No Calgon here....

We have had 6 games scheduled in the last 2 days.  Tuesday, Harper’s team had a double header in Osage city, Saige’s team had a double header in Pomona.  Jim wasn’t feeling well, so I begged a favor from Cameron.  Him being home came in very handy!   Cameron did get a job, and he starts in a couple weeks, but in the meantime, he is playing chauffeur, mower fixing man, and today he is job shadowing Colin.  I have no idea if Colin will have a job. when this day is over, as when the 2 of them are together, bad decisions are usually made.  

Anyway, Cameron was gracious enough to take Saige to her games.   He even took photos and kept us updated on how things were going (not well, they got run ruled - twice).  Saige did not have a good night batting, but she did have a pretty good night pitching I was told.  She only pitched for a little bit, and then they called it for run rule, but they were hitting off of her, which to me means she was pitching hittable balls right? I guess the call off might have been a tiny bit premature, but there was lightening, so they decided the game had gone on long enough to call it as a played game.  

I wish I could say the same for Harper, who had a double header in Osage city.  We had not been playing very long when I could visibly see lightening south of the field.  My friend Adreinne had come over to watch, and her neighbor is in charge of the fields down there.  She pointed out to him that there was lightening and his response was "yes but it is 16 miles away, and we don't have to call the game unless is 10 miles away or less.  Adreinne thought that seemed dumb (so did I) and she left.  A few minutes went by, they were still playing, and we could hear thunder and still see lightening.  My phone weather app went off to say that lightening was detected 8.5 miles from my location.  I showed the neighbor.  He said well I think we can get this game finished before we call it, and besides, the storm you are hearing the thunder from is moving away from us, not towards us.  Two or 3 minutes later, my phone again goes off, to say that lightening is 3 miles from my location, and at the same time as I was reading the message, lightening was going across the sky right over my head.  They were still trying to finish the game!  I decided they could play if they wanted to, but my kid was not.  So I walked over to the dugout and told Harper to get her things.  The coach said they didn't call it yet.  I did not say anything nasty, I did not raise my voice.  I just said if you want to continue playing in the lightening, that is fine, but Harper is not.  Harper and I start walking to the car.  Then the neighbor calls a 30 minute lightening delay!  So we waited in the car for a little bit, but the weather kept getting worse, so eventually they said they would just reschedule.  Since it is Osage, and they sort of set up their own rules, they decided that we had not played enough of the game to determine the outcome, so they are rescheduling both games.  I guess it doesn't matter that much, but it is aggravating that they had kids play in the lightening and then rescheduled that game anyway.  Harper did get on base, by walking....and she did tell me she was relieved when I pulled her out, because she thought it was dangerous and silly.  

Saige had a double header Wednesday night at Carbondale, against the same Osage City team that Harper played the night before.  Luckily the weather was much better, and they were able to play both games.  Saige's team did not have their best night, and they were again pretty thoroughly spanked.  They are on the younger end of the 15 under division, and it shows when they play against girls with more experience.  Saige's team had a really rough night fielding the ball, and the errors definitely showed up in the scoring.  I will say Saige did a great job pitching though!  She doesn't have the strongest arm, her pitches are not overly fast, but they are pretty accurate.  She has a lot of people who strike out because they are used to a faster pitch coming in.  She also has a lot of people who hit off of her, and if the fielding errors were corrected, I believe it would be much better.  Tonight there are no games, and for that I am thankful, I hope to be in bed early!  All these late nights are killing my beauty sleep! 

Sometimes the stars align perfectly, and you are just in the right place.  I know we just lost a cat, and the timing might be a little too fast but....

This kitten was abandoned by its mother.  Mallory's friend Erin has been bottle raising it.  She is leaving on vacation and obviously couldn't take the kitten with her.  She gave the kitten to Harper.  It made Harper feel happy after she was so sad about losing her baby.  It is definitely not a replacement, because no cat could ever replace old Jerry, but it is a little bright spot in a sad situation.  Harper named the cat Winchester - Winnie for short.  She is a hand raised baby, and is too tame to ever be a candidate for outdoor life.  She seems to be a sweet, potty trained, cute little thing, who spits fire at the dogs, and was already curled up with Jim, (my closet cat lover).  The only one who is unhappy with this new arrangement is Carlos.  He was insulted, mad and grouchy about it!  He will adjust!

