Zippy weekend

 

This was one of those crazy weekends where you wonder if something couldn't have been saved for another day.  :)   I knew it wouldn't be relaxing, and I knew it would zip by too fast too!  

This was city-wide garage sale weekend.  The Overbrook Park and Rec decided to also host their annual fishing derby.  Evelyn was so excited about fishing.  Unfortunately, her daddy's truck broke down in western Kansas, and he wasn't going to make it home in time.  She was crying and sad, but Poppy said he would be happy to help her.  She was good with this plan, and they both had a good time fishing!  I took a break from my shift at the 4-H garage sale to run over and see how it was going.  Evelyn was a little bit miffed that she had not caught any fish yet, but they were still trying hard!

This little nugget looked right at me, smiled, and started reaching for me.  I am sure it was because she was tired of being manhandled by her mom while she was trying to help Poppy and Evie with all their gear and jackets and whatnot, but I am taking it as a win!  She loves her Grammy!  

Poppy told me that the people on one side of Evie got a trophy for catching the most fish, and the kid on the other side won a trophy for catching the biggest fish.  Evie caught zero fish.  I was asking her about it at Sunday dinner, and she said "its ok, I still got some prizes and a hat!"  She had fun trying.  Poppy had fun too.  I think it makes him super happy that his granddaughter loves to fish!

The 4-H garage sale was pretty successful.  I believe that they raised a little over $1200.  I have a love/hate with this fundraiser.  It is easy.  Nothing to try to sell to anyone who doesn't voluntarily come through the door, but it is a lot of work.  Lots of work to set up, lots of work to clean up, lots of leftover stuff to donate or give away.  I tried hard to not volunteer this year, but guilt is a very strong factor in my life.  I couldn't leave one family to do all the work.  We did help with set up, and we did work our shift, and even worked a while after our shift ended, but I had to work at the liquor store, so we did not help with cleaning up and tearing down.  The girls served food, and were all but running out the door, as they really hate talking to people.   If you look close, you will see the back of Saige's head, as she was in charge of the money!  

We made it home and got chores done, and I got to work at the liquor store just in time for the big storms to hit.  Mallory came out and stayed with Jim and the girls.  I kept the radio on at work just in case I had to flee for shelter.  We got a lot of rain, but luckily were spared from more tornadoes!  The liquor store was slammed!  Apparently garage sales and tornado weather make people very thirsty!

Cameron texted me from a track meet he was at with his Norwegian friend.  I think they have become very good friends this year, and I am sure that when Kristopher goes back to Norway, it will be a very sad/hard day for all of them.  I hope they get to visit him in his home country someday.  

Yesterday, I woke up at the time we usually leave for church.  It is unusual for me to oversleep, and incredibly unusual that I forgot to set the alarm.  I think I was exhausted and the extra sleep was much needed.  Jim and I ran to get groceries, and on a whim, stopped off to have a nice lunch together.  My husband lives in our house, but we just don't seem to see much of each other!  Just kidding - sort of.  I had not had a chance to sit and talk to him with no interruptions for what seemed like a long time.  He amuses me, and I enjoyed our impromptu lunch date.  I did not really enjoy grocery shopping, it was a trip where we were out of everything!  I had the cart mounded up and it hurt a lot at the check out counter.  I guess it has been a while since we went to the store!  I am glad that task got accomplished while Jim was able to go with me and help, as it just makes it easier!  

We came home to make Sunday dinner, and the girls came out.  Evelyn was excited because they got their chicken coop ready, and Andrew said they could bring their chickens home!   After a few days of stormy weather, it was an absolutely beautiful afternoon!  

Before we could get the chickens picked out, we had to visit High Heel Violet.  She is shedding and this group of 4-H goats needs to be worked with - they are pretty wild and unfriendly!  Still cute though!  

