I Need A Vacation!

And I'm getting one. It doesn't seem like I've been back to work for 2 months. Well, okay I guess it does. My knees, foot and occasionally back let me know. Things are somewhat better but not gone by any means.

Our store is going through a remodel. Ugh! I never know what to expect when I show up at work. So far we've had Back-To-School/College, Toys and Clearance in my area. Household chemicals have been moved across the store for a bit, except for the mops, brooms, toilet tissue and paper towels.  Customers as well as workers are frustrated as some things get moved daily it seems like. Oh well. It will be a distant memory by the time the holidays come. At least that's what they tell us. Our Halloween stuff and even a few Christmas items have already arrived so we'll see.

I am taking 2 plus weeks of vacation soon that will help me avoid some of the hassle. Probably not enough though. I'm looking forward to the time off and being able to actually do something around here while I'm off. So many projects, so little time. I'm hoping to get the house back into some orderly fashion at least. I'll let you know how it goes.


Until next time.

Oh My Aching .....

Back, feet, knee, you name it, it hurts.

 I've been back to work for 2 weeks now and I'm definitely feeling it. Some things are better, others are slowly getting there as long as I don't irritate them again. Hard to do when you work in retail.

My reception back at work was tremendous. Although I never quite came up with a good reply to "Are you excited to be back?". Excited was not an adjective I could use in all honesty. I was glad to see most of my coworkers but that's about it. Of course the blazing HOT weather we've been having didn't make things any easier. We are suppose to get a bit of a cool down this week though so that will be nice.

Hopefully things continue to improve on all fronts.

Until next time.

I'm Doing Better.?

My leave from work is almost done so I figured I should do one more before that takes most of my time.

The second of my surgeries went well and both hands are doing better, until I fell and caught myself with the right hand. Ouch! It didn't do any damage but it has hurt more since. The cause of my fall was my own fault but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I think we'll just leave it at that.

I have decided that I really dislike Blue jays. I was out watching the Killdeer chicks run around and one swooped down and grabbed a chick and took off with it with the parents hot on its tail. Suffice it to say the baby Killdeer didn't make it. The parents have decided to nest again so hopefully these chicks will have a better survival rate.

We just helped celebrate our youngest grandsons 1st birthday. What a treat to watch these little guys grow and develop. The oldest grandson just turned 3 the end of May and the middle grandson turned 1 in Jan. Oh to have so much energy! And to be able to bounce back up after a fall. I definitely don't bounce anymore.

Our berry season was a big success. We opened the patch about 3 weeks early and are officially done for the season. It has been an odd weather year. We haven't had much rain at all and the temperature has been unusually warm. I think it's going to be a tough year for our garden.

Until next time.

Back Again

It's getting harder and harder it seems to keep up with posting but I will try to do better.

Things have been rather busy lately.

In October we held a benefit auction to raise money for our youngest son to go to a seizure clinic in CA. The auction and taco feed were a huge success! We appreciate the many donations of items, time, money and support.

In March I had the first of Carpal Tunnel surgeries. I'd been having an issue for years that was getting worse and decided it was time to do something about it. Surgery went well. Started on having the right one done first since that's what they recommended and recovery has gone well. Had the left hand surgery done on May 1st. That surgery went well and recovery is going better than the first one so that's encouraging.

We have such wonderful spring-like weather since February that everything is coming on early. We are opening our strawberry u-pick patch this weekend which is 3 weeks earlier than usual. We planted about 8000 new plants this last month and some of them are blooming already too. Unfortunately I think we're in for a long, dry, hot summer.

Because of the two surgeries I haven't been able to work outside during my time off from work like I would like but hubby has helped out with that some. He takes great care of me. In fact, he takes such great care of me he made me bacon, a favorite treat, the day of my second surgery. He completely forgot I couldn't have anything to eat until after surgery that afternoon and felt horrible about torturing me with the smell. I did eat it as soon as we got home though. It was so yummy. 

