Ian

Tonight I took pictures of Ian, he is my youngest nephew, the son of my brother Terry and his wife Shannon. He looks so much like his dad. Out of the 11 kids in my family I am number 8 so there were only the 3 boys born after me and Terry is the only one I slightly remember being little (number 11). I don't remember mom being pregnant with him but I do remember the giant chalkboard in the living room that had his announcement into the family on it when we woke up. Then I don't remember him being a baby until about 5-7 year age. From what I can remember this is exactly how he looked.

This I believe is Terry's giraffe that I just happen to find in my garage just before Ian got here. Black electrical tape on his neck is still the same as when Terry used to ride it and the ears were chewed off by someone, leaving the black spot on top of it's head. I wonder how old this giraffe is?

Nails

One thing my mother is remembered for is her fingernails being painted everyday and I'm not talking like what mine looked like on Monday.... still pink from Amber's wedding with the tips worn off and the bottoms by the cuticles half picked off from any spare moment I had. It didn't matter when you seen mom, her nails were painted without flaws, the only one of us that follows in those footsteps is my sister DiAnn. So the other day I needed a clear polish since I'm terrible with leaving it on way to long.... when it's clear it's not quite so noticeable..... I found this French Tip Kit at 70% off so I decided..... if I can't do it I'll still have the opal polish for cheap. Well I tried it and I love them and they even look good. It's a lot of piddly stuff but they were totally worth it, now we'll see if I let them wear off and start over again. Now here's the picture that I thought turned out the best showing my French Tip Polish.

I'm sure your all glad I didn't let John take the picture he wanted.... He thinks anything with a name like French Tip should be paired up with...... a black.... Men!!

Tonight John's Mom called

Me - Hello

Fran - Hello Connie

Me - Yes

Fran - This is Connie isn't it?

Me - Yes, it's Connie

Fran - What'cha doing? You busy?

Me - Not at the moment

Fran - Can you come visit me?

Me - Where?

Fran - At my house

Me - Why?

Fran - My TV won't work and I can't watch my soap opera's

Me - I'll be right there

Why and How is it that I became the professional TV, Soap Getter, DVD, VCR, Cable, Electrical, Timer Setter, Anything related to the TV not working person? Well we stop what we're doing, run over to their house meeting the cable guy in his little bucket up on a pole.... I fiddle with the TV and DVD player, it seems to be working but there's no pictures.... hummmm John says, it's the cable why do you think he's up on the pole? Grandpa wanted us to drive back down to the guy on the pole and ask what he's doing? WHAT?? Why don't you knock on your neighbors door and ask if he has cable? Ohhhhh good idea. He doesn't have cable either... Well we did it once again... solved the TV oh my gosh I'm gonna miss my soap opera problem. They are so funny, John doesn't think so, he just wants to go back home and get the black.......!! STOP Just wait honey until the only thing we have to do while old and sitting around the house is calling the kids back home to fix the TV so we don't miss our programs.

Visitor

Daylily

It's time for the daylilies, they are just as pretty as the lilies but they only last a day.... hence their name. I took a gizzillion pictures of flowers again today and this one I fell in love with. Why???? The blur of the closest petal and the sharpness of the far petals, the depth you can see inside the flower, the position of the flower in the frame, the contrasting color, the texture in the petals, and the blur of the background to make the flower stand out that much more.

Check it out for yourself.

Shack Project

So today the sun is shining, it's a beatuful warm day.....but the wind is whipping 100mph at our house on the prairie. I want to be outside, I'm never in the house when the sun is shining so what can we do?? Well John and I went to the shack to get the recyclables and he talked about coming back to do a little sprucing up outside, hummmmm I'll help there's no wind here. So here's our little project, clean up this corner.

Now John was going to stack the cinder blocks in one big pile back behind the wood pile so you couldn't see them but I begged him to give me an hour and let me do what I wanted and if he or the rest of the guys don't like it they can un-do it.

