Remembering - A Trip Back in Time!

What with the episode the other day of the black snake in my yard, I got to thinking -and remembering -some other snake episodes in the past.

When I was about 9-10 years old, I remember one day that summer when I was playing on the front porch of our neighbor's house with their son, Bobby. He had a balloon and was chasing me around with that balloon and for some reason or other,back then, I was afraid of balloons. (Why, I'm not sure but I think it may have been a fear that the balloon would burst with a bang. Stupid, I know, but that was one of my little idiosyncranatic fear back then.)

Anyway, to try to get away from him, I jumped off the porch (only about a foot high jump -nothing drastic) and began to run down through the yard to their back porch.

About 4 foot or so from where I jumped out into the yard, there was this long black thing laying in the yard and I blithly jumped over it. But as soon as I did, it struck me that it wasn't just some piece of wood or tubing laying there but rather, something else.

I turned around and standing on my tippy-toes to look down at the object, I realized then I had just hopped over a big old black snake. I let out a scream just as my friend, Bobby, was almost on top of the snake and then, we both went flying down to the back porch.

At the top of the back porch steps sat Bobby's older sister, Louise -busy painting her toenails. We scrambled up the steps as fast as we could, all the while, screaming -"Snake, Snake! There's a black snake in the yard!"

Louise jumped up and the three of us went into the kitchen, still screaming about this snake but with all three of us making all this racket, poor Gert -their Mom -initially couldn't make out what it was we were carrying on about. As soon as she figured out we were yelling about a snake, she pointed us into the living room, where Bobby and Louise's Dad was laying on the sofa, supposedly watching a baseball game but in truth, he was napping.

We woke him up and he pulled himself up -slowly, very slowly -and I recall his first words to us were to inquire if the Pirates had hit a home run. We had to tell him then we weren't waking him up because of the ball game but rather because there was this big old, long, black snake out in the side yard.

Howard muttered a bit to us about having to go find a hoe or some other implement -which he did -and then, he moseyed up and attacked the snake, killing it and dropping it down by their chicken coop.

Fascinated by this dead snake, Bobby and I both kept watch over it for the rest of the afternoon as it still continued to move -even though in the act of killing it, Howard had beheaded it. Howard told us that it would continue to have these reflex movements clear up until dark as he said the snake wouldn't totally die until the sun went down. (How true that is, I have no idea but I do recall Bobby and I were both really engrossed in this thing!)

Then, about a year later, in school one day -during our lunch break -the boy who sat in front of me brought a green snake into our room and put it in the drawer at the bottom of his desk. I immediately went into a screaming, hissy fit frenzy that brought our teacher back to the room in a rush. She reprimanded me because by that time I was standing on the seat of my desk and told me to sit back down and behave. I remember telling her I would -just as soon as Denny Humenay removed the snake that was in his desk drawer! Wish I'd had a little digital camera back then available to take a picture of the look on Miss Johnson's face when she realized that Den had smuggled this lovely little snake into her classroom and who knows what kind of havoc he had in mind to wreak on the rest of the class after our lunch break ended that day. (Den was like that -loved to pull whatever kind of prank he could on the rest of us kids AND our teacher too. Lucky for him, he was her "Pet!"

In remembering that story though, I got to thinking that he would never have been able to do a prank like that if our classroom desks had been of the style used for most students today though! No way could a kid have hidden something like a snake -or a frog -or whatever creature in furniture like the ones of today.

Snakes are a commodity that are fairly plentiful in these parts and thankfully, I have never had a really close encounter with any of the poisonous types -except for seeing a dead one on the highway now and again.

But, back when my kids were small -probably early elementary ages -they used to play with my son's Tonka trucks and excavating equipment under a big old pine tree in my front yard. And one day, they came to me telling me that the cat we had back then was flipping something around under the tree and that it looked like it was a snake.

So, out I went to check it out and sure enough, there was our cat, taunting this snake. It wasn't a big snake -but then too, size with snakes is of no importance to me. (You probably figured that out from my post the other day about the snake episode here.) And I wanted that snake out of there THEN, right away!

I sent my son down the street to our neighbors' house as I knew my friend Kate's husband, Jim, was home and he came up with a big spade and killed the snake. He also left here carrying the snake slung over the handle of the spade as he headed back to his place to bury the thing.

Well, about half-way down to his home, I saw a pickup truck making its way up the road had stopped and Jim was talking to the driver -all the while, holding this spade with the snake draped over it. But when the pickup pulled away and Jim resumed his walk home, I noticed the snake was no longer on the shovel handle. Knowing the guy driving the pickup was our neighbor, Daryl, who back when we were kids was a lot like the boy in my class with the snake in the desk drawer in that Daryl -better known around town by his nickname of "Sharkey" - I mentioned to the kids that the snake was now most likely in the bed of his pickup truck, enroute to the local bar where Sharkey would probably try to terrorize the patrons having a quiet cold one there that afternoon.

I later learned that is precisely what had happened too!

Isn't it just great how some folks can make entertainment though out of a dead snake?

Simple-mindedness!

We had a little experience here today that is a bit on the unsettling side for me.

