Basket class

Bob, our younger daughter and I took a basket class while we were in Albuquerque last week ... from one of the pueblo members. Carolyn finished hers but Bob and I didn't. The teacher gave us supplies to finish at home.

Bob didn't want to finish his.. but I did. I finished it last night. It's small ... but I am happy. All of us enjoyed the class!!

The other person in our class... his wife was attending the convention... was from Minnesota but had been from Kansas City. Small world.

Our grand daughter called me this morning.. she is now a Notary Public.. She passed the test earlier but today she needed to be sworn in. Her boss at the DMV will get her the seal and book. Now she will be able  to notarize people getting licenses etc. instead of having to pass them onto another DMV employee.

Rain..and more rain

Weather reports say it will rain off and on all day... maybe up to two inches. Temperature currently is 63 degrees ...warm for November.

Bob and I have adopted two seniors through Phoenix Family... both women this year... and have received the wants/needs etc info plus a biography.  Now we have to go shopping!! Glad the lists include sizes and favorite colors!

Phoenix Family has many people... many families...many seniors that can be adopted for the Holidays !

My grand daughter and I were talking about recipes on the phone... she had found a bottle of Bacardi rum in the back cupboard.... probably leftover from a BYOB. I have a rumball recipe which  she will try. We also decided to have a cookie making event after Thanksgiving  just like when she was really young!!Now she cooks more adventurously than I do... I've invited my daughter/her Mother too! 

Had my annual (?) Medicare Wellness exam this afternoon... Went well. Everything is fine though my doctor does want a lab done and Xrays of my hands. Too many lumps..arthritis of some sort. Xrays tomorrow.

We stopped at Office Depot and Hobby Lobby on the way home and it was pouring !!

First batch of Chex Mix

 I had a friend who gave me her recipe for home made Chex mix... I say had because her son and his family moved her down to Florida when dementia "hit". I miss her but the last time I saw her she didn't even know who I was... She loved my bears... was a great crocheter and crafts person!

But everyone in my family loves her Chex Mix and  we remember her when I buy all the ingredients and pull out the huge baking pans!

Today was the "DAY" ! I know another batch will made closer to Christmas!! Just to entice everyone, Bob took pictures all along!!

BTW... this is the start of our holiday season!!

Two pictures from Albuquerque ...feeding the rescue horses

Rita's Chex Mix.. one more not in the picture.

Now that the Chex Mix is cooled I have put into seal able plastic containers ....Bob has been munching!!

 

 

Albuquerque

 We are back home... it was an interesting time.We stayed in a resort that was on part of a 100,00 acre pueblo ! One of the trails took our younger daughter down to the Rio Grande River! The resort has a horse rescue facility and we walked to it and fed the horses with food available at the trading post.

At this time of the year everything was dry and brown... warm and very windy days and very cold and windy nights.... but Bob got a sunburn sitting outside reading on a sunny afternoon!!

Our older daughter missed her convention by being sick the whole time we were in Albuquerque. Luckily she bought the video and will be able to watch it! 

We drove into Albuquerque ( the resort was about 30 miles north) and went to the Pueblo Museum. It was fantastic and we learned alot.

Glad to get home ...pictures to follow

Albuquerque ... here we come

 These past few days have been awful...

But we are getting ready to head out to Albuquerque on Sunday. Our elder daughter is attending a development convention and Bob, Carolyn and I are going along just for fun!!

None of us has been to New Mexico before and it looks very interesting. Things may be colder than Kansas City so we are figuring out how to take winter coats along.

We will be back late Thursday...so no posts till after that!

rain ? VOTE!!

 Woke up to more rain this morning. I thought "oh no!" ... standing in line to vote in the rain?? But by 10.35 the sun was out and so off we drove. Wondering what was ahead at our voting site.

Bob dropped me off at the door and went to park. There wasn't a line at all. It was busy inside.. probably not quite enough places to sit down with one's ballot but do-able!!

We were home in 20 minutes including a stop at the library to drop of a book!!

What a relief... especially after seeing the four hour long lines at the early "no excuse" voting site.. all week long!

Feet up... another cup of coffee soon?

Lots of rain..

 Woke this morning to heavy rain. Bad enough that we had changed the clocks last night and thrown my sleep schedule off but rain!!?

We do need rain but I had planned to head out to Aldi 's... can't do with out milk and bread!! I decided to go anyway and it looked like lots  of people had the same idea! The parking lot was full... the carts were wet... the aisles were full of shoppers ! But people were friendly and happy and I got everything on my list.

It wasn't raining quite so hard when I left Aldi's  and I knew Bob could bring things into the house..more rain tonight  according to the weather person...

End of Halloween

Last night  ( Halloween) ended on a downer. Tigger the orange cat, got very confused with all the door bell ringing and trick or treaters. Not just confused but aggressive ... attacking my legs. Luckily I was wearing heavy jeans. But to top things... around midnight on my way to bed. He bit me ... quite nastily on the top of my foot. It bled a lot and Bob had to become my doctor. He washed off my foot with soap and water... and wiped up the rug... then drying my foot off he applied lots of iodine and bandages.

Keeping an eye on things.. if there's a problem tomorrow I'll call Urgent Care

later...foot still swollen and red... more iodine and new band aids Tigger back to calm this evening.

Window watching

 We have gotten really warm... currently 84 degrees. Wind advisory in effect. Tigger got really involved with the wind noise so Bob opened the window in our office so Tigger  could watch the leaves and branches and listen to the noise!

The early "no excuse" voting sites are still having 2-4 hour lines... We have driven by several times ... saw all the people and headed back home. We will take another look tomorrow... and take along my seated walker . I can't stand that long!! And some bottled water.

Hamfest in Raytown

Bob and I sat all morning at a church in Raytown.  A local ham group was holding its hamfest... ham equipment both old and new, antennas and so on for sale. Bob had been sorting through at his stuff and we brought a table's worth of things he didn't want any more.

He has been a ham since 1958... while he was still in high school. His interest led him to become an electrical engineer!

I kept him company when he wasn't talking to other hams - both young and old! A girl, about 9, went home with a free crystal radio kit! A poor father or maybe a grandfather has a teaching opportunity!

Our table was just about empty  when we went home!! Cash in Bob's pocket!! Plus another decluttering !!

Trying again

 We tried again to vote today... this time we went around 2 hoping there would be less people on line. But no, there were more - my estimate. Bob says less. Who knows which of us is right  but too many to want to stand and wait.

As we were driving to the Fleming Town Hall to vote an emergency vehicle passed us.. lights on etc. I jokingly said that maybe someone on line had fainted. Bob said  he has thought the same thing. As we got close to the voting place... there was the emergency vehicle... than a fire truck showed up with its lights on too! Everybody was looking ( but not leaving their spot online) and as things were brought out of the ambulance.  BTW the temp was 81... hard to stand on line in that heat for a LONG time!

We drove further on and turned around. As we headed back home the fire chief's car pulled up next to the ambulance!

Think we may try another voting place next week...probably the Board of Elections place on Independence's Square.. Bob has suggested lunch at one of the restaurants whether or not we vote!!

Meant to post this  yesterday but we had a huge thunderstorm and turned off the computers!

Today my daughter and son-in-law had the day off so they came over to help bring down more stuff in the attic. Lots more empty boxes and things too heavy for Bob to manage on his own. Plus boxes of china from my deceased mother-in-law... things no one really wants but probably shouldn't go to the thrift store. Two floor fans went home with our helpers.. one still in the attic for next summer.

The attic is a lot emptier now...

no excuse voting

 Missouri's "no excuse" early voting started  yesterday ( or the day before lol). Bob and I decided to go to one of the sites this morning around 10 hoping to miss those who were before work voters. The line surrounded the site building... Bob says 100 , I say more. The fields surrounding the building contained LOADS of parked cars.

We decided to try again tomorrow...though Bob doesn't think tomorrow will be any better.

 

 

better...

Today has been better... We went to the gym and did machines, treadmill and laps! Then off  to the Disabled Vets Thrift Store (Red Racks) drop to leave the latest car load!

When we arrived home we discovered, much to our delight, that the trash guys had taken all our stuff! Including a huge box full of more disassembled boxes. More next week! This is part of our de-cluttering!

Our daughter's first graders had a great day... one of them had chosen to have a birthday celebration with her gifted classmates rather than her regular classroom. So there was pizza, gift bags and all sorts of stuff including the parents! Our daughter said she had never had a birthday celebration before... so  she enjoyed it as much as the first graders and the parents!

