Recalled

Woody started his morning off by driving to the Ford dealership in town.  Our Ford Fusion had a recall...something about the door latches.  Woody called yesterday to find our about getting it done.  When asked when he wanted it done, Woody suggested sometime next week.  The lady on the phone seemed to want it sooner so he suggested this morning which she agreed upon.  Woody told her that he would bring it in at 8am and that time was agreed upon.  He was told that it would take three hours.  Guess what...car is still there and don't think that the work has even been started.  We didn't need the car today, but may need it tomorrow...wonder if we will have it by the time that we need it!  Woody's walk of the day was walking back from the dealership.  He said to call that his four-mile walk of the day.  I think that it is longer than four miles and suggested that he check the mileage on his return trip home with the car...well, obvioiusly that distance check didn't get done! But I still think that the walk back was longer than four miles.

Woody spent quite a bit of time outside this morning weeding in the large flower bed that straddles the property lines of both out house and Nathan's.  At one end of that flower bed is a large bed of day lilies...tonight's photo is of one of those lilies.  That bed can be quite a beautiful display of orange in late May into early June.

This morning I got up and decided that I wanted to make a ham and cheese omelet before our ham is gone.  It definitely hit the spot and got my day off to a yummy start!  (Woody had his usual oatmeal and banana.)  I am in the planning stages of the next pillow that I will make for our front porch.  I have one finished except for stuffing it.  I can't stuff it till I make a trip to the store to get some more fiber fill.  Either the girls or I used up the last of the fiber fill that I had in one of the last pillows made.  I did find some elastic in my sewing cabinet so was able to finish my crop pants without going to the store.  So a tally on my summer sewing so far = 1 top, 1 pair of crop pants and 1 pillow top.  Not too bad for just the first few days off from school.  After lunch, I headed off to the church library.  Donna and I worked for a couple of hours "reading shelves," a library term for straightening and making sure that the books are in the right order on the shelves. I was working on the fiction section.  That job just made me want to read a lot of the books that I haven't read yet! Our church library really has an excellent selection of books of all types (that are appropriate for a church library).

Will keep you posted on our recall!  Happy last day of May!

Late Night at the Ol' Ball Parks!

Elijah just before his double!

Rainbow over the softball field

Rainbow over Joy in center field

Esther scoring

Joy scoring

Memorial Day 2017

Our day has been pretty much a usual Monday. Woody started his morning outside weeding and mulching.  Mid-morning he went on a four-mile walk.  After lunch, he went to Life Care Center and had Bible study with Jeff and visited a couple of other residents.

Today I considered to be my first "real" day of summer vacation (today was the first day since our last day on Thursday that I would have had school)...so I slept in a bit longer this morning than I do during the school year. I had planned to sew today, but ended up cooking instead.  I made two different main dish salads...a ham macaroni salad and our Mediterranian tuna salad...both favorites of ours.  There was quite a bit of cutting and chopping so they took a while to put together. We enjoyed the ham macaroni salad for supper.  I did do a little sewing this afternoon.  Last night I cut out a pair of crop pants and have them finished except for the elastic casing.  Need to buy elastic before I can finish.

All in all a pretty quiet Memorial Day for us.  It has been a pretty nice day temperature-wise.  We did have some rain this afternoon...more drinks for the flowers and plants.  They're all looking pretty happy at least for the time being!

There and Back Again!

