Ben playing "Toy Story" Nintendo.

Having a lazy day after being with Ben all week-end.. He has had my Super Nintendo game for a month now and he is pretty good playing the games.. He loves Toy Story and Ben's mom, Tracie found this game on Amazon. So Ben & I played the game while his Mom studied.. She is going to school to be a massage therapist.. The good thing is I get free massages...and it feels so good.
Notice the Toy Story poster hanging in his room...He tells Buzz goodnight everynight.. with a flying like Buzz "up to infinity"... His arms are flapping away.. It's so cute. I just have to laugh at him...of course he is laughing too..



He is working on putting stickers on the lego car Tracie bought him.. I wish I had taken picture of the car... He laid out the directions and followed it step by step.. "Do myself" he would say.. He put it together all by himself..
On the box it says for 5+ years old.. He is almost 4.. Nov.12.. Tracie and I just watch with amazment.. he can really get it done "all by himself".

In between Nintendo games we are looking at the pictures on my phone.. He loves to look at Uncle Rich, Kelly, John, Emily , Lisa and her girl Sophia. He loves Aunt Jodie and wanted to call her when he saw her picture. She must of been busy raking leaves in her yard. no answer.

This evening I have supper in the oven... It's called Cavatini.. take Ground Beef, onions, red peppers, mushrooms, 2 cups of cooked rotini noodles. 1 can of tomatoes.. cook it altogether and put in shredded cheddar cheese.. put into a 9x9 casserole dish. put mozzerella cheese on top , cover and bake 350 for 30 minutes ...take cover off and bake another 6 mintues or until cheese is golden brown..
IT's quick and easy and so good.. I put applesauce on the side and Ta Da Supper~!~!

That's the most I have done all day.. IT felt good to do nothing but sit and read all my favorite blogs and have a great time doing that.. Have a great fall day.. It's 57 degrees here in Iowa...sunny and a great fall day~! Ta Ta For Now......

A-lot of work cleaning out one's garden

Decided to get the weeds cleaned out of my pereniel garden. WOW~! it was a lot of work...The birds had pretty much picked off all the seeds on those Coneflowers.. I planted one plant 2 years ago and look at it~! It's a prolific plant and guess I'll just have to replant some of this to another spot in the yard...

There that looks better. I left the Sedum for awhile longer. It's so beautiful in the fall and the birds like to pick off the bugs and anything else they can find..

This was a big mess.. I'm sure my work will be ahead of me this spring.. Have to get that grass out of there. It's a fight every year to pull the grass and make sure you get the runners..

See those ConeFlowers after being cut down near the big rock? There are 4 plants over there ready to grow in the spring..

My mailbox ~ I store my garden tools in so I don't have to go to the shed every time I need one. They keep nice and dry in there.. My garden gloves are in there too.

Oh my ~! it's a mess.. but it's all cleaned up now and ready for spring sprucing up for next years plants.. I should get some mulch and really put a bunch down now that it's cleaned up.

Ben is coming over this afternoon for a tractor ride with Grandpa Dee Dee. I see the snack rabbit there and guess I better get a snack in there before I go pick him up for daycare.

Ben is doing good with his cast. He is starting to try to walk on it so he can get around faster. Guess he hates crawling..

Well, it's time to go pick him up... Have a great fall everyone... Ta Ta For Now~!

Ben jumping on hay bales~~~Opps~! He fractured his leg.

While Rich was here ~on Sunday, we went to the E-I-E-I-O farm to do a little geocaching. While there, the kids ~ John, Kelly, Emily, Sophia and Ben decided it looked fun to go jumping on the huge hay bales. They are the big round ones.. There were probably 20 of these bales stacked next to each other. Ben was showing off his skill of jumping and jumping from one to the other.. OPPS~! he missed and poor thing hit wrong. Tracie (his mom) and Dad (Cory) took him to the Dr. the next day. The Dr. sent him to a bone specialist and after X-rays.. discovered Ben had fractured his tibia on the outside of his leg right above his ankle.. Poor guy.. It has slowed him down a little..
I saw Ben this evening.. (Thursday). His cast was itching him.. Cory said at daycare he played in the sand.. One of the helpers said 'We should of put a plastic bag over his leg ". I think that would be a YES~! the sand is going to be quite an irritation to him for the next 2 weeks.. I felt up as far as I could inside his cast and you can feel the grit of the sand.. Yikes~! I told Tracie maybe she needs to call the Dr. and see if his leg well be O.K with that sand in there.


Ben put this puzzle together.. on the box it says for 6+ ages.. He loves puzzles.. Glad he had something to take his mind off of the cast.. It's starting to itch.. Poor guy.

Ta Da ~!~! See GranAnnie I can follow directions.. This was a lego puzzle. It had a diagram picture for each step. He looked at the picture and snapped all the pieces together..

