Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Busy Weekend!

Graduation time!!  Here we are at Sue's  home for her graduation party.  Her mom had made a variety of Korean foods...OMG! It was delicious!  Next, it was on to Justin's bash.  He and 2 other friends combined theirs at St. Andrew's.  Plenty of  Whitey's Ice Cream (Justin's employer!)  Yum.  They also had a photo booth..cute idea!

(You will notice Lauren's new hair-do.  It is cut REALLY short in the back and then she got a perm on top.  Its just as cute as can be!  Kind of like a 1940 Pin-up girl!!)
On Sunday, we attended Catharine's  grad party.  It was at the UI Sport Hall Of Fame.  Thank goodness it was in airconditioning! Pretty toasty outside...
It was a very nice party!  Got to see Jeannie and Sonja!
My brother Jim and sister-in-law Mary dropped in for a few minutes on Monday.  They were returning from St Louis to Minneapolis after attending their granddaughter's graduation ceremonies.  Had a nice, but short, visit.  They also stopped in to visit with my mom.

Lauren got a summer job last week at Kohl's.   Woo hoo!!  Working girl....



Saturday, May 26, 2012

Been Busy, I guess.

Sorry for the delay in posts.  I guess I've been busy.  In fact, I must have been dreaming about posting because I could have sworn I already talked about painting Lauren's room.  Well, as my mother a ALWAYS reminds me: Its hell to get old.

So, we painted Lauren's room.  Got the couch moved out and moved the repainted vanity in the room and gave her a chest of draws that I emptied of all my doilies, blankets and odds and ends.
oddly enough, the chest of draws remains empty....go figure.  Its killing me to not go into her room and just arrange everything.... Oh, here's a picture of the painted vanity.

It was black and I repainted a light grey.  It turned out OK, but it convinced me that I need to improve my wood painting skills!  This is all probably due to being a Pinterest follower.  I saw all these lovely redos and thought, How hard can this be?  Well, surprise, surprise, it was...In fact, I got so tired of doing it that I didn't even finish the mirror part.  Just stuck the black mirror back on to the vanity. How sad is that?!? So now I have signed up for a class in Des Moines in June to learn more about painting furniture using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (which I DID NOT do on the piece above). Hope I am wowed and amazed...

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Spring Flowers

Don't you just love peonys?  These are from our garden.  The iris also.  They all smell sooo wonderful!!

 Its a lovely day for painting.  We are hoping to get that accomplished today in Lauren's room.  Just about everything is moved out or to the center of the room.  The color is Sedona Dust from Menards.  Kind of salmon/terra cotta.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Lauren's Home!

Lauren is home for the summer.  We went to Beloit on Sunday morning and arrived in time so we could hear her recorder ensemble recital.  I confess, I didn't quite know what to expect, but it was very nicely done.
 We are soooo proud of Lauren!  She continues to amaze me with her abilities!  Talented, smart and good-looking...what more can a mom want!!
I tried to upload the video of part of her recital, but I can't.   So you'll just have to take my word for it that she was great!!
We got everything packed into 2 cars and hit the road on Monday.  First, she had to hand in a final paper, have  room check out and sell back what books she could.  We got out of town by about 11am.
Her plans are to get a job, redecorate her room and take a road trip or two with friends.  Hope she has a great summer!!
Of course, first we have to find a place for everything first......

Thursday, May 3, 2012

They're Baaack........

It's Spring, and with it comes the toads.  Every year we have one living in our birdhouse on the upper patio.  Can you see his little head sticking out of the birdhouse opening? As I am writing this I can still see the little guy.  I guess he's waiting for some unsuspecting bug to flit by.

By the way, this little guy and all his friends are incredibly noisy!!!  Last night was especially bad because it was warm and very humid...prime mating  conditions, evidently.  I wanted to yell out the window  or make some kind of loud noise to scare them silent.  But I'm sure the neighbors would be calling the authorities...

We are also excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Wren return!  These little folks are back to build a nest in the gourd birdhouses we have on the patio below. They are so cute and tiny.  But talk about LOUD...Quiet does not describe our home in the spring...