Bugs and Bugs -and MORE BUGS!

Boy, I joke frequently about this house -more specifically, this family, being buggy -or, translated dysfunctional or just plain crazy much of the time.

Tonight though, I think I've figured out what it is that is driving me more than a bit buggy.

It's all these freaking little itty bitty gnats, no-see-ems, moths, millers, mosquitos, grasshoppers too and several other kinds of bugs that I have no clue what kind they are, other than that I consider each and every one of these things to be royal PITAs! (Translated -that's "pain in the arse!")

I was sitting at the dining room table trying to organize the Avon orders I have to send in tonight and every 10-15 seconds, I felt like I was under attack by these darned stinking bugs! Seemed like they were coming in and landing on the dining room table or on me in droves!

And I was trying to smash them as much as I could with the palm of my hand but some of them definitely are built well to stand off most anything that you want to use to try to smack them and kill 'em! No wonder they are so prolific! They withstand just about any kind of pressure or being hit with a fly swatter or taking a newspaper and smack down on it as it lays on top of a bug and you still can't stop them!

For me, it's especially annoying when one -or sometimes several -of these pesky things don't just land on the table but instead, they fly directly into my face -landing on my glasses, on my eyebrows and the worst is when they fly into my hair too as I can't stand the feeling of some bugs crawling around on my head, even if it is only for 15-20 seconds until I manage to brush them out of there with a big wave of my hand!

Finally, I got so fed up with these I went on a search and destroy mission and located some bug spray Mandy had bought and had it stashed away under the sink and I sprayed that stuff on those useless things in my windows -called screens -which these little sapsuckers manage to come right through the screens and into the house.

No I haven't yet eradicated all of these creatures but just spraying that stuff on the screens did apparently scare quite a few of the larger bugs -millers, moths, and the like -off the screens at least!

And closing the windows would have us suffocating in here then as it is hot, hot, hot and very humid so I guess I'll just have to continue in my self-declared war on insects here every chance I get!

Mortgages and such!

Well, I finally got the good word late last week that the reverse mortgage I applied for has been approved.

Well, sort of, anyway!

A couple things have changed since I originally applied for this procedure. One is that the amount I was hoping the house would be appraised for came in almost $4,000 below the figure I'd been praying for. Okay -I can deal with that change -grudgingly, yes -but I can deal with it and accept it.

Then, the fees attached to the mortgage rose by $2,000 and that I really didn't like to have that happen!

And also, before the funds are released to me, I have to find a licensed and insured contractor to give me an estimate for some siding work they want done to the rear of the house!

Finally, one other "little" thing. I have to write a note to the mortgage company or some such to explain why there are two different social security numbers showing up in my name!

Now the latter thing is something that I had no clue whatsoever that there were two social security numbers listed in my name and considering I have never co-signed any loans for anyone or anything like that -plus this second number isn't even close to the numbers in my social security number, so how the heck this happen is totally beyond me!

Now, I look around this house and sheesh, I'm seeing so many other things I would like to get fixed or changed ot redone or something and that gets me to thinking maybe I should contact some real estate agent or some such -and consider just selling the place and moving elsewhere.

Seeing as I have no idea as to where I would want to go live -if not here -I may as well just start with someplace like say -oh maybe some real estate in Louisville ky for openers! And from there, I could just travel west, maybe even south a bit, checking out cities and towns in a state-by-state search for a place big enough yet not huge that would satisfy my needs.

Only trouble for me with that idea is the truth of the matter really is that I just don't want to leave this little village! I want to be like my late aunt -my Dad's baby sister -who died 5 years ago at the age of 91, and she had always said the only way anyone would ever get her out of the family homestead would be to carry her out, and she would go kicking and screaming all the way!

My Head Is Spinning!

So much going on around here today and tomorrow and the day after that too -all are going to be royal zoos in terms of making my head spin!

Tomorrow -or is that "today" now, perhaps -I have a doctors appointment at 2:30. Thankfully, Kurt's TSS will be here and will be able to go with me so that way, she can sit with the kids in the waiting room while I have my six-month checkup followed then by what is called a "port flush." For anyone not familiar with what a port is and what a port flush entails -a port is simply something placed under a patient's skin that the nurses or doctors can gain easier accessibility to the patient's circulatory system through this apparatus to administer IVs or other medications as needed without have to go through hunting for a "good" usable vein in one's arm or someplace else on your body. A "port flush" is merely having the nurse inject into the port a substance that then circulates through the port and cleans it out!

Anyway, the port flush is a walk in the park! I've had this port for almost 3 years now and never once have I had any of the nurses at the cancer clinic cause undue discomfort to me when they push that needle into the port to flush it! (And considering I may not be quite as bad today at this age in dealing with needles and injections and shots and blood work and such like I was oh, about 60 years ago when it would take 3 people to hold me down so my Mom could give me medications by injection, I'm still not exactly  a big fan of needle procedures. Just a trifle more mature about them now is all!)

Then, on Wednesday, our Women's Group at church is sponsoring a pot luck picnic dinner for the women of our church -just sort of a little party you could say -and we have invited to this event the women of a nearby church to join us in our little bit of revelry!  So, besides having to fix supper Tuesdy for the kids and myself, then on Wednesday, I'll be fixing a casserole of some type (I'm leaning towards making Chicken Divan ) along with making some kind of -hopefully -easy to create dessert to take to the picnic supper too! (For that, I'm kind of thinking of trying a new recipe I found for a crisp made with strawberries and rhubarb -both things I love, you see! The recipe I found looks easy enough to pass muster for me as it looks to be dirt simple and fast too -both items I require of any recipe! So, hopefully it will actually work out that way!

And, also -on Wednesday, the game plan this week became that Mandy is coming up that day and will then be taking the kids back to Middletown with her! Now that part of this week's activities has me a tad upset as initially she had told me that the kids could stay here with me until July 28th and now, she's taking them away a little over a week before I had figured on our parting!

