Summer Refections Visable and Invisable Catching-Up

My Epiphyllums Are Blooming!

Ketchup or it should be "catch-up"  Ketchup? I do have it, guys...it's in the barn! Why didn't we think of the OTHER refrigerator yesterday? I had numerous children crying over an empty Ketchup bottle and it was a much needed condiment for the stinky hotdogs. Ketchup is, for me at least, one of those words I can never, ever spell. I was alone with all the kids and everyone of them were unhappy with the prospect of no ketchup, especially me.

Summer was a huge "catch-up" time. We lived probably our most active summer ever, ever. Steve used all his vacation time and that's a first and the benefits will be memories that we will treasure the rest of our lives. I need to get my journal out and fill in all the blanks because so far...it looks like I just frittered the summertime away. Not this year!

These are a few things that haven't been written in my journal. I usually mention the crazy stuff in my individual posts but have left-out these gems. I have these are little bits of just plain unusual occurrences and words from "the mouths of babes" that happened and I wrote a few down. All happening in-between and during all our vacations.

I really wanted sparkly toe-nail polish at the beach house this year, but had a huge case of Athlete's Foot, foot-rot. I wore tennis shoes all the time, with socks at the beach. Cute! What an old lady! I even soaked my socks and shoes while wading in the ocean water. That's a first. Once, just as I was putting on my socks I saw my daughter looking at my feet and really studying them. I didn't ask her, but I think she saw they were swollen and UGLY. My toenails are beautiful, toes...not. I like to think I was on it with my problem when I found I was using the spray medicine for deodorant and my "Sure Deodorant" spray on my feet and vice-verse(a). If you're my family reading this..I used disinfectant-type Clorox from Smart and Final and all over the showers that I have used, every time. Honest. I'm not posting a picture. My feet still hurt.

The Barn Refrigerator

I was hosting two and three families at our house and our refrigerator went completely-out. (then the newer one in our kitchen, reverted to sometimes out so we still have it in the house) We started using the refrigerator in the barn that's a throw-away because it's too heavy to bring up our stairs to our kitchen and it sucks electricity. Now  we need it and it's saving us until my Capt. Steve starts his classes in CERT. It's sparkling clean. Ahhhh... I love it!

But that wasn't all and not the worse. Our sewer flowed-out through the cap. I don't know when it started, but the raw stuff was quite a puddle. The kids found it and thankfully didn't go there. We called the plumber about a minute past the day-rate and he said someone cut the line and what he needed for us a power engine. "Ca-ching" "Ca-ching" ran through my head. I asked all the men. Does the sewer run on gravity or a power pump? No one knew in our family, even the "techie machinist" husband and the construction/sheriff husband. One answer was, "I don't think any of us know what's needed, in the OLD DAYS it may have needed a pump." Oh crap!

We find out the truth and the plumber dude cut the line accidentally and it was his power engine that he needed to replace. Total loss: $84.00. We had a party. So we even got new pipes, caps and clean-up. I suppose a picture should be appropriate but it looks like normal, I think. It's too hot outside to go exploring-besides I have a history of falling into septic tanks. The old one at my mom and dad's house. Our trash truck also went through one in Piru. (We owned a trash business and that could be whole journal and fill volumes of blog)  Now, stepping over there, on the side of the house might be risky in the most ugly way, and my foot may never heal.

I had a couple of very neat outdoor activities I wanted to do, my husband nixed them all. I just wanted to take out the horses. The big ram would have been fun to ride. No mutton bustin' because he's my baby. My Steve could only see disaster and asked me not to even attempt them. I followed his advice because of recent accidents, with no one hurt. I didn't want to go against the "feelings" that he had about the most simple of projects. Maybe I just needed more adult supervision.

I did take a picture of a pillow. Exciting, huh? 

I love These Colors

I don't want the pillow or anything that exactly goes with it like the huge sofa. I have this "Pinning Compulsion" and all summer I've been able to only look at the Pinterest site here and there. I love the colors of this pillow. The photo doesn't bring-out the turquoise nearly as vivid as it really is and the salmon or peachy pink was right there. Fun to look at a color wheel and then set colors with my pictures and see what pops. Maybe I'm too easily entertained when I'm alone.

I "bought" a video and didn't rent it. I was supposed to rent it, it went in as a purchase. For 45 crazy minutes I fought with the "HELP-LINE" with IPhone. I gave-up because she didn't even understand me. Of course she didn't... she's in India. All the kids were after me to take them to the movie. Looking around at the crowd I saw possibly $100 going down the drain when you add treats and all. I couldn't even find a movie that one hadn't seen. Someone was going to be unhappy. So, I goofed that up and purchased the lamest, oldest video that MY children used to watch all the time. I thought since it was surely one that all the kids hadn't seen and made in 1987, not one of them could tell me it was good, bad, or that they'd seen it. The movie was Adventures in Babysitting.

Oh, my children's kids saw the whole thing, and the language was terrible. Why wasn't it rated worse! 1987,  perhaps. It was one my kids saw on TV after the movie was in the theater and the bad words were changed. Why didn't I remember that? Same with the movie Tremors, too!

 It was really quiet in our house for the two hours while the grandchildren

 were GLUED to the TV watching the babysitting movie.

 I watched the clock start moving backward. Head slap!

Our living room clock is running backward. I know it must be a low-battery situation, but that's so spooky and I can't find the emergency batteries to fix it. I would love to turn back this summer and do it all over again. Maybe I could go down and get new batteries or wait to see if I'm going to be a "time traveler." This not an emergency, but I look-up and it's messing with my head. Summer again? I could do it and fix a lot of things I did wrong.

This is eventful and I need to put this in my blog. Have you met someone on Pinterest? I mean after you "pinned" from them and then you meet-up with them later? I follow persons I already know, but I never thought I would meet someone that I constantly "pinned" from her "finds" on The Internet.

She is an amazing, talented watercolor painter that does portraits, even. Sandy was camping at our favorite camping site just up the beach from our beach house. We got together for a short visit, and I know she had lots of company there and I felt very blessed she took her time to see me. The incredible part about this is that her family is related to my husband's family. She has an Aunt and Uncle Lazenby right where all the Lazenbys homesteaded, near the Manti Temple. Sandy is precious and her "boards" are located here:  Sandy's Boards

We had three awesome earthquakes on the same day! Don't even tell me there's not weather conditions that are present when these occur. We've had a few since also. Here's the deal... puffy, small clouds covered the sky and there was no wind. I saw it, I did. And the other days, same thing! Not scary because the jolt wasn't so bad, but good because it reminds me where to go in an emergency. See? I'm getting training. The ones that were in the middle of the night-I went outside and looked at the sky. It made me smile.

Note That The Arrow Points To Our Dog

Our dog decided to climb trees this summer. It was a boredom thing and he couldn't help himself. He hung himself in front of my husband and didn't make a peep. The harness was around his girth. Steve released him and off he went up in the tree, again!

Hanging Dog

Yep, His Feet didn't Touch The Ground

Me, "Go over there Finlee and make friends with Prissy Kitty." Prissy Kitty bit Finlee and scratched her a second time because I told her the first time, the bite was an accident." Great.

Finlee & The Cat: She wasn't Smiling

Grand children's Little Lovely Saying and Presents:

I learned that Gerry, the kids older cousin, caught a radioactive fish off Santa Cruz Island. It was a florescent Link Cod. I know that the fish come in other colors depending on what the fish eats. It did look scary. My nephew's face was beat red from radioactive poisoning, according to my grand children's sources.

Fish Head is Their New Pet

I learned that when cutting onions that the stinging hot poison will get in your eyes will make you blind.

