Just some mid-week story(ies) time

Last year, you may recall, I bought some knock out roses on a clearance sale.  The guy at the garden center told me to water the heck out of them and they would be ok.  Not only were they ok, they also came back all beautiful this spring, had roses all over them and then promptly - died.  Leaves fell off, roses fell off, looked like thorn covered sticks.  I was devastated.  BUT I told Jim the sticks were green, so I decided to continue to water them.  I also got some miracle grow from Mallory, and continued to feed them rose food as well.  And slowly, the leaves are starting to come back.  All three of them appear to be alive, and are now regrowing leaves!  I do not know what happened, but I almost think maybe they got hit with some sort of spray?  Anyway, as I was leaving for work this morning, I noticed I have a rose again!  I had to back up the car and take a picture!  I was so happy to see my little roses making a comeback.  I hope this time will be better for them!  Side note - Jim hooked me up a little spray rig - that sits in the back of his truck and allows me to not have to haul buckets and bottles of water!  It has made my life a lot easier, and my flowers at the end of the driveway are looking very pretty as a result!  End of the driveway is the only place I can grow flowers in the ground - because owning goats and growing flowers are mutually exclusive!

There is a pile of rocks in our back yard, I assume from when they dug the basement of our house.  Big rocks, in a pretty large pile.  A couple of years ago, I brought home a load of feral cats.  They sort of scattered, and I would only catch glimpses of them down by the barn or out in the yard.  One of them was a mostly white cat who for whatever reason, decided to live in the rock pile.  So I named her Rocky.  Last year, Rocky (who I thought was a boy) had 1 kitten.  The kitten was adorable and looked almost identical to Rocky, so I named her Adreinne (spelled the way my friend spells it- sort of named after her, sort of because that is the name that goes with Rocky).  Rocky comes up to the door every single night when I bring the dogs in, and I feed her something - leftovers, a little cat food, or even some stuff I have warmed up when it was really cold outside.  When I take it out, she hisses at me and hangs out under the car - we have a love/hate relationship.  But I am sort of weird, and feeding her at bedtime has become a thing.  This summer, she had 1 kitten.  she is a gray little fluffball who I have been calling Adreen - because that is the way Siri pronounces it when my friend Adreinne calls me.  Adreen hides in the bushes until I put the food out, and go back inside, and then she comes up to eat with her mom.  I have been watching the kitten and am always happy to have some feral cats around - they keep mice at bay.  Last night, and the night before, Rocky has not been at the door.  I have still put her food out, and Adreen has been coming up to eat, but no Rocky.  She still stays far away in the bushes.  But this morning, she was screaming and carrying on until I fed her.  Totally unusual as I never feed them in the morning - I put out water and dog food and they are welcome to it, but the "special cat feeding" is generally only at night..  I am fearful that maybe something got Rocky.  I really hope she is ok, but it isn't looking good. 

The girls coming over to swim and eat popsicles is my favorite thing in the summer.  I have to keep my popsicle stash up - which is harder with Poppy being retired.  The only person who eats more popsicles than the girls - is Poppy!  At least it is cheap right?  

Evelyn gets in the pool and never wants to quit swimming.  

Last week, Wren decided she could swim without us holding on to her!  She was everywhere!  Both of them know they can't even step foot on the pool deck without a life jacket, and it makes me happy that they like wearing them and swimming!  This pool season has been a little bit rough.  I had a day where I ran the pool vac and it must have had some algae growing in it - I had a terrible outbreak of green water.  I got it back to blue, but I had to use this stuff called green to blue.  It kills the algae and then you have to vacuum it out.  I did that and it was better, but then Preston and his friends had a little pool party and tracked in a lot of debris.  The water has not been clear for days.  It doesn't stop us from swimming, but I am starting to think I need to replace the sand in the filter.  The chlorine readings are fine, so I assume nothing is living in the cloudy water!  My vices - I love bagged (store bought) ice, and my pool.  One is significantly less expensive!  I know a pool is not a necessity.  I know that the amount of work it is sometimes sucks hours out of my day, and money out of my account.  BUT having a place for the  grandkids to hang out when they come over, having a place that my kids can relax and hang out, having a place where I actually enjoy exercise, having a place where I can kick back and float and think, or cool off with Jim after we work on the yard -  it just worth the work and the money in my opinion.  

You know who loves the sun, and is always cold in the a/c, and never needs to cool off in the pool?  This little dog - we keep finding him wrapped up in Harper's bed!  

