Hot, sticky and very busy time...

It all started last Wednesday when Quinn and Amber flew into town! I took Thursday off from work but we weren't really able to do much. Quinn had been sick during the night and threw up several times, Amber had to work and it poured down rain all day long!

We still found a little fun though. Quinn and I listened to Beyonce's Single Ladies many times over!

Friday I went back to work and Amber and Quinn headed over to the west side of the state to hang out with Quinn's other Grandparents and various aunts, uncles and cousins! It just wasn't her weekend though because she ended up at urgent care over there and was diagnosed with an ear infection and swollen throat! Just not her weekend!

Saturday and Sunday we just spent around the house but did manage a trip out to the garden to finish planting some veggies and our marigolds. We also did a little weeding but I think whatever weeds were trying to come up drowned last week with all the rain we had!

Amber and Quinn came back on Monday, Quinn was feeling better and we made up for lost time! It was a really hot day so we decided it would be a good time for Quinn to have her first ride in the Mustang with the top down.


We were desperately trying to find a park with a baby swing but instead found a water park.

Quinn and Grandpa took a quick stroll around but it wasn't really her thing plus we didn't have her bathing suit. We decided next summer or the one after might be a better time for this place.

When we got home we decided it was a good time for another first. Quinn's first popsicle.

She liked it so much she had another one a little while later!

There's always time for a little puppy love on the deck!



The deck turned out to be a pretty fun place. You can watch the birds and chipmunks.


Stretch!!


Your best friends can join in the chipmunk watching with you.


All too soon the fun was over. Quinn and Amber left this morning to head back home. Quinn learned to go up and down the stairs this trip. And let me tell you, this girl is quick. She would disappear and in just the few seconds it took to go see where she had gone she was up those 15 stairs! The child as no fear!

Come back soon girls! We can never get enough of you!


Only 6-1/2 more days of school!!

Have a good week!

Brief Break in the Weather...and a really good week

After so much rain I thought we might need to start building an ark, Friday started off dry enough so we could have Field Day at school at least! It was actually quite warm out in the field if you stood out there long enough.

I also got three pieces of great news on Friday. First we found out that our ESL department made 100% for our spring testing. The other girls said they had never achieved that in the past years. Then I found out that the student I tutor every morning and work with throughout the day, moved up 4 levels in reading! That's amazing. Then at the end of the day we found out who our new Principal will be next year and she was definitely in my top three! It was a really good week!

Saturday morning we headed to the Farmer's Market early. I wanted to see if we could find some more broccoli plants and as a bonus we found two hanging baskets for a great price. At our neighborhood nursery the baskets were $24.99 each. At the farmer's market they were 2 for $28. And look how beautiful they are!

Later in the day I headed out to the garden while H and Scott worked on cleaning the patio furniture and power washing the deck. It was really hot out at the garden and thankfully the the deer fencing was up! I got lots planted but left a little room for a few more things. I planted tomatoes, peppers, onions, broccoli, zucchini and cucumbers. My potatoes, radishes and carrots are coming up nicely.



Today is really warm. This afternoon when I took the pups up to the field my car thermometer said 84! We are expecting thunderstorms later today and that will cool things off a bit. Next week is only expected to be in the high 60's most of the week. This weather is crazy!

We are all looking forward to this coming week. Our little sweetie, along with her Mommy, is coming for a visit.

They will only be here a day and two nights then head over to the west coast to visit the other grandparents and some of Andy's siblings and Quinn's cousins. Then they will come back this way on Monday and fly back home on Tuesday. It will be nice to spend even a little time with them!

These two are ready!


Park anyone??

Only 3 more weeks of school! WooHoo! All the year end activities are coming up so it's really feeling like the school year is almost over. This is my last week traveling to other buildings and soon we will start packing up our room. We are expecting to move across the hall to a bigger room for next year. Fingers crossed!

Have a good week!

Rough Week...

The weather has been crazy this week. We had thunderstorms several nights and when that happens Charlie doesn't sleep and therefore I don't sleep. He vibrates and pants and is up and down on the bed. Some of the storms seemed to take hours to leave town. Rough.

Thursday was the day I was on the committee to interview our new principal. It was interesting and at the end I was exhausted. I hope we picked well. We had to choose our top 3 and some of us struggled with that.

Friday night was our last bowling for the season. We ended up in 7th place which is about the middle of the pack. Our winnings were just enough to pay for dinner after bowling at Outback.

We had two really hot days this week. Thursday and Friday the temps were up near the 80's. I even turned on the air conditioning Thursday when I got home from school. It didn't last though and Saturday morning there was rain forecast for the rest of the weekend and much of next week.

It's been much colder too with temps in the 50's and low's even colder, near 40. I was really hoping to make it out to the garden and plant some of my veggies but it was just too soggy.

Instead they still sit on the porch. Maybe next weekend.

The tulips are finally blooming though. They look so pretty. I only wish I had removed the dead annual grass before they started.


And my dogwood is trying to bloom. I'm not sure if this tree is going to do very well this year. The flowers and leaves seem pretty slim this year.


The birds are everywhere. They empty the feeders almost as quickly as I fill them, with a little help from their friends, the squirrels.


