Catching up and 18 days now....

WAIT,   WHAT??  18 days - I can hardly wrap my head around that.  This is seemingly happening very soon.....  a Captain Obvious statement I know, but wow! It is so hard to believe that I will get to use my passport for the first time in a mere 3 weeks, when I have been waiting for this for  over a year.  Things I learned about in art history are a mere short frantic time away!

All the grandkiddos

As suspected would happen, I had a few things on my plate the last few days, so no updates.  We had such a nice time with the kids here.  Even though it was raining a lot, we found time to get outside a little and we even went to see the Mad-middle son Greg and his family at his little farm.  Greg and Sarah have a little menagerie of animals there and continue to acquire the things to actually be a somewhat self-sufficient little farm.  I am sure the man who lived there for so many years would be happy to see someone use the barn and the land as intended.

feeding the chickens

Checking out the tractor with uncle Jon

Anyway, the weather didn't cooperate much, but we were able to have a nice time anyway.  Ava is just a little doll- such a happy little girl.  She smiles and smiles and is so content to be with anyone who is willing to talk to her, and she had lots of volunteers.  Ella would have stayed on my lap every moment but did manage to get down and play and have fun at Grandma Debi's.  Friday, they even came to see me at school!

Greggy! His poor little eye got bit by a little bug of some sort.

Ruthie was such a smilie girl!

Meanwhile, trip preparations keep moving along.  I have most of my non-clothing items purchased- except since I already have a memory card filled from my new camera- ahem, oh boy- I think I need to get another one, though I have received the 2 I ordered.  And maybe I should get a biggish one.  I am going to clear the things that are on my table in my back room and start laying out the things I want to take with me, so they are all in one place.  I have been putting things on my dresser and frankly, there is no more room on top of it!

This is puddle jumping at its finest

Trying to get everyone to look one way was a challenge  LOL

It is a gloriously beautiful day today here- I think I will have to get out for a walk....  and probably get in some weeding as well.  Coming up this week is a lot of finishing up at school.  I am going to finish up grades, finish cleaning my rooms ( my elem room is in pretty good shape!) and generally making sure I do not have to return to do a whole lot.  I do have to get my orders in by the time I leave, so that is my plan for the first week after school is out.

Grandpa found a bike for Ella!

Ava in the back seat with Grandma Debi

Omg, this cracks me up...

I got in lots of cuddle time with Ava

When Ella said- Let's go this way!- I said- Where are we going- To Uncle Gregs!!!  

It was a lovely weekend and I am looking forward to buttoning up the school year this week.  I can't believe it is here already, that year seriously went fast.

On to new adventures as we finish up others....  This weekend coming: Bayfield baby!!!  My partners in #haveanadventure and I are heading north soon.  I will be finding my joy again.

22 days- time is flying!

I realize that 3 weeks from tomorrow is lift off!  WHAT????  Now it is seeming more concrete and way less abstract.... If I didn't have so much going on, I might be having moments of panic, but I don't have time for panic!

These girls!  AND I hope to get pix of the 4 babies this weekend as well!!!

Tonight the Mad-oldest son and his family are coming!  I have a few groceries purchased and have plans after school to do a bit of straightening and possibly childproofing of the house, since certain adorable little children who may or may not be 3 years old will be here for 4 days.  I haven't seen them since Easter, and the MA has not met little miss Ava yet.  Tax season is a bummer sometimes. Anyway,  we will have company and I need to do a little prep work.  I am hopeful that they will be able to come and visit me at school on Friday!  Rumor has it that one certain little Ella was ready to come and see Grandma Debi and  Grampa Fred several days ago.  :) AND I get to see everyone, school really interferes with my Grandma role with these nearby kids as well.

I did some research and reading last night about some of the art I will be seeing.  I have decided to stop looking at a lot of the stops we will be at, and concentrate on the art of Florence and Rome.  I want to be surprised by some of it, want to just immerse myself in whatever sights and sounds and tastes (gelato in Venice)  that come my way.  I love having things somewhat out of my hands, as this rarely happens.  And it takes a while to surrender for me, but once I do- I'm good.

So Venice apparently besides the architecture and the gelato and such has a Peggy Guggenheim Museum of Modern art contained within it.  Seriously??  I LOVE modern art- I will have to see what happens there.  Might try to sneak a visit in there.  I know this is the country for all thing Renaissance, but if we have a nice collection of notable artists such as Miro, Braque, Picasso, Dali and the like, well.......  hmmmmm.  I'll play it by ear, though.

