Summer Landscaping and Snow

I was making great progress on getting my yard, deck and gardens cleaned up early this year since the weather has been so warm and beautiful.  It was obviously too good to last because today is freezing and I even see a few snow flurries out my window!  My rhododendron bushes in front of the house just started to bloom and now I'm afraid they may freeze.

See the pink buds on there?  Some have even opened up.  Now also notice the start of new red mulch around the bushes.  There's a story about this red mulch that my husband won't shut up about.  I was accomplishing so much outside and I needed red mulch like right now.  This was yesterday.  My Bob was busy working so I thought, well, I'll just call the landscape/stone yard myself and have it delivered.  I consider myself a pretty intelligent person and I also consider myself a little bit of a perfectionist, but two things that I am really poor at is judging distances and measurements.  So when the lady asked me how much I needed I asked her to quote me amounts.   So she said three scoopfuls would cover approximately 130 square feet.  I thought that sounded like a lot.  I said, "good, how much to deliver?"  and she said, "$65.00".  The other place I called quoted me $70.00 so I told her that sounded OK and to please deliver that afternoon.  Well, when the big dump truck pulled up and dumped this little bit of mulch in my designated area I couldn't believe that's all there was.  I was hoping none of the neighbors were watching because it looked so pitiful to see this little bit of mulch plop out of this big dump truck.  Bob was not happy when he saw that was all I got.  I DIDN'T KNOW!!

I'm determined now to make it do as best I can because I don't want to admit that I goofed up on this.  If I can get the mulch just right around the front of all the bushes it will look good.  Then this area here where the mulch is lying I may do someting else.  Rocks or planters maybe.  I'll figure it out.  Live and learn, again!  As soon as I started moving and spreading the mulch yesterday it started to rain.  That's why now the blue tarp. 

I also got my little purple painted bench and watering can and flower box out.

I painted it purple to go with the grape and Tuscan theme of my house.  As you can seen, this area needs mulched. 

Today I got the fake plastic flowers in the window boxes upstairs. 

I don't use real ones because I don't want to have to open the windows and take the screens out every time I need to water them.  Since they're up high you really can't tell the difference.

Last week I worked on the back deck.  I've been wanting to get new red cushions and a red grill.  My mother suggested this because she saw them in K-Mart and she was right.  I finally got it and I love it.

I also spray painted all five of these chairs.  The set is five years old and is very good and sturdy, but it was getting rusty.  I found silver hammered metal spray paint by Rustoleum and it worked great.  They look brand new.  The new color scheme for my deck is this red, with green and some gold. 

I was in JoAnn's and they had these on clearance.

The wallhanger is hanging outside on the wall behind the table.  It was $5.  Then the tray was marked down to $1.50 because there is a little ding in it.  I didn't even notice.  As you can see, they also match the table runner on my inside kitchen table.  I was so excited about these little finds.

That's it so far.  It's obviously too early here for flowers and plants to go out.  I did good for only being the first week of April.  I usually don't get this far until the end of May.  I guess for good reason.  There's even more snow coming down right now.  We went from summer back to winter within 24 hours.

Follow Up on Easter

Wellll, we went to church on Easter Sunday and then Dad and Bob went to pick Grandpa up from "The Manor" (nursing home) to bring him to brunch with us.  Mom had given the nurses instructions the night before that he was to be shaved, put on the suit she had layed out for him, and not to send him to the dining room for lunch.  Dad and Bob showed up to get him and he had not shaved, he had on his jeans and sweatshirt, and had gone to lunch.  The nurses put the blame on Grandpa and said he wouldn't cooperate, which very well could be true.  The guys got him shaved and dressed and after about 45 minutes of Mom and I waiting at the restaurant, the three of them slowly, and I mean very slowly, came walking in.  Grandpa looked good, but you could tell he was slightly confused and not happy about being brought there.

He wouldn't eat anything, said nothing tasted good.  At $16.00 a plate, by the way!  Which was OK, not the point.  I managed to find a few chocolate eggs hidden in the buffet table decoration that he ate.  Later in the afternoon, Mom and Dad took him back to "The Manor" and he was very happy to get back into his comfortable space, with all his familiar stuff around him.  He got back into his comfy clothes and wanted to go down to the dining room for dinner. 

