I hate to see it end

Since I was gone last weekend, I got a little behind on my list.  I was so relieved when the weekend got here and we had nothing planned.   I had supreme help.  The list will literally never end, but I’m happy to say the bathroom project is 100% complete now.  I even managed to tear out the old caulking and re-caulk the tub, Preston hung towel bars, the trim got stained, paint job got touched up, and shower curtain liner got hung.  I’m pleased with the results and I pray I never have to re-do it in my lifetime.  The flooring and trim I mean, not necessarily the decor.   I have some more projects in mind, but I haven’t broken the news to Jim yet.  Our next projects need to be outside stuff, as it is getting close to time to find 4-H goats, expand the pony pen and explore ideas we have regarding building a rabbit colony.   I also have the idea that we should plant a large garden.  Last fall, I swore that I would take the money I spend on garden plants, put it in savings, and just use it at the farmer’s markets to buy the stuff I want to can, rather than failing in my garden ambitions again.  Jim is actually acting excited about gardening this year, so maybe with his help, I won’t fail as miserably!   Who knows. 

I am still enjoying feeding the birds on our back deck.  I have noticed we have a few regulars - one fat bird whose breed I don’t know, but he is a glutton and is unmistakable in his daily stuffing  his face!   There are a few blue jays and a cardinal pair who seem to be here daily.  Today, we had this beautiful red headed woodpecker.  Preston thinks it is unwise to feed a woodpecker on a wooden deck.  Preston is probably right, however I figure if he is busy eating grain, maybe he won’t be pecking my deck boards!   I hope so anyway. 

Anyway, we accomplished a lot, and when I am being productive, I hate to stop.  I am sure I’m not alone in my Sunday night sadness.   I did enjoy seeing the adult girls for Sunday dinner, and was happy when Cameron texted me to say he was back on the ground in Louisiana after spending the last few days in Wisconsin (yes, I did ask him if he was crazy going north this time of the year!).  I also know that this weekend was Colin and Spencer’s 5 year anniversary.  I have not talked to them to see how they celebrated.  However they did it, I hope it was a nice day for them.  

One more load of laundry to go, and then I guess we switch to Monday gear.  Thankful for the time I was given, happy to have accomplished some things, and blessed to be healthy enough to get the next week started.   

Circus time

It’s circus time in Topeka.  I remember going when I was a kid for my sister’s birthday.  I was fascinated….the circus is basically a freak show right?  I mean who decides to swing from the rafters, walk upside down on the ceiling, ride an elephant around, juggle fire while balancing on a small canister??  And who doesn’t love a freak show?   Is it politically correct to call it a freak show anymore?  Not sure. But I love it.  You want to ride a motorcycle up a cable while standing on your head?  I’m here for it.  You wanna swing from a tiny platform and throw your 12 year old daughter to another guy swinging from the rafters?  I’ll clap for you.  I like a good, crazy dangerous act.   

Jim’s grandpa was a Shriner (the Topeka Shriners host the circus as a fundraiser).  He religiously bought the kids tickets to the circus when the older 4 were small.  We went every year.  I’m ashamed to say that when he passed away, we did not continue with the tradition, and our younger 4 have not had the same yearly trip to the circus.  As a matter of fact, Harper and Saige had never been before.  We should have done better at taking them.  

Last night I took Harper, Saige and Evie.  The weather turned wonky and I wasn’t sure we should go, but we decided to drive slow and do it anyway.  

Since none of them had been before, I wanted them to get the whole experience.  I offered elephant rides, but Evie was scared.  She was worried about getting stomped on.  Saige and Evie opted for face paintings instead.  Saige refused to go down to have photos with the clowns, she says they are too creepy!  

Evie was completely enthralled during the entire first half.  When the guy ran the motorcycle up a cable with a lady hanging from the bottom of the motorcycle, she was both mesmerized and terrified.  When he flipped the bike upside down and the lady flipped to the top side, she nearly came unglued.  It was fun watching her take it all in.  