Bob and I both had a recliner nap after our gym time!!

so far... not a great day

 Woke up this morning and got going on my usual tasks -- empty the dishwasher and settle down to have a cup of coffee and read the paper ... a paper one thrown to the end of the driveway!  Ever since covid , we text each other  and do a check in. The first text ( from my younger daughter) said my grandson-in-law had an accident on the highway on his way to work. He's fine... the car is totaled. Another text from the same daughter said her husband's work had received a bomb threat and it had closed down. His work subcontracts for the federal gov't..

so... made coffee.... and relaxed for a bit.. read the paper

Then off to Aldi's... nothing bad there thank goodness...

Put everything away and organized things for dinner when our daughter called to talk about the accident and what our grand daughter and her husband needed to do.... not too long later and our grand daughter herself called to talk to Grandpa about what she and her husband needed to do.

How did we get to all this...?

Well.. we are both "collectors". Bob collects antique radios, ham radio stuff, trains,slide rules, and so on. I collect antique bears and stuff for "The Glass Dragon"'s bears - accessories, fabric and sewing machines - dolls..

On top of all this, is stuff my kids left behind and stuff that came back when my son died. And then one adds stuff from both parents and grandparents. It seemed like every visit my sister-in-law made included a car trunk full of stuff from her Mother and Father's estate and Bob could never say no.

We seem to be the depository of stuff.  When the kids left we had a large mostly empty house... but stuff came wandering back...

I've started a new "pile" of stuff to go to the thrift store!

De-cluttering... hooray

 Bob and I spent time after my quilting group discussing the future route we should be taking... Our house has loads of stairs plus the entry stairs. Time will come when this really becomes a problem. One of my quilting friends.. a widow in her 90's is already coping with this problem... her telling of a new facility near home got Bob and I thinking

What do we want next? I don't think we know and discussions show that our wants/wishes/needs aren't always the same.

One hindrance is how we manage to leave this house...40 plus years of stuff!

So we decided to make some small inroads today ... and we did. We started up in the attic. We now have a car trunk of stuff ready to go. Loads of cardboard boxes that held computers, monitors, woodworking machines etc. Some boxes we took apart for the next garbage pickup... maybe we can find a cardboard recycling place for the rest..

Plus plans were made for another trip up to the attic. The attic has pull down stairs and we will need a "younger" person for some stuff  Bob can't manage.  We were much younger and more agile when we put things there...lol !  Our younger daughter has agreed to give us a hand... hooray!

Busy today

 I am hosting my "quilting" group this evening and so went off to the grocery store for drinks and dessert. The couple in front of me in the only checkout lane had an enormous cart full of everything under the sun!! The bagger kept piling on bag after bag into their cart...I swear the pile topped more than a foot over the cart!  Boy am I glad I don't have to put all that away!!

Off to the cardiologist for a check up this afternoon.... 

Everything fine.. quilting was fun....

Adopt-a-senior

 Hard to imagine except for the cooler weather but non-profits are beginning to set up their "adopt" programs for the holidays.

Bob and I have been adopting seniors for quite a few years... one of each sex.. and have signed up again.

Thank you Phoenix Family for running this.... Bob and I have helped our daughter shop for families that have signed up. I am always amazed at how organized this is... print outs of each family member, ages, sizes , wants and wishes for the kids. We go out late at night to shop so the stores aren't busy and fill cart after cart.... carefully organizing the bags after check out so the right family gets the right things. Then there is a big "wrap party"!!

Our senior adoptees also come with "wants and needs" sheets, sizes etc. We shop and wrap and deliver to Phoenix Family offices for delivery to the seniors. Last year one of our seniors wanted "learn to read" books...

cold...

 Woke up cold this morning... needed an additional quilt!! And it hasn't gotten warm today either! There are frost warnings for tomorrow morning.

I am baking a quiche for dinner tonight... we will enjoy having the oven on!!  It has sharp cheddar, Parmesan cheese, chopped ham, onions and red peppers .

We went to the gym this morning... I am managing to increase my laps ( a bit) and  the number of  leg strengthening machine reps. Means I am exhausted when we get  home... especially since we hit the grocery store afterwards. Thanks to Silver Sneakers... the gym membership is free!!

 The quiche turned out well... I swear Bob ate almost half of a 9 inch pie pan of quiche!! There is enough for a cold leftover dinner...

Forgot to publish last night

 

today??

 When I noticed today's date ... October 12th... I immediately thought Columbus Day !  But no.. President Biden has declared this year's Columbus Day is Monday Oct. 14th...  Oh well... no mail and other federal things.

Actually I am sort of surprised that there still is a Columbus Day... there has been lots of talk about others arriving to the Western Hemisphere earlier..

It's going to be a much warmer day... 90 degrees as a high. Bob has switched the a/c/ furnace to heat but haven't needed it. 

Later... it did get hot and I turned on a little fan to get the air moving...helped.

little of this and that

We ( the family here in KC) watched and worried about family down in Florida. It looked like our brother-in-law in N Ft. Myers and our niece and her family in Jacksonville were right in Milton's path. No news is good news so we are assuming everything is ok.

Bob has been doing watering duty out at our daughter's house. The dogs are glad to see him and they all sit out on the deck waiting for the time to pass.

I have been puttering around..today's task was to "oil" our front door.. I'd love to paint it some bright eye catching color but Bob won't hear of it. But it had gotten that weathered look and "oil" made it look so much better.

Our two daughters are having a get together tomorrow. They are both so busy that getting together doesn't happen too often. So it's dinner out at the local Chinese buffet and then sitting out on L's deck cocktails in hand... and lots of talk. Happy for the two of them!!

 

quiet day ...errands etc today

Yesterday was a quiet one... everyone rested (!). Bob did go and turn on sprinkler for the allotted 20 plus minutes.

This morning was a gym day... both of us did our thing. Then we came home and changed clothes and will head out on our errands. Pills for me... cat stuff for the cats...return library books. 

 Luckily most of the road work is done and leaving home yesterday was ok

Turning on the sprinklers and giving the dogs some time outside is scheduled for later on.

Forgot to mention that I ended up answering a pollster's questions on the phone last night...The questions were pretty much Missouri ones and abortion ones and a few were Trump but not Biden or Harris. After she was done, she "God Blessed" me.  ??

We don't tend to answer pollsters but ...

totally whipped

We spent the afternoon redoing our elder daughter's grassless front  lawn.. prepped the dirt... reseeded...peat moss and covered things with a "blanket" made especially for lawn work.  Would have been easier if  the lawn was flat!!

Bob will be going daily to water... Fingers crossed that the grass will grow!

All of us are totally whipped...I didn't feel like cooking or going out for dinner so I made a batch of tunafish for sandwiches . We enjoyed  it and so did the cats. Tuna juice ( the liquid in the can) is the cat's meow!!

Tomorrow is the " stay at home" day while they start on the new road asphalt.

Gorgeous outside

 The weather is wonderful... currently 80 F! Doors open... windows open !

After a trip to Aldi's and Price Chopper I am set to make Debby's stuffed green pepper soup :

 (https://lifesfunnylikethat.blogspot.com/ ) I am considering adding some fresh mushrooms too!

My granddaughter chatted on her hands-free phone on her way home from work. She is a treat and full of all sorts of  "topics" . When she gets home she will spend the afternoon on homework so that she and her husband can go to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow ... over in Kansas, but not to far. They will meet up with friends, enjoy the jousting and share a turkey drumstick ( always big enough for two!). Luckily someone brought in free tickets to work!

The soup was great... added the mushrooms and a dollop of sour cream. Nice to have something new to try!

 

Hello October...

 Today starts October... but the weather report says things will be getting warmer on Thursday but today's high 60's is great.. Up and down just like the rest of the past weeks!!

My grandson also had a reaction to the covid test.. managed to make it to two of his required classes but had to email the teachers for the rest...Everyone else didn't have a problem!

I tried a new recipe tonight... good  but not great. The one part that made it worth the try was a batch of polenta. I had never made it before and finding coarse ground cornmeal meant several stores! I ended up with medium ground cornmeal but it worked.

Since I have more cornmeal maybe I will try putting the just cooked polenta in a pan, letting it firm up overnight so it can be sliced and fried. I think I have seen Lydia  on PBS do that.

Tomorrow means a trip downtown KC... haircut time!!

Recuperating??

 Feeling better... the arm still has a large bump, hot to the touch and hurts.. but other symptoms are on the downward turn.

We went out to dinner with our elder daughter yesterday... Moocho in Oak Grove. Bet they thought we were never going to leave...Lots of talking. Then we went back to her house to drop off some political signs ( I wonder whether they will be stolen...Oak Grove is pretty red!) And more talking out on the deck . Scout and Harper were delighted to see us and to have us sit outside while they enjoyed the company and playing.

