Friends, Family, Food, Flamingos... what Thanksgiving is all about!

   It turned out to be quiet a busy Thanksgiving this year. We had friends come to stay with us during the week, making for a household bustling with love. We savored the good food on Thanksgiving Day, happy to spend the time with family. We even went to the store on Black Friday to shop - something we never do....

We were running out of clean clothes.

At least there were no long lines.

As for the Flamingos? The flock were the highlight of the week!

   They showed up one night after dark. Hearing music and singing, we popped our head out the door to see what was going on only to find a flock of pink flamingos had roosted in our yard. It was delightful and we all had a good laugh. We were glad they wore scarves, it was pretty chilly outside.

At first, they were fun to play with and feed. But then they stayed. It turns out a flock of flamingos can be quite a bit of work. For one, they need to be fed! So the kids and I fed the flamingos.  And fed them. And fed them. Day one they ordered lobster bisque and shrimp scampi. Day two, twenty bushels of shrimp arrived via Amazon. Day three, more shrimp from Amazon. Day four.... you guessed it, another twenty bushels of shrimp.

I had no idea flamingos were so good at online ordering. Or that they could eat so much shrimp!

   Making the situation even more interesting was these were BAND flamingos. Which means they are partial to marching drills during the day and loud music at night. One evening after eight renditions of 99 Bushels of Shrimp on the Lawn, the police told us we would have to find a way to keep them quiet.

   I began to search for the paperwork on the flock to see about their removal. Something was going to have to be done about them. Before I could make the call, however, they were singing again.

   This time they were singing Let it Snow. Over and over and over and over.... 

Unfortunately they got their wish and it snowed, and snowed and snowed.. The flock was buried and now required a rescue from the freezing snow in addition to another forty bushels of shrimp. Muffled singing of White Christmas could now be heard emanating from the snow drifts.

I'd about had it with our fine feathered friends and called in a removal crew. Fortunately the rates offered by the Westmont High School Band were quite reasonable. The professionals promptly came and collected the wayward band of musical and hungry fowl assembled on our porch.

As an added bonus, I got to suggest a new roosting spot for the displaced flock!




Several days  later we received a delivery from Amazon. Several bushels of shrimp? How could that be? And who the heck was singing Suzy Snowflake?

We had an escapee! 

  Now where did I put the band number?

Harvest Time

   It's harvest time! We are enjoying this year's bounty of garden fresh tomatoes!

   Just not from my garden. All the beautiful produce you see above is from someone else's garden. (No, I didn't sneak in other people's yards in the middle of the night; they were given to me!) Some of the tomatoes pictured here are even what we call accidental tomatoes... ones that grew from plants that sprouted from seeds left on the ground from last year's fallen produce.

   Yeah, that doesn't happen here. Not at my house.

   I am grateful my friend and neighbors share their harvest with me, because I love fresh fruit and vegetables, but quite frankly, I can't grow plastic flowers. So thank you to all of you who stop by and leave bags of tomatoes and other goodies on my front porch!

   It's not that I didn't have garden ambitions.

  Ambition I had. Motivation, time, and patience I lacked, as well as the ability to grow things. Pretty sure my harvest will be accomplished with a weed wacker!

  I did weed the space in the front of the house next to the porch where the flowers usually go... but it occurred to me something was missing.

Namely flowers.

   So I decided to plant flowers! It was a little late in the season to plant flowers... but hey, better late than never, right? There was just one little problem, no one really sells flowers to plant in the late summer. Well, some stores do, but they weren't really what I was looking for. I wanted colorful, easy to maintain, minimal work flowers. Ones that required no sun, no weeding, and no watering. After some searching, I found the perfect variety. 

Okay, so they were plastic flowers. I get points for creativity, right?

   Unfortunately, there is one problem with planting plastic flowers....

When it rains, they don't perk up... they fall over!

   Perhaps if I plant more of them they will hold one another up. Or maybe I just need a different variety? I'll have to give this more consideration.

But in the meantime, I am enjoying regrouping them each time it rains.

Pretty sure the neighbors think I'm nuts.

Wait til they see the winter variety!

I wouldn't go hiking with me if I were you!

Vacation can be a wonderful time to relax, spend time with family, and explore new places...

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

In our case, however, they tend to be outright adventures!

(No, we were not involved in the accident pictured, but it is one example of what we encountered along the way. A sober reminder of safety first and thankfully only resulted in an hour and a half detour for our family.)

   This year is a prime example. I have termed our vacation 2018 Wild West Adventure!

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

Mind you, it was a really good vacation. We saw extraordinary sights. Like the World's Largest Ball of Popcorn!

