May Fly!

 My title might have you thinking I'm talking about bugs today.  Nope, just realizing how May flew by so quickly! For a long month of 31 days it sure went fast.   Tomorrow is June 1st and it really means summer fun, projects, cookouts, vacations and the end of the school year for most. (my Granddaughter in Oregon is still in school for a little longer).  Tomorrow our Lexi will graduate high school and of course I'll be there with camera in hand to capture this special moment in her life.  She stopped by for a second with Phil and was just beaming with excitement.  Do you remember your high school graduation? Were you excited to be moving into adulthood?  I remember it well and was a little nervous about finding a job that summer.  My high school classes were geared for work in the business world as a secretary, or as they are called now, administrative assistant.  However, the thought of sitting in at a desk all day and commuting to downtown Chicago just didn't feel right.  My Mom mentioned the hospital where she worked had a position as a nursing assistant in surgery.  I had been a candy striper volunteer there and knew the hospital well.  It was suppose to be a summer job and give me time to find what I wanted to do.  However, I enjoyed it and my position lasted past summer and eventually after 2yrs I went back to school to be a surgical technician. I'll celebrate 50yrs as a surgical tech this August.  Definitely not on my career path from high school.  Did you go on to do what you had in mind in high school or did your path take a few turns?  Most folks do take different paths in life and I'm hoping Lexi can find her passion in college.  She's looking to work in the health care field.  Only time will tell.  Well, I'll say bye to May and leave a few pics of this lovely month we've had.

I repainted the deck and made it look nice and clean and fresh. We got the furniture out over the weekend and now can sit and enjoy gathering there.

Roses blooming on the pergola.  The other side has pink ones and this year it's finally getting bigger and climbing.

Iris are done for now

Azaleas were beautiful this year and I was sad to say good-bye for this year.

Snowball bush as I call it was loaded with blooms and now I'll trim it way back.

Dogwoods have bloomed and now are all green again.  The seasons all have their beauty and I know June will bring lots of changes in landscape and hopefully some fun and adventures.  Bye May, you brought lots of beauty to the Pines this year. 

Lusty Month Of May

 I have seen the movie "Camelot" many times from it's beginning when it first came out in the theater to now as it's on TV here and there.  The song about May is cute but I just realized I had it wrong all these years.  For some reason I thought it said: "It's May, it's May, the "lovely" month of May".  However, it really says: "The "lusty" month of May".  Seriously?  How did I get that wrong all these years?  Probably because I'm such a sweet, innocent lady...HA!  Anyway, this "lusty" month of May is quickly drawing to a close with this weekend being the Memorial Day weekend and tomorrow the Memorial Day remembrance celebrations.  We will have the opportunity to honor all those who have given their lives for our freedoms that we enjoy today.  Thank you to all who have served, who do serve now, and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.  I'm proud to be a daughter of a WWII veteran and a sister to my brothers who served during the Vietnam war.  Jack and I went to the cemetery to put the red, white, and blue flower arrangements on his parents and brother's grave site.

There were a lot of folks at the cemetery cleaning around their family's graves today.  The Boy Scouts usually are the ones who come and put American flags on all the veteran's graves.  All those flags were there this year but I'm not sure it was done by Boy Scout troops as we don't have as many troops in Ashland anymore.  That makes me sad.  The cemetery has also had problems with keeping the area mowed and trimmed.  They can't get workers and I believe there's only one person working there now.  It's a big area for one man.  There's been some complaints on Facebook about the condition of the cemetery but what can you do if there's no one who will work there?  Jack suggested that maybe a volunteer organization would be the answer.  I'm thinking we will need to just bring our own equipment and do our own area for now.  Anyway, the entrance does look nice in preparation for the annual Memorial Day program that is put on after the parade.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  We've had many lovely days of sunshine until this afternoon when storms came in and we even had tornado warnings out.  Let's hope for a dry morning tomorrow!  If you have plans for the day I hope it's a nice one for not only honoring our soldiers but also for ushering in the beginning of the Summer season.  Go ahead and wear that white now!  In addition to getting ready for Memorial Day, many kiddos are graduating from high school or college this lusty month.  We're celebrating our Granddaughter Lexi who graduates this year.  Her graduation party was yesterday and it went very well.  The venue was one I had never heard of before here in Ashland.  

Yep, it was called "The Funky Junkyard"!  It's an eclectic, artistic kind of place downtown.  Here's a few pics of the venue:

There were 2 rooms that were decorated so crazy that it works!  I kept thinking it would make a perfect place for our family's annual Halloween bash!  I guess there are bands that come and play there and they do artistic gatherings too.  Like I said, it was very eclectic and also fun!

Lots of photos of our little Lexi Lou through the years.

