Treasures

It is still Garage Sale Season and I have had a good couple of weeks. Vintage textiles are like Kryptonite to me, and I hit the mother-lode. Last weekend I found unused hand-embroidered fruit dishtowels for 10cents each. Today I found a Morgan Jones rosebud chenille bedspread worth $200-400, but paid 5 bucks! I almost floated back to my car. I also found a vintage Wilendur red roses tablecloth for $2 along with a vintage homespun or feed-sack runner with blue stripes, an embroidered card-table size cloth with cup and saucer, and a red orange floral on pink stripe tablecloth. I picked up an old wooden sleeve presser for 75 cents for my sewing room. In my dreams, I own a log cabin on a lake or a farmstead in the woods that I will furnish with my treasures. In reality, it is all crammed into my sewing room.


I bought a 15 gallon Red Wing Crock with handles, but that was a splurge. In my defense, they are getting harder and harder to find, and it reminds me of my mom. So There!


And I found a ceramic cottage (mailbox) that will be cute as all get out to use as a mailbox for writing and receiving special correspondence from our garden fairies with the grandkids.


I found 4 globes today for my collection! World globes, not snow globes for any of you who are inclined to buy me something.


For the kids I bought hardcover books for 25 cents. Four Barbies with a s**t load of clothes for $3, a brand new Wilson leather football for 50 cents, a GIJoe? in scuba gear for Luke at the lake (for wreaking havok on Sophie's mermaid Barbies- he comes complete with a thigh holstered shark knife!), and matchbox cars for Max when he visits. I bought a cute baseball themed wall shelf for Luke's room and a cute pink floral light fixture for Sophie's room. She may have to fight me for it!
And just so you know not everything was a frivolous purchase: I bought a boxful of expensive thread for my sewing (a big splurge for $20, but I got 90 spools that would go for at least $350 at Joann with a coupon).


Found lots of Rubbermaid clear boxes for storage for 25 cents apiece,and a car load of perennials for the garden. This is what he has left to plant. Bob is promising an ass-kicking if I bring home even one more plant this summer!


My guilty pleasure purchase was not one, but two packages of beer bands (45 cents total) for all my kids' summer drinking needs! I looked at them when I was shopping on Grand Avenue with Robyn last week but passed for $8.99 a package. I myself am partial to the LOADED band. I think I'll wear it like a bracelet as a mood warning to my family as in "Loaded for Bear!"


I am not the only one getting bargains. Today Diane bought a Dooney and Bourke purse for $8. It's really cute, in good shape and big enough to hold a bowling ball. Not that she will need to. Unless I find one at a garage sale....

Flora and Fauna - St. Paul Edition

Bob and I took Sophie and Luke on a different kind of wildlife adventure today. Instead of the zoo, we took off for downtown. We started our journey in the wilds of Rice Street, where we stopped by White Castle for a quick bite before heading out into the bush. The colorful local Fauna in the 'hood didn't dissapoint. For instance the dirty, crazy, homeless guy who lacked even the imagination to talk to himself. Instead, he repeated everything we said: "I don't know what I want." She don't know what she wants. "How about a french fry?" heh-heh french fry. "Grandma!" gramma. He stood uncomfortably close behind me when I ordered and sat in the booth adjoining ours while we ate. Lovely.
We buckled back into the car and headed through downtown. The kids were impressed with the local landscape, especially the 'castle',A.K.A. Landmark Center and argued over whether a beast or a princess lived there alone. The elusive and pale worker-bees were flowing from their hives to swarm over to the lunch trucks parked above the river. Maybe next time we'll eat local and join them.


We parked the car by the river and started our hike. On the way we picked numerous flora, but just one of each kind for each kid. When we got home we looked up some of them that we identified and some we couldn't, and Luke wrote out a list -Yarrow,ragweed, white and purple clover among them. But the ones we found with the best names were the Hoary Madwort, Nodding Thistle, Crown Vetch, Fleabane, Spurge, Bedstraw, Ox-eye Daisy, and Bird's-foot Deer-vetch. We will be keeping an eye out for the Wild Sarsaparilla, Hoary Puccoon and the Bastard Toadflax next time, I kid you not.


We also saw river fauna, including an Eagle, a Mallard duck, a Garter Snake and a Snapping Turtle. I say the snake was over 4 feet long. Bob says 3 at the most. Since it's my blog, we'll go with over 4! It appeared in two crevices simultaneously, and was as big around as a garden hose. It was the stuff nightmares are made from. The snapping turtle impressed the kids by his dinosaur-like legs and tail.He was making his way from the river to the swamp behind us. I had to stop Grandpa from picking it up. Like we could ever get the kids to go with us again if he had to drive to the E.R. with bloody stumps...



We also watched the tugs pushing the barges upriver. The kids awed over the chain that was holding one of the docked barges to the shore- the diameter of the iron making up the links was as big around as Luke's wrist. We saw airplanes taking off from the nearby airport, and trains coming from the freight-yard. But what we didn't see was just as notable as what we did - we saw only a handful of people the whole time we were by the river! We are planning more urban adventures for the summer.

Since I neglected to take my camera with me, the only picture that I took was the one of the kids with their bouquet. Next time I won't be so careless.

