Surprise, Surprise...

Last Friday evening, as I walked outside I noticed that my giant hibiscus had made some beautiful seed pods that were beginning to break open. Last year they failed to make any usable seeds, so I was very excited and asked Jimmy to go get us a bag, while I retrieved the scissors. My plan was to gather the seeds and run them over to Motherkitty & Tomas, but Jimmy said that it was too late in the day to start on the journey to their home across our very long state, so he suggested we start early the next morning while it was cool.

We gathered the deep dark pink and some light pink seeds, but when we went to the white hibiscus bush we discovered that those seeds weren't any good. Tomas had mentioned in his blog that since he was as old as he was, that he was going to celebrate his birthday for the entire month of August so the wheels in my brain began to turn and I decided to surprise him for his birthday...which he now had opened to any day in August.

Of course when you surprise someone there is always the possibility that they won't be home when you come to call. That had happened to us once before, so I made a plan just for that occasion. I found some of my hibiscus pictures after much searching and made an 8 x 10 collage of pictures with planting instructions. I stapled shut the brown paper bag with the seeds in it. My plan was to slide the paper bag with instructions into their kitty door and then head back towards home, leaving no note. As I did before, I would have taken a picture of us in front of their home, this time holding the brown paper sack and emailed it to them later.
This was not a good day to be on a motorcycle, it was much tooooo HOT, but we were over halfway there before I realized this and it was closer to keep on going than to turn around and go back home. Thankfully they were home and you should have seen the surprised look on Tomas' face when he answered the door. Motherkitty was either napping or changing out of her bathing suit...I really don't know, but she was also very surprised to see us. And boy was it nice to be in their air-conditioned home. I needed about an hour to recover from the hot ride. Their thermometer said it was 104ºF and I felt like a baked potato when I arrived. Once Motherkitty made me a nice cold drink, followed by another and another I felt much better, so then Motherkitty & I went for a swim in their refreshing pool. The swirling water felt very soothing to my aching shoulder muscles. I must have really looked over-cooked & in distress when I first arrived, because Tomas even came rushing to me with a glass of ice cold water. I had a drink in each hand.

After our nice swim and catching up on all the news, Motherkitty fixed us one of her wonderful meals. I've only seen one other person who could whip-up a delicious meal in an instant and that was grandma H. Motherkitty surprises the heck out of me with her quickness at getting a meal together on such short notice. That's another reason we don't call before we come because she'll go out and shop and spend lots of money on groceries. Another thing she apologized for was the house...she said it wasn't clean, but I've never seen it dirty and I tell her that we don't come to see her house anyway, but to see them. I think we all react the same way when someone just drops in...right away we think we should apologize if there is a dust bunny floating about or a newspaper laying on the couch out of place. It must be a woman thing, because the men never apologize for anything that might be out of place...and I'm not saying that anything was out of place in their home, I was just speaking in general.
Jimmy & I spent the night with them and on Sunday morning we all went out to eat for breakfast and said our goodbye's. The ride home was hot, but thank God it was overcast and cloudy. I was wishing for rain to wet us and cool us off, but no such luck. We stopped often to soak a cooling cloth into the ice cold water of our cooler which I draped around my neck and back to keep me cool as I rode my motorcycle. And to be honest with you, I was wishing that we were riding in our air-conditioned car, but once we left that half of the state the weather seemed to get a little cooler. The heat doesn't bother Jimmy at all...the hotter it is the better he likes it.

We had a wonderful visit but I can't say the same for the ride. I only wish the weather would cool down a bit or that Jimmy would consent to riding in a car once in a while on trips. But until he does we will continue to ride for as long as we can, but next time we are taking both of the cooling cloths with us, not just mine and I'll use them both at the same time. Of course...if Jimmy gets too hot, I'll share.

