Monday July 24th

[cookielady]

It is Monday....right?

Good Morning!

Yesterday was another busy one, but at a slower pace....thank goodness. Only baked 7 pies yesterday. Mid-afternoon Blaise & I went over to a local nursing home to help do the Sunday service. Our church does it once a month. Blaise was very comfortable among the old people and helped them find the right page. At the end he sang & lead "I just want to be a Sheep". Came home & took a nap. LOL! Of course that's when the phone had to ring and Blaise needed something, and Cork HAD to tell me something. Nobody talked to me the hour before that. LOL! Decided Blaise & I NEEDED Pizza Hut pizza for supper, so I ran in and got that. My friends Cheryl & husband Rob stopped by later in the evening to pick up a tray of cookies. Had a nice chat with them. Rob & Blaise had fun swapping jokes and occasionally shared one with us. Guys have such a weird sense of humor.

This morning Blaise starts VBS at another local church for the week. Sue is coming this morning to help me. I used up all the crusts we made last week. We are mixed up more and hopefully getting some rolled out. I also have a bunch of peaches that need made into filling. Hopefully we get a bit of swimming in today. I need it.

Have a good one all!

[bethina]

Good morning...Yesterday the air conditioner guy showed up around 11:00 . It was a 400.00 fix greatful that it wasn't crazy expensive..greatful my parents were here to help me...greatful that I never really lost power like most of my neighbors..

In the afternoon my mom and I went and got manicures and deluxe pedicures...it was my mother's day gift to my mom. We just hadn't had the time to do it until yesterday....it was wonderful and so much fun!!

Went to my sisters later in the afternoon evening to but the goats to bed for the night...they are so cute!! I wouldn't want them to be my pets...lots of work!!

Today is work...then lunch with friends....then I am not sure. Mom wants to try to get me a dentist appointment this week....I may or may not be needed to help with the goats tonight.

[maxie]

Good Morning! I am back after having the most wonderful time! We never noticed the heat and keep cool in the pool and very 'hydrated'. We were shocked when we came in on Saturday and found out the temp had been 108! Never felt like that to any of us. Andrew and the other boy cousins never left the pool except to eat. They were certainly water logged and got along great. The only little girl is 3 so the princess just floats through and the boys automatically give her whatever. But now it is back home to reality and cooking and cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping. Sierra rode home with me and said that there was no food in the house and she was right...Will put pork steaks in the crock pot and then head to the grocery store. This is our family meal night already this week since she is working the rest of the week. I dunno...been an awful lot of family time in the last week so may be good to get the meal over for the week so we can breath apart. Andrew's mother called Jon Sunday morning to say terrible storms had gone through in the wee hours and there was a lot of damage and power outages. You can check via website if you have power but she rode by to check for damage and we were ok. Nice of her to give us a heads up and then check out the house. Some places were without power when I went to bed last night. Well, I should be moving on to productive things like food and clean clothes. Need to catch up on the news. I was not ready to come home and normally I am looking forward to my own bed and routine. School starts in a few weeks to summer is dying down. Bummer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Paula A]

Good warm (74 at 6:15) morning! But who is complaining when Maxie and Beth are posting about power outages? Not me.
Very hazy skiy this morning but still no smoke smell in the air.
Kids and the Avon lady coming in just a few minutes..
Yesterday's dinner was so good! The pulled pork had cooked all night in the crocpot and the green beans almandine with lemon zest and Parmesan cheese were a surprise hit! the cole slaw with a coconut and pineapple base dressing was so good.
Did not get those cookies made with all the clean up and funeral and dinner prep, Donna. And I have two dog blankets to finish for a rescue that has two Bull Mastiffs needing blankets...I want to try them before I make them for an open house but they may have to wait till I make them for the event!
Hope you all have a good start to your week.

[JoGee]

Good morning, everyone's!
How nice to see so many posts already.

Today we stay in the hotel. DD & SIL both have some big deal going on at work today. But we need a rest, so it's okay.
Yesterday they took us to see Minions 3. We get such a kick out of those little monsters, so we avoided telling them we already had seen it. Also I got a couple pair of pants that are really comfy for me, exactly the style I wanted but couldn't find in Tucson. Tomorrow she wants to go to an outlet store for jeans, so I'll see if they have any tops that I like. DD seems to know exactly the styles I like, but she's seeing me as smaller than I am. (I curse the after-surgery things that make me wear slightly larger clothes....but I don't dwell on it.).

