So, the word is that AOL Journals is closing down as of October 31. Not sure yet how much of this journal can be moved there. They say they are going to help us move them over, but I'm not waiting to start the new one. I've started it today, played around with some of the buttons and features and I guess I'll get the hang of it eventually. So, here is the link for the new digs:
Don't forget to leave me your links so I can find everyone!
It's been a wild and windy day here in the Bluegrass State. As per our usual, we all gathered at Sarah Kate and Bennie's house for the Bengal game this afternoon. As we were driving over there I noticed that it was awfully windy for September. The main road that goes through Sarah and Bennie's community is lined on both sides with Bradford Pear Trees. Last spring we had a bad wind storm and several of those trees were torn in half. As I drove through there this afternoon I was thinking about what a shame it was that so many of those trees had been damaged and questioned the feasibility of using those to line that 2 mile strip of road. While they are absolutely beautiful when they're blooming, they are so vulnerable to wind. As I drove through them I was relieved to see that while they were waving quite a bit, they were holding up. How quickly that changed.
Within 10 minutes of reaching Sarah and Bennie's house the wind had kicked up to 60 miles an hour and looking our their back windows we saw lawn chairs, shingles, tarps, and garbage blowing everywhere. I even saw some pieces of paper and plastic blowing kite-like waaaay up in the air. Soon the power went out (which was probably a blessing at the time since the game was already dismal!). It was around 88 degrees when all this started and sunny. It remained sunny but it was so strange to see such high sustained winds. In the spring we are used to getting some pretty strong wind gusts, but this was sustained wind and it lasted for about 3 hours. We have gotten some bad weather from left over hurricanes before but I have never in my life witnessed anything like what we had today.
Bennie's Mom and Dad were there with us and one of their neighbors called to tell them that a part of their Bradford Pear tree in their front yard had split and it was lying very close to their front porch. They jumped in the car and went home to survey the damage. In the meantime we were worried that Sarah and Bennie's whole roof was going to come off. Shingles were flying everywhere. Sarah's car was damaged when shingles were blown across her hood and front fender.
We decided to come back to our house to check on things here and stopped by Bennie's parent's house on our way to see if they were ok. We could not believe our eyes when we pulled up in front of their house. The picture above and below are pictures of their house. More of the tree that their neighbor had called them about had fallen across the front of their house. Guess what kind of tree this is? You've got it, a Bradford Pear. An OLD Bradford Pear! They were really very lucky, it fell down right up next to their house and across their covered front porch but it didn't break any windows. Everything in the house was okay.
We stayed there for a little bit and then headed home dreading what we might find. Our trees were okay Being married to a nurseryman who stopped growing Bradford Pears several years ago for the very reasons mentioned above, we have Aristocrat Pears in our front yard. The back yard was a mess and my flower pots were upturned everywhere. Some huge limbs from a stand of trees across our back property line had fallen into my back flower beds. But compared to the damage we witnessed on our drive home, we have absolutely nothing to complain about. About an hour after we got home our power came back on. We are among the very lucky, most of the county is without power. Duke Energy services about 800,000 customers and over 650,000 of those customers is without power and may be for as many as 4 days. We live pretty close to the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky International Airport (it's in Kentucky, bet you didn't know that!) and I suspect that we had our power restored quickly because we're so close to the airport. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful. (Austin will be thrilled when he wakes up tomorrow and discovers there is not school!)
I've never been on a coast experiencing a hurricane. My thoughts and prayers are with the people in Texas who are dealing with the aftermath of Ike. If all the way up here in Kentucky we can experience winds like we did today, I cannot even imagine what it must have been like down there. Mother Nature is not to be messed with.
Austin was doing his homework on my bed last night while I was reading in the corner of the room. I looked up to check on him and thought it was one of the cutest scenes I'd seen in a while. So I did what any mother worth her salt would do; I grabbed my camera sitting beside me and I snapped a picture! I know he's mine and I know that I'm a tad bit biased, but come on - is this not adorable? What you can't see so much is how his tongue is sticking out a little bit. I've always said that if my boys didn't have tongues they'd never be able to think. Whenever they're writing or are in deep thought working on something, their tongues are always sticking out.
Austin has a hamster named Sydney in his room. Tucker is absolutely fascinated by the strange creature in the funny plastic box. Whenever we can't find him, it's a sure bet that he's sitting stone still in front of Sydney's cage looking just like this:
Every once in a while you'll hear a little whimper from him but for the most part he just sits and stares. I wonder what is going through his mind? I have known him to sit just like this for as long as an hour. I sure hope Sydney doesn't manage to escape her cage.
When Sarah Kate got married we had an extra bedroom in our house. Not one to let such an opportunity pass me by, I quickly moved Austin to Sarah's old room and took over his room for my scrapbooking room. This has been such a dream for me! I can go in there and work and make a mess and not have to clean it all up every time I want to scrapbook. I can mess to my hearts content and then walk out and shut the door. I believe everyone should have such a room, whether you scrapbook or not! Here it is in all it's messy glory!
They say that "she who dies with the most paper wins". I'm working on it!
