Conversations with a 3 year old

We have one very excited little girl. Do you know why? She starts preschool tomorrow. You know I was a little worried about how she'd do all by herself in preschool before this summer. She's done some major growing up and I can honestly say I'm not worried about her. She's going to do wonderfully saying bye to me for a few hours. It's going to be strange having a few hours to myself, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

She had to go in for her yearly physical before school started. I knew she was tall for her age but she came in at a whopping 99% for height. Yikes! She's doing great and keeps me laughing, case in point:

I was walking down the driveway with Greta and we were discussing imaginary things.

Greta: "Ghosts aren't real. Dragons aren't real."

Me: "Yep, they aren't real."

Greta: "And zombies!"

Me: "Yep, and unicorns too"

Greta: "And ALLIGATORS!"

Me: "Nope, alligators are real."

Greta: "WHAT?!!"

I think I blew her mind. I'll miss her for those few hours a week. 

Flashback Friday

About 12 years ago Hubby and I were once again building a deck. This time it was on Sean's college house and it was about a month before we got married. It was a family affair and my parents were there along with Sean's parents and brother. It was 102 degrees out, much like it is now, and we had a great time. I dug around and found the pictures taken during that hot weekend and on Saturday I had Rich take a reenactment picture to document the next (and probably not the last) deck building experience.  Here they are side by side, the older one on the left is just a picture of a picture so the quality isn't so great. We were 22 years old at the time. Just babies. Hehehe....

I couldn't resist sharing this next picture because it cracks me up. That would be my future mother-in-law with her signature "flare". Love you Randi!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Look who ate dinner on the almost finished deck? We did! Woo hoo!

Pesto kind of day

My deck building boys have put down their screw drivers and returned to their desk jobs so it's just Greta and I again. I thought "what better thing to do today than to make something yummy". We were outside this morning watering the garden and I decided on a tasty batch of pesto. So first things first, in early spring plant more basil seeds than you'll ever use in your entire lifetime. Plant that basil in your garden and strawberry bed and then watch it grow into three feet tall bushes. Then gather a bowl and your three year old helper and go pluck several cups of basil leaves. Make sure said three year old knows the difference between (toxic) morning glory leaves and basil leaves.

Next thing to do: shell 1/3 cup of pistachios. I like using this recipe for pesto because it uses pistachios instead of the traditional pine nuts. I usually always have pistachios in the cupboard. Place pistachios,  1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese and two cloves of garlic in food processor. I bought this el cheapo food processor for $10 at Wall World, works great. Pulse it until everything is pulverized.

Place 2-3 cups of packed basil leaves on top of crumbles, and give it all a squeeze of lemon juice. I think the lemon juice keeps the basil from turning brown. Put the lid on the food processor and turn it on low while slowly drizzling olive oil through the lid (usually there is a little hole in the top for liquids). It will blend up into this lovely pesto. Salt and pepper it to your own preference (if you used salted pistachios you won't need much if any salt). It's so good scooped onto carrot sticks, Wheat Thins, cucumbers, anything! I found a recipe for Chicken Panini's that uses pesto and is so delicious. Enjoy!

Pesto with Pistachios 

2-3 c. Basil leaves
2 Garlic cloves
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/3 c. Pistachios 
1/2 c. Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Day 6

Hubby has been home for 6 days now building the deck and it's coming along. Here are progress pictures from this morning. We are lucky to have Rich here today helping out too. The decking is going down well.

Holy Joists Batman!

It's really starting to look like a deck!

Moving right along

I'm starting to have what looks like a deck on the south side of the house! Woo hoo! Tuesday afternoon a large truck delivered two big bundles of wood that we ordered on Monday. Hubby has been out there ever since bolting things together. It's starting to come together. Perhaps by the end of this weekend I might have a finished deck. Oh how exciting!

School review, Deck progress & Dimes.

Today starts the first full week of school. Wesley hasn't figured out the whole five days of school and then two days off for the weekend. He's always still very surprised and pleased when he has days off for Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday he came up to me and said "Now let me get this straight, tomorrow I have school right?" I said yep and he thought about it for a second and said "Yeeeessss!". He loves school and that makes a Mom happy. Personally, I think he loves recess but it's all good.