For a boy at 3 1/2 I think his motor skills are good.

I love his face~! smarty pants..

Rich and Lisa and family

Rich and Lisa and children came for a visit on Friday evening. I was so excited to see them.. Rich has three children,John,Kelly,Emily and Lisa has one,,Sophia age 5.. They came in the door about 10 p.m. and directly went to bed.. The next morning I hid their breakfast outside in plastic bags and labled each child's name on the bag. They had to go on a savenger hunt to find their breakfast.. Yeah~! for Rich,Lisa,Grandpa Dave and me..we got to drink our coffee for 15 minutes in peace. It was wonderful~!

This is Rich and Lisa... early morning Saturday.. Sunrise is just coming up. On Sunday after church 10/10/10 he went to the cache site that is on our farm and put a diamond ring in the cache.. Lisa had never gone geocaching before ~ so this was something new for her. www.geocaching.com

He took her to the geocache called "Zippity-do-dah" It's a bluebird house. GC1AQRF That is the cache number in case you want to go take a look. She found the cache ~ opened it up and found a Tiffany Ring Box.. oh my she was so excited.. She opened it up and it had a diamond ring inside.. Rich asked her to marry him and of course ~ she said "YES".. How romantic is that... We were all excited.. The kids were screaming with joy. Well, at least the girls.. John was surprised.. So then all the questions started flying ~~when is the wedding,, can I be the flower girl, are we going to build a bigger house , can I be the best man, So out came the paper with all the questions..I thought that was a really great idea.. That way Rich and Lisa didn't have to give them answers right away.. We are all happy and can hardly wait for the big day..There's a wedding to be planned.. Of course Kelly wants to be the wedding planner.. She is 11.. Lisa told her to google bridesmaid dresses and her and Sophia went and looked at all the dresses.. Oh such fun~!

Emily and I on Saturday morning got busy and made the pies.. Kelly and Sophia were with us for awhile. They cut up the apples. We made apple and cherry pies.. We had so much fun. Emily loved the flour. She had it all over her face and hands.

They smelled so good baking.. Glad we made them. Haven't had pie in such a long time. I used Splenda in the apple pie and it tasted good and came out O.K.

It was a great week-end filled with so much to do.. Dave gave them rides on the John Deere 530... I let John age 13 drive the Chevy truck..He was so nervous. He had never started a vehicle let alone drive one. I let him drive it in the driveway.. I told him I taught all my kids how to drive (4) and I could teach him. But he had to listen and do exactly what I said.. Of course the answer was "Yes". First thing he did was put his foot hard on the gas and then I said "Stop" and he put his foot hard on the brake petal.. He said "GranAnnie, my heart is beating fast"> I said 'Yes, it is, but it's O.K."... Now relax and just ease your foot onto the gas pedal and he did and it was a much better take off.. Good thing we have a fairly long driveway. The brake was still a bit too hard,,but he got the hang of it after awhile.. So for the first lesson ~ we didn't hit the shed, a tree or the house... Whew~! New drivers have to learn so much.. I wish he lived closer. Here in Iowa one can get their drivers permit at 14.. It's just a license to get them from school to home or work.. It's for the farm kids.. well at least that is the way it was when my kids were growing up. After my kids got their permit they drove the car wherever we went. A little nerve racking but how else are they going to learn..

We had a great time while they were here and now they are home and I miss them so..

Beautiful day today and sunny.. Going outside to work on flower garden.. If I don't get to it before it gets cold ~ I will regret it for next Spring...double the work...

Ta Ta For Now....

Rich and his new gal and family are coming ~!

I'm so excited. ~! Rich called me yesterday and said he and Lisa were coming to Iowa for the week-end.. Richard's wife died with cancer last year and he met a new gal.. Lisa is a wonderful gal.. She has a girl named Sophia age 5.. Rich has John age 13, Kelly age 11 and Emily age 9. John texted me a short time ago and said they were going to be here in an hour and 45 minutes.. I told him get ready we were going to make pies tomorrow.. He said that would be fun~! Dave , Lisa and Rich are going golfing tomorrow.. So GranAnnie has the kids. We are going to walk to the creek. then make the pies.. I bought the girls beading stuff so they can make bracelets or necklaces.

I bought this cement deer at Leone's sale.. She died this year at 102..her things went on sale at a auction last week-end.. Leone would every fall have me put this deer in her house. She called it Bambi.. and every spring I would bring it back outside. So for $10 I bought this little deer.. I have him sitting in front of our garage and when I'm in the kichen doing dishes I can see my little deer.. Brings back good memories of Leone.. She was a wondeful lady... (She was still driving a car at 100 years old..) She was remarkable.

