Oops, I did it again

Gotta love it when the photos are all out of order. I'll let your smart brains figure out the sequence of PaPa and I scraping off the remnants of our bathroom wallpaper border before using almost every last scrap of the leftover stuff to repair what we could. For those who missed it, years ago when we removed wallpaper in our foyer and sunroom and kitchen as a family, a certain family member got carried away and continued the process into our bathroom, destroying my very favorite part of the wallpaper. So PaPa graciously helped me redo it and did the vast majority of the work on his last visit here. Thank you SO much- it looks tons better!

I especially love this one. Tell me how you feel about peeling off wallpaper without saying a word...

 

And my kids wonder why I'm weird

My Dad, the kids' PaPa, came out to visit for a few days. You may have already seen that he took us out for dinner in a previous post. 

Here, we were having breakfast and this goofball scoops jelly out of our jelly jar and lands half a mini powdered donut on top. He proclaims, "jelly donut!" I watch him consume that, lick his spoon clean and notice that he has 5 other donut halves on his plate.

"Wait just a second, you are NOT sticking that spoon back into our jelly jar!"

"I do it all the time!"

"Yeah, at YOUR house! You're not sticking a licked spoon back in OUR jelly! You are such a nut!"

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing!"

"Dad, you're so weird!"

 I get him a small mug of jelly for him to dip into at his heart's delight. Absolutely brought flashbacks of our hilarious breakfasts before school as a kid when the 4 of us were sharing a bathroom and had scheduled times of who would be in there when. Dad and I often would laugh ourselves silly as he's launching banana slices into my orange juice and my brother barricaded himself behind cereal boxes. 

In case you breakfast at my parents', you might want to bring your own jelly.

I just HEARD my mother roll her eyes.

 

Good times, food times

I have two lengthy posts to edit tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's a fun photo from dinner last night. PaPa came out to visit for a few days, so I've put him to work, and he took us out to eat!

 

Friday night lights

It's that time of year again for all things pumpkin spice Friday night football!

I used to go to some of my own high school football games to socialize. I've never been competitive, so the actual fact that there was a game being played made no difference to me. I'd get home and PaPa would ask, "what was the score?"

"No idea. But I saw so and so and such and such and..."

"Who did they play?"

"Uhhh... hmmm. I dunno!"

World's Worst Fan, right here. 

Sorry, team. I'm just here for the band...  

That's our sax player and his friend at the bottom of the photo above. And Dada made it back from a work trip in time to see the second half after being gone all week. Wahooo! And our guys won, bonus. 

 

More summer Shenaniganery

Aunt Sherri and Uncle Tom like to join us for the fair, and since he's a pilot he can fly them here to the local airport and we pick them up. While Dada ran to get them, I rallied the troops to get ready from here. Someone decided it'd be a good idea to stretch out while he waited, and promptly fell asleep on our bed. By the time I get two of the three Things ready, I lose the third. Can NOT keep my ducks in a row...

Got that kid up, everyone into the car, grabbed Tino, and off we went!

Since the kid is 13 now, we figured that's old enough for him to have a ride wristband and run around and wear himself out. He had a BALL and rode nonstop in between us checking on him. So many rides and circles and spins and dips and doodles that he eventually had to crash onto a picnic table's bench with an "ohhhhhhhh, that was too many at once!"

He's in the florescent shorts on the right side.

Tino enjoyed the outing and voted this goat Best Dressed.

Sadly, we didn't get to keep them and had to return them to the airport.

This is not the same time frame, but I came down with a whole basket of toasty dog towels fresh from the dryer and Dada intercepted with an, "ooooooooh! Give 'em here!!!" He proceeded to drape them over himself and headed off into Dreamland. I told him he was responsible for putting them away. He had a nice nap and did a good job!

This cloud performed the perfect imitation of a cotton ball. I was dodging traffic on our walk so by the time I got a decent shot of it, it had experienced some decomposition, but it had been so cute!

Some sweet friends of ours stayed one night after dropping their kiddo off at college. It's always so good to see them and we're looking forward to way more of it! Dada got to hang out with them, too, but had to leave earlier for a work meeting so he missed our photo op.

Yes, my children, it is yet another picture of the sky.

PaPa came out to visit for a few days so we had to take him to the pool! He started a splashing battle where he proceeded to get ganged up on, but otherwise I think he had a good time. He hopefully got some decent photos of Thing Three backflipping off the diving board. Love to have some fun in the sun! Sad that our pool is closed for the year now. I know there'd be an awful lot of moms willing to celebrate kids being back in school!