And when I say take it all in, I am including all the snacks!   Cotton candy, dippin dots, popcorn!   All the snacks.  

Unfortunately the 45 minute intermission combined with a day where she had to get up at 5 am proved to be a little too much.  

We tried to wake her up for the elephants, but couldn’t.  I took pictures for her instead.  

I was sure that when the grand finale of dirt bikes literally roaring around the arena floor and jumping onto inflatable slides combined with daredevil loud music would rouse her from her sleep.  I was wrong.  She was out!   Lucky for her, Harper refused to bring in her coat and was cold. Carrying Evie kept her warm so she didn’t even have to walk to the car!   

I’m glad we went. I think the girls had fun. I know I enjoyed it.  I’m not promising to make it an annual trip, but I do intend to make sure our grandkids at least get to go see the circus on occasion!  It’s a good way to remember Jim’s grandpa I think.  

Other thingS

We jumped back into life with a crazy amount of stuff to do.   The bathroom is now finished with the exception of towel bars that Preston is going to help me with tomorrow, and staining a small piece of trim that we had to replace.   I love the new floors and I love the way it came together.  I’m happy it is all but finished.  Mark another thing off my project list.  

After we left, Cameron and Lauren continued with celebrating Mardi Gras like they are true Lousianans. I got a kick out Cameron telling me they were getting up super early to attend a parade where they throw coconuts.  Sounded a little dangerous!   I was relieved to see they weren’t real coconuts.  Or at least the one Lauren caught wasn’t real!  

They spent the whole day on Fat Tuesday watching parades.  Cameron was extremely annoyed that places were charging $3 to use the bathroom, and reported that his stomach hurt so bad because he refused to pay for that.  I pointed out that this should have been less of a problem for a boy, which he didn’t think was funny.  

Colin came to Kansas City on Tuesday to pick up a hood for the car he got at an auction.  We got to have both lunch and dinner with him. I was very happy to see him, it had been way too long.  We missed Spencer!   I have plans for visiting them soon, although my kids think I am crazy for my desire to try an escape room.   

Preston went out for lunch with his friends on Ash Wednesday.  I received this photo with him eating chicken -shreeeeekkk!   He  was like mom that picture is staged. I would never eat meat on Ash Wednesday!   Crazy kids.  I told him he needs to go to immediately to confession.  ;)

This girl wrapped her arms around me and said “Grammy I really missed you!”   She melts my heart.  Of course she followed that up with “can we go to the circus?”   I’m focusing on the fact that she acted legit happy to see me.  

The week after taking a road trip is feeling long.  I’m looking forward to weekend times!  

Home again!

We left Baton Rouge last night after an early dinner and drove to Mount Pleasant, Texas.  It was a little less than half way home.   The route we took kept us out of most of the major cities, which was good for a girl like me who hates driving in traffic, particularly in cities I am not familiar with.  The downfall of this route is that there are a lot of smaller, curvy roads that you have to cut through on to get to the major highways.  I think it was easier to navigate these in the daylight, but we made it ok.   Also, I would never have found my way on this route without Siri telling me where to turn.  I’m still not sure exactly where we were!   

I took a ton of pictures.  I was looking through them this evening and picked a few that i wanted to remember why I have them!   The above photo was taken by Cameron.  I love how we are all laughing and having fun.  The parade, crowd, traffic, city setting, and potential danger that I usually would be worried about, seemed to melt away as I watched the craziness.  I will likely never go to another big Mardi Gras parade again, but I want to keep this picture to show that I really did enjoy it.  

If there is something to climb, my kids will always climb it.  I hate heights, and have a pretty substantial fear of falling.  It makes me laugh how excited they get to climb stuff.  Must have inherited that from their dad.  

