Another Garden Pic

This is another picture from my garden. It's a perennial geranium, also known as "bloody cranesbill." There's some salvia in the background. I'm loving my new camera. These are the close-ups I was dying to get, but unable to before Paul gave me the new camera at Christmas.




We had a great family evening last night. Paul and I walked up to the ice cream store with the kids after dark. It's about a mile there and back, maybe a little more. The little guys rode their scooters most of the way. I was nervous, since it was dark, about the potential for one of the boys to get hit by a car. I'm always nervous about crap like that. We were walking and riding in the street since the sidewalks are too bumpy for scooter riding.

At one point, a car was coming, so we yelled for David to get out of the street. My David exists in his own little world sometimes. I think he has too many creative and brilliant ideas rattling around in his little head. Anyway, the car was approaching and he freezes...and then he darts directly in the path of the oncoming car. Granted, he was headed for the sidewalk as instructed, but there was a sidewalk on the other side of the street that wouldn't have been in the path of the oncoming car.

Fortunately, he made it safely across before the car had a chance to mow him down. Anna's boyfriend was walking with us, and he made this observation: "David just had a squirrel moment." That cracked me up big time.

Hey Y'all

I've said it before and I'll say it again: My Blog Friends are very special to me.

Love My Garden

This is a photo of some flowers from my garden. I cut them and arranged them yesterday and took a picture with the camera I requested specifically for flower photography. For anyone remotely interested, the bouquet contains peony Solange, rose Chrysler Imperial and Double Knockout, Baptisia Australis, bellflower, and a tiny corner of rose Tiffany.

If you think it looks pretty, you should smell it! Heaven!!! The Tiffany rose smells like lemon drops, and the Chrysler Imperial rose has the damask rose scent. The peony smells like a peony.

My Dear Husband is a Freak

The following story is 100% true. It happened yesterday afternoon.

Paul and I were walking around a local park. Out of the clear blue sky, he says: "I hate the way Sonic drinks come in styrofoam."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because it's bad for the environment."

Just as the words are leaving his mouth, he reaches out and discards his recyclable aluminum can. In the trash! In his defense, he normally recycles, but the irony of his statement coinciding with that action was too much.

On a lighter note...

During that same walk, my dear husband rips a big ol' fart. Now, this park has a well-populated walking path, which we were using. I said, "Paul! Observe the rules of etiquette! Check behind you before you rip one."

True to his nature, he waited about 10 minutes, then he stopped and made a big show out of ripping another long, loud one. Only this time there was a poor woman with a baby stroller about 10 feet behind us. I looked back and nearly collapsed with laughter. I was so embarrassed! I had to start walking faster and tried to act like I didn't even know my husband of 20 years.

I said, "I told you to check behind you before you do that!" He said, "Well, that's what she gets for tailgating."

I'm so tired. Adult slumber party...three beers...freaking tired today! You know what really sucks about getting old? You can't drink. OK, you can drink, but you pay. I was up until 3:00 because of those beers. Damn!

I'm going to admit it right now: It's kinda weird to have a slumber party at my age. In my defense, I wasn't planning to have a sleep-over. But when the invitation went out, my boss assumed she was spending the night, so there you have it. What can you do? When the boss says she's sleeping over, she's sleeping over.

There was a very scary moment at the party involving my bird. I don't know what got into her, but she let herself out of her cage. That's very unusual behavior when I have people around. So she got out of her cage and flew straight into the bathroom. Since she never goes into the bathroom, I followed her to see what she was doing and she was in the toilet!! I know it sounds funny, but it scared the life out of me! She was all wet and looking up at me helplessly. I grabbed her out and gave her a little bath. Luckily I had just cleaned the toilet before the party so there was some comfort in that. My poor baby! One of the guests, who doesn't like my bird, said it was a suicide attempt. She said the bird saw herself in the mirror and decided to end it. This same guest said she would have flushed my bird! Now I'm the first one to admit that my poor bird is ugly. Very, very ugly. Her feathers are pretty much gone on her face. It's not pretty. She looks like a turkey. But I still love her! And I would never flush her.

