Weekend Snippets

Had to tell Mae she couldn't jump on the trampoline and attend a bonfire at a friend's house. Broke my heart but as long as the PICC is in, she needs to be extra careful. BTW, if everything goes as planned, the PICC will come out this afternoon!!!

Responded with "Oh, Jesus!" to my Catholic (yet never pushy about it) Mother-in-law when she told me some big news. Instead of reading me the riot act, she laughed.

Big poppy.



Scratched the first mosquito bites of the season.

Had a bonfire at home.

Roasted marshmallows on the grill because the bonfire was nasty old barn wood.

Mae picked and ate the first ripe strawberry out of the garden.

Mae and Binny wore sundresses.

Loaded my car with 10 bags of water softener salt and 2 bags of dog food. I managed to make it home without scraping off my back bumper.

Binny vacuumed out the trunk of my car.

Held a sweet, little, drooly, 23 pound bundle of baby chub yesterday. I may even get the chance to photograph her and her brother this summer.

Went to bed at 8:30 last night.

The Kindergarten Picnic Wouldn't Be Complete Without Tears

Yesterday was the big Kindergarten picnic in the park. Mae has missed too many fun events lately as a result of her illness, so this was extra special for her. The teachers had everything planned to a T so that all of the children and parents were included in the fun. There was a big playground...Bubbles...

This little boy was the ultimate bubble blower

(I tried to get this photo without the woman in the unfortunate hot pink sweat suit but she was unavoidable)

Chalk...Parents looking goofy using their digital cameras...

I know what your thinking, yes I do have a digital camera, but I hold mine up to my eye, not 2 feet in front of my face.

And the big event of the day, a parents against kids kickball game...

The kids won!

There was one emotional moment for Mae when I exercised my parental veto on the wheelbarrow race. I thought it wouldn't be a great idea if something happened to Mae's PICC line (inserted in her right bicep). Mae cried and the teacher apologized, but hey, that's the way it goes sometimes. There are, and should be limits to her activity, after all she was hospitalized with a serious bone infection less than a month ago.

Wardrobe Wednesday

Clothesline Challenge

I am very late getting to posting about this, but better late than never right? Just before Mae got sick, roughly a month ago, I joined the Clothesline Challenge graciously hosted by Gift of Green. I found the Clothesline Challenge through Momma Bear's blog and decided to join in the fun, if laundry can be considered fun. (Momma Bear also has an entire blog just for gardening. How cool is that? Go check it out!) Since I try to hang our laundry outside during the summer months anyway, I figured, why not?

Laundry is not my favorite housewife duty. When the stack gets so high that not one more sock or dirty towel could be piled on top, or when we completely run out of underwear is usually when I decide to throw a load in the washer. (Folding and putting away are even worse. Our bedroom looks like a bomb laced with socks and blue jeans exploded right there on the bed.)

My old washer and dryer are still holding on and ever since we moved our laundry room, the washer doesn't walk away anymore during the spin cycle. She still bounces and makes a terrible noise, but not dead yet. So in addition to avoiding a possible dryer fire, hanging clothes out on the line is free and relatively quick in the almost constant wind we have here. I swear sometimes that we live in a wind tunnel. The gardener thinks we should invest in a windmill for alternative power, but for now it's just big talk. Oh, and I love to display our underthings on the line for all to see. Is that weird?

Really I was just joking about the last one and have never hung underwear or socks on the line before because I thought it was weird a waste of time to put 3 clothespins on each pair of undies. And yes in our wind tunnel 3 clothespins is the absolute minimum unless I want to chase our laundry across the lawn. Which reminds me, I must retrieve that sock that the gardener ran over with the lawnmower last week. He says it doesn't look too mangled but I'll be the judge when I pull it out of the cup holder on the lawnmower.

I think the hole may have already been there but now it's going in the trash for good. Next stop burn barrel!

I decided to go for it and made my goal for the clothesline challenge Advanced which means I'm hanging out 90% of our laundry. The last 2 days have been rainy and cold so I broke down and machine dried 2 loads yesterday, but today I will try to get at least one load out even if the sun isn't shining.

Monday Garden Club

Get your gardening gloves and knee pads ready. It's time for another installment of Monday Garden Club.

Front garden progress

Back garden

Radishes

Beans are up

Onions are thriving

Rhubarb is still going strong

Now this is where it gets a little funny, and by funny I don't mean the laughing kind. My dear sweet husband, the Gardener decided he would do something ever so sweet for me and rototill the areas of the garden that I have not yet had a chance to mulch with rhubarb leaves and straw. In doing this great favor for me, he without paying any attention accidentally plowed through half of 2 carefully planted rows of sunflowers. Of course these weren't the plain sunflowers that my mother in law gifted to me in a lovely Cool-Whip container. No, these were the fancy schmancy sunflowers I paid way too much for. Oh well, I'll get over it.

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned the Topsy Turvy yet! You know that damn Qubo kids cartoon channel that runs all of the infomercials? Well, the Topsy Turvy tomato planter was a big one this spring and guess who received one for her birthday? Binny, of course. We'll see how her little hanging tomato does, but at this point my hopes aren't very high, being bent up (toward the sun, duh) and all.

That's about it for veggies, now on to flowers. The yellow irises just started to bloom the other day...

The peonies are almost ready to pop...

and the purple aliums are blooming beautifully.

Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments, I'll add you to this post.

Paricipating Bloggers:

Shady Lady

Piratefest

Some friends invited us to go with them to Piratefest today in the harbor. What a cool little festival it was, and the best part??? It was FREE! In a world where hardly anything is free anymore, you can still hang out with pirates of every shape and size on a cloudy, cool June day and not spend a fortune.

I felt very un-piratey without my boobs squeezed up to my neck and no swords or daggers (peace tied of course) hanging off my belt, but it was fun to see so many people dressed up and having fun.

There was a parade...

A balloon making pirate, crafting boats, swords and fishing hats... Food on a stick...

"How's your pickle, Binny?"

Perhaps I'll send this one to Auntie Pat to make up for the photo that made her cry.

Make An Old Lady Cry, Why Don't You

I took a photo of Mae earlier this week to have printed into Thank you cards via Walgreens. I've been burned by the Walgreens photo department before but I thought, eh it's just a few cards, they can handle it.

Well Walgreens, you made Auntie Pat cry, I hope you're happy! She thought Mae looked so sad and not better like we claim. Granted, Auntie Pat cries at game shows and reality TV but still I felt terrible.

This was the photo I uploaded to the Walgreens site...

and this was what they printed...

Terrible, right!? When I picked them up, I thought the color was a little off and a bit darker, but I didn't have time to have them redone. It looks a little better in person, but still not even close to a match. I sent them out anyway and now I wish I wouldn't have. My great idea of sending a photo to show everyone that Mae is feeling better, backfired... big time.