The Grandest Marshall Ever! Happy 4th!

Someone was Queen for a day...although she's a queen every day in our book!  July 4th found me in my old neighborhood with family celebrating and honoring our fabulous country and my fabulous Mom.  She was Grand Marshall for the July 4th parade.  She shared those honors with her friend and neighbor, Mary Lou. They both have lived in the neighborhood the longest and were the ones who started the original parade back in the 50's.

Here's my sister and I at one of the original parades. I imagine we were celebrating Hawaii being a state.   There hadn't been a parade for about 10 years and my sister's daughter Amy, who lives in the same neighborhood now, decided it was time to do this again.  She organized it, raised funds from local businesses, and got the Mayor's approval.  With help from family and friends she pulled it off.

Good job Amy! She's a nurse and knows how to get things done!  It was a typical July day here, hot and humid but we had fun anyway.

Besides businesses and other organizations marching, it was great to see neighbors and kids decorating bikes, strollers or just walking in the parade like we used to back in the day.

Truly made it a neighborhood gathering and sharing and celebrating.

My niece, Katie rode along in her squad car....Check out this dog gone cutie who rode with her..her daughter, Brooke! Katie does a Dare program for the schools and this is the mascot. Thankfully Brooke didn't have to walk in the heat with that on!

It was a fun, tiring and hot day, but Mom and her friend, Mary Lou enjoyed it!

Mary Lou is 96, Mom is 93...both lovely and fun ladies! To end the day and this post, I hope everyone had a great 4th and weekend.  Jack was at Boy Scout Camp for the 30th year...more on that at another post!

We watched fireworks from Mom's driveway...Boom!

Up, Up, And Away

For the past 30 years or so we've had an event in Ashland called "Balloon Fest". Believe it or not, Ashland used to be the balloon capital of the world...or so they tell me! We had factories that made balloons.  This year there were about 30 balloon folks who arrived to fly the friendly skies.  Thousands of folks descend from all over the country and there are tons of activities and food and fun for all.  But balloon races, flights, and "glows' are subject to the whim of Mother Nature.  As I've mentioned before, it's been a very wet Spring and now Summer is shaping up the same.  We had only one day, Friday, that the balloons were able to fly.  Although it wasn't always raining, the wind and the pop up thunderstorm threats rained on the balloon parade.  It was also hot and humid, but that's Ohio in the good old Summer time!  Friday I was "asked" to go to our endoscopy unit at our other building about 10 minutes from the hospital.  I wasn't too thrilled since I wasn't originally scheduled there.  It's not my favorite place to spend the day, but work is work and I headed over.  When I entered the parking lot I spied this:

What?? A balloon was being reinflated after landing a few minutes before.  So I hopped out of my car and snapped a few pics:

Soon it was ready for takeoff:

Bye Bye!

Over the building...

And off to the next stop.  So it may have been a wash out for the weekend flying, but I was excited to witness this take off early on Friday.  It made me smile and I wasn't so grumpy about "guts and butts" for the day!  As the song says:  Up Up and Away, in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon!

Water, Water, Everywhere

We've had some pretty impressive rainfalls these past few days.  Father's Day was a real gully washer..literally washed out our driveway and made it a gully!

It looks worse in real life.  We've been planning on getting it fixed this summer with asphalt but you need warm, sunny days for that and we're a bit shy on warm and sunny.  Last week we had some sun but the morning temps were only in the 40's!  So we'll put up with it for now and with rain predicted for the rest of the week I'm sure it will be a bigger mess.  The folks I really feel for though are the farmers.

This may look like a nice lake for some fishing but it was covered in corn a few days ago..now...what a disaster.

Driving down the road to our house it looks like a causeway with lakes on both sides...yep, farmer's fields.

This was taken Sunday afternoon after the rain passed by...only to reappear this morning.  Many roads are closed and some businesses are closed as the parking lots are under water.  We even had flooding in surgery this morning. It wasn't in the operating rooms but my bosses office was a mess! Maybe it's time to build that Ark!  On a lighter note, Father's Day did turn out to be a nice afternoon and Jackie and his family, and Jordan came for lunch. We missed Phil but he had plans with his kiddos and stopped over today instead.  Craig, our son out west, called Saturday to talk to Jack because Sunday morning he was heading out to Europe on business.  All in all it was a nice day for Jack.

