Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!
Love You!

A Day at Adventureland

 
 
 
 
Genes company picnic this year was tickets to Adventureland amusement park. I'm not much for amusement parks and neither is Gene. I worked a half day and came home to get the girls. They each invited a friend and off we went. It was probably close to 2pm when we got there. We grabbed a map and started walking. Tara's friend had her heart set on riding the Dragon roller coaster first. This was at the back of the park and off we went. To her disappointment it was closed, so Josie, Hailey and Tia rode the Outlaw. Tara didn't want anything to do with it. I suspected this might be the case and she really was a trooper watching the other girls ride the ride. She had me buy a blooming onion. I wanted it as much as she did. It was huge and it was good. After Hailey and Tia had rode several rides they took a break and finished the onion. Josie is a little gambler, she liked to spend her time at the arcade. It would have made me sick, but the girls rode the silly silo over and over. It was a beautiful day. The girls were able to ride the log ride 3 or 4 times straight at the end. The park closed at 9 and we were there to the end. We ran thru Burger King and were home by 10:30 after dropping the friends at their homes. Today is Tim's birthday, we had ice cream for your day Tim. We talked to him on the phone, he took the afternoon off and floated down a river in Oregon.

I-35 Baseball On To State

 

Every year I say I am going to watch more of the high school softball and baseball games. Every year time gets away and the season is over. The girls and I went to the last home game before the 4th of July. They were fun to watch. Girls lost boys won. The boys were having a great season and made it to state to play against the Dyersville team Gene watched them play after a wedding in Dyersville. The game was at the old Sectaylor stadium in Des Moines. It was a great night for a game. Gene even took the night off to watch the game. Our boys lost, but it was an honor to go to state. Good Job boys!

It Did Happen

It was a surprise. Gene's mom went to the dr and he said everything was setup for her to have a pacemaker. She went from his office to the hospital, bing, bang and it was done.
She gave me a call at work to let Gene know. I went to the hospital after work and she was just coming out of recovery and into her room. She was a little loopy. I talked Dad into a ride home. We stopped at the Hy-Vee deli and had supper. I probably scared the crap out of him with my driving, but he was waiting Tuesday morning for his ride back to the hospital. Mom looked good and was released around lunch time. The stress of the wait is now over.
It was major confusion, but all worked for the best.

Dad was in a Hurry

Okay Gene's mom doesn't get her pacemaker just yet. Dad was confused. He wears hearing aids and sometimes hears what he wants to hear. Mom goes for another echo test on Monday, then we will go from there. She doesn't have any energy, so I hope it will give that back to her.

I took the girls school shopping this morning. I had a sinus headache, Ugh! We checked our list before we left home and knew what we were after. The basic shopping went smoothly. It was the incidentals that tested the patience. Tia needed underwear, okay what size, color and style. Naturally those 3 things don't come in the same package. Every time we got shopping Tia looks for face washes. She has issues with teenage acne. I had to say no do to the other 10 bottles that we have on the bathroom counter. Okay I was exaggerating, but she still didn't need one more.

Gene's mom gave us her green bean's that she didn't want, it wasn't alot. We added them with ours and had enough to cann 5 quarts. Compared to past years, it's not as many as I usually start with. But we will take all we can get. I picked most of them. While I was getting the canner and starting the washing machine the girls were stemming and snapping the beans. They seem to think I'm not doing my fair share of the chore....Hymmmm, say what???

This week is Mom's b-day, so she enjoys going to the local gambling boat for entertainment. We met for Saturday supper first. Gene was still bailing hay and Tia wasn't up to eating out. The choice of food is great, but the quality leaves a bit to be desired for the price you pay. Happy Birthday MOM!! Tara told me to hurry home, she was hoping to get some ball playing in before dark. I don't think she did, but she took everybody on with several games of connect 4. She won almost every game. I think she took pity on each of us at least once.

Keeping Busy-To Busy to Blog

The month of July is no sports, can you believe that?? But we have still been very busy. We have had our first green beans and I have yet to can any. The girls go out daily and pick them and cook them right up. And to think we only started sauteing green beans a year ago. Before that we just canned them and ate them in the winter. We had our first zucchini last night. The girls weren't crazy over it, but I really enjoyed it (especially since I never get any green beans).