"I like peppers, too." "Want some Talkies, Grandma?" After coughing violently at the Ward Dinner and then I looked like I'm crying, I had to go home. I couldn't talk and lost my voice. I'm wondering why does a corn-looking Cheetos call their product "Talkies?' Shouldn't it be "No Talkies?"

Later, while I was explaining to the other cousins about the red Cheetos. My grandson told me he can't eat them either because it makes his tongue explode. I believe him.

Overheard at the "Pee-cuzzi, "I bet my dad can beat everyone up here except Uncle Buttkicker." "Did you see his arms?"

Cuppy-cakes is the best smell in Grandma Susie's house
.
Me, "Don't eat that pepper." "Why did you eat it, it fell on the floor?" "Germs can't run that fast." I think that explains the 5 second rule.

"Why did God invent Flys?"

 "Why do those doves stay together, can't they get more friends like pigeons?"

"Grandma! Duelly is making more puppies over at our house, again!" "Why does he take Darby and go over to our house to do that?"

"You don't LOOK LIKE A GRANDMA, you look like an aunt. Are you sure you're you?" (Thank you very, very much!)

"Your trees grow spiders, we don't have spiders in Wyoming, or snakes."

"Pickles make your breath smell WONDERFUL! Grandma, you should try it."

I even had some of my grandchildren in the TV show, "Shark Week" early this summer and wouldn't ya' know? It was playing on one of the nights we were at the beach house. No one was even bothered by it at all. When we came home we found out that four Great Whites were caught in a neighboring bay, in Oxnard. They were tagged and released. Nice thought.

Some of The Beach House Kids

I used to carry Peacock feathers (years ago) while I was walking at Steckel Park and instead of taking them out of the park, I mounted three feathers in an empty pipe in the picnic area. I decided it was a peace offering for the park ranger. I put Styrofoam at the top, but not down in it, just in case it was really used for something other than the pole for the posted sign.

So now, all the children have been collecting bird feathers for me from everywhere and making a pile on my living room floor. One child found a dead (long time dead) cat and brought me some cat hair and stiff-parts from the carcass. I'm also known as "Grandma Feather." I made everyone wash and didn't tell their mothers or dad.

About a Dozen Peacocks Came For A Visit To The Ranch *Missed Me?*

 I was blessed with bouquets from my flower garden and my daughter's roses. I had flowers set by my bed. Little notes tucked in my pockets and sandy seashells and pieces of pink crabs handed to me with, "Here's a present for you, Grandma."

The house is quiet again. I've had some munch-kins visiting in and out this afternoon. How blessed I am that some of my grandchildren live next door, in Fillmore, and a little way west in Ventura. I managed some cleaning-up. I know one of my grand children are toilet paper twisters, as in bow ties on the bathroom floor. All of the outside trash was picked-up by the kids, their mothers, and Dustin, my son. I'm watering trodden grass. The best kind. And there's one lone little diaper in our bathroom trash. I was sad that that was my only reminder left by far-away grandchildren. Oh, and a little plastic white robot, a spare flip-flop, little pink underwear, pink leggings, lots of water in bottles (my birds like that) And, Okay...I've got stuff everywhere.

 

How do I stalk them if they all don't leave?

 I have fun with that, and there's no entertaining a house full of all ages of grandchildren that are hungry beyond reason and NEED grandma to entertain them. My "hula dance" just doesn't work anymore. Summer is over and let the "Open Houses" "Science Fairs" "Football Games" "Cheerleading" and being on time, begin! It's 12:30am by my backward clock, can we just revert to Summer again?

***Update Aug.23, 2012 (does anyone GET the *willies* like I do when I see 2012 written-out?)
Wonderful! I guess I needed to clean-out my "barn refrigerator." It quit today. I hauled a lot back up to our "broken-half-the-time refrigerator" still in our kitchen. It's okay, not only did I glean a few foods, but got a huge work-out in the heat. The extra hot days probably contributed to our barn fridge's death.