The boys have been working with Chuck so my days are very quiet and it’s so nice! I can’t believe I slept till 10:18am today! I never sleep past 8am and for some reason today I did.

Joe had his friends over all weekend so by last night he was VERY tired! They left here around 3pm on Sunday and Joe just laid around the rest of the time. CJ had Kyle over while I was working projection at church last night. I took him home around 9:30. He came over because at his house they only have 1 computer and his sister was on it so CJ told him he could come over and use mine since I was not home, LOL!!

I told CJ and Kyle that they need to get their drivers licenses so they could transport their own butts back and forth! Kyle lives about 3 miles away. So, my goal is to get them to take their tests over the summer. In Ohio, you have to wait 6 months after getting your permit to take your driving test and you have to take drivers ed. I will go over the book with CJ. He’s VERY nervous about test taking and I think that is why he doesn’t want to drive because he said he wanted to take the van and pick him up but realized I had it, so I know he wants to drive but I think it’s the test taking that is bothering him.

Well, I still don’t know if the trees we transplanted will make it. Some of them look pretty sad with their leaves turning brown. We won’t do anything until next spring and if they don’t leaf out we will remove them and try again. It looks nice with trees in our yard I just wish we would clean up the place by removing the dirt that is laying around. Chuck is going to use the skidder and push the excess dirt around. Maybe next weekend, this weekend we were quite lazy, LOL!

Oh my!! This has been a VERY busy weekend for us! The boys last day of school was on Thursday and as soon as we picked them up we got busy and have been busy since! No lazy days of summer for them so far, LOL!!

We are FINALLY fixing things up around here! Chuck decided to rent a backhoe for one day and we are getting stuff done! I have wanted this stuff done for years! Chuck got a really good roofing job so we used a little bit to finally get stuff done!

First, we always have a TON of water just sitting under the trailer. We have no idea why, must be a low spot or something. We always have tons of bugs, frogs and the like because of all the water. Well, Chuck has decided to dig a huge trench from the one spot where the water always sits right out to the ditch. He dug it VERY deep and dug an even deeper hole right under the walk way. He filled this trench with stone and a drain tile and more stone and the entire 5 foot deep hole with stone for the water to sit in and then when it fills up out the drain tile.

We also tore up the sewer line. What must have happened was that we didn’t realize that our sewer tank was completely full and it backed up into our sewer line and then froze there busting every single pipe we had! We had to replace the entire line! Our sewage has been going under the trailer for almost 2 years now! I’m SO GLAD we are FINALLY getting this fixed!! Can you just image what it smells like here in the summer! I haven’t had people over because it smells SO BAD!!!!

Since we had the backhoe, I asked Chuck if we could transplant some trees from out back to our front yard. We have lived here for 10 years and have not planted any trees, bushes or flowers!! I am tired of not being able to enjoy my yard because it’s just to darn hot to go outside. I want to have a swing out by a tree and be able to have shade in my yard.

So, we transplanted some trees. I am going to try my hardest to keep them alive and I hope they all live!!!

The first one was a small oak tree.

Then we got a nice sized white birch for the front yard. We want to have trees come all the way around the house.

Here is Joe being a HeMan and dragging the tree.

Up goes the tree.

Here are 2 of the new trees.

Here is Joe being himself.

CJ being silly.

Here is another oak tree only bigger. There are 2 oak trees out back and 3 white birch along the front and side of the house.

Chuck let Joe drive the backhoe around the yard a while.

Here is fat Sandy. She has loved being outside for the past three days. She sleeps like a rock all night long after a long day outside.

Here is my fat cat enjoying being outside any chance he can get.

This is what my front yard now looks like, well I hope to clean it up and plant some grass.

Yup, it’s finally here, the last week of school!! I will be glad when school is over and I probably will be glad when summer is over. Man, today was 95 here in town and HUMID!! UGH!!! I had my last day of quilting until school starts back up. I have taken some home with me to do over the summer. My goal is to do more than 20 during the summer. Last summer I took some home and did zero! LOL!

We went to Jan’s viewing and service on Sunday night. I’m so glad we did because Joe and Nathan were the only ones there for Joel. His sister was surrounded by young people but Joel was by himself until we got there. We stood in line for 45 minutes and we finally got up to Steve, Jan’s husband, and we were talking to him and he thanked us for bringing Joe and Nathan because that was the first time he has seen Joel smile since his mom died. Poor thing! Then they told us all to sit down for the service and there was still a huge line! I’m glad we got to speak with Steven before the pastor did that!

The boys hung out with Joel and CJ with Jordan until 9pm and we got there at 6:45pm. We closed the place down! LOL!! Joe asked Steve if Joel could come fishing with them the next day and he said sure and he thanked us for getting him out of the house.

