January 27, 2014

Dinner.  Tonight we had spaghetti and homemade sauce.  I make pretty good sauce, and I make a bunch and freeze it.  The noodles, however, have always been store bought.  And they can be undercooked (usually) or overcooked (not so often, I'm usually in a hurry to eat).

So tonight we had homemade noodles.  (Thank you James and Solitare for Clyde's Christmas present.)

I took one look at what he was doing, and thought "this is a mess....Store bought have to be easier".

But then, he cooked them, AND cleaned up the mess.  So pretty good!

 

Now, I suppose he's going to make lasagna noodles, and I'll have to make more sauce since that was the last container.

January 26, 2014

OK, next grandchild.

No more grumbling about school discipline.  Maybe someday I will write about my thoughts about homeschooling.  Thank goodness I don't have any kids still in school!

So Friday night, I took Gabe home and picked up Miss Molly.  She wanted to come out.  I thought there would still be snow on the skate park, so we didn't bring the skateboard.  That was a big fail, there's no snow on the skatepark.!

Instead, we fed the ducks.  And there were a lot of ducks.  Molly had to wade thru them and drop the cracked corn in little piles.  The ducks were pretty aggressive about the food!.

As you can see, they came right up to her.  The big one in this picture tried to take the bag away from her.

After the ducks, and hot chocolate we went home and painted.  Then on the way to taking Molly home, we stopped at Wendy's for lunch.

Grandpa brought his Kindle.  I have to say that since he got that thing, he isn't very good company.  He's always reading now.  But it sure is a lot quieter around the house too.

Miss Molly.  Her shirt says "if mom says no, ask dad".  That's pretty much how it goes at that house.  Molly has had her dad wrapped around her little finger since she was a day old!

And me.  Molly took the picture.

January 24, 2014

Babysitting, schooling, teaching...

Yesterday and today, I have Gabe.  He's not in school, because he's suspended.  He is not being rewarded with time with Grandpa and Grandma because he has school work to do.  Only, the teachers that were supposed to email the assignments to Bekka took them to the office instead.  So she had to go and pick them up yesterday afternoon, while we floundered around with the History day project.

Just trying to understand the project, and getting information from the kid who was obviously not paying attention (or maybe we weren't asking the right questions in a form that he could understand) was a reach.

Well, digging thru his binder, and with the information that Bekka got from his teacher and typed into email for me, we are off and running.  We have a stack of pages from the web on the topic that are printed out so he can read them and take notes  (another foreign concept that I had to explain to him).

We are on our fourth 45-minute session today of note taking.  We set the timer, he reads and takes notes, and when the timer goes off we get a break.  Breaks consist of being a boy and going outside and playing fetch with Rosie.

If I had to compare Gabe's personality to a dog breed, I would have to say that he is a Lab like Rosie.  He is intelligent, but sit still and concentrate isn't built into his personality.  This kid will be sitting quietly, and all of a sudden he's making noises, shifting around, getting up, perusing the refrigerator with the doors open, looking for a snack.

Like Rosie, he can sit for a treat, but his attention span is limited.

I've already raised one kid like this, and he was 13 before he could sit all day in class.  Gabe has a couple of years to go yet.

And I don't understand why the school system thinks that suspending kids is going to help them make better choices.  Sometimes the suspension is just a reward to the kid for misbehaving.  Just ask Molly who thinks it's unfair that Gabe is spending Thursday and Friday with me.

January 12, 2014 Ducks and skateboards

They look cold and hungry, don't they.

The day dawned bright and clear.  A little cold, but not too bad.  Besides, the sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue.  By the time  we had breakfast, and fed all the animals it was about 10:30.  Still bright and sunny.

We headed out to feed the ducks and go to the skateboard park in Monument, a mere fifteen miles to the west.  By the time we got there, the mountains had disappeared behind a wall of clouds, and it had started snowing.  Also, the wind started up, right from the north pole, and it was getting cold. 

Molly and Grandpa got out to feed the ducks.

Gabe got out too.  He got right back into the truck.  Way too cold!

So on to the skateboard park.  We've had to wait since Christmas, because it's been covered with snow.  Now most of it is gone.

Gabe sorta on his skateboard.

Molly on her skateboard.

The white dots are snowflakes.  We went over to Serrano's and got hot chocolate.

Christmas presents that I made

I was busy getting ready for Christmas, but I couldn't post these until the girls got them. And we had a delayed Christmas yesterday, so that everyone could be here.

I made clothes for the fancy Nancy dolls that I gave a couple of years ago, or rather pajamas and a robe.
Three different sets.

1.

2.

3.

Then, I found leggings and shoes at Walmart, and added t-shirts to complete the outfits.

1.

2.

3.

Then, Cordelia wanted a doll bed.  Boy, those things are expensive!  Even on Amazon, for the American Girl sized dolls.  So I found instructions on the internet, and this is what Grandpa and I came up with.  He made the trundle bed and painted it, then I painted on the decorations, made the mattresses and pillows and quilts.

Turned out quite nice I thought.

Isis didn't have a skirt made out of this tinkerbell material, and I had a pair of purple clogs, so I finished it off with a pink peasant top.