But with the passing this morning of my  cousin's husband and the impending funeral, it may just change her plans a trifle.

Okay -I can dream that might be the way things will work out and I'll get my extra week with my special grandkids then, can't I?

Useful Information -maybe?

One of my closest friends from way back when in my high school days and I communicate fairly regularly via Facebook. It's been pretty much a Godsend to us for well over a year now since I found the address for her and her husband when I was trying to locate all the kids from our high school class to contact them about our 50th Reunion we were planning last year.

We don't always write back and forth every day, but we communicate at least 2-3 times a week most of the time.

I know she has some major concerns right now as although she and her husband are technically retired and get social security along with medicare and such, he has also still kept on working full-time so he could that way also have affordable extra health insurance for them through his employment. (If people think Medicare will take care of you in your old age, think again! It's good, yes but it isn't the end all of insurance plans, that's for sure! So therefore, supplemental insurance does often become a necessity!

Anyway, since they live in North Carolina and I happened to come across some information today about nchealthagency.com and it looked to me like it might possibly be a good research point for her to check into, I'm going to send the url to her and she can see if she can get some good reliable information. They will really have to find some good insurance at a much more affordable price now because the place where her husband works is in the process now of having a major layoff and he is due to get a pink slip any time now, she tells me!

Hope this website does give her at least a little information to proceed forward with!

Family Loss

Today was a bit of a rough day for the kids and for me -on a couple different levels though.

This morning, the kids had their final therapy appointment with the therapist at the agency we have been working with and this particular therapist is very good and both kids loved her very much too. To realize today may very well have been the last time they will see her for a long, long time to come. Also, that I will not see her either, in all likelihood, is a very sad, depressing thought for me too.  I know eventually it will come through to the kids what's happened here, who they will or won't possibly ever see again and that's going to be a tough pill then for them to swallow.

Thankfully, she's on Facebook and is one of my friends there so I can still somewhat keep in contact with her as time goes on anyway!

Then later today, I saw a post on Facebook from the granddaughter of one of my first cousins who lives about 12-13 miles from me. It hit me as ominous since the granddaughter had just written "I'm really missing my "Pap" now." (Pap being the name she called her Grandfather and I knew she was very close to both her grandparents there.) So I went to the granddaughter's mother's facebook page but she had not posted anything, however I did notice there were several messages there offering condolences to the granddaughter's Mom and that set the wheels in my mind to spinning.

Sadly, about 3-4 hours later, a message was posted by my cousin's niece, stating that her Uncle had passed away this morning so then, with that, my suspicions were confirmed.

Both my cousin and her husband are a couple of zany characters for sure! A good match in that respect. Also a match that had held up very well for about 56 years (if my math is correct.) He and another cousin of mine on that side of my family were about the only people I knew who could tease my youngest aunt about various things and they could both get away with harassing that aunt about some of her little quirks and she never got mad at them. One of those things that my cousin, the deceased's wife, and I came to realize that our aunt favored the men in the family over the girls!

I remember at our Aunt's birthday party when she turned 85 and as was the norm for her house, she had to have had the thermostat turned up to at least 80 degrees as it was hotter than Hades in the place. (As my daughter Mandy would say "She could turn a person into a grilled cheese sandwich in nothing flat!" And my cousin's husband of course was at this event as he was as close to our aunt as we nieces and nephews were. And he made a crack to her about the heat, saying "Aren't you going to try to save any oil for next year?" And my aunt laughed at his wisecrack but had I or his wife had made a comment like that to her, she'd have given us "what for" ya know!

When my older daughter heard what he had said to our aunt, she was totally dumfounded that he dared to say anything at all to our aunt, much less a wisecrack like that and live to tell about it!

So with my cousin's loss today of her beloved husband along with the finality for the kids of closing out their last therapy session here, it's going to be a doubly depressing week now for me, for my kids too and especially for the grandkids as they will be leaving me this week now instead of being here with me another week, at least, as had initially been planned.

Gonna be a teary one, that's for sure!

Good Move!

Yesterday, I saw something on the Facebook wall of a cousin of mine -of her son, proposing marriage to his girl friend.

She had posted some pictures of his proposal and since they are her pictures, on her Facebook page, I can't post them here but boy, I sure do wish I could do that!

For openers, his fiance is a coach of a girl's softball team so he had taken a regulation softball, cut it in half and then, placed the ring box and ring in a hollowed out section of the softball and closed it up and when he got down on his knee too -on the ball diamond -and presented her with this gift, it looked like it was just another softball!

Pretty cool way to get a girl's attention, don't 'cha think?

I wonder if he got that ring from the selection of platinum rings from joyjewelers.com?

Actually, after seeing the look on her face, I doubt it would matter much to her which jewelry store he went to when he purchased this ring. Just as long as she now has it is all that counts!

Little Boys Are......

There's lots of things that could be written, I'm sure, about little boys and what they do, what they like, what they love.

When my son was a youngun, he had his ways and likes, to be sure but one thing that stood out with him was his love for cars. Cars, cars and more cars -whether they were matchbox variety or larger models then as he got older, he did take an interest in building model cars too. Oh, and he also -like many boys do -loved trucks too. Any kind of truck type machinery and he was head over heels in love with it.

He also happened to have a sort of destructive streak too at times so his Dad and I frequently shopped at the Tonka counters in the toy stores as they seemed to do the best job of holding up under the kind of pressure Clate could put on those things.

I remember one year at Christmas, we were looking for a Tonka something or other for him and trying to find something he didn't already have. Along with that stipulation, we were also looking for something that appeared to be the most durable of the trucks they had too.

Finally, after a lot of thought, we settled on getting him this nifty looking bright blue tow truck as we figured it looked like it could definitely take the kind of abuse we knew Clate would be dishing out with it.

Much to our surprise though a week or two after Christmas, I noticed the windshield in the tow truck was gone. So I questioned Clate about that and what had possibly happened to that item on the truck.

He then informed me that he had knocked the windshield out himself.

