He hates it when I'm right

So if you have been in touch with me lately, you know I've been plagued with noises in the attic AGAIN! Yes, about 8 years ago we heard or I should say, I heard, little scratchy noises in the attic and it took me weeks to convince someone that I was not imagining things. My pest control company got to know me well then because I kept them coming til satisfaction was in order. They in fact finally found an opening in the chimney area where a little pesty mouse was coming in the attic and he eventually died giving us the horrible odor of his death for weeks that year. He died somewhere imbetween our walls and no one could discover his body. It was a long time for me to ignore that smell and I worked hard at disguising it around here. Maybe that is where all my baking cakes and such sweet things has been a good thing!

So after another scratching episode about 6 weeks ago, pest control found several dead mice up there again after setting out some bad stuff and they carried off 3 blind (dead) mice and thought they were once and for all free of my calls. They carefully checked all areas in , and around our house for possible openings. The trees may be to our disadvantage in this area of our lives. Otherwise I LOVE our trees as much as I love the birds and the porch.

So then about 2 weeks ago, I distinctly heard the scratching "upstairs" again and begged God for mercy among many phone calls once again to our friendly Pest Control Service. My partner here, again, thought "there she goes again" and tried to ignore me at times. But then that horrible odor became apparent to both of us and I called you know who. They decided to send the SUPERVISOR to check out my complaints. He was just as anxious as we were to solve this puzzle. He checked out the attic and found nothing that day and that particular afternoon the smell was sort of faint. He did set a few new traps and he left making me feel a bit paranoid. For the next week, the smell grew really BAD and I called and asked to speak to the surpervisor. He came quickly and looked high and low and alas found the problem hidden among the insulation once I pointed out about where I usually smelled "the smell".
That disgusting little creature must have eatten some pretty good Christmas decorations up there because his bee-oh was enough to make the Pest Control Supervisor a bit nauseated too once he captured his body in a disposable bag.
He spent about 2 hours here that day making sure we had no possible openings to the attic and doing a very complete survey of the situation.

All this to say I know my husband hates it when I'm right but in this case he is glad I am a determined indivdual anyway. I don't think there is a husband out there that does like to admit their wife has a better instinct when it comes to this stuff.
And just so I give you a visual picture of what I am talking about without showing you any dead mice, here is a photo of another episode around here recently and another reason he hates it when I'm right. Usually I am the one to pick out ANY flower planted around here but this particular Fall, I asked him to go without me and pick out 2 yellow mums for our front pots. I specifically said get 2 JUST ALIKE and you can't go wrong.
When he came home and I saw not 2 but 4 pots and the leaves looked a bit different, I hesitated to point out that I had my doubts they were just alike. But I encouraged him to go ahead on and plant them and said "we'll see". I continue to try and give him some slack. But really...
He swore they were all 4 identical because they were all in same area and had same tags. He then said he had to get 4 because there were none big enough or they were too big to fill our pots. Of course at that time, they were all little green buds and you could not see any color yet.

SO, here they are in full bloom. Does anyone see 4 just alike?


In case you drive by our house, I am keeping it this way just to remind myself he tried and I KNOW HE HATES IT WHEN I'M RIGHT!!!

Best Food

Today I thought about the best food I ever ate...must have been hungry :)
and if you are like me you associate places or people with those foods that tasted so wonderfully good. Here are the ones that top my list:

My Alabama grandmother's chicken salad - she used homemade mayonaise and squeezed lemon juice on the celery before she added it to the mixture

My mother's meatloaf and also her pimento cheese

My sister in law's Thanksgiving cornbread dressing (Susan Williams')

My Iowa Grandmother's dried beef chicken and rice dinner

My family maid's (Inez) fried chicken and gravy

My little sister's pecan pie

My big sister's carnival broccoli

My father's apple pie and also his from scratch barbeque sauce

Best baked potatoe I ever ate was in Indiana (we were traveling and I can still remember how it tasted-there has never been another one like it)

Best Popcorn I ever ate was at the movie theater in town seeing Ramona and Beezus this summer with the big girls

Best hamburger is the Angus one they serve at Amsterdam's

Best chocolate milkshake is Arby's

Best steak I ever ate was at Ruth Chris Steak House in Washington DC

Best whoopie pie I ever had was in Portland, Maine

Best cheese straws ever are Sadler's

...hmmm, some of these things are definetly not the healthiest of foods :)
What can I say? I like the good stuff!
So did I make you hungry?

animal sounds

It was a hilarious moment to see Lily Kate ...

...jump away from the pony and run behind her Pops when the pony snorted!
she clinched his jeans so tight there was no prying her away!

Dressing My Dolls

I loved dressing my dolls when I was growing up. I loved dressing my own little girl and boy when I grew up and I loved dressing my grandchildren this weekend!








Ewww weeee, these days in my life are fun!

