Progress in the neighborhood

Here is my garden in July. It doesn't look like this now, but it did then (when I had the "seriously wrong-I don't-know-how-to-fix-it" picture problem). When I went out to work in the garden I was watching the house building progress next door. It was interesting, and baffling because...

they trucked in loads of sand and filled the foundations with it. Then they worked hard to pack it down and make it veeeerrrryyyyy smooth. The next day, they came and........

dug it up to put in plumbing. "Hmmmmmmm," says I; "won't that make it difficult to fix a plumbing problem someday?" The next day, I was totally baffled when they came and ............

poured concrete over all of it. I'm thinking my new neighbors will be glad to have my photos someday to find that crazy, leaking pipe.

Which reminds me---before they covered the sand with concrete I buried a St. Anthony medal under the front door threshhold and prayed--"St. Anthony, St. Anthony, come around. A good new neighbor must be found." Why not?

I. am. so. DUMB.

I cannot believe what I've done. I cannot believe how easily Matt fixed the DUMB thing I had done. Suffice it to say that I will be posting more on my blog again because the "seriously wrong-I-can't-figure-it-out" picture problem has been fixed. Just one of the many reasons I love my husband.

Me and My Grama

While on vacation we were able to stop and see my Grama Pluma, whom we hadn't seen in over 2 years. When we left Iowa in '07 I knew that it might be the last time we saw Grama in this world, and I am grateful that we got to see her again. I don't know if she really knew us (she's failed a lot in the last 2 years) but I still loved seeing her. I just realized after seeing this photo, that we have the same hair color--how can that be when she's 96 and I'm 45?!? Anyway, I sure am glad to have this photo of us together, both smiling. She will turn 97 in September.

Back from vacation!

Here's the last photo from vacation-- taken as we drove in the driveway after 1 camper, 8 hotel rooms, 16 days and
yes, 3335 miles.
Time for an oil change!

Creation story--my version

.....and on the seventh load.....











.....there were kleenex.

June happenings around here.

First swim of the year
A silly little mouse I knit. He's hungry!
and he thinks he likes soup!
We had a party for Sarah's end of the season in golf.
Amy's team won the league championship! Wowsa..a great first year of organized sports.

A few pictures of fun.

I've already picked 3 zucchini from our garden. This is the first from last week.
We got a package from Zappos!
One hot day we went strawberry picking with our friends, ShaLynn, Chas and Baby Euin. Lots of fun and good eating!

The land r*pers were here

About two weeks ago we moved the front bushes over to the garden area to make a little boundary, of sorts. I actually thought to myself, "This will be ok, because they aren't ever going to build on those lots. (Our house is the only one on this cul-de-sac; precisely why we bought it. We were told the other lots had been deeded back to the county and were not to be built on since they were declared as wetlands). The next day I awoke to the sounds of a backhoe working. By 4 pm, the entire lot was cleared, and by 4pm the next day, three more lots were cleared as well. While I have adjusted to it now, the whole process made me ill. The birds flew around frantically all day. The squirrels were totally freaked out. I literally begged the workers to save the three trees along, but not on, our property line. I went so far as to take them cookies, even. Those trees were spared and I hope that the builders will assume they were meant to be. The kids lost their giant sand pile, the woods where their fort was, and where they played for hours at a time. Nothing has been started yet, but we now know that four new homes are slated to be built on the empty lots. This doesn't make sense to me, when there are empty houses that have yet to be sold and the housing market is a mess.