Front Garden

My husband is an awesome gardener. He planted this garden when we had our house built 4 yrs. ago. To the far left (almost out of the picture) is a Rose of Sharon tree that is totally covered with buds. Hopefully soon there will be purplish flowers all over it (if the beetles don't get to them first). I think the flowers look so beautiful this time of year!

Fun with Dad!

Japanese beetles....UGH!

To those of you who are unfamiliar with the ugly destruction of the Japanese beetle, this is our poor little cherry tree that had some of it's leaves chewed off by the deer in the spring. I was keeping it sprayed with deer off and then walked outside one day to see about 100 Japanese beetles on it. I sprayed the tree with Sevin, which I was told would kill all of them and all who came to eat afterwards. The next day there were several dead beetles under the tree, and new ones on the leaves...munching away. I sprayed again and we got beetle bags (2 have already filled up!). This morning I looked at that poor tree and there were these 2 mating beetles on it, and look at the poor tree. I am convinced that between these beetles and the deer, this tree will not live long enough to produce fruit.

Our Camping Trip!

Jake

Today I took Jake back to the vet because his coughing hasn't stopped (see his blog). I dropped him off this morning for a day of x-rays and tests. He is in the early stages of congestive heart failure and will need to be treated with medication for the rest of his life. There is no guarantee that it will work, but we are sure hoping it does. I thought I had everything under control when I picked him up at the vet this evening, but I broke down and cried while the vet was talking to me and showing me his x-rays. He has an enlarged heart, a murmur, his lungs were filling with fluid, and he is slowly losing weight. If the meds work it's possible we could have him for a few more years, yeah!

Seabreeze

Today was a very HOT day. Steven has been begging me to take them to Seabreeze Amusement Park, so today we went. Of coarse the water park was the most popular spot to be today. We did the soak zone, Lazy River, and water slides first (several times). Next we hit some other rides...the log ride, some roller coasters, bumper cars, the Yo Yo, the Screamin' Eagle, then it was back to the water park to play in the wave pool and more water slides. We had slathered on the sun screen, but still managed to get a little bit burned. It was a fun day! Check it out at http://www.seabreeze.com/

Boots?

Today I went to Target to buy Steven some sandals because I noticed his were on the small side. To my surprise, they only had a couple pairs left and they were the wrong size, so I asked an employee if they would be getting some more. He said, "No, we're actually getting boots in now for winter." I want to know who out there buys boots before summer has even officially begun? Winter is the farthest thing from my mind right now. Wouldn't it be nice if the stores had sandals on the shelves in the summer and boots on the shelves in the fall and winter? I did find a pair on clearance at Dick's, so I did find some. Good thing I looked today...tomorrow may have been too late!

No more school!

Well, the kids celebrated their last day of school Friday by burning many of their papers (I save their writing stuff). They have actually been saving their papers for the whole year so that they could burn them. They had a good time and are very relieved to have summer break to enjoy now. We look forward to visits from out of state friends and family, camping in a couple of weeks and also at the end of July. Hooray, summer!!

Steven's award

Congratulations to Steven for getting an award in Spanish for academic diligence! It was such a struggle for him to learn a foreign language. He almost dropped it (on recommendation of another teacher), but he stuck it out and kept his grade in the 90's the whole year. Hooray Steven, we knew you could do it!!

Ice Cream

Today Michael won 2nd place in a spelling bee so he won a coupon to bruster's for ice cream. After dinner tonight we went for our ice cream. They have some very yummy flavors. I got blueberry cheesecake, and Dave and Steven got fudge brownie. Michael (my plain boy) got vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. It was a beautiful evening, and fun to go out together after a busy day.

Summer Daze!

Oh those lazy, crazy days of summer! We're enjoying many warm days in the pool. The kids have 1 more week of school before summer break.

Where's your mommy?

A cute little baby deer was lying down today behind a little bench we have on our front step next to our house. The poor little thing was startled and ran when our neighbor came and rang our doorbell. I don't know where the mother was, but I hope they found each other. I told Dave I almost feel bad for spraying the cherry tree the other day...that really annoyed him.

Modest Beach Attire

I have never seen more modest beach attire than this. It looks like we scared everyone else away! This is us on vacation in Maine one summer.

Oh Deer!

For the last 3 or 4 days I've been saying to Dave, "I've gotta spray that cherry tree so the deer don't eat the leaves like they did last year." Well I didn't and this morning I walked out on the deck and noticed my poor little cherry tree....half eaten again. Waaaaaa!

New Slide Scanner

We got a slide scanner today. I was pleasantly surprised to see how good it worked! This is my brother, Dan. He was 11 yrs. older than me.

Me and Priscilla

This is me and Priscilla when we were about 3 and 4 years old. (If it looks a little blurry it's because I took a picture of a picture instead of scanning it.) A few times, a photographer came to our home and took our pictures. Martha must've been in school when this was taken.

Bike Ride

This evening after dinner the kids and I decided to take our 1st long bike ride of the season. It was such a beautiful day, with temperatures in the 80's. Aside from the fact that Michael's chain kept coming off we had a great time riding, and I feel well exercised for the day since after the ride I took a long walk with my hubby and our dog. Tomorrow will be much cooler with temps in the upper 50's or low 60's.
Does anyone know why a crabapple tree would begin to bud in the spring and then suddenly stop. We have 3 crabapple trees in our front island, 2 of them are covered with pink flowers and leaves now, but the one shown in the picture is sickly. ??

A weekend get away!

Tomorrow we will be leaving to visit my brother and sister in law in Amish Country for the weekend. They live in Ephrata, PA. It is a very pretty area. We don't see them too often, and I always look forward to visiting them.

Today the sun shone brightly so I felt like cleaning again! Maybe soon we'll finish painting our family room and do the stone fireplace too. Well, I cleaned and then took a walk in the woods with Dave and our dog, Jake. I forgot to bring my camera so I have no pictures. We let Jake off his leash though, which he absolutely loved. He also got VERY muddy feet. Beautiful day!! I love it when I'm somewhat productive! I even bought some strawberries for strawberry shortcake tonight, YUM!

Feeling like a slug

Lately I've been feeling a bit sluggish about doing a whole lot of housework. Tomorrow I need to get on it!!