School Days

Kids around here started back to school today!  It got me thinking about the first day of school when I was little.  I got to put on my green/blue plaid uniform, and skip off to the bus stop in my brand new mary janes.  Then I would walk back home two or three times to complain of a stomach ache, which my mother told me was just butterflies in my tummy. 

Every year Marge would pick us up at St. Anthony Church, and away we would go.  The bus arrived at seven, and St. Francis was only a few miles away, so we had plenty of playground time.  I wouldn't have seen most of the kids all summer long, so there would be lots of catching up to do.  Third grade was the only year we were a split grade, so for the most part the twenty five or so of us spent our entire 1-6 grade years together.

Sister Magda would be walking the perimeter of the playground until the principal that year would ring the bell for class to begin.  We would line up and file across the avenue into the old building to begin a brand new year.  Days like today I would sit there looking out the window at the leaves blowing on the trees and live for recess.  There would be a hot bus ride home, and then books to cover, and teachers to complain about.  Perhaps even some homework (that's just mean) to do.  Then off to the earlier bedtime.

My Mom always said she hated the school year schedule.  She much preferred having us home during the summer.  I'm not making that up either.  I think it was just that she hated making all those lunches. :)

The Artist Formerly Known As Pablo (6th grade)

Tater (3rd) Ash (12th) Hannah(4th)

CeCe started today too (3rd) but I don't have a pic. :(  Have a great school year ya goovers!! ♥

Sassy Seventeen

"Hey, I've seen that look on YOUR face before" (said to me)

I want to thank Stacie, of Stacie DeeAnn Photography for letting me use these pictures.  She (as you can see) does beautiful work!  Check her out on facebook.   https://www.facebook.com/StacieDeeAnnPhotography

My Baby Pig Nose is seventeen today.  I'm not dealing with that very well.  Have I ever told you how she got the name Baby Pig Nose?  I wish I had one of her drawings, I'm really surprised that I didn't save one.  Every time Ash would draw "people" when she was a very little girl, they all had a dot for a nose.  Except when she drew me.  I had a pig nose, making me "Auntie Pig Nose", so she became Baby Pig Nose.  It works for all occasions.  Baby Birthday Pig Nose, Baby Halloween...... you get it.  I don't believe anyone (her Father or her Uncle's) told her to draw it that way.  It was random, and it was always only me.  *eye roll*

Very Cool

Senior year is about to start, and while not on the football team this year, it's already beginning in true Ashlyn fashion.

Me: Grandma told me you're on the swim team?

Ash: Yep.

Me: I'm not trying to be smart here....... Can you swim???!!!

Ash: (exasperated teen voice) Auntie, I had lessons.

Me: Uh yeah, when you were little, and I don't ever hear about you going swimming.

Ash: Well, did you ever hear about me playing football?

Me:  Good point.

My favorite

I love the way Ashlyn  challenges herself to come out of her comfort zone and try new things.  Although sports induced asthma is probably going to take her out of the swim lane, at least she is giving it a shot.

Ash absolutely has her heart set on going to the Uof M (Minneapolis).  It's not very far away, so we'll all manage, somehow.

Me: You know, I don't have to miss you if I come too.

Ash: NO.

Me: Yeah, well, don't pay any attention to the shrub that follows you around campus........... 

I had thought about putting pictures into this blog of her as a child, along with the grad pics, but I am just a puddle, so we'll settle for one.  It's her Mother's favorite.

Ashlyn 6mo

Happy Birthday Baby Senior Pig Nose.  (shark bait hoo-ha-ha)  I love you to the moon and back, and around the block.  I hope you understand what a blessing you have been in my life.  Although this growing up business is apparently really hard for me to handle, but you have to know that I am very proud I am of you, and how excited I am to see the places you'll go.  (Even if I have to carry a Kleenex box, and stalk you from the bushes.)  I'm going to try really hard to focus on that, and not the little pig nose that I miss.  I hope this year is the best of your life!