Tara is keeping me happy with M&M's right now, the way to Mom's heart!! She received an invite to a basketball camp next week. I wish we could make it work, but I don't see any way. Monday Tia gets her mold for her braces. Tuesday the girls both get shots and Wednesday Gene's Mom gets a pacemaker. Maybe next year. I have been getting a daily phone call. Tara likes to know what we are doing every day. I went thru everything that was planned and then ask her what she would like to do with free time. She always replies with play ball. Tonight was my night, we played catch. I wore Tara's batting helmet, just so I wouldn't get another black eye. Tia was playing with us too!

Tia is sucking up to me right now, not sure why, but I'm getting a back rub. Not every day is as good as today. But today is Good!

Have I said I hate digital TV, we lived for 40 plus years with changes to TV and this has to be the worst. Every time we turn the TV on you never know whether you will get the station you would like to watch. Tara loves our IPTV station with cartoons. She hasn't had it on her TV in the living room all week. I got a panic phone call at work letting me know. Not that there was anything I could do about it at work. You can get that station in the kitchen, along with channel 5, but you have to watch 23 in the living room. I repeat...@?#$$!

I finally got the windshield in the escape changed, is had a pretty nasty crack in it. The guy did it that we bought a trampoline off of. He still had part of the trampoline, so I stopped and picked up the rest of it. The side netting. I told them probably the only reason we would put it up would be to play with a ball on the tramp. Today has been a big day for Tia, as she is making the cross into adulthood :)

When I got home from work on Wed to get Tara and take her to tumbling, Tia was talking to a boy on the phone. I'm not sure I am ready for this. I made a chicken crock pot dish to have before tumbling and no one was crazy over it. Guess I can pitch that recipe. It had pineapple and the pineapple was terrible. Jeff stopped and got the pickup, he is moving this week, I think from Cedarfalls to Waterloo. I don't have the new address yet. He should be able to do it in one load, he hasn't needed much.

Ragbrai (bike ride across Iowa) was this past week. It was a strange week of weather. They went from Greenfield, Truro, St Charles, St Marys, Martensdale and onto Indianola (they call it the century loop). It was raining first thing in the morning and I think that slowed the riders down. They did make the comment Truro was the first place they found coffee. Gene worked at the church selling coffee, cinnamon rolls and Gatorade. He couldn't believe all the people. Tia also helped, Tara slept thru it all.

Tia had her second appt with the orthodontist. I guess I haven't blogged on the first one. He let us know that her adult eye tooth on the right is missing. He isn't sure if she lost it or never had it. I am going with the bad children's dentist that she had. He gave us 3 options of adjusting her teeth, 2 involve lots of money and pain. We aren't rich and went with the cheap one with the least amount of pain. Her teeth probably wouldn't need braces if she still had her eye tooth. She also has a lisp when she talks sometimes. Not sure if this will help that or we need to have some speech therapy??

At long last I got my monthly haircut, it must have grown super fast this time. I couldn't wait. And....Tia got her first beauty shop do. She had a month to look for a picture of what she wanted, she had one and got it. We are lucky Darcy knows how to use a razor. Wow was there a lot of hair on the floor. It is cute and it has to be a lot cooler. I haven't seen her in a ponytail since, not sure if she can. Unbelievable I haven't seen a dozen pics of her taken by...yes her. Tia loves to take pics of herself.

Photo Op for Tumbling

 
It doesn't look like the kids were in the mood for a photo op. I did think this was a good one of Tara :)
This was trophy time for the paper of the state tournament. Tara actually should be wearing 3 medals, but didn't want to and I didn't make her.

4th of July Camping

It is one of my favorite holidays. Since I was 9 years old I have camped at Rathbun. I had the 3rd off, so we headed to the lake Thursday night. Tia had her friend Cheyenne go with us, so I took Tara to work with me. I wanted company on the ride. It was fun and she got to meet everyone I work with. They had fun asking her questions. We talked to Gene on our ride to the lake and they hadn't even left home yet. Tara and I killed an hour at Dollar General in Albia and still had to wait. Luckily Marcia and Mom were down there to wait with. Mom had fried a chicken and we ate with them.

Friday I took inventory of the pantry and we ran to town for groceries. It was suppose to be my 30 year class reunion, but I couldn't make myself go. Not sure why. It started raining around supper time and rained clear thru Saturday lunch. We hopped from one camper awning to the next. It didn't rain in the afternoon, but was cloudy and started again in the evening. They still did fire works.

Tara picked, cleaned, cooked and ate