I was busy all day – cleaning and doing laundry. I spent a few hours helping Autmn with Cameron. We had several interesting conversations. At least I got to see him for a bit! Just when I got home Kelly was here – so we did a few things, then baked cookies (she was assigned to bring cookies on the trip). After that, she swept my downstairs carpets and the steps. She desperately needs a new sweeper and was taking mine for a test drive. I think she really liked it. We had grilled cheese and AJ’s corn for supper, then buzzed over to Gabe’s. We’re ready for our trip – after a good night’s sleep! That being said, I won’t be posting until at least Saturday. Have a great week! Blessings – M

I posted early yesterday, so when I decided to take advantage of the cooler temps and pull more weeds it didn’t get posted. I’m thinking everyone is tired of pictures of clumps of grass! But it feels like an achievement to me!

Corner by lilacs

Top edge

Cow corner

When I cut back the dead stalks, I found TWO holes like this. Wonder what lives there? Hoping no skunks!

I worked this morning – but there was some paperwork issues that slowed things down for me. Then my key fob ‘told me’ that the battery was low but Ken and Barry were both tied up. I zipped up the road and ran some errands but when I got back down to Pinnacle, Ken was standing outside in the rain on the phone. A box truck pulled into the lot and pulled some cable wires down. So Ken was on the phone with 9-1-1. He had to help a customer with something, so I stood outside and waited until the fire department got there – they were able to reconnect the wires, and Ken put a new battery in my key fob, and all was well.

I spent part of the afternoon packing and organizing for Thursday, and part of it reading. I still had a yellow squash from the farmer’s stand, so I sliced and browned that for supper. Talked to Kelly to get her ETA for tomorrow, and found out Matt is dealing with a kidney stone. Please pray for him when you think of it!

I’m re-watching The History Traveler Route 66 Road Trip – it’s from a few years ago. It’s still fun to see some of the places, and I always hear and see things that I missed the first time through. It rained all day but now the sun is shining – but it’s 70*, so not real warm. Tomorrow I will clean the house and use my wonderful new sweeper! Yea!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 22nd is:

National Hammock Day; Lion’s Share Day; National Mango Day; National Rat Catcher’s Day; National Be A Good Teammate Day; National Penuche Fudge Day; World Brain Day.

I’m so glad I have a brain – even though some may think I don’t use it… That’s enough! God bless…

On this day in History: Number one song in July of 1950 was:

Nat King Cole.

Happy birthday to my Mom! I still miss her, and talking to her (and more to the point, listening to her!), and going to Albion, and taking her to Lake Erie and yard sales and Albion park! She loved anything we did together!

Mom (left) and Aunt Hazel

Dad and Mom – September 11, 1928

My beautiful Mom!

Mom and me.

Kathy, me, and Mom! And amazing artwork on the window!

This is how I want to remember Mom.

Me and Mom at the lake.

Me, Mom and Kath with Mom’s SKUNK birthday cake! 2017

I started laundry before breakfast, then Diane came for a cup of tea and a scone. She goes on Mission Trips to Ashville (with a restoration crew) with Samaritan’s Purse (Disaster Relief Group) so we talked about that and about Gettysburg. Gettysburg to Diane is like Williamsburg is to me!

Restorations after Hurricane Helene

After her visit I worked on some projects here then went to Lowe’s. I was looking for a tub drain for Chrissy – I ended up ordering it on Amazon. Couldn’t find it in a store. I still have to iron and update my packing list for Altoona.

These really work.

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 21st is:

National Junk Food Day; National Be Someone Day; Invite an Alien to Live with You Day; No Pet Store Puppies Day; Take a Monkey to Lunch Day.

I can always do junk food! I am ALWAYS someone. I don’t know any aliens and am not a puppy person. No monkeys for me. God bless….

