My first grandchild is FORE.

My first grandchild is FORE.

I flew into DCA on inaguration day. I booked my ticket six months ago and didn't even think of the special day. A week before I left Tracy called and told me certain roads & bridges were closing for the day but reasured me they would find a way to pick me up at the airport. I boarded the plane early Tuesday morning and there were only 10 passengers (I didn't know if this was a good or bad sign for what was to happen the rest of the day.) When I arrived at Regan airport Tracy's family was there to get me. They said it was the EASIEST time they had ever got to the airport. It seemed like the traffic was something you would see back here in Iowa; you could actually see the pavement, not just cars. We had to wait around the area for Tracy's best friend and children to arrive from Whidbey Island so we went to the mall. It was kinda freaky not to have the total kaos of people like normal. We even ate at a restaurant right at 12pm with only about 5 other people there; no waiting line. We listened to the day's event on the television set and had a nice quiet lunch. About 2pm the people starting showing up with their winter coats, blankets, thermos and flags. There... DCA was back to normal. We picked up the Wymans at the airport and headed to Pennsylvania for the evening. Guess what? Driving on interstate, we couldn't see the pavement anymore, too many vehicles. (I must admit I liked it better before.)

We spent the night in a steam boat turned hotel. Of course Tracy had to keep with the water theme for Mikie's birthday. Mikie enjoyed pancakes with a candle for his fourth birthday in the morning then we were off to the train museum. The kids had fun and I even learned some new things. When we got back to Fredricksburg we went to Chuckie Cheese for a fun night out for Mikie's birthday. The kids had fun playing all the games and winning tickets.

Thursday we woke and started preparing for this special birthday party on Saturday. Tracy put Amber, Michael and myself to work, hard physical and emotional (thinking of last minute ideas), but I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. I'm not sure if the others felt the same, but I think they did. (Sometimes it was hard to tell at 4am.) I do think Tracy's wonderful planning and all our hard work made a fun party for all.

Saturday was Mikie's under the sea miniature golf party. It turned out FANTASTIC! The kids and adults had a lot of fun. Tracy received several compliments on her job well done and was offered the job of planning others' parties. The golf course had five holes. Michael carried in 130 stones to complete this wonderful course. Luckily we were able to put hole #4 against the wall and hole #5 we used boxes or he would have had to carry in several more stones. When the party was over Michael, Tracy & Amber carried all the stones back out...I just supervised because I hurt my back the first night at their house.

Michael & Tracy gave Mikie tickets to Monster Jam for his birthday. We went to DC that evening for the show. The boys loved it.

Sunday I went to Tracy's classroom while she taught Sunday School. In the afternoon she had invited their church friends to enjoy the miniature golf course. We got double duty out of that course. It was so nice to see the many faces I've heard so much about. I got to meet Amanda; she is truely an intelligent, beautiful, kind young woman & mother. Her smile is radiant. I met her oldest daughter, Natalie; and she is very beautiful like her name. Such a sweetie. It was fun to watch her with my grandsons, she likes them very much.

Some of the funny things that were said while I was in Virginia was: When Mikie got to hole #5 he asked "What is going to happen to my ball?" He has been to enough mini golf courses to know that the last hole sucks up your ball and never gives it back. You should have seen him smile when we told him nothing would happen to his ball and he could keep playing again and again and again. And believe me he did.
Zachary is calling me "GMA" right now not Boagie, so I would every once in awhile say "Grandma this or Grandma that" and Tate would look at me and say everytime "You are not Grandma, you are Boagie".
At the birthday party I was at hole #5 with Lenny and had to turn on the light to do something and he saw what the hallway looked like with lights and he said "That's where the M&M machine is." when he spoted the clubs' vending machine.

I had a wonderful week and hated to come back to Iowa besides seeing my wonderful grandsons and my adopted grandchildren; it was nice to see green grass and enjoy the warmer temperature.

