Well, Hello July!! :-)

Hello July, my favorite month! June went by so quickly and I was so busy. When I returned from Virginia I went straight into summer school for two weeks. It was only 4 days each week but it still didn't provide for much of a break. I wasn't teaching but was more like a floater, getting things for people as they needed and filling in when they needed a break. It included a field trip each week, one to a dairy farm and another to a nature center. It was pretty steamy still at school so that was another negative, for me anyway.

I also squeezed in a little baking (this batch of English muffins turned out much better than the last)



Bought myself a Mother's day/Birthday/Anniversary/Christmas present

It's an iPad 2 and I absolutely love it! It's so much fun. One of the most fun things I can do with it is called "facetime". It allows you to video chat with someone (Quinn) who also has one. It's been lots of fun.

I've also been out to the garden quite a bit. Things are coming along pretty well.



The radishes have gone to seed and I just pulled them out today. The potatoes and carrots are growing like crazy though!


Broccoli is doing well. I just harvested a head today. Except for one strange thing that happened last week. I went to the garden after a week away expecting to find a nice head of broccoli waiting for me and it had been broken off. No sign of animals and it was the only thing missing. I mentioned it to the master gardener out there but he didn't know what might have happened to it. Hmmmmm, strange...


Tomatoes are coming along, slowly. I've harvested one small one so far.


The onions are doing great this year. They haven't gone to seed yet and it looks like the bulbs will be bigger this year, hopefully.

H's gardenia tree is doing well. It's loaded with blossoms right now and every day 2 or 3 more flowers open up.


The hostas are HUGE and the hydrangeas are starting to bloom.


This little house wren has decided to set up housekeeping in my bird house. I woke up yesterday morning to their very distinct song and them flying in and out of the house. At least I think they've set up housekeeping. I can't say I've seen or heard them in there today. Guess I'll have to do some investigating.


And this morning I looked out the window and saw the Mother duck and her almost completely grown gaggle of babies out on the pond. I counted 7 plus Mom but couldn't get a very good picture of them all together. They were quite busy catching bugs on the long grass and diving under water to get whatever was under there too.

So, that's what we've been up to, in a nutshell. H took this last week off to get a few things done around the house. He repaired some wood trim that the woodpeckers have decided were hiding some tasty treats and stained the deck. I've planted a few more flowers around the house and tended to the ones that are finally starting to grow.

We enjoyed a beautiful 4th of July with our friends at their pool. I didn't take the camera that day but the company was good, the pool perfect and the food delish. We made ribs and some salads to go along with them. I'd never made ribs before but they turned out well so I think I'll try them again soon.

In other news, our little sweetheart had her first serious boo boo a couple weeks ago.

After a trip to the ER where both Mommy and Daddy were troopers and made it through though it was more traumatic for them than Quinn, and after the stitching was all done, and thanks to the work of a very gifted plastic surgeon, she is good as new.


I'm sure I've skipped a few things that have happened in the last 3 weeks but those are the highlights.

Since H has 4 more days of vacation left we are headed out in the morning for a little road trip. Scott will be holding down the fort and pup sitting.

Details soon...