botched weekend plans

No, we didn't go on our hiking/camping trip this weekend. The heat index is still hanging around 110 degrees. It's too hot and miserable. Troy didn't mind doing it when it was 10 degrees outside, he swears he was comfortable still, but the other extreme does not appeal to him. ( Yeah, he did this on New Year's Eve, by himself...the 16 mile hike and overnight camping. Wanted to wake up on his birthday feeling good about himself. Worried me sick.) But that's not actually why we didn't go. Troy got to feeling bad late in the week, with a headache and sore throat and so I decided not to make plans to go. Then I woke up Saturday feeling HORRIBLE. Let me tell you, I don't handle not being well gracefully. I am a healthy person, thankfully, hardly ever sick. And it's a good thing because my daily activities come to a screeching halt when I'm sick. Thank goodness Mom took Alina Friday night and Cheryl took her last night. Kalyn was also off having fun with friends this weekend. Troy and I have spent the weekend on the couch watching tv.

Actually, last night it cooled off enough around 8:00 and we felt like lazy bums for laying around all day so we decided to take the jeep out. Troy took me to a place he knew of, waayy out in the country, where a creek passes over a road and makes a little wading/swimming area. It's in a pasture, in the middle of a mile section. We were bouncing around on this primitive, increasingly narrowing sometimes dirt road, sometimes just ruts in the pasture, seeing all kinds of coyotes as it was getting dark and then suddenly our headlights started going out on us! Couldn't see to drive and had no idea what we were driving into in that pasture. A big rock, a pit, a hole, a coyote den?? He discovered eventually that as long as he didn't try to switch from dims to brights we would be okay. Geez, we seem to always find ourselves in scary situations. The other day we were driving out to his mom's and we ran out of gas! The gas gage doesn't work, you know. Got a hold of his mom, who brought us a gas can. My sister will remember graciously doing the same for us last summer one time. We'll get all the bugs worked out soon. Think we need a spare tire, too. Knowing us.... we really better get one.

yesterday's future technology

I got a new phone last week. Mine wasn't working all the time anymore because it was really old. I had been talking about how when mine came up for renewal I was going to buy one with a slide out keyboard and internet. But when it came time, the miser in me wouldn't let me spend the money on that stuff. I got the free phone and it's just fine for me. My laptop is sufficient for my internet use and I text just fine without a fancy keyboard. I did change our plan though, to include unlimited texting on Troy's phone and mine.

Troy and I were talking about how years ago we thought things would be different, technology-wise, concerning communication. I took a typing class in high school, like everyone else I know, but Troy didn't. And he never really learned how to type very well. Maybe 15 years ago, I remember him telling me that he wasn't worried about ever learning to type well. He figured eventually instead of typing information into computers we would simply be talking to them. It seemed, at the time, like that would be the logical way to go.

Obviously he was wrong. Not only do we not talk to our computers, we don't even talk into our phones anymore! We type on them! 15 years ago that future fact would have gotten a good laugh from us.

no pictures, please

When will I be able to get a good picture of Kalyn again?! Here she is this morning helping her dad haul the cut down corn stalks off to Grandma Helen's. She stopped what she was doing and refused to resume until I went away with the camera. What is a mom supposed to do??!!! One of these days I'm convinced she is going to feel stupid that every picture I have of her at the age of 14 has her covering her face or shoving her hand out to hold off the paparazzi. I promise I don't favor my younger daughter, though my scrap book will seem like I do. Aarrgghh!! It's not fair.

Slacker?

This garden is out of control, this little guy should be totally overwhelmed. He doesn't look it at all, does he?

Shoes!

At the shoe store:

Alina "Mom, these are the ones! What size are they? 13? I think that's what I wear, I know it is, because they fit!"

Me "No, they don't Alina. We have to look over here, in the 2's, that's what size you are. And they have them here also."

Alina (drops shoes she's holding and runs to the size 2's) "Yes! Mom are they expensive? Because I need to have them. Can you look in your purse and make sure you have enough money?"

Me "Well, they're $18.00, which is a little expensive for mid-summer sandals for a 7 year old. How about these? They're very similar and they are only $7.99."

Alina "No, Don't you see? These are the one's I have to have. If Daddy says anything about it I'll take the blame. I'll tell him I wouldn't give up until you bought them for me."

Okay, that last part disturbed me a little bit, as Daddy doesn't usually come into a discussion when we are buying things. But I never see anything that I HAVE to have. I hate shopping, Troy hates shopping and Kalyn won't admit it, but she's just as bad. And she never knows what she wants. So it's hard to resist when Alina KNOWS she has to have something.

Though it does happen to her an awful lot......

Good thing she's our last child.

And the shoes turned out to be $5.00 cheaper at the register.

making the most of a slow summer

Troy and I have been having fun in the jeep cruising all the country back roads. We were saying the other night that it's amazing that we have both lived here all of our lives but are not familiar with all of these roads around us. There are literally dirt roads within a few miles of us that we have never traveled. That's silly! We are taking care of that now!

