HOW NICE !

When last I left you...

I was contemplating what on earth the man had planned for 

our first anniversary.

Given his choice of a folding canvass camp chair

for my birthday last year...

I truly did wonder.

Not that a canvass folding camp chair is not a great gift!

I am not ungrateful for it at all.

It made me laugh because of the conversation prior to the gifting.

A conversation that was about not knowing what I might like.

Being a silly rabbit who lives up to her name...

I wanted the man to figure it out.

But also not being stupid...

I gave a bevy of hints.

 Little did I know that the man is totally hint proof!

I left catalogs with pictures circled laying around.

I made comments about things on the TV in ads.

I talked about how much I liked this or that.

What sort of books that I liked or wished I had.

As fate would have it happen...

I also mentioned in irritation when the chair I was sitting on

decided to pinch my leg, 

that I  hated that chair...

and would dearly love to burn it in a bonfire!

The exuberance of my excitement of that moment

got through to the man.

He picked up the mail just after my declaration

and saw an ad that had a photo of a folding camp chair on the front.

The light bulb in his head shone brightly!

And so it was that I wondered, 

indeed, 

what words might have escaped my lips and inspired...

 heaven only knew what...

sort of surprise...

 would come

on May 21st from my dear husband of one year.

Like I said, do not get me wrong about the chair incident.

It proved to me that my husband did indeed hear me when I said things.

Certainly not a romantic gift, 

but one based on his desire to give me what I would like to have.

What could mean more?

And yet, it gave me a great curiosity as to what was coming.

He refused to even hint.

Last weekend arrived.

We spent Saturday most in the yard.

I trimmed vinca and removed blackberries.

I have the scratches all over to prove it.

Meanwhile,

he mowed and weed whacked .

When we had finished and I sat having a nice ice tea...

He informed me that I was to shower.
Well!

He would put the rest of the debris into the utility trailer
while I accomplished my task.

I had no problem at all with that part.

After his shower followed mine 
and most of my crazy hair had dried into ringlets...

he told me to get into the car.

I figured it out.

I was fairly sure that we were going out to eat...

something he really does not enjoy that much as a rule.

I wasn't sure if it was Red Lobster or The Fish House.

It was at Red Lobster.

We had a lovely diner with appetizers and adult beverages.

I opted for a margarita and he, 

something tall and blue.

Then we returned home with doggie bags in hand.

Roxy was ever so glad to see us...

even if the doggie bag was not for her.

The rest of that evening was spent in an enjoyable pastime.

=:]

I assumed that the anniversary was over.

I didn't think much about that happening two days before

our actual anniversary day.

I know the man had to work on our anniversary and 
it made

sense that this had been the big surprise.
I was certainly satisfied with my lovely evening with him.

Sunday we went to a bbq at a friend's home.

After that the man opened up my gift to him...

(I had to wait for it to arrive.)

It was a Babylon 5 spin-off that he did not have.

He was thrilled.

Phew!

I did okay.

Onward to reality.

Next year it would come again.

That night the man went to work at his usual midnight.

I managed to oversleep in the morning.

He snuck in before I woke up.

I did not hear him at all.

Normally I wake at every tiny sound.

But I didn't.

So on my real anniversary...

I rolled over and opened my eyes to

flowers!

Not just any flowers...
but a vase of the flowers that were in my wedding bouquet!

Chrysanthemums, my favorites.
The right colors and kinds.

 

How's that for romance?

 

Springing along...

I thought the warm weather would never arrive.

At least not before I lost my sanity.

But it did.

Yay!

The signs of true spring are everywhere.

Plum trees have already lost their blooms and the cherries are in full display.

Bulbs have given us so many different reasons to smile.

And the utility company is busy trying to trim back all the 

new and winter growth from the power lines.

Roxy lays and grumbles out the screen door.

Most days begin with the sounds of weed eaters and mowers.

We are doing our own share of these activities.

=:]

  I bought a pair of these funny long handled sheers.

