slowly but surely

 Bob and I are taking small little trips out of the house. We didn't catch covid from our grand son... lucky us.

But his parents did... His case was much milder than theirs. He is well again and masked, he can go and take his make-up finals at the high school on Thursday.

His parents are still stuck at home...

Luckily our granddaughter lives away from home in an apartment... has had covid, two vaccinations and the booster... she became the person who went and bought food etc for everyone who was quarantined and left it on the front steps!!

In the midst of all this quarantining our daughter's toilet had a malfunction. Not the easy one where you replace the flapper but a more complicated one. Bob had a replacement part in his "stash" so he dropped it off on her front steps after checking to make sure she had any necessary tools... AND she fixed it!! BTW her husband has absolutely no mechanical skills... Bob made sure ALL the kids ( male and female) could change the oil on a car, change a tire, fix toilets and so on. I made sure they could cook, do laundry and run the dishwasher!

Our postponed Christmas get together will be January 6th !!

Merry Christmas to all

 

 

Waiting...

 Luckily my husband found some" at home covid test kits" at our pharmacy... because our daughter ( mother to grandson) started displaying covid symptoms.... not really surprising. We sent over to her house one of the kits and she reported back that "yes, she is positive"! They are definitely on quarantine...their daughter drops groceries etc at the front steps!

Since we were together on Saturday for lunch at the restaurant where our grand daughter makes salads and sides ( she was so excited to have us all come and popped out of the kitchen to say hello.) we were our own super spreader. Now we wait to see if any one else tests positive.  BTW we, the adults, are all double vaccinated and boosted.

Christmas now postponed for even longer...  presents, all wrapped, are waiting under the tree!!

So far Bob and I are fine ( fingers crossed).

postponing Christmas

 My grandson ( vaccinated twice) texted home,  during a final exam, that he was feeling ill. His father checked with attendance office and arranged to pick him up. One of his lunch buddies had tested positive for covid so my grandson's parents arranged for a rapid covid test this afternoon.

It came back positive  ..my daughter, son-in-law and grandson are under quarantine till next week. The family talked about splitting up , presents too! But we decided to postpone things till the end of next week... unless someone else in the family caught it from my grandson.  If that happens we will be having an Eastern Orthodox Christmas in January.

Best laid plans don't always work out...

ps... Dominic is almost 16 so has not been cleared for a covid booster vaccination...  yet

counting down tasks

Let's see... Dominic passed the state test!! Good for him!!

Cards with letters in... love getting those annual catch-up letters. Some we have been receiving for over 50 years!!

My bed becomes the package wrapping station each day... of course each night I have to unload everything !!  LOL

Our elder daughter texted us saying the hand rail supports had snapped... no idea how. The railing goes along the stairs from kitchen down to the basement ( laundry area) and to the garage. The dogs were running up and down but could they have done something to make the supports snap?  Bob and I went to to make repairs...He managed to get the old screws out ... hard work. Today new supports added and the railing hung!!

Tomorrow we have lunch at the restaurant where Lili makes salads and sides. She is excited ( and so are we) .. can't wait for us to see and taste her "work"!! 

lousy night.. busy day

Last night was one of "those" nights... didn't sleep well! Lots of "unmentionable" reasons why which led to a nap in the recliner after my Christmas shopping jaunt. Naps don't make me feel better so unless I fall asleep without planning on it, I don't !!

The Christmas tree is finished... being decorated that is. A timer turns it on early evening. Our tree is small and sits on a desk in the bay window with white lights, ornaments and the angel we bought our first year of marriage!

As I was decorating the tree,  I sorted through boxes and boxes of ornaments from the days of big trees, handmade by kids ornaments and hand me down ones from my Mother and Bob's parents ( and grandparents) and came up with a box full for our grand daughter Lili's first tree!! Waste not want not !!

Lili called needing car repair help... something to do with spark plugs and coils... and could she come over after work and have Grandpa help?? Of course.... Luckily the temps are still in the low 70's so working out in the driveway was feasible!! About an hour later they got things done!!

Dominic ( the grandson) is taking a cooking class as an elective... one assignment was to cook dinner for his family at home. Three dishes...new recipe etc. The main one he cooked was a Hungarian soup. Everyone liked it but him... poor Dominic. To finish up his class he had to take a state required test... three hours long. Two hours of which he had to leave his regular classes for. Evidently only 50% of the test takers pass...

Tomorrow's weather predictions sound a little ominous... high temps and lots and lots of wind. We are in the same weather pattern that led to tornadoes in Eastern Missouri, Tenn, Ky and Illinois last weekend.

Downhill..

Today started out quite upbeat. The quilting group had a good time last night.. lots of food, laughs, gift exchange, toilet paper roll crafting  etc. Everything was put away this morning and somethings were made ready for Christmas...

This afternoon I had a hair appointment.... downtown Kansas City. Bob came along to keep me company on the drive to and from. We managed the road construction  with out too much of a hassle.

 Mark ( my "hair guy" ) and I had lots of catching up to do as he snipped away. He was to head out to the airport after my appointment  to fly off to Florida for a long weekend. The haircut was good.. Bob even commented and complimented Mark.

Took a different route back home hoping to avoid the construction only to find more, necessitating a detour. Then there was rock in the roadway!! Bob hit it... lots of noise... alerts from the car telling us tire pressure was down to "zip".

Made it to a gas station where we parked and Bob checked things out. Tire was flat as a pancake and probably not repairable.

Long drawn out conversation with AAA.... tow truck on its way... While we waited Bob called our local Good Year place and told them we were headed their way and told them the tire size...

Car was pulled up onto the two track's bed... I climbed into the truck and with the driver on one side and Bob on the other... off we went. Of course by then it was rush hour...lots of traffic... even a stalled truck...

But we made it to the Good Year place.. unloaded the car from the tow truck... arranged for the tire to be replaced and waited for a lift home ( younger daughter to the rescue!)

Tomorrow we wait... car-less... hopefully someone will give us a left when the car is "fixed"!!  By the way this car doesn't have a spare... not even a do-nut.

pot luck and boxes galore

 I have been getting ready for my quilting group on Wednesday. We are having a pot luck and gift exchange.... and a chance to craft. One of the group came across a u-tube tutorial for making toilet paper tube hat ornaments. I decided to make one ahead of time just to see how it goes...

Here it is.... the quilter who found this plans to add a nose and a beard and turn it into a gnome! Can't wait to see the result.  Now I just have to finish my part of the food!!

As for the boxes.... Carolyn, the gifted teacher , arranged for STEM kits for her classes next semester and next summer from the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She couldn't resist the buy one/get one offer. UPS dropped off the 21 boxes and we piled them up in the living room. Slowly but surely the boxes will make it to her classroom!!

Some of the boxes are gone... here are the rest. Looking at the kits and hearing about what the kids will be doing...definitely a good deal!!

I think we will be able to arrange the boxes so that my quilting group members can make their way to the table!! LOL

Bob put up our outside lights yesterday and I have brought stuff down from the attic to decorate with..

Getting that Christmas look.