 

All the things

Even though yesterday was pretty sad, we still had to do all the things.  You know - orthodontist appointments, picking up feed, going to a 4-H meeting, ball park, repeat.  

Harper's orthodontist appointment held a little bit of happiness, as he is starting to talk about dates to remove her braces!  She is excited about that!  (And so am I).  

Harper was invited to spend the night with her friend.  I told her I would drop her off on the way to the 4-H meeting.  I did not realize that they had moved to Topeka!  So I made 2 trips to Topeka yesterday!  

I was excited that when I stopped off for feed, the store we went to had all their plants on a big clearance sale.  Harper gave me a lot of grief - telling me if I actually loved the plants, I would leave them for someone else who might keep them alive!  She is brutally honest!  I did not take her advice!  I was excited to get my hands on some more tomatoes and peppers for CHEAP!  I also bought some more strawberry plants, as the roots I got before did not do well.  I have no idea if you can actually grow strawberries from the root starts that they sell, but I have had zero luck!  I bought live plants.  This morning, they looked like they were very happy!  I am keeping my fingers crossed! I was so happy with how it looked, when I found out Mallory was going up today, I begged her to grab me a few more!  :)  Sorry Harper!   

We made it to 4-H with literally 1 minute to spare.  I am telling you, that although I love summer, it is kicking me in the pants already!  The meeting was next door to the ballpark, where Evie was playing, so when it wrapped up, we went over and caught the end of her game.  While sitting there, I realized we never even had dinner!  Ball park hotdogs for the win!  Amy was swinging Wrenley, who was tired of softball!  She is the orneriest little thing I have ever seen!  She is going to take the world by storm!  

I am very proud of Evie.  She does pretty good for no more practices than they had due to weather, and she is trying really hard!  

Since my primary bottle holder was away, I had to run down to feed these 2 clowns.  Betty is being weaned currently, and only getting half bottles.  She is not amused at all!  Chizzy is the sweetest thing!  They are both doing well in their bigger pen with the 4-H goats.  They make me smile with their screaming and crying wanting bottles!

The sadness over Jerry sort of overshadowed the day, but life is still pretty good.  We don't really have a choice but to keep moving forward.

 

Not the news we wanted

The vet called yesterday to tell us that under sedation, Jerry suffered cardiac arrest and passed away.  It was not the outcome we were hoping for, obviously.  It was a pretty sad afternoon around here. 

 Jerry was my nemesis, always getting on my counters, knocking things off on purpose, making little nests in my clean laundry, and constantly sitting in “my spot” and refusing to move.  But he also loved to sit on my lap on a cold day, provided me entertainment by responding to Jim like a dog, and he loved my girls.  And all of my people loved this fluffy giant dork.   We have all laughed that he was not the brightest , and that he was so lazy he had an inch of hair growing out the bottom of his feet.  We will all miss the big, lazy “dingle-Jerry.”   I’m not sure there has ever been a cat quite like him, and I’m sure no cat will ever really be as sweet.  

He was born in our bathroom in July 2019.  At the time, we had Madison and Andrew living here with a very small Evie.  There were 6 kittens and I immediately tried finding homes for them.  But Harper loved this one.  She begged and pleaded with us not to give her baby away.  Jim finally told me to leave her cat here and not get rid of him.  And so he was Harper’s baby.  Except that Jim also got extremely attached.  Our chewey order had cat treats, special cat food and other things added because Jim is a closet cat spoiler.  In the mornings, Jim cooks himself breakfast.  The dogs and the cats all line up.  I have photos of the buffet line somewhere.  It is ridiculous.  But those animals do add a certain something unexplainable to the house as well.  It is never empty here.  Nobody is ever lonely.  They are the best snuggle buddies.  They never tell your secrets.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  There are those who might think we are insane.  We share our house with plenty of creatures.  But when push comes to shove - it is all amazing and the love is real.   

We will miss you Jerry.  I hope there is a big plate of sausage and eggs for you in heaven.  

 

Sunday showers and swimming

I apologize in advance, this post is gonna be a mess. I cannot seem to keep my brain on task today.  Added to the fact that the great blog fiasco of earlier this year has left me without a good editing option for the blog.  I can’t seem to figure out how to get it to leave the photos in order, or to move the photos around the way I want them from my phone, which is the easiest thing for me to blog from, since it contains a multitude of photos I randomly take.  

