Wordless Wednesday ~ hello goodbye

 I know it's not officially fall yet, but it seems once the kids go back to school .... well, summer is over. 

I struggled with my flowers this year. Seems we either got too much rain at once .... or we went days & days without ... & we were so busy I just didn't have time to tend to them as I had planned. So, soon I will have to say good bye to these .....

But thankfully, these are waiting in the wings .... 

~ Linking up with ~ 

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Wake Up Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday 

Wonderful Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

I love where I live. This little scene happened right in our back yard a few weeks ago ....

My husband said there was a fawn in our yard having a snack & to grab my camera. When I zoomed in, I saw a few extra legs.

What's better than spying a fawn drinking from its mom?? Spying TWO of them. And then .... how cute are their behinds as they're walking away? 

Linking up with: 

Wake Up Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday ~ Happy birthday

This was actually going to be a Wordless Wednesday post .... as in, I was just going to post this photo: 

I took this a couple of years ago & it's one of my favorites. I know the focus isn't perfect ~ I think I was still learning how to use my camera at that time ~ but I still like it. 

Anyhow ~~ today also happens to be my son's 13th birthday!!!! I couldn't post just a photo & not say Happy Birthday to him! I can't believe I now have 2 teenagers ~ yikes! I'm thankful they are such good kids.... kind (well, not really to one another, but to everyone else which is what counts lol), helpful (see above) & so far not hormonal at all. I'm pretty sure I have boys for a reason. I couldn't have handled a teenage girl. A teenage ME. {shiver}

Happy birthday Michael! Congrats on becoming a teenager! 

Linking up with: 

Wake Up Wednesday

Almost Worldess Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday

A quiet weekend

For I think the first time this summer, we didn't have a ton of plans for the weekend. Well, we HAD planned to go to the county fair on Saturday, but a big ole storm came through here Saturday afternoon, & I pretty much lost my desire to leave the house even after it stopped. The humidity rose sky high & everything was .... well, WET. Ick. So we skipped it. This is the first year in 5 years we haven't gone. We've been in 4H the last few years & the boys have always had projects in the fair. We sorta decided to NOT this year. Fine by me, there was a lot less stresss in the house than there usually is the week of the fair. 

So .... we stayed home & just enjoyed the yard. I really have so much work to do in the yard, but I don't do well in humidity. I will not be moving south any time soon.

I have no idea what kind of bug this is ... but he was enjoying my flower & I thought he was rather unique. 

My lovely petunias .... one of the many plants that do well in pots for me, but not in the ground. I'm thinking we have B-A-D soil.

Rose breasted grosbeak .... nice of him to pose for me!

And these guys .... omg they made me laugh. The turkey babies were taking dirt baths :)  They are SO cute when they're little! 

We're building a fire pit & my kids had just finished raking the dirt smooth so we could lay the brick. This guy probably thought "Hey!! Really nice of you guys to make it pretty for us, thanks!"

That's really all I did this weekend ... take pictures in my yard LOL. We all need to just relax once in a while, right? 

Linking up with:

Monday Madness

Merry Monday

Something To Talk About

What did you do this weekend?

Wordless Wednesday

~ In case you were in doubt that spring has arrived ~

~ Baltimore Oriole ~

Linking up to:

Wordless Wednesday

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Wakeup Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday

Do Try This At Home: Wordless Wednesday

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Hope you all had a fun Mother's Day with your loved ones! My kids & I spent a few hours having lunch with my mom today. Other than that just RELAXED, which is something I don't get to do too often! What did you do for Mother's Day?

Just a few random thoughts & photos on this Sunday night:

*We have one crazy bluebird nesting in our bird house!

This bugger has been perching on Matthew's bedroom window ... & pecking like it wants to come in! We had this same thing happen with some yellow finches a few years ago, but this is the first time a bluebird has done it. The poor thing is going to get a concussion with all the pounding! I taped it, because it's so darn funny, & because I don't think anyone will believe me. I'm not very video smart, so will have to figure out how to post that here.

