Robin egg blue

Yesterday while mowing the lawn I noticed a very agitated robin on the fence. I looked over at the tree right outside our dining room window and saw the nest. So I just reached my camera up into the tree and snapped a picture so I could see her eggs. Beautiful.

Then I went away and let her get back to them. From my dining room window I can see down into the nest. It will be fun to watch them hatch. 

A New Day Dawns

The sun comes up on a new day. We remember the joy of the days past and the grief of the past days we can set down by the side and not carry it as a burden. We don't forget but we move forward.

I have placed and gotten planted all of my 5 barrels. I am thrilled.

The EZ-GO makes gardening life so much easier!! 

I put one at the entrance to our front lawn.

I put one out in my garden by my chairs.

I put one on each side of the arbor. Here are close ups of those because the Beauty Bushes are blooming and they look amazing. Side note: Once I tried to find out what the bush in the backyard at Jayme's house was called because it is amazing and I was told "Beauty Bush" but when I looked that up it wasn't what she has. We took cuttings off of it and I got them to root 14 years ago and we now have two in our yard. It turns out that it is a Beauty Bush but this kind are considered "heirloom" because there are so few. Who knew?! Apparently they used to be in just about every yard in the area where Jayme's house is. 

Then I put one down by the deck steps.

You may or may not have noticed that I put Zinnias in all of them. I now refer to myself in my head as "The Crazy Zinnia Lady" I am obsessed with Zinnias. I love that they bloom from spring to fall and are just so hardy! Plus they come in so many colors. Can't wait until they are big!

And my Little Kim Lilacs are blooming and I had to trim some branches off the Beauty Bush so I brought them in. The mingled smells  are amazing.

I planted a very sad dried out looking Oriental Lily that I rescued at Walmart. Wasn't sure it would make it. The leaves look bad but the flowers came to life.

Hopefully next year will be even better. 

Ashley sent me this picture last night. Apparently Dave is having a little snack.

Whew! I was so far behind and so much has happened! Thanks for caring about our lives and reading my thoughts. 

"Life is made of meetings and partings..."

Wednesday, May 21 Boden and I had spent the day out here so he could play and I could get some stuff done.

He's a great helper.

Travis called right when we were planting these and told me that he had asked Bobbi to marry him! Such a fun call to receive.

Bryan had a very hard day. Although very happy about Travis and Bobbi, he did have the funeral of a 25 year old mother of a small boy. 

So after supper we went out on the boat and did some fishing.

 

It was a beautiful night and a perfect way to unwind.

Thursday was the last day of school for the kids. Boden and I went to Hudson's Kindergarten Field Day. The day started out at 56 and pouring rain! So Hudson dressed for that. By the time noon rolled around it was so hot and muggy. Poor kid! So glad the school year is ended and summer relaxation can begin. 

That evening I had Esprit rehearsal and found out that a dear friend had passed away. Don and Donna Armstrong drove our Esprit buses for 7 years. They were such good friends and to hear that Don had passed away due to cancer was just heartbreaking. They had retired last year and moved to Arizona. When they first began driving for us Don was a rough, tough talking man. They always sat in on all the concerts and over the years Don began to change. They began to attend Christ Community Church in Beatrice and got very involved. At Don's request his memorials are being given to Esprit and the youth group at Christ Community Church. I told Bryan it feels like losing a very special "uncle" because I have spent a week every summer for 7 years with Don and Donna.

He will be missed but I thank God that He allowed me to know and work with Don for all those years. 

Travis said "Will you?" Bobbi said "YES"

Travis arranged for all the ladies at Salon Plush to have their cameras ready. I am so glad! She was sweeping up hair and he knelt down in the pile of hair and asked her to marry him. 

I think the lady in the other chair with foils in her hair probably went home and told everyone she know about this sweet story she got to watch. 

The three ladies in this picture are the Plush owners. Denise is by Bobbi, Melissa is in the middle and Ashley is holding Bobbi's hand. 

And then we got this text.

Here's a close up.

Very exciting. They are looking at an August wedding, with just immediate family and maybe a few of their very close friends, here at the house. We are all so happy to add Travis to our family, officially, since we already think of him as a part of it.

Repairing the pond front

We have had some sink holes from water washing out behind the retaining wall on the pond front. So Monday, May 19 our friend, Steve DeBoer used this little thing to dig out all along the pond front behind the wall. He also stopped at Outdoor Solutions and picked up the liner that was going against the wall and under the rock. When he got to our house he realized they had loaded the wrong liner. There were two choices of liner: one was $120 a roll the other was $890 a roll...they loaded the $890 roll, we paid for the $120. So we call them, they can't deliver the correct roll until 4, we needed it way sooner so I said I would take it back and get the right one. 

