Memorial Day

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

 

Little Miss and I  braved the gloomy weather and walked to the park for the Memorial day service.  I ended up spending most of it keeping an eye on Cecily while she ran around with the three other kids that were there in the back.  (Seriously, maybe it was the weather, but don't people take their kids to Memorial Day services anymore?)  She was startled by the guns, but didn't cry.  And then the bugler...  so amazing.  Sorry, probably only a trumpet pays attention to the bugler.  *grin*

 

That afternoon we went to the visitation.  Cecily was pretty squirmy, thankfully my parents got there and watched her further back in line until we got through.  In the evening we went to a picnic at the Cabin with the Beutels.  First hot dogs of the year. Woot woot.  Cecily refused to try one and pretty much only ate dessert all night.  All in all it was a pretty good Memorial Day.

 

Tuesday morning little miss and I dropped a bunch of lettuce off at church and then Caleb and Bethany brought Alea and Brynn to play during the funeral.  They played together pretty well and Cecily shared pretty well.  She did not like it very much when Brynn was sitting on my lap reading books.  hehe. 

I'm not sure what they were doing here, for a while they were playing garage sale. 

Little Miss and I are tired of rain.  We spent a lot of time outside today enjoying the sunshine.  She almost fell asleep in the swing, but when I asked her if she wanted to go inside to take a nap she said, "No."  Silly girl.

Blessings.




Well (It's a deep subject)

Little miss seems to be back to normal with no ill effects.... all I know is that people were praying, and I'm thankful.

Cecily seems determined to hurt herself this week....  Bob was up on the ladder hanging her new swing from a tree branch and she climbed all the way up it.  Don't worry, we were right there, but still, she has no fear.  And she was pretty sure she needed to swing on the neighbors swings and was halfway up the chain link fence before I pulled her off.

Our brand new Christmas present wheel barrow had a flat tire last week, and I finally got around to taking it up to the nice men at Tremont Oil who fixed it for me good as new in 10 minutes for 5 dollars.  I love small towns and good old fashioned service. 

We got two yards of mulch on Thursday so I worked on spreading it.  Cecily helped with her little toy rake.  hehe.  Or something.  Last year I got way too much mulch, this year I didn't get enough so we're probably going to have to order more for the back of the house.  So the flower beds that I see all the time still look the worst.  Oh well.  Soon it will be pretty. 

Fresh mulch makes even the weediest landscaping look good.  *grin*  I mean...  I never have any weeds...   



Aaand this is as far as I got before I ran out. 

Mom and Shelly stopped by on Friday and brought my old bike, a huge clump of hosta from Dianne, and lunch.  Hooray for random visits!  When they left little miss and I ran some errands and stopped and bought more plants.  Yeah... I have a problem.  She fell asleep in the car so I quick planted them and the hosta while she slept. I went to Christy's church shower that evening, and she was not very happy that I was leaving her with Daddy. 

Yesterday evening Kevin and young Matt came over for pizza.  Good times.  Today in church we actually made it through morning service!  There was great rejoicing! We went to the farm for a few hours after church and little miss had a great time stomping in puddles and seeing the cows and the puppy.  We came home before supper and have been vegging- it's going to be a busy week. 

Blessings.

Whew

So... that was a crazy weekend. 

But first, the rest of the week. *grin*  So after we got all that rain we directed one of our downspouts all the way away from the house, and it stayed that way for awhile.  I finally got tired of looking at it and started moving the path to bury it. 

 

Then little miss was being so good I started digging.  And she actually took a long nap, so in a few hours we were back to this.  I'm not sure what came over me.  I buried that entire downspout by myself, and moved the rocks and pavers back.  I felt it the next day...

 

Does anyone else despise maple seeds as much as I do?  I think I'm going to be spending my summer pulling trees out of the landscaping.

 

On Thursday Cecily and I met Kacie at the farm to sew.  She had two dresses that she wanted to add some length to and she wanted me to help.  The first one turned out really cute.  The second one was a little harder and I was not quite as happy with how it turned out.  But, let the record show that Kacie called me cool!  Hehe.

