A Memorial Day Like No Other

There are few things quite so disheartening as losing trust in a person.

Let's say a trusted person from your past--called "A"--has helped another someone--referred to as "B"--to perform an untrustworthy deed. All in the name of making reparations for "B," whom supposedly has been so wronged as to lack the trust of others.

It boggles the mind.

Because sneakiness is such a great way to make the "bad guy" look good.

Proving once again that if given enough time, if told enough woeful tales, it is altogether possible to usurp good judgment with the need for recompense, couched in the premise of doing good for a third party. A third party who would be totally aghast at the political maneuverings.

How fitting to provide more casualties for Memorial weekend.
 

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Of Youngin's

Saw a little fawn wobbling about the yard, on Thursday. We were mowing and must have scared it out of its snoozing patch. Eventually it came back as the the sun was setting.


Sort of jammed its nose right into the fence. Scared of us, I guess.


In today's Robin-Cam, it looks as though the egg count has gone down...
...Hmmmmm.
 

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In Which Ma and Kendra Change Their Addresses

After literally years of suspense, it finally happened:

Ma got kicked off her own blog.

To explain, several years after starting the blog, Blogger required everyone to change there username to their current email. Shortly after this, my email was discontinued, forcing me to change my email address.

I had tried to change the username, but to no avail. I finally just forgot about it, since Blogger let me sign out of my gmail, and back into Blogger, allowing me to still post under the old email.

Until a few days ago, that is.

So Loren removed my old name and invited me back on as an administrator, sorta funny since I had originally signed up first and invited him on as co-administrator.

The important thing being I can still blog and it won't be so cumbersome :-)
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On the Kendra front, she left for Des Moines, this morning.

Here she is, all packed up and receiving a few last words from her father...

...who rumor has it, is pushing 60 (hee, hee).


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Of course, the lads had to perform their famous, "Running of the Boys," as part of the traditional sendoff.



You just have to imagine her car to the right of the picture, as I felt she might be adverse to receiving a call on her cell phone, asking her to come back and re-stage for the photo shoot.


(don't ask me what silly Blogger is doing with the pictures/text...I'll figure that out, later)

Kendra is safely into her apartment, which is conveniently located mere minutes away from a SuperWal*Mart.

I instructed her to find the nearest Goodwill and I'll come down for a visit.
 

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Adventures With Ma

Monday has special meaning in the life of Ma.

Shopping.

Shopping is usually a good thing, particularly if the milk is nearly gone and the paper towel holder has less than 1/4 of a roll.

And shopping by herself is nearly always a dream come true.

Still, it might surprise folks if they were told that despite the exhilarating and heady experience of purchasing cow and paper products, Ma also has dreams of a more adventurous nature.

For instance, when passing a meandering creek, Ma occasionally wonders at the possibility of following said creek, hiding from the world, and living off the land for a month or two.
If one could surmount the problems of mosquitoes, no food or TV, that is....

Or think about clouds. Ma ponders, "What would it be like to sit atop one?"
They certainly don't look damp. And would it still resemble Pulcinella if one were up close and personal?

Then there are the high-wheeled, field sprayers.
While traveling slowly and waiting to pass, Ma can't help but notice the clearance under the vehicle's body...who among us has not imagined driving right---between---those---wheels?

The driver's manual appears rather silent on the matter.

Ah well.

There are times for pursuing dreams, and there are times for depositing ice cream into the freezer.

Tonight, the ice cream wins.

Tomorrow....who knows?

And that's all,

of Adventures With Ma.
 

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Life in the Yard

Breezy, breezy day up at the Iowa Big House. Let's take a walk-about and see what's growin'.

Columbine, bowing to the north and thinking, "Nothing exciting ever happens around this joint..."


New feature this year, "Robin-Cam!"
Stay tuned for updates, providing the two youngest do not discover the nest location....

Lily of the Valley: fragrant...irresistible...
...and also highly toxic. Only to be grown by trained professionals or people who don't know any better.

View of severe storm clouds two counties east, much to Kendra's chagrin.
Funny how most storm fronts divide and avoid our neck-of-the-woods.

The peonies are blooming! The peonies are blooming!
J.R.R Tolien's first choice in phraseology for his LOTR books, the cry was later changed to the more familiar, "The eagles are coming! The eagles are coming!" after a heated discussion with an unreasonable editor who had issues with perennials.

And that concludes today's Life in the Yard presentation.

More to come, depending on survival rates of remaining flora and fauna.
 