Then Luna wanted a Disney Princess doll, and they were reasonable.  (I mean, American Girl dolls are expensive, and Fancy Nancy was discontinued a couple of years ago, so they are also expensive now).

I got her a Belle doll (they are toddler versions of the princesses) and are smaller than the Nancy dolls.  There are also NO. PATTERNS. for making these doll clothes.  I had to adjust the 15' baby doll patterns to fit.  Hopefully, by next Christmas that problem will be remedied.  So this is what I cam up with:

t-shirt and pants:

A dress cut down from the 18' doll patterns, and the sunglasses, straw bag, and hat are accessories for the 18" dolls that I found at Walmart, but they fit just fine.

And pajamas from the baby doll pattern:

So, the 4 girls now have some fashionable doll clothes, and I'm done until next year.
Or maybe I'm just done!

September 29, 2013 Misc

Another month almost gone, and I didn't post but once.

So here's some pictures I took to post, and never got around to.  The flowers a couple of weeks ago.  The sunflowers are gone, I've chopped down the stems, and what heads that were left with seeds on them are on the ground for the squirrels and the small birds.

Petunias:

We took the kids to feed the ducks one weekend.  We've gotten smarter, and now I have a 50 pound sack of cracked corn in the garage to feed to the birds.   Much better for them than the stale bread.

Molly being stylish--she had a new beret from the Army Surplus Store, and her cowboy boots on.  Sometimes I really love their choices!

The trees in the morning as the sun rises.  I like the way the sun hits the tops, making them glow and the way the glow progresses as the sun comes up more.  This is a sweet time for photographs because the light is so good, and gives everything a golden glow. 

Even the horses!

I had planned to post pictures of our trip to Castlewood Canyon today.  I thought the trees would be turning and it would be pretty.  This was a major park visit fail.

The dogs haven't been walked since sometime in February.  They were very bad.  Gnarly pulled out of his collar and took off.  Rosie tried to take off, but I managed to hold on to her.....barely.  She was freaking out because Gnarly was gone!

As I was trying to get Rosie back into the truck so I could help Clyde chase Gnarly, I overheard several people coming up the trail talking about this big Newfoundland that looked just like a bear!  Well, I knew that Clyde and Gnarly were still in the park!

I finally got Rosie to jump into the truck, and I shut her in and took off after Gnarly.  They were back up by the visitor center. 

Clyde yelled to me to get the truck.  Oops, Clyde had the keys, so he dropped them in the road for me to come and get, and continued on after Gnarly, who was now heading east towards the entrance to the park and Highway 83.

I snagged the keys and ran back to the truck.  No easy feat on the uneven terrain with the cactus scattered all around!.  Got the truck, and headed to the entrance.  Gnarly recognized the truck, and stopped as I pulled up next to him and got out.

Poor Clyde wasn't very far behind, he came up and put the collar and leash on Gnarly and guess what?
Gnarly was ready to go for a ride!

Needless to say, Clyde and I were huffing and puffing, so the trip ended then.  No pictures, no walk.  Just Gnarly merrily leading us on a chase thru the park!

I'm calling a dog trainer tomorrow and we're starting lessons.

August 31, 2013 ZOO Day!

Grandma scored a win today at the zoo.  Got up at 6:30, and saw that this was the first day of the balloon fest.  No competition at the zoo today!  Plus it was Saturday, and they open for members only at 8 am.  So we would have an hour with the zoo almost to ourselves.  So.........I woke Grandpa and the kids, and announced "We're going to the zoo today!"

And I was right.  The place was deserted.  And the animals were moving around.

Following is pretty picture intensive.  The flowers were still blooming.

We saw a pea hen with her baby......

The bamboo was growing.....

The plane beside the black rhino exhibit.  Jumbe, the rhino has only made it out to his display pen a couple of times.  He is very shy.  We watched the two attendents try to coax him with food, but alas, he heard a motorcycle, and turned and went back inside!

The meerkat sentry.  I called "here kitty, kitty" and he turned and looked at me!

The zoo is populated with life size sculptures of the animals, and the kids really enjoy playing on them.  Here Gabe is sitting on the baby elephant's head while Connell plays monkey with the tusks.

This elephant has ears that flap, and you can talk for him....they like this one too!

Here is a realistic statue of an elephant walking out of the plants at the elephant exhibit.  It is actually a part of the fence, and he seems to really be walking out.

Molly and Connell sitting on a leopard....

Molly by herself..

The wallabies were out, and very friendly.  We could get really close to them, and a zookeeper brought out a couple of babies.

Petting the Wallaby.

The mountain lions were out and about.  Usually, by mid-day it is hot and they are all asleep.  Not this morning.  We even saw one growl and hiss at another one.  Big surprise for the kids, they actually are cats!

Molly....

Connell....

One of the lowland gorillas clutching it's food.  They had just been fed, and were all grabbing up their food and making off with it.  They were definitely not in a sharing mood!

Gabe in the airplane.  This is one of those things that you can play in, and it's right over the rhino exhibit.

Had a really good visit!  And after, they all spent their allowance money in the gift shop, the highlight of their trip!