This morning we got up and headed off to Georgia around 7am.  I had to be careful last night and not make reference to our trip in the blog as this was a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours and she reads the blog.  I was afraid that if I made a reference to our heading GA way that she might put two and two together! So I refrained last night from mentioning that we were going to go on a day trip to GA today. We went to her son's house which is a little north of Atlanta...a big plus for us as we didn't have to get in any of Atlanta's heavy traffic. There is a time change between here and GA so we had to deal with that or we would have been late.  We had been asked to be there around 11:30am Eastern time so we would get there before the birthday girl and her husband and their daughter and her family.  We got there around 11:45 their time.  Their son whisked off our car so they would be none the wiser that there were any extra vehicles in the driveway.  Her mother and all her siblings and some of her siblings' children and grandchildren were there along with her two children and their children..lots of little children running around having a great time! It was fun to be included as the only non-family members in this gathering.  Connie and Joe had lived in Tullahoma for years and about 3 1/2 years ago moved to Alabama.  Connie and I were "cohorts in crime" when it came to needlework and sewing, especially! The best thing about today was that with all who knew about the party and for all the months in advance that it had been planned...no one let the cat out of the bag and Connie was VERY surprised!  We had a nice visit.  The trip was very pleasant both going and coming home...no rain or storms like had been predicted.

Not long after we got home Woody headed off on his daily four-mile walk.  He has just returned.  So I guess we are settling in for the evening after a very adventurous day (for us)!

Our Unwelcome Marauder

Here's a mug shot of one of our many unwanted guests at the bird feeders!  Today the suet cage is totally empty so I have a feeling that perhaps he or one of his brothers or sisters helped to empty it.  They claw at  it and get chuncks to eat.  Part lands on the ground under the feeder and we do have many birds come in and clean up the mess that the suet crumblers make.

Woody has kept very busy today.  He went for a four-mile walk this morning.  Later in the morning he did our weekly grocery shopping at Aldis and Kroger.  He also got a hair cut.  He has spent a lot of time outside working in the yard...mainly mowing.

This is my first day of summer vacation so I decided that I would sew.  I have made a top for myself today all except for the hems...working on those and will have them done before I go to bed tonight.

I'm posting a bit early because Elijah has a game in the second time slot so there is no telling when it will it will be finished.

It has been a beautiful DRY day today...the temperatures are rising once more to make us think summer is right around the corner.

School's Out!

Last school lessons with Grammy for this school year happened this morning. Joseph opted to just have a play day for his school time.  He played with toys in the toy closet while Abigail read to me.  Isaac came over and read two Dick and Jane stories and then decided to play for a while too.  After he played for a while, he came to me and suggested that we read another Dick and Jane story since it was the last day of school!  The school morning ended a bit early as The Dazzling Dorrells needed to go practice.  Next week will begin their flurry of summer programs...during next week they will be performing 15 programs!  Makes me tired just thinking about it!

After my last pupil for this school year left, I brewed a cup of tea and decided to go sit on the front porch with my cameras.  Tonight's photos just show one of my many birdie visitors while I was sitting there.  I didn't sit very long before I decided to pull the vacuum out onto the front porch and give the porch furniture and pillows a good dusting.  I need to wipe the furniture down with a damp rag, but wanted to get most of the pollen and dust off first.  I did the dusting job and left the wiping down for another day.  Hopefully they won't be too dusty when I get around to doing the rest of the job!

Woody went on a four-mile walk during my porch sitting/cleaning.  He also did some weeding today.  It was a very cool day for the end of May. This afternoon he did some batting practice with our young neighbor (grandchildren) ball players.  We were all disappointed to hear that the girls' ball game was cancelled tonight due to the fields being too wet.  It would have been a nice evening for a baseball game! I hear the children playing outside as I type this.

I called Melany this afternoon to wish her and Wade a happy 26th anniversary.  26 years ago we weren't having a cool spell on Memorial Day weekend...it was very HOT...very glad that day for an air conditioned church!

Hitchhikers!

Look who hitchhiked back home with us from Vanderbilt...Abigail and Kathy!  Abigail had an appointment with her ear surgeon today at Vanderbilt.  Nathan dropped Kathy and Abigail off at their Vanderbilt destination.  He and the rest of their family headed off to perform at a school on the other side of Nashville.  It worked out that Woody's last appointment and their appointment with Abigail's doctor ended at about the same time.  They found us (we communicated via cell phones) and were in the waiting room when we came out of Woody's appointment.  Woody and Abigail both got very good reports.  Woody's scans continue to show no cancer and Abigail's reconstructed ear drum has healed this time and she had a good hearing test too.  Praising God for both good reports.  Woody will go back in four months. After the first of the year, Dr. Wyman said that the appointments could be spread out six months apart!  Sounds good!