On Saturday I called the vet to find out if there was something I could get to help Charlie with this anxiety he has during thunderstorms. Someone at Bunco the other night told me there was a drug that really helps. The vet called back to tell me I could pick up the scrip and have it filled at my local pharmacy. It's a generic Prozac-type drug and even the pharmacist said she has given it to her dog and it helped.

I thought we were going to have a storm Saturday night so I gave him one but the storm never quite made it here so I don't know if it worked or not but I did waste one pill!

Zoe was very disappointed that because of the continuous rain there was no trip to the park this weekend.

Not happy at all.

Only four weeks until summer vaca!!

Have a good week!

Happy Mother's Day!

I've had a lovely Mother's Day. I've had a lovely weekend actually. Contrary to what the weather forecasters predicted late last week, the weekend has been glorious! The temp has been in the low 70's, sunny, perfect!

I started the day out today with a surprise call from Tyler! Apparently you can actually make phone calls on Skype. Who knew? I almost didn't answer the call since called id said the number was "unavailable" but I'm sure glad I did. I miss you son and it was so good to talk to you today.

While I was talking to Tyler, Amber called. She and her little family are visiting family in Tennessee this weekend and they were on the road. She sent me a sweet little necklace that said "Mimi" on it. So cute.

Then Scott offered to go get me my favorite breakfast, a sausage biscuit from McDonalds. Unfortunately we had waited too late and breakfast was over so he brought me a small fry instead. It's the thought that counts, right? I loved his thoughtful card though.

It's been a nice, quiet day. I've been on the deck doing a lot of reading. H and I took a trip to the garden to plant potatoes. Sadly, the stupid electric fence is still not hooked up so I still haven't been able to plant my broccoli or lettuce. H put in a few hours out there yesterday building a pergola.

The pergola is nice but let's just say a fence would have been more useful.

We also took the Mustang for a ride yesterday with the top down. We drove out to a nursery and picked up some onions slips, peppers and squash plants. Right now they are on the porch, at least for a couple more weeks, just in case we have a late freeze. We (well, H really) also bought this lovely Gardenia tree.

It looked a little worse for wear but was on sale. I think with a little tlc we can bring it back to it's former beauty!
It has a couple flowers on it now and some nice buds that will open soon.


Not much else is going on around here. I do have one really exciting thing to look forward to this week. I have been selected to sit in on the interviews for our building Principal. One teacher, one support staff, one parent and the building secretary from our building were chosen. I've never done this before so I don't really know what to expect but it should be interesting. I hope we have some good candidates to choose from.

The pups got to go to the high school field both days. I took them on Saturday and Scott took them for me today. Yesterday they had a collision and Zoe came back with a bleeding tongue!

It was dripping blood all over and she got a few drips on her chest and Charlie ended up with some drips on his foot. Thankfully she didn't loose any teeth and it stopped quickly.


I can't believe we only have 5 weeks of school left. Summer vaca will be here before we know it!!

Have a good week!

Happy May! :-)

There's nothing much new this week and I almost just blew off this post completely. But when I started to think a little I decided there were a few things to blog about but no pictures really.

Friday night was our last night of real bowling, position night. We were in 7th place and fought hard for 3 points. We could end up anywhere from 4th to 6th, hopefully. We bowl again in two weeks but that will just be for fun. It will be 9-pin No Tap which is a good game for me since at least half of the balls I throw can knock down at least 9 pins! I should have a super high score!

Saturday morning H and I headed out to the farmer's market. Since it was the last day of April I was hoping people would start bringing their seedlings, etc. There wasn't much there at all. A few people had some herbs but I'm not ready to put those out yet so I figured I could wait a bit. I decided to head out to the local nursery after that to see what they had. I had a little better luck there. They had lots of lettuce so now I have my porch lettuce out.


I also picked up some broccoli and cucumbers and a few tomato plants. It's still too early for the cucumbers and tomatoes but I was really hoping to get the broccoli planted out in the garden.

So, out to the garden I went today. I was hoping by now the deer fencing would be up. I received an email about a month ago saying they were starting it. When I got out to the garden this afternoon there was no sign of any progress of any kind. Well, I take that back. It looks like they had built some compost bins in a very inconvenient location, far from the gardens (whose idea was that?) but no sign of fencing, new or old. When I got to my plots I could see recent evidence that the deer having been meandering through my section of the garden as there were all sorts of footprints through both my plots. So, I wasn't able to plant the broccoli or lettuce I had but I did plant carrot and radish seeds. I also turned over both plots and that took about an hour and I will definitely feel that pain tomorrow. I hope the lettuce and broccoli will keep another week and hopefully they will make some progress on the fencing by then. After all, it's May 1, time to get planting!!

The pups got to get out for a little frisbee both days. They were so happy.

Zoe has been worrying me a little lately though. Yesterday after we got home she was walking very stiff-legged and slow. She goes full bore at the park and then walks like an old lady.

I guess now that she's 7 and officially a senior citizen I'm gonna have to take it a little easy on her.

So, that's pretty much it. Oh wait, I haven't really talked about the weather!! What would a post be without weather-talk. We've had lots of rain and a few nights of thunderstorms. Last night Charlie was acting like we were having thunderstorms. He woke me up a few times panting and shaking but I never did hear anything that sounded like thunder. It's supposed to rain this next week too and be mostly in the 50's. It's time to have a little more warmth!! The good news is the trees are starting to bud out a bit and everything is looking pretty green. And the peepers are still peeping at night.

Have a good week!