Get well get together

Last week grandpa had surgery to remove three large parts to a major tumor that is on the back of his right leg. The entire tumor couldn't be removed because a main artery runs through it. Maralee flew in for a week to help with the recovery. This evening Mike & Heather and their 4 kids, Larry and his 2 boys, and me and my 2 girls, Aunt Meda and Norm, all went over to grandma and grandpa's as a sort of a "get well, we are here for you" get together. All the kids made cards and gave them to grandpa, it was very sweet! Melia, Katlyn, the twins Mathew and Eligha, and little Isaiah. Can't believe Mike has 4 kids! In the rocking chair is Asa (Larry's youngest)

Grandma, Sydney, Asa, and Bret (plus those at the table)

Here's grandpa and Mike. I was the only one with a camera, made me feel odd, but I have to blog! LOL! Grandpa is doing very well considering that he's just had major surgery at 93 years old!

Life

It's been a while since I've blogged! I've enjoyed reading what has been going on with everyone else though! The past few weeks have been filled with waiting. Waiting for school (for the girls) to start, waiting for cooler weather, and waiting for some sort of happy normalise. This summer seems to be dragging on and on and on and on.....(you get the idea) Well, this past week school started!!! Yeah buddy! Sydney started 4th grade and Melia started Pre-K.

Pre-K is in a "Mobile unit" maybe they are a bit to noisy? Here's Melia on the 1st day!

As a part of Sydney's life-long lesson of dealing with change, her teacher is on maternity leave for the first six weeks of school so she has a substitute. Sydney has been dealing with it very well considering she was so nervous about it before school started! I just have to get used to all the homework Sydney brings home! Honestly, Sydney spends hours on her homework! Fortunately, she found some books that she enjoys reading which makes her 20 min of reading a day much easier. Melia is enjoying school. The school system works the younger kids in slowly. Half the class (of 15) went on Wed and half the class on Thurs and then everyone went on Fri. I have to drop her off and pick her up but that's no big deal really. Nap time is the last thing they do and it is so cute/funny to watch the parents/grandparents walking out of the classroom caring their oh-so-sleepy 4-year-olds! I go in thinking "there's no way I'm caring my 70 lb bundle of joy out of that room" Honestly, my girls have grown so much over the summer it's amazing! I took Sydney to get a new pair of shoes and....are you sitting down?.....she wears a size 7.5 women's shoe!!!!!! Her last pair of shoes were a size 5!!! OMG! I just hope she grows into her feet, lord knows I didn't! Everyone is just so surprised that Melia is only 4. Where did my girls get their size? My family isn't tall and Chris isn't tall?

Today I took the girls to Little B's birthday party. (She turns 2 on Sept 1st) It was at the swimmin' hole and we all had a great time!

Little B kept trying to put the candle back in the cake (after it was taken out) and was very leery of us cutting and eating her cake! There were about 10 kids of all ages and lots of yummy food!

My girls gave the birthday girl some balloons which was cute because whenever anyone wanted to know where Little B was all they had to look for were the balloons! LOL! We spent about 6 hours at the swimmin' hole and came home very tired.

About two weeks ago our dog Fluke was attacked! Fluke likes to spend most of the summer months under the house and that all ended when she came in one morning a bloody mess. She had three puncture wounds on her neck and it scared me! The poor dear!!! We got her inside and washed up, medicated, and put a towel around her neck to stop the bleeding. I've heard that "they" have let some coyotes/wolves loose around our area...nice....anyway, her neck swelled for a few days, at least she drank some, and in the past few days she has been back to her old self. The swelling went down, she's eating, and she is playful. I felt so bad! I don't like to see an animal bleeding and in pain! It hurts me physically in my chest!

On a different note, this semester I have a terribly hard class, Financial Management. I spent 6 hours on a "Quiz" that was a total of 25 questions! I had to get a financial calculator and I just could not get that blasted thing to give me any type of answer that matched the multiple choice answers I was given! #$%^&*(!!!!!! (Sorry for the out burst, but this stuff frustrates me!)

Chris has been a time zone away in Tennessee for the past 9 days so I've had to hold down the fort while he's gone. This means that I've had to feed the cats, goats, horses, and raise our children while he's gone. I miss him! I miss my best friend and the adult conversation! He's been out in TN with his mentor Waits selling horses. Waits has been helping/advising Chris about braking horses for about 3 years and they have a father/son ish relationship. (That's the best way I know how to put it) Anyway, Chris comes home tomorrow night and we are looking forward to it.

All-in-all life is good and getting better!

Free Textbook!

I was unable to order my Hispanic Culture textbook online from the university's book store. Evidently, the geniuses there don't seem to realize that this class is required and taken by MANY students. Anyway, I looked on websites that sell used books but could not find the one I need. I checked the university book store today and they still didn't have them in stock. They didn't even give the option of being on a waiting list. Well, low-and-behold I got a package from FedEx from the school. Curious.....I open it and IT's MY BOOK! Yay!!! No receipt or anything....odd. It's a $30 book. (I would have loved if it was one of my $200 books) Hey, I'll take what's given, yes? Cool. I was wondering how I would get it seeing as classes started last Weds. Still boggles my mind.....no wonder books cost so much...sometimes they send them out for free! LOL! It's a good day.

Hair Cut

So Melia is 4 years and 7 months old and she has NEVER had a hair cut!! Now, she is due to go to pre-K in a few weeks and I was bound and determined that she not show up as a rag doll. So I bribed her (told her I'd buy her a WebKinz) and she let me cut her hair. Before....

No matter how often I'd brush her hair, it would always end up looking like this....errr!! Then she sat real still and let me cut it! After....

