Yep, Time for Another Elmer Post...

I had just walked Jacki out to her car as she was leaving.  As I turned around to go back in the house, I saw Elmer running from the back of the house, swatting his head with his hat and doing quite the "dance."  He'd been in the backyard getting the chicken eggs.

I didn't have to ask, but I did.  "What happened!?"

"God damnit!  I just got stung about 5 times on the ear!  Dirty bastard, that hurts!"

"Oh crap I wish you could have seen yourself!.  That's the funnies damn thing I've seen in a long time!" "Well get in the house and let's look at it."  So we hurried inside and I found a sting on his ear - damn, that had to hurt.  I got out a frozen bag of corn and he wandered around with it for a few minutes.

"I'm running over the hill to get some wasp spray so I can kill those bastards."

When he got home, he sprayed the nest and then started on the outside light fixtures.  I saw some wasps still crawling inside one and asked him if he'd sprayed that one.  He saw the wasp inside the fixture and said he didn't think there was a nest in it.  He then proceeded to walk over and tap on the glass.  What he didn't notice was that there were 4 wasps on the outside of the glass and one nailed him so fast it made my head spin.

"Well you dumb ass, what did you do that for!?"  "Oh shit honey!  You just got it again!"

And he did his wasp sting dance again with the filth pouring out of his mouth, and I tried sooooo hard not to laugh. 

I've laughed about it felt so bad about it all day.  Oh how he entertains me!

Temporary Housing For the Farm?

Is that cool or what!

Anyone Missing a Child?

Friday was really busy down at the Merc.  I had one of my regular guys in who was waiting for his wife before he ordered lunch.  He waited and waited and finally she showed up - with an extra kid.  She had found this 3-year-old wandering outside the neighborhood on Dry Creek Rd.  Wearing only a t-shirt.  No shoes, no diaper, nothing.  She though he might have a slight learning disability as he couldn't talk well but told her that his name was Lucas.  He looked to be of Eastern Indian decent.

Naturally, we all started calling people in the neighborhood asking if they knew any little boys by that name and no one that we contacted knew where he might live.  Mandy had called Ada County when she found him and they came and met her at the Merc.  Finally, the Deputies found out who the parents were and called them.  Mom answered the phone and said she'd be right there.  About 20 minutes later she showed up.  Didn't seem to show any concern, said Lucas had been missing for about an hour and a half.

WTF?

Evidently, they're new up here - and they live on my street.  They're going to need to understand that we don't roll like that up here.  I'm going to make sure that I watch for Lucas and I'd better not see that 3-year-old out wandering the streets.  Luckily, we know where he belongs now.

We got so busy that I didn't get to talk to Mandy to find out what the cops did or said.  Can you believe it????

Joining the Military...

Adam decided several years ago that he wanted to join the military after he graduated from high school.  Kids and their ideas change so I didn't think too much about it until the last 6 months when he decided it was time to talk to the recruiters.  Don't get me wrong, his brother is currently in Iraq with the 116th and I couldn't be prouder.  I love that my boys want to serve their country.

Adam had his heart set on becoming a Marine.  His grampa was a Marine.  His second choice is the Army because he wants to be Infantry.  Now that, I must admit, scares the hell out of me.  I'm not ready to know that he's on the front lines of a war.  But then again, what mother ever is.  However, if it's what he really wants then it's something I'll support him in.

However, we discovered that things have changed.  They've changed more than I could ever have imagined.   With so many men losing their jobs, evidently the military has "upped" their standards.  It's not easy to join, in fact, in downright difficult.  The Marines won't even consider you if you have taken any online classes for high school.  Yep.  If you haven't taken all of your classes from a regular high school, you're screwed.  Adam was so disappointed.  He never would have done online high school if he had known, but then again, it wasn't like this when he started online school.

And the Army, well they did say that if he actually graduates from Boise High, they'll take him if he scores high enough on the ASVAB.  What a shame that our military is taking people who probably don't really want to join, but have to because of the economy, and ruling out those who really want to serve their countries.

