Where am I?

I have been a horrible blogger. I don't have know what my problem is, other than I just don't have much to say. A few weeks ago I was having major computer problems and I did a factory restore, so I lost all of my pictures, links, blogger buddy sites etc. I'm working on getting them back.
The last few weeks have been a little busy. I got a hair cut I hate, took care of itchy, sick dogs and met one of my favorite bloggers, Monkling. I had never met any of my bloggy buddies (the ones I didn't know before they started blogging) and I must say it was nice. I like being able to put a face with the stories. We didn't have a lot of time to talk, she had been on the road a couple of days and was just passing through, but we did talk a little and I got to meet her husband Frank. She brought me a nice bottle of wine, which I am saving for a special occasion.
The next few weeks are going to be much slower than the last few have been. I think I need to start looking for another job, though I hate to. I like the job I have where I can almost choose the hours I want to work. The problem with my job is that I have so few hours right now it just about isn't worth it. I've been half way looking for another patient but I'm not too sure that's what I want right now. I am thinking about a job with benefits...retirement....etc. I'll just have to wait around and see what happens. Jobs are so scarce right now it may not matter.
I shall be back, probably with pictures of something. I haven't been taking too many lately and I want to get back to it.
Have a great week.

Scenes from the country

I have very little to say. Life is rolling along at an alarming rate. My aunt died a couple of days ago very unexpectedly. She was having a quick surgery on a vertebrae...and then leaving for the beach a couple of days later. She never made it to the beach. She loved the beach. My aunt's funeral is this week, but she is being buried at Arlingt#on National cemetery so burial plans are on hold. They are just saying her ashes will be buried at some point in the next few months. She had the bad luck of dying when the Kenn3dy clan needed Arling$ton and I'm sure it is busy there.

Dearest Daughter is chugging away at college. She seems to be enjoying it, though she would never admit it. She and a few friends work out at the student rec center after classes a few times a week.

Superhubby is super busy. Work is keeping him busy and then he has to fit in all of those little old ladies, most of whom I am super mad at right now. It's a long story, but one I should tell you all one of these days. I'm sure you would be mad too.

I finally got my camera back out and took a few pictures. This one is of a couple of the thousands of things my husband has in the woods behind the house that no one will ever use. He just likes to know he has them... whatever floats his boat I guess.

This one is of the creek near one of SH's little old ladies houses where I helped him weed eat, plant, paint and trim hedges yesterday.

I hope everyone's September is starting out the way ours is. The temperatures are wonderful, the sky is sunny and life is good.

Another first...

Today is the first day of school around here. Today is the first day of school in 16 years I didn't have to get up early, make sure the new school clothes were perfect, and wave goodbye as someone left for their first day of school.
I thought I would be sad.
I thought it would be hard.
I thought wrong.
I think it isn't bothering me too much because it hasn't really sunk in yet. It's just another summer day here. I slept as the buses ran, I slept as the mothers handed their new kindergartners over to the teachers, I slept as those mothers (and fathers) went home with tears in their eyes to watch the clock. I slept as this years seniors walked in and took over the school.
I enjoyed sleeping until 9.
Next Monday will be DD's first day of college. I wonder how she would feel if I decided to follow her to school with a camera, like we did during kindergarten? I think I will have to let her go alone, she isn't 6 anymore.
Today we were going to go to DD's college and buy her text books. I know the general rule is to wait until after the first class to make sure the Professor wants you to have the books. I thought that since this is her first year we should go ahead and get the books so she would feel prepared.
Then we looked up the prices.
I know text books are ridiculous. I know book stores OVERCHARGE for these books. I remember my sons freshman year and his books were usually around 400 dollars each time.
DD's are considerably more.
They are so much more that we are going to chance her not being prepared her first week and order them from amazon, where we can get a discount of about 300 dollars, even after paying for quick shipping.
Maybe she find out what degree you need to run a college book store.

The best....and the worst of nature.

