Catching up - Again! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday!

The quads spent the night with us on Saturday and they have grown up respecting my #2 rule......

You do NOT wake up MeeMaw!

That comes right after Rule #1 - You do NOT tell MeeMaw 'No!'

That rule is a bit outdated and no longer needed, actually.

It was from when the quads were little and that one little rule held me in good stead for several years. It holds true today. I only had to address it once in their 6 years and - you will not be surprised - it was with Kailey. But only once.

I found this discreet reminder note that was slipped under our bedroom door on Sunday morning.

It is fitting that this was from Kailey.

She simply wanted me to know - at my first convenience - that they were all awake and waiting for me and Granddad to get up.

 I do so love these quadlings!!!

Sunday morning breakfast!

Note the tiny cups of coffee flavored milk!

We made it to the Cowboy Church -

*Source*

with Pastor Jody Nichols and we were only 5 minutes late!!!

The kids sat with us and were as good as gold.

One of the kind members who sat behind us gave them pencils and notebook paper and after the service showed Harrison how to draw a boy from the word 'boy.'

We are loving this church!

When we got back to the house, the kids were on a mission to fill out their 'To Do' lists!

One of the first things on that list was to pick flowers!

I gave them all a small pair of scissors and a basket.

They were happy and stayed in the front yard and flower beds for nearly an hour!

The thing about the quads being here - was that they were So happy to BE here and WE were SO happy they were! Now that they are in school and Life has morphed to a new normal - it felt GOOD to be back together again. We will continue to look forward to and celebrate the time we get to spend with them.

Sunday was like a holiday.

We had made dinner party plans with the Cumby's and Dunaway's to share our Alaska cruise photos.

It was a great trip and we all shared so many wonderful experiences.

Brenda brought some smoked salmon from Alaska and made an appetizer plate.

I had cheese from the Tillamook Creamery and fresh French bread and real butter!

Dinner was pot roast, candied carrots, potatoes and some truly good gravy.

The kids table!!

Summer and Rayne joined us as well as Amber and Mike.

My sweet niece, Leah, and her handsome husband, Patrick.

The quads gave Leah the third degree as to who she was and how they know her.

The kids are on a learning curve and trying to figure out who they know and from where they know them. Alas, their memory is not as clear as they want it to be and some of their earlier years are no longer clear to them. We filled them in and they were happy to embrace this 'new' relationship!

I must say here that Leah has always been rather special to me in that - even when she was a very young adult - and I was going through a very tough time with a messy divorce and more personal problems than you could shake a stick it - Leah took time out and spent many a Friday evening with me and her Granny. She was 25 years old when she spent an entire weekend with us in December of 2004 taking us out to see the Christmas lights and sharing some good wine.

How many young people would do that?

 I will never forget her kindness. 

After dinner we all congregated in the den and watched the collection of photos and videos from our trip. Billy got some great footage of the Northern Lights. Put all three of us together - the slide show was amazing!

Louis Dean!

Isn't he cute??

The quads were thrilled to be playing with Rayne and she was thrilled to be with them!

Girl Power!!!

We all partied into the night while watching the Cowboy game .....

sadly, they lost in overtime.

All too soon, the house was quiet.

Amber and Mike loaded the quads up to go home and Summer had tucked Rayne into bed earlier since they had an early morning flight to Puerto Rico.

These are the notes and art work the quads left for me.

I'm sewing the denim squares together and will frame them.

The kids know where I have a stack of denim squares and all their lives they have taken some and written on them and made art work out of them.

It didn't matter that the stack they found was all counted out and planned for a gift for Nita's grandson's wedding later this month. I will cut out more squares tomorrow.

I could not bear to scold them!

They were so very glad to be back in their 'happy place' around my sewing machine.

May it always be so.....

4:00 came early and it was a quick trip to DFW airport!

I love this little girl!

Rayne is an amazing child and I am so glad to be a part of her life.

Summer and Sabrina make very sure that we get to spend quality time with her and I love modern technology that enables us to Marco Polo and Facetime in addition to phone calls.

I dropped them off at the airport and went home and right back to bed!

I didn't leave the bedroom until after 1:00 Monday afternoon.

I was tired!

I cried Uncle and determined to rest up for a few days.

This is the sign Rayne gifted me on Sunday.

I decided to take it with me room by room as I go about my week cleaning and doing.

Monday I cleaned the den.

Then I cleaned the utility room and pantry.

The pantry was a mess but I feel good about it now.

Candle lit means a clean room!

I was using Windex to clean the French doors when I noticed how warm and cozy it looked.

Monday night was a good sleeping night. Rain and cooler temps came in......

and this morning we had coffee and our Bible and reading in the den.

The rain was nice and the air was cool......

Then we noticed the wet spot in the den.

I got my Rainbow Vacuum and sucked up about a gallon and a half of water.

No problem.

There is a crack in the foundation and when the ground is saturated - this area gets wet.

And then there was another wet spot in the sewing room.

Again, crack in the foundation.

We sucked the water up.

It continued to rain......

Oh, dear!

This must be addressed as soon as the rain stops and it all dries up a bit.

No one wants to see Louis Dean up on a wet slick roof!

But make no mistake - he intends to fix this!

And I'm sure he will!

I have not seen anything he couldn't fix yet!

Between sucking up water and doing routine housework, 

I finished the baby quilt for Nita's first grandchild, Olivia!

It is now laundered and in a bag made especially for it.

Now I am counting out the denim squares to make a quilt for Nita's grandson's wedding.

We are going on a super duper siblings trip towards the end of this month to Arizona!

I will start work on that quilt tomorrow.

But for now I will say Goodnight!

I am loving every single day of October!

Next Tuesday night or Wednesday morning we will be going to the ranch!

I cannot tell you how much I want to BE there.

It is my Happy Place.

The happiest of all my places.

I missed February - due to Louis Dean being ill.

And I missed September - because we were gone on our big cruise and vacation.

I am going to enjoy our October visit!

I may well miss November due to decorating for Christmas and a visit from my Finland friend, Jutta.

She will be here the last of November and the first week of December.

I am going to decorate early for Christmas and host my Christmas Tea in her honor.

I hope to see the New Year in at the ranch and am going to take the year 2019 as a year to step back and slow down.....

I enjoy my life now but I do get tired.

Perhaps it's my 70 year old body that is talking to me.....

and maybe I need to slow down so I can enjoy the years I have left.

I was reading the  recent copy of AARP and it said the average age expectancy in the USA is 78.74 years.  That gave me pause.

And this is true!

My skin looks like it needs to be ironed......

But then again......

why don't we just do this???

Let's keep on living and loving and growing and being and sharing and doing??

That's what I've decided I'm going to do!