Last hurrah of the summer

Last Saturday meant a trip to the Missouri State Fair. We didn’t go for the rides. We didn’t go for the concerts. We went because Greg and Alicia asked us to. I’m not much into walking around a dusty, hot, fairgrounds but I usually won’t miss a chance to spend a day with any of my kids and/or grandkids. We stayed off the main drag where the carnival rides, games, etc. are(can’t remember what that is usually called) and spent the day going through the many exhibits of flowers, animals, and crafts.

I fell in love with this orchid. Too bad I kill house plants. Isn’t it beautiful?

Aren’t these guys absolutely beautiful? So proud!

This was one aggressive bird. I kept trying to put the lens of my camera inside the cage to get a picture without the bars and he came after me with a vengeance. Bad bird! Ok, smart bird. Nobody’s going to eat this guy for Thanksgiving if he has anything to say about it.

Ok, I know – lame picture. But I just thought the goose and turkey heads opposite each other was funny. What would you call a goose crossed with a turkey? A goot?

How many times have I dreamed of putting the grandkids in a cage – just for an hour or two… Now I know what they would look like. And it didn’t hurt him a bit – see, he’s still smiling. (the turkey he is harassing isn’t, though)

They had a Rooster Crowing contest. We actually stood there and waited for 2:00 to come. I wanted to hear all of those roosters crowing at one time. There were eight contestants. I watched the owners working to make the roosters think it was night time. How you ask? One brave fellow kept putting his rooster’s head under his t-shirt. I had my camera ready for the moment the rooster got pissed enough and pecked his belly. Others were holding their hands over the rooster’s eyes. Others were sticking the rooster’s head under its wing (any guesses on how well that worked?) Anyway, finally after waiting and waiting like idiots (it was now 2:30) the announcer said something like “ok everyone let’s hear your roosters crow!” Silence. I swear not a single rooster would crow. Well go figure. I won’t be attending this particular competition again any time soon :)

Regan and Allen during one of our mandatory grandma is tired rests.

The Highway Patrol had a cool display of old patrol cars. Ah the good ol’ days.

Car 54 Where Are You…. (anybody remember that show other than me?)

Somehow seeing this come up behind me would scare the pewiddle out of me. It just looks intimidating – like they are ready to haul me in.

They all wanted to walk through the sheep barns. As the wife of a Shepherd, I didn’t really feel the need to tromp through sheep sh*t. I mean, I can look out my kitchen window and get my fill of the cute not so little critters. So I sat on the bleachers and watched from a distance.

I did walk close enough to the sheep to snap this picture of these longhorn something or other.

The FFA building held all sorts of farm stuff. I’d say some of the pumpkins look a bit anemic (maybe it is the type?) but then they are called FUTURE Farmers of America… Imagine what kind of pumpkins they will be raising 5 years from now. Granddaughter Emily had a photo that was sent in for 4H. Somehow I neglected to take a picture of it on display (bad Grandma – bad Grandma).

When the legs give out, anywhere to sit is just fine. Even a drainage ditch will do nicely. Hey Allen – just let us know when you are ready to go again.

The Department of Conservation had a really cool display of fish tanks. I like this long snooted guy for some reason. I’m sure if Jim was here he could tell me what kind of fish it is. But he isn’t, so you’ll just have to guess.

I just like the looks of little ones from behind. Reagan is checking out the fish tank but somehow I missed getting the fish in the picture entirely.

You would think after three kids of my own and 10 grandkids that I would learn to never say the words “say cheese”…. apparently I’m a very slow learner. Say cheese Reagan!

We had 6 yr old Allen stand in front of this majestic tree to give you some idea of the size. I believe it is a cypress but don’t hold me to that.

Alicia ordered dinner for her family. Look at this awesome turkey drumstick. We all ended up snacking on it before the meal was done. I wish I had another one right now.

This is what Greg ended up with. So Greg, who wears the pants in your family? Alicia claims she didn’t know but I don’t know… My belly still hurts from laughing at them.

Allen’s no dummy – he’s going to share with mom.

They say timing is everything. No sooner than we stopped for supper the skies opened up. We thought the rain would just blow through but after finishing our food and fighting off all the other people wanting our table, we finally gave up and headed out.

Time to call it a day. Reagan was drenched but didn’t mind a bit. She had her passie and her ride. All is good in her little world.

We were bone tired Saturday night, but it was a good tired. I’m glad the State Fair only comes around once a year.

Change your thinking

I received the following in an email today.  It struck a chord with me.  I mean I shook the cobwebs out of this musty brain and thought – yea this is good stuff.  If it’s good stuff, then I must share it.  Right?  That’s the rule.  So here it is.