I had been out in the backyard, checking out the progress in my garden -peas are blossoming as are the green beans and there are at least three blossoms on one tomato plant now too. The beets and carrots are growing nicely as are the scallions and the lettuce -well, it is really excellent! Mandy and I have had two beautiful chef salads from the fresh lettuce and the whole family has enjoyed regular tossed salads a couple of times, plus the other night, we all dined on bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwiches -on toast -for supper too.

Ok, I just digressed, big time there, cause I got so excited talking about my lovely bed of leaf lettuce. So, back to my story.

I had come in the house and was getting a few things ready to start supper when Katie's boyfriend, Simon, showed up here.

When he came in he told me that some guy in a blue -or blue and white - older model pickup truck was stopped out in front of my house and hollering for me, from the cab of the pickup truck.

Now, there are times when I have difficulty hearing the damned telephone ring when I am in here, with the kids making noise, tv blaring, etc., but when the front windows were not open (as they weren't today) and the neighbor across the street was moving grass in his yard, directly across the road from our house, tv playing here -yes, of course -and me in the kitchen, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm not gonna hear someone calling out to me from a pickup truck (that is also running, making a bit more noise to add to the mix)!

And just why was this fellow yelling for me?

Well, because he wanted to tell me he had just run over a black snake that was about four foot in length -so he told Simon -and that said black snake had slithered away, down into my yard and was last seen slinking along the side of the house.

Wonnerful, wonnerful! I'm, highly impressed. NOT!!!!!

For the record, I HATE, HATE, HATE, Loathe, Abhor and Despise snakes. Any snakes! Big snakes, little snakes, poisonous, non-poisonous -makes no never-mind to me. I hate 'em all!

I know many will get upset by my saying this but in my book, the only damned good snake is a DEAD, DEAD, DEAD one!

Of course, Simon didn't know which side of the house the snake traveled by in making its exit but I got up my courage and went out, taking a walk along the side of the house where the kitchen is located. I didn't see hide nor hair of anything remotely resembling a slightly -or maybe severely injured black snake in the throes of making a get-away. Boy, I was thankful for that! But then again, I wasn't thankful for not having spotted the damned serpent either because that, to me, means that the little so-and-=so may have managed to make its way down to my little garden, which by the way, is so thick now with veggies just growing away that it could hide in there, recuperate and regenerate itself and be waiting for me the next time I go there to pull some lettuce or to check on the tomato plant or well, do whatever, ya know.

And trust me when I tell you this, if I do happen to encounter said black snake -or any or its relatives or progeny, you will probably hear me screaming no matter what far corner of this earth you may call home!

I am however quite thankful for one thing though.

At least this snake was not a rattlesnake like the one someone ran over right in front of my son's house about two weeks or so back!

Now had this been a rattler or a copperhead, I would not have even ventured out of the house to take a look-see around for a carcass of the snake or any trace of it whatsoever!

It does still boggle my mind as to why whoever this guy was that hit this snake -who obviously knows me because he told Simon to tell "Jen" that he had hit this snake. He knows my name so surely then he also knows I am getting on in years, the limbs don't function quite as smoothly or quickly as they once did and the hearing -well, it just ain't quite what it used to be either.

If the guy was that darned concerned, why the heck didn't he just pull the truck over into a parking spot in front of my house -there are about 3 or 4 slots open most of the time there -and come down to the house, bang on the door and tell me about this and then, also tell me which side of the house the darned snake was last seen by too?

I know that knowing all that information, being much clearer in my mind, would eliminate (hopefully, anyway) the prospect of my having nightmares now about black snakes invading the crawl space under the sunporch which is now my bedroom or sneaking into the basement or hiding from me amongst the veggies in my garden patch.

Wouldn't you feel better if you knew all that too?

Busy Week!

I had planned to do a post on Friday for the "Only the Good Friday" that Shelley Tucker at This Eclectic Life has set up but somehow or other, before I knew it, the time had just flown by and it was Sunday morning and no time this morning to do any post, that's for sure!

So, just what is it that I've been doing anyway?

Well, I was caught up -as of Saturday -with my blog readings but today, I see I have 102 posts waiting in the wings for me to read and possibly even comment on but somehow, I don't think I'll get around to clearing my Reader tonight.

So I'm going to backtrack a bit and try to bring things up-to-date here!

First off, I finished the Strawberry tablecloth -as those who have me on their Facebook are aware but I didn't get around to taking a picture of the completed project until tonight. So, for your viewing pleasure, here's the pics of that tablecloth. (I did not take a picture of the entire tablecloth, as it is 50x50 and if I put it on the table, it doesn't show the entire cloth. But there is no design in the center so what you see in the photos is repeated as a border the entire way around the cloth. And, it's 50x50 inches square!)
This picture shows almost half of two sides of the cloth. It's about the largest display I could manage of this cloth.
And here is a close-up of one corner of the tablecloth. As I said above, just picture this design repeated around the entire border of the cloth!

Tuesday, as you know from my last post, was the first day of the summer session of classes for Maya and also, for Kurtis! Although we were a bit worried on his first day that he was going to wig out on us and fight getting into the van, etc., he surprised both Mandy and me -a LOT!

His teacher called Mandy shortly after the kids were loaded on the vans and on their way home to tell us how well he had done on his first day in school! For openers, he drank out of a regular cup! Imagine that! A year ago at this time, he would not even attempt to drink out of anything at all except for his bottle and even then, he would not try to sit up and drink from it -had to be laying down! It took us the better part of the winter to get him to a point where he would sit up and drink -but from a bottle -and finally about 2-3 months ago, he graduated up to a sippy cup. But drinking out of a regular cup? That was still unheard of -until this past week. So we were celebrating that milestone for him!