"Why," I asked him, "Would you want to do that anyway?"

His answer -"Because that's the only way I could get my Weebles people into the cab of the truck!"

I saw his point -didn't particularly like it but I saw it, understood his problem then too.

Moving forward now oh a couple of decades -3 and a half I suppose -to the things Kurtis can do and get into and some of his shenanigans really frustrate the heck out of me.

Take this for an example!

These were a fairly recent acquisition of Kurt's -very nice sneakers and I especially liked them too because they went on easily and had no ties to fight with either. Apparently Kurtis wanted to check them out for mud bogging or something or other! They never did come clean from all the mud encased on them!

The biggest difference here between my son and my grandson I do believe is that Kurtis does seem to have more of an affinity for being a potential model for Charles Shultz's "Pig Pen" character though!

Big Mouth Kids!

Yesterday, while I was working -helping to serve and sell hot dogs, cookies or brownies, soda or coffee -at the sale our Women's Group at church has been sponsoring for several years now, as I mentioned in my previous post, I had to take the kids out there with me. I knew this might possibly backfire on me, big time, and they might turn into a couple of wild little heathens on me, racing and chasing around, fighting with each other and a myriad of other annoying things could have gone one and driven me more than a bit batty. But lucky for me -and for the kids and their backsides too- they were both very well behaved.

I forgot that my little camera has a video thing on it so what few pictures I took yesterday were just still shots. But if I'd remembered to click it on to video, I could instead be posting a little video of the kids doing their level best to call out to passing motorists to stop and have a hot dog or soda.

Here's Maya -in the top picture, she was either just finished with doing one of her own special cartwheels on the front lawn of the church or maybe getting ready to do that. In the bottom photo, she was calling out her "announcement" to the passersby to try to entice them in to get something to eat or drink.

The other ladies and I did get a big kick out of watching her and Kurtis as both of them really threw themselves into the advertising end there!

But then too, can't have them get too successful with that kind of stuff or we'd be having to pay them union scale next then I suppose!

Yard Sale Day!

Boy, what a relief that this day is over and done!

It was, you see, yard sale time at our church and for several years now running (except for last year when we didn't have enough response to help with this event) our Women's Group at Church has been having not a yard sale per se, but a hot dog, brownies and beverage sale on the front lawn of the church on the Saturday of the Lanse Community Yard Sale as our summer fund raiser.

I put up sign-up sheets in the Narthex about a month ago to try to get people to sign up for the items we needed to have donated for the sale and last night, as we were doing the set-up for today, I was getting worried that we wouldn't have enough food, nor enough help today either for that matter.

I was also worried how things were going to go for me too today as I had to take Maya and Kurtis out with me from the time I was scheduled to start working on serving at the sale (10 a.m.) until 2 p.m. when we would be finished up and then, trying to get the social hall and kitchen all tidied up by 3 p.m.!

Thankfully, both kids behaved fairly well today!

No, they weren't perfect little angels. Oh my goodness, that would have been a total shock to my system for openers if they were THAT good, but they only had a couple minor squabbles -mostly reports from Kurtis that Maya was trying to boss him, which is nothing newsworthy! She does that all the time whether he reports on her to me or not and doesn't look too promising for Kurtis that she is going to stop acting like that any time soon either!

But although it was gray and even misty when we arrived at church this morning and we had a couple of little misty spells between 10 a.m. and noon, after noon, things seemed to clear up somewhat -at least no more misty stuff -and by 4 p.m., the sun was shining brightly then!

We had, as it turned out, more than enough items donated so we didn't run out of anything, which is good. We even got a bit more help to serve the customers too than we anticipated and that was a big assist there, for sure. Maya even helped out from time to time in getting out sodas or water bottles as customers requested them as she had each cooler memorized as to what kind of beverage was in each one and she willingly offered to get the drinks! Yay, yay, for Maya volunteering to help in what ever way she could be useful. At several points during the sale, Kurtis and Maya both stood by the sign we had out front advertising food and beverages and they called out to people driving by to stop and get a hot dog! That was pretty cute, really -to watch those two in action there!

But for me, the best thing of all was after we finished cleaning everything up and I was walking out with another lady from our group, she turned to me and told me how good she thought both kids behaved today as it had to be hard on them to be with us for that long and not get totally bored and thus, start behaving badly, but they had done quite well today and I was extremely proud of both of them for the way they both acted today. And, you better believe I complimented them and thanked them too for making Grammy very proud of them today!

After we got home, the kids both disappeared to their rooms and played quietly for quite some time while I played on the computer with my e-mail and facebook for a bit. (I also confess that I sort of dozed off in front of the computer for a couple little catnaps then too though, as I was really beat.)

The heat, combined with the humidity today, even after we got home, was still pretty oppressive but about 6 p.m. I noticed it was starting to cool off somewhat. So I decided then that around 7 p.m. I was going to go out and fire up ye olde lawn mower and see how much of the grass I could get knocked down an inch or so!

I hammered away at the grass cutting for a solid two hours -huffing and puffing, yes and also sweating like there was no tomorrow either, ya know! But when I put the lawn mower back in the shed, I had finished cutting all the grass in front and along the sides of the house as well as the entire back lot too!
Came inside and got the mutt to take him for his evening stroll, then ran up to the Moose to pick up a copy of tonight's paper and finally -at 9:30 tonight -I was fixing pancakes for supper for the two kids and myself. They both ate with no complaints -every bit of the pancakes I had cooked, buttered and put syrup on for them while I wolfed down my meal of the day then too! Good thing pancakes are fast, easy, good meals for them and me as we all three of us, love 'em!

After that, time to get the kids showered and ready for bed and then, finally -got my sweaty, sticky and probably very stinky too, self into the shower and now, here I sit, typing this post and all ready to hit the sack now too!

Back to church in the morning and all three of us are ready so come morning, we just need to wash our faces, brush the teeth, grab some cereal for at least Kurtis and definitely a cup or two of good hot coffee for me for my normal morning wake-up and then get dressed and out the door on our way to start our Sunday in the best way possible.

