You Otter Play With Me!

Miss 10, Miss 15 and I went to the zoo one morning while we were gone. Miss 10 somehow always manages to befriend animals and younger kids. This time she made friends with the otters. This was the start of her playtime. Watch the smallest one as he follows her from window, to window. Later all three of them would follow her from one window, to the other, back and again and then out of the water when she would run to the other viewing area at the end of their stream. I think it was her bright shirt that attracted them. It sure was hard to drag her away from this playdate. As we walked away the otters stood at the end of the stream and waited for her to come back.

Darn Weather

While we were away for the weekend we encountered not one, not two, but at least 4 big storms in 2 days! Was that fun? No, not so much. There was hail, not too much wind, a little rain, and lots of thunder and lightning, which meant had 2 extra bodies in my bed at times. Yawn! Still, I love this pic, so thought I would share it. More on the weekend when I got caught up on laundry.

I'm leaving!

Happy Love Thursday everyone!

I'm excited to say, that I am leaving home! Well, not for good, but for the weekend. I am on my way to my hometown to visit with some relatives that I haven't seen in a very, very long time. I (we) can't wait. The girls and I are headed out tomorrow morning bright and early. We'll spend the day shopping for school clothes and supplies. Fortunately Miss 10 wears a uniform, and she has hand me downs from her big sis, so I will hardly need to buy a thing for her. Unfortunately Miss 15 has outgrown half her wardrobe yet again, and she needs pretty much everything. Isn't it about time for her to stop growing already? She's nearly 5'9" now. How I wish every school system had a uniform policy. (behavior wise and cost wise, it's a win/win!)

On Saturday evening we get to visit my aunt and uncle who have some of their kids home from across the nation. My cousins Je., Ja., and maybe Jo. will all be there. I haven't seen any of them for a few years, so I'm excited to visit with them and their spouses and to see how much their children have grown. It will be like a mini family reunion. Miss 15 is very excited as well. Miss 10, not so much, her anxiety about being somewhere new, meeting new people and being out of her comfort zone has her in a bit of a tizzy. So this is a fair warning to all my relatives, the Miss 10 you actually meet tomorrow, is not the Miss 10 that I know. She may be shy, she may be wild, she may be both, just know it's her way of coping. If you were to hang out with us for more than a few hours, she'd find her way back to being her normal self, but in such a short time, we can only hope you'll be able to see flashes of her now and then.

So my Love Thursday is all about the cousins. I can't wait to see you guys!

Slip Slidin' Away

Miss 10 had friends over yesterday to play on the Slip and Slide. I avoid setting up the slip and slide at all costs. I can come up with ten ideas at the drop of a hat for them to do instead of the slip and slide. I fear I am turning into my father when it comes to my grass. Do you know what happens to the grass when 3 girls spend an hour on the slip and slide? It turns to mush! And dead grass! It's sad. I don't mind the pool being set up for 3 days, they can play volleyball and badminton in the same spot for weeks, but I hate what the slip and slide does to the grass. It is such a mess, for only an hours worth of fun. Dad, what have you done to me?

Yes, they had fun, yes, it was fun to watch them, yes I remember how fun it is. But, sigh... I've been babying this grass for months, watering and fertilizing it, praying for rain that just doesn't come. Sigh...

Ok, enough, I know. I'll get over it. It's another reason why I have so many plants set in pots, (See photos on previous post!) They are just so easy to take care of that way. I can move them to keep them out of the way of water fights, volleyballs, footballs and Frisbees.

The photo above is of the girls surfing. They had already done the tummy slide, the knee slide, the backwards slide, pretty much every slide they could think of. But I think this one was their favorite.

It's been so hot here recently. I'm quite jealous that the kids are all spending time cooling off, while I'm spending my time outdoors working. So today, while I was getting set to fertilize plants, I grabbed the hose, hooked it up to a nozzle (apparently wrong) and turned on the faucet full blast. The nozzle shot half off and I was doused with some seriously chilly water before I could turn off the switch. I'm a mess, but I wasn't hot any more!

An Obsession?