Adam spent two entire days just crushed, saying that he doesn't know what he'll do with his life if he can't join.  He's not ready for college yet but will be someday.  I thought the military would have been a wonderful start for his transition into adulthood.  I had no idea that it would turn out like this.  I guess we'll wait and see what happens next spring...

Bucket List...

My friend, Mrs. Vox at If You Don't Like it, Get the Hell Off My Blog - or something similar, just posted about the things she wants to do with her daughter instead of buying her "stuff."  So, she asked about having a bucket list.

I made one several years ago, but it probably wasn't very realistic.  So, I'll try again, with things I think I can probably actually accomplish in my remaining years.

1.  Bike the Route of the Hiawatha
2.  Raise over $10,000 for a charity
3.  Build and live in our barnhouse
4.  Get a wildlife rehab permit
5.  Go on another cruise (or 3 or 4!)
6.  See Belize
7.  Own horses and miniature donkeys
8.  Visit Vermont
9.  Take the kids and grandkids on a vacation
10. Drive across the United States (maybe on Route 66!)

Doesn't that all sound like fun?  I know that I could actually cross at least 3 of those off my bucket list by the end of next summer. 

What's on your bucket list?

Free Flooring?????

My sister used to be married to Bob.  They lived in a cute little "shack" with no power or running water up past Reserve Park.  Bob reminds me of - me.  He loves anything old and is sure that he can find a use for just about anything and everything.

When Linda and Bob moved to Oregon, I went up and helped them move the contents of the shack and several wonderful outbuildings.  I'd love to have one of the outbuildings for a chicken coop.

I drooled the whole time.  Bob had some of the most awesome things stored away.  One thing I remember in particular, was tons of old flooring.  BEAUTIFUL old flooring.  So, when we were in Portland, Bob came to breakfast with us one morning.  I mentioned to him that if he ever decided he wanted to part with it, to let me know as we wanted to possibly buy it for our new barnhouse.

Evidently, Bob is ready to part with some things.  I know that I couldn't have pried it away from him 3 years ago.  But, he said if we would bring a truck over, he'd give it to us.  Oh my God!

Bob thinks the flooring came out of the old gym at the Caldwell High School.  I'm sure it would take some work, but how cool would that be to have that in our barnhouse?  I'm so excited to start this place I can hardly stand it. 

Our count so far:
20 ft. backbar out of the Dry Creek Mercantile - free
old farmhouse sink from the Dubys - free
3 old bar stools from the Homedale Merc - $100 (purchased at a yard sale about 5 years ago)
flooring from the Caldwell High School gym - free

I love that our new barnhouse will have a wonderful history as soon as it's built.  I know there won't be a day that goes by that I won't look at the floor and think about where it came from, or the backbar from the Merc, or the sink from the Dubys.

As soon as we sell our house, we're heading to Portland to pick up our floors...

Thelma and Louise, and Louise, and Louise...

Well, here it is in pictures.  We had such a wonderful time, but what really mattered was that mom had such a good time.  It was, after all, her 80th birthday party!

Mt. St. Helens was magnificent.  So hard to imagine the power of a volcano. 

To my wonderful sisters, thank you for making it so much fun.  To my niece and great niece, thanks for joining us for part of the time. 

And to mom, you're such a wonderful inspiration to us all...

THIS Was Strange...

I'll be writing a post about our wonderful long girl's weekend for mom's birthday, but first I have to write about one of the most bizarre things I've ever witnessed.

While driving to Mt. St. Helens on Sunday, my sister Kate, a total bird-nerd suddenly yells, "What's that?  Are those birds?"  Then just seconds later realizes what she's seeing.  Only now, we're all seeing it.  We watched it for about 45 seconds before they flew behind a mountain.  I handed my camera to my niece Lisa to get a picture from her window and this is it.

