Monday morning and all is quiet`

I'm here in Barrington Illnois to take care of my 3 grandchildren. John age 12 Kelly age 10 and Emily age 8. Rich, my son and wife, Maria went to hospital for some testing at Northwestern Hospital . I'm here to take care of the children and the dog, Izzy and the house. It was a flurry this morning with everyone getting up getting their breakfast and packing their school bags and getting out the door. After they all left, the house got real quiet.. Izzy and I went outside to play ball. What a beautiful fall day today is,, so wonderful, quiet and just plain lovely.
I decided after awhile I would come inside and get on the computer and check on my e-mails and see how my FarmTown is doing on Facebook.. Good thing I did that, the my crops were ready to harvest. I really enjoy FarmTown ~! IT's a lot of fun~!
It's almost lunch time and I think I'll have a peanut butter dill pickle sandwich and then play with the dog somemore.. I'm reading a really good book, so I think after lunch I'll go outside and sit in the sun and read for awhile.
Going to ask Rich how I can get my pictures downloaded from his computer. I have some new ones to be published..
Have a great day everyone..~!

Here we are again at Old Threshers in Mt.Pleasant, Iowa.. Ben is experiencing a lot of new things today.. He loved riding in the caboose of the steam engine train with his Mom and Dad.

He loved walking and was good at keeping ahold of my hand.. He loves to run and run and run. We were getting ready to get on the train for a ride.

Here he is riding the steam carrosel with his other Grandma Joann. He had a great day riding on the horse. He got to ride twice because he had such a good time.

Later he was with Grandpa Dee Dee looking at the 1,000 of different tractors that are on display.. He was one tired boy at the end of the day.

Here is Ben conked out after a hard day at Old Threshers. He has his bunny, Nibbles sitting on his lap.. We don't dare go anywhere without Nibbles. Nibbles is a rabbit. We are back home now and he is sleeping in the car. He took a 2 hour nap.. When he woke up ~ what did he want to do? Ride on Grandpa dee dee's John Deere 530.. He loves the tractors..

Ben at Old Threshers,Mt.Pleasant,Iowa

Ben and Grandapa Dee Dee and GranAnnie all went down to the Old Threshers Reunion over labor day. He really enjoyed himself. He loves John Deere tractors so he was in his heigth of glory. He even got to ride on one with Grandpa Dee Dee. That is what Ben calls him..
He loved seeing the BIG steamers.. He kept saying "Hot ~Hot". he could feel the heat coming off those big boys. This steamer is owned and operated by John Johnson from Springville.. He had burned his hand and had it wrapped up with a bandage and big bag of ice. Later we took Ben where there are sandboxes.. He loved playing in the sand with all the tractors and toys.. It was good for us. We could sit and relax and watch him play in the sand.

IT was a great day and at the end of the day Ben was out like a light.. Sleeping and dreaming of riding on John Deere tractors.

Very Relaxing

This evening as I sit reading all my favorite blogs I decided to get my foot bath tub and put some of these invigorating peppermint crystals in with the almost too hot water. Ahhhhh~ in goes my feet.. Oh my goodness that feels so good. I went to a bed and bath party (I don't like to go to parties) and they sold these plastic tubs just for your feet to fit into and have a good soak. These plastic tubs have lots of ridges to rub your feet against and it feels so good. I would highly recommend one of these to all~! Step #2 is rub your feet with this wonderful peppermint pumice foot scrub.. Makes them smooth. plus gives your hand a treatment of smoothness too. Step #3 Now put on the soothing peppermint cream and your ready for bed.
I would highly recommend doing this nightly. When I do this my tired feet feel so good and makes it easier for me to go to sleep at night. I especially like it in the winter time because it warms your feet up. I hate going to bed with cold feet. Seems like it takes half the night to warm them up.
Sweet Dreams ~ nitely noodles~!

The things one sees outside their window..

Today I was looking outside my picture window and noticed something peculair.. WOW~! I think it's a praying mantis.. I grabbed my camera and went outside to take a look.. It was so cool. I think this is the first one I have seen at this house. I don't know what he was trying to get but he stayed there for a long time. I read once they like to get hummingbirds..Wonder if that is true.. My hummingbird feeder is not at this part of the yard.. He was very interesting to watch.