So now we know.  He  likes being where he is, and for that we are all grateful.  We would feel so bad if he didn't want to be there.  He's happy going to Dairy Queen once in a while, but that's about it.  He's happy when we come to visit him and bring him chocolate and marshmallows.  So now we know!

While we were at the restaurant I received a text picture from my DIL, Diana, with a picture of Riley in her Easter outfit.

Isn't she just beautiful, sitting on her daddy's lap?  That's my son, Brandon.  I think he looks pretty cute, too.

I really miss them. They're in Spokane.  Dee and Riley will be home in a couple of weeks for her uncle's wedding.  Then in June Brandon graduates from his Air Force Survival Training School and Bob and I will be going out for that. 

On Monday I received another text picture of Riley wearing the pink hat with the mink flower that I knit for her and had just sent for Easter.

Is she cute or what??  Can you tell I'm really missing her?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, this beautiful sunny day. 

I wish all of you a beautiful Easter Day. 

This is a different Easter than we're used to.  None of the kids are home.  Brandon, Dee and Riley are in Spokane.  Austin, Melissa, Logan and Landen are with her family in New York.  But it's still a beautiful, quiet, Easter Sunday.  We'll be going to church with mom and dad, then going to brunch.  Grandpa will be going to brunch with us for the first time in at least three years.  When grandma was living, he would not leave her side, nor would she let him.  I hope he can enjoy his first Easter without her. 

Baby Shower Ideas?

Thank goodness the blog problems are fixed.  That was just so frustrating yesterday.
Back to the good stuff.
 I've finally had time now to work on baby things.  As I've mentioned, we have two new grandchildren arriving shortly.  Baby girl, Leanna Rene, will be welcomed into our lives around July 11.  Our other baby will be coming in September, but we don't know if we are waiting on a girl or boy yet.  We should know that in the next few weeks.
Leanna's birth date is coming up soon, so I'm going to be giving my DIL a shower on May 8 here at my house.  This will be her third child, but the first two were boys and it's been over four years since the second boy, Landen, was born.  She needs some new pink stuff this time.  And I love pink. 
I got started on the baby quilt that I showed the fabric for last week.  It's coming along better and faster than I expected.  I like to design my own patterns.  I draw it out on graph paper first and make sure I have all the dimensions and measurements correct.  Without a finished colored picture I don't always know what I'm going to get.  I get a picture in my head, but that doesn't always translate into what the finished quilt will look like.  So far so good on this one.

I fussy cut the little teddy bears out of the printed teddy bear fabric.  I'll also use this teddy bear fabric as the border around the quilt.

There will be 12 - 9" squares total.  I now have half the squares completed.  I should have it finished in time for the baby shower.

I want to stick with the color theme of pink and chocolate for the colors and food at the shower.  I'm working on ideas for this.  Strawberries and chocolate brownies.  Or strawberries dipped in chocolate.  Pink fluffy jello salad.   I have some pink dishes - might need more.  I have pink votive candle holders.  I'll have a cute pink and chocolate cake with teddy bears, or maybe individual cupcakes.  If you have any ideas for me I'd love to hear them.  I'm just starting to think and plan on this so I'm very open to ideas.

Blogger Issues Anyone?

I have been going crazy all morning wondering why my blog isn't showing any pictures.  I've run Malware, removed programs, shut down the computer, restarted, clicked here, clicked there, and nothing.  So I finally whent into Blogger Buzz and Known Issues.  There is an issue in Blogger - Unable to upload images!  Great!  They are working on this problem. 
Well now I feel better that it's not me or in my computer, but I have now wasted a whole morning.  From now on I'll know to check this Blogger site out first.
I was going to post about something else today, but  I'm so frustrated and wasted so much time that I have to get in the shower now and get dressed for an appointment with my attorney regarding our on-going zoning issues.
More later when I'm calmed down and have more time.