School's Out

School's Out! This is the annual switch of the daily grandchildren where my toddlers are generally home with their teacher moms while the elementary students need entertained while office manager moms are at work. 

This year we got smart and purchased season passes to a local amusement park last fall.  We gifted the passes at Christmas and it does work to exhaust the kids. Unfortunately it works to exhaust us, too.  We generally try to eat a big breakfast, get there about 30 minutes before opening, walk to the kid's section and do all their favorite things until 1:00 p.m. By then the park is more crowded, it is warmer, we are hungry and we got back to the car and eat our picnic lunch and head for home. 

This bunch found out it was Burger King's Birthday when mom had a school in-service day.

This little guy has had several sleepovers since our co-grampa has had some very serious health issues. Between both parents work schedules and since they live out of town, he has been a temporary boarder. 

We started the "garden". I buy these half grown tomatoes for next to nothing from the Amish and they keep us in tomatoes all summer. Usually. This year I did not look closely at the tags. Two are cherry tomatoes.  I took a trip yesterday to see if they had any left (it took us this long to notice) and thank goodness they did. We now have a tomato orchard of 5 plants. 

A little note on the driveway behind the orchard. This is where my neighbor Peggy lives.  She and Jack were here when we moved into our "starter" home 43 years ago. Jack passed away about 15 years ago and Peggy is in her late 80's. We removed the picket fence and landscaping between us so I can run back and forth with leftovers or in case she needs help. She loves keeping an eye on our tomatoes! I have told my husband we will have to buy her house if it is ever sold so we can pick a neighbor as wonderful as her. 

Grampa built this guy a sandbox to match Gramma's since he will be home this summer. 

I have had two, count them, two childfree days so far in June. Last week I reorganized the pantry. I do not think the before photos adequately shows the chaos of the shelves. The new and improved version has moved the snack items to the top where children can't reach them.  I rotated this unit and was able to get rid of another smaller unit when I reorganized. Amazing what I can do without my little helpers. 

Today's job - one small cabinet! 

I did not take a photo of the cupboard "before", but once I sorted out the 1,000 partial packages of cupcake wrappers and consolidated the 1,000 containers of sprinkles, this is what the cupboard looks like now. I will be baking cupcakes for every bake sale and/or cake walk going forward.  (cupcake wrappers in a storage box in the pantry.)

I am hoping, going forward, to go out to lunch with friends on my summer "days off".  I am also going on "vacation" at the end of the month. My youngest daughter and her special friend rented a vacation home out of state for the week. He has been suffering some health issues for a few months that are still being investigated and can no longer go. We are uncomfortable with a single mom with two toddlers traveling that far for that long, so Grampa will be doing childcare at home while I help with childcare on the road. 

I had a wonderful surprise package from my blog friend Betsy who just returned from England! She brought back souvenirs for my virtual cruise on the QM2!  Thank you so much for thinking of me, Betsy. The kids are just over the moon! And so am I! 

I do want to thank everyone for their prayers for my daughter who had Achilles surgery. It turned out a little more complicated than expected, but she was healing well. Then . . . she developed a blood clot in her ankle. On a Friday night. On a weekend. Instead of hospitalizing her, they sent her home with prescriptions she was unable to fill because of something about the drug and urgent care, finally getting an order from a different doctor for a 3 day prescription that they had to pay $300 out of pocket. The next weekend (Memorial Day) she began her cycle and was hemorrhaging. This was another challenge since I guess no women under the age of 50 ever took a blood thinner? Trust me, the weekend was an uproar and I had to go up to their house almost 2 hours away just to shop for supplies for her. Once people went back to work on Tuesday, she had some tests and they have found a mass in her uterus which was biopsied and we are awaiting the report. She is having another vascular ultrasound on her foot this week. She has been able to maintain her hemoglobin levels 2 points above transfusions. So any continue prayers in this ongoing mess are appreciated. 

The good news is that she completed her doctoral dissertation and has it submitted so she can graduate at the end of July. 

If we are counting, co-grampa currently in ICU, daughter who is dealing with lots of issues and boyfriend visiting several specialists due to ongoing health issues are on our family prayer chain. Whew.