Caught up in a whirlwind…

  Basically, MacGyver and I have been pretty much “caught up in a whirlwind” of activities that started last Wednesday evening with the heavy storms and tornado sirens going off in Sandwich.

 

I took this looking North of our house, which is where the worst of the storms went.  That second photo sure looked to me like something had dropped out of that big white wall cloud!! Right after I took this, the sirens went off and I headed for the basement.  Dennis wasn’t home, so I ran like a maniac shutting windows, which is why my left paw is still pretty sore!!

It didn’t look any better looking out the back door, either.  About 9PM that same evening, our Indiana connection showed up to spend the next 4 nights at our house…another Cave-a-Palooza was in the making.  I am going to post photos that will describe better some of our activities..

We successfully succeeded in wearing out the 2 “Wolff Cubs” at Terrie’s (Aunt T’s) pool last Thursday.  Friday a gang of the family played 9 holes of golf…Aiden helped me make deviled eggs for Taylor’s (TayTay) 8th grade graduation party.  I like the way this kids rolls…P.J.’s on until noon…

Of course the 96 pictures I took in 4 days was waaaay too many to post, so I made up a collage of a few from Tay’s party…

Taylor, as some of you know, is in theater at her school.  She loves to “ham” it up…and she knows that her Grandma will oblige her with some fast action photos….

…Obviously, I need NO encouragement to take crazy pictures of my granddaughter!

Taylor has a great group of good friends who share her love of theater and all are in the musicals and plays at school.  I hope this love follows her into and through her high school days…

As you can see, it was a beautiful day…and great time!!

So much happened this weekend that I will have to split this into 2 blogs….So, bear with me….I have a few more things to talk about and photos to view…maybe in a day or two…

Detective Heiser better start “cleaning his guns”…

Had breakfast at the firehouse, followed by a nice ride.

  Not much new and exciting here…MacGyver has been busy working on our screened front porch.  Neither one of us can remember the last time we painted it, and we knew that we needed to put new screens on (those mosquitos now know where every hole is and they are lurking behind the bushes, watching and waiting.)

 

I keep forgetting that right now,we don’t have screens on one side, so Dennis can paint and rescreen them.  We keep leaving the front door wide open, which is how we usually do it…I kept wondering why we had so many flies in the house…Luckily, no birds took that open door as an invitation!

We sooooo love our screen porch.  No matter where we live, some kind of screen room is a must for us..We spend many a morning having our coffee on this porch, not to mention breakfast and dinner. This porch was originally just wood posts, floor, wooden steps and had a railing of wood around entire porch…It wasn’t screened in, either.  My hard working Dennis laid every brick on this porch, and that brick wall of the house too. We used the same brick we used on our fireplace inside. He also made the screen frames.  This is the only part of our house that doesn’t have siding on it…Sometimes I wish it did, especially when it come time to painting.  Did someone say PAINT??? ME, PAINT???  I have an owie!!!  Actually, I did a lot of the painting the last time we did this…But this time I have a good excuse.   (I suppose I could paint with my good arm , my right arm)…I am, after all, right handed…So far, I haven’t been “in the line up”, but I have a feeling this will change soon.

 

While basking in the sun the other day (HEY! CUT ME SOME SLACK, I HAVE AN INJURY!)  As I was saying, while letting the healing sun act as therapy to my injured arm, I was determined to find a way to keep the birds from using my fountain as a bird bath..First of all, I HAVE an actual birdbath in the front yard, h…e…l…l…o!  Secondly, I always add a little bleach to the water to keep the rocks from growing green fuzzies.  This would be just fine, except that when the big fat Robins take their bath there, they throw water EVERYWHERE, and especially on the plants I have next to the fountain.  Did I mention I put bleach in the fountain???..Oh, yeah, ..anyway, we all know how much plants cannot tolerate bleach water thrown over them on a daily basis!! They tend to get crispy. Back to my story, I had a brain spasm while contemplating the fat bathing birds.  I remembered that I have a TON of neat rocks from all over the Southwest, and very pretty ones at that…AND..very much BIGGER than the small ones in the fountain. So, I dug them out and placed them all over on the top of the fountain, hence making it almost impossible for any bird to “wallow” in the water and throw it all over.