It was a commercial airliner, flying low with two fighter jets off the right wing and two more off the left wing.  It was so bizarre.  We watched the news and nothing.  Why on earth would 4 fighter jets be flying in formation off the wings of a commercial plane?  I know that many other people must have seen this.  It looked like the plane was possibly going to land in Portland although we were in southern Washington when we saw it.  Did any of you Oregon people see it?

We even thought of Will and Kate, but they were already in LA.  If there had been a terror threat on board, I'm sure there would have been something on the news.  You know how I love this kind of thing, but I want the mystery solved!

Any ideas?

10 Things I Learned From Mom...

In honor of my mother's 80th birthday (in a few days), I wanted to re-post a "tribute" I did to her several years ago...

10 Things I Learned From Mom…

Use proper English

Never use the word “fart”

Mom will always eat the burned pancake

The person who makes the telephone call, should always be the one to end the call

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all

The words to “Mairzydoats and Dozydoats”

No matter how bad you feel, NEVER complain

That “You Are My Sunshine” is the best song to sing to your kids

No matter how old you are, you’re never too old to have fun

No matter what, mom will always love you

We love you mom!



I'm Such a Scrounge...

Scrounge - Seek to obtain at the expense or through the generosity of others or by stealth

We had some people move into a rental a few doors down about 3 months ago.  She works in the field of chemotherapy as a doctor.  She couldn't find a job here so they packed up and moved to Texas.

Hidden Springs had our annual yard sale a few weeks ago so I wandered over to see what the neighbors might have.  I came to find out that they evidently shopped at Pottery Barn - a lot.  They had a beautiful sisal rug that was 8 x 10 that I really wanted for our living room.  I talked to them on Friday night and they wanted $150 for it (looked it up on the website and new it sold for $300 - on sale).  So, I waited.  Near the end of the day on Saturday, I went back over and the price was down to $100.  I offered them $60 and they took it!  I love how it looks in the living room.

Yesterday as I was heading to work at 7am, I noticed that they had left several pieces of furniture behind and the realtor taking care of the place had put them out on the driveway for the Arc to come and get.  NOOOOOOO!  One item was a rocker that I had sat in and tried out during the yard sale.  It was incredibly comfortable but I didn't feel like I needed to spend any more money.  When I saw they had left it behind I was thrilled.  So, I called the realtor and asked if I could have it and naturally he told me I could take whatever I wanted, but I'd better hurry because the Arc was coming that day.  As soon as another waitress got to work, I told her I needed to run home.  I bolted out the door hoping that the Arc hadn't already come and picked up my treasures.  As I drove up, there he was, loading my items into his truck!

ACK!  I told him the items I wanted and he graciously helped me unload them and put them back on the driveway.  When Ival got home, we walked over and packed it all home.  What a score!  As we carried the rocker home, I noticed the tag said "Pottery Barn Kids" so I Googled to see what kind of rocker I have.  As it turns out, it's a Lullaby Rocker that sells for $600 new.  It's in perfect shape although I'm not fond of the denim blue colored slipcover. 

But I love this cream-colored one.  But, they don't make the slipcovers anymore.

They also had a bench with a rattan seat (in perfect condition) and the tag says "Ballard Designs."  I looked it up and they don't have the exact one on their website, but something similar sells for $569.    Who would spend that kind of money for a bench????  But free?  I'll take it - and paint it white.  I'll put it on our wraparound porch at Jacob Springs.

Last but not least, I got these too.  An outdoor coffee table and side table.  The coffee table is the only thing damaged, it has a small piece of wood out of one of the planks, but I'll paint this too and use it on the porch with the little matching side table.  

SCORE!  How I love to find a bargain - especially when it's free.  I'm not, and never have been a label shopper.  I'm much too cheap.  But, if it's free from the wealthy neighbors, I'm certainly not above scrounging.  So, $1,500 worth of stuff for a mere $60 - which I paid for the rug.  Now if we just had a home at Jacob Springs...