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Getting older is not for sissies. I'm not a sissy, thank goodness. I'm a physical therapist, mom, daughter, sister, friend, and I am looking forward to "what's next?"

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Frigorific!!

We've started a "word of the day" at our house, to help with Sisi's spelling and everyone's vocabulary.  We take turns suggesting the words.  I prefer to look through the big blue or big red dictionaries and find new words...which is how we found Cacodemon and Frigorific.  You must admit those are way more interesting than Hypocrite or Non sequitur.

No frigorific doesn't have anything to do with "friggin'" to replace a derivative of the more famous f-word.  It has to do with frigid, an adjective meaning 'making cold.'    Brrrr...not a bad thought though in these hot-n-humid days of August.

Speaking of August, here are some interesting photos of our morning glories.  Before you look at these photos, know that I bought only one packet of morning glory seeds and planted all at the same time in the same flower bed along 2 trellises.  We seem to have something odd going on though, as there are 2 colors of flowers that have appeared this month:  purple and light blue.







We think there might be some non-verbal color-oriented communication between the red hummingbird feeders and the flowers on the closer trellis.  But we don't know.  We're just speck-you-lating.  I reckon.

In other news there was a birthday and a peach pie.  You may have seen it on Facebook but here is a new view:


The Player looks very young for his age.  Which is not 1 year old in spite of the candle.  But he looks young.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.


Here is somewhere I went for work this week.  I drive on gravel roads from time to time, but this one takes the cake!   (But not the pie.)


Monday, August 11, 2014

Anti-antioxidants anyone?

We ate so many blueberries on our Michigan vacation that I think we might need to take some Oxidants to balance it out.

We picked blueberries on Saturday right after we arrived, then again mid-week, and once again on our way home.  Last picking was for gifts for friends, parents, and neighbors.  And some for us, which are already eaten or frozen for future pies.

I made 2 pies, fitting a round pie into a square pan as that's all that was available at our rental house.  The first pie everyone cut into square pieces and put neatly on plates with ice cream to enjoy.  By the end of the week, the scene looked more like this:



Ironing man was not the only one using this more efficient method of exceeding his recommended daily dose of berries.

The lake was cold, frigid even, for August.  We heard that there was ice and snow on the beach where we stayed even in May, so no surprise.  The 3 little folks (J'dude, Sisi, and Sisi's friend Duck) swam anyway and Ironing Man was a good sport about playing in the water with them.  I was more of a...sissy.  But I did get in the lake for short periods of time, floating on an inner tube of walking in up to waist high water.  Brrrr...rr...rrrr!



Yes, there are 3 young folks out there in the waves.  It's the first year they could swim out as far as they cared to and I didn't have to worry.  The water was relatively calm (and did I mention cold?) and they are all fabulous swimmers.  And J'dude is very cautious about safety.  So no worries, Mom!


There were beautiful mornings drinking coffee on the beach, and also beautiful sunsets.  Here is my fave.



And there was Laser Tag. All summer I've been telling the kids that in the Kids vs. Adults challenge, "The Kids are going DOWN!" because I had Ironing Man a.k.a. The Sniper on my team.  Sadly it's been a few years since I.M. was in the Air Force and it took him about half the game to figure out how to properly hold his weapon.  So we didn't win.

But later on an Everyone For Herself competition I came in 3rd out of 7...so I felt pretty Wicked!

Upon returning home we had school schedules and school supplies on our minds.  And J'dude looked up the photos of his 8th grade teachers in his yearbook from last year. 

His Social Studies teacher looks uncannily like Jesus.  

So I said "Mr. Social Studies likes to wear flowing robes and go for long walks in the desert."

To which J'dude replied, "And on water."

We didn't see him on Lake Michigan, though.