Tag: front porch

The Late Wrap-up

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-UpLeave a comment

It was a full week last week…  My #2 grandie, Olivia Mayne Casey, was promoted from elementary school last Wednesday.  She was the picture of poise as she gave an excellent speech.  She received several Awards for her participation in extracurriculars, and was chose to have her picture hang on the “Wall of Fame” for her performance in Language Arts.  She looked beautiful…..

Between pounding rains, we brought up the trailer and set it up just outside our back door, ready to be used as a kind of summer house.  Inspired, I pulled out the cushions of the banquette and went crazy buying throw cushions (BOGO 1/2 off at Big Lots) and voila!

By Friday we were able to put up the pool, though the windy rains continued to intermittently pass by…

Saturday was the Shannon’s School of Dance Recital.  This was Olivia’s 7th performance and she did a perfect job…it may be her last, as well, and she went out in style.  She has chosen to d/c the dance during the 6th grade year while she gets the hang of Middle School and their extracurricular offerings.  She says she may go back, and I agreed — the first dance was performed by “old” students at Shannon’s (where were you, Melissa?) who tapped to 42nd Street and it made me want to buckle up my tap shoes and join the fun. (sorry about the quality of the pictures, but the lights…)

The dance recital is always a looong one, so we took Samantha home with us during the intermission and she slept over with us.  She and I sleep together in my bed, putting Grandpa off to the couch…  We picked up Olivia the next morning and the three of us hit up IGA for some fried chicken and other picnic fixins.  Michael and Jessica arrived for lunch and the Indy 500 was on the TV all day.  There was a cloudburst, so no swimming, but we played games and sang songs…

I have been feeling extremely emotional and anxious about nothing, compounded by thinking too much about the past…which has passed…and I know better…but it was 22 years ago last week that Dad died, my grandkids are growing up waay too fast, to say nothing of my children being middle-aged so what does that make me…

This getting old shit is getting old…

So I felt all the feels, but walked them away at the cemetery after I put a fresh arrangement on Mom & Dad’s mausoleum.  Memorial Day is a party at the graveyard and a little bit of sunshine and smiling did me a world of good.

It’s going to be a wonderful summer vacay with the Jr. girls,,,I’m planning weekly adventures and the sky’s the limit on the fun we can muster up.   I’m not sure when the Jose’ girls will visit, but they will!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do around the Acres…right after I sit a spell on the front porch swing…

Peace

 

Quick post before I go frolic…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2018, Summer at SonnystoneLeave a comment

The sun returned yesterday, revealing a layer of dust covering the Sonnystone interiors.  I have to keep my eyes on the screen to avoid pangs of guilt, but I’m going to ignore it and go play outside.

Successful Rummage Sale-ing yesterday…

Drum and Rain Stick — $4

!!! Complete, hardly-used Disney Trivia game!!!   $1

The best yet…we spotted this little ensemble sitting at the curb with a sign reading “free”… uh-huh, into the sedan it went.  I need some cushions and a little touch-up of the table, but doesn’t it look snazzy?  Did I mention Free?

The rains have been tough on the pool, but my pool-boy is preparing it for my barge…

Oldest grandie, Emma, will be participating in the Irish Dance National Competition on the 4th of July in Orlando.  We are taking Olivia along to meet up with the entire Jose’ clan and spend a couple of days at  Disney World.  I mean, we’re there, right?  No way we’ll pass up a chance to ride the new Slinky Dog Dash and Space Saucers.  Melissa, Emma, and Eliza will then ride back to Eville with us.

We’ve made a first draft of plans for Camp Sonnystone 2018, coming up July 9-14 with closing ceremonies the 15th.  There are going to be some exciting new additions to our usual Fun.  You will definitely want to stay tuned…in fact, you might want to come and visit!

Uh-oh, just saw the dust again…gotta get outside…

Peace

 

shiftless (week-end wrap-up)

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn week-end wrap-up1 Comment

My to-do list for the week-end was full…and I did manage to get cross off everything except the outside-of-the-house stuff…meaning that I didn’t get off the property much.  There was a trip to the pumpkin store and I popped into the grocery.  I cleaned like a little scrubby-Dutch woman, sneezing the dust away as I went, and cooked up some soups (tomato/basil and grilled cheese;  hearty vegetable)…also read some Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor short stories, wishing I could write like that.

