How things are

 

Today was a tough day.  It would have been tough anyway, just because it was a one day return to work after having a holiday off.   There was a part of me who wanted to just take the day off, have a 4 day weekend and make today into a “lay around the house day,” but as I was watching fireworks last night, it dawned on me that I should be sending out a notice for our July quarterly meeting and I hadn’t even thought about it.  Seriously- where did June go?   Anyway I should have listened to myself on the original plan.  I should have stayed home.  I should have turned off my cell phone and pretended to disappear.  Mad landowners seemed to be the theme of the day.  They were calling, they were getting board members involved, and they were coming into the office with their big mad.   Now, I have worked with the public for a very long time.  I have helped people accomplish things, even after they were nasty to me. I remain professional while telling people to F off and I sleep just fine at night.  But some days, when the poo hits the fan, and then keeps hitting again and again, I can’t help but feel a little bit grouchy.   I am paid good money to manage things.  I feel like I do a reasonably good job. But ya just can’t please all the people all the time amIright?   

I was exceedingly happy to come home today.  I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish and I got some of them done.  The girls and I relaxed and painted a little bit.  We got some lawn work done and some of the house cleaned up.  I will have time to finish it tomorrow, because I am going nowhere.  I refuse to leave home, I refuse to answer my phone, and I refuse to engage with the general public.  I am hiding, resetting my mind, perhaps floating in the pool, and definitely drinking pina coladas.  

I needed to shampoo the carpet.  The reason I needed to is named Norma.  I love her, but she is hard on carpet.  She is picking up some basic commands, but potty training isn’t coming easily for her, and so, since it was nice out, and I was cleaning, I made her stay outside with Ollie.  At one point, she snuck in somehow, and I found her passed out, wrapped in my couch covering blanket.  It was so cute I let her stay for a little while.  

I made the girls some offerings today.   They could clean inside or they could learn to mow.  Harper decided that today was a day to learn to mow.  Now Jim taught both the youngest to run the mower a while  back. He showed them how to start and stop, and how to go backwards.  But they had never run it with the blades engaged.  Harper was nervous, but seriously, we don’t have a pristine lawn, and we don’t actually care if there are some missed places, we just like to keep the grass low enough that we can see the rattle snakes and copperheads before we step on them.  She is more than capable of that!   And so we reviewed the safety parts, and I cut a path for her to follow.  She spent a little time getting acclimated and now she is my newest lawn cuttin girl!   Saige also took a turn. They both did great!!   Saige is way less nervous - I don’t think she worries quite as much about messing things up.   

Mallory had given me a file with the all the photos she took, and I struggled to get it open.  She helped me this evening and I ran across this sweet, amazing photo.  It reminded me who I am, and why I need a job- to pay for fun stuff for these 2 (kidding.  Sorta).  

I also remember my father In Law having a sign above his desk that read “don’t let the bastards get you down!”   Tonight, things seem brighter.    I’ll survive.  Mad people always calm down eventually.  Mad board members sometimes step out of their comfort zone to serve on a board, and need to be educated about the way things go.   And sometimes they have the right to be mad, because we are all entitled to our feelings.  I certainly am not perfect and occasionally I mess up (not this time, but occasionally).  I’m still not leaving the house, but I will have a good weekend and I will get everything handled.   

Preston sent me this sweet photo of him and Sunny from last night.  They are actually home tonight. They were supposed to go camping at the lake.  Unfortunately, we had about 7 inches of rain this week, and some of the campgrounds are under water.  They cancelled their camping reservation.  Preston decided that they could camp here, if it was ok.  Jim and I truly don’t care.  When your kids are growing up, they bring home other people’s  kids.  Some of those kids are around so much that you get attached to them.  Then, when your kids move out, it is hard, but you also lose your “extra” kids and that is hard and sad as well.  I was happy to see some of the “old crew” and see for myself that they are doing ok.  I am sorry that their camping trip got cancelled, but honesty, the kids being home always truly makes me happy.  Side note/ the girl Preston is dating - Sunny- is very sweet.  We are enjoying getting to know her.  I’m glad Preston feels like he can bring friends over here and crash out.  I hope he will always know that we enjoy having him around.  

Happy 4th!

Yesterday was Wrenley’s birthday.  I bought a few things and went  over to see her  Evelyn was very upset with her mother for not buying a piñata for the upcoming birthday party. I found a tiny one at dollar general and stuffed it with a couple of Hershey kisses and smarties.  Evelyn was thrilled.   Wrenley likes candy. Couldn’t have cared less about the piñata.   Evie has a weird fascination with piñatas - if you recall she also made me buy one for Jim on his birthday- telling me in the saddest way possible that poor Poppy never had a piñata before. She has a way of taking care of details.  

