Summer's Here!

I can hardly believe that June is almost over! This month has absolutely flown by. I am getting some things done around the house but it is taking me so much longer than I thought it would. Why does that always happen?
This is just a short post today - no pictures or anything - sorry, I know - how boring!

Sunday was Father's Day but it also would have been my mom's birthday - she would have been 61. There are so many days even still that I can't believe she is gone. Five years have gone by and so much has changed in my life and although I know she is smiling down on me from heaven I can't help but wish she was here. As I get older and see how much I am just like her I smile. To me, being like my mom is a compliment. She taught me to be who I am today.

My birthday is next week and this is always a good time to make some plans for the next year in my life. Lots of things on my mind - actually lots of things have been on my mind for awhile and right now I'm just trying to get things down on paper and going to make a plan.

Doug and I are taking a trip to Italy in the near future and I just know when I get back I'll be refreshed and ready to get my plans off the ground.

Still working on projects around the house but no pictures to show just yet. Doug took me shopping this weekend and bought me an iPad! Yay Me! He also bought me a new Coach bag for our trip along with a cute crab key chain, a new pair of sneakers, tea and two insulated tea cups from an awesome tea store at the mall, and some facial moisturizer that I wanted. It was such a fun day of shopping!
Saturday was Rachel's 2nd birthday party and what a party it was! There was a cotton candy machine, ponies, a jupiter jump and a balloon making magician!
Rachel is eating her cotton candy *AND* riding a pony at the same time - sweet to be a 2 year old, isn't it?


In the back yard I have a few birdfeeders and a hanging planter on the fence. When the feeder ran out of food I looked out the window to see this:

I made him nervous when I walked outside with my camera.

Teddy goes crazy when he sees squirrels - of course it doesn't help when we yell, "There's a skirr!" or sometimes we say "A scuzz!" He loves to chase the "skirrs" off the birdfeeders. He comes back feeling so proud.

Finally, I was scheduled to have a craft night at my house this Friday but unfortunately we are going to have to postpone it for a week or so. I did get one crafty project finished and am working on a couple others. Seems like just when I get things sort of organized up there, I start a few new projects and mess things up again.

Keeping Busy

I've been thoroughly enjoying my time off from work and trying to get my huge list of stuff accomplished this month. Is it bad to say that I don't miss work at all?
I'm making progress although maybe a little slower than I had hoped. I'm going to go easy on myself and allow myself to enjoy life a little.
We've been trying to eat a little healthier so on Sunday, Doug grilled some veggies and made absolutely *DELICIOUS* portabello mushrooms on the grill. Oh, the flavor! They were fabulous. Doug is a very good cook and I love when he cooks for me.

I've been working hard at putting a garden in the backyard. It's alot of work to start a garden from scratch but it is coming along. The problem is that is has been so incredibly hot here the last week or so and it has made it a little difficult to work outside for too long but I'm getting there. You can see one of the bags of dirt in the picture. The soil in the back yard is kind of compact and clay like so we actually have to go and buy garden soil. Hopefully my plants are going to grow - that would be awful to do all that work and then have everything die.
I've also picked out mostly plants that butterflies and hummingbirds love. I've had a few hummingbirds at my feeders already and I've spotted on butterfly. Once word gets out about my flowers I'm sure they will start flocking to my backyard. ;)


I've got myself a little helper. He provides moral support, company and he even helps me with digging. Good Boy!

Despite the heat, I have been slowly working on cleaning out the garage - again - it is so hot I have to take it a little at a time. Plus, there are these huge red and black wasps that keep trying to dive bomb me so that kind of slows me down since I have to keep running out of the garage like a crazy lady.
Next Friday night I'm having some friends over for a craft night so the pressure is on to get my craft room finished. The last two days I have been painting shelves for that room and I'm getting excited to get everything in place. I need to ask Doug to hang one of my ribbon shelves and put my TV on the wall. The reveal is coming soon! Yay!!

Happy June!

Yesterday was my first official day of unemployment. Honestly, it was kind of weird not running to the computer to check my emails, waiting for the phone to ring with a problem, running up to the office to put out fires - but it was so nice!
I've got a plan to get my entire house in order this month. Yesterday, I cleaned our room, scrubbed the master bathroom until it sparkled and washed the windows inside and out on the back side of the house. I LOVE clean windows. Dirty windows bring me down and I feel so much accomplishment when they are clean.

My original plan was to clean the garage this week but I don't think that is going to happen - not this week anyway. The weather has suddenly turned to temps in the mid 90's with amazing humidity. There is no way I can get out there right now. So, it *will* get done but it is going to have to wait. Next week is looking more promising with temps in the 80's.

I did take some before pictures so I will be sure to share them along with the after pics. Which reminds me - you are going to want to see the organization of my craft room. It's almost done! Just a few more things to do and I will be posting pictures of that one too.

Off to get more stuff done. Have a great day!