On this day in History:

I think this has been one of the best weather days we’ve had all summer. Comfortable, in the 70’s, a breeze, sun, no visible smoke cover – It was really nice being outside. When we got to church, though, it was discovered the whole church did not have internet – it seems the storm might have ‘fried’ our router. So there was a lot of improvise going on, including no video for the Sunday School lesson and no live-stream for the service. We kept moving! Todd’s message was on God’s Will – The thing(s) that stuck with me most — We make at least 70 conscience decisions every day – we are afraid to make decisions – and sometimes the ‘wrong’ ones are not even our choice. And the thing we have to remember (I loved this thought) is that whether WE make poor decisions, or we are in situations and circumstances that we deal with unhappy or uncomfortable issues, it’s not always the choices that are made. It’s more what we decide to do about the circumstances we find ourselves in, and what we become after being tested. We have choices – important ones – but we have to remember we are important to God – He values us!

The fear of making decisions!

Once I got home, I heated up some pulled pork that Nate and Jen left for me last night. Yummy lunch! They stopped to give me my birthday present! It was on order – arrived exactly a month after my birthday! I am so excited! It’s a Shark lift-off vacuum cleaner – light weight, easy to use, lots of power settings – the main unit lifts off and has a hose, for easy cleaning of stairs and furniture and tight places. I tried it out – swept the steps and the couch and all the floor rugs. Perfect! And — TaDa!!! — it’s PURPLE! And the card is super cute! So it was fun having two birthday celebrations this year! And I LOVE the sweeper – I think cleaning day will be my favorite day of the week from now on. Well, maybe not…

And it does carpet and hard floors and furniture and corners steps and ….

3-D PURPLE birthday card!

Aaron came to mow and weed whack, and he carried 3 heavy black bags up to the trash for me. I over filled them and couldn’t manage them on my own. He carried all three at once – I couldn’t even handle one! I spent about an hour sitting on a cushion in the shade, digging crab grass from my flower bed by the driveway. It’s ready for mulch, which should happen within the next few weeks.

Front yard

bottom yard

Beside driveway – all weeded.

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 20th is:

International Boombox Day; International Chess Day; National Fortune Cookie Day; National Lollipop Day; National Moon Day; National Pennsylvania Day; National Ugly Truck Day; National Wiffle Ball Day; Space Exploration Day; World Jump Day.

I had several boom boxes in my past. Now I have an old fashioned stereo system: Turntable, 5 disc CD player, Radio receiver, and double cassette tape player. Hope we see the moon tonight! I like Pennsylvania! I don’t do much jumping these days. God bless…

On this day in History: When the U.S. Board on Geographic Names forced us to drop the ‘H’ from Pittsburgh in 1891 we fought back. We were named by the Scottish general John Forbes and the H is the Scottish way of writing the name. On July 19th 1911, exactly 115 years ago, we won! We got our H back.

THOUGHT for the DAY:

Amen, and Amen….

It’s raining again and I hear thunder in the distance. It’s done this all day – sun then storms; rinse, repeat. Storms woke me at 5am but I fell back to sleep. Those storms were loud with lots of lightening. It was storming again when I was making breakfast and when I looked out the kitchen door my bottom yard was pooled with water, and below the fences it was gathering, too. But the neighbor’s yard had a brown river running across it, down between the fences, and onto the street. And now, here it comes again!

Pooling water in my yard.

More water

A brown river of water – starting on my neighbor’s hill (beside me), down and across, down again, and onto the road.

Autmn and Cameron stopped for about half an hour – he played with his animals but mourned the fact that we couldn’t go outside and give them all a bath. He told me all about feeding the ducks with Daddy on Thursday, and the vacation he is taking in August. Noah’s family is all going so they will have a great time at the beach and plenty of playmates for Cameron. We had so much fun playing I totally forgot to take pictures!

Feeding the ducks with Daddy! – feeding them Cool Ranch Doritos. Is that even a THING?

Something to look forward to for them!

I spent the rest of the day working inside – changing and washing sheets and then finishing up the editing for THE SUNDAY HOUSE. I hope the comments were useful for Liz – some were just my stumbling around the page, but most were grammar and punctuation.

This afternoon I printed out the information on the sites we plan to visit in Altoona. I even found another one, and hope we can manage to see that, too – it’s a Revolutionary Fort and looks fun and interesting.

