When September ends….

My mother told me a long time ago that time goes by too quickly, so never wish it away.   I try hard with that because she was right. However, I have been counting down the days until I can be done with my sling/start therapy.   And so, I am not sad to see September end!  Adios Septiembre!  

We had to take some pics because we were cracking up at Dwight’s hair after I gave him a “bath” (with a warm cloth-not a tub of water).  He’s a rachety looking little beast!  He is going to make someone a really nice baby - he is soooo sweet!

The girls came for Sunday dinner.  I have a love/hate with this.  I love having them all here.  I hate knowing the weekend is over!   Dang weekends always slip away!  

Guess there’s no time for cryin about it.  

I heard from Colin.  He is working in North Carolina.  He had to take some safety orientation and they were starting right in on resetting poles.  He said he hadn’t been into the mess yet, as they had stationed them in Kentucky first.  He expects to be rebuilding lines for a couple of weeks at least.   I pray the new storm stays the heck away.  I also pray everyone stays safe down there. 

 

Another day- another parade!

Yesterday was the Carbondale Fun Fest.  Over the years, I have sort of made fun of this event, calling it the suck-fest.  It is definitely not my favorite thing to attend, but Harper's band had to march in the parade, and the girls were going, so it was a good evening to pick up candy, watch Harper, and see the grandkids!

This picture is for Quincy - who spotted this car once and told me it was her dream car!  Look Quincy - it runs, and is parade worthy!

And I am just going to say - yes, I know small towns are weird.  Every event has to have a parade.  And none of the parades are really good....but the fun fest parade is literally every person in town who has a car lined up driving down the street, throwing insane amounts of candy out the window.  Some of them don't even wash the vehicle.  And then the kids on the street go insane flying out in the road to grab candy, while the parents sit there half drunk laughing about how "they gonna get run over someday..." like that isn't totally preventable.  But that is just my opinion on it. 

The band sounded amazing.  This was completely out of Harper's comfort zone - in the last 2 days she has had 2 parades, a halftime performance, a couple pep rallies, and getting out of the house on a Saturday!  She was NOT happy about it.  It did help her though, as starting with her class, every child who wants to graduate has to have 40 hours of community service.  They gave her 2 of her hours yesterday!  Only 38 to go!  

And because Jim and I are exceptionally cruel people, we also took her out for dinner, and forced her to go shopping with us.  She nearly collapsed, but she made it through! 

I am proud of her for sticking it out.

And any day I get to hang out with these nugget heads is a good day!  

 

Harper does HOCO

 

Homecoming in our district looks something like kids showing up in the downtown areas to decorate, showing up in grade school classes and making crafts and posters with the little kids,  followed by lunch, followed by a parade, a community wide pep rally, a royal crowning ceremony and a football game and exhausted people everywhere.  Harper showed up at my office yesterday morning with a cup of window paint but no paintbrush.  She tried to hide in my office, but luckily for her, Evelyn has been hanging out there for several years.  I have mad amounts of junk, including a paint brush that Evie used to use to clean cobwebs.  Out she went to beautify my office windows!   And yes, I will be sleeping with one eye open because she’s gonna try to choke me out for taking her picture.  

I’m pretty sure she had as much fun as Harper can have in one day!  

The bus barn boys served us lunch, and then it was off to Carbondale  for the parade.  Harper marched.  I took more pictures!   

They bussed the little kids over for the parade, I never got to see my little nugget but I still got a picture.  

Also- I told Harper I would go get us drinks and meet her right after the pep rally so she didn’t have to ride the bus back to the school.  She got into my car, but I could still hear the band playing.  I asked her how she got away, and she said “well they dismissed the cross country kids!”   Uhhhh girl, you aren’t a Cross country runner?   She shrugged and said they don’t know that!

Jim and I went out to watch Harper’s performance at the game.  Jim watched the game as well.  I tend to space off, talk to people and lose interest when I don’t have a kid on the field.  It’s ok though, because I paid attention when the band played, and they did great!    I tried to mark a couple of the photos, so you can spot Harper easily, but I’m not sure it was all that helpful.  She’s the cute one, in the flute section. 

This weekend is an interesting one.  Quincy and Colin were supposed to go sky diving.  Colin is being sent down south to help restore power after the hurricane instead.  They will reschedule.  I pray that Colin is safe and not gone for too long.   In my mind, he just exchanged one dangerous activity for another one.   I know it is what he does for a living, but I am also aware of people being crazy.  

Mallory is in Wichita for some teacher of the year nominee festival or something.  She is, as a nominee, now on a committee that will travel around the state looking at each other’s schools and sharing ideas, curriculum, and taking tours I guess.   Sounds horrible to me, but she is really excited!   And it worked well for Quincy’s she got a couple meals out of the dorm cafeteria for it!  We are dog sitting while she is gone.  Daisy Paige is currently filing complaints about excessive outdoor time.   