Now all I had to do was sit and wait…wait for those dirty birds to show up…And, it didn’t take them long…

GOTCHA!!! (insert evil laugh here) I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!!!…..YES!! (As you can see, I was a little excited here.) OK, I got it together now.

  Sunday morning Dennis and I went down to a breakfast they were having at the Sandwich Fire Dept.  It was being put on to make money for the Renegade Regiment (the school band) and I was really hungry for some good ‘ol scrambled eggs, pancakes and sausage…I am an eggaholic. The flaggers (I have no idea what they call these ladies) did a routine for we who were there…

MacGyver has toothpicks for legs…..My legs are bigger around than his…and I have “kankles” (fat ankles)..As you can see by the photo on the right,we were some of the first ones there…and I was sooo hungry..

 

When I went through the line I only took one pancake and 2 sausages.  I am an egg girl and I fully intended to load up on scrambled eggs…Alas, I had misread the ad in the paper..It was just a pancake and sausage breakfast ..not an egg in sight.  SAY WHAT?????   I don’t mind a pancake, but GIVE ME A PLATE OF EGGS, AN OMELET, ANYTHING THAT CAME FROM A CHICKEN..FRY IT UP ANY OL’ WAY….BOO HOO HOO!! …That pancake and sausage was really VERY good, though.  Guess I”ll  have to get my egg fix by making me some deviled eggs to have with our dinner.

  After our breakfast, Dennis decided we should go for a ride..So, I sucked it up, dried my tears, shook off my nasty eggless mood, put on my “big girl panties” and agreed.  We drove about 15 miles West of Sandwich, where MacGyver and I are land barons…..The year Dennis retired from Cat, (1994), we were seriously thinking of building a  house somewhere in the country.  We purchased 6.1 acres South of a little town called Paw Paw (or, 2 paws, as we locals like to call it). 

There is our land.  Those trees at the back are around a little creek…We own a little slice of  heaven on Honeysuckle Lane.  Honeysuckle Lane is a dead end road and there are about 6 lots on it, all of them are about 6 acres or so.  Some are vacant like ours, and a few have homes on them.  We have a local farmer who farms our land every year…This year is corn…Yep, got us a farm, by golly!! (just use your imagination and picture Barney Fife pullin’ up his pants by his belt and saying that)

Above, left, is the house next door to our lot…and on the right is the one across from our lot.  Well, things have changed as often happens , and we will never build anything there…Illinois is NOT where we want to build.  We have been approached by a few people who wanted to buy this property, but “Baron Dennis” won’t sell.  He’s one tough cookie…He says it may just be the best investment we ever made!! I concur. And you know what they say, “There’s one thing about land..they aren’t making any more of it!”

OK, I intended to make this short and sweet, and it turned out neither. This week, our Zionsville, Indiana kids come in Wednesday night and stay until Sunday..We are all going to the Heiser’s  house in Sugar Grove for our granddaughter, Taylor’s, graduation party…HEY!..I JUST MIGHT POST SOME PHOTOS, IF Y’ALL TWIST MY ARM!!!

TWO WEEKS AND HALF A BOTTLE OF IBUPROFEN LATER…..AN ANSWER!

 

  The rain has stopped long enough here for the rabbit population to clean out my petunia crop.  Honest to Morgetroid, we have enough rabbits here to make hasenpfeffer for an entire 3rd world country!!  And the reason they are so “fluffy” is that they have been dining on my flowers..I realize that some flowers are edible, but I didn’t think they needed to gorge themselves like that.  I finally quit buying Petunias to replace consumed Petunias, and decided to put Geraniums in their place..AHA!!! DON’T LIKE THE TASTE OF MY NEW FLOWERS??? GOOD!! NOW GET OUTTA MY YARD!

 

 

 

That pathetic piece of eaten of greens is what is left of my Petunias…I do love living on the edge of town (some would say I just plain live on the edge!) for the very reason that we get lots of wildlife around us..We  now have a Woodchuck who insists on tunneling under our extensive woodpile out back..and… there appears to be a mole family who are in the process of excavating our entire yard to build underground condos….

 

 

 

 

…..Not to mention that there are some strange “goings on” with my Wren house….

