A Big Ole Ramblin' Post

I think it's pretty great that the weekends are sunny and the weekdays are rainy. It works for me! I had heard it was supposed to be yucky weather today so was really pleasantly surprised to wake up to lovely sunshine!

We went to church in the morning, of course and then spent the rest of the day at home. Funny thing, living in a house. We stay home lots. When we lived in our condo we had no choice but to plan some sort of outing on sunny days. It got tedious after a while. We are truly enjoying hanging out in our own yard. I'm certain we'll never take it for granted.....10 years of condo living will do that to a person!

Oh oh....looks like Keith got into the kid's sidewalk chalk!

Keith worked on his homework assignment for his correspondence course (work-related) for most of the afternoon. The kids played with the neighborhood hoodlums. Last year they were quite tentative about playing in the street. They were quite worried they would be kidnapped and other such silliness. They just were not used to being outside! This summer is a whole new ballgame. They are outside constantly....riding bikes, scooters, drawing on the driveway, or just running around with all the other kids that seem to congregate on our street. I love it! This is what I wanted for my boys....neighborhood play. I grew up doing this and have the best memories of playing and playing and playing. We never went home unless we were hungry or the streetlights came on...then we knew it was time to get our butts home!

I wanted to make my family some smoothies....not something I've done before. I threw all the ingredients into my blender, turned it on and nothing. Checked to make sure everything was clicked in place properly and nothing. Banged it on the counter and nothing. Grrrrr! Moved onto to using my magic bullet type hand blender. It only made a groaning sound when I turned it on. I guess the fact it hadn't been used in 7 + years can affect a machine :) I then proceeded to make wee batches at a time in my mini-chopper. A new blender is on my 'to buy' list now! They tasted good though.

Yesterday Keith had his co-worker come and check out his old jeep. His daughter is looking for a vehicle to replace one that was recently in an accident. Her dad is a jeep fanatic and can also tinker with engines which is a good thing because our old jeep needs some work. Good news is that they will be buying it! I am so glad to have it out of our garage as this means Keith can now park inside and our driveway will have more room for the kids to play. It would be fun to say that we are going to use the money for something like an exotic vacation but sadly (it's not that much) we need a new fence on the east side of our yard and our basement floor needs to be replaced. Very practical!

After Ted and his daughter left, I saw that our neighbors across the street was outside with a batch of new kittens. A new family had moved in last fall and we had yet to meet them. I am shy (really!) and had been trying really hard to work up the courage to go over there and introduce myself. I am so glad I did. They are a very friendly young couple with three girls ages 5, 7 and 8 years old. Keith came over too and we had a great time getting to know each other a little bit. This brings me to today. We were out front with the kids and noticed that they just brought a truck load of bark mulch home. They called over and asked if we wanted some because someone they knew ordered too much and was trying to get rid of it. Of course, we took them up on the offer! They very generously went back to the site and loaded up another truck full for us and dumped it off on our driveway. How nice was that?!

I took this photo when no one was looking. I didn't want to explain my blogging fetish to our new friends just yet!

Keith and Nate then proceeded to spread the bark mulch over all the front yard beds....in the rain! Nate gave up after an hour but Keith kept on and two hours later (and no dinner yet, poor man) he is done! It looks wonderful!

Now that's an ominous sky! Our beautiful sunny Sunday ended in a rain storm.

After two years here of not really knowing anyone around us I finally feel like we 'fit' into the neighborhood. Our newer neighbors to the east are wonderful people as well and always ready for a nice chat over the fence. Our neighbor to the right is my sister-in-law's step sister. Do you follow?! She's a great lady and loves my baking so she's in my good books :)

Okay this post is really long and needs to be edited for content. I will stop.

Have a great week y'all!