I started working on a new embroidery project last Sunday night -after I finally got the tablecloth done. This project is a set of six Christmas ornaments designed by Mary Engebret and each ornament, when completed, is about 4x4 inches square. Each design is also what I refer to as "busy" -meaning it has a ton of different colors to be used and there are several rows of stitches in a square surrounding a small design in the center. It took me till Friday to complete just the stitching on ONE of these ornaments! And I was about nuts too from changing colors of thread about every 4-5 stitches -or so it seemed! That one ornament is still not technically completed though as I have to sew a backing on it and then, bind the edges too! Arrgh!

So, Friday, I broke my cardinal rule about embroidering and started working on a 5x7 counted cross stitch picture. This one is kind of "busy" too but not near as much so as are the ornaments.

Thursday morning, Mandy got Kurtis ready to go to school and he was all decked out, standing by the front door and watching for the van to show up. He had his special comfort items -his bear pillow along with his little Etch-a-sketcher -and was there, waiting, watching and when the van pulled up, he saw it before Mandy did and called out to her,"Ready, Go?" Guess that tells you all how much this little fellow loves going to this school, doesn't it?

Thursday afternoon, Mandy and I picked Maya up at her school and headed to Walmart to get a pretty large -stock-the-shelves -type of grocery order. Something we haven't done for about 3 months now, so by the time we got home from doing that, I was pretty well whipped from walking all over the place and pushing that heavy cart! Loaded up on coffee, sugar, flour, plus a bunch of other stuff and the cart was so full, it was getting really hard to move! Time to quit shopping when things get to that extreme, isn't it?

And that brings me up to that last big thing in my life, which took place today!

Mandy, the kids and I left about 11 a.m. today and headed down to Indiana, PA to the home of one of my Mom's cousins -Arline Calhoun -who was hosting a gathering of as many descendants of my great-grandparents (Carl and Maja Lisa Till Eld) as could make it to her house today!

Now, I have to tell you a little here about cousin Arline. First off, she is fantastic! So organized and coordinated -a terrific cook and baker -and she is also 83 years old now but has way more energy than I do or than a whole lot of others in our family have too!

With some assistance from her daughter, Sandy Duncan, Arline fixed a feast for our meal of the day that you just had to be there to believe! Roast eye of round of beef, pork loin and sauerkraut, hashbrown potato casserole, green bean casserole, a carrot casserole, meatballs, jello salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, rice pudding and also, a family favorite, a Swedish dish that is a baked custard and is called Panakaka. Along with all that, she also had rolls, homebaked Swedish Kaka breads, nut breads, seven different kinds of cookies, cake plus two homemade cheese cakes too! Talk about some great food, this was it for sure!

Arline's Mom -who was my Grandfather's baby sister, had worked prior to her marriage in Pittsburgh as a cook for one of the wealthy families there. Another of Grandpa's sisters -Aunt Esther -also worked as a cook for one of the well-to-do families of the 19-teens and early twenties -the Brainards -and a cousin of my Mom's was a cook for the Frick family too of Pittsburgh! So, when it came to cooking, Arline had her Mom, our Aunt and a cousin who all could give her advice about food preparation and she does excel at that, for sure!

So, anyway, I got a few photos today of the family and hopefully, by posting these pics here, I will try to explain who the various family members are and how they figure into my family tree too.

So here then is a picture of all of us -or almost all of us who were at Arline's house today!

Seated on the ground in front is Arline's son, Jim and his wife, Chris. Sitting on the chairs behind them are:
Carl Bengston (a brother of Arline's) and his wife, Eleanor. Then there is their granddaughter, Hannah Mitchell, cousin Arline (Bengston) Calhoun, her brother, Paul Bengston, my granddaughter, Miss Maya, and Arline's grandson, Nathan Calhoun.

Standing in the first row behind there are:
Joyce Bengston Mitchell -daughter of Carl and Eleanor Bengston who are seated in front of her. Next is my first cousin, Nancy Eld Lang, then her younger son, Mark Lang, his wife, Toni Lang, my first cousin, Barbara Eld Donaldson, Arline's youngest brother, Cliff Bengston, then Karen Eld Putnam (a third cousin) Mandy, (my daughter) and Arline's youngest son, Chris. (Chris is the father of Nathan, the boy seated in front of him.)

In the back row there's Melda Bengston (Paul's wife, Arline's sister-in-law) then, Arline's son-in-law, Gary Duncan, her daughter, Sandy Calhoun Duncan, then the gentleman with the big hat is my cousin Barb Eld Donaldson's husband, Bill, followed by Jon Putnam (Karen Eld Putnam's husband), cousin Nancy Eld Lang's husband, Howard, and me! Kurtis was in a couple of the earlier group pictures but they didn't have everyone on them and by the time we got this one taken, he was refusing to be held and was off on his own, sort of, playing in the grass with some toys Arline still had in her house from when her oldest grandson was a little boy!
This is one of my favorite shots I got today and this is Arline, seated next to Kurtis and that's her brother, Carl and his wife, Eleanor on the end to the left. I loved the way Kurt was sitting there next to Arline and can't you just see from the look on her face, in her eyes, how much she loves little children? Remember, I told you, she is a gem! Considering there's a bit of a n age gap between her and me (but it does seem I am closing that age gap faster and faster every year, if you know what I mean), Arline and her siblings are all my Mom's first cousins but I am very close to Arline. We try to stay in contact from time to time throughout the year by phone and although Arline doesn't have a computer or internet, her son Jim and his wife do and I e-mail back and forth with her daughter-in-law, Christ, to let Arline know bits and pieces of things going on within the family as well as around the village here too. (Arline and her siblings lived across the street from my house for a number of years in the house that had been her grandparent's, my great-grandparents' home so she knows a lot of the locals here in town too.

