Reality bites

My dear, loving, sweet superhubby, who someone obviously knocked in the head and replaced with this person living at my house now, has decided it would be fun to can this year. To be completely honest I was kind of excited about blackberry jam. Last year was so dry the berries dried up before they could be picked but this year... this year is going to be wonderful for berries. My BIL has acres and acres of berry vines all around his farm. Summer before last we picked buckets and buckets of berries. I still have some frozen in the big deep freeze. I do want to try to make some jam. I think freezer jam is easier but I want to try canning the jam. I am nothing if not a glutton for punishment. So we went and bought a big canning pot with a canning rack in it, jars, lids, rings, special funnels, pectin and some canning dill, because we are going to have a couple thousand cucumbers in a few weeks and SH wants to try to make pickles. The pickles are not something I want to try but it's better than trying to find something to do with bushels of cucumbers. Does anyone out there need about 100 cucumbers?(Hallie, I am waiting for your comment.....I think it will be interesting.) Who am I kidding....Kim D...go ahead and tell me what you think!
Wednesday is the day.....I get to drive for 10 hours but will come home with my niece....I miss her so bad and I can not wait to spend time with her.

Is that a hummingbird in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

Superhubby has one day off and this is it. So I am on the internet while he is sewing cornhole bags. We need to remember how to spend time together. Some people (myself included) have a hard time becoming a wife after being a mother for so long. I am learning, or I should say relearning how to be someone other than mommy.
This morning I woke up to SH yelling from the garage. There was a hummingbird stuck in the garage and it was too scared to stop and realize the two big open 9 foot doors would be a good place to fly toward. I sat in the garage and kept the cat from getting the snack he had dreamed of while SH came up with a plan to get the bird out. Nothing worked until the poor thing finally just got too tired, landed on a coffee can and SH picked up can and all and took it outside. The poor thing was still too tired to fly so SH stayed with it for a few minutes until it got its breath back and was ready to fly off. I should have gotten my camera but I was too worried about the cat getting it if I left long enough to get it. The cat had just finished its breakfast and was getting excited about a little mid morning snack. I love my hummingbirds and I have quite a few of them so I do try to keep the cat away.
I hope to spend the rest of today helping SH clean the basement and maybe getting the bedroom finished. Who knew you could stuff that many clothes behind a bed, Iwas just about ready to go buy new clothes because I thought I had none left. I guess I can use that money for my property taxes that are due in a few weeks.

Life is good!

That title has nothing to do with anything I just thought I needed to remind myself of that a little more often.

It is hot outside. I am not complaining very much I am glad for the heat, the winter was miserable and we all need some sunshine. We have had some cool nights which cooled off the pool water too much to get in, but since it is 93 now at 11:30 am I am guessing the water will warm up quickly. I haven't looked under the solar cover but I'm guessing the pool could use a good cleaning, and I may be the one to do it.

Superhubby has started working on my car. Some of you may remember the car I bought last fall for SH to rebuild for me. He finally has a little time so he has started working on it. The problem is that parts prices have went up 45% since last fall so it is costing more than we thought it would, but then everything costs more these days. I just hope we get it finished soon so I can quit driving my mini van around all the time.

DD had to go have her senior headshots taken yesterday. These are just to be used for yearbook and newspaper announcements during their senior year. We do senior pictures separately if we want them. I'm still trying to get some good ones to use for at least part of her senior pictures. The photographer offered us a free 8x10 if we came back to let them do her senior pictures....probably not going to happen because if you want very many pictures the packages are at least 700 dollars. The smallest package is 1- 8x10, 2- 5x7's and 24 wallets of one pose only and it is 189.00.....completely insane when Wal mart has a similar package for 4.99. I know wal marts pictures are not as good, but the other places prices are crazy. So I am trying to get some shots that she would be happy using for wallets and then maybe we can have some professional pictures taken for some of the larger shots. The first one we obviously can't use because while I was looking through the camera at her smile I wasn't paying attention to her shirt...but I liked the picture and we are trying to find a way to crop it and make it look ok.