Ok that is enough of the blog woe whining.  

For the last few years, we have had a short period in the spring where we are inundated with what my phone lookup thing calls “hackberry emperor moths”.  They are everywhere.  Wikipedia says they eat, lay eggs and live on hackberry trees.  I don’t know if this is valid, they seem to spring up from the ground and they are everywhere!   We do have a couple of hackberry trees though.  The weird part is that if you go down the roads they are congregated on the gravel, but if you get within 5 miles of my house, there aren’t any.  Today, as I drove over to the shower, they were swirling all around the car, flying into the windows, and swirling behind the car.  I have been throwing them out of my house, fishing them out of the pool and the pool filter, and basically they are just everywhere.  Kind of neat, kind of annoying.  

 

I finally have the pool in blue water status.  There is a small amount of debris I am still working on cleaning out, and there is a cloudiness in the water that will filter out within a few more days.  I got in yesterday, cleaned and shivered!  The water was cold!   When the kids were here for Sunday dinner, Evie asked if she could swim.  She suckered a couple of others into getting in with her.  Wrenley took her first swim!  That baby sucked her breath a little bit then was kicking and slashing and happy!   

Cameron cooked us up a mean batch of steaks.  They were awesome!  

This afternoon, we had a bridal shower for Bailey (and Garrett). I am excited for them and can’t wait for their wedding.  I do love weddings!  

This weekend, we tried- to get caught up, to have fun, to make good food, to spend some time together and to relax a little.  We were mostly successful, although I wish we had one more day!  Theme of my life.  

Catch up (we survived May!)?

 

Jerry is very sick.  We aren’t really sure what’s wrong with him, but we suspect he has a hairball he hasn’t been able to pass.  I took him to the vet, who said his bladder is blocked and he will need to be sedated, catheterized, and put on a few days of IV fluids.  Now I will tell you that I am no fan of Jerry.  He is always in places he should not be, refuses to stop getting on my counters, which I loathe, and is a general menace.  However, the thought of him croaking off was almost unbearable to me.  So I loaded him in a laundry basket, and hauled his dumb butt to the vet.  Jim and the girls absolutely love that dumb cat.  I sincerely hope nothing bad happens to him.  

Since we live sort of far from town, we generally try to take care of all our errands when we go.  Jim asked when I was done with the vet, if I could stop off for some mower gas.  The gas can was at the end of the driveway where Jim had been working.  I stopped off, and put the can in the trunk.  When I got back in the car, Jerry was in the back seat and Blitz was in the basket.  Stupid animals.  I had to turn around to bring Blitz back to the house.   

Jerry yowled all the way to town.  I don’t think he likes car rides.  

This morning, we helped my nephew and his fiancé move into their new house. We started at 9:00.  As I was headed down the road, with my car loaded with their stuff, I noticed it was 9:57.   That made me think about my grandpa and grandma.  They always, always stressed the importance of family, and grandma always told us that many hands make light work.  We had loaded their entire house, furniture and appliances in less than an hour!   We had all the stuff unloaded in their new house and I was home by 11:30!  They are on their own for unpacking though!   I’m thankful to have family close, and I was happy to help my nephew - I hope they will be very happy in their new home!  

May nearly did me in with all the things. I am happy that we survived and I was delighted to see June on the calendar!   I don’t know why, when I turned over the calendar page, it only reminded me that I (perhaps stupidly) made the kids, myself and Jim all sorts of summer physicals, eye dr exams, orthodontist checkups, work meetings, and ball games.   The insanity fiesta continues?  

Last night, Saige had a game.  It was raining. I was positive they would cancel.  They didn’t.   They played in the rain.  Although, thankfully after the first inning, the rain stopped and it was mostly just chilly.  Saige had a good night, playing outfield and short stop, and had a few good at bats as well.  They lost the first game, and won the second.  

Also yesterday, our broilers arrived.  They are so tiny and cute!   It’s hard to believe looking at their cuteness, how fast they will grow and be gross,  dirty big birds!  There is just nothing cuter than tiny little chickens and ducks!   Except perhaps tiny little rabbits?   

It makes me happy to think we will have our freezer full of meat!   

The rest of this day has been dedicated to catching up.  Laundry from vacation is almost done, lawn work in progress, girls busily helping me clean the house back up.  I’m happy to have a day to finally see the inside of my house!