Grands

The little Nugget is here for a couple nights.  My son works from home and is the sole keeper of the baby throughout the day, plus he gets up at night multiple times to feed her as Mom has to be at work at 7 AM.  He gets a little worn at times handling that and trying to work also.  We are glad to help out and are able to almost anytime.  We also invited the other two Grands over.  My 11 year old Granddaughter is a natural Mom already and is willing and able to do anything to help and will jump up immediately as soon as the Nugget makes a sound.  It's wonderful to watch her with the baby, it makes my heart soar like a hawk.  My 9 year old Grandson will play with the baby some but he lets his sister handle most everything else.  Our hearts are full.

My Grandson likes to help me out with any BBQ-ing I might do.  This time I threw a bunch of wings on the grill.  He will stack the charcoal as it should be and then light the fire.  He helped prepping the wings also and watches every step I take in the grilling.  He says he helps Dad at home too.  It's great to see him take an interest in what I am doing, he actually tears himself away from the TV to do this.  I have found out he also will make breakfast at home for everyone at times.  Apparently he is the master at scrambled eggs ( he requires cheese in his).  He will eat a ton of those, I can verify that.  Maybe we have a future chef on hand.

Happy Trails

Harvest

This morning I picked the first tomatoes from the garden.  Well, I have picked a few singles of the grape tomatoes but I'm not counting those.  Today will require a sandwich for lunch with the bigger ones sliced and salted.  The others will probably be scarfed by K as she loves those little ones.  We have a lot of green ones on the vine and am hoping they will stay healthy and bugs stay away.  That reminds me to get some Marigolds soon.

I tried out a low/no carb sandwich the other day.  Being diabetic, I am always looking for new things to eat that won't blow my blood sugar levels.  I saw this on the book of faces and gave it a try.

Yes, that's a large pickle instead of a bun.  The pickle is hollowed out and filled with mustard, mayo and lunch-meat of your choice, cheese and tomatoes.  It was actually pretty good, but way too small.  I only made one as a trial, I will need to make two most likely next time.  The tomatoes kept squeezing out and it got a little messy.  Using a large toothpick should help with that.

It's that time of year here and we are seeing these little babies everyday, right up next to the house. 

Speaking of babies, this little nugget has stolen my heart.  We had her overnight again on Friday night.  It is always a pleasure and helps fill the hole in my heart from my fur buddy Buster being over the Rainbow Bridge.  I am inclined to not give her back to those people she lives with.

Happy Trails

Insurance Claim

Our insurance company sent out a claims adjuster a week or so ago after I had Son#1 check my roof on Mother's Day.  He said if it was his insured roof he would pay for it.  So we are in the process now of getting a contractor to come give us a bid.  I have only contacted one.  It is the same roofer that replaced my patio roof about 4 years ago due to leaks.  They were also on the 'prefered' list my insurance company had.  They will be out on June 3 for a look see.  Then we will have to come to an agreement on the cost.  Well he may need to negotiate with the insurance company.  My Son said he would replace the whole roof including the patio (it's a different type roof).  My insurance company says they won't cover replacing that also.  I worry about roof integrity/leaks.  I will rely on the roofer to tell me what he thinks and let him argue with the insurance.  I haven't had to have an insurance claim on a roof in over 30 years so I rely on Son#1 to give me info.  Things don't appear to have changed much from what I remember, but the price is incredibly different.  I was 200)$ below on my guess of the cost to replace.  SMH.

The wife is in cleaning mode.  She has some ladies coming over Thursday.  So my day has been planned out for me.....by her.  Sometime this week will take the baby for a day/night or so, she has been hard on her parents the last few nights.  Fittine her in with all K has to do it the issue.  I miss her anyway so it will be nice to see her soon. 

OK, the wife just came in informing that the baby will come today after we head to the grocery store and will stay overnight.  Son #2 appears to be desperate for a break.

