Yeah I know that I've been neglecting my blog since the middle of April, but the thought of trying to get caught up kept making me put it off even longer. I just spent over two long hours typing out a blog post and uploading pictures, and then the whole entire thing just disappeared when I was proof-reading it. I am not happy to say the least. It was a rather lengthy post, but I don't feel like typing all that out again, so we'll see how it goes as I sit here and re-do the whole thing. Again. Grrr....
B. had her tonsil and adenoid surgery the end of April and all went well. She was out of school for two weeks and I didn't go hardly anywhere during that time because I wanted to be sure to watch her closely - just in case. It took her about a month to completely heal and now she's back to herself again and doing good.
I've been doing some scrapbooking this past month after being on a hiatus all year and even made a card....
The last day of school was on May 23rd this year and it's hard to believe B's been on summer vacation for 11 days already. We've been keeping plenty busy with a trip to the park so she can ride her new electric scooter that she got for Christmas, and we've gone swimming a couple times already. Last week was Memorial Day weekend and I planted a BUNCH of flowers after my husband re-mulched. It took about 2 yards of mulch to cover it all and we got it in bulk loaded on a trailer from a guy we know locally. Krogers has a little area set up out in their parking lot this year where they are selling flowers and other plants. They have a cash register out there too and I have to say that their prices on perennials are quite reasonable in comparison to other places. I bought a butterfly bush, carnation plant, princess lily and coreopsis. And the most I paid for any of them was $9. Not bad. It was 92 degrees and sweltering out during Memorial Day weekend, but I still enjoyed getting all those flowers planted. I enjoy planting and taking care of the flowers every summer. It's my thing. In addition to quite a few wave petunias, I also planted some geraniums, marigolds and zinnias this year. I bought a few hanging baskets with impatiens to hang out back under the deck where the patio is. And a few planters with flowers already in them.
My husband got a new Kubota tractor recently and he's happy as can be with it. It's 20 years newer than his first one and is actually the one he really wanted for a long time. This one has a front loader and he has been putting it to good use with all the yard work we've been doing lately. He dug us out a nice little area where we planted beefsteak tomatoes and four different kinds of bell peppers along the side of the house. We look forward to growing our own tomatoes and peppers this summer....
Yesterday, we took a daytrip out to the Laurel Highlands in Pennsylvania and went to see the Laurel Caverns. My husband had already been there years ago a couple of times but this was me and B's first time. We took the one hour guided tour and it was pretty interesting.....
The entrance to the cave...
This next picture is the Pillar of Hercules in Laurel Caverns - the roof is made of sandstone here, and the column is limestone, so erosion created a gap between the top of this column and the ceiling. This is also in the area of the caverns known as "The Maze"....
Pictured below is the scenery outside the caverns ... this is what they call "Five County View"...The entrance to Laurel Caverns, and therefore its Norman E. Cale Visitors’ Center sits atop Chestnut Ridge, the first ridge of the Allegheny Mountains that you come to when coming from the west. Since there are no more ridges to the west, the Visitor Center’s 2,600 ft. elevation above sea level allows it an uninterrupted view to the horizon. From its observation deck, on a clear day, can be seen the skyline of Pittsburgh, as well as the Pennsylvania counties of Westmoreland, Allegheny, Washington, Greene, and, of course, its home county of Fayette. They have binoculars on the observation deck here where you can pay a quarter to get a better view.....
Afterwards, we stopped at Ohiopyle State Park and spent some time there walking along the trails and enjoying the beautiful view of the Youghiogheny River. It's a rapidly-flowing river and I've seen people white-water rafting on it years ago when we went there for the first time one fall. It's a nice area and they rent out kayaks and bicycles....
They have this nice walking bridge that was converted from an old railroad bridge from the 1800's. It's rather long and we walked across it to get to the hiking trails and the other side of the river...
View of the river from the middle of the bridge...
It turned out to be a really nice day and we got some great family pictures. On the way home, we got caught in a downpour and saw a double rainbow since the sun was still shining so brightly through all that rain.
Other than all that, we've been anticipating our older daughter, A's, wedding this coming fall. B. is excited that she gets to be a junior bridesmaid along with A's other five sisters who will also be junior bridemaids (ages 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 and 9 - including B.) plus seven more friend's of A's that are bridesmaids. B. is excited that she gets to meet A's other sisters, especially since a couple of them are close to or the same age as she is and hopes to make some new friends. A. is a part of three different families (a long-rather complicated story), so she has a HUGE family and lots of siblings - eight total - and so she is trying to include everyone. The groom's side will have seven of the groom's friends plus A's two brothers (ages 13 & 14). Her colors are light grey (mercury from David's Bridal) and yellow. The girls will wear grey dresses with yellow shoes and flowers. A. mentioned something about the junior bridesmaids each carrying a single sunflower. The wedding ceremony will be outdoors, so we are really hoping for nice weather and the reception will be indoors. So the wedding gives us something to look forward to. Hopefully, we'll have time to go to the beach or do some sight-seeing since she lives clear down in Charleston. I'll have to pull B. out of school so we can go to the wedding, so we'll see how it goes as far as time to do anything else. We haven't been on a "vacation" since the summer of 2008 when we went to Myrtle Beach and that was our one and only family vacation ever.
I also signed B. up for swimming lessons again this summer. They start ten days earlier this year than last year for some reason. I hope it warms up by then since it's only been in the 60's - low 70's these past several days or more. Basically, it's more of a refresher for B. and it gives us something to do for a couple of weeks. I highly doubt we'll be doing six weeks of swimming lessons like last summer.
Well that's all for now and I hope you all have a nice summer ahead. And I hope to be better about keeping up with my blog.
Until next time....