Anyway, I better get myself rolling here and get ready for school.  I should have some cleaning time today, but the other thing is it is the last day of class for the seniors. A sad/happy day for them, and hard to keep the rest of them on task.  But we have a limited number of days now to get our oil paintings done-ish.  And that is not taking drying time into account- rumor has it oil paintings never dry.  Lol.

Babies are in my future today- going to be a GREAT way to end the day.  A joy for sure!!!

Then a fabulous afternoon!

OH what a great day this turned out to be.

Kayaking in Smith Lake

I love to have these different adventures during my day---  all sorts of them.  Now some people may just think of this as "life" or "the weekend" but I like to frame my days in terms of adventures....  because that is what  a joyful person such as moi likes to do.  

Little cabin in the woods

I was really happy to have my good friend the Mad-Science teacher come and visit and go for a walk.  I gave her a mostly complete tour of the ranch, but for actually entering the Way-Back field (as opposed to the field and the back field) and the Pine Plantation.  Mostly she wanted to see the cabin.  

woods road

She was very impressed with it, which the MA was pleased to hear, and I hope she and her hubby can come back soon where they can be given a detailed account of the making of it by someone who paid attention, which was not me most of the time.  HAHA.  

Retaining wall by the cabin

She loved the stone fence thing here and all various pieces of craftsmanship that have gone into it.  I guess it is fine, but I really preferred the rustic path up to the cabin that was there before....  but since it is not mine (HA well technically it truly is, but that is another story)- I guess I should say that I don't feel a lot of ownership in it, it's all good.  I also say that if one is going to nag at ones spousal unit about taking cabin photos, one should clear the crap off of one's porch so it looks picturesque and photo worthy, but someone is not a particularly visual person so he doesn't see that sort of thing.  

Anyway, it was so nice to walk with someone!!  And no bugs and no mosquitos (which are their own category of irritating) and lots of singing birds and of course the spring peepers.

So!  Back to my adventures:  I got to kayak!!  It was a perfect day, even if a little windy.  And yes the water was cold and I was careful.  I got a wetsuit to wear so I can go this early for my paddles, and I did not regret having that on at all.  It was plenty warm, but I wasn't too hot.  I did get really thirsty, and I am glad I had water.  Turns out when I took it off, the suit was soaking wet.  Go figure, right?  Lol. 

I did find myself starting off with some major claustrophobia, as this thing - as it is supposed to be- is tight!!  and right up around my neck.  eeeeekkkk!!  I have issues.  But as I was sloshing around in the water, with my crocs and my little neoprene booties I was surely grateful for the protection.

This is not nearly as cute as my bare feet sticking up out of my kayak!  

Paddling was just awesome.  To be out in the quiet - NO boats were out- and all of the wildlife that I tried to sneak up on to with no luck.  I saw lots of ducks- Mallards, wood ducks, mergansers and some others I couldn't see well enough, but that was in flight.  Now that I have a feel for where they hang out, I will be prepared for them.  And I will try to be even more quiet....  I can be if I want.  And I thought I was, but they must sense the vibrations or something.

I cannot begin to describe the peace that I feel on the water or the way that my muscles immediately remember what has to be done.  My brain slips into a calm that happens very rarely, and I never have the thoughts of being insufficient, or that I am not doing enough for myself or others, or worrying about things that I have no control over.  It is the perfect meditation and I am in my artistic zone.

Getting a new camera is a blessing and a curse.  When I see something I want to just capture the image, and not have to stop a moment to remind myself to check the settings and figure out which button to use to change the f-stop, or all the things that are not quite automatic yet.  The blessing is that the images that are emerging from this camera make me smile.  And my new editing program is absolutely amazing.

But I still do have this wonderful phone camera that doesn't let me down either- sometimes I just have to use it for the speed!  

Smith Lake county Park

I got off the flowage after just and hour and 20 minutes as the wind amped up and I decided to call it an afternoon.  It was a lovely thing, but sometimes you just have to know when to say when.  The good news is that today I am picking up my new baby kayak!!!  And so people who want to go 'yaking with me- I have a second one meow!!!  And I have dry bags, PFDs, paddles and may (if I have something in the house) provide snacks as well  Lol.

So, after returning the MA's truck to him and found that he was going to be gone AGAIN until 8 or 9 pm (I don't care if you think I am being selfish and uncaring- I'm tired of tax season.  And he gets lots of sympathy, so don't have too much pity, lol)  I put out a pathetic text to my mad-second son and asked when a good time to come over would be!!  I miss those babies, and haven't seen Greg and Sarah for a couple weeks and I missed their faces.  As well as needed some company.  So the next adventure: holding babies and playing with Greggy!!