"The Fair is in October"

How many times have I said that to my children while they were growing up or to myself when I felt life was not very fair? Well, the Fair is in October and IT IS OCTOBER, people!
We had the grandparenting joy of taking these little girls to the County Fair this past Friday night and it was certainly a memorable experience for Lolli as well as the girls! (I can't speak for Pops but I imagine he would give an Amen to it)

Some weeks I can hardly think of what to blog and then weeks like this one, I have a list going on in my head of a zillion things I want to blog.
the girls loved seeing all the lights and the excitement in the air. I think night time is the Best time to go to the Fair for sure! Annie is pointing to the Ferris Wheel that she sadly did not get to ride but she was a trooper about it. I was seriously afraid to take her on it or let Pops because I had just read where 7 people sat on one stuck at the top for 2 hours in Wisconsin. Just the thought of that scene taking place with me or one of my grands made me certain it was not the ride for us this night.
So we made up for it by allowing every kiddee ride they had plus the cotton candy too.
Lily Kate bless her heart did not smile for one picture because she was totally amazed and taking in the scenery around us. Trust me the child was having a good time :)
Only one kiddee ride looked a bit too much for her and she was content to be held by her Pops on this one. Annie was in hog heaven on everything and could have stayed there all night if we let her.


The highlight was particulary the kiddee Racing Car Ride. It was one that looked so innocent and so simple. It only had 8 cars and they went around a small oval track.
When we walked up on it initially, we had not seen it in action so everything looked to be so smooth. WRONG! Each end of the track twirled them in a complete 185°circle and then jerked the car back in a staight line motion. The first twirl took ALL of us (Pops and I watching from the sidelines) by complete surprise and I fully expected to hear screams and 2 year old protests of getting off. WRONG! Their faces were hysterical, partly in shock and partly amused at the fun of spinning. The next twirl , both girls were holding up a hand on their heads and laughing. And Lolli was snapping away pictures of them. WRONG! Lolli was sitting on the closest nearby bench laughing OUT OF CONTROL. There are only 2 times that Lolli does not take pictures. One would be when she is sleeping and two would be when she is wetting her pants!!! Enough said.

What a fun time we had until the end of the race car ride. Good thing it was the last ride on our path that night. We HAD to go home and take a bath :)

connecting

Fall brought with the unpredictable temperatures, a calendar full of visits to Lolli and Pops! We have had weekend company for 5 weekends thus far and are extremely thankful that we are retired and able to enjoy our travelers coming into town and regroup during the week. It defintely keeps me cleaning on a routine basis when I know someone is coming to stay with us. I wish I was motivated to do it otherwise but more often I need company into this house to light my fire so to speak!
The first weekend in October, precious Knoxie and Regan drive up on Thursday so they could attend the big consignment sale with me on Friday morning. Now that Regan knows Greer is a "girly Greer", it was fun to look and see what bargains we could find for both her and Knox. I think Knox racked up at this sale as "girly Greer" is already set for life with 5 girl cousins who are all dressed to the nines and just a bit older than her.
Knoxie agrees with me :) He told me to keep on remembering him as I shop and keep an eye out for the deals.
He was so good at the sale that I just had to reward him with a lollipop. He loved it of course.
We headed home and ate a delightful chick fil a lunch on the porch with perfect weather to enjoy our day. Knox took a wonderful nap as did his pregnant mother and ate a wonderful supper as he did on all 3 meals that day. The whole day was a perfect way to be together on a nice new October day.

But at 8:45 pm that night after he had been asleep several hours we heard cries from the monitor and they progressively got worse. Much to Regan's horror when she opened his bedroom door to check on him, she found him getting sick in projectile fashion and it was her first time to witness this in her 1 year old son. I know the last thing you want to read about is my grandchild getting violently sick but I have a point to tell you about from this.
Lee drove into town about 5 minutes after the first incident took place. Then the poor baby got sick every 30 minutes until 1 am that night. We had 4 adults and it took all 4 of us attending to him, to the bed, to the floor,to the area he was in, and to the laundry that resulted in this evening. I am telling you that if we had not had each other to help out, I think we each would have called 911. It was a God thing that we were together this evening.
What I witnessed in my daughter in law this night was how wretched a stomach virus can be and how wonderful pure and simple motherly love is. It brings tears to me now as I recall the evening with a heartfelt compassion for Regan as a new mother. NOTHING can prepare us as women to be ready for moments like this. It takes the life out of you when you are helpless to take away the suffering your child is experiencing during sickness. I saw a part of life in Regan during this that I am now grateful to have seen but in no way want her or Knox to go through it again. She looked at me several times during it all for reassurance and I tried my best to hold it together and give calming and loving encouragement but I wanted to cry too. She and I connected on a level that we otherwise would not have done. We connected as women and as mothers. Caring for one's child is the ultimate expression of love. We read about it, learn about it, but experiencing it is the real deal.
Knox was over it in 24 hours and back to his perky little self in a few days. We were able to enjoy that Saturday with popsycles and pedialite and gatorade.
Regan, we both knew a year ago that this beautiful baby boy would connect us in strong ways. What we did not know is how an October evening would connect us in a motherly way like no other would.

what am I doing?

I have discovered this lately:
if I am onto a sewing project, than I can't blog,
if I am onto blogging and reading blogs, I can't sew,
If I am checking on facebook a lot, I can't sew or blog,
if I am onto reading a book, I can't blog, sew or facebook much
if I am babysitting, I can't do any of those!

Please excuse me while I babysit this weekend and sew some pants for these younguns before they arrive!
I will be back one of these days :)

p.s. need a good book to read? Try "Her Mother's Hope" 1st and "Her Daughter's Dream" 2nd by Francine Rivers = you will not be able to put them down.