I did take some pictures, lucky you…

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This is a 4-day work-week, giving us a 3-day “Fall Break”—hahaha!   It’s the week that we Celebrate Grease and Embrace Obesity (it’s all about that bass) here in E-‘ville in our never-ending quest to stay on top of the fattest-city competition:  WestSide Nut Club’s Fall Festival!!!  I usually skip that, but you never know.  Casey and I have been planning a get-away to the mountains, but the weather looks shit-esque, and right now that’s on hold; I have seen the Appalachians in fog many, many times already.

I’ll let you know where we end up.  Till then, Happy Monday!

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Wedding Anniversary Edition

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Special Edition4 Comments

We celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary on Friday.  Well, celebrated is a bit of  a stretch:  Casey brought me a beautiful bouquet of roses and I brought him a bottle of Jack Daniels.

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We sat out on the porch swing, sipping the Jack and walking down Memory Lane.  Our wedding, though, was hardly our high point.  Our marriage, 34 years of hanging in and hanging on, 34 years of laughing and loving, 34 years of growing and morphing into the couple that we are…that was the topic of conversation.  It’s a wonderful thing, this long-term commitment that is occasionally grim determination, and I marvel that we have come this far.

Our personalities have little in common—he thinks math, I think words.  In the early years, especially, I longed for him to “understand me” (though I certainly didn’t understand him).  I’m a little emotional (ya think?), with some mental health issues that occasionally over-ride my good sense;  he’s very logical and always clear-thinking.   Over time, those opposites blended, so that we are all that we need;  our mutual introversion and love of home has bonded the relationship into the solid rock you see today.

Of course, that’s what you see, and there’s always another side to marriage.  We expect so much of each other and sometimes the results just aren’t what we had hoped for.  We get angry and hurt and we argue the same arguments over and over.    Somehow, we have managed to pull it all back together when that happens and the result is a stronger love, robust friendship, and great hope for another 34 years…or so.

On our 30th anniversary, we went to see Garrison Keillor’s Summer Love Tour.  It was the usual hot, August day (unlike this year) and the show was in a lovely amphitheater.  We actually danced—though he mostly stands still and twirls and dips me–and one of my favorite memories is swaying and singing along to this song…

(grab your sweetie and sway along)

Hallelujah!  Amen!

 

In the picture…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Sonnystone Summer Spectacular3 Comments

I am reveling in this time with my grand-daughters so much that I’ve not taken many pictures.  Instead, I’m  trying to embed the memories into whatever gray cells are still functioning in my old brain, being right here right now.  Still, there’s this nagging voice saying:  Blog this…   Here’s what I’ve got:

 

July 8

July 9

Cousins Day

 

The Original Cousins
The Original Cousins
Bob & Ruby would be so proud...
Bob & Ruby would be so proud…

 

July 10

Melissa will take off early tomorrow morning to stay a few days in Indianapolis and for Emma to compete in a Feis (Irish Dance Competition) while I head back to the track for more Live Racing.  They’ll return Monday and we’ll have 11 straight days of festivities.  We’ll be in touch so we can see as many of you as we can.  Till then…

Just a quick check-in

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Sonnystone Summer SpectacularLeave a comment

Every Friday Olivia and I have been hitting the rummage sales—okay, I call them rummage sales, you call them garage sales, some people call them yard sales, and when I was really little my mom called it bummin’.   She brings her purse, has to have Something from each sale and I’m trying to teach her a little about money management…hahaha.   One week she immediately grabbed up a rock-em-sock-em robot game, and was gonna carry it on home.  I said, no, it’s too much money ($2).  She said, but I’ll just give them 25cents…  I wish it always worked like that.  By the way, she did put it down with a little coaxing and found a wonderful Barbie computer for only 50cents.   See?  money management.   Usually we have lunch somewhere after the sales, but today we’re going to pick up some something to bring back to PawPaw and see the construction…

Casey’s been working non-stop on the porch, starting early and pushing on until the sun is on the west side of the house.  It’s going to be put together by the time he goes back to work next week, but there are a million little things to finish up after:  paint and more paint, some trims, the ceiling fan, onandon…

day 3

I didn’t get pictures downloaded of day 4’s accomplishment:  doorway on north end.  We had, or I had, a brief panic when our local box stores didn’t have the screening, but I got it ordered Tuesday and FedEx delivered yesterday, thank-you.

