A Post For Another Day

This week I was visited by Princess Kooky and Princess Krabby. But that's a post for another day.

 I finally finished the quilt top for Kailyn's birthday. Kailyn's birthday is in August and I still have to get it quilted and do the binding. Wahoo! I'm only 2 months behind! But that's a post for another day.

Having given up on our October 1 "Finish the Duplex Day", we are making steady progress and have declared  November 1 "The Real Finish the Duplex Day". That event will be a post for another day.

Newly painted master bedroom with newly installed carpet.

Megan has now been officially gone for one month. We are completely certain she is taking college life seriously,

and that Megan is spending every spare moment studying. But that's a post for SEVERAL other days.

Simple Pleasures

 We are having a warm, lovely Autumn. I find plenty of things to love during Autumns like this. There are the last blooms of summer: Azalea,

Phlox,

 and roses.

I'm also eagerly anticipating the enjoyment of my $3,028 cantaloupe:  $4.25 for the starter plant and $3,023.75 for watering.

I'm going to get a grand total of *one* homegrown, vine-ripened cantaloupe for my money and efforts. 

It's totally worth it.

 Since there is no Montana winter in sight, my strawberries decided to kick into production again. Life doesn't get much better than this--

--unless, of course, I think about the joy of spending quality duplex time with Stan. We are hard at work on the 1334 side. Someone gave us a used, huge piece of rusty orange carpet in 1985. We used it to carpet the duplex's basement family room and had enough left over to carpet the smaller bedroom.  Even Stan agrees the time has come to replace it and

the stained 25 year Berber carpet in the larger bedroom.

We are doing a few other updates. This is the chandelier that was in our home when we moved in. When the chandelier at the duplex broke a dozen years ago, I selflessly suggested we get a new light and give our ugly dated interesting chandelier to the duplex.

 As remodeler co-boss, 

I put myself in charge of refinishing the doors. They are in sad shape.  We dealt with these old doors on the 32 side by replacing them--however, we are tired of throwing money at duplex remodeling, and are finishing our updating with elbow grease instead of cash this time around. You can see the kitchen on this side has already been remodeled.

 After eights hours of backbreaking work, I sanding and primed all 7 doors and 4 bi-fold closet doors.

 And I managed to only gash myself once. I only bled out half my blood volume. 

Obviously, I have a gift for this kind of work.

 Meanwhile, the other co-boss is painting popcorn ceilings made of pure asbestos. 

What could be funner than spending every free moment fixing up our duplex?

Yeah, I can think of a bunch of funner things, too.....

Happy Pre Fourth Of July!

Stan, Megan, and I spent every extra moment last week slaving away at the duplex. It's hard to believe we can still find things to paint after all this time, but we can!

 You'd think after all this paint experience, Megan would have learned how to not paint herself into a corner. Apparently she needs more practice. That's OK, Megan, I'm guessing Dad will turn up more things to paint.

A quick trip to get away from the duplex and go to Red Lodge on Sunday afternoon with the grandkids would be fun, don't you think, Megan???

You just don't know how long an hour and 15 minutes can be until you get in a car with little people.  Makayla spent the entire time begging for her binky--it has mysteriously disappeared recently. I told her she is too big for a binky and Makayla would reply "No, I'm tiny!" complete with hand gestures. We had that conversations 38 times between Billings and Joliet.

Hailey was equally fun to have along.  She want to know "how many more minutes till we get there?" every 30 seconds. Finally, I manage to distract her with a rousing game of "I Spy With My Little Eye". Hailey: "I spy with my little eye something like hair in Makayla's area."

Me: "Ummm, Makayla's hair?"

Hailey: "Yup!!!"

Yikes, I hope these don't get any harder.

Finally we arrived at the cabin. Everything is extremely green and river levels are very high.

All of Cliff's family and Kent's family were there.  Megan and Hailey checked out Easton. I'm pretty sure he's still bigger than Brinlee.

Makayla and Hailey with their very favorite Aunt Megan.

 Finally it's time to head to the woods for dinner.

Makayla was eager to eat. Makayla is always eager to eat. 

 Makayla ate three hot dogs--she only dropped them a few times. It's astounding how much dirt and ash one little person can consume. Two of her hot dogs were even slightly warm.

She managed to down a few smores, too.

The mosquitoes were out in full force. We used enough repellent to kill a horse. 

 Unfortunately, mosquitoes are not horses. I swear our Deep Woods Off was enticing them, not repelling them.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the chaos.

It's fun to see all of the grandkids now having families of their own.

Warning: Hailey is trouble when holding sharp, pointy, hot items.

 We had a good time sitting around the fire, enjoying each other's company and being eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes. Did I mention there were a lot of mosquitoes?
Finally it was time for the fireworks.

Fireworks are a little louder than some people like.

Hailey didn't appreciate the noise, either.

Cameron put on another amazing show and didn't burn down a single tree.

We headed home late Sunday night. Don't the girls look comfortable?

Happy Fourth of July!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

After several fun days spent enjoying Brinlee, the time came to go home.  Yea, it was hard not to ball as loud and long as Brinlee as I drove away.  I had to force myself to think of this Brinlee, the one with McKay's gangsta-style diapering.  That made me giggle a bit.

 I'm guessing Brinlee will grow into those newborn diapers about the time she hits Kindergarten.

Warning! Boring scenery and gardening pictures ahead!

I love the drive between Rexburg and Billings at this time of year.  I remember how Mom always made me put my book down and take a look out the car window at the beautiful scenery when we drove to the Tetons when I was a kid. I hated that. Maybe we appreciate nature's beauty more as we age--I know I do.

This year the rivers are high and the grass is green.

There are still pockets of snow.

I paused a few times to take a close-up look at Heavenly Father's garden.

There were amazing amounts of different kinds of flowers,

some of which I didn't notice until I parked the car and walked out into the fields.

There were several fields of this particular flower in full bloom.

This is a close up of the field above.

After enjoying all these flowers, I could hardly wait to get home and see if my garden had survived my absence. 

Yes! Megan did remember to water!

This is my very favorite flower in all of my garden--a pink peony. I wish it bloomed all summer long.

Red Peony

Spiderwort

Pink Yarrow

Sweet William

The roses have started to bloom in various colors-

peach

pink

white and pink

more pink.

Strawberries--can Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream be far behind?

The tomatoes grew a foot while I was gone, but

all of my vine vegetables are pitiful.  This may be "the year without squash".

Look what else happened while I was MIA--the new bathroom at the duplex got a window

and the walls got texture and paint.

Well now that I know the world won't come to an end if I leave home,  

I can think of at least a couple of reasons to leave home again!