We started out a little after 5:30am and it took a little more than two hours to get there due to hard rain part of the way and slow traffic after the rain due to rush hour and a couple of accidents along the way.  All appointments occured on time or a bit early.  The doctor only sees patients in the afternoon so we couldn't rush that one along, especially since Woody was his first patient after lunch.  We got home around 3:15 pm. The day wore me out!  I don't know about Woody!  I ended up taking a short snooze in the car on the way home and then a longer nap after we got home.

Star Quest

I'll back up to Sunday for tonight's photo and start of tonight's post:  Sunday was the children's choir musical: Star Quest. This year Esther and Elijah were in it.  The whole choir did an amazing job for grades 1st thru 5th.  A tremendous amount of work goes into these musicals.

I only had Joseph and Isaac come over for school today.  Joseph stayed a while and then went home.  Then Isaac had his long time with me.  He read a couple more stories from his Dick and Jane Reader.  After he did a few more things in the school room, he did his weekly paying job: vacuumed our stairs.  He went home just in time to head off to juggling practice with his family.  Isaac and the rest of the Dazzling Dorrells are busy getting ready for their many performances that will occur this summer.  Their heads will be spinning for a while with all their travels.

After lunch, I ran an errand to JoAnn's.  They had outdoor fabric on sale and I had been thinking that it was time to make some new pillows for the front porch.  I did find some fabric...so now to get motivated to make the pillows!  I have quite a bit of sewing planned that the fabric is stacked up "just waiting" for me...summer vacation sewing plans!

Woody ended up driving to the prayer room at church this evening for several reasons:1) not sure if he is supposed to exercise prior to his scans tomorrow (sometimes they tell him not to and sometimes they don't say anything...this time it was the latter), 2)not sure if it would start raining again as it has rained/drizzled off and on today, and 3) he wanted to be sure to be home in time to head off to Elijah's game.  I guess because it was drizzling around the time that the first games were to begin, all the games were cancelled for tonight...so he definitely got home before we were supposed head off to the game!

We will be heading off bright and early in the morning as he has a fairly early appointment and the appointment reminder told him to be there an hour before his appointment.  He has four appointments spread out tomorrow between 8am and 1pm...so it promises to be a rather long and drawn out day at Vanderbilt.

Great Catch, Elijah!

Elijah caught a fly ball for an out at tonight's game.  Kathy managed to move up to the fence just at the right moment.  Goosey (Woody) had left the ball game to go to Monday night prayer meeting so Kathy sent the picture to us so Goosey could see it.  I captured the picture from our email and used Kathy's photo for tonight's blog picture.  This was the first time that Elijah caught a fly ball for an out. When Woody left to go to prayer meeting, he wasn't sure that Elijah's team would win this game...but they turned both their offense and defense around and ended up winning it handily...17-7.  Way to go, Giants!

Woody started out the day taking advantage of last night's rain...he weeded and he said that we must have gotten a pretty good rain as weeding was made much easier by the wet ground.  All the plants and flowers looked very happy today.

I had school with part of the crew today.  Isaac and Joseph had their time.  Then Elijah and Esther shared reading time so we could finish the book that we were reading together.  Joy came over for her long time and got to work on another quilt square.  Elijah chose to not have his long time today. He didn't have any projects that he was in the middle of and we finished the book.  Since the school year is coming to a close this week, he chose to play outside and enjoy this pretty and cool day in May.

Woody went to Life Care and had Bible study with Jeff and then visited with church members who are there. He came home and made another recipe of his Crispy Quinoa Burgers (and smoked up the house , but good!).  He went for a four-mile walk this afternoon.

I did a little work in the gardens mainly deadheading and a little weeding.  I read for a while this afternoon and am almost finished with the book.  I will go finish it after I publish tonight's blog.