Happy Trails

On Hold

No plans have been made for this week...yet.  K has been ill all weekend and we are trying to get her in to see a doctor ASAP.  We are still waiting for a call back an hour later to see if they can squeeze her in today.  At one point she asked me to take her to the ER last night.  I know it was mostly frustration and had her call a 'nurse line' to see what they said.  They didn't think an ER visit was in order and she calmed down a bit.  So until this is resolved nothing is going on.  Consequently previous plans had to be cancelled and we have not been able to help out with the baby as we usually do.  I was certainly ready to see the baby again.  Maybe later this week.

Garden update:  It seems to be doing fine.  At this point there is little for me to do other than just check it each day.  There are a lot of green tomatoes, more than usual it appears.  Maybe by the first or second week of June we can start getting some fresh tomatoes in our diet.  The only issue I am having is the bermuda grass is growing in the garden faster than usual.  It's all the rain we have been having.  I noticed a few blossoms have been cut off, but I see that every year.  No idea what does that.  Since I do this completely organic I don't have any insecticide to protect them.  Oh, I just remembered, Marigolds.  They seem to work pretty good for protection.  I need to remember to get some ASAP.

We got a closet cleaned out that was way overdue.  Lots of things went in the trash.  Now there is room to relocate things that need to be moved and have easier access to those things.  It was two days of bending over (oh my back is paying the price) and going through boxes and folders full of papers and photos.  Oh the photos!  We have tons and they rarely see the light of day.  Hard to turn loose of those though.  It even freed up space in the closet in my office/man cave and now I can find things in there.  As usual we always find things we forget we had.  There was a two drawer file cabinet that was full of papers from K's parents estate.  We went through that and disposed of tons of things and are now using it for our papers instead of expanding file folders.  It's been years since passed and it was past time. Should be easier to find those papers we always seem to need but have trouble finding.  We have at least one more thing to attack in the next few days.  A double cabinet under the sink that has become a catch all of cleaning supplies etc.  It is a huge mess and I am determined to get things sorted out in there too.  

I am missing having a dog terribly, but I am sure it is more that I am missing Buster.  We have had my Son's dog, a Border Collie/Aussie mix (Moose) spend a few days with us while they were tied up.  It was pretty good having a dog a few days.  He was better behaved than I had thought he was from experiences before.  However, taking him for a walk is a no go.  He is so strong and pulls so hard he pulls K of her feet and I struggle to even walk comfortably.  We have suggested a few things to them that would help with this but they don't seem to hear us.  Parents, what do we know?

Happy Trails

Popping In

Just a quick note to say all is well here, just been very busy with the Grandkids.  Today is the first day we have had to ourselves since last Friday.  It was a pretty new experience having all three at one time including a newborn (3 Months).  Not a lot if sleep since the newborn had stomach issues at night, lots of gas.  We were a pretty good team handling it, but I sure wouldn't want to do that by myself.  We were both passing out in front of the TV very early last night.  Our sleep patterns were disrupted enough that I have been waking up around 4:30 AM and getting up at 5:00 AM as I fail at trying to go back to sleep.  Hopefully I can get that back to normal over the next few days,  Naps will become a factor.

The most pressing yard work has been done and we are getting ready to tackle a closet that is a mess.  We will have to go through a file cabinet that belonged to K's father and see what we get dispose of and then use it for our own things.  I told if we find things we haven't used in a year we should throw it out.  I laugh at myself as I am a pack rat.  I keep things thinking I might need it in the future.  I rarely have ever needed things like that and generally forget I have it.  I have on occasion bought things I already had but had forgotten.  SMH.

I will begin work on a leather cover for a journal my oldest Granddaughter asked for for Christmas.  She won't have to wait that long.  I also was approached by a kid at church that wants a scabbard for his new slingshot.  Should be simple enough, but I don't know that I want to make it.  I'll have to think on this awhile.

