Fall beauty to nourish your stressed out soul

 

I can't be the only person who is stressed out over the election today, so I figured I'd share the absolutely gorgeous Ohio morning I experienced today. As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge them. Enjoy! And vote!

New addition

Some of you know that our eldest vehicle, Pepe the Pilot, is indeed on the elderly side. He's a 2005 Honda. We took him in at the end of last year to see what could be done to shore up his underparts since, like many similar models in our climate, the Ohio salt brine has done a number on him. Sadly, there was nothing to be done- his frame is too rusted to weld anything TO it to improve it. At some point his bum is just going to fall off, probably. So we have had it in the back of our minds that we should probably be on the lookout for a new-to-us vehicle. We've been test driving and checking things out slowly but surely, trying not to fall in love or anything. You know how it is. 

Assuming that towards the end of the year dealers might be more willing to make a deal and hitting the last day of the month during that time frame seemed like a good idea. 

What we probably shouldn't have done is take Thing Three test driving with us. I'm sure our purchase had absolutely nothing to do with his nonstop chant of "Jeep! Jeep! Jeep!" emanating from the backseat. At least we knew what his vote was. 

Either way, allow me to introduce (Badass) Gladys! There's been some pushback about having this Gladiator be a HER but I figured since it's been almost 18 years since I've had Seal, it was high time for a female. I Googled it, and there were indeed female gladiators back in the day. 

We've had the roof off once and a certain child keeps campaigning to take the doors off, but as it's gotten chilly that might have to wait until next year. We've also acquired our first duckie, which is apparently a part of Jeep culture; if someone likes your Jeep, they leave you a toy which you then display on your dash. Now you know why some Jeeps you see have an entire line of them across their front! 

We drove a lot of PIlots and some Highlanders and both of those felt completely comfortable and familiar. We ended up going with the Jeep because we figured if we got her we would be more intentional about building in fun activities. A Jeep can go places that a Pilot can't necessarily, or at least not well. We could drive her in the sand at the beach, something Pepe would really not appreciate. She's also a workhorse as she's part truck. We can't fit all 5 of us and both dogs in her unless the dogs ride in the back, but since it's increasingly rare that all 5 of us and both dogs go anywhere together, we didn't feel it was a big enough issue to pass on.

Thing Three's first crush, haha. 

Come on out and we will take you for a spin! 

 

Feeling like Sunday morning

 I love telling stories in reverse order. (*rolls eyes*) Okay, the morning after the wedding (which I haven't blogged about yet, so bear with me- you're not losing it) it was decided that our whole kit and caboodle would have breakfast at Bob Evans AND we would get to meet up with friends of ours. Some of us did a coffee run whilst others slept in or showered or swam, in Damon's case. We got to Bob Evans and needed seating for 14 so all the cousins could sit together and goof off while the adults could hear themselves think. And there's always Shenanigans.

Together again for the first time in 12 years!

These kiddos had started elementary school together and then between 2nd and 3rd grade their family moved to the other side of Ohio. The kids found each other on social media and checked in on each other once in awhile, and then orchestrated the breakfast when we figured out we'd all be in roughly the same spot in Ohio. Thanks for coming to see us! Damon had just been a little guy when they left, so they were delighted to see how big he was, which made him blush a little. Hopefully there are more adventures together in store and it's not nearly as long between visits!

All that swimming, traveling, and eating wore the boys out. We made it home safe, picked up the dogs from the friend who graciously watched them, and hope to not have to go anywhere today. Have a good one!

Apologies and thanks

 Sorry for the radio silence. Life has been a little crazy lately. In the last 42 days Thing One turned 20, Thing Three turned 13, Dada had a birthday and Father's Day, school ended for the summer, Thing One ended the karate job and began two other part time jobs, most of us drove to Georgia and back to visit friends and then Dada and I flew to Scotland and back- him for work, me for fun- and then we drove across Ohio to a wedding and got home yesterday. It's kind of hard to blog when you don't know which way is up. Now my phone is completely overloaded with photos that I'll be sifting through as I figure out how to best tell a month of stories, unpack, do laundry, and catch back up as I wrestle some computer time from the boys who would be happy to be on it at all times. We're not dead, I promise. We're just recovering! I hope all the Dads out there had a great day and know how appreciated they are. Thanks for working hard for us and making us laugh, for loving on us and teaching us, for doing all the Stuff You Do to help the rest of us be running at our best. Have a wonderful week!

End of February

 Our typical Ohio weather (read: bizarre) had us frizzering back to back with 63 degrees the next day. Today it didn't hit 40 and the wind has been hovering around 20 mph. 

However, our clouds are fun! 

Grandmama says it looks like Siberia, hehe.

Most of our snow is gone, and good riddance, but I'm not naive enough to think it'll be gone for good. We still have all of March to go. 

In other news, we've confirmed that the killdeer and red-winged blackbirds are back from wherever they winter. I get excited when I hear them and even more so when I see them. I guess Spring IS on the way!

