BZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!

So a week or so ago, Don tells me that there is some big something up in one of our trees. He says that neither he, nor Joan can tell for sure what it is. Since it is Fall in Iowa, we are losing leaves, and so I finally got a good look at this strange thing I kept hearing about. And this is what it turned out to be. Pretty freaking scary, huh? It is some sort of a hornet's nest.

We were a little freaked out by what to do with it. Don had checked it out with the binoculars and saw no activity. Today I called the Conservation office and was told that the hornets only use it for one season, and should be gone by now, except for the queen. She will freeze to death. So, once we have had a few days of freezing weather, Don will get it down, and then I think the kids might want to take it to school and share with their friends, or not. We'll just have to see.

I just find the whole thing amazing. These nasty little guys make this huge home by chewing leaves and wood, and spitting their juices, and then to only use it for one year.

Grace's glasses

Grace finally got her glasses. Got them Friday, around 4:30, then left them at her Dad's over the weekend, and finally got them again this morning. God she looks so stinking cute.



Oh yeah, she cut her own bangs. What the hell do kids do that for? Especially when you are 9 years old, and your aunt is a cosmetologist. Who knows, she is still cuter than cute.

Girls will make passes

The school sent home a note that Grace needed to have her eyes checked at the DR. Joan set up appointments for both kids. Well, turns out they both need glasses. Teddy's came in before Grace's. Hers are here, now, and she will get them tonight. Teddy is just so proud, and I just think he looks so stinking handsome.




We did have a slight problem, I couldn't get a serious shot of him. He just kept hamming it up.

We have concrete

Actually we have had concrete for almost two weeks. It is so wonderful.


One of the first steps to doing concrete is putting down sand, lots of sand, 4" of sand. Don carried and leveled 18 ton of sand. This process took a week or so, no didn't get pictures, thought I did, but guess not. One of the biggest problems with this process was a very persistent toad. We would take him out, put him down a little ravine, and the next morning he would be buried in the sand, again. We try not to think about the fact that he may have ended up under the cement.

Then Don put down 2" styrofoam, and had to tape all the joints. This provides insulation, and the taping is so moisture doesn't come thru.

BTW, we are going to have plumbing out here. Don will have a utility sink and a toilet. All the comforts of home, lol.


Then the concrete guys came put down all the rerod, and tied it all. The next day they came and poured the concrete. There were 4 loads of concrete, I think. What a glorious day that was.



The next day the guys came and had to saw the expansion joints. This still makes me laugh. When they left, and Don put the doors down, they were the color of the upper part of the building, they were so covered in concrete dust. You can see on this door, which is supposed to be all dark brown. Just gave Don something more to do, LOL.



After a week we could put the cars in, omg, that was just the icing. This has really been one of the most fun projects, ever, and a total dream for Don.


Well Teddy and Grace had to try it all out. They thought they were just pretty, "all that", sitting on the cement, and watching movies. Who knows, I may never see any of them again, hmmm!

TAGGED

Well, my first tag. Received this from Jenn, aka scrapperjjb

1. I am a 60 year old groupie to country singer Gary Allan, and the country duo, Montgomery Gentry. Have gotten to meet Gary twice, and he sang Happy Birthday to me in 2005. I own 7 Gary tee shirts, and am a paying member of his fan club. I have seen him 9 times, and he has his own scrapbook. Montgomery Gentry, I have seen them 10 times in concert, met them officially 3 times, and got a huge hug from Eddie in the parking lot at the Surf Ballroom. Oh, and will be seeing them again, in a couple weeks. I love lots of other artists, rather ecclectic in my taste, but these are the guys I would, and have traveled far to see.

2. I love to travel, but only in the U.S. I have been to all but 15 states. Those are on my bucket list. Oh, and I want to do as much as I can, by auto. The only problem I see is Hawaii, lol.

3. 4 years ago, I did a search online, and found my oldest granddaughter's biological sister. They share the same father, but the names had changed, and she and her mother hadn't been seen by the father for 14 1/2 years. It was truly the most exciting, happy experience of our lives. Also, the fact that they are only 4 hours away makes it even better.

4. I can touch my toungue to my nose. Yeah, you wanted to know that, right?

5. I will never own any kind of underwear, but Jockeys. My friend Karla introduced them to me 3 years ago, and it has been a love affair, ever since. With the underwear, not Karla. Although I do love Karla, but not.................you know.

6. I only have one functioning kidney. Apparently as I child, I suffered a severe kidney infection that went unchecked, and destroyed my L kidney. I guess it is the size of a 5 year olds. I used to have lots of infections and was told that I would have to have the bad one removed, if that would continue. I work very hard to avoid that.



The "Rules":

* link to the person who tagged you
* list 6 random things about yourself
* tag 6 new people
* let each tagged person know they've been tagged by posting a comment on their blog
* link to the 6 people you've tagged
* and let the person who tagged you know that you posted

My tags:

Cheri

Jen

Rosalie

Karla

Janalee

Judy

Weekend play

It was the weekend of our monthly scrapbooking crop. I went to the clubhouse early. Joan H. joined me shortly after I got there. Joellyn brought me a huge, delicious birthday cake. The girls sang Happy Birthday to me. We had so much fun. It was a smaller group, but it was great.

Saturday morning Karla and Trish came down. Trish hasn't been able to come to a crop in months, because of her boys and their football. So we decided to get together for the day. We were very productive.


We made a couple of little books. I got the treading water punch, by Fiskars, so we had to try it out. I didn't complete my books as much as Karla, but will.





Then we made BOO banners. We used lots of our toys. We used glimmer mist to spray the coasters. Then did the letters on the Cricut. Did some stamping, and added a few more embellishments. I think they all came out so cute. They all turned out differently.


This ornament, I had actually worked on during the week, but completed it Saturday morning. Used a dabber, then took some light blue paint and did the edges. Stamped the birdhouse, then masked it, and did the snow flakes. I stamped the birdie, cut it out, and popped him out. Then I went Stickle crazy. I love how it turned out. We really had so much fun. It was so much fun spending time with Trish, since she has been working so hard, then with football, just haven't gotten to see her.

So while I was trying to pick up my stuff to put away, I got distracted, lol. Happens a lot. I made this card. And while I was doing this one, I did two others. Who knows what might happen with them.

All in all, it was a really fun weekend. Basically just played the whole time, and I loved it.

My gift

I told you about my Dad on his birthday, the 18. I had his gift done for him, which is very unusual. I seem to have a block about birthdays. I know there coming, know when they are, just can't seem to do the card/gift thing on time.

It is also getting very hard to come up with something for Mom and Dad. I don't want to give them things that I will have to bring back to my house, sometime in hopefully the far distant future. They always tell us not to get them anything, which I try and not pay attention to. We have gotten where we have either given them gift cards to eat out, or taken them out, which we really love. But I had a different idea this year. I knew that there was a huge tub of pictures and things in Mom and Dad's basement, that was Grandma's. I went thru it and found a bunch of pictures. Also a cousin of Dad's emailed me a bunch of wonderful photos, last year. So I decided I wanted to do a scrapbook for Dad's birthday. I ended up with 2 6"x6" books


This is Grandma Thomas, in the mirror, with her mother. I think this is one of the coolest photos, I have ever seen.


If you want to see the rest of the book, go look here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandmaper/sets/72157607526068828/

BTW, Mom and Dad were thrilled. Now they can look at these photos anytime they want to, and not have to sort thru that big tub in the basement.