So, Monday morning Chuck took CJ to Taylor’s for the day and he took Joe and picked up Nathan and Joel and took them to PA to go fishing. It was free fishing day there so everyone could fish. I had Barb pick me up for the parade. I got to sit on the back of a firetruck! The parade ended at the cemetery and there was a VERY long service. Then us girls from the Monroe Fire Department Auxiliary went out to eat at Perkins. I finally made it home around 1:30.

I put in the movie “The Last Holiday” and sewed 2 quilt tops I had started at quilting and wanted to finish up. The boys came home VERY rowdy and loud but they had a great time. They came home around 4pm and we had to leave at 5:30 for the in-laws for a fish fry.

We took Joel and Nathan to the fish fry, I went and got CJ and Taylor from the beach and took Taylor home and got CJ’s stuff and finally made it to my in-laws house. I had 2 hot dogs as I don’t like fried fish. The boys stuffed themselves and Joel seemed to be having a really good time. At 8:30 we left and I took everyone home and then we finally made it home. Everyone was exhausted and needed showers.

Nick is over right now giving CJ some help as his math final is Thursday, which is the last day of school. I hope he does okay on the final. I made a shortcake and I have cut up strawberries in the fridge and I can’t wait to have a bowl! I thought about doing a garden this year but again I think I’ll pass. I want to but not having the right stuff yourself to do one is a pain! I will go and see if I can get cucumbers someplace for cheap as I need pickles. I will pick my own tomatoes come the end of August too as I am out of speg. and pizza sauce. I don’t need strawberry jam as I still have quite a bit of the stuff as I have laid off the PB&J sandwiches.

One of Joe’s good friends, Joel, his mother died on Wed. night (early Thursday) right after midnight. It was so sad! About a year ago, I was talking to her in the store and she told me that she just found out that she had breast cancer. I felt so bad for her but she was very optimistic and she went on for about half an hour about how she was going to treat her cancer the “natural” way. I thought that if the doctor demanded that she have chemo that she would. After she died I found out that she NEVER had any type of treatment at all!

About a week before she died we found out that she went to the hospital as she was not feeling well and found out her liver was pack full of cancer and she had only days to live. She’s my age with kids ages 16, 15, and 8! We are all just devastated!

I picked Joe up from school on Thursday and he seemed very happy and I thought that was odd and I asked if he had heard about Joel’s mom and he looked at me and said, “Did she die?” No one had told the kids, I thought someone would have known and I told him what happened and he said, “Mom, Joel just told me a few days ago that he didn’t know what he would do without his mom.” And then he cried all the way home. My heart is breaking for all those kids!

I told Chuck that if I ever found cancer in my body I would have it cut out and I’d do chemo and radiation if it would help. She found it when it was manageable and her whole body wasn’t full just that one spot. If I found out when my whole body was full I would want to go very fast and not linger but if I had one spot I would do all I could. *SIGH*

I’ll have to find out when the viewing and funeral is as Joe is demanding to go. My MIL will know as I can’t find any information on it. Today is our annual picnic down in Linesville and it looks like the rain is going to hold off and it will be nice! Yesterday I made macaroni salad, birthday cake and rose marina salad. The whole town is having yard sales too! That is where I got my .50 purse last year! Maybe I can find another good deal like that. I still am using it and after one year it’s still in great shape! I wish I had a lot of money for the sales but I have some and I only buy things that are good deals and I need.

Here it is a really nice day and we are all inside. I wish we had a nice yard to hang out in. We finally got it mowed, Clinton came out on Thursday and mowed the yard and he will mow it all summer long. He and Bridget owe us over 6K and since they are broke he is going to work some of it off. Our yard has so many deep ruts it’s not funny. I wish I knew someone with a bulldozer who could come and level out this place.

I should have planted some trees for shade because it’s so hot out that we stay inside. Our porch fell too so it’s droopy and needs fixed and there is no roof so it gets WAY to hot out there to spend much time. I have been thinking about getting a new porch swing with a shade top over it so I can swing out there again. I had one back in 04 but haven’t had one since. Maybe we could jack the porch back up and use it this year.

I want to get a shovel and wheelbarrow and fill in the trench Chuck made last fall when he dug up the electric to the well. He never filled it back in and we have piles of dirt out front I can use. This place is falling apart and really needs some attention. Our blue house is now green with algae and all the skirting has fallen down so it looks pretty bad. Chuck was thinking about adding onto the whole backside which would be nice and I was thinking about getting prices for a concrete foundation all the way around so we don’t have to deal with skirting anymore.

Well, enough about my falling down property. I didn’t write any articles this week either. I just really needed the time off and I just never told the guy that I was back in business. I may not write for him anymore because it is the same subject over and over again. I did apply for a job and got it for someone to write articles around the subject of life coaching. Now that I can do and there are 10 different topics to write for so that should keep me busy for a while. Not sure how much I will write over the summer. The boys want jobs so we’ll see about finding something for them too.

Well, making hacky sacks isn’t going to well. Every pattern I try turns out wonky weird! I wanted to make that frog but for some reason it’s not turning out right. I sort of given up for the time being on that too. It’s frustrating when I can’t get it to turn out right. LOL!

