I am so honored!

I am so honored to have been featured as a journal on the Guest Editor's picks!  Thank you !  Thank you !  J-land is my private escape and I value each and every one of you! My hubby is nagging me to go for a ride on the motorcycle, so I will keep this brief.  But you know I'll have more to say tomorrow!  I am officially off babysitting duty!   Tracey's done with work, so hopefully we will get the baby call soon.  If not, it's going to be a hot, steamy weekend.  Liz is doing stage crew for the musical Beauty and the Beast.  I may head over to see it tomorrow afternoon, maybe I can scare up a neighbor kid to go with me!  She says it's very good expect the character that sings the title song missed her cue during last night's show!!  Wow!  Glad I wasn't her mom! 

We will probably be on Mark's motorcycle all weekend, but like I said, I'll be back tomorrow, must go...hubby will leave without me!!

 

This week Tracey asked me to watch the kids the whole week.  Monday Liz came with me and it's always nice to have an extra hand.  Especially at naptime when I still can't bare to hear Dakota scream his head off if I put him in his crib.  I gather him, his two bedtime stuffed animals, and rock him to sleep.  He's still little and squishy enough to enjoy the feeling only a little one can bring a grandma.  While I am rocking him Jacob can usually wait patiently in his big boy bed for me to lay down with him.  But if I take too long I hear, "D'ma Rose, I need you!  D'ma Rose, I am not yelling!"  I can usually get to him quickly as Dakota usually is asleep in 5 minutes.  Liz takes over rocking duty when she comes to help.  Dakota no longer calls her Iz, he now calls her Aunt La La.  He's a funny kid, he talks more than Jacob did at 18 months, but that is because Jacob was never encouraged to talk, he would point and get what he wanted.  He has more than made up for that, he talks a mile a minute now.  Often saying to me, "remember when we..."  he loves to talk about what we did the day before.

This is Tracey's last week at work as she is due on the 14th.  I watched the kids by myself yesterday, Liz had a date with a girlfriend to go to Chicago.  It rained all day and the TV blew up so we were pretty much stuck indoors.  I rarely use the TV as a babysitter, but depend on getting the boys outdoors to play.  They are typical boys who love the outdoors, including our daily walk to the park.  We were only able to play on the porch and the excitement of our day was when the Electric meter reader came and read the meter.

Thankfully they both went to nap early and the only major incident was when Dakota hit Jacob (on accident) in the face with a toy vacuum cleaner.  Hopefully he won't have a shiner from that!  Jeremy got rained out from work and came home at 1:00 so I was able to go home early.

I was ready too.  Today Tracey wasn't feeling well  (LABOR??) so she stayed home.  I pretty much have been online. I really need to clean my house.  It's been raining for two days and very humid.  Everything feels sticky and wet. 

We did have Jacob at the trailer with us on Saturday night.  He loved theattention and as the oldest he will need the extra time.

Liz is helping with the last play of the season, they are doing Beauty and the Beast.  She's back stage again, and is painting the backdrops today.  Her boyfriend Mike is in New Orleans with their church repairing wind damaged houses.  She wanted to go too this time, but wanted to be around to help Tracey too. 

Here's a picture from her last play the Pride and Prejudice.  She was the aunt.  The costumes were excellent for this one.  She's the kid in the back.  We found her costume at the local Salvation army thrift shop.

Fingers crossed we get a new baby this week!!

This happy guy is my stepson Matt and his wife Brandy's pup Dozer, get it Bulldog, bull dozer??!!  He's only 10 weeks here, at the Father's day parade.  He's so cute and caused quite a crowd to gather. 

Liz is now available to come with me to babysit.  She is finally done with her play stuff and the job she may or may not get isn't until the end of the month.  A friend of the kids always watches the parade from our house and she works down the street at the small family style restaurant.  She is leaving then and offered to train Liz to replace her as the owner only hires direct referrals.  This would be an ideal job for her, the hours are 5 to 7 and some weekends, then she could keep the job after school.  I waited tables for a time and the money can be pretty good. 