Fort

I did manage to pull a few weeds at the top of the yard steps. Was only out a very short time – and I felt it was safe since I could actually see the hill across from my house!

Fence line – one small section is all I did.

In front of the bench

Top of steps

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 19th is:

Flight Attendant Safety Professionals’ Day; International Karaoke day; International Retainer day; Lake Superior Day; National Football Day; National Ice Cream Day; National Urban Beekeeping Day; National Words With Friends Day; Stick Out Your Tongue Day.

Football? In July? Every day is ice cream day in my book. Not going to stick out my tongue!! God bless…

On this day in History:1864 US President Abraham Lincoln asks for 500,000 volunteers for military service (This is when Daniel – Letters to Mary – responded and ‘joined up.’)

Just a short post! I’m re-reading (for editing purposes) THE SUNDAY HOUSE and need to get the edits back to Liz by tomorrow. So I’ll post tomorrow after I get that done.

Kathy stopped over before lunch and we just JUMPED into a Williamsburg trip, just like that! Fastest trip to Williamsburg I every planned! We have our rooms booked and our programs picked and are excited to go! But before that, Kelly, Kathy and I are heading to Altoona for two days to see some sites and to stay with Kelly’s sister-in-law, Aunt Kimmie. How fun is that. So, details later. Back to reading!!! God bless….

Colonial Williamsburg

Altoona

Not much at work this morning – but Rege did switch me out cars. I’m driving a Jeep Compass, white with black accents. I was able to get settled in with little difficulty – paired the phone, set the mirrors, adjusted the seat, connected the phone charger, transferred all the items from the Mazda to the Jeep, and stopped and got a full tank of gas. I’m still learning the switches and knobs for radio, lights, a/c, etc. But it’s a comfortable car and drives/rides nice! It even has a little ‘jeep’ decal by the inspection sticker!

I won’t be off-roading!

I think I need a rubber duckie on my dashboard!

Dom did a quick mid-week trim on the grass, even in the heat. I couldn’t believe how hot, humid, and smoky it was today. I could barely see across the hillside.

I finished reading THE SUNDAY HOUSE and sent my edits to Liz, and she sent me back the revised manuscript. I’m about 1/4 of the way done reading it a second time – the first time I was caught up in the story and missed some edits. So hopefully I can catch any other ones and be done tomorrow…

Kathy and I went to a program at the Norwin Library tonight – Founding Father and Grandfather, which are George Washington and Ben Franklin. It was presented by Ken Koncerak and was full of information, fun facts, and interesting history. Do you know which one of these two was a runaway juvenile delinquent, and which one rode into battle in western Pennsylvania with dysentery? And as an added note, George Washington did NOT chop down a cherry tree, and Ben Franklin WAS the first Postmaster! And what did Ben Franklin leave to George Washington on his death bed? Great program.

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANTUS?

TOMORROW July 17th is:

National Lottery Day; National Peach Ice Cream day; National Tattoo Day; National Yellow Pig Day; National Wrong Way Corrigan Day; World Emoji Day.

Don’t play the lottery or like peach ice cream – I have been known to do things the wrong way! And I have my Snoopy tattoo! God bless…

On this day in History:1969 Apollo 11 launches, carrying the first men to land on the Moon

ANSWERS: Ben Franklin was a runaway – left his home in Boston and settled in Philadelphia. George Washington was sick with dysentery when he fought the Battle of the Monongahela. Benjamin Franklin bequeathed his gold-capped, crab-tree walking stick to George Washington

I spent the entire day fluctuating between cleaning and laundry and reading Liz’s THE SUNDAY HOUSE. I forgot how much I enjoy the way she writes. It’s very unique. I did finish cleaning in time to buzz over to Giant Eagle and pick up 2 prescriptions and some chocolate ice cream. And now – I’m typing. Oh – and since I’m an ARC reader I did make notes and sent Liz some editing comments. I will probably read the book again and pay closer attention to the structure since I know the story! So that was my day – we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 16th is:

Fresh Spinach Day (Popeye would love that!); Guinea Pig Appreciation Day; National AI Day; National Cherry Day; National Corn Fritters Day; National DOLE Whip Day; National Personal Chef Day; National Wedding Invitation Day; Rural Transit Day; World Snake Day.