After weeks of trying to capture some great shots, DD has lost her patience with me. When I say anything about pictures she rolls her eyes and goes to her room.

Sunday stuff

Today DD and I volunteered at our local historical society museum. We both enjoy being there and today was just like every other day we volunteer, quiet with a few people wondering in for a tour. DD has worked there for years and she knows about everything in that house. I just started last month so I let her do tours and I try to listen in when I can. One of the more interesting parts of the tour is Rev. Rankins room. His grandaughter lived there in the late 1800's (I think...I'm bad with dates and don't have my paperwork near) A few years ago DD and her friend were there one day and they were goofing off and talking about Rev. Rankin. The next time DD gave a tour she was explaining to the tour group about the bedroom that has his original furniture in it. When she said "Rev. Rankin came here to stay with his grandaughter and died in this room, in this bed" the dresser door opened. It is one of those dressers with drawers down one side and a door on the other side. DD reached over and shut the door and started again "Rev. Rankin died here in this room," the door opens again. She shuts it again and quickly guides the people out of the room. She didn't volunteer for a few weeks and then she went back ready to guide tours again.
Fast forward to today. We had a new docent, a young girl who was very interested in the ghost story. She had heard from people that the house was haunted and said she would like to hear something but that she would run down stairs screaming at the top of her lungs. I was joking around and I said "Rev. Rankin you should let her know you are here." We were there for a few hours and nothing happened out of the ordinary other than the new girl reached up and turned on a light we haven't been able to make work for months...no idea how that happened. About 15 minutes until time to go home and DD and I start closing stuff up. We cover the old clothes and some of the more fragile displays, turn off air conditioners and shut the old shutters. We told the new girl to go on home and we would close up. DD and I sat in the back hallway waiting until 4 so we could lock the doors when all of the sudden someone starts walking around upstairs. The back hallway at the top of the back stairway makes a horrible creaking noise with each stop you take. We listened to the footsteps down that hall......realizing that no one else was in the house. It was so weird, not those creaking noises houses make when they settle, it was distinct footsteps that we know because we walk in that hall all the time. I would like to say we bravely went upstairs and asked who it was and what they wanted.....but we brought in the open sign, turned on the alarms and went home...10 minutes early.

show and tell

DD and I went back to the park with my cousins daughter for pictures. My daughter has always loved to get her picture taken but she seems to be getting a little tired of me asking, she gets a little touchy when I ask anymore. I think I may have burned her out. I'm trying to get some shots we can use for part of her senior pictures....I like these...


Yes, her name is on here but I'm too lazy to take it off. She has been busy the last few days so I haven't been able to talk to her about them much....maybe tonight if she isn't on the phone all night..lol What is it about teenage girls and their boyfriends? It's almost like they want to talk to them more than they want to talk to parents.

Stormy weather

It's Sunday night, or actually Monday morning. It is 1:15 AM and I can not sleep. When I was a stay at home mom and never had to get up early, my body got tired about 2 AM and I woke up at 10 AM. That is normal for me and I have to take a lot of tylenol PM work hard to make myself get sleepy before that time. My job has changed a lot in the last few weeks and my body is going right back to "normal" time. Tuesday morning when I have to get up early I will regret allowing myself to go back to the good old days.

Right now I hear the rumble of distant thunder. I also hear rain drops starting to hit the roof. This sounds like a nice early summer storm that will blow over with only a little rain and wind.

Last week we had some miserable storms. The kind of storms that make you think about running to the basement and hiding under the pool table. I took this picture during one of the storms last week. I thought you would be able to tell how bad the wind was, but I was wrong. You will just have to take my word for it.

Tomorrow SH is starting on my car I bought about a year ago. It will be nice to have a vehicle that gets more than 10 gallons to the mile.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.....see you soon.

