Sweet Ride

It has finally come the time to start moving some of the bigger things into the new shop. Last weekend, we got the Camaro out of storage at the neighbors. The kids and I washed and shined it up and then Daddy gave them their first ride in a '69 Camaro.
They were super excited to get to ride in the front seat! I am normally the car seat and seat belt Nazi but since there are no belts in the back seat, I opted for letting them both ride in the front with a lap belt (plus it is only about a mile to the shop). And by golly, they were EXCITED! Audrey kept saying they got to ride in the 'banana car'!
I was right there behind them {snapping pictures one handed} to document the big event. I know, I know! I was not the pillar of safety on this very day which is ironic because my title is 'Corproate Safety Analyst' at the utility company I work for!
I did capture some pretty cool shots though :)
As Daddy was snuggling the car safely into it's new home, the kids and I found a tree frog sunning himself on the concrete. The kids thought it was so cool that he could turn from green to gray and back to green again.
Grant is like me...loves to play with frogs and toads. Audrey, on the other hand, is not so sure about them. She was acting all tough and wanted to hold him but the minute Grant handed the frog to her she would drop it flat on the concrete. Poor thing probably had brain damage after that!
Maybe, just maybe her reaction to the frog had a little something to do with this...
I think it went something like this: "What Audrey? You want the frog? Okay, I'll give you the frog!"

She did end up finding her comfort zone in the end... arms length will do just fine for this little dumplin'!
Yesterday I spent the ENTIRE day emptying out the kids' room, cleaning and then putting it back together. I did manage to bag up 3 garbage bags of toys and the kids didn't even notice. Their room looks so much bigger now that it is rearranged. Now it is all ready for Grant's new bed. Still can't decide if we are going to go with bunk beds, if I should get a twin for Grant for now. Bunk beds scare me a little but they are so convenient and space saving.
Today we spent the day cleaning more stuff out of the garage. Sheesh, do we have LOTS of JUNK! It feels so good to get things cleaned out and organized though!
The count down is on to Kindergarten too. Grant starts on Tues but it is more of an orientation day. I go with him from 10 to noon and that is it for the day. I took the whole day off so we can have lunch after and spend some special time together before the all day every day stuff starts on Wed. {sniff, sniff}
Hope everyone is enjoying their long holiday weekend! Happy Labor Day!!

Poor Punkin' {and a funny story}

My poor little punkin' got an owie at daycare yesterday.
Apparently, she walked in front of a little boy that was swinging and got a shoe to the face. Actually, it is the little boy named Boone whom she calls her boyfriend.
Actually, here is a picture of the cute couple from back in June at our little town's festival, Spunktacular Days. Aren't they adorable together!
The poor little guy felt so bad, this morning when I dropped the kids off at daycare, he almost had tears in his eyes when he was telling me it was an accident. He said, "I gave her a hug and told her I was sorry." What a little sweetie :)
It doesn't seem to be bothering her much, though. She really didn't know there was a scab or that her eye was swollen until last night when she was brushing her teeth. She looked in the mirror and asked what happened! I told her it was from when Boone's foot hit her and she replied, "Well, I'm gonna tell on Boone!" Funny how easily they forget!
For those of you who are my facebook friends, this was my awesome GW (Goodwill) find!
Can you believe this was only $6.99!?! Now we have to clean out the kid's room so we can find a home for this little beauty!
In other completely unrelated news, I have a funny story to tell you. This little guy says some of the FUNNIEST things you could ever imagine! We call the funnies 'Grantisms'.
His most recent one came tonight and went a little something like this: I asked Grant what he did at his last day of daycare before Kindergarten starts next Tues. His reply was, "Well, we played cars, we played computer, we went outside and swinged and played in the sand, we got stoned...oh, and we ate brownies." I about fell off my chair! Duke and I looked at each other and had to bite our lips to hold back laughter. Once I composed myself, I asked him what 'stoned' meant and he said, 'It's when you get all dusty and dirty from playing in the dirt." The brownies were the treat that WE brought to share for it being his last day of daycare. I promise, they were just plain brownies!
Some day he is going to laugh his kiester off when I share this story with him and I am going to keep giggling to myself for years to come!

Before & After - Plants

Thought I would share a couple of Before & After pictures of my plants from this summer. I have what some would call a minor addiction to flowers and have now got the itch to start to garden but since it is a good possibility that we will build a new house at our land within the next year or so, I haven't been inclined to till up a portion of our yard here. So instead, I did a little container gardening this summer. Only some tomatoes, peppers and cilantro. You know...the good stuff that goes into Texas Caviar. YUM!
These are my pepper plants back at the end of May.
And here they were in July! Lisa, if you are reading, those were the beauties I gave to you :)
And here were the tomatoes at the start of summer (and Grant's Maple Trees)
And here they are in July as well. They still didn't even have tomatoes on them yet, just flowers. I did 4 roma plants (good for fresh salsa) and 4 cherry tomato plants. My dog LOVES to eat the cherry ones so they are for our snacking pleasure. Nothing better than a sun-warmed cherry tomato right off the plant!
I didn't get a picture of the cilantro though. Sorry to disappoint!
But here was how my Morning Glory vine, Vinca's and Dianthus started out. (Roma tomato plants in the green planters)
Now would you look at them!
Onto what was my most fun plating project of the summer. Last year I had some annual grass and Gerber Daisies planted around the back patio. This year I went with sweet potato vines along with the fountain grass and just check out how it grew and transformed throughout the summer...

This last picture of the patio was taken about 2 weeks ago so everything is even BIGGER now. Crazy, huh!
These are the hanging baskets I get every year. They are called Tahitian Bridals Veils and I love them dearly! I have even wintered them over before but since they take up so much room, I had to just suck it up and buy new each year. And it is hard to see but the backs of the little leaves are a purplish color and during the day they are covered with hundreds of tiny white flowers. Believe it or not, but these bad boys are now almost down to the white railing.
These are a couple of the planters I have in front of the garage and shed.Ohhhh, here is my Gerber Daisy trough. This is when they were still alive. Something happened and 1/2 of the plants died so they look pretty pathetic now.
On to my new favorite plant...
This is a perennial Hibiscus that I planted last fall so this summer is the first I have seen it bloom.
The blooms are the size of a dinner plate and are absolutely stunning! They are so big you can see them all of the way across the yard. And I couldn't resist getting these pictures of them on a foggy Sunday morning before I set out to do some rollerblading.
Speaking of rollerblading, I only have a little over a week before the marathon. I have been getting some good training (my longest was 22 miles last Sat) but I am getting a bit nervous for the race. I don't do good with races. Luckily the long holiday weekend coming up and Grant starting school next Tues are good distractions. Plus, I have a photo shoot to do of two little girls tomorrow evening. Should be fun. Just hope the weather is nice! Oh, and for anyone wondering how Grant's sleeping in his own room is going...he hasn't set foot in our bed all week which means he's almost got a whole week down already. So proud of him!