Hoop Dreams

Even as I type, I'm listening to the sounds of construction in the back yard as work continues on our new patio. We have a new 910 square-foot patio. 910 square feet didn't sound like much when we were planning it, but it's really, really, really big. The kids are going to be able to play basketball on it for sure. So far I'm happy with the way it looks. The concrete is colored, sandy tan on the majority of it, but it has a darker brown "key" where the kids play basketball. For anybody else as ignorant as me, the key is the marking on the basketball court that shows where the free throw line is, and probably denotes other stuff I don't know about. So the key is darker, along with a few other places, like the stoop. There's a stone wall around parts of it. It's kind of a cool shape. I'll have to try and post a picture sometime.

Tomorrow night I'm hosting a party for my work friends. We nurses will get together, eat & drink, and probably pass out by 10:00. That's what happened last time. I plan to be less naughty this go-round, especially since I didn't enjoy the personal aftermath of the last party. I mean, I really didn't enjoy it. I'm a little nervous, having the boss over and everything. I hope the concrete dust is under control by then. Unfortunately, we won't be able to use the new patio because the concrete will still be wet. But we can gaze out at the construction debris as we toast each other with our lemon drop martinis. Should be fun.

Of No Interest Whatsoever to Anybody...

...But I'm posting it anyway.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I recently purchased a new washer & dryer. A good friend told me I was brave to buy the front-loading washing machine..."what if it springs a leak?"

Good question, my friend!

Indeed I asked the same question of the friendly Sears salesman. Unfortunately, I don't remember his reply. I was too mesmerized by the shiny washers & dryers and all their fancy features.

I do have a vague memory of deciding that the new "high efficiency" models were the best choice. Something about the water-savings caught my attention. I believe they said that a conventional washer uses 45 gallons per load, while the high efficiency (H.E.) models use only ten. Wow! What a savings! This washer will pay for itself in no time! And then there's the unavoidable fact that I like to stuff my washer to the gills. I thought the H.E. model which cleans without an agitator was a wise choice since I have broken my agitator multiple times. Evidently agitators don't hold up well when you overtax them. Believe me, I know.

And now for the embarrassing revelation, the confession which proves that I have no life whatsoever. I just spent ten full minutes watching my front-loading washing machine work. (It has a window!)

Here's the scoop:.. The clothes are not swished around in a tub of water like you see with a conventional agitator model. Instead they are moistened and tossed about, back & forth. Then they are spun at an incredibly high speed -- 1,000 spins per minute. After that the moistening & tossing repeats. It's really kind of fascinating. I'm not sure how they become clean. Maybe it's the high-power centrifugal force. Maybe it's magic. Maybe they aren't really clean!

In any event, I must agree with my friend: What if that baby springs a leak? I would have preferred a top-loader, but I was unable to purchase the top-loader H.E. machine because it was 1/2" too large to fit into my laundry room. That's right: one-half inch. In the end, I decided it was worth the risk. Now that I see how it works -- by moistening the clothes instead of soaking them, I feel much safer. And after all, it was my old, conventional top-loader which flooded my kitchen when the tub cracked. If this one leaks, the flood will only be ten gallons instead of 45. Now that's a good deal.

The Sweetest Day

I want to remember yesterday forever. I have a feeling that Mother's Day will not always be such a big deal to my babies, but sometimes I think it rivals Christmas in their little heads.

I told Paul, "no gift" this year because I want to wait and pick out something for my new patio. Maybe that made it even more special, because I wasn't expecting anything. Normally, Paul takes the kids shopping and they pick out something nice, (and something for which I have strongly hinted.) Instead, on Sunday morning, I woke up at 7:30 and went to wake up the kids for mass. Nobody was in bed. Hmmmmmm. So I went downstairs and they were all there -- waiting for me. Kathleen said, "Mom, what do you want for breakfast?"

