House blessing and gathering

A few weekends ago Uncle came up and surprised my parents.  They had no clue he was coming and were thoroughly speechless!!  We had been wanting to have our house blessed for quite a while and were hoping Uncle could do it, but because he lives so far away, it didn't seem like it was going to happen.  Then he let us know that over the 4th he'd be up for a short time.  Perfect!

 

We gathered family and Uncle created an awesome "service" where we could dedicate the house to the Lord.  Afterwards a few more friends and family showed up for some tasty treats, lawn games and of course laughs.  It was a great way to celebrate the holiday as well as be surrounded by those we love. 

Hello Monday Lake Style

Over the weekend we went out on Grandma and Grandpa's boat.  There wasn't any swimming due to the cast, but it was gorgeous out on the Lake!

We were able to keep the cast dry without any problems all week...until Sunday night's bath.  Oops--someone forgot and stuck their arm in the tub.  Soooo, we have a new cast and new color for this week. Fingers crossed that it will come off next Monday!

Hello purple.  You are the new pink.

Hello lunch dates with daddy.  One of the highlights of summer!

Hello time to try new a recipes.  Let's hope it is a winner ;)

Hello to fresh blueberries at every meal.  We picked 9 pounds last week and just keep gorging ourselves!

Hello to museum visits with good friends.  Children's Museum here we come!

Hello to birthday cake, presents and wishes.  Someone has a birthday coming up this week :)

Linking up here

Words you never want to hear your child utter.............

"Uhhh, Mama?  A pillbug just crawled up into my cast."

***Thankfully, a few minutes later, said pillbug crawled back out.

An unexpected visit

Saturday, as the last guests were leaving our house, the Noodle and a friend from church were playing outside in a wagon.  He was pulling her around as she laughed and encouraged him to go "faster, faster".  You know this can't end well.....

All was good until they turned a corner.  Out tumbled the Noodle.  Right onto her arm.  Ouch.

We gave it a little time to see if it was just the shock/scare of falling out, but after about 15 minutes, it didn't appear that this was something that would be fixed by kisses and cuddles.  Thank goodness our friend's mother is a PT and is used to dealing with various ortho issues!  She confirmed that probably our best bet would be to head to the ER............

So, Saturday night was spent calmly in our local ER.  Thankfully they have a peds side, so it really wasn't too bad (if you have to spend time in an ER).  It was early enough that things were still quite and uneventful.  The highlight was being able to watch Disney on the TV while waiting.  Small pleasures :)  We left with a bright purple splint and instructions to see the doctor on Monday.

Prognosis?  Probably a fracture of the growth plate of the right wrist.  She gets to wear a cast for 2 weeks and then we go back to determine if it can come off or if she has to wear it for another 2 weeks.  Already the Noodle says it feels better, "like just maybe a 1!", and she's certainly acting like it doesn't bother her.  Not exactly what we had expected for July, but it could have been so much worse! 

Stay-cation over the 4th

As many of you know, we are in the process of adopting Mei-Mei from China.  And while we don't know anything yet, other than we have a LID (Log-In-Date) of 3/8/13, we know that we have a trip to China coming up....sometime!  That being said, it didn't seem to make much sense (financially or otherwise) to go on a big vacation this year.  So J took some time off this past week and we hung around here.  Not quite the same as a beachy vacay, but great to all be together!

While the weather has been iffy, the one day we decided to chance it and head out to Grandma and Grandpa's was perfect.  Calm water, lots of sun and just enough heat to make jumping and swimming in the lake feel refreshing.

On the actual holiday, we went to our village's annual carnival.  It really hasn't changed in 20+ years and many of the rides are still the same.  I doubt that any of the workers remain from when I went there as a pre-teen and a teenager, but you never know!  Ha!

All of the oldies but goodies are there.  Pony rides, bumper cars, ferris wheel and lots of spinney rides.  I used to love those but now, I get nauseous even swinging on a swing with the Noodle.  About all I can manage now is the carousal.

This was also the first year we stayed up for fireworks.  Even though it looked as storms were imminent, we braved it and walked to the end of our street. After setting up our chairs in the little park we were able to see fireworks all up and down the lake.  Perfect...and no dealing with crowds or long walks!!

Finally, we ended with a few friends and family coming over to celebrate the house finally being finished (is it every really?!).  It coincided with Uncle coming up and surprising Lollie and Papa--they were clueless--and him blessing our house.  Don't they just look thrilled!

And of course, no good party is complete without a trip to the ER, but more on that next time!

Vintage Silver Succulent Planters

It seems that I'm usually behind the eight ball when it comes to trends.  Something will hit it big, but it will take me quite a while to finally come around to it.  Are you at all like that?

Take succulents, for example....I never was interested.  Thought they were rather, well, blah.  But then, I started seeing them pop up all over the web, especially Pinterest.  Hmmmm, interesting.  Perhaps I could see some potential?  Then I saw them paired with vintage silver.  Now I was definitely interested!

Then, it finally struck me.  Duh.  All that silver plate upstairs in the attic leftover from my parent's wedding--the perfect containers for those little guys!

First step?  Pull out all of the pieces and then clean up the silver, just a bit, since that tarnish adds a bit of patina and interest.

Next, I added some little pebbles for extra drainage.  Succulents are similar to cactus in that they like well drained soil and need very little watering.  They were located right next to each other at the garden store.

After I filled the bottom with the pebbles I added some special soil specifically for succulents.  See above.

Finally, I played around with the pairings until I found a good variation of leaves and color and then popped them into the containers and filled in with the extra soil. 

I love how they turned out!  Now they are sitting up in "the treehouse" (what the Noodle calls our office/craft room because of the trees) in a sunny window.  We're working feverishly to get a few projects finished (another one that uses some of the silver trays) because we're having some family over next weekend.  Perhaps I'll even get some pictures up of another completed room......................

To see another project that used some leftover silver, see here.  Lollie was thrilled to hear that her silver was given new life and wasn't languishing anymore up in the attic.  Ha!

Hittin' the yard Part 2

You can see what our poor yard looked like here before we started tackling it this spring.  Renovations and construction don't mix well with grass, plants and flowers!

Our old house had a small, but well established garden with lots of lush plants. Thankfully, before we moved, J had the forethought to divide and pot up lots of our perennials. At least we had a base to start from.

It is still a work in progress and we're adding to it each day.  I'm thinking about having a neighboorhood plant swap...anyone ever done one before?  Helpful hints or advice?  We're all about the free stuff!

Here are the after shots.  Yipee!  Flowers and green grass (hopefully still more coming in!) and order :)

Iris and our herb garden

Prolific oregano, peonies, iris, hosta and daylily

Hydranga, hosta and a few tiny boxwoods

Arbovitea, hosta and a great big hydrangea I planted back in high school  :)

 

The raised bed in the front was in good shape but we did add in a vegetable garden.  This side of the house faces south and it is amazing how the temperature varys from one side of the house to the other.  It blazes here in the summer.  The veggies should love it!