On another note....We have some sprinkling of rain as I write, YIPEE! I can't remember the last time it rained...I'd have to look it up in my archives, hehehe. It's just a light sprinkling but a light sprinkling is better than none at all. Rachel of Sliding Through Life is on her way here for a visit, so I think she is bringing the rain with her as she usually gets more rain than we do. Thank you Rachel and you are welcomed here anytime. I'm only kidding...you can come to visit any time even if you don't bring any rain with you.

Tomas & Motherkitty's Visit

Motherkitty....Tomas.... & Jimmy

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This past weekend Motherkitty & Tomas came to visit us and just as soon as we finished eating lunch at Pa*paLeno's Restaur*ant, we went shopping. We walked to all the craft stores within walking distance in search of stained glass. My brother Dennis aka Tomas and Jimmy soon grew tired and made up some lame excuse to go home. After dropping them off at our house, Motherkitty and I set out on our shopping spree. Luckily for us, the Be*rea Interna*tional Fes*tival was going on...it's very much like the Ar*ts & Cra*fts Fair, which I posted about in an earlier post some months back.

Although Berea is a small town, it always has something going on that will entertain you, and as Motherkitty and I were walking around we ran into these two belly dancers. We had to chase them down to get a picture and as it turned out, one of them recognized me. She said, "I know you...you're Sandy and we went to college together over 30 years ago." And while she was saying that, I was thinking "what happened to me?? She looks pretty good for her age."

I don't know if Motherkitty or Dennis remember seeing this very large sculpture, of what looks like a trojan horse, but on the weekend it was surrounded by many booths. It is standing across the street from where the first picture was taken and today I went back and took this picture.

Here Jimmy is standing by Motherkitty's favorite booth...the booth that sold stained glass pictures. There were two stained glass booths and I think Motherkitty liked this booth the best because we came back to it on the last day of their visit, just before they headed home.

This is what I bought...It's a stained glass ladybug surrounded by copper tubing. It caught my attention because of a post that Kitten Yarn posted with a flower with a ladybug on it. Every since she posted that picture, I have been thinking about ladybugs.

Besides hanging out with Motherkitty and having lots of fun, I got to give my brother Dennis a long ride. As we were getting ready to go visit Brian, Reva & Brandon at the Boy Scout campout, Dennis told me to ask Motherkitty if she was ready to ride on my bike...Of course she said NO WAY, but not quite in those words. hehehe. Jimmy & Motherkitty drove and Dennis & I followed behind...way behind. I couldn't keep up with Motherkitty.

Here is Dennis in one piece sitting next to Brian...We have arrived at the camp-out. Brian made Dennis & Motherkitty a beautiful walnut bowl and was VERY disappointed that he wasn't going to get to see Dennis & Motherkitty this weekend. Brian gave me the bowl to give to them, and were they ever surprised when Motherkitty & Dennis showed up at their campsite!!! Motherkitty & Dennis were also disappointed that they were not going to get to see Brian & his family, so they made a point of driving out to the campsite.

Picture of Brian, Brandon & Reva

Motherkitty, Sharon, Dennis & Zac standing in front of his bike.

Zac, Sharon & Dennis

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I shamefully didn't do any cooking during my brother's visit although I had planned on doing some. The first night out we were joined by Suzanne, Matt & Tori for supper and ate at one of our local Mexican food restaurants. Shamefully again, I didn't take any pictures that night...I just don't know what came over me...I always take pictures. It must have been all the excitement of having my brother & Motherkitty visit.

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During their visit, we stayed up late and told stories and remembered times gone by. We woke up to coffee & tea and talked some more until it was time for lunch, then we would go out and eat breakfast or lunch and talk some more. Saturday evening we were joined by Sharon, Megan & Zac. Megan didn't stay long and being a teenager she had friends to see elsewhere. The rest of us went to O*Charley's for supper and had a great time visiting.

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Jimmy & I had a great time and were sad when Motherkitty & Tomas said goodbye. We wished they could have stayed longer, but their kitties called to them. Hopefully we will have another visit with them in the very near future.