Life on Mars - You Can't Make This Sh-t Up

I haven't been posting my Life on Mars series lately. Honestly I think you would all be bored with the next door lady pulling everything out of her shed and leaving it in the yard, or the crazy guy fishing on a barely frozen lake, the youngest boy getting hit in the eye on a regular basis, or the ambulances coming to the next door neighbors at least once a month, maybe more. I know I get tired of it. And quite honestly, if it weren't for the photo's I like to take, I'm not sure I'd believe any of it either. But sad to say, it's all true.

Life here is - well - always unexpected. You would think that living on a lake in the country, it would be peaceful. And it does have it's moments. I think though, that there is something terribly wrong with the water here and it makes people a little odd. But even nature can have an unexplained and sometimes perilous sense of humor here.

Take today for example. Although I'm sure this happened earlier this week, because after we started swearing about it, the youngest boy declared that he TOLD us there was a tree on our house. We always get branches on the roof, so we just assumed that was what he was talking about, not an actual tree. But as I was shooting picture outside of my daughter wearing some lovely jackets she made, I glanced over my shoulder and saw this tree on our house. How did we miss a thing like that.

This is not a little tree. This is, I would say, a 30 foot pine that fell over and is leaning on our overhang, over my bedroom and reaching across the whole length of the house from front to back. One good wind or heavy snowfall and that sucker could snap in half and come crashing down. I have to write this story tonight, because I may not be here tomorrow to tell it. The insurance company is supposed to send out someone to remove it tomorrow. I hope they do. It's kind of scary.

Like I said, hard to believe sometimes, but you really can't make this stuff up.

Life on Mars - Gummy Bears and Bruises

Another crazy week in costume hell. DD ordered fabric that was promised and never shipped. She had to rum out and buy more, interrupting her work flow. At the end of last week our NEW serger broke so we had to order another and wait until Tuesday to serge. DD did all her cutting while waiting. Good thinking Poppy.

We really could have used the babysitter all week, but she had things to do, so I had to deal most of the week with the baby and the 9 year old's school. Both boys got a little sick and were a bit whiny. The 15 year old had to go to the clinic and get meds for a sinus infection. By the end of the week, they were feeling a bit better and the sitter was back on the job.

Poppy and I were stressed and got into a big fight. There was lots of yelling and crying. But the puppy is finally starting to sleep at night. She seems to settle down when it's dark out. I love that in her. She actually slept one whole night all the way through. But mostly she only wakes once to go out. I don't mind that at all. I guess she was just too young when we got her. She was only 7 weeks. Now she's a very mature 10 weeks.

Luna in Gummy Bear costume 

The mother in law was putting on a Halloween Party at our clubhouse this weekend. Besides being a little off normally, she gets even worse in the fall. The stress of putting on a party by herself makes it even worse. She told the older boy that her party will be much better than the one his mother did. That was the best party our association ever had and he was very offended. She has a habit of offending the kids. Like when the middle one almost lost his eye and she bought a gift for the girl that instigated the accident and not her own injured grandson.

I was supposed to be helping Poppy with the costumes, but when I took the dog for a walk and stopped in the clubhouse, there was nothing there, no decorations, no dishes for the chips she bought, no food at all, just a few posters on the wall. I took the pup back home and got the middle boy, the baby, and our decorations, and we went back and decorated. I set out all the chips and helped as much as I could. There wasn't much there to work with. I wasn't really in the mood, because I was getting sick too.

I left when the baby got cranky, but there were only 2 kids at the party and I could't stand listening to the Pumpkin Patch Polka one more time. No kid over 3 would be interested in that garbage. I have no idea where she found that horrid Halloween CD, but it was scarier than chains and screams.

Dink with Bruised Cheek

After Luna napped a bit. Poppy took her back down and the 15 yr old went with his dad to decorate more. The party had gotten bigger, more kids came. The older boy doesn't like parties and came back. Asked me if I heard about the middle child. He fell and injured his face and had to go to the hospital. I went down to the clubhouse and there he was with a bag of ice on his face and arm.

I guess the swelling went down, because everyone said he looked better. I thought he looked like a zombie. Huge raised bruise and small cut on his cheekbone. He could barely move his arm. I checked him out and it seemed like just bruises, but they took him to the ER later just to be sure. That one needs a padded helmet with goggles and protective clothing.

At least when I walked the pup Sunday Morning at 5 am, I got to see just one meteor flash by Orion's thigh. I didn't even have my glasses on. That's the good thing about the stinking puppy.

