No Lazy Days of Summer Here

Not enough hours in the day!  I still have so much outside work to do.  I'm still trimming and cleaning out my cotoneaster bushes and it's taking up way too much time.  

Last week Mom and I found our way to this Amish greenhouse that we had heard about and they had the biggest baskets of flowers I have ever seen for $15.00 each.  I asked the cute little Amish girl how they get them so big and she told me in her sweet little Amish accent voice, "They just grow".

This pot of these little yellow flowers was about $1.50!

I hung this huge basket next to my blue and pink seating area.  See my previous post.

Over the weekend, Mom and I took a little road trip to Pittsburgh to help Spring clean my girlfriend's mother's house.  Her mother and my mother were very good friends years ago, and the four of us have reunited recently.  See post about this here.  My friend's mother had a stroke a couple of years ago and just isn't able to keep up with her house by herself.  So my girlfriend arranged for a Spring Cleaning Party with family and friends jumping in with scrub buckets and food.  Mom and I drove the 4 hours to get there Saturday morning and spent the night in a very nice room at a Country Inns and Suites.  We cleaned again on Sunday and got back on the road for the trip home by 3:00.  It was fun!  Really!

I'm cleaning the light fixture in the master bath.  With a smile!

Hubby couldn't quite understand why we would be willing to do this when I keep saying how much work I have to do around here.  We did it because they asked!

We also stopped at an outlet mall before coming home.  I've been looking for a dress for my upcoming 35th year class reunion coming up next weekend in Cincinnati.  I wanted something classy, but sexy, but not too revealing, that fit well but not too tight, oh my!  And I think I found it!  We went into Dress Barn and I wasn't hopeful because I had been to a Dress Barn years and years ago and was not impressed.  Well, this one was a nice store with very nice clothes. 

Here it is.  I'll be sure to get a picture the night of the reunion.

I also found this cute little pink top and had to get it, too.

This weekend we have a wedding to go to on Saturday.  Sunday we'll have the 3 grandkids here and are going to brunch for Father's Day.  On Thursday I leave for Cincinnati to meet up with my best friend that now lives in California and we'll be going to our class reunion get togethers on Friday and Saturday nights.  I'll come home on Monday and then on Saturday the 2nd, we're having a 4th of July party here.  

For someone (me) that likes to just stay home and putz around the house, I don't know why I let myself get so    busy!

Days On The Lake

Here is my new summer schedule;  if it's nice and warm I work outside, if it's raining I work inside.  Today is an inside day.  It's only 59 degrees and pouring.  At 7:00 this morning, though, it was warm and dry and I started a morning walk routine with a neighbor friend.  We walked for an hour at a pretty good pace and a lot of hills. We're going to try to do this every morning.  It felt good and to do it that early doesn't make it seem like it's interrupting my day at all.

I was able to work outside yesterday afternoon.  I've been trimming these darn cotton easters (that's what I'm told by a neighbor that they are) and they are a pain to take care of and keep looking nice and neat.  I'm giving them a real good haircut to clean up all the weeds and dead limbs.  These bushes line our driveway in the front of the house and they can grow wild real fast if you just let them go.

 I'm half tempted to have them all torn out and just plant more grass.  I'm sure, though, once I get them all neatened up again I'll be satisfied with them.  In the fall they get red berries on them and actually can be very pretty. I wanted to get more work done on these today, but that's not going to happen.

I wasn't able to get much of anything done over the weekend because my three little mini storms, named Logan, Landen, and Leanna were here.  We actually had Leanna since Thursday night.  We brought her home with us after going to Landen's pre-school graduation.

He had a cute little ceremony, complete with lunch for parents and grandparents.  Landen was so excited to have us there and all his little friends were glad to meet Landen's "Bobby".  That's what Landen calls his grandpa and since he considers "his Bobby" to be his best friend he talks about him all the time.  By the end of graduation all the little graduates were calling him "Bobby" too.  So cute!!  Bobby also got a kick out of it.

So Leanna came home with us since it was going to be DIL's Air Force Reserve weekend.  Little Miss Leanna just keeps getting cuter and cuter and is just the best baby.  Hubby and I kept commenting all weekend about how much her looks are reminding us so much of her daddy as a baby!  Just so amazing how that works!