We got to ride on Jack-A-Lopes! Pictured is mom on tamed indoor Jack-A-Lope.

And we were able to spend lots and lots of time together.

All five us us.

In a crew cab pick up truck.

 For three thousand miles.

Everyone had their moments. There were bumps on the road, like completely flooded campsites. unexpected detours, road construction, animal obstruction (we saw lots and lots of animals), and of course tourists. I'm convinced they are the most dangerous creatures in the parks!

Photo courtesy K M Drechny

Despite the somewhat crowded space, both in the truck and in the camper, everyone had a good time. The weather was mostly cooperative, ranging between the mid sixties to upper seventies (fahrenheit), making it ideal weather to walk around and see the sights. We visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks,

Devils Tower, Custer State Park and the Needles, The Badlands, The National Grasslands, Countless state and national forests, Mt. Rushmore, Souix Falls, and other places that boggle the imagination.

Our trip also included a rodeo, a stop at a Buffalo Bill Dam, and a visit to Wall Drug. While we are not big back country hikers, we did indulge in short tramps along the boardwalks and climbing the numerous stairs. And as we did so, we discovered something of great importance.

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

It is NOT a good idea to go hiking with me! 

For one, I'm invisible. On several occasions, I was stepped on by other tourists who evidently couldn't see me. In one instance (which later resulted in me visiting a medical clinic) I was literally run over by two ladies in a hurry to see some geyser or another.

As if this weren't bad enough, I also attract hail.

Yes, you read that correctly. Hail. Doesn't matter what the current weather conditions are, if I am on the trail you should be prepared for hail. Not just light hail either, but we are talking pea sized bombs that burn when they make contact with the skin.

The first time was the same day I was run over by the two lady tourists. Mind you, they were very apologetic once I became visible, even if it took them five minutes to find the translation for "I'm sorry." But honestly, I had been trying to avoid them all afternoon. I have a hiccup in my giddyup, so I'm careful to avoid my much faster moving counterparts who are unable to see me, most of whom have climbed off a tourist bus. Unfortunately, it did me little good, they still managed to find me, nearly bowling me over in the process. The collision caused me to jam my good foot, further hindering my efforts.

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

Yet, I am not one to give up easily. Determined to make my destination, I continued on, albeit at a much slower pace. It was a beautiful day, about eighty two degrees, and the skies were sunny. I had on my favorite boonie hat, my sturdy hiking shoes, plenty of water, and was in a particularly good mood. Since it was warm out, I wore a a tank top but debated on going back to the truck to grab a long sleeve shirt, just in case. In the end, I decided I didn't want to take the extra time to navigate the parking lot.

I know better.

We traversed the mile and a half to our destination with little difficulty (except of course being run over by tourists). However, the return trip proved to be a bit more of a challenge. Not only was my pace labored, but the sky rapidly clouded over and the temperature began to drop. By the time we were halfway back to the Inn where we started, it was forty degrees cooler and was threatening to rain. I sent my daughter on ahead of me with the hopes her long legs would help her avoid the almost certain downpour to come.

She had long since disappeared down the trail when the predicted rain hit. Within minutes, I was soaked. To add insult to injury, it began to hail. Not just small pellets, but pea sized balls that sent fiery shocks along the skin everywhere it hit. There was no place to take shelter (one does not veer from the path when walking on the surface of a supervolcano with a thin crust all around), and nothing to do but trudge on. Fortunately my mother was smarter than I was and carried a jacket.

Needless to say, we made it to the Inn, bedraggled and in serious need of hot chocolate, but safe and sound. Despite the cold and wet, I was still in good spirits.

However, this was not to be the last time the weather decided to join me on a hike. Near the end of our stay in the area, we visited Jackson Lake with some friends. It was cool out, but a great day to take a walk. I opted not to go on the mile long trail. Good thing, cause guess what...

Yep, it hailed. AGAIN. This time my friend and I were close to the visitor center and I was dressed for the occasion. If you can dress for hail, that is.

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

I determined right then and there, no walks more than a quarter mile from shelter. I was done. Finished. Completely resigned to short excursions from the truck and always carrying weather repellent clothing.

Which was just fine.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Well, almost. It did hit one hundred and six degrees one day...

The same day we encountered forty mile an hours winds. (Why yes, I was outside for this!)

Then there was the truck itself. It hadn't been super happy about yet ANOTHER trip into the mountains and protested hauling our camper up steep grades, not to mention numerous switchbacks.

Did I mention the truck is about eighteen years old?