I can't get any pictures downloaded so anyone that wants to see the neatest birthday party will have to read Tracy's blog.

Tree.

Can anyone tell me what kind of tree I planted? The top tree was planted almost 4 years ago when Mikie was a baby. The bottom tree is 1.5 years old. The first tree would shoot up little trees from it's roots and we transplanted them. (That is how the second tree got started.) These trees loose all their leaves & branches at the first frost. (It's the strangest thing I have ever seen.) (See pictures below on how the branches are on the ground on the right picture and there is just a bare stick left for the tree in the left picture.) I bought the first tree over in Hawaii while visiting Tracy & Michael. It came in a plastic bag and was about 12 inches long and the diameter of your thumb...just a plain stick. It sat in my basement for a couple of years before I planted it so I didn't even think it would grow. I was really surprised at how much it grows in one year (around 6 ft). I figured it was some sort of tropical tree and would die out during our cold Iowa winter; so I was pleasantly surprised again that it lived. I was extremely surprised that it reproduces itself.

If no one can help me on this subject I might be able to answer my own question since the Jones' have purchased a ticket for me to go to Hawaii with them in April and be Nanny Boagie. I am so excited for this job!!!

GO GREEN, WIN GREEN!

One of our local banks in Sigourney (Midwest One Bank) gave out free recycling bags before Christmas. They said to use the bag in our local stores and if one of their spotters (employees) saw you, you could win $25, $50, or $100 till the end of February. For anyone that knows me; I am trying to conserve, reuse, recycle, reduce, anything I can to help our environment.
I am very happy to carry around this green (my favorite color) cloth bag. I had purchashed some bright green bags (cause of the color) at a competitive grocery store out of town. I try to buy everything locally but there are some items Sigourney doesn't carry. I always felt embarrased to carry these competitor bags into the grocery store; but I would remind myself...I am helping the environment and then I would not feel so guilty.
Wednesday,I was in the drug store with my bag and Jeff (Midwest One employee) came up to me and started talking...thanking me for using their bag and handed me a certificate. I went next door to the bank and cashed it in. I won the BIG ONE...$100.
I am taking my money to Virginia and spending it there while visiting Mikie for his fourth birthday.

Harvest is OVER.

I got back from visiting the grandsons on Nov. 21st and Mike finished up harvesting on Nov. 24th. The yields were better than expected,this is a good thing; but of course we didn't have enough grain contracted ahead of time for the higher price. We saw an all time high of $7.00 a bushel on corn and it is now $2.93 and a high of $15.00 a bushel for soybeans and now they are $7.00. For those of you that don't know a lot about farming let me explain a bit. If we sold 1000 bu of beans for $15.00a bushel that's $15000.00 now we get $7.00 a bushel which would be only $7000.00 total. Do the math, we lost alot of money not knowing when to sell at the high. (It would have bought me many airline tickets to see the kids)
Farming is a BIG GAMBLING GAME.( We don't have to go to the casino to lose money.) Just so you don't think this money is all profit, it's not. There is the expense of the seed, chemicals, fertilizers, fuel,insurance, labor hired, cash rent of the ground and the repairs on all equipment (tractors, combine, disc, sprayer, planter, chisel, etc). The price of a tractor or combine can average around $200,000.00 (depending on the size and if you buy new or used.)
Harvest was later this year because we had such a wet spring and could not get the seed in the ground like usual. Then mother nature decided to give us plenty of moisture and we had to replant several acres (another added expense....twice the seed, fuel, time etc.) Did I forget to tell about our labor? Guess the time it takes to raise all this good food is sometimes donated since we don't make much of a profit. Oh well, our bellies are always full.
Mike finished his fall field work this past weekend and applied part of his anydrous for next spring.
Sorry if I am boring any of you; but I just wanted to get this down in writing about the strange year we had.

Grandma fix

I would see a lot of grandparents with their grandchildren or hear their stories of being with them the past few days and it made me really long to see my grandsons. Tracy found a great deal on an airline ticket for me and purchased it. I was on a plane in two days. It was going to be a short trip, but it turned out to be longer than expected.

