The Big Finish

This is the last set of photos from my visit with my grandparents, and if I do say so myself, I think I saved the best for last.

Yeah yeah, Bingo dabber bottles are pretty and all, but this here is the real deal. The day after the big anniversary party, one of my grandparents' dear friends from Minnesota (I think???) was in town, and believe it or not (and of course you believe it) one of her first stops was to my grandparents' place for a Sunday afternoon (living room) jam session.

She brought her accordion, her son borrowed one of my grandfather's guitars and Grandpa Conrad rocked out on his banjo. He wanted someone to play the keyboard too, but besides a one-fingered version of Mary Had a Little Lamb, I'm totally useless.

They all played together for the good part of the afternoon while I sat on the floor with my camera, taking it all in and tapping my feet to the beat. My favorite part had to be when they would get to the end of an upbeat song. Grandpa has always been a fan of the big finish!

And people wonder why I refer to him as a Rockstar!

BINGO!

What trip to The Land of Seniors would be complete without a night out playing BINGO?

Certainly not mine!Neither of us won but we had a good time.

60 Years

I had good intentions of posting something here last week saying I would be gone for a while but with the Gardener being gone up until the day before I left and the girls being sick again all last week, I just didn't have time. But fear not, I'm alive and well and even a bit tan after spending 5 days in sunny Arizona visiting my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary.

My trip out there was a surprise to them, and boy were they surprised. I thought for a second that my Grandma was going to faint when I walked up and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and as I grabbed her for a hug, I could feel her shaking from surprise. Thankfully it was just surprise and didn't warrant a trip to the ER.


My grandparents' dear friends J&B picked me up from the airport and kept the secret for me as I wasn't sure until just days before the party that I would be able to go.
Thanks again J&B!

The party was fun and FULL of people. According to the guest book and the empty food trays after the party, there were roughly 150 guests there to wish my grandparents a happy anniversary.
Of course there was a band...

Can you tell my grandfather has a thing for accordions?

And dancing...And food...
And many friends helping to make the day special for my grandparents.
My grandfather's health has improved drastically since the last time I saw him and now he gets around pretty well without the need for a walker or a wheelchair and is back to playing his banjo and dancing with my grandmother. Amazing that at 92 his body can still bounce back!
St. Patrick's Day in The Land of Seniors was a real treat. We of course went to a jam where my Grandpa rocked out on his banjo... and we watched the quick footed steps of some very energetic seniors. It was like a freakin' Metamucil commercial. I swear some of these people have more energy than I do.
After the Irish themed dance, and a dip in the pool for me, my grandparents and I went out for dinner, or more so an opportunity to drink some green beer. Grandma was satisfied with her NA raspberry iced tea but she did join me in a Bailey's on the rocks right before bedtime. By midday on Thursday I was on my way back home but it sure was nice to see both of them again and celebrate such a special occasion.

Wardrobe Wednesday

I try to regularly participate in Kelly's Wednesday hit, Wardrobe Wednesday, BUT, there are some Wednesdays that just aren't so wardrobe-y.

I thought today was going to be one of those days until the girls decided to play dress-up AND help me clean the kitchen floor.










Precious right? Or as my my brother T says (By the way, Happy Birthday T!), "You aren't gettin' these days back. Enjoy it!"

Ramble On, Baby.

It's been so long since I posted anything here other than a few random photos that I have no idea where even to begin. The last time I really checked in, Mae had strep throat and an ear infection. I had pneumonia. The Gardener was painting his tractor and I was pissed about not being able to watch Olympic curling.

Mae's strep and ear infection went away but at the end of last week, her ears were bugging her again. Sunday morning she tossed her cookies but by the afternoon she started feeling better and was even able to keep a little food and some liquids down. I kept her home from school yesterday just to make sure, but today I was happy to put her on the bus. She complained about not wanting to go but by the amount of fighting she did with her sister this morning, I'm sure she's back to her normal self.

Binny woke up last Friday and came downstairs to tell me that she puked the bed. And not like, I woke up and my tummy hurt. No it was more like, I woke up and I noticed dried vomit all over myself, my bed and Monkey. I kept her home from school and in a day she was back to normal.