I am starting to notice the days getting shorter.  The sun rises now as I am talking to Grace at 6:00 am, rather than being up already.  I am not even wanting to discuss the fact that the school sent out enrollment information yesterday, and I averted my eyes when I stopped at Dollar General and they have a school supply section going up.  Time needs to slow down!  We did talk to Colin and Spencer and got some ideas of what we are doing/staying/times for wedding events.  I am so excited about their wedding.  I am really looking forward to that weekend!  Last night, Jim and I ran to KC to deliver a title that Preston needs to Cameron - as Cameron and Colin are headed to Tulsa this weekend to spend time with Preston.  I enjoyed having dinner with Cameron and running errands with him and Jim.  I am just enjoying summer and never want to see it end!

 

Party's over - back to reality

Whew!!  This was one heck of a weekend.  We had a birthday party, a 4th of July bbq party with our kids, Preston had a friend party, and we attended a retirement party for Jim’s brother.  We did fireworks, attended a city parade, and nice fireworks show. We put away hay, trimmed trees, cleaned house, did laundry and worked on the garden.  We ate too much food, swam, and apparently adopted a kitten. 

When Preston left this evening to head back to Tulsa, I had to take a picture of him finally getting to drive his new car. He seemed pretty happy with it, and I pray that it will run smoothly, and keep him safe!  

I feel like this entire weekend is one we looked forward to, planned, and talked about for weeks and now it’s just over. I feel a little sad that the kids who came home all went back to their respective lives and it is all quiet again.  Madison started planning Wrenley’s birthday months ago.  She put a lot of thought into it.  We know Wrenley was excited, but I think Madison might have been more excited!   It was  a nice day, and I am thankful for the chance to see my kids.  

I am so proud of my kids, but we hadn’t seen Preston since Easter and I was happy that he and Sunny were able to hang out with us.  He is doing great things, and will be back at KSU in just 5 short weeks.  

We are the sacristans at church this month.  I got a little confused on days and accidentally cleaned the church on Friday rather than Saturday.  I asked my aunt Karen if she could adjust the a/c when she went in to take the church flowers.  She agreed and I appreciated not making another tip over. After mass, I stopped outside  to thank her.   As I was talking to her, these kids came to tell her there was a “one eyed cat” hiding in the flower bed.  Their mother said 'no way no how' were they taking home a kitty. So I asked them to show me.  There was a small, half starved, very dirty, extremely scared, gross looking kitten!  My heart can’t take that.  I hate to see anything struggle or suffer. I told the kids I would take the cat to my house, treat its eye and find him a home.  The mom seems relieved.  Saige is elated.  She has claimed the cat and asked if he can live with us forever.  I told her we would need to 

A- ask dad 

B- do better with the cat litter chores and

C -not get too attached because I planned to see if I could get it well, as it definitely was not healthy. 

Saige had other plans. She marched directly to her (softhearted) father and asked him if she could keep the cat.  Softhearted father said he didn’t care. I reminded her that the cat needs to have an eye infection cleared, needs a refeeding regimen, we don’t know for sure if he will be ok! Saige declared that she would go help Harper with all the chores, and that while she was gone I could just cure her new cat. You know, with my magic wand.  I appreciate her faith in my vet skills I guess.  I gave the cat a bath, cleaned his ears and eyes, added in some eye drops and made him some egg milk.  I knew he was thirsty because he was trying to drink the bath water.  He gobbled down the egg milk.  He hissed and spit at me the entire time I was trying to help him. Saige came back in , picked him up and he snuggled right into her lap and fell asleep.  She is now calling herself his mommy and has only put him down to put him in the litter box!  We named him Father Jo Junior - or Jo for short.  I did text Father Jo and he thought it was awesome.  I don’t really think we need a 4th cat inside the house, but if he continues to use the litter box and if Saige has any say at all, I fear we may have a 4th house cat.  

His eye does seem much better, he loves Quincy and Harper as well, and Maude wants to lick and lick him.  I am severely outnumbered here.  

A few other things - because I like to make random posts at the end of long weekends.  Uncle Colin gave Wrenley a giant rooster floaty for the pool.  She was so excited about it!  I think it is hilarious.  We swam a few times over the weekend, but haven't put the giant rooster in the pool yet, as we had a lot of people and that thing takes up a lot of space!  Hopefully this week we can try it out!

Ignore the hose, I was watering the plants and sprayed off the bird seed.  Jim surprised me with a fire pit table for my patio.  Who has the coolest patio oasis AND the coolest husband?  ME!  I love the way this space has turned out.  I need to go buy a tank of propane and we will be in business....Oh and I might need it to cool down a few degrees - but this fall we are totally sitting out there beside the fire, having a glass of some sort of amazing drink, and relaxing!  I do sit out there for a few minutes in the mornings usually and watch the sun come up - enjoy my plants and give the fish some breakfast.  I am happy that we are finally utilizing the space.  Sometimes it takes us a while to get all moved in I guess!  

