Weekend With My Girls!

I had another great weekend with my girls. They are growing up so much!! On Friday night we went to my son and dil to watch little Muffin while they went out. She is such a good baby. At 3 1/2 months old she's very focused on objects around her and loves when you hold her standing. Can you say "Big Blue Eyes?" lol



She liked sitting in her little play chair too.



I'm not sure what they're going to do when Muffin needs her highchair lol. Actually, this is Oliver and he pretty much goes with the flow and I'm sure he'll just move over lol.


When the kids got home we stayed and visited for a while then had a nice drive home on a beautiful summer night. We laugh because now that we're older we don't usually get to enjoy late nights lol If you're over 40 you understand what I'm saying... Wow, 11:00 and we're still up!

Saturday we drove around so MM could drool over Corvettes. Found a couple of interesting ones, but not the one he's looking for whew!! Another bullet dodged. In the evening my daughter and sil came over for a bbq and campfire. Little Peanut loves running around the backyard. She's always in motion lol



She didn't have much of an appetite, but when it came to the s'more she had no problem. She sat and ate that thing til it was gone! Little marshmallow in her hair and lots of goo on her face. She enjoyed that baby!


Sunday we rested up and watered the gardens. Started reading another book too. It was a great weekend all in all. You just can't beat spending time with the grandbabies.

It's a Good Idea!

I got this from Harmony, what a good idea.

Blogging is really fun, but it's even more fun having people browsing your post. I want to share some simple strategy to generate traffic.

Bloggers in some ways do direct audience to their site by joining forums, commenting on others' posts, leaving comments in chat widgets, join traffic exchange programs, and even others pay for traffic. Spending so much time blog hopping is exhaustive so people find ways to lessen the load.

Why not try this sort of chain links. If followed seriously it exponentially increases the number of back links to your site. Here's how:


Try to make a post just like this one (can you say 'exactly like') and mention this process.

From the list of blog sites below remove the number 1 and move the rest in the list 1 step higher (i. e number 2 becomes number 1, and so on). Add your blog name in the 5th position. Don't forget to copy the links. (Here's my list-my site added in the end)


Christmas Ring
EV Tourism Portal
Home of good ideas
Harmony In Motion
Where The Road Takes Us


List at most five of your friends blogsite here with link and inform them of this post and ask them to do the same. Here's my friends:

Crazy Mom
Wendy
Michelle
Vixen
Bumbles

Good luck guys!

Watching My Garden Grow

With the 4th of July celebrations last week I missed my Fertilize Friday. Not this week. I've been watering and fertilizing and trimming and things are looking quite healthy.

The Tiger Lilies bloomed for the better part of two weeks. Next year I plan on grouping them all together for a stronger presentation.


Not sure what this plant is.... any ideas? I love the cluster orange flowers.


Looking up the driveway from the backyard it looks like we have a full garden lol. Lots of room for more, but MM doesn't agree :)


The Coneflowers are blooming a lot more this week.


The Coreopsis are so light and airy. When I went to fertilize them this week a neighbor's cat ran out from under it. Guess he thought is was light and airy too.


When I bought these the containers said they were both Shasta Daisy - Snow Lady. The one on the left is what I think is a Snow Lady, I don't know what the specific name of the one on the right is. It is definitely a Daisy, but is taller and a soft yellow.











The Salvia Blue Hills is still blooming brightly. I'm thinking there must be a way to train or shape the growth on this, and I'm going to learn that from all you girls with the beautiful green thumbs.


That's it for me this week. Can't wait to see how all Tootsie's Girls are doing.

A RELIABLE WIFE

Set in a small Wisconsin farming and manufacturing town still crumbling a decade after the depression of the 1890s, A Reliable Wife tells the story of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for “a reliable wife” in newspapers across America. The woman he chooses, Catherine Land, describes herself as “a simple, honest woman,” but in truth she is both complex and devious— not the missionary’s daughter she claims to be in her letter to Truitt but a courtesan of great beauty, kept by men and haunted by a terrible past. Catherine’s plan in accepting the marriage offer is simple: she will win this man’s devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is the passion she finds in this seemingly solid, forthright man—a man who also harbours secrets and whose own past is far from pure.

Filled with remarkable characters and drenched with colour and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is a story of love and madness, longing and murder, played out in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

I personally found this book spellbounding. In the beginning I was a little put off with all the description, but I got used to it right away and caught up in the plot. A good read with a lot of deep considerations.

Leap of Faith by Danielle Steel

As a child Marie-Ange Hawkins has the rich kid's childhood that other kids dream about. She has freedom, love, security in a beautiful old French chateau running freely eating her fill of peaches from the orchards. But when Marie-Ange is only 11, a tragic accident marks the end of her idyllic life. Orphaned now, and alone, she is sent to America, to live with her great-aunt on a farm in Iowa. Her aunt really resents her deeply, and cuts her off from all she has ever loved.

