Taking the Scenic Route

Santa Came!

Discovering the stockings

In true Zane style (and Zora follows his lead on this), he explores each thing before moving on to the next thing. It is really nice that they savor each gift, but means there is no frenzied gift unwrapping, and it takes him a good hour to go through his stocking alone, longer if we didn’t encourage him to return to the stocking. The main gifts take about a half hour in between each gift most of the time.

Here is Zane enjoying the sparkly spinny thing at the top of his stocking. One of those toys that seems were made for autistic people.

The stockings disasembled

Grandma, Grandpa and Steve arrive and we pull out all of the snacks. Since it takes the kids so long to open things, we decide not to have the meal sitting around the table, but just enjoy the snacks until the Six Cheese Crabmeat Lasagna is ready and eat at our leisure while watching the merryment.

The gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Beautiful musical snow globes. The both loved them, and Zane put his up on the TV stand and stopped to look at it througout the afternoon. They both play “You are my Sunshine”, a song my mom always sang to me, and I sing to them. Perfect.

The gift that made Zora clap with happiness, a Mustang from Uncle Steve.

Of course, it takes a mechanical engineer and a set of tools to get it out of the box. (good thing we have both)

Zora got some “Fancy Nancy” books and dress up clothes. Instead of putting them on herself, she wanted to dress daddy in them. He was ok with the tiara, but drew the line at fairy wings.

Zane examines the Mario Bros. Monopoly game (he also got a Labryinth game that he studied for a long time)

A little food break here:
Six Cheese Crabmeat Lasagna (we used to make it as Manicotti, but Lasagna is much easier)

The snacks, including some Cheesy poof things from Hillbilly Housewife…they were the texture of pie crust, with a lot of cheesy goodness. I think if we would have frozen them first they would have been more ball shape, but they melted before they got a crust on them so they looked more like cookies. You can’t eat just one. We also had some bone-in ham (made last night), summer sausage, cheese, bread, crackers and the requisite candy and cookies. (not pictured, the green beans how my grandma made them, with bacon and flour schmutz.)

We also had a cherry pie. I was planning on sending cherry pies home with people, but for some reason, only one of my five pie plates were in the cabinet. (all of my guests seemed to remember that they were in their kitchens, after previous pies sent home), so I used a big pan that my mom sent with us one time to make the last “pie” with all the crust on the top. lol. She didn’t seem to mind taking her pan home “dirty” at all. We also made three batches of fudge and sent home a batch with each family.

Both kids got Morphibians, remote control cars that can, theoretically, handle water. Zane played with it later, once it was calmer, but Zora was ready to dig right in. If it didn’t listen to her, she would scold it and point which direction it was supposed to go, and then pick it up and move it. Grandpa and Uncle Steve helped her learn how to steer it.

Finally, we got to the big gift. I was taking video so there aren’t any picture of opening it, but it was a wii, some accessories, and a few games. Zane was VERY excited. Zora kept thinking every package was meant for Zane and would deliver the item to Zane with a “here ya go Zane”. We played Mario Kart and some of the Wii Sports game it came with. It was a BALL! We have played with it every day since. It was a hoot to watch people playing, and we spent the rest of the day taking turns on the wii.

Steve’s gift to Zane was “Paper Mario” for Wii. When Zane opened it, he actually commented ” Awesome!” after opening it, the first time we had ever heard him say that. He was VERY excited about the game.

Not pictured directly (although probably in the background) are the gifts from Grammie Z: a Breyer’s stable/cafe (yeah, weird combination, but Zora loves it) for Zora, and the “Outbreak” game that Zane has been eyeing for several months.

An incredibly fun Christmas for all. One of the most relaxed Christmases in recent memory.

Nothing particularly dramatic, but just a nice holiday with the family. On Thursday we went out to my parent’s farm for a big turkey dinner. Mom & Dad, Maternal Grandma, Steve & the four of us. The food was great, the atmosphere was comfortable, and the conversation was good. The kids had fun playing on the piano and with the remote control car. I didn’t get a many pictures because my camera died while taking a picture of the pies, but the memories are nice.

Friday we mostly cleaned and hung around the house. Robert came over in the evening and we watched tv and the guys did some programming. Saturday we went to Exploration Place late morning for the Little Explorers workshop. This weeks theme was something about Christmas bells and the kids played a song on hand chimes and learned about the clapper in the bells. Zane rode the merry-go-round on his own again this week and was grinning ear to ear. Zora still needed Daddy to stand nearby (she is too little to get on by herself anyway) but was thrilled too.