Today it was back to our routine at the gym! Bob is doing the laundry! He carries the basket down to the machines (?) in the basement , sorts stuff etc. I help with the fresh bedding and folding when he brings the baskets back upstairs. 

I do appreciate it... I cannot manage the baskets etc anymore.

Got involved streaming a New Zealand show... forgot to publish

Covid vaccination

Today has been the pits... My arm and shoulder hurt...lots of mucus.. I also have a low temp...The trip to the gym was really short...

Hope tomorrow will be better

covid booster shots

Bob has scheduled booster shots from CVS today. Teacher daughter's school has mentioned the increase in covid cases and older daughter has been ill all week after working on a race event for Phoenix Family....so we decided we'd better got ours.

Teacher daughter and her family will get their shots on Sunday!!

The temps are back up to mid to high 70's....currently not fall like!

Easy peasy at CVS...we have our shots"...we'll see how it goes. We went to Walmart ( the small neighborhood one) and picked up a few things like wonderful green grapes, bananas ,  cookies from the bakery,  and OJ but they didn't have RedMills polenta which was our real reason for going even though the website said they did!!  Really friendly check out cashier!!

By evening I didn't feel great. My arm hurts... I have a low temp and feel punky. I took a Tylenol with my evening pills and may take Ambien to help me sleep.... and we'll see how things go tomorrow morning. We are supposed to go to the gym... pick up a book the library has on hold for Bob...hit the grocery store for the polenta and finally pick up something from the hardware store...

cooler and busy

 We woke up to another cooler day.. but.I don't think it was cool enough for the furnace to turn!

We headed out to Independence  around 11.30 to pick up some political signs and since  it was around lunch time Bob said we could go to Ophelia's on the Independence square afterwards.

Lunch was great... sandwiches and a wonderful house salad... all kids of little treats ( pimentos, pickled cauliflower, Kalamata olives, pickled onions) and great "greens". The sandwich was big enough for a doggie bag!

Then  we stopped at Clinton's .. an ice cream store still on the "square where Truman worked as a young man. We had 2 scoops of a wonderful butter pecan ice cream in a cup with two spoons so we could enjoy things driving home!! Great timing ... it started to rain just as we left Clinton's and headed to the car!!

Drove the "back way" home ... no I 70 !

This evening we watched Dominic's first college( UMKC) concert on UTube... My daughter and her husband ( the proud parents) drove downtown KC to watch.

 

Forgot to post this yesterday after Dom's concert!!

Wow!! Cooler!!

 After a wet off and on weekend, I woke to a much cooler Monday. I've been using just a sheet when sleeping but needed to pull up the comforter sometime during the night.

We went off to the gym this morning with the temp at 57 F... by mid-afternoon it went up to 61F. I am not sure things will stay this cool. Tree leaves are still green.

Our visit to the gym went well... each trip has meant an increase in the track laps number. Not huge increases but better!

We are going to Albuquerque in November . Our non-profit daughter has a development conference so Bob , teacher daughter and I will go with her on a short vacation... like San Diego and San Antonio. This time we will rent a car and we able to really act like tourists.

no blood but more pee

We haven't found any more blood drops but the pee situation seems to be growing worse... yuck. More rug cleaning is heading our way.

Yesterday was a wet and thundery (?) day. The storm got close enough for us to turn off the computers and the printer.

 The cats were sleeping together on one of the recliners and the booms set them running.

Lots of Blue Springs areas lost power... and the Fall Fun Fest parade did not have the bands preforming and even the whole festival closed down for part of the day. Bet the Farmers' market did too!

But we need the rain... and will enjoy the cooler temps today.

 

Found why blood? Maybe

 Bob found a scabbed cut on Jack's ear. I can see the pattern of blood made by Jack shaking his head. Don't know the origin of the cut but it is scabbed over and there has been no new blood spots...

Normalcy

 Things seem to have settled back into normal. No surprises on the floor and the cats are eating...though Jack is sleeping a lot.

blood spots on the kitchen floor

 One of my first tasks in the morning is emptying the dishwasher. But when I entered the kitchen there were red spots all over the floor... some were tiny ... some were the size of a nickel. They were dry.

I have no idea of their origin. Not mine... not Bob's.... and neither cat seems to be injured...but Jack, the striped older one, did not eat his breakfast and slept all morning.

So I emptied the dishwasher and Bob cleaned up the spots. We will keep an eye on the cats.  BTW, nothing in any of the four litter boxes or anywhere else.

later... Jack is more his usual self. Bob carried him out to the kitchen and fed him and he is purring. Still no signs of anything on either cat.  Jack is going on 19 -20. This episode could just be the beginning of Jack's decline.

Silver Sneakers

The other day Bob went into one of our local gyms and was told that people with Silver Sneakers can join as many gyms as they want... for free. Not sure how that works but Bob was told to bring in our Silver Sneakers cards with their numbers and we could join.... so that's what we did.

Today we went for our first visit...went well. We went before lunch and found just about all the others were as old as we are!! Went well... did some laps and some of the machines!

Yesterday our daughter made a batch of "glorified gingerbread"... Ina Parker is her great-grandmother.. this is a family comfort food... and it was a way to use up milk that went sour in the "olden days". Now we make the milk sour... lol.

More school threats

 There have been more school threats around Blue Springs.. high schools, middle schools... arrests and one deemed non-credible. Since these are minors making the threat, there haven't been any updates.

I have listened to my teacher/ daughter talk about how she can keep her students safe... all very scary. Scary for her... but even scarier for little elementary kids ...( and scary for her Mother!)

Bob was downstairs playing on his XBox when Jack ( the gray striped cat) peed on the rug right in front of him. I will go crazy if both cats start peeing outside of the litter boxes... Bob cleans the litter boxes regularly...

This is later... he is cleaning the rug with the rug cleaner and special pet cleaner stuff.

Rug cleaning

Bob took the rug cleaner and the special "pet" cleanser and went after the areas Tigger  had left wet spots. Of course he vacuumed first.. the rug cleaner works better then. Things look better... and smell better. The smaller scatter rugs were washed..

Here's hoping Tigger uses one of the four litter boxes now.  I have my doubts but here's hoping anyway.

A local Blue Springs high school student has been arrested for making threats on "chit chat'. A school shooting in Omaha killed one!

Tigger's newest accident

Tigger... the orange cat... has been peeing on scatter rugs all over the house. The vet ( and he has been twice to the tune of over $300) has no idea what is going on. All his tests are normal.

Well, today was the newest accident... I went to use my toilet and found a pile of poop on the linoleum floor! Not a good surprise. This is where my shower rug is usually... but after the last pee accident, I had not put it back after washing etc.

Tigger is 12... so not really old.

So what now??  A good surprise... our grandson Dominic came over with a card and some fancy cupcakes for Grandparents' Day!! 

And got to hear about how college is going... his classes... his room mate and so on!  He's changed a bit.. so glad to hear his enthusiasm!!

PS.. the Kansas City Star is saying this will be a good year for autumn leaves. We may try to find a good area!!

exciting times

 We had an "exciting" weekend....we were invited to my elder daughter's for dinner and visiting on Sunday. Just after we arrived the dogs ( Scout and Harper) came charging into the house , Harper was carrying something in her mouth with a gray tail. Luckily she dropped it. It was a half eaten young squirrel. All that was left was the tail, hind quarters and the "guts"... yuck. I got it into the trash much to the dogs' dismay. They then spent quite a bit of time trying to find another.

Dinner was great and not too hot!

Monday we were invited again for dinner. While sitting out on the deck the dogs discovered that another squirrel was in the tree just off of the deck. They tried to climb the tree... pulled down the lowest branches and low and behold the squirrel fell... landing dazed on the ground.

The dogs went ape... our daughter got them by the collars... and Bob got the squirrel into a bucket. It was sort of alive and tossed it into the woods behind the back fence.

The dogs spent the rest of the evening watching the tree hoping for another until some sort of noise came from behind the fence... and their attention moved there. If they could have climbed over the 8 foot fence they would have.

Dinner great again... fingers crossed the squirrels are smart enough to leave that tree and move to someone else's tree!!

dreams and pollen alert

 I had one of those dreams where you cannot stop its "direction"... Even after a bathroom break, the dream started up again at the same spot. It wasn't a bad dream... Bob and I took a bus downtown from Blue Springs to "the city"... not Kansas City. After a day of sight seeing we wanted to go home. But couldn't find the bus stop.. totally lost... Even the taxi stand  guy told me they didn't go to Blue Springs. In the last  part , Bob and I got separated. I decided that was enough and got up!!

We have had two pollen alerts! Everyone's noses are running and sinuses are plugged but it is not going to be super hot

Carolyn's kids had outdoor recess today... hot as it was. She sunburns so had found a shady spot she can stand in and supervise the kids. Today when it was time to go in, she found she was surrounded by kids wanting to be in that shady spot!!

