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Jo’s Journal

Taking a Queue from Scarlett O’Hara

It was a bit of a busy, unusual Tuesday for the Kramer crew.  Between the kids, grandkids, and dogs, I was hopping.  I started my day early.  I was scheduled to take care of my grandsons Carver and Anders while daughter Kalissa and husband Craig took Gannon to the genetics appointment for Gannon in Iowa City.  I was up at 5:45 am and they were coming at 6 am.  Shortly after waking, Kalissa sent me this picture of Anders…


UGH.  That means his ear drum ruptured and he has ear infection.  Oh no.  Poor guy.  It was a disappointment to us all.  Kalissa had been so hoping she’d get one boy that wasn’t plagued with ear infections.  Here’s Anders with his first ear infection and is only 5 months old.

He hasn’t been different at all except for two nights, Friday and Saturday, he didn’t sleep the best.  We just figured he was getting older and needing a little cereal at night before bed to tide him over a little longer.  Nope.  The poor guy had ear infection.

The boys got dropped off and I told Kalissa to call for an appointment on her way to Iowa City and I would take Anders to the doctor.

I had left my kitchen table like this from the night before as I was sorting floss, organizing a couple of projects, and putting some previously used flosses away.  I scooted it over and found room for Carver to eat breakfast.


At 7:45 am Carver got on the bus and he headed off to school.  About then Kayla sent me an SOS.  She wanted a picture of my dining room table all decked out for Valentine’s Day.  Apparently, she was making a Facebook post promoting the laces she has in her Etsy Shop.  She thought if people saw my projects I’ve used vintage laces on that might be a good sales point.  Of course, my table wasn’t cleaned off so I cleaned it off, snapped some pictures, and sent them to her.  You can find Kayla’s Etsy Shop HERE.

Just as I hit send Anders needed to eat and then just as finished feeding him, Karl, my son, called.  He wanted to know how my day was scheduled.  I told him about Anders and having to take him to the doctor.  By this point, Kalissa had called to let me know his appointment was at 9:15 am.

Karl was a little bummed.  He said he came outside to find he had a flat tire.  He was hoping to borrow my van and take it to work.  I quickly offered to take him to work.  It is in the opposite direction of the doctor’s office but I thought I had just enough time to do both.  I scrambled to let the dogs out and get Anders ready.

Then it hit me.  Craig didn’t take his truck to work so Karl could likely drive Craig’s truck.  I called Kalissa and Craig.  That was okay.  They told us where the keys were.  Karl walked to my house.  I told him the new plan as I was buckling Anders into his car seat.  I got him out to the van and crap.  The seats of my van fold into the floor and they were all folded down as Karl used my van over the weekend to take things to my son Buck’s house.

Pop the seats up.  Get Anders in the car.  Get Karl to Kalissa’s house.

Whew.  Just enough time for a breather before taking Anders to the doctor.

Then I realized I could get rid of two of the boxes in the garage if I made arrangements to drop them off with the sewing group from Decorah way.  YES.  Then I could check that off my list.  So I contacted her.  Yes, she could meet me.  I loaded the boxes into the van, loaded Anders back in the van and we took off to town.

At the doctor, we found out that…Read More »Taking a Queue from Scarlett O’Hara

Clean It Challenge

Oh, my word.  It’s time!!

My garage is a terrible mess.  I’ve tried, but I’m in an all-out attack mode.  It’s going to get clean.

As many of you know I volunteer a lot and my volunteer area to collect things is out of control.  It’s to the point it either gets under control or I quit volunteering.

I have quilt tops in several different totes.  These all need to get out to people but in my wish to get them out of finishers I was out of postage money and as I said in an earlier post, I’ve been footing the bill for that and so they have sat while I do the auction to get money in the postage fund to send them.


This box is full of cross stitch stands I bought at the thrift store but have since decided that I don’t want.  I’m a stitch-in-a-hoop gal.  If I knew someone who would love the stands, they can have them for the price I paid for them…I should probably just take them back to the thrift store.

