Weekend happenings

Another weekend gone.  And pretty much, with the passing of this weekend, it seems that summer is coming to an end.  Where does the time go??

My Mom arrived on Friday for the weekend.  After she got here we headed out to a few thrift sales.  A quick stop at the local kid’s consignment store.  And then lunch at DQ, complete with yummy treats at the end!  Friday night we went to a new bar and grill that went in near us a couple of months ago.  It was really good.  Most definitely may become one of our ‘regular’ places.

Saturday we went to an old time farm fest.  The kids had a blast, as usual with that sort of thing.  Plus there was the added bonus this year.  They staged a car vs. tractor accident.  K LOVED watching it and was so interested in how they stabilized the ‘victims’, how they tore the car apart to get them out and all of that.  And, as part of the staged demonstration Mayo One (a medivac helicopter from the area) flew in.  They allowed people to go through the entire helicopter, answered a ton of questions and all sorts of stuff.  Of course, K LOVED that as well.  He went through the back of the helicopter where they transport people, sat in the nurses seat, checked it all out and got his pic taken in there.  He was absolutely excited about the whole experience.  And when he got out they had the gurney sitting there that they had used to ‘rescue’ the person from the demonstration.  But what they failed to do for those that were watching was show that the person was ok, that they weren’t really hurt.  Adults could figure that out, but the kids were all concerned about the hurt person.  My son was no different.  because he didn’t see that the person got off the gurney he assumed they were still on it.  And they had all of the blankets wrapped up on it with their equipment underneath the blanket so it looked like a person was wrapped up in there.  K took one look at it and went "oh no, that man died that was in that accident’.  My Mom and I tried to explain to him that there was no one on the gurney, that they were ok, etc.  But he was pretty positive they were still on there just the way the blankets looked.  He even said "no they did.  See, they are int he body bag".  I couldn’t help but find it a little amusing that my 4 yo son knows so much about that and showed such concern for the person he thought was on that stretcher.  But boy, did he get the attention of those standing around the gurney when he said there was a dead person in a body bag laying right next to them!  lol  But for a kid who is soooooooo interested right now in the human body and how it works and all of that it was the greatest thing he could have experienced.

Sunday was a lazy day of just hanging out around the house.  We did a little yard work.  Watched the kids play outside for quite a while.  And just enjoyed doing nothing.  Grabbed some groceries for the next day or so.  Then went home and grilled out with pork chops on the grill, pasta salad, potato salad.  And because my son was having such a blast he asked if we could please eat dinner on the deck so we did. 

Monday was another do nothing much kind of day aorund here.  Enjoyed playing with the kids again.  Made BLT’s for lunch, which are always yummy in the summertime.  Especially with fresh tomatoes from the garden.  And for dinner we grilled out again with marinated kabobs that I made.  Then Monday night my Mom headed back home and back to work.  This was her last vacation before she retires.

Yesterday I had to catch up on doing some things.  Had to run to Walgreens to get the boys’ prescriptions refilled.  After wasting over 20 minutes sitting in their drive thru I only came away with only one filled.  Grrr….  I was so frustrated with them.  I had it refilled in early July but they refused to refill it without much of an explanation.  The person I was dealing with wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, which was not helping the cause.  I eventually just gave up and told her to forget it and I would just deal with it later.  I was just tired of sitting there trying to get that woman to understand what I was asking and what not.  So we just came home minus one of the refills.

The weather here yesterday was strange.  We got this heavy downpour for about 5 minutes and then it was over with.  After that it was SUPER humid outside and hot.  It was breezy but by no means  heavy winds like we often get.  I was sittig in the house around 5 last night and I heard this strange sound outside.  I couldn’t put my finger on what it might be, but it sounded strange.  I looked out the one window to see if the neighbor kid next door was out playing basketball because it kind of sounded like that.  But he wasn’t.  I saw nothing else of any concern.  About a half hour later I was  going to go outside for something and I opened the front door and stopped dead in my tracks and went "WTH?!?!?!?"  Here our great big beautiful tree in our front yard was laying down on the ground!  So I went out and looked at it and went back in and called DH.  His first response?  "What did you do???"   Yeah, like I did something to knock over the tree!  lol  Later I wished I had told him that J went out there and just pushed it over.  lol  Then I called my Mom and told her about it.  It was just lucky it hadn’t been a day or so earlier because it fell right where her new suburban had been parked all weekend. 