 

Saturday I had to be over in El Paso bright and early to get measured for Shelly's wedding.  Woot woot.  Then I went all the way home for a little bit before we headed north again for graduation parties.  It's kind of hard to believe that little Troy and Kirk are out of high school already.  I feel old.  And somebody has already discovered the joy of reading comics in the car...

 

 
Sunday was a big day.  Church, of course, and then I left little miss at home (she was not happy with me) and went to meet baby Griffin and help Mary switch their toddler bed back to a crib while Greg was at graduation.  No, it did not make me want a newborn.  *grin*  We went to Katy's graduation party and then our next stop was the fellowship hall to help with hymn sing.    Cecily was having a great time until she got plowed over by another kid.  She fell back and hit her head pretty hard on the floor and Bob saw her eyes roll back for a second.  She was pretty worked up and cried all the way home, where she threw up.  On me.  ick.  So....  she finally calmed down, but she was acting really tired and weird. 

When she threw up the second time (also on me) we called the 24 hour nurse line and they told us to take her to the ER.  Woot.  Jakey had more than a few concussions growing up (only one was my fault), so I wasn't all that worried, but he was a lot older and bigger than she is, and the general consensus on Facebook (got to love it) was to at least call the doctor.  So we headed to Pekin at 10- why do these things always happen at night?  Got to the ER and were checking in when she threw up  all over me (again) and the floor.  They get you into a room pretty fast when you've got a possible head injury throwing up all over your lobby.  hehe.  She cheered up pretty quickly after that so they just observed her for awhile and sent us home.  She did really, really good for it being way past her bedtime after a very busy day, hitting her head, and throwing up three times.  She refused to wear the little hospital gown and sat on the bed and read us books with bear-bear. *grin* 

 
Anyway, we didn't get home until midnight and I had to take a shower because I didn't smell so nice, plus I got to wake her up at 4 am (I thought of you Mary!) so I've felt a little tired today.  She seems to be totally back to normal, so if she had a concussion it was/ is pretty mild.  Thankfully!

We went out to Bob's parents for a little bit this afternoon to see Sprout before she left and I plan on doing nothing else today except the pile of laundry from this weekend.     

We told Cecily we don't ever want to hear about her puking in the ER again.  *grin*
Blessings.

Mother's day

Little Miss and I bought lots and lots of flowers.  I think I went a little overboard, but it's hard to say no to "flowee!"  We spent Saturday planting them and playing outside. 



Bob got us a bike trailer and so far Cecily loves it.  It took us a little while to figure out the harness thingies.  

 
We went to potluck that evening at Brent and Janelle's.  It was a good evening, as always. 

Mother's Day started out with Little miss wandering into the bathroom and climbing into the shower with Bob with her pajamas on...  Hehe.  Bob was startled, Cecily was elated, and I was highly amused. *grin*  We weren't exactly early for church, and then she was not quiet or still the whole day.  Oh well.  Bob brought home Oriental Palace for supper and then we spent the evening at his parent's house with the Beutels. Not bad for a silly holiday.  Oh, and Bob's cousin Carol got announced which is super exciting- and she's getting married the same day as my sister.  Botheration!  We are going to miss all three T-town weddings this summer because of vacation and other weddings.

Cecily and I spent most of the day outside on Monday.  It was glorious.  I worked on ridding the garden of grass with marginal success, she figured out how to climb over the garden fence.  I scooped the old nasty sand out of the sandbox, she played in the pea gravel.  We discovered a tack in our brand new wheelbarrow's tire, she did not get to ride and fix-a-flat does not appear to have worked.  We played in the hose, she made a nest out of her towel and curled up.  I did some weed-eating, she chased a cat.  Bob took her for a bike ride, I mowed.  We both have the beginnings of flip-flop tan lines.  *grin*

Somebody has figured out how to climb into her high chair.    

