hello

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July. We went up to Washburn with my parents and sister and Vinnie, Nic and Gianni. We had a great time!! Spent the night on the 3rd and went home on the 4th. The kids had a great time lighting off fireworks on Tuesday night. Wed we went to the parade in Ashland and they got a TON of candy!! Then they played outside all day long in the sprinkler. Everyone had a wonderful time. It was hard to leave!
My mom made a ton of gluten-free food, so that was nice too. She made the best chocolate chip cookies...which I OD'd on of course. I think I may need to hire her to make my food!!!

Not much else is going on around here. Just enjoying the warm weather!! Summer is finally here. Too bad my gardens look so pathetic though!! I am going to have to move all of my bulbs this fall. All 95 of them. Of the 30 or so irises I planted, one bloomed. Live and learn.

The baby is moving pretty much all the time now and is getting stronger every day!! I have my ultrasound on the 12th. Can't wait for that, but we won't find out what it is. I had the craziest dream the other night. I won't tell you all of it, because it doesn't make sense, but I had the baby in my dream and it was a boy and we named it "Steffani Gianni", and I kept saying the name over and over and was crying because I loved the name so much and everyone kept telling me what a beautiful name it was! (We were in a field with all our family and friends). ---Mason keeps saying we should name the baby Gianni if it's a boy and he has been "rapping" a lot lately. That is probably why the name rhymes.

Mason continues to grow and grow and grow!!! He is getting taller every day!!! He wanted the toyroom to be his bedroom because of all the toys, and I said "no". so he sat down with some paper and markers and made a sign stating "My bedroom. Please Stay out" and taped it to the door of the toy room.

He told me the other day that he hopes the baby is a girl. I asked him why and he said"Well, you're a girl and a mommy and Daddy is a boy, That way I can be a daddy and the girl can be a mommy and then we can get our own house and make all our own choices alone" We are already having conversations about him moving out so he can make his "own choices and decisions"...at 4 1/2 years!!! We may be in trouble later :)

Lately our conversations typically go like this: (MS stands for Mason and M stands for me)
MS: Mom, is Gianni taller than me?
M:Yes
MS: Am i taller than Gianni?
M: No.
MS: Gianni is taller than me?
M: Yes
MS: Am I taller than Gianni?
M: No
MS: I'm not taller than Gianni?
M: No, Gianni is taller
MS: Gianni is taller than me?!
M: Yes
MS: WHY?!?!?!?!?!
We have several of these conversations throughout the day:)

Mason caught his first frog yesterday. It is a tree frog and it made it through the night last night!! He wants to keep it until Monday to show his friend Naomi. I hope we can keep it alive until then. I feel kind of bad for it.

Well, I'm sure that is enough information for everyone. I need to get some cleaning done before it hits 90 degrees. We are going to the beach when Craig gets home. I always feel bad for him in this weather. He still drives one of those aluminum trucks and they don't have air conditioning. Just a cage fan. He could drive a van with air conditioning, but he would need to change his route. They need the aluminum trucks for the mounted mailboxes.

All right. Take care everyone and stay cool!!! Cathy, I hope you are having a great vacation!!
How are you doing Aunt Janis...haven't heard from you in a while.

Holy Purple, Batman!!

I went out to do some watering and weeding before we leave for vacation, and what did I find? The irises are blooming everywhere!! Also note: the vents on the side of the house were not a la Dittmann. The previous owners neglected to cover the vents when they mortared the rock. Stupid. Even I would have thought of that.

Have a good two weeks, and when I get back, there had better be some good stuff to read here. Maybe I can get Justin to participate???

Oh, and here's another butterfly.

Ease on Down the Road

I was trying to "ease on down the road" on Father's Day, however the person behind me had other plans. she rear-ended me. Thankfully she wasn't going fast and Mason wasn't with and i was in the minivan. She was very nice and I felt bad for her. I did go into the ER to get checked out becauseI had some cramping, but everything checked out OK. We were able to see an incredible ultrasound, so that was a plus out of the whole thing.
Craig dropped me off at the ER and then brought Mason to my parents before coming back to the ER. Mason saw where we were going and exclaimed "You're going to the hospital". "That is exciting mom!! You never know what they'll do to you there. You might get a shot, or tubes in your ears.". Little goofball :)

Last week he attended Vacation Bible School for the 1st time and he loved it!! So did I!! 3 hours every morning for a week to myself!!! I thought he would be nervous or anxious because it was at a church we do not attend, so I told the teachers. The next day he told me "Mom, that helper lady said I was nervous but I WASN'T! I was OK!!" He was so indignant! He is growing up so fast i can't even believe it!!

