Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Bee Happy

I have a really, really busy life just now.  With Lorene going to school for 2 long days a week, (think 8-4 on Tuesdays, which means I'm there 7-5), that takes two days out of the week that is supposed to be keeping up my home management, my office management and my wedding management.  I walked a couple of days last week, but summer time with three boys means I don't need to walk at home. We are either walking to the park or running around outside. Walking to the park today meant pulling three kids in a recalcitrant wagon. Not that I do much running around, when the boys are out, I like to find a shady corner.

The weater is finally warming up and it is warming up in a lovely springlike way with 60 and 70 degree temps and not much wind. Most days, anyway.  
This day we were eating our lunch on the deck, playing around the pickup (the boys, anyway) and looking for common yellow sorrel flowers, which are really a weed, but they are so pretty. 
Image result for yellow sorrel
 I would pick and eat the blossoms when I was a kid.  The boys weren't impressed.  


I wanted to get all four hands of the hiding boys, but I missed my opportunity. 


Paislee gets to spend some time with her Auntie Rene and Zane is a wonderful "putter to sleeper".


It was Zane's turn this weekend to stay with Gramma and Papa.  We cleaned out the garage Saturday morning in readiness for bridal shower.  I dug out a bushy sort of plant that had roots from here to kingdom come and planted a new yellow knockout rose in that spot.  Jim is adding on to our chicken run to make a spot for the newest members of the flock.  I picked up Zane after supper and he helped me dig up rocks for that flower garden project that is now in it's third summer.  I am nearing the end of the project and the garden that runs the length of the shop building. 
Zane helped me some, Lynette put him to work with some spray paint, and Jim tried in vain to interest him in digging.  Eventually, the lure of technology drew him in and he played games on his phone.  (That phone is just for games right now.)

So here we are, third boy weekend in sort of a row and we went to feed the fish at the Archway, (the fish were at home this time), to investigate that Pawnee earth lodge that had fallen in, and to go through the archway itself.  I think Zane enjoyed pieces of it.  I would like to go through again and take my time.  Zane didn't rush through, but he didn't listen to all the stories he could have. They have a pretty neat set-up there. They have headphones and a wireless receiver hangs around the neck.  Then as you walk through the arch, you can type in or point the receiver at the numbers of the various displays to learn about the progress of the transportation from one end of the country to the other, from covered wagons and push carts, through stage coach and trains, to interstates and fiber optic cables.  


We had supper with some old friends of ours.  They are old in the sense that we have known them since before they were born.  They are taking up bees and we went out to see the hives. 
We got all dolled up in bee suits and went out to meet the bees.  



Zane is holding up a section of honeycomb the bees have made since their installation into the hive a few weeks ago.


Jenelle is showing us a drone and explaining how her hives work.  I think I would like to know more about how honey bees work. I've forgotten what I used to know. I know there are queens and worker bees and drone bees and they make honey comb for honey and egg laying and that's about it. 


The bees got all riled up with Jenelle taking out that piece of comb and showing us how much they have made so there we were in our space suits with bees flying all around us. It was a really interesting experience, but I don't want to try raising bees,


I forgot to mention the other interesting experience that started out the day.  The reason we need to know about Jim building the new chicken run is that when setting the corner post he cut into the phone line that runs into the shop.  He didn't think anything of it because we don't use that phone anymore in this day of cell phones and it doesn't have anything to do with the house phones. 
Just before 9 Sunday morning Jim got a call on his cell phone from the 911 dispatcher to check up on us because they got a no response call and when they tried to call back the line was busy.  Sure enough there was static on the line of the home phone, so after Jim explained about the hit line and that we didn't need a visit from the deputy sheriff, he went out to disconnect the line.  Just as he got in to change his clothes, here comes the deputy up the driveway.  I told him about the hit line, and Jim came out and Jim told him about the hit line and he went on his way.  I'm glad we were home.  What would have happened if we weren't?  
I'm not sure what happened here.  Jim thinks the shop phone line shorted out with the home line.  How on earth does all that somehow call 911?  Does that happen on purpose?  I have no idea, but if it does, that seems like a good thing.  It's nice to know they will check up on you, even if it is a bit embarrassing to have a sheriff's vehicle in your driveway on a Sunday morning.  