 

 

 

 It's hard to tell under the messy hair, but she is quite pleased with herself. 

"Dere"

 
I love spring.  Everything is so pretty; the trees in the cemetery, the landscaping, my flowerpots, the little monkey climbing the porch railing...

 
I planted some herbs and a few flowers in the old washtub that we found in our basement.  It looks kind of cool, and hopefully it's rabbit proof. 

 
I bought her a swing today- this one came with the house and it's in kind of sad shape.  And it's not really toddler friendly, she fell out right after I took the picture.  ooops.  It didn't bother her too much, a few minutes later she was wandering around the yard saying "happy, happy."    

Little miss and I picked up my quilts today!  They turned out great! Now I just need to bind them... we'll see how long that takes. 

Blessings.

Chicago

So I'm a slacker.  I know. 

 

Little Miss and I went to Harold's visitation on Friday.  He was a sweet man.  She had not taken a nap and did not want to be held and I did not want to let her down to run around.  I didn't think funeral flowers and a small uncoordinated toddler who loves "flowees" would mix well.  She fell asleep on the way home, thankfully, so I stopped at a garage sale...  woot woot. 

 

Saturday we got to spend the evening with Brent and Janelle, Nic and Amanda, and Brian and Gab.  It was great to see them all again.  Cecily had lots of fun playing with Londyn and her toys.  

 

On Monday Mom, Shelly, Cecily and I drove up to Chicago to shop for wedding fabric.  Deanna told them about a discount fabric warehouse so we checked it out.  I thought it was really awesome- the place was huge- three floors of fabric and notions packed into an old warehouse run by observant orthodox Jews.  I think we found what we went for.  And we got some pretty pink lace for Cecily's dress.  They gave us discounts too; probably because we looked pretty orthodox.  Hehe.  At least compared to some of the other people who were shopping.

 

On the way home we stopped for ice cream and let Little Miss run around at a park.  She had a great time going down the slides with Auntie Shelly.  We got back to the farm at supper time so we ate there.  Someone loves mashed potatoes... 

 Someone also likes to wear my shoes.  They make really loud clomping noises on our wood floors.

We've been spending lots of time outside and today we finished washing the windows.  Little miss played with water in her bucket while I worked.  I love spring.  We have so many pretty trees and bushes blooming right now.  Our landscaping seems to have survived last summer- hooray!  Now I just need to go buy some annuals. 

Blessings.

Farm livin' is the life for me

Sorry if I just got that song stuck in your head. *cough* Mom. 

 

We got invited last minute to rotating potluck on Monday night, so my parents agreed to watch little miss.  I took her over to the farm a little bit early so we could see the baby chicks...  she wasn't too sure about them.  She calls them, and all birds, quack quacks.  

 

 
I'm not sure I want to touch that bird, but I'm very happy to be on the farm... hehe.

 

Then we went to see the new calves.  She was not afraid of them at all and wanted to go in the pen with Grandpa.  (Mooo.  Moooo.)  Strange child- afraid of chicks but not afraid of cows.  Whatever.  

 

After I left she got to play with Gus, and see the pigs, and the neighbors horses (huh-whee).  And she got so dirty, she had to take a bath before she came home.  *grin*  We had a great time at potluck. 

Wednesday we met Amber for lunch.  Cecily was in rare form.  I'm not sure the table of older people next to us were very impressed with my out of control toddler who was climbing on the table without shoes on.  Oh well. At least she was relatively quiet. It was fun to see Amber. 

Otherwise we've been spending lots of time outside.  It seems like we have a lot less yard work than last year, which is great.  Probably because we were putting in landscaping and trimming lots of overgrown things.  We need to get some mulch soon...  I have one flower bed that I was too lazy to dig the sod out of last year that needs either needs lots of mulch or string trimming because the grass is getting pretty bad.  My garden is mostly planted... we shall see how it does, for all my 24 years on the farm, I really haven't had all that much luck with a garden.  *grin*

Blessings.