Our vinca borders the driveway and the walkway.

Believe me...

kneeling on concrete with a pair of hand sheers is not the way to go...

if you want it to look like this:

 We are happy with our new toy.

Meanwhile...

I sent a picture to Turkey.

 His seeds have sprouted well!

He was so excited that he was mad when mom said that

they could not jump in the car and drive down to transplant them

into "Turkey's Garden" immediately.

(That's a flowerbed that I told him would be his garden.)

From forward to back;

nasturtiums, zucchini, yellow squash, bush beans and

at the end, cayenne pepper.

Hard to tell by this picture, but most have at least raised the soil

if they have not broken the surface with green.

In another flat are lisbon onions, roma tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeno peppers

and cucumbers.

This is how I enjoy spending my time.

I know that gardening is not for everyone and can be a bore.

I'm not particularly good at it, but I love doing it.

All that fresh air and sunshine.

Lovely.

Meanwhile on other fronts...

I am soooo excited!

We just rented a cabin for 3 nights up in Dumb Potter's Hell.

Randy has a 4 day weekend coming up...

yes, Memorial Day.

We opted to use it for the trip.

Many of the people I know have not met Randy.

My kids know him, but not my friends or my father.

So they are planning a big barbecue the second day that we are there.

We were careful about when we planned to leave and return...

we want to miss as much of the holiday traffic as possible.

Randy will sleep while I drive...

that way he can be perky when we get there.

And I can't believe that our first wedding anniversary is

coming up on the 21st.

When I asked the man what he wanted to do for it,

he gave me a mysterious response.

"It's already planned.  All you have to do is wait for it."

I wonder what it is?

 

 

 

ANTS

Yes, those are ants... and I hate ants!

While they might look like clever trained ants,

they are all gathered around a drop of Terro...

ant poison.

=:]

R.I.P. you little buggers!

I have been on hiatus.

I had a hormone imbalance that made me feel 

fairly sure that the men in little white coats

were on their way to collect me.

Thankfully it is fixed now and I am once more

the relatively happily crazy yet not ready to

institutionalize...

me.

Lots of things have happened.

We had another new grand daughter...Z.

She is like all new babies,

sweet and constantly sleeping and eating.

I love the way she smells.

=:]

Things are rocky in the family right now.

The man and his kids are at odds.

I am trying to stay out of it.

But I do not like to see the man upset.

It makes me want to be involved and let some

choice words fly.

But today it is beautiful and I have

moved my lap top onto the patio again.

I began my day with a wonderful steaming cup of coffee...

out here...

letting the fresh breeze make my frizzy hair flit around.

Watching Roxy run around like a nut with her stuffed duck.

Soaking up the sunshine that feels so very good.

I don't think there is anything more relaxing,

or more soothing to my nerves.

(except for the ocean)

I decided to take all my little thoughts

and curse words and write them on paper.

Tonight,

when darkness falls

and I have lost the support of the sun...

I'll put my scraps of anger into the fire...

and let the ashes float away.

Hopefully they will take the anger with them.

 

 

 

Turkey and grandma.

Aside from the fact that I sort of went crazy for one day...

and I am not kidding about that...

this little guy has taken up most of my time the last week.

His mom was having classes and clinicals...

and his dad was away on business.

Uncle Squeaky lives with them, but he's in school as well.

Good old grandma was called into active duty.

I was collected by Bear and hauled off to her new abode.

I had forgotten what apartment living was like.

Now I recall why I don't care for it.

Neighbors can be real pests.

Not that it was bad.

I had a great time playing with Turkey and Sadie.

Sadie is their boxer.

Boxers are kind of like how an insect would be if they were a dog.

All bones and crazy angles!

Sadie has a one track mind that screams...

"Throw the rope!"

I literally threw the rope for three days straight.

She slept at the foot of my bed

and followed me to the bathroom.

Hey, you never know when I might throw the rope!

In the evenings, we all watched "The Killing" 

from the beginning because Bear had not yet been introduced.

