Mondays are for Sib Gaming

 Monday is the day Arielle and the boys come over to hang out with Grandpa (respite care). The last 3 weeks we have had something going on....appointment, wedding, guests....I was determined to take advantage of the 3 hours of respite....but Michael had a chiropractor appointment scheduled. He needs these to help with the pain from degenerated discs.  We talked about it and I simply could NOT skip a four week. 

We told Arielle to come over anyway.  I went out on my own. I grabbed lunch and met Krista at Luke's where the movers were packing his things to move him to base.  It was a nice visit - could have been much longer, but the movers decided they needed to go back to base with 1/2 a load? Who knows? 

I went to the community gardens from lunch....and then I sat in a car and read. It was good. 

Back at home...the kids were enjoying down time as Grandpa decided to take a nap. Arielle had asked about taking Grandpa outside and I thought it was a good idea. I warned her he tends to want to go out and then decide to take a nap when it's time to do it. LOL  Yep, he opted for a nap. This left the kids to enjoy some sibling gaming time. 

We ended the night by watching an episode of "Home Before Dark"...What are some of your favorite shows to stream?

Sunday Afternoon

 There were only 4 of us going to church this Sunday from our home. Stacia needed to stay home with Millie. Nolan was working.  It was a good message on surrender and awe...much to chew on.  Allie pointed out to me Bre, kids and Alex were in the back....Alex caught up with us for lunch. He is surely enjoying his driver's license. 

After lunch Arielle and the boys stopped by to visit. It seems most were content to lay around....Benny came inside with a handful of strawberries. He remembers from last year. Fairly amazing as I've not weeded the strawberry patch and it is full of cottonwood and dandelions. He remembered. 

I need to research what to do with these. They grow fairly wild. They are sweet and TINY. There are a lot of them...maybe I need to thin them out somehow....anyway I went out with Benny and we foraged more more strawberries. I showed him how he wants them all dark red for the sweetest berries. The problem is the birds and animals get to them if we wait for them to be perfect. LOL 

Next, Benny headed to the garden with me. I wanted to show him how it was growing. He was very skeptical when I told him we could eat the "rashes."  

"Roots? You eat the roots?" ::snort:: 

The cauliflower is just starting to put on tiny heads....it will be a race this year to see if we get food to EAT, but the garden is serving a purpose anyway. LOL Therapeutic. 

We checked in with Papa and he said we could feed the chickens. These chickens are spoiled, but we like having them around. 

I made some yummy kale chips in the air fryer - fresh from the garden. I seem to be the only ones who likes them. 

Benny took a bunch of radishes home to give to Bella. Bella is the one who planted the radishes with me. I need to thin them out and am waiting for her to visit to do the job. 

In the Throes of PMS Millie Eats an ENTIRE Pan of Brownies

We walked in the door and Michael mentioned that Millie had been a little out of sorts all day. She wanted in, she wanted out, she wanted in, she wanted out.  She's been in heat and a bit moody. 

He also mentioned  she had thrown up. He was busy writing and hadn't connected the dots until he was recapping the day with us. 

Michael's next question  was, "What WAS in the glass pan in the kitchen?" It seems he found a glass pan on the kitchen floor. It had been a pan of Keto sugar-free brownies. 

Millie, In the throes  of PMSing, ate an entire pan of sugar free brownies. We all connected the dots at the same time. 

She continued to throw up, while we called the poison hotline and the vet. Saturday night our only option was drive into a pet hospital in Anchorage, or the Tier-1 clinic out here in the Valley. We found Tier 1 to be very helpful.  The vets  good sense of humor is manifested by these pictures - pretty sure the vet tech wasn't so thrilled. 

Most discreet shot - 📷 by vet

Millie was in sad shape. She threw up, she pooped, she was dehydrated and had IVs and lab work for her liver and pancreas enzymes. She's now at home on a bland diet. She's only allowed small and frequent meals. She's also not allowed to run or be boisterous for a week. They said her GI system,  intestinal tract and several of  things are all inflamed. The hope is  she can transition to normal food in a week, but we were warned she may need to stay on a bland, home made diet for a lifetime.

