It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't been able to think of anything scintillating to write about...I have been visiting other blogs, and have been impressed with other bloggers cleverness and creative and witty use of words to explain what otherwise would be mundane. Alas, I don't posess that gift of eloquence. (but I am giving it a shot here...can you tell???)

Life has been pretty average around here for the last few weeks since I got back from Mom's. She's hanging in there. I contacted an RN that we had worked with way back in 2004. She is called a Chronic Care Coordinator (or something similar to that. I am too lazy to get up and look at the card.) Her name is Susan and she is wonderful, and Momma likes her. So Susan is kind of helping us with some ideas and working with all the different Drs.

I will be going back out there in the near future again, I'm sure. I would like to be able to stay home for a while though, and enjoy being with my hubby, who I miss so much when I am in California.

Hubby and I have developed Green Thumbs!!! We are so impressed with ourselves...lolol. We actually have a Garden. I mean...one that LOOKS like a REAL garden. We have been enjoying working in it, and have found it really rewarding and relaxing. We have mostly perennials, a hosta bed with many different varieties sizes and colors of hostas, and some different colors of Astilbe that are close to blooming. We planted three different varieties of crabapple trees in the front yard, to provide food for the Cedar WaxWings in the winter. And we bought some larger tomato plants (because I didn't get to plant them until a week ago) and they are doing well.

Our next plan is to relocate some rose peonies - our house is an old one, and in one of the back "corners" of the yard, there is a tangled mess of old fashioned roses, rose peonies, ferns, and I don't know what else! The roses smell wonderful, but the dumb things are blooming on the neighbors side, but not ours. :o( (our neighbors like that.) So we are going to get (or make) a trellis so that we can train the roses (they are climbing roses) to bloom where we can enjoy them too. I don't mind sharing with the neighbors, but I want to see them too. Then relocate the peonies, and discover what other treasures are planted there.

We 'inherited' our youngest DD's long haired doxie, Tootsie. He fits right in with our other dogs! And he LOVES all the squeaky toys that our dogs don't play with any more. He drags them ALL out, and has a blast!

I gave him a trim the other day, since its been pretty hot and humid here lately. It actually looks halfway decent.

We had to have our other kitty, Sterling, put to sleep the other day. He was 16 yrs old! He just was going downhill, and we didn't want him to suffer. It is so hard to have to make that decision though. I know its for the best, but I can't help feeling guilty.

Tomorrow after church, we are having a barbecue with our bible study group. The couple that opened up their home for the study (which was Max Lucado's "3:16-The Numbers of Hope") are providing steaks...so I figured I'd go all out and make what has become "Mom's Famous White Chocolate Cheesecake". It's always so funny to me how when I make that, my kids turn into whiney, pathetic, begging creatures...and they all want some. It amuses me no end. I guess you could say I am easily amused. And of course I love to torment them with it...but I always make an extra one, so the little beggars can have some. :o)

Enough nonsense for now... I am enjoying the beautiful summer weather...even the frequent thunderstorms. I hope you are all doing the same.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
--John Lubbock