Kurt and Maya both behaved relatively well today too. Translated that means simply -NO MELTDOWNS! And that is really a good thing! I tried to get Maya to sing for Arline as I had told her that Maya had learned the old family favorite hymn "Children of the Heavenly Father: and even had learned the first verse of that song in Swedish too. (That song just happens to be Arline's favorite as well as mine and so we were hoping to be able to get Maya to kind of perform a bit but no dice! Although, in the car on the drive home, Maya was singing her little heart out! Figures, doesn't it? Don't kids always do things like that to ya?
And this picture was also another favorite shot I got today. That's Mandy in the green tee shirt pointing to Kurtis and Arline is looking on. Leaning on the car is Arline's sister-in-law, Eleanor Bengston and Arline's oldest son, Jim. It almost looks like Mandy is saying to Arline "Here, you take him!" Not really, cause you know by now I'm sure that neither Mandy nor I would ever relinquish Kurtis or his sister Maya to anyone but well, there are moments with all kids that thoughts like that might momentarily be entertained, huh?

We did have one little scare today with Kurtis though. Mandy and I were both trying to give him a little space and letting him run a good bit. Heck, this kid rarely walks anywhere as he has to be moving at a good running pace almost all the time. But anyway, we were doing that and just keeping an eye on where he was all the time too but at one point, around 3 p.m., all of a sudden, he got out of Mandy's range of vision and she couldn't see him, couldn't find him and so she called out to me that she couldn't locate Kurtis. Well, when the family heard her say that, you should have seen people stop talking and scatter around the yard, the house, looking for him! Sure does bring on a panic feeling deep in your gut when a little one disappears like that and so quickly too! Within less than a minute though of many people fanning out and looking for him that my cousin Nancy's son, Mark Lang, spotted him, two houses down from Arline's home, exploring her neighbor's back deck!

Although the drive between our place and Arline's is only about 90 miles -give or take a bit -and it takes a tad over an hour and a half to make the trip, we left Indiana shortly after 4 p.m. but didn't arrive back home till a little past 7:30 p.m.

That's because as we got near to Curwensville, (a town along our route home) Maya announced she needed to go to the bathroom, so we made a "potty stop" there at the home of my ex-brother-in-law -my kids' Uncle Tom! This is my ex-husband's next younger brother and Tom is quite a character, for sure! Initially, I wasn't going to go in as I was really tired, half asleep really, so Mandy left Kurtis and I in the car and took Maya inside to use the facilities.

Well, before we knew it, Uncle Tom had heard us pull up and had come up from his back yard to talk to me and ended up making up with Kurtis. This too was a bit of a first for Kurtis as he hasn't been around Uncle Tom and his wife since he was just a baby. Tom opened the back door of the jeep and started talking to Kurtis and initially, the look on Kurt's face looked like he was afraid, and going to have a hissy fit on us. Tom leaned in and as he had a bit of stubble growth on his chin, he pointed to that and motioned that he was going to rub his beard against Kurt's leg or his cheek and I could see Kurt starting to kind of withdraw from him but then, all of a sudden he just started to laugh at his great-uncle Tom and ended up letting Uncle Tom get him out of the car and walked with him down through his backyard, just as nice as you please!

So, we had a nice visit with them and I even had a cold beer there too -first beer I've had in months and months now! Tasted darned good too, it did!

And there you go -that's what I've been up to the past five-six days that's been keeping me away from taking the time to write a post!

And, as my good blogger friend up in Bean Town says when he closes a post , "More later, with better stuff!" Hope you don't mind that I stole your tag line there, Suldog!

School Days, School Daze!

Now before you think I've gone over the edge completely by writing about School in the early days of July, just because for most kids stateside this is school vacation time, in our house, things don't quite operate that way.

Today was the first day of the abbreviated summer session for Maya and for Kurtis, today was his first day EVER of attending school!

The school program Maya has been enrolled in for the past two years now has this shortened summer session so for her, it was a return to school.

But Kurtis is now eligible for the same type program that Maya has been in and for him, this was his new beginning.

Maya's hours this summer are from 9 a.m. until 12:30 and Kurt's school hours are from noon until 3:30 p.m. So, the van for Maya arrives around 8:30 a.m. to pick her up and then, another van comes around 11:20-11:25 to pick up Kurtis.

Maya was almost four years old when she started attending this school and her vocabulary, her comprehension of a lot of things by that time of her life was a lot better than is Kurt's right now. But then he is just a little over 3 years old too -won't be 4 until next April, so that's pretty much self-explanatory then the differences in understanding that each had of the idea of going to school.

