Wednesday, June 30, 2010

WHOA~! Corn is over my head and Mommie's too~!

This evening Ben was at our house and he wanted me to take a picture of Albert's corn...Where he is standing he said "WHOA~! WOW~! Corn taller than Ben and Mommie.. He had on his monkey hat and was tipping it to the corn.. He is so silly.. His mommie is making bubbles with her bubble wand.. Oh such fun~! Wonderful Day in Iowa.. The high today was 75 degrees and hardly any humidity... wonderful, wonderful~!


After standing in the corn Ben chased Rocco the dog all over the yard.. He loves that dog...Everything is so green right now and so beautiful~! I love Iowa...
This morning after dropping off Ben I was so happy... All the way driving to Central City I talked with Ben about Mommy going to work and Daddy going to work and now Ben has to go to work... When we got to the pre-school I signed him in and we walked to his class, the yellow room. He went inside and turned around and said O.K. Gran Annie I'm at work > See you later... I was so happy.. He usually clings on me and doesn't want to go.. That always makes me cry... So today was a step in the right direction..Ben going to work... Well, lets see what he does tomorrow..
After I dropped Ben off to daycare I went to Tracie's house and started getting things moved out of her house. She is moving to Marion, just 4 miles from our house.. She is getting a divorce. I feel bad for Ben. She has a lot of stuff.. But I made 3 trips to my house and set it in the garage and when she gets home from work she can go through it all and decide, keep, throw away, give away. This actually is what I should do ,,,take everything out of each one of my rooms in this house and put it in the garage.. Go through it all and decide what to keep or what to give away. I'll bet I would be surprised ~ not much would be coming back into the house..
IT's been a really really busy day and I'll be glad on Saturday,, all her things well be moved out and into the house she will be renting for awhile.
Until tomorrow ~ Have a blessed day~! Ta Ta For Now~!~!

Monday, June 28, 2010

If your good the Rabbit will give you a snack~!

I told Ben if he was good that the snack Rabbit would give him a treat.. I keep a rabbit cookie jar in my garden and thought this would be a great idea for rewarding Ben. He went to the bathroom all by himself and while his mom got his pants on I hurridly went out and put Scobby doo snacks in the rabbit..





When he took the rabbit's head off he was so excited.. He loves Scobby Doo snacks...He said "Thank you" to the Rabbit.. I thought that was so cute.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

What is happening with the John Deere 530~!


Ben is in the shed on a hot and blistery windy day with Pa Pa Dee.. They are both trying to get the John Deere 530 started.. Ben with his R-R-R-R-R-R- noise and Pa Pa Dee trying to get the choke on and making sure the tractor is getting gas... with no luck.. Both boys are in disbelief.. No ride tonight.. Finally the reason as been located.. No Gas~!~! So Ben tells Pa Pa Dee that they could go on the lawn tractor. V-Room it starts off and off the boys goes with happy faces. Boys and their John Deere toys..




Tonight when I put Ben to bed tonight he looked out his window next to his bed and saw a big bird.. I thought he was just joking so I looked.. There was a huge pigeon on the roof.. Ben got to laughing and giggling.. I love when 3 1/2 year olds giggle , it just comes from their feet straight up to their little mouths.. I looked out out the window to see that the pigeon had pooped on the roof.. It was sliding down the black shingles and dripping off the edge.. Now, try and get a boy to bed with that imagine in his mind... He had a hard time focusing on going to sleep.. Finally after it got dark he had something else to look at, the moon.. it was so beautiful and so golden.. he said the Moon looked like a big piece of cheese.....So I told him the poem that my Mom always said to me:
I see the moon
and the moon sees me
God Bless the Moon
and God Bless me.
When I see the moon
and the stars so bright
I thank the Lord
For day and night.
I then sang " Jesus Love You" 3 times and he was out like a light.. snoring and dreaming of the moon and Jesus. It seems whenever he is restless if I sing Jesus love me to him he relaxes and the song settles him down.. Thank you Jesus...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

GranAnnie the corn is taller than me..~!

