Sunday, November 2, 2014

Hello my loves,

Here it is November! I told you. Time is passing way too quickly to suit me!

My current desktop photo is my two best guys sitting in Pop-pops recliner, The Beast, playing with Grammy’s Nook. I just took this photo last night as Andrew came to spend some time with us. More on that later.

I have discovered a love for the morning light that I didn’t know I had. Mostly because I am not much of a morning person. But since carrying my camera on my runs with me, morning shots have dominated my desktop photos. And the next two shots are morning shots.

The sun breaking through the morning mist coming off the Osage River was up for most of the week.

Bagnell Dam with the buzzards in the foreground was up for just a little while, but I like the shot and I wanted to show it to you.

The buzzards are getting used to me. I talk to them as I approach and they just sit and watch me pass by now.

My biggest accomplishment this past week was to put my weight machine together. I opened the box, unwrapped all the pieces and laid them out. I sat back on my heels and surveyed the parts scattered all over the living room floor and the task seemed overwhelming!

I took a deep breath.

I opened the instruction book...

...and had a good laugh. It was all in pictures. They know that guys won’t read it anyway, don’t they?

I hadn’t intended to put it together by myself but I started it knowing Mike would help me when I needed him too. As it turned out, I didn’t need all that much help. I just kept going, step by step, taking my time and figuring things out as I went along. Mike helped me get the right ratchet and I couldn’t figure out how the shroud that covered the weights went on and he helped with that too but other than that....I did it all by myself! It took me about five hours over the course of two evenings but I did it! Yay me!

Since then, I’ve been trying to work out a routine, but I believe this machine was designed for a man and some of the exercises don’t work all that well for me. They just feel awkward. But it was cheap and compact and we had to have both of those things and this fit the bill.

In the very least, there are several exercises that I can do and anything is better than nothing, don’t you think?

That cat!

That darn cat!

Yeah, we’re talking about Baby Blue!

I gave Itsy and Ginger a bath and hair cuts last week. Itsy doesn’t look all that different, but I cut Ginger’s hair a lot shorter. Before I can get things cleaned up and put away, look who got on the table and climbed in the clipper storage bag

and curled up for a nap.

Yep. Baby Blue!

Anything new that comes in the house, or if something is out of place, Baby Blue knows it and she claims it as her own. And that includes my weight machine!

Something else that came new into the house this week is a child’s tea set. I would rather that it weren’t lavender and pink, more gender neutral colors would have suited me better but they only had the one color scheme. Besides, we teach our children that pink is for girls and blue is for boys, it isn’t anything they inherently know.

When Andrew stays with us he likes to climb in my big old sink and play with the water and pour it from one container into another. I can always manage to find him a few things to play with but I thought I’d like to get him a few things more in his size. I saw this play set at Menard’s and it was only $12.

Mike let me buy it for Andrew, but he has been having a ball at my expense every since then. He’s been asking people if they would buy a tea set for a boy. Of course they say no, but one of the guys sitting there when he asked the question was a chef. He’s still playing with dishes!

Our friend Margaret pointed out that her great-granddaughter plays tea with her brothers and they play with her! It doesn’t make boys sissies-or anything else!

Oh. That reminds me. Mike and I are going to be great-grandparents. My oldest son Christopher’s daughter Julie, who has been married for almost a year now, is expecting a child in May of 2015.

Andrew did play with the dishes for a long time. Then we took them to the sink and washed them in nice hot soapy water and Andrew stood on Grammy’s step stool and rinsed the dishes for me. Okay, okay. Maybe he just played in the water but I thanked him just the same for helping me with the dishes.

Then he sat up to the table and had his dinner. A chicken nugget, Oreo cookie and milk. I don’t think he ate any of his chicken nugget but he spent a long time cutting it into pieces. He did eat an Oreo cookie-Yeah! Who doesn’t like Oreo’s-and drank quite a bit of milk. Andrew enjoyed learning how to pour his own milk and after spilling it a little at first, he started to understand about the milk coming out of the spout and wasn’t spilling hardly any of it by the time he was done.

After we ate and cleaned up we bundled up and took the dogs for a walk.

We didn’t go very far, just up the street to the iconic Indian. Andrew is in awe of the Indian and he will stand in front of it and just look at it. I don’t know what he is thinking about or what he is trying to figure out, but I let him be. I just let him stand and stare as long as he needs to.

“Andrew,” I said and Andrew turned and looked at me. “Sit on his foot and let me take your picture.” I said. Andrew is so stinkin’ smart. I didn’t have to say it any more than that one time. He turned around and sat on the Indian’s foot and waited until I snapped off a few shots, then he stood up. Just like that. He always amazes me.

I saw this handsome buck on my run one morning this past week. The thought that someone will try to kill him (deer season opens this month) makes me sad.

He was with his doe and when they heard me coming they split up.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “Go join your buck.”

I know, it’s weird that I talk to animals, but you know what? She crossed the road and joined her buck.

 

In honor of Halloween, I wanted to show you this spooky, spider web infested, dead tree last week.

I didn’t get that done.

It was awesome!

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike