POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE forJUNE 2017

Wednesday evening check in. Not much chatter around here today. Everyone must be busy.

How is Cousin Camp coming, nylene? Are you surviving?

How did your painting project go, LisaDV? Are your kids done school yet? Do they keep the same schedule as the kids who attend classes at school?

This afternoon, we drove to dd's community (about 1 1/2 hours away). Dropped off dh's quad at the dealer to be repaired. Attended a pre-teeball activity and got a bunch of fun photos. Went back to their house for supper and then came home.

Before we left, I had a chance to put together one page for my summer 2017 album.

#summer here we come by Gramma Dee, on Flickr

Hello all Pokey and not so Pokey Peas,

I finished all the painting in the dining area and half way up the stairs. The other side of the stair hallway I even moved out one of the bookcases and painted it so I can look from the living room and not see purple walls. Glorious. I still have to move the other 2 bookcases out and paint the rest of that hall, but I don't have a place for the shelves at the moment.

I also had some time to work on my patriotic banner and finished the finally gluing yesterday.

grammadee, looks like you are getting lots of crafting time with all of your lovely layouts and cards. I'm especially loving the summer one with it's wonderful color palette and great layers. My kids are still in school. We tend to go year round, especially since dd health keeps her from a more rigorous schedule. I'm currently researching Christian online high school programs for ds.

scrapincin, fabulous digi page about the baby robin, such a fantastic photo. I like your arrow of light pages too.

nylene, I forgot about cousin camp. I hope your week is going well that you are staying healthy and having lots of energy to enjoy your grands.

kellyr21, I hope you share photos after you complete your pillows. I hate shopping for clothes, so I wish you luck in finding the perfect dress.

maribeth, your cases are absolutely fabulous! I love how you've photographed the one lit up. Amazing. Enjoy your grandgirls.

The TuffShed guys finally came and fixed our shed doors (we've been trying to get this to happen for over 2 months). Don couldn't even open the doors to get anything out. The excavators come tomorrow and even out the spot for our chicken coop which I hope will be here next week. Those chickens are getting too big for the bin that we keep them in at night. We let them run in the pen during the day, but have to bring them in when it rains and at night.

DD's PCP sent in her information to the Mayo today and they called Don this afternoon to say they were not going to take dd. He talked more to them and let them know there was still more paperwork coming. So now instead of having each Dr. send, I'll be having them send to me so I can coordinate all it and get it to them. Also I'm shocked since PCP has no clue what is going on with her that they'd deny looking at her.

Don's birthday is this Sunday (on Father's Day this year). We're celebrating by going on a fishing charter which is his present for both as well. Although dd just used fabric markers to decorate a baseball cap for him and I got him something small too. DS won't even think about it until late Saturday night/Sunday morning, and then will figure something out. I'm hoping for good weather as it's been a bit rainy off and on here.

Now you know why I haven't been around. Hopefully, it will calm down in another week.

Hey ladies! It has been a good weekend so far. Very slow and relaxed. Hope you are all having a good day too. Yes, grammadee I did find not just one dress but three! I went to Marshalls and this other boutique as a last ditch effort on Wednesday. I didn't find anything and finally decided to go to Ross. I was happily surprised that they had rows and rows of dresses. Plus the store was organized and neat which felt so good. I ended up with three dresses and couldn't decide on which one so I got them all for $41 dollars. So cool! Now, I want to go back there to see what else I could find. So now I have a tough decision to see which one I will wear tomorrow.

LisaDV- So glad to hear you got lots of painting done. Did you say what color you used? I would like to paint our place but it is an apt so gonna wait. I loved seeing your pictures of your dog and the other of your dd with the chickens. She looked so relaxed with them and they love her.

grammadee- How is the garden going? What veggies are you growing?

Happy Monday! I had a very good weekend and especially enjoyed visiting my in-laws church. It was gonna be a surprise for Father's Day and it was a fun surprise. When we drove up, he saw my dh and didn't see me. But when I went inside he was happily surprised to see me too. I haven't been there in a long time and it was quiet a treat for all of us. oh and I loved wearing my new dress, too. I had my dh take some pics of me with dress number one on. I normally am a jean and top kinda gal and haven't been this dressy in a while and it felt good. nylene and grammadee I will share some pics of these beauties. Maybe I'll do a scrapbook page about it.

maribeth- Have you been watching Hallmark channel's, the Good Witch on Sunday nights? I didn't watch the first season but have enjoyed this season.

nylene- oh the cousin's camp is so fantastic! I just love how the kids get into it. What fun and I know you are in heaven and of course so tired when they leave. LOL! Wow, you are awesome and so are your dgks and your dh. Also, I took a picture just for you and left on the photo challenge page. I was at a local mall on Saturday and when I was the beautiful palm trees I had to take some pictures. Hope you like!

LisaDV- How did the fishing go? Hope your dh enjoyed his Father's Day.

grammadee- Glad you had a low key time with your dh. Hotdogs and beans sounds like something my dh would like too. LOL!

Good evening everyone! Hope all is well with all of you. I just wanted to say Hi and let you know all is well. I have a little dizziness this evening so not doing much. There is a major weather change going on here so my sinuses do not seem to be able to stay caught up. We had 9 days of 9-0 degrees and tonight we are dropping into the 60's We have been dog sitting for the 9-5 dig Since a week ago Saturday. He is doing ok but is not eating very well and keeps pacing and panting while looking for her. She is on a cruise to Alaska for 16 days total She took her brother who had MS and is a bad diabetic. She made arrangements before hand for O2 and wheelchairs. I am loving all the photos and creations! Going to close for now!

kellyr21 I am always dizzy don't ya know! LOL! You got such a great deal on those dresses and now she sent you a discount card! Wow that really rocks! As for the basketball the Warriors are good time and they earned the win. but look out next year!

grammadee Those base ball photos are too cute! I must tell you I am enjoying the post a photo everyday has been so much fun! I think everyone is enjoying too and we learn a little about one another!

I am feeling better today I think it was just the big weather change. It was so beautiful here today! Sunny and 74 degrees! Still have not done my photo for today. As for the dog he's still looking for her. Most dogs might look around once or twice a day but this one looks constantly. The bad part is he gets himself all worked up and doesn't want to eat!

Well loving everyone's stuff and the chat has been fun to read! BBL

Good Thursday to everyone! Does everyone have exciting weekend plans? Just relaxing? Crafting? Relaxing and crafting sounds really exciting to me at the moment, but the relaxing will only happen in part for me.

The fishing was absolutely awesome for the couple of hours we were out. The kids reeled in the first 2 just minutes after the guide getting the lines in the water, with dd's being a coho. All the other fish were lake trout. The next one was mine, but ds had to help me reel it in. Then the weather started to change. As we were reeling in the lines to leave, ds caught one. Then his next pole to reel in had another fish on it. Don who was guiding the boat, jumped up and took that one while I tried my hand at guiding. Then the guy put the boat into neutral which made the line go slack and the fish was able to escape. It was at least twice the size of ds's largest fish caught. We all had a good time and will go again when the salmon start running. The guide said he'll add a couple of hours and make sure we catch our limits. But 5 fish for 2 hours isn't bad at all, he said they'd been averaging 6 fish for his charters in the last 2 days prior, which is usually 7 hours.

Since everyone was exhausted from getting up at 3am, the rest of the day was just about relaxing. I actually got to get in my craft room and start and complete a layout.

nylene, sounds like cousin camp was a huge success. It's so nice that the kids not only get this time together, but that you and Steve take time to really be there with them. Teaching them things and spending that time. Your FD card is so adorable.

kellyr21, you should totally do a layout with you in your dresses, but you should share the photos first. It was so nice of the Ross Manager to give you a discount. Looking forward to seeing your art video.

scrapincin, I'm glad you are feeling better. I'm enjoying the change in weather. It's in the 70's here too this week. That poor doggie, hopefully s/he'll relax soon. Our Roxy is a big mopey mess when the kids leave. We've left her with a couple of sitters who were childless - one in OH and one here that told us how she just seemed depressed the whole time. We found a new sitter here that she finally doesn't mind going to and doesn't get depressed the whole time since there are kids.

grammadee, I love your cards, especially the congrats one. You had a busy day, but when you live out the country like us, we have to make use of those town trips, don't we? Have safe trip! I think that sounds so interesting to see a change of Command ceremony!

BBL. I have some other computer things to get finished before the kids need something.

kellyr21, just watched your video. Wow!!! Amazing art work and wonderful video techniques! Did you take a video editing class? What do you use for editing?

nylene, I left you love on your layout the other day when I saw it in my flickr feed. I'm pretty sure I faved it. Looking at again, I would want to.

