Clean Sweep

When we were kids we had 3 huge oak trees in our yard and we would rake the leaves into large rings (nests) and play house. We each had our own bedrooms a kitchen where we would burn the leaves with magnifying glass and cook dinners.

Fall is one of my favorite season. The others are spring, summer, and winter.

I usually love the yard work. The leaves would fall over several days and it was easy raking and mowing staying ahead of it all.

This year the leaves seemed to dump in a matter of 2 days and covered everything.

Roof and yard were covered

I felt overwhelmed.

Thank God for Logan. He is always willing to help out and he actually enjoys going up on our roof to clean it off. 

I was very worried that this load of leaves would be slippery. He had no problem.

Logan sweeping our roof

He had to use a rake and broom to get it all down. The leaf blower was not strong enough.

He hung around and helped with raking out around the house so I could mulch with the mower later.

Logan always wants to come over and help. He has never said no to us. ‘That’s what you do Grandma when you love someone.”

Mom would of been very proud of me, because he didn’t go home with empty pockets. 💸

Happy Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving was different this year.

I served breakfast/brunch. Bryan and the boys played in the Turkey bowl. It was the boys first turkey bowl and they were very excited to play. All 3 played flag football this fall for the park district.

When Mike asked me if it was ok if he went and watched. I’m thinking ‘ok-why are you asking?” Then it dawned on me. He has 4 out 5 of his grandsons playing. He is so gonna play too.

That’s him in the middle with the big grin

He wasn’t gonna miss the Younger ones first turkey bowl

Logan’s team or the white team

Roger and Luke were excited to play on Logan’s team. The star football player of the family. But it was Roger who brought home the MVP trophy. 

Touchdown Roger

 

Roger and the trophy

Breakfast followed the game with what else turkey sausage, turkey bacon and I tried to get them to eat turkey Spam but no luck (only Mike and Bryan). 

So this year was different I did not have to make a turkey and have too many leftovers, but then no pumpkin pie either. I did miss everyone as they all headed to the big dinners. Not without some family pictures. Mary like to capture memories as much as I do.

One with the grandkids

One with Mom and Son

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

To Be Continued…

I really thought that it was time to give this blog a rest.

Then I started to read some of the older posts and realized I’m telling my story - one chapter at a time.

I lost my sister to cancer this summer. She lived is SC so we faced time. We shared old pictures and stories  same stories, just remembered differently. Her grandkids are young. Are they going to know her story?  Of course her kids will keep her memory alive.

I’m thinking what better way for me to share myself than with this blog, so here I am. Back!!!

Some notables…

Sharen and I turned 70 this Sept. 

I got to spend the day with my family. I didn’t have to lift a finger. My wonderful daughters Mary (daughter-in-law) and Stacy (step-daughter) did all the work.

What would it be without a Grandma picture

Of course I ended the day with my double, my best friend and my partner in crime.

My Twin

The twins, Kallie and Kendell (see how I put Kallie first, it’s important and a twin thing) wanted to share a special day with us. With help from their mother, Carrie, they surprised us with a pottery painting party. 

We had specific instructions to dress alike.

Twinning

OMG we had so much fun. I painted a spoon rest. I included paint from each of the girls trays of their  favorite color to make flowers on mine. It’s on my counter and I see it everyday. 

Lunch was on the older twins. I day I will always remember. Hopefully someday the girls will find this blog and remember this day too.

Vicki ~

My older, oldest, wiser, and funny sister turned 80 in November. Her husband planned a family dinner and thought it would be fun to include us sisters too. Thanks Bill for the invite. It was so good seeing everybody. Some growing up and some just growing old.

Go Fish

 I get a text from Sharen telling me to go online and renew my fishing license - we are going fishing.

It took me about 3 seconds to grab the iPad and spend the $7.95 for a renewal.

Me and my Bobber

Sharen catching Sun

The fish weren’t biting were we were, but it was our first day out and we didn’t really care. We needed some quiet time anyway. There was a couple catching some right around the corner from we we sat. Interesting!

 On day 2 they hadn’t  showed up yet so Sharen and I thought we would try their spot out. I had dug up some red worms from my backyard so we had plenty of bait. Nothing… We moved over a little bit when the couple showed up. They started catching the bid ones again. We asked and sure enough they were using minnows not worms. 

Gonna have to try that out next time. 

A day away from housework and yardwork, what’s not to like. Definitely see more of these lazy summer days in the near future.

GK Golf Outing

 Mike signed us up again for the Genoa Kingston Athletic golf outing. We were very excited because Dylan could golf with us this year.

The weather was almost perfect 70’s and cloudy with a touch of a breeze. I love breezes.

It was a four man scramble and there were times when I didn’t even have to t-off. The boys have really improved their game.

We short a 2 over - we all made putting mistakes.

Play got slow on the backside - we waited some.

We all contributed to our score, which made it very fun.

I don’t want to brag, but I’m the one that brought home a trophy.

Longest putt for Woman.

My favorite part of the day was going up to get this thing. Logan shouts out “way to go Grandma”

Ever since he was little and playing football he would make a good play and I would yell, loudly like a crazed old lady. ‘That’s my Grandson” most of his buddies got used to - even expected it.

 When I got back to my seat Logan told me he was glad it was his turn to yell for me.🥹

 

Stop the Press

 or is it "Cut the Cord"? Anyway after 45 years I have cancelled my subscription to my paper. I love to read a paper. When I worked at the CN I would read 3 papers every morning. I claimed to my boss that I was looking for potential advertisers, but I just liked to read everything.

Leftover papers are handy to have around too. Starting fires, drop clothes for messy work. How am I going to paint around my house or how about carving a pumpkin?.

They were jerking me around about my bill. Went from $50 for 4 weeks (that's not a month - 28 days only) then it jumped to $63.80 last bill was $78.30. I refused to attached my credit card to the account so I had to charged more for paperwork. 

The last bill had 2 "special sections" in it so it only covered 20 days. I asked her how much they charged to advertise in that special section and she didn't know.

 "Most ads in those sections, cover the cost of printing." I told her.

She had no answer for me, so I told her I couldn't afford it any longer. 

3 days later I get a call that they were offering a special deal. TWO DOLLARS AND 95 CENTS A WEEK FOR 10 WEEKS. I had to laugh.

"So, you are charging your loyal customers more so you can give it away to "new" subscribers."

She honestly said YES so I told her I would signup. Only thing was I had to give her my credit card.

I hung up!!!

Mike will pickup a paper for me sometimes on his way home from work, but so far I haven't missed it - Too Much.

Hi Love You

 Hi, Love You… That was my first text from Roger. Really made me smile.

He got a phone!!!!

Bryan sent me roger’s new number (after asking Roger’s permission of course) and I hurry and sent him a text. “Congratulations on your new phone.”

 We met up with the Flory at Top Golf for some family fun. We had a blast. When we were waiting our turn  I told Roger to call me. He looked at me funny since we were sitting right next to each other and I told him I wanted to show him something on my phone. 

I had downloaded a funny picture I had of him to my contact so it pops up when he calls me. He thought that was crazy fun. He wanted to do it. I told him he had to take some pictures first. I did see him take a Selfie of him and Mary.

But this is the first one he took (with his phone ~ I have several he took with my phone) with me in it.