Memorial Day

We're tenting tonight on the old Campground.
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home,
And friends we love so dear.

Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight,
Tenting tonight,
Tenting on the old Campground.

It was a long, busy, and full weekend. And I loved it. Friday I made some strawberry jam and relaxed. The jars must not have gotten wiped off enough, because I had to wash the outsides with soapy water again to keep the ants away... ick. Nasty creatures.

Saturday morning I headed to Champaign to help Gab and Brian paint their new old house. It's so cute... I loved it. Why can't there be houses like that in Tremont?? Gorgeous wood floors, open staircase, lots of windows, great trim work... *sigh* I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous. Hehe. Anyway. It was a lot of fun. It was good to spend time with them and help out. Yay for painting. Gab was being a stickler and wouldn't let me get up on a ladder... and we used low VOC paint. *eyeroll* Hehe. (You know I love you, Nurse Gab!) And then I went and ate supper with Amber and Sarah and Sydney. Always good times at the Dojo.

We went to Washington for church Sunday... Rita's family was here... and we of course had to join the crowd of people who wanted to meet Tyler. Poor guy. Hehe, he has no idea what he's getting himself into. The weather got really nasty that afternoon and they decided it would be a good day to do a tornado drill. Never a dull moment over there. :) We stopped at the farm to drop off the latest KS shipment and then we went home for a little bit before we went to Bob's parent's for supper.

Monday I slept in... I don't think I could have made it to any Memorial Day festivities if I tried, I was so tired. We were home being bums all day. It was so nice, and I even got to sit out in the sun for a little bit! I read my new book.... Gustav Stickley's 'Craftsman Homes and Bungalows'... I know I shouldn't feed my addiction but, but, they're just so cool. *sigh* I get it honest, Dad usually has a few house plan magazines laying around. And it doesn't help that we live right next to a beautiful two story bungalow that's in great shape. Anyway. I grilled steak for supper for the sake of being an American. And put a first coat of paint on the new dresser. Good times.

Blessings.

Projects

It's been a quiet week. Last night I went to Suzanne's baby shower... fun times. Otherwise, not much going on. I'm excited for the long weekend!!

So this is how I've been occupying myself in the evenings... this is also what happens when I freak out about having nothing to wear.... please ignore my aversion to ironing.

I fell in love with this fabric.


Basic black. And I kind of made up the pattern sooo... it's a wonder it turned out.


I already redid the hem on the khaki one once.... it looks better now.

Basic white. And I didn't realize how straight the pattern was. I'm really more of an A-line kinda girl.

I love this color blue. And I must confess it's a pretty good copy of a skirt of Gab's that I've coveted forever... hehe.


And my favorite. Shelly and I used to have blue and red skirts like this that we made from skorts. Now they sell the fabric and it's tons easier....



And then one night, Bob asked why I wasn't "knitting baby booties or something" sooo.... I crocheted a hat and booties. It took me a while to remember how to crochet.

Now I just need to repaint a dresser, finish my quilt club quilt from last year, and work on the one I got fabric for today.

Blessings.

Seafood and Hail

I'm always so tired after the weekends...

Friday Bob decided we should go to Red Lobster for supper, which was great. I was excited to discover that they now have lobster bisque on their menu... plus cheddar biscuits... yum. We don't get out much. :D

Our new water heater got hooked up Saturday morning! It was very exciting and it's really nice to actually have to mix some cold water in with the hot water in the shower. Good riddance to the boiler. I went to quilt club and stopped at the car wash and swept out my car for the first time in a very long time. (There were still pine needles in the trunk from hauling our Christmas tree home.) And then I spent the rest of the afternoon weeding the patio and mulching my flower beds.

Saturday evening I went to Wendi-with-an-i's testimony. Three skirts later and barely making it on time, it was a blessing. I got to meet Ellie's fiancee... they're so cute.

We were getting ready to brave the rain and run out to our car on Sunday after church... and it started hailing. So we spent a little bit longer at church watching it come down. Bob picked some up in our yard after church- they're good size!


I don't think it hurt my garden, the trees took the brunt of it. Obviously, since my nice clean patio and flower beds are now full of leaves.

Green growing things... I love spring.

Oooooooo, and the big news in our family- Abby's getting married!! Yay! Hooray for cousins and weddings and getting to marry old friends! I'm excited to 'officially' meet Tyler...

The Ants Go Marching

All over my kitchen. ick. The ground needs to dry out, and fast.

The question is: do I squish every single one that I see, or do I leave them alive so they can find the ant bait and take it back and destroy their entire families? mwahahaha. It is slightly more satisfying to squish them and mutter something like, 'go back to the shadow...'

*grin*

Blessings.

Oh we ain't got a barrel of money...

*grin* Nothing like plugging numbers into formulas and online calculators to depress a girl...

Anyways, we've been busy the last few days. Friday evening I went to Gab's personal shower and Bob went to Brian's bachelor party/cookout/ smoke out (they grilled inside a cabin and he came home smelling like a chimney). I was about to walk out the door when the deluge started, and I had such a fun time driving in it, or something. Once I got there it was all good and I had a lot of fun. Fabulous food, fun decorations, and I got to see a lot of girls that I just never see anymore. And the infamous lacy pink shorts from 709 days have a new home... hehe.