I planted hostas, coral bells, bleeding hearts, and lily of the valley. I totally forgot about the deer liking to eat plants since I never have to think about them at my house so we'll see how long the plants last before the deer find them. So far John likes it so we'll see if the others are okay with it this week.

We also took a walk in the woods, this fern is huge!

Another flower

I couldn't resist posting another lily picture. Does anyone wanna guess how many flower pictures I take every year? It would blow your mind if you really knew, thank goodness for digital.

Sun up to Sun down and UFO siting

Today I went to Alabama so it was an early morning alarm for me (John was already at work so not so early for him). After my shower and getting dressed I had to stop to take pictures of the sunrise. Why can't I be a morning person? It was so quiet and peaceful as I stood outside taking this picture and the fresh morning air filled my lungs. I love sunrises but I don't get to see very many of them in the summertime, I'm still sleeping.

The company jet flew me to Alabama in the early morning and back again in the late afternoon, I love the trips I can make without airport security and lay overs. The weather there was nice and hot, just the way I like it.

So tonight I got the sunset, which is prettier? Sunrise but why can't I get my hinder out of bed in the morning to enjoy it?

So last night we sat outside enjoying our fire in the pit when the neighbor called and asked us to look to the east.... there was a black ring in the sky! It's a UFO, it's a smoke ring, it's a ring of bugs.... what is it?? So I tried to get a picture of it.... too far away, I wanted to get in the truck and drive until we could see it better.... "K" stopped to say she has been following it for 45 minutes so we aren't going to catch it.... So tonight here's a picture from "K's" e-mail to say it was bugs... the news tonight said it was a smoke ring from someones fireworks.... who knows what it was but we'll go with a UFO it sounds so much more fun and freakier!

Senior pics and a free chair

My niece Amanda finally got her Senior Pics taken, every day we planned rained... tonight we got them done until I take some more in the fall and maybe even in the snow. I think I found a new model to practice with.... She made my job so easy, she is a naturally gorgeous and a great girl. I loved spending time with her while we took about 200 pictures.... good luck trying to pick!

I found the purple chair at a garage sale about 20 minutes before I took them and it was FREE.... I was going to have John haul my green chair out of the house but with my new free chair I could just use this one.... well he wasn't real happy with my new find so I guess I'll have to let Lynn and Jesse have it for their new house. That is if they like it and if they don't well.... it matches my kitchen and John loves me sooooo much that he will let me keep it.

Now how could you not love this chair?? Okay Amanda might be adding the flair to the chair. Such a bargin shopper so far I have my Purple flower print chair for FREE, my green chair for 13 bucks and now this Eggplant Purple Chair for FREE. My livingroom furniture that I paid lots of $$$$$ for I could leave on a corner for someone to take....

Movie Night

So tonight I went to the movie "Momma Mia". The movie critics are not giving it two thumbs up let alone 1 thumb up but we went anyway. It was great a summertime chick flick that you must call your girlfriends and go see it. When I left home tonight I wondered why I was leaving to sit in a building and watch a movie when it was so nice outside... I really hate being inside when it's nice. But I had a few raindrops on my windshield before I got there so I was all better. I will buy the DVD and watch again for sure. So for tonight's SPT I am using a photo I took in June (it's okay I can do that). Trying to get a silhouette by myself isn't that easy.... push button.... run..... jump, jump, jump, jump and then it takes just when I think it's not gonna work. So I use my remote... push the button, jump, jump, wave my arms, jump, jump and it takes when I'm on the ground looking like a dork or as John said a scarecrow. So in 50 attempts to get a outline of me jumping I have to settle for a cropped version of just my head and arm so I don't look like a scarecrow dork.

Hollyhock Update

Here's an update on the hollyhocks. I have a sign on my garden shed that says

"I shan't go to work today my hollyhocks are blooming"

There are red, burgundy, light and dark pink, cream, yellow, white, purple, black, pink with dark centers, peach... they are awesome!