I want to attend an action today, however the reason I want to attend said auction is still being discussed.  Who is in favor of Hope owning a skid steer?   Raise your hands.  Does Hope know how to run a skid steer?  Negative, but I promise you, if you give me 5 minutes alone with it I could figure it out.   For the love of projects!  I feel myself coming into my skid steer era.  The only real question is should I buy it at an auction, or should I go straight to the dealership?  Not sure Jim is really excited about my latest idea, so if you see him, definitely tell him what a skilled skid steer driver can do.  Build a pond?  A foundation for barns?  Clear trees? Clear the driveway of snow and spread our own rock?   Dig fence post holes? The possibilities are just endless!  The auction has a few other “items” I am interested in.  I might need help getting my stuff home.  Better put my dad on standby with a trailer.

One other bit of news I got yesterday, our Godson Stanley and his wife Julia had a baby boy!  We are so excited to be grand-Godparents!  We are happy for them, excited for Grace and James to join us in the grandparent realm, and excited to meet their sweet boy! 

And now, I must shower and get ready.  I have big dreams of auction success! 

My little fiasco((s)

Hey Hope- how’s it going?  You want a project?   

Of course I do!   

Meet Dwight.  He is a kitten that was abandoned.  I got him from Amy.   I think he’s adorable and sweet.  I thought he could be a barn cat.   Unfortunately, he is much smaller than I originally thought and needs to be syringe fed.  I have done this a number of times, and I believe he will be fine and grow up to be a very sweet boy.  (Or possibly a very sweet girl).   The bad news is that he will always be too tame (and thus too dumb) to be a barn cat.  So when I get done syringe feeding him, I will then be searching for a house cat home for him.  Where will I find a house cat home?  No idea.  It’s just part of the project.  For now, he is my widdle baby.  He’s eating well, extremely loud and a tiny bit bipolar (hissing and spitting when I come near, but then purring when I feed him).  

The girls helped me hang up my grim reaper.  I haven’t put the batteries in yet but I am excited to see how spooky he is in the dark! 

Today Saige is sick, and we will be going to the pediatrician in one city.  Of course this falls on the same day that Harper has an eye Dr appointment in a different city.  Harper’s eye doctor -the one  that is a hard to get into, a pediatric eye doctor and you make the appointment a year out because she is so busy.  Thank God Jim and I have mastered the old divide and conquer.  Saige is having symptoms of pneumonia.  Maybe I’m panicking prematurely, but honesty she’s been sick long enough at this point I think we are just to a place a doctor should look at her.  

I love how rotten this nugget is.  When we are in line with the buses, waiting for kids I have to go say hi.  When she sees me she immediately starts throwing her stuff out so I can pick it up for her.  Then she holds up her feet so I can tickle her toes.   Then shakes her finger at me and tells me “no no.”  It is s whole thing we got going. It makes my day.  

I am thankful for the rain that we have been getting.  Things were pretty dry!  It has been nice to take a break from watering!  And if you see a rainbow, you must take a photo - it is a rule. 

**Updated to report that after seeing the doctor, Saige does not have pneumonia (thankfully).  They think her chest is sore due to her cough.  Whatever she has, it is a nasty little virus.  I heard a lot of people seem to be sick right now.  Luckily, I just got a new bottle of clorox clean up and will be sanitizing the house after work today!  I am sure everything will be fine!  Here is hoping nobody else gets sick!

 

Hoco week

 

I am super happy with the rose bush project - they are growing despite having been planted at the wrong time.  I am continuing to water and feed them.  They look awesome and are even blooming!  They seem happy and I love how they look!  Time will tell if they had enough time to get established before winter, but at this point, I feel like they will be ok!  I certainly hope so because they are just so pretty!

I also planted some mums....you know, to soften up my sign.  I know we live in the wrong place to start throwing out political signs, but this election seems to hold a little more importance than most in my lifetime have.  I know exactly when I started following politics.  I was in the 3rd grade, and voted for Ronald Reagan in a mock election.  I proudly told my parents.  My dad gave me a 2 hour lecture about civic responsibility, and from there I have just been fascinated by the process.  I have voted in every election since I was old enough.  I have enjoyed arguing politics with people, we have had some great debates over the years.  I have been able to see both sides of most things, and I can even understand why you would want conservatives in office.  But I cannot understand why anyone who has been paying even an iota of attention would vote republican currently.  Am I going to lose friends for this?  I doubt it.  I am a grown up.  I can disagree with you and still love you.

Anyway, driveway garden is one of the things that currently makes me happy.  Yes, I did dig and plant these mums by myself.  Yes, it was probably overdoing it, and yes I was careful.  I am sick of being down, and decided it is time to start doing some stuff.  I was told not to take my arm away from my body.  Guess what?  you can use a shovel and still keep your arm tucked.  

I had a little bit of a harder time with my gate ghost, but I got it done too.  I can't wait for Evelyn to see it this weekend!  

This week is also homecoming week on the Trail.  The kids are having fun with theme days - today is Pajama Day.  Personally, I hate homecoming week.  At least the part where they try to include the little kids.  The little ones have zero idea what homecoming is, and what they are celebrating.  It literally just gets them all stirred up.  My bus kids were over the top insane.  I had bad kids everywhere the last 2 days!  Of course, I also have Harper, who thinks it is dumb, and is dreading the parade, the game and all the royalty activities.  I am also on a countdown to ridding myself of this sling, so maybe this week is going slow with that added in there as well!  Or maybe I am old and grouchy.  Who knows - the girls look pretty cute in their PJ's right?