Our son Jackie and his son Cameron.

Our beautiful Granddaughter, Driana, stopped by too. Future nurse here!  So happy to see them and spend some fun time together.  So I hope all Dad's had a great day.  Here's my tribute to my favorite Dads:

My sweet Dad who always had a smile on his face and story to tell. I miss him every day. He passed away in 1976 at age 56...gone way too soon.

My hubby's Dad...also named Jack! He passed away in 2001,  just a year after Jack's Mom...miss them both very much.  He was a Chiropractor too and he and Jack practiced together.

These 4 characters are my brothers...(lft to rt...Rick, Jim, Greg, and Phil)...four of the best Dads ever! Love these guys!

Last but not least..my hubby and my sons who are Dads...Jackie, Craig, and Phil...These guys have wonderful families and are so much better at being parents than we were! Ha!  Happy Father's day a day late..but never too late to honor fatherhood...it's a hard job, especially these days! (Glad mine are grown!)  Have a good week and pray for those who are so devastated by flood waters.

Blog Lag

I've been lagging in my blogging.  It's been a weird past few weeks. We've been doing many projects around the house to get ready for visitors this summer.  We may have over done it a bit.  Jack redid 2 ceilings, helped me paint the spare bedroom, put new tires on the zero turn mower, built new raised bed boxes, just to name a few of the things.  But life has a way of making you slow down and for him it was the uproar of a back injury he had 30yrs ago.  Yep, the Chiropractor had his back go out. It's been a tough road for him and not being able to do what he had planned to do makes it even worse...at least for him.  However, he's been going to work to help others with their spine and joint problems and suffering quietly.  The remaining things that need done aren't that crucial and our boys have offered to come help with stuff that needs moved.  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and stop and rest.  In the end it will all be good...at least he's hoping for that!  Our weather has been pretty nice and the rain has eased up a bit. Last night the temps were in the 40's and tomorrow we'll be close to 80.  Never know what to expect.  Then Ohio had an earthquake yesterday!  We're about 60 miles south of Cleveland and didn't feel it but I'm sure those north of us had a shaky surprise!  Well, this is a short post and I don't even have any recent photos.  I decided since today is my baby brother's birthday....he's 59...here's a favorite pic of me and Rick...

Some how I don't think we'll recreate this one any time soon! Happy birthday little Bro!

Out And About

Having a fairly uneventful week I was thinking of what to blog about and decided a quick walk in the Whispering Pines would be good.  Not really walking in the pines however, but strolling into our "Creepy Woods" I snapped a shot of my recent efforts to keep the paths open up there.

Come on in..the woods are waiting!

The path leads up to this spot that I mowed down. It would make a good spot for a little cabin getaway don't you think? 

At the top of our hill, right before the Creepy Woods, we have some poplar trees.  I didn't realize until a few years ago that they are tulip poplars.  They flower in May and I snapped one of the few remaining at the tippy top of the trees.  These trees have gotten very tall in the 18yrs that we've lived here. Can you see the pretty yellow and orange blossom?

Here's a little sitting area I put together this Spring.  I had a couple of wicker chairs that I almost threw out but decided to put them under the pines as you enter the driveway.  I had Jack cut me some stepping stones from some fallen trees in the woods. Come on over and have a rest!

My peony bushes should have been tied up but I didn't get to it.  We've had some storms come through all week and yesterday afternoon some hail came down and I think the bushes were not pleased! I'll work on these this week.  They smell wonderful and make pretty bouquets.

Loving my fresh flowers!

These big flowers aren't very fragrant but they do spin nicely in the wind!

Can you spot "who's" looking at you?

I spotted this little guy by the raised beds and then spotted Momma:

As cute at they are, they better leave the garden alone or the results won't be very nice.