I replied with my usual menu, an English muffin with peanut butter & flax seed. I was really glad she asked because I didn't want to eat waffles or something else equally fattening. I was saving my calories for later in the day. With a flourish, Kathleen handed me a plate with my muffin and peanut butter. She, David & Michael had gotten up early and made it, knowing that I would want just exactly that! Now that was sweet, but what really cracked me up was this: Both boys slept on their floor on Saturday night so they would be sure not to oversleep and miss their opportunity to make breakfast. (I'm not sure how sleeping on the floor was supposed to prevent oversleeping, but I didn't question.) Michael said he woke up at 4:45 in anticipation, but he was able to get back to sleep until 6:00. All the kids were up by 6:30 and cooking for me. Then they waited very quietly -- with no TV and no fighting -- until I made it downstairs at about 8:00. What a miracle!

Then the kids presented me with their little gifts. Kathleen made some lovely coupons, Michael made a plaque and a card, and David... my sweet little David.

Several weeks ago, David took his allowance and got Dad to drive him to Home Depot. He carefully picked out a packet of flower seeds. Then he found a little plastic cup and filled it with dirt. He planted one tiny seed in the cup. He read the seed packet to find out how quickly the seed would germinate, and he was very careful to plant it far enough in advance so that there would be some kind of plant showing by Mother's Day. Then he took the cup and seed up to his Grandpa & Nonnie's house so that I wouldn't see it. That kid went up to their house every few days to check on the seed and water it. He left notes for the grandparents about how to properly care for the seed. A couple of times the cup and seed fell over, or got flooded, and there were emergency measures to save it. Once, I was driving up to the grandparent's house to do some laundry (refer to the laundry crisis a few weeks back.) It was right after school, and I was very surprised to see David walking home from their house. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said he had left his bouncy ball there on Sunday and was going to get it. I bought it -- hook, line & sinker. He told me yesterday that he was really checking on the plant, and he thought I would guess because of his big, giant smile.

Yesterday he presented me with the fruit of his efforts. A little plastic cup with a tiny, tiny plant. I would upload a picture if I could. The entire plant is about the size of a pea, and out of all the hundreds of plants I own, it is my favorite.

My husband is better than your husband

OK, get this: Paul surprised me with tickets to the sold-out show "Wicked." Crazy, huh? I can't wait!! He was able to get some good seats through a season ticket holder. He had to plan this event a few months ago. I'm so impressed. The show is tonight. Don't worry, non-ticket-holders, I will give a full review in this space at a later date.

In other news: I received a post card from my Little MJ yesterday. They were obviously assigned to write a letter to Mom & Dad. Here's what he wrote...

"Dear, Mom + Dad We are learning about space. I am on Saturn I can jump really high. Did you no Saturn is the lightest planet. If there was a big enough sea it would float like a cork. from your son, Michael. P.S. I miss you."

Wowza! Is that CUTE or what?

Oh! What an anniversary it was. We had such a good time, and I am enjoying my new ring very much.

But moving right along now. I am frustrated with Blogger because I can't seem to upload any pictures. You have no idea how many great photos I have to upload. Not the least of which is my Little MJ on the occasion of his First Holy Communion. It was last weekend, and it was perfect. The last of my babies to have his First Communion, it was a little poignant. I think he enjoyed his big day quite a bit. When I asked him what he wanted to commemorate the occasion, he said "a wooden cross." (Well, first he said he wanted a Nintendo DS, but that idea was not acceptable.) Anyway, I ended up getting him a San Damiano cross which he seems to dig. He was anxious to hang it up in his bedroom, but not until he took it to school for show & tell. Here's a picture. For some reason I can upload images from the web, just not my own images from my computer...


Anyway, other than that, I have been preoccupied with plans for a new fence and patio in my back yard. Construction (demolition, actually) was supposed to begin today, but I haven't seen the crew yet. I am confident they will be here any day. My husband is convinced that our boys will be warped and twisted if we don't have a basketball goal on our property. The only possible place is in the middle of the back yard. So our new patio will include a basketball court. It won't be the beautiful garden with the koi pond and little stone paths that I would prefer, but hey -- when one of my little darlings becomes an NBA superstar, I will expect him to install the garden of my dreams, complete with koi, weeping willow, boxwood topiary, and a gazebo.