Sunday was the big reunion for my Dad’s family (his siblings and all of their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids). It was great to see everybody, naturally. Zora and her second cousin, born 2 weeks earlier, played together quite a bit. Zane and another of the second cousins who was just a bit older than him played a game of “Trouble” (the one where you press a dome to turn the dice and then move your pegs around the board). We don’t know how that started (we assume the other cousin initiated it and somehow showed Zane how to play) but it was pretty exciting for us to see him playing a game with somebody. He spent most of the time playing his Nintendo DS because he was starting to get overwhelmed and wanted to go home.

The siblings and their spouses. Howard & Joyce, Gordon & Annie, Larry & Teresa.

Wish this one were less blurry, but I love it anyway

Playing a game

The girls

Zane working on “Princess Peach”. He accidently erased his game history on the game the night before and was having to replay a bunch of levels.

We did find our thoughts turning to Zach’s Dad through the weekend. He is very missed. Our prayers went out to my sMIL and Zach’s siblings who are used to his actual presence (instead of just long phone calls) on the holidays. I am sure as much as we were feeling the loss, it had to be much more immediate for them.

Everybody in the family seemed to get worse over the weekend, and by Monday, Zach was in the doctor’s office because he was actually getting dizzy. They didn’t have any more appointments available on Monday, so the kids and I went on Tuesday (today). Both of the kids have double ear infections, and both of the grown-ups have a sinus infection. Yeah us. We have had mild colds for weeks and weeks now, waxing and waning, but never getting totally better. Now we have antibiotics, so maybe we can finally nail this thing. Obviously, our bodies weren’t getting it taken care of without help, but I HATE taking antibiotics.

I know it doesn’t really matter, in comparision to getting everybody healthy, but dang, the hit to the pocket book with four copays, four Rx’s, and some over the counter expectorant & pain meds, besides the Metformin, Allergy meds (for me and the kids) and other various medical stuff, it just sucking away the paycheck. We have a well stocked pantry, and still have enough to get some basics, but it will be a real squeeze to get everybody fed reasonably healthy until payday. This is so frustrating. We aren’t dirt poor any more, but we are still always broke. We are behind on therapy bills again too. ugh.

Before we knew we were all going to be sick, we had to go get a new video card for my dinosaur of a computer because the old one fried. It wasn’t much, but now I am wishing we could have held out another week. Of course, it is a lot cheaper to be married to somebody who can weasle the last breath out of a computer in the long run.

Well, that was depressing, let’s end on a happy note. Pictures!

I have no idea how Zora managed to do this without Zane throwing a huge fit, but I have a feeling if he would have known what she was doing, it wouldn’t have happened.

On Friday, Zach and I went out on a date. For the first time EVER, Zora let me braid her hair as we waited for “Opa” (try as we might, we can not get her to call my Mom “Oma”. Instead, both she and dad are both “Opa”, and she refers to them as “the two Opas”.) She wanted the bows and butterfly hair clip added so she could be “toot” (cute) lol

That was the date that signalled “something is wrong” for us. We went to see “Quantum of Solace” and ended up having to leave because the movie was making us dizzy and motion sick. We felt old. lol. We have replacement tickets though, so we will try again when we are feeling better.

One last happy thought. Today when I was helping Zora buckle her shows, I asked “Are you my princess?” She said “No! I Zora!”. cute kid.

Mom and Dad came up on Tuesday to bring back the Pontiac. They actually drove the Pontiac here, not hauled it on a trailer. It no longer bleeds oil. YEAH! Apparently, the oil leaked so bad on the way there that it left a trail on the way up the trailer, a huge puddle during the drive, and when dad pulled out the gauge, it left a puddle of oil on his workbench. Yeah, it had a serious problem. lol. He fixed it and now I can drive to play dates and start meeting the homeschool groups in the parks and events again. Heck, when Zach isn’t driving an hour out of town, he can drive it to work and I can take the kids in the nicer vehicle. WooHoo!

When they arrived, Zora and I had recently gotten out of the shower. I was dressed already, but Zora was refusing to budge from her tantrum, totally naked, laying her head on the toilet seat cover. I told mom to come around the corner and she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw her. Grandma was able to convince the little diva to get dressed, and let her pick what she wanted to wear in the process. The girl has a flamboyant fashion sense:

We went out to CiCis for supper and she was as charming as she could be trying to get us to give her brownies before the pizza. lol.