After getting into the big Case tractor with Albert to help him plant the field of corn around our house, Ben is now going next to the corn to see how tall it's growing.. everytime he comes to my house..
We had a big storm and strong winds on Tuesday night and it blew some of the corn down.. He was so disappointed. He kept saying "Poor Albert's Corn" Oh my ~! Poor Albert's Corn.. It was so cute to hear him.
There is an old saying about corn being knee high by the 4th of July... I think it has gone past the knees and almost over our heads. It's a lot of fun to have Ben here to help us keep an eye on the corn.. He has a lot to say about what is happening this year.. He knows that he can only stand at the edge of the corn and not go any futher than the edge.. It's very dangerous for anyone to get into a corn field. One gets lost and loses their sense of direction.
Beautiful day today in Iowa.. 82 degrees with some humidity.


This is what happened on Tuesday night. We had a big storm with strong winds... Some of Albert's corn blew down... All Ben could say was "Poor Albert's corn"... Oh my...~!
Here is Ben standing in the blown down corn... He was not very happy...~! He took his mom out to the field this evening to show her Poor Albert's Corn.. Cute.. cute.






Here he is with his polar fleece jacket.. It was in the 80's and very hot and humid.. He didn't care.. he likes that jacket.. Silly boy... HE is telling me the corn is above his head... He is so excited..

Aunt Jodie came to visit from Michigan

Aunt Jodie came for a visit from Big Rapids, Michigan.. Ben had such a great time with her.. Jodie is my daughter.. They are sitting in my garden..

Ben wanted to watch his movie "Frosty the Snowman".. He loves Frosty. and loves the rabbit.



This was on Wednesday morning. Dave is outside in the pouring rain checking our daughter's (Tracie, Ben's mom's ) tires. He said that she will be needing new ones before winter comes.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's hot and humid outside today

Here is a picture of my daughter, Jodie and son, Rich.. Jodie will be here visiting tomorrow.
Rich owns the house below that is in snow... Thought maybe the winter scene would help in cooling us all down..





I heard once that if it's really hot outside you should watch a movie that is snowy.. Well, this is my son, Rich's house.. He lives in Barrington, Illinois.. I was there in February and there was a big snowstorm.. It was so beautiful and everything looked like a winter wonderland.


Here in Iowa where I live,


IT's 83 degrees today and very warm and humid.. Dave is outside mowing, I'm in the house cleaning, dusting, and getting rid of those pesky spiders that seem to like to be in every corner in every room of this old house.


My vacumn has been used a lot today.. I don't get upstairs very often in the bedrooms and today was the day.. Whew~! lots of spiders and dust.. It's gone now~!~! I used my bug-spray up there and if anything was alive it's gone now.. I even raised up the box springs and matress and vacumned underneath. I'm now taking a break...


I made Strawberry Pie for dessert for supper.. It's a sugar free one... topped with Cool Whip.. It's a simple recipe and quick to do.. It will taste good for supper.





Feeling cooler after looking at Richards house and all the snow.. My house looks much better too . It's so rewarding for me when I get industrious and deep clean. Now to get the kitchen floor scrubbed and Ta Da I'll be done for today.. Supper is already made so won't have to fix anything. I like days like this..not very often do I get motivated to clean.


Our daughter that lives in Big Rapids , Michigan is coming tomorrow. It will be good to see her again...She will be visiting us for a couple days. Ben will enjoy seeing his Aunt Jodie.. She can play Thomas the Train with him and have a great time.. Toot Toot chug a chug a...
Stay cool everyone and if you are hot,, look at something cold.. That might help..
Ta Ta For Now...~!~!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

"What's in the mailbox GranAnnie"?

What's in the mailbox GranAnnie? Oh look,,it's tools for working in the garden.. Right next to the climbing clematis..
Hummingbird feeder and my Oriole feeder.. I have lots of Orioles and they eat 1 cup of grape jelly a day..
This is our old mailbox.. I thought it would be good to store my garden tools and my WD40 spray to keep the tools from rusting.. Ben found all the goodies that are stored inside and he just had to try them all out.. Lol


He thinks the gloves are cool to wear to water my plants. Notice: he has on a polar fleece jacket, it's 75 degrees hot and humid. It doesn't matter, he wants on his jacket..
In the background is my vegetable garden.. With all this rain we are getting it's are not doing well.



Now~! petting the dog...that's what the gloves are used for~~ right?
He loves my garden gloves...




