“Spring” weather and the blog header

One of the questions asked by my loyal blog readers nearly ever day is “Why haven’t you updated your blog header? It’s nearly two weeks into the Spring season?” (OK, this might be a slight exaggeration; I usually get asked that only once every other day. ;-) At any rate, this is what my blog header looks like today,

Yes, I’m aware of the fact that the seasons have changed. (I’m also aware of the fact that I may, in the future, stop changing the blog header and just have the same image I keep up year-round, like I used to.) However, when four days into the Spring season, we get hit with the likes of this:

well, a flowery Spring blog header just wouldn’t seem right! Seriously – look at the drift beside the pole barn! I suppose I could leave the same snowy photograph and just type “Spring” instead of Winter, but this is Indiana, not Canada! :-)  We typically have lovely Springs here which usually start in March and are well into bloom in mid-April. Winter just doesn’t seem to want to loosen its grip this year. I’ve always loved Winter, but I am ready for Spring, This past weekend was a Spring tease – warmer temperatures (low 60s today) and sun; our crocuses were blooming and we saw some signs of life with our bushes and perennials. But, the forecast is actually for unseasonably cold temperatures again tonight and tomorrow with snow showers! Some day it will warm up and buds will pop, and soon after that the blog header will change. Soon. Very soon. I hope.

Just in case ...

after the last 2 posts, you might be thinking that we are hopelessly stuck in the early 19th century, we ended Saturday's ANOJA by watching the American swimmer Michael Phelps end his swimming career with a gold medal performance, bringing his total Olympic medals to 22 (18 gold)!!!

Summer 2012 – Part 1

I don’t know how many parts this is going to be … maybe only 1 … but I do know that we’ve had an action-packed summer so far and I haven’t blogged hardly any of it!  We’ve managed to take lots of pictures, though, so I’m relying on those to help me document what we’ve been up to.  So, here is a recap of our summer so far, in no particular order.

Kittens!

On May 11th, our kitty Violet had a litter of kittens.  The girls were sure she  was pregnant. I wasn’t so sure, but what do I know about pregnant cats?  Not much, apparently.  In my defense, she was very small – understandably, since she only had 2 kittens.  Here is a picture of her taken 2 days before she had them. 

She is on the left – I think Bentley (aka “Dad”) looks fatter than she does!  The kittens are healthy – one girl “Lily” and a boy “Basil”.  Here is Basil, sleeping next to his mama:

and here is Lily:

Yes, they are cute and have been lavished with love and attention since their arrival.  Anyone want a kitten?  :-)

Family!

Back in June, Jennifer & Steve and their crew came to stay with us for 5 days.  They have bought a new house, but couldn’t take possession before they needed to move out of their house, which sold very quickly (2 weeks!). So they have been between homes for a couple of weeks now (almost a month!) and won’t be able to move into their new home until the end of July.  They stayed with us, the Orrs, Steve’s parents, friends from church, and now they are at Mom and Dad’s, probably until they move into their new house. 

We did a little bit of musical beds/sleeping bags to get everyone situated, but I think everyone settled in quite comfortably.  The kids were thrilled with the adventure, Jennifer and I were a formidable team in the kitchen, and Trent & Alyssa entertained each other, as toddlers tend to do.

Drought

Unfortunately, this has also been one of the driest summers on record.  There has been record heat – several days over 100 degrees – and record lack of rain.  June was the driest June on record.  I recently read that more than half of the US is in some stage of drought.  I’ve never seen the corn as low as it is this summer. Our grass is crackly and brown – like most lawns. Any rain we’ve gotten has been very welcome, but brief, which is why I’ve grabbed the camera the few times it has managed to rain.  Here is Trent playing in a rare puddle after a recent rain. Notice all the brown grass.

He was really fascinated by the water dripping down the window.  :-)

Water coming out of the down spout – AMAZING!

OK – that’s all for now.  More later!

A Royal Weekend

This post is outdated, but I am still struggling to find a way to work with Blogger's picture-displaying capabilities. I'll get there ...

What a busy, but fun week and weekend we had! We ended up spending all of Thursday and most of Friday with the Ramseys at Mom & Dad's. The Mozingos, Bruces and Griffins came over on Thursday. Thursday night ended up being a late one, so I wasn't able to get up quite as early as I would have liked on Friday morning. The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was broadcast, starting at 4:00 am. I still remember getting up early to watch Prince Charles & Princess Di's wedding back in 1981, and I didn't want to miss this one either. I woke up around 6:30 and turned on the TV. It was about halfway through the ceremony, so I woke up Rachel, Courtney & Erica. It was amazing how quickly the girls got up, considering how slowly they get up on school mornings. :-) Then I woke Sarah up around 7:00 and Brooke around 7:30. We all agreed it was an absolutely beautiful wedding and a great way to start the day.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for Mom & Dad's. I made the famous Mocha Layer Cake for the May birthday party, then we headed down. Mick ended up meeting us there later. After such a soggy week, it was nice to see the sun come out late in the day and the kids made the most of it by playing out in the yard most of the evening, while we did adult things, like watch, talk and eat. :-D Here are few pictures taken during the Telephone Game.

Lining up for the start of Red Light Green Light

Aunt Heather gets hugs from Trent. Not to take anything away from Heather, but this is an unusual display of affection from Trent. We think he temporarily thought she was me. :-D

Saturday was another fun day. Our church held a Craft Fair to benefit the OPC church in Japan following their massive earthquake and tsunami back in March. It was a small affair, but still fun. Just being able to spend time with the other sweet families involved made it worthwhile.

How's this for a cutie pie?
The girls made crocheted hats, beaded jewelry, stationery, a chocolate bouquet and potted flowers. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well attended, so we ended up buying quite a bit of each others' things. :-D

On Sunday, we went down to celebrate Mom's birthday. The Orrs were there, too. We had chicken noodle soup, ham and cheese sandwiches, lots of fruit and crackers and some really wonderful chocolate cake Kelly picked up at Costco called "Great American Chocolate Cake" or something like that. Yes, we broke with tradition and bought a cake instead of making one. But the Orrs had just gotten back from their Boston trip the day before, and we had the been at Mom and Dad's on Thursday and Friday and had the Craft Fair on Saturday. The only downside to the weekend is that Trent picked up a nasty cold. It was so bad that the Orrs loaned us their nebulizer and we gave him several breathing treatments over the course of a few days.



How sad is this face??? :-(

Ahhhhh … asleep at last.

Grant, Claire and Sarah ended up getting sick, too, but I think we're all on the mend now. Just in time to head down to Grandma Worley's church tomorrow for Mother's Day. Then, it's back to Mom & Dad's. Here's hoping for some nice weather. It's supposed to be sunny and 74 deg. Most of next week shows at least a chance for rain each day, except Sunday.

Cold weather and Super Colts

We've been hit with a string of cold days and snow.  On Friday, we got about 8 inches with very strong winds, which out here means BIG drifts!  Mick is literally building an igloo in the biggest one.  I think he's burning off nervous energy before the Colts take on the Saints in the Super Bowl later on this evening.  GO COLTS!!!