Quiet Week...

There's not much new to report from Michigan this week. Things have been pretty quiet. The weather started out quite hot and humid and the airconditioning was on all week. Just yesterday things cooled down enough to open the windows again!
I spent the week cleaning out pantry's, putting down new shelf paper and reorganizing. Fun. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Oops, dozed off there for a minute. Things are pretty quiet around here, downright dull, nothing to report really.
Let's see, I must be able to come up with something. Zoe went to Agility class Thursday night. It was super hot and humid and the dogs couldn't do much because of the heat. Each of the 10 dogs went through the course once and that was all. Zoe mastered the A-frame and the bridge last week. She still doesn't like being around the other dogs though and lets me know by growling every time we pass one.
Scott starts working at the Camp for Special Children tomorrow. He's working with 3 and 4 year olds so that should keep him busy!
Tyler finished his first summer semester Friday and starts his new one tomorrow.
Amber and Andy are house hunting again (or should I say condo/townhouse hunting)? I'm sure it looses some of it's enjoyment when things are so darn expensive there!
Yep, not much to report. Since there's so little to say I'll close with a few pictures and try to drum up some excitement for the next post!!

Hummingbirds seem to like the new feeder and they can't hide from me.


Pretty Goldfinch


Charlie all tuckered out after his trip to the park with Dad


My Girl, always watching me!

Happy Summer!!

What a great start to summer we had this weekend! The weather was gorgeous, except for a small shower yesterday afternoon, unfortunately right in the middle of a friend's son's Graduation Open House! Thankfully they had tents and it wasn't raining too hard.

Just look how green everything is! Flowers are blooming like crazy and it's been nice to have the windows wide open and the air conditioning off! We are supposed to have another beautiful weather week!
Look at this beautiful Clematis. I just planted it last summer and it only had a couple flowers on it.

This year it's growing like crazy!

Howard and I spent most of the weekend reading. He was reading for business, me for pleasure. It was a perfect weekend for sitting out on the deck with the sun shining and breeze blowing. Look who else was out there enjoying the weather and squirrel watching!

This evening we went over to a friend of Tyler's from high school, well his parents home, to say hello, goodbye and congratulations. He just finished basic training in the Marines and will leave in another week for more training. It's hard to think of someone just Tyler's age doing the things he's been doing. He didn't feel his life was moving in the right direction so he decided to enlist and he seems happy with his decision. I just hope he can stay safe.
Not much else is happening really. Amber & Andy are doing well in Virginia. They went kayaking this past weekend and Amber said they had fun. They have slowed down a bit on their house hunting as they have already seen everything they might be interested in. Guess they will have to wait for more places to come on the market.

Tyler is finishing up his first summer semester and enjoying his new job working as a crew member on a catamaran. He's learning to tie all kinds of knots! That may come in handy some day.

Scott has another week until Scamp begins and he's just enjoying his summer. I think he spends most of the money he makes eating out. He and his buddies seem to go out to lunch or dinner every day!

Zoe's agility class went well.


There were about 10 dogs there and she didn't freak out too much. That's what I was worried about, that she would bark and scream uncontrollably about the other dogs but she just barked a little and growled every time she passed a dog. She went through the course about three times. She went through a chute, two tunnels, through the weave poles, over jumps and through a tire! She seemed to be having fun and I worked up quite a sweat taking her through all that stuff! The only down side is that there is a lot of standing around waiting for the other 9 dogs to go through before you get your turn again. I think she will be better each week and get used to being around other dogs. Now if I can just get Charlie to do the same!

Let Me Just Say...

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!! That being said, we had no students at school until Friday. We still had no power Wednesday or Thursday but staff had to report on Thursday. We finally got the power back late Thursday night but had planned for students to return for the 1/2 day on Friday, power or not. It was very hectic, all students cleaning out desks and lockers that should have been cleaned out earlier in the week, year book signings, 5th Grade Clap Out, everything condensed into that 1/2 day. When the students left at 11:30 we went out to lunch to celebrate the closing of another year! Then it was back to work packing up the room and cleaning what we could.
It was a beautiful weekend here in Michigan! We were able to turn the air off and open the windows and it was sunny and breezy all weekend. Yesterday morning I got up and made bagels. I had seen the recipe the day before so I made the starter Friday night. Saturday morning I mixed the ingredients then made a quick trip to the Farmer's Market for some eggs and another tomato plant. When I got back home I finished up the bagels. Let's just say I learned a few things and know what I will do different next time.