In Marie-Ange's lonely existence with her great aunt, only the friendship of a local boy, Billy Parker, offers comfort and hope to her. But her only wish is to gain comfort and escape. Then just after her twenty-first birthday, an unexpected visitor brings startling news and an extraordinary gift; the freedom to return to France, to Chateau de Marmouton.

When she arrives in France, Marie-Ange learns that the chateau she grew up in has a new owner, Comte Bernard de Beauchamp, a dashing widower who invites her into his home, then into his heart. Their life together, soon includes marriage, children, and lavish homes. It takes an ominous turn though when she receives a call to tell Marie-Ange a very strange, shocking story. One so chilling, she doesn't want to believe it.

Although her friend of many years can sense a problem he is thousands of miles away and cannot offer any help. So Marie-Ange somehow has to find courage and faith to survive.

This was a good quick read. My love of children made my heart ache for this orphaned lonely child. You'll enjoy this one if you like Danielle Steel.

25th Annual Howell Michigan Challenge Balloonfest!

The Balloonfest had a GREAT year this year with over 100,000 attendees. We went on Friday night and had a terrific display. In addition to the balloon launches they had a medivial festival, a car show, lots of crafts (wish I'd have bought that birdhouse), a carnival and lots of people watching. Saturday was another perfect day with lots of fun. The wind brought in Sunday so there was no launch, but everything else was very exciting.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. There were lots of colorful balloons and lots of different distinct motifs. This first one had a definite Halloween theme.


This one had a beautiful American Flag on one side and the other side said USA.


This carousel balloon has been here in years past. Love it.


Here's the local radio station in all it's glory.


This one has lots of fishies and scuba divers... cute.


The Boynton Character one is quite comical.


The Cherry Bomb needs no explanation.


There were literally balloons popping up everywhere!


Doesn't the Phoenix look majestic?


Had to get this one with a penguin for my daughter.


Saturday we stayed home and had a bbq with the family. Peanut came over early so I had lots of one on one time with her before Muffin arrived. Got a great shot of Muffin with Auntie. Is that not adorable?


Later in the evening my daughter was trying out these portable chairs she was going to borrow. Doesn't Peanut look like this chair was made just for her? She loved it!


Sunday arrived and MM put up some hammock chairs on the front porch and we spent the rest of the weekend chillin. It doesn't get much better than that. Gotta love the weekends.

Fertilize Friday

It's Friday so head on over to Tootsie Time to see all the other gardeners and their beautiful flowers.

I'm kind of embarrassed to put my flowers up after seeing some of the other gardens out there, but it is what it is and I love it. So here's what's going on in my little corner of the world.

The daisies are interesting, one is full of blossoms and the other is full of buds. They're not more than 6 feet from each other. Go figure.




The hanging basket has lots of color - we had a few issues with keeping it watered while away, but it's going to be fine.




There are a few cone flowers. Mostly buds right now, but a few blossoms.



The day lilies are full of blooms. Beautiful.


This is the first year we're trying the tomatoes in this topsy turvy planter. We're having trouble keeping them shaded so they won't wilt from the heat and sun. MM has been putting a cardboard box up to shade them in the heat of the day.


There are two coreopsis plants. One has lots of buds and a couple of blossoms the other is much smaller with a couple of blooms.



The Salvia Blue Hills are a little droopy from the heavy rain recently.


All the hostas by the front tree have buds on them. A couple are actually already blooming.



The petunias in the pots by the front porch had soil that was too compact and the plants in one died, so I bought a couple of more plants and repotted both pots.


Here're pictures of the trumpet vine and rose of sharon. They surround the back deck. No blooms yet, but a little later and they will be loaded. Wanted you to see them in this stage.



Then on the other end of the house the tiger lilies are blooming now.



I'm not sure what the name of this plant is, but it'll have pretty cluster orange blooms in a week or two.


On this end of the house I haven't done a lot of work for several years and these things just keep coming up. I might try to transplant them in the Fall to an area that I can appreciate them more.

Looking at these pictures more closely I can see that I have a lot of work to do... between the weeding and putting more mulch down. The bed on the end of the house got put off this year. Maybe next year we'll build it up and clean it up a little. There's always something to do. But then, that's the fun of gardening.

Dinner's Done!

I'm so pleased with myself. For the last couple of nights I've been puzzled about what's for dinner. Today I got smart and made a nice chicken pasta salad while I'm home for lunch. I love coming home and not having to cook or think about dinner. A nice salad will be perfect today too, cause it's really hot outside. Actually, I've not really wanted to eat too much because of the heat. Any good recipes or ideas for what to do when you're not really hungry and don't have a lot of time? In the winter time I like to use the crock pot more, but like I said I really don't want anything hot.