Too many hexagons

 I feel like this is already the fifty bajillionth time I've done a wintry post. I know those of you who don't usually see snow have already experienced your own this winter. As much as I wish it would just go snow on the polar bears who really want the stuff, it appears that's not going to happen. So I'm trying to find the beauty in the winter wonderland. 

And then the storm showed up. Those are car headlights, approaching from the east.

 Aftermath. First thing, gotta clear a path so the dogs aren't tracking all the hexagons inside.

Uh oh. It's not gonna be great if there are already drifts inside the garage...

Impossible to tell how much we actually got thanks to our wind. One of our cars was next to naked while the one beside it looked sculpted. You can see the dunes and drifts. This is standing just outside the garage door and looking north-ish. You can see where the wind has almost scoured it clear only to deposit it all a foot away.

                                                   

                       Both Dada AND the mailbox down...

We shoveled a bunch by hand because we needed the exercise and because it was sunny, but we were thrilled when the tractor was warmed up enough to do the majority of it. I don't know that we've ever had icebergs to the height that we have now. While we shoveled, the drifts kept calving so I was making snarky remarks about glaciers not disappearing, merely relocating. If you're looking for them, head to Ohio. And feel free to take them back where they belong at the end of your field trip.

I'd say we got maybe two more inches today, so I'm starting to feel like Forrest Gump as he relates towards the end of his story, "and I met the President of the United States... again." Someday the snow will stop and maybe our piles will disappear around April Fool's Day. Now I'm hearing Aragorn swearing, "but that is not this day." 

Be safe out there. Hang in there, Texas. Just hang in there.

Aiiiiiiieeeee, it's May!

You know those days where you have a plan and are all set to accomplish everything you think you need to do for that day? You know how those days never seem to work out so that you do actually accomplish said plan?

Today is that day. 

I had in mind that I would accomplish more of this:

The above picture is about a day and a half of wallpaper removal. First of all, why is there even wallpaper? Why not just hand people Sharpies and let them go to town and then paint over it, again and again, around and around we go?

And secondly, why is there wallpaper again?

After shunting all 3Thingz out the door to school, I tackled the dishwasher and the dishes that needed washed by hand. They'd been sitting around since Saturday's party for Carrie. Objects like both crock pots. Don't judge. They were soaking.  And I threw in a load of laundry. And crossed my fingers that the trash wouldn't get blown to kingdom come. Then I left the house. 

 After breakfast out with my girl Zita which was then followed by a trip to Panera for gift cards, I came home to an unscheduled game of 52 Pick Up:

Drat that Ohio wind. I realize we are not the only people who experience this problem. However, I am a rather rabid recycler, which means our bin is almost always 2/3 full or we don't even put it out. So when we DO put it out and the wind is coming from the north or the east out of Mordor, I tend to scream, "are you even kidding me?!" which usually leads into  bad words.

During my impromptu Trash Bash, a dump truck sped along at at least the 50 mph that marks our road and knocked the bin over again while I was right there, I confess I didn't fully appreciate the tiny wildflowers that are dotting our field of dreams mud. I was more worried about sinking, like Atreyu's horse in "The Never Ending Story."

After yanking the recycling bin back down the driveway, still full, and putting it in time out until next week and then stomping my way back inside, I transferred the laundry to the dryer, loaded up my teacher appreciation basket and headed back out. I dropped that off at the school and then continued on to Walmart with its assorted fun and games. 

Now I'm finally home, the groceries are unloaded and the laundry is folded and put away, but the kids are already on the bus en route home and I haven't even started on the rest of the wallpaper:

And somebody is pouting that I never play with him. He's also ticked because he's been sequestered to one room (as he eats everything including wallpaper adhesive) though it happens to be the room where I'll be working next...

Not that it's all about me, but if the Second Coming were to happen anytime soon, it had better be sometime other than in May! 

One month later

These photos were taken a month to the day after my last radiation treatment but got lost in the holiday shuffle otherwise known as Christmas-New Year's-wedding anniversary-and my birthday that goes on around here. I'm still "tan" but have excellent range of motion, am all done peeling, am still using lotion/oil once or twice a day, and have had my follow up appointment with my radiation team. I got hugged and exclaimed over and they declared me doing "really, really well" and that they'll see me again in six months. 

You can see under my armpit the corner of where the bolus covered and between my spine and shoulder blade still has the patch of "tan" from being radiated from below. The armpit part still gets itchy every so often but overall everything has healed really well. I feel like it's fading more from the top down but I can't really tell if that's just how the light hits it or if it's a "true fact" as we say around here. 

My port fared really well. I'm to get that removed sometime in May. I'll be using it into April for the Herceptin and Perjeta IV rounds. I have another echo scheduled this week for my heart, because Herceptin can affect hearts in not good ways. My previous two echoes were both fine, however, and thank you, God. Once the IV rounds are done, the port can come out, and then I'll start a drug that is six pills a day taken at once, in addition to the Tamoxifen that I take every morning now. I'll be on that new med for one year, or at least that's how it stands now. Tamoxifen will be part of my routine for the next decade. Today was Day 44 and so far, so good. 

