A Dozen Years!

Eric and I celebrated 12 years of marriage last weekend. Holy cow! Well, sometimes it feels that long and other times I think we're still kids...not "we HAVE kids"! Chuck and Cheri are always so great about watching the kids for a few days (we are very spoiled with all our parents!), so off we went to our current fav B&B in Lawrence.

Now, since the kiddos weren't with us, we didn't really think to use the camera to catch some of the sights of our retreat...but you're not missing much unless you count the movie theatre and the gunk that fell from the trees onto our car parked in the street. The muddy disc golf course was challenging and the shopping on Mass street fun...but again...no snaps. So here's just us before we left the Halcyon House to go home.


And, 12 years prior, the happy couple looks ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime...oooor not.
Let me explain. After the ceremony, the photographer ushered us in to cut the cake in the reception hall, then back into the sanctuary for an hour-long, unorganized attempt to take a picture of every single family member with us. I had cried during our vows (fear? joy?) so most of my make-up was gone and Eric, well, let's just say he was less than pleased that he was missing 1. more cake 2. all the guests as they were leaving instead of hanging around! Can't blame them. But nonetheless, several of our pictures towards the end of the day looked like this and it also happened to be the only one I could find in iPhoto...I'm not so ambitious to whip out the scanner and the wedding albums for the sake of the blog!

Last year, I think we went on an anniversary date...I know we went to Ace Hardware at least, as this is the pretty columbine Eric bought for me. I love it!!


One way or the other, we ARE surviving the adventure of marriage and I couldn't me more thankful to God for my wonderful, caring, kind and fabulously HOT husband!! Love ya Babe! And here's to several dozen more years!

I was going to quit....

So I decided yesterday that I'd go on a blogging sabbatical...considering I only write every now and then, it really wouldn't be that big of a change. But then I started messing around with our recent photos as seeing that I'm not getting to scrapbooking anytime soon...back to blogging I go!

The following pix are from around our home the last few weeks. Everything continues to be green and lush and there are still many blooms around! It won't be too long, I'm afraid, before the humid heat gets to me enough to curb my forays into the outdoors realm and things may get a little out of hand in the flower beds!

These are new this year...three baskets hung on our deck shade panel to be my herb garden! So far I've only used a bit of thyme and rosemary, but hope to enjoy the whole variety this summer. We had another robin nest in the lattice this spring. Only one baby made it to fly on it's own...we're not sure what happened to the other one :(


Year two for the square foot gardening experiment. The strawberries are gung-ho and we've enjoyed several little snacks with many more to come this week! First thing every morning Elena is out the door to check on the berries. Kai is excited that his peas have sprouted...not that he LIKES peas, mind you. But when he saw the package of seeds in the store it immediately became very urgent that he grow them!


Here's a great sampler bouquet that me and the kiddos plucked yesterday. My iris are about done, but the dark purple ruffled one is just awesome!


Here's a close up of that regal purple beauty:



This isn't our yard...but one of the gardens from the Johnson Co. Master Gardener's tour that we took my mom on for Mother's Day! The kids loved all the ornaments like this huge frog. I think we'll have to get some more around here.

Weeeelll, not exactly a flower, but this IS in our yard. This is our disc golf goal that I got Eric for his birthday. We love having it in the back yard to practice putting...and a great way for E to decompress after work by tossing a few discs. BTW, I made one from the deck on one of my first tries...it took him 3 weeks. Who's the woman?




Elena & Eric gave me this clematis on my first Mother's Day. It's fab and is right at our front entrance. I need a taller trellis as it is barely hanging on to some nylon netting I tacked up above the metal trellis currently there.


Peony, sweet peony! Wow, they are just beautiful. I transplanted this from Mom's yard when we first moved in. This one is out front and there is a just-as-gorgeous white one on the west.


Ah, my poor North-side shady bed. I really hate it and considered ripping it out in favor of turf (yes, more grass...gasp! I can't believe I thought that) this spring. BUT instead, I ripped out all the vinca and lots of the overrun ground cover, thinned the hostas and bought some evergreen bushes to lend year-round structure to the view. Much better. Actually almost pleasing when I step out back now! Yay.

This is the view from my kitchen sink window. I love it for more than one reason...white iris, my new berm bed and best of all...that little munchkin in view! (Now do you see why I don't need more grass?)

Spring! Finally!

Ahhhh, the week I wait for all winter...iris in full bloom, peonies beginning to pop open with magnificantly large blossoms, clematis shining (M~mind out of gutter, please) and rose buds on the verge of bursting!!! There is color everywhere in my flower gardens and I just love it!

Now, typically I would spend about an hour now uploading some of the pix Eric, the kids and I have been taking this week, but instead I'm about to head back into the kitchen. It's a wedding weekend so instead of admiring the first rose blooms on my back fence, I'm crafting 30-some pink roses from gumpaste...they are perched on their little toothpicks and stuck in a piece of styrofoam on my dining room table. I have about 10 to go and one more batch of cake to bake so I'm off! Go see my sissie's blossoms on her blog if you want some pretty garden pix....here. Later, R

Happy Mother's Day

To all you mom's and all those who mother even without kiddos, here's a cute story my friend Sonja posted on our mom's group email loop:

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

by Kathy Fictorie
based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff


Love it! And most likely, it probably was inspired by one of the sequels to the mouse/cookie book called "If you Give a Moose a Muffin"...I've blogged about the significance of that book before in my Moose post a year ago...click HERE if you want to read for kicks :) .

I'll wrap up this post with the sweetest little mother's day gift Kai gave me today (w/out even knowing he was doing so): Early this morning, Kai came into the office and said to me, "Mom, will you come sit on the couch with me so I can love on you?". Now who could resist such a request? (Sure glad I have a laptop!). Hee hee! ~Resa