Little bit cooler

 As my daughter drives home from teaching I get to hear the things that happened that day. She calls me on her car phone,,, all hands free.

 Hickman Mills School district is having some sort of printer problem .. district -wise .. so she can't print out all the papers she needs... This has been going on for days...botheration! She may use our printer for some stuff if they don't get it fixed by next week.

Her school building had it a/c fail...luckily her classroom tends to be cool. But it has been hot enough for outdoor recess to be cancelled.

The kids got to watch an actual live interview with Dolly Parton... the kids knew about the free books etc. but weren't aware of her music. So after the interview Carolyn played  "Jolene" and "9 to 5"  which they ( 1st graders) loved. BTW she was actually in KC today!!

I also hear about some of the kids... One kid when being told how to behave told her he didn't have to  do what she said... then he said he was the smartest kid in the class ( gifted class). She told him he wasn't ( true)... Boy was he shocked.!! Guess he'd been told many times he was the smartest!!

By the time she gets home,,, she is "de-stressed"

 

another hot one

 It's been hot again! So we spent the day house cleaning. Not much fun but it needed it and we didn't need to go out anyway!

Even going to the mailbox  was too much!

Lili stopped on her way home from work...DMV license bureau  For the first time someone was unpleasant to her. ... more than unpleasant nasty. He was not happy that he didn't have a receipt from Jackson County saying he paid his personal property tax. Without it she couldn't do what he wanted...that's the rules.  he said he didn't have a printer and so he couldn't print out the receipt... wasn't happy when she suggested he go to the library and print it out!

Funnily enough she wanted to print something  from one of her text books on our printer!! She's really happy with her classes this semester!! Great news!!

Tomorrow is not going to be much better... YUCK!

more branches ... and 100 degrees

 Our teacher daughter texted us last night that branches had come down at her house... one on the roof, from the oak beside her deck. The other from the red bud which has been loosing branches at each storm. The red bud may have to come down... not sure about the other. So Bob will go yo her house and check things out...

Then to Laurel's for the postponed dinner...

well.. this afternoon turned out to be really different than we expected. When we arrived at our daughter's we found her internet etc. was totally out. And she had lots of work that she was planning on completing on the computer.. especially important was a grant application due tomorrow.

Surprisingly the Infinity person showed up at the front door with all his test equipment. Before he could start we had to take the dogs outside! Our temps had reached 100 degrees so no one, dogs included , were happy outside.

The  Infinity guy checked all the inside stuff and then has to go outside  over the fence to see the junction boxes. A neighbor came out, a little upset about a stranger back there, but it turns out his internet was out too! His Infinity guy shows up too. Not the neighbor's internet.... but down the line.

Our daughter was told... maybe Tuesday it would be repaired... Not good news!

In the meantime the dogs, the dog handlers ( me and my daughter and Bob) were very uncomfortable. I was sweating like mad... way past the "glow" stage.

Back inside when the Infinity guys left... lots of liquids for all of us. And then home for us. Felt awful.

Two hours later Laurel's internet was back on... not sure for how long so she's back to work on the grant application

thunder rumblings

 I woke this morning to the sounds of thunder... just rumblings... but a forecast for more and rain. Today there are quite a few farmers' markets and road side stands hoping to open. Hope they have some sort of "roofs"!!

We are supposed to have dinner out on our daughter's deck this evening. Fingers crossed, it will be nice enough!! If not... maybe she'll postpone things to tomorrow.....well that's what happened. The weather forecast for tomorrow is ok so we'll do it then.

So instead I decided to get things ready for my quilting/craft group on Wednesday. I "unloaded" the dining room table where I had been making gingerbread boy ornaments, fabric boxes  and a bear.  The bear is for a November online bear show. The boxes are for this group's Christmas exchange.They will be filled with Christmas candy. The gingerbread boy ornaments are for Bob's ham radio fest. I thought maybe they would be something of interest for wives that had been dragged along! 

Since we didn't go anywhere... today became laundry day. All washed, folded and put away. Bob does most of it!!

 

 

All Gone??

I went grocery shopping this morning. Our Price Chopper was having a special one-day sale event and there some things I wanted plus things I needed. Didn't think it was anything special... picked out my stuff and then started seeing people loading up on all sorts of things... like a grocery cart filled with nothing but paper towels. I had my one... but not a cart full!

My daughter did her shopping after school... hitting all of the stores and ending up at Price Chopper. Again she saw someone with a cart load of paper towels. The shelf was then empty.... and just about everything on the sale was gone!! Even the boxes and boxes of honey crisp  apples I had seen the produce people putting in bins! Guess the $.69/lb was really good. Glad I got mine!!

Maybe that will convince Price Chopper that people really want lower prices and willing to pay for them.

Stump

 Bob decided yesterday to get to work on an old tree stump in our backyard. The tree was taken down years ago but the stump machine  could get through our two gates so it was just left. It was one of those trees that has super prickly balls. Over the years we have cut down the volunteer growth. But I think Bob had just had enough. Turns out the stump is now pretty rotten and he was about get quite a lot dug up and into the "green" bin. Hooray!

I watched a U-Tube where someone made a little fabric box. Wrote down all his directions and made a paper pattern. The pattern looked  like it would make a box bigger than I wanted... so figured out some smaller dimensions... plus I didn't have scrap fabric big enough but did have enough for a smaller version. One is done...

 

 I found some larger scraps so will try a bigger one next... ... made it, but I am not sure which size I prefer.. Time to ponder I guess.

I need to send a package so Bob and I went on the USPS "click and chip" site . A newer version showed up and we decided to sign up for it. I use "Click and Ship" to mail my bears and friends... sold from the online bear shows. The newer version seems to work ok. After paying for the postage, I printed out the label. The box is too big to fit in our mailbox so I will leave a note in it for our mailperson and she will come to the front steps to pick it up!! Nice isn't she??

So a "do nothing day" turned out to be busier than I expected

Sunday

Early yesterday morning we headed to out Bates City to its antique mall. Bates City is about  8 miles East of Blue Springs... just off I-70.  They were having an outdoor flea market. It turned to to be very small... we did a look around and did the same inside at the mall. Did find something... on sale! Success!!

We joined our elder daughter and her two dogs for dinner on her deck last night! Lots of talking... catching up and Bob grilled hot dogs  (on brat rolls) which we served with salad . Good!  The dogs were enticed by the smell but we were careful not to give them any hot dog.  Harper has a tender stomach and gets sick with too much fat and it's not fair to give one a piece and not the other!!

Wal-Mart is Laurel's delivery food thingy... this week two of her ordered items were not available and Wal-Mart made substitutions.... much bigger than she wanted /needed so we went home with them!! 

Today was supposed to be cooler and I guess you might say 83 degrees is cooler than 90's . So I am working on some hand sewn Christmas items ... and reading.

Then my grand daughter Lili called... long chit chat. She talks about everything and anything and her husband in the background chimes in ! Just about when I thought she was done... it was Grandpa's turn and she talked about different things with him!!

Tomorrow Bob is off to the garage overhead door replacement place with Laurel. She wants to replace her garage door. She has been looking online with Home Depot but wants a comparison with a local place.... surprisingly Blue Springs has two!

Back to school

Here's what Phoenix Family posted on Facebook about its "back to school" event..

 

At Phoenix Family, our Back-to-School events are a cherished tradition and a true community celebration. Every year, our generous donors, volunteers, and community partners come together to fill backpacks and host the Back-to-school events. Together, we ensure that every child, regardless of their family's financial situation, has a new backpack filled with school supplies to start the year off right. It’s a celebration of community and a way to help families who need a little extra support.

This year, across 12 housing communities, more than 1,140 kids will start the school year with the tools they need to succeed and feel confident alongside their peers.

So happy that Bob and I  ( and our development director daughter) are part of this every year!!

cooler weather gone..

The cooler weather has disappeared... It went up to 91 this afternoon! The Weatherbug has been showing rain daily and though we have gotten some sprinkles I do not call that rain!

My daughter and her family moved Dominic into his dorm room today. UMKC had the drop off well organized... appointments, closed street and so on. So he is in! Everything was unpacked...my daughter made the bed ( really...). My son-in-law hung the pictures...and so. His room mate didn't show... maybe tomorrow? The two suite mates did ... btw, they are female. The bathroom separates the two areas.

Picked up Dominic's books at the bookstore and ordered the ones they didn't have.

So that's that. My daughter says the house is empty... good she and her husband have to go back to work tomorrow!

My day was grocery shopping, making a blueberry crostata. some crafty stuff and reading . Not exactly busy was I?