Ben holding his bluejay feather

Here's Ben holding his blue
jay feather. He thought
it was so cool. He would
hold the feather with one
hand and then with
the other hand he would
stoke the feather in a
upwards motion.
He studied that
feather for along
time. He loves nature.

I think this is a Minx cat.

This morning got up and was having my first cup of coffee.. This big yellow cat came out of the soybean field and planted itself right under the tree where the bird feeders are..There are so many goldfinches right now one just can't count them all.. My husband Dave says "Hope he gets his tummy full with catching ground squirrels "...We have a lot of them.. I said " I hope he doesn't get my birds"... He stayed about an hour and then got bored and left through the soybean field.. Don't see many cats in our yard... I was surprised when I saw he had no tail. Well, he had a stubby one. Hope he stays home as I don't want my birds captured by this big cat. He can eat his breakfast before he comes next time. I think he thought he owned the whole yard ~ he walked like he was a king.. real regal.. I love cats but not when they try and get my birds.

Looking at the sweet dollies in this picture brings back so many great memories.. Kelly my niece went to the estate auction of my Dad's house and she was able to purchase these dolls for my sister, Lynn and I.. She cleaned them up and made some of the dollies new clothes.. She even put on a new wig (blond) for my favorite doll, Mary. She is going to mail these dollies to us in a few days.

We were so excited in knowing that our dolls even existed. We fiqured over the years that they would of been put into the local dump. These dolls have been played with over the years so much it's a wonder they even look this good. Kelly said she washed them up and washed their clothes . We girls sure loved our dolls. We remember spreading a blanket in the front yard & dressing them. David's pony had a colt named Topper and he came running
to a screeching halt at our blanket one day and commenst chewing and slobbering on our doll clothes. Two screaming little girls playing tug of war with a colt's
chompers. We acted quickly and were excited trying to claim our dollies clothes.. They were all slobbered with horse slobber, Yuck~! Topper was not at the top of our list anymore in liking him.

We just thank Kelly for retreiving our dolls for us and it will be nice to have them in our homes again.

Helping my Grandpa's fix the tractor~!

This morning after breakfast we drove over to Ben's other Grandparents ~ Jim and Joann. Dave was helping Jim fix his John Deere tractor.. Ben was in his heigth of glory. G-Joann gave him a small toolbox and off he went with his tools. It was so cute watching him walk from the house to the shed where the old tractor and the grandpa's were working carrying his toolbox. I wish now I had taken a picture. He tried every bolt on that tractor. His little hands were working hard . He has been around Dave enough that his tongue is in motion constantly working ~ working. It's so cute. He is in training on how to fix old Deere

John Deere tractors.. They were working on a J.D. 520. He loves those old tractors and his sound effects are so unique.. It would make my throat hurt making that noise that he makes. I should tape it so when he gets older he can hear what he sounded like. After the tractor was fixed of course he got to ride that tractor with Grandpa Dee Dee and Grandpa Jim. What a treat that was for him in one day.

He brought his Thomas Train Engine and all his other trains and actually set up his train track right there on the floor of the shed where they were working on the tractor.. He layed on the floor to make sure the engines were on the track and then he would crawl around the floor so he could take his engines all around the track.. It was most fun to watch him and the noises he makes for each train. He knows all their names .

Noon whistle blew and we went in for lunch.. He ate a huge lunch.. Sliced Ham, hot dog, dill pickles, cottage cheese, a large slice of bread with butter. sliced apples and for dessert a banana pie with whip cream. Yum Yum~! Grandma Joann has a table in the living room that he makes his small John Deere Tractors farm. He has disks, hay bailers, wagons, even a plow.. They all hook up to his small tractors and around and around the table they go .. Ben making that noise that he makes to make the tractor go.. Priceless.

We had a fun day talking, playing and exchanging chit chat. After Thomas the Train was over on public television we went home. I put Ben to bed and he was asleep in less than 5 minutes.. He took a 2 hour nap.. GranAnnie took a nap too.