 All in all we were very lucky. She did not have to be admitted. She required no surgery. And if the sugar substitute had been Xylitol, instead of Erythritol,  we're told she would have died. The poison control center said erythritol is just the scientific name for stevia . I don't believe that based on what I know...but... Anyone else heard that before???? LOL 

Cake, Summer Faires and Festivals

 Saturday didn't begin with a lot of plans. The only thing on our agenda was delivering Stacia's Spring Fling cake to Eagle River.

 She put the finishing touches on the cake, and she Allie and I headed to Eagle River.  We learned a LOT making this cake...it was a good experience. We like the idea of a pretty, springy, fruity cake in her portfolio...not sure this will ever be our favorite "cake"  cake. LOL 

As pretty as the picture we were given! LOL 

We checked out Jamin's new 4-plex and headed back to the valley.  Carrie and Josiah had mentioned meeting  up sometime today but no plans were set. Michael decided to stay at home with Grandpa and work on a writing project with an approaching deadline. 

Josiah and Carrie decided they would like to go to the Pyro summer Festival. They planned to meet up with Bre and the kids and head over late afternoon.

 We still had a couple of hours before they all wanted to meet at pyrah's, so the girls and I turned in at this sign and discovered another annual local event we'll want attend again. It was a beautiful day for a  Midsummer Fair.  Friday fling seems to showcase food trucks, the midsummer Fair had vendors of All Sorts. We could have spent much longer just Meandering through the Stalls. Our only purchases were a couple of delicious mini macaroons, and a coin purse made from flat bicycle tires. 

The girls and I stopped for lunch and on to Arielle's to pick up her and the boys.

A couple of selfies of our group! 

Me, Stacia, Arielle, Benny, Allie and Danny is in the stroller

Gideon, Annie, Bre, Jojo in stroller, Cy
Carrie, Annie, Bella 📷 by Bre

It was super easy to find each other at the farm. AND I ran into a gal from Misawa AB PWOC....what a SMALL world. I need to make time to get into Anchorage for a bit more of a visit.  The Pyrah Summer Farm Festival is a simple $5 per adult....there were a few food trucks and such, and LOTS of free, fun activities. I enjoyed walking through the fields...and realizing they were simply letting the weeds grow up with the plants. WHAT??? Revolutionary. 

Josiah's shoulders were popular! LOL 

Benny thinks axe throwing is simple!

Annie and Bella liked the trikes

The maze has a totally different dynamic if you are too short to see over the top - just saying....

Josiah and Gideon

I finally realized to find the flattened weeds/grass and go that way. ::snort::  The petting zoo was a hit. 

Carrie and Benny

Livie is a pro at golf

Oh - look DUCKS...now how do you use the 
clubs on them? 

It was Danny and Jojo's first farm festival 

Such fun! 📷 by Bre

Carrie and Bre 📷 by Bre

📷 by Bre

Precious cargo - 📷 by Bre

It was a fun day...and then we got home. To be continued.....

Friday Night Visitors!

Izaak is on an overnight fishing trip. Bre and the kids came over this evening. Bre brought some dough with her  and let the kids make their own pizzas - always a hit.  We purchased Papa Murphys - making use of that military discount. LOL 

All the BIG girls ate at the Island - Bella (5), Stacia and Allie

We had fun chasing kids around, visiting, listening to kids....and doing a bit of a catch up. Annie is hard to catch in a shot...but here's one. Gideon was moving far to fast all evening for me to catch him. I have no excuse for missing Jojo. 

We had hoped to light the fire and have s'mores - but it was raining. We'll keep making our best use of clear nights. LOL 

This was a nice way to end the day...most of the day was filled with CAKES.....trying to get that cake from The Market RIGHT. LOL 

Alex's Adventure

 Woot! Alex's driving test began at 9:45. He was at the office at 9:30 as requested. Grandpa said, "I think Alex is going to do good." 