Ruthie!!   

A typical Oswald type day- get all the projects started!

This child is obsessed with tractors!!

I got to see the animals and pet the doggies and see the new berry patch being fenced in....  just so much fun to hang out with them for a while.

Anyway, that was my good day yesterday- I am thrilled to say that I do not feel the effects of kayaking in the LEAST.  I am so grateful for the school gym and my weight lifting- it really gives me the ability to do whatever I want and do it well- well at least well enough!  So off to a new day, it is about time for me to go get the truck, pick up some tax returns from the Phillips office, get my new kayak and pick out some accessories for it, get horse feed, and then get home for lunch.  Lol!  Ambitious I know. #haveanadventure

But that is the joy of the weekends and spring!

The kids and grandkids-

This whole Gramma thing is a serious hoot!  And I am so in love with these little people!!  Everytime I get a picture of one of them, I just melt a little.  I got a pic of little Greggy with his mama last week, and I seriously teared up.  He is such a cute little thing and wow is he an observer of his life!  Interesting how you begin to see things about their little personalities already at 2 months of age.  Anyway, visits with the kids have a whole new dimension, now!

Playing the piano with dad

Anyway, I digress.  I was fortunate enough to hang out for a day or two with both of my farther-flung children and their off-spring.  I stopped at Jon and Sarah's on the way to Missouri and at Greg and Sarah's on the way back.  I know Missouri to Park Falls by way of Waukesha may seem unusual, but there was a grandchild to see, so there was no missing that little trip!

Ella likes her block towers

First time she crawled into Manny's kennel and opened and shut the door!  LOL

Good morning!!

Things are looking good for both sets of parents and children, and it was a nice trip.  I helped Sarah and Jon with their garage sale, hung out with little Miss Ella and in general had a nice time being with them.   After the trip to Missouri, I stopped back in Janesville to pick up some things that I decided did not need to be dragged all the way to Missouri and back (like some extra tomato plants) and the things I picked up for the MA at Menards (or maybe it was Home Depot- they all look the same to me) and I drove ANOTHER hour after putting in 6 on the road before that.  Little Greg is doing so well, getting so big!!  

Morning selfie with Ella!

Morning selfie with Little Greg

LOVE that little furrowed brow

And we had a nice time snuggling.  I also got to snuggle with these two- what can I say, I am very popular.  :)

It was nice being in Waukesha and spending a little time with Sarah and Greggy and helping out where I could so the parentals could do some things that are hard to do if one person is on baby patrol.  I also babysat the little guy when Sarah had an event to attend and Greg was not getting home from work for a few hours.  He has his fussy times still at night, but it was fine.  We all have our fussy times!!

Full disclosure:  I was so tired from traveling, I only got phone pictures of Little Greg and NONE of my Greg or Sarah!  I was horrified.  Lol. It was a surprise to download those pix and figure out what I did.  Oy.

I could die this is so cute.

Whew he's sleeping!  :)  He was a lot of fun to be with, he does like being held!  

You will notice that Gramma Debi likes to take morning selfies with the little ones!  It makes me happy!!

I stayed through Saturday morning, and then drove home. I had exactly 3 days to then prepare myself, my home and my refrigerator (I was gone for 9 days) for company for the 4th of July.  Jon and Sarah came up on Wednesday night, so we could go for a little trip to the Wildwoods on Thursday and they stayed through Sunday.  That was a very nice amount of time for them to be at our house.  I wish I had a pic of what Ella learned to do!!!  Climb the stairs!  Lol, and she was darn good at it too.  

Learning to negotiate the little step between the kitchen and living room

She loved sitting in the little chair that Great Grandpa Oswald made for her dad and uncles

Grandpa snagged her as she was crawling by!

What is this thing, Grandpa Fred? 

LOVED swinging!

The Wildwoods in Minocqua is a little zoo that I have blogged about before.  I like it there, especially the tigers and the aviary!

Not sure about the goats

This picture cracks me up!!  "DAD WHAT ARE YOU DOING, HERE??"

Ella LOVED feeding that camel

Crackers are much appreciated by the camel

Thinking maybe the goats are ok

This partially albino deer was happy to get crackers

I dogsat Manny when the kids went to visit friends

The boy still smiles on cue for the camera!!

And they are headed for home!  See you soon!!

Anytime spent with the kids is a time of joy!  Until next time, be a  joy giver!!