Most, if not all, of us have trials – some worse than others.  Family, health, finances… you name it.  Sometimes there is no hope.  Sometimes there is hope but only with a lot of pain and perseverance.  Sometimes where we are in our lives are self inflicted.  It really doesn’t matter why things are the way they are, it is what we do with it. 

I don’t know who wrote the following.  It probably isn’t even a true story but I kind of hope it is.  The message is a good one.

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Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation..
Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.
Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band - he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep.
She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."
Epilogue:
There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.
Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.
"Today is a gift. That is why it is called  "The Present".

Fickle Fart Friend

I've discovered I am blog challenged. I would follow more blogs, but I am having trouble keeping up with the ones I already follow.

My reading list/dashboard is funny in that it picks and chooses which blogs it will give me updates on. Yea, the fickle fart plays favorites! I add everyone the same and then it does its thing. It plays nice with some of you and others... not so nice.

Does anyone else have this problem? It is very irritating and sometimes I even forget to comment on some of my favorite blogs simply because my idiot friend here doesn't poke me in the side and say "hey lady, your long lost friend finally posted".

Any trick and tips anybody wants to share?

Christmas in July

Last Christmas we decided to celebrate Christmas in July with a family vacation to the beautiful Missouri Ozarks on one of the many Scenic Missouri  Riverways. 

The area we chose, Steelville, is only an hour and 1/2 from our house.

Three rivers, the Courtois (court ah way), Huzzah, and Meramec all run into each other at some point.  It is the perfect recipe for a wonderful float.  And that is what we gave our kids and grandkids for Christmas last year – three days and two nights in the Ozarks with a one day float on the river.

We chose the cabin, which was touted to be large enough to sleep 20, sight unseen.  We had seen their cozy cabins that sleep four to eight and they are really nice, so we felt comfortable booking the “lodge” cabin.  You know, sometimes you just have to take your chances…  Imagine how our hearts stopped when we followed the directions and when we got to the spot this is what we saw.  (Ok, so I’m kidding…)

That’s right, the directions say the cabin is on the left – not the right!

The shack in the picture above really was right across the road from the cabin we rented.  And someone really lives there!

The inside was rustic with heavy furniture that even my grandkids couldn’t destroy!  Since it is the middle of summer, we didn’t exactly need the fireplace, but I can imagine it would be nice in the fall.

Off of this nice open great room was four bedrooms and two full baths.  Each bedroom had either two Queen size beds in it, or a Queen size bed and queen size sleeper sofa.  That is in addition to the two sleeper sofas in the great room.  They weren’t kidding when they said they could sleep 20.

There was a large yard that bordered on the horse trails.  The kids had a great time playing ball and all sorts of other games.

Anna just turned 7 and Allan will turn 7 in a few months.  These two sweeties are inseparable.

We spent a lot of time around the fire pit the first night we were there, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows…

… and of course making smores!

At dusk the horses, tired out from trail riding, came to visit us. 

Reagan wasn’t too sure about our friendly white stallion here…

… but the other kids loved being able to spend time with the horses.  What a bonus treat!

We tried to tell scary stories around the campfire but somehow they just didn’t go over too great.  I think modern day video games and movies have relegated scary campfire stories to “lame” status.  They don’t know what they are missing… step by step, inch by inch, slowly he turned…  oh well!

It was cool to watch them play board games…

… and just spending time together.  The topic of the night was the weather for the next day.  According to the weather forecaster thunderstorms was supposed to blow through sometime after midnight.  Once they moved through it was supposed to be fair skies and gorgeous for a float trip.  Would he be right for  a change?

About 4:00 in the morning I woke to thunder crashing and lightening flashing.  All I could think was, “this is good – the storms will move on through in time for a sunny start to the day.

Austin & James (both 4) didn’t plan this fashion statement.  Tessa and Julie, coming from the same gene pool, bought them the same swimming trunks.  They certainly seem to be planning on sunshine.  But a look outside told an entirely different story.  It was raining off and on and no sun was doing its thing at all.  but the show goes on.             

The big yellow school bus picked us up at our cabin door during a break in the rain showers (good omen here – right?)

Here we are all (yes, everyone on this bus is part of our clan) ready to go – being as optimistic as possible and telling ourselves it doesn’t matter – no matter what, we are going to get wet.  Fortunately the thunder and lightening did move on during the night and it was just raining.  So – the show goes on!

Just as we pulled into the put in point of the river the skies opened up.  I took this picture through the bus window.  The bus driver was kind enough to let us sit on the bus and not turn us out right away.  As he put it, “it all pays the same, whether I sit here or go get another load”. 

We didn’t sit more than five minutes when the sun gods decided to shine down on us.  You heard me right – the sun!  