Today, when I was getting some clothes washed, she decided to “help”.

I love that silly girl.

This is a post I had started, but hadn’t published when we got word. Because I am too OCD to just post it afterwards, I will post it now. lol.

The original title: A Grandma and Grandpa kind of evening.

Once again, my folks come over to check out the car and see what is needed to fix it, and spend the evening with us. This time I remembered to grab the camera and get a few shots of them with the kids.

Playing downstairs in the “school” room (also known as the “room of things that must be supervised to play with” for those million piece toys and scissors and messy things.)

Way to drive your brother crazy:  Interpret the spinner results as the picture of the character on the corners of the spinner card instead of the number it points to. (and picking up that character and moving it a random number instead of sticking to your character)

I gotta give mom credit here.  She hates puzzles.  A lot.  And Zora won’t pick out a puzzle she can actually do, she picks out Zane’s puzzles (This one is “Pintzets Peetz”, aka “Princess Peach” from Mario series).  This one is particularly annoying to put together, so after watching mom try to patiently get Zora to put it together herself, I put down the camera to help. lol

After I put down the camera, Zane picked it up and ran around taking pictures.  Most of them are blurry, so I will show smaller versions.

Before I leave the downstairs, I just wanted to show a picture of the chalkboard.  I really liked the quick cartoons Zach made.

Then, as he often does, he asked “four players”, his way of asking if we can play video games up in his room.  When Grandma & Grandpa are here, they limit it to Mario Cart (or at least a driving game) and we insist that Zora is allowed to join in, something that Zane isn’t thrilled with, but worth the sacrifice if he gets to play Nintendo with Grandma & Grandpa.  (Usually Zora is not allowed in his room).

When Zach and I pulled up to the farm after work, we saw the grader going down the drive and laughed. The kids talked Grandpa into a grader ride too. We found out later that Zane had also been in the backhoe and moved a lever and some residual hydraulic pressure caused the bucket to move just a little…he was thrilled. (the backhoe was off). They had also ridden on the 4 wheeler with Grandpa a bit too. (He goes really, really slowly)

The bike is turned off here, but mom got a great picture that shows one of the interesting ways he contorts and balances on top of things.

Steve’s truck was there when we pulled onto the farmstead, but he was in town dropping a load off at the grain elevator, but the kids were starving (ok, so were the adults), so we sat down to a great supper of roast, potatoes & carrots. He came in to eat after a while, then the two guys headed out to keep working, each on a different combine.

The kids goofed off for about an hour before heading home.
Zora occupied herself by giving the cat a ride in the wagon, loading the goose and goslings (garden decorations I used to play with at my grandparent’s house) in with the cat, and then trying to feed the cat.

Zane was “digging for treasure”, and specified “gold”. He made a pretty decent size hole too.

Zora checking things out and wanting to “help”

A beautiful, full day.

After taking a quick break, we load up to go to another field, this time the beans. The combine is a lot smaller, without the buddy seat, so only one kiddo at a time. Zane rode with his Grandpa in the combine, and Zora went with her Grandma out in the truck. This round soybeans are going to be hauled into town as the loads finish up.

This is how they always did it when I was a kid, except that when I was little, it was a combination of trucks and pick-up trucks with home-made sides that made the bed higher. They prefered the trucks because they could haul more, but I loved it when harvest was going fast enough (and the lines were slow enough) that we got to take the pick-up truck. I thought it was a lot more fun to dump the pick-up truck in the elevator because you had to drive on a lift and then they lifted up the front of the pick-up to get the grain to dump out the back (instead of the hydraulic lifts that trucks have). It was like a carnival ride to me as a kid. lol. I used to go with mom to the elevator a lot and remember that one of the best things about harvest was the bottle of cold pop we could get at the co-op, a rare treat.

Zora wanted to drive. She tried to convince Grandma to get in the passenger side. lol.

Shelby hoping for a ride.

Heading out to the field.
This is the more typical type of header on a combine to me. We didn’t grow corn when I was growing up (the new hybrids do a lot better in Kansas, the prices are better, and my Dad’s allergies are under better control so he can handle it now). This header will cut wheat, soybeans and milo/sorgum. It cuts the stalk and drops the grain into the bin and the chaff out the back.

In the foreground: Grandma and Zora. In the background: Grandpa and Zane in the combine.

Shelby

Watching Grandpa head back out into the field

The famous Zane lean. He does this all the time…puts his full body weight against you.

