Tempura party

 Jenise,  Phillip,  Elliot,  Jeanette,  Robby,  and Riley are gathered here for tempura 😄😄😄! It's been a hellova prep but we finally have it going.  I haven't had much baby time because I've been doing prep etc. But I love,  LOVE, that they are all here with us!! Jess, Jami, and I are home,  too. Kira is still stuck in Minnesota and I think Jazz went out???. Well, even if she was here she wouldn't join in.  Bugs the crap or out me but her mom is ok with it.  

Ok. Back to it!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Oh I don't understand how tonight ended! One,  Robby ended up very angry in a terrible mood. Phillip said he was slamming things around etc. I know he wanted Jeanette to hurry up and leave but she was having a good time and wasnt going to be bullied.  I asked Riley What Robby was rushing home to and he shrugged and said,  Nothing.  I don't know any reason he wants to be at home.  There is Nothing there to do.  Then it was getting late,  and around 10 Jami said that she was full and that I could start cooking the chicken and she went downstairs. I did and I also cooked the plate of food to freeze for Kira when she got home.  Then when it was all almost done Jami came back up and took almost ALL of the tempura on the racks,  piling it on a plate.  I yelled,  What are you doing? You said that you were DONE. And she kept taking food saying that she was getting more before it was contaminated by the chicken. I told her it was all for Kira but Jami still took it and went back downstairs!!!! I was too  tired to cook It again!! WTF?? Then at midnight Jami was leaving,  taking a cab?! to go see TOBY!? (Mike?!) and said that she was coming back in a couple of hours.  I said It's MIDNIGHT! Every one here is tired and going to bed!! and she just said,  "Well, I'm NOT spending the night! I'll be back in a couple of hours" and walked out the door - probably with Kira's dinner in her bag for whoever she was going to visit for a couple of hours in the middle of the night! BS. We are not waiting up or getting up to let her in (and whoever might be with her!) or leaving the house unlocked when Who Knows when she will be back!! and we have a 6 week or baby in the living room!!!!!! TOTAL CRAP. Jess says lock her out. 

Thanksgiving night

 It is a beautifully clear night.  The stars we see from the city are shining bright. I hear geese flying over.  

Jeanette,  Robby and Riley joined us for dinner.  Jess worked all week to plan and cook dinner but didn't join us to eat.  Neither did Jazz. I have no clue why Jess lets Jazz do things like that except that maybe it's just because she herself does things like that.  Sometimes I worry that she is making Jazz more like her somehow, but that is crazy thinking,  right? 

Dinner was beautiful with everyone talking,  sharing stories,  ideas, and humor.  Riley was quieter than usual but he was pretty sick.  Jami joined us and joined into everything going on.  Robby was lively and fun. He also helped me clear the extra furniture out of the living room.  😄 I hope it makes Jess happier but she thinks I only did it because Jenise and Phillip might visit this weekend.  I told her that was ridiculous.  That stuff has been piled in the living room when others have visited and I didn't get that room cleared.  I physically couldn't do it myself so it's been really upsetting when Jess would complain about it.  I just felt helpless.  But I thought about having the boys help me when they all came over.  I'm glad, too, that it is finally done! There are still things in there that need moved but I can move them,  they aren't heavy,  except the books, and I still hope to find a good book case for what is left of my book collection.  I had hundreds of books but they have been lost over the years.  Left in boxes without bookshelves for them and then getting wet in a basement or left behind when we were moving until I have a very small collection.  I'm going to leave them stacked where they are. This is my last home.  I Will get them a bookshelf!! An it will be nice to have a little extra room when Jenise,  Phillip and Elliot visit! 

 The food tonight was all amazing! Well,  if of the desserts Jeanette made was a bit of a fail.  It was something she saw on tick tock and that's always a little risky to try! Robby even made a really good banana pie.  Jess's turkey was the best I have ever had. I was worried when I saw that she put a lemon inside of it before baking it but I didn't taste lemon at all.  Just an very tasty and juicy turkey! Jeanette and I ate until we were both going cross eyed.  Literally.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Med Check

 I finished 7 days of penicillin after my tooth extraction,  then I took 7 days of doxycycline I got from Nett, finished that 2 days ago.  I took a diflucan 2 days ago,  symptoms cleared but were returning last night so I took the second diflucan 9/26/25. 