The "rainbow assortment of brown egg layers" has grown into a bunch of really colorful, beautiful birds.  I am pretty excited about how many different colors we have, and they have been the healthiest little chickens.  I am such a nerd, and I just love standing out there watching them.  Once Evie got her 6 birds picked out, Harper helped me get ours moved into a bigger pen.  They seemed so happy to be free and have outside space!  This also meant that the baby goats have a space that they can stay in the barn at night, so no more coming in the house for them.  They were not happy about it at all!  As a matter of fact, I could hear Betty screaming and protesting when I was planting flowers at the end of the driveway!  So not everyone was happy with the new pen arrangements!

These are Evie's chickens in their new pen.  She gave them all sorts of crazy names, including naming one after Pappa Larry!  The Larry chicken better not be a rooster either, because I paid extra to insure they only sent me pullets!  

On Friday, the town's Pride had a plant sale.  I made a small error in judgement and took Evie!  Who knew that girl loved plants so much!  I actually loved taking her and it makes me incredibly happy that she loves plants.  She picked out a geranium to take home, and we got some flowers for the pots at the end of the driveway.  We were also excited to see that they had strawberry plants.  Poppy built me some raised beds, and I intend to put in a strawberry patch.  Unfortunately, the person who is supposed to  bring me a load of dirt failed to do it when it was dry, and we got about 3 inches of rain this weekend.  I hope he does it soon or I might have to invent some other place to put them!  Some of my best memories are of picking strawberries with my grandma and helping her put them in the freezer, making jelly, and eating the "foam" on toast!  I hope I can make similar memories with my grandkids!  

Last year, I planted wave petunias in these pots.  They were pretty all summer, and then in August, they started disappearing one by one.  I couldn't figure out what was happening.  One evening, as I was coming in the driveway, I saw a squirrel grab one and run up a tree.  He was eating my flower!  So this year, I planted stinky old marigolds.  I hope he won't find them appetizing at all!  Take that dang squirrel!  :)  

 I don’t know why she decided to make videos on my phone while I was busy getting gas, but if you’re going to give me blog material, I’m going to take advantage of it!   I think she likes the songs her music teacher is having them sing lately!   

Last night, Saige had ball practice.  I ran to get a drink while she was busy practicing.  On my way back, I ran into the cutest little family!   Evie has been so excited that she and her dad got matching scooters!   She told me she got too big for her unicorn scooter, and is saving it for Wrenley!   This baby is so ornery. I bet she will be zipping away from them on her unicorn before they know what hit!  

Today was a rainy mess here.  I was amused by Evie bringing the umbrella that my sister gave her.  Even if it is a doll umbrella.  She is a funny kid.  She got off the preschool bus with it- Mallory thought it was hilarious.  

My mom and I drove a field trip today.  I can honestly say this was the worst group of kids I have ever hauled.  They were loud, rude, violated every rule,  and left behind a ton of trash.  I had 2 teachers and a para on the bus with  me.  I haul some of them on my shuttle. At one point, I heard one of them saying “ohhh Ms. Hope does not let us do that.”  He was 100% correct.  On the  way home, I decided it was not going to be a repeat of the trip up, and I took to the power mic with explicit directions on how the trip was going to go.  They were 80% better on the way back.  I have very definite opinions on the way children behave.  I mostly blame their parents, but I also think we are failing to set expectations for them in school.  Children are just that - children. I do not fault children for acting like kids…but why is everyone afraid to correct them?   All I’m going to say is not on my watch. If the adults with them don’t correct their behavior, then I will.  If I get fired for it, well so be it, but the safety regulations are for their benefit as well as for mine, and there are laws which we are required to follow.  Am I just getting old and grouchy?  I don’t actually think so.  I mean yes, I am old, but I  think education has changed.  I think they are so busy providing all the services that should be the parent’s responsibility that they are exhausted, and have no more energy to enforce behavioral expectations.  And I think that until we force parents to be responsible for their children, it won’t get better.  Period.  I predict that if some changes aren’t made, the teacher and staff shortages will continue because frankly, if I had to deal 8 hours a day with what I saw today, I would quit in a heartbeat.  