I love you first!   xo  Auntie Pig Nose ♥

Ice Cream (The rest of the story)

I haven't been the best at blog writing this summer, but as I've said before, I would rather live life than blog about it.  I just need to set aside some time for writing, or get me something more mobile to write with.  Back in June or July I wrote this blog about the new ice cream truck in our area.  You can find them on facebook under King of Creams! 

 http://www.queenie930.blogspot.com/2013/06/ice-cream.html

All summer long I have waited to re-connect with the ice cream truck, but my timing was off, and the one time I was home I didn't have any cash.  Can you imagine paying for a cone with a debit card?  Do they even take them??  The weather (up until now) hasn't been overly warm either, so ice cream really hasn't been on my brain, although I love to hear the truck go by.  It brings back so many good childhood memories.

As I have mentioned before, I don't like the heat.  This summer has been full of gorgeous 70 degree days, up until these last few.  This week we have had a couple of "wringers".  The temps are in the 90's with 60 plus percent humidity.  Blah.  I hate fans, and I don't have an air conditioner, so the nights are long and I am not exactly pleasant........

Tuesday I just woke up crabby, and it continued from there.  I ended up working late, and then had to slug around in the soup to do errands.  By the time I got home I was ready to deck someone, anyone!  I got out of the car, and I heard it!  "ICE CREAM!" (Do you have cash?) "Yes!  I do!  I do! (have you forgotten that you are lactose intollerous?) (sp wrong on purpose, it's what the goovers call it) "SHUT THE HELL UP, I'M HAVING SOME ICE CREAM!"

So I purchased a chocolate chip cookie dough one scoop, and told the lady how much I appreciated her.  I even found another dollar to stick in the tip jar.  Even though $2.25 for a one scoop is a bit pricey in my opinion. (Although I'm sure with the prices of everything today that's the norm.)  Totally worth it at that particular moment though.  My entire mood shifted as I stood sweating beside my car, shoving the ice cream into my face as fast as I could, while it melted down my hand.  My groceries were wilting in the front seat, but I didn't care.  When I got the scoop down to a manageable size I brought groceries into the house with two one handed trips. 

This blog could have been called "The Day the Ice Cream Lady Saved My Life."  I posted on facebook that night, "Sometimes when you have to work late and do errands in ninety degree heat, the ice cream truck comes along!!!", and included the picture below.  Thank you King of Creams!!  It's so awesome to have an ice cream truck back in the area!  It goes to show how someone just doing their job can absolutely make someone else's day!  

Oh, and on a side note........ the ice cream didn't bother me at all.  :)  It almost makes me want to try milk again.  Almost......

 

Heaven!

TaterTot

Happy 8th birthday Caitlin!!  The youngest Goover is now eight years old.  I just don't know where the time has gone.  This means I am now eight years behind in my scapbooking........

Tater and Hannah Goovering it up!

Auntie has some time off coming up, so we will be planning a goover birthday sleepover, complete with a trip to the library, some cousin time I'm sure, and various other adventures.  There will be brownie sundaes, and I believe she has picked taco's for dinner. I'm pretty sure we'll be learning some more fabulous songs too.

I see so much of my fearless self in this young one, it scares the heck ( I was going to write something else, but if she reads it I will owe her a quarter.) out of me.  When I had the girls at the library last week I had to leave them for a minute, and I was terrified Tater would wander off, just because I know from experience how distracted one can get, and what fabulous adventure surely awaits around the next bend, even if you were told not to move.

As the girls and I were approaching the library I realized that I had to pee. ( I really love being over forty.  It's great......) They are eight and nine years old, do I have to drag them in with me?  This is a really bad neighborhood.  It's the library for Pete's sake.  What better place to snatch a kid? Arg!  About 70 scenarios flew through my mind as we approached.  There was a fabulous exhibit in the entry area, where the bathroom is, and the girls ran right over to it.  Some women were having a meeting in a room adjacent, with the door open, so I thought it was time to trust the Goovs (for the first time with me) alone for a second.

"Hannah, I'm going to use the bathroom.  You stay right here with your sister.  If anything happens that you don't like go right into this room with the ladies, or holler.  I will be back in one minute."