All her favorite foods were there too.  Can you say sushi anyone?  Lex asked if I could make one of her favorites that I make...fruit pizza:

Yes I did! In fact I made two! Forgive the wonky angle here! It has a sugar cookie layer followed by a cream cheese and marshmellow fluff mixture layer, (trust me, it's good!) and then the fruit with a sprinkle of coconut and then a drizzle of white chocolate to finish it up.  There are  many versions out there but this works for us.

Our sweet Lexi! She's planning on attending Bowling Green University in the fall.  I know she'll do great!  Here's a couple of other players at this party:

Our son Phil, Lexi's dad, and her sister Addy (we call her Rae!)

Jack hanging out with Aria, Lexi's little sister.  Aria found a quiet corner to sit and color.  It was a lovely afternoon and a great way to celebrate Lexi and wish her well.  It's been a busy time for us as I'm sure it is for lots of folks this time of year.  Tomorrow, if the weather holds out, we'll be planting our garden and getting the deck ready for outdoor sitting.

I finished painting it and hopefully will get it all "decked" out for the summer into fall season.  There's still a week left May so make it as "lusty" or as "lovely" as you like!

Happy Mother's Day

Missing my Mom on this day.  Can't believe she's been gone 4 years this month.  Her birthday is May 17th and I always took a trip out to Chicago to see her and celebrate her birthday as well as Mother's Day. Midge and I were just talking about Mom the other day saying we thought she was the smartest woman we ever knew.  Midge went out to her grave today and placed flowers for her and also for our Grandma Arends and Midge's son Jono.    Today Annabelle and I took our walk in the cemetery this afternoon.  I stopped by Jack's parent's graves and gave a Mother's Day stop for his Mom.  She's been gone 24yrs! 

I learned so much from her!  She taught me how to can fruits and veggies and how to be a better cook.  We had lots of adventures around this area when I knew nothing about Ashland.  The craft shows were always fun to go with her and she made the holidays fun for the family.  She would enjoy just stopping over to "yak" and talk about life.  I miss her and think of her almost daily too.  I hope if your Mom is still living you have taken time to call or visit her.  If she's passed I hope you have good memories to make you smile today.  Happy Mother's Day.

Spring Into Action!

 I was hoping to get one more April post in but May arrived quickly so I needed to spring into action and post something.   Happy May Day!  Our weather has been very Spring like.  Our temps have been pretty warm and off and on rain makes the grass grow like crazy.  I've already mowed 4 times and might even mow twice this week!  Anyway,  here's what April brought our way.  

Annabelle found a nice place to sit and watch the world go by.  I was a bit worried that this little apple tree's blossoms would get frosted when the temps last month dipped to freezing.  Thankfully they survived and hopefully some apples will too.

Happily I was able to pick some lilacs and enjoy their fragrance! 

Some new drapes for the living room.  They are room darkening so when the hot sun of Summer arrives it may help keep it a bit cooler and give the AC a break!

Hard to see here but they have a bit yellow in them that pics up the yellow of my chairs.  

I don't know if you'd seen these but my Daughter-in-law, Evelyn, saw this on her girl trip last month and got it for me.  So sweet! It unzips and opens into a pretty good size bag.  I love it. I'll keep it in the car for trips to Farmer's Market this Summer.  

This is it all opened.  It will come in very handy I'm sure.

Speaking of Evelyn, she sent me this pic of Jordan and me.  As you can see from the camera in my hand that I usually do the photo shoots so I don't have a bunch with my boys.  I'm not sure when this was even taken...either Easter or last Fall.  

As you can see from this pic we have a Robin back on the patio between the house and the garage.  Of all places to build a nest having it on the baker's rack I use for flowers makes me shake my head.  If I had caught it sooner I would have taken it off of there.  However,

These were already there.  I had cleaned out a nest on the back deck gazebo top only to find out too late there were babies in there.  Yikes!  I couldn't do that again so I put some wood on the shelf above this nest to help keep the rain out. 

Yesterday I noticed this....babies just hatched with one left to go.   We have 6 acres of land with 4 of it being woods.  A good hundred pine trees surrounding the property but the birds have to build a nest right near a busy walk way at the house.  They don't get the "location, location, location of realestate I guess!  Good luck birdies!

Last but not least this past weekend was Ashland High School's senior prom.  Here's our Lexi with her boyfriend John.  Her dress was pretty amazing.

To show off the back of the dress we had them do a dance pose.  All those feathers reminded me of a peacock!  But it was very lovely.  I had to think back to my prom in '71.  No low cut dresses then! High collars, long sleeves, very modest.   Different than today's prom fashions that I see all over.  Oh well.  I had to laugh when they did this pose and my son said: "Remember...dance far apart to let Jesus in"...where he thinks this stuff up I'll never know!

I still can't believe in a few days Lexi will be 18! They grow up so fast as I know from seeing my boys being the Dad's taking the prom, graduation, and other rites of passage pics.  April was a mixed bag of activities, work,  even sadness, but thankfully many blessings.  I hope May is a good month for everyone.