I sure am glad that last Friday I got the itch to clean my house like company was coming. Today it was really easy to pick up and do a little cleaning to have the house ready for Rich and Lisa.. This morning I went to the dentist because yesterday I snezzed and my temporary front teeth fell out of my mouth and broke.. Oh my,, that was an awful feeling.. Ben thought I really looked funny and laughed at me with my teeth gone. So today the dentist made me new temporary teeth and I'm back to my smile again.. I get the permanent ones that are being made on Oct. 26th.. That will be nice.

Then I went to the grocery store and got all the food for all of us to eat for the week=end.. Sloppy Joe's for tomorrow and then Dave is going to make his famous spagetti sauce.. Sunday I'll make a chicken rice casserole. I bought all the fixings for somemores for our fire on Saturday night.. That will be fun~! The lanterns are filled and ready to hang into the tree for that warm cozy feeling. Good thing about this time of year ,,no bugs..

Boy have you been outside??? the stars are magnificent... they are so bright.. Jupitor is in full bloom and is very bright... I took my binoculars out and looked at it and it was really bright.. Someday I'll get me a good telescope and I will really be able to look at the moon, planets and the stars.

The house is ready and I'm now just waiting for my family to arrive.. It will be a noise of laughter and "HI's" kisses and hugs. and gather all their things into the house. Lots of talking and then settle into bed and get a good nights sleep. Time will go fast ~! But I will love them and make lots of memories while they are here.

Have a great week=end... Ta Ta For Now~!~!~!

The pepers look happy ~ I cleaned out the garden yesterday and this is what is left.. Mr. Skunk was delighted to see fresh vegetables.

These are the pumpkins that I was able to carry out.. There are two big ones that I couldn't pick up or roll out of the garden.. I'll have to get someone with muscles to get those. I love fall and all the vibrant colors that you see.. These are all from one seed. There are 2 huge ones at Ben's house. So from one seed I got quite a few pumpkins.. 11 in all.

I gathered all the yard ornaments that were in the garden and in the yard.. They are all back in their places ready to be stored for winter, then back outside next spring.

We have a shade tree we sit in outside in the evening.. I hang the lanterns in the tree and it makes this area look very cozy. We have a fire pit and roast hot dogs, and of course one can't have a fire without marshmallows, graham crackers and hershey candy bars.. They taste so good. When the grandkids come it's very festive.

My sister-in-law painted the scare crows on picket fence material.. I thought they were so cute. Good thing I have this area in the big shed to store my things.

After I got everything put away, I went to the neighbors house, Lori and we had a cup of hot tea.. She is such a delight.. She is a young gal who is in her early 40's and has 3 children. We had a great time visiting.

A flurry of Crackles moved into the area this morning. My yard is just covered.. I thought they were gone. Guess not.. Couple of weeks my feeders were empty and now I have lots of varity of birds. The junco's are back they are the true winter bird that comes back in the fall. Like the red wing blackbird/robins in the spring. You know spring is here when you see those two birds.. Now we are into winter and the junco's are here. I love the birds and enjoy watching them near the house. Someone asked me why do you feed the birds..they have plenty to eat in the pasture.. I said " I feed the birds because I like to see them right next to the house." I don't want to walk to the pasture in the freezing cold this winter to see them.. Plus they don't sit still for long out there.

Going to Tracie's house today to finish up the garage.. I'll be glad when that project is over. I have lost another 3 pounds doing this, so that is a good thing. We have had gorgeous weather all week long and I'm taking advantage of it so I can get this done...

My son, Rich and my grandchildren (3) will be coming Friday evening.. and stay until Monday.. His girlfriend, Lisa and her 5 year old daughter, Sophie will be coming too. I'm planning a fun filled week-end with them all.. It's been awhile since they were here. So get out the croquet set, gps for geocaching, and the tennis balls for the dog.. And get the fire pit in place for the hot dog roasting and somemores and sitting by the fire.. Guess I'll have to go back and get the lanterns in place. Maybe I can get PaPa Dee Dee to borrow a wagon from the neighbor and drive the tractor in the field for a hayrack ride. Wonder what the moon is doing over the week-end.. WEll, have to look on the calendar.

Well, everyone have a great day...Must get busy.. Ta Ta For Now~!~!

WOW what a day~!

