone had a huge fern plant that they bring in every winter.  I love having fern plants hang on the front porch and in prior years, I try to keep them alive in my bathroom during the winter but they tend to die.  Probably because I forget to water them...  

But NOT this winter!!!  At least I hope not.

I've got a spider plant from Robb's funeral, in the bathroom too and that one seems to thrive on neglect.  I finally set it next to the window and pulled up the shades enough to get a little light, yet give me some privacy.  All the leaves are leaning under the shade now, like "help me...!" 

BUT it's finally looking alive, a lot less brown tips and even shooting off some little baby spider plants, which it's never done before!  

I filled a 5 gallon bucket in my bathtub and put in a few teaspoons of some granular plant food and gave it a stir.  Then shoved each of the ferns in and let it soak in all the way for a few minutes.  So hopefully if I do that once every week, (one week with plant food, the next week just water) that they make it to next spring!  

Crossing my fingers!

The other plants in my hall are either from Robb's funeral or some clippings of plants or trees that I want to grow outside if they live.

2nd attempt on growing a magnolia tree with clippings from Maddy's tree.

On the piano, I've got 3 peace lilies. I had to repot the top one last year.  It's from my mom's funeral 6 years ago and I was able to salvage the only teeny living bit.  it seems to be doing ok.  Hopefully it will grow back as good as the other two peace lilies from Robb's funeral 5 years ago.

I didn't get a pic of the banana tree but I have that near the entryway.  Not sure it'll get any sun there though.  Usually it's set near a window in the Livingroom but Aggie's Barbie house and toys are there right now.  We'll see.

I hear that the trick to keep all these things alive is to water them... 

Yeah, we'll see.

Halloweening All Over The Place!

I went to an Art exhibition with Maddy last week!  She had a couple free tickets and it was awesome!

So many beautiful pieces all over this place and everyone dressed to the nines.  A silent auction that I was outbid immediately on but Maddy held in there until we left.  Still don't know if she won any of them.

And I got to see the actual puppets used during the Sound of Music movie!  The puppeteer lived in town and lots of his puppets were on display.

Got back on time Saturday for a sewing meeting with ASG.  I got inspired to organize my office/sewing room and after 6 days of organization, it's back to a bit of clutter here or there.

Aggie MAY have been in here investigating new buttons I put in her button boxes.

On Sunday, my entire clan headed up to Maddy and Matthew's for lunch, then we visited the Halloween train and trick or treating around the park.  

Just me and my girls!

Meri and Josh

Aggie did great for the photo until she turned around and saw the ghostly blow up thing.

Then she freaked.

Aggie got lots of fun stuff and now knows how to beg for candy.

She practiced on me again this morning.

Trick or Treat Gah!

No candy here!

After trick or treating, we played blind hide and seek on the playground equipment.

Trust Maddy to find a musical instrument!

And Meri and Josh were supposed to be blind folded, but I guess they deemed that a safety concern and were using their eyes. Cheaters!

After most left, Leon and I stayed around so he could sell some Scout stuff in town. He got several sales and is looking forward to hitting some other nearer towns on Saturday with me.

Anyway, great weekend!  And I'm geared up for the next one!  

Got some more Halloweeny stuff lined up!

BOO!

Toddler's Day Out With Gaa

 I took a day off and spent it with Aggie!

We started off visiting great grandma, my mother-in-law, and she gave us a tour of her nursing facility.  There are fun toys there and lots of space to run around, skip around, jump around.  And Aggie threw a plastic ax.  Stay out of her way!

After G-Grandma's, Aggie and I went to an indoor playland across town.  Since it was no school for that area of town, the place was hopping.  Aggie was a bit apprehensive to go down the big bouncy slide and only tried a few steps before chickening out and coming back to me.

She found one more her speed.

Her cute dress was impeding her efforts to climb the stairs inside a huge plastic tree, so we went and changed.  By that time, it was Bubble time and that made her a bit more brave to try things she hadn't yet.

She got about 6 steps up the bouncy slide before chickening out.

We're making progress!

She finally got brave enough to climb all the way up the huge plastic tree, of which I don't have a good pic.  Then she climbed across hanging rope tunnels.

I was so proud of how brave she was getting!

She finally found where the huge solid slides were and I JUST got to the bottom of them when she came hurdling down, bonking her head in the process... 

Poor thing!

She did NOT go down that a second time!  but cried for a while and went back to the bubbles for more strength.

She was still too bashful to go down the bouncy slide again, so I climbed up those hurtful little steps (at my weight, they truly hurt! I had to put my feet sideways to climb up them) and I went down it 3 times with her on my lap and two kids immediately behind us, who insisted on going down it so they could use me as a cushion at the bottom.

After 3 times, I said that if she wanted to go down again, she could do it herself and she did!

Notice her in front of a bunch of very patient kids who waited for her to climb it all by herself!

And those same kids went down immediately after her as she flew down the slides! Aggie went several more times enjoying it all immensely.

The lines for food there were really long and I was doubtful she'd even like the $10 chicken nuggets, so she and I said our goodbyes to a fun time and headed to Burger King nearby.

She initially said NO to a crown, but then while we were waiting for our food, she saw a family with lots of kids come in and all the kids grabbed a crown. "Gaa - hat!" You BET kid!  I got one too.

They had a kids playland at this BK and she refused to go climb in it.

ENOUGH ALREADY GAA!

She was only in it for the burger anyway.

Dreaming of Cruises

 Aeiiieee!!!!!

The plans are in motion for the Mediterranean cruise!!!  The text came last night just before I fell asleep and yikes!  I was awake for the next 2 hours even though my alarm was set for 4:30am.

Yeah - barely 5 hours of sleep!  It wasn't the texting as that only lasted 10 minutes or so.  It was the excitement and then worry about "Who will get the boy off to school?" "Who will be Meri's verbal alarm clock?"  I know all these things will get worked out.  Meri is working harder at obeying her physical alarm clock and I'm sure she'll adjust to it soon.

I've got 4-5 months.  It's going to be ok!  But did my mind know that at 11pm?  nah.

Whew!  Barcelona, France, Italy.  So looking forward to it!  And it'll be somewhat cold.  I'll be doing my research for what to pack in the coming months.

AEIIEEE!