The other night I estimate I saw between 50-75 deer in the bean fields around sunset while we were out driving. Troy estimates that we saw about 250 deer. That's classic Troy and Karen estimation/over estimation. Anyway, we've seen a lot of wildlife and pretty sunsets and it helps make up for not taking a vacation this summer. Really, it does.

On Saturday we went to a place up by Mapleton, Kansas called Kansas Rocks Recreation Park. It's a trail system for 4-wheel drive vehicles, hikers and bicyclists. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip and the jeep is not completely finished. Meaning there's no tool box, or anything to tow the jeep with, or anything to hook onto to tow the jeep if needed, or no spare tire even. And no CB radio to communicate with the park people. So if we'd have gotten ourselves in trouble, Troy would not have been happy walking up to the park office to let them know we were dumb asses. Luckily we didn't have to. We did have to drive through mud we thought we couldn't get through and almost didn't make it up a couple hills we had no choice but to climb (either that or get stuck in mud we KNEW we couldn't get through). The good news is that our little stock jeep did very well!



Last night sitting around our fire pit at home I told Troy the only thing that makes me a little sad is that the jeep may be taking the place of riding our bikes together or hiking. So, we are planning a trip to Elk City State Park to do a long (16 mile) hike and overnight camp next weekend. The really rough kind of camping. We won't even have a tent. We'll carry back packs and bed rolls. We'll take a water purifier and drink water from the creek or the lake and army surplus ready to eat meals. We'll drink instant coffee while we watch the sunrise. I actually love it.

The girls are doing okay this summer. I worried about Kalyn not keeping busy enough. She didn't play softball this summer, and has decided not to play volleyball or basketball in high school, so no sports camps. I really wanted her to do something, but sports aren't for everyone, so I understand. She's too young still for most summer jobs. She has struggled a little to keep busy, and I feel for her. Sports really keep kids her age from getting bored (and out of trouble)! She's been going to the ballpark to watch the boys play baseball a lot of nights. School starting will be a good thing for her.

Alina has kept as busy as an almost 7 year old can. She's had Bible School one week, spent half a week with cousin Kathryn in Overland Park, and is in the middle of 3 weeks of summer school in the mornings. She's my buddy, goes wherever I need to be in the summer and has no trouble making young friends wherever we are. We ride bikes together every evening.

Tonight while riding bikes I saw some teachers going into their rooms to work at the school. Which makes me think about getting back into the routine myself. At least getting in my room and thinking about it. This long lazy stretch is nice... but I'll be honest... sometimes it's a little too long. Our trip to the lake with friends was canceled because of poor weather, my scrap booking weekend was canceled because of scheduling conflicts, and I've already mentioned the fact that we haven't had the best year financially and have chosen not to do the big vacation. So getting back to our regular daily grind will be comforting, something to look forward to.

But it's not as if we are having a bad summer! I am actually finding joy in the simplest of things. I made dill pickles the other day without even using a mix from the canning isle! I used dill from our garden and other spices. I can't wait to open those jars and try them! I was so excited to spend a day cooking with newly harvested veggies from the garden I had to go out and buy an apron to do it all the proper country woman way.


And by the way, the title of my blog, Blue Skies and Fruit Pies, is a reference to what I consider two great pleasures of living where I do. This is my beloved Kansas summer sky! Shot as we were leaving Kansas Rocks yesterday. So happy to live where I do!

All that glitters

Uh oh! I'm breaking out the flashy jewelry today. You need to beware of me on big jewelry days. It means I'm feeling a little down and needing something to pick me up. It's a dangerous mood. The pendulum could swing either way on days like this.

I let myself have pie for breakfast too, another bad sign. Days when I give in to instant gratification often don't end with me feeling too well. At least I'm aware of it.

Your choice: shower me with flattery today or just stay the heck away from me. I won't blame you for choosing the latter. Just a friendly warning.

summer celebration

So I feel kind of bad that there isn't a lot of red, white and blue in these pictures. We ARE patriotic, really!

The key to enjoyment for Troy this holiday weekend was getting his jeep ready to drive. It's been in pieces, taking up space in his shop for the past year and he so hoped to have it ready by this point in the summer. My retired dad has been helping him by working every day at the shop to help get it back together. Troy was finally able to drive it home Friday night for our family get together, which put him in a much better mood. Which was key for me, because he is the person who does all the grilling! Here he is getting ready to grill with the jeep parked in our driveway at last:




He looks happy, doesn't he?



Alina has been gone visiting her cousin Kathryn in Overland Park for the past few days, we got her back on Friday too. Here the two of them (Kathryn and Alina) are together. They are 6 months apart in age, how great is that?





This would be Susan in the front, My dad in the ball cap, and Susan's Troy behind dad.


My sister Susan, her boyfriend Troy (this was his first visit to our house) and kids Dyson and Emily came. Mom and Dad, of course were here. And brother David, wife Lisa and kids Kathryn and Harrison were all here. I did not get pictures of everyone, I'll explain in a little bit.




Here are all the grand kids on my mom and dad's side: Dyson, Kalyn, Harrison, Kathryn, Alina and Emily. They were shooting off parachutes here. Susan brought really good night time fireworks too, but I usually only get pictures of them doing the daylight ones. Because my night time fireworks pictures are never very impressive in quality and besides, I'm usually pretty much parked in a lawn chair by that point, enjoying company and drinks.




