Arizona

My dad in hospice. We were able to have a very nice visit.
All of us were able to go to Arizona to see him.
His brother was even able to come. It is tough.
I'll be going back very very soon. K~

Rosemarie

We all miss Rosemarie. My wonderful mother-in-law for 25 years. She had such a peppy presence. She passed on the Sept 18th. She was one tough cookie. She rebounded so many times that it is actually hard to believe she didn't this time. An active artist, this was one of our close connections over the last 25 years. The other of course was Rick. It was a joy and a privilege to help care for her at the end, and that too I will miss. K~

Cheese

This is cheese. Hi is a wonderful, obnoxious, annoying imaginary friend. He is all that is my memory of raising a 3 year old. If you have not raised or have been extra exposed to a 3 year old, he may come across as abrasive and intolerable, but, that is the point. I Love Him. K~

School has begun for the oldest 2.

Well Wednesday brought the first day of school for C and D. It was so nice to see them go off to school together. D has been doing really well. It is his third day and he has been in a good mood for Wed and Thur. This morning he happily went off to school. Homework has not started, but I think we are going to get that worked out too. One day at a time. K~

Day 8 - yes i am nuts

right now it is almost 10 pm. I have been home today, staying out of the heat. The din is deafening at times. Usually the quiet times are so few and far between I hardly notice them. The house is staying relatively clean. Being in the sandwich generation is my new norm. This summer has been what I figure to be my initiation into the sandwich fold. Soon the evening fire will need to be started, I will curl up between my 2 boys and the dog on the air mattress on the living room floor, well essentially, it is the living room floor, and prop up my numb arms and fingers on one of the many pillows. ( I am up to being about 1/3 of a Norm Gamble) My thumb has been numb for about 10 days now. I thought it was the scrubbing of the floor around the oven, but, I know it is now my grizzled arms. Well, 6 more days of the Walsh "Bed and Breakfast and Lunch, Dinner, camp fires, conversations that go on and on." Well that's about it. Can't type no more. K~

learning to be me

Well It has been a full summer. Most of it has been cleaning and more cleaning. Scrubbing and organizing. I have worked at so much that my poor arms have taken a bitter toll. Every day I ice my shoulders and my elbows. I muddle through with my numb finger tips. I can hardly hold a book for the pain. Crocheting and needle work is a precious few minutes a day. However, through it all, I am working harder on accepting me. I have been struggling with my home. It is small and full. Full of life and clutter. I think of what it would be if I didn't have all my family or all my animal companions and it just makes me sad. I feel that I have been torn in two for far too long. I am embarking on the journey of stitching those two halves together. The one half is my longing to be a "normal" homemaker - clean, organized, motherly, prepared and the other half is Children, animals, collections of little things, and having a "Yes" house.

That said...My mom and dad are coming on Sunday to stay here for 2 weeks. It will be a house with 7 people, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bunny, 1 gerbil, 1 snake, 1 lizard, 12 turtles, and several fish. I hope my nerves with hold out that long.

K~

S catches a fish!!

S hauled out this 7lb catfish by himself. WOW. what a fish!
D is a bit jealous, but handled it like a good big brother. K~

so I'm 44

I had my 44th birthday on Sunday. I find that so far it has been pretty good. I had a nice birthday. It was the same as every other day, just without the guilt. Yeah!! K~

A place for me to dangle my feet

I always need to be reminded how sweet my husband is. He built this for me to dangle my feet in the pool. It works great. He thought I would like the decor kept on the platform. He is kind of right, in a hillbilly sort of way. I think it will work nicely, while I learn to play the banjo?? By the way, I have been asking for a banjo for about 5 years now, and have yet to get one. :-) K~

Buttons!!

Went to a yarn store and got some buttons. Really liked them. K~

the reason one goes to the BWCA

The BWCA is by far one of my favorite places to visit.
It does come with a price, however, as you saw in my previous post.
These photos show some of the things that happen between the family disasters. K~

The dark side of the BWCA

For the Walsh's, doing anything the "normal" way is unheard of. We wait on the sidelines for the patriarch of the family to do the deciding, planning, "packing" and bossing around.

