Gardener for Hire

His rates are pretty good, but he has the attention span of a flea! Serious inquiries only.

*No child labor laws were violated in the planting of these flowers.

Flower Time!

20 Geraniums (violet)
6 Vinca vines
9 Begonias (pink w/green leaves)
4 Marigolds (orange)
8 Dusty Miller
3 super asters (blue)
3 Bama Music Daylilies (pink, I think)
3 cotton candy grass plants
+1 candy corn plant
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A busy weekend!

Still needed:
3 Black Lilies (on order)
1 flowering bush to replace the one that died, possibly a butterfly bush or hydrangea
1 hosta to replace one that accidentally got weed whacked last year (oops)

Tulip and Dafodil Bulbs... but not till much later in the summer

Pictures once most of it is planted!

Poor Shadow!

My poor puppy is injured! She and Craig were playing fetch one morning earlier this week when all of a sudden we heard a gut wrenching cry from our little pooch. She was limping and cowering and crying and it nearly broke my heart. Once we calmed her down, we determined that her leg bones weren't broken but we knew something was really wrong with her hind foot.

So we crated her for the day and decided to call the vet at the end of the day. Well, we didn't get to calling the vet till after they had closed. Felt really guilty. She was still favoring the leg and avoiding putting any weight on it. We babied her quite a bit... but she mostly just kept to herself, hiding under the kitchen or dining room table. She even went to bed for a little bit, but eventually came to sit at our feet.

I had to go in early the next morning, so Craig got up and called to vet to get her in. Turns out she was a little bit better. She ate her breakfast and put a little weight on the foot. The vet says she's injured her ACL. So our poor puppy has a football injury! Right now she's on anti-inflammatories for a week. We'll help limit her activity to give it time to rest and hopefully heal.

We're hopeful that it's just a pull or a strain and not a tear. If it's just a pull or strain, she won't have to have surgery. She's only five years old, so we're hoping she'll bounce back pretty quickly.

Great Book Club!

Had another great book club meeting last night.

We discussed my latest pick, "Loving Frank." I highly, highly recommend this book. It was a fascinating read, a fictionalized account of Frank Lloyd Wright and his love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. I've long been fascinated by Wright and his architecture (for awhile in junior high and high school, I thought about becoming an architect) so this was really an enjoyable read. Makes me want to visit some of the nearby write architecture here in Wisconsin. His home in Spring Green, Taliesen is just a few hours away from here. Wingspread, a conference center he design for SC Johnson, is in Racine. He designed the Annuciation Greek Orthodox Church here, which is right by my house. There's also a group of homes on the South Side of Milwaukee that are open for tours. And don't even get me started about the idea of road tripping to Chicago and Oak Park to check out all of his works down there!

-Sigh-

The book is heartbreaking and fascinating all at the same time. I don't want to wreck it... all I can say is, if you're going to read the book DO NOT GOOGLE WRIGHT and DO NOT READ HIS BIO ON WIKIPEDIA! It will wreck the story! (Sorry I didn't warn you sooner, Therese!)

Our next pick is "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." It looks like another good one... just ordered it from Amazon.com because I can't wait for it at the library. I'm really looking forward to it!

I also hit an amazing milestone on GoodReads today. I now have 1000 books on my list. Now, I've only read just over half of them...I think I'm at 507, cruising toward 508. It's kind of a daunting "to read" list, but since I discovered the site almost 18 months ago, I haven't once had to say "what am I going to read now?!" I have a list I can keep going back to that is helping me feed my reading habit!

Happy Mother's Day!

Before I went to bed last night, I told Craig that all I wanted was to sleep in for Mother's Day. Alex has made a habit of getting up about 6AM on weekends, and looking for me. I usually pull him into bed to snuggle between us, but 3 year olds are wiggly, and when he's up, he's up. Usually I get an extra 15 minutes of rest then it's "Mom, can I watch something?"

So today, I was supposed to get to sleep in... sans boy. Well... he came in. He snuggled, Craig got up. Alex was left with me. -sigh- Oh well.

The good news is it was a wonderful day! Alex was very excited for me to get up and start celebrating Mother's Day. I got a card and a present.

My two boys were sneaky and did a little art project without me knowing. It's a picture frame. It's painted in Marquette colors. (Where I did my Master's Degree)

We went to church and they were selling roses afterwards. Alex announced he wanted to buy me a flower, so I got a rose.

Then we went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants... Guadalupe. Alex calls this place Lupe Lupe. He downed nearly a whole bowl of salsa by himself.

We tried to take a picture to put in the picture frame. We took one and I've got my famous stressed out mom - crooked smile.

This one isn't bad, but Alex's eyes look crazy... or borderline crossed. We'll try again when he's not feeling so silly I guess. We spent a lot of time just hanging out. Watched "Toy Story" together tonight. I think about 6 times Alex wished me a "Happy Mother's Day." (He did wish Craig a "Happy Mother's Day" once.) It was fun to spend so much time with my boys. I felt very special.

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends who are mom's or will become mom's soon!

Pre-Mother's Day Funnies

When Craig got home from work yesterday, Alex was eating his dinner and called into the kitchen, "Hi Daddy! Happy Mother's Day!"

Then today, I got up about 6AM with Alex. Then when Craig got up, I went back to sleep. I haven't been sleeping well the last week. When I woke up, my boys were gone. They left a note saying they were running errands.

Alex came home with baseball cards (his newest obsession to which I have ABSOLUTELY no objection!) and a mini Brewers helmet. He proudly announced "We got you a card but it's a secret!"

I have no idea what my boys have planned for Mother's Day tomorrow. I know we'll get up and go to church together. From there, we'll see where the day takes us!

I also want to take this second to wish my mom and mother-in-law a wonderful Mother's Day! They are both very special, important ladies and I don't know where we'd be without them!

I also want to wish all my friends who are mom's a happy day as well!

Took some time off...

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. Life has kind of gotten in the way. I've been kind of trying to evaluate what I want to do with the blog. Part of me loves having an outlet to talk about things, but another part of me wonders why I'm doing this. Call it an existential blog crisis. I'm just not sure I want be putting myself "out there" for anyone to read anymore. Hopefully I'll get it figured out.

Honestly it's been kind of nice to not worry about scheduling and writing posts. I've actually spent significantly less time online the last couple of weeks. The weather has turned nice. We've gone hunting flowers in the yard. Alex is fascinated by the daffodils and tulips that have popped up. He also is enjoying the greens of the Lilies of the Valley, Day Lillies, and other plants that have sprouted. So we've spent a lot of time enjoying warmer weather after a long winter.

I've been crocheting and reading too. Spending time on the phone with friends. We took a trip to Indiana to see my middle nephew make his First Communion. We also got to see two of the three boys play baseball. It was great because Alex adores his cousins. Took a side trip to Notre Dame on the way home to see the campus in bloom. I hadn't been there since grade school and it was just as beautiful as I remember. Growing up Catholic, Notre Dame was kind of the dream college... and for most it remains a dream! But it's cool to just go and walk around the campus. The Basilica on campus is gorgeous, and we stopped at the grotto behind the church to light a candle and say a prayer. The grotto is very similar to Lourdes in France. It was so peaceful back there.

We're hoping to get Alex's school registration wrapped up soon. He'll be going to K4 next year and is SOOOO excited.

Work has also kept me busy... but only during the day. So far they have not given me a laptop, so I really can't do work from home in the evening. I am NOT complaining at all. It's just a really busy time of year.

So that catches me up for now. I'll try to get back into the swing of things, but that's my therapy session for the evening.