So this morning when it was time for Kurtis to get in the van, Mandy and I were both a little concerned as to how that would go since he's not really gone any where before that one of us wasn't with him.

When the van pulled up out front and Maya told him to come on, time to go, etc., all of a sudden he pulled one of his little tantrums on us -jumping up, with a rapid descent to the floor on his butt, rolling around a bit and crying and both of us were thinking the same thing then. Oh no! We're gonna have to drag him, kicking and screaming out of the house and to the van to get him off to school.

To our surprise -and a very pleasant surprise it was too -his tantrum lasted about 10, maybe 20 seconds tops and then, he reverted to his nice, sweet and very sociable self, walking out the door holding Mandy's hand and all smiles as she put him in his seat in the van. He had his comfort items with him too -his bear-bear pillow and his little etch-a-sketch toy (which he dearly loves) and here's a couple of pictures we got of him to prove I'm not fibbing to you about how happy he was as he was getting ready to leave home.
Kurtis, waiting inside the front door for the van to show up.

Kurts, all strapped in, with his special bear pillow and his etch-a-sketch -necessities of life, ya know.
Seems like he's telling me "See you later, Gram . If Mom would hurry and get this camera out of my face, we could get going though."
Ok, Valerie (the driver), we're ready to roll now!

Before he got home from school, Mandy had already had at least three phone calls about how things went today for Kurtis. Renee, his former TSS and who is now the behavior specialist who supervises both Maya and Kurt's cases, called to say he was doing fine. Then, Kerri, the teacher, called and told Mandy that he had eaten a meatball and something else at lunch plus, he had his drink in a cup and had drunk out of it. Now that was quite the accomplishment for him since we just got him to switch over from a bottle to a sippy cup about 2 months ago! She also said he didn't want to sit down and preferred to wander about the room but that was no big surprise to us. He tends to be that way at home too. LOL And then, finally -a call from Sam -his TSS -who said he did very well today. "Much better that I expected" were her words to Mandy.

And yes, it was much better by far than we expected too but boy, how great it was to hear that he did so well, had begun to acclimate to these new surroundings and doing it fairly easily too. Couldn't ask for anything more than that, now could we?

And, I have a Maya-ism for you today too.

Sunday afternoon, Mandy took both kids up to the home of her best friend, Jen-Jen for them to spend the afternoon with Jen and her family -those three teen/preteens who love to spoil Maya rotten! (Just kidding, Jen. We ALL really do appreciate that Curtis, Gabby and Emmy love to have Maya -and now Kurtis too -come and visit!)

Anyway, Maya had apparently been giving Jen-Jen a bit of guff -yes, she likes to dish it out from time to time -and Jen had told her, "Maya, you are going to drive your mother to the funny farm."

And Maya's response to that -"No, she will drive herself."

That's the end of that discussion and also, the end of this little post about Kurtis and his first day at school.
Who would have thought a year ago, when he had no vocabulary at all, was very standoffish too most of the time around anyone but immediate family, that this little guy would have come so far in that short period of time.


Aint' life just grand though?

Make it go Away!

Well, due to circumstances beyond my control but because of these lovely people who insist on coming by and posting spam on my blog, I have had to resort, once again, to place comment moderation and word verification on my blog.

I really hate to do that and I know some folks -other than the spammers -do resent having those things too but sometimes one has to do what one has to do.

What I can't figure out though is that this particular spammer isn't even showing up at all on my sitemeter. It's like this person is totally invisible and just swoops down, leaves an undesirable comment and then, poof, its gone again!

Now how can that happen anyway?

Anyone have any clues, please let me know. That happened to me once before and I contacted sitemeter about it but they said it apparently was someone using a reader to comment. Well, I can only think of one or maybe two bloggers on my reader whose blog I can comment to directly from my reader. But it still inevitiable opens the blog post so I would think that would register then on their sitemeter, wouldn't it?

And now, back to my afternoon baking session. I'm making rich lemon-coconut bars and have a batch of chocolate streusel bars already done to cut and take to the Women's Group meeting tonight at church. Cross your fingers and hope they both turn out okay!

Monday Wash

Anyone besides me remember when Monday was ALWAYS designated as the day to do laundry? That's how it was in this house when I was a kid -Grandma always washed clothes on Monday -in the old wringer washer and hung it all out to dry on the clothes lines in the back yard. Monday evening, she would spend sprinkling all the stuff and rolling it up, neatly organizing it in the clothes basket to be ironed, of course, on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday, she used to dedicate to cleaning chores, Friday and Saturday were more for weekend preparations, baking, special cooking and yes, of course, more of the cleaning -usually saved the heavy-duty cleaning like scrubbing floors for Friday.

Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest and she did try to observe that with the exception being cooking a big meal and washing dishes then.

System. Yeah, she definitely had a system which is something I most definitely do NOT have! And boy, I sure could use one.

The weekend worked out quite well, overall. Mandy, Bill and the kids went to the parade in Osceola Mills. I stayed home as the thought of three adults plus the two kids in their carseats in that jeep -well, too close for comfort for me! I got food ready for our supper because older daughter, Carrie -her fiance, Robert and her son- my Prince" Alex (#1 grandson, ya know) were coming up for supper. So I fixed a big pan of bbq spareribs, got them all pre-cooked so all Bill had to do then was heat up the grill and slap a dabble more bbq sauce on them and let them just heat up with the sauce. They turned out very good.