They were edible and as Howard said "chewy"! The next batch will be better! Later Saturday afternoon we attended an Open House next door. Then it was back home for more yard work.
Today we spent a quiet Father's Day around the house. Howard and Scott went to the driving range for a little while for some Father/Son time and we had a nice dinner of burgers, potato salad and macaroni salad. After dinner we took the pups up to the field for a nice run. This is what they looked like when we got home!

Worn out!
I called my Dad today. He seems to be hanging in there. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since he called to tell me about his Stage 4 Lung Cancer. He continues to fight and try different treatments.
So now that summer is officially here and I have weeks and weeks ahead of me I'm ready to start the de-cluttering! I'm gonna hit every room by the time school starts again in August! Ok, now that I've written the words here I have to do it, right? Right?? Right!! I'll keep you in the loop of my progress!
The only other things I have going this week is going to get my facial from my fabulous Birthday Spa Day and then Zoe starts Agility Thursday evening. That should be interesting!
Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.

I found this butterfly in my neighbor's yard. He just fluttered down to the ground. He stayed there for hours so I decided to put him on the deck on the table, for safekeeping. The next morning he was gone. I hope he didn't get eaten by a racoon!


Today I saw this cool moth on my kitchen cabinet. I couldn't believe how well he matched the paint!



Cute little squirrel eating all the sunflower seeds!



My Beauties!!

No School Again Today!! :-)

No school again today!! Still no power at our school but I did receive a call that staff has to report tomorrow, power or not. Oh well, guess I can make it another two days, a day and a half if with kids if we have power. Tomorrow is the 5th Grade Graduation so we will have that even if we don't have power and then we will also have 1/2 day with kids on Friday, power or not, to wrap up the year, take things home, etc.
Since we didn't have school we spent the day at home and much of it in the yard. It was hot too so I decided to break out the pool for Zoe. Charlie was having no part of it, except to get a drink now and then.

Here are a few more nice pictures I took today.

No School Today!!

Due to the storms that blew through here Sunday night (while we were at the Graduation Open House) we have had power outages. We had school yesterday but were operating with a back-up generator and by the end of the really hot and humid day, the batteries were running down. We had the lights off all day and no fans running but luckily we had water. But without power there can be no lunch and therefore no school so since power hasn't been restored we had no school today. I also just looked at the website and there is still no power so there's a good chance there will be no school tomorrow. It's not out at all schools in our area, just our elementary, the middle school behind us and the junior high across town. Lots of traffic lights were out today and many families around the school are without power too. At least today it finally cooled down so those poor people with no power can at least be comfortable. As for me I turned off the air conditioning!! Yippeeee!!
Only 3 days left, 2-1/2 with kids and maybe only 2 days with 1-1/2 with kids if there's no school tomorrow! I think we should have gotten out of school last Friday so I don't care if we have it tomorrow or not! I'm ready to start singing "School's Out For Summer"!!!

The peonies are blooming and because it's been so hot the past 5 days or so they won't be around long. Have to get my pictures while I can and try to enjoy them!

Sunday Night...

