Endless Apricots and Grandchildren
The past week has been all about apricots and grandchildren, ha ha. My larger apricot tree out front is shedding all of its apricots, about a gallon per day right now, with NO END in sight! (The smaller tree is a little ways behind in production . . . )
Not doing much here. Just moosin' around.
This was me zooming in quite a bit to try to capture the osprey that was hovering and helicoptering over the waterfalls, looking for something to eat.
Abby made up a little song and it went a little something like this, "Sitting on a horse's butt is fun, sitting on a horse's butt is fun, oh sitting on a horse's butt is SO fun!" And then lots of giggles.
Gwen was shy here because a man volunteered to take our picture together. She didn't want to look at the camera.
After we finished down at the river, we went and got snow cones. Abby found us a perfect spot to eat them and rest in the shade. It was already 94 degrees and it was only NOON.
Later in the afternoon, while I rested on the couch, the girls danced for over an hour to all the Disney songs we could stand. I was happy to not be moving very much. It was pushing 100 degrees outside. It was comfortable inside, but I didn't want to rock the boat.
When the Disney songs were getting tiresome (at least for me), I pulled out a new book that I bought a few days ago to share with Abby. After all, she is always wanting to know or practice some knock knock jokes. Can you just see her excitement?! :)
I set up a much smaller sprinkler on a section of the lawn where it was dry. The size of the sprinkler this time was much more inviting, especially for Gwen. They loved trying to get a drink from the sprinkles spraying everywhere.
And then finally it was time for bed. (Sigh of exhaustion . . . coming from me of course)
Flossing his teeth . . .
What a cute cheezer grin. :)
I even snuck in a couple of screenshots as the girls talked to Amber and Weston earlier this afternoon.
Lucky guy, getting in a nice Sunday afternoon nap.
This is the view from Weston's apartment complex down in San Antonio. Looks like a bit of a storm is about to go down.
Mocha: quick to learn new tricks, adventurous, loves to be around most people, but is also dominant and protective of Benson and Kylie.
Koda: more relaxed, very independent and doesn't really care about the action, slower to learn new tricks and is more stubborn, but still affectionate.
I think this is Pippin (Bunny #1)
Every evening, as the heat from the day is just starting to calm down, and the girls are finally in bed, I am somehow reminded that I need to go out and clean up the apricots. They drop down to the ground when they're ripe, and unfortunately they are all over the front sidewalk. Those that drop into the bark, the grass, and the plants fare much better than those that drop down to the concrete and suffer all sorts of bruising. I have to clean them up daily otherwise it just makes a big mess on the sidewalk and who wants that?!!
Usually while I'm picking up apricots, I am talking to Scott at the same time. :) So that makes it better. I say to him every night, "Guess what I'm doing?" He usually falls for it and says, "What?" To which I reply, "Picking up apricots again." Ha ha ha
As for grandchildren, I have had both the privilege and the exhaustion of caring for them while Amber is down in San Antonio visiting Weston for a few days. Weston's mom, Kathy, and I have shouldered the responsibilities together, splitting up the 5 days into manageable chunks. They are not horrible children by any means. And Kathy and I are not old and frail. But let's just say that I am much older than I used to be when I had young children of my own. And when you add 100 degree days into the mix, with no air conditioning, it gets a little harder. Last night I was so exhausted after I got the girls into bed, and the kitchen cleaned up, etc. that I did not have ONE MORE OUNCE of strength or gumption to go out and pick up those dumb apricots. So I didn't.
Walking to and from church this morning, we had to pick our way around all the apricots on the sidewalk. As we came home and Abby noted all the fruit lying everywhere, Gwen, ever the spunky and hilarious-yet-crazy girl, said very emphatically, "I stomp on them!!" (and promptly stomped on an apricot and smashed it flat and sticky all over the sidewalk) LOL
I said, "Let's not squish them, honey, it just makes a big mess. Let's pretend they're bombs and we have to tip toe around them and not touch them. . ." They both liked that idea. They have very creative imaginations already, so it worked like a charm.
Here's some of the fun I've had with the girls this week.
I showed the girls how fun it can be to run through a sprinkler. Gwen was scared of it, so I taught them that the sprinkler was chasing them when it arched the one way, and then as it "ran away" they could chase it right back! They loved that and had lots of giggles.
And they loved eating frozen Gogurts (yogurt in a tube). Personally I think that they taste a LOT better frozen rather than just refrigerated.
Gwen with her cute sunglasses on.
Yesterday I took them down to the river in downtown Idaho Falls before we melted in the heat. We walked along the greenbelt and enjoyed all the decorative benches and outdoor art as we went along.
Taking a short water break with the beautiful temple in the background.
Still later that same afternoon we ventured outside and filled up some storage totes with water to splash around in.
For dinner I made some sprinkle pancakes as well as some chocolate chip pancakes, since the girls couldn't decide (or agree) on which one I should make. So I did a few of each. Add some fresh summer fruit on the side and some sausage links and BINGO! Success! The girls ate and ate and ate.
What a day.
Today (Sunday) has been more relaxing. We've stayed on top of the heat, and with a lovely church service and plenty of beautiful sacred music to listen to both before and after church, I'd say that it's been a wonderful day together!!