*Only a few more weeks of school. I can't tell you how happy this makes me! Every year around this time I am so tired of helping with homework & packing lunches & picking up from & taking to activities (although since Matthew got his license, my time in the car has been reduced drastically) & getting up super early because some kids just can't quite get up on their own & need my assistance. And by assistance, I mean yelling.

*I bet Elwood will be happy when school is out too, so this scene can happen more often:

Love how he has his paw crossed :)

*This photo makes me happy on this very ugly, rainy day:

I hope you all have a sunny week! 

Spring is here???

I spotted one of these this morning:

Good-bye, long & harsh winter!

(ok, well I'm in Wisconsin, so it may not be completely over. We've had snow in April. Heck, we've had snow in May! #whydoilivehere)

Tuesday Muse

I actually have 2 photos to share today. They must be posted together. 

This hummingbird must have visited every day, because she sat on the same shrub, same branch, every. single. time. I really must remember to keep the tripod by the patio door next summer. All my hummingbird shots were sans tripod. And I could have kept it in the direction of that one branch. Obviously all our hummingbirds are gone now ....  and I will miss them .... but I don't blame them. It was 25 degrees this morning when my son left for the bus stop. Yes, that's Fahrenheit! Brrrrrrr....

Oh, & the other photo?

I guess she had an itch :)

~Linking up with Tuesday Muse at A Rural Journal~

FALL!!

Grrr.... I've had quite a time trying to get this post written. Took me HOURS just to get to the Blogger screen. I *hate* my computer! Or maybe I *hate* my internet provider. Not sure which. My computer is about 5 years old ..... yet my son has issues also & his computer is only a year old. All I know is I'm sick of {not responding} and {"your plug in is unresponsive. Would you like to stop it?"} (that happens about 5 times right in a row). Sometimes I hate technology!!! 

{/vent}

Ok then ....... FALL!!!! I *heart* fall! I love the cooler weather, the changing leaf colors, the pumpkins, Halloween, all of it! In the coming weeks I'm going to be sharing some {fall} pictures I've been taking, some {fall} recipes, & some of my favorite {fall} cards I've made in the past. Heck, maybe I'll even find the time to make a NEW {fall} card :) 

I forgot to mention another fall favorite: mums!!! Here is one getting ready to open .....

I actually took this a few days ago. I need to get back out with the camera, they are probably all open & pretty & I'm missing it! 

Linking up with Tuesday Muse over at A Rural Journal. 

What is your favorite thing about fall? 

My first bee

Well not the first one I've SEEN lol .... but this is my very first photo of a bee. I love that you can see the pollen!

I'm linking up to Tuesday Muse at A Rural Journal & Our World Tuesday. 

I hope you all have a great week! Mine has started out hot & sticky but it's going to (hopefully) cool down by tomorrow. We have baseball games all 5 nights this week. It's tough enough watching the games in this heat, I can't imagine actually playing {wimp}

Tuesday Muse

I was out in our vegetable garden yesterday, & there were about 30 of these babies flitting around ...

What's weird is, they were all the same. I was looking around for different colors so I could get a beautiful array of photos. But it was like a family gathering. I sure hope the buffet was all the mosquitoes that were buzzing around!

Linking up to Tuesday Muse over at A Rural Journal & Our World Tuesday. 

Sunday fun day!

I hope your Sunday was a fun day! When I came home from grocery shopping today, I was presented with these:

They were growing in the middle of our yard, lol. My son was mowing, & stopped to pick them. I think they're doing better than the ones I actually planted in my garden!

Still trying to learn the basic manual settings on my camera. Good grief, I've had it a year now & still don't know what I'm doing!

I hope you had something make you smile this weekend! 

Looking forward to a 4 day weekend next week. We were originally not going have off on Friday - but at a company meeting a few months ago, the owner said we could either close on July 5th, or New Year's Eve. Um.... yeah.... I'm pretty sure I'd rather have a Friday off in July - in summer - when it's (hopefully) nice out -- than boring old COLD New Year's Eve. July 5th won by a landslide!