On Saturday, Austin came up with the two boys and then he left for a bachelor party of a good friend.  The boys swam in the lake and went out in the kayak with "their Bobby" for the first time this season.  They loved it.  They feel like such big boys in the water now since they've been taking swim lessons at the Y.

It was great to see the kids, but as usual after they are here for a few days, I was exhausted by the time they left on Sunday afternoon.

Dad's boat was delivered to our dock on Sunday afternoon.  Since last night was such a warm and beautiful  evening Mom and Dad came over and we took a little "wine sunset cruise".

Pulling away from the dock

View of the back of our house

headed down the lake

Sun setting on the way back

Sun behind the trees

Now I'm relaxed and refreshed and ready for the next day.

Spring to Summer in One Week

Well, I can't believe a week has gone by since I last wrote.  I hate when that happens!  In that week we've gone straight from a few days of Spring right into the hot and humid days of a Northeast summer!  I'm not complaining!  I'm just sayin'!  This is the weather I love.  It's been about 75 degrees first thing in the morning, which makes it so nice to sit out on the deck early in the morning drinking my first cup of coffee.

This is where I sit. My color scheme on my deck, obviously, is red, yellow and black 

This is my view

 I can also tell summer is here because my "rockin pneumonia and boogy woogy flu" has now made way for allergies, complete with sneezing, itchy eyes, stuffy nose and headache.  Oh well - just taking different pills!

Last Memorial weekend was just beautiful!  Hubby (unwillingly) helped me work outside for the weekend to get the yard and gardens in order.  And when I say help, that's what I mean.  He'll do what I ask, but with a little growl! He would never think of what needs done on his own.   Why does he think this is unnecessary work?  Being the organized person I am, I knew with our schedule that we had to get as much done last weekend as we could.  Every weekend up until the 4th of July is booked.  Then the weekend of the 4th we're having a party.  Planning ahead and scheduling is the only way to do all this.  I would prefer to not be quite so busy myself, but that's just the way our life is right now.

I still have quite a bit to do, but I feel much better with this good start.  More flowers will be added, weeds will continually be pulled, and a few more old leaves and sticks need to be picked up.
My little garden in front of and under my deck is coming along.

This garden is mostly white, pink, and some purple.  The green bench back against the wall is going to be painted white.  The purple cat nip is now blooming, along with the chives and some lavender.  My pink roses  and the other pink flowers haven't bloomed yet.  I'm no master gardener and there is a lot of trial and error, but I keep at it every year.  We have such a huge deer population so I need to plant deer resistant perennials. Then just when you think you've only planted what the deer don't like, they come along and eat it!  I have to keep all (or most) annuals up on the top deck or hanging high enough so deer can't get to it.
These "angel wing begonias" I just found at the farm market.  I've never seen them before.

The impatient I just got today.

Then I found this cute little wall hanging at JoAnn's at 50% off today.

My perennial garden beside my shed always looks a little wild.  But I kind of like it like that.  Deer can really flock to this place in the middle of the night, so it's very difficult to grow.

Not too much is blooming here yet.  The purple ajuga ground cover has bloomed and is now about ready to be cut down.  The purple irises are just now blooming.

 I have butterfly bushes that are coming up but won't bloom for a while.  Out growing season comes late and doesn't last long.  The chiminea we had for years on our deck, but after so many years it started to disintegrate, so Hubby stuck it in the garden.  I kind of like it there.  I'll stick some flowers in it later.

My seating area by the lake still needs cleaned up, but I at least got the furniture cleaned off from winter grime.  Fresh coats of pink and blue paint have been applied where needed.  Pink and blue is my color scheme for this area.

I had this old bird cage that was getting very rusty, so I decided to just paint it pink, too.

I love this sitting area in the evening with a glass of wine and when the kids are here we'll roast marchmallows and make smores.  They'll be here Saturday night, so that's exactly what's on the schedule as long as it doesn't rain!

Linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday 
and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

Spring Has Sprung - Finally!

I think Spring is finally here.  There's been an awful lot of rain, but everything is now green and I've managed to finally get a few flowers on the deck and porch.

I'm getting so many pretty birds coming to my feeders.

