Praying Mantis & Others

Although this guy looks huge in this close up he is only actually about an inch and a half long. I found him climbing around the tool shed as I was watering some of the plants this evening. He was very cooperative about having his photo taken. He only jumped out of the way once and that was into some of the flowers where he was much more camouflaged.

After watering the yard for a bit I noticed a beautiful male cardinal perched in the birch tree in the front yard. Too elusive for a photo but quite striking. Then there were the yellow finches that decided that it had cooled down enough to come out and play in the birdbath. I also saw a gray squirrel at the edge of the driveway drinking from a puddle of water.

New Blossoms

Here are a couple of new blossoms from the wild sided of the yard. It won't be long before we have a field of black-eyed susans and bachelor buttons.

The wild daisies are just about finished their run and the daylilies are next in line to burst forth.

Fantastic News

I made a 1440 on my SAT!! YEY! But I am going to take it again in the fall just to see if I could do better! -Danielle

Neighborhood Antics

Multi-tasking at it's best. Watering the lawn while pressure washing the neighborhood kids. They were even having a contest to see who could stay in the "pressure cooker" the longest. It ended up being a tie between Sean and Andy. I do believe that they even got clean behind the ears.

The neighbor on the next street over has a tree taken out, we were speculating from a street away as to how many would of the five dead ones would come down, much to our dismay only the one.

A bit later on we all heard more thuds and thought perhaps another tree was falling, but instead it was one of the other neighbors another street over shooting off fireworks.

Back to School

Seam got back into the normal swing of things this morning with his classes. He even put in an extra round by taking his Math SOL this afternoon.

Upcoming Graduation

Miss Chelsea will be graduation on June 7, 2006 from high school in Michigan. It is hard to believe that all the cousin's children will now begin to graduate on a yearly basis for at least the next 6 years.

Congratulations on achieving this important milestone in your life. We wish you continued good luck in all of your endeavors in life.

Baseball Game

I attended the Junior Yankee's baseball game this evening the boys were red hot. The score was 19 to 2. What a win! I was able to take some photos for the boys website

Here Josh scores a run as Trevor comes up to bat.

Our alternate photographer was working two games last night the minors division Blue Jays vs Devil Rays and peering over to take some shots also of the junior division Yankees vs Nationals.Thanks Mom!

Grill Babies

The babies have hatched! Mom called earlier to let me know. So I popped out to her house to see if I could snap a shot of the little ones. The mommy Wren was fussing with me terribly. She was sitting up in a tree near the play area, but fussing up a storm. I could only imagine what terrible names she was calling me. I won't be too long now before Mom & Dad can cook out again.

Oil Shortage

I received this via email and thought it was at least a humorous view of the current gasoline price situation.

A lot of folks can't understand
how we came to have an
oil shortage here in our country.
Well, there's a very simple answer.
Nobody bothered to check the oil.
We just didn't know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical.
Our OIL is located in

Alaska,
California,
Costal Florida,
Costal Louisana,
Kansas,
Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania,
and
Texas

but
Our
DIPSTICKS
are located in
Washington

Happy Memorial Day

Cul-de-sac Bonfire

The neighborhood kids all gathered around the bonfire in the cul-de-sac. Clint had them "playing" a game where each person has to say something that they like about each of the people at the bonfire. Another round was what do you like about the cul-de-sac. It keeps them talking and lets them get to know one another a bit better.

Guys in the Neighborhood

Sean was hanging out in the neighborhood with a few of the fellows. They were goofing off with cell phones - taking pictures of each other acting silly.

There were a few more around, but....they were quite evasive of the camera.

Dillon really did cut up for his photo and I just happened to catch Andy while he was sitting on the steps.

Neighbors Yard

I did a little flower planting for the neighbor across the street this evening, I have basically run of things to plant/transplant in my own yard.

The flower of choice was petunias, which are quite hardy in the sun and heat - he purchased a flat (48!) and was worried that it was not enough to cover the space that he wanted them planted.

Not only were there enough for the driveway area but plenty extras to plant around the base of the tree in the yard,

Next time I need to bring something a little too large for the car to handle, he's got it covered for us.

The bonus is that I get to see the petunias, that I planted ringing the tree, from our front door. :)

Visitor for Lunch

We had a visitor this afternoon for lunch, Mr. Walter. We had a very enjoyable time. He even stayed over to watch Batman the Beginning.

Faith - 4 Months Old

Miss Faith and I were got together in the nursery today and had a bit of fun. Here she is showing off her pretty pink smocked dress.

The little Miss is talking with her elephant. I do believe that she was "telling" it silly things to try to make it laugh too.

Happiness playing in the bouncy chair. We had a really fun time talking with one another. As you can tell she was enjoying the funny stuff that I was telling her.

Faith taking a cue from some of her Mammaw's old photographs and trying to eat the end of her dress too. She just maybe successful, she had been earlier with her bib.

A note from GreatMommaw: The pictures you took of Faith were darling. She can really open up and smile for you. Looks like she thinks eating dresses is just as good as you did. www.DigitallyDorothys.com

Playing in the floor at her mommy's feet - wondering just why in the world her Mammaw would be laying in the floor to talk with her.