In the afternoon, I get a break as the kids will be going up to spend the afternoon and evening with their Dad. For me, that break means time to drink some more coffee, read the Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and struggle to find some answers to the two crossword puzzles they always publish every week!

Maybe I'll even catch a couple more catnaps then too along the way.

But whatever, I'm thankful for how well our efforts paid off today with our hot dog sale, for how well the kids handled themselves and now, that the three of us can sleep peacefully tonight and allow the comfort of a nice bed and a rest will give renewed strength and energy to face the day, come morning's light!

Hope everyone else can do the same too! Peace.

Cool? Well, maybe.

It's been a wild and crazy week plus a few extra days too since I last posted anything and yes, I've been busy!

Since last Tuesday morning, it's just been me and the kids to manage -alone, sort of -here in the homestead. There've been a few kinks here and there. A few episodes of temper tantrums, even a couple of meltdowns from the one who does major obsessions about clothing and shoes and such. Can you guess which one that would have been?

But overall, things have been running fairly smoothly -for the most part.

They got to go up to see their Dad and go swimming at the pool where Daddy lives plus, to play on the trampoline there too. Good times especially considering that afternoon the area got hit with a wild and wooly electrical storm but then, it cleared off fairly quickly there and they were able to enjoy the afternoon and evening in the pool, playing and being with their Dad. Things with respect to that parent have drastically changed over the past 3 or so months now which is something I regard as being even way better than just being "cool."

One thing that really is nice to me and which I very much appreciated seeing -finally -is this!

Finally! My Mountain Laurel bush in front of the house began  to bloom and that's something I very much look forward to each and every spring and all through the month of June as I watch the buds forming and then, eventually, it bursts into these beautiful blossoms.

Now for me, that is something I definitely do regard as being some "Cool shit!"

Well, darn it but now, all of a sudden my luck seems to have changed and I'm listening to the beginnings of what probably is going to develop into a full fledged meltdown

Oh well, I should be accustomed to that by now and meltdown or not, it still doesn't take away from my taking liberties with how I described the blooming Mountain Laurel makes me feel, does it?

Where Did I Leave Off?

Life in the "fast lane" seemed to be the track things here were taking over the past several days now. I can't seem to gain any headway this week in ANYTHING I need or want to do. Well, it seems that way to me, at any rate.

Every day seemed to hold something that either felt like it was a disaster then or perhaps, was well on the way to resulting in full disaster.

Wednesday morning, we woke up to a big branch from the maple tree in front of the house laying in the yard, branches with leaves galore all over the sidewalk and the thicker end of the branch, where the separation from the tree had taken place, was laying on the ground with that end pointing to the house. Thankfully, it had missed the roof and also the bay window in its travel down to the ground.

Thursday morning, when I got up, looked out the front window and there was Mandy's car parked on one side of our parking area and my older daughter's car was parked on the other end of the parking area but my car was nowhere in sight! Hmmmm. Where the heck had my car gone anyway?

Turns out that Mandy's care wouldn't start so she "borrowed" my car but didn't wake me up to tell me that bit of information. She did phone me about 10 a.m. though to tell me where my car was (at work with her) and why she had borrowed it, which of course, was fine with me. She had also called some one with a tow truck and a mechanic to come check it out and if need be, tow it to the garage to get whatever was wrong fixed. (I knew from the tone of her voice and with other problem she has had of late with this car that she was worried then too about how much of a small business loan she might have to get to pay to get it running again!)

Luckily for her though, it turned out to be just a loose wire to the battery terminal!

Friday whizzed by so quickly that I don't even remember anything at all of what may have happened that day! Probably a good thing though considering how the earlier part of the week had been.

Saturday, Mandy had work that day -her last day at the Diner -and when she got up to get her shower and get dressed, she had a really rude awakening as she discovered that there was no hot water because we had run out of fuel oil during the night! (Don't have to run the furnace during the summer and especially not as hot and humid as it's been here but we do have to have oil for the furnace because our hot water is heated via the furnace you see!)

So, she ended up running a tad late for work because he had to stop and ask her brother if he would please take the fuel cans and go get some fuel oil and dump it in the tank and then, get the furnace restarted so as to enable all of us to shower later in the day and get ready to go watch Maya perform in the play that evening in Philipsburg.

The play went very well! The kids, all of them, did a fantastic job with the music and dance routines and made us very, very proud to sit there and watch Miss Maya strut her stuff, ya know! Maya's oldest iter, Katie, and her little baby, Lola Rae, were able to attend the play along with my older daughter and her fiance as well as Maya and Kurt' Dad too! Nice that he was able to attend and Maya was very proud then to be able to show off her theatrical talent for her Daddy!

Here's a picture of the entire cast of the production of Freckleface Strawberry and the young lady standing on the far left is Miss Abbie Houston, the director of this play. I got a couple of videos and a few other stills of the play but they turned out very dark and difficult to see who is in the majority of those picture.

I did however manage to get this picture of Miss Maya and her sister, Katie, though and this picture i one I am really pleased with as it shows both of them looking really great!

Maya was so happy and excited to see that Katie was there -and also, that Katie had her baby, little Lola Rae, with her too. I think you can see the happiness shining through in both their eyes, can't you?

Speaking of Lola Rae -I did manage to get a couple cute pictures of her too after the play so here's a couple of the ones I liked the best. (She is growing so fast and is now five months old -already!

Isn't she just adorable though?

Sunday morning dawned and I was up, got ready to go to church and got there about ten minutes before the service started, so I thought then maybe lady luck had decided to leave us -or me -alone that day. However, about 10 minutes after the service started, my intestines decided it a time for them to wake up and create a lot of discomfort and potential problems too for me so I ended up having to leave after the scripture readings. I missed then that Pastor Matt called Mandy and Jeff up in front of the congregation to announce that Mandy was leaving the area now, moving down to Middletown, PA and thus, this would be her last service with our congregation for a while. She told me about this when she got home and said she had done really well during the service until then and that brought the tears on for her. It is really difficult when you've been a member of the same church for all your life and you love it the way she did and still does (as do I) to have to say farewell to good friends, many of whom are also close neighbors and friends of our family too.