Life on Mars - Holidays and Restless Nights

I had so much design work to do this week it was just NUTS. I had a birthday too. There was so much going on this week that I almost forgot I had one. I didn't get to enjoy it much. I worked for 14 hours to complete one project. Then I worked another 14 hours straight on Thursday to complete another project. I did, at least get to have a very nice dinner my daughter made me for my birthday. Lamb chops and my favorite "cake". A meringue torte with whipped cream frosting.

The sun was out a lot, and with the sun comes the neighbors. Poppy's MIL is feeling better and out and about working in the yard and not getting any sleep. After 14 hours of work Thursday, I had to watch some videos to unwind. Just after I fell asleep around 1 am, apparently she needed to go out and look for her cat. Of course she forgot to check the lock on the door (again) and pounded, screamed and cried at the door, until someone let her in. I would have called over there, but they don't answer their individual cell phones, in case it's a collection agent (at 1 in the morning).


Saturday, she decided to decorate for Easter. OK, so it's her yard and she can crap it up as much as she wants, right? But did she have to hang those plastic Easter eggs from twine and a big ugly bow on Our Fence post? Technically it's her fence post too, but they seem to not know that their property is not theirs when they are renting it out. BTW this fence post is just in the middle of the yard with no fence. When we first moved here, there was a piece of wood making a step that stuck out above the ground about 3 inches and it made a nice pond of ice. I slipped on it and caught my wrist on the post and almost impaled it.

So out in the front yard in her planted old tire that is cut, turned inside out, and painted, she put some kind of green fabric, and some stuffed rabbits. The rabbits didn't stand, so she grabbed one of my tomato cages to stand them up. Again, anything that's in the yard is hers, like my shovel that I finally got her to return after she uses it, after two years.

And there's the Basket on the lamp post. That's her knitting basket. I'm not even sure what's in it, because she hung it to high for anyone to see. She must really love her decorations, because she takes that knitting basket everywhere with her. That's some nasty old wooden cross tied over the basket.

We don't let her decorate for Halloween, and I think that annoys her.

What Evah! -Yesterday

day one

I just have to carry on about the yard thing. I'm in a mood. I didn't actually finish my post yesterday. I was going to write more, but I forgot to take additional pictures, because I was obsessed with listing Sunday. Here is the progress someone has made with the mess. You can see the difference from Day One. Someone dumped one of the buckets and moved some of the stuff off the sidewalk. Nice job guys!

progress one week later

I know you think this is funny, but if you lived here you wouldn't. They get all angry that the yard is a mess and that we should clean up our junk. Then I point out that it's their stuff and they just say "OH!" Even the toys are left over from other tenants and they don't even remember. They just think, "toys = kids = yours".

I'm sure we'll get blamed for that love seat, that their boys took out of their bedroom. The furniture was taken from our house, left from a renter, and brought into theirs after it sat out in the snow for several months.

Usually that part of the yard is not that bad. But the front yard is another story. Our front yard, their side yard. They fill it with tables as though they were entertaining, and a row of seats as though it's a resort on a private lake. But it is the most horrid furniture one can find by the side of the road. 

This is much neater than usual, but this is the view from our porch and front window. It is like this everyday. That's cat food on the Picnic table that the FIL's father built and he won't get rid of. 

Yes that is an exerciser on the front lawn that nobody uses. It's been setting there for as long as I can remember. Well, actually it moves around the yard when the lawn is getting mowed, but it stays wherever it lands. Also if you look very closely near the road, that is a planter made out of an old car tire, painted white. Usually there are more chairs, but MIL has been leaving them all over the yard and the neighborhood, so the row or chairs is a little depleted. There can be as many as 6 on a good day. 

MIL painted the picnic table for a party. That day she and her clothes were covered with Green. I said, "You're all Green!" She said she didn't know it was oil paint and she didn't have anything to clean with. So she had to go the the store covered in Green paint to buy paint remover. The stones below were covered with green paint too. And yes, that table really torques just like it looks. 

In case you are wondering the rest of the neighborhood does not look like this. See - peaceful and idyllic and mostly we like to look out at this view. 

From our side of the house, the view of the lake and the wildflowers and grape vines, and the neighbors who don't collect stuff and put it on their lawn.

Sometimes you have to look hard to find the roses to take the time to smell, but if you do, you'll be surprised what you can find. That and closed window blinds, will get you great peace of mind.