Alex said my voice was ringing in his ears as he took his test. "Put your tail on the line!"  Michael said he nailed the parallel parking on the first try.  He went on to pass the driving test with flying colors. 

The funny thing is  I was taking Allie to work about 15 min after Alex's test began. He passed me two or three times as I dropped her off, picked up a drink, and headed home. LOL  He looked cool and collected and was driving well. 

The first graduate of our CURRENT batch of students at the  driving school. ::snort:: Two to go.....

De'Etta's Driving School

We have three young adults who are currently working towards that grand life-skill of possessing their OWN driver's license.  Alex continued to drive through the winter. Stacia and Allie finished up their respective driver's ed during the winter, we added all to our insurance, and told the girls we'd start behind the wheel lessons when the ice was off the ground. 

Alex has his driving test with the DMV tomorrow.  We set out...Stacia is making cakes at home, GG came with us,  we were hoping Allie would be able to meet up with her mom for lunch while we drove. That didn't work out so she joined us for the lessons. I told Alex I KNEW we were a bit unnerving, but having a stranger in the car tomorrow may be unnerving too.  Alex has been driving quite a bit and we are confident with his skills. In looking over the list parallel parking is the one skill we thought he needed practice on. We went out and did a few roundabouts, freeway speeds, and then came back to the church's parking lot to work on parallel parking. 

I laid out a soda can and a frisbee and told him to park between them. ::snort:: Pastor heard us and came out. He brought out cones and told us to feel free to practice. Which we did. 

Alex practiced for about an hour while I gave such helpful pointers as, "Put your tail on the line..." and GG shared what it is like to park a double trailer semi. 

By the end of the hour he was parking like a pro

He felt confident. He was nailing it. We drove home....and after lunch I was back in the church parking lot with Allie and Stacia. Both had had previous practice time with their father's. They told me what they'd done before, and both said it had been quite a long time since they did anything behind the wheel. I decided to set the cones up in somewhat of a course and have them go through it...focusing on turning, the space the car takes, how this car responds(as neither had done much in my van), we went back and forth with me calling for them to stop quickly at random times....turn etc. A few cones were injured - but none fatally. 

Stacia was a bit shy to start

I had them turn and do the loop both ways to practice turning in both directions. 

Allie - like a pro

They were both nervous about driving up the ramp to the church, of course, I had them do that...and they got comfortable with the width of the car and how it really doesn't change when you have a confined space. LOL 

And just when they were feeling pretty good about their driving, we went off the church grounds and into a residential area. I knew both were ready and were quite good at spotting potential hazards. They've called out the hazards while I've been driving for months - I knew they knew what to watch for. Both did great. They went the right speeds, stayed on their side of the road, passed parked cards when needed, watched out for kids, and neither of them ran a single stop sign. 

As we closed our time we talked about what they felt confident doing and what they thought may be areas we should continue to work on - both were self-aware and knew just what they personally needed to work on. Both were a bit shy about pulling the nose of the car all the way into the parking spot so I shared I wanted them to do it just so they knew how long the nose was....even though it's not a big deal not to pull all the way in. It IS a big deal to KNOW how long the nose is....and so....yeah....we ended on this fun note....no worries...totally staged. The car is in park, the engine is off. LOL 

I assured them I will not take them into traffic until I feel they are ready for it, and they aren't at this point. I told them I was quite  confident there would be a day when I tell them they are ready to drive on  busier streets....and they may well feel unprepared but they can be confident I'm not going to ask them to do so until I am 100% sure they CAN do it....like today when I asked them to drive off the church grounds. 

Both got an hour of driving time in today...and I have spent enough time in the van today. LOL  Our goal is licenses before winter....VERY doable.  

A fun observation, I may be the only car in the valley sporting both a handicap plaque and a student driver sign.