Happy Memorial Weekend

Well, forget free time.  But the trade off is a busy, active and happy family.  I'll take that.  I had several topics to write about all week - no time.  Now here it is, Memorial Day Weekend and besides a small thunderstorm this afternoon, the weather has been hot and sunny; just the way I like it. 
Thursday morning my mother and I did our annual Decoration Day tradition of buying flowers, planting them at the cemetery on my maternal grandparent's and aunt's graves, then going to lunch.  It's really kind of a nice tradition that I enjoy with my mother each year.  This was a hot one, though, and I thought Mom was going to pass out.
Austin has a four day weekend off from work, so he and his gang came up Thursday afternoon and are staying until tomorrow.  Our long weekend has been action packed so far.  Starting with the boys being able to swim in the lake for the first time this season.  Of course, I don't allow them near the lake alone and without life jackets.  And for Landen, his idea of swimming is walking into the water only up to his knees. 

Grandpa Bobby gave Kayak rides.

Logan loves to be thrown off the dock.

I sit and watch, with a glass of Riesling, and take pictures from my reclining lounge chair.  My lake and fire pit seating area has a pink and blue theme this year with only pink and blue flowers.  I worked on that some more yesterday afternoon.

In the meantime, Austin and Melissa met with a real estate agent to list their old house.  We've had this house sold once already, then turned down by the City zoning board, then back and forth with lawyers, and it's a long story.  Suffice it to say, they are now listing it with an agent because we're all sick of dealing with it on our own.  Then they went to look at new cars because they need a bigger vehicle that can handle 5 people and 2 baby seats and a toddler booster seat comfortably.  Baby #3 will be here end of June/first of July and this is now a necessity. 

This morning we awoke to a beautiful morning.  I made french toast and fruit salad and we had breakfast outside on the deck.  Ohhh, it was so nice!

Then to top off the afternoon, Big G.G.'s (Great Grandpa, my dad) boat was delivered to our dock today.  The boys get so excited every year when the boat comes back from winter storage. 

Austin and Melissa purchased the Chevy Tahoe they looked at last night and went to pick it up and bring home Chinese carry out for dinner.  I've been cooking almost non-stop and refuse to cook on a Friday night.

Tomorrow's plans include a bar-b-que and boat rides.  I just finished making the potato salad and it tastes really good, if I do say so myself.  Delish!!  It's called Steakhouse Potato Salad.  I'll post it shortly.  We're hoping my Grandpa will want to leave the nursing home for the afternoon to join us.  We think he'll feel comfortable being here at my house.  He just doesn't like having to get dressed up and going to a restaurant.  He gets very confused and disoriented.

I wish a Happy Memorial Weekend to all as we remember our loved ones that have passed on ( I think of them often) and enjoy the weekend with our loved ones still here. 

Update During Rough Times

I'm so glad the sun is shining today.  It looks so pretty on the lake.  It really helps.  This has certainly been a very rough few weeks.  I just wanted to give a quick update to stay in touch.  I'll write more later when I feel like it and have more time.
As you know from my last post, we lost My Bob's mother on March 2.  We spent that week in Cincinnati.  When we returned home, my dad said that my Grandma wasn't doing well at all.  She's been bad for quite a while now.  She's been in the assisted living and then nursing home for three years.  Dad explained that she looked worse.  I went to visit her and she didn't even open her eyes and looked even thinner than the 53 pounds I had seen her at previously, if that's even possible.  We contacted relatives to tell of her worsened condition.  My cousin, Brad, got into town from Harrisburg on Friday to visit her, and just as he got into town she passed away, at age 93.  The viewing and funeral is this coming Friday and Saturday. 
Going on at this same time, last Thursday my mother went into the hospital for a scheduled hysterectomy operation.  She was in there until Saturday afternoon.  I've been helping her with a few things such as some laundry and cleaning out Grandma's things from the nursing home yesterday. 
Also during this time we are arguing with, fighting with, and appealing the zoning board's decision to not allow a flower shop to go into the property that my son and his wife own that we are trying to sell.  (See my February 12 post).  We thought this was a done deal, and it should have been.  The female attorney bitch (and I don't say that often) City Solicitor decided she wanted to fight us on this for no good reason.  Why do female attorneys feel they have to be like this in order to feel like they are being an effective attorney?  She loves the thrill of a good fight and good common sense doesn't even enter her mind.  Now Bob and I are going to see an attorney on Thursday to see if we have a case for appeal.  The attorney we have been recommended to is the County Solicitor.  It's become a matter of principle for us now.  My energy is running low, though, so if it's not going to be an easy win for our family I'll have to give up.
Then last Thursday I think it was, our computers quit working.  I guess the timing was as good as it could get because I didn't feel like using it anyway.  Our computer doctor came to the house and it ended up we needed a new router.  He also cleaned up the computers and ordered new memory boards for both.  We're back in business again.
Today I need to do laundry and get sheets, bedrooms and bathrooms cleaned up and ready for family arriving Friday for the funeral. 
After this weekend we'll be looking forward to a nice summer and two new lives that will be coming into our family.  We have lost two wonderful ladies and will be now welcoming two new beautiful grandchildren. 
I must go now and put all I have into the rest of this week.  I'm behind in so many things, but I can only do what I can do.

