The First Day of Summer

Sonic ran a special for the longest day of the year; all milkshakes were 1/2 price.  So of course, the grandkids and I made a trip by Sonic for 3 chocolate milkshakes.  Yes, I only got 3 and there were 4 of us. I knew Connor couldn't drink a whole one, even the small size.  And sure enough, as soon as we got home, he put his shake down on the steps and ran to the bathroom.  Well, Kennedy helped herself to the chocolate treat.  All was well, Connor never came back of it.

 

Lucifer Is Blooming

I come from a family of gardeners, both flower and vegetable gardens.  Mom and I always enjoy walking around each others' gardens and looking for plants the other one doesn't have.  We came to my tall grass looking plant and Mom asked, "What kind of plant is that?"


I replied, "That's Lucifer."  Well, you could see on Mom's face that she didn't seem to like the name.  Then she asked, "When does it bloom?"  And you know the pride you feel when you give a clever answer just off the cuff.  Well, I had one of those prideful moments when I replied, "When it's hot as hell."

Crocosmia or Lucifer

Well, this week Lucifer is blooming.  I believe that we have hit 100 degrees once and the forecast is for a couple more days of 100 degrees.



That's a Saga Palm behind the flower.

A Hard Day Keeping Grandchildren

Here's the text I sent my daughter on Monday about 5 p.m.


You will need to find a new grandmother for these kids.  Connor had a fit about going to speech, so I forgot Kennedy's diaper bag.  While we were waiting, she kicked off her diaper.  It was too wet to put it back on her, but before I could deal with that, she grabs her bottom and starts yelling "poo poo!"  I swooped her up and ran down the hall in horror of what was about to hit my legs, shoes, or the floor.  They asked us not to come back.  I said, "No problem."

Actual photo not available

And yes, I left it at that until she called me on her way home.  I raised 3 children and taught kindergarten through 8 grade for 22 years; so one would think that taking care of 3 adorable grandchildren would be a piece of cake.  And usually it is, but Monday was one of those terrible, horrible, very bad, no good days.

Actually, the morning started out fine.  The 6 year old, Connor, was at a STEM camp at the local university.  At 2 p.m. I had to pick him up. I had been given directions, but the baby (22 months old) went to sleep during the drive, so I had to carry her into the building.  Of course the class was on the 3rd floor.  I did take the elevator, but when I got off, a lady was also going to pick up her child, so I just followed her.  Little did I know that she had no idea where to go.  We walked the entire third floor before we came to the correct room.  So I got some exercise carrying a 20+ pound sleeping child.

Connor goes to a speech class 2 days a week at 4:15.  Every year we have had at least one "adventure" involving that.  You must understand that everyday he screams "I'm not going to stupid speech".  But because I always answer him with, "Your mother would never make you do something stupid.  Speech is a very smart and cool thing for you to do."  Today he screamed, "I'm not going to stupid speech, smart speech or any kind of speech."  So I grabbed him by the ankles and drug him until he was laughing and decided he would rather walk.  He has a huge crush on the young college student who is his teacher.  He was actually afraid that he might have to enter the room being drug by his grammy. I'm being playful, but they do fear that I just might be that outrageous.  I told him that would not make a very good impression on the beautiful young lady whom he had expressed his desire to marry when he turns 16.

Anyway, getting things for the toddler totally escaped me.  Thank goodness  I remembered her.  So of course there would be a diaper issue while we were sitting in the waiting room.  I did make it to bathroom with her.  She sat there for a long time with no results.  Then I quietly carried her through the waiting room and to the car. (It was a  fabrication that they asked us not to return. Though I wish they had.) There we sat until her brother's lesson was over and his lovely teacher walked him to the vehicle. He had a smile that engulfed his entire face as he informed me that his speech teacher is not married and does not have a boyfriend.