Saturday Comings and Goings

Woody did a lot of coming and going today so the rakes got a day of rest!  Woody walked a total of five miles today.  He did our grocery shopping on his "new day," Friday.  So today he was down to library and hospital visits and two trips to the pharmacy.  He went to the hospital with a list of four people from our church to visit, but only two were still patients so he visited with them.
He stopped at the pharmacy and attempted to pick up his prescription and found that they had filled four for me and none for him.  They filled all the updated prescriptions that the doctor phoned in for me...not sure why on a couple of them...usually they just put those updated prescriptions on file and fill them when I call them in.  His prescription, the only one that was really needed, hadn't been filled so he walked back for it later.

An update on Woody's "Golden Gate Bridge" project (one that needs to be started again as soon as it is finished)...he succeeded in getting the whole yard raked and mowed for the first time this season on Thursday.  Thus he is able to sit back and rest from that job for a day or two before he has to start the job all over again.  That is what happens when the Golden Gate Bridge is painted...by the time they get to the end of the bridge, it is time to go back to the other end of the bridge and start painting it all over again. Thus the rakes are all leaning up against our chimney on the side of the house awaiting the time when they will be needed once again!

I have had a pretty lazy day.  I guess I am recovering from all the partying yesterday!  I have a top ready to cut out, but just haven't had the energy to pick up the scissors!  I decided that I would put away some patterns that I had been looking through to make the decision of which to use for this top.  When I started putting them away, I decided that I needed to clean out that section in my sewing cabinet...so that slowed me down in doing much else.  Then I found myself taking a nap in the afternoon...I realized that I had taken a nap when I awakened!  Guess I will continue my shelf straightening after I publish this...need to accomplish something today!

We have been expecting a storm today and it finally arrived a little while ago.  We are having pretty heavy rain as I type and there are rumbles of thunder in the background.  I am hoping that our plants are enjoying their good drink! I'm liking not having to lug the watering can or a hose to all of them!

Look Who's Another Year Older!

A Secretive Day!

Once again we are approaching the end of the week. The children and I have another school week under our belts at Grammy's school.  We are winding down for the year.  Next week will be the last week of  Grammy school for this school year.  We had a usual Thursday for school. Isaac completed the set of Super Books that he had been reading.  So today we started in the Dick and Jane books. Time for him to start working on sight words, I guess...especially since English isn't always phonetic!!  Esther and I read in her book that we are very close to finished.  And, she made some secret plans for tomorrow's celebration...a birthday will be celebrated in their household tomorrow.  They have been having fun secreting away gifts over at our house the last couple of days.  Today they all got wrapped and are downstairs ready to take to their house when it is party time!

Woody got up very early and went on a seven-mile walk.  He has also raked and mowed today.  So he got lots of exercise in for this day!  He has been working Banana Gram puzzles that the Melany and family gave him.

We are getting ready to head off to the girls' softball game so I decided to blog early this evening as it will be another "late" night "for us!" Stay tuned for tomorrow's announcement as to whose BIG day it is!

A Three Hour Trip

We started out a little before eight this morning for the Highland Rim area of Middle Tennessee...pictured to the right.  It was time for my six-month check-in with my personal care physician, who has her office in McMinnville, TN.  Today the to and from trip was 2/3 of the three hours away. It was a pretty day to take a few photos through the windshield on the trip.  Even managed to get a shot of a barn and a worker in one of the fields that we passed along the way.  My doctor and I continue to map a plan to deal with my gout...upping one med and waiting to see if my lab work shows the improvements that she is wanting.

I didn't have school today due to my morning
appointment.  After lunch, I headed to the church library to work for a couple of hours.  Tonight I cooked some pasta to finish off the marinara sauce that I made the other day.

Woody is changing his shopping routine.  Kroger no longer has Senior Adult discounts on Wednesday, but they do have double gas points on the weekend so he is going to start doing all our grocery shopping on Fridays. He did do some yard work today...his exercise of choice today...not really a good time to walk today due to my appointment this morning and then it was a rather hot day to go for a walk in the afternoon.  While I was at the library working, he did yardwork and also made liquid gold = vegetable broth.  He has also been doing a different type of word puzzles than his usual crosswords.