Couple of days before flowers went in

I was finally able to get outside some more to work in the yard and gardens.  I think if I can get a couple of more good outside work days I'll have it done, as far as clean up.  

Tomorrow is the annual decoration day at the cemetery for Mom and me.  We'll get out early to buy flowers and go out to the cemetery to decorate my grandparents and aunts grave sites.  Then we go out to lunch.  This has become an annual event for us that we try to look at as a nice day.

This last week has also been filled with end of the school year activities for our pre-school and kindergarten grandsons.  We made it down for Landen's end of year dance recital on Sunday evening.  We weren't able to take pictures in the auditorium because they want you to buy DVD's of the show.  Landen was so cute being the only boy in his dance group.  

Here we are with the kids after the show.

Last night we headed back down the 1-1/2 hour drive to see Logan's gymnastics show.  This is Logan's 2nd year in gymnastics and he did a great job.  With Logan's slight autism, gymnastics seems to be so good for him.  He likes the focused activity with lots of action.  We could see his improvement.

The teacher instructing him before he starts.

Proudly accepting his gold medal at the end. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I was trying to zoom in and the lighting wasn't very good.  Not to mention the photographer (me) not always doing a good job.

Oh, and look at this.  This ugly fish washed up in our back yard from the lake.  We've never seen anything like this or this big in the lake before.  We were told it's a Northern Pike.

It was as big as the neighbors' 4 year old grandson!

Yuk!  And boy did it stink.  It sort of worries me a little because my kids swim in the lake all summer.  Oooh, Gross!!

I hope the weather is nice this weekend as I'm hoping for a nice, quiet, Memorial Weekend.

Linking to:  Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
       and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

Judgement Day Didn't Ruin Our Weekend

Well, I guess somebody misjudged Judgement Day!  Who comes up with this stuff anyway!  I have to admit, though, that just a minuscule little part of my brain had this fleeting thought of, "What if?".  I'm glad we're still here.  You know me, I just have way too much still to do!

Friday we drove the 1-1/2 hour drive to watch Logan in his 20 minute kindergarten end of year choral program. We wouldn't have missed it.  It was so cute!  Logan seems to love to perform.  He did a great job.  One thing you notice right away, ( second to how cute he is) is that he can not stand still.  But that's OK.  At least he's not a lifeless lump standing up there!

Logan's in the red T-shirt.

They were supposed to make a face!  He got into it!

He kept looking at us, knowing we were taking his picture

We picked up pizza and went back to Austin and Melissa's house after the program to visit with all the kids for a little while.  Then we headed back for the 1-1/2 hour drive home.  I've found that I don't mind the drive time at all anymore because I take my knitting and get a lot done in the car.

I knew on Friday that Saturday was going to be a beautiful day.  All the weather reports were saying so.  We've had so few of them to date that I was planning my whole day around it.   Hubby had wanted to bring Leanna home with us on Friday since we're going back down there again today for Landen's dance recital.  I had to stand my ground and announce that my firm plan was to work outside all day on Saturday.  Hubby even suggested that I just put Leanna in her walker out in the driveway while I worked!  Give me a break!  I adore her, but I'm not doing that!  

Saturday we woke up to the beautiful day I was expecting.  My plan was to clean out the rest of the weeds and leaves from the bushes in the front of the house.  And there's a lot.  Before I started, I got on the phone trying to find an available painter that would power wash and stain our back deck.  I was only leaving messages and no one was even answering the phone.  Why are contractors so hard to get a hold of?  I guess they're all so busy in this bad economy, huh?  Finally, Hubby said, "I'll just do it myself.  No use paying someone hundreds of dollars".  I thought, "Oh great - he's going to rush through this and not do it the way I want it done".  Of course, a job that he does is always a job that we do when it comes to a lot of projects like this.  He told me to clean the deck while he went to Lowe's for stain.  I did, because I wanted it done!  But that threw me off my weed and leaf cleaning schedule.  

After some frustration and yelling at each other (nothing too harsh) he finally got to staining the deck in the back while I went to work on my project in the front.  By the end of the day his job was all done and mine was partially done, but I felt good about our accomplishment for a day's work.  We both have sore backs today, but saved money.  It was worth it.   Just a side note - not one of those painters I called have yet to return my phone call!   And I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of us working so hard out in the sun, but it didn't even enter my mind.  I'm always mad at myself for missed photos like that!