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The "Short" Weekend Project

It didn't seem like this would take over 3 hours.

But by the time one digs up the bricks from the front bed,

gets distracted and starts pulling a few weeds,

picks up other bricks from a previous dismantling,

lays out the pattern,

takes off the bricks and tries to level the dirt,

applies sand for anchorage,

places bricks back in section,

re-levels and starts filling cracks with clay,

readjusts and fills under a few bricks that are not level,

it all adds up to triple the projected time.

About normal, in other words.

And now we have a (hopefully) cool three-tiered planter with herbs!
Most of which are in seed form.

And which may be situated directly under the overflowing eaves trough.

I guess we'll know in the morning.

That took till almost 3:00pm, minus lunch and other sundries. After which Ethan and I mowed lawn for two hours.

Hot/humid enough to bring on a mowing migraine.

Then supper and the treadmill, which was shortened to three miles since I just couldn't go anymore.

But the good news is that even though I forgot to have Nolan and Trevor wash the bathroom floors, Nolan's assigned floor probably got fairly clean when he spilled water on a major section during his bath.

Gotta love weekends.
 

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Rain, Readiness, and Workout

Th rain is welcome, though it really made me hustle.

Yesterday: there were still the beans to get in, and that involved digging up Melinda's bed from last year. She ended up not planting anything last summer and that space pretty well got taken over by quackgrass. By the time I dug all that out (took a couple hours) the dirt was nice and fluffy from all that shaking of root clods. But now the bed is full of planted beans and a few marigolds for good measure.

This morning: checked the radar and realized there was more work to be done.

Having promised to put in some flowers at the church, and looking at the approaching rain, I saw that waiting for Sunday (when we are there anyway) was not an option.

Kind of sad about the extra gas, but we are slated for rain all the way through Sunday, and possibly after that.

Channeling my inner cheapness, I dug some of my own perennials and potted them up, along with a $.99 packet of violas I found on special at Wal*Mart. Sure hope nobody at church notices not much is blooming at the moment. I'll have to get a few more bedding plants but that will wait until I find more good deals :-D

That job got finished just as it started to pour.

On the Kendra front, I am collecting some of my extras in the kitchen to fit her out for her apartment in Des Moines. There is NOTHING furnished, so she's starting form scratch.

If I'm feeling particularly benevolent, I may throw in a houseplant or two.

There's no reason I should kill everything by myself.

Now, with all this hustling about I have totally missed the treadmill, today. Which means I'll be spending about 5 miles worth of time in ye olde basemente.
 

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The Bluebird of Happiness

The Indigo Bunting came back!

Man, do I love this bird :-)

The photo was taken last Thursday, but we were so busy getting ready for travel to Indiana that I didn't get around to posting 'til now.

Also delighted to see my old friend, the Baltimore Oriole.

Along with an Eastern Goldfinch or two.

Gotta love the sunny-colored Iowa state bird. They are rather friendly and juvenile in habit, chasing each other off the feeder and chirping an amusing high-pitched happy-like-a-kid-in-a-candy-store call.
 

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Cum Laude!

Time to get a few graduation pictures up for Kendra, le diplômé :-)

"Daaaa, da da daaa, Daaaaaa, Daaaaaa. Daaaaa, da da daaa, Daaaaaaaaaah."
(you have to understand I was taking pictures from the bleachers)

I decided to snap her diploma photo off the video screen, since their camera showed the graduates' faces.
Shaking hands with the prez, Dr. Manahan, and grinning from ear to ear.


Here she is, getting tasseled by Dr. Swanson, Vice President of Student Affairs and Academic Services.



Kendra smiles graciously up at the family, as we made a scene, waving wildly.



Notice the gold cord hanging around her neck? Tricksy Kendra kept a little secret from us until it was announced that morning--that she was graduating Cum Laude :-D



Congratulations, Ma Chère!
 

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Things Are Lookin' Rather Rosey

Saw a beautiful Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the feeder, this morning.




They come around for a couple of days before they start nesting. And considering this was taken slanted through a not-very-clean window, I'm happy it looks this decent.

Gotta love the grosbeaks!

Another thing to love....getting on the scale this morning and finding another two pounds had dropped off. You know what this means????

Yes, I have hit the magic number 35 :-D

Thirty-five pounds lost, with three more days until graduation. Ma is calling it!

No more weighing before we go, just in case I bounce around.

Speaking of bouncing, I need to put in 5 more miles on the treadmill...
 

