the sky is pink

There's always a reason to celebrate, no? Joe and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary last week. Except, we really didn't do anything special to celebrate. Unless, of course, you count my fixing dinner for the family and eating together. We had wanted to go out to eat, but Joe didn't get home from work early enough, so we didn't get to do anything. With Fathers Day just a few short days after our anniversary, I didn't really know what to get Joe for either. I decided to buy him a French-cuff shirt for church. After four stores, I finally found some at Boscov's . They were half-price, so I bought him two. (As hard as they were to find, I don't want to have to worry about it again for a few more years.) I didn't want to buy him cuff links until I knew I could find the shirt, but I had a pair in mind. A fun set of buffalo-head nickel cuff links from Etsy. They look giant in my hand, but they are real nickels in real nickel size. (I just ordered a ...

Our sweet Laney and Timmy are visiting from Kentucky and are about to go home soon. My mother wanted to get together on Friday night for a weenie roast. She was going to have it at her house, when I started to think our house might be more kid-friendly. After all, we have a pool, a trampoline, snakes, owls (we were up to six owls), chickens, and a big backyard. I don't remember how many came. But I think we counted 20 kids. Just some of the nieces and nephews on my side. Taylor and one of his beloved cousins got into the kiddie pool to "pool wrestle." It was dark and late when the party ended. We cleaned up what we could see and thought we had it all. Until the next morning. When we spied: little forgotten sandals on the deck, flip flops, towels, goggles, bracelets, shorts, water guns, a football ... leftover watermelon, more sandals, and the small sliding board that was dragged all over the yard. Really, it was all good. It was like re-living the party all over ...

There are a few things I really, really hate shopping for. Bras. Let's not even go there again. Jeans. Ugh. I just want to know who doesn't loathe jean shopping. I'm adding mascara to my list of "Things I Hate Shopping For." First, I should explain that I hate change in some things. I hate going to the store for a trusted, beloved item, only to discover that it has been discontinued or the store no longer carries such item. This happened recently when I went to buy new mascara. I left the house knowing I needed mascara and knew it was "2,000 Calorie," but I couldn't remember the manufacturer. After scouring the makeup department for a long time, I decided I just needed to move on and find a new brand. I spent over 20 minutes studying mascara. 20 minutes. With Sawyer in the shopping cart. Why so long, you ask? Because there are numberless variations of mascara. Waterproof or washable? Curved or straight brush? Lengthening or thickening? Um ... y...

New pink shoes. And guess who has a matching pair ?

The end of the school year always sneaks up on me. I know it's coming, and then suddenly WHAM! it's here. We've attended a lot of concerts, Carter's 5th Grade Musical (which was excellent), parades (both Taylor and Carter played in the band at a parade last night), and other year-end activities. And we are beat. Today is the last (half) day of school. While two of the boys were excited, the other two were dragging this morning. And fighting. I sure hope that's not a sign of what's to come this summer. Anyway, I have been struggling with teachers' gifts again this year. With so many children in the same elementary school, it is hard to find a gift that hasn't already been gifted to the same teacher by a different child. And I'm fresh out of simple ideas to mass produce. We had ten female teachers this year (including the school nurse, Maureen). And I totally took the easy route: lavender ( again ) and chocolates. I seriously love lavender and love t...

Last night my girl had her first karate exam. She was promoted (from white/beginner belt) to orange belt. She was very excited. She started karate in January and has been loving it. Joe had called the karate association to see if they would give us a discount because she would make the fifth child we have enrolled in their program. They graciously said she could take lessons for free. When we told her she was going to start karate, she was not happy. We thought she'd be happy, but she did not want to take karate. We told her she had to go (and even though she fought us just a half hour earlier), the second she put on her karate uniform, she was singing and dancing and skipping through the house. She absolutely has loved karate from that moment on. Today was Carter's 5 th grade promotion ceremony. Unfortunately, he forgot to tell me he was supposed to dress up and wore shorts and a tee. And his raincoat ? ? They showed a slideshow of all the children with a baby photo a...

Our garden is in, but somehow we just can't stop planting stuff and preparing stuff to plant. Our garden flopped big time last year. This year we are determined not to let that happen again. We moved our garden to a different and, hopefully, more sunny spot in the yard. (Darn mature trees that line our property.) The new spot is closer to the water source. And it helps that Joe and his father got plumbing out to our barn now. The garden is smaller this year, which I hope is more manageable. My herb garden has been in for awhile. Some critters have eaten almost all of my basil (my dill and one of my jalapeno plants), so we are planting more and are in the process of scaring away the critters. Apparently, they like to feast on marigolds, too, so our first solution did not work. Human hair has been working. Joe cut the boys' hair a few weeks back and we sprinkled the herb garden with hair clippings. Seems to be working for us so far. I planted rhubarb last week. Apparently ...

We attended a war memorial park dedication on Sunday after church. It is in our neighboring town. Joe's father (a two -time Vietnam veteran) and Joe's maternal grandfather (also a veteran) participated in the ceremony. My boys made front page of the paper on Monday. And so did my father-in-law, Ed (middle back). On Monday morning we attended perhaps the longest and hottest (and most humid and sweatiest and ...) Memorial Day parade in the town I grew up. I think this is almost my favorite parade of all time. Lots of patriotic music and bands and boy/cub scouts and veterans. One army jeep broke down right in front of us. The jeep in front of it tried to pull it up Main Street with a rope, but it wasn't working. A bunch of men (including one of my brothers) jumped in and pushed the jeep up the hill into the library parking lot. My town's fireman's carnival is this week. While we never go to it until Thursday night, we decided to mix things up (and try to keep our sani...