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. 

Life

 The post I was going to do today was suppose to be light and airy...nothing heavy or sad.  However, life does come along and things happen that make you shake your head in wonder.  I've been blogging for 16yrs.  The posts have been a journal for me as they go into book form at the end of the year.  Many times I feel like I'm just repeating myself and events but hopefully someday they will be appreciated as my family can see how we've celebrated, changed, moved on and grown up.  Many of my posts with immediate family have also included others who joined us as boyfriends or girlfriends of my boys or my Grandkids.  Our Granddaughter, Summer, dated a young man through her high school years and also her college days.  Brett and Summer were together in many of our Christmas and other holiday gatherings.  They dated about 5 years, lived together after college and were engaged.  But as many young loves go, they decided to go their separate ways and ended the engagement.  Summer moved on and so did Brett. Brett married and became a Dad last year.   Our family still thought highly of him and missed him but we were happy for him and his wife.  Sadly last Wednesday Brett was killed in a car accident.  It shook us all up and especially Summer.  Even though they weren't together anymore he was such a big part of her growing up years in high school and college.  You just don't erase those feelings from your heart.  Our oldest, Jack, knew Brett since he was 11 and Brett was like a big brother to Summer's younger brothers.   I still have many photos of the two of them and fond memories of his fun personality and the good times he shared with us.  He was a wonderful golfer and many times he and my boys would hit golf balls in the back yard that would sail up into the Creepy Woods.  I still find some on my walks up there and even blogged about that too.  He was a hard worker who did well in college, had a good job and was recently promoted.  Why God takes somebody young like Brett at a time in life where he's just blossoming as a husband and Dad is a mystery that can't be solved in this life.  Seeing the table at the funeral home with all his trophies, photos, and memories laid out brought to my mind that life is short and none of us knows what the future will bring.  I told Jack that as I look at my photos of  him I just want to reach in and grab him and warn him.  But we can't do that. There's no going back.  All we can do is offer condolences, prayers, hugs, tears and hope that all will be as it should be in this life.  Rest in peace Brett. You will be missed.

It Takes A Village

 There are times when you/we need to call in the troops to help with a project.  That's why God invented kids.  They are great resources when they grow up.  When just littles they are mostly good for entertainment. Anyway, our mower needed some rehab.  There was a broken cable that holds up the deck and the blades needed to be replaced.  Jack had called 2 places that did that work but one was no longer in business and the other had some issues that made it not a good solution for the fixes needed.  Now, in the past it was a job Jack would do, but then he realized he needed another hand and not mine...thankfully.  So the boys have always been willing to lend that hand.  This time he realized he would need more than one hand and so Saturday our oldest, Jack, and my #3 son, Phil, came eagerly willing to help.  OK, so they came to help but I just threw in the eagerly part. 

Hello Mr. Mower deck.  Yuck. 

Hello Phil under the mower and hello Jack supervising.

Jack had his floor time too!  

Hello son Jack in the red plaid shirt.  Phil on one side, Jackie on the other.  Team work makes the dream work! 

Annabelle and I were a big help.  I took the pics and she just looked at me wondering why we weren't going on a nice walk instead.  So after some ups and downs and grunts and laughs the mower was done and ready for this year.  I'm the one who does the mowing and I did a test run yesterday and although the yard was a bit wet here and there it looks very nice and the mower worked perfectly.  Good job boys and big Jack!  I should have taken a yard pic but forgot in my excitement.  We had put together some vittles for the guys to take home to have a few meals when needed.  The saying that you need a village to raise kids is true. But when those sweet kiddos grow up and we grow older sometimes we need that village of  kids to lend that helping hand.  We are blessed to have such great boys/men that are always willing to do that.  Thanks guys!  

Totally Awesome!

 Hey, did you hear there was an eclipse happening on Monday?  The eclipse craze yesterday had everyone worrying about crowds that would result in no gasoline, food, toilet paper (of course) and places to stay. The weather had everyone on edge too.  What if it rained or was too cloudy to see anything?  Well, God gave us perfection here in Ashland, Ohio were we were excited to be in the path of totality with sunny skies.  Over the weekend there were activities going on in our downtown that I'm sure had store keepers and restaurant owners excited about sales.  Heck, even the Oscar Myer wiener mobile was here!  I didn't see it but it was here according to Facebook.  On Sunday I took Annabelle on a quick walk at the cemetery and on the way home I drove down main street. Shops and restaurants that are usually closed on Sundays were open and cars lined the street and parking lots.  Other than that I noticed no other crazy, crowed activity or problems.  Schools were closed Monday.  I found out they closed for really only one reason.  If schools were open and kids went outside during the eclipse and didn't wear protective eyewear than the schools could get in trouble or perhaps sued.  So keeping the littles at home put that problem to the family to deal with.  Jack closed  his office at noon and Jordan's company also closed early.  The hospital stayed open of course but surgeries were done by noon and I know employees were heading to the helicopter landing on the roof to observe the eclipse.  My sweet next door neighbor had sent out invites to the whole street to come to their place to watch and she provided sandwiches and drinks for everyone.  We all brought stuff to share too.  Nothing like a party on a Monday afternoon! When you see my pics to follow you'll understand why their yard was a good place to be.   At 2pm we trudged up their driveway and set up our chairs and gathered our special glasses.

It's hard to tell from the photos but they have a nice hill and view of Ashland and the horizon.

The crowd was gathering and anxiously waiting.

Jack in his fancy eclipse glasses.  Not like our paper ones!

This little guy was ready!  Soon the air had a definite change as the sun was slowly changing.  The temps were  in the 70's but soon it was at least 10de cooler.

Slowly getting darker.

As the sky got darker, our neighbor's horse and alpacas slowly started going toward the barn as if it were dusk soon to be night.

Darkness comes in the day.  I had never seen an eclipse and this was just so cool to watch the darkness descend, the air cool down, people's solar lights going on and the lights in town turn on.

See the lights in the distance?

Pitch black.  

My photos don't due this spectacular event justice.  I was in awe the whole time.  I wish I could really capture the total awesomeness of this.  I didn't think to take a video..silly me! I was just too caught up in what was happening around me.  Everyone there was just blown away by the whole thing.  The main phrase? This was so cool!  The same reaction from everyone I talked to at work today that saw it...it was so cool! 

Slowly the sun started to reappear.  The temps rose back up and the animals came out of the barn.  I know everyone that was with us on that hill felt the magic of the few minutes this lasted.  With all the technology of our time and how smart we think we are, it just takes a 3-4min act of God and nature and the heavens to make us believe in something much bigger and more wonderful than ourselves.  Maybe that's a bit over hyped but I'm so glad I was able to watch this.  I may never see another.  I guess we're suppose to have another in 20yrs.  I'll be 91 and perhaps will view it from a heavenly seat with no need for special glasses...no matter how fancy they may be!