He still holds my hand when I walk him inside. Last Friday he held hands with Greta as they tromped ahead of me into the school. It made my day. He likes hugs too. Every day at the end of school when his kindergarten teacher lead them out to the waiting parents, he would wrap his tiny arms around her and give her a hug goodbye. He did this every day of the school year. I wasn't sure if he'd do it now that he's in first grade so I kept my eyes open when his new teacher lead them out on Friday. Sure enough he gave her a hug goodbye. He's a sweet kid.

We had a weekend full of progress. The deck project is moving again. After nearly a month of rain it looks like we may have a reprieve. No rain for the next 6-8 days. So wood is being ordered today and (hopefully) delivered tomorrow. Rich and Sean got the 4X4 posts set on the footings yesterday and he's hoping to get the rest of the week off of work to get the deck done. I'm so excited!

We had a little excitement last week. Tuesday Greta thought it would be a good idea to eat a dime. Yep, a dime. She ran up to me screaming that she just choked on money. I asked if she was ok and then asked where the money was now? She sheepishly said in her tummy. I know it was a dime because she was playing with one earlier. So I called poison control to see what they recommended. They said they would like to know that it wasn't stuck in her esophagus and recommended an x-ray. I called my pediatrician to see if they had the equipment to do that without (another) trip to the ER. The nurse said they normally don't worry about objects under an inch and if she is able to breathe properly, eat bread and drink water then I shouldn't worry about it. So we watched and waited and apparently the dime wasn't a problem. I can only assume it passed without any issues (because I'm not sifting through anymore poo). Greta is 3 years old for roughly 32 more days, I suppose she's going to occasionally act like it. Ugh.

First Grade

Wesley started first grade today! He was excited to go and see his friends again. I'm happy he's so happy. Looks like it's just Greta and I again.....until she starts 3 year old preschool the beginning of September.

Lobsters, Cubicles and Beauty Queens

-My menu's for dinner were getting a bit stale so I implemented "Seafood Friday" about six months ago. Ever since we've been enjoying all sorts of new (and maybe questionable) seafood dishes. Recently we switched it from Seafood Friday to Seafood Saturday (has a nicer ring doesn't it?) so that Rich could join in on the festivities. We've been having fun trying all sorts of new dishes but mostly salmon and changing it up with snow crab legs about every 3-4 weeks. We found a wild caught cedar plank salmon that was pretty good (although very hard to cook through). I'll throw in bay scollops and shrimp dishes every so often but it's rare. I thought it was time to change things up last Saturday so I bought a whole lobster and a sushi sampler tray. I'd gotten the sushi before and love it but the kids hadn't tried it. I told them they could have a piece of candy if they tried the sushi and, by golly, they tried it. Greta liked it, Wesley not so much. Greta is my little seafood lover though and can usually eat more crab than I do. The lobster was another story. We were lacking in knowledge on what to do with the poor creature so after he was cooked we just cut him open down the back. This exposed his body cavity which was filled with what I refer to as a "guacamole" like substance (goodbye appetite!). We did dine on his tasty tail and claws but all in all not something I would buy again. It was a good experience for the kids (and adults as well). 

-Last Friday was Family Fun Day at the hubby's work so into the car we piled and off we went for an afternoon of fun. We got to see his new cubicle and enjoy a bounce house (in the rain...have I mentioned it won't stop raining?). This year, I must admit, it was poorly planned and we had to wait in line a very long time for more food to be cooked. Waiting in line with hungry children is not a pleasant experience. But we made the kids very happy by going across the street to get an ice cream cone afterwards. That's what they will remember, not the long lines and wet bounce houses.

-I finally made it into the 21st century and bought a smart phone. Forever I'd had a Tracfone, you know....one of those little pay by the minute cell phones? It's not like I go many places or have a load of friends to keep contacts for, I never felt like I was missing out on something. Well my little tracfone finally bit it (well it didn't officially die it just took too long to wake up) so I went to replace it and found I wanted something more functional. When I wanted to go for a walk or run in the evenings I liked the idea of tracking my speed and progress so I'd take hubby's phone with the running app on it. I also wanted something with a decent camera I could have in my purse without taking the big camera. So I'm now the proud owner of a LG Optimus l9. Still a pay by the minute phone but this time through T-Mobile (still very inexpensive). I've been having fun with the free apps and found one called Cymera which takes pictures and then has a "beautify" button in which you can change hair color, size of eyes, makes you thinner and so forth. I haven't laughed so hard in quite some time as I did the other night. My parents came over and I took pictures and "transformed" all of us into beauty queens (or maybe just queens in some cases...hehehe). It was a good purchase and I'm having way too much fun with it.

