Busy, Busy Saturday!

Whew! We made it through that busy weekend in flying colors! The Lethal Luau was a success - the food was wonderful, everyone dressed so appropriately - we had a hula dancer, a bathing beauty, a golf pro, a surfboarder, an Hawaiian Chief, a tourist, a wealthy yacht-owner, and a beach bum! This is a picture of the Cofers and us doing our hosting thing! Muu-muu's are NOT flattering!

We had a good Sunday! We had a baptism at church Sunday for little baby Isabella. The song we sang was called "You Are Loved", which was a very emotional song. I, however, started crying when Isabella first came up front because her daddy's lip was quivering! Well, this unleashed a fountain in my eyes and nose! It's very hard to sing when you're crying. I hope I didn't look too bad up there! After church, I still couldn't stop crying! Dave and I went to lunch, got a call from Jami wishing me Happy Mother's Day (Bryan and Deanna were here on Saturday), then decided to take a nap. I slept for about 4.5 hours! Got up, did a couple of things around the house, and then sat down to watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. And, can you believe it, I then went to bed and right to sleep! I must have been sleep-deprived because I slept until 7:15 this morning!! No excuses today about being tired! I have a bunch of errands to run today and then hopefully I'll get to read some of the new book that Bryan and Deanna got me, "The Girls from Ames," a story of women and a 40-year friendship. Too bad the girls of '66 didn't get together and write this book! More later...

Ponderings of the day

My husband kind of upset me today. I had planned my day in advance, which I do almost nightly. My day was going to be to go to see Aunt Helen and then come home and mow if it wasn't too wet. So this morning, DH said to me, "If you're so inclined, you could mow the yard." Well, I don't like that! To me that was an insult - I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but that's what I think when he starts saying things like "If you're so inclined..." Well, I went to Fairfield to see Aunt Helen and then I came home and mowed, but tonight when he gets home, I guess I'd better tell him that I don't like that phrase. He can just say something like, "I put gas in the lawnmower in case you get a chance to mow." Doesn't that sound nicer? It's terrible when that's the only fault he has - just his choice of phrases!!

I thought I'd share some of my abstract nature art today. This is bark from a tree that I thought looked a lot like a lava field might. My instructor really liked it.

This one is a leaf from a rhododendron which I love the texture of. I cropped this one after I had completed the class.

Here is a picture of a daffodil center very close and personal. I like it a lot. I think the colors in it are pretty cool.I cropped and manipulated this one in photoshop CS2 after my class was over. I used auto color and this is what it came out like. This is a picture of the bright purple rhododendron that is in the corners of the leaf picture. Look how transparent that flower is. It almost looks like it has silica on it. That's all for today. Dave and I are taking the 56 Chevy out to a cruise tonight. Anyway he plans to be home in time for it - it starts at 6:00. Tomorrow, Bryan and Deanna are coming here and tomorrow night is the Hawaiian luau murder mystery so I may not get to blog tomorrow. See ya!

Bird-watching!

When I looked outside this morning, I was sure excited! There was a pair of goldfinches at the birdfeeder! I stood and watched them for a couple of seconds and, all of a sudden, there was an oriole there too! Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera, the oriole had flown away. So, my first errand of the day was to go to Walmart and buy an oriole feeder. One of the guys Dave works with said if we want to attract orioles we should get a jar lid and fill it with grape jelly and mount it on a post. I now have the grape jelly! All I need is a post to mount it on.
When I went outside to hang the oriole feeder, I scared away a purple finch too. This bird-feeding station is starting to be a lot of fun!

Wednesday Already?

It can't possibly be Wednesday already, can it? I've been so busy this week - in fact, the month of May is a very busy one! We need to go to Indiana to see Dave's family, but I keep telling Dave that we have to get thru May first! Yesterday was another shopping trip with Sudi - this one not quite so productive. Today was a massage and tonight is choir practice. This weekend we have a car cruise at the Country Club and a murder mystery Hawaiian luau! How about that for diverse activities?

See the lovely robin's nest that Mr. & Mrs. Robin built on my wreath? I have this wreath just outside the main door of our home. They didn't take that into consideration, I don't think. Well, anyway, I just couldn't tear it down because they worked so hard on it! Saturday there were no eggs in it. yesterday there were 3, and just now when I looked, there are 4! I read that they usually lay 4 eggs and that incubation is around 12 days, and doesn't start until all the eggs are in the nest...so 12 days from now (about May 18th) we can expect little baby robins! I'll try to get a picture of the eggs - the ones I have are blurry! They are the most beautiful blue!

Productive Day

I got so much accomplished today that even I can't believe it! I got my desk cleared off, as well as the floor around my desk. I got laundry done. I painted the two register covers so now they're ready to go back up. I searched the internet for my brother's stolen golf clubs (to no avail). I finished my final exam for my photography course and even made a cake for a funeral tomorrow at church! Now I'm ready to go to my recliner and watch Dancing With The Stars. Hopefully no one calls or comes over, because I'm not answering either the phone or the doorbell!

Road Trip Sunday

What a glorious day! We went to church today and our choir got an ovation after our anthem! That never happens. We sang "Morning Has Broken" composed by Shawn Kirchner - a totally different rendition than I'd ever heard. It was beautiful and very moving! After church we went with our friends, Craig & Sue, on a little road trip. We like to take the old cars and just drive to wherever the road may lead us. Today we drove thru Richland, Ollie, Harper, and even Rubio! Sue had packed a picnic lunch, so we stopped in Richland at the park to eat. This is a picture of our two cars parked by the picnic area. We always have so much fun just riding around enjoying the countryside!

After our road trip we had a Vintage Cruisers' car club meeting in the Ottumwa park. It must have been a great day to be out as we had 24 people at our meeting. Following the meeting the members cleaned up along a 2-mile stretch of highway that we've adopted. After they were done, Craig and Dave returned to our house where we'd ordered pizza. They just left about a half-hour ago! What a fun day!

Beautiful day for planting!

What a gorgeous day! Yesterday was one of those gray days, but it was fun nevertheless! Scott came and finished painting the bedroom - yeah!! We love it. All we have left to do is paint the 2 register vents and then it is complete - that'll be a tomorrow project. Yesterday, Sue and I went to their other farm and took pictures. That was also fun. The first thing we saw when we pulled in was this squirrel. He just sat there while I took his picture.

I guess he was busy eating that nut and wasn't about to quit just because I was taking his picture! We took some pictures of the flowers while we were there. This is one of the red bushes at the farm...beautiful blooms.

This one is of some grape hyacinths - aren't they cute? All the time we were there it was sprinkling...but we continued to take pictures! Our moms didn't ever tell us to come in out of the rain I guess! It was fun - thanks, Sue!

This morning Dave and I got up early to go to a plant sale at HyVee Drugstore. We got 9 perennials, plus 2 peonies, and a flat of annuals, as well as 40 bags of mulch. Then we went to breakfast! Today was also a stamping day at Juliene's! Kathy demo'd several cards using one of the new stamp sets and it's embossing folder. Beautiful cards! When I got home Dave had already planted the peonies and spread the mulch in all of the perennial beds. After Dave took a short nap, together we planted the other 9 perennials and put together 8 pots of annuals. Then he mowed and the hacienda looks beautiful! He's such a good man!