Kids are Coming Early!! Oh No!!

Oh My!  I just found out the kids are coming home today for the whole weekend.  I thought they were just coming up tomorrow.  I love them and love to see them, but the whole weekend? --- I have to gear up for that.  And by kids, I mean Austin, Melissa,

Logan age 5,  Landen age 4 in two weesks,

and two hyper dogs.  OK, I can do this, I can do this, yes I can!

I was planning fancy ice cream sundaes for tomorrow night for Valentine's Day, but I don't have all the stuff.  So I just got in touch with My Bob since he's not home yet from appointments and asked him to pick up all the sundae makings that I didn't have yet.  We'll have these for tonight.  Austin and Melissa asked if I minded that just the two of them go out to dinner tomorrow night for Valentine's Day.  Of course I don't mind.  I just wasn't quite prepared. 
I'm a planner.  I always like to know ahead of time what's going on and what I'm going to be doing, and everyone else's plans if they concern me at all.  So I'm cleaning bedrooms and bathrooms today.  This was on my list to do tomorrow morning.  I'm doing good now, though.   Got the cleaning done and dessert being picked up.

The reason they're coming home is to hopefully finish cleaning their house out that's going up for sale.  I don't know yet if I'll be helping to clean or staying home with the boys. 
Some real good news that we're very hopeful about is that we think the house may be sold already without it even being listed yet.  I was talking to a florist friend of mine and it just so happens that her current lease for her flower shop is ending in May and she wants to find a better but less expensive space.
 I told her about my son's house coming up for sale since they had to move an hour and a half away.  The house comes with a separate garage and office/guest house.  This is where our insurance agency used to be.  She and her husband asked if they could see it right away and they decided they want it and they would move her flower shop into the old office building.

This is what my florist friend and I imagine it could look like.  Very cute! 

Then they would rent out the main house.  We were all excited about the transaction until we double checked with the city zoning board and since it was never zoned commercial we now have to go through this riga-ma-roll of paper work, variances, exceptions, legal postings and a meeting to have it voted on.  Jeez!!
Since my grandfather built the building in 1958 and had his insurance agency in there at that time it was just "grandfathered" in as an insurance agency.  Actual zoning laws went into affect in 1964. 
So that's where we're at.  My Bob and I are doing the paper work and leg work on the matter and the meeting is now scheduled for a week from Tuesday.

As my Grandma always used to say, "Life gets tedious at times".

Roller Coaster Ride of a Day

My day started out so exciting.  I turned on the computer about 8:00 a.m. and there was an email from Etsy that I sold something.  Now it was just a little something, but I'm sure any of you that have an Etsy shop know how exciting that e-mail makes you feel.  When I consider the thousands upon thousands of sellers on Etsy it amazes me that anyone even finds me, let alone then like something and buy it.   My Bob teases me about getting so excited over a little bit of money.  That's not what it's about.  It's almost like an internet game and the goal to win points is to see how many people notice you and then buy from you.  It's fun.  Here's what I sold.

It's a little quilted angel change purse or anything else you want to put in it.  It's velcroed at the top.  I always put a charm on everything I make.

Then we got a text message from Austin and Melissa.  They were having the sex determination sonogram done today.  So their text said, "The name of the new baby is Leanna Rene'."  It's a girl! 

 We're very excited.  This is their third and we think final.  They have two boys and so a girl is what we were all hoping for.  We all had already discussed that nobody would be disappointed if it was a boy.  We wanted to discuss this and be prepared for it.  But now we can say that we're very excited that it's a girl.  My middle name is Lee and Melissa's mother's middle name is Anna.  More pink yarn is now on my shopping list.

Right after that exciting phone call we received a call from Bob's sister telling us that their mother seems to have taken another small turn for the worse.  She is in so much pain and the pain medication that she is taking is no longer helping.  She's still living at home and being cared for by her long time man friend and at least one of Bob's five sisters is with her all the time.  Tomorrow they are meeting with Hospice to see what the next step should be.  The sister's want Bob to come down now, but that is a six hour drive to Cincinnati.  We'll wait to hear the outcome of tomorrow's Hospice meeting before we decide what we should do at this point. 

After that phone call Bob and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa at the Nursing Home.  Pretty much the same there.

Then we went to the City Building to pick up papers to apply for a commercial variance for Austin and Melissa's house they are selling.  We think there may be a buyer if the guest house can be approved for a flower shop. 

Too much of a roller coaster ride today.  I'm really looking forward to the next snow storm they're calling for tonight so that I will have a real good reason to stay home tomorrow.