These are the friend's twins with Dakota ... I wonder if he thinks they are future dating material!??

Poor Tracey is getting crabby and tired so we are picking up the boys this afternoon so they can come to the campground.  Jacob has the memory of a elephant and asked me everyday if he could go build jumps in the sand with grandpa.  I am going to offer to keep them for the night.  Let it be known that I am not a saint!  My mother taught me that family was about helping each other out.  Without my dear mother my poor children would have been little criminals.  I got divorced right after I had my middle kid, moved in with my folks and proceeded to have Liz.  I was a mess for a few years.  And fortunately for me and my kids my parents never, ever gave up on me.  I owe them much and the way I was brought up you always help out family.  Besides I love chilren, they are so funny and sometimes make more sense then most adults! 

Hopefully when I am old lady drooling in a nursing home one of these little guys comes and visits!  Or at least brings me a rag!

 

baby count down

I've been missing in action which for me is a good thing.  We went to our trailer on Saturday afternoon, I hadn't seen a TV or a computer until Tuesday night.  Good for me, I tend to sit in front of this stupid thing way too long.  Did I miss anything???

Saturday was our club where we camp's annual pig roast.  Mark did not work so we made it in time for the food.  It was a very quiet event this year.  They always have a huge bonfire, I mean huge, and plenty of food and drink.  Since Mark and I don't drink we always get to enjoy the drunk action that usually goes on.  Some of these folks start drinking at breakfast and go way past midnight.  The weather was great and we ended up staying until Tuesday morning.

Since the campground is only a few blocks from Jeremy's house we headed over to Jacob's 3rd birthday party on Sunday.  That was also a drunkfest with some of his biker friends coming over in the early evening.  My poor pregnant daughter in law's patience is wearing thin, she is due any day and doesn't always want to be the place to 'be'.  They have a pool so their place tends to be the spot to hang out. 

I am thinking when she finally has baby #3 and is able to stay home full time she will feel better.  I am glad I've been able to help as much as I have.  She comes home to clean kids, a clean house, if I knew what they wanted for dinner I'd have that ready too!

The picture below is from Prairiefest Parade on Father's day.  Tracey of course is the pregnant one, isn't she cute???  Next to her is my stepson Jim, with Dakota and Jeremy in front.

Poor Jacob didn't have a nap and was super tired.

Me and Dakota...

I am off to catch up

 

montana, grandkids and the campground

Mark and I were supposed to go to Montana this weekend.  His 83 year old stepmother lives in Missoula.  It's been years since we've been there, 1998, when his father passed away.  Since Missoula is not a popular place to fly, airfare is huge.  We planned on taking the extra long weekend to drive, it's a gorgeous drive through the Dakotas, mountains, and the Black Hills.  After Mark's father's death his stepmom went downhill, she has all sorts of health issues, her only family member out there is her son.  So even though we had made plans to go a while ago, she isn't up for the visit.  I am thinking it's her age and that she used to be quite the entertainer, getting older keeps her from doing this.  I am sure she would rather not face us.  It's been a long time, growing older is hard, watching someone grow older even harder.

Mark was quit upset, sometimes he has the tendency to act 2, I mean sometimes Jacob acts older than he does.  He threw a mini pity party, but got over it after I told him he could order the needed starter for his motorcycle.  God men are easy! 

We belong to a small gun club that has an even smaller campground.  Our old trailer is there, it's clean, has a lake & is far enough away to be "away", but close enough to run home if need be.  We went on Saturday.  It was a very relaxing evening.  Quiet & the clear sky starry.

Tried to visit the kids, (Jacob demanded that I bring grandpa next time), but kept missing them or they were napping.  Where they live has horrible cell phone reception, and since they are rarely in the house the landline is useless.  So it's pretty much hit and miss.   Jeremy lives about 2 minutes from the campground so it will be great to take the boys fishing, and boating this summer.  He & Mark had planned on going trap shooting on Sunday morning, but it was rained out. 