BTW... my job as far as the move goes was to be available on the phone for anything my daughter wanted to talk about...

haircut and lunch

 Bob drove me to my haircut appointment today ( down in the KC Plaza area)... The trip went trough lots of road construction...resurfacing of 47th Street to the building of the KC "trolley" extension.... But we made it on time!

Mark and I had a great time talking while he snipped away at my hair. I left a big pile of hair!! He was adopted from the Philippians at 10.... flew into Chicago with a bunch of kids and a social worker... didn't speak English and  hadn't met his parents to be! I won't tell anymore of his story but he is an immigrant success... loves his parents and siblings... and they love him!!

We decided to have lunch at Ophelia's on the Square in Independence. The square is back to normal.. all the Christmas decorations Hallmark put up for its filming of  a Christmas film are gone.

Our server said it was a hectic time and while Hallmark didn't film in the restaurant lots of workers ate there. She made loads of money ( tips).

Lunch was great... new lunch menu ... enough leftovers for dinner tonight!!

Dominic moves into his dorm tomorrow...

still cooler...

 Yesterday was another cooler day... I could get to think maybe the summer heat is over. But I don't want to jinx things!! LOL

We had dinner yesterday with our older daughter and her two dogs... out on the deck. Bob grilled steak for her and she made baby potatoes in her air fryer and zucchini slices fried in butter and garlic... great dinner. Scout and Harper ( the dogs) were so excited by the smell of grilled steaks that we had to give them some tiny table scraps!!

Our daughter's part of Phoenix Family Housing's back to school back pack and school supplies is done. The backpacks etc have been sent to the various PFH sites and will be given to the kids... just in time school starts shortly.

Our teacher daughter is back at school already... kids show up  shortly ( teachers first). She is in a new classroom so will be organizing things tomorrow. Our grandson Dominic is going to help.

Thunder has started... rain soon? More rain tomorrow according to the weather maps.

Cooler ... hurrah

Yesterday was cooler and today is even cooler. Doors and windows open!!  2pm - 71 degrees

Tigger is even more interested in getting outside so we have to watch him!!  

My early morning trip ( 8 am) to the grocery store was a little bit different. I was just about the only female there. Single senior males were all over. Rushing around like mad... blocking the aisles... filling their carts. Definitely a different vibe!

Stopped at the veggie stand on the way home... purchased lots of wonderful tomatoes!!

It's now 9.52 and 62 degrees!! Love the cooler temps!!

wrong ballot

 Tried to talk my grand daughter into telling the Jackson County election board about her ballot snafu... but wasn't successful. This was her first primary with lots of stuff and she felt a little edgy... but luckily she realized the error and was brave enough to get it fixed.

My older daughter's Phoenix Family Housing is having its backpack and supplies extravaganza today. It has been hard work getting things ready for the over 1200 registered kids. I think she will be ready to collapse tonight!!

Younger daughter's school year starts tomorrow for teachers...

Our grandson will be moving into his dorm room next Thursday.. Our grand daughter has been scoping out deals on Amazon for her books..

Looks like summer is coming to an end... remember when it lasted through Labor Day weekend??

Voting

 Bob and I headed out early to vote... not that we thought that the polling place would be busy but to go during the cooler part of the morning. There were voters.. workers and one person handing out cards.

Chit chatted with the worker overseeing the ballot counting machine... she's not sure she wants to do it in November. I'm sure I wouldn't want to! I worked one presidential election and it was a madhouse. I'm sure this November will too!

We told all the workers "thank you" for their work!

Our younger daughter stopped by ... we had an errand. Stopped at LaMar's donuts on the way home... donuts and apple fritters... yum.
She and Bob talked politics afterwards!! Luckily we think the same way.

 Our grandson votes for the first time. He is excited. He and his parents will vote when his Dad gets home from work!

LATER

When my grand daughter went to vote she was given the wrong party ballot... she was confused because all the names were unfamiliar until one !  The poll worker was not happy when she took the ballot back and asked for the right party one!! The wrong one was shredded and she was given the right one!!

We have to tell the poll worker which party ballot we want.. Lili did , but was still given the wrong one!!

Primary Day...Tuesday

 Tuesday is Primary Day here in Missouri. We have done our best to choose which candidates we want.... and changes to the constitution.Luckily the whole family is on the same track.

I don't know how families cope when they aren't... or even friends.

We are currently at 96 degrees.... drinking lots of liquids... fans and a/c...not doing much. Even the cats are taking it more easy than usual BUT Tigger is back to peeing on the scatter rugs in the bathrooms . Bob is going to call the vet (again) tomorrow. Another $100 and no real answer I expect.

at 10 pm its 78 and getting cooler ....Hooray !

Feeling lousy

Days and days of hot and muggy weather has left me feeling lousy. Did manage a trip to the grocery store -Neighborhood Walmart - this morning so we should be ok!

Bob dropped me off so I could get groceries and he headed off to the library to pick up books he had on hold. Finished my list, checked out and waited for my ride home.... waited and waited. Turns out Bob went to our Price Chopper to pick me up... even wandered around looking for me. Then he had an epiphany moment and remembered I would be waiting at Walmart!! Somewhat apologetic ...

Wonderful lunch... toasted Pepperidge Farm bread with ripe veggie stand tomatoes, deli sliced turkey and Hellman's mayo... open face so I could have another if I wanted .  Summertime ripe tomatoes are a delight!!

heat advisory

 We have a heat advisory till Thursday evening.. yuck.  The Blue Springs senior building has  posted it will be a place to stay cool starting at 8 am. Our branches of the Mid-Continent Library are also available. There are probably more posted that I haven't seen.

I am joining my younger daughter and her daughter ( my grand daughter) to go back to school shopping Lili has a new job at the DMV and needs more business casual things than at her job in the kitchen at Houlihan's... So off we go.

Our "trip" started with a mess... my daughter's car oil pressure light started flashing on her way to my house. When she and my husband checked the oil there was practically none. Her car is a KIA Soul and it had three thousand miles to go before the next oil change...but Kia Soul's have a problem with disappearing oil and that means an engine replacement. Still under warranty..

Bob put in a quart of oil ..but still not a lot showed up on the dipstick.

So.. my daughter put her husband to work on calling the dealer and we left in my car with instructions to buy 4 qts of oil on our way back from shopping.

So the four of us ( grandson came too) shopped for work slacks.. and back to college stuff... and oil.

Bob put the oil in when we returned. The KIA dealer wants to see the car on Friday where the dealer will top up the oil and seal it. My daughter it to drive it 1,000 miles and return... who knows whether it will make it 1,000 miles.

So the day had its good things and bad

Still hot and muggy

 Sitting at my computer with thunder sounding off in the distance. It is supposed to rain today and tomorrow... with thunder and lightening.

We are not doing much of anything... same ole same ole. Reading... Bob gaming... some making of bears etc.

I found a nice cantaloupe at the grocery store ... left it out for a bit and the whole kitchen smelled of the melon. Popped it into the fridge and we will be having it for dinner. YUM ! Fingers crossed it will be as good as it smelled.  ...It was!!!

Retail Bins

 My daughter, grandson and I went to the new "Retail Bins" store here in Blue Springs... it sells overstocked and returned items on a sliding price. The price starts out at $12/ item and by the end of the week the price is $2/item. We went on the cheapest day ! Still loads of stuff and people filled grocery store carts !! We found a few things and my daughter said that if we had small children there was loads to keep them busy in the summertime!! We will go again on  a more pricey day! BTW.. think this may be a franchise. There seem to be others.

We are still hot and the a/c runs most of the time so other than trips to the grocery store, doctor appointments etc we are sticking close to our recliners... me reading, Bob on Xbox or reading. I have also worked on bears, animals and accessories for the upcoming fall and winter online bear shows.

Older daughter and her non-profit are working hard getting donations for the annual backpack event - back packs and school supplies for school kids in the Phoenix Family  housing sites.I saw on Facebook that there were over 1300 kids signed up!! I see there are many programs doing similar things... don't remember there being any when my kids were in school.

 

Not much

 Not much going on here... went to the grocery store and found Price Chopper had filled its front windows with notices of it's sales items. Posting like that has not happened in LOADS of years. Is PC feeling the pinch of lower sales due to higher prices??

Bob the "bananaholic" had some bananas turning brown and decided to take advantage of that and baked banana bread!! It was/is good!!

We both did very little the rest of the day... though I did make a quiche for dinner. PC had diced ham on sale and  I already had the rest of the ingredients ... It turned out well.. cold quiche leftovers in the future.

What's going on... oops...