Mark your calendars, ladies and gentlemen, for the visit of the E’s…  Emma, Eliza and their mom, Melissa, will be flying into Nashville 7/8.   There’s a feis in Columbus wrapped around a visit to Lola Sonya in Indy 7/11-13, and they’ll be at Sonnystone non-stop from 7/14-7/24.  More details later, but I hope many, many of you can visit.

Gotta go, the good stuff’s gonna be taken….

TGIF

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

I’ve got to work at the track today, noon till 4 or so.   The nurse who job-shares with me has met with some unforseen medical problems and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I have the whole week-end off.   In the meantime, here’s yesterday’s recap:

001Emma got her ears pierced at the mall, after driving her sister around for a while…

We did some gardening…

 

grandpa needed some help…

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Melissa took some pictures…

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It is hot as _______  (use your own expression), sweaty all around, but we Tried some swing pictures just to get some practice…

 

cemeteries, bars, and toilets (not necessarily in that order)

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

The Unexpected is expected when you live in an older home…  An emergency toilet replacement was carried out this week-end—I’ve soo been wanting a new one, right?

That doesn’t sound so inspiring, but we really have been on a work-binge all week-end.  In addition to a lot of gardening (to be reported over at Growing Every Season), we got a strong start on the upstairs bedroom re-do.  We put in a window air-conditioner, scratched our heads and asked, “why did that take us 10 years?”  I didn’t want to give up my window and Casey thought the window was too small. As he answered, “because we’re chowderheads”.  The changes upstairs spilled down to my closet and I’ve been grimly going through Too Many Clothes that don’t fit, ready for another trip to the Goodwill…

Today we stopped and visited a couple of cemeteries, mostly Casey’s family.  His grandma and grandpa Gibbs are buried in Locust Hill Cemetery, a very old, very German cemetery.  I’m intrigued by old cemeteries…there is that entire phallus theme going, large obelisks and columns, just to show that some folks are bigger, even in the afterlife.

Who says you can’t take it with you?
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Casey’s Dad always wins the Best Headstone, family member, award:
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We’d planned to drive over to Grayville and Albion, but my blood sugar dropped, transforming me into a grump, and verry close to spewing bile over anyone who approached me, so we stopped for a quick bar-burger.

After couple of beers, we decided to head on home and enjoy the fruits of our labor. (I’m planning a visit to Illinois soon, so I’ll be giving you a call, Nu-Nu!)

Today, the first Monday of my 81 days, is windy, 73degrees, birds chirping and gardens happily drenched with last night’s rains. By the time the high temperature of 87 degrees arrives, I hope to have all of my errands done and to be swinging on the front porch…

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****editor’s note: it is Not Monday–it just feels like one.

3 more days…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn RandomLeave a comment

i’m leaving for NYC this wednesday afternoon…yee-haw..!  preparations have included a lot of shopping for clothes, seeing as how my jeans have shrunk…it’s those dryer sheets, i think.

Shadows…

i’ve spent the week-end out in the garden and shuffling around the harvest decorations.   i’ll show you some pictures over at the garden blog tomorrow…   well, just one more:

equinox of the autumnal kind…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn Random2 Comments

it’s such a beautiful time of year.   i love the chores of autumn:  harvesting the veggies and cooking them up;  re-filling the containers with cabbages, swiss chard, and mums;  loading up a bale of straw with pumpkins and scarecrows.    it’s porch time, lingering in the swing as the sun sets, listening to the high school bands compete while the hummingbirds kamikaze around my head.

lana and i got out to the theatre this afternoon…of course i cried and laughed through my tears (steel magnolias).   this week i’ll try to do most of the forementioned chores as well as prepare for my upcoming visit to NYC…  10 more days..!