Memorial Day Thanks!

Thank you to all the veterans and current military personnel for serving our great country. I am forever grateful and thankful for you while I enjoy the freedom of living in the USA. I am proud to be an American and I hope you are too!

God Bless America!!

Congratulations Beth!

My nephew, Derek's wife Beth (this is her with her parents) graduates today as a Pharmacist from Loma Linda University! We are so proud of her! Congratulations Beth!!

Home is Beautiful Art & Photography

I'm linking up with Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer today for her Home is Beautiful Art and Photography day. Today we are sharing our art and photography on our walls.

Sandy has a way with entertaining simply in her home and shares all her secrets so that we can do it too. She has helped me to be kinder and more thoughtful in a simpler way. She loves her family, food and having friends and family over for a meal. It's hard not to want to try it too! So join me and others by visiting Sandy and saying "Hello!" and mark her blog as one to read on a consistent basis. You'll be glad you did! Enjoy!

So here's a few items on my walls:

As you enter the family room kitchen area from the entry/living/dining room you see this. I love this verse.

My calendar in the kitchen...it used to be a whole lot fuller when the kiddos were little. Now it's just major items so I don't forget!

My photo wall that I recently changed from Dustin's wall of fame (motorcycle racing) to recent family photos that I love! This is in my computer/hobby room and is hard to get a good photo of it. I look at these photos everyday. Photography is my hobby and I've taken most of the photos on this wall.

A photo I took on one of my walks.

A self portrait made by my son, the future graphic designer when he was in grade school. I recently framed this and love it! It hangs in the hall from the dining room to the kitchen.

My dining room buffet area...tea!!

A water color done by my oldest son in his Senior Art class that looks so great framed! The other framed print was a gift from my mom.

Handprints of my grandchildren that my DIL made for the hubby for a gift. Priceless!

So just a few things that I love that decorate my home. Now I can't wait to see everyone else's!

Garden Update!

Little did we know when we started this...that a garden is a work in progress. There is always something to do. I've been tying up my peas so they climb, we've put a trellis up for the cucumber plants, each of the tomatoe plants has it's own climbing cage, the celery has to be banded and the stalks covered so it fades in color(they are bright green right now), the corn is framed with netting so it won't fall over in the wind and the strawberries have their netted cover. The hubby and I are enjoying our new hobby and appreciate the farmers and their effort put into creating a crop to harvest. This garden will by no means be cheaper than buying what we are growing but it sure is enjoyable and we are learning so much about the food we eat. It was another beautiful day...we both ate lunch on the patio and enjoyed looking at our garden. Funny how simple things can be so enjoyable!

This is my little friend who watches over the garden for me!

Our first full head of lettuce...we've had fresh lettuce now for a month. It really does taste good right out of the garden.
Our corn is about 4 feet tall and getting taller everyday!
Zucchini squash...Did you know that each zucchini has a blossom on the end of it? I didn't!
Bell peppers are coming right along!!
And the sweet peas remind me of my Uncle Ralph. I'd steal his from his garden when I visited as a girl. They were so good! He'd be impressed!
That's my excitement for the day! Have a good weekend!

Happy Saturday!

This little one wants to try everything! He learned to say "HAPPY" recently. It's too cute so "Happy" Saturday from Mason and I.

How Does Your Garden Grow??

Very well thank you!! Every morning, the hubby, my son and I check the garden to see what's new or what's gotten a little bigger. It's all doing so well. Waiting for the fruit's of our labor is the hard part. We have been enjoying our lettuce for a couple weeks now. We have two green bell peppers getting bigger each day...they are so cute! The corn is getting tall, the peas are starting to climb, the beans are all up, the zucchini squash plant is taking over one of our whole gardens(I think he needs a bit more room than we gave him!), and the carrots and celery are looking good!! AND more strawberries are beginning to ripen and grow. We seem to have kept the critters away for now with our traps and netted coverings. I hope so...can't wait to taste those precious strawberries.

More strawberries!!

The corn and orange bell peppers!
Carrots!
Lettuce and strawberries!
The zucchini squash is over taking the whole box...my green bell peppers in the foreground.
Celery and onions!
See that BEAUTIFUL baby green bell pepper! He's so cute!
More strawberries!!!
So how is your garden growing???

Back from Colorado!

I took a last minute trip to Colorado last week to watch Bella and Dylan so their mommy and daddy could paint their new house. My son bought his first house and it needed to be repainted inside and a few other minor repairs. I watched these two and their 1-1/2 yr. old cousin and enjoyed spending time with them. Grandma had some quality craft and playdough time with Ms. Bella. Dylan is just a sweetie and loved me reading books to him. We took walks and trips to McDonald's and Burger King for lunch and play time. We stayed out of everyone's way. It was exhausting but oh so much fun! I didn't take many photos because I was busy......however, I couldn't get away with no photos so here are a few I took to make myself happy for a couple months until I see these sweet faces again!

Bella made a sign for grandma! I put it in my kitchen to look at each day!

We made chocolate chip cookies for daddy one night. They were such a big help and loved licking the beaters! Notice the princess crown!!

He's saying cheese! I wanted him to smile for me...he's too cute!

This girl is so photogenic and she does the cutest poses...love her hands here.

We got daddy in on our photo session in their new backyard. Then he had to go back and unload the truck full of their stuff to put in the new house!

Dylan enjoying grandma's Kit Kat treats!

Miss Bella too...chocolate just takes you away to another place! Haha!

She just loved running around their yard...they have a lot of birds and squirrels in the nearby trees.

Bella and I loved the pinecones in this tree and it reminded me of a photo taken by my friend, Nina Diane at Just Enjoying Life.

I'm back home now and missing my sweet grandchildren. It was so much fun and wore me out that I ended up taking a 4 hour nap yesterday! Now back to the grind!

They did it again....

Those darn little critters came between midnight(yes, I checked before I went to bed) and 6:30am and took my bait strawberry. They had a little struggle though...a few small pieces and left behind and some stain where they got thru the netting. Yes....they ate thru at three places. So Hubby is onto plan two and is at Lowe's right now getting more ammo to keep those little buggers out of my garden. It's not bunnies...there are no poop pellets anywhere. We suspect a small mouse or rat. We have the kangaroo rats in the area.

It's all out war!!

The garden is coming along...we've eaten our lettuce and it's pretty yummy! We have strawberries growing or we did...something is eating them...so we had to build a cover as you can see in this photo.

The green peppers are coming along nicely.

So are the carrots...aren't they cute??
Six of our nine green bean plants sprouted but if you look closely...something has chewed on these too.
So we are protecting our three strawberries that are trying their best to grow so that we can taste their sweetness. See the three strawberries in the right box.

Here's what it looks like close up.
Here's the other one protecting more of my strawberries. Let's see if we are going to win this war and be able to harvest our strawberries instead of feeding some unknown critter.

We set a trap....a store bought ripe strawberry to see if the little critters can get in under our cover.
That is one good looking strawberry, if you ask me. I want to know who's eating my strawberries. I hope he gets in and then gets stuck so we can see who it is. Stay tuned...I'll let ya know what we find out! It's all out war!!