This morning I took a boat load of Ben's baby clothes and toys to a gal that lives in Coggon, Iowa.. She is just a young gal who is going to have twins in 6 weeks.. She was so overwhelmed when she saw all the things I brought her. She couldn't thank me enough.. I was so glad that I had seen her notice on the bullitin board where Ben goes to Pre-School.. She said that her and her husband didn't have a lot of money and they were just hoping that someone saw the notice. So it felt good to find a home for a huge amount of clothes and the baby toys, I took her for these two boys that will be born .
I went to the grocery store and got a few groceries and Dave's prescription. Yikes~! $134 for a drug called Lipitor.. That is one expensive medication. I think it's for his blood pressure.
I worked on Tracie's garage again and then at 4 I picked up Ben at day-care.. He was so happy to see me.. He ran into my arms.. I just love that feeling. We went to his house and played outside.. When cleaning out the garage I put all the toys I found in one area on a tarp . It was like Christmas to him, he sat and played with all those toys.. When raising my 4 kids I would every 6 months take 1/2 their toys and put them away. Well, when I brought the toys back that I had put away they thought they had new toys. I kept rotating them and it worked wonderful.
Tracie came home at 5 and while Ben played with his newly found toys we worked on the garage. By 7 we had 1/2 the garage emptied and decided to move anything that was on the south side over to the north side..Then we put the boxes back into the garage that we had gone through and put them on the empty south side.. Now tomorrow when I go back I can work on the North side boxes and Da Ta I'm done.. Her friends are coming over Friday evening and the renter has agreed to let Tracie use a bedroom in the upstairs of the house she is living in to store these boxes.. Her friends are going to help her carry them to this room.. Yeah~! I won't have to do that.. I'm so happy to get this project finished.. Now she will be able to get her car in the garage when cold weather comes...Now that we have a garage there is nothing better than going out to get in your car and you don't have to scrape away the ice or snow..
After we had supper~ Tracie gave Ben his bath and then we played a board game with him.. Thomas the Train.. He loves it and he loves to win... Tracie went to her bedroom to study for her school work and Ben and I played Super Nindento.. Oh my goodness I can't believe how good he is ~ only 3 1/2.. He has now started sharing and letting me have a turn.. That is good. Time for bed , he went right to sleep he was very tired.. It was easy tonight..
Ta Ta For Now~!~!

Hi GranAnnie~ I'm really high in the tree~!

Tracie , Ben and I were out in the yard and he wanted to get into this tree. So with the help of Mom he sat on top of this branch and was so happy.. First he is the king of the rock pile and now he is high in the tree.. This boy has no fear.. Told Tracie look out ~ we would have to get a ladder to get him out when he gets to the top.. But maybe not, when Tracie was a little girl she would always climb up big tall trees and was able to get down herself.. Monkey's must run in this family.

Here he is investigating an old chicken coop...it's leaning really bad and almost ready to fall down..

We played Thomas the Train. His favorite train right now is "Hero".. I bought him a bunch of learn to read books about all the trains that is in Sodor.. He loves to sit and listen to me reading. I'm trying to teach him some words so he can learn how to read himself.. He is learning slowly..

This morning has been a slow morning.. Got up at 6 to watch the Ryder Cup Golf match..U.S.A. lost by 1 point.. It was a good match and I enjoyed seeing Zach Johnson from Iowa play a good game. It will be in the U.S. in two years.

Got all my sewing things off the porch that is next to the kitchen.. It's not heated and needed to go back into the sewing room upstairs. Lug ~ lug~lug.. IT's all back upstairs and I put everything away, since I worked so hard getting it cleaned out and then put back in order..Now I need to work on the porch and clean a few things out of there..Goodwill here we come...

It's a beautiful morning and I think I'm going to go outside after lunch and clean out the vegetable garden and then pull the weeds in the perieniel garden.. Lots to do out there especially with cold weather coming on someday.. Get all my hummingbird feeders put away and lawn ornaments .. Haven't seen any hummers for a week now so I guess they are all headed south.. Long journey for those small birds. The snowbirds have been here for a few days.. The Junco's..they are the first winter bird to show up.. My hubby calls them the glorified sparrow.. I said 'No way"... they are a nice bird and they eat the food that drops to the ground.

Guess I better get busy.. Ta Ta For Now..

I'm King of the Hill on the big rock pile...

Here's Ben on the big rock pile yelling his king roar~! R-R-R-Rowl~!~!
He is getting ready to ride on the combine with Steve. This time it's a soybean field.. He's so excited...~!


Here is Steve Martin ready to go tackle the soybeans.. Look he has a walkie talkie and his cell phone clipped onto his sweatshirt.. He is connected...Lol
Ben is so excited. See the rocks next to Ben's feet? While combining Steve said the combine picked up these rocks and they were riding on top of the combine's blades that gather up the soybeans. Not being a farmer I don't know what they are called. So just trust me.



Here is the soybeans before being harvested.. This is the farm where Tracie and Ben live. Ben had a great time and he took two of these pictures .I gave him my camera while he road in the combine.. He took 38 pictures.