I've been enjoying the grandkids immensely. We see our youngest one the most because they live so close. One of the joys of growing older is grandkids! Such blessings.

                                                                       GG & Seb

Back From Sabbatical

My eldest daughter informed me the other day that it had been a year since I last posted. I couldn't believe it! But, she was right. I didn't intentionally take time off. It just sort of happened.

UPDATES:

About this time last year our other daughter and her hubby, along with the grandpups and grandkitty, moved back to the area from Idaho. WooHoo! God had planned everything perfectly, as He always does. The opportunity came up with some benefits, they soon found good jobs and within a month of their move they found out they were expecting! Grandchild #3 was on the way. Needless to say I've been in a state of bliss.

We welcomed Grandchild #2, a boy, in January to our youngest son and wife. They now have 2 sons, the eldest turning 2 in May. We then welcomed Grandchild #3 in June, another boy, our daughter and her hubbies first child. I'm having a ball being GiGi.

Some of the yard projects are still in the unfinished or planning stage but that's how it goes. We both still work full-time and I'm not in a huge hurry, obviously. The plants are doing well in the new bed. All 5 Rose of Sharon's bloomed this year. 3 are white, 1 is pink and 1 is purple. Also my 4 surviving Hibiscus bloomed. They are pink and white.

Our pond project has now expanded to 2 ponds with a flowing connection. We haven't quite figured out how that's going to work but it will be in the new bed.

Our berries did good this year. We planted raspberries again for next year. So far so good. Although the black variety we put in seems to have very small berries. We'll see if that changes.

That's all for now. I'll post some pics soon. Honest!

They're So Pretty . . . . Oh, So Pretty

Another success with flowers. It may not seem like a large feat to some of you but to me it's amazing. I only had a few new plants die on me this year. Yea!
Some of the successful  flowers are the Rose of Sharon. They're like a Hibiscus but can tolerate our climate a bit better. Although I did plant some Hibiscus too. More on those later, I hope. I planted 5 Rose of Sharon bushes along the back edge of the backyard and all 5 survived and 2 have bloomed.

They're both this color combination which is very pretty, but I like a little variety so I'm hoping the others are at least one or two different colors. They will grow to be a hedge along the backyard where we have a drop off and plan to put a retaining wall of some sort and a set of steps. I'm very pleased so far with how things are turning out. Only a couple casualties that I was able to redo. That's the backyard.

Alas, the front yard. That will be another entry as I am still trying to salvage what I can there.

They Live !!!!!!!

I've given some time before I updated on the hollyhocks so they could grow, bloom and be sure they didn't die off. It was touch and go for a while there when we had an extremely hot and dry July as well as part of June. They finally decided to get buds and open up.

There are several more that have buds but some of those plants are pretty small. All-in-all it was a good experiment and I did have fun with it. Now you know too that you can get the seeds to bloom the same year you plant them if you freeze them for a week first. Even those of you that don't live in a cold winter climate can grow hollyhocks if you want.

Now a picture update of some of the other plants I transplanted/planted this spring.

The lilac has never looked better. It didn't bloom this year but I'm hoping next year there will be an abundance of blooms.

Lilac

The exbury azalea is suppose to bloom and then get its leaves. I had it on the north side of the house so it would get leaves and then bloom while the leaves were still there. It's a deep orange color and should do it the right way next year.

Exbury azalea

These plants are doing very well, although the prunella had a bit of a rough start. When we got it through a mail order catalog it was no bigger than a shot glass. We got a set of 2. The other one is over by the lilac but not in the picture.

Fuchsia, Prunella,(foreground) Birch trees, and Yuccas (background)

This is one of the rose of sharon hedge bushes we got through the same mail order catalog as the prunellas. They are all doing well and I can't wait for their first blooms. It'll be next year though. We got 5 of these and spread them along the bank in the back yard.

Rose of Sharon hedge bush

I'm still working out designs and plans for the patio, pond and fire pit. I've found a few ideas I like but just not sure how to incorporate them here or together. There's always next year.