Zora was pointing out all of the tracks made by the combine and trucks all day.

And, back to the house so I can go get Zach from work and mom can get supper ready.
During the walk back Zane was very concerned when Shelby went out into the field or off the path. He kept working to herd him back into the group to walk back to the house.

(will continue…)

The time of year where a “field trip” is actually to a field. (Split into a few posts because of length.)

Zach had to work in Mac yesterday, and it happened to coincide with the beginning of harvest for my folks, so Zach worked the morning here in town and picked us up after ST to head out to Mac, then I drove the kids to the farm.

They were cutting both soybeans and corn. The entire field isn’t ready to cut, but some parts are. (they weren’t all planted at the same time)

The corn combine has a “buddy seat” in it so that another adult can ride along. My Mom rode along this round to make sure the kids stayed safe their first ride on a combine.

Turning around at the end of the row and picking me up.

Because corn is so specialized, you can only use a corn combine for corn. The machine doesn’t cut the stalks, instead, it strips all the leaves and husks of corns off the stalk, leaving the stalk mostly in tact. Inside the machine it strips the husks off, strips the corn off the cob, and then spits the leaves, husks and corncobs back out and the corn goes into the bin.

Watching the stalks being stripped and the corn going in.

At the end of the row, the bin was full, and the semi truck driver had arrived, so we headed back to the driveway where Mom and the driver were waiting. The semi truck holds 3 loads of corn, so two grain trailers plus the corn still in the combine bins all fit into the truck. With the price of gas, it is cheaper now to hire a semi to come out rather than truck it into town yourself. (plus the hour or two it takes while waiting in line at the elevator to dump the load). The following picture is the process of emptying the trailers and combine into the semi truck. The kids stayed in the cab of the combine.

You can see the corn in the trailer as the process starts (taken from the stairs landing at the combine door)

Waiting with Grandma

The grain trailers are empty, so Dad takes the combine to empty it.

Off to take a quick break inside and get a drink.

(will continue…)

(Yeah, I am a little behind on the blog)

We met my folks at Sams, shopped with them for a bit, then went to Brahms and had supper, then to our place to look at the car and see what it needed to stop throwing a wall of smoke out behind me when I drove my 1 and 2 mile jaunts. (the car gets a total of 12 miles a week now over 4 days going to ST. We can’t do OT or Hippotherapy or Music Therapy right now because, even if I could find the services and could afford the services, I couldn’t get us there unless it was within a really small area here)

Brahms had some problems with their computers, so the wait was exceptionally long. It didn’t matter though because Grandma had the kids entertained with the salt and pepper shakers and table tent. lol.

The weekend was good. On Saturday we pulled out the gifts for the kids from the luggage: Some Haba Fantasy Blocks for Zane and a selection of Haba Play Food for Zora, and chocolate for both. They both were happy, but probably happier to see us than the toys.

We also discovered a picture Zane drew at some point while we were gone. It is from an old kid’s Carraba’s menu.  He drew a maze with a cartoon under it.

The notable thing on this is that he wrote “my ball” (in the blue crayon) and made some variations to the drawings to make his own cartoon. He smiled a big smile when we found it and commented on it.

Sunday evening my folks came up so we could take them out for a thank you dinner at Carabbas and give them some chocolate and mom’s traditional coffee mug. (a tradition started when I was young…I always pick mom up a coffee mug as a souvenier whenever I go someplace).

They brought up the chalkboard they had bought from an auction at the church. It was from one of the Sunday School classrooms and probably older than all of us, but most importantly, real slate. It was mongo heavy. Dad and Zach worked for an hour or two trying to get it hung downstairs in the room I plan to use as a classroom for Zane. (will allow school stuff to be in it’s own area, just off the playroom). We still have a ways to go with the room (plan on getting a bunch of cheapo bookcases to line one wall for supplies and books, and a table). We have chairs already, also from the same church auction and ones I probably sat on throughout my own childhood.

On Monday we went to the school supply store to get some good chalk and a felt eraser for the board, and Monday evening, Zach was showing Zane the chalkboard and Zane talked him into drawing Mario stuff on the board. He kept bringing him different games and wanted Zach to draw them on the board, and would then go through and explain who each character was to Zach. It was a neat interaction.

Always getting in the middle of the action….

One thing I noticed right away is that the chalk sounded “right” on the board to me.  It didn’t set my teeth on edge like a lot of chalkboards do.  I had to laugh a bit at my on sensory issue that I forgot existed.