 The day started with a drop in of daughter and grandson. My daughter had forgotten her sunglasses here the other day.  My grandson wanted to show off his new prescription sunglasses and take home the first sheets I had ordered for his dorm. PURPLE.. he loved the color. Next ones coming will be eggplant!

They headed out with my grandson driving... he needs lots of practice before he can take the driving test. We all agree with Missouri's requirements!!

Bob is still organizing stuff to take to the hamfest tomorrow... make a little money and  Bob can declutter !

I have a bag with projects I can work on while sitting at the sales table!!

It won't be a long day... the hamfest starts at 8 am and ends at 1 pm. It is being held about an hour away ( Warrensburg).

We've never been to a hamfest where he didn't come home with something... we'll see what happens tomorrow. ( didn't buy anything)

LATER.. the second set of sheets have arrived ! BTW his dorm has a whole room of washers and dryers...free to use!  I remember lugging laundry bags to an off campus laundromat and having to pay!!

Forget to post this last night...

We did got to the hamfest getting up at 6.15 in order to get there and set up at 8! Bob sold enough for us to leave at noon and did get to chat with other hams and some others from where he retired from ( way back when!)

We took a different way home... through back roads with hills and curves! By the time we arrived home it had begun to sprinkle so we left the boxes etc. in the car. Bob will unload later.

He was given a flyer for another hamfest this October. Closer to home this time - Raytown. He has time to sort through things and decide what to sell then!!

 

HOT HOT HOT...

This week has been hot as I am sure everyone knows. We decided to invite our elder daughter to go to her local Chinese restaurant for the buffet last night.

Nice chance to get caught up with her... in air conditioning and no cooking for either of us! Bob inadvertently ate a frog leg.... yuck as far as I am concerned. But he said it was ok but very little meat!

Afterwards we went to #1 daughter's house and visited with the grand dogs out on the deck. Even the dogs don't want to spend much time outside!!

Our daughter has been decluttering so we loaded our car with her "donations" which we will drop off at one of the thrift places.  Easier for us then for her to figure out hours etc.

Decluttering must be catching... daughter #2 and her family have arranged for one of those large metal dumpsters... Now they just have to get things into it!!

 next day.. it was too hot to get our "tasks" done yesterday... but managed today. Picked up the special cat food at the vet's... then off to the Disabled Vet drop off place ... then to the newly open veggie stand and then the gas station! 

The man running the veggie stand has been here for years! Picked up gorgeous tomatoes and a HUGE cantaloupe Bob helped me cut up the melon into meal sized portions and into zip lock bag!

Summertime dinner ..BLTs with Videlia onions on toast, cantaloupe and iced tea...all wonderful!

BTW Tigger (orange one) loves bacon.... he "attacked" a piece I crumbled up onto a plate next to me!

Out to the Bingham Waggoner show

 I talked Bob into going to the Bingham Waggoner show this morning. This craft and antique show has been going on for 35 years and is a fundraiser  for this wonderful, open to the public, house in Independence. The show is held on the house's grounds with lots of trees... music playing and lots and lots of vendors!! More this year than others. 

Way back when I had a booth too!

I enjoyed the ramble around but wasn't really tempted by anything... guess we are still in de-clutter mode.It was hot and humid ...I was glad to get back into our car and its air conditioning.

Our grandson and his family are spending the day at freshman orientation... Our daughter said she would send pictures of the dorm rooms. Dominic loves purple so last night I ordered sheets for him.. XLong twin sets in purple and eggplant! Wayfair was having sales!

No pictures... it wasn't allowed. Dominic had a good chance to see the dorm.. a double room, and the rec room, cafeteria and so on. He was delighted to find the dorm has practice rooms even ones with pianos. He won't have to walk over to the music building ! UMKC is really hilly so Dom will be climbing lots of stairs.

 

shopping..new store??

 I caught an article in both the on-line and paper version of the KC Star newspaper. Evidently a bin store has opened in Blue Springs... full of returned Amazon and other store items! Prices start at $12.00 for all items and decrease over the week. The store is closed Thursday and Friday so they can restock... I may have to grab my daughter and grand daughter and give it a look see when the prices are LOW.

It's called Retail Bins

It was back to work on bear accessories...

I don't really feel like cooking today so made a batch of tuna fish... so the menu is tuna sandwiches, fruited jello, cantaloupe and tomato soup.

Oddly enough neither cat came running when I opened the can of tuna fish...usually they do as soon as the can opener opens the lid. They adore "tuna juice" - the water the tuna is packed in- and first one done with his share of the juice gets to lick out the can.

Tigger finally showed up... got his share... Jack showed up later and got his share!!

Keeping busy

We've been keeping busy... Bob has been doing yard work and I have been making all sorts of Christmas themes accessories for the fall/winter bear shows... stockings, Santa hats and so on! May dig out my polymer resin supplies and make some candy canes and Christmas cookies too.

Our daughter dropped by to borrow the weed whacker  and brought our grandson along to unload "stuff" to go into our our green trash bin. We have to pay extra for it's pickup . Our daughters don't have this service so we put their stuff into ours!!

Tonight we went to a political candidate forum... The two candidates were interesting and will be in the primary election next month. They are not running in my district... but after listening to them I wish they were!! 

The "event" was held in Grain Valley's new Mid-Continent Library... gorgeous!!

"Dinner" was thrown together after we got home... sliced turkey, cheese, Vidalia onions and home grown tomatoes on bakery bread and Hellman's mayo... pretty darn good!!

not much going on

Hot weather... or raining stormy weather hasn't encouraged much blogging! 

We didn't go out to watch the fireworks around this area and the subdivision didn't do much on it's own until the fourth. Unusual... usually people start doing their own fireworks days ahead of time.

But the fourth got really noisy and I could see fireworks through our windows. Nicely.. people stopped around midnight!

Tigger.. the orange cat.. really did not like the booms and went an hid. Not happy the next day either!

Both daughters had to medicate their dogs... all three get really anxious over the noise.

The 3rd was our younger daughter's birthday.. everyone came over for cake and ice cream! She was my 20 minute baby and hand her off to a very surprised Father. The doctor had been telling me not to push while he madly scrubbed his hands...!  Not easy to forget all that even if it was 49 years ago!!  Later it seemed like all of Rochester, NY was celebrating I could hear fireworks all night!!

BTW... the thunderstorms left lots of flooding... roads covered with water and up to 6 inches of rain. We didn't get that much and we are in a high area.  I read that the Missouri River is also flooding from northern Missouri into Minn. I'm sure some of that will make it down here!!

Different day

 When I headed out to pick up the newspaper I opened the door to a much cooler temperature and rain. Just a little ... but later this morning it started pouring! Swimming pools and rain gullies in the back yard.

Then flooding alerts started showing up on the phone! Our grand daughter is at work down in Lee's Summit ( about 15? miles south of Blue Springs) and started hearing about roads under water on her route home. She'll have to find an alternative route.

Later... looking out the windows it looks like the water has soaked into the ground... must have been dry to have soaked in this quickly. Here's hoping the water over the road on Lili's homeward route has receded as well. 

Bob said I was wrong.. one of the swimming pools" still has water!!  BTW.. the Kansas City area received 7 inches of rain in parts today!!

Looks like the KC area will have rain almost all week... no wonder I have been hearing fireworks all day. People don't want to wait till the 4th just in case it's too wet to set them off.

Happy Canada Day!!

Interesting happening

 I was working on a bear in our family room and Bob was puttering around when he found a little girl , about 5 or 6 , climbing up the inside stairs!!The tale she told Bob was that she was riding her trike looking for someone and felt our house would be where this person was!!

Bob walked her  (Rose) and her bike towards the end of our cul-de-sac... no small kids at our end! And told her she should not go somewhere without telling her parents.

Bob found the father cleaning and fileting fish at the corner house... probably Rose's grandparents' house. When Bob told him about Rose he was pretty blase... more interested in the fish. But Rose's Mom wasn't!!

Then  Rose said she was going to ride her trike and find this person ( again)..Dad pretty quickly said "no" !

Some kids are pretty adventurous .. we had one that would disappear at a moments notice .Especially in department stores... clothing racks were her special hiding places.

RAIN

Took my grocery list and with Bob's assurance that even if things were gray and windy, there would be no rain. Well.. he was WRONG! I filled my trunk with grocery stuff and my purse with birthday cards for my daughter and grand daughter and headed home! As I turned into my cul-de-sac it started to pour!

After I honked for Bob to help me unload, I decided to wait the rain out.. No luck... he stood at the top of the steps and watched me dash inside. We decided that nothing would spoil and that we would wait it out inside!!

Awhile later we unloaded the car with just minor rain and got things into the house and put away!!

Guess I won't have to water the plants today!! 