Wrenley makes me laugh. She is seriously the most expressive child ever!   And the ornery - I’m here for it.  It’s funny when you aren’t the one getting the calls from the school.  

After we celebrated Wrenley for a bit, Harper Saige and I ran to get some white shirts to tye dye.  We had red and blue dye left over from last year.  As you may recall, last years shirts turned pink and I have no clue what I did wrong. So I read some stuff online.  It said to dye the shirts while they are wet after soaking them in vinegar water.  We did that. They turned out awesome.  Seriously the red white and blue looked amazing.  I decided since it was raining the color would set if I just dried them in the dryer and didn’t wash them.  When I pulled them out of the dryer - bright purple!   My sister is now going to run an intervention and teach me her hippy ways.  Luckily, we like purple here, but both the girls and I were very disappointed. 

 

We had a nice but quiet 4th.  Since the kids were all here Sunday, and Quincy had to work, it was just Harper, Saige and Mallory around to celebrate with Jim and me.   As is a long standing tradition, we started our day at the City’s annual bike (non motorized vehicle) parade.  Evelyn was all about it, insisted they had to go there before they could go to her grandma Rachel’s party.  Evie and Wrenley were in the parade with their cousin Lawson.  They all looked very festive!  It was a nice cool morning and a nice parade, with tons of people riding!   Small town traditions make me happy.  

We ran over to the city park for the free lunch.  I made Harper and Saige leave their lairs, and they were only reluctant participants.  I am glad we got to spend a little time with Madison and Andrew and the girls before they took out!  

Last weekend we forced the kids to blow up all the fireworks that we had stored in our garage for who knows how long.   Jim was happy to have them out of there!   Saige asked if we could please stop and get just a few things.  Jim agreed as long as she shot off everything we bought and he doesn’t have to store them!   She and Harper worked on it today.  We have a few things left that we will finish out tomorrow.  Jim and I only spent $31 on fireworks. That has to be some sort of a record!   Jim picked out these. Poopy puppy’s.  It made me laugh. 

Saige almost killed Mallory and I as we were watching her.  She dropped something and it flew at our feet.  We gave her a lot of grief.  

Lauren and Cameron sent me this cute picture. They were blowing some stuff up and having food after having run a 5k.  Seemed like they were having a fun time (except for the running part!).  

Tonight we enjoyed a nice hotdog dinner (because ‘Merica) and then ran to town to watch the city’s firework display.  I love the 4th, even when it is low key, easy going and slow paced.  It’s a lot different than when the kids were little, and I sort of miss the craziness- the participation in all the things, the excessive amounts of cooking and firework shooting, and pool parties and trying to find them all when the fireworks show was over.  It was definitely

 not the same, but still happy to celebrate!

Happy birthday Wrenley

 

Today is Wrenley's birthday.  If you want to see a year flash by in a blink, have a grandkid I guess.  Seems like yesterday.

Wrenley was 5 hours old the first time I held her.  When I took her from Andrew's arms, she gave me the look of death.  It made me laugh.  Wrenley was about 5 days old when I first started calling her the 1000 face kid.  She was 5 months old before I ever heard her cry.  She may not cry, but I never doubted what she was thinking or feeling.  The girl has some facial expressions!  
Wrenley is ornery.  She will act like she wants you to take her, and then when you go to get her, she turns her body and grabs ahold of the person who is holding her while laughing.  We have seen  her delight in pulling Evie's hair, grabbing faces and torturing the cat.  All the while manically smiling.  She absolutely cracks me up, and I love that she is ornery and sweet - it is a good combination!  

Being grandparents has been a good for Jim and I.  We love these girls like crazy.  It is like watching the best parts of our own kids.  I cannot wait to add a few more to the mix!

Anyway, happy birthday to my little Wrenley puter butt.  I love you sweet baby!

It’s raining poo (and rain)

 

I am not sure what time it started to rain today, but I know it was early.  I didn't get my walk in, due to it pouring rain at 6.  I had a meeting at 9, and the girls all had dental cleaning appointments in Osage City at 8.  I talked Quincy into driving them all down.  As I was getting ready for my meeting, I get a text from Harper telling me that when they got to the dentist's office, this cat dropped down out of Quincy's engine, and started following them into the dentist.  Now would be a time to say I messed up - thinking this was a wild cat.  He is clearly not wild.  He hung around the house all day yesterday, not caring at all that people were shooting off fireworks.  Hung out on the pool deck while they were swimming, not caring that he might get wet.  Hung around under all our feet, not caring that he could get tripped on.  The calico is wildish.  She doesn't let us catch her, and she hisses if you get too close.  This one- total marshmallow head.  Obviously lucky since he made a 30ish mile ride in an engine and didn't die, and not too bright.  Anyway, the dentist was accommodating, letting the girls have a box, and understanding why they were taking turns sitting in the car.  They are sure that an outdoor life is not the life for this particular cat (I agree).  If you recall, I already took in one kitten this month - one that is also not suited to outdoor life.  The girls talked Jim into letting him inside as well.  I don't know that I need a 3rd indoor cat, particularly since I am having a rough time getting Norma potty trained, but it is my fault that he is here, so I guess I will suck it up and accept my punishment.  He does seem to like Winnie, and Marge, so that is good....but I kind of think all 3 of them are just not smart enough to realize that he hasn't been here the whole time.  Welcome to the inside little dumb cat.  I guess the girls are calling him Tooth Fairy....seems perfect - a stupid name for a dim whit.  