Preston put the table together for me.  I love this thing!  When Jim retired, Mayor Jon came to my office to ask what Jim might like as a gift from the city.  I was so tempted to tell him that Jim wanted a fire pit table - but I didn't because that would not have been very nice.  :)  I told Jon at the party that I was tempted to lie to him and tell him that Jim wanted this table so much!  Jim heard the story and laughed, happy that he got a bunch of fishing equipment rather than a table he didn't really want or need.  But he tucked the knowledge in his mind, and then made it happen.  Happy wife, happy life right?  

Something we also purchased recently was a bigger filtration system for the turtles.  That meant that I could use their old filter for the hot tub/patio fish retreat.  The tank is so much cleaner now!  It is nice to feed the fish and actually be able to see them!  Andrew and Jim's crawdads are still alive in there as well, although they hide in the rocks and I don't really see them when I hang out in the mornings!  I do drop some dried shrimp and some of my worms in there for them.  I guess a girl needs a few projects to put her energy into when the kids start leaving home.  

 

Party day

The girls and Clayton shot off the remaining fireworks.  When my girls got tired of fireworks, I had to step in and motivate them. We don’t want to store them for a year, have no use for them after today, and just wanted to use them up.  

My forever 4th of July party partner.  I couldn’t ask for a better man to do life with.  

Preston finally got to drive his new car.  They had to test out the convertible top.  

Uncle Cameron spent his entire day smoking ribs.  They were absolutely amazing.  

We had a birthday party for Wrenley today, followed by a bbq night with most of our kids.  Followed by finishing off the fireworks so we don’t have to store them until next year. Followed by Preston’s friends being here visiting and us crashing out in the living room staring at the wall from the absolute exhaustion of an amazing day. 

I told Jim I wanted to get all the kids to wear the shirts we made and we would call it “red, white and 2”.  We tried.  Spencer was sick today (we missed you Spencer!) and there has never, never been a photo where we all look good at the same time.  It is an impossibility.  These make me laugh, and I love them though.  

I was super glad that Colin could come for a while.  And I was also glad that Sunny and Preston could come up today.  I miss my kids all being home.  Days with them all in the house make me happy.  

The actual theme of the party was Toy Story- 2 infinity and beyond.  Wrenley looked adorable in her Jessie costume and she seemed like she was having the best day.  Madison and Andrew did a great job planning the party, the details and the food. 

This child - I absolutely adore her.  She is everything I think you should be!  Love you little birthday girl! 

 

Da 4th

The 4th is, was and will always be one of my favorite holidays.  Not for the reasons you should probably celebrate.  Sure America.  Sure independence. Sure freedom. 

But let me be for real for a minute - what the heck is better than being expected to play with fire and explosives?   Eating hotdogs?   Having ice cream?  City parties? Sitting by the pool?  Nothing that can think of!  

First the shirts.  They actually turned out!   Now I must confess - I chickened out of machine washing them. So for now, they have been rinsed really well until no more dye could be seen, and then they were soaked in a color fixative.  And line dried.  When we actually wash them?  Who knows?   But for today, Hope is happy, the shirts turned out cool and I have plans for tomorrow since all the kids will be here with matching shirts!   Seriously- I am fascinated by how they all turned out so differently and how each one is super cool.  

Earlier in the week, Cameron told me he didn’t really have plans for today.  Since we were cleaning and doing yard work for Wrenley’s birthday party, I told him to come on down, go to the city stuff with us, and then he could help us with yard work.  I figured he would tell me to stick it.  But he didn’t. He came on down.  I am soo thankful that he did too- because Brandon showed up with the hay I ordered - hay that am hoping will hold us through most of the winter. Jim and Cameron busted their tails to get it put away.  The girls and I helped, but they are more able to sling bales around.  When we finished, we helped Jim trim some trees and drag the branches.  The goats were happy with their leaf snacks! 

The City puts on such a nice day for the 4th.  They had - bike parade, free lunch, with ice cream floats, a foam party, fire truck spray off, the pool was open for free swimming, they had horse drawn carriage rides and barrel train rides.  In the evening  they had a free concert in the park, food trucks, kayak races, free watermelon, and of course a fireworks show.  I love small town traditions. 

Cameron and Mallory both came and helped us do some stuff around the house and yard and celebrate the 4th.  Wouldn’t be any fun if you didn’t have contraband fireworks and Casey’s pizza right? 

Which is why we had to take Preston’s new car to town - with the top down- and more pictures taunting Preston with the fact that everyone is driving his car except for him!    He seemed unbothered by it, only saying that he misses us all and can’t wait to see us this weekend!  I miss him too, but was hoping for a funnier reaction.  

We forced the girls to come out of their lairs and watch fireworks with us.  I know they don’t like going in public, or being seen with their parents, but I think they were secretly happy I made them go!   I know there are a lot of problems in our country right now.  But I also know that Americans are truly terrible at being governed, and I think, with that in mind I can safely say happy birthday America.