Yesterday Mason and I went up the Shore to a beach and Goosberry Falls. We had a blast, however it was cold. We found quite a few agates and had a great time. On the way home he said "Mom, will I be in charge of the baby when it's born?" i told him "No, Me and Dad will be in charge, but you will be able to help a ton!!"
So Mason continues, "But if she goes into your bedroom without asking, I can run down the stairs and tell you. And if you aren't home, then I can get my rope with the clip and clip it on her and pull her out"
HA!! He is really putting a lot of thought into the "Big brother" thing!!! It will be fun to see how it all goes down!!

Well, pretty tired, so off to bed!! I hope everyone is doing well!!! And Cathy I love the butterflies!!! I am jealous that you still have lilacs!!!

Billions of Butterflies

The butterflies have been crazy around here. We have lilac bushes around our deck, which, evidently, the butterflies adore. They've been zooming around all day!!

Here's a better picture of that purple flower, previously posted. I'm beginning to think that it is a purple bee balm, judging from the flower, as well as the leaves.

We also have hundreds of clumps of Iris. They are just beginning to bloom, and when they are finished, I do believe that they need to be divided.

And, last, but not least, are the windowboxes. They, along with my hanging tomatoes, are growing like CRAZY!!

I hope everything stays alive while we're on vacation. Maybe the catsitter will take mercy on my soul and water the plants????

That's all I've got right now.....

My peonies!!!

Here are my peonies in full bloom. At one time they were all pink so all you gardeners out there-- how did this happen??? The deer are having a fun time with the flowers by my rock. I've planted flowers twice and the deer have nipped off the flowers. The don't bother the roses. I wonder why????
As for the chipmunks, we have trapped 7 and there is another that I have to get. I hear the neighbors shooting so guess they have another solution to the problem.

Fooling Around With My Camera

I took a few pictures of the flowers in my weed bed, I mean, garden. This one turned out the best. Next, I want to use one of my editing programs to make a kaleidoscope version of it.

Can everyone say 'OOOOOOOOOOOO'?

Miss my posts, hmmm?

I'm going to have to start calling it 'Life With Ginger' or 'Life In The Empty Nest'. For the latest on Ginger, you can go to my personal blog: http://knitinator.blogspot.com/. As a teaser, when you were a little kid did you ever sing that song "Diarrhea, cha-cha-cha. You may think it's funny, but it's really brown and runny."? 'Nuff said.

Here is a gorgeous picture that I took last week after it had rained:

If I had a better camera (a digital SLR), it would be fun to get into photography. Maybe when the vet is done using my checking account????

My gardens are pretty, but also pretty full of weeds. I think that the people who built this house had great ideas, but when it came to execution, enthusiasm was lost. Case in point: thousands of dollars were spent on professional landscaping. Perrenials, trees, shrubs, bushes. You name it; it's there. It's beautiful; until you start looking closely. They laid down a landscape fabric.....and then. Then they covered it with some mulch from out in the woods. Something cheap or free. Now, I'm all for cheap or free, but sometimes that's just not the way to go. This is one of those times. My gardens are covered with horsetail weed:

...and this stuff is almost impossible to get rid of. Oh, it looks all pretty and piney. If you pull it up, the roots send out runners where you ripped up the plant. It also sends spores out into the air. Now, the reason that I think this weed was brought in thru the mulch is: the only other place we have these weeds is out in the woods. It's not in the grass (yet) or driveway. Only in the garden beds!!!!! And, as if I didn't need anymore pet issues, horsetail weed is poisonous to animals. I am soooo ticked off that these people almost ruined these gardens. I have spent 10 hours in the past week pulling up what I could, and I'm not even half-way thru the second garden bed!!! If it's not too unGodly hot today, Ginger and I might take another crack at it. I hate to have her out there when she's all dehydrated and sick. I sprayed Round-Up on it last week when she was at the kennel, but you have to spray it at the perfect time; not on the sprouts and not on the adult plants. I can't spray when Ginger is around because she thinks that it's spraying water and wants to play with it. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

We'll see what today brings......