Hot summery temps here in Middle TN today...got close to 90 if it didn't get there.  Humidity is supposed to be on the rise...oh, boy (not)! After all these years of living in Tennessee, I am still an Arizona dry heat kind of  person!

Ball Game Times Two

We haven't been home from the ball park/s long.  I went to Elijah's game and Woody went to the girls' game.  Both came away from the field in the deficit for runs...but again had a great time.  Elijah's game was really close, but they just couldn't rally in the last inning to put their team in the winner's spot.  Good job all around...they played hard...lots of good plays...lots of plays that weren't so great...and some umpire calls that weren't all that great as well!

Woody got up and went on his four-mile walk first thing.  During the day he has done some yard work off and on.  He has raked, mowed and watered.  He stopped at the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for both of us on the way to the ball games.  He dropped me off and then headed off to the girls' game.  The girls' game ended before Elijah's and he got to Elijah's field before the game ended and got to see the last inning. Kathy and the rest of their gang got there too.

I had a modified Tuesday school time.  Since Kathy's Bible study has ended, Isaac and Joseph both came over for a while.  Joseph went home after a while and Isaac had his long time with me.  He got to do his paid job for me...vacuuming the stairs.  He was thrilled to get a quarter that had a Hawaiian volcano on it.  He said that it would remind him of the volcanoes in Iceland!  Now to explain his thinking on that...this summer he and all his family are going on a mission trip to Poland with a stop for a couple of days in Iceland on their way to Poland.  He has been learning things about Iceland and was a bit concerned about the volcanoes that they have there. Isaac and I sat on the front porch and watched birds.  We had a red headed woodpecker and a red bellied woodpecker come to the suet feeder...also chickadees at both feeders and several other kinds. Tonight's robin is a common visitor to our yard. Isaac has a robin family in a nest up high in the crook of their downspout.  After Isaac's long time, Abigail came for her long time.  I have to cancel school for tomorrow as I have a doctor appt. so I made up Abigail's long time today.  She got her shorts cut out  so she's ready to start sewing the next time. After lunch, Joy came over and we read another chapter in her current book that we are reading together. I doctored up last night's marinara sauce with some sliced olives and we had it again over zoodles (zucchini spirals).  By the time supper was gulped down, it was time to head out the door for the games...and that brings us back to where tonight's blog started!

Late Night at the Ball Park

We have just gotten home from a make-up ball game for Elijah's team, the Giants.  Tonight wasn't the best game that they have ever played...they got beaten by a bunch of runs...but lots of fun watching them and the boys had fun playing.

Woody has had quite the day.  He started off early taking a friend to the doctor.  Later in the morning he went to The Life Care Center and visited with a friend and had Bible study with Jeff.  After lunch, he went to see a shut-in who is a part of his Deacon Care Family. Before supper Woody helped Elijah warm up for his ball game.  Woody pitched to him.  Elijah once again did a very good job of hitting in the game.  This evening Woody dropped me off at the library (near to the ball park) on his way to the church for Monday night prayer meeting. After prayer meeting, he came to the ball game.

I had my usual Monday school day, though school is out for the summer next door.  We are continuing with the little boys' preschool and reading time with the older ones and still having long time, at least through next week. Nathan , Kathy and children's.summer schedule of travels begins very soon.  Looks/sounds like a very busy summer for them.  Today was Joy's long time in the morning.  She worked on a little quilt block.  She is learning to paper piece.  She did a great job.  Esther joined Elijah for his long time after lunch, as we decided to finish a book that Esther joined us reading this morning.  We also identified several birds while sitting on the front porch.  Joy came back this afternoon to finish the quilt block that she started this morning. I made marinara sauce to go over zoodles (spiralized zucchini) for our supper.  We gulped it down and headed off  to the ball park...though I made a stop at the public library since I was quite early.  I found some books for the little boys and me to read.  Then I walked the short distance to the ball park. Now we are home and settling in for a quiet rest of what is left of the evening!