Sketch of fantasy family

We made it home without anymore issues; diapered the toddler and walked to the park.  While they played, I sent their mother the text.  She very lovingly picked up dinner on her way home for me, Grampa and her family. And tomorrow is a new day.

Some Stepfathers Really Step-Up (reposted)

I married Don in 1992.  I had 3 children then; Bridget was 17, Jacquie was 12, and Paxton was 7.  Don had one daughter, Piper, and she was 10.  Don and I dated for 2 years before we got married, so we thought we knew what we were getting into.  We took all 4 children on a 16 hour train ride to Chicago.  That was quite a test.  Actually, we almost decided that this blend might not work, so we broke up for a couple of weeks after that.  Everything actually went well on the trip and Don was very helpful with Paxton, who was only 5 then.  But of course it was obvious that all of us living together would be a lot of hard work.

Most second marriages with children do often end in divorce.  But Don and I decided that we would not fight over our children.  Each of us would do the best we could to treat them all equal and as parents we would stick together.  When things really get bad, I like to close my eyes and say, "This too shall pass."  It is true.  Often times the biggest mistake I make is trying to make something right instead of just staying calm and letting it work out.

Don and Piper                              Don and Chase                        

Don takes being a father as a huge responsibility. Being a teacher, I had to miss some for the children's school functions, but Don would go to their Halloween dress-up party and etc.  He saw that his daughter and my youngest 2 had what they needed to get through college.  Paxton and Jacquie got TOPS scholarships, but Don paid their room and board. When my children got married, Don split the "father's" cost with their father. 

Don really loves that Bridget and her family live just one house from us.  The grandchildren are a part of our everyday lives.  They don't have those "step" feelings.  He is their grampa and Bridget's dad is their papa.  It seems normal to them to have so many men in their lives that love them.

As a mother and his wife, I am so glad for all that Don has done for me and the four children.  Love you! Happy Father's Day everyday.

A Baby Shower

Today I attended a Mother-Daughter baby shower for Jack, the soon to arrive bundle of joy for my son and daughter-in-law. 






Jack will be my 5th grandchild and 3rd grandson.  But he is the 1st child for my son. It is a very exciting time in Paxton's and Courtney's life.

My 2 daughters on either end and Courtney and me in the middle.

The Mother/Daughter theme was a great idea.  I have never been to one like that. 






 
 It was at the Glenwood Tea Room.  I found this old picture of the Glenwood Drug Store in the 1950's.  The building doesn't look anything like it now.  It looked a lot better in 1950.  So I thought this picture was pretty cool.
 
We had a nice lunch and watched Courtney unwrap some very fun and cute gifts.  I'll just show a few of my favorite ones.

 I bought the necessary but boring car seat.

Lightening, Thunder and Hail

I went outside to see if Billy Shakespeare was on his new risers or on the air conditioner and thankfully I found him on the risers.

So at least they have kept him off the air conditioner for 24 hours.

Then I looked up at the sky and saw some rather ominous clouds.  I got excited about the possibility of some rain. 


 
 It was 100 degrees today.


About 5 minutes later there was a lot of wind, lightening and thunder.  And then the pounding on the roof sounded much too loud for raindrops.  But thank goodness the hail storm was nothing like they had in Dallas yesterday. Where my step-daughter's car got its front and back windshields and a door window broken out, as well as, a lot of dents.

You'll see a Jeep pull up under the Live Oak for protection.  I wanted to go and warn him that a lot of large limbs had recently fallen from that tree and the one next to it.  He was safe, but another driver who parked on another street under a tree wasn't.  The tree fell on his car, but the driver was not killed.  So it might not be a good idea to stop under a tree in a thunder and hail storm.

And then of course I saw one of the grandsons out playing in the river of water.  I was told later that he was in the hail storm with a helmet and safety glasses. It's great to be a kid and carefree.  If I had done that, they would be locked me away somewhere.