Mom brought these cute little cheeseburgers. They are made of vanilla wafers (the top ones brushed with egg white and sprinkled with sesame seeds) red frosting, chocolate mint cookie, green colored coconut, and yellow frosting. When the food wasn't ready to eat yet, and Dyson was hungry, he asked me for one of the little hamburgers Grandma Linda brought. He wasn't happy at that point to learn that they were cookies! They did look real. Troy also grilled Italian sausages and real cheeseburgers. And mom had her usual flag jello cake here. Everyone got to ride around town in the jeep to see what was going on elsewhere (Sunset Manner had some good fireworks going on), and Troy and I got to take a ride too after everyone was gone.

Then on Saturday it rained, and rained, and rained.

Oh, so I'll tell you about my camera! Kalyn and I both have Sony Cybershots. They came with rechargeable batteries and chargers that you plug into the wall. Very handy. We have slightly different models but the chargers work with both of our camera batteries. I keep mine in a drawer in the kitchen but it simply disappeared the other day. So I asked Kalyn if I could use hers and she told me hers was also missing. Hmmmm. So.....here we are.......both of us loving to take pictures (I take pictures EVERY DAY) and low camera batteries. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through the weekend without my battery dying. And it did, on Friday. So I didn't get all the pictures I wanted. I have none of my mom. Or of me, for that matter, but I'm always on the other side of the camera. People will just have to remember me from my Facebook profile pictures, there aren't any other ones out there.

Anyway, I looked for non-rechargeable batteries. But these are flat, square lithium batteries, not the cylindrical AA kind, and I can't find any. I looked up the chargers on Sony's website and they are $50.00!! I was getting ready to order one though, when I found Kalyn's charger under the futon while sweeping the floor later in the weekend. I swear she lost it first, borrowed mine, and left mine at a friend's house. But it's my word against her's. And honestly? She may have inherited her lack of ability to keep track of her things from me. Luckily, like I said, her charger works with both cameras. AND FROM THIS POINT ON IT WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS HOUSE!

Saturday night it stopped raining just in time for a neighborhood block party hosted by our neighbors, the Strong's and the McCully's. Very nice. And I hate it that I did not get a picture of Alina in her hot pink converse all stars, long baseball socks, cut off jean shorts, pink t-shirt banded at the waist, and sideways pink ball cap. Too cute! I may have her recreate it for a picture, because I'm sick like that. She played kickball there with her good buddy Clay, from school and the neighborhood, and a lot of other neighborhood kids. I got to visit with neighbors that I usually don't get to talk to. And I found out that most of them already know Alina, who rides her bike all over, and has been known to knock on the doors of people's houses asking for kids to play with. Hmmm.

Well, it's hard for me to discourage this behavior, because:
1) I love that she's not as shy as I was, or Kalyn was.
2) It is really cool that we live in a place that I can let her ride her bike around and not worry about her safety.
I have fond memories of riding my bike up and down the country roads where I lived, but she gets the chance here to see so many other kids along the way. It's a really good way to socialize, here in town. And I don't think she's bothering anyone too much.

On the 4th, Sunday, we pretty much felt partied out. Kalyn had asked to go to Girard Saturday night to watch their fireworks from the fair grounds and spend the night with good friend McKenna. I like to have Kalyn with us, but she's at an age when being elsewhere is just more fun for her. And it's okay. Like famous patriot Patrick Henry, who I think probably must have understood teenagers pretty well, once said: "Give me Liberty or give me death!" So I let her go. I also let her go to Lincoln Park on Sunday with her friends to watch the fireworks, since she had a ride and the event is simply too packed (traffic-wise) for me and Troy to enjoy. She had a fabulous time.

Cute picture of Kalyn, with Emily and Dyson.


Here's what Troy and I and Alina did: We hit Lincoln Park in the jeep earlier in the day, to pick up some 4th of July style lunch from the vendors there and venture over to the car show where we knew my dad would be working. We ran into neighbors Frank and Barbara there, with their 1960 Ford.





This car is not restored, it was Frank and Barbara's first car, and it has been maintained very well over the past 50 years! That's the original interior, original everything. Not surprising, knowing Frank. Barbara still has her pink refrigerator and pink stove in her kitchen from when they were first married, too. They keep things nice. They are very nice people we are lucky to have living next door to us.

After a trip to the pool, which Alina had practically to herself, and back home for naps for everyone, we took the jeep out again. This time we drove up to Farlington Lake, the prettiest place around here! We drove around the lake, a couple times, and then down more country roads. Just enjoying the open evening air and vibrant green pastures, trees, gentle rolling hills, tall prairie grass and wild flowers in all their early July glory!




Alina fell asleep along the way. We drove down paved roads and gravel roads. Ending up at Helen's to check on her place (she's off visiting her sister, so Troy's been milking goats every morning!) before coming home around 9:00. We lit a fire in the fire pit and listened to the city fireworks. Which sounded impressive! Too many trees around our place to actually watch them. If I have a fire in front of me though, and a glass of wine, I don't need to watch fireworks.

Happy 234th Birthday America!!