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Birthdays Mean Family

Mother's Day has come and gone. I got some nice gifts and my dishes done for me by my very kind husband.  That was my kind of gift.  I found utensils in some strange places for the next few days, but that's a small price to pay for a couple of dishwasher empties.  



Some woman came to the nursing home where Lorene works with an enormous basket full of hydrangeas left over from a wedding.  After giving each resident some, and make bouquets for the various offices, she had some to bring home and some for me. 
I didn't realize hydrangeas were so beautiful.  They are so big and full and massed in this vase are giving me a great deal of pleasure.  


Monday, Lorene had some paper work to do in relation to her new job so she brought Christian in with her so he could hang out with me for an hour before we went back to pick up Barry from Pre-K.  He always wants me to play games, but this time I was filling out a very important form for the government with dire threats if I didn't fill it out promptly and truthfully.  
So he had to entertain himself until time to go.  
It was the elementary school play day for all except those in Pre-K, so we went home after we picked up Barry to gather some "lunch" and went to the park.  The classes were at lunch, and we didn't see Zane right away, so we sat down and ate our cheese and Doritos, (we were hungry) and then went to find Zane.  He was so happy to see us he gave me his lunch box to hold and immediately traded his Gatorade for Barry's pop. Then he and Barry proceeded to find friends and chase around and climb the back of the bleachers while Christian wandered around with me.  In a bit all the classes were gathered for more organized play and I took the other two boys to the play set and tried to watch what Zane was doing.  The boys were tired of watching and playing and we went back so I could go home, but not before I got to see Zane drop kick a football, and do it very well, too. 
It looks like Lorene took them back after while. 


Tuesday Christian turned 4.  It is hard to imagine since he seems just the same as he did the day before.  They grow so slowly into bigger boys that it sneaks up on me. 

Our gift, just what he wanted. We also bought a bike helmet for his new pedal-less bike. 




Paislee is very close to walking and her greatest entertainment is having some one help. That is, if she can't dig rocks out of the cracks in the concrete.  Pretty good small motor skills there. 





On our way home, we drove through a ferocious wind, with the air so full of dust from just planted fields, it felt like we were driving through fog.  We were expecting rain, but there was none, By the time we got home the air was clear and the wind had lessened.  


We got rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, an inch and a half.  Jim is out slogging in the mud trying to get some work done in spite of the weather.  We don't want to get too far behind.  

I got a glimpse of Paislee on Wednesday since Lorene was babysitting for the day.  


I really need a new camera.  None of mine can take good photos in motion, and all I want to take pictures of is kids. 


I love to see the grandkids play with the toys my own children used. 






Saturday, May 13, 2017

Boy Weekend

I've been busy.  Busy enough that I haven't felt like blogging.  So busy that I'm not going to remember everything that happened in the last two weeks.  There are photos here that will help to tell the story.  

Paislee can stand by herself,  They were here last week, and she crawled all over and pulled herself up on things, but she didn't show this to us that night. 




We're reusing the high chair that started with Zane.  


She's one smart cookie.  Although, I think they all are at that age.  They know a whole lot more than you think. I have my first baby doll sitting in our living room and when Paislee saw it she took after it and like all 9 month olds, proceeded to pull it around and poke it's eyes.  Nathan thought she should leave it alone, so he laid down in front of it to hide it from view.  
Like THAT'S going to work.  If you look closely at the bottom photo, in the corner by the basket and bookcase, is the doll before Paislee noticed.  As Nathan was lying there, she crawled between the piano and bench and around his feet to get to the doll!



It was Christian's turn to stay with us overnight.  This over-nighter was a carbon copy of Barry's  the week before, except for the fact that we dealing with a 3 almost 4 year old and one that is Gramma's boy more than Papa's.
He loves his stuffed animals.  These are his favorite right now, and at bedtime, they were nowhere to be found.  He had them inside and out, upstairs and down.  Jim even went out in the dark to look around, after we scoured the inside of the house.  Luckily, gramma has special animals, and he went to bed and back home again without these.  I asked Lynette the next day, if she had any idea where he could have put them and she did!  While she was here, he mentioned putting them behind the curtains, and when I went to look, there they were.  
The case was closed.  





3 year old photographer.



It was windy this time when we went to feed the fish, and the fish weren't at home. 





Christian wasn't too sure about the giant buffalo at the Archway. Barry wouldn't let me take a picture. 


The good news.
Four and a half years since treatment and a clear report on Thursday.