The days went quickly... and soon they brought me home again.

Roxy could not believe that I had cheated on her...

but she could smell the evidence.


Its always nice to come home.
The man was happy to see me and the sink was full of dishes.
Nice too, to be needed.
Bear and Turkey stayed for two days to visit.
Turkey and I planted seeds for the garden.
He has promised to come back when they are ready to go into the bed.

 I let Turkey trowel in the dirt...
poke holes and drop in the seeds...
He even covered them up and watered them.
I made the little signs.
Ha.
Ok.  I guess Turkey planted seeds for the garden.




This morning they were up early and off to their own home.
The man and I had a lazy day...
watching Babylon 5 episodes and little else.




Its too soon to tell you about my experience with going crazy.
I'll wait a day or two.
I really need to have the time to roll the experience around in my head
before I make any confessions or comments...
except to say that the man is very glad that I've gone back to simply 
a little nutty once more.
Me too.

For right now... like Sadie, I'm pooped!

FUZZY MEETS OLLIE

We knew they were coming...

Boo, Saucy and baby,

so that Grandpa Fuzzy could meet Ollie.

They seemed to really like each other.

But I got a great surprise!

Robert!

My grandson that I have not seen in over 2 years...

and his sister...

Sukey!

 

Olivia, or Ollie as I like to call her...

is Sukey and Robert's sister too.

So the whole gang arrived together.

 

 

 As you can see, Ollie is growing fast.

She is a good baby.

Very little fussing at all.

She enjoys gazing in people's eyes

and listening to them talk.

 

 

Luck was with us... the weather was gorgeous all weekend long!

We were able to BBQ burgers and sit on the patio.

I have missed days like these so much!

 

 

 

Boo helped around the yard and house.

He built my treadmill... which turned out to be quite a task.

I'm not sure how many times it was partially assembled and then

partially un-assembled to be reassembled again before it was finished. 

Sheesh.

 

 

Roxy was in pig bull heaven.

So many people to play with...

and Sukey even slept with her.

According to Roxy, it does not get better than that.

 

 

Like all wonderful times,

the weekend ended too soon.

Sigh.

This time I was okay with waving good bye.

No tears.

My family does not seem so far away these days.

They seem happy to make the trip here.

And I know my kitty is almost ready to furnish us with a trip back up there.

 

 

 

But poor Roxy has been moping around the house all day.

She looked for them on the patio several times...

as if they had only wandered off a bit.

She checked all the rooms and they weren't there.

Poor Roxy.

 

 

SSS SUPERSTITIOUS

Welcome to another episode of 

Saturday Scavenger Shots!

The word this week...picked by little ol' me...

"SUPERSTITIOUS"

in honor of yesterday being Friday the 13th.

(A day that I actually consider to be generally lucky for me personally.)

So here we go!

I wanted to avoid the usual suspects;

four leaf clovers, broken mirrors, horse shoes and those 

awful, horrible, terrible, unwanted...

shiver, shiver, shiver...

silly rabbit's feet.

This is my lucky bamboo plant.

I've no idea what makes it an object of luck.

It is the only SUPERSTITIOUS object in my home.

It is my understanding that depending on how many

shoots are in the pot...

it is lucky in different ways.

This one is supposed to attract money.

I bought it because of the cute frogs on the pot.

According to the Carpenters...

the kiss at a wedding is for luck.

One of many wedding SUPERSTITIONS.

Something borrowed, something blue...

But I must say...

a fish was the last SUPERSTITIOUS item I 

expected to find in my search!

This poor little parrot fish has been given a laser

tattoo.

The symbols are rainbows, flowers or other lucky

SUPERSTITIOUS signs.

They are called "fortune fish" or "Lucky Fish".

They look cute and they are pretty, 

but if I were a parrot fish, I do not think that I would

consider my tattoo a bit of good luck for me.

There we have it!

Another fun SSS post completed.

I do hope that you navigated Friday the 13th

with no sorrows to speak of...

mine was wonderful.

