Mother's Day

This is a purple lilac bush in the front yard.
This is a white lilac bush in the corner of our backyard.
Raised Vegetable garden.
This is our Ryan Garden. We planted the tree last year and made the bed in the fall. A very kind friend of mine gave me several cuttings of perennials from her yard. I stashed them in my veggie garden for the winter and they ALL survived. Almost the entire bed is from those plants with the exception of 2 rose bushes I bought this Spring and a hosta my next door neighbor brought over on a shovel a couple of weeks ago. Can you see why I love perennials SO MUCH?!? I can't wait to see what this looks like when things start to grow and bloom.I bought this purple rhododendron yesterday to replace one I had in that same spot that died over the winter. It's the only thing currently in bloom since I sure it was force-bloomed in a greenhouse someplace before making it's way to Lowes.

I had a nice mother's day. It started with, unfortunately, not sleeping in. Oh well. We went to early church, Sunday school, then to Outback Steakhouse for lunch. Then I got to do one of my favorite things for the entire afternoon - work in my yard. I planted several new things, did a weed treatment and fertilized most of my plants. I even got in a long walk - it was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures of our yard. For those of you in the south you have to remember, we've only had spring for the past few weeks so nothing is in bloom yet. I'll have to update the pics in a month or so and hopefully you'll see how well my perennials are filling in and adding color to the beds. Also, can you see the little "twigs" in my vegetable garden? I've got tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, onions, sage, cilantro, basil, zucchini planted.

Oh and along these same lines. . . I got a great Mother's day present. Dallas worked very hard on the fence and he "bunny proofed" our backyard. He put wire mesh along the entire perimeter of the fence. Bye bye bunnies. You won't be getting any food in this yard!

Tooth Fairy

Griffin noticed a bump in his mouth a few weeks ago. It was his permanent tooth coming in behind his 2 bottom front teeth. In a week's time he looked like a shark. He had 2 rows of teeth! We ventured to the dentist and had the front 2 teeth pulled! Griffin did great - no tears or fear! The dental assistant suggested Griffin write a note to the tooth fairy and ask her to leave his teeth. So she did, along with a $5 bill. Remarkably, the tooth has moved forward and is almost in the proper place.

Downtown . . . again

We got to enjoy the great downtown of Chicago again today. Now granted is was cool and misty/raining, it was still a lot of fun. Dallas' sister-in-law, Laura and niece, Brooke were up for a few days from Houston, TX. We went to Gino's (again) for some yummy pizza then headed over to the Museum of Science and Industry (again) to see some of the things we missed last time. That place is BIG and nearly impossible to see it all in a day or even two. The main reason for our return visit was to see the baby chicks hatching. Griffin has 32 eggs in his classroom right now that are just 18 days away from hatching. They are learning all about chickens and eggs at school. I thought it would be neat for him to get an advanced look at what will be happening in just a couple of weeks with the classroom eggs. Well, I didn't realize it takes up to 10 hours for a chick to make it's way out of an egg. So watching one do so is sort of like watching paint dry - rather boring. But that's ok, we had a great time anyway.

My camera was at home and my sister-in-law is still on the plane with her pictures so none for the blog today!

Easter

We were able to dye some Easter Eggs before we left for Chicago. We (our family) kind of think it's a rather over-rated Easter holiday tradition. We finished in about 10 minutes and put them in the frig and didn't think about them again until I made deviled eggs for dinner tonight! But anyway, we did it and here's a quick look.

One of the things the Easter Bunny left Griffin was a large Lego set. Dallas and Griffin spent most of today building it. Dallas was the "supervisor" and Griffin was the "structural/mechanical engineer". They had a lot of fun. It was the Rogue Shadow.
If you think this one is cool, wait til I post about the set he bought yesterday at the Lego Store on Michigan Avenue.

Cathi

Chicago

Our friends the Kocurek's came up to Chicago for the weekend and we got to spend some of it with them! We had a great time and it was so nice to catch up with them after not seeing them for almost 3 years! Dallas went to college with Scott and Michelle so they go way back. Their son, Alex is a freshman at Notre Dame so they picked him up to spend the weekend here along with their two other boys, Wesley and Zach. Michelle's parents were also here and it was great to see them as well! One thing that was really funny was there thin Texas blood. There were VERY cold and just think - it was SPRING time!

Navy Pier

The view of Chicago from the end of Navy Pier Griffin at Millennium Park.Even though we've lived here for 2.5 years, we haven't done many of the touristy things in Chicago. We were able to see lots of the sites and the Museum of Science and Industry in the 2 days we were there. And we hit Gino's East for lunch on Saturday and got our fill of delicious Chicago style pizza (thin crust).

Springtime in the Chicago Area

Spring Break 2009

It's over and all I can say is I wish I were back there! We had a great vacation. It started with a long drive to Hilton Head with a stopover in Frankfort, KY. The hotel was "awesome" in Griffin's words because there was a Jacuzzi in the room.

We got to my parent's house and the big reveal of Griffin's surprise was waiting for him. My sister, Barbara, flew in for a visit. Griffin was very happy to see her. She's the best Aunt ever.

Saturday morning Dallas and I were up and 'outta there for our drive down to Jacksonville to get the cruise ship. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the terminal's computer system and it took us 2 hours to check in. Luckily everyone was in a good mood so it wasn't too bad. Once we got on, we explored the ship from top to bottom and had a late lunch. We set sail to some rough waters. It was rather rocky that first night but it was smooth sailing after that (thank God!)

We spent the second day at sea doing two of my favorite things - soaking in the sun and reading a good book. The third day was docked in Nassau, Bahamas. We took a long walk around the streets of the town, did some window shopping and got a drink at Senior Frogs. It was a beautiful day. Day four was at Half Moon Cay. Can you say glorious? It was so pretty there. We took another long walk and explored the area. It was so pretty and at times we felt like we were the only two people on the entire island. Day 5 was at sea where we did more sunning and reading. There were 2 comedians on the ship which provided nightly entertainment. They were pretty good and we enjoyed catching the show each night. We also spent some time watching others perform karaoke. This was hilarious. The audience really got into the singing and dancing right along with the "performer." I don't think I need to tell you that we did NOT participate in any of the singing!

We got back to Hilton Head on Thursday afternoon and got to spend the next couple of days with my parents and my wonderful Aunt who was visiting from California.It was so good to be on vacation.