We were well within our GVR (gross vehicular weight), and didn't push to make the truck move faster than it wanted to go uphill (or downhill for that matter). Still, about two hundred miles from home we lost the upper gears. Having full cell signal (for the first time in nearly two weeks) and good coverage under AAA, we decide to chance it and drive home anyway. We almost made it too. Twenty-five feet from the driveway, reverse ceased to operate.

OOPS.

Hard to believe how important reverse can be. Luckily, we were able to use another vehicle to back the camper into parking place. It took a little ingenuity and gravity to maneuver the truck into the driveway.

Photo courtesy of K M Drechny

So I'm guessing this really IS the last time we use the truck to haul the camper into the mountains. But now having fixed the transmission, I'm thinking short distances over flat lands shouldn't be too much of a problem...

AP Dishwasher and other useful classes

Yay! We are done with Jr. High!

   

   Having survived the Decades Project (the 1940's so at least I liked some things about it),  

Wall art done by artists!

the 8th grade dance (for which I was volunteered to help with decorations by a person who shall remain unnamed), 

a couple of band concerts and a parade, 

90 degrees, we are a tough bunch.

   and at long last - 8th grade graduation...

Apparently shoes are optional for graduation!

     

I was more than ready for summer break to start!

   Of course, the jury is out as to how much of a break it really is. There are still music lessons, graduation parties, birthday parties, church camp, flag team practice, marching band camp, and summer class work....

WAIT, WHAT???

   Yeah, summer class work. Kiddo has an on line math packet of about three hundred questions to complete before the beginning of the next school year. This week there is a class session and a field trip for AP Human Geography.

   And to think us silly parents planned a summer vacation with all this madness going on. Hmmm, I'm beginning to question this whole high school thing. I took some time to review her course selections. There is stuff like honors literacy, honors math, science, physical education, and a foreign language, to name a few. Not the classes I was hoping for.

   I was looking for something more useful... scanning the course selection book I became painfully aware that our school was lacking some very basic and much needed classes.

• Like Alarm Clocks 100: How to set an alarm and actually get up with it and not rely on your parents to act as a wake up service.

• Small Appliances 101: Students learn how to properly use a microwave and toaster, leaving them as clean as they found them. Course work would include basics like covering dishes before heating them and emptying the trays from the toaster.

• Light switch 102: In this course young individuals learn the second basic principle of light switches...how to turn them off.

• Introduction to Laundry Hamper: Placing clothes inside the hamper, not on the floor next to the hamper.  Tutorials on determining the difference between clean clothes and dirty clothes, as well as emptying pockets, and turning clothes right side out.

• Introduction to Dishwashers: Learn the difference between dishwashers and sinks, counters, tables, and other flat surfaces where dishes are most often found abandoned. Class can lead up to Advanced Dishwasher: How to load a dishwasher so that contents become clean during wash cycle.

• AP Dishwasher: Intense course includes different cleaning settings on dishwasher, loading special items in appliance, emptying and and putting clean items in proper placement in kitchen cabinets. Course includes how to wash items not fully cleaned by dishwasher.

• Vacuum 101: Turning on this useful tool and actually using it to collect dirt from flooring. Course work includes basic maintenance of the tool, such as cleaning out canisters, changing bags, and putting it away after use.

After all, there are some things a kid just doesn't learn from their parents.

 I suspect it is because they can't hear them.

Communication is so important.

   Which is why we bought my daughter a smart phone for graduation. So we could text her. We have discovered this is very useful if you are lounging in the yard and have forgotten things like snacks or something to drink. Or maybe a pillow...

   Because at the end of the long summer days of running kids around, making sure they do their course work, practice instruments and learn all those skills they won't be getting in school, a parent needs a little down time. The smart phone has been one of our best purchases yet!

 

While I'm sipping on my beverage, I'd better not forget, she needs a physical for school this year.

Driving lessons

So the other day I handed my daughter the keys and asked her to pull the car into the garage.

   She grinned, then took the keys and hurried off to do my bidding, the way every good kid should obey their parents. I grinned too, wondering how long before she came back and asked me some questions. To my surprise, I heard the car start, then saw the vehicle move into the garage.

Not bad for a first try.

Did I mention she is fourteen and about to graduate eighth grade?

   When she came back, she had the oddest look on her face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You should have told me when you took your foot off the brake the car moves."

Oh yeah, it does, doesn't it.

   I asked her if the car was now in the kitchen (we have an attached garage our kitchen is just behind the garage). She said it wasn't, nor was the tool box standing against the wall directly in front of the car. But we probably need to adjust the parking stop we have on the floor. It's kinda far forward and the car touches the tool box before it stops.

