Random Stuff, Playing Catch Up

Here's a few blurbs to catch you up, kind of in order of occurrence:
* Grace and I went to the circus. We had lots of fun, did not see any animals get mistreated, but had to stay in our seat the entire time to avoid the randomly wandering clowns (who were scary). Then Grace picked Famous Dave's for lunch and after, we fed the seagulls and threw rocks in the big lake at Canal Park. A perfect 'girl's day'!
* Micah had his last Jr. High band concert with nary an 'Eye of the Tiger' heard. Micheal taught him to tie his own tie.

* My husband got a job!!! After over 2 years (which has it's own separate story behind it), this is his 2nd full week back at work. He's actually back at the same place he left but in another department and they called him out of the blue wondering if he wanted to come back. Ummm.... ya-ah! He still had to interview and wait what seemed like forever to get the call back, but he's working! And I feel like I'm just finally coming up for air after a long, long time.

* We went to stay at my aunt's and she (86) and Grace (4.75) had this conversation while discussing a ragdoll in Auntie's bedroom:

G: What's that?
A: That's a doll my mommy made.
G: Is she dead?
A: Yes she is.
G: You're going to die soon, too, Auntie.

Nice. Luckily, Auntie thought it was funny and she's telling all her friends, who don't think it's funny, at all.

* Have I mentioned that my husband got a job????

* Grace has been watching other kids play their GameBoys at Gramma's and really wanting one. So we had Micah find his (which has been missing, but not missed, for at least 6 months) and we bought it from him for Grace. He had a bunch of games and we traded them in for little girl games like My Little Pony, TinkerBell, Disney's Princess... and had enough left over for a fun case and stylus, too! While we waited to be rung up, Grace paced around the store exclaiming, "This is the best day of my life!" She is definitely a girl whose love language is receiving gifts. It was so fun to see her so excited. Most of the parts are so small, she needed a place to keep all the bits. Auntie had given us a nice zippered bag with a vendor's name embroidered on it (where does an 86 year old get this stuff?) and I remembered a post I saw on a friends blog where she sewed a small pieced area over the silk screened info on some of those cloth bags you can pick up almost anywhere making them look FABulous. I decided to turn it into a special bag for the GameBoy. Here's a before shot:
And here's the final product:
And a close up of the large patch I made to cover the embroidered front:
I used a dish towel I picked up at a garage sale. It's been washed & dried on high heat so many times I knew it wouldn't shrink. I cut out the right size, doubled it, ironed it, turned the edges & whip stitched the edge with my sewing machine. Grace helped me pick the font & color for the words & the pictures & we printed it on some iron-on sheets I happened to have for the printer. Ironed the picture on then sewed the patch over the embroidery on the bag. Voila! A personalized bag. Grace is very happy with it and I hope it keeps her from losing those itty bitty games.

* I shopped with my stomach today and tonight we are having chipotle ranch center cut pork chops, my mom's potato & bacon packets, caprese salad and some strawberries I paid WAY too much for on the side of the road. But look at them! As this is only our 2nd or 3rd day that has been over 80 this summer, it will be weeks before we can pick at the berry farms up here.
* Micah is in Colorado with the Sr. High youth from church. His first missions trip, his first & longest trip more than an hour away from us & from home. A whole week of unloading the dishwasher ourselves. ;o)

* And finally, it's 85 degrees today and snowing in our yard.
The popple trees ('Popple' is a local term in the upper midwest for Quaking Aspen or Trembling Aspen. Populus tremuloides) in our yard do this every year. One day we come home and Summer SNOW! It blows everywhere, fills up the rain gutters and makes a winter wonderland in the middle of summer. The popples have 'flowers' of little, drooping grey 'catkins' that turn into 'fruit' of strings of light green capsules that apparently burst in a coordinated orchestra of fluff that carry the tiny seeds on the wind, looking for fertile ground. Snow! (As I type this, my hubby just coughed, gagged, and spit off the deck: they are easily inhaled!) Here's another shot of just one of the popples lining our yard.

And that's just a smattering of the Wilson's household lately! Whew! More to come... like Jon & Kate +8 (what is the deal there???) and bunches of other stuff like how hard marriage is (can I get an amen?) and 'Kids, Whose Idea were They?' Stay tuned!