Growing the Wandering Jew Plant

 My Dad's planting specialty was transplanting Wandering Jew plants.  I think Auntie Co might still have an off-spring from one of these plants.

On Saturday I got a clipping of a WJ from my friend Sandi and talked with Colleen about how to make my own plant.  I got some great advice.  The main thing is to try to keep some plant babies alive over the winter because this plant really when shines in the summer sun.  I think the baby plants will make babies that you then put in water for a week and start over throughout the winter.  (The big giant plant doesn't usually make it over the winter.) 

Here are the clippings right after I brought them home (purple plant)

Aunt Colleen said to place the baby plants in water for a week and let the start to grow roots.

Carolyn asked for a start of the plant.  Hope they make it because although they have roots, they don't have a weeks worth of roots.  But Matthew was home for the day and took it back to her for me.  I told her if they die before a hard freeze, she could get more baby plants from Aunt Co.

Here are Aunt Co's plants!  Uh - WOW!

Happy 21st birthday Carolyn

Here she is showing love to her brother Joel about 15 years ago!

Carolyn is always showing her family love :0)

She and Matthew had a birthday lunch, she went and had ice cream with Aunt Co and Uncle Paul (different day) and celebrated at dinner with her friends.

She owes me a picture :0)

AND HERE IT IS!

Matthew brought Carolyn home from her night class on Tuesday and gave her all of her Ankeny treats!

Pets...not ours

My friend J is pet sitting and let us come over to get a little cuddle time!

This picture is to show that I am letting my hair go gray!  We will see how it goes.

J even told me I could bring Anna over after her show-choir even though it was late!  (We were supposed to go visit the pets sooner, but Covid interfered and the pets were going home!)

 

August 17 Joel leaves for Iowa State

 Joel went to the dentist and then left for school.  (He scheduled the dentist 6 months ago!)  It really worked out well because when he and Ken got to Iowa State it wasn't very busy for the move in.

Joel's good buddy Will....met in kindergarten....now his college roommate!

Will's mom took this photo - check out the cool steps.  (Carolyn saw this photo and said, "did he bring the pool noodle?" (to protect the head - his desk is under his bed)  We thought that was so sweet that she noticed.  They did forget the pool noodle, so he will need to be careful until we see him!)

Joel is pointing to his dorm - top floor of white building, 3rd window!

When Joel left, I told him to send pictures.  He joked, "What if I want to live in the moment?"  I teased - "live in the moment and then send me a different picture later" :0)

Anyway - he sent this to me from the cafeteria.  This is so great because in addition to Will he is with 4 boys from his old scout troop.  Evan (in the red) also ran Cross Country with Joel, but otherwise Joel hasn't really hung out with his scout buddies for a couple of years (the boy in the hat was home-schooled, not sure how his mom is handling this change - at least Joel was gone for most of his senior year doing activities and working, so I was used to not seeing him a bunch)!  

Ken indicated that the Ankeny kids have a group chat, so I bet they said, "who wants to go to dinner?" or something like that.  I love it - maybe kids will be less lonely at college.  Although to be clear, I am not worried Joel will be lonely at college.  I am worried I will be lonely without my kids, who are at college :0)

Poor sweet Joel does have Calc 3 at 7:45 am, 3 days a week and a different lecture at 8 am on a 4th day - so his days of sleeping in are OVER!  Luckily he did have to work many mornings this summer!

I was sorting socks this morning and found some of his - in my head I joked, "I better drive to Ames deliver these!" 

August 13, Carolyn's moving day (part 2 - the part where she stays in Iowa City)

 

Patrick came to say goodbye and help get the van packed.

Anna, Ken and I drove with Carolyn to help set up the rest of her apartment.  On August 1st, she moved with the Uhaul, to share the truck with her roommate, but then came home to work for another 2 weeks.

Today she needed to be at the apartment to set up her internet, then the following week she has training for her internship.  Matthew joined us for lunch and a grocery run and then Carolyn went back to Matthew's apartment when we left.  (Her roommate stayed in Iowa City for a week, then had to return to the metro to cover the State Fair for Iowa Public TV (her internship)).  

Note the cute wall hangings that Carolyn and I found on our many shopping quests to outfit her apartment.  Even Matthew commented, "those are perfect for you", because Carolyn had a big flower pressing hobby during the pandemic.

Carolyn sent me this photo Sunday.  (Matthew picked Carolyn up for church, since he has a parking spot and she and R. have to share one.)

Last Thursday was cooking day!

Carolyn and I planned a day to make all the things we couldn't make when we had Covid (because who would want to eat it and we didn't want to be in the kitchen spreading germs).

Great haul from the garden.  We made pickles and pickled (store bought) red onions (Which are fantastic if you haven't been introduced...after 2 days of pickling you take out the brine and splash them with lemon/lime juice.  Excellent on a salad or with meat - yum)

Joel made cheesecake and Anna (who was gone for Show choir most of the day) made herself lunch (grilled cheese maybe?).

Carolyn and I also made lemon-curd and birria tacos, which also are wonderful.  (She was introduced to them in the dorms.  They are slow cooked beef with a special consume that you dip the corn tortillas into before frying.)

 

Tiny boxes

 

I have a thing for tiny boxes.  I made 14 of these sweet things.  "Pure imagination" is the name of Anna's marching band show.  These boxes fit 10 miniature Hersey bars (not the nuggets).  It can fit in the palm of my hand.   The boxes shown are for Carolyn's buddies (except for Pure Imagination, that is for Anna's flute friend) I think I will give the extra boxes to our neighbors at Halloween filled with some goodies.  The paper I used came from a stack of 180 papers that I bought for a steal.  It worked out to be about 3 cents a 12X12 inch piece paper!  That is great because when I mess up, I recycle and don't give the 3 cents another thought..

