a productive sunday

This girl came to spend the afternoon while her mom was hosting a wedding shower.  She was a little scared of the college guys in the house, so she camped out on my bed, looking nervous.

That's completely fine.

Outside Jay and the kids were rehabbing the doll house.  My parents bought this for the kids in the spring of 1989, our first summer we lived here, when Kirsten and Heidi were two and four.  Those little girls are in their late 20s now, and my own baby is nine, on the verge of being done playing with dolls, but we have grandbabies who still can enjoy this doll house so we're not giving up on it.

We've had it in other locations in the yard. Moving it is a big pain--they lay down pipe and roll it over the pipes.  That works great, but it's slow going.

It's been in this spot for a long time.

And the flower boxes under the windows are cute, but they're a source of rot over time, rot out the walls until the box falls off and a hole is left behind.

So he replaced the rotten wall, and also put down new linoleum. The old flooring had been worn to holes.

Holes!

That's never a good thing--linoleum with holes in it.

 But it's looking perfectly gorgeous now. This is the flooring I want in the cabin someday--throw away that disgusting, filthy carpet and tear up the 80s linoleum and put in this.  No worries about wet towels or bathing suits on the floor, coolers or dog dishes.  Just get on with your life.

 He replaced all the shutters too that had fallen off and it's looking GREAT now, ready for fresh paint.

Rabbits and other little creatures hide under the doll house at times, and this drives the dogs in the family entirely NUTS.  They have dug and dug at the back thinking they're going to find a rodent of some sort.

Keep digging, Fools.

 They hear your frantic slobberation and just exit out the other side.

A week or two ago I was concerned that this ivy was entirely DEAD. I moaned about having to peel all those old dead ivy vines off the house and what a mess.

But no. It just took a while to get the sap flowing from one end to the other.  It's fine.

These guys were here, guys who have been scattered at different schools, lots of homework and schedules, have hardly seen each other in months, but that's all over for the summer, so they were all here at once today having fun.

When they were winded and tired they sat down for a break on the toilets leftover from a remodel job Jay was involved in last week.  I told them to smile.  

They tried, so then I suggested maybe NOT smiling would be better.

So we've got some smiling and some not, all hot and out of breath.

What a great Sunday this was.  love you all, Mom, aka Val, aka GRANDMA

prettiest picture

This is the prettiest picture from last weekend.

It's John amusing babies at the sandbar.  After I took this, I wandered down there too, along with Sam.

Lovely June.  love, Mom

a tiny, little graduation

 My Sweetie graduated preschool today.  That's him in the middle, fourth from the left.

His mom teaches this class, and she made a speech, short, encouraging, and kind.

That's him, receiving his diploma.

We were headed to lunch at Burger King before John had to go catch another kid program and we had to head back to work.

They created an immense, impressive mess in the sandbox:

 

 

But that's okay. That's why it's summer, for heaven's sakes, so mess and cold water can't hurt us any.

 

However, on the washing machine, Service Plus told us it'd be ten days before they could come out and look at it.    We do have another washer and dryer in the house, so we're fine, but they don't know that.

 

For all they know we are without laundry for that long.   I suppose they must imagine we are just hitting the Laundromat, adding that to the list of things to do.  It would be the only option.  Plus  Service Plus is not free--it costs only about $10 a month, but still.

 

Good night.  love, Val, aka GRANDMA

wednesday 6-4-2014

We have a weird situation going on with the washer in the kitchen.  It works fine, but it's leaking all over the floor when it fills and when it runs, but not when it drains.

So there have been a lot of towels involved in this problem. 

Finally I chased the kids outside to play, and yet they have a hard time thinking of things to do outside.    They're not little anymore, going to pedal around on big wheels.

This was a suggestion to make a mountain and rivers and take some animals or cars out there. 

 Later after I was gone, the hose got involved.  That was the whole point, plus getting them outside.

In other ways too this was a splendid day.   We'll take them.  love, Mom

nothing but the weekend

Scattegories concentration:

Not even much to say, just a really good time.  Love you all, MOM

june!

June, darling, you made it here, and how happy we are to see you.

The lake was much warmer this weekend.  A week of sunshine and hot days made a tremendous difference.

These rowdy fools? Still the same: Rowdy. Foolish.

After last weekend, Julia presented the case for trimming her very long hair.  As she complained to me about how it wrapped around her arms while she was swimming, or else it was too heavy to stay up in a bun, I agreed.

We cut about six inches off, and it was a huge improvement.

These guys, the video games, the wisecracks. Heather was with us. She's patient and good.  She's also quiet, so it's hard to say what she thinks, but she puts up with us.  

 The little girl came up to the lake with her mother and had a good time too.

And that is the end of that.

June, again, I am so overjoyed you're finally here.  love, Val