Oh No!!

This morning I left early to go see more houses with Lynn and Jesse. The day started out kinda cloudy so I didn't think there was much to do outside so I might as well go with and have some fun looking through people's houses. When I returned I seen this tree down right on top of the flower beds. Now when did this happen?? I'm sure it wasn't there when I left but it wasn't windy today either.... I guess we now have work to do.

It made a nice little fort under the fence for Elly to play in.

Wedding day

Our niece Amber got married today. She was a beautiful bride, Ellyn thought she was a princess and wanted to touch her dress. This is her and her father Ron, walking her down the aisle. I never realized how much she looks like her Dad but wow this shows the resemblance. It was a nice sunny day, the wedding party was stunning and the dance caused sore feet and legs. It's so much planning and then in less than 12 hours it's all over.

Congratulations Amber and Nate, may your life together be filled with happiness.

My big bad Harley Boy

Or maybe not..... Jesse got a little bike for his business and they spent tonight trying it out. As you can see it is about as tall as John's knees but they managed to wrap their legs up and under it just to see how fast it would go. This bike is called a pocket bike..... we now know why.... when you break off parts as your test driving.... just pick them up and put them in your pocket! This bike was 5 hours of fun for 7 guys.

Here's Jesse's friend "J" as he speeds past the garage....

Almost

Just a neat picture for tonight.

My 2 men, a little chicken and me

Tonight we are going on about the 3 week with no grocery shopping.... hummmm what's for supper. I clean out the fridge of all the bad green stuff and there is nothing left. A little chicken breast from the night before and a onion. I ask my men... do you want me to con-cocked something with this chicken or Mac and Cheese??? They give me a look that says... they want Mac and Cheese. I don't I hate Mac and Cheese so I ignore them and start cooking. Well it's fabulous but could I do it again? Probably not

My 2 men also think I'm weird with taking pictures of everything... who cares, right?

This is what I seen tonight while eating our left over chicken surprise.... This is a man's hand and it's on the end of my little boys arm! Where did the cute littleness go? :(

Update on this man's hand above.... we get a call tonight.... "I hit a d...... cell phone dies. He calls back "I hit a deer, Where, On sunset and ..... cell phone dies. He calls back "I hit a deer, Are you Okay?, Yes but can you come here?, Yes did you call the cops?, No, Is it more the $500 damage, I don't know, Then you better call the cops, Okay but are you coming? My little man still needs us... I love it!! He's okay, the buck is not and his car.... well let's just say that this dirty garage hand needs to find another job.

Trip through woods

Tonight John mowed the trails at the hunting shack. This is his favorite thing to do in the summertime. If it's dry he's itching to mow trails... must be a guy thing. Well tonight he got them all mowed and then we went for a wheeler ride to check them out. The deer flies flew around his head by the millions and none bothered me. He swatted and swatted the entire time and my plump juicy blood legs stuck out for lots of blood sucking dinnertime and his tough ole' head is where they wanted to be..... I laughed the entire time. : ) Summertime you gotta love the bugs.

Chubby Fingers

This little sedum is from my sister Sharon, his name is "chubby fingers". I have shared him with lots of people and the thing I love is you can just rip off a finger, stick it in the ground and it grows.

Can it get any windy'er

Today is crazy with the wind. It started about Tuesday and has just gotten worse everyday. We went to Josh's ball games and the wind whipped the entire time. The day was sunshiny but we had to wear sweatshirts. After 6 hours of our faces being whipped by our hair we had had enough, tonight we are staying in the house watching the race. Of course I had to wander outside to see if I could capture the feeling of actually how windy it really is.

Check out the wind chime Adam dumpster dived for me at work.... someone through this out, can you believe it? Not much chiming going on since it's blowing sideways most of the time. The tree's leaves are looking stressed on the left side from the wind whipping them and the field in the back you can see the wind blowing to the right.

John had his towel for washing the truck on the clothes line.... I think it's dry!!