SIL made a dinner I won't forget. He made a very tasty pulled pork with a light BBQ flavor to go on toasted buns with pro alone cheese, a Cole slaw with apple in it, and watermelon. With the kitchen still under renovation, the stove is out of commission, but they get by nicely with the microwave, toaster oven, crock pot, and other small electric appliances. He's the major cook in the house, DD hates cooking but doesn't mind lending a helping hand. Though some meals might be somewhat eclectic, but she keeps mostly very healthy foods on hand. The kids (all grown) have only to grab what they feel they need to eat, as the come and go in their usually busy schedules (college & jobs).

Maxie, it's great that you had such a wonderful time.

You all seem to have your day planned. Today I have no plans except relaxing with E. I did bring a crochet hook and some yarn, so might try to make something with that.

Wednesday we return home, and back to reality.
Yesterday may have gotten to 80° here, I'm not sure. But the sun was pretty warm, if I wasn't in the shade. Should get into the low/mid 80's today I think. DD says I brought the "heat" with me. Still, it's been chilly to me most of the time here, and my sweater goes everywhere with me, and it's heavier than the sweaters I see other older women wearing here.
I'm just too acclimated to desert heat, I guess.

Hope you all have a beautiful day.

[determined]

Good Morning. Yesterday my brother sister on law and grandsons brought my things from IL. Unloaded everything into the garage, DJ said he will carry se of it to the storage in the basement. Kids will look and see what they want to use. Have to put some stuff back together since it had to be taken apart to go in the trailer. Rick had to come back by before leaving town, he had the pitcher and bowl that goes to the washstand, on the back of his suv to keep it from getting broke and forgot to unload it.

[maxie]

Just home from shopping. Since we were out of everything I had to run to several stores and saw some of the storm damage. Not sure that some people may be without power yet since I saw utility trucks driving slowly down side streets and big trucks with storm debris. Plus for a Monday morning there were not a lot of people in the stores. I ask Sierra to go with me to help carry but she was busy so I ask her to be here when I got home to haul up the stairs but she has to go to see the bf since she hasn;t seen him in 3 days. So I did the normal (probably not to you but to me) trick and took what she wanted off the grocery list. Chastise me if you must but that is just one of the only 'get evens' I have left. And, no, I do not lay awake thinking of get evens....they just come naturally to his mean grandma. Well, need to change out laundry but wanted to mention that the storm damage is still a big issue here. This little subdivision fared very well except no one in this house has reset clocks. Yep, I gotta do everything!

[Paula A]

It is called Choice and Accountability!
Good for you to
Quietly find a natural consequence for her.

[JoGee]

Maxie, I have to laugh.....your "get evens" are turnaround fair play, or as E puts it, "compensation". I raised my kids in the manner of "doing your share" and "helping each other" when needed. I must've been a really mean mama, because once I posted the chores they did get done. If I asked for help, the appropriate kid was right there. They worked out the details of helping each other. If they visited a friend, they knew what times they had to be home. They never questioned the unspoken "or else". Occasionally they broke the rules, or they wouldn't be kids. Accidental doing so could be forgiven. Intentional breaking rules would "cost" them one way or another......as in your grocery list items. They felt it, but it was through their inconvenience due to disrupting the family's.
Hey, my son challenged me only once, with "I didn't ask to be born" and I'm tall as you now and can make my own rules", and such. I listened, looking him in the eye all that time as he spoke, then told him all the conveniences he had at home. Then he made a bad remark, an I grabbed his shirt and twisted it til it tore off. Then he had tears and said I ruined his favorite shirt (it was threadbare and surely wouldn't get through another washing), but he never tried to bully me again.
And he had time to think about it and decided he'd best go along with family. Maybe he thought I had more power and strength than reality permits, I don't know. But that was my worst case scenario, and last resort. My only son. My girls were better at talking things out. But they did show respect to elders.