My pneumonia is finally gone and I'm feeling much better. Although I did seem to catch that pukey bug from over the weekend (maybe had something to do with me washing 6 loads of puked up linens and clothing....) which in turn made yesterday absolutely miserable for me. I gladly handed Mae the phone yesterday afternoon when she wanted to call Grandma and go play over there for the evening. Thank goodness Grandma was home and happy to spend a few hours playing hide and seek and the Wii with her granddaughters.

The Gardener's tractor is painted and up and running.
There was a recent change in our snow removal equipment and for a while we were completely without but now that the tractor is up and running we'll be able to use that if we should get any more snow before winter is gone for good. *For the record, that last sentence was in no way an invitation for Mother Nature to gift us with any more snow or freezing temperatures.

Work is slow for the Gardener so he had the choice of using up 2 weeks of vacation that he had saved up or file for temporary unemployment and lose our health benefits at the end of February and start paying for for Cobra. We decided that he would use up the 2 weeks to at least get us through another month without having to pay for health insurance benefits out of our own pockets. Hopefully things will start picking up as the weather warms and he won't be out of work for too long. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I'm not too incredibly worried about it. The farmer I work for is always happy to find something for him to fix at the farm and we have talked about a few creative ways to make money like recycling scrap steel and selling stuff we don't use on Craigslist. Hell, I may even put an ad in the paper offering to do some family photography now that Spring is on the way...

Anyhow, after a weekend of the Gardener moping around the house and worrying himself to the point of not being able to sleep, I looked into getting rid of him for a week, a little vacation if you will. It just so happened that the Gardener's dad was planning a trip out to see the Gardener's brother, B to help him remodel his bathroom. Driving ten hours one way (in the middle of the night and into an ice storm, no less) just to spend all week ripping out flooring and drywall, re-plumbing, re-wiring, re-drywalling and re-flooring a bathroom may not seem like a fun vacation to me but it's perfect for the Gardener. Plus the three of them love a good construction project.

Tomorrow my brother, T is coming over and we are going to start a bunch of vegetable and flower seeds and set up the grow lights in the basement. We may even drink an Irish coffee and toast to his Birthday!

I am so excited for Spring, I can hardly contain it. The garden, the sun, the flowers, hanging laundry on the line, opening windows and taking in that fresh warm air. BRING IT ON! With that enthusiasm, I am going to start Garden Mondays very soon again, perhaps even next Monday if I can get my crap together and no one else get sick...

Has anyone else started to think about gardening yet? I can't wait to get my hands dirty!

And with that I had better run and start some house cleaning before the day gets away on me.

It's Saint Bernard Shaving Time Again

It was due time for the Gardener to pull out the cow clippers (Seriously, I'm not joking one bit) and a giant garbage bag and start shaving our 140 pound Saint. The Oliver Bunnies were getting so bad that even if I vacuumed on a daily basis, I would still see at least one or two big ones float across the kitchen in any given day. Not to mention, I gave the dogs a couple of knee bones that came with our recent beef share and Oliver had his front legs so filthy dirty from the combination of whatever sorts of fluids and fats are in the beef bones and his own saliva that he was barely even allowed into the house. Trust me, it was pretty gross. The haircut went a long way but I think a nice bubble bath and a nail trimming are order now that the bones are gone.

I guess I should just be thankful that he doesn't sleep in our bed or climb on the furniture.

Wardrobe Wednesday

With the excitement of the Winter Olympics (Seriously, did you see the South Koreans get hosed out of a short track speed skating gold medal again?), I thought I would dig out some old photos of me from waaaaay back when I was a kid and took figure skating lessons every winter.

At the end of every skating season, our figure skating club would put on an "Ice Show" as both a fundraiser for the club and also an opportunity to show off our latest moves (Which always included at least one kid in the group falling and getting run over by another member of the same clumsy group.), plus there were costumes. It was also the one time a year my mom would happily apply gobs of make up to my face and help me into my extra shiny pantyhose.

Not exactly sure what the costume was supposed to be or what the skate was for this year but I do remember that while we were all posing for this photo, my left knee went numb from holding it on the ice for so long.

I'm the girl with the terrible perm on the bottom left.

The next year (or maybe it was the year after that even), I landed a special role with another girl and together we were Tweedle Dum (me!) and Tweedle Dee. We stuffed pillows into our giant yellow leotards and wore these crazy orange suspendered pants over top.

Shut up. We thought we were pretty cool.

More Wardrobe Wednesday at Heathen Family Revival.