Later this evening, after dinner, I'll be taking the girls back to Kathy's for the last night before Amber gets home tomorrow (Monday). I will miss them. But I will enjoy the quiet evening tonight and I'll be able to get some things taken care of tomorrow that need my attention.
In other news:
Scott asked me to go take pictures of his new classroom so that he can wrap his head around how to organize his space and get ready for school to start soon. So I went over to Skyline High School and the secretary opened up his room for me.
Ummm, there's nothing in there!
Apparently they ordered new carpet and it's on the slow boat from China. Even the janitor wasn't sure when it would arrive. I'm going to check in with them later this week and see if the carpet has been installed and the furniture put back. If so, then I'll go back over to take some updated photos for Scott.
I also hung up another hammock. This new one is a double. So if anyone wants to come hang out with me, just come on over! As long as it's not too hot outside . . .
I also had several appointments to try to get on top of my carpal tunnel issues in the my right forearm and wrist. I saw the physical therapist on Tuesday, had a targeted massage on Wednesday, went to the chiropractor on Thursday, and then back to the PT on Friday.
The PT had me try some exercises to do at home. I didn't like them too much, but I did them anyway. The massage helped somewhat, but then it always does.
The chiropractor was amazing. After doing an adjustment, he used a vibrating instrument, sort of like a handheld wand with a flat rubber end and he did some vibration all over my upper forearm close to the elbow. I need to do that again and get some clarification on what he did exactly because it was AMAZING! I had had pain all day that was around a 5-6 on the scale of 1-10. But when I left his office and for the rest of the day it was hardly noticeable at all! He also put on some kinesio tape and that felt really helpful.
Friday, I went in early for some dry needling with the physical therapist at 7:40 a.m. Dry needling is something I had never heard of before until he told me about it on Tuesday. It's sort of like acupuncture, but they hook it up to an electric current to sort of pulse the muscle in the hope of relaxing it. I guess some muscle/tendon pain can be caused from a muscle being in sort of a contracted state. The targeted current is supposed to relax that contraction and help it to "re-set".
I was very brave. It helped that it was Dr. Nate Hunsaker in charge of my care. He's in our stake presidency and is such a kind and caring man.
If you're not prone to queasiness with needles, you can watch this short video that Dr Hunsaker took for me. It shows what the current does to my muscles. We did 5 minutes in one area, then 5 minutes in another area.
Today, Sunday, I'd say that some symptoms of my carpal tunnel have improved, but some pain is still definitely a part of my life. This coming week I have a couple more appointments that will hopefully help to bring some resolution to the issue. I would HATE to not be able to play when Scott and I go up to Coeur d'Alene next week. We want to do some paddle boarding, bike riding, etc. and I need my arms in good condition!!
I did NOT get any painting done this week as I would have liked. I've had to take a break. I have literally forced myself to take care of myself by NOT painting. It's reeeeallly hard to "not to".
But, YES . . . Scott will be home sometime NEXT WEEK!!! We won't know until probably a day or two in advance as to when he will be flying in and on what day. But the plan is for us to go up to play in Coeur d'Alene for as many days as we can squeeze in before he has training meetings (for online teacher education at the high school) on Aug 18 and 19.
And speaking of Scott, he had some excitement a few days ago. If you're scared of spiders, you might not want to watch this. But they had a tarantula trying to get into their little quonset hut!! Scott was able to capture it (thank goodness) and put it into a box. Ewww! No thank you!!
I caught a few screenshots of Scott during the week as usual. I love sneaking pictures of him. They make my day!!
He was having fun dancing to some song he was listening to while talking to me.
And when I talked to Kylie in Italy this week, I learned that not only have they adopted Bunny #2, but a day or two later Kylie picked up Bunny #3. So now they have 2 puppies and 3 bunnies. Those numbers might be higher in the not-too-distant future, ha ha.
And this is Bunny #3 - no name yet.
Bunny #2 is only about 3 months old and was very malnourished. He is a male (as is Bunny #1 Pippin), but we are not sure about the gender of Bunny #3. I don't have a picture of Bunny #2 yet . . . but Kylie is doing a great job of nursing him back to health. And she is happy to be busy and to feel like she has a purpose. So for that, I'm happy for her!! :)
LASTLY:
Today was a wonderful Sabbath Day. Abby and Gwen were just so precious all day long. They got along great. They hung out with me in the living room for almost 2 hours this morning just listening to sacred Sunday music as they danced and played before church. They were sweet and reverent during church. And these pictures pretty much sum up the entire day.
This was right before I took them up to Weston's mom and dad and while I was preparing dinner.
After I dropped them off at the Whitworth's, I went over to see my mother-in-law Coy. She's been having issues with her heart (way too much A-fib for anyone's liking) and isn't able to do as much as she would like to do. I dropped off some muffins that I made late last night and some fresh fruit and we had a really nice visit.
I had been talking to Scott as I drove from the Whitworth's over to his parent's house, and he said before we hung up, "If you're hanging out just talking about stuff, call me. I'd love to be a part of that too!"
So I did. We had him on speaker phone and we just talked about whatever for a while. It was nice. Almost like we were hanging out there all of us together. :) Soon . . . very soon . . .
This is Coy (ha ha I'm so sneaky at taking pictures) checking on her beautiful flowers out front, right as I was getting ready to leave. I love her so much. She is a strong and wonderful mother, full of wisdom and good advice. I'm glad she's still around to talk to. XOXO
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