Grilling Out

Clear and Sunny Skies Time together!

Pepper Jack and Colby Jack Cheese

Toasted Buns

Shadows of Togetherness

I am so loving summer right now. Happy Thursday!

More Strawberry Jam

Bryan and I made more strawberry jam on Sunday morning. Yum! Strawberries are so beautiful-I love the bright red color. Happy Wednesday!

I saw a similar photo to the one above somewhere. That's where I got the idea for this photo. I thought it was beautiful! I thought I saw it on Shuttersisters, but I went through 14 pages of their blog and can't find it. So I would credit the idea for the photo if I could. It was a great idea!

I did see some dandelions photos. Which would cause my husband to go into convulsions that there would be dandelions somewhere close enough to take photos of. **GASP**[Photo][Photo] I love these little sunflowers. They are only about 6 feet tall instead of the 12 feet tall variety that I have on the other side of the yard that I grew last year. Hope you enjoy them. They look great in the cottage garden. Happy Monday!

Football In the Yard

Football! So excited that things are back to normal a little bit. Now that Elizabeth has her driver's license, she has calmed down a bit. She is not nearly as stressed...which means...well-a non-stressed teenager means crazy, loud, happy, shouting, swinging, playing. As opposed to angry, yelling, tears...you get the picture. And Mom-I know you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Especially after having 3 teenage daughters! And the car made it through all of the drives. And she even took a football to the hood...

Anyway-glad things have calmed down a bit. Happy Weekend!

Driver's License Update

Elizabeth
Finally! She got it!

Here is the story: Elizabeth had called me while I was in the lab at work. I saw the missed call and noticed that my car was back in it's parking place at work. I called her back. "I didn't get it." She said, "I missed it by one point. We're going to go back Friday." "Awww...it's okay...you'll get it tomorrow, " I said. I was starting to get a little ticked off at the women at the DMV.

When I got home, Elizabeth came up and said, "See what they did to my permit....they put "intermediate driver's license" on it!!!" Which means that she passed the driver's test and she actually got her license. What a butthead!"

Congratulations, Elizabeth! I knew you could do it!

Even Bryan was excited about Elizabeth's driver's license!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!!

Zinnias-July 2009

The zinnias are in full bloom! Zinnias are my most favorite flower to grow in the yard. They are so inexpensive-so easy-you plant some seeds and in return you get flowers that keep giving all summer long! I love to cut them on weekend mornings, or in the afternoon when I get home from work-and enjoy them in a vase all over the house all week long! Happy Thursday!

Camping Memories-2006

I think 2006 was my favorite year of camping. We had fun, we caught fish, the kids were able to take pictures, I only had one more semester until Graduation, we had just bought our house...it was good times. Looking forward to having a great time very soon!

Camping Memories-Blast From the Past

So as long as I'm reliving camping memories....I remembered that there were some photos of camping in Missouri when I was a little girl. It is quite possibly the ONLY time I went tent camping until 2001. I also wanted to share what a joy removing these photos from the album were. The polaroids have mostly all been removed from their albums because they are happy to be pulled out of the magnetic albums. These guys-not so much. I ended up putting the album in the freezer for about 10 minutes which is just long enough to de-gum the adhesive so that I can remove photos. However-they still put up a fight and I only have about 10 minutes to remove photos before I have to put the album back in the freezer and start the process again.

These photos were taken by my Mom in 1975 when we went camping in the Ozarks and Six Flags. Good times! Enjoy-and happy Monday!

I love that 30-some years later, we still have an orange tent!

I LOVE that I am getting cleaned up using baby wipes! I'm sure my feet were looking great at this point!

10 Things I Loved About Today

Picnic at Pleasant Creek in Palo, Iowa.

1. William helping Bryan with word finds in the car on the way to Pleasant Creek.
2. Bryan quoting a previous conversation,"We have a Monicals...oh no that's Wm: "Grandfathers." ...he he....Godfathers....
3. Me: Periodic table of the emelents...
4. William's story about making up bad words with Weston using the symbols for the elements in the periodic table.
5. no complaining...well....except for me...and William...

6. Wiliam working on word searches instead of eating his KFC.

Play wrestling at the park.

7. Bryan powering the canoe sitting in the back while Daddy was in the front.
8. William getting mad at me for changing sides with my paddle.

William is catching up, Daddy!



You can't tell these 2 are related....not at all...

Photo by William-actually both boys took photos of us and they both turned out great! But I like this one because we are laughing. A piece of my hair blew in Daddy's face and William took the photo. The resulting picture looked like he was picking his nose.



9. Taking photos afterwards. (I LOVE how grown up you guys are getting!)

10. I FINALLY got to go canoeing!

We missed you, Elizabeth! We will have fun on Vacation though!

Camping Memories- 2003

Look at how small these 2 are! Tigger was just a puppy still and Bryan was tiny too! This is the only year that we took Tigger camping. She loved the water and even got to go canoeing!

This camping trip was a lot of fun-but it sucked that Elizabeth couldn't go with us. I bought each of the boys a disposable camera that year and it was VERY interesting to see what they thought was important enough to take pictures of. We have lots of photos of stuffed animals and of Tigger. I will try to post those as well!

Campground Memories-2004

I don't think we actually went camping in 2004. But we did make it to the beach at the campground. Aren't the boys adorable playing in the sand! I seem to remember that it was impossible to keep the boys out of the water at this age! Happy Weekend!

Checkout that sand castle! I love it!

Fun in the sun!