Billy Shakespeare Is Singing In the Choir

Well, he hasn't actually made the choir, yet.  But I went to The First Methodist Church's rummage sale and bought a small set of choir risers for him.  Maybe he and the girls will start The Nigerian Dwarf Quartet. 

 I actually have a more practical reason for them, other than just giving him something to play on.  I hope to distract him from jumping on the air conditioning unit.  It can't be good for a goat to stand on it.

Stuffed Tomatoes

My tomatoes plants look good this year.  I planted 4 hybrid Celebrity, 3 heritage Brandywine and a couple of others which I can't remember. 




The local Ag man here recommended these two for my area. 


In the past, I have had no luck with heritage varieties, but I hope my luck will be different this year.


My first 2 tomatoes to ripen were the Celebrity.  So tonight for dinner I made one of my favorite dishes.  I found this recipe over 20 years ago and no longer have it, so I can't write amounts of the ingredients.  I rarely measure anything anyway. 
First I cook a cup of wild rice.  To stuff 2 medium tomatoes use about 1/3 of a package of frozen spinach, thawed and chopped.  Half a cup of chopped walnuts.  Mixed them in a bowl.  Add enough olive oil so the ingredients will stick together.

Sorry for the blurry picture.

Add Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt and pepper.  Core the tomatoes and cut them like a flower like in my picture.  Then stuff them.  I love this and if the tomatoes are large, it's a whole meal. 




 Since these were medium, I cooked some salmon with it.  

Just another blurry picture or maybe I drank too much wine while I was cooking.

 I'm looking forward to many more dishes with my homegrown tomatoes.

May Is For Graduations

Chase is my oldest grandchild.  He has now completed 5th grade and will move on to middle school next year. 

While Chase and his parents posed for photos, little sister is busy looking at the book Chase wrote and illustrated about his life.

 When my son, Paxton, finished 5th grade, it didn't impress me as a milestone. But now, I realize that it is one large step toward graduating from high school, which leads to a tearful drive home after spending the day moving him into a college dorm, from which he never returns to live at home again.

 I did see a few tears in Chase's mother's eyes when they showed the video of the 5th graders which included pictures from their Kindergarten year through 5th grade.  Gee, how time flies and how they change.

But the next evening, I was delivering greetings on behalf of the School Board at C.E. Byrd High School's graduation.  

Our current Superintendent wanted the high school graduations to be more formal and for the school board members to be more involved. So board members now wear their college graduation robes and each is assigned a high school graduation to give greetings and congratulations from the School Board and stand with the principal and superintendent to shake each student's hand as they cross the stage to receive their diplomas.

Does this picture make me look short?

Byrd is by far the largest high school in Caddo and had 478 graduates this year. My legs and hand was very tired after that.  I never look forward to going, but I always love it when I'm there.  



Some students look you in the eyes and give you a firm handshake and some struggle with both.  I even got a couple of hugs from very jubilant young guys.  Those were really cool.

I can say for sure that watching other people's children grow up and a lot easier than watching my own.

The Golden Gate Bridge is 75 Years Old

I heard on the news today, (Sunday) that The Golden Gate Bridge is 75 years old today. 

That's the same age as my mother, but she will be 76 in a week.  Mom and I made a great trip to San Francisco 5 years ago.  


















While we were there, we rented a convertible Mustang and drove Hwy 1 to Monterrey. It was one of those trips I will always remember. 
 
http://life.time.com/culture/golden-gate-bridge-75-years/#1
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/05/25/75-year-old-golden-gate-bridge-a-berkeley-perspective/

Along Came A Spider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

First my camera is more on the hobbyist level, so not a perfect picture that a perfect spider with a perfect web truly deserves.  But my garden needed a garden spider, so thanks Spidee for coming.

Play Like A Kid

Who would play headbutting with a goat?  My son-in-law, Trinity would.  Actually, Billy Shakespeare was having a great time with this.

And Now there Are 4!

It's been 9 days since I found the little black kitten on my door step.  I had a school board meeting at 4:30 that afternoon and asked the other board members if anyone wanted a bottle fed kitten. 