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Losing Weight Through Mowing

Of course, I don't really know that I dropped any weight today, but I did mow for 3.25 hours, the last half in blazing 96º heat.

(HOT dog, I've got the alt-code for the degree sign, memorized....another techno breakthrough for Ma!)

And thanks to my mowing buddy, Ethan, we got approximately 4/5 of the lawn mowed today. That's 4/5 of the WHOLE lawn.

Should be able to knock of the rest without much problem

Just finished eating a brownie, totally guilt free. Figure I burned that baby off before lunch.

Even got all my trees watered (that's all 20....10 from last year, 10 from this year). And some of this year's are leafing out, which means I didn't quite kill all of them.

The vegetable garden is basically "in," with the exception of green beans and summer squash. They can wait 'til we get back from Kendra's graduation. That's assuming she graduates, ha ha. Apparently she "plum fergot" about an optional final, today. Thankfully, she didn't need it for her grade.

Even so, I'd ask her to double check the results of any tests she gives you, once she becomes a PA (Just kidding, Kendra! I'm not, really...check on her...).

Best of all, Loren turned on the air conditioning! Today's high was above the projection, and the cool inside air felt so, SOOOO good when we came in for breaks.

And I learned another thing from mowing...it really limbers you up to go on the treadmill during NCIS for the evening's four miles.

The cool basement air. The built-in treadmill fan. The level slope. The not pushing a mower through tall grass.

Made treadmill time a virtual snap.

Hopefully it will pay off, pound-wise. Even if I don't lose more, it should prevent me from gaining any back.

 

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Big, BIG Doin's Up at the Hoytstead

Ma: "Something's coming down the road...looks big..."

Ethan: "It's Mr. Frey...he's going to plow...quick everybody, outside!"

*run, run, run*

*stomp, stomp, stomp*

Ma: "Yes, by all means...let's just drop everything..."

It's hard to concentrate on math when something so much more important is occurring.
Run boys...run like the wind!

Oh, the coolness of it all...


But wait...Mr. Frey has offered a ride???

....*shriek*...

He could only take two at a time,

So Ethan volunteered to wait and go by himself :-)


"Goodbye Mr. Frey...thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!"


I had to go shopping, and when the the two youngest asked if they could go along, Ethan reminded them, "Mr. Frey said he might come back and plant, and you don't want to miss it, do you?"

(YES, kid-free shopping!)

When I returned, he had indeed come back with his new seed drill...


I couldn't take a lot of pictures, since I was slated for a five mile walk on the treadmill, but when I was done, so was Mr. Frey.

The boys gave him a solemn and respective send-off.


Plowing and planting, all in the same day.

For boys, it doesn't get much better than this.
 

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Made it!

Not quite sure how they made it here in less than 13 hours (I think that's what Jason said), but thankful for safety all the way from Texas :-)

Trevor did his usual imprinting-on-Jason act, and Mas had to strategically position the dining room chairs so that most of the males could cluster and bond at all together at one end.

However, by as the evening wore on, even two decent-sized Mountain Dews were losing their effect...


Meanwhile, Loren explained to Derek some of the finer points of buying parts online for his truck.
The sleeve tells the story. Loren has spent quite a bit of time these past few days underneath Derek's pick-up.

In fact, his words of greeting when they drove in this evening?

"You're here....get on some old clothes and let's get going on the truck..."

Nolan and Ethan gave up their bunk-beds and are sleeping on the floor.

As for me, after 7 miles on the treadmill and 3+ hours in the garden, I'm just sleeping in...
 

 

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The Diet Update

I forgot to get in a report for this week, so here goes:

Now down 32.5 pounds, with eight days to go. Doubt if I'll quite get to minus 35, but it'll be pretty decent nonetheless.

The most gratifying event was getting into two pair of jeans which were previously too small. That has to be good!

On the glasses front, I had a crushing blow this morning. The clinic called and our vision provider is discontinuing the frames I ordered.

Boo Davis Vision!

Guess I'll just wait until June or so, when the tech thought they might come out with a new line.

Too bad. I was really looking forward to a change. Not that getting up and struggling through school with troublesome boys every single weekday isn't reward enough. Or trying to come up with meals that everyone can stomach and that also gives some measure of equity concerning prep time and eat time.

