The summer is officially over…
Aug 25th, 2008 by woodstone
I know there’s still a whole week until Labor Day, but… for us… summer is OVER.
I don’t care what the calendar says, or that the days are hot and the grass is green… I’m going to call these last few weeks of warm weather “pre-Fall”.
Summer was fun but after four major family events (and several smaller occasions) in three months, I’m ready to be done. I wouldn’t even mind being snowed in for a few days by a freak blizzard… but I’m guessing the chances of that happening in August are pretty slim.
We did have some wild weather yesterday though, and spent an hour or so in the basement after I saw this…
… coming out of the clouds. See the little tornado trying to form?
The kids handled it remarkably well (both are VERY afraid of tornadoes), they sat glued to the TV, yelling updates to me while I cleaned the basement. Yeah, it was probably a weird time to clean, but there was no way I could sit still. DD#1 had just called, letting me know she was stuck on the highway with all three kids in the car, watching a tornado touching down just a mile or so away! Luckily it was a weak one, only touched down in open fields, and went back into the clouds without doing any damage (except to my daughter’s nerves!).
Unfortunately, being stuck in a basement, waiting for tornadoes to pass isn’t nearly as much fun as being snowed in by a blizzard.
It’s not even close…
The really big news though, isn’t the weather…
… it’s M’s 16th birthday.
It’s hard to believe he’s 16 already… He’s such a funny mixture of teenager and little boy. He’s just an awesome kid.
His party was Saturday, and it was wonderful… I think everyone had a good time.
M enjoyed himself tremendously… dancing, eating, and hanging out with his friends. He loved all of his gifts, and was excited to get some money and several gift cards too. The only thing that marred the day was that his “girlfriend” couldn’t make it…
In case you’re wondering, “Rose”, my difficult neighbor, didn’t come. The morning of the party she emailed saying they couldn’t make it. Her reason for not coming was obviously an excuse (one of those “I have to wash my hair…” kinds of reasons) but the email was friendly, so I’m pretty happy with the way that situation turned out.
Here are some pictures of the party…
I set the party up out front because one of M’s friends who uses a wheelchair was coming, and because we needed a big flat space for the dancing. (But then the friend, the girlfriend’s brother, didn’t make it after all!)
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I saw several sweet little cowpokes…
J, my grandson…
…granddaughter, R…
…and little friend G.
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Time to start the dancing!
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Grandma and Grandpa even danced (they are so amazing… Grandpa is 80, and Grandma is getting very close, but nothing seems to slow them down!). E and B, my oldest girls, are next to them…in the black shirts.
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We also did some line dancing…
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It was so much fun….
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I’m a really bad dancer, but I danced too. You can tell from the look on my face that it was taking all my concentration, AND watching K (dd#3), to figure out what I was supposed to be doing!
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M cracked me up, dancing in his mud boots!
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There was even a dance you could do sitting down!
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I’m not sure what kind of a dance this was… They all seem to be following the caller, but doing something different…
R and S even composed a song for M’s birthday. Then they got up in front of all those people and sang to him. Without a single giggle. It was about the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen…
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I think the party was a success…
… it was a great way to end the summer.
what a wild party! I see that even the cops showed up!
I’m so glad that everything went well. It looks like M had a lot of fun and that’s the most important thing.
we watched the tornado and it kept building up and then falling back, so I was never concerned enough to go to the basement. I was worried about turning on the TV cuz I knew they would be blasting the emergency siren and I didn’t want to scare dd.
It was funny to watch all my neighbors out watching the storm.
Looks like everyone had a brilliant time! You can organize a party for me next time!!
What a terrific party! Happy belated birthday, M.
oh WOW!! what a great party….I thought about you all gathered as I was packing up the last of my house…tell M that this will be a wonderful new year for him AND for me…I need to see him so we can give each other an encouraging hug…if I had known some of the dancing would be “sitting down” I would surely have stopped packing and come by!!
i saw on the news pictures of the tornados in Douglas County and hoped you guys weren’t in the path of any of them!
The party looks like tons of fun! What do you mean you’re no good at dancing! Didn’t we used to dance to American Bandstand once upon a time?
Yes, G’pa and G’ma are amazing people.
Looks like everyone had such a great time. You really know about throwing a party! (I can’t comment on your dancing….I don’t think that I was born yet when you and she boogied to the bandstand.)
What a fun party! I recognize a couple faces. You throw some fun parties and I love the pictures - they tell the whole story. I’m glad you had great weather for this also
Maura,
I can’t believe M is sixteen. It looks like you guys had a great time. I love seeing the family pictures. R is getting so big also of course I look at Big M and Little M and can’t believe they are as big as they are either. I am glad that everything worked out and the party was a success. When you get a chance I would love to hear an update on M’s job process and how the donkey’s are doing with their training.
What I can suggest for good drainage is one of a couple things. If you have access to a minidigger and cheap stone its easier…. what we do here is dig down till we hit stone. For us its usually fairly quick. Put in about 2-3′ of loose stone (not gravel or sand) and put the dirt back. When it rains the water goes through the dirt but then filters down through the stone and goes away.
If you have a few problems spots you can dig trenches/ditches through the problem area and lay loose stone in the bottom, then lay a land drainage pipe (usually about 8″ across with holes perforating the pipe to allow water to go in) and then lay stone on the top and then dirt. The pipe would need to continue on till it reaches a stream or a place you don’t mind water to be.
What I do if I don’t fancy a big job, I just dig a ditch.
If the place where it is pooling is a hollow depression, I guess you could try and fill it in. Water will always go to the lowest point via gravity. Make it work for you and route it where you want it (if you can.)
Or as a worse case… throw mud.