 

Another flower post

Sorry, not sorry, for another flower post. Is there anything more glorious than morning glories? They make me so happy! Every morning when I put the dogs out I channel PaPa and coo, "gooooooood morning, morning glories!" Bosley looks at me like I'm talking to him, stupid, stinky, non-glorious pest that he is. Can you tell he's in the doghouse in more ways than one? *sigh*

Back to beautiful things!

 

Something's amiss

 I have a sassafras tree! He's almost naked, but I was completely surprised at finding one as we don't have any big ones on our property and I haven't the slightest idea where he came from. Then I discovered two more and I'm so excited! Yay for baby trees!

So first of all, I thought the picture below was garlic. In my defense, it was in a text sent to my cell phone so it was small. Upon discovering that it was A) a keychain and B) what it was (read the tag for yourself. I'm not even going to type that), my questions are C) who the heck harvests those and turns them into keychains and D) who buys them!?

Around here, we call this The PaPa broom. It hangs out on the deck, is used to sweep as many leaves as possible off the roof before the unfortunate soul who cleans the gutters gets up the ladder to finish the job, and then sends the drifts of leaves out into the yard, invariably onto the dogs who have not enough sense to move out of the way. Either of them. No joke. 

It's a PaPa broom because PaPa has had tons of these throughout my lifespan. He uses them until there are practically no bristles left, then I get the handles to prop plants up in the garden. When things die off, it looks like I'm growing a patch of brooms!

Dada said his shirt has seen better days. It reminded me of the swimsuit that Muggin tossed at the end of our Mexico trip last December, and the cheap orange purse I'd taken on the same trip that also ended up in the trash can. The orange outer layer of material was peeling off and shedding all over creation. Muggin said she'd had one that did the same thing. What have you ditched on a vacation?

A dose of hilarity

 A lot of you have probably heard a version of Ephesians 6:4 where it reminds, "Fathers, don't frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master." Some versions read, "don't provoke your children to anger" or "do not exasperate your children". However, in our household, and perhaps in yours, math homework and test prep are cause for exasperation on the parts of all parties involved (and some of us who are innocent bystanders, as meltdowns tend to spill over into aftermath- haha, I wasn't even trying!) 

At one point, Dada declared that all fractions needed simplified, forever. As Damon protested that, "we don't have to do that!!!!!" Dada informed him that, yes, he did, unless we received a signed note from his teacher saying otherwise.

Imagine my snorted giggles when I opened Damon's folder to find this!

***

The entire reason I bought the calendar. I've been waiting for this month all year.

***

Truthfully, these pajamas apply to more People That I Live With than the child shown, but they fit him well enough that he got to model. He's doing a PaPa face, I think, though I see some of my  Uncle Jeff in there, too. Child needs a keeper. Can't keep track of his belongings and paperwork for nothin'! At least he doesn't have to simplify fractions. 

Summer snippet

*This post began in June and camped out in the Drafts folder*

 Nothing earthshaking has been going on. Thankfully we aren’t dealing with wildfires or extreme heat (please be careful, those of you who are), or even flooding which is surprising because we were starting to feel like guests of Noah’s ark for a while there. It’s about the time camp would be starting up and that’s such a part of my DNA at this point that I find reminders everywhere. Including a cookie recipe made from cake mix, which is how several of our camp cookies were baked, so in remembrance:

Damon joined his besties for a week of Beulah on the Road (think high energy VBS) right before one of the besties moved out of state. I'm so glad they had that last week of fun together! I do have more pictures but it might be October before I sift through everything. =/

He also escorted me on a trip to see Grandmama and PaPa and kept them out of trouble while I attended the memorial service of the mom of one of my besties. Bittersweet for sure.

PaPa took Damon to a local animal park and showed him around town, including the home they were living in when I was born, someplace I couldn't tell you how to get to or even when I last saw it, haha! Damon was inordinately pleased to have been to my first home. 

Dada doing one of his favorite things, hehe.

Dada and Damon doing another of their favorite things!

Not puzzling

Aunt Lainie gave us this puzzle last year as we packed up to head home from the beach. It's 1000 pieces, our first large jigsaw attempt, perfect for quarantine and summer vacation. I opened the box and the plastic packaging inside the box.

