Langsgiving 2024

We had Langsgiving at our house yesterday.  We had a lot of people show up, and I was so happy to see them all - including all of our children and their significant others!  I got so busy visiting with everyone that I forgot to take very many pictures!  It was awesome to have a chance to see everyone, and I am truly thankful! 

 Evie has been paying attention in PE apparently, she is very concerned with becoming more flexible and working on her core strength.  It sort of cracks me up - but she is also 5...I believe I was more flexible at that age as well!  She is like "hey grammy - can you do this?"  Well maybe, but not on purpose!.  She rolls her eyes! 

This little one absolutely loves danger - she was on the counter, the tables, and most of the furniture.  Remember the other night when I told you I babysat for her, and when I said that with 3 of us watching her, she was still able to be in all sorts of places she shouldn't be?  Well, yesterday there were like 50 people around and she still couldn't be contained, so now I feel better about things!  She is a great climber!  She also excels at dismantling things!  She sort of reminds  me of Cameron when he was that age - the boy was always taking my stuff apart, and ending up in places little children should not be! 

Evelyn was excited to have some craft time with everyone!  Preston thinks he won the greatest turkey craft, but aunt Leanne proclaimed that his feathers were too short!  I am pretty sure she said that cousin Lauren was the winner.....there might have been some contention over that ruling however.

It was nice to have Quincy home for a few days.  We have really missed her!  I also appreciated her help - she took Harper and they did our sacristan duties and then she ran a couple of errands for me - which freed me up significantly to continue the cleaning I was doing at home.  Mallory and Madison also showed up and helped me clean!  Andrew also showed up on Saturday afternoon.  He was between calls at work and decided to swing by.  He opened the door just in time to see Jim working on hanging up his TV.  I could have cried I was so happy to see him.  He jumped right in, helped Jim get everything secure, and was willing to crawl in the hole and get everything hooked up!  I like that the TV is mounted, I was seriously worried it would fall on a certain little girl who loves to climb!  

This is my grandkid, who loves cool whip....and after the girls had to spray each other in the face, she went to work gathering up the leftovers!  She wasn't happy when we didn't let her eat the floor cool whip! Crazy kid!

Sneak peek at my Christmas card photo- because if they are all home, you have to force them to get the pictures!  It is almost impossible to get a good photo of this many people at once.  Amy tried!  

When the party was over, our kids all joined us for pizza.  I was happy to sit down and visit with them all, and then it was so oddly quiet when everyone went home.  Even Tooth was beat!  

My cousin Michael and his family lost their old cat last week.  They decided that they were in love with Dwight and took her home with them.  I am so thankful - she is going to a cat loving, amazing house where she will be loved by a little boy and girl who were over the moon excited.  

I am exhausted, the house is back to small numbers of people, and the weekend went by too quickly, but we have so much to be thankful for!  

 

Jim’s birthday

 

Today is my guy’s birthday.  He is old enough to know better, but still too young to care.   I think he had a good day. He got birthday boy breakfast to share with co-workers, lunch bought for him at the bar by the mayor, and dinner with his favorite wife.  He also got a giant tv, and we had to get some brackets and wood reinforcements so we can hang the thing! So happy birthday to him!  

Of course, since we went to Lawrence, we had to get a birthday picture with the 59 sign.   Because the boy lives for this sort of thing. 

My Jim - is one of my favorite people.  Yea, he occasionally makes me roll my eyes with his “jokes,” and he tends to think puns are the way to get through life.   He is an amazing dad, a good husband and a spectacular poppy!   I feel so incredibly lucky to have him in our lives.  

While we were out for dinner and running a few errands, Saige baked him a cake.  When we got home, she helped us carry in the groceries and then proclaimed her thorough exhaustion and went to bed!  Harper and I sang to him, but we will all eat cake tomorrow.  Quincy is on her way home and we are excited to see her!  I’m sure she will happily eat cake with her dad! 

Happy birthday Jim!   We love you!  