I will be watching the boys tomorrow, I was there today, but Jeremy had a rain day and came home early.  I had them in the mud all morning, Jeremy came home just as I was giving them a bath.  Mark is working though, where his job was is dry.  Weather sure is weird.

Now I am home, catching up, Liz has another play, they are doing the Pride and the Prejudice.  She wanted a big part, but was given a small one.  She will be doing the tech crew along with her part.  Her play last week was very funny.  I had a nice time.  This one should be just as good, I hear there is some new talent. 

rain, work and plays...

It rained this morning, this after raining yesterday morning.  Yesterday Mark got sent home from work.  Today thankfully he did not.  No work means no pay. 

I got called in to work to sub for a monitor who went to Galena.  There's a lot of people at work who seemed to have taken 3 week routes and taken vacations time during their route time.  Which to me is wrong.  If your route is only 3 weeks long, take your vacation time later on in the summer.  I didn't complain though, I didn't bid on a route so it didn't negatively effect me.  It actually helped me because I've subbed twice.  Besides I like to save my whining up, especially at work...why whine if nobody listens anyway.

Liz is in a play this evening.  She's in a one act.  Not sure what it's about, pretty sure the kids wrote it so it will be some sort of thing that kids understand or find funny.  I go to show my support, rah!  Actually I enjoy my kid's talent.  My husband is actually the talented one, he was quite the singer in his day.  He had the lead in two plays in high school.  I still find it so wild to have known him in high school and then years later end up marrying the guy.  Life does throw unexpected things your way that's for sure.

Tomorrow I will be babysitting again.  Thankfully, it's not supposed to rain.  Those two boys have to be outside for part of the day or the boxing match starts.  And Grandma gets pretty tired of playing ref!  But the fun always always wins over the normal sibling stuff!  Maybe grandma should teach these two how act!???

 

 

father's day, parades and kids

I had a wonderful weekend.  I even got my husband out to the fest! He hates crowds and gets easily annoyed by obnoxious people and Prairiefest usually has all of these.  Fortunately it rained on Saturday so after a nap we went over long enough to eat some carnival food and watch the fireworks.  The crowds were very small.  The main stage had a band that was delayed because of rain,  because beer is served at the fest a few overly happy people became antsy for the late start.  The powers that be started the fireworks early to satisfy them. Usually I only see the fireworks between the trees from my house.

Liz worked both evenings and her bossy, no nonesense attitude came in handy when dealing with both the drunk 'guests' and the folks that thought they could driver where ever they chose.  I raised that kid right!

We only had few issues with parade day.  Since we live on the Parade route we normally have the same people sit in our yard or in the easeway (which technically isn't ours, we mow and mantain it though).  We look forward to seeing these folks every year.  We sat up chairs in the morning, put up tables and our display made it quite clear that we were having a party in our yard.  Soon up pulls two guys, in an SUV with a kid.  They park in the middle of the street and proceed to unload chairs and two bags.  They did this exactly next to where we had our little party set up.  The rest of the block was totally empty.  First they set up one of those portable tents that people use to block the weather.  Ok, one tent in my yard is ok, then they start to set up a huge tent.  This was too much for my 'never' shy husband.  He blew his stack, and in a not so nice manner asked them to take down a tent, and respect other property.  This must of freaked them both out, because they took down the tents and moved.  I found out later that one of them was on our local school board, good thing I didn't do the yelling, I might have lost my job!  I am wondering whatever happened to common courtesy?

It must be as out of style as disciplining your children, manners and obeying stop signs.

I babysat yesterday.  Things are not perfect yet.  The other sitter, my husband's ex, still is carting the kids everywhere, running her own adult kids to work and court dates, they still are being effected by this and it shows in their behavior, BUT I am only the grandma, and stepmom.  My stepson wants his mother to finish out her obligation to babysitting his children.  She still is taking his money.  I will be watching them again on Friday and Monday.  Thank God my daughter in law will be quitting work soon.  This world doesn't two more angry spoiled kids.  Enough said!