Tablescape

Here is our Mexican inspired kitchen with our china to match.

Just had to take a picture cause it looked so pretty (and it was clean)!

Butterfly Bush

My new favorite thing is to take pictures of the butterflies with my new camera and zoom lens.

Here, there are 3 butterflies: 1 brown on flower, 1 yellow, and 1 brown coming in for a landing.

Lucy Update

Lucy's surgery Thursday went fine. They called to say she did great and I was ready to go get her! But I had to wait till 5:30. Anyway, we were told to keep her calm and quiet. No running, jumping, or anything to get her excited. She has 6 stitches in her rear with 3 on each side. The vet (who is wonderful) said her glands looked very abnormal and we made the best decision to have the surgery done. I was excited that it didn't cost as much as they thought it would be and was well worth it. So as you can see, there has been a lot of sleeping and being lazy around here. We had her out in the yard while we finished the flower bed yesterday and she slept under Hunter's truck the whole time.

This is what they do while I blog! She did come home with an E-collar (aka lamp shade) which she hates. I don't make her wear when she is with me. I did put it on her while I took a shower and she just stood in the same spot in the bathroom the whole time. She won't sit or lie down...kinda funny. They when I opened the door, she ran into the door (due to the collar) and then kept hitting my leg with it. She lets me know she wants it OFF!
Hopefully this will be the end of her misery. The stitches come out in 10 days. Until then, we will continue 2 pain meds and her antibiotic. She's been getting lots of peanut butter with all the pills and has pumpkin pie filling with her food to soften her stool.

Flower Power

Last weekend we went to a nursery sale and racked up on some great deals. We bought 17 plants, which I learned equals 17 holes we (aka Hunter) gets to dig. We have the two beds in the back we cleared out and a new one we built in the front. Here is our stash.

This was the start to the bed Hunter built in the front to cover the sewage outlet thing. We reused these pavers that were in the back yard beds to save money, but didn't have enough to finish the bed. Only to find out they don't make then this size anymore and the color of a new brick is much brighter. Go figure!
After working all week, we finished the bed last night. Here is the final product with the bought brick on top. Hopefully it will fade in color or the plants with cover it as they grow.

Bed includes: 2 pink carpet roses, 3 loropetalum, 2 day lillies, one butterfly bush, 20 bought brick, and ~40 old brick.

It looks great! Hunter did a wonderful job with the brick laying and making sure everything was level and I designed where and what flowers were planted.

Now I hope we can keep it alive!

A Cookie Cutter Dinner

OK I normally don't share my culinary creations, but I think this one is neat.

The one thing I always said I wanted from my grandma's house after she passed away was her doughnut cookie cutter. Grandma used to whip me some dough and I'd sit on the little white stool in the kitchen and play for hours. The neat part about it was the middle could come apart cut circles or click back in to make doughnuts. I'm sure it was a tactic to keep me still so she could cook dinner and I'd end up eating most of the dough! So her cookie cutter got thrown away with all the cleaning up that went on, but I still wished I have that one piece for my memories. Well, Aunt Marilyn found one and gave it to me for a wedding present. I am so excited to have it and even though it is not Grandma's it is just like it. I know Mom looked everywhere for one and I'm so thrilled to have one just like the one I used to play with. Thank you so mush for all the searching it took to find one. I sit it next to my shelf of recipe books (yes, I use them) and think of Grandma often and all of her wonderful cooking!

So I told that story to tell this one...

Hunter's Grandma Carol makes us Egg in Toast almost every time we visit in Hilton Head. It's her specialty! I personally love her waffles too! Anyway, one night last week we couldn't decide what to have for dinner and neither one of us was very hungry. So I made Egg in Toast using my Grandma's cookie cutter and Grandma Carole's recipe.

Told you it was a neat story.

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday J1! Thanks for having us over for such a fun night!

A close up of our shoes. Really I just needed tall shoes so my jeans would be off the ground!
Jessica's house is always decorated perfect for every occasion. I wish I had more pictures of their decor.
Jason, J1, J2, and Hunter.