It all starts in the Spring with this, and my unbridled enthusiasm!
To plant something in dirt and then water it and tend it is one of my favorite things to do. I wish I had a daily picture of these plants over the past 3 months to see it truly happen in front of my eyes, but this will have to do:
Taken the first of June:
Here is the same plant taken today:
Below is one of the hanging baskets that I purchase already planted from a local annual farm. They are so beautiful when I first hang them and they satisfy my hunger for beautiful full flowers while I'm waiting for my newly planted things to "take off".
These hanging pots tend to get very tired long before the end of summer so I cut them back severely about a week and a half ago. I wish I'd taken a picture of them right before I trimmed them back because they looked very bad and not a whole lot better after I trimmed them. However, they've recovered somewhat and while they don't look as pretty as they did when they were new, they look a heck of a lot better than they did a couple of weeks ago.
Below is a picture of my impatiens bed. I use lots of Osmokote when I plant these because they have a lot of growing to do to fill in all the space that I need them to fill. Doesn't it look pitiful in the beginning......
And here is what that bed looks like today! I love the pink and orange together!
Worth the wait, huh?
Here is one of the twin pots that I plant and place on the bench seats on the deck:
And here is what that same pot looked like today. I love it!!!
And here are just some shots I got while outside in the garden today.
As hard as it is for me to believe, Austin started 4th Grade on Monday. We went shopping on Saturday and bought his school supplies. He absolutely loves to shop for school supplies. Note the very clean white tennis shoes. He wanted black ones like last year but I insisted on white ones. I'm almost wishing I'd allowed the black ones because every little bit of dirt that gets on them freaks him out. I'm sure that by next week he'll be over the whole thing!
It's tradition in this family that you have to pose for "first day of school" pictures on the first day of school and in one of them you have to hold up fingers to indicate what grade your entering. Much to Austin's chagrin, the tradition continues!
I'm sure you can see how thrilled he was to be putting up with my nonsense.
It has also become a tradition with Austin that Tucker be included in at least one picture. So, here are my "boys".
Around mid July, Austin and his buddies decided it was time to have the old camp out in the backyard. One of his buddies got their family tent and drug it into our backyard. The problem was no one knew how to put it up! Guess who got pressed in to service?! Well they had an instruction manual but it had gotten wet and all the pages were stuck together and I had a heck of a time trying to figure it out. Finally, just as it was about to get dark the kid got his dad to come over and help me get it put up.
Here it is finally set up. I had no idea this thing was going to be so BIG!
And here they are all set up inside. When I was a kid and we had a backyard camp out we each had a blanket and a pillow and if we were really lucky someone's parents would let us have a flashlight. These kids were set up for actual living! They had two electric fans, a TV WITH a Playstation 2, coolers, flashlights, lanterns, board games and several decks of cards! Boy, camping out sure has changed!
The first night there were four of them. They were relatively quiet and things went off without a hitch. They were so good that when they asked if they could do it again the next night I said, "Sure!". Well, in the course of the day they proceeded to add three more to their numbers. One of these kids I had never even heard of. But I didn't want to spoil their fun so I let them do it. Things were waaay different the second night. They were loud, they were running around the back yard at midnight whooping and hollering like it was noon and in general being rowdy boys. I went out and played the spoil sport mom several times reminding them that it was late and it was a weeknight and that neighbors were trying to sleep and had to get up early in the morning. Finally they did settle down.
The next morning surprise, surprise all but three of them had disappeared and it was left to the three to dismantle camp and put things away. THIS after they'd gotten no sleep and were literally little crabby zombies! Suddenly camping wasn't so much fun and Austin said he'd had enough camping to last him for about 3 years! Yeah, we'll see!
I just realized that I haven't shared some very good news! Patrick and Amber got engaged on June 30th!.
Here is how he pulled it off: I told Amber that I had tickets to the Florence Freedom Baseball game and asked them if they'd like to go with us. Baseball has been so much a part of Patrick's life for so long that it only made sense that he would propose at a baseball game! He had it arranged ahead of time with the people at the game that they would call Amber up (she was chosen at random(ha ha) from the stands to come up on top of the dugout and play the "what's in the box game" between the top and the bottom of the second inning. The first box had a sponge in it and they asked her if she'd like to trade for what was in the second box. The second box had a battery in it so they asked her if she'd like to trade for what was in the third box. The third box had a doorstop in it. Then the emcee said that there was one more box but that her friend, Patrick would have to give it to her. With that, Patrick walked up on top of the dugout and dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him in front of the whole stadium! The crowd went crazy cheering and Amber was in total shock and awe. What she didn't know was that her Mom and Dad and their best friends were there watching from the wings along with Patrick's grandmother and aunt, and Amber's cousin Michelle, who along with me set them up on their first blind date.
I was video taping the actual proposal but here are some pictures taken with my camera right afterwards:
On July 26th Amber's Mom and Dad had an engagement party for them at their home. Here are some pictures from that party: (It was a luau/swim party)
They are getting married in October of 2009. Happy planning days ahead!