  

When we first looked at the rafts I had rented (only two of them) we were a little worried.  According to the brochures 10 of us was supposed to fit in each raft.  Did they take into account coolers, towel bags AND people?  We were going to soon find out!

Well I’ll be darned.  We do all fit – and with room to spare.

The rivers are mostly shallow with many gravel bars along the way.  It took us 8 hours to float 5 miles and we didn’t have to walk the rafts a single step of the way.  That means we spent a whole lot of time playing with water guns…

… walking and talking…

… having an occasional “poor me” moment…

…having more water gun fights…

… eating and drinking, and drinking and eating, and drinking and… well you know…

… showing off our many talents…

… just swimming around..

        … and enjoying the beautiful scenery

    

The only thing that even remotely marred this family get away was the many others, most of them drunk, who shared the water ways with us.  Fortunately  there was enough space that, with the exception of a few areas, you could either speed up or slow down and steer clear of them.  The grotesque and lewd behavior of many of these young people isn’t something I wanted my grandkids exposed to, but it is what it is.  Hopefully our efforts in turning it into a lesson of what not to do was successful.  We have vowed to avoid the Saturday crowd next year.

       

Back at the lodge, although tired (but fortunately not sun burnt) we ate pizza, blew bubbles, took baths and showers, and went to bed. 

This was a wonderful chance for my family to spend time together and bond.  It is something my grandkids will remember for the rest of their lives (even the drunks, unfortunately).  They will talk about the camp fires, ball games, smores, horses, grandma and grandpa snoring in the next room, the scary rain, the water gun fights, and stuff that I don’t even know  about. 

If there is a way to do something as a family, even when your family is way too big – do it.  You’ll never be sorry you did.  Before this we used to go camping at Alley Springs, which is also on a beautiful Missouri scenic river way – The Jack Fork River.  Alley Springs is our own family tradition, but unfortunately it is almost 4 hours away.  We’ve found a get away closer to home makes more sense. 

There are many inexpensive things you can do as a family.  We’ve talked about having the kids pitch tents at our place and if we couldn’t have afforded our weekend of paradise on the Meramec/Huzzah, that is exactly what we would have done.

Ahhh, this is what it’s all about – My Loves – My Life.

Do you really need that?

Last week was a busy, emotional, yet funny, bone tiring week.

We have sold mom and dad's house (yea and sob at the same time) and could no longer procrastinate about going through their things to clear the house for the new owners.

Hubby Jim, Grandson Travis, brother Tom and me were it.  It is amazing how much help a 13 year old can be when it comes to lifting, moving, and carrying things.  We ran his poor little legs into the ground.  And he never complained a single time.  Each evening after we spent a day going through cabinets, drawers and closest, I would wearily sit down and declare that I am going to clean my own house of all the clutter just as soon as I come up for air again. 

How many butter, cool whip, ice cream, and sour cream tubs does one household need? Ten or fifteen for left over's or to take a nice helping of food to a neighbor? Twenty or thirty in case you want to freeze something? How about hundreds for who knows what reason!

And speaking of collecting things. I declare that our local McDonald's profit has to have gone up since the passing of my parents. They went there daily and dad, for whatever reason, always came home with a pocket full of napkins and condiments. I don't believe they bought a napkin for years – McDonald’s provided them for their every need. Maybe I should have packed some of them up and returned them?

How much toilet bowl cleaner do you need in a house with two bathrooms? I have the answer to that.  Four unopened bottles plus the one in use!

Dad had at least 20 denim shirts, yet he always wore the same two frayed at the collar shirts. I think we are all guilty of that.

And Pyrex cake pans… mom had at least 4 in addition to her regular aluminum cake pans.  I need to check my own cabinets and see how guilty I am of the same sin… I’ve already counted 3 in my head.  Are these things contagious?

Does one really need to keep tax records dating back to the 60's? I need to call the IRS on that one I guess.

I did find mom's W2 from 1944. She made 748.00 - FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!  Those really were simpler times, huh. I let my younger brother take that to frame since he earns minimum wage. Every time he feels down about how much money he makes, he can check out her annual wage statement.

Dad worked at a store most of his life that sold appliance, furniture, and floor covering.  He didn’t believe in throwing anything away.  If a piece of furniture was broken and going to be scrapped, he’d bring it home and fix it or keep the lumber for some project or another.  If a microwave was bad, he would salvage the glass tray and bring it home (we gave three of those trays away).  When carpet or tile samples became outdated and were to be thrown away, he would bring those home too.  The thing of it is, he used much of this stuff.  Their basement floor was laid out like a patchwork quilt of tile – nothing matching, but yet it was pleasing to the eye.