Paper thin petals

These are the poppies I have been trying to pull out before they bloom because once they bloom I'm sucked into their beauty and pulling them out isn't going to happen. They spread by their seeds and each flower has like one hundred million seeds which the next year will be a new plant and if I do the math in my head that will be 725,321 gazzillion new plants. That is why I must pull 725,320 gazzillion before they bloom and deal with the 1 gazzillion paper thin red and pink poppies.

Look at how the sun lite up their hairy stems.... how cool is that? Yellow lily behind them is called "Haydee".

Lily is here

Oh my gosh the lilies are blooming and they are brighter than ever. Gayle, Starla, Jeannie and I used to go to the neghboring town's garden tour, there was this one lady, who we have named "The Lily Lady" would bring her lily bulbs to sell. We snatched them up 4-5 at a time. We brought them because of their names or colors or just because and we only got 1 maybe 2 bulbs in the container for $4 a piece. Now I have a couple hundred dollars in my ground!! I'm sure their lilies are mulitpling as well as mine.... maybe we should have a fall bulb sale? Ahhhh probably not, I don't know how the Lily Lady did it year after year selling these fabulous flowers and having to grow another crop, I don't think I can. I may give flowers away to anyone willing to come over and take some off my hands but not many family or friends have ever walked away with a Lily Bulb. This one is called Tropical Fruit taken right after a light rain.

Looks good enough to just bite right into.

Island Dream

During our trip up north on the pontoon I took pictures of the houses/cabins we would buy if we had money that we didn't know what to do with. We'll call it our retirement house. Here's one that is on an island but the people built a bridge from the main land to cross over. Hummm from where I see it, this won't be my mid-life cottage or a retirement cottage. I guess we'll just call it a dream.

Wind whisping

The photography site I look through has been talking a lot about using the wind when taking photos, if the wind isn't blowing enough use a hair dryer for a little hair whisping over their face.... well when you live on the prairie like I do there is no hair dryer required as a matter of fact a little whisp isn't going to happen, it's full face hair or nothing. Can anyone remind me again why I'm growing my hair out, what's the reason?? If you ever drive by while I'm walking out here on the prairie this is what you'll see... good thing I have feet so you know which side is my front : )

More Sun

Lynn this one's for you....

where was he 5 years ago for your wedding??? He would have fit right in.

Another photo of a boat as the sun was going down, the lake is sparkling and the boat is silhouetted.

I have to go back to work tomorrow.... :(

Trip Up North

To end my vacation John and I went up with our wonderful neighbors to their cabin "Up North" for Sunday afternoon relaxing and Flee Market shopping on Monday. We floated on the pontoon for hours watching the eagles fly over the trees and above us. I decided at the last minute to take my camera and big ole' lens with.... however the big ole' lens needs a tripod on steady ground so on the water it was near impossible to take a sharp picture (I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the cocktails we had while floating). The pictures I am about to show you might take your breath away.... not because of the fine photography skills without a tripod but because of what looks like almost happened.

So we spot this eagle who has his feet stretched out as he is swooping down towards the water...

It looks like he's coming down for a fish, a mouse, a squirrel, a dog.... even the next blurry photo shows the determination in his head that whatever he is diving downward for he is going to grab with his gigantic claws and carry it up into the tree tops.....

As he gets closer to the water we spot the kids standing on the pier playing..... OMG he is plunging for kids... what do I do????? Keep snapping the pictures I might miss something....

I wonder if he could of picked one of those kids up? He did get super, super close to those kids but here he is swooping back up. I didn't attach the next picture at first but then thought you all might have nightmares if I left you hanging....

More flowers

Yellow Foxglove photoshoped with a plaster look.