I got to Richmond, VA, saturday the 22nd around noon. All the Joneses were there to greet me. After we got my luggage we drove to a nice restaurant in a shopping mall. The boys and I played next door in a children's store while waiting for our table. After our lunch the boys and I rode on the train around the mall sidewalk, water fountain, etc. After we got home, Tracy went to a cooking school for MOPS (I think) and Michael & I got to put the boys to bed.

Sunday we went to church and Zachary & I got to watch Tracy teach in her room. She is such a good teacher; doesn't matter if it's her own children or others. I'm proud of her. After sunday school we went to Mikie's friend Jacob's 4th birthday party. He had a dinosaur theme. His mother did an awesome job with the decorations, food and games. We had a lot of fun.

Monday I watched the boys at their gymnastic practice. They are very good. Tracy went to the store later in the day and I stayed and played with the kids.

Someone must have been sick at the party because all five of us came down with the flu early Tuesday morning. I don't know how many times Tracy & I changed the boys bedding and pjs (it had to be at least 5 times in the middle of the night.) I'm sure Tracy will tell you more in her blog. This flu must have been very contagious because we know of at least 5 other people that also got sick at the same time. Since I was to leave Tuesday and the airline has their seatbelt rules, I decided it would be better to stay a while longer. Tracy purchased me another ticket to return on Friday.

We spent a lot of time just laying around and watching tv and running to the bathroom. Oh well, I was still with my little guys.

Thursday we were all feeling pretty good. Mikie and I decided to do a Wal Mart run for some birthday & sunday school supplies. I had so much fun spending time with him alone. We acted silly in the van and store. While there I let him pick out some new trains for his Christmas present. I even found some new pjs for him. Just remember his favorite color is PINK and he likes elephants. Don't know if daddy was so crazy about them, but they can be stay at home jamies.

While I was visiting, two different people called Zachary a girl, so Tracy decided it was time for his curl to go. I was lucky enough to give Mikie his first haircut and she let me do Zachary's. He did NOT cooperate as good as Mikie did so the end results were not as good;but Tracy has his curl and here are some pictures of this torture.

oops I copied it twice

I had so much fun playing and enjoying the boys. Just wish they were closer. Thanks Tracy & Michael for my tickets and my quality time with my grandsons.

Usborne Books

I need help?!?!? I am invited to an Usborne Book Party this weekend. I plan to go and need any advise on what to purchase. I have never heard of this company, but I am all for books for my grandsons. I just need to know if some are better than others and this is where your knowledge will help this old granny out. I would contact Tracy, but everyone knows she is on another of her family outings. Thanks for any info you can provide me.

Harvest is here.

This is our combine with the bean head on.

Harvest time is here in Sigourney,Iowa. The farmers are bringing in soybeans and a little corn. The corn is still very wet. It needs to be 13% moisture to store or 15% to sell; otherwise you get a dock in price or pay the high price of lp to dry the corn. The corn is testing 28-30% now. It needs alot more good drying days yet. Since we had such a wet spring, the crops were late getting planted and they are now late getting out. Last year at this time, Mike was half finished. He just got started last week. The little corn he has done has been twisted in the field and is laying flat, so this creates the combine to work slower than normal. He is hoping that not all his fields will be this way. (I am also hoping this because he gets very irritable at this act of mother nature)

I have been working between both elevators and traveling back and forth to the field. When Mike travels from field to field this means many trips. He has to take the combine, semi (to haul the grain), tractor and auger wagon (sometimes he takes two tractors and wagons) and his pickup/service truck for repairs and traveling to town or home. (let's see that's 5 or 6 trips to ONE field.) It is nice to look at the beautiful countryside and the weather here has been great lately. Just to let you know how many different fields he farms ...there is 9 different ones. (unless I forgot one or two, ha,ha)