I made a great big bowl of Halushki -and for those not of the ethnicity to know what that dish might be -it fried cabbage and noodles! It's a big favorite in a lot of the homes here of Slovak or Polish background and although my kids and I happen to call Sweden and Scotland our ancestral lands, we all love this dish. It ranks right up there next to Macaroni and Cheese with me as being excellent comfort food.

Yesterday, we got a new sofa. Well okay, it's not new in the brand-new sense of the term but it's new to us and really, is like new in appearance, etc. Mandy found it at a yard sale nearby for $25 and you can't beat that with a stick for a sleeper-sofa to boot, can ya? Plus the colors in it work very nicely with the colors and fabric of the two recliners we have so we're all set now for furnishings in the living room for a while. Now, the problem is figuring out how to dispose of the old sofa. That may take a bit of thought to accomplish the feat.

Sunday afternoon, Mandy took Maya and Kurtis up to her girlfriend's house where the kids spent the entire afternono, in and out of the little wader-type pool they have, playing with the litter of boxer puppies they also have too. So when they returned home in the early evening, both kids were definitely "too pooped to pop." (That's one of my grandma's old sayings.) Kurtis was wiped out by 7 p.m. and Maya managed to hold out till 8 p.m. when she bit the dust.

I finally finished the strawberry tablecloth (50x50 inches) last night. What a relief to have it done! So, of course, I immediately launched off into another embroidery project. Now I'm working on a set of six Christmas ornaments, in designs by Mary Engebret (I think that's how you spell her name). These are gonna be tricky for me because they are that nasty counted cross stitch and it is just a matter of time before this project makes me go totally crosseyed , possibly even blind and will most certainly bring out the very best of my "sailor's vocabulary." Why do I try to do these counted cross stitch things then if they can be that bothersome to my well-being? Well simply because I do love them if/when they are done and if/when they turn out decently too. That's a lot of "If/when" stuff going on there with me wielding the needles but I've made up my mind if my friend Shirley says this type of stitchery is so much fun, I have to keep working at it to find my own "fun zone" with the stuff then too!

Practice makes perfect, ya know. Or so they tell me anyway.

We just had a slight calamity here -thanks to a habit of Mandy's that she probably won't try to correct, even after the mess it made today.

She has a habit of leaving the scrub bucket filled with the used, soapy water sit, with the mop in the bucket too, no less, where ever she has finished mopping. In this case, she had mopped the bathroom on Saturday afternoon and left the darned half-full bucket -complete with the mop in it -sitting outside the bathroom door. On the landing from the upstairs steps -yeah, a great place to park it, isn't that though?

Anyway, being the stubborn, very obstinate old so-and-so that I often can be, I decided I was not going to empty said bucket this time. I'm tired of doing that, time and time again, ya know. So it sat there, Saturday evening, all day Sunday and today until about 30 minutes ago when Kurtis came running out of the bathroom and ran right into the bucket, flipping it over, spilling the contents all over the living room floor!

It worked well in that now the living room has this nice fresh, lemony scent, but created a lot of extra work in that some heavier items had to be moved to mop up the water that had run under them.

And poor Kurtis! He not only tripped and fell, knocking the bucket over, but where he landed was right smack in the path of the water as it made its way around the living room floor! So he was a very scared (thankfully, unhurt) as well as very wet too little boy.

And I am wondering if this episode will finally cure Mandy of leaving the scrub bucket sit, with the water still in it, wherever she finishes scrubbing a lfoor. Maybe it will and I for one, do hope so. But only time will tell on how effective a tool that will be, won't it?

Now, I have to figure out some dessert to fix to take to the meeting tomorrow night at church of the Women's Group there. Nothing major -just some little something that can be passed around the table and which will go well with the coffee we ALWAYS have. (This is a bunch of women who have predominately Swedish roots, you see and coffee with sweets is a necessity of life then for us.)

So I best get my act in gear and get busy with that. I lost the entire day when I could have been embroidering, working on my Christmas ornaments, thanks to my son-in-law who decided he couldn't go to work today (I won't even go into that issue) and parked his fanny in MY recliner -the one beside the end table on which I have my embroidery stuff, plus a small lamp there to assist my lousy vision and he was there from 9 a.m. this morning until about 2:30 p.m. when he finally moved his carcass to the sofa to recline! ARRGH!
(He has his own darned recliner and has no need for the end table so why do he land in my chair then, anyway!)

As close this today, I'll leave you with this picture of Maya and Kurt, taken yesterday by Mandy with her cell phone. I just think it's one of the cutest pictures we've gotten of them in quite some time now.

See if you don't agree.

Happy Holiday on July 3rd

It's time again for those "Only the Good Friday" postings -something I have been more than a bit lax about doing lately too. But today, I am actually awake early this morning, have my blog reading au currant too as of right now and I remembered today is the day for doing these things, so....tada!... Here I am and here it is!

(For those who aren't aware, Only The Good Friday is a series of postings by those who wish to remember only the good things and was set up by Shelley Tucker of This Eclectic Life. You can check it out at her site and get a better grasp as to what it's all about that way. Then come join us to celebrate the day!)

What's there to say today that is "only the good?