Oh, I also saw Dr. Gold yesterday and he treated my knee with sarapin injections!! I am very hopeful that it will help.  Sarapin is derived from a carnivorous plant.  What could go wrong?? It is a nerve block,  maybe from a compound in the plant that keeps the insects in their trap?? It doesn't exactly have FDA approval but there are ways to get some insurance to cover it.  Mine should be covered - I'm pretty sure Dr. Gold made sure of that before doing it.??

Readers in Alaska

 I'd love to know about you.  

Creepy foggy night 🥺

 I miss Jenise. And Kira.  I want everyone closer when I'm scared. Jazzy is still at work. Just Jesd and me home. 

Jeremy called last night after seeing that I was attacked in the free Thanksgiving Dinner line Friday. It was sweet.  The call,  not the attack! I am ordering some mace and a tazer ASSP but I got Really Bad news today.  I got turned down for the loan to fix the house had pipe 😭. I don't invite what we are going to do! Maybe we'll just blow up.  I'm going to try to get something foot these cars here.  I fixed the Malibu issue with the locks making the battery die, I found and removed that fuse. I just need titles to junk or sell them. I think I could sell the Malibu.  Maybe get the $1,000 to fix the leak but I was stunned that I couldn't get a little $2500  loan with Jeanette co-signing and OWNING A HOUSE. 

Jenise gone 😭

 But she just face timed 😁 and it does look like they have a nice set up there.  They are coming next weekend and I will go there 2 weeks after to see them.  I just have to figure out Gabby. They already have animal problems there  - Jamie's dogs don't like their cats! and Gabby has to go where i go so we'll see. I might have to wait until I can rent a hotel there.  But I'm going to go see them ASAP. 

Put the garden to bed

 And now we are having a proper thunder storm. This should water in the asparagus and strawberries that I transplanted yesterday.  😄 Ok. It's really pouring!! It might end up washing it all away!! 

Wow. This is awesome.  I'm glad i got the big dead branch pulled down from the tree out front!

Crap. I still need to clean the gutters!!

THE FARM

 Jess, Jeanette and I drove out to our old farm yesterday.  It felt surreal the minute we passed thru Missouri Valley.  I started getting bombarded with memories already.  When Mike and Terri came to visit I put up balloons to guide them starting from Missouri Valley.  I thought about Steve driving this distance every day to get to work and back. The dog "Spinner" that always ran out to his mail box and circled like he was chasing his tail as you went by. The place where I lost control of the car and spun out with Herbert in there car.  Magnolia was completely different.  Bigger maybe. All the way to the farm the streets now have real names! We turned off the paved road and passed the Garcelon place,  the place where badgers used to live.  The turn to go to John Henry's farm. The Klinkenbeard Farm and the Meek place across the road.  Our nearest neighbors a mile away. That last deadly S curve where I hit the mailman head on.  Then we got there, where you can either turn left into the farm or go down and impossibly steep hill, Peanut Hill. Herbert and me sliding down that hill on air mattresses in the snow.  The two grain silos were still by the road. We parked between where the house and garden were.  The main well was there looking dangerously out of use. We stood there trying to get our bearings, asking each other what was where.  Because everything else was gone.  The house, a long car port for tractors, two big barns, the chicken coop, the pig shed,  the white picket fence. No sign any of it was ever there.  Maybe we would have figured out where the cherry and apple trees were if there were any leaves left on the trees,  maybe we'll return one more time next spring? But the pond behind the house was there still. Where we I've slayed in our shoes.  Jess checked and said the tadpoles are still there 🙂. We walked back towards where "Bonzeehead" (a cow skull on a tree stump) but the land was completely different.  Some of it changed by man but most of it looked like natural changes.  So many things looked smaller.  The hill behind the house that the girls sled on looked half as big and that area didn't look eroded. All of us just somehow remember it much,  much bigger. The two silos out front.  I remember going outside and seeing that the girls had climbed them,  like little dots way up at the top and I couldn't breathe seeing them,  terrified they would fall off I called out to them,  just standing there frozen until they were down.  Surely those are different silos?? They are barely two stories high!! In my memory,  in their memories,  they were about four stories high!! They might ferment wrong because the were so little,  3 and 4 years old! but I haven't grown. Was I just so scared that I ferment them taller?? We stood where our house was.  Not even a dent that showed we had a basement.  I felt a deep grief. I told the girls that I felt like we had been erased and they understood.  Agreed. The was a short piece of wood, looked like a 10 × 10 stud, and half a brick. Nothing else where our house and a thousand memories were. In the back of my mind I have often thought that we could head here if there was a disaster and we had to flee the city.  I figured that the pig barn with the water pump in front would always be here. A place to survive.  No. It's not even land that we know any more.  We left before we were caught out there in the dark.  That absolute darkness city people never know.  I was still shook up from it when I got this message from Jeanette - 

"Seeing that today had to of made you feel like a badass. Like everything was hard, harder than it is now and you still did the most with everything."