Moving on up

I have two tortoises. The oldest being eight years old. Cecil has been in the same tortoise table since he was a hatchling. He's....er......quite large now. He's been sharing his small indoor home with his brother (from another mother) "Billy Bob" for a year now. They get to go explore the great outdoors once in while when the weather permits. But the weather has not been permitting them outdoors in some time now. It won't. stop. raining. Ugh. So I figured it was time to build them bigger indoor digs. They are enjoying their massive new pen galloping around and kicking up their heels with glee.....not really. They both just lie there like tortoises do. But I can see the thankfulness in their big tortoise eyes. 

Their old pen was a mere 2 foot by 4 foot and their new pen is 4 foot by 6 foot. It pretty much takes up any and all spare space in the bird room (where they live). It's actually my old work room. I keep my sculpting and painting supplies up there but I stopped working up there because who wants to work up in a tiny room with nobody around except five rather loud cockatiels? Not me. I sculpt on the couch now. Anyways, here are the new digs. It's not beautiful but it was completely made out of scrap lumber I found in the shop, not a single cent was spent to build it.

Construction. Had to cut all the pieces and bring them upstairs to the room to assemble. Caulked the edges and sealed the bottom.

Slid over to the corner it doesn't take up too much room. So much more room to grow in. Filled it with 3 bags of cypress mulch (which by the way inhibits mold and bacteria growth).

Happy little torts.

It keeps coming down!

Well we haven't floated away yet! The rains just keep coming and coming. It's nearly a daily occurrence of thunderstorms that drop inches and inches of rain. I do believe our drought is over. Ponds are filling up that have been bone dry for two years. It's simply wonderful to see green lush grass and a garden that is spilling over (with weeds anyways!). I just wish it would dry out long enough to get the mower through it all. But beggars can't be choosers.

One of the downsides to all this rain is that the shop has been flooding. The shop that houses my fresh new 250 bales of hay for the year. There is a sky light along the top of the shop to allow light in (which is nice) but it also is a weak point for leaks. The foam between the sky light and the roof has been separating and falling out which allows water in. So this weekend Sean and Rich got up there and riveted the sky light panels together (where the cats have been getting into the shop) and then sprayed expanding foam in the gaps. So far so good! We have a dry shop for the first time in a long time. Thanks Boys!

The rain has made everything grow so nicely. The strawberry bed has exploded! I planted strawberries around the base along with basil and pole beans in the upper tier. The pole beans did ok but the grasshoppers finally found them and ate nearly everything but then the morning glory from last year reseeded itself and took over. The basil is huge! Every week I go out and pick a big bowl full and make pesto. It's so delicious. Miss Greta loves to go out there and fish around looking for something (anything) to eat. She usually finds a strawberry or a tomato but will settle for a green bean.

If you'll remember I bought three goldfish this spring for the koi pond. The odds were decent that I'd get a boy and a girl fish and apparently I did because the pond is full of tiny little baby goldfish. I get quite a kick out seeing all those darting little fish. Perhaps I'll have to net a few out to save over the winter. Hope you all have a nice and (hopefully) dry week.

The Wednesday Write-Up

 -I received notification from Greta's preschool that she will be attending the afternoon class this fall. I think it just dawned on me that I will be completely childless for a whole 5 hours a week starting the beginning of September. This will be the first time in some six years. I'm a little giddy.

-Wesley casually informed me that on occasion he tries urinating into the trash can (next to the toilet) instead of the toilet itself. I had to manually close my mouth when he said this. This might explain the urine smell in the toilet off of the laundry room. I've flushed the toilet constantly, mopped the floor, washed everything (except the trash can) and still can't explain why that bathroom always smells like urine. I don't understand the male species.

-Last week during some massive storms I was picking the kids up from VBS while listening to the weather reports on the radio. They reported grapefruit sized hail in a town about an hour away. Let's all just take a moment to think about what it would be like to experience hail the size of grapefruit falling from the sky. That scared the crud out of me.