Lasagna soup is a no for me.

Over the weekend, I got this cute phot of Cameron and Lauren, who were on their way to some wedding.  Aren't they cute?  Have I mentioned I am excited about Thanksgiving?  I am missing my babies.  Thanks to the popularity of text messaging, I do hear from most of them frequently - but it isn't the same as giving them a hug.  I do enjoy Cameron's weekly series - guess what kind of weirdness happened at the bank this week?  :)  

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a recipe for lasagna soup.  When shopping last week, I told Jim about it and he said he would like to try it.  We bought the ingredients.  Yesterday, it was rainy and cold all day, and when I went home for lunch, I threw the stuff in the crock pot, thinking nice hot dinner when we got home.  I even made garlic cheese rolls and had them ready for the oven when I got back from driving the bus.  I had dinner all ready around 5:30 - unheard of at our house, where I tend to start cooking after I get home and we eat a little later in the evening.  Also unheard of, Jim was home early!  We just sat down to watch the news, and eat our soup, and were laughing about Harper's cat growling and hissing at the news (me too cat - me too), when the power went out.  There was a wind storm that apparently knocked out quite a few people.  I was happy I had made dinner early!  I was not happy with the soup, however.  OK, so lasagna soup is just really runny lasagna.  Also, the recipe says to break up lasagna noodles and throw them in there.  As they cook, they suck up the liquid and it is really just weird, runny lasagna.  Now, if you know me, you know that I love lasagna.  And I don't make a bad lasagna, despite not really having any Italian people to learn from, but this....abomination.  Yes we ate it, and yes, we will be eating the leftovers for lunch today, but that will be the absolute last pot of lasagna soup I ever make!

The power being out turned into a fiasco for more than one reason.  One, I am hosting Langsgiving this weekend, and I had a list of things I wanted to do.  Having no power meant I could not do stuff I wanted to do, throwing my list into turmoil.  Also, Jim sleeps with an apnea mask, and no power means that his mask is a no go.  He really can't sleep without it, so he was up until 2:45 when the power finally came back on.  At 4 am the dog was barking and carrying on in the living room.  Last night was just not good.  Here is hoping today goes better, I can double up on my list, and still have everything work out without killing my sanity.  :)  

It has already started out better, as Jim's Uncle Ray called me by accident.  I always enjoy talking to him - so it was a happy accident.  Fingers crossed it was a sign.  

 

Saige’s birthday (late- because life)

On Thursday, Saige turned 13 years old!  Jim and I discussed the surrealness of it- we are on the downhill slide of parenting.  Or at least of being legally responsible for tiny humans.  We still have no clue what we are doing, but feel like the family theme of “fake it til you make it” has worked out pretty well. 

Saige is our baby. She unintentionally finished up our family.  When she was born, Mallory and Madison were 15 years old. She instantly became the living baby doll every one loved.  She was dragged to a wrestling tournament when she was 8 days old. She has been drug to more things than I could even hope to count.  As a result, she doesn’t really like to leave home. She doesn’t really love sports outside of softball.  She likes professional football especially the Bills, snap chat, being with friends, hanging with cats, art, photography talking walks, and sleeping.  

She hates “stupid people,” cleaning, and 80% of the food I prepare.  

She is a little bit on the dramatic side, is never afraid to tell you exactly how she feels, but is also sweet, compassionate and funny.  I am so very proud of the teenager she has grown into.  Love you Saige! 

For her birthday dinner, she wanted McDonald’s.  That worked out well, because I planned to bake her a cake over my break, but ran out of time, so we also stopped off and got her a cake.  She was elated!  She had a slumber party with 4 friends last night.  They ate themselves silly, took late night walks down the road, watched scary movies and stayed up all night talking.  There was zero drama and very little slumber.  I failed to take photos of her with her friends.   She won’t be sad about it, but I am. 