After I was done trimming her hair she said, "You can cut it whenever you want!" I guess it wasn't as scary an experience as she thought. It's also easier to brush her hair now!

One Last Outting

On Tuesday I decided to take the girls (Sydney, Melia, Lynda, and Little B) to a fun place in Hickory called the Kool Park for one last outing before school starts on the 25th. When I told Sydney about the 20ft diving board her eyes got big and she got excited....then nervous....then bold. She was bound and determined that the 20ft diving board WAS NOT going to conquer her, she was going to conquer it first. So she did, first thing. I didn't even get a chance to see her jump. She came to me all wet and told me that she jumped. WOW! I jumped off that very platform 7 years previous and was scared....and it made my ears hurt (I'd turned into a wimp). I told her that I wanted to get pictures so she let me know when she was going to jump again. (the girl jumped 11 times that day!)
Going up.....

Getting the guts....

And plummeting to earth....

I swear the girls got balls...
Next to the pool was a rock formation with a water fall and water slide. Little B LOVED the water slide. (She didn't like waiting her turn.) Luckily most of the kids left an hour or so after we got there (a lot of day cares come to the park) and the line for the slide was nil-to- nun.

Lynda sent me this picture (Thanks Lynda!) I tell ya, the faster we went the more Little B loved it. She's fearless!!!

Melia and Sydney couldn't get enough! Melia front first...
Butt first.... LOL!

Sydney did the Super Man....

And finally a big pool Little B could touch the bottom in!

I did learn an important thing while I was at the park...I am now allergic to bee stings. The garbage cans (which are uncovered!) were swarming with bees. I was unfortunate enough to have put my arm down one one of them and the SOB sung me! I thought it no big deal, I've been stung before but, on the way home (about 15 min later) I started breaking out in hives and itching all over. I thought it was the pool water, (no one else was itchy though) my throat was getting tighter and so was my chest.....It was all I could do to get to a pharmacy.....they told me to take Benadryl, so I did and was better. On the way home from dropping off Lynda my lips started to swell up on the right side. I thought "wow, that can't be good!" I felt like Téa Leoni on "Fun With Dick and Jane" when she went for the new botox testing and her lips swell up. (mine was not that bad) I have decided that this fall I will go to an Allergist and get a Rx for an EpiPen. I know that this sting was just to let me know that I better be prepared...or die...or something. Anyway, we all had a great time!! lol

When a 4 year old takes pictures

So Melia wanted to take pictures.....this was the best.

Then it got strange....

I call this one 'a bondage to soup' lol...

"soup - close up"

This is me...

She took MANY pics of the floor...

you get the idea....

This is where we hang our stockings at Christmas time....in the summer we hang shovels!! We like to decorate for the seasons, you know!

The air quality today was fabulous! It made for a gorgeous day. Pictures don't do the day justice...

A funny story: Melia was drawing family pictures. She handed me a stick figure picture of her, Sydney and me. I asked her, "Where's daddy?" She gave a shrug and I told her to at least fit him into the backround. She then gives me the picture (still dadless) "Where's dad?" I ask. She turns the page over to show me how she put her dad "in the backround" lol Well, after our trip to the beach dad finally made it to "the front page" (Melia's words) Go dad!

Me, Melia, Dad, Sydney

7 Hours of Soup

I have always loved my mom's homemade tomato soup. Mom taught me to make it a few years ago and this year I mentioned to my neighbor, Robert, (who often gets free/cheap produce for his pigs) that if he ever got some tomatoes I would like them to make tomato soup. Well, Robert came through for me..... He gave me about 3 batches worth of tomatoes (about 45 pounds) that were VERY ripe and needed to be dealt with right away. I felt the pressure....so I set a date....today.

This is the second time this summer that I have made soup so I knew that all those tomatoes would make three batches . A lot of soup and a lot of work. I was ready....so I set aside this day to make the soup. Mom wanted my help with some paperwork (which was fine with me, got my lazy bones out of bed :) !) and then I took Sydney to get her braces' wire put back in the bracket. The appointment took all of about 15 min (less than 2 min in the chair) and then I headed to the grocery store for a few things I needed for the soup. Little did I know that our local Food Lion chose this very day to renovate their inventory. I found everything I needed (while weaving in and out of all the people moving things and restocking shelves) but I couldn't find the sugar! I asked around and found out that the sugar had been pulled from the shelves and no one knew where it was.....errrr. I mean, it wasn't like I was looking for DreamWhip or something!!! Anyway, I went to another store and got the sugar, I also picked up some more lids, just in case. On the way out of Food Lion I was a bit agitated and I told the girls, "I guess that Food Lion doesn't sell sugar on Mondays"......I try to be funny when I'm mad.....So I get home and start making soup at noon (times a tickin'). Melia was a big help!

The little trouper stuck with it 'til the end. She did most of the squishing. Mom lent me her "Squeezo" machine for the tomato season. The thing is from the 1970's and still has the instructions and looks brand new (go mom! I just try to get all the tomato off of everything). I'm sure my sisters recognize the Squeeo. Well, after 7 hours of cutting, crushing, cooking, and canning I ended up with about 30 quarts of soup, which I turned upside-down and covered with a towel so that they would seal. (I took the towel off for the quality of the picture, I then tucked them back in for the night, just to make sure that they seal. ) Doesn't really look like much, but it is. You canners know....



My house never left 90 degrees the entire time I was cooking, but boy nothing makes a cold winter day feel like home like grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup....mmmmm....And now I am tired....very tired....I will rest now and eat soup this fall and winter! YUMMY! Oh, and of course for supper I fixed? grilled cheese and.......tomato soup! LOL!

Cheers!

And so continuities the tradition....