Hair is coming in, too, but until the darn Ohio wind decides to give it a rest I'm in all my hats and scarves and wraps anyway. I am excited about heading back into school to volunteer with first graders again! Here's hoping Mother Nature settles down just a bit so that everyone can go to school and to work and run errands and do their thing!

Spring cleaning...?!

Haha, not to worry, I realize it is only January. I haven't turned over that particular leaf as a New Year's resolution. However, when you have a room mostly torn up it makes sense to give it a good scrub while the furniture is moved/covered. There will be a detailed fireplace-turned-farmhouse-project post coming, but for the nonce let's just say that along with the scrubbing, we have decided to go ahead and paint the darn "library" while we're at it. 

I asked around and got advice for both sides of painting before the fireplace project is finished and after, so we're going to go ahead and do it midway. Since Ohio has decided to become part of the Arctic Circle and it's too miserable to be outside without blubber, might as well tackle inside projects of which there is never a shortage. 

Back to my hot bucket of Mr. Clean bubbles. Spiders, you better run for cover cuz I'm on a mission!

Boys, bugs, mums, and other assorted musings

No matter how big he gets, this kid is irresistible when he's sleeping. The camera loves him and somehow he is even more kissable when he's snuggled into a big chair. 

I often wonder how he's going to fit at, say, 17...

We had some insect adventures at the bus stop this morning. There was a two hour delay due to fog. Some of you are rolling your eyes, but I swear we've already covered this ground; we live out in the boonies and bus drivers probably can't see the kids, not to mention any deer, in fog you could saw through with a butter knife. It lays especially thick on the fields, some of which are being harvested. At any rate, it's rather pleasant to eeeeeease into a Monday...

So the sun was fully up and shining away by the time the Damonater struts down the driveway at 10 AM. Birds are twittering away, the squirrels are in full... uh, squirrel, and the bugs are zooming every which way. We had an overly friendly bee checking us out thoroughly. I've always tried to teach the kids to not swat at them, but to stay calm and remind the bee that they're not a flower. It must be confusing to find bright, colorful things that smell like... kids. Oh, never mind. You're not a flower. Got it. Moving on.

This bee was not easily convinced. We had been swatting a pesky mosquito which we both missed when I heard a buzzy drone in my left ear. Damon exclaimed, "bee!" so I ducked a bit and she headed around to my right ear. I felt like I was living that scene from "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" where they talk about, "I'm on the east side, I'm on the west side" that you can see here in case you need a fun distraction. I had nothing to do with either the original movie nor the video clip. Anyway, this bee was not to be deterred from her examination of us. Once she'd repeatedly zoomed around both my east and west sides, she headed for Damon.

He hunched his head down into his shoulders, clasped his hands tight and screwed his eyes shut. Right now I'm curious- is that the universal sign for "potentially stinging winged insect of undetermined malicious intent"? I think it must be. She gave him a complete thrice-over before landing on his forehead right where his bangs meet skin. She only stayed a few milliseconds but it was long enough for me to spin it saying, "awwww, she gave you a bee-kiss!" Off she zoomed, probably to go play amongst our crazy, leggy mums. 

The bee crisis averted, we then did succeed in pulverizing the mosquito that finally landed on Damon's shin. As the bus approached, an Asian beetle/ladybug imposter crashed our party and landed on Damon's backpack. I told him he had a hitchhiker who looked pretty confused about being on a backpack, and off she went with him onto the bus.

I can only imagine the adventures she will have today.

I keep forgetting to get the fall bin out of the attic so the kids can finish decorating, but we did get a good start:

For those of you who live where the weather is a bit more predictable in October than Ohio's weather is, I thought I'd enlighten you on why it is important to wear layers:

I snapped a picture of that after doing a double take when I looked at the weekend weather last week. Yes, those are snowflakes, sun, and rain all on Saturday, with a high of 83. Once again, Mother Nature said, "hold my beer." And while we didn't see the snowflakes, thank goodness, it did reach the lower 80's. In October.

I blame karate. Yesterday was the start of the fall dress code, which means full gis must be worn instead of just the pants, belts, and whatever karate-related T shirts you own. Naturally the first half of this week is going to be in the 80's. In October. 

Following the layering rule, this is what I strolled to the bus stop in today:

Yes, that would be a sundress under a corduroy jacket. Good thing we didn't pack them all up already, right, Mommee? I wanted something long and loose over my ACE bandages which are compressing my top half enough that I still look pregnant on my bottom half. The nail polish is Avon's Mudslide, just perfect for fall, and the boots were on clearance at Charlotte Russe several years ago. They make me feel really tall. I'm back in my bunny slippers now, but it was nice to clump down the driveway in the boots. Just gotta remember to watch out for those slippery acorns.

Enjoy... what is this, officially? Indian summer? Anyone?