Spent the afternoon reading and then cut out a big teddy bear...

another busy morning

 It's been another busy morning... eye doctor appointment to see how my glaucoma is progressing... ( no everything was fine and the glaucoma hasn't gotten any worse.)

Then off to the Kansas side to pick up our finished pottery pieces. The pottery kiln fan had broken and it took awhile to get a new one and install it. Finally all the clay pieces people made could be picked up and taken home. Both Bob and I didn't quite remember our pieces... senior moment? But finally recognized them.

We had also brought some stained glass tools I had promised our clay teacher. She wanted to give making stained glass a try. I made stained glass way back when .... back in the '90's starting  in the '70's !  These things were part of our plans to de-clutter! I still have finished pieces stored  down in the basement!

Well... what will we be watching tonight?  The debate? I have mixed feelings about that.. maybe just wish that DJT just wouldn't show up. There's nothing he could do or say that would change our minds about him.

Busy morning

Much to our surprise ( especially since I was still in my pj's and robe) in came our teacher daughter and our grandson. Dominic had mowed his lawn - early since this afternoon is going to be HOT - and now wanted knife sharpening lessons.

So my daughter and I chit chatted, drank coffee  while Bob and Dominic worked on the knives.

After they left I got dressed etc and we headed out... first to the Farmer's place in Bates City for green beans, onions and potatoes - big and small. No tomatoes yet...the farmer says this has been a strange year. Then to the Oak Grove vet to pick an order for Older daughter's dogs. One thing for flea and tick prevention and the other for Harper to help her during the fireworks... the noise really does a number on Harper!! Not so for Scout...

Then home... where I spent "forever" cutting off the ends of the green beans. I'm sure it will be worth it at dinner time!!

The beans were worth it! Spent the afternoon finishing a book... how decadent!

ps... did manage to go out for the mail and take the trash bin down to the end of the driveway for tomorrow's pickup.. waited till it got dark and a bit cooler. FIREFLIES were out... first I've seen this year!

Grocery store trip and so on

Today is going to be another hot one... The a/c is on and I occasional turn on the bedroom ceiling fan! Tigger lies underneath it!

I decided to do a grocery shop early...Guess lots of other people had the same thought since Aldi's parking lot was full! Someone finished their shop so I could pull into a nice convenient space!

It wasn't only Aldi's parking lot that was full...I noticed others were full as I drove home.

Bob heard my car horn as I pulled into the driveway and he helped bring in my bags ! Everything is put away..

The Blue Springs' page on FB had a complaint this morning about the cost of tomatoes at yesterday's farmer's market... $7.00 for a tomato ! Lots higher than last year's price. The local farmer out in Bates City hasn't mentioned tomatoes yet on his FB page... hoping he will soon. Lots of other tempting things but home grown tomato BLT's are to die for! Can't wait!!

Yesterday I watered everything on the deck... so of course it rained late last evening. I'm sure the plants didn't care that they got extra!!

For exercise and fun, Bob and I went to the Brass Armadillo .. an antique mall about 3 miles East of us off of I70!  I found two things... a great beaded purse just the right size for a large bear and an artist bear made by a friend back in 1996. I went home sweating and exhausted... Bob too.. though he played on his XBox while I took a nap!!

Lili, my grand daughter sent this...

She and her husband were heading to his family reunion down near Branson and  they stopped at the Osceola Cheese store!! 

That's all folks!

No accidents but still yowling

 Tigger hasn't had any accidents but still goes around yowling. We do call to him and he joins us wherever we are...

Weather has been hot with a little rain... so we have the a/c coping. I also turn on the bedroom ceiling fan to keep air moving. Tigger will sleep on the floor underneath it ! Bob turned it off one afternoon because no one was upstairs.. Tigger not happy!!

Tomorrow... farmers' market

update

 We have been trying very hard to call to Tigger every time he yowls... he does come running from where ever  he is. So far no new accidents... maybe it's working??

Yesterday was the start of the family birthdays... yesterday was my niece's birthday, Wed. is my grandson's, next is my younger daughter, then my grand daughter ,followed by my nephew and then older daughter!! Happy birthday to all!!

another goof

 Well.. Tigger had another goof on one of the rugs in the bigger bathroom. Not sure when...we  have been trying the calling to him when he yowls.

When this started Bob did take him to the vet.. absolutely nothing wrong physically..lots of tests and even an x-ray. The vet was totally puzzled.

Aside from Tigger and his accidents, life has been as usual. Weather typical summer stuff.. hotter that usual. We are adjusting to not having our neighbor's oak providing shade on the deck.

Tigger's Yowling

 Our daughter said one of her cats chirps ( she doesn't mewl or yowl) when she can't find anyone and we all decided that maybe Tigger's yowling may be why he's been peeing.. a sign of stress.  He doesn't know where his people are... so when he yowls we will call to him and he has been joining us. 

Fingers crossed

another goof

 Another goof... this time not on a little rug but on my bedroom rug...oh-h rats... last night just before bedtime. Cleaned up with the special rug cleaner that copes with oders

He's been doing a lot of yowling today.... there are loads of litter boxes ... basement, work room, bedroom.. Nothing seems to be wrong with his eyes or nose.

Another huge accident

Found another huge accident... Tigger peeded on the little rug by the front door. Another rubber backed one used to wipe one shoes. The "puddle" was so big it ran from out under the rug onto the linoleum in the entry ...

Rats... he's been sleeping alot but still eating and loved a small amount from my hamburger.

Onward...with Tigger's "problem"

 Thought we were coping. Turns out that "no" we aren't. The new litter has been used a little and being crystalline it's hard to tell... but this afternoon I found Tigger had another "accident" by the coffee bar in the dining room.

It must have been a huge "pee".. the wet area was close to 20 inches!! Luckily he still uses the little rug.
I washed it and took it out on the deck to dry. 

Bob is going to use the the carpet cleaner on the actual carpet under the rug  at bedtime so it can dry over night.  Again it must have been some accident if the urine went went through the little rug with its rubber backing to the room carpet.

BOTHER!

We're talking about another visit to the vet over this... to us he doesn't seem up to par as well.

He did manage to sneak out onto the front steps as I was going out for the mail. Snatched up the "lunk" and tossed him back into the house. I swear he weighs more than 14 lbs

new litter

 Well.. one of them - Tigger or Jack - used the new litter which is  strange stuff. It is a crystalline stuff and noisy when a cat is in the litter box. Bob says it's sort of like coarse sand.

So far ( knock on wood) no new goofs.

Tigger is getting to be really good at getting outside to the deck when either on of us goes in or out. I wouldn't mind him being on the deck if we could just barricade the steps, but we are afraid he would jump down to the ground , 14 steps away, from the deck railing. He gets up and down from the fridge but that's not as high.

He's 12 years or so and 14 pounds... not fat but big. So we have to snatch him back when he gets out!!

We had hot dogs last night for dinner.. much to Tigger's delight...Salmon the night before, also to his delight. He sits on the dining table next to my placemat and WATCHES

Yes, I know. Not very hygienic but impossible to prevent.

Tigger's goofs

Occasionally Tigger has goofed before but yesterday he "peed" three times where he shouldn't have... twice on a small rug in front of the coffee bar in the dining room and a huge amount in my shower/toilet area!

There's nothing quite so nasty as stepping into a puddle of cat pee !!

We vet cleared him of any medical issues last time and just shrugged his shoulders...

Bob went online last night for some ideas  after I stepped in the puddle and we cleaned it up. We are going to try a new cat litter .. one with crystals in it, It's twice the price..yuck... and with the number of litter boxes we have all over from basement to upstairs ... hopefully this will work. 1 box to start.

So off to Target we went went for this stuff and a bottle of cleaner especially for cat urine and smells...wish us luck..

No it's not due to that male cat issue  of urinary blocking... he gets special food prescribed by the vet for that.

Tigger ... a Wayside Waifs rescue... 2012

Donna and the library

 Donna ... I have gotten books via online from our library system (Mid Continent Public Library).. But some of the books I like aren't available...so I spend 99 cents via Amazon ! Ones I really like I can "store" in my kindle!

Bob prefers actual books so he orders them... the library sends him a "hold" email and off he goes.  Blue Springs has two branches... one north... one south! Aren't we spoiled?

Grain Valley ... about 2 miles East of BS .. has a super new library! Really big , open and with a huge meeting room!

no new kindle books

 When I looked at my credit card statement I discovered a small charge from someone I had never heard of.  I called the number on my credit card and explained my concerns. Then we went through all the charges after the weird one and discovered there were more that the credit card company had not put on my statement....

If I remember correctly there were 6 .. the highest amount was $65. We closed down my card.. and a new one is on its way!