   She also informed me, you have to step on the brake to start the car. Same goes if you want to put the car in drive. Did I know that? It was a bit of a surprise to her. But to her credit, she figured it out. See, I knew I had a smart kid.

   My husband is still giving me "that look."

   Hey, gotta start somewhere, right? I mean, it's not like I asked her to go an pick up a gallon of milk or anything. What's he going to do when she needs to merge onto the expressway?

   Uh-oh, I think he just passed out.

   Guess I had better get ready for the graduation tonight! High school adventures here we come!!!

Smelling Good!

    After coming home from the gym the other day, my husband and I were unpacking our gym bags, when I noticed my husband making faces... I asked him what was the deal and he told me he smelled like baby powder.
 
   I got close to check (he took a shower so I was safe) and sure enough, he smelled like baby powder. It was his deodorant, which was powder fresh scent. I don't know how much it was fresh, but it sure smelled like a new baby's room.

Which led to an interesting discussion.

   Why powder fresh? Or spring fresh for that matter. Who came up with rain storm anyway? I mean if you want to smell good when you perspire, why not something inspiring?

   Like chocolate chip cookie dough or birthday cake? Maybe fresh baked bread...

Better yet, COFFEE scented deodorant!

Now there is a scent I can get into!

Of course, I would never leave my husband alone again. Ever.

When we got to thinking about it, we began to see the possibilities.

   There could be seasonal deodorants, like pumpkin spice in the fall and cinnamon and cranberry around the holidays. In the spring we could have cherry cobbler and vanilla frosting.

   Maybe for summer we could market a whole line of summer scents, like watermelon and barbecue! For those of us who like the outdoors, we could have bacon cooking over a campfire with a companion lotion - s'mores!

   My husband suggested an entire dessert line which would include cherry pie and strawberry cup cakes. Add to that a girl scout grouping which would include thin mints and tag-a-longs.... Now we're talking!

Hey, why not?

If it's okay to smell like a spring breeze, why not a french vanilla cappuccino?

We are talking the ultimate in aroma therapy here!

Last minute projects

   This Saturday is my daughter's confirmation. We were so excited we decided to have a party in celebration. To get ready for the party we decided to paint the entire house...last week!

The ENTIRE house?

Are you nuts!!!

   Well, okay, just the living room, dining room, and all the hallways up and down the stairs...as well as the ceilings. I mean, we've had these three paint chips tucked behind the thermostat for next to forever. So it was just a matter of picking one of the swatches and painting, right? Light gray, medium gray, and dark gray.

   No, not the dark gray, that was just too much. And the light gray, well, it looked almost white, so what would be the point? Medium chip it is then. See, decision made.

Okay, what's with the odd looks? Are you trying to tell me everyone doesn't paint the whole house the week before a party?

Okay, I suppose you do have to make a bit of a mess to paint.

   Then there are all those corners. My goodness, who knew there was so much trimming out to do? Oh, and the window trim, mustn't forget we have to paint the window trim...after we sand the window ledge down. It was really in sad shape. Then there was floor trim. I have to admit, I got pretty good at keeping a steady hand to do the trim free hand, as well as the trim around the ceiling. So did my handsome husband for that matter. 

   I was glad he was as dedicated as I was. Because somewhere in the middle of our project, I suddenly found I needed to go dress shopping with my daughter. We had to buy two dresses and tights and a sweater.

   Yikes, was I supposed to dress up too? Uh-oh.

   Food, need to plan for food too. Because if you invite people over for dinner, they are kinda gonna expect to eat something.

   Pancakes anyone? Okay, maybe not. Hmmm, Italian beef and rolls with fixin's. Two pans of mostaccioli made by my daughter's sponsor and more-together parent, pasta salad by mom and appetizers...oh, and don't forget the mint chocolate chip gelato (and another flavor for us grown ups.).

   Paint the ceiling, move the furniture. Clean out registers and put light switch plates back on the wall. Pictures! What pictures should go back up? Maybe we should pare down and eliminate stuff while we are at it. 

   Because when you are pressed for time, that is the time to reorganize, reduce, and sort it all out.

   Getting there, getting there. Oh crap, I forgot, I still need to touch up the paint in the kitchen. It was the original reason I was thinking of paint in the first place! Okay, add touch up paint and kitchen door to the list. No problem.

   Little bit of clean up and things are looking pretty good.

   Hey, did the neighbors down the street HIRE painters? Really, do people do that?

   We did it! All done and in time for the party.

I have to admit, we make a pretty great team!