WTH

Update....it was way too hot to take too many pictures so here is one just for Kim D. (-;

I live in Ohio....have you ever noticed us on the map? We are that little state that people call "the heart of it all" because of our location. Ohio is a pretty ho-hum state where nothing much happens and we just go on with our life with very few interruptions. I think things are changing as we speak. I'm pretty sure we are starting into the biblical plagues.....2008 style.
The first plague is a carry over from biblical times....locusts. We actually have 17 year cicada's instead of locust but I'm pretty sure they are a punishment for something. These things hang all over everything. They dive bomb you by the dozens when you walk outside. We have to dip them out of the pool before we get in. They scream (or rub their legs together) and make this horrible high pitched noise...continually. You can not go outside and read or think about anything because of the awful noise. I tried walking outside while I was on the phone the other day but then you can not hear what anyone is saying to you.
The second plague is gas prices. What in the world are we supposed to do about that? We live way out in the country, meaning we can not just "run to the store" when we need anything. We drive 30 miles minimum to buy toilet paper. Super hubby and I both drive 50 or 60 miles each time we go to work. There are no buses or cabs out here. You drive or you walk....60 miles.
The third is unemployment. The few jobs we have around here are leaving and people who used to work hard a decent jobs are working at wal mart and McDonalds. How can people raise their families on that?
The fourth plague....the freakin HEAT. Oh my heavens above it is horrible. We don't live in the south....we live here, mid nation. The temperature at noon today was 95 and the humidity was something like a bajillion percent. The forecasters say that will change in the next few days and we should settle into the mid to upper 80's with lower humidity. That I can handle, this heat I can not.
I know there are more but right now I have to go turn on fans so the air conditioner won't run continually. We also have country electric, which costs about 3 times what anyone elses does.
Hopefully I will be taking pictures of my DD today....at the park...in the heat. If we can stand it long enough to get a few good pictures I may post some later on.

Happy Birthday to my SH

Yesterday was SH's birthday....today he is spending the day at his favorite huge flea market shopping for gifts for himself. I would much rather him pick out the rusty stuff he wants than us trying to buy stuff for him. I did get him some new fishing stuff in case his little old women left him alone long enough to let him ever go fishing. Just between you and me.....don't tell anyone else.....superhubby starts a weeks vacation today. That can not go farther than between us because if certain older women find out......there will be hell to pay. There will be days of tree trimming, garage cleaning, new outlet putting in and house pressure washing.... he needs a freaking break people. Umm, excuse me if I yelled that in your ear.
The weather is definitely summer weather here now. It has been in the 90's for days and the pool is finally warm enough to swim in. The frogs love it so we spend a lot of time chasing them out. The cicada's are going crazy. When you walk outside now they swarm around you...my cousin got attacked by about 200 yesterday while he was mowing and they knocked his safety glasses off of his face. They don't bite they just land on you and make this horrible noise that sounds like they are screaming in pain....and when a couple of hundred get around (or on) you and start that it gets a little weird.
We have had a bunch of bad storms this week, one of which I got stuck in and it was the worst storm I have ever been in. I pulled into a strangers driveway and the wind was pushing my Ford Explorer sideways. SH was in a different car ahead of me and didn't see me pull over so he tried to go on but got trapped by falling trees. When we finally got away from the trees we were stuck by flood water. It took us 2 hours to make a normally 30 minute trip home. I would have been ok if our cell phones didn't all go out....and DD was home alone. She was pretty scared but made it through the storms ok. Most of my family have spent the last week in N.C. at the beach and they were calling here because they saw on the news that we had some horrible storms and so did the Washington D.C. area, which is where some of my other family live that were at the beach. It's been 3 days and we still have to go way out of our way to go places because of the flood water.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!

June

June has to be the best month of the year.....its summer, summer is still new and it is a LONG way until winter again. The pool is almost warm enough to swim in and my dear niece will be here by the end of the month!

We recently redid DD's room. She wasn't sure about painting a wall black but we are both pretty happy with the end results. She still has a couple of boxes of stuff to put back in so pay no attention to the stuff laying around. The palm tree you see on the right was made by DD and a friend in art class. Next we have to recover her window seat, it still has leopard print material on it.

Her theme seems to be pink, black and her friends, which is exactly what teenagers should be thinking about in June....
The weather here is heating up quick. Today it was in the upper 80's and then we had a quick thunderstorm that swept through and temporarily lowered the temperature 10 degrees. It didn't stay cooler but it was nice while it lasted.