We have a lot of land but don't put in a huge garden, only a few raised beds but we get a good crop out of them...tomatoes, cucumbers for pickles, carrots, green beans, and different peppers.  We were going to add another box this year but decided not to...too many other projects to complete first. Thankfully the Farmer's Market that starts in July will provide many of the items we don't grow.  Well, that's about it as my journey "out and about" ends and so does the weekend.  On my journey this evening my faithful companion, Arnold, found his out and about was more an on and stay put:

Here's where he prefers to enjoy the view.  He's no dummy. 

Stop Think Remember

I hope everyone took time to STOP today and THINK about the importance of Memorial Day and also took time to REMEMBER those that gave the ultimate sacrifice.  Thanks to all my blog friends, family and friends who have served or are serving in the military.  You all are heroes!  Today I went to our small town parade as I do every year.  It seemed smaller than in the past..not sure why but this year it celebrated woman in the military. The high school marching band played those patriotic numbers that always make me misty eyed and there was the memorial service in the cemetery and a wreath placed on the Veteran's Memorial.  Afterwards I'm sure many went home to picnics and fun on this day off.  Spending time with family and friends and just enjoying a beautiful day is what we all should be thanking our military for today.

At the beginning of our parade this sign made me shake my head...It's a shame that we have to be reminded to put our hands over our hearts and men to take off their hats when the flag passes.  I think this needs to be taught in school more than any new math.

 Thanks Dad (in heaven) for your brave service in WWII.  I'm so glad he made it home back then but miss him every day.

Thanks to my brother Greg for his service during Vietnam...and also my brother Phil who served during that time in Thailand in  the Army...Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of him in  his uniform. However I do have his words from his Facebook page about his recent trip to Europe to see where Dad fought during the war.  I hope he doesn't mind me posting this today:  My brother's Words:

As we leave Caen, France after 6 days I was able to try to appreciate the tremendous sacrifice all of 160,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers and especially 9388 who are buried here. The peace you feel at the American Cemetery as you gaze over the graves and look out at Omaha beach and hear the waves breaking the shore it is so incredible that such a beautiful place was such a violent terrorizing place on June 6, 1944. The width of the beach that is half today of what it was on that day. Landing in water sometimes over your head with loaded gear and if you manage to make it to that beach then to negotiate that killing field full of confusion, terror, and death to be alive is impossible for me to imagine standing on that beach. I took many pictures but I am posting just a few of the beach, the American Cemetery, and one picture of a Sherman tank like the one my dad drove on this beach. I smiled as we traveled the motorway that was a different looking road when he took it to St. Lo. So I can scratch this one off my bucket list. Thanks dad for being one of the some 160,000 that landed here and fought to save an idea that allows us to taste freedom everyday.

Thanks Phil for giving us a taste of what it's like to visit there..  
STOP--THINK--REMEMBER....GOD BLESS AMERICA..

A Week Of....Nothing?

Last week I whined about a week of Mondays and mentioned a little virus that crept up on me. Well that little virus turned into strep throat.  So I didn't repeat another week of crazy Mondays, just a wasted week of being ill.  I hate when I'm not busy and working and getting my many projects done. But after some antibiotics and steroids...yuck...things are back to normal. Well, YaYa normal anyway!  We've had a full weekend already.  On Friday we had a church social.  One of our church members has a fabulous piece of property that he's been working on for a few years to make it a fun gathering place. He's built this himself and it's been a great place to come and enjoy a summer evening,

It started with this cabin. It was pretty primitive at first but now has indoor plumbing and electric and the inside is as pretty as the outside.

He just put up this pavilion and is almost completely done with it. It has a kitchen addition on it and that's the last part to complete.  Throw in a huge firepit and tons of good food and you have a party! We continued the party mode today.  Our Granddaughter Summer had a golden birthday last week..she turned 21 on the 21st!  So today we went to her bday/graduation from college party.

Summer and her Dad....my #1 born!

Summer and her sister Driana.

More good food...glad my sore throat was over!

Arnie enjoyed the festivities too!

Happy birthday our little Summie! You are sunshine in our lives!

This really sums her up..and I guess I didn't really have a total week of nothing..just a little delay in the plans. Tomorrow we have nothing special going on here at the Pines. Probably hitting the parade and then back home for outside work.  Takes more than a little week of nothing to stop me!