Carolyn's cutie, $3 end table

 

Ken remembered that Carolyn wanted a little bed-side table.  Anna, Joel and he went to the Methodist  Church rummage sale and found this Shabby-Chic little table (meaning it was beat up, but Carolyn liked it anyway :0)

She and I had picked out the table cover fabric a couple years ago when I was in a bag making kick.  I think we dreamed that I could make PJs with it.  I however, gave up any illusion that I can make clothes.  I did make her a grocery bag with the fabric too, because I forgot about seam allowances when I was first making the table cloth.  So I folded it up and gave it straps, viola - a bag :0)

Anyway, this will do the trick for the next year in an apartment.

update- Anna told me that they found the table at a garage sale on the way home from the Methodist Church sale!

Alex-vomit-Jones

Because I can't really go anywhere, I sat in front of my computer ALOT this week.

One thing I watched was some of the trial of Alex Jones.

This man terrorized the parent of Sandy Hook victims such that their lives were threatened by the viewers of this man's "Info Wars".  The parents had to get security and move to avoid people who (at least in one case) wanted to kill them for lying about their dead children.  (One Info Wars watching woman is in jail now because of these death threats.)  What an incredibly ironic name for his "news" empire.  There is no Information involved in this world, unless it is "wrong Info".  The Wars part of his company's title makes sense.

Alex Jones wages a daily war on the truth and tells his ignorant followers conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory.  He especially likes to deny mass shootings, because "they" are just trying to make people hate gun owners.  And then cashes the ignorant people's checks when they buy his Doomsday Prepper garbage.  He went on a rant once about how "they" were putting toxins in the water such that they were "turning the freaking frogs gay" (screamed at the top of his lungs) and then immediately advertised water purifiers.  (I guess to prevent you from having your frogs turn gay.)

In the trial, I especially enjoyed how he tried to portray himself as the victim, not receiving a fair trial.  Well Alex, you were found guilty in absentia when you didn't provide evidence or show up for trial.  Amazing how you need to show up for a trial and provide the asked for information to defend yourself in court.  He also thought because he now said, "sorry, Sandy Hook happened", all should be forgiven.  He lied about this for most of a decade.  One sorry isn't going to cut it.  Plus he spread this information to countless other people.  Again one sorry isn't going to cut it Alex.  

The best part was that his lawyers accidentally sent the plaintiff's attorney 2 years of text messages.  Alex had previously claimed that he didn't have any text messages regarding Sandy Hook and that he didn't use email.  Then the attorney failed to follow the legal requirements needed to have the data returned.  

Even better still, Alex plead the fifth regarding January 6th and now that committee can have access to all his texts.  (Even if they aren't given to January 6th committee by the Sandy Hook attorneys, Alex can't say, "I don't have any texts about January 6th", he has to turn them over.)  It feels like Karma and couldn't have happened to a better insurrectionist.  The only good thing I can say about Alex, is that he wasn't violent on January 6th.  He just got his listeners to do that dirty work.

I hope he is tried for perjury some day.  The trial I watched was a civil trial, no jail time.  $4 million in compensatory and $45 million in punitive damages awarded.

 

Band camp

 It is so hot that the kids have to practice their music inside during the day and can only march at night.  (Similar to last year if I am remembering correctly!)  The first week of August is hot in Iowa, who would have guessed.

The kid who posted this said something about being blessed with band camp....the holy press box.

Monday move in

 Carolyn's cutie apartment.  Matthew helped them move everything up the 3 flights of stairs!!

Note: swell $10 desk, free chest of drawers that we painted.  I bought the chest of drawers from Roy and Anabel Sexton (our elderly neighbors) when I was Carolyn's age.

Note: excellent table for $60 last summer.

Note:  solid bookcase for $30-40

I love that the girls were happy with R's "grandma" couch and chair.  (In great shape but dated.  Carolyn's roommate's mother's boyfriend's mother's old couch)  Also Carolyn got the rest of her (wooden) furniture from the church rummage sale or 2nd hand stores....except that mattress which was from our house.  We were going to get her a new bed, but since she is not going to live in her apartment next year, we decided to try to keep things to a minimum so that she can move out in Ken's van.  (The mattress will likely be taken to the dump, since it has been well loved since 1989 when I got it for my first apartment.)  So all her furniture cost less way less than $200.  Easy to please, Carolyn!

Carolyn is planning to live in a dorm for 1 semester next year, hopefully with her buddy O. who also only has one semester.  There is a new dorm that has kitchens, so she wouldn't have to eat in the cafeteria.  (The dorm actually isn't new to the university.  I think it might have been married student housing long ago.  It is called Parklawn.  Maybe my sister remembers!)

Bad news is that Carolyn developed a bit of a chill and sore throat last night at 11.  Her antigen test is negative, but it was last time she had Covid too.  Oiy!  I guess better than while at school with her internship starting in 2 weeks.

I was tired all day yesterday, but today I realize I only felt a little bit worse than after my worst immunization day.  I feel very good today! 

Crazy Sunday

 

Ken, Carolyn, Carolyn's roommate (R), her mom (in blue), Joel and I loaded up a Uhaul!  It is amazing that we could have even used a smaller truck.  That said, R and R's mom's cars were full of boxes and Carolyn can fill Ken's mini-van when she goes to move in for good.  Only R. was staying in Iowa City after the drop off on Monday  Carolyn is coming home until the 13th.  That probably helped me to be a little less sad.

That night at around 8:30, I had a little chill and felt a little dehydrated.   Work requires I test if I have any Covid symptoms and I was positive.  Sigh!  Everyone else tested negative and were asymptomatic.  Carolyn tried to convince her roommate and her mom to just let Ken move her stuff in on Monday, to be safe, but they weren't really willing to do that.  Sigh again!