Wearing the blue garden gloves for riding his bike....Now that's what they are for mm-mm-?
Ben is quite a boy~!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Clean up day in the basement

This is the view from my chair ~! After working so hard today in the basement. The red jeep is Ben's remote control jeep that he left in the yard.. he loves that jeep..
We live in an old farm house and the basement is a hole in the ground. Not very useful. Furnace, water heater, water softener, pressure tank and a cupboard to hold my canning jars.. Decided to emtpy all the old tomato juice, salsa and hot peppers out of the jars and then wash them up to use this year when I want to can somemore. Then I swept up all the spider webs down from the rafters and along the walls.. swept the floor and got top of furnace and other things washed off and cleaned.. I put on my mask and sprayed the basement and the rafters with bug spray to kill all the spiders and bugs. I have to spray at least twice a year.. The spiders start coming upstairs and making their webs where ever they like and it just helps to keep the population down if I spray.. I also sprayed all the rooms upstairs.. We should be bug, spider free for awhile..

While I was down there today I decided to get rid of a few things.. How many flower vases does one need? I kept 2. threw 10 away... I threw away some things that was in the pantry . Old Jello,, they do have an expiration date on them...got rid of some old cookbooks, rearranged things on the shelves. It all looks so good. It's always a good feeling when you get rid of stuff you don't use anymore. Dave has an old work bench down there. One can actually see the top of it now.. He will be happy when he goes down there to work on one of his projects this winter.

I would say it was a very successful day...and I have one more area cleaned out and put back together.. I made me some ice tea went outside and sat in the shade and read my book.. Who knows what tomorrow will bring,, maybe I'll get motivated to do another room.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Izzy the amazing dog~!

Here's Rich helping Izzy get out of the water. She loves chasing her tennis ball.. Over and over again she would run off the dock after her ball and over and over again Rich would help her get out of the water.. We are at Jodie's house in Big Rapids, Michigan..

Kerplunk~!
Izzy taking the plunge into the water..to get her ball.


Here she is: Happy Happy Dog..








A wonderful week-end at Jodie's

The view from Jodie's front yard is so amazing.. The river is so still you can actually see the reflection of the trees on the other side.. Truly amazing.
Went to Jodies over Memorial Week-end and had a great time.. The food she cooked for us was right out of Emirll"s kitchen that is on the food channel. It was so good. We even had a little of Rachel Ray's food too..
Rich came on Saturday with John,Kelly and Emily.. It was so nice to all be together again.


There are swans that come daily in front of Jodie and Mark's house . We fed them bread which they gobbled up quickly. They are so beautiful~! The male swan's name is Gus.. He is very protective of his family.


Here's Emily,,she found a frog.. It was so cute. She had a lot of fun holding this frog and showing it to us all..



We went swimming and that was a lot of fun.. Here is Kelly on her floaty and me with my tubey thingy.. The water was great and nice and warm..





This is Jodie and Marks home ~ they live in Big Rapids Michigan.. Dave enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching all of us play in the water. If you look close you can see Izzy the dog standing near the bird feeder pole.. she loved jumping in the water and going after her ball.
It was a great week-end and we made many memories. Thanks Jodie

Ben in Albert's Corn

Rocco the Italian Greyhound had fun tonight while I was weeding the garden.. He just loves it here on the farm...He is my grandog.. He is staying with us until our daughter is relocated into her new place that she will be moving into end of June.. He runs and runs and jumps through the corn looking for who knows what.. We have ground squirrels here in the yard and as much as he tries he can't outrun them ~ they hop down the holes they have all over the yard... I love this picture, makes him look so majestic. He has his eye on something.


Look at the corn growing in Iowa. Here is Ben standing in the corn.. He is 3 1/2 years old and already holding a clump of dirt in his hands.. Checking out the soil.


Quiet evening here in Iowa.. After 3 inches of rain, the garden after weeding it looks really good.. Oh, I should of taken a picture before I weeded it.. Yikes~! Trust me it was not good.


We have had rain, rain , rain since Sunday and it's really good. I got the house cleaned and this evening after the sun came out I went out and weeded the vegetable garden and my flower garden.. It was so easy to tackle the weeds after all this rain.. They just came out so easy and without a struggle. It will be good to look at the garden tomorrow and admire the flowers and not look at the weeds. It feels so good after getting all the weeds out of the garden. I have a little garden tomorrow to work on and then all the weeding will be finished..
Got Ben off to bed and now to make a cup of tea and read my book. I'm reading "The Help" it's a novel.. written by Kathryn Stockett.. It's a great book and hard to put down. Jodie gave it to me and told me it was good.. Sooooo goodnight for now.. Looked at the moon and venus before going to upstairs to read, very impressive and so beautiful... Thank you God ~!