However, I can be plenty happy to wear different clothes (or rather my old ones :-) again, so that is a plus.
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Looking forward to seeing Jason and Derek, tomorrow night. We even got the boys' room picked up this afternoon, which is rather stressful for me. It's not that I do a lot, but that I get so frustrated being up there supervising and seeing all the incredibly wasteful and irresponsible things He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named has done to make messes and "borrow" items that can never be restored to their original condition.

Ah well. It is relatively neat for the moment.

Can't say the same for my little corner of the room, but it's nothing a complete personality transplant can't remedy.

They have those, right?

I can only work on one major character flaw at a time.
 

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Crazy Time

I feel like Dr. Who, except I never go back in time, only forward. Too fast.

We managed to get through our eye doctor appointments on Tuesday, even finishing early.

The six of us were processed in less than two hours. And that includes picking out two new frames (Ethan and myself). Everyone needed new lens prescriptions except Nolan, but he is eligible to have the same ones replaced, since his are scratched (big surprise).

Ma is quite excited about going really different this time around. Can you say plastic frames? Glamorous plastic frames?

I asked the lady to pull out any that had clip on shades, and there was only one pair aside from what I already have. My first reaction was, "Whoa...this is different."

Then is was, "WHOA...this is kinda cool !"

So we'll see what we'll see. Loren may have to walk several paces off the side, if he thinks it's too embarrassing. And they actually didn't have what I'm going to get, but some that were black and pink. I've ordered ones that are brown with a touch of blue.

Soon as they arrive I'm gonna go stand around the mall and see if anyone asks for my autograph.
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Another extremely momentous occurrence was the arrival in the mail of the kids' test scores.

*drum roll*

They all passed!

Ethan was never a worry. And Nolan did somewhat better than last year, though frankly one would expect so, since he was repeating 5th grade. That taken into consideration, it was less than exceptional averaged out, but he did shine in certain areas.

Trevor just barely squeaked by, but squeak by, he did.

The first thing he asked was, "Can I go on to 4th grade?"

I answered in the affirmative, but he will definitely be on probation. If he doesn't improve next time around...

If I can just get them to increase their reading speed and comprehension (particularly the latter) over the summer... It is obvious we still have our work cut out for us, but I am ever so slightly relieved.
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On the garden front, Ethan and Nolan...OOPS...wrong name Trevor planted their corn this evening. They must have dug that bed about four separate times, so it should be nice and soft.

Carolyn also got her spaghetti squash into her bed, which she'll keep in pristine condition, no doubt.

All that is left are the beans and cucumbers, and a few odd flowers and herbs.

I did make a nail-biting discovery, however. The trees that I had heeled-in were not looking so hot, and it's all my fault. After the rains that first night or so, I'd forgotten to water them. They look rather peaked. I sure hope I don't lose too many any.

Ma the Master Gardener Killer, strikes again.
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Next on the agenda is getting ready for Jason and Derek to be here overnight, after driving up from Texas on Friday.

Even though I've worked with the two youngest boys to clean their room, SEVERAL TIMES since Christmas, a path needs to be cleared, once again. Nolan seems to enjoy starting up projects and not finishing them, and I never see it until it is bedtime and too late for remedy.

Perhaps this time will be the magic moment when he tries to maintain order...

A crazy thought, but remotely possible.

Maybe.
 

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Cleaning Up

Would that I were talking about the house, but alas, no.

Hoping to get something done along those lines before the two Texas collegiates stop by for a brief visit on their way to make oodles of money over the summer.

In the meantime, I was outdoors this afternoon, clearing plant debris out of flower beds. And thanks to dry weather and dusty roads, I managed to raise enough of a cloud to get junk in my eyes.

Makes it all that much harder to watch TV, ha ha.
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The kids found the snake I unintentionally ran over while mowing on Saturday. I had no idea until I heard a noise and saw something shoot out the side.

Poor little garter snake. The grass was just too tall and he must have slithered the wrong way.

I hadn't told anyone, but since they found it I fessed up to the accident.

"You're a murderer!" exclaimed Trevor.

(Trevor? My sweet little Trevor making cruel accusations against his mummy?)

That kid is out of the will.
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Can't spend too much time here, tonight...leaving soon to pick up Ethan at the Kwik Star.

He realized a cherished dream tonight by accompanying three others to the River City Barbershop Chorus rehearsal, tonight.

I imagine he had a superlative time, singing with the group. I also imagine we'll be hearing about it for several years to come! Joel Sult probably taught them half a dozen or so tags on the way up, in the car.

Good for Ethan, though. I'm glad he got to go.

Speaking of which...
 

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