Sunday night, no pictures, too busy or too rainy!!
After my relaxing day at the spa we went to dinner at Mr. B's. I splurged (after all it was my Birthday) and had ribs, ummmm, good! Around about 10:00 we had some wicked thunderstorms rumble through and there was no good sleep for the rest of the night. We've had trouble with Zoe in the past with thunderstorms. She whines, pants, paces, shakes. She was getting a little better and not so neurotic and then... along came Charlie. He spazes out much more than she ever did. At least she waited until she was 2 before it started bothering her. He's been bothered since the first storm came around a couple months ago! So needless to say with storms coming through every couple hours there was not much sleeping going on.
Today at noon I went on the annual Scamp home tour with a friend. It's always so interesting to hear about the houses that were built as far back as the 1800's here in our little town and also to see how people decorate. It always inspires me to come home and clean out closets and declutter! Well, not today but soon. It was ungodly hot today too and humid. Even though many of the homes had air conditioning it still wasn't that cool with all the people coming in and out all the time. I got home around 3:30 and then we had to get ready to go to a Graduation Open House of a young lady that I used to babysit way back when. I watched her from the time she was 16 months old until she started kindergarten. It was nice to be included in her graduation celebration. We had just finished a yummy dinner of ribs and chicken when the sky turned dark and the rain started coming down. Then the wind started blowing and everyone started running out from under the tents we were under on the driveway to the garage. Unfortunately one lady was hit in the head by something when the wind kicked up and she was bleeding. Then the graduation-girl's father was also hit in the head though he wasn't bleeding quite as badly as the lady was! We hung out in the garage for a little while and when the rain let up we decided we should probably head for home. The wind had been blowing so hard that a tree was knocked down in their back yard and further down the street there was a tree partially blocking the road! We made it home fine and then listened to the weather man go on and on and on about the weather as it worked it's way through our area. By the time we got home it had passed through here and our place had no damage whatsoever. Of course the dogs were completely nutso! Panting, running around, whining! I'm going to have to do some serious de-sensitizing this summer!
So, it's Sunday night and I'm getting things ready for another week of work. Only 4-1/2 days left with the kids and if things go our way, rumor has it that our two students who are making us crazy will only be attending school this week half days! What a gift that will be! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high just in case it doesn't happen but part of me is really hoping it does happen! This will be a tough week anyway though as it's gonna be hot and the kids will all be geeked! We should have just called it quits last Friday. This week will be totally wasted anyway. But still, 4-1/2 days, only 4-1/2 days! That's nothing! So short!! Over soon!! WooooooooHoooooooooooo!!!
Have a great week everyone (or every two)!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Today is the day I am the same age as the year I was born! What a coincidence!! I'm not saying how old that is. I've finally reached the age where I don't want to announce just how many years I've actually been on the planet!
So far today has been a wonderful day! It started with a call from Amber and Andy (my favorite son-in-law) who sang Happy Birthday to me. That was nice, especially since the only one who used to do that was my Mom and she won't be doing that this year. Then I started getting ready for my Birthday surprise. Well, it wasn't as big a surprise as Howard was hoping as the Spa called last night to confirm my appointment but I still didn't know what he had arranged.
When I got there I discovered he had scheduled a Swedish massage. My past experience with a massage wasn't all that great but today I have to say it was really good. Mickey ironed out some serious kinks and other than him messing up my hair a bit I felt much better and more relaxed when it was all over. When I went up to the front desk to find out what they had in store for me next, I discovered I was getting a pedicure. Again, I wasn't crazy about getting that either because of all the horror stories you hear about women losing their toes to some awful infection or other but things were clean and I talked to the manicurist about how she cleaned things and felt better about the whole thing.

My nails are a beautiful pink now and my feet are all buffed and lotioned up! When I finished that I was told I also had a spa facial left on my day of beauty but I decided to wait and get that next week, after school's done! Can't wait as that's the thing I was really hoping for!
So, it's been a great day so far! Can't wait to see what's next!!

Charlie is 10 Months Old Today!!

Charlie is 10 months old today! Sometimes it seems like he's much older. He can be so mature sometimes. Then he does something goofy and I remind myself (and others) that he really is still just a puppy!

We finished Puppy Class Tuesday night. He really did a nice job especially when there were lots of distractions. There were about 10 puppies in the class and he held his own. The final night we were tested on sit-stays and down-stays. He managed to do both. Then we had some fun and ran the puppies through a tunnel. The first couple times he was hesitant and then he really seemed to enjoy himself.

We are signed up for an Intermediate class in July. We'll just be building on the skills he's already learned.

What a good puppy!!

Nice Quiet Weekend

After a bit of rain Friday night we ended up with a pretty nice weekend. Both days I spent some time on the deck catching up on my reading and enjoying the sunshine. I also planted the rest of my flowers, pulled a few weeds and watered the pots that weren't able to catch the rain on Friday night.
Howard spent some time 2-1/2 stories up replacing some rotted wood around our bedroom window. The ladder was stretched up to the furthest point possible and he had to hammer in two new boards but he made it. He also found this interesting thing in the yard.

Shortly after that we saw our snake and he looked so shiny and new. His yellow was really yellow! He was moving too fast to get a picture but he's definitely still around.
Today we took the dogs up to the high school field. It was a perfect day for playing frisbee and Zoe was in rare form. I got some great pictures while Howard was throwing the frisbees.

Here's Howard giving Charlie a little pep talk. While Zoe was in rare form, Charlie was distracted and not really giving it his all.

For those of you who don't enjoy the pictures of the pups, you can scroll to the end. For the rest of you, get ready for some GREAT pictures!!

Look at that focus!!

This wasn't a spectacular catch but it was just a warm-up!

Look at the "air" she's getting in this one!!


Too bad she missed the frisbee but the effort was incredible!!


Another miss but look at the height and the fancy crossing of the back feet!!


Finally, she gets one!!


Wooooooo Hoooooooooo!!!


And just so those Charlie-lovers (I'm talkin' to you Andy) don't feel deprived, here's a cute one of Charlie. Sorry I couldn't get any spectacular catches from him but he's just not at that level yet!!

He has a style all his own though!

So that's it for the weekend. Beautiful weather, nice and quiet, lots of relaxing, spending time with the dogs. I hope everyone else had a nice weekend too!

ONLY 10 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT, (only 9-1/2 with students)!!!