Shortly after 6 I hear a knock on our door.  I answered it and our neigbor from across the street was standing there.  She wanted to know if I knew my tree was down.  So I went out and talked with them.  Her husband was out in the yard looking the tree all over and really inspecting it.  So we stood out there and talked for a bit.  He said when he got home after 4 that he didn’t recall seeing it down.  I told him it went down around 5.  They were shocked when they came out of their house and saw that, they figured I may not have known about it.  And since they noticed that DH"s car was not yet home they decided to come over and see if I knew.  He said he didn’t have a chainsaw or they would ahve come over to help cut it up.  NO one around us seemed to have one that they knew of either.  the neighbor lady was disappointed to see the tree down like that, she said it was such a beautiful big tree and that she always liked that tree.  It was a shame.

When DH came home we went out and took a look at it.  While we were out there looking at it a couple of ladies from the neighborhood came by on their nightly walk.  And the one asked if that happened that day.  I told her just about an hour or so ago.  So they stopped and looked at it too.  The one said she was going home right away and tell her husband about it and she said he would likely be over to take a look at it and write up a report on it.  Then she explained that he is a meterologist for the National Weather Service in our

area and they do reports on that sort of thing.  See, we had no storms in the area or anything at the time, but my tree got struck by lightening.  So I called a tree service last night and they were going to come out today and give an estimate.

Today the tree service guys did come jsut before noon.  They took a look at it and said that they thought the rest of the tree that was standing should be cut down too.  Apparently he figures it will be to heavy on the one side so it will tip over eventually.  But I decided that I would take my chances and see if it would survive.  He said the chances of it surviving might be pretty slim.  but I’d rather see how it goes instead of just killing a perfectly good full grown tree.  So they cut up what was down and cleaned every last leaf up.  It hardly looks like we ever had a problem.  Now the part where it broke and was exposed is all sealed up with some tar like substance to prevent weathering and what not.  I guess we’ll see how it goes next spring when it goes into bloom to see if it survives.  It’ll only cost us $50 to have the rest taken out if we decide on it then.  And we have some other trees we are thinking of having removed next spring anyway so we can probably just get it all done at the same time. 

I swear if it’s not one thing it is another around here!  lol  I mean I was one of those "lucky" ones that had their OD password compromised.  Ridiculous.  I mean, seriously, get a life.  If you have that kind of time on your hands to hack into OD then you seriously need to find something to do with your life!  Same goes for the idiots who somehow hacked into the credit card system and compromised my number there a month ago.  I just am not have any luck lately.

I got the final tax forms for the Estate on Saturday.  Reviewed those and everything appeared to be in order so I signed and returned those.  I am half expecting that by the end of this week that the final checks will be distributed and all the final forms will be sent out as well.  And once the checks are cashed or waivers signed, whichever one they decide to cooperate with first, and we can file them with the Court then it will be over.  Once that gets filed the Judge said she will sign the release papers to release me from my duties as Personal Rep fo the Estate.  It’s amazing to think this is pretty much over with.  All that will be left will be to figure out how to invest the money I’ll be getting.  I have to be smart about it so I’m taking my time and figuring it out with the help of my DH and our financial advisor.

Well, I’m off to see what I can get into and accomplished today.  So far it’s not been much as I sat around and waited for the tree service guys to arrive.  I had no idea when they might show up so all I could do was sit around and wait.  I’ve made lunch already, figured out what to have for dinner and paid the bills.  The boys will be going down for a nap soon (not soon enough some days!).  I’ll be honest, all I really want to do is sit back, kick my feet up, relax and read.  Well, gotta go, the youngest one is throwing a fit over something and has discovered that when he does that stuff oozes out of his nose and he thinks it’s something to play with.  Yuck!  Boys……..  lol