What are your plans for the holiday weekend? 

Crazy birds

Not angry LOL - just crazy!

Every single day last week, we had a bird sitting on our window, peeking in. It started in Michael's room - one day I opened his curtains & there was a goldfinch staring at me. Now that was a rude awakening! Then there were 2 finches on our living room window, then another on our side window ... the kitchen window ... now I'm starting to wonder if the seed we are giving them is spiked with something! 

These are all different birds at different windows .....

Aren't they hilarious? And of course my cat ... almost 18 years old ... sees nothing strange at all about it ... doesn't even faze him. Maybe they want to come in & play with him!

So are your kids done with school? Mine go all day tomorrow, then a 1/2 day Tuesday then DONE. I can go back to getting up at 6:30 rather than 5:30. I don't know, that hour earlier KILLS me! Of course, I miss the days when summer vacation meant all 3 of us hung out, all day every day. Dumb work! (just kidding, I love my job!)  My older one will be starting high school in the fall ... (eek!) ... so he will celebrating on Tuesday with the shaving cream fight ritual ... every year the kids from the middle school smuggle in shaving cream (God help you if you get caught with it!) & they run through the whole town Barbasol-ing one another ... then they all walk down to the beach & jump in the lake. Crazy kids! Crazy birds & crazy kids .... I definitely lead a fun life :)

So Tuesday I took off of work ... I will meet my son with the goods ... & let him have his fun while I pick up the younger one & take him to lunch. I just realized I'll have a whole 2 HOURS between getting my younger one on the bus in the morning, & meeting my older one after school. Wow ... what to do with 2 hours ....

Indigo bunting

Look who came to visit me on Mother's Day :)

I think the Indigo Bunting is one of the prettiest birds we see here in SE Wisconsin. 

I first saw him about a week ago, but by the time I got my camera a mean ole Blue Jay bullied him right out of the feeder :(

Um ..... you have something on your beak!

A weekend of birding

I don't know about you but I am sooooo glad to see spring. It was a long winter here in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the northern part of Wisconsin & parts of Minnesota got walloped with snow last week. My condolences to all of you!

I kept my camera close to me these last few days, because the FUN birds have arrived. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have already seen these because I'm obsessed with posting my bird photos, LOL. But if not - enjoy :)

 A rufous-sided towhee. I had never seen one of these before, although I'm sure they've been around. It took my husband & me a while to identify it. You should have seen me looking at the picture, looking at my book .... looking at the picture ... looking at my book....

Of course, cardinals are NOT new to me & they are here all year round. But I really like how this shot of a female cardinal turned out. You can see what she's eating for lunch. She needs a napkin :)

I assume this is her boyfriend :)

A rose-breasted grosbeak - these are so pretty & believe it or not, there was another male sitting on the other side of the feeder. At the same time! They were giving each other dirty looks, but they didn't fight at all. Good thing, or I would have had to give them each a time-out!

This shot was actually taken at my mom's house. We will get the Baltimore Oriole - our feeder is out - but we haven't seen one yet. She also has an Orchard Oriole, which I have never seen & is actually the one I wanted to get a picture of but he never showed up. That's just fine..... I think this one is prettier anyway :)

We should be seeing an Indigo Bunting any day now, & some years we've seen a Scarlet Tanager. And I just put the hummingbird feeder out over the weekend so we should be seeing those soon. My goal this summer is to get a GOOD shot of one of those fast moving critters!

I have cleared out SO MUCH of my stamping stuff, I can't believe it! Not only is there more space, but there is also more $$$ in my bank account. Kind of nice to be the seller instead of the buyer for once, lol - I can't believe all the money I spent on STUFF! I've held on to  my basics though - I will never get rid of my Penny Black stamps - I'm keeping most of my High Hopes stamps - most of my Magnolias - & of course my pencils will stay. As long as I have those (& probably some card stock would be good to hang on to LOL) I can dabble when I find the time. You know. At 4:00 on Saturday mornings. 

Have a super week!