Once you fall in, you may as well sit and catch minnows. Later in the trip, I caught his poor little neck with a hook. After I got over my horrifying shock, I realized that it was nothing. The hook just caught a tiny part of his skin. Phew.

Looking for a lost reel part. The water is tea colored and the rocks are slippery with slime. 3 finally went in and looked, and D came up with it. This was after a long long long morning of emotions over needing to leave due to the deer flies and horse flies, the mosquitoes and no fish to catch.

It's always nice to eat a meat stick with out having to cut it. yum??

Curling up on the moist ground and sharing the only towel with a wet smelly dog is as close to relaxing as one can get.

The little red dot is not a bead. It is a bug. A mite to be exact. These like to inhabit the waters of our shoreline. Pretty to look at, not pretty to swim with. They are carnivorous.

Water Mites of North America - Hydrachnidiae

HUGE THUNDERSTORM!!!
The second night a huge thunderstorm rolled in. It sounded like the lightning was sitting right on us. Our 6 1/2 foot tent was laying on D. During the storm, tent poles cracked, rain came spilling in and there was very little dry inside and out.

There are not photos to show the lost canoe, raining in the tent, emotional breakdowns, burnt hands, mosquito infested latrine (out door latrines are so scary by themselves), red hot sunburns so bad the muscle hurts, the sound of swarms of mosquitoes outside the tent, and so on. K~

A Crow from work

Another Science lesson:

im·print·ing   

–noun Animal Behavior, Psychology .

rapid learning that occurs during a brief receptive period, typically soon after birth or hatching, and establishes a long-lasting behavioral response to a specific individual or object, as attachment to parent, offspring, or site.

There is a crow at work that has been raised from a baby. It has unusually imprinting. Last night, I had to clean a pen that had 12 juvenile crows in it. It was kind of daunting. They are large birds with large beaks. Most of them just yelled at me and moved away. But one, sat and yelled in my ear and pulled on my NEW shirt I got from Gull Lake. At one point he was on my shoulder. (Arrrr matie ) I warned him that if he bit a whole in my new shirt that I would have to bill him. Well, I got out of the pen and sure enough, I have a very small pin hole in my right arm sleeve. sigh. I don't know how I am going to get the money from him, but I will hopefully find away :-) K~

Day 6

Surprise! It has been rainy for 2 days and now it is still quite overcast.
We are hoping for a better day today. I am going shopping in about an hour and a half. Hope to find some goodies.
Things have been interesting up here to say the least, but the drama has been defused some, so that's good.
I have yet to fish. I am going to later today, off the dock or paddle boat.
Went to see KungFu Panda 2 yesterday. It was about a B in relation to the first one which got an A+.
Here are some fantastic photos my wonderful C took of an Eagle that was just sitting around.
The photos are just wonderful, enjoy. K~

The Drama has begun

C took this picture.

Day 3 and the drama has begun. LUCKILY it doesn't involve me much. "They" think I am involved, but I am just nodding my head a lot. K~

Gull Lake - Day 2

Well it's early yet. Only 8:50 am. The Bacon and eggs have been started and the pancakes are going to be under way soon (my job). I watched Bringing up Baby with Tom Sr. last night on movie theater volume. It was really nice. He really enjoyed it. We love talking old movies. I am watching Uncle Tom and his kids fish off the dock, while I enjoy the very quiet cabin here.

oh no.... too late they're up! K~

We made it!

Well we finally got packed and we were on our way. We were 2 hours late (due to Ricks work schedule and rain) Then we needed to pick up Ricks Mom and Dad. That took about 30 minutes. Then off we went. 30 minutes later, we were at Wendy's for lunch. Finally we were on the road and off to Gull Lake. I have sat here and relaxed. I am planning to do this for the rest of the week. It worked out that we have our own cabin and WOW I tell ya - this is great!!! Here's hoping it continues.

Never mind. Just walked into an open dishwasher and smashed both shins. OUCH! K~

Flowers fanfare to Summer

Summer is here at the Walshes. It is the last day of school for the boys and C is keeping me very very busy running around....but....that is another blog. My flowers are beautiful and I just love looking at them and photographing them. We are on our way to Gull Lake in a few days. That should be worth a few laughs and hopefully I will steal some relaxation time. Summer officially begins for me tomorrow. sigh. K~