Saturday morning I got up and started making bread for potluck and then we went to look at a house... this is the first one we've been through that the owners are still living there. Which was a little weird and I felt like such a snoop opening kitchen cabinets, closet doors, and checking out pictures on the fridge... Jakey came over for a little bit in the afternoon and played games with Bob. And then we went to potluck, which was great fun as always.

Young Matt graduated on Sunday so we went from church to the graduation, picked up cupcakes, and then out to his graduation party. Long day. Graduation was short, sweet, and thankfully not hot! I don't think I've ever had to bring a coat to graduation before. I had fun listening to the band... the clarinets were having issues (as clarinets always do) until the trumpets saved the day during Pomp and Circumstance. *grin* I don't have any residual bias. The speeches weren't anything special, but then, nothing can quite compare to Nick's Styx speech, or Ned's sermonette on Corinthians 13. I was so tired after the party...

Blessings.

very warm for may...

It's May, we're not supposed to need the air conditioning yet.... mur. And the birds should be done trying to build nests in our windows! *sigh* It's been a busy week. :)

I've gotten a few seeds planted outside. And I took a walk one evening up to Joann's and came home with a sack full of rhubarb. I haven't had time to make anything with it yet...

Dang came for supper Tuesday. I used the grill for the first time this year! It still works and it's critter free, which is good. And I made strawberry shortcakes, which is pretty much second only to ice cream on a hot night.

I got lost trying to get to Heidi's from work... well, only sort of lost. Farmdale is not well marked between EP and M-ton and so I made a big circle. Ah well. I made it eventually.

Bob got all new tires last week... and then one of them was flat on Monday. um... what!? Can't say I'm all that impressed with the Honda service department....

*Grin* And Bonsai-San got his yearly shower. He's all clean and dust free now. And we've decided that anthropomorphizing house plants can be slightly awkward. But fun.

Blessings.

Muttertag

So apparently we had a very boring week, since nothing at all happened that was deemed blog worthy... which I love. *grin*

Yeah, so Friday evening we took supper to Greg and Mary and kids, which was really fun. I realized when we got there that it was a very monochromatic meal... oops. Aren't you supposed to avoid that? Or is that just something I'm weird about? O well, it all tasted ok, which is the important part. It was so nice out! We got to play with Max and Nora outside... I was a little jealous that they got to stomp in mud puddles.

Saturday I slept until I woke up... which was fabulous, and I won't tell you how late it was. :D And then I kept busy all day cleaning and weeding and other random things that I've been putting off. Hooray for lovely days.

And then Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day plus a wedding at church. It was packed. I'm not overly fond of crowds, even though there were lots of people I know visiting. The yg served lunch... and I waited a table second shift... it was crazy busy. My parents stopped by on their way to the reception. I was showing mom the dresser we got that still needs painting and a large spider ran across it. Aaaaaaa so scary. It was a very close call and I almost died, but thankfully Bob killed it and life was good again. And then I got the Sevin out and sprayed the threshold and around the windows. We went to Howard and Janice's for hamburgers that evening, yay for cookouts!

Blessings.

Spring Bliss

We had a good weekend.

Friday night we made a slightly spur of the moment trip to Champaign for supper. We had a gift certificate to The Ribeye from our wedding. Two years ago. Yeah... So we decided it was high time we used it. I love the drive to C-U and I'm not sure why. There isn't really anything interesting to look at. Maybe it's just the wide open spaces... or the destination. Anyway, the steaks were great and we even got chocolate and peanut butter pie. So good. (Thanks BDY and JNell!)

It was a lovely night. I don't think any campus can compare to U of I in the spring. We didn't want to stay super late since Bob had to be up early Saturday morning, but we did wander up to Grainger to see Jakey for a few minutes. ("You drove to Champaign just for supper?" hehe)

Bob went and helped with a roofing project Saturday and I went to the garage sales. Sort of. I didn't buy anything, it was mostly just an excuse to wander all over town on a beautiful day and check out people's houses up close. :) Then I went home and mowed, and pulled weeds, and re-potted some plants, and spent as much time outside as possible.

And then Sunday afternoon we went mushroom hunting. So wonderful. We went with Ben and Dale south of the Mackinaw. It was a little bit chilly, but still really nice out. And the woods were full of wild flowers. There's a small creek that runs through the woods at the bottom of a steep ravine. Bob and Dale and I were on one side and we wanted to go to the other side... yeah. I got about halfway down on my feet and slid the rest of the way. So much for not wanting to wash jeans this week! O well, I was just glad that Dale was at the bottom to stop me from going into the creek. Wet shoes would not have been a fun time. We didn't find very many mushrooms, only about a dozen between all of us, but we can't really eat that many anyway so I was happy. Our take:

I sauteed half in plain in butter and breaded and fried the rest. So.Good. And we had chicken crepes since I made way too many German pancakes for breakfast... happy accident. :D

Pretty sure I could handle a whole year of spring weekends....

And I hear my friend Ellie's getting married. Aaawwwww. *grin*

Blessings.