-Well it finally happened. Black widow spiders have officially moved into our region. I found one living in our shop about a month ago and have found three more since then. I treated the perimeter of the house and shop with a Home Defense bug spray and immediately found one dead hanging on a web. We've lived with brown Recluse spiders (another poisonous species) forever but finding black widows just freaks me the heck out. Ick.

-I've decided to start running again. I'd taken the spring and summer off because I switched gears and started weights, which I love! Been hitting the weights three times a week pretty hard and am kind of liking the results. But I need to start incorporating cardio again (which I really didn't miss). So I've decided to run the 5K at our little towns fall festival. This might keep me going. I don't want to just show up like I did last year without any training. So twice a week I'm going for a run in the evenings. So far it's been easy to get back in the swing of it, in fact it feels good. Turns out I did miss running!

 -I've been needing a new show to watch in the evening while sculpting and working out and find it very hit or miss with Netflix shows but I took a gamble and started a show called "Damages". It's from back in 2007 and stars Glenn Close. I am totally hooked. What a thriller! I'm on season two now and am looking forward to getting through all five seasons. If you need a show, check it out!

Lay My Laydies

We came back from vacationing over the fourth of July to a wonderful surprise. Eggs! Lots and lots of eggs. Those baby pullets finally grew up and started producing eggs. Yea! I've been having to buy eggs from the grocery store again (think of it!) and am so glad to halt that. Now something I don't remember with the first batch of hens was how small the eggs are when they start laying. These are tiny little eggs. I'm guessing as they grow so do the eggs. It's ok with me, I just have two tiny fried eggs in the morning rather than one large egg. I've been thanking my "laydies" by giving them a head of cabbage a week plus all the kitchen scraps I can stockpile.

Summer Wind Down

Guess what I'm doing this week? I'm enrolling Wesley into first grade! It is already that time of the year again. This summer is just speeding by like it does every year. I need to slow down so I can enjoy it. It's been go go go! Last week was the final week of the reading program at the library. The kids really enjoyed going to that every Tuesday morning. Greta came out of her shell and showed me that she could detach herself from my leg and go sit with the big kids during reading time. She's really grown up a lot this summer and I'm super proud of her. They got to do arts and crafts like making pet rocks and creating a worm farm. We wrapped it all up last Thursday with a pool party at the city pool which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

Then all last week the kids attended vacation bible school at a local church. I wasn't sure how they would do with it since it ran pretty late in the evenings (6:30-9) but again I was pleasantly surprised. They came home the first night so excited to go back the next evening. Greta trotted into her preschool age class at VBS with not much more than a hug goodbye. I was impressed she let me go home. I think this all will help tremendously with preschool that starts in September. I was a little worried about actually leaving but this just showed me that she has, indeed, grown up a lot this summer. Wesley also had a great time at VBS, mainly due to the fact that his buddy Andrew goes to that church and he hasn't seen much of him this summer. Overall it was a great experience and one I hope to do again next summer.

The weather has kept us indoors off and on this week. It's been freakishly cool and raining. We are currently in a flood watch due to the huge amount of rainfall. I actually wore a fleece jacket outside to feed the animals this evening. How many times can I say that in July? The rain has made everything grow like crazy, it's like a rainforest out in the walnut grove. So lush! The garden is overgrown, everything creeping into everything else. I've gotten behind on my weeding and mulching so I actually took the weed whacker to portions of it yesterday. Like usual I'm drowning in squash. I've started just leaving the patty pan squash on the vine to promote the plant to stop making it. The pile I have in the fridge has started to be dispersed among the livestock. Better someone eat it than it go to waste. I've taken to chopping up a few each day and feeding them to the goats and chickens. The horses and "baby" goats don't seem to have a taste for it but Dym (the black goat) will eat it like crazy. She is not a picky goat.

Most of the garden has been eaten up by the grasshoppers. This year will officially be known as the "Year of the Grasshoppers". It's been bad. Very bad. It's ok though. I tend to lose interests in the garden around this time of the year so I'll let them have it. The tomatoes and bell peppers are just starting to ripen up so I'll harvest those and then leave it to the grasshoppers.

That's my update. Hope you all are having a nice summer! 