Deja Vu All Over Again

My week ended the same way it started - with the Mini Audettes staying overnight. In between was a blur, mostly from too many late nights followed by early mornings. On Wednesday I had Luke and Sophie and took them to the zoo just like I had taken the Audettes on Monday. This time it was a dreary and drizzly day, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Sometimes we were the only ones in a building. We did the same ol', same ol' routine as always, but I think that is exactly why we like it. I had an interesting discussion with Luke about the buffalo.
Luke: "Is that where you get buffalo wings from?"
Me: "Nope. Look at the size of those things. Buffalo wings come from little chickens."
Luke: " Gramma,I know that wings come from chickens, but where do the big pieces (tenders) come from?"
Is it wrong to take such delight in knowing more than a 6 year old? It's just that when he says something, there is as good as a chance as not that he is right. I usually defer to him. But jeez, I know my food!
We took a pass through the tropical exhibit, quickly passing by the snake, tarantula, and creepy 'dead' frog. The zookeeper says it was sleeping, but when a pale bloaty looking frog floats upside down on top of the water tank, I call it as I see it. Luke said it's just nocturnal. I hope they are right.
On the way out, a lady showed us a jar with that damn hissing cockroach in it again. Luke says,"He's from Madagascar.That's an island off the coast of Africa." See what I mean? She also showed us the coolest thing I have ever seen. If I ever decide to get a pet spider, this will be it. Are you ready for it. It's a Hawaiian Happy Face Spider. Real unretouched photo of one below. It made us laugh the rest of the day.


On Friday Nate, Jake and Max came back. I walked them down to the school playground to wear off some energy. I spent the whole time yelling at Nate to be careful by Max, and to be a little gentler with Jake. Wore me out. Big Time. Watching 3 boys by myself is not for the feint of heart. When we got back home we played out in the backyard to the same tune. Finally Grandpa was done cutting the grass and Hannah done napping. We washed off the dirt and sweat as well as we could, and loaded them into the car topless. We made a quick emergency t-shirt buying stop at Target, then went to Buffalo Wild Wings. All three boys were on their best behavior, and scarfed down everything we put in front of them, like lions on a zebra. I probably could've ordered a real buffalo for the wings! When we got home, we threw them in the tub and then in bed. Max was not that thrilled with the prospect of staying overnight, but he eventually settled down in his crib for the night while Grandpa said reassuring things from the bed next to him. Jake drifted off quickly, and I was left up alone with Nate. By 12:30 we were all in for the night. Jake and Max woke at 7 A.M. Yikes! Thankfully today was a good nap day.

I'm (Almost) Famous

My story was published in today's St. Paul Pioneer Press in the Bulletin Board.


KNOW THYSELF! Grandma Jody of St. Paul:"Subject: Not exactly what I had in mind.
Well, I've hit a new LOW. I smelled something delicious and headed off determined to track it down. Turns out it was my new scented garbage bags!"

Paddywhacking with Auntie Fun

Poor little Max had an early A.M. appointment for tests at the hospital with his parents, so Nate and Jake stayed overnight with me. Hannah was taking a break from her med-school applications, and put the full court press on keeping her favorite Auntie status. First Nate stirred up a batch of brownies, and when Jake arrived minutes later he got to bake another batch. While they were in the oven, they played UNO, Wii, and generally fooled around. A bedtime treat of brownies and milk was followed by bites of a banana split that Zach brought home for them. Hannah put a movie on for her and Nate, and Jake came in and laid with me on the couch while I finished a book. When everyone turned in at 12:30, Hannah carried Jake to bed with Nate. She wore them out, becasue I didn't hear a peep out of them until 10 the next morning....
Today we rushed off to the zoo as soon as Grandpa came home. It was a fun day since they had carts set up all around the grounds with assorted creatures (snakes, giant millipedes, frogs) and treasures (zebra and tiger fur, polar bear claws, giraffe skulls) that the kids could touch. The animals were also especially entertaining. The lions licked each other, the polar bear played with a big plastic drum in the pool, and Sparky the seal put on a show.The kids were in a rush to leave because they were starving....
We stopped by Creamy Cone to get my car from Hannah, and Conny invited the boys in to make their own cone. We were headed for lunch anyway, so we just ordered lunch there (Hamburgers, fries, cheesecurds and onion rings) and ate outside on the red and white striped picnic tables. When they were finished, they washed their hands and then tried them at the cone machine. They were actually pretty good at it. Nate asked Conny for a job! Conny said she'd put the pics of them making the cones on Creamy Cones' Facebook page. Watch for it.
When we got home, I tried to get some work out of them weeding in the garden. You know, Time to pay the Piper, etc. They whined about it but did help somewhat.
They managed to talk the parents out of picking them up and staying for supper. When Max came with Molly and Jeff to get them, he was excited to see Grandma and Grandpa too. Nate tried to stay overnight again, but I need my beauty rest you know!

This and That

This and That was two graduations. Sophie graduated from Pre-school and Luke graduated from Kindergarten.
Sophie graduated last week. They sang a couple songs and handed out certificates and candy bars. I think she was the most pleased about the chocolate. Patrick and I took her out to lunch to celebrate the start of her summer vacation.




Luke graduated this week. His class had a whole 30 minutes of entertainment, including ABC's forward and backward, counting to 100, yes 1-0-0! and many cute little songs including one that included the words peanut butter and underwear. They also performed a little skit that involved each child reciting something about Kindergarten for each letter of W-E L-O-V-E K-I-N-D-E-R-G-A-R-T-E-N. Patrick had to go back to work, but we celebrated the beginning of his summer vacation while Sophie took a nap.




My summer vacation began today. I will no longer have Sophie everyday, but will have both Sophie and Luke on Wednesdays throughout the summer.

The Boyz Of Summer

It's baseball season again. With three grandsons playing on up to two teams each, we could go to a game every day of the week! Starting off our evening entertainment this week was almost 10 year old Nate with a game on Thursday. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let them speak for themselves:
















They sure were chatty, weren't they? BTW Nate scored the winning run in the bottom of the 7th!