Ski! or Fly or Snooze!

(SKI!- no longer boarding like the above recycled picture from a previous post. Sorry. The pics are re-runs! I gotta start taking pictures again. Being pretty sick has made that hobby sit on the back burner. Hopefully in another month, things will be better! Until then- we will have re-run pics. Go read Leave a Trace if you wanna tear jerker, or if you wanna laugh- then read the routine I came up with for retaining water! If I could do even a little of that, phsh!)

Readers, before I forget, I have to tell you about one of my phone alarms settings.

-Since I am up with an ear ache I thought I'd blog through it. (I honestly think it has to do with the acid from the stomach that is hurting the esophagus, that puts pressure on my ear drum when I lie down. So I have to sleep in the chair. Which is hard to sleep. I am trying Mucinex tonight. So here we are. I guess I have to add this for my fellow patients and say I think the whole immune system is tied to everything. Top to bottom.

So the alarm....

Very early, every morning since a wintry trip to Targhee my alarm goes off. I scramble to find the phone and see the admonition: SKI!

 

eVerY. sIngLe. Day.

I sorta smile and think back to the night before we actually did do that; go skiing. And how J. was so worked up that he might "miss" getting up early. So we set all sorts of alarms. Called the front desk for a wake up call. Set my phone and their cheap alarm.

Right as I was drifting off to the sound of the groomers out our door J. woke up. Ready to SKI!

ME: "It's 4 a.m.!"

J: "I know! I am nervous!"

Snow cats are out there!

Can I go watch them?

Sure.

J. was so nervous. The gutt wrenching nervous that you get the night before or morning of a BIG ADVENTURE! His automatic alarm set itself. The need for outside alarms; unnecessary

!

Which is odd because there are times when I have to shake him or jump on his bed to rouse him from a deep fog. Those are usually Monday mornings during school.

But, I guess the brain would set itself to spring out of bed when you are able to have that much fun...

Speaking of fun,  the other day I called a friend- they were on their way out the door to fly. That's right, fly.

Friend: "Can I call ya back? Just headed out the door to go flying."

 

(Future pilot. J. when he was a little boy! What happened?? Sheesh! He grew up on this blog!)

 

ME: "Sure, I might be busy weeding, but no worries. I can talk and weed."

?

Do any of you have a friend that casually flies? I know. It is rare.

So I hit snooze every time SKI! appears on my phone. And I dread the approaching school time schedule because it plays out like a comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes.  Jaden dreams he got up when really I have been telling him several times to get up. J. has it down to a science how many times I will ask and how much time he has to actually get up and get to school.

So  we are in mid Summer and Football is in full swing.

 

(yes, I am recycling pics I have posted in the past. He is way more intimidating now. Mowing has and hard work have turned him into a force to be reckoned with. Readers, when I look in on him sleeping he looks like a teenager. Where did my boy go??)

As I watered last night, Jaden was playing catch with himself and showing me some of his moves. Like how low he gets down to get ready and rumble. I would break my thumb in that position.

The garden is getting to the point during summer where you wonder if it was all worth it. You toil, weed, water, and you get a very a small turn out. hmm. You wonder to yourself. So Padre has created more work in the yard by tearing down trees that were getting tangled in the power lines.

The Apple Tree is Gone! That's right readers! I almost cried.

Sure I hated picking up the apples before it was mowed. And we only made one batch of apple roll in the last three years. But it's gone!

That tree had the prettiest white blossoms in spring.

And it created a Zen, lush patch of grassy area to sit. Granted it was covered each year with some sort of infestation that looked like white thrush. on its branches but still! I sort of felt like Mr. Miyagee in his back yard when I watered the hanging plants on the clothes line.

Padre even took out our lilac bushes. He had accidentally trimmed them like a tree years ago and they haven't been the same since. However we have a tower of trees in the yard behind us, and sunlight doesn't to them. So we had just the ugly, sad wanna try and look lovely lilac. However they still smelled lovely.

The ONLY thing in the garden that has a Game On! attitude: The Raspberries. They are ripe every hour. No kidding. And they take over everything. I am sure one day I will blog about our garden of Raspberries and that is it.

This year, however, the garden is full of flowers that were on their way to heaven and I saved them from an untimely death. Which was lame cause they need extra care and attention to help them out of their shock! Why do I do that to myself?

There I was outside Sunday morning trying so hard to get them in the ground.Padre had mention how good they looked and that "we" needed to get them in the ground. Bound and determined to not let them sit in the black six packs they came in, I raced outside. Bare foot. Except for a sock and ankle brace on the "impinged ankle."

J. had to help me and it took longer than expected. Finished getting ready for church, at church.

The funny thing was, when I was out front putting in some Impatiens on the shade side of the yard, Padre came out front and pointed out everything on the lawn.

Sure enough there was a rolled up pair of his Carhardt socks. ? How on earth did that happen? The only thing I could think of was that when he took them off, he put them in his back pocket and flip flopped outside to turn water off or something.

(a cute pic of J. from 09, when he started mowing. He looks like he is either bored or tired resting his chin on the handle.... so cute)

But, needless to say, he had a bit of a panic when he saw his socks outside and J. and I were interrogated. I had to laugh.

So our back yard is wide and open. We do have two good 'stool stumps' from the Apple Tree!

 

HOWEVER.

 

 You can see straight to the tires and other things that could be hidden behind the lilac bushes. I might need to plant some flowers down there!