One board member, Steve, spoke up quickly and said he did. 


 So all I have to do is take care of it for a few weeks and he has a new home!  I call him Panther.


I remained on the lookout for the rest of the litter.  I've never known a cat to have just one kitten.  I was worried that maybe something had happened to the others, so that was why Panther was on my step.

Thursday, I was in the garage-barn when I saw the feral momma cat run out.  I started looking around in the area where she came from and there in a tall box were 3 more kittens.

Cirus, Shameka, Tiffany Lynn Mittens

See what looks like I just left trash in the garage-barn turned out to be a kitten cradle.  You have to know how I irritate my dear husband by not promptly throwing things away; even empty boxes.

 One little female, with the white paws and a white wishbone mark across her nose, didn't have either of her eyes opened yet.  So I believe they are 8-12 days old.  The others, each,  had one eye open.

Daddy Gus and Momma Blackie

 Another mystery was solve too.  Who's the daddy?  Well I researched and read that a litter of kittens can have more than one sire, but we have good evidence that my husband's outside cat, Gus was not "fixed" before he reproduced at least one offspring.

See the grey one with the white nose--Gus Jr.  Chase named him Cirus

There's a neighborhood cat that has markings like this one.  Could he be a daddy?

Anyway, I now have 3 more kittens to find homes for.  The grandkids are trying to keep Cirus, the grey kitten.  Their mom wants Mittens, the black and white one.  I named her Tiffany Lynn Mittens, but my daughter doesn't like that name.  She wants it to just be named Mittens.

My house cat, Cloud, is not happy about the kittens.

Well, we are having fun with them.  But I've found that bottle feeding 4 little kittens leaves very little time for anything else.

Surprise On My Doorstep

Tuesday was a hectic day or is that just everyday?  Anyway I had an 11:30 budget meeting and was going to have to take my 20 month old granddaughter with me.  But I was going to be smart this time and take plenty of snacks for her.  This meant I had to go to the grocery store before the meeting.  So Grampa agreed to keep Kennedy while I made a quick trip for snacks. 

I took this picture afterwards.  I think my foot actually got closer to it.

 As I rushed out the door I almost stepped on a black kitten that had just one eye opened.

Blackie, Gus's new friend.

It wasn't a total shock that we had kittens, just that one was on the steps.  Way back in October, when we came back home from vacation Don's cat, Gus, had found a girlfriend to keep him company.

He taught us a lesson to go away and leave him for 10 days.
She was actually a kitten, but one could tell by their relationship that the kitten was a girl.  It took several months for Don to decide to catch Gus and Blackie and take them to the vet to be "fixed."  Well, Don was successful catching Gus.  Gus too had been feral when he arrived, but Don very patiently worked to tamed him. But we have never been able to get near Blackie.  In fact my son-in-law, who is too quick for his own good, did grab her one day and she took a big bite out of his hand.  Anyway Gus got "fixed."  But about 3 weeks ago I notice how big Blackie was.  So I started leaving the garage door cracked just in case she was pregnant, she could have the kittens in a safe place.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I noticed how slender she was.  So I knew it was only a matter of time before kittens showed up.

I quickly tossed the kitten to it's grampa and told him not to give it back to them mom. I don't want it to grow up wild, because then we will have to trap it and take it to the animal shelter. 

Of course the grandkids help.

So now I am bottle feeding Panther and know that where there is one kitten, there are another 3 or 4.  


The other question is who's the daddy?

Maurice Sendak Died Today

I was watching the Colbert Report and Steven said that children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak died today at 83 from complications after a stroke.  I have given several children a copy of Where the Wild Things Are.  The last one was my nephew, Max.  I first bought it for my son in 1990.  I've always loved it.


Colbert showed an interview he had with Sendak and the author said he thought his best 2 books were Outside Over There and Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life.  I have never read either of these.