This is all …Read More »Clean It Challenge

A Busy Few Days

I have had a few crazy days.  If you sent an email recently, I haven’t gotten to it and likely won’t for a day or two.  I had company and quite a lot of it.  My company left earlier today and I’ll be playing catch up which is totally okay.

My daughter Kayla messaged me at the end of last week and said she was up for a visit.  She thought she’d come Sunday afternoon and stay through Tuesday.  My daughter Kelli messaged me Saturday and said her Sunday sitter was sick and she needed me.  Kelli works overnights as a nurse.  So she needed me to watch the kids Sunday so she could sleep…and possibly Monday.  My daughter Kalissa also had to work the overnight shift as a nurse and her husband who usually has the kids overnight had to be at work at 5 am Monday morning so, could I watch her kids and get them on the bus?  Sure??!!

So this was the crew that stayed overnight at my house on Sunday night.


It was crazy…I got no sleep but it was fun!  I’ll just show you some photos from our time together.  Here is Kayla with Eli and Emmett, Kelli’s twin boys.  Kayla was trying to figure out how to get the two of them downstairs.  They are too heavy to carry both at once anymore so she sat on her butt and slid down the steps.

Kayla was so sweet and gifted Gannon (who is crazy about Legos) some Lego man hand gloves that she knitted.  Gannon was CRAZY about them and wore them all day…more on that later.


Karl, our son, came over for a visit too.  He was the “funcle” (fun uncle) giving all the kids their favorite up-side-down hugs and even loving up on my foster dog Mork.


Mork was the star of the show…


We got all the kids ready for bed on Sunday night.  It turns out that Kelli’s hospital had a low census and she didn’t have to go in to work so she got to join in the fun.


The overnight was crazy.  Kelli had…Read More »A Busy Few Days

Sips and Savors

On Friday night two weeks ago, after I got home from the doctor’s visit I sat down to write a blog post.  I was just finishing up when Karl arrived.  He asked what I was doing tonight.

Well, I explained to him that I had just been to the chiropractor.  I’ve actually been there three times in the last week.  I screwed my back up and we just can quite get it to stay in place.  It feels better when I leave…but sore and by the next day or so, the pain has returned to my hip/back.  It’s been 10 days of trouble so far.

I’ve done all I can to baby it.  I moved the furniture around in the living room giving me more support when I sit and stitch at night.  I’ve not done anything that I felt was stressful.  The chiropractor ended up asking me if I was doing unusual bending and twisting.

I said yes.  Little Lefty, my rescue dog is still at my house.  The fence of the indoor pen he is in has a little lip on it.  Lefty is so small that I often just bend over the whole fence without opening the door and scoop him up to take him outside.  She’s a fast little bugger so I am always bending and twisting when I pick him up.

I was given strict orders.  No bending and twisting at all…even be careful with the dishwasher.  I was told if I could limit any bending at all for a couple of weeks, that would be best for my back/hip.

I jokingly explained this all to Karl and told him I guess I can’t use the dishwasher so I better go out to eat.  It’s what the chiropractor ordered.  HA!!

Here we are out to eat!!

After some debate, we decided to try the new restaurant in our area called Sips and Savors.  It is in our neighboring town St. Lucas.  My daughter Kalissa and her husband Craig have been there a couple of times and enjoyed it.

The building it is located in is the old White House Restaurant.  It was long known as a place to go for a nicer, not bar food, meal in the area.   The couple that owned it retired the someone else came in and tried to make a go of it and failed.

Now it has new owners.  I know half of the owners and know that if anyone can make a go of it, she can.  We wanted to go out and support them and check out the food.  We thought being I got okay news from the doctor, it was okay to go out and celebrate…and I had to protect myself from bending over at the dishwasher.  HA!

We ordered drinks and waited to be seated.  Before long we were seated and looking at our menus.  While sitting there, Karl saw someone who had a familiar face but he couldn’t place her…it was one of those I think I’m supposed to know you moments.

He thought nothing of it and we ordered and once our food came, started eating.  I pulled this photo from …Read More »Sips and Savors

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