Ruby Tuesday - Flowers and Strawberries

Happy Ruby Tuesday to you! Ruby Tuesday is hosted by the Teach and it features photos with a red theme.

I've got a few shots from my patio. These are some sort of geranium. They have a very red center to the leaves, so the plant looks pretty even when there are no flowers.

Here's a strawberry. Yum..........

And another view of the strawberry.........

And a geranium. This plant is a piece off of a geranium that Mom had on her table as a decoration when my sister graduated from college 16 years ago. If you weren't already aware of it, you can easily do this with geraniums. You break off a piece of the thick part of the stem, then you bury it in some good potting soil, water it, and eventually it will root and take off. Pretty cool, don't you think?

If you would like to take part or see more Ruby Tuesday posts, take a look here.

Wordless Wednesday - I Love His Ears

My wordy part of Wordless Wednesday...... this is the back of my beautiful boyfriend's head. As you can tell, he's a lot taller than me. Also...don't forget to enter to win one of two cookbooks at my giveaway that you can find here. Thanks! And happy Wednesday to you!

Quick Saturday Catch-Up

It's been so long since I updated! I'm sorry. A lot has been going on. I'll start with yesterday and work my way back to last weekend...........

The Jogathon. Yesterday was the Jogathon at LCC. Look at those kids running! Sarah is in the pink t-shirt. I got a lot of fun photos. I usually volunteer, but this time I wandered around with my camera. Sarah enjoyed the event so much this year. She ran quite a bit of it, which was exciting to see. When she walked, she walked with her friend Karli. She had a big smile the whole time. Yay!

Sarah's birthday was Thursday. She is now 11. Her she is jumping for joy - WooHoo!! Cousins Ashlee, Brad, Hayden, Aunt Shawna, and Grandma came by and we did bubbles, played on the playground. Good day.

Check out this bubble. It's a good one.

The teenagers had prom last weekend. They had a wonderful time and spent a whole lot of money. Prom is complicated these days. There's so much they have to buy. I remember when I went, I borrowed a dress, we borrowed a car. The kids were so stressed out.

Bay wore a cute short dress and tall heels. She was almost as tall as Greg with her updo and her heels and he's 6 ft. Very glamorous. Greg seemed very comfortable in his tux. I like he liked the fanciness of it all. I drove him over to meet the other couples at his friend Deborah's house. I got this shot as they were walking out into the backyard for pictures.

The sun was so bright and they were squinting in every shot. I wish I had not been so shy in front of all the other parents, that I had pulled them off to the side, because with the expense of all the extras, they didn't end up with enough to buy pictures at the event.

Don't you think that they look pretty? Bay's hair looked just as great the next morning. It was set up with about 55 bobby pins. It was lovely.

Okay, that's it for now. I've got something very exciting to write about later in the week. My boyfriend is coming for a visit. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I'm afraid that I'm going to drive that boy crazy with my camera. Watch out, honey!

Wordless Wednesday - Three out of Four Kids On the Lawn

Ruby Tuesday - Patio Flowers

Happy Ruby Tuesday! For more Ruby Tuesday photos, click here. I spent some time on the patio this morning, getting ready for my GroGood project. Some of the flowers are really starting to get going and I enjoy seeing my garden awake and showing off. This was taken just before the sprinkling started.

Kitty Made Me Cry

This is a sweet potato sprout. Did you recognize it? We used to grow these in jars of water on the countertop when I was a kid. Mom thinks it will grow, so I stuck it in the soil today and I'll let you know. It sure grew great where it was sitting on the microwave. My tomatoes are starting to do their thing. The cherry tomato has little green tomatoes on it. One of the squash plants is getting big. I don't know which one it is. Ooops. Guess I'll figure out when the vegetables show up.

I'm adding dill to my herb garden. I think I need it for salads. Or something.....okay, I just thought it was pretty. So lacey.

These are the seeds that I planted today, but I couldn't plant them in the GroGood planters because they are marked, "Not for food, ornamental only." I wonder how many of those no-food planters they mailed out for the program?

I moved some stuff around and planted the seeds into a big plastic pot. I have no idea how they will do there. It's deeper than the GroGood planters, so they should be fine. I've never grown radishes before. Teeny-tiny little seeds.

I feel very odd right now. Sort of brittle or fragile. Mark wants me to promise to go to bed by 11, but that's the plan for every night and every night something comes up, something needs to get taken care of.

A little bit ago, Kitty jumped into the air - just straight in the air - and did this sort of turn. I think she was going to jump onto the lamp table, but my Diet Coke and ice water were in the way. It was so funny, so silly, that I started laughing, but I could feel it turning into something else. I felt like I was going to sob and I started to cry a little. I could see that it was freaking Greg out - he's sitting with the kid's computer filling out online job apps - and his eyes got really, really big. Still, I could not stop laughing, I kept seeing her little body jumping into the air again and again. Even now, 20 minutes or more later, I can feel that it could happen again.

Mom used to do that. She still does it sometimes. Just laughs and laughs and can't stop. Is she tired? Is she feeling brittle and maybe a little overwhelmed?

Something has to shift, but I'm not sure what. I'll figure it out.

Okay, now I'm off to get Bay.

Blog - Funny Word

I started this blog a little over a year ago.

Blog. I'm still not comfortable with the word, even though I'm a professional blogger. It reminds me of that thing that Willow said about beer, or at least I think it was beer or maybe it was the word "drunk," something about Anglo-Saxon and guttural. The word "blogger" is Anglo-Saxon and guttural.

I'm a dork. I do not pretend to be anything else.
My teenagers are gone for the weekend. I will definitely miss Greg. I love Bay, but she and I are butting heads this week, so a break will do us good. Sarah misses Greg when he's gone, too.

Speaking of Sarah, she's supposed to be cleaning her room, but I peeked in there and everything that was a mess around the edges now sits in the middle of the room. She's like Mom in that she likes it all out where she can see it. It's just how their brains work. I prefer neat stacks or stick stuff under something or if I've got time and can make myself do it - gone. I want to see empty surfaces. It calms my brain.

My house is so cluttered right now. I clean the important areas - kitchen, bathrooms, laundry, patio (I love the patio best) - but my closet........ ewww kind of scary, my linen closets :( .

My plan for the weekend is to clear some space. If I want to be able to fit someone else in my life, he has to actually fit IN my life. He needs space for his stuff, too. I do not need so much stuff and I have to curb my packrat tendencies. My biggest problem - books. I love them all. Even the paperbacks. I look at them and I start with, have to save all the Harry Potters, even the volumes that are falling apart......then Nevada Barr, have to have her. Jenifer Crusie, well she makes me smile. Dictionaries, well I need 4 copies. They don't all have the same words. See my dilemma?

This is important to me. I can do it.

It's raining right now. We haven't had near enough rain this year. I have the windows open, a sweatshirt on, and Max has a blanket. We are good. I just want the fresh air.

Okay, I was wrong. I miss the teenagers. I hope that they have fun. Darn kids.

Sarah is leaving now, too. Just me and Max tonight. I wonder if I can get that kid to stay awake. She, Sarah, just said, "I haven't had a sleepover in forever. I'm excited!!" I am now excited for her. Sleepovers are the best part of being a girl.