Sometimes this girl peeks out of her shell and says/does the craziest stuff.  She seemed to have stayed out of her shell on this trip.  I’m glad she sometimes reminds us that she likes to have fun.  

Funny story- the girls had never been to the ocean before.  Also, they had never experienced sea gulls.  Saige was walking in the parking lot asking me what kind of birds they were.  I grabbed a large hand full of cheese balls and threw them by her feet.   All of the sudden, she was swamped by about 30 of them.  The look on her face and the way she jumped might have been cruel, but it was also hilarious.   Jim bought us a bunch of car snacks before we left….I’m not sure how he will feel knowing that I used them to terrorize Saige by attracting sea gulls!   I’m glad I had them in the car though, it was so much fun messing around feeding them! I got some good pictures of Quincy feeding them out of her hands.  

As we were leaving, two of them were on the hood of the car like “don’t leave us cheeseball people!”   We threw a few out the window for them on our way out!  

I love Galardia.   For the last probably 20 years, my mom has been giving me seeds off of her pants and telling me to throw them on the ground and they will grow with no effort on my part.  I cannot get them to grow at all.  I have planted them, watered them, thrown them, and failed more times than I can count.  I was noticing how they are growing out of the rip rap on the board walk.  Seriously it felt a little insulting seeing them growing with zero effort.   Maybe this year will be my year?   

We arrived home late this afternoon.  I am happy to be home!   It was really good to get away.  Road tripping with the girls was fun!   I’m now throwing another load of laundry in the dryer and looking forward to crashing in my own bed!  

All good things must end

I am always lost between wanting vacation to last longer, and wanting to go home.  I hate to say goodbye to my kids.  No matter how long they’ve lived on their own, no matter how dang proud of them I am for going out in the world and doing amazing things, having them far away sucks,   We had a really great trip.  Our tour guides and B&B hosts were impeccable.  The atmosphere is fun, the food is new and exciting, and having a few days to visit was awesome.  

Today we went to the Mississippi River front, and  took a tour of a Korean War ship, and museum, the USS Kidd.  The girls groaned in agony at me dragging them to something educational and historical.  Cameron was actually excited about it.  I couldn’t get a read on Lauren.  She is always so nice and sweet I don’t think she would grumble about anything I suggested.  

If in the area, this tour is great.  You can actually crawl down in the bunkers of this ship, and up in the top to the captain’s quarters.  Some parts are roped off, but they have the doors open so you can get an idea of what’s inside.  It is claustrophobic.  I climbed down, and quickly crawled right back up.  I’m positive I wouldn’t make it as a crew member on this boat!   The girls actually really enjoyed this, even though they were skeptical about it to begin with.  I’m super happy I forced them to see it.  

We had lunch at a place near campus where Cameron and Lauren like to eat.  Rock, Paper, Taco.  It was so good.  The weather was beautiful and it was nice to sit outside!  

After lunch, we took Bella for a walk, and got a good walking tour of campus.  It is such a pretty campus and I enjoyed (and got made fun of for photographing of) all of the flowers that are starting to bloom. It exacerbated my spring fever for sure.  I also stopped to straighten up the campus fairy garden, putting a couple of fairies back together and setting their houses back upright.    You see, I have a tiny bit of OCD and I just couldn’t let it go.  

We had dinner with Cameron and Lauren and then we had to hit the road.  We have to be back for school on Tuesday and I need to get home at a decent time for catching up and preparing for that.  We drove to Texas this evening and will hopefully be home mid-afternoon tomorrow.  I couldn’t cry very long, because despite being in Baton Rouge for several days, Cameron drove us around and I was completely lost and in traffic (the traffic never improves there).  I had to stop crying and concentrate!   

I’m so thankful for Jim pushing me to take the girls and go on this trip.  I’m so thankful for the time I got with Cameron and Lauren and with Quincy, Harper and Saige.  A whole lot of good memories to store up until the next time.  Also next time - NOLA is happening.  We simply ran out of time this go around!