Snow in May? aka Very Fluffy Summer

This is me after laying in the driveway to take some pictures.

Cottonwood fluff stuck to the damp parts of the garage floor.

All over the back porch...

And all over the deck. Did I mention I don't particularly like cottonwood trees?

MIss Mittens, my godcat

Give me that camera! I've had enough of this foolishness!

My Nephew Vinny

Amber and Vince stopped by the other day after Vince got done at the doctor. Pretty happy baby for just having gotten 2 shots!

Toby's new wheels

We took part of our tax incentive check to get Toby some new wheels. This cart is so much better for him than the old one. Poor guy, he's been needing some new wheels for a long time. Funny thought crossed my mind when we ordered it though, this was more expensive than the 1973 Hornet that I bought (used of course) when the kids were little!

Reminiscing

Steve and I took a drive today up to the place I spent most of my weekends when I was younger. Mom and dad had a place near Mondamin, Iowa, just off the Missouri River. The place has changed so much in 33 years, but once we got there and shut off the car, the sounds and smells brought back memories of years ago. Although our trailer is gone, I did see that the trailer my friend Chris and her family used to have. It stuck out like a sore thumb because it was kind of a 2-story trailer, never saw one like it and haven't seen one since, so I know it was theirs. I never would have thought it would still be there, although it's in a different place.

The road isn't sand anymore, like it used to be, there's crush rock over most of the roads and people are obsessed with having lawns up there, where it used to be all sand. We walked around for a bit, but I didn't see one little sand toad (my brother called them smetleys) hopping around. I wonder where they all went. There are playgrounds on both ends of the area now, we never needed playgrounds, the place used to be our playground!

Coming back home I thought about some of the people I used to hang around with then. I married (and divorced) the best friend of one of the people I hung around with. Another one lives in Texas, one was nearly killed in an electrical accident, one committed suicide, and I've lost touch with all the rest. We sure did have fun back then, though!

After we left Ivy Lane we drove through Mondamin and then through the Loess Hills to Missouri Valley, through Blair, and then home. Nice drive. I don't imagine we'll be doing that very often this summer. The price of gas actually went down from $3.83 that I paid last week to $3.69 today. Ha! I never thought I'd say that I was relieved to see gas at $3.69 - again!

Dreamweaver

Last night was another night with no sleep. I skipped the Elavil and just took my Ambien, and didn't fall asleep until about 6 this morning. And the dreams? Oh my gosh. I think it's interesting that my mother and Steve are in my dreams as the same person. Yeah, I know that sounds really odd and I'm not exactly sure how it works either, but I just know that they're the same person in my dream. Not good for Steve. ha ha... I had this dream this morning about a lady that I used to work with, dreamed she came over to my house for dinner and we cooked steaks outside and just talked for the longest time. She's been on my mind for awhile, her husband passed away this winter, so probably that's where that comes from, but just odd things in the dream that I can't remember exactly now. Then I had a dream about a house down the street catching fire. In my dream I lived in this house, but it was in a different neighborhood, and the house that caught fire was all glass and you could see inside while it was on fire. I can remember watching their Christmas tree burn in the fire through the windows. Strange, no? I could smell the smoke, strange. It kind of made my whole day feel odd, I hate when dreams do that. I also hope I sleep much better tonight! I should certainly be tired enough.

So, we missed the storms last night that roared through. I'm thinking maybe not so lucky tonight, but we'll see. I love the thunderstorms, but I'm not so keen on tornadoes! We've had a lot of wind today and I've heard some loud noies that I thought might be branches hitting the roof, but when I've got outside I can't see anything. Must be ghost branches.

Back to work, if I have to stop working tonight again because of lightning, I don't want to lose the whole night!

Is it Friday yet?

We got some good news today - Meg found out she was accepted to Doane College in Crete and she also got a $6000 scholarship through Phi Theta Kappa. I know, I know... We talked this week about how she was going to go ahead and take the QUAST test and go to school part time. She seemed to feel pretty good about the whole thing. Then today she found out about Doane. I have mixed emotions, to tell the truth, it seems as if she's going to be a professional student, but $6000 is nothing to sneeze at for tuition money. She's already talked to financial advisers at Doane and there are work study programs available and she shouldn't have problems finding a place to live. It kind of bites that she has to go full time to use the scholarship, but that's just the way it is. At least she has the opportunity, so she's a giant step ahead of me. I'm glad all the time she spent working on PTK stuff paid off with the scholarship.

I feel like I've spent the last 2 days shampooing dogs. They all (with the exception of Toby, of course) found a really good doggie smell somewhere in the back yard so they've all had to be bathed - some of them twice. What a job! Even Toby got a bath tonight, he didn't have that particular stink that the others all shared, but he had a bad enough smell of his own! They're all so shiny and soft now, too bad it won't last! I should have taken some pictures. Buttercup and Jojo just look like drowned rats when their hair gets wet, so funny! Buttercup absolutely hates baths though. Hates the blow dryer (I didn't even try tonight), and hates being toweled off. She sounds like a motorcycle revving its engine the whole time I was drying her off and just for good measure she gave me a good look at the old pearly whites... Crabby thing!

I've just been feeling like a wet rag lately. Tired and achy. Last night I went to bed right at midnight, well okay, maybe it was 12:30, but I didn't get up until 1:30 today, and that was only because I had to run some errands before work. I didn't think I was going to make it through my entire shift I was so tired, but I ended up working until 3 a.m., with one long break. My speed isn't up to snuff though, I feel like I'm wading through Jell-O. Maybe it's the Elavil my rheumatologist started me on. Ugh, I'm such a whiner.

I got my Black and Decker Scum Buster - finally! I love it. It make short work out of scrubbing the shower this weekend. I wish I had bought it years ago. Who knew cleaning a shower could be so much fun? LOL!

Well, I guess that's it. More stuff going on, but nothing I feel the need to let the world know about. We're all still here and slogging along as usual. Later!