Noni Duty

Having recently returned from approximately 3.5 years of traveling for work -

fantastic work
and
fantastic travel -
Texas, North Carolina, Seattle, Sierra Vista, Italy
and my favorite - Germany.
Such a wonderful opportunity to meander around cobble-stone villages from the
1200's or 1500's or 1700's
Cathedrals, museums, coliseums
delicious meals in tiny restaurants
wine
shopping
and life-long friends.
But the fun was over.
I couldn't break even .... so... I was lucky to find a fantastic
job, working from home

with a great boss and colleagues....


Anywho,

it has been great being home.

I truly love spending time with my grandchildren and have been
catching up on 'Noni-Duty'.

I was booked from Friday at 6:00pm until Monday at 10:00 am.

five children

8 puppies

a labrador father

and 

standard poodle mother
one cat

and a visiting fish, Butchie.

Oh, and the yard had just been winter-seeded with
bags and bags 

and bags
of
manure spread over the lawn.

The water sprinklers came on twice a day.
Let me see if I have some photos of the weekend.

First,
This is my new office view.

I'm  on the phone a lot so I really enjoy watching the

hummingbirds dropping by for some sustenance.

Sometimes big fat birds land on the feeder, and grab on and the whole thing rocks, then when they realize their beaks won't fit in the tiny holes,
they fly away.

ok - now to the weekend:

Friday night started off with Sarah coming over and the babysitter

had fed the kids, bathed Rex, cleaned the kitchen

Then someone ran in with a bleeding puppy,

saying Baxter had done it.

So the drama began. 

 Everyone was chasing Baxter and trying to get him to put him in the side yard.

Baxter wouldn't come.

In fact he really loved the running and chasing
through the wet, manured-covered lawn.

I took the baby sitter home.

Sarah chased the dog.

All ended well, the puppy was ok although a bit traumatized for the evening.

Sarah took S, and Nat took D,
so it was just Rex, S, and L.

Other than a few minor skirmishes over the weekend, everyone was very helpful.

The helped
loading and unloading the dishwasher

feeding the dogs

sweeping the floor

mopping the kitchen floor

Rex helped me gather the puppies and put them in the 'pen' for the night.

Saturday morning started with feeding the puppies.

This is no easy feat.

Baxter needs to be in his kennel and Ruby has to be in the house during

the puppy feeding or they will knock them out of the way and have at it.

Then it was time for breakfast.

Lil wanted chocolate chip pancakes so she googled a recipe and we made them

fresh fruit 

and Lil danced to One Direction......

that girl has some moves.

This guy was my buddy.....

he was with me all the time.

He liked pushing his nose into my armpit and smelling....

guess he liked it.

We were pals, where I went he went.

Meals, naps, baths, puppies, park, church, my house, etc.

He was very entertaining,

He said, "Noni, I'm three" as he held up his fingers.

"Yes, you are".

I said.  Then he looked at me and said, "I'm NOT fourteen", and he laughed.


"No, you're NOT fourteen".

Sar came over on Saturday and off we went to the park.

Everyone - we said it is a beautiful day - let's all go.

So they did.

S loved that she is now taller than me.


Sat. evening we all went to

PETER PIPER PIZZA

jack, nat, a, e, sarah, c, w, me, d, s, r.

Peter Piper pizza is my idea of hell.

It was packed with people have birthday parties,

kids were running in the playhouse, then we ate and then there are games.

Games that cost quarters - tokens.

Then they win tickets and go choose prized from a case,

like smarties, tootsie pops, paper fans, small plastic toys,

like aliens, rubber hands that are thrown agains the wall,

tattoos,

the children were feverishly running all over spending their tokens.

and then sweating as they painfully-slowly selected their prizes.

Tears were wept

Finally we dragged them all out.

The kids loved it.
 the adults.... not so much.

Sunday, the girls sang in the choir.

A neighbor picked them up at 8:00 am. They fixed their hair and selected nice clothing

and then little S, insisted on the these very-worn out shoes that have a terrible odor because she keeps wearing them.  The toes are worn out.

I asked her if she had some other shoes, that I didn't think her mother would want her to wear those shoes.

She said, very sweetly, that she did have some other shoes but that she

REALLY


REALLY

didn't want to wear them.

which started the above text message exchanges....

I gave up on the shoes.

Here's Rex all dressed up in an outfit I gave him.

Rex and I met the girls at Mass.

Sar came over for lunch.....

lunch with the cousins

After naps we were going to go on a picnic but finally it just got too complicated, so we just came to my house for a cookout

It got a little wild.

The adults all relaxed before preparing dinner.

Lil painted her toes neon pink.

These two cousins were pretty darned adorable

Monday morning - D with her favorite puppy.

They all have names.

Elizabeth, Patch, John, Emma, etc.

All in all I totally enjoyed the weekend.

I was so "ON" the whole time.......

the kids I can handle any time. They were sweet and funny.

They have so much happy energy.

The dogs and the poop and the manure and water coming on twice a day.........


NOT SO MUCH ------