Last night my son noticed this.....
In this picture it looks very small, but in real life it is a hornets nest the size of a basketball.
Being the great mother that I am, I gave my son my gun (yes I have a gun....I'm at home alone A LOT with very few neighbors.) I'm sure you are all clicking over to find the site where you can vote me Mother of the Year....I'll wait here until you get back.
Alrighty then...are you back?
After shooting at it for quite awhile (and 3 speedloaders worth of ammo) he realized that he wasn't going to be able to knock it down with my handgun. He could hit the nest, which would just put a hole through it, but he couldn't hit the tiny little limb it was hanging on.

He got a 12 gauge shotgun and continued to shoot at it for awhile, knocking more holes in it and REALLY upsetting the inhabitants, but never knocked it down. I think the whole idea of the thing was to have an excuse to shoot guns, which we almost never let him do.


In other news....this very wet summer we have been having is annoying but it is doing great things for my garden. The corn is 9 feet tall and we had the first ears off of it yesterday.

I have watermelon of many different sizes from this cute little tiny one... I think that's a very dirty penny down and to the left of the watermelon. I didn't realize it was there until I was editing the size of the picture but it gives you an idea of size.

Up to this oddly shaped one, about the size of a football.

We also have dozens and dozens of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The zucchini are blooming well but not growing yet and the cantaloupes are just the size of a golf ball.

I hope everyone has a great end of the week and here's a wish for a DRY weekend. I know the rain is keeping everything very wet and green, but we need a break. Just a couple of hot weeks and then bring it back...please.

A walk down memory lane....

The weather outside is wet...again. I think we have a chance of rain all but one day of the next 7. I'm pretty sure keeping our pool open is just a waste of money. It will probably be shut down if the weather doesn't improve in the next week.

Being home alone on this wet, dreary day has me walking down memory lane. I am so thankful for my kids and the time I have had being their mother. I got lucky, I had two kids who have never really given me any trouble. Those kids are turning into adults and I am proud of who they have become and can't wait to see who they will be.

I remember the old days when they spent a lot of time doing this....

I remember all of the fun times they had acting silly together.

And I remember the times we spent as a family, just enjoying each others company.

Now they are growing up. My DD is the same age I was when I got married and DS is the same age I was when I gave birth to him. I guess it's true that time flies when you are having fun.

Wet n wild

Once every summer we get a major storm. We get lots of little storms but this was one of those special storms. Meteorologists will tell you how all the conditions have to be right and everything must come together just perfect before you get that one big storm. I have my own way of predicting a major storm. This time we had all of the criteria. The first thing that must be in place is a planned outdoor activity. Saturday was the outdoor bible school picnic that Superhubby and I were assisting with. SH loves to make giant bubbles and small kids love to play with those bubbles with SH.
The second thing we had in place was the fact that the county fair started Saturday. It always alternates between being horribly hot and hard rains that leave the entire fairgrounds a mud pit.
Since both of those things were in place Saturday it was inevitable that we would have one of THOSE storms.
Superhubby and I took a quick drive a couple of hours after the storm passed. We ran into a lot of this....

And quite a bit of this......


We ran out to Vesuvius and looked at the spillway. This usually has a trickle of water and when the summer gets dry nothing comes over it. Today it would have been good for white water rafting.

Quite a few people are still without electric. I am thankful that this time it wasn't us.

My softhearted (don't tell him I told you that) husband sat on the porch and watched the hummingbirds trying to drink during the rain. He quickly fixed it so they could sit on the feeder and not get wet. Some of them were a little freaked out by the umbrella but they quickly got over it.

Now the sun is shining, our corn is trying to stand back up after the wind blew it over and the pool could actually be warm enough to swim in sometime this month. Life is good.

The one with no name

I have no name for this post. My imagination is tired...along with my body.
I love my new high speed. I don't "surf" the web enough that I notice a huge difference until someone sends me a link to something. I never clicked links to videos because that would mean the computer would be stuck downloading for 2 hours or more. My uncle sent me a link today and I clicked it, watched the 1 minute movie and was finished in under 2 minutes. I think I'm gonna like this.
Now the important thing.....click this link and watch this commercial. Some of you may have seen it, but I hadn't......I'm still laughing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHnRIn74Ag