Saige has a class project to create a carnival game.  Today, I would guess that my grandma Shirley is smiling down on her.  She made cup pong.   Now, I am not sure if you know this, but my grandma taught all my older kids how to play (root) beer pong. No, this is not an exaggeration.  And she was proud of it too!   My grandma also never played a game that she didn’t fiercely compete to beat you -and she schooled all her great grandkids at it too!  When I asked her if she thought this was a good idea, she gave me some response about needing the skills for college.   Touché grandma!   I am sure she is proud of Saige’s carrying on family traditions.  

And more

In addition to the cute graduation photos I got from Cameron and Lauren, I also got these adorable photos from the Wichita Wind Surge game that Colin and Spencer attended over the weekend!  I thought it was probably a little cold for baseball, but they look like they were having fun!  I am looking forward to seeing them soon!

The kids had a day off of school today.  Yea, I have absolutely no idea why.  There are about 16 days left (less if you are graduating).  I am not sure why they don't just wait until school is out for the summer to do the personal development days.  Mallory did have to go today, and she didn't seem to think it was all that productive.  I also had a bus safety meeting today, and it was literally a 7 minute meeting....could have been a text.  I guess he thought we would have questions about the backdoor evacuation drills we are doing tomorrow....except questions also could have been answered via text?  Oh well, I guess I did get paid for driving out there.  Seems a little crazy to me though.  I think monthly safety meetings are required or something. 

I did get a lot of things knocked off my list this afternoon, not the least of which was getting Quincy's car back from the shop.  She says it is running better....it just needed a few valve cover gaskets and a couple of other tweaks.  

I guess we are officially ready to get the week going and stop whining about the weekend ending.

 

Getting warmer

 

We had a good weekend.  Accomplished a lot, laughed a little, relaxed a bit, got sort of caught up, and had a little time to think of things that were not work and school related.  It would have been Quincy's senior prom weekend, but she did not want to go.  She covered for people at her job instead.  I might have been sad about it, except I was recalling last year, when prom started at 8:00 pm and she texted me at 8:08 and reported she was going to the movies because prom is verrrrryyyy boring.  I would much rather she just skipped it than to waste all the time, energy, money and effort to only stay there for 8 minutes.  

Cameron got a speeding ticket in the mail.  I spent a bunch of time staging photos of the ticket with people, animals and various other things and sending him  photos of the poses.  He was not amused about it!  I still had a good laugh.

Cameron and Lauren are a couple of weeks away from graduating with their master's degrees.  Quincy is a couple weeks away from graduating from high school.  Harper is a couple of weeks away from graduating from junior high.  Which means I am a couple of weeks away from going on vacation, and being released from bus duty and entering into my favorite thing - summer break!  Yea for summer break!

I am excited for all of these changes that are coming, but a bit sad about it as well.  Cameron and Lauren moving back makes me happy.  Lauren landing a dream job is amazing.  Them finishing their master's degrees in 2 years flat makes me so proud.  Them being old enough for life outside of college is a strange thought.  Thinking about Quincy graduating and moving out makes me sad.  For so many years, Quincy has been my go to kid when things were messy and gross and needed a good cleaning.  The girl is literally not grossed out by anything!  She is the kid who is amazingly strong and can make easy work of a lot of stuff that we have to do....things like barn cleaning and hay moving, feed unloading are nothing for her.  I am just never ready for my kids to be moving out.  It never gets easier.  Harper going to high school feels unreal to me.  I swear to you, she is 6 years old.  And don't even get me started on my baby going into junior high!  Or on Evie starting kindergarten! Time needs to slow the heck down!  Still, when I look at the things my big kids are accomplishing, and how far they have come in their short adulthoods, I am so proud and excited to see how things continue to progress.  Life is just in a season of continual weird for me.  Happy/sad/proud/missing people....I guess it goes with the territory. 

I know these are snapshots of photos that they had done, and the good copies will be available soon, but I just love them.  :)  I can never wait to share pictures when I get a chance!

Evelyn started softball practices yesterday.  Wrenley wore her cute sun hat!  When it was over, they came for Sunday dinner.  All that sunshine must have made them hungry!  I was happy to see them all!  I am afraid my time will be limited for hanging out with them this week!