Well, I made Chilli when I got home from church.. Got fresh tomatoes out of the garden and some red peppers. It is all ready to eat now and it tastes so good.. my husband usually makes the chilli and after he heard what I was doing he came in to supervise.. So now it's been inspected, slowly cooked and I can hear him in the other room ~ his spoon clinking on the side of the bowl to get the last drop out ...He must of liked it..

Sitting here eating my soup at my computer window I can see the birds.. OH MY I can't believe it~! The Junco's are back.. This is the first winter bird to arrive in the fall before winter. I hope this is not an indication that winter is here... YIKES~!
Oh My goodness, if any of you know the trouble I have had with my fall on the garden hose with Ben and 3 of my teeth were knocked out and crushed into the cement along with my lower lip you will understand just what happened... I took a small bite of bread and my temporary teeth came out.. I went to the bathroom and looked.. YIKES~! with no front teeth that looks awful . I know I'm not suppose to bite on anything ~! . Well good thing the dentist gave me some cement.. I got it out and mixed A with B and mixed them together.. and inserted the cement into the teeth and put them back into my mouth.. Now I'm waiting for the cement to take hold and then I can finish my soup.. Glad this didn't happen at church... But I carry the cement with me wherever I go..I would of just had to rush to the bathroom and perform my mixing there...
There they are back in and secure and now I can get on with my day...~!

Going to Tracie and Ben's house to work on getting things sorted out of her garage , so she can get her car inside...Taking the truck over so we can load it up with the Goodwill stuff.. I'll take it to Goodwill tomorrow.. Have been wanting to get this chore done since she moved in ~ in July.
So today it will be done and Ta Da~!~! her car can go into the garage.

Well, you all have a beautiful Sunday.~! It's 54 degrees here in Iowa and sunny... Very Sunny. Ta ta For Now..~!~!

A visit with Ben to the Waltz'n Meadows goat farm.

I picked up Ben this afternoon from daycare. We first had to stop at the ice cream shop and have his favorite ice cream~ Chocolate Mint... He also has changed his size of cone.. It's used to be a baby cone and now it's the sugar cone...We only get one scoop..We played a game of checkers while he had his cone.. (GranAnnie didn't have one).. He won.. He doesn't know how to play checkers ~ so we played how he thought it should be done and after all the checkers were off the board he announced "I WON">> Lol.. we had fun that is all that matters..
We then stopped by the Waltz'n Meadows Goat Farm where Barb and her hubby Jeremy raise Boar Goats. I brought my good camera Nikon D40 and Ben put the strap around his neck and off he went snapping pictures.. He took almost 30 photos and they were all really good. It almost looks like the goats were posing for him.. He loves to take pictures. One goat named Cassy had twin babies. He really liked them..

Take a look at this pose.. I should enter this in a contest to ask ~what you think this goat is thinking.. He looks quiet happy and even has a smile on his face...

Here's MaMa Cassy,, with her babies..

Ben is pointing to the babies to show them where their MaMa is standing. They liked to chew on the hem of his new Ohio State Shirt.
He thought that was really fun. He enjoyed the goats and he especially likes to take the pictures.. I think he does a really good job.

We stayed for about an hour and then it was time to go home and think about supper..

Got my house all cleaned today and a lot of windows washed.. It took me almost all day.. Yikes~! With being retired I can't say it will be nice to have it clean for the week=end.. I have everyday off and the days just run into another day except for Sunday.. Now that's the day saved for God.. I love going to church and see my church friends.

Tomorrow Dave and I are going to an auction. My friend ~ Leone Coons who died this year at 102 ~ this is her belongings. Her grandchildren have gathered it all together and it's all on wagons ready for the sale tomorrow. I'll go for a little while just to pay my respects.. I miss her so...she was fun to talk with and we always had bible study once a week.She drove her car until she was 100. She had a small garden and froze strawberries after she herself picked them.. She was a "I can do it myself" kind of gal.. She had a beautiful flower garden and loved it if you took a walk with her around her garden so she could show off all her flowers. I'm sure there will be lots of people at the sale tomorrow and one can hear lots of stories about Leone and her husband John.. he died 14 years ago. It will be fun to hear all the stories that people remember. John was a farmer and Leone was a school teacher.. She taught in a one room school house when she was young and then when she got older she taught in the public school in Springville.. Iowa..

Ben will be riding the combine tomorrow with the boys... Tracie called me this evening and said Albert called and told her they would be combining the soybeans at her place tomorrow.. He said Ben could come and ride with them.on the combine. It's going to take two days to combine all those soybeans where Tracie lives. Ben will be in his height of glory.. He called me and said "GranAnnie ~! I need the camera"... What a boy~!

Have a great Saturday everyone... Ta Ta For Now~!