NO! No SNAKES!!! Absolutely! I’ve never really come to appreciate guinea pigs. AI – that’s questionable. I’d love to have a personal chef – I hate cooking for myself. God bless…

On this day in history:1988 “Die Hard,” directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, is released in the US — IS IT or IS IT NOT a Christmas movie? The debate continues…

Work this morning – and I had several things to do. Always enjoy days when Rege and I can have fun conversations and try to solve the world’s problems. We never solve anything, but it’s fun to try!

I left Jeannette and went straight to the bank. I was looking for the special sesquicentennial quarters – but all I got was an explanation as to why they didn’t – and wouldn’t – have them. Oh, well. Went on to Palmer’s Farm Stand – got half a dozen ears of corn and a yellow squash. A few fun meals from that!

I drove from there out to Lapp Family Market and got a pound of dark chocolate and a bigger bag of milk chocolate. So now I’m ready for projects.

Milk and Dark

And look what jumped in my cart! How in the WORLD could something like that happen! Very nostalgic – I used to love ice-skating on Uncle Jim’s pond.

Coaster – we all know I can’t resist them!

My Rose of Sharon finally has a flower blooming! Now if the other 5 could start blooming and the bushes could fill up.…

Come on! Bloom little bushes!

Kathy and I went over to the Founder’s Market (Founder’s Park) on Weatherwood Lane – there were only 3 vendors. We walked around and watched the kids (and parents) playing on the equipment and in the water. Lots of things for everyone to do. VERY nice park, with more to come.

Little ‘creek’ for the kids to play in. I wanted to wade in it!

Splash pad – it was full today!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

Contributed by my boss, Ken!

TOMORROW July 15th is:

Arctic Sea Ice Day; International Stamp Out Spiking Day; National Be A Dork Day; National Clean Beauty Day; National Give Something Away Day; National Gummi Worm Day; National Hot Dog Day; National I Love Horses Day; National Orange Chicken Day; National Pet Fire Safety Day.

I guess if cows have a day, horses should too! I’m going to try and NOT be a dork. Always be safe around fires. God bless…

On this day in History:

It was a slow start morning – took my time getting moving. Shower, breakfast, laundry. Went to my chiropractor appointment, then had to run uptown to Suzie’s Notary to get my signature witnessed for a PENNDOT contract (work). Grabbed a cow coaster (in honor of cow appreciation day tomorrow!). Got gas in the Mazda, came home and had lunch, then set about getting things done.

New cow…

Old cow….

I spent the rest of the afternoon outside. I did several areas and feel like I accomplished a lot. Three big trash bags full of yard clippings. It’s coming along.

Bottom of hill – bare dirt was where the Solomon’s Seal was – it was done, It will fill in.

Across from shed.

Bottom of walk.

Cow patch – again, in honor of Cow Appreciation Day!

All cleared out – far side of house.

Still needs done.

Also took a quick pic of what’s in my shed. It’s not as full as I thought it was. I’m getting Nate to help me clean it out asap – a lot of stuff needs to GO!

And these are the pictures of what I did yesterday outside.

ROSE growing out of azalea bush!

Morning glory vine growing (by itself!) up through little girl’s hands!

Under the deck steps.

Stepping stones.

I looked out the window just now – there is a SHARK in the neighbor’s yard! I think it’s a run through sprinkler. The boys look like they are having fun!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 14th is:

Bastille Day; COW Appreciation Day; National Be Nice to BUGS Day???; National Break Free From the Big Three Day; National Mac and Cheese Day; National Nude Day; National Tape Measure Day; Pandemonium Day; Shark Awareness Day; World Chimpanzee Day.

Now how crazy is it that tomorrow is Shark Awareness Day – and there’s one behind my house! Wow! I don’t like being Nude, even when I have to be. And big three? Look it up – interesting! And no mac and cheese for me either. COWS! I’ll take COWS! God bless…

On this day in History: 1923 The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles.