Today begins the long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. Earlier today when we went into Bismarck things were already starting to look like a holiday. The FFA had a booth set up in the Valero parking lot selling fireworks. The Dollar General had a sale stacked out front with cokes and chips and kites and swim gear. Joe's shaved ice trailer had a long line of folks waiting to get a snow cone and the Valero Crackerbox store was doing a booming business. Every gas pump and nearly every parking space had a car in it.
It looked like lonesome town at the 'Bag a Bargain' store though. Shannon told us yesterday that today would be her last day at that location. She opened a little store in Glenwood and is closing down the Bismarck location. Her grand opening at the new store begins tomorrow...July the 1st. We'll miss seeing her on the few occassions when we'd stop by to grab some flavored coffee or a can of almonds and exchange gossip. Good luck in your new venture, Shannon and your family!
TODAY IS THURSDAY, JUNE 30
Today, June 30 is Jacob Maggard's birthday. He turned 34 today. I've known my nephew since the day he was born. He was named after my father's father, my grandfather Jacob Joseph Maggard. When he was young we called him JJ. All these years foreverafter, I remember his birthday as if he were one of my own children. Jake will always be special to me. The picture above was taken Christmas before last when The Jake Maggard Family stopped by to visit us in Arkansas on the winter vacation trip they took to Missouri to visit his grandmother. Jake has a wonderful wife, Carrie, and two kids, Lauren and Brennan. I hope they enjoyed their visit here and that they'll come back again when they have a chance. We certainly enjoyed having them! Happy Birthday, Jake!
More Summertime Fun!
Mike and I just came in from the swimming pool. It isn't big, but the cool water is a grand way for us to cool off from the summer heat. I find it relaxing and the exercise feels good to me when I get in and paddle around or just use the skimmer to clean out the leaves that blow in. I am procrastinating the cooking of our supper while I write, as if there is some hurry to get it done now! I have not written here for several weeks. Our granddaughters came to visit us this summer. On June 4th we drove half way to where they live in La Porte, Texas and their Mom met us so that we could bring the girls back to Arkansas for a visit. Two weeks. The first few days were easy. Chloe eats Ramen Noodles and would eat them every meal if given that option, so ramen noodles it was. We bought a case of the ramen before she arrived and we taught her how to fix her own bowl of soup boiling the water in the microwave! For Trinity it was macaroni and cheese from a box. Easy enough. Before she arrived we bought a case of Kraft Cheesy Macaroni. I always fix it for her because she is too young to cook, but it's an easy dish to make, and Trinity is always there looking on, wanting to help, no matter what you are doing. I usually find Trinity right under my feet...
On the first day, the girls were busy checking everything out, deciding which side of the room to sleep on, which drawers to call dibs on and looking to see if the makeup was still in the drawer and if there were clothes in the closet that could be used for dress up. They checked to see if there were shovels and buckets so they could dig in the sand next to the church's parking lot. And they fought over what they'd watch on tv. That last one was easy. Mike settled it by saying that each day one girl would be in charge and if the other wanted to watch tv she'd have to watch what the girl in charge wanted to watch. It was easy the first day...but it wasn't long before the two girls figured out ways to irritate one another over what was on the tv screen, changing the channel to something neither wanted to watch just to irritate the one who was not in charge of the remote that day.
A Walk in the Woods
When we moved into this house, Susan, the lady who owned the place before us had left a pair of black rubber gardening boots. I always would use them when it was rainy and wet or when I wanted to walk thru the woods and liked to think that no rattlesnake would strike me through them. One day several month ago while walking through Walmart in Malvern I saw the rubber boots had been marked down. When I looked, there were two pair left, a red pair of ladies boots in my size and a black pair of men's boots in Mike's size. That had to be a sign from Karma!!! And needless to mention from that minute on I had three pairs of boots.
TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN
There seem to be lots of things for little girls to do in Arkansas in the summer. Chloe spent much time watching television or playing a game on her cell phone. She has learned how to read music and she found some sheet music in the piano bench and picked out several songs on the piano, nearly memorizing one, she played it so often. She used my computer a lot and for awhile, until she figured out that Mike's system was easier for her to use, whenever I'd get up from my computer desk she would immediately sit down. I know Chloe takes advantage of me when she has a chance, consistently treating my things as if she has a license to them, digging in every drawer and using things she knows I would not say yes to if she asked first, but apparently she knows exactly what she can get away with and that I love her. She consistently blamed Trinity or denied knowing anything about it when I'd ask, "Who did that?" and regularly told on me to Mike. She never admitted to anything that was not true even though the truth was obvious and she never let up on me that I should make myself responsible to provide what she wanted. And she gets away with it, too! Both girls have a favorite restaurant...the Chinese Buffet. So we ate at one of those in Atlanta on our way back home from picking them up. Never enough for the two of them, again we at at the Chinese Buffet in Hot Springs. I think the girls like being able to choose what and how much they want on their plate, and they both seem to like the ice cream for dessert. Chloe ate two helpings of ice cream. Trinity didn't though because she ate lots of fruit and pudding for dessert before she ate her ice cream. Neither one can pass up sprinkles on their ice cream though.
We went shopping at the Mall afterwards. Even though it was not much fun to watch while they looked at everything there, I walked with Chloe and Trinity while Mike lagged behind nursing his bad leg. I mentioned that there must be lots of great malls in Houston where she lives, but both girls told me the tiny mall in Hot Springs was the best mall in the whole world. Chloe wanted shoes...high heels, spikes. I told her there was just no way. When she went off to tell Mike how thoughtless I am, he mentioned to her that she could maybe have some platforms, high heels, but easier to walk on than spikes and helped her to find the shoes she wanted that would pass her mother's inspection. She ended up with 2 pairs of shoes, one she could wear often, and one she will wear only rarely, but nice shoes, both pairs. She didn't want anyone to help her! She's not a baby, you know! She did put up with Mike looking on--he was the one with the credit card.
I stayed with Trinity. Earlier that day we'd gone to a resale shop in Bismarck and she picked out a dress she loved. It was her size, and so was a pair of yellow crocs so she got them both. When Chloe got new shoes, Trinity wanted shoes too, but worried that she might spend too much money. I helped her a little to find a well made shoe that looked good too. I told her that if she found a pair that fit but was a little too big she could grow into it and save money by wearing it a long time. I told her to buy some shoes she could wear to school. I had sturdy leather sports shoes in mind. Shows what I know! In the end, she found 2 pairs of fancy flats, one white pair and one black pair that were adorable on her feet. When we got home she put the white ones (actually I made her put the white ones back and buy the same shoe but in a bone color) away to keep them from getting messed up, but she could not resist wearing the black ones when we were going to go out somewhere even though she had other shoes. And she always kicked whatever shoes she had on her feet off while she walked down the hallway and left them there until I either picked them up or collared her and made her pick them up out of the pathway.
Chloe didn't get far away from eating Ramen noodles regularly, but she did like it when we had hot dogs and hamburgers and french fries and waffles and she worried a lot about her 'diet' and the fact that she weighed the same thing every day when she'd check herself on the scales in the bedroom. Apparently it's a time in her life when she feels 'cool' worrying over her weight. (Maybe next year I'll show her my sphagmometer and she can take her blood pressure every day and worry over that!)
Trinity was absolutely amazed at homemade waffles. She could not believe how simple it was to get those little boxes pressed in the waffle from the waffle iron! Apparently that was something that she'd stopped to think about and had not been able to figure out. She has a varied appetite and loves to think that things we cook are special for her. She went grocery shopping with Mike and 'talked him into' buying some cottage cheese and some mixed fruit--her favorite. Unless you count chili which is 'her favorite' or maybe her 'favorite' is chocolate milk'. I've heard her say it is and I've heard her call blueberry pancakes her favorite too. While Trinity and Mike were in the grocery store, I took Chloe shopping at Stagg and Cato where she tried on several shirts and actually bought one. So when we got home that evening Chloe tried on her new clothes and Trinity ate cottage cheese with her 'Pops'.
Trinity isn't as quiet as Chloe. She wants to go and do all day long. She wanted to take a bath or a shower every day but Chloe wanted to 'skip it' as often as was possible. Trinity wanted to go into the trees every day, but for Chloe, once was enough. Trinity wanted to go outside and pick flowers and put them in a vase. Trinity wanted a net to go catch butterflies in the daytime and fireflies at night. Trinity wanted to help Mike mow on the riding tractor. She wanted to help with the cooking. She wanted to feed the dogs and run and play with them. She wanted to go to church on Wednesday night. She wanted to go along no matter if we were going to go pay the telephone bill or go someplace special...not because she wanted anything. She just wanted to go and do.
Every evening Trinity wanted to take a walk outside before it got too dark. She wanted to check every night to see if the fireflies were out. When she was in the shower a mirror to see what kinds of 'hairdos' she could make with the shampoo in her hair. She wanted to dress up. She wanted to change her clothes several times a day. She wanted to help with the laundry. I got a game of Scrabble for Mother's Day and taught her how to play and after that she asked me over and over if she could play that game. Trinity found a book that I'd tried to read to her last year and wanted me to listen to her read it aloud to me. It's my favorite book (really!)so I listened to her read until she got tired of reading and decided she wanted to color instead. I could go on and on. Sometimes Trinity got whatever she wanted and sometimes all she got was distracted.
One of the things that Trinity wanted to do was pop firecrackers. The last time she was here was on the 4th of July. (Fireworks are not legal where she lives in Houston.) We had a few leftover bottle rockets and sparklers. In the evening after she was sure there were no fireflies and it had started to get dark, she'd ask me to light a bottle rocket. When I did, one of our neighbors somewhere would start popping firecrackers from somewhere on the other side of the woods. How funny that was! And it piqued Trinity's interest to see if whoever it was would do it again the next night. I have to admit it surprised me, but sure enough, the next night was the same...one of our neighbors started popping firecrackers on the other side of the woods! One night Chloe came out to see what was going on, and she liked watching the bottle rockets, too. She watched while I lit some other things too, a little roman candle, a 'bug' that sent sparks all around in a circle, a little pyramid that was full of all kinds of colors, and she was greatly disappointed that there were no sparklers left for her to hold.
On Thursday after the girls had been here visiting for about 5 days our old Dog Gypsy Died. It was a sad day for all of us. Gypsy is almost the same age as Chloe and has always been 'hers'. Trinity loves Gypsy too and always paused to pet her and hug her neck and talk to her. Gypsy always loved both girls. It was sad, her passing, but in the evening we had a little funeral for her to make it easier. We painted her name on a cement tile shaped like Texas and brought it with us down to where the dog was buried. When we had laid the stone each of us said a little prayer for the old mama dog that she would be waiting for us when we get to heaven. Gypsy left behind a litter of two puppies who are now about 3 years old, so it was not so hard to bear as it would be if we'd lost our only dog.
The 2nd week the girls were here Sonny and Mike put the swimming pool up and filled it. It isn't a big pool, maybe 3 feet deep and big enough around that you can take a couple of swimming strokes before you hit the other side, but it is a way to cool off. Trinity loves it and wants to go swim two or three times a day. This year Chloe loved it, too. I did laundry a couple of times a day and still the girls would have to dig up something else they could swim in because the thing they had worn last time was still wet or was down in the dryer. Both girls would stay in the water until they started to shrivel up...calling it cold when they first got in and hating to get out when it came time.
One day Mike2 had to go to the doctor in Amity. On the way back home we had to pass the little Exxon convenience store on Highway 84. That store sells soft serve ice cream and everyone loves their butter pecan. It was expensive but when we stopped there I bought four of them, one for each Mike and one for each girl. The Mikes both ate theirs the same evening, but I noticed that the girls ate some and saved some for the next day. And Chloe saved hers for longer, only eating what she wanted and saving the rest in the freezer, she made it last quite a long time.
Sunday, June 18th was Father's Day. On the 17th we took the little granddaughters half way back home and met their mother (and her mother Debby) who picked them up to bring them both back home again. We met at a Denny's restaurant, so we enjoyed a final meal together before we parted ways. I know the girls missed their two little brothers and that the boys were happy to seem them back home again. It is taking me forever to get around to cleaning up and straightening out and putting away and remaking the bed and all the things I should do after our 'company' leaves, but it's summer. There's no rush. As soon as I get all those things done I'll very likely be missing them and wishing they'd come back to visit us again.
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