Well, for some folks, today is a holiday and they are able to start celebrating a day early since the actual holiday (4th of July, in case you've forgotten) falls on a Saturday this year and this way, they don't get cheated out of getting an extra day away from work. It's a nice way to get a good long weekend instead of just the usual two days in a row away from work.

Since I no longer "work" -in the traditional sense -aside from the things I monkey around with here at home, it doesn't affect me personally, one way or the other. And, for most of the employment I had the last years of my working life, the "three-day holiday weekend" thing never affected me because of the type of work I was usually involved in then -places that operated 24-7, 365 days out of the year. But, it's a darned neat thing for those who are able to enjoy that extra "holiday."

Some days, it's a bit tricky trying to find the good in things that happen. Yesterday was kind of one of those days. I was up most of Wednesday night into the very wee hours of the morning trying to get my poor little computer here to cooperate with me. It was running extremely slow and I have no clue as to why. I did all the maintenance stuff -clearing this and that, even did a defrag that windows told me I didn't really have to do right now and still, it wasn't co-operating and picking up any speed. It was so slow I was beginning to think somehow my internet connection had slipped away on its own and substituted the old dial-up on me in place of the lovely high-speed I'm supposed to have. It had me thinking -briefly -that maybe I should save myself the extra money and revert back to dial-up but then I thought about those videos I wouldn't be able to open or load if I were back on dial-up and I quickly shot that idea down. I'll stick with the high-speed service after all because for the most part, it works fine and it's a great tool to have available.

I'm finally nearing the completion of the strawberry tablecloth project I've been working on for the past 5, almost 6 weeks now. I probably would have finished it before now except for the fact that I realized late Monday night that I don't have enough floss of the light salmon color I need to finish it on hand. Now that aspect is not exactly a good thing because it entails a trip to Dubois or State College to the nearest fabric store that carries embroidery supplies and I had no plans to make that drive anytime in the near future. (It's about a 40-45 mile drive, one-way, and my budget was pretty well shot by the end of the month (June) and I couldn't swing the extra expense for a tank of gas for the jeep.) But then, I happened to remember my neighbor across the street often runs back and forth to Dubois because her older daughter lives there and maybe she and Joe were going to be going over there sometime this week -or their daughter might be coming here -and I could have her pick up the floss I need. She'd offered to do this for me in the past so I called and told her my dilemma and yes, they are planning a trip to Dubois sometime -probably Saturday -so that solved my floss pick-up problem. Then, a bonus popped up in that Mandy decided yesterday she and the kids, along with Kurt's TSS are going to go to Dubois today so she will take my list of floss colors I will need and pick them up for me today. Which then means maybe over the weekend I will finally finish that tablecloth! Yep, that's really a good thing right there!

The grandkids here are still sometimes quite the challenge but overall, they are both doing very well, learning more and more every day. Kurt's vocabulary is building a good bit, he's able to communicate a lot better with us through that and it does help immeasurably to make life a lot easier when you can figure out -sometimes -what the little three-year-old really wants instead of constantly trying to guess and playing hit and miss communications that way. For that little improvement in his life -and thus, in mine -I am really and truly very thankful.

But the really good thing here hasn't happened just yet. It's right around the corner though as come Tuesday, Maya will return to school for her summer class session AND also, come Tuesday, Kurtis will begin attending school too! YAY! YAY! Both of them, in school, for the next six weeks is fantastic! The only drawback is that Maya will leave here at 8:30 a.m and return home around 1 p.m. and Kurtis will leave about 11:15 a.m. and return home about 4 p.m. so that will only leave a little under 2 hours of time during which Mandy and I will have total peace and quiet here but still, 2 hous is better than no hours of the rest and relief from kids getting into everything imaginable and the fighting, squabbling that often takes place as Maya insists on bossing Kurtis around, taking whatever he is playing with from him simply because he's enjoying something. Yeah, all kids in that age range generally operate on the same wave length ya know -whether they are autistic or not -so it's a normal thing and that is indeed, a darned good thing even if it is a hassle to contend with at times.

Tomorrow -the 4th -will have us venturing up to Osceola Mills because there is another of those Fireman's Carnivals going on there now and they will end their carnival tomorrow with a big Fourth of July parade in which our local school band will be marching. And that means that Katie, the 17-year-old here, will be marching since she is a majorette and thus, a member of the band. Which in turn means we, the family, will attend the parade. Since this parade will be earlier in the day and we will be able to watch it from the front porch of some friends of Mandy's 'cause their house fronts the parade route, it will be a lot more comfortable for all of us with respect to seating and such. Mandy says I can even enjoy this one even more since we'll be at her friend's house and she just knows her friend's husband, Victor, will have beer! Hmmm. That does sound rather appealing since I might then be able to drink a cold one while enjoying the parade go by and I won't have to worry then about driving and risking getting picked up either because I will have Mandy to be my designated driver then too. Yep! That's a darned good thing, I'd say.

No other plans right now for the rest of the weekend -maybe we'll be able to do a little cookout of sorts on Sunday if the weather is decent. And if it doesn't cooperate,, that will be okay too cause then I can just stay inside and maybe do some more embroidering then. That's always a good thing, ya know!

Now, before I forget the best thing that is really good thing is the reason for this holiday here tomorrow!

This is the day when we celebrate the founding of this nation. On July4th, 1776, thanks to the foresight of those men (sadly, women were not included in things like this back then) who discussed the issues of the people of the land back then, argued a lot about what was important not just to them but for all of us and managed to come together in agreement and wrote our Declaration of Independance!