The first one reminded me of my granddaughter, Kennedy.  She is always grabbing my hand and "pulling" me outside. 

 

 

 

He said the book Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life was written about his dog just after it died.

So I went to good ole amazon.com and bought hardback copies of both. And while I was there, I bought a box set of 3 other ones that Amazon recommended.  Oh well, reading books to grandkids is a great use of time and buying them really can add up.  But I love books and I don't see myself buying a Kindle or such.

 

 

OMG

Oh Mister Goat can now jump on the hood of my truck.  I know he has been thinking about it for about a week.  But today he did it before I could stop him.  He may have just limited his freedom.  Billy Shakespeare is almost 8 months old and is truly the best pet I have.  Whenever I'm outside he is out roaming around.  Usually he likes to stay down by the girls' pen, but he also wants to follow me around.

I bought 4 bales of alfalfa Friday, so I was unloading them. 









 Billy Shakespeare made some of the bales lighter.


By the way, I can't believe I'm having to pay $17.50 a bale for alfalfa.  The fellow at the feed store told me they are compressing them into very tight bales and shipping them to China.  So if they have found the Chinese market, will the price ever go down here?


Anyway, when I wasn't looking, B.S. decided today was the day for him to jump on the hood of my truck.  He may have just lost his "Best Pet" status.

Grandparents Day With Connor

I've been such a bad blogger.  So much is going on which gives me a lot of material to blog about, but no time to actually write a post.  Anyway, I'm going to catch up on my writing and reading other blogs.


Last Friday was Grandparents Day for the Kindergarten classes.  I wasn't quite aware of all the expectations.  I understood there was a performance by the Kindergarteners, but then the Grandparent was suppose to check out the grandchild and spend the day with him.  Well, Connor was a guy with a plan with included lunch of his choice and a movie.

2 grandmothers, great grandmother and grandfather

My Mom was in town, so she went to the program.












Connor's other set of grandparents came also.  So he had quite a group of fans. 

 The program had a Cowboy theme; which was just up Connor's alley.  He is always trying to ride my little goats when I'm not watching.

Don't know what the pout is about.

Afterward the program, it was off to the Frozen Frog.  Yes, we had yogurt with a large array of toppings for lunch.  I have to admit that's my favorite lunch too.




Then just Connor and I went to see the movie Chimpanzee. On the way to the theater Connor expressed his excitement about going to see Chimpanzee.  He said, "My heart has been hurting to see this movie ever since they said it was coming to the theater."  Like a good grandmother, I did not laugh.  I just said, "I know.  I've wanted to see it too.

He might have had candy, popcorn and coke for dinner.

Giving the Goats Some Attention

Nothing was happening with just having Billy Shakespeare in a separate pen and every few days moving Dottie Belle into the pen with him.  He spends a good part of his day crying when he is alone.  So I gave up and 8 days ago moved him into the pen with the 3 girls.  I just wonder how many kids to expect the end of September.  Actually, I'm thinking I will move him and Dottie Belle back to his pen in a few days.  I do want to have some idea, if I find that I have a pregnant goat, when to expect delivery.  But for now I don't see any signs of any goat love.


Today was the day for worming the goats and giving them their tetanus shots.  We weighed each one and then used the great milking stand I got for Christmas to administer the worming medicine and shot.

Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny- 15 months old weighed 53 lbs.

One can easily tell that Honey Bunny is not a bottle baby.  You will not find any silly poses of her.  She is a very dignified animal. 


 Well as for the 3 bottle baby goats, I have all kinds of silly pictures and videos of them

Dottie Belle

Dottie Belle - 
14 months old weighed 46 lbs.

BS is begging to get in the girls' pen.

 Billy Shakespeare -
8 months old weighed 36 lbs.

Gypsy - 13 months old weighed 30 lbs.

Billy Shakespeare is still very much a pet.  He is really the only one who was happy with all the attention.  So he got brushed and his hooves trimmed.