Adventures in Van Land

I ran across some pictures from the trip and realized I didn't talk about the van at all due to the rather exciting Wesley event. Taking the van on vacation was a hit. It handled the mountains just fine, the kids were comfortable and the toilet was well used. I realized last year we were still potty training Greta and she wore a pull-up throughout the whole trip. This year was a whole new ballgame. We had two kids that chimed in at nearly any moment with "I have to go potty!!" And this wasn't just a "hey, I might need to find a toilet in the next half an hour", it was a "you'd better find a toilet in the next 30 seconds or I'm going to soil the seats". Luckily, we had a toilet on board! Sean would find the nearest exit and pull off to the side of the road. It saved a whole lot of time not having to stop at gas stations. I have to admit I used it quite a few times too.

We all managed to fill up the waste water tank in no time. So then the hunt for a place to dispose of the waste water began. Apparently most rest stops have black water dump stations somewhere so we stopped at a few before finding one. Now since not a single one of us had ever dumped the tank before it proved to be a learning experience. In theory you just take the hose and hook it from the van into the ground and then open up the lever on the van to let all the nasty stuff go into the ground hookup. That worked fine. Then, since you don't want to stow the nasty poo hose, you wash it out. There was a water faucet right next to the dump station so we attempted to wash it out. I held the hose while Sean pushed the lever. It was going fine until I adjusted the hose and caught the rim on the high powered jet of water and proceeded to soak us all with what I'm going to say was water. In reality it was probably not water. We got a good (well needed) laugh out of the experience and are having fun learning the ins and outs of RVing.

Tests

Last Thursday morning, bright and early, I took Wesley in for his EEG. It took about an hour to get there and I had to leave at 7 in the morning. I suppose it's because I've never driven into town at that early of an hour, but there is apparently a rush hour! Holy cow were there a lot of cars on the road. I'm just happy I don't have to travel at that hour of the day hardly ever.

I got to the hospital and checked him in and then they led us to his room. This was initially intended to be a sedated EEG but after talking to him and seeing how calm of a child he is they decided he wouldn't need to be sedated (yeah!). The nurse brought in a picture booklet that showed Wesley what an EEG looked like. It was sorta funny because the booklet was full of all these sedated children with piles of wires attached to their heads, not a single awake child in the whole booklet. The nurse made the comment that they needed to make a book with non-sedated children and then she asked if she could photograph Wesley throughout the EEG and make a new book. I said sure and so she took a ton a pictures with a smiling Wesley. I think it will be a lot more inviting for these uneasy children coming in for this procedure in the future.

Wesley got to play with some really fun toys called "Magna Tiles" while we waited for the EEG tech to come in. Then he got to pick out a movie to watch during the procedure. I told him he'd have to sit really still during the EEG or they'd have to put in another IV to sedate him. He looked at me with wide eyes and said he'd sit really really still. Which he did. He did a wonderful job and did everything they asked. We were there for about four hours and then headed home.

They called this afternoon to let me know the EEG came back normal. They said they will run a full neurological exam if he has another seizure. Here's hoping they never have to do that.

Fun with Grandy Randi

Well the insanity of the trip is done, the party is over and the house is quiet once again. Granny Randi (or Grandy Randi as Greta calls her) left Sunday and we all miss her. We had a nice time having her here last week, the kids thoroughly enjoyed having Granny here 24/7. She got used as a giant pillow a few times:

Her friend Connie asked her to gather a few bags of walnuts while she was here so out she went one evening into the grove and gather she did. I believe Connie wanted them for dying wool. I'm just glad someone is using them!

But my favorite picture of the week is brought to you by the Stomp Rocket that Aunt Stacy and Uncle Nate got Wesley for his birthday. It's a great toy that the whole family enjoyed (enjoys!). The harder you stomp on the air pad, the higher the rocket shoots. So we got fancy with the effort we put into jumping and stomping on the air pad. Randi perfected the "Run and Jump" method while Wesley stuck with the "One Foot really high in the Air" method. We aren't showing you my method because I'm the keeper of the blog and decide which incredibly bad photos are posted and which are silently deleted. Hehehe.

First off the "One Foot" method:

And lastly the "Run and Jump" method including my favorite Granny Randi picture ever.