I have been spending much of my time watching “The Twilight Zone”. I like not having to think about anything but really I need to stop here soon and get some things done. I start when I get up and watch all day until I am falling asleep watching! Good grief! I did manage to make homemade pancakes for breakfast and then I made some chocolate suckers from the leftover chocolate from making Eggs at the church. I also started a batch of homemade yogurt so I’m not totally doing nothing! LOL!!

What I would love to do right now is go down to the beach and look for sea glass! Maybe if it’s nice weather I will do that after I drop CJ off at school next week. I can spend hours doing that!

I knew this week was going to fly by and man, it sure did! I was SO busy every day that it barely felt like I had a week off. I was running around doing stuff all week long! I have been very busy helping Joe figure out how to make good hacky sacks and we have yet to really make any good ones but we are going to keep at it until we make some really good ones. I think I found a pattern for a crocheted hacky sack but I need at size 7 steel crochet hook but I have to run to Ashtabula for that.

Our van is in Erie with a flat tire so I can’t go anywhere today. I was going to go get the hook, go to Dan’s 16th birthday party and get Joe’s friends and come back home. We also have our bowling banquet tonight but I don’t know if we’ll make it now. I think we have a tire here for it someplace. The spare is stuck under the van and won’t come down, figures. We are buying 4 new tires in October so that I have good tires for winter. These ones are just about bald and were horrible in the snow the few weeks I drove it in the snow. I was so glad to have that rental over the winter!

So, I have been up since 7am and I made 3 batches of cookies and some fudgesicles so Joe’s friends have something to snack on. I am also going to make pizza with cheese in the crust for dinner. I hope his friends can still come out maybe one of their parents can bring them. I have been watching “The Twilight Zone” from the 80′s all morning. It’s on the “Chiller” channel. I’ve seen about 10 episodes so far but it ends here at 2pm so maybe I will go back to watching them from the 50′s.

I’m exhausted from being up on my feet all morning washing dishes and baking. I haven’t made cookies in months so it was nice to bake again. But I am not out of butter and oats and I need more peanut butter. I think I’ll just lay on the couch watch some TV and maybe take a nap. Wish I could go to Dan’s birthday party though!

Man, it’s SO NICE to have a stress free Monday!! I have SO much to do today and I can actually do it without stress and frustration! Usually, I have to hurry up and do some of what I need to so I can rush home and try to get my writing done for the day before I have to pick the boys up and if I don’t finish I have to try and do it in the evening when everyone is home, it’s loud and I’m tired. I don’t have to worry about that at all!

I dropped Joe off at school at 7am and then went to the laundry mat and did a HUGE load of clothes. I can’t believe all that fits into one washing machine! It costs $4 to wash but it’s like 5 loads for me at home. I then dried them there too. I don’t usually because my dryer works at home but it would literally take me ALL DAY to dry them so I had the money so I used $2.25 to dry them all and then I folded them all and was done by 8:45am. Much better than taking all day! I came home and put them all away and got CJ up for school and then left at 9:30 and dropped him off.

I came straight home and was getting a bowl of cereal when I decided that the top of the microwave REALLY needed cleaned off so I did that and it looks great! I have been wanting to do that for MONTHS! It looks SO much better now! I think I will find those small things that I have been putting off and do them a little at a time all week.

Today I have to look up online how to make Hacky Sacks because Joe and his friends are REALLY into them! It’s crazy! Joe had one and him and a few friends gathered outside the school in a small circle to play and now it’s the hottest thing at the school! They all come early to play before school and they stay after to play LOL!! Sometimes the circle is 20 kids big! So, Joe wants to learn how to make them to sell them. I crochet one last night and it’s HILARIOUS!! It looks awful! I only had cotton yarn but what I need is either embroidery thread or size 6 cotton thread.

So, I am searching the net for patterns for the kind you sew and then kind you crochet. Joe just thought of this idea last night when we came home from Erie, of course not before or while we were there! But he already has friends that want to buy them and we haven’t even made them yet! So funny! Joe wants to make them, he doesn’t want me to, he wants to learn so he can do it himself! Isn’t that just so cute! I can see Joe with a crochet hook and sewing needle! I will have to take photos!

Joe really likes this one here so I think I’ll try my hand at it!

Well, CJ’s Dazzle thingy is AWFUL and we are returning it. I researched it last night and nothing but bad things were said about it so we are taking it back and getting our $80 back and getting him a DVD recorder and some DVD +R discs so he can record his game play that way. I can get software for his computer that rips DVD’s into a version that is uploadable for YouTube. He was very upset that this thing didn’t work, but he really wanted it for his birthday and not the DVD recorder so at least now he knows that thing is crap and he’ll be MUCH happier with the DVD recorder! LOL! I think I’ll pick the discs up today and let him use mine until we get him his own. That way he can have something right now and I can take my time finding a good one.