The chicken coop is now delivered, and we spent yesterday painting the inside. Today putting up the nesting boxes. We were just a small section short of the rubber mat flooring. They are in there tonight. Don has most of the pieces for the chute put together and painted. So hopefully Monday we'll get that in and finish the 2nd layer of chicken wire on the outside. He put a 3 foot section so that it rolls out onto the ground so that critters can't burrow into the run and we're tying it into the normal layer. He did the same thing on the inside with 1/2" hardware cloth. Many people around here lost their whole flock over the winter due to critters. I think ours might be better protected that Fort Knox by the time he's done. I need it finished as the weeds need to be controlled in the garden. I get small sections done but there's a whole section that hasn't seemed to be touched. But we had lettuce and cherry tomatoes out of the garden the other day and today. yum.

Tomorrow, DS and I will go run some errands after church and go see Wonder Woman too. I'm the one that wants to see it.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Good Sunday morning ladies

Well I am back in my scrap room and it feels great. Had impromptu company yesterday, husbands sister and her bow, and his niece and her boyfriend. His niece just moved back from Sacramento and wanted to come visit. She had been a little wild and has since transitioned into adulthood and gotten her wild side tamed and I think she wanted to show her uncle, the have been pretty close through the years. It was a nice visit.

I was able to work on some stuff. I am trying to tie up lots of loose ends that I have in a stack, post cards that need to be put in albums, old photos I really need to get scrapped, half completed layouts that need that somethin', somethin' that I need to order so getting stuff ordered. I worked on a Desmond cat double page layout and will post when I get that one completed.

nylene and grammadee - Your pages and cards are wonderful. You both do such great work. I love the brightness of the use of blue and white in grammadee baseball spread, and nylene 100% boy. I love blue and white together, and I don't think we use it enough in scrapbooking.

@kellr21 - no I have not been watching the Hallmark Channel and have never heard of The Good Witch, I will have to check it out. See if I can find a place to see season 1 as well. Thanks for the heads up. I will be checking out your Youtube video as well.

LisaDV - thanks for sharing you coup photos. I want chickens now!

Have a wonderful day ladies, see you in the morning.

Welcome home grammadee! I've been lurking a lot this month. June tends to be crazy. The only creative thing I've done is a card for my father-in-law. Final marks are due today and I'm busy tying up loose ends. Last week was very full. Monday night I went to the Mayor's Celebration of the Arts and received an award for acting. Tuesday was Lloydminster Reads with the author Yann Martell who wrote Life of Pi. Wednesday was my Taking Off Pounds Sensibly meeting. Thursday was my book club. I'm done work on the 29th and the DH and I head to my mom's on the 30th.

Have a great Tuesday.

Happy Wednesday!

maribeth , sorry you didn't get to play and had difficulty with your tv. Some of those new electronics and software they just purposefully make non-user friendly, like they expect everybody to have a tech degree. I hope you have it working now and have found your phone. Glad you found your phone!  They should have a list somewhere of the user friendly ones. Chickens are work, but they're a lot of fun too. At least we're having fun.

nylene , it is nice and new, but by the time we have grands coming, it won't be. The kids actually said, "why do the chickens get a nicer place to live than we do?". I was like, "hey we're working on it." My dh just said, "because we like the chickens more than you." lol. Did your looking at M's turn into buying? Did you get or spy anything good?

grammadee , nothing beats sleeping in your own bed after being away from it. So glad it was a good time and I can't wait to see the pages.

justjac , you are having a busy month. Congrats on your award!! How long will you stay at your Mom's? What is you plan for the school break?

Yesterday was dd's 12th birthday. She really wanted to go tubing for her bday this year, but the weather has been too cool the last week. I made pheasant on Monday night to have a nice dinner, when we decided instead to go to the old refurbished theater that was playing up at 10am yesterday (it was only a $0.25 to get in), bookstore, picnic, laser tag, and then she would go off her elimination diet for sushi.  She was not able to open presents in the morning as we were rushed to leave. The laser tag also has a few arcade games which we played as well, but also we played laser tag 2x, bowled 2 games once individually and then in teams, and played 2 games of pool switching teams between games. After dinner, we stopped by the Tractor Supply, where the baby turkeys were out. Of course, DH starts with "it's up to your mom." yeah, make me the bad guy, always. How could I say no to her on her birthday was said at least once. lol. They should be perfect size before Thanksgiving was said at least once.  It's a sickness with these people I tell you. So, yes, we brought home 2 turkeys, or my 2 turkeys (kids) brought home 2 more turkeys. 

DH is off to work at the clients today and tomorrow and maybe Friday, he usually is gone on Tuesday, so my whole week is going to be off - like I'll think it's Tuesday all day today, but yesterday I was thinking it was the weekend type of stuff. I hope to get some chores completed today some crafty play time on Thursday, just in case he's home on Friday.

Hope everyone has a great rest of your week.