And she put this on Facebook-

"As I get older I have so much compassion for my parents and appreciation for the childhood they provided. They made every struggle feel like an adventure while carrying and enduring every trauma they experienced without support systems and resources to help them. 

I didn’t know the difference between when we had less or when we had more because everything that truly mattered was always there. 

I do not have the same energy and I wish I did. My children always know when I’m stressed or struggling. However, I think I’ve at least succeeded in making them feel loved no matter what the conditions are. I guess that’s something ❤️

The house that built me is gone but the land is still there 🤗"

And POOF! We were Not ERASED!!!

Aurora Boreallis 😁

 Jess got me up to see the northern lights last night!! They weren't quite as beautiful as the only other time I've seen them,  on the farm over 30 years ago!! The colors weren't swirling or as varried but still amazing.  For some reason Jeanette says she couldn't see them from her home or from where she works - I think they should have been really bright from where she works!! We might get another showing tonight - maybe she'll see that?? There should also be a meteor shower tonight.  The last time I drove the field up into the Loess Hills to see that they didn't have their glasses and couldn't see anything.  😕 Maybe we can all go and see that tonight. 

Winter Prep

 Ok. I don't admit defeat but I am feeling lost about fixing the deck. The more I look the more needs replaced. I almost think I'll have to just rebuilt the steps completely.  No Clue how to get the rotted pieces off and out.  How to even get the braces off to use as a pattern to cut the new pieces.  Someone went crazy with the screws and nails holding it in place.  I definitely could use a sledge hammer and then someone strong enough to swing it.  OR just build the 2 steps any bolt them in place. What a world What a world. 

Jess raked leaves that I am moving to mulch the garden area.  I still need to dig the place for asparagus and strawberries out from under the girls windows. Cut back the grape vines and hope some are pencil thick to start new vines.  Take down Jami's watermelon bed.  Maybe dig my garden bed another foot or two into the yard so I can leave a blank row between our garden and the neighbor's.  Marigolds there?? Something nonedible since she mentioned using poison for her weeds. I have a dozen or so carrots still in the ground.  I also need to find 3 pallets for my compost heap. The trash can isn't working out  - I can't turn it and it's over full. My flowering plants are protected the best I can do with what I have.  I need more bubble wrap and blankets foot the baby Apple tree. Then we wait and see what we have in the spring.  

🤞🙏

2025 Second Summer

 I do wonder why this used to be called an "Indian Summer"? Whatever we call it,  I do love it but hate that it means it's The End of Summer.  The last gasp.  Then the death of winter. Yes,  until the rebirth in spring,  but how many springs am I still going to see? I don't know.  Maybe the next one.  I never expected to see this winter. 

Our Lindsey has been around some.  Sometimes it can feel like Old Times.  Funny there can be that timelessness with her like with her mother. And when the three of us experience it together it can be priceless.  Like what my brothers and I had.  Priceless.  

Holding Elliot

 This was written a few weeks ago but published here.  I did something wrong.  .

Last night Jazz, Kira and I went and visited Elliot and I finally got to hold him💓. What a precious tiny bundle!!!! I felt him merge into me just like Jenise did.  MY Great Grandson. Elliot Kiser Dodson. Jenise pumped a bottle for him and I got to feed him until he fell asleep.  🥰 

It was absolutely beautiful to see Jenise and Phillip so happy and proud.  Watching Phillip hold him and talk about him just gives me goosebumps. His love and pride rings out like church bells in the morning,  clear and beautiful.  And the love between Jenise and Phillip feels like God smiling.  I hope they can hold that forever.  

Today I'm taking Jessica to see him.  She didn't want to go with all of us last night because she didn't want that much competition for holding time.  It might have been a fight! I barely let Kira hold him who, by the way,  held him perfectly.  She is much more in tune with human babies than the cats and dogs!! 

I can't wait to go back and visit them again. 

The Scion 😃

 It is a hatchback!! Awesome!! I can still haul some things with it,  it gets amazing had mileage,  it runs great,  PERFECT.

So far.