Did I forget to tell you?

So Jack's gone for a couple of weeks, and we are bored. And he took the camera with him so I can't show you pictures of Trum and I being bored. I am sure you will want to thank Jack for this upon his arrival home. Feel free to throw him a surprise party and give him lots of hugs and then engage him in lots of small talk. These are all things he absolutely LOVES...(can you sense the sarcasm?)
Any way while he is away here are some things that I never got around to blogging about this summer.

#1
Trum graduated from Kindergarten. Thankfully, they don't have a graduation ceremony but they do have an "Arts" show. Truman got to bang on a big drum, use a kazoo and wear a paper hat. It was pretty awesome.

#2
My parents came out to visit us. Aren't they cute? They were so nice to us. Lots of dinners out and they played Candyland and Checkers with Trum to his hearts content. They were even cheerful as I dragged them around to all of the DC sites in 100 degree heat with humidity. They also brought Trum a new pair of fancy cowboy boots which have brought much joy to our home.

#3
I made a pie. But not just any pie. A Raspberry-Blueberry pie. Oh, it was sooo good. We shared it with the Willis family and then I made another while my parent's where here and we shared it with them. In fact I believe my dad ate the piece in this picture.

 #4
We went to the live butterfly exhibit at Brookeside Gardens. As you can see Jessica and I went together and we took all the kids. I am sure that Jess will be happy that I shared this picture of her with a butterfly on her...well, you know. But what can she do about it? She's in Switzerland.

#5
We made a new downtown discovery. Did you know that you could put your feet in the fountain at the sculpture garden? Well you can! But don't try to walk in the fountain. There are guards there and they will yell at you. And no it wasn't us that they yelled at, it was some other foot cooler. But we watched and learned.

#6
My garden is starting to be pretty productive. I try not to look at the Forrest's side of the garden plot because we shouldn't compare ourselves to others. And as long as I don't look over there at their huge plants and bounteous harvest, I feel pretty proud of myself.







Anywhoo, stuff happened and now I have blogged about it.
The End. For today.

Cousins, The Beach, & Girl's Camp, Oh, My!

We have been EXTREMELY busy the last couple of weeks. I am exhausted! But as is usual dishes still need to be washed and laundry continues to accumulate no matter how busy you are. In fact, I think it gets worse when you are busy, just to make life more interesting. So here is a sample of what we have been up to...

 My Sister-in-law came for a visit with her 5 kids.

We loved having them visit, they are so much fun!

We went to Cape Henlopen, DE for the day and had a great time. Lots of sand and too much sun. We all came home with a sunburn!

I am still not sure of how it happened but I ended up going to girl's camp this year. It was a fun, wet, stinky, exhausting, annoying, loud, funny, and beautiful week. I was over a group of 23-24 twelve year old girl's with another woman (Summer you are awesome!). And we helped 8 sixteen-eighteen year old Youth Camp Leaders wrangle those girls, their stuff, and innumerable daddy-long-leg spiders in the rain, heat and humidity. We even made them take a hike. Oh, it was indeed an epic adventure! I also got to hang out with my friends form our ward, making bracelets and riding in canoes. Those girl's are so great.

Oh, and Truman ate an enormous lollipop, our air conditioner broke, our water heater had to be replaced and we found a water leak in our laundry closet that had to be fixed. Hurray for Summer!!

The Visitor

Where did you come from? 
Where did you go?
Where did you come from, la-rge green moth?
Anyone?
Cotton-eyed-Joe?
Ring any bells?
Anyway, this fellow or gal, (I am not very knowledgeable on identifying the gender of flying insects) was outside our door one evening. And we all stopped and admired him/her. He/she was very large and beautiful. She/he hung out outside our door for a whole day, and then the next morning he/she/it was gone.
Fly free majestic, mysterious visitor.

What do I love?

Well, since Oprah is quiting her network TV show to concentrate on her cable network. I figured people out in the world would be looking for a new place to hear about someones favorite things, and I had better be that person. Because let's face it, my opinion is super important! So here is a list of things I love right now. By the way I am not going to be giving any of this stuff away, and I am not even sure if I remember where I got it or how much I paid for it. So maybe not too much of a substitute for Oprah's list after all. Oh, well.

I found these shoes at TJ MAXX, Hello! They are AWESOME!

I bought this nail polish at Walmarche for like 2 bucks, it is all pink and sparkly! My sister gave me this great little tube of lipstick/ sugar lip exfoliate. I think she got it at Bath and Body works. Try it out!

 

 

 

 

 

I love Gladiolas, they remind me of my Grandma. And this color is so nice.

Oh and I love these guys as well. They can't be bought or sold, but they can be bribed with banana bread or banana cake.

FHE

So Truman was in charge of the treat...

















And this was our avtivity/game???

The Little Red Hen

No, I am not blogging about a craft store somewhere in Idaho, but about my garden.

Do you remember in the story of the Little Red Hen when she asks, "Who will help me plant the wheat?"? 

And the answer she got? "Not I" said the dog and all that? 

Well that is pretty much the answer I got from Jack when I told him about my plan to have a garden. So I told him that just like the Little Red Hen, I wouldn't be sharing any of my bounteous harvest with him!

Of course he came down to the garden a few times and felt guilty watching me labor away so he has helped me a couple of times. 

So he can have all of the onions.

(I don't like onions.)

 Here is what it looked like to start with...Rough! Every time I saw it I felt a little discouraged.

Then with the help of our friends the Forrests, 

I put up a fence. 

And dug holes, made rows, worked mulch and peat moss into the soil and finally planted some plants. Along the way I was sweating like a pack mule!

Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago. Not too bad.

And HERE is the bounteous harvest! Well at least it's a start!

When, in the course of human events...

I love, Love, Love the fourth of July! I have so many great memories associated with this holiday. The little town I grew up in put on a great time each year with fireworks, parade, food booths, horse races, even a fly over by some jets, it was great! Then of course we had our own fun at home, swimming in the canal or river, picnics, barbecues and fireworks (which some times almost led to the house catching fire).
So now I feel it is my duty to provide Trummels with good memories of the fourth of July. This year I tried to fulfill that duty by taking him to the Antietam Battlefield. It was so great! We set up our blanket and chairs, then went to explore a little, when we where done, we got to go back and hear a great concert by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra followed by a spectacular fireworks show. I highly recommend it, we will definitely be going again!