The little princess has fallen asleep at last. She played hard but finally just had to close those beautiful blue eyes for a spell.

Saturday's Events

Dean and I made the run to the Toyota dealership to finalize our car purchases, turned out that they were giving away gas grills with every new or used car purchased over the weekend. So we were able to get a grill, which we promptly thought would be a wonderful "housewarming" gift for Walter. Later on we headed out to the grocery store for the weekly/biweekly torture - everything fit into the trunk of the Camry without any difficulty.

We were able to get Walter to come over briefly and surprized him with the grill and a few extra things for the apartment. I even went out with him to do a small bit of shopping for those things that he needed...I was glad to be able to help him out. I look forward to seeing the apartment once again after he has truly settled in.

The Big Move

The moving crew awaiting Walter's arrival with the key to his new apartment. We had four cars and a truck for the first round and a second car and truck load. Loads of fun with boxes and sorting.

Welcome home!

Here Walter is turning the key for the very first time.

This is a view of one corner of his deck. He even has a "side light" that allows amibient light in to his dining area.

A panoramic view of the bedroom, in the beginning stages of getting completely set up.

A view of the hall way, kitchen and dining area.

A view around the living room.
Walter finally all relaxed on his sofa. With almost everything in that he needs at hand for the moment, he can let his "hair down" and rest a bit.

2006 Spring Concert

I attended the Manchester Spring Concert with the Magnin's - Mr. Ben was left home watching Miss Faith. But not to worry he has his chance to see the show on Friday night. Danielle performed as part of the Madrigal Singers. They sang four songs, Away from the Roll of the Sea, If Ever I Would Leave You, The Best of Doo-Wop, and Always Be My Baby. They did a terrific job and they looked like they were really enjoying themselves.

The small photo to the left is pre-concert, and then during intermission she came up and sat with us until the were ready to perform their final number with the Touch of Swing.

They get to do the concert a second time on Friday night. Here's wishing them all well on the second performance.

Mowing Time

Dean got into the act with yard work this evening he pulled out the mower and trimmer and got the yard ready for the weekend. Hopefully it will rain and expand the green field that he has with which to work.

The Yard

This busy guy was flying around the rhoddendra bush. As you can see he has been really busy. He looks as if he is all loaded up and ready to return to the hive to drop off that load of pollen he is carrying around.

I started to walk out toward the toolshed when I saw this blue bird hopping around. It is a shot like mom's, but I don't think it came out too bad.

Found this nest under the deck while I was racking leaves, I don't know if it was a leftover from last year or a work in progress. I managed to get all the leaves bagged - there were two huge black yard bags full. I didn't realize how many had accumulated under the deck since last year.

The next project that I have is to move the dog house out from under the deck and find it a new home. Hmm.....I don't know where that will be yet, but when I figure it out hopefully Carla will decide that it is okay to use. I don't believe that she has been in that thing one time since we purchased it seven years ago.

Visiting at Mom & Dad's

I went out to Mom & Dad's this morning to put a perm in mom's hair. The perm came out wonderfully. Mom looks great. We went out around the yard to check on things and caught this picture of Dad bringing the wheel barrow back from working with wood.

Dad working hard.

Dad took us for a walk up to the garden which looks well under way. Looking mighty good there. I was sitting on the porch with Mom while her perm was "cooking" and got this picture of a beautiful cardinal at the birdbath just outside the edge of her yard.

Cardinal

Visiting with the Brother

I treked across the great river to visit with my brother & sister-in-law. Dual purpose visit I suppose I should say I wanted to get their opinion on the new vehicle and just how in the world I was going to mount the ham radio in the car. The problem wof mounting the radio turned into a no brainer when they found out I had an arm already installed in the car for an older cell phone, which would have no trouble being adapted to the use for the ham radio. What I thought was a hard problem was easily solved -- and there won't be nearly as much labor involved either.

Boxes

Well, the boxes for Walter's big move have begun to arrive. The wife of one of the men he works with has stopped by and stuffed them into his car while he was out working. I bet he comes home again this evening with another car load.

A Visit with Danielle

I drove down to Chester to show Ms. Danielle & Miss Faith my new vehicle. Miss Faith was all ready for bed but she did put it off for about 30 minutes so that I could visit with her.

Miss Faith & her mommy. She was so happy to see her Mammaw.

Loads of giggles.

We rode around the block and Miss Faith really enjoyed riding in the car. As we rode around the block Danielle spotted this little bunny in the neighbor's yards. He was just hanging out and munching on the vegetation.

Another Nest

Looks like there won't be a Memorial Day cook out at Mom & Dad's this year. The grill has been taken over by a Mommy Wren and I don't think that her five "chicks" would appreciate the increase in temperature that much. Might just be a little bit too toasty. Mom did get a great photo of the Mommy Wren on the nest. You can also check out her other photos too.

Farewell Drive

This morning we drove out with Claire for the final time. We drove Alex to school and then headed off to Haley Toyota to make the final exchange. She was a good van and always was able to handle whatever we were able to throw at her and in her. I know that there will be days when we wish we still had her around to do some heavy lifting.

"Clare's" Farewell Drive

Sleeping in the Nursery

Sleeping Princess

Peacefully Asleep