It is missing 106 pieces.

Not 16. One hundred six.

Now, we have no way of knowing if it was missing some or all of them before we opened it, but I can tell you that I caught Bosley Underfoot walking on the table like it was a catwalk and he's had colorful poop lately, so my guess is that not all the pieces grew legs themselves. Pretty sure they had help.

I had a good time with this challenge despite those who shall remain nameless who didn't want to help as we didn't even have all the edge pieces, ahem. PaPa even got some in. Big thanks to Liam who channels his patience and unerringly discovered what went where. Or should.

I think we should wait until Fall break to attempt the next one.

 

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day

I'd like to say that Liam takes breakfast seriously, but if you've ever been in the tri-state area when he's supposed to be eating breakfast, you'd more often hear my voice reminding him to eat than you'd actually hear him chewing. I suppose I should be grateful as I hate hearing the sound of chewing. Licking is even worse. 

Anyway, Liam does however take the making of breakfast very seriously. He loves weekends so he can putter about in his robe (and sometimes hairnet, of his own volition, don't ask) and whip up pancakes and French toast and his favorite meat, bacon. An added bonus is that PaPa gave us his old griddle; you'd have thought we'd handed Liam the moon. 

                                          

At least we know that once he's out into the real world he won't starve to death when there are breakfast ingredients at hand. Dinner is a different story, but one thing at a time. 

Adventures in pre-Halloweening

The Halloween parties loom, as they probably do for many of you, so we are trying to figure out who needs to be where and when, and ensuring that nobody goes naked. 

Dada: Do any of the kids even have costumes yet?

Me: Nope.

Dada: Do any of them want to be anything reasonable?

Me: Well, Damon wants to be Mario...

Dada: Oh, good, that's reasonable. Last I heard he wanted to be Kirby. I didn't even know what that is. *slyly* But I'm glad he doesn't want to be a vacuum cleaner. I think that'd be a sucky costume.

PaPa: Yeah, there goes his dirty mind again. I think that would have sucked. Dust off another idea...

The Old Lady Room Makeover

Some of you are scratching your heads and wondering, "what is an Old Lady Room?"

When we were first shown the home we now live in, the front living/sitting room had very much of a parlor appearance. It had these creamy pink/beige/purply/gray walls, one of those very low, long couches, a wing back chair, a rounded, standing radio, and red carpet with roses all over it. And drapes. Oh my, drapes. This is the part where I disclose that I'm still a pushpins-and-sheet-or-light-blanket-or-scarf-over-the-windows kind of girl at heart. I buy curtains on clearance from Big Lots or Bed, Bath & Beyond. These were drapes. With valances! 

And just like that, someone sniggered and the Old Lady Room was born.

You can see the light color of the walls, above, and see how depending on the light the color is all over the place. Normally it didn't have everything shoved into the center of the room, obviously, but spread stuff out in your head and you'll get the idea of how we'd dealt with it.

The Thingz were all to be out of the house the same week thanks to camp and Pap, so what better time to paint than when I didn't have to stop to break up fights or stop to feed anyone or stop to figure out why certain technology was having issues or stop because of anything Thingz-related. 

So I kind of turned things over in my mind and decided I liked a paint square called Greenblack by Sherwin Williams. It had a dark gray look that was kind of smoky and would help the light drapes and painted wood furniture pop while going well with the red furniture and that red, rose covered carpet. Some people scratched their heads again and I'm sure they would have hiding grimaces during the priming process, above, where the room looks really dark and like the first room you'd paint differently if you were moving into a new house.

But, add those crazy thermal drapes back in to cover the darker wood of the windowpanes, get stuff back where it belongs, and let PaPa go crazy with the vacuum and the Murphy's Oil Soap and the Windex and ta da! One spiffy looking room that actually pulled together really well. 

Not bad at all for an Old Lady!  

Huge thanks to camp and Pap (babysitting) and PaPa and Dada (working, cleaning, taking down and rehanging drapes and valances) for all the help!

Come on over to see our New Old Lady Room!

Is it just me or are they a red and blue two headed monster?

Rutabagels and other randomness

It is 11:56 AM and I've already logged 8,528 steps on my Fitbit for today. So it shouldn't surprise you to read that I've taken the trash and recyclables to the curb, walked Carrie to the bus stop after her two hour fog delay, walked the boys to the bus stop after their two hour fog delay, hung out two loads of kid laundry, started to bake bread from scratch, remade the guest bed after Pap's visit over the weekend, drank half a mug of yesterday's coffee, picked up sticks in the yard, aired out the bedrooms, fed the dog and had her in and out several times, made two lunches, and even checked Facebook. I'm pooped! It's not even quite lunch time!