I couldn’t let this chair go.  It is an example of what Dad did with the samples.  He sewed each of them together with magical invisible thread on mom’s lightweight Singer sewing machine and reupholstered the seat to this chair.  It is in my garage right now, but that isn’t where it is staying.  I just have to find the right new item for it to replace in my already overflowing house.

It is a shame this little sewing machine didn’t come with a counter because it has logged countless hours of sewing.  I’d often be lulled to sleep at night with the humming sound of this little jewel.  Mom made all of our clothes,  wedding dresses, school dance formals, baby clothes, and on and on.  Then she would repair the things she had made when they began to wear out or alter them to fit the next person.  She taught me to sew when I was only 10.  All on this little machine.  Thanks mom!

I did find a few cool memories from my childhood. Out of the depths of a deep cabinet emerged this.

 

  You might ask what in the world is that ugly thing.

It is a juicer.  The coolest juicer ever made. You put your lemon or orange in it, pull the lever and wala - juice!  You have to know by the looks of it that it has made hundreds of glasses of orange juice and lemonade – and in my little world here it is going to make hundreds more.

This ice crusher is one of my best childhood memories.   Crushed ice didn’t always come from a refrigerator door (and still doesn’t at my house – I just have a plain old fridge with no water or ice popping through the door).  My favorite memory of this ice crusher is that when we would get sick, mom would crush ice and feed us a few pieces at a time.  When I’d hear her popping the ice out of the metal ice cube tray and putting cubes in the crusher, I knew everything would be ok.

We also found dad's Air Force uniform. It was in the nonfunctioning attic (you know the type... there is a trap door that leads into the eaves of the roof.)  Old Christmas decorations and dad's uniform is all that was up there - oh and empty boxes. The uniform was encased in a decaying bag that literally fell apart as we tried to open it.  It is in perfect condition. Any ideas on what to do with such a treasure? Older brother, Tom, took it home with him while we continue scratching our heads trying to figure it out.

The sale itself was a trip.

Like I said earlier, it took us most of the week to go through things and get ready. Thursday night before the Friday sale we were feverishly pulling things out of cabinets and closets and deciding on prices when this dude shows up at the door. Huh? That is brazen - he wanted a preview, kind of like early bird specials. Brother Tom lets him in because he swears he is not a dealer (yea right). I start following him around while he is scoping things out and every time he asks the price of something I quote him a price triple (at least) of what I had planned on charging. And darned if he didn't go for some of it! Now I'm questioning in my mind whether we are selling things too cheap, but then decide we need to remember it isn't about the money. So this guy who “isn’t a dealer” and I finally make it to the dark bowels of the basement and he happens onto some very old planters and stuff.  I think he would have paid any price for them if I had been willing to sell them.  This is after he has already bought a ton of overpriced stuff. He actually paid $75 for a 25 year old couch. It was in good shape, but $75! So being the conversationalist that I am, I asked where his shop is.  You know, the shop that he doesn't own. He just grinned.  I'm still wondering how he can possibly survive.  I do a lot of antiquing and let me tell you, he was not getting good deals from me.  But that is his problem.

The sale was supposed to begin at 8:00 Friday morning.  We gathered at the house at 6:00 to get things out to the tables in the front yard.  People started showing up at 6:30.  Geeze!  It was a mad house. 

Day one we moved a ton of stuff. The prices really were right. But at the end of the day we still had a bunch of stuff to get rid of. New strategy time. Rather than pricing items individually, we set up nickel and dime tables and one table for more expensive stuff. And we created a free pile. If things weren't generating interest, it went free. Now that was interesting! Talk about a feeding frenzy! All of those flooring samples and upholstery samples I mentioned earlier... people took them! Tons of them! (Junyah you would have been in heaven).

Everything was supposed to be over by Noon Saturday.  Dang, we still had a kitchen table, coffee table, end table, and crushed velvet couch left.  We had marked them down to $5 each but still no takers.  My cousin happened by just to say hi and mentioned her daughter was moving into an apartment.  Ah Michele, we can set here up.  How about letting us haul the tables and couch to her apartment – free.  They took the tables but for some reason wasn’t interested in the couch.  Now almost all of the big things are gone and we feel good about how everything went. 

Dismantling the life’s accumulation of my parents was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.  This past year and 1/2 has been a series of tough events.  I realize, though, this is part of the healing and acceptance process.  Each time I pulled some forgotten book off a shelf, or pillow case my grandma embroidered, or mixing bowl for icing out of the cabinets, I remembered the past and I healed a bit more.  My brother kept catching me in the middle of my spontaneous meltdowns and finally just took to rolling his eyes at me.  I can’t say that I blame him!

So anyway, this is what the blog holiday was all about. 

Anybody need a green crushed velvet couch?  The price is right…

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