You will note in the picture on the left, a bird house, (Den made a clay pot into a Wren house), is lying face down under the tree behind our swing…But..What the Heck is that with it???..A potato chip bag!! And an EMPTY one at that!..NO, REALLY?…Squirrels that bring their own snacks to party on while they harass us?..Last year I had trouble around Memorial Day with a band of  Al Qaida squirrels who terrorized us by stealing our American Flags I had put in the ground, and chewing on them…Now, I seem to have some sort of rogue squirrels ( or, could it be raccoons?) finding ways to aggravate me! Wait a minute, it CAN’T be raccoons..they wash their food before eating it. Chips wouldn’t work out for them..It’s gotta be a gang of squirrels.  I need to see if they have any Guardian Angel beret wearing squirrel groups that I could hire to patrol my yard.  (I’ll bet they’d work for peanuts).

  Well, it was 2 weeks ago yesterday that I did a header into the carpet opening windows in our bedroom.  My trip to the Valley West ER that same evening was uneventful, and they assured me after reading the XRays that I didn’t break any bones .   However, 4 days later, my arm still hurt.  Two weeks before my “mishap” I had a scheduled appointment with my GP for my “Medicare Wellness Check”.  Since it was coming up on that Friday..I decided to whine about my arm.  Dr. E (a Godman, in my humble opinion) said that if it was still hurting in one week, to let him know and he would schedule an MRI of my shoulder.  Long story longer, I was in some significant pain, so he set me up with an OPEN MRI ..(that’s the only way I will do MRI to avoid the feeling of being buried alive.)  That evening my doc called me (yes, this doc actually spoke with me directly!)..The conversation went like this:“

DOC:  “Hi Donna…Hey we found something we didn’t expect on your MRI”.

ME:  “You did?”

DOC:  “Yeah….You’re pregnant…” followed by much laughter.

ME: “ SAY WHAT??? NOT FUNNY DR.E.”

DOC:  “Just kidding…You have a fracture..”

So…. I have been walking around with a fracture for nigh onto 16 days…just great.  At least I know now why my arm hurts!!

  Today I had an appointment with a bone specialist. Dennis went with me…He did more Xrays and showed Den and I where my arm was broken. I have just enough knowledge from my A & P class in college to know it was in my humerus..and it WASN’T HUMOROUS!!  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my only treatment will be to wear a sling 24/7 for 2-3 weeks, followed by some physical therapy..SCORE!!! The visions of surgery now vacated my head.

This little number I’m wearing above is a winner in my book! The Dr.’s assistant told me that it’s actually (you’re gonna love this) paper shorts with the crotch cut out..you are looking at the waistband…This now  makes it a strapless paper top so the dr. can see your shoulders! God, I wish I had thought of this…sooooo clever.  I bet I could find some matching socks and flannel shorts.. but they wouldn’t let me snag it for home..My latest apparel is now a trendy new  navy blue sling….

Yep…livin’ simple, that’s what I’m doin’…Just sit back, have a cocktail  (for medicinal purposes ONLY!).. and let MacGyver wait on me…IN MY DREAMS!!!

SURPRISE!! ANOTHER BLOG AND IT’S ONLY BEEN 2 DAYS!!

  All of you who know me and are use to my sporadic bouts of creative urges,  know that I just cannot be counted on for any kind of schedule…And…you know I could NOT let one of my grandkids graduate from 8th grade without  pictures….

Taylor Kate Heiser, age 14…graduated from Kaneland Harter Middle School last night…

About 400 graduates filled the gymnasium and about a gazillion parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends attended…IT WAS PACKED!  Tay’s Dad, Tim, raced up to get a video of her getting her diploma…With my past record of doing nosedives into the floor, I decided it best if I waited until after the ceremony and took pictures outside, where I couldn’t trip over anything.

The only 2 women in the Heiser family…Tim and the boys have their hands full…(Tim was in shock when he realized how beautiful his daughter was getting, all dressed up!)

Yes, Tim literally has his hands FULL!!

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out WHERE they get this silly side!!

I love this following quote, and think it is sooooo says what I want to instill in all my grands and step grands….

“My wish for you is that you feel the full breath of possibility. That you feel your fears and act anyway. That you listen to what's calling you. That you find the sacred in the ordinary. And that love + kindness embrace your heart always.” -       ~ Kelly Rae Roberts