But my dough is supposedly rising in a warm place (there it sits, stubbornly, in the sunshine, not doing a darn thing) and I don't have the stamina just yet to begin on either the applesauce or the tomato basil soup which are both on the list of today's goals, so why not blog?

Yesterday I was reading to Damon while the big kids had their karate class. The books were Beekle, There's a Wocket in my Pocket, and Chicken Soup with Rice. Being the natural instigator that I am (although environs definitely played a part there as PaPa is and my Gramps was a world-class instigator as well), I inserted every possible food for the word "rice" just to drive Damon bananas. I especially liked to add "rutabagas" as it is an underused word and since it starts with an r he might have thought for a second that I'd actually get "rice" right. He was exclaiming to me that it was "rice, RICE, not rutabagels" which I thought was too hilarious to keep to myself. I didn't even bother to correct him. 

Liam is already beside himself as it is his birthday month. He can't wait for his birthday, he can't wait for Halloween, he can't wait for Trick or Treat, or the party at school, or the gifts he'll receive, or the books he wants. This kid might possibly combust before he turns eleven. 

Carrie is 110% teenager, right down to the biological clock turning her into some nocturnal creature of darkness and a zombie in the early morning light. She alternates between wildly funny with nonstop giggle fits and the other side that gives adolescents everywhere a bad name with the slouching, eye rolling, grunted single-syllable answers with no consonants whatsoever and selective deafness when called by one's own name. Repeatedly. 

She remains our resident debugger in that she is a friend to any insect anywhere who is being threatened with flushing burial at sea or stompage. She scurries to the scene to whisk said offending creature back to the Great Outdoors where they belong. I'm forever grateful, though the exploding stinkbug population isn't smart enough to be thankful. It's possibly the same dozen getting into the house over and over and over again. 

Dada is doing time with the Bigwigs who are back in town again for the second half of their training all week. This means he gets dinners out and possibly lunches in and we won't see much of him. Bummer. It's supposed to be the last beautiful okay, hot week of the year, too. If you run into him, tell him to come home so he can get his garlic in the ground on time. 

And come eat tomatoes!

Da da dadaDA... 3000!

Wow, you guys, this is my 3000th post, and I don't even have anything that exciting to say! =/ Bummer!

We've been in the wake-up, get-up, go to school, do homework and dinner and get in the car for karate, come home and go to bed routine that is typical of autumn. Throw in church and friends and home group starting back up and gorgeous weather and an overgrown garden and germs, and you pretty much have our life.

Last weekend, Pap showed up on his birthday to hang out with Dada as I piled all the kids in the car and trekked to PA for one of our infamous Whirlwind Weekends. We collapsed at Grandmama and PaPa's house Friday night. Carrie came with me to a funeral Saturday morning, then we headed to a friend's daughter's third birthday party in the afternoon and then went from there straight towards to Pittsburgh to meet with my BFF and her girls for munchies. Sunday brought a trip to my Nana's hometown where Carrie and I visited her in the hospital while Aunt Lainie watched the boys at Nana's apartment. We all piled back into the car, headed home after lunch, and Damon announced he had a huge headache. Sent him to bed only to have him miss the next two days of school with a fever and sore throat. Dr. Jon declared him strep-free, so it was back to school on Wednesday for him, much to his delight.

Now Liam has gone to bed with a bad headache and he feels warm to me. =/ They say that history repeats itself...

Dada and Carrie were mowing while I did laundry and dishes. Damon played on the iPad to keep him quiet while Liam slept. Now I need to go fold said laundry and get ready for this week. Have a good one, everybodeeeee! 

I'm not the only one who is behind

I've talked before about how PaPa would tell Lisa and I to get busy with our sidewalk chalk whenever he felt we needed rain. Within three days it would wash our sidestreet- to-garage chalk art and he'd be thankful.

This time it took four days. Must be because I didn't have my Lisa to help!

The boys and I did these last Saturday, and it's rained almost all day today:

You can tell how windy it was as the drawings are all half-dusted off. And now we have a fresh clean slate for our next warm day. Hopefully that arrives before May...