Anyway, after a glass of iced tea, I then poured myself a glass of wine at 5:55 and sat for 5 minutes sipping my wine, wondering what was going to happen at 6:00 for Judgement Day.  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  It was a good day!

Now we're back to a rainy, gloomy  Sunday.  It would be so nice to have at least two days in a row of nice weather.   Now I need to get dressed and ready for another 1-1/2 hour drive down to the kids' house for 5 year old Landen's dance recital.  He wanted to take dance lessons this year instead of gymnastics and I understand that he's the only boy in the class.  This should be another cute picture day!  And more knitting to get done! 

Changes

"The only thing constant in life is change".  I don't know who that's a quote from, but it's true.  And it's also true that the older you get, the harder it is to want to or accept change.  That's true for me in some ways, such as my routines, habits, and schedules.  When it comes to decorating, remodeling, or re-arranging furniture, I'm all for it. I just did a major clean of my bedroom and decided to move this antique rocking chair from my living room to this corner of my bedroom.

This rocking chair was sitting in front of my doors going out onto my back deck.  Those doors don't get used in the winter.  Now in anticipation of Spring and Summer that door is used all day long, so the chair needed to be moved.  I believe this chair was my great grandmother's and has been re-glued and re-finished and re-upholstered by a couple different members of the family.  It's finally ended up with me and I love it!
And notice where the necklace hangar is on the wall next to the rocker?  I want to get some sort of small shelving unit for the wall to house my growing collection of little boxes.

Sometimes they are called Limoges boxes, although they are not true Limoges from France.  My mother has given me most of these.  These are now sitting on my dresser but are starting to take up too much room.  Aren't they cute?

And here's another update on the powder room remodel. I love this change!  Hubby finally got the chandelier up yesterday.  I stood by as the go-fer and the sounding board for his frustration, but he did it and I love it.

Everything is coming together so nicely in my little bathroom!  We're now just waiting for the sink countertop to come in and then we can finish.  I'm hoping next weekend it will be done.

This past Saturday my DIL gave my son (her husband) a surprise party for his 30th. For some reason, this seems like a major change in my life!  I don't know why it affects me, but it's a milestone for him and me.  I just can't believe I'm the mother of a 30 year old!  Anyway, he was surprised.  His wife did a great job.  His boys wanted him to have a super hero cake and they helped him blow out his candles.

I finally finished knitting the black hoody sweater that he requested from me two years ago!  I have to be honest, it was not my most favorite knitting project.  Black is very hard to work with because it's so hard to see.  It turned out just OK as far as I'm concerned, but he seemed to like it.

(It looks crooked in this picture because he has the top and bottom buttons unbuttoned)

Yesterday, the weather was so nice here, about 78 degrees! Believe me, this is a huge change around here.  Monday is normally my house cleaning day, but I just had to get outside a little bit to add a few flowers.  It's still too early here for real flowers, but I put out fake ones in the upstairs window boxes and on the bench in front of my bedroom window.

I still have a lot of work to do outside.  You can see all the old fall leaves left over on the mulch.  Everything just still looks very brown and dirty.  No leaves are out on the trees yet, but I did notice the buds starting to come out on my rhododendron bushes.

These will be a beautiful purple landscape in the front of the house in another few weeks.
By the way, this warm weather lasted one day.  Yesterday was freezing and rainy and today it's 43 degrees!  Back to inside work.

The most recent change I made yesterday.  I had grown my hair out a little bit but it was really starting to bug me.  The bangs were long and constantly falling in my face and I'm "blessed" to have thick, coarse hair and it tends to get very heavy and flat on top.

This is the "before".  It looks OK in this picture but it didn't look like this most of the time.  I even had the color lightened up a little yesterday.

Here's the "after".  It feels so good!  I woke up this morning and it still looks exactly like this.  Awww! No more smoothing and moisturizing products and flat irons to straighten.  I just didn't want to take the time for that every day.  Oh, I'm also wearing another new necklace I made.

Change can be a good thing!


I'm linking for the first time today to A Beach Cottage - Good Life Wednesday
Also to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
And Alison's Friday's Unfolded