Madison and Mallory took one of the painting classes last night.  Andrew had to work late, so Jim and I watched the girls for a while.  Saige was preoccupied with her friends, but auntie Harper was willing to do manicures, pedicures, lotion baths, and chugging Dr Pepper with the girls. 

Also, had a little dancing with Scully. 

This one decided to start walking this week.  When I tell you she is feral, I am not joking.  She climbed onto the table in the living room, climbed onto the table in the dining room, crawled under the new tv and got stuck, somehow grabbed ahold of the scentsy warmer I forgot I had on, got mildly burned, refused to eat her dinner, but then when her dad got here, she cleaned his plate for him, and stripped off her clothes.  And that was with all of us watching her!  

I love having these girls close!  They make me absolutely have the most amazing days!

Photos are sort of out of order, but Harper and I are the sacristans at church this month.  We ran over to clean and set up for mass a little later than I wanted to.  I sort of like doing the cleaning when it’s  not dark.  We came close!   We came out just in time to see the most beautiful sunset with the cows all standing in the pasture in front of it.  Harper rolled her eyes when I said I needed a photo.  I already failed at photo taking so I didn’t let her influence my decisions. 

Today I decided to repair and repaint the trim around the windows in the basement living room.  I have a tiny bit of touch up to do tomorrow, but I like the way it looks.  My shoulder didn’t like it very much, but I let that be my physical therapy for the day. The girls got the coat closet cleaned out and then took naps! Tomorrow has to be about deep cleaning…..must get ready for the holidays! I  am thankful for the weekend! 

 

How are we?

A week out from the fiasco.  I am now resigned to thinking that we will survive.  I mean, after all, we are white, we are Christians.  We have nothing to fear right?  This is sarcasm.  I am still not ok.  A friend of mine told me to keep my chin up - that good always prevails.  I am watching the cabinet picks and as much as I would love to believe in goodness, it sure isn't looking good?  Freedom and democracy were a good experiment.  I am seeing a lot of "FAFO" on the internet and I am really not excited about the Find Out phase.  My dad used to ask us if we "wanted to learn the hard way?" and I fear that all of us are about to.  When he said that, you never wanted to learn that way - just for the record, the hard way was a kick to the seat of your pants.  Maybe I am wrong.  I have been wrong a time or 2 before.  But having lived this nightmare already, I have my doubts.  I think I will miss science the most.  And then common decency, followed by education in general.  Followed closely by separation of church and state.  It's really just a tossup.

But Wrenley is ready.  Since education is no longer important, she is just going to jump right into her career!  Cutest little bus driver I have ever seen!

My parents gave us meat for Christmas (thank you mom and dad!!!)  Since I needed the freezer space, I had to get to work making salsa with the tomatoes from my garden.  I had a LOT!  I am also using the peppers from my garden.  I had stored everything in the freezer, waiting for my shoulder to be more usable.  No more waiting.  I had this stuff in the freezer, but didn't realize how much of it there was!  I really grew a lot of stuff this year.  Not enough to cancel out my need for the grocery store, but it is a start!  I made spaghetti sauce a while back, and I have everything cut up and ready to boil out into salsa tonight.  I love a good, hot, beautiful salsa!  I am expanding my raised beds, and planning for next year.  I need outdoor projects to keep me from paying attention to the news.  

The news though, has always been one of my favorite things to watch.  I like being informed, and educated about how things work.  It is bad for your mental health sometimes, though.  It should be easier to watch, even if I am outside since Jim decided to buy this monster tv.  It was on a good sale.  He told me it was his birthday gift.  I am fine with him buying stuff, but I thought it would fit inside the TV hole that is in the living room.  It doesn't.  So now, I am researching ideas on how to hang it over the hole, and I am going to have to beg some of my children to help us over the upcoming holiday break!

Colin and Spencer got their Christmas photo done.  It is a great tradition, but part of the fun is laughing at Volt's face.  He usually looks like he wants to unalive someone.  This year though, he looks happy!  Maybe he thought he should be happier, like Cash?  Or maybe they had better treats this year!

