Tuesday Thoughts About...

...toilets. Isn't this a good idea?

Me on Monday

It all started in 2017. Camp Aunt Barb. 

I got the idea to do it for the grandkids of my brother and sister on our family vacation in the Ozarks. I made invitations and sent them in advance.

I stamped t-shirts in their favorite color. 

They were way too big on those little kids!

From front, clockwise around: Evie (5), Josie (2), Travis (5), Nathan (3), and Emma--my sister's granddaughter (8). I can't believe how little they were! I put everything including their lunch in the tackle boxes that I stamped with their names. We had a fun day--9 a.m.--4 p.m. By the time it was over, I was exhausted. I remember that my back was killing me--doing all that bending over to help them with the different activities. It was the beginning of something special--for me and them! I wanted them to know who their Aunt Barb is since I don't see them often. 

From then on, they have come to my house each year. This is 2018.

They were still little. Jeanne and I were reminiscing about how tiring it was.

They always had so much stuff!!

This is 2024.

Here they are in 2026--9 years of Camp Aunt Barb--I guess technically 8 since they weren't able to come last year. I'm actually surprised that they still want to come! Jeanne told them they could only have one bag since her car is much smaller than Janet's Suburban. She was always the driver.

From left: Travis and Evie (both 14 and starting high school), Josie (11) and Nathan (12). They all have sports, camps and various other activities. I'm so happy that we were able to work it out this year. They had such a good time, that Travis was begging her grandma, Jeanne to let them stay another day! 

We missed Janet as this was the first time she wasn't with us. Evie did this to make sure we all were reminded that Janet was still with us. 

It wasn't quite the same without her, but everyone was happy to be together. 

The kids still get a kick out of "Bingo with Uncle Butch" and our poker games. They laid in wait for Butch to go in to the bedroom to "scare" him. It didn't work, but they had fun trying. Later, they snuck up on me while Jeanne and I were watching a show. They scared the living daylights out of me!! 

The "kids" are already planning to come next year--and even later when they can drive themselves!! I don't know about that. Surely they are going to have jobs and social lives--then Camp Aunt Barb will be a thing of the past. Even when that happens, they will have memories that they'll carry forever. At the very least, they will remember their Aunt Barb!!

But for now, I'll just enjoy it!!

Scrapbook Saturday

A few AYM layouts for you this week.

Friday Funnies

Ten Things Thursday

Of course I love this combination of blue and white. I love those windows over the doorway. The hydrangeas add the perfect touch. 

I love the shabby chic look. I don't usually go for brown, but in this case, it all looks so natural and is set off by the white. And the flowers and greenery are gorgeous. Love those sisal runners, the front doors, and the shiplap treatment on the walls. So pretty.

I love the floor on this one. But the overall is a little too dark for me.

Love the parquet and the crystal light fixtures.

The stair runners are a pretty interesting. It's the flower baskets I like the most.

Another blue and white--you just can't go wrong with those colors.

I like how this looks, but might be a little stuffy for my taste. Love the chandelier.

I like this entry, but I think I'm over the traditional furniture and paintings.

This is not really my taste, but I think it would be perfect in any of the brown states!

What I love about this one is the book shelves. Looks like a good idea--but I think you'd have to think of this as you are building the house to pull it off.

I could live with any of these entries, but my most favorite is #2!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Me on Monday

Well, it was bound to happen! 

I got scammed! Okay, not scammed--I made a stupid mistake and had to have Stephanie bail me out!! Here's the story:

I tried to set up Apple Pay on my phone. I'm also blaming Steph for this as she's the one who said, "Mom, as much as you like your Apple devices, I cannot believe you haven't set up Apple Pay." 

So I figured if she had it, I probably needed it. I went through the process and loaded my banking info on my phone. I have facial recognition, so I don't worry. I thought I was all set. I tried to use it and got a message that there weren't enough funds. So I added funds. I did this twice. When I still got the message that there weren't enough funds, I knew I had done something wrong. Apparently there is more than one Apple Pay cards in my wallet on my iPhone. Well something other than Apple Pay, but it looks like it.

Stephanie quickly found out that the funds I "added" were to my Apple account and can only be used for things I pay for through there--like Netflix ($16.00 a month) and iCloud storage ($2.99 a month). These funds are non-refundable and act like a gift card. I'm embarrassed to say that it was a significant amount (okay $525.00). I/we tried every which way to figure it out. 

I ended up calling Apple. I quickly handed Steph the phone and told her to tell them that I was elderly and confused. She did and she got them to refund my money. Phew! Happy ending.

Stephanie then made the statement that makes the most sense, "Mom, why would you have to take money from your credit card to put on a credit card?" I guess I just didn't think of it that way! It really didn't make sense. I'm still not exactly sure how I did it.

I am pretty tech-savvy--or at least I thought so. But, unfortunately for Stephanie, she is going to have to be my "Paige!" (Inside joke--my friend, Nancy has her daughter, Paige, do everything for her: make airline reservations, hotel, order a car to pick her up, makes all Amazon purchases--you name it she handles it. AND Paige lives in NYC!!! I know that doesn't matter, but still...) 

So, Steph is going to be my personal assistant! I told Butch that I was going to put her on a monthly retainer! He says "no"--we'll see! Depends on how much I need her!

I didn't feel so bad when Stephanie and Nicky told me that they had to go over to his mom's house (Jenni--who is a friend of mine too) the day after helping me. She was having problems with her remote control. None of the buttons would work. She changed the batteries but that didn't help. She also said that the volume was really high. She tried using the buttons on the tv itself, but they wouldn't work either. She was having to unplug the tv to turn it off! 

Turns out, the "up" volume button was stuck. Nicky "unstuck" it and it was fine! OMGosh--that's hilarious! 

Then, Jenni asked for help with a gift card. Steph said it was pretty convoluted as to how you needed to redeem it. She told Jenni to take a screenshot of what she needed to do. Jenni said her phone did not do screen shots. Steph figured that out in 5 seconds! Jenni was astounded! 

We were discussing all of this on Father's Day in the pool. Certainly entertaining.

So then, Mitchell piped up with a story. He told us about an instance when they were visiting his grandparents on his dad's side. They couldn't get their tv to work at all. Greg had that fixed in like 2 seconds. They had gone months without tv. They asked Greg how he had fixed it. He told them that they were trying to use the wrong remote. He said that they needed to use the Sony remote with the Sony tv!! OMGosh! That's pretty bad--yet so funny!!

It's a darn good thing we can laugh at ourselves!! Really, that's all we can do!