No Pre-School today GranAnnie

Tracie , my daughter called me this morning .. at 7:15.. I'm still sleeping.. She asks "Mom can you come over and take Ben to school?"...Alarm didn't go off so I don't want to be late for work.." I told her "Sure I would be right over." So I quickly got out the door and drive the 4 miles to her house.Thank goodness. Ben is sitting watching Toy Story with his Buzz Light on his lap and Nibbles his beloved rabbit.. How cute is that...
I give him his clothes to put on ~ far be it that I get to dress him anymore.."I do it myself"....~!~!
Give him his yogurt to eat for breakfast and his vitamin... So while he does that I help get Tracie out the door.. Now it's 7:50 and Ben needs to get to school.. So I tell him PaPa Dee's coming over and we need to get in the car.. He jumps up turns the TV off and sails out of the house... WOW~! that was easy... I grab Nibbles his stuffed bunny that has to go wherever he goes. and his back pack and run to the car to get him seat belted in the car.. Pa Pa Dee Dee comes in the drive and I give him the checkbook.. He is going to a farm sale today. Ben is excited that he gets to see Pa Pa Dee Dee.. Kiss/Hug.
Off we go out the driveway and drive north to Central City.. We get to the school and Ben is NOT wanting to go... Oh my,, what to do.. I see the window open to the toddlers area and I tell Ben lets go say "Good Morning'.. Oh that was a good idea~! Distraction is always good.. He runs over to tell everyone "Good Morning".. and then the teacher says to hurry inside so he won't be late for his class... So off we go inside and into the PreSchool room... Oh No..~! he doesn't want to be here.. He is clinging, he is protesting, he is wanting out the door... ~! I notice that there is no fire extinguisher in the red box.. I tell Ben..."Oh look the fire extinguisher is gone".. Pa Pa Dee Dee, has extinguishers on his tractors ~ so he knows how important they are... I tell Ben,,"You need to go tell Ms. V , (his teacher) that the fire extinguisher is gone..and help her find it.. She is surprised.. So the whole class goes on a hunting for the extinguisher.. in the meantime it's time for me to escape.. I wave to Ms. V and off I go.. I look back through the window and Ben is looking intently for the red fire extinguisher. LOL. Yeah~! I love distractions...
I got out to the car after that whirlwind adventure and sat and took a long sip from my coffee cup.. Put the car in drive and now I'm home and it's so quiet.. I have on my MercyMe Cd and all is well in the land of GranAnnie..
You all have a great Friday~! Ta Ta For Now...~!~!

Say Cheese~!

Picked up Ben yesterday at Pre-School. We stopped at Waltz'n Meadows to see the Boar Goats.. Barb has lots of them.. As you can see the sun was bright and Ben did his best by looking at the camera and saying "Cheese".. Lol.. Barb called me and said that one of her goats had twins. SO Ben and I will have to stop by on our way home this afternoon to take a look..

Looks like he is putting this piece of grass up the poor goats nose.. Barb has all these goats named and I'm sure this goat didn't mind Ben doing this as the goat ate the grass. Ewww burger grass..

One of the goats has pnemonia and coughs a lot.. Ben said "Goat needs some medicine..he has a bad cough". We had a lot of fun looking and feeding grass to all the goats. I think living in the country has it's advantages..

Beautiful sunny day here in Iowa.. suppose to be 65.. That will be nice and with the sun to give the day warmth it will feel good to be outside.

What did you do to my hotdog Mom?

My daughter sent me this picture of Ben..with his hot dog? Poor guy.. He likes his hotdogs cut a certain way and this is not it~! She said it was suppose to be a shape of a octopus.. I laughed.. It looks like two legs... Well, Ben didn't like it and said "No Octopus for me".. Silly boy.

The weather is so nice 60 degrees this morning and sunny.. Inspiration of cleaning the house after the 3 days of cleaning out the sewing room. Goodwill was happy~ My sister and brother are going to be happy when they receive 5 big boxes in a few days~ and I'm happy.. I can now see my sewing room and can feel like I can sew again.. I have quilts just waiting to be made.. Plus everytime I go to "Crazy As A Loon.blogspot.com" and see her new potholder loom that I want and now I have a spot in this room where it could go easily.

First things first.. it's time to remove the wax on my kitchen/washroom/bathroom floors and then put on the new wax.. It's been needing this attention for along time. I bought the wax yesterday.. Did you know that Wallmart, Hy-Vee (local grocery store) or even Amway does not carry floor finshes ? So I went to a local store in Marion (Marion Brush) that services schools and offices and bought some floor finish for these floors, plus the wax remover. Since I was head custodian at the Springville Schools for 15 years I know how to do this project. So soon and very soon I'll get started on these floors and make them beautiful and shiny again..

Dave is off golfing this morning and it's time to get dressed and get things dusted, vacumned. I need to wash the windows in the living room and take off the screens and store them.. I like to take off the screens in the downstairs of my house to let in the sunshine in the fall/winter season.