Side trail in the story here...I have been looking for 1/2 whiskey barrels for ages for some places around our house and haven't found any or am too cheap to pay $59 a barrel. (Mostly the latter)

SO...I have the guys load the roll into the pickup, I drive all the way back into town to Outdoor Solutions. They were swamped with people in line, people getting landscape materials, people needing help, you get the idea. But the second I walked in they said how sorry they were and they would change out the roll and thanks for bringing back the expensive mistake they had made. While I was waiting for the exchange I happened to think "Hey, maybe they sell 1/2 barrels" so I asked and the guy said "You don't need to buy them, you can have them. How many do you want?" I said I wanted 2. The lady says, "YOU DON"T WANT THOSE! They are rotting. Find something nicer!" I asked if I could see them and they told me where they were. They weren't rotting, there was only one band on one of them that was slipping down and there were 5 of them. So they sent two guys out to load them and the guy says "Just take them, on the house, all 5! We weren't sure they were any good any more but if you want them, they are yours!" I came home quite thrilled and triumphant!

We then had to put the new liner in behind the wall before Donn Stoner arrived with his tractor to move the rock in behind it. It was super windy on Monday! The instant Bryan and Steve unrolled the mesh the wind caught it and it was like a huge sail. It pulled Steve down, Bryan almost got pulled out of the pond and I was laughing so hard and grabbing my camera that I was no help. Donn was on the tractor laughing and going for his phone. 

It was a long, hot, windy, tiresome day but those guys stuck it out and got it done at about 6 in the evening. So nice to know that our pond will stay where it belongs and the lawn at the front will remian a lawn.

More hair cut

Bobbi cut a few more inches off my hair. I actually weighed myself after the first haircut and taking those 12 inches off, I lost 3 pounds. I knew the hair was heavy, just not that heavy. 

Also, it was so difficult sitting there in her chair, knowing that Travis was planning to ask her to marry him and not slipping up and saying something about him coming out to talk to us! 

A few random things

Suddenly we had a very hot day, no wind (that is the amazing part) and I just had to go lay in the hammock.

Bryan had ordered something and this is how it came...I think I laughed for a whole day at that mess of postage!

Sunday, May 4, Ashley planned a little party out at our house and those are always enjoyable! Love having all those guys out.

Monday, May 5, Travis called and asked to come talk to Bryan and I. He wants to marry Bobbi. But the ring wasn't done yet so I had to keep quiet about it for a week...

My lilacs started blooming. I believe that if I could decorate in a scent, it would be lilac. 

Also that day, I cleaned out the chicken house. Gross job.

I made a passing comment to Bryan about how hard it was to clean out because of the dirt floor and the next thing I know he is in there leveling the dirt, making a surround for the well head, getting concrete mixed up and viola! I have a concrete floor to make life easier. And he added more pavers to the entrance. What a great guy! The ladies weren't too sure at first about the floor.

I planted flowers and helped where I could.

Thought their house could use a few.

Planted a little kitchen herb garden in the pot outside the back door.

On Friday I made some cookies for Bobbi for Mother's Day. (Her dogs are her children) 

Ashley fixed lunch for all of us on Mother's Day. It was a wonderful time at her house, just relaxing and enjoying my family. 

This is Dave Mattingly. Ashley's rescue cat. He is seriously the most amazing blue/grey color I have ever seen on an animal. He's very sweet but a bit needy. When I got there I wasn't paying attention to him, I was just talking to Ashley. All of a sudden he came running at me, leaped up my leg and onto my chest. Scared me a little! So we went into the living room and he got to sit on my lap and get some attention.

Bryan and I had to go downtown to meet with a couple that evening. As we were sitting outside at The Mill, having coffee, the tornado sirens went off. Typical Nebraskans, everyone came outside to see what they could see. It proceeded to become a wild and rainy night. The storms that did damage were north of Lincoln but it poured rain. I took this picture, of the water running by the chicken house, when we got home. We were driving through rain that was coming down so hard you almost couldn't see the road. We call that kind of rain "pond fill". 

Bigfoot and Survivorman?!

We like to watch Survivorman and we like to watch Finding Bigfoot. A couple weeks ago Survivorman went in search of Bigfoot! Well, that constituted having a bit of a celebration. We got together with Chan and Brenda and had a bit of a Bigfoot bash. Can you have a bash when it's only 4 people? Anyway, it was a fun episode to watch and I did make cookies that looked like Sasquatch. 

Maybe too creepy to eat... But I certainly enjoyed creating them.

Pretty serious stuff...