Sunday evening, Mandy and Jeff loaded up his car as well as her car with boxes and stuff to take down to Middletown then today for the first caravan to move stuff from here to there then early Monday morning.

So Monday morning came and with it came the rain -and lots of it too -sprinkles here and there, then a shower, then sprinkles, clearing for about 5 minutes and then, a deluge and it kept up doing that almost the entire day! That could be dealt with except for one small issue and that was that both Mandy and Jeff had left their car windows down all night and so, both of them had to endure the ride to Middletown on wet car seats then, ya know!

My day here with Maya and Kurtis was something else today!

Not only was it wet -weatherwise -outside but inside the house there was a lot of wetness too as Maya developed a case of the weepies and whinies and also, apparently had declared her own private war too -against her brother! The kids were both more than a bit on the crabby and contrary side almost all day! Constant tattling on each other for totally ludicrous and very mundane things -definitely not anything indicative of the end of the world being at hand you see!

At one point, Maya informed me that Kurtis had put a disposable camera in the commode but Kurtis claimed Maya had put it in the vanity sink and turned the water on it! I'm still not completely positive as to which kid was telling the truth and which was lying but the evidence I have on that deed points very much in the direction of Kurtis being the guilty party there! (Apparently he was trying to see what it means to have a "disposable" camera is about all I can figure out as to why either of them would have been monkeying with it with water involved!)

Later this evening, water again became the overriding theme for the day as I went into the bathroom and discovered water had been splashed over a good deal of the bathroom floor! Now what the heck had one of those two hooligan done there? It turns out Kurtis was definitely the guilty one there and the water on the floor? Well that came about from his getting hold of a squirt gun, filling it with water and then, squirting it hither, thither and yon in the bathroom!

Needless to say, these two better thank their lucky stars that Grammy really, really, really loves them because today, Grammy sure wasn't on an overload of liking either much less both of them!

Since I had to make a trip into Philipsburg to take care of a few things, we then went to McDonald's for supper because Maya insisted she had to have a cheeseburger and then, Kurt could "feast" too on a kiddie meal of the chicken tenders which he loves. When I gave the attendant the order for the kids Happy Meals I asked her to please could she see to it that there was a extra large serving in those meals of the "Happy" because those two kids were in dire need of some "happy" stuff you see. And when I ordered an iced tea for myself and she asked if I wanted unsweetened or sweet tea, I told her I figured I needed some extra sweetness today too so for her to give me the sweetened tea!

Unfortunately, she apparently overlooked the "happy" stuff because although the kids were pretty well behaved while we were eating, a soon as we got back into the car, the war was on again between them!

I seriously am thinking of purchasing two set of handcuffs and attaching them to their wrists and then, fastening them to something in the backseat of the car to make them unable to reach across the seat and touch each other! I'm also considering the purchase of a big roll of duct tape and you can probably figure where I'd be putting that by now too, can't you?

But thankfully, by 9 p.m., Kurtis was ready to head off to bed with no hassles and by 10 p.m., Maya decided she was tired then too and off she went so now -for the past 3 hours, life here has become very quiet, and also, quite calm too!

Finally! Such a nice feeling to know that there is now a reprieve for me till at least 8 a.m. Tuesday morning when things here will probably continue on -hopefully not in quite as much of a trouble creating manner as was experienced most of the day today!

Stay tuned though for more of the day-to-day trials from this war zone!

All Over But The Shouting!

Well, I'm relieved and relatively happy now too, as the appraisal on my house and property is now over and done with!

I've been pretty much a nervous wreck trying to get things accomplished to make the house generally appear a bit nicer but man, that's one stiff ticket to write, ya know -especially with all the boxes and stuff sitting around that are part of Mandy's impending move, plus the general upheaval that comes in a matter of minutes, sometimes, with a seven-year-old and an almost ten-year-old loose in their respective bedrooms!

Both the kids informed me this morning -well about noon -that their rooms were all picked up. I'm so glad I didn't go upstairs and check that out or I would have been downing several xanax tablets in a row to calm my frazzled nerves. (In case you're wondering, my version of "cleaned up" and their versions -definitely do not match! They don't even come close to thinking about matching or meshing!

But anyway, it's done. And on a wing and a prayer -maybe a lot of prayers will be needed, I really don't know how the place fared with the appraiser although she did seem to like the dimensions, plus that the windows are fairly new throughout the house, furnace is pretty new too, fully insulated now as well so I hope those are enough plus things to carry me through to the end of this process now!

Then, by the Grace of all that's good and plentiful, one of the first things I'm going to do -after hopefully being able to take care of one really major house job (translate "roof"), I'm going to figure out some way to take care of some of the issues of PC performance and maybe, hopefully, add to the G-space (I think that's what it would be called -increasing the number of gigabytes this unit has) and maybe this puppy will last a few more years for me then!

Just so all of the efforts leading up to today and the plans for some repairs I need to get taken care of, want to tend to, don't all end up as a "wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first" type episode, ya know!

So with that in mind, I'm off to relax by getting my dishes washed up and supper fixed for Mandy, the kids, Carrie and Alex will also be here for supper tonight -so we can then relax a bit more, kick back with some popcorn or cake (pineapple cake with vanilla icing that I made at 11 p.m. last night) and wait to get the news, hopefully next week sometime, as to whether I'm home free or have to look at the aspect of becoming homeless!

Pray for the former to be the one, will ya please?

Crazy, Crazy and Funny Too!

This week has been more than a bit on the nutso-whacko side!