It just makes your house brighter.. Don't know where this extra energy is coming from but I best move with it while it's with me. I have so much to accomplish and then I can settle down to sewing...

Pick up Ben at 4 today and then have a great time playing with him... No octopus hotdogs~!

Gal up the road that has boar goats just wrote on facebook her goat had twins.. So I will stop in and let Ben see those baby goats.. He loves them... When we get home here I warned Dave that Ben will be wanting a ride on his favorite John Deere Tractor the ole "A".. and then on the J.D. 530.. I think Ben will want something to do with farming when he gets older. He already loves it so far.. Especially the rides on the big big tractors and combine.

Best get busy ~ the morning is going fast and I best get dressed and onto the chores. Work today and play tomorrow... Yeah~! I like the play part...

Ta Ta For Now~!~!~!

Fall is really here~!

The Sedum is in bloom and the glass ball is reflecting the sun starting to set. Still blue skies with a hint of pink on them from the sun.. The air is fresh and a little chilly..57 degrees.

Have been cleaning out the sewing room. Second day working on all that stuff> Boxes for Goodwill ~ Boxes to send to my sister & brother since they can still do cross stitch and needle point. then bags and bags of stuff going to the burn barrel.. We can still burn here in the land of Iowa. At least in the country.. Tomorrow morning I'm going to go to Post Office and then off to Goodwill. Come home and finish up getting things settled in the sewing room and then I plan on getting a project started with quilting. It will be so much nicer working in this room with everything looking better.

Went out to my garden to look at my pumpkins.. My oh My I have a huge one growing... Ben is all excited ~~ he calls this one "MINE"> He wants to take it home.. Next time he comes I'll take it over to his house.

This evening I caught my first mouse in the trap under my kitchen sink.. Yikes~! he smelled bad. So Fall is really here~!

I found three more pumpkins that are growing rapidly.. They are so beautiful laying along side the green leaves. This pumpkin patch is only from one seed..that I planted in the ground this spring. With all this rain we have gotten this summer ~ the pumpkins have done well.

Am excited this evening.. Amazing Race is beginning it's season. I don't watch much TV > but this is one show I do watch. Should be lots of fun~!

Must run~! Ta Ta For now...

WOW..such a change in the weather.

Here's Ben happy as a lark sitting in his car seat... picture a little blurry.. it was my phone camera. We are going to his house to play games...

Rain, Rain, Rain...yesterday another inch of rain and today it's cloudy with the look of rain again. It's 54 degrees ~ so all is right with the fall forcast.. 4 inches of rain in one week..

Ben came over last night and was as mad as a wet hen...The renter of our farm combined the back field behind our house with out Ben.. He kept say'ing "Put the corn back up".. Being 3 1/2 he has no understanding on how it really is with the corn.. Once it's harvested ~ it's gone. Poor guy, he was having a really hard time. He got to ride on the combine in the other field and was looking forward to doing the field behind the house. I told him next time he comes, we will call and see where they are combining and he could get another ride.. He was still out of sorts,,
"put the corn back up"...

Husband must of gotten up on the wrong side of bed this morning.. WOW~! He is having a lot of issues this morning with the weather and how things are going in the house. The wall phone (land line) broke and not working correctly in it's ringing into the house.. I told him I called the phone Co. to have them come out and take a look. I would really rather get rid of our landline and just use our cell phones.. But he says the cell phone is too hard for him to hold.. Do they make BIG cell phones? Going to town this morning and see if I can buy another wall/message phone.. I bought one through Amazon,com and Yikes it came yesterday... The receiver won't stay on the wall phone. So have to send it back today..

Had a good time with Ben last night ~ took him to his house after supper and we played two games.. Cootie , which he loved and a board game ~ Hi Ho cherry-o~!.. We played several games and he was so happy. He won them all.. He was high fying and dancing all around the kitchen.. When it was time for a healthy snack ~ I got out the child's knife I bought from Pampered Chef and we cut up carrots, grapes, bananas and cheese.. He loved that~! Thanks to pampered chef Ben can do it himself with cutting up things. HE is in that mood with everything. "I do it myself".. PLUS he has just started with the question "Why" .. Last night his question was "Why does God make it rain">>>> didn't matter what I answered it was always "Why"... I knew this stage was coming because I experienced this with raising my 4 children.. So now we are in the "Why " stage... Can you just say 'Because I said SO">>>>> He will be with his Dad tonight until next Wednesday.. and then I'll see him again.

Going to Kalona with my friend this morning after shopping for a wall / message phone. She wants to go and buy some spices and other things while there.. I'm just going there for the ride.

IT's a amish/minnonite community.. I like to go and look at all the quiilt shops..

Have a great Friday everyone... Ta Ta For Now...