Bending down to eye level, holding Tater's face, I looked deep into her mischievous eyes.  "Do not move.  Not one step.  I am not kidding.  If you aren't in this spot when I come out of the bathroom I will return your books, you will get no more, and we will go straight back to your house.  Do you understand me?"  Her eyes widened as I spoke. "Yes, I understand." was her quiet reply.

That was the fastest pee in history!  The girls were exactly where I left them, and I was met with a proud bright smiling Tater.  "I didn't move, not one step!"

Yes, the baby is eight years old, and she is still my wild, willful, wonderful girl.  I am so enjoying sharing my love of reading with her.  I had forgotten how nice it is to curl up with a kid(s) and a book.  I'm used to reading to fifteen at a time.  Her passion seems to run more along the lines of art, which is not my forte, but we talked about an "art supply" birthday present, because I am nothing if not encouraging of their passions, as long as it doesn't involve sitting in front of a computer.

Happy Birthday to our baby!  Thank you for reminding me how fun the world can be when you have a free spirit!  I love you to the moon and back, and around the block! ♥  Even if I'm going to be up half the night because it's your turn to sleep with me. ;)

Home Sweet Home

 

Meys family home circa 1960

Can you believe the things you come across on facebook???  This picture is part of a much larger aerial view of Alloueze.  The house right in the middle of the pic is in fact my family home, a few years after it was built, (circa 1958) by my Grandparents.  Four generations of Meys' have lived in this home, and my father ended up paying for it three times.

My Dad actually lived with and was the main support for his parents until he was married in his mid thirties.  So when I say my Grandparents built, well, my Dad footed a large part of that bill.  Then in '68 he took out a loan and bought the house from them, and they built another smaller one on the lot next door.  Then in the early eighties my parents took out a second mortgage to re-side and put new windows on the house.  His death in the early nineties paid off the house in full.

 Dad always claimed that he planted every tree in that yard. He dug them up from the woods and brought them home, for the most part.  I never believed him....... well.......... guess he wasn't kidding!  At one point there were probably thirty trees in the yard, mostly in back.  Mine was a birch, I think Jerry's was the apple, which were both lost to the garage in '87.  Kate's is a HUGE tree that you can't put your arms around, and David's is a weeping birch.  Those two still stand today.  I know this, because the house is still in our family, my brother Jerry bought it after Mom passed away in '04.

I found this picture in my baby book, so it is circa '69, or pretty much how it looked when my parents bought it from Grandma and Grandpa Meys.

Here's the house in 1979.  Yes, that's me on the steps.  By then there were a few trees, and tons of flowers.  I looked through every album I have last night and this was the only house pic I found from that time.  I know I have others, but they are in a box buried in the closet.  Note the large tire on the right side of the pic.  It was filled with flowers.  My Dad loved "kitchy" things, lawn ornaments, etc.  I, do not.  We also had a tire like that one in the back to use as a sandbox. (Which on the other hand was awesome!)  In this pic the house still has the original windows, and the original siding, which was actually roofing material.  The insulation wasn't good, and it was cold, damn cold, sleeping upstairs!  Speaking of which, the upstairs was not finished off by the builder.  My Dad and a friend built the entire upstairs bedroom, closets, and hallway in approximately '74.  Jerry and I slept up there until Kate was old enough, then it became "the girls room".

This picture is from 1983.  In the summertime my parents had the house re-sided, new windows put in, and more insulation added. (yea!)  That front window leaked from then on.......  It's a shame that you cant really see all of the lawn ornaments.  You also can't see the brick cross that my dad built and filled with roses.  It's where the white flamingo and the pinwheel flower are, although he must not have put the rose bushes in yet.  People would drive by from all over and stop to look at those roses.  Around this time my Dad also finished off part of the basement to make a family room.  It has a built in bar on one side, and a built in stereo on the other.  My friends and I spent a lot of time hanging out there. 

Here is the house on 7-27-13

I was in the neighborhood for a funeral, and thought I would grab a recent shot of the house, that now belongs to my brother Jerry and his family.  It's nice to still be able to gather there as a family sometimes, because no matter what, it will always be home. ♥