Where I work, life gets complicated by flooding.  We had somewhere between 3-5 inches of rain depending on where you live or who was measuring.  We had alerts on our dam watch program, which was officially reporting 5.5 inches on a couple of our dam sites.  As I was getting the texts about the cat, and the rainfall/dam safety monitoring needs, I was also sitting in a meeting with FEMA for the township, where I also work.  I might get in trouble for this, but I would rather have both my eyes gouged out, and stick a fork in my brain than to deal with FEMA.  I have never in my life dealt with people who are more frustrating.  This is not my first rodeo with them, and it is not the first time I have rolled my eyes so far back in my head I could see behind myself.  Today's meeting was a zoom call that was supposed to tell them that we intend to file on the storm damages from January, and that we have cost estimates on what we spent.  Which would be fine, except a couple of weeks ago, I submitted the reports, cost estimates, receipts, and a notice that we intend to file onto their web portal.  What else do you need?  oh nothing- just have to have a verbal confirmation of what you already submitted, and set up a meeting to meet in person.  Deep breath - slow - cleansing breath.  Count.  Hold it.  Let it gooo....try not to tell them thank you for wasting my time.  This is what is wrong with the government...so many bureaucratic stupidities let's have a meeting to set up a meeting?  This is what they do....it is so common they don't even see how dumb it is.  I filed completion paperwork a while back, and was told well you filed the completion certificate but forgot the completion notification.  WHY ARE THEY NOT ONE AND THE SAME DOCUMENT?  Or at least interchangeable.  This happens on both of these jobs so frequently I cannot even count the occurrences.  

It just added frustration to my already frustrating day.  

Almost as soon as I got out of the meeting, Mallory called.  Her basement was flooding.  The portable pump that we used last time somehow had gotten broken.  Jim and I have had a string of broken cars lately, and my car was at the shop.  His truck has a flat tire, but it was raining so hard this morning, we decided to deal with it later, which meant we had to borrow one of Quincy's 3 cars and shared a ride to town.  When I called Jim to see if he had time to help Mallory, he was already out doing something, so he said he would swing by.  He got the pump running, but he was thinking the water in the basement was also sewage, so he wanted to run home and take a shower before his re-check on his nasal surgery.  Which meant that if I didn't leave with him, I was going to be stuck in town for the foreseeable future.  OK transfer everything to working from home I guess.  I think when you are coming off a really good weekend, any Monday will seem bad, but this one just seemed worse than normal.  I am about done for the day.  

Anyway, home is my happy place, so I am glad to be here.  I am practicing my deep breathing exercises and focusing on positive things.  The above photo of Preston and Evelyn melts my heart.  That little girl loves her "uncle PP" she was so excited when he and Sunny drove in yesterday.  She was absolutely giddy.  I know she misses him.  He spent the first 4 years of her life being her bestie.  His absence is hard for her.  I am pretty sure he misses her too.  

I have a guy coming to trim the goat feet and give them their shots.  That is positive, because it means I don't have to wrestle them.  I discovered this guy a few months ago.  He works fast and cheap.  I am always glad to make life easier!  

Norma is a good girl, but she is not an easy learning dog.  We expected the chihuahua to be hardheaded and difficult to train.  The border collies are smart and driven to please their humans.  This little mutt puppy, not so much.  She is stubborn, and doesn't care what I say.  :)  At least she is sweet!  

For probably 25 years, I have tried to grow zucchini.  I love them.  I have never been able to get them to grow.  It makes me laugh because literally everyone on the planet can grow them, and seems to have abundance to give away.  My plants are always dead, if they even come up at all.  This year, my plants are going crazy.  I don't have any vegetables to show for it, but I am overly excited about the plants anyway!  My whole raised bed experiment is going well.  My strawberry patch is spreading, and the plants look beautiful.  I am glad that Jim indulged my little gardening fantasies.  I will repay him with zucchini bread I hope!  And honesty, putting my hands in the dirt makes me happy.  Am I a great gardener?  Heck no!  But am I happier with the sun shining on my face, and my hands in the dirt?  Yep!  And after the mess of this day - dirt for the win!