Happy Trails

Hands and Heart Will Be Full

Today K will head over to Son#2's to babysit while he heads to a weekend show in Houston and Mom works.  She will stay the night.  So I will again be unsupervised until sometime Friday.  I will head over then and pick up her and the baby and take them to our house where our other Grandkids will come for the weekend.  Mom will come out to the house Friday evening and eat supper with us.  She will then decide if she wants to stay the night or take the baby and go home.  Oh and we will have their dog Friday also.  I am pretty certain by the time Sunday rolls around I will be beat.  We haven't had all three together yet, so this should be fun.

It is supposed to rain more and I will be prevented from doing some much needed yard work.  The grass is going crazy with all the rain we have had.  Might be a good time to cut some leather.  Oh, wait....the Grandkids will be here.  No plans at all until they are gone.

Then after all they activity (noise) of Grandkids being here it will suddenly be very quiet, too quiet.  Our hearts will be full and we will start missing them again.  

Consequently, I most likely won't post until next week as I will have my hands full of Grandkids.

Happy Trails

Delightful Babysitting.

Our two nights keeping the new Granddaughter was a delight.  K handled her most of the time and handing her off to me when she had her hands full.  She is a very good baby, even with the tummy issues she was having that would wake her.  As good as this went, I am glad it wasn't twins.  We were pretty tired afterwards.  I look forward to the next visit.  She just turned 3 months and is very alert and wants to do things she can't.  She fights going to sleep, I think she doesn't want to miss things.  She's very responsive and will 'talk' and smile a lot.  I am totally smitten.

We don't really have any plans for this week other than K possibly staying overnight with the baby.  The weather is supposed to be very wet all week so will put a 'damper' on any outdoor activities (see what I did there?)  The current plan today is to head into town to half price books and look around for something new to read.  I have a gift card burning a hole in my wallet.  I will also look at journals.  The oldest Granddaughter approached me the last time she was here and told me she wanted me to make a cover for a journal for Christmas and she wants horses on it.  I have been looking for a leather project to work on and this will fit the bill nicely.  She won't have to wait until Christmas.  She will get it as soon as I can get it to her.  Gotta make those Grandpa points any chance I get.

I have been pushing for our church leadership to create a safety plan for a while.  They are finally taking up the issue and working on putting one in place.  It is pretty minimal but at least it is something.  I will keep pushing to get these things in place as soon as possible and not let them slide.  We have no men with law enforcement background or medical background, numerous in the military but nothing related to this that we can rely on.  They have been using the Homeland Security website that offers guide for church security.  Hopefully it will never bee needed but there have been two incidents very close to us.  The Sutherland Springs shooting and one more recent that was stopped before it got started.  The second was a random act.  The LEO's stopped the guy and found weapons in his car and admitted he was Looking for a church so he could do the Lord's' work.  That one was even closer than Sutherland Springs.  We could have easily been the target.

Keep your powder dry...Happy Trails.

Doctor Visit etc.

The doctor appointment went well to a point.  Still no detectable cancer but the pills that were supposed to kickstart my pituitary gland had no effect.  After a year of being off injectable hormones I am going to start them again.  I have all the side effects of not having it and it makes doing things harder than I care to deal with.  So we will try a new regimen of that and then consider pellets injected under the skin.  That would eliminate the twice weekly injections but would add a doctor appointment every 4 months.  He did check me for a hernia and found none thankfully.  This getting old is hard.

Son#2 is self employed.  He is a comic book artist/colorist and writer.  He has been at this for about 17 years.  He has his own comic book he is going to publish.  It will be self published and a limited run.  He just hit his goal on Kickstarter that will enable him to get 1000 copies printed.  There was one review written due to and advance copy sent out.  The review was outstanding.  If you are so inclined the review is here.  I am very excited for him, this has been a long time coming.

Since he has been under the gun for the last month with this and having a new baby, (he has been Mr. Mom since he works at home and Mom goes to work),he is worn out.  So we will take the baby for two nights so he can concentrate on and upcoming show he will be a guest artist at.  It will be two nights if Mom can stand the baby being gone that long.  I know they could use the extra sleep.

Happy Trails