Granted, when it was all said and done, written up on paper, carved in stone and the like, that decree gives us so much for which we are -or should be -very thankful. Sure it's not absolutely perfect but it's pretty darned near to that, don't 'cha agree? It's the foundation for all the rights, the freedoms granted to us in this beautiful land to live and abide by.

Yes, this year is not exactly the best year so far that our country has seen -the economy is terrible, for sure. Like it or not, we are involved in a war several thousand miles away from our shores and those who are in the military, serving overseas, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan, need and deserve our prayers and support and to maintain positive thinking that they will return home, safely, and soon!

Celebrate tomorrow that we have the many things we DO have in this country -a form of government that is -relatively speaking -fair and just for all who live here as well as those who may come to visit our land too. That we have an education system in place that tries to provide for ALL our children a place to learn, to appreciate and understand others and to be able to go forward and access even more learning throughout their lives is indeed an excellent thing. That we have a free press, media that can and does provide information so we are able to know what is happening here and around the world at a click of the mouse, the flip of a channel or turn of a page is, in my opinion, the very best there is in the world today. And, it -along with the educational opportunities we have available are, in my opinion, the best things about this nation! Without those, we would have nothing and would be nothing.

So remember tomorrow in the many and varied celebratory things that we will all no doubt be seeing, participating in perhaps, enjoying with friends and family the great standard of living we DO have here, how it came about and the price that has been paid over the centuries now to maintain all those many freedoms we have. Appreciate them to the fullest because there are many who don't have any type of government, freedoms, and such and realize just how lucky, how fortunate we truly are to be here and enjoy what we all do have today!

Sounds a little like a Thanksgiving speech there but we should give thanks every day for the bounty that is ours and the freedoms afforded us to make our lives even better!

Have a safe and very Happy Fourth of July and be thankful for the way of life afforded us by those who gave us the opportunity to live in America, the land of the free, the home of the brave!

It truly is America, the Beautiful in so many ways!

Old Friend Calling

Boy, what a day it's been!

Starting with last night, when Kurtis fell asleep early -like shortly before 9 p.m. -which was fine -except that he woke up around midnight and decided he really wasn't the least bit interested then in going back to sleep! Now he wasn't fussing -just was being super nice and friendly -jabbering to me, talking to himself and stuff like that but he was wide awake -and baby, I do mean WIDE AWAKE too until about 4:30-4:45 Tuesday morning!

And I was awake with him then too and for about better than an hour too after he did finally decide to fall back to sleep!

Then, Mandy had to wake him up about 9 a.m. because he had an appointment for an evaluation for the school he will start attending 3 days a week, beginning next Tuesday, at 10 a.m. so he was crabby when he got up then and that crabbiness lasted the bulk of the day! Finally, around 8:15 tonight, he did a crash and burn and we haven't heard a peep out of him since then! And I am praying this sleep will last, carry him through to about 10 in the morning!

Tonight though, we had a very pleasant surprise in that a lady who, along with her late husband had been part of the friends circle my ex-husband and I used to be a part of back in the 70s stopped by!

I can't begin to tell you how great it was to have her stop by for coffee and to chat.

We talked about everything and anything -from the time we (our old gang) were all at a big dance out at Cooper Grove and my ex-husband did "the streak" around the dance floor to how to find a good health insurance lead. Talk about some rambling conversions well let me tell you, ours was IT for sure!

The last time she was down here to chat like this was before I had the kitchen and dining room area of my house done over and that remodeling took place back in 1989-90! So that gives you and idea of how many new and exciting things have been happening to both of us in our lives. Also gives you and idea too of the wide range of topics we had available then to try to cover, ya know!

Mandy was too little back when there were about five of us couples who were very close friends back in the 70s so she has no recollection at all about Delores' late husband, Ronnie. Mandy barely knows Delores' younger daughter, Lisa, and doesn't know her older daughter, Dona, at all! But she had a fun time too sitting in with us, drinking at least one pot of coffee and about half of a second pot as we remembered many of the fun times we shared back then.

She was totally shocked to learn that my ex-husband finally quit drinking almost 16 years ago now and when I told her he was re-married -again -for the fifth time, no less, I thought she was going to spit her coffee all over herself and Mandy and me too! Yeah, I explained to her that he was always a bit of a slow learner where women are concerned. But, as my old friend from down in D.C. -now living in West Virginia likes to say about Frank, "He is most definitely the marrying kind." Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad one there though.

The last time Delores was here, she had one granddaughter then who was about 2 years old and now, that girl is 22 and Delores has two other granddaughters besides her. And back then, I had no grandchildren but today, I have three of 'em and she got to see Kurtis at his finest tonight too as he first strutted around here showing off his lovely physique -naked, no less -and from that he went on to perform one really massive meltdown too before he suddenly went very quiet as he did a "crash and burn" all curled up in the recliner! Lucky for us that Delores is pretty unflappable! That's one of the traits I always really enjoyed about her.

So anyway, tonight was actually a really great night -for me and also for Mandy as she giggled frequently as Delores and I talked about some of the many crazy things that our old group of great friends did way back in that era of our dark ages!

Hope we're able to have lots more of the kind of visit such as we had tonight now too!