Toys?  Who needs toys?  Poor little girl.

This is meeting week around here.  I dislike meeting week, as it means Jim is not home, I am running, and nothing is getting done the way I want it to.  Luckily, the girls I have still at home are not too worried about what we eat, what we do, and don't seem to mind if they are left at home.  We will survive.  Weekend is gonna hit like a giant party soon!

 

today I do what I do

I had a couple days of intense depression and mourning.  I am still extremely unhappy, but I cannot stay in the depression zone, or I might get lost there.  I have to do what I do.  I switch focus.  I figure out what to do to make sure my own family is ok.  I 'fix' it with my own rationalizations.  

Except this time feels different to me.  This time, the rationalizations aren't there.  I have a couple of things I am thinking about, and a couple of ideas that may or may not work out.  More on that to come. 

For today, though, I know we are ok.  For today, sanity is still in place.  

So as my brain works in the background, I am sharing some pictures of the baby.  Except she isn't a baby any more.  She is a big, wild, feral, hungry, starting to walk, gives you kisses and loves, then hits you, looking more like a toddler, kid! 

The girls each got a kitten.  This is Twix, he seems oblivious to the real need to run from Wrenley.  Madison said the other kitten runs and hides!  Obviously, the other kitten is much smarter!  Or likes kissing less?  Madison also came out to Wrenley standing on the back of the couch looking out the window.  I tell you, this girl is a climber!  

And pictures of the Pride's pot in front of my office.  It is November 8, and the petunias are still going!  They threw some mums in the pots, but she said the petunias were looking too pretty to pull out.  I can't get over it!  We have had a couple of pretty cold nights, but apparently not cold enough to damage the plants!  I know it is coming, but for today, I am still enjoying them!  

When I ran to the neighbor's house the other day, I happened to notice the cow who was happily grazing in the cemetery.  I don't know why, but it made me laugh.

Jim and I had made a decision to find a new home for Norma.  I have tried.  Everyone wants a tiny puppy, or a specially bred dog.  In the meantime, I sort of started feeling guilty about it.  And I have been working harder with her.  She knows some stuff.  She minds fairly well, sometimes.  It gives me small glimpses of hope that maybe she is going to be ok, and that maybe we should just let her stay with us.  Maybe - I don't know.  Now that my arm is functioning better, I can manhandle her a little easier, so it may end up ok.

Shifting focus - (aka is my ADD  showing?) the shoulder debacle - I am now an official physical therapy drop out.  I loved my physical therapist.  She was awesome.  The problem is that I am literally out of vacation time at work, running up there between jobs is incredibly stressful (time wise almost impossible), and I feel like if I just use the arm it will improve enough to get me back to where it was before.  I have been doing the exercises that the PT suggested, and I do feel like the arm is about 80% back to normal.  Technically, I am not to be lifting things more than 2-3 pounds, but this is the Hope school of healing around here - that just isn't realistic.  Fake it til you make it right?

Also, I am sad to report that last night, Jim and I ran to get groceries, since I have to work all weekend.  We dropped off some stuff at Mallory's and then headed home, and I hit a deer.  Luckily, it was a small one, and only did minimal damage to my car.  Have I mentioned I love my car?  I plan to drive it for a long , long time.  So of course, it will look like a hurricane hit it.  I am not turning it into insurance.  I think instead, I will try to fix it myself - you know with some silicone and finger nail polish.  Good as new.  It isn't' the first time the bumper has received damage - I had the car approximately 2 minutes when Quincy unloaded feed from the trunk, and somehow hit the shed, tearing off the bumper.  My old buddy Jagger bolted it down and used some zip ties to hold it in place.  I mean, rugged people have rugged vehicles right?  I will try to take some pictures for reference. 

The worst part of this story should probably be told.  As Jim was telling the girls what happened - he told them "and when she it, the sound was terrible - it went BAM-bi."  (Yes, I married a comedian). 

And now, back to regularly scheduled programming.