This card it the one that sits at my computer desk and I use it for all my online charges... so until I have the new card no more books for my Kindle ...

Plus I am a sustaining member for the PBS station here and the NPR here and the PBS in Wichita. I will have to call them with the new numbers. Luckily that's it!!

BTW... an email from the credit card company says they are investigating the fraud charges...don't forget to check your statements !

Tree Day

The tree guys were due here this morning at 8... and they did. Unloaded lots of equipment and men and went to work..

Bob, our younger daughter and I settled down to watch!

The men took down the two gates into our backyard and drove a huge boom truck there!

 

As they cut off logs they were hauled our front to a truck. The last thing was cutting down the limbless trunk... as it landed the whole ground shook. The trunk was cut into manageable pieces and hauled off.... and they cut down the stump to the ground.

They contracted with my neighbor to handle his other trees . When they were done they moved onto the limbs that fell and were still hanging on our huge maple.

The cats esp. Tigger were not too happy with the chainsaws' noise and the diesel smell! I will be glad when it' s all done!!

graduation dinner

We all went to a local Thai restaurant to celebrate the grands' graduations. Dominic from high school... off to  UMKC at the end of summer. Lili received her assoc. degree from the local community college  ( she will have her BA from UMKC) in a year or so!

We are all proud of both of them...

It was nice to sit around the table and eat and drink and talk!!

Tree guy... and daughter

 The tree guy came ( with his little daughter) and with Bob and our neighbor on the other side of the fence discussed what needed to be done!

He will be back Monday to take our  oak limbs and go up the huge maple and cut down the "hangers" and check what else the tree needs doing.

The he will work on our neighbor's tree - it's  the "owner" of the limb on the picture. The tree lost several big limbs this time and another one years ago so it will probably be taken down.

That tree was the shade for our deck... I will miss it.

Wonder what the chain link fence under all the oak limbs will look like?

Donna W

The tree person still didn't arrive Thursday ...and didn't call...  So Bob contacted every phone number, email address, text number he could find. and finally a woman answered. Hopefully an office person. Someone is supposed to come tomorrow ( Sat) around noon. We'll see.

tree person??

It is definitely cooler today... only in the mid-70's around lunch time. The weather people are talking rain this evening.

We have been waiting for the tree person ( said he's be here around 11) to look at our tree situation. No show so far.

Tigger, the orange cat, is in another of his strange moods. Raced around the house .. up and down the stairs and attacked my ankle (again). Bob applied Iodine to the bites. I do NOT want another infection and stay in the hospital.

Three hours later... still no show. No show at all...

So the trees still need to be taken care of...

Memorial Day on the deck

 We all enjoyed our time on our daughter's deck. The dogs were delighted to see us again.. our daughter was too. 

Our pre-dinner nibbles were great. .. fresh chopped up veggie dip and chips. Couldn't believe the dogs enjoyed it too... begging for some MORE! Dinner was great too -salads, home made pickled beets, chicken burgers with horseradish sauce and a wonderful pineapple cake for dessert. We were gifted with enough cake for dessert tonight!

The weather was gorgeous... bight blue sky, small fluffy clouds, light breezes.No bugs!! I guess it is still a little early for mosquitoes etc!

Bob left messages with tree removal companies but no call backs so far. I took my grocery list and headed out to Aldi... Our daughter praised its chicken salad with cranberries and almonds.. and lucky for me there was plenty in the deli (?) section.

I think I mentioned that Blue Springs had set up a park's parking lot for tree debris ... lines of people wanting to drop stuff of were 1.5 to 2 hours long and the parking lot was full by closing. Haven't read on Facebook what the city did today!

more tree news

Well.. the backyard still has loads of large tree limbs. The huge maple ( so big it takes 4 people to hold hands around it) has also lost limbs. I hadn't really noticed.. being fixated on the oak . 

When Bob reaches someone who will take care of all this, he will ask whether the maple needs to come down. The oak is in our neighbor's yard and has lost about 1/3 . He will have to decide whether he wants to take down that tree . Not our decision .. If they have to come down... it will be expensive!!

When Bob reached our neighbor by phone he had no idea about the storm or the tree's damage!! No idea how he missed it all!!

Reaching a "tree company" is not really super critical... no damage to the house etc. ...and I bet all of them are super busy. Our city of Blue Springs has set up a place in a park's parking lot for residents to drop off trees, limbs etc. One just has figure out how to get it there!!

Our elder daughter lives about 7 miles East... no damage there at all!! BTW... the weather people called it a downdraft. So will we  will enjoy a Memorial Day dinner on her deck in the shade with her two dogs!!

Thunderstorm disaster

Blue Springs got hit pretty badly late last night due to wind gusts up to 85 mph...Trees are down everywhere and roads are blocked. 

 Lots of customers are without power .... LOTS!!

Our big maple down in the corner of our lot lost branches! But the biggest thing is the oak just over our fence in the backyard. Probably half sheared off , over the fence ( don't what its shape it is under all the branches) and ending up just shy of our 2nd story deck!! This is just one section.. another big limb is underneath. looks like about half the tree... is what is left savable?

So far it doesn't look like a trip to the grocery store is in order. The Neighborhood Walmart, near me, is closed due to no power as is Ace Hardware... and Price Chopper is between the two. Bet it's closed too!

Later... my daughter is without power  and has been since 11.00 last night. She came over to charge her phone and to have some hot coffee! Her husband stayed home to see someone about removing all their downed tree limbs.

He came later and we spent a long time sitting on the deck chatting! Both of them kept checking the Evergy website to see where repairs we being done. They headed home about 5 and their power was back on about 6pm.

What a nice day

 Today was really nice even if we get severe thunderstorms and rain overnight! We went to the farmer's market first thing and came home with beets, green beans, mini cucumbers, a loaf of cheese bread, a sweet roll and a large cookie baked by a teenager!Bob's arms were full.

When we got home I cooked the beets and turned them into pickled beets ... yummy! The green beans will be turned into a new to us salad - roasted green beans, tomatoes, garlic with a lemony dressing topped with cheese -feta ? or Parmesan   ?

This afternoon we went out to our older daughter's so that Bob could help her fix up her grill... they had disassembled it last fall... and check on the propane tanks.

Afterwards it was really nice to sit on the deck under the awning and talk. Even the dogs relaxed!

Endings

For my teacher daughter today was the last day of school! The school district has assigned her a new classroom next year so she spent this past week boxing up her classroom "stuff"  and taking the boxes to the new room on one of those carts. Luckily her desk was moved for her!!  BTW.. lots of teachers were being moved. All of them in one because the building is being changed from elementary to middle.

Earlier this week Carolyn's school  district held field days in all the elementary buildings. My grandson ( the one who graduated last week) had no more classes so he went and helped his Mother... all day!  They "ran" the soccer ball bowling game. Lucky Dominic was the one resetting all the pins... He was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the classroom floor during the mid-day break!! Though he did have lunch first!! But he enjoyed things and the kids all enjoyed him ( and marveled over his 6'5" )

Poor Iowa and its 81 tornadoes last week. Definitely going to pay attention to the weather alerts and sirens this season!! We have managed to avoid the latest weather.. the storms went south or  north.. or wherever but not here!!

Memorial Day weekend is here so the other daughter has asked her Father to help her get her grill ready for the first grilling of the season. So off we go tomorrow. They will do the grill and I will enjoy sitting on the deck with the dogs!

 

tree trimming?

We went out to see our elder daughter... to see how her replacement of her kitchen backsplash job was going... and then a chance to sit and talk with her and the dogs on her deck!

But the thing we really had to do was help trim the branches of the tree in her front yard. The man who mows her lawn had started complaining about having to duck while mowing. He wanted to arrange for someone ...$$$ of course ... so Bob decided we would take care of it. It's done... and stuff put into yard waste bags. No $$$ spent !! 

BTW.. it is truly hot ! Mid to high 80's yesterday and today....just got notified that severe thunderstorms are on their way... and rumbles just started!!

Didn't make it..

 Well.. three of us ( daughter, Bob and myself) all came down with something so we didn't make it to our grandson's actual graduation... RATS.. But luckily the high school did a live feed on it's Facebook stage. We sat in the office and watched the whole thing... speeches and all. Then we watched 500 students come to the stage, have his/her name announced, shake hands with the administrators etc and receive his/her diploma book!!

We waited and waited...finally Dominic!!

When his aunt graduated her class size was almost 800... the biggest ever. Then Blue Springs built a second high school.

update... everything went well but a madhouse. Parking  was "something else" ... expensive and a long walk and leaving afterwards was even more hectic!!

The live feed for us was probably a better deal...got a great view of Dominic receiving "the handshake" and hearing his name !! Dominic Charles Lee Holmes!