Wednesday, June 30, 2010

4th of July Vacation!

I am so excited! I get to go on an actual vacation this year!!! My Sister-in-Law and her family live about 40 minutes south of Washington, D.C. and they've been so kind as to open their house to us for a week. The last time I was on an actual vacation and not just a weekend trip or camping with Scouts was before my 5 year old son was born...and he's actually almost 6! So 7 years or so since I was able to leave the state!

We will spend some time in Washington, D.C. of course. I must see the Mall and the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and at least one of the Smithsonian Museums! We will get to ride our 1st subway (a 1st for all of us) and see our beautiful Capital City (although I am NOT brave enough to go into D.C. on the 4th!)

We will spend time visiting with family...the boys will spend quality time with their cousins...3 of them they hardly ever see, and we will be able to have fun as a family. No Internet, no work, no errands to run! Yeah! And of course I will come home with pictures and plenty to blog about, so I will see you all in about 10 days. Bye!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

I love roses...they remind me of Dad

I love roses...they remind me of my dad. In our family growing up, special occasions were not celebrated with cut flowers...Dad would usually bring home a rose bush for my Mom. He would say that cut flowers, although beautiful only last a few days, whereas a rose bush lasts for years. We moved alot in those early years of my childhood, but I always remember there being rose bushes around.

The first plants I added to this yard when we moved in almost 6 yrs ago were several rose bushes. This red one was planted the same year I welcomed my Youngest into the family. They have both grown so much.Dad only gave me one cut rose in my whole life and that was a beautiful red one on my 13th birthday. He passed away from cancer 2 yrs later. I remember that rose and my joy at receiving that rose to this day...some 23 yrs. later.

The first blooms of the year are gone now, but I will enjoy several more shows this year, just from these 5 rose bushes, because like Dad I believe cut roses are nice, but a rose bush has so much more love invested in it.
Thank you Dad.




Saturday, June 19, 2010

4th Place!

My Oldest son has been playing Tournament games for his baseball league this last week and his team came in 4th out of 9 teams! Last night was their 2nd lose and so the end of his season until fall ball starts up in September. They did receive medals, which came as a surprise to all of us.

My Oldest and his Coach...Dad!

They were a great group of kids. The Majors in our league are the 11 & 12 yr olds although they can turn 13 during the season or be as young as 10...we had both.

Way to go Cardinals!!!




Thursday, June 17, 2010

Not much to blog about...


  • I am not one of those people that can talk about anything and everything. If there is a subject or something happening, I can blog about that without a problem, but when we are into a routine without anything exciting happening, I can't find anything to write about. That has been my June. Routine, but nothing exciting happening here.
  • My Oldest and his father have been back from Scout camp for about a week now. While they were gone my Youngest and I did absolutely nothing...he had gymnastics and a t-ball game, but other than that we stayed in the house and out of the heat. My Oldest had a great time at camp...he earned 4 merit badges: environmental science, woodcarving, fishing and rifles. It was hot, but other than that very fun!
  • My Oldest has read the first 2 books in the Percy Jackson series. He will start the 3rd book tomorrow. He's also on his second page of review in his algebra book. He isn't liking it. My Youngest has read 25 books out of the 100 that he signed up for at the Library. We've been reading about dinosaurs the last 2 days.
  • Baseball and T-ball is still ongoing. Tournament games have started for my Oldest and those are double elimination: his team has lost 1 and won 1 game. They play tonight and if they win they play tomorrow, and if they win tomorrow they play Monday, etc. until the Championship game scheduled for Tuesday. If they lose, their season is over. My Youngest has his last regular season t-ball game tonight and he starts Tournament on Monday.
  • Well until something exciting or interesting happens in my neck of the woods, I'm off to the ball fields!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Summer Plans

What plans do you have for your summer? We have a busy summer planned this year, so I think it will pass by way to quickly.
  • Summer reading program at the local Library: my Oldest has signed up for 10 chapter books and my Youngest has signed up for 100 picture books! It will be a reading kind of summer.
  • Summer activities at the Library: my Oldest is old enough to start doing the teen program this summer at the library, which includes origami and watercolor, a Wii party, Yu-gi-Oh tournament and many more
  • Summer Camp: my Oldest and his Daddy always attend a week of Scout camp
  • Summer Vacation: the event I am looking forward to the most! We haven't taken a family vacation in 5+ yrs. and this year we are planning on visiting an Aunt and Uncle in the Washington, DC area and all of the interesting sites to see.
  • Baseball and T-ball are still ongoing until July
  • Gymnastics for my Youngest is 2x a week thru June and July
  • Swimming lessons for 2 weeks in July
  • Family Learning Time: we plan on taking a subject (dinosaurs, early America, water, solar system), each one we will cover for about 10 days covering facts, visiting museums and monuments, reading, etc.
  • Algebra!: My Oldest will be taking a high school permanent record course next year in the 7th grade, so we will be reviewing pre-algebra over the summer, just to keep him from forgetting everything he learned. He likes doing math problems...so no problems
  • Scouts: my Oldest still has scout meetings every week. My Oldest needs to finish his Cooking Merit Badge so we will be spending time in the kitchen this summer.
  • Enrollment and Back-to-school nights in August.

Whew, I'm tired and June has only just begun!