You can click on the photo for a bigger view.

I've had a few requests for some pictures of my pots of plants from this year. Well ok then, I've had one request, but the rest of you have to just deal with it. These are of just a few of the pots on the back deck, and one from the front porch. Also there is one of the huge grass by my back garage door and a hanging pot on the patio out back. It cut the hanging one off for some reason, it really looks much better than this shows. If you look carefully on the upper right picture you can see a tiny bit of the fountain that Hubby made for me a few years ago. I'll take a better picture of that some time. Overall, this probably represents about 1/4 of the pots that I planted this year. I know, it's an obsession, but there are worse things, right?

I don't have many pictures of the plants from out front, the porch was a disaster of wet stain when I took these, so I will take a better picture of the entire porch another time, and then you'll have to see more plants. You lucky readers you!
Consider this my Love Thursday and my Fabulous Friday post all at once and belated. Love Thursday because I love my gardening hobby and Fabulous Friday just because I said so!

Watch Out Dracula!

This spring in my frenzy of planting 48 pots of flowers. (It's less than last year!) I also planted one pot of basil seeds. I've been waiting so patiently for the first harvest of basil. Last week I made a delicious Orzo pasta dish with chickpeas, basil and parmigiano reggiano cheese. The wait was worth it!

On Tuesday I made my favorite basil dish, fresh homemade pesto! Yum! If you have tried store bought pesto and didn't like it, don't hesitate to try homemade pesto. It is so much better than anything you can buy in the store. I love it on french bread toasts or whole wheat crackers. It even makes frozen cheese pizza taste better.

Just in case you have some fresh basil you don't know what to do with, or you can steal some from your neighbor... I'm not condoning stealing... I'm just sayin'!
Here is my favorite recipe.

2 packed cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 tsp. chopped garlic (fresh is best!)
salt and pepper to taste (I use sea salt and fresh ground pepper)
1/2 to 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Put basil, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour in olive oil while pulsing until the mixture comes together and is fairly smooth. Pulse in cheese. Refrigerate or enjoy a little immediately!

I can never wait, so I must try a little right away, but it does taste better after the flavors meld for a few hours in the refrigerator. The garlic is wonderful... but if anyone is sensitive to your breath, perhaps you are married to Dracula, you could always cut back, but it wouldn't be nearly as good!

Enjoy and feel free to share yours with me!

Bad Mother

A week and a few days back Mr 18 and some friends decided to go to "the river" for some fun in the sun, some fishing and some swimming. That's fine, I loved going to the beach, so I encourage the kids to have fun there as well. However when he came home, he took the swim trunks he was wearing and threw them in the bottom of his dirty clothes hamper, then covered them up with another days worth of clothes. Fortunately I do laundry every other day, so the mass of wet only sat there for about 36 hours. Unfortunately the mass of wet was incredibly, disgustingly smelly! The river leaves a stench in swim suits and towels that is enough to make you run and hide. Well, either that or the fact that it sat in his hamper for 36 hours might have added to it.

A little less than a week ago Mr 18 and some other friends decided to go back to the river for some more swimming and fun. Before he left I warned him about leaving those trunks in his hamper again as a nice smelly gift for me. I told him he had to promise to bring them in the house as soon as he got back and rinse them out, throw the towel outside on the deck to dry and follow up with the trunks after they were rinsed. Of course he readily agreed to this as it was the only way I was letting him go to the river.

And now today, where are those lovely trunks? Well, they are still sitting in his car, along with his towel, and flip-flops. They have been in his car since he got back from the river. Did they ever make it inside for rinsing? Well no, they did not. And today, it is 96 degrees outside and his car is sitting in the hot sun. What a lovely thought, no? I have visions of these trunks growing legs slowly, and possibly a tail. Who knows what disgusting little creatures are living in them, and rotting in them. What a wonderful smell must be permeating his car. He hasn't really been using his car much, as he's been longboarding where he needs to go in order to save on gas.

So why does this make me a bad mother? Well, because I am not going to remind him again. I've done enough of that. The smell should be enough of a reminder the next time he gets in, don't you think?