4th of July

Today we have Ed and Jeannie's annual 4th of July party. For the past 4 years Jeannie has tried to set up the food outside by the big tree and it rains..... this year the food was set up by the tree, red paper lanterns hanging above with blue star ribbons streaming down blowing slightly from the warm breeze. The table were set up around the tree's trunk with white tablecloths decorated with blue star ribbons, flag plates, red white and blue jars to hold the silverware, and lots and lots of yummy food. Ed deep fried 2 turkeys, a few turkey nuts (yuck) and ice cream. The kids slowly got there dressed in red, white or blue running from person to person in excitement from the picnic, begging to go swimming in the pool. A game of bean bag and baseball with all willing participants..... well is that a good picture in your head? Good because I forgot my camera!! Yes I forgot my camera with all those perfect picture moments so the POTD is in spirit of the 4th of July but I really took it 2 years ago when I went to New York City with Starla, Gayle and Kristi. It's two of my favorite photos merged together.

Happy 4th

Hollyhock overload

So last year when I was part of the garden tour I bearly had any hollyhocks and this year I have hollyhock overload. I must have the old fashion bi-annual hollyhocks. I wasn't sure how to control them this spring when they were coming up everywhere so I decided to let them grow and see how they look. So here's your snapshot of them before they bloom and I'll make sure to update you again when they are much taller we have flowers, it should be very pretty with all the different colors.

Here is a picture from last years garden tour in the same area and as you can see there are no hollyhocks. The garden tour was June 30th.

Honeysuckle blossoms for a little color today, this is what's on the white fence in front of the garden shed on the first picture.

Flower Bed Rearranging

When I clean the house I rearrange the furniture all the time. It feels cleaner to me when I move the furniture and the change after it's done is well worth the time. Well outside it's no different... I rearrange my flowerbeds and plants at least one of them a summer. Today it was a bed by the back garage door. I didn't take a before picture (darn it) so I'll try to explain what it started out as. The bed was a large round area surrounded by rocks with a modge-podge of flowers. The bed is mostly shade due to the large pine tree. I started to dig this up Tuesday afternoon, removing all the plants that were there tossing the ones I wanted to put back in on the side and trying to find a new home for the others or throwing them in the garbage. Removed all the rocks and fluffing up the soil. I stopped due to a visit from my sister and other distractions through-out the night. This morning I started bright and early re-designing the bed. (Yes Starla the plants laid on the ground all night). She can't believe I'm so rough with my plants and they still live, it's toughen up in this yard or your done, and laying on the ground with your roots exposed all night is pretty darn tough. :) Here is the rearranged flower bed, it looks so much better to me now but every muscle in my body aches, gardening is really hard work.

I decided to put all the different varieties of Heuchera "Coral Bells" that I currently have in here. The line the front of the back bed and the sides of the center bed. I have 9 different varieties. Let's see if I can name them all "Firefly", "Dale's Strain", "Champagne Bubbles", "Ring of Fire", "Palace Purple", "Birthday Cake", "Foamy Bells", and 2 more that I threw the tags away and didn't write down the names (dang it).

Here's another picture just to show you the amount of color I have right now by the patio. The tall pink flowers next to the patio are Coral Bells "Firefly" that are very well established.

All day to do anything

I have vacation this week, the intent of my vacation was to stain and varnish the windows. Well that's not happening... John and I could not find the time to get to Menards to buy trim so I could get the stain (she wants to mix the stain and try it on our trim boards before we use it). So Monday John brings home scrap trim boards which will work fine (why didn't he think of this sooner?). Okay so today I run up town with the trim and samples of what color stain we want. The wood color we chose they don't have on hand.... they'll have to order it and it won't be here till Thursday afternoon. She'll have to mix and get our approval before 5:00 since she is leaving for vacation and the store will be closed for the next 6 days. Hummmm my vacation just became all about ME. Well let me tell you I have gotten so much stuff done and have a list a mile long to get done. The weather has been perfect for walks in the morning, digging, transplanting, weeding, cleaning and washing everything that isn't stapled down. Ya' gotta love vacations at home getting lots of work done, don't get me wrong I'd rather be bumming, swimming, shopping, drinking umbrella drinks on the beach.....