I’m Melting, I’m melting…

Well, I thought I was. We just survived the hottest month of my life.

Resorted to using my Red-neck Swamp Cooler a few times.

It didn’t help. The ice melted too fast. And all the block ice was sold out. UGH!

The Pacific Northwest normally has a very mild climate, not much snow and only a handful of days over 85 degrees. But we just had 5 days of 100 plus degrees with 40 percent humidity thrown in to boot. My car thermometer read 109 on the hottest day. No A.C. and plenty of body flubber of my own meant a grumpy, tired mom. They said it was our warmest streak in 30 years. I resorted to frequent lie downs in our little pool. Didn’t even bother with the swim suit.

The kids stopped rolling their eyes after the third time that I jumped in with all my clothes on. This last time was at 9 P.M, when it was still over 95 degrees.

The first few days I couldn’t even take my kids to the A.C’d shopping malls because they were dealing with a stomach bug picked up from my husbands families R.O.A.R. Reunion. Vomiting and fevers in blistering heat can be torture.

Don’t you just love all the fun things that families share. Loved the Reunion and the family, regardless of what they shared with us. Worth every heave! Do it again any day, just to be by family. The reunion was held in sunny HOT Sacramento, CA. Don’t we all just look smart. Dressed in black, during a heat wave. Those are grimaces, not smiles. (Kidding, they are smiles). Just can’t escape the heat. Tried my darndest though. Even entered a belly flop contest just to cool off in a pool.

I won it too.

You bet my kids are proud of me. How many kiddo’s do you know that can say their mom won a belly flop contest. Hopefully the judges were judging on my style and not the actual flop on my belly. Hum….

If it makes you feel better I didn’t win the flip contest. Kept doing back flops. Oh well. There you have it. I've shamelessly posted pictures of myself in a swimsuit on my blog. I can stoop no lower. Fortunately the motion helps hide the rolls.

The reunion was wonderful. Love the relatives, and we left before we drove them nuts so hopefully they still love us as well.

Even managed to get a semi-decent family picture taken as well. I think it’s impossible to get everyone looking great so this will have to do.

Today’s temp 86 degree’s. Ahhh, FINALLY feels like summer should.

Time Flies When You're...

BUSY!!!

Time Flies By Especially When Your Busy, On Vacation, and Busy again!!! And of course it flies by when your having fun. Wow, what a week.

My family reunion was a blast! The highlight had to be Grandma Serenading us with her Sweet Mystery of Love song. Oh I was sooooo tempted to upload the video but there would have been a good chance of me being disowned so I’ll just leave a snippet of a verbal picture to give you an idea. Not only can Grandma sew a mean seam, grow a literal Garden of Eden, and survive my kids and myself for an entire week, but she can belt out the songs too. Well, not really, but her trying to belt it out was too funny for words, and what was the best part was that she was game to the whole experience. She put all of us to shame.

Time Fies By When Your in the Garden. It seems like yesterday that I was weeding this same patch of earth and complaining bitterly about it (since I was a kid) but this time around I was enjoying the whole green experiance and having a blast. I think my other favorite part of my family reunion was jumping into my Brother Speedys garden. He was kind enough to host the whole reunion at his home – which was the home I grew up in - many centuries ago – so we thought it fitting to lend him a hand. His garden was great but needed a little weeding. My Bro Arrow, Sis Lyric, Myself and Arrow's wife spent many a wonderful hour visiting and pulling weeds and making plans for future family half-marathons.



So last Friday my Dream-On picture would have to be Speedys garden before…




and Speedys garden after our weed-pulling gab fest. So it's not the Garden of Eden, but now Speedy can irrigate with no excuses.



Of course, I had so much fun pulling the nasty unwanted green growth that I finally caught on as to why my kids are so attracted to dirt. See Cousin and Princess with their mud pie!




Dang – it’s genetics. They have farm blood in them after all.



Princess couldn’t resist Speedys dirt either, and as soon as we got home Hope donned one of her Sunday best dresses and went outside and used the hose to create her own personal mud puddle.




Thank goodness for bleach.

Also in the genetics were the kids swinging from the same willow tree I swung in as a munchkin.

Seems time flies when your also having fun.



And even though P.E. married into my family he has adopted my Dad’s Mad Dutch Oven Skills.



So the reunion was great and by the end everyone was so exhausted with pleasure they were dropping where ever they could find a spot of flat space that wasn’t likely to be stampeded over by the gazillion little cousins running around.

Uncle Cotton-Eyed Joe even zonked with Little Man…




As well as T-rev, Hope and Abner, and...



did you ever in your life see someone take a cap nap on a basketball standard base? Well I have.



So the reunion made the whole trip and kid mishaps worth the time, expense and effort. The trip home was three hours shorter than the trip out which made me ubber grateful.

And the day after we got home...

Whippie, it was Day One of Raspberry U-pick season.




Raspberries are my favorite.




So I took my slave labor army once again...




and made them pick berries until their little fingers ran red with blo…, I mean raspberry juice. Slaves + 1 1/2 hours = 41 lbs. of sweeter than all goodness. Lea and Abner where once again my biggest helpers.



Then it was back home to the sticky insanity of making eight batches of jam, sucking down a couple pounds raw, freezing a dozen bags of berries whole and trying and burn down my own house. Yep, this time it was my turn. I sat the boiling water bath canner on the stove top and didn’t realize that one of my hot pads had stuck to the bottom of the kettle. At least when Hope tried to burn down Grandma and Papa’s home there there no actual flames involved, just a load of smoke.




For my fire, the flames were shooting out from under the canner a good few inches high. So I guess we can add fire accidents to my kid’s genetic make-up as well. Yep! They’re doomed alright!
We got back from our vacation to see the Shasta Daisy's in full glorious bloom. I just love how honking big they grow in our northwest climate.




However, I have to admit the weeds can grow just as tall as those daisys. Especially when time flies and you haven't been out to weed in a few years or so.




Time doesn't fly by when your trying to post a blog however. In the time I've been spending on this post, Hope emptied a bottle of Dawn dishwasher soap on the kitchen floor. It hasn't been this clean in a long time.


That and I'm running on a tired tank. And when you are tired and want to go to bed it takes so long to get the needed things done in order to fall into said bed. I'm hoping that Princess doesn't wake me up at 2 a.m. again this morning by hurling on me like she did last night. Talk about a nightmare. Nothing like being woke up by your six-year-old losing dinner on you. So here's to some good sleep and hoping that time doesn't fly too fast while I'm sleeping.

High School Class Reunion

So this will give you an idea of just how small my H.S. graduating class is. Actually we had a 50% turnout last night when I went to my first reunion. Yes, there have been others but I was either on the verge of popping out a baby or had one too small to travel to attend the other get-togethers. 50% ain't too bad.

It was a simple but sweet shindig where we talked, ate, and laughed ourselves silly for a little over 3 hours. I think the advantages of being from such a small class is that you know everyone there. Some I didn't recognize and had to ask my home-town local friend who they all where but as soon as they started talking - bingo yeah I remember.

So a little has changed in the decade(s) since we graced the hallways of our teenage education facility. Some changes good and other's not so good. But it was comforting to know that we are all still alive and kicking.