Starting with Sunday afternoon when my ex-son-in-law came down and was supposed to get the kids however, before he could do anything, he had to work on my car and repair a broken brake line! (It went out on me Saturday night as I was leaving Philipsburg and I had to drive the 12 miles to home with very little brake power on the car. But, believe it or not, I managed and didn't have to use the brakes -and then, just very sparingly, until I made the descent into Grassflat. Fun and games, ya know. No, not quite but interesting, that's for sure.

So anyway, after Bill got my car fixed with a lot of help from Kurtis -and even a little from Maya too -he then had to check our weed eater as well as our lawn mower -neither of which has been used in over 2 years!

Found the problem with the weed eater, then got the lawn mower up and running and by that time, it was going on 8 p.m.

I was so impressed with his getting the lawn mower to work -and since it is also a self-propelled and Bill told me how to make it work properly so you really don't have to push it hard or slough through really high weeds and grass, I decided to check it out by cutting some of the patches that the kid who had been doing our mowing had been missing when he did the lawn.

Major announcement here about me running the lawn mower as it was the first time in over 11 years that my hands have touched a lawn mower! How's that for avoidance of summer work?

Monday evening, the neighbor's nephew, who is now going to be our regular lawn mower person, came down to work on weed eating the ditch area and he really did a bang-up job on that! I got the lawn mower out and started working -again -on the really high patches present and got a good bit of that mowed down too. Then Mandy joined us and began raking up the grass, loading it into a wheel barrow and letting Kurtis then take the wheel barrow down to the big burn pile and dump the grass there. He was totally enjoying "working" and helping Mom and Gram and Nathan.

When Nathan left, after Mandy and I had both commended him for a job very well done, we came inside and Kurt came in the kitchen door -stopped in the middle of the kitchen and he hollered out to us "Hey! Great job, Everyone!" (We figure he probably overheard us telling Nathan that and so, decided it was an appropriate thing for him to say then too!

It's been busy here between play practice every evening in Philipsburg for 2 1/2 hours for Maya and running back and forth to get her there and picked up and the kids fed too in the process. Very hectic, for sure.

Tuesday afternoon was my day for the June luncheon with several girls from my high school class. There were five of us from my class plus one girl who graduated two years behind us and she brought her granddaughter along too. We met this month at a new restaurant here -"Six Yellow Chairs" which is located in the old K&J Coal Office out in Lanse. A very nice new addition to the area, attractive, good food and needless to say we all had a great time sharing news as well as lots of memories too of those good old days!

The weather turn crappy on us while we started to enjoy our lunch with a lot of thunder, very black skies and storm clouds and a lot of illumination too from the lightning flashes -the main thing I truly hate and cringe when we have a bad storm! Three of us had to sit and wait inside for the storm to begin to subside a bit before we could then make a dash to the parking lot to our cars and leave!

I had to then head over the mountains to State College to the Building Supply center where my older daughter's fiance works and pick up a box of ceiling tiles so that a friend of Mandy's could come down here Wednesday a.m. to fix the drop ceiling in the bathroom. It's called getting ready for the appraisal, ya know.

Wednesday morning, the excitement around here continued though.

Mandy was up around 6 a.m. to get ready to go to work and was doing a little playing on the computer when her thoughts were interrupted by a loud, crackling sound. She turned around and as she looked out the front window, she saw a big old branch from the maple tree in front of the house drifting down to the ground in the front yard!

I even have a photo of the tree branch laying in the front yard however, I can't find it on any of my photo files now on the computer! It shows up on my Kodak Easy share but not in any of the files in my Photo gallery! Go figure that one out!

Anyway, yesterday morning, Elizabeth stopped by and dropped her boys -all three of them - off here and while they were here, Kurtis surveyed the tree situation and came in to tell me that he was "Pretty sure if the family all works together, we can move that tree branch down to the burn pile!"

And with that, 7-year-old Kurtis and the 8-year-old twins -none of which are extremely big kids -took off and the three of them did drag and push the branch down and got it loaded onto the burn pile!

How's that for a show of perseverance and determination plus ambition too!

I was really proud of those three boys and the efforts that it took for them to take care of that branch.

Now, let's hope for a calmer day today!

Sunshine Fun!

Today, the kids and I were supposed to go to a big event at the local park here -a tournament of Little League ball teams from around the area along with games and some other fun activities plus, something else really important (to me, anyway), a chance to get some good foods -like Haluski and Halupki and pierogies too!

This event started at 10 a.m. and I believe it was to run until 6 p.m. However, due to some other issues here at home that I was having, we were a tad late getting there!

My day began to go slightly awry around 11:30-noonish, when we were walking the dog as I started getting severe cramps in my abdomen. This is not really unusual as it does happen from time to time but today's were exceptionally strong while I was walking. When we got home they seemed to ease up for a bit but then around 2 p.m. they started up again and until they finally let up around 3, there was no way I was going to take the kids out to the park and spend time standing there while in that kind of pain.

The kids were a bit anxious to go though because my son's girlfriend's twin boys both play on the local Little League team and the kids wanted to see them play and also, to be able to cheer them on.

I hadn't planned to go out to the park to spend all day there as I knew no matter what or how I felt, my system wouldn't have been very appreciative to me for being out for about 6 hours in the hot sun and the humidity factors ongoing today wouldn't have helped that matter. But, I hadn't figured we would be as late getting there as we were either.

If we'd arrived there even by noon, I still would have needed a good pair of costa del mar sunglasses along with a whole bunch of sunblock for the kids and myself, that's for sure!

But getting there as late as we did, we missed all the ball games that were involved in today's tournament. However, my son informed me that the team the twins play on took the championship for today! So the boys were both very happy and excited over that!

Truthfully, I think Maya and Kurt would have been a bit bored with the ball games as neither of them has clue one about the game of baseball so they wouldn't have understood much about that then.

But getting there when we did, they still had enough time to use some extra tickets that Elizabeth (my son's girlfriend) had purchased for the boys so that gave Maya and Kurtis some time then to play some of the "games of chance" that the sponsors of the event had planned. And the nice thing about that is that Kurtis won a prize while playing two of the games and Maya won a prize at playing one of the same games as Kurt has been successful with!

Here's Maya, playing the little "fishing" game. Kurtis had had a fun time playing that game too.

Here's Kurtis showing off both his prizes. He sure was proud as a little peacock that he won these little things!

And here's both of them displaying their prizes. (Maya actually won at another game but by the time she got there, many of the games had actually run out of prizes so she had to be satisfied with the one prize she got. (The twins were disappointed too when they were playing the games as they had concentrated heavily on a game that the prize was a goldfish for each game the kid won and they had their hearts set on winning enough goldfish to expand their aquarium at home but the fish supply had been taking a heavy hit and I don't know if they even got any goldfish, although they had won enough were they should have received 12 goldfish!)

So even though we got off to a very sluggish, somewhat painful start (for me anyway) and were late arriving, both kids still managed to have a very enjoyable afternoon at the Memorial Tournament today!

Eminent Departure

Looks like it won't be much longer now and I will be residing here alone.

Mandy got word yesterday that their application to rent some house down in the Harrisburg vicinity has now been approved and they can pick up the keys to that place on July 1st.

When, exactly, they will be actually facilitating this full move is still unknown to me. But, as you can well imagine, I am totally dreading the day they do move away from me.

The grandkids are like most all other kids of their age ranges -9, almost 10 and turning into a bit of a smart mouth at times and age 7 and learning how he can also bedevil his sister as well as others around him too. Nothing unusual in that is there?

 They can also be so doggone sweet and innocent along with really comical at times too -and it's those actions of theirs I am going to miss the most.

Yesterday however, with the two of them here was one of those days that I don't particularly relish as it was filled with a whole lot of nitpicking, tattling on each other over NOTHING, absolutely nothing and in general, pretty much driving me to the brink!

At one point yesterday, when the three of us took Sam for his walk, we walked a bit further than we normally do -out along Cooper Two Road -and once again, I was deluged then with questions -all kinds of questions but primarily this time the topic was about the mines that used to be located out along that road.

Between them about wearing me out with all the questions and also, walking a lot further than usual, by last evening, I was really tired and it was most noticeable in the aching of my back and legs. So I asked Maya if she would please rub some lotion on my legs to try to alleviate some of the discomfort I was experiencing.

She went and got a tube of lotion and as she began to put it on my legs, she asked me if she would get anything for doing this for me -meaning was I going to pay her anything for her being nice to me.

I laughed at her and told her that she had already gotten paid for her efforts. Confused, she asked me how that could be.

So I told her, "Well, I cooked supper for you and saw that you were fed, then I took you to Philipsburg for your play practice and finally, I didn't kill you or your brother when you were acting bad all most all day!"

Amazing how quickly she got quiet then!

Getting Ready....

Well, things are definitely moving right along now with the Reverse Mortgage thing!

I just need now to phone the realtor in this area who will do the appraisal and then wait for that to get over and done with. After that, things should get finalized rather quickly.

Now, here's hoping the appraisal goes well! Please don't let her see all kinds of things that are part of the house (and its little quirks, ya know) that will deter from the home's value.

Wish an appraisal of one's home would be more like taking a gem someplace -like jewelryvortex.com for diamond engagement rings to be given the one-over and the true value be determined somehow like that.

To me, this old house is worth way more than can ever be determined by putting a dollars and cents tag on it as it contains memories that are absolutely priceless for me.

Wish there were a way to put a value on those many, many memories and have them included in the value of the house.

I'd really be sitting pretty if that could happen, ya know!

Questions -by the Miles...

Really, I should be used to some things by now, wouldn't you think?

But when it comes to the kids -my grandkids here, Kurt and Maya -nothing should be unexpected!!!

The other night, when I took Sam out for an evening walk, Kurtis went with me. Holding my hand the whole time as we walked and also, asking more questions that you could shake a stick at too.

And these were not easy questions the boy was asking me either. Frankly, they made me feel really, really stupid as I had no way to respond to him with a reasonable answer to many of his queries.

"Gram -what makes the sky the color that it is?" And dummy Gram replies with what was to be pretty much the standard answer that evening -"I don't know, Kurtis."

Then it went to questions about the clouds and the sun and where is the sun, how hot is the sun, where does this road go and why is it here? What was here before this What kind of tree is that? How do apples grow? Does this tree grow fruit?

"Can we go see the pretty rocks?" To which question I had to stop and ask him what the heck pretty rocks was he talking about anyway? Turned out the rocks he wanted to see are big stones of gravel-type, used to create a drainage ditch down from the backfill that took place a couple of years back down along the road to Peale -the local ghost town!

Along the walk, I pointed out to him some Mountain Laurel bushes like the one in front of our house except these had already begun to bloom a bit and he was fascinated by those pretty blossoms.

Today, he and Maya and I set out around 1 p.m. to take Sammy for a walk as well as to drop off a  birthday gift for my friend, Kate, who lives two doors down the road from me. Turned out that Katew as not home this afternoon though so we left her present on the porch swing and she can retrieve it when she gets home. I'm thinking maybe Jim -her husband -may have taken her out to lunch perhaps to give her an early celebration of her birthday.

After leaving her house, we headed on down the road but today, we veered off what has become my normal path and walked out to the foot of Cooper Mountain on Cooper Two Road before we turned around to come back towards home.

And the whole time we were walking, I was being bombarded with qyestion after question after question!

Don't get me wrong because I am actually very happy that both the kids are as inquisitive as they are.

But I do wish they would find some questions that Gram has a clue about how to answer them without fabricating a whopper of a story in the process!

Signed and Sealed....

Well, things are nearing completion now. I have completed all the paperwork and just have one last form -signed by yours truly -to drop in the mail in the morning and then wait for a phone call from the appraiser to set a date for having my property appraised.

Please say some prayers that the value in the appraisal is good and true and high, as well!

In case you weren't aware of what's going on here, I am in the process now of applying for a reverse mortgage on my property which will give me the ability then to remain living in my house but not have to worry about payments on the mortgage I have on the place.

The main requirements for me are that I be over 62 years of age -check that I qualify easily for that -and that I maintain the property taxes and home owners insurance too on the place. In addition to that, I have to remain in residence here -fulltime -for a minimum of one year, at least. My intent -hopefully it will work this way -is for me to be able to stay here as long as I am able to take care of myself!

Or, as my late aunt always said about her and her house (which had been my Dad's family's homestead) that the only way she intended to ever leave that house was to be carried out of it. And she almost did that too. Well, actually, she was "removed" from the house because it was unsafe for her and her daughter to stay there alone as they both really needed to be in a nursing home so she was, in essence, carried out but she didn't go quietly.

Nope! She went kicking and screaming pretty much the whole time and who knows, but that might be me too someday.

At least, one thing I don't have to worry about is filing bankruptcy or anything like that with this reverse mortgage. And I definitely don't have to concern myself over things like Delaware bankruptcy laws - primarily because I live a state away -in Pennsylvania!

So now, I'm just waiting for the phone call and to get the appointment set up for the appraisal and then, things should be all completed.

I'm definitely ready now to take this next big step in my life!

Sweet Lola Rae!

Today, I had the fun and joy of taking the stepgranddaughter, Katie, and her little baby girl, Lola Rae, to Lola's 4-month check-up.

I apologize for not having shared very many pictures on here of my great-granddaughter, but I haven't really had much of a chance to get any pictures of her with my camera. Mandy has posted quite a few photos on her Facebook of Lola but that's because she has a camera on her cell phone and heaven knows, she definitely does not go anywhere but what she doesn't have that cell phone glued to her body someplace!

All the questions the doctor had for Katie about Lola and the markers she's at now for her age were good -no raised eyebrows by the pediatrician at all! Seems Lola has grown 3 inches and gained 3 pounds in the two months since her last check-up and the doctor said she is in the 67th percentile in terms of height for a baby her age.

The drawback to today's visit was, as it normally is with babies and these check-ups in that Lola got some shots today. Katie was semi-prepared for her to throw a royal fit, screaming, holding her breath -the whole nine yards ya know and when she put her down on the examining table, she turned to me and told me that as yet, she had never held Lola and watched them give her shots before.

The look then in Katie's eyes -well, I can understand how she felt since I've been down that road before with three babies of my own plus, with Maya and Kurtis too. I asked her if she wanted me to hold her and try to comfort her and she nodded her head that would be a good idea.

And so, there I was, holding her little wrists to try to keep her from moving around too much and thus, making the shot process a bit more painful in the process. First off, they gave her some type of oral meds that I don't recall what that was for and when they first tried to put the syringe in her mouth, she objected a bit until she got a taste of the stuff. Then, she settled right down, allowed the nurse to give her the whole thing and smacked her little lips after each little bit more hit her tongue and lips!

The shots went as can be expected with her letting out a very loud shriek almost instantaneously but as soon as they were done and Lola was picked up and cuddled, she calmed down almost immediately!

Katie was shocked as she said the last time she got shots she screamed bloody murder and also, held her breath too for what seemed to Kate to be at least 5 minutes! Pretty much a typical reaction though from little babies where injections are the plan of the day.

But anyway, when we got back to Katie's apartment, I did manage to get three snapshots of little Lola and wanted to share them with you so you can all see how adorable she really is and that way, you'll know I'm not lying to you when I write about her from time to time!

The bottom picture of these three is my favorite as I love the looks she gets on her face so often -very quizzical much of the time, she seems to be and these were all taken after she'd had the needle procedure so you can see she was a happy little camper then after all!

Wish in One Hand....

There's something missing in my life. For openers, I wish I could put my finger on exactly what it is but I can't -not completely, anyway.

Actually, truth be told, there really are several things missing in my life and some that are about to become part of the missing things too sometime in the fairly near future, I guess. I'm not really of a mood to discuss the upcoming "missing" things as I'm too busy either trying to condition myself for when the time comes to say goodby or else I'm simply trying to ignore the facts there in hopes that by wishing really really hard, it will all go away and turn out to be just a bad dream.

Okay -in my view, a nightmare I guess would be more accurate a description. But I'm trying NOT to think of it that way.

I'd love to find a job -just about any kind of job would do except one that is fulltime as I don't think I could easily readjust to working that many hours every week right off the bat anyway.

Heck, I'm not even sure if I can handle 20-25 hours a week, of maybe 4-6 hours a day either but I'd like to find something that wouldn't be too physically demanding but rather, would utilize some of the other skills, talents and knowledge (I think I do have some knowledge in that round object that rests on my shoulders) don't 'cha know?

But what is it that I am capable of doing anyway?

Apparently nothing it would appear.

Or at least there is nothing showing in the want ads nor on any of the job sites I get e-mails from that offer anything along the lines of those "skills, talents and knowledge" words I mentioned above.

Now this is where the wishful thinking comes into play tonight.

I really wish the lady who had owned/operated the little monthly newsletter in this area would find it within her powers to start that little newsletter up again!

I loved doing various articles for her, for the newsletter! I truly loved it! It gave me something of consequence to work on, to learn all kinds of neat things about the area where I live, to delve into more and more of the local history here and also, a chance to talk to lots of different people as well!

It was utopia for me. Yes, it truly was!

Maybe I should talk to her and tell her she might be interested in looking into something like eoncode.com for web to print to see if she could see any potential to something like that to get the newsletter running and rolling off the printers once again?

I dunno if she's even still interested in trying to revitalize it again or not but I do know this much that a whole lot of locals here still ask me if there's any possibility that she might reinstate it again!

Kind of nice ya know, after 5-6 years of not writing anything that is going to be printed for more than family, friends or blogger friends to read to walk into a store or down the street and have someone ask you if you're ever going to write anything again, ya know.

Maybe the wishful thinking is just that I want my ego to get a boost?

Could be, that is the case but then again, is there really anything wrong with that?