Spectactular Sunset~!

Started another project today. I have wanted to learn how to draw ~ so today I got out all my supplies and got started.. This is my daughter ~Jodie and she is holding grandson Ben. So far I have Jodie's arm drawn and part of her shirt and Ben's arm.. We'll see how it goes. While in Pa. my husband's niece ~ Nora gave me a few pointers on what to do and now it's just doing it.. I also bought this book at Hobby Lobby called Complete book of Drawing. That should help me a lot. I'll post it when I'm finished.. It should be a fun project. I have never tried drawing before and have always wanted to do this.. So here it goes~!

This evening while over to Tracie's house the sun was setting.. It was spectactular~! I only had my phone to take the picture. Wish I would of had my good camera. But the moment was there and I didn't want to miss it. The sun was so bright it almost made the sky look like it was on fire. Going to be foggy tomorrow morning . Probably delay of schools for the area.

The corn is gone now and the field looks so bare. The farmers in the area are out in full swing getting the crops harvested. It's that time of year. The air smells of corn being combined, and of dirt. I love fall, the air has such a crisp fresh smell and no humidity.. That in itself is great~! It was good to finally turn off the AC. open the windows and let the fresh air come into the house.

I am reading John C. Maxell book called Encouragement ~ Changes everything. On this one page it says Life ia a great obstacle course, with bends and turns, wins and losses. When you get to the high jump, always remember to throw your heart over the bar---and the rest will follow.. Michele Leonard wrote this.. I have to chuckle.. when I throw my heart over the bar and the rest will follow,,Kerplunk~!~!

More pictures of the view from brother Leroy's house.

One has to wonder in God's world how it could get more beautiful than this. I could of sat here all morning and watched the sun come up. There is so much to see in this country that is so beautiful ~ one could not see it all in their life time... Everytime I go to my brothers house in Ohio I just love to sit and watch this lake.. It has so many birds that come and go, BIG fish jumping out of the water. Wild ducks with their babies. He even has a ground hog that comes up to the bird feeders.. He is big~! God is good ~ All the time~!~!

The view from my brother,Leroy's house

While in Ohio at my brothers, Leroy's house this is the view that he gets every morning.. The sun is rising and the moisture is coming off the lake.. It was so beautiful. I hated to leave. He has lots of birds that come to his place. Every morning he takes a small bag of potato chips and feeds the ducks.. He said in the spring he had many purple martins come to his purple martin birdhouse.. This large grey heron comes every evening and perches on the end of his boat and sleeps there for the night.. This morning he was all hunched over until he saw me and he raised his head.. Off he flew to find his breakfast.

Today I need to go up and clean out my sewing room.. It's just a mess. I have decided to take everything out and sort it and only put back what I want.. I'm not doing cross-stitch anymore so off it goes to another home, the books, the aida cloth, all the accessories ~ out ~ out ~ out. I have a lot of neddlepoint projects that my brother sent me and now that he is living in South Carolina now I'm going to mail it all back to him...
I have been very busy reading all the blogs I follow. It's so interesting to read them all.. Very time consuming..but enjoyable.

David Martin rents our 40 acres and last night the big combine came with the wagons and semi-truck.. All the corn has been harvested and everything is gone this morning. The field looks so bare and now I can see for miles again. Won't be long ~ we will start seeing pheasants ~ deer ~ turkey and hopefully the quail will be back.. I love to hear it's song "Bob White"....


Time to get started on the day..Yikes~! It's almost noon and all I have done this morning since 9 a.m. is sit and look at all the blogs.. Thanks to all who post a blog ~ it's so enjoyable reading them. Sometimes it's better than a book..
Have a great Tuesday~!~!

Ben working on puzzles~!

Ben is working on floor puzzles. He did such a great job.. He said "GranAnnie ~ these puzzles are huge..and I like them.

Ben took this picture of Tracie, Rocco and Me..I thought it was pretty good ~ except he didn't quite get me. Too bad.. This is a good picture.

Here is the John Deere puzzle. The tires were the hardest part but he mastered it with lots of concentration.

He really liked this one.. Farming I think is going to be part of his life..

I can't believe he was able to put this one together all by himself.. I was the cheerleader ~ I cheered him on..He liked that and we did lots of high 5's..

Ben is so excited~! He gets to go on the combine~!

Ben was so excited he got to ride in the combine last week..

He took this picture with my camera. He loved looking at all the corn going into the hopper of the combine.

Another picture that Ben took: Combine unloading corn unto the big huge wagon.. He loved it~!

His eyes got really big when he saw all this corn unload out of the combine.

Here's the combine Ben got to ride in for a couple hours. We had a great time...~! He is getting to be very good at taking pictures with my camera.. I need to get him his own, he loves to take pictures.