Seems like a lot of coming and going today!  

(Interesting...the blog format seems to have changed once again and I can once again make paragraphs and move the picture where I want it to be...wonder how long till they change it back or another way.  Takes some getting used to...)

Beautiful Day for the Annual Fish Fry!

Gardening

I have spent the day in an unusual way for me...gardening...I am an inside person! But I did enjoy the time that I spent outside. Woody and I headed off to Lowes late morning. I wanted a couple more herbs and wanted a couple more coleus plants. We also got another pot to put on our back "herb patio." I spent quite a bit of time cleaning off the patio...Woody finished up the job...sweeping up the rest of the debris that had collected up close to the house and then disposing of what he swept up.  I got curly leafed parsley and dill planted and did some weeding back there along with some sweeping. Then I went to the front and planted some more coleus and redid a hanging basket. We were waiting for the rain which we thought was going to come at any time and it waited till I was finished. We didn't get much...not sure that the rain got to the plants that are sheltered by many tree branches out in front of the house...I may have to get Woody to drag the hose around to the front tomorrow so I can give them a better drink. I did quite a bit of weeding and pulled out plants that I didn't want any more. I spent several hours out there...something that is almost never heard of...for me! I can tolerate gardening as long as the weather isn't too hot or too cold! The too hot is on its way! But it was very pleasant today. When the rain started, Woody and I adjourned to the front porch and Esther joined us for a while. She and I spotted around ten different types of birds in the short time that we sat there. I will admit to being very ready to head to "my chair" when I got back inside...and will also admit to taking a nap when I hadn't intended to do! Elijah's game got cancelled due to rain...which is too bad as Kathy parents are here and wanted to see both the girls' and Elijah's games. Woody walked early again this morning...four miles. He also made his quinoa burger recipe. We had those for lunch...really pretty good...I usually leave those for him...but today I did have half of one in pita bread. Woody also did a little yard work..he hadn't planned his day around yard work because he thought that it was going to rain most of the day.. As soon as I hit "publish" for tonight's blog, I will head in and put away another load of clothes...one inside task that I accomplished today...washed and dried and put away three loads of clothes...well, one of those loads is still not dry yet...so will be putting them away as soon as the drier buzzes for the third time tonight! I am hoping that I can move tomorrow...after my gardening blitz today!

Bad Call!

I'll start off tonight's blog with highlights of the girls' softball game. The main thing that was noted by our family as well as the rest of the team, parents on our side, as well as family members for the other team...Esther was safe when she slid in...BUT the ump was behind the pitcher so didn't have a clear view of it. We said that we were giving her credit for that run! She was actually sitting on the base when the catcher tagged her and knocked her helmet off and bumped Esther's nose. But good sportsmanship abounded and the game was continued without protest except in our minds! I will now post a picture of her sliding "again" safely in...this time adding to their team's score! She is blocked by her teammate...but that is her leg that you see on base! She stole home when the catcher missed the pitched ball.

Joy had an exciting ball night too. Their usual short stop wasn't able to be there tonight and Joy was chosen to play shortstop. She took it very seriously as you can see by the expression on her face. She also crossed the plate a couple of times helping to pile up the numbers on their side of the score board. Their team won despite the bad call...12-3.

Woody got up early and headed off for a six mile walk. He continued working in the yard. Today he started raking up sticks and debris in our back yard and mowing after he got a section cleared. I had a usual Thursday school day. Esther had her long time and finished a section on her cross stitch project...slow progress...but progress none the less. This afternoon I sat for a while on the front porch and just enjoyed the breeze and watched birds coming in to eat from the feeders. And, I walked around the yard deadheading, pulling a few weeds, watering, and snapping a few pictures while checking out how everything was growing.

Later in the afternoon I took a short nap...and not long after I awakened it was time to head to the ball park...where the blog started tonight!