 

Now then...

Do tell!

Is there something that you are 

SUPERSTITIOUS 

about?

Any little lucky ritual you perform before you

bowl, bat, or play your lottery numbers?

Well???

 

 

 

 

IN PROGRESS

an unfinished bear

It was a glorious, warm, sunshiny day.  We had errands to run this morning when the man got home.  A trip to section 6 and then from store to store to find the correct surge protector that was determined to elude us.


The man was tired and hungry, so I dropped him off.  I was unwilling to give up.  I can't use the treadmill until I can properly install it.  Kind of crazy making. What good is it to have a fun toy that you can't use?  Sheesh.


Then I found it at the first place I visited.  The first place that I wanted to go... but everyone kept suggesting this place and that place. Doesn't it figure?  Oh well.  I have it now and that was a victory!  Tomorrow we will work on setting it up.


Once the man was off to dream land... I was off outside.  Yay!  Or that's what I said until I looked at my sad, winter damaged yard.  My war with the weeds has begun once more and they are waaaaayyy ahead of me.


I decided to keep it simple.  Start with a small area that I can tackled in one day.  Such is the delusion in my head.  Its a small strip of a  bed completely surrounded by concrete... the house foundation and our walk to the front door from the driveway to the porch.  Its maybe 2 feet wide and about 30 feet long.


Last year I was able to use my hula hoe to clean it out in less than an hour.  But last year it had no desirable plants within it.  Not until C4C came up for the wedding and bought a bunch of violas and petunias to plant in it.  It made a very lovely bed.  


Violas and petunias are not perennials.  They are annuals, which means that they usually need to be replanted every year.  But because of our unusually warm winter and being so close to the warmth and protection of the house...  my wedding flowers all came back!   Of course they look a bit worse for wear at this point and needed care.


Because they were there... I needed to carefully remove weeds around them before I could tend to their individual needs.  I have a variety of weed here that is tiny, lacy and abundant.  I ended up sitting on a towel on the concrete with my feet placed carefully into the bed and weeding one weed at a time between my legs.  Not my method of choice.  It took sooooo long!


In fact, I took a break to buy myself some motivation.  I love the violas and petunias.  But eventually I want to let my yard evolve into a place that tends its own needs.  Perennials can be purchased that are self-weeding.  Either their foliage crowds out weeds or they repel them in some chemical defense way.  


Off I went to Bi-Mart to buy $20.00 worth of perennials.  That does not buy many as it turns out.  I will have to adjust that to an additional $20 tomorrow to finish the bed.  I bought a couple of  "candytuft" ,which are white blooms on dark evergreen shrubby plants, a couple of pretty orange and rose colored columbine and a couple of something new to me called lithodora, which has blue striped white flowers on a sort of succulent looking foliage.  


By the end of my day, I had half of my flower bed cleared and the new plants set where I will bury them tomorrow when the bed is properly watered.  I trimmed back my petunia and violas, cutting off leggy parts and dead parts. It was a late afternoon well spent.


I purchased all they had of the plants I wanted.  So tomorrow I will head a few blocks the other direction to Fred Meyers for more of the same.  I like a balanced look of color in my bed.  Once I remove the last third of the bed's worth of weeds and get these plants all in, they should fill the bed nicely as they become established.  Next year will be the last year I will need to add to this bed. Then I can turn my attention to another area of the yard. 


Okay... enough plant talk.


Good news!  Boo, Saucy and bran new baby Oliva are coming!  They will be here Saturday afternoon sometime.  I am so excited!  Olivia is 5 weeks old now... and babies change so much so fast.  I can't wait to see her now that she keeps her eyes open and is much more alert.  

Boo said he has a few surprises for me.  What can that mean?  Are they getting married?  Would that be a visit from Sookie or Max too?  So many happy possibilities!  What if Squeaky drives them down with his license?  Hummmm


I guess I will have to wait and see.  




Spring is inspirational!  What activities are you springing into?  Baseball?  Gardening?  Barbecuing?