Hunter does like my big girl shoes, because it makes me taller than him :)

Lucy's Surgery

Lucy is having surgery today. I had to drop her off this morning and I can't pick her up until 5:30! It is so quiet around the house without her! Not like she makes much noise, but I miss her company when I'm her by myself. She has been having some issues with her anal glands. After trying Benadryl and Claritin, surgery was the next option. The vet gave me a choice of a round of Prednisone, but Claritin made her eat like a horse, that I knew Prednisone would be worse. The vet will so a laser surgery that is less invasive and will ablate the area and solve her problems for life. I've never heard of dogs having this problem, but from friends I have talked to, it seems to be more common in females. So hopefully after today, all of her butt-scooting will be over. Funny how I always thought that was just a trick some dogs could do.

Found this shirt for her at Target (in the $1 bin) and couldn't resist to get it for her. I wonder if she looks miserable because of her issue or because I made her pose for a picture in it?

Quick Update

Sorry I haven't been very good at posting lately. We've been busy around here. Working 10hr days is taking some getting used to. I come home and before I know it, it's 9:00 and we are just eating dinner. If I don't like it now, I know 12hr days are coming soon.

Hunter has been busy with work and inventory this week. He has added Facilities Manager to his resume as of this week. He has been going in early and coming home to work on the flower bed. I'll have pictures up soon. Now I gotta go clean up because Haley and Mike are coming over for dinner. We are having the dolphin that Hunter caught a few weeks ago. Haley took her LSAT Monday and Mike has been taking EMT classes. So this is like a celebration to the start of their summer. No more tests for them!

Yard Work

Our chore this Saturday was to clean up the flower beds in preparation for some new planting and redesign.

Here are the before pictures (taken before we moved in)

The Stats:

loads of the wheelbarrow full of bark: 7

# of pavers: 36

Gatorade breaks: 4

Temp: 94

Heat Index: 96

Trips to the dump: 1 (a saga of its own!)

Here are the after pictures

It looks so much better already! We still have more beds to clean out, but this is a great start. We hope to do some planting in the next few weeks.

Trip to the beach

We have made our tour of the coast these past few weekends. For Memorial Day weekend, we went to visit Hunter's grandparents in Hilton Head. We attended the Hilton Head Memorial Day Service inclusive of a wonderful guest speaker and 4 jet fly-over.

We spent this past weekend with Terri, Billy, Will, and Sydney in Myrtle Beach. Hunter took a couple days off work and we had a GREAT time. Thursday we went to see Will's last baseball game for the season. He played great and his team won. Hunter and Will also practiced pitching and batting before we went. It was neat to see Hunter's curve ball and to see his interaction with Will. Great future parenting skills! Will played left field and was up to bat twice.

Here is our future photographer ready for the action.
Will at bat.
On second base

Billy was in a fishing tournament and invited Hunter to go out with them Friday. So at 8:30 pm we took a trip to Bass Pro Shop for a fishing shirt (if you have one, you know how great they are) and fishing shorts, and a salt water license. Terri kept telling him he didn't have to buy anything, that he could wear Billy's. But if you had seen how his face lit up like a kid at Christmas, you knew he wanted to buy a fishing outfit! He was so excited to get to know, and I was excited for him. The down-side was that he had to be in the driveway to leave at 2:15 am. I'm sure he didn't mind one bit!

The Catch: No big marlin, but 8 dolphin

Hunter and Will on the dock

Hunter's Catch of the Day.

Here is Sydney and Ann (Billy's Mom). Check our Sydney's new braces!

Saturday we enjoyed a nice, sunny day at the beach. That night Billy grilled dolphin and Terri made greasy beans, rice, and corn bread. It was great to see everyone again! I really got to know their friends after living with them back in October. Thanks for a great trip and we hope to be back really soon. Next trip: Hard Rock Park!

Baby Lu

Lucy enjoys her car rides very much. She thinks she can drive, but doesn't watch the road very well.