Nothing to whine about, but still

I am going to apologize in advance for this list of my current annoyances. None of them are earth shattering. None of them are even very worthy of note. Bear with my anyway.

All four of us are going to be out of town next week. The Boy will be at camp. The Girl will be at a different camp (of sorts). The grown-ups are taking advantage of this absence of kids by hitting the road in search of adventure. The problem comes with the other child in our life.

Our favorite kennel is booked up and has no room for him next week. He is WAY too much trouble (i.e. giant, hairy, noisy, needy) to put on any family member or friend, so I forsee an unknown kennel with insane rates in our future--if we can find one that has space for him. I don't even want to think about about the other side of that IF.

Let's keep going with Marco. I love rabbits as much as the next person (that next person being Nance). Unfortunately, Marco doesn't see them as cute and wonderful. They are his mortal enemies. Marco's main goal this time of year is to protect our home from the attacking hordes of bunnies coming from every direction. His main weapon? Tremendously loud barking. He has a special bark just for bunny attacks and it will cut right through a previously calm person and make them start screaming out the back door "Will you just shut the #$% up already?" Just the other day I spotted a rabbit in the neighbors yard. I ran over and scared it away before the dog spotted it. That is what it has come to.

I can't find the Good keys. We have two sets of keys for the van, aptly named Good and Bad. The Good set has my Girl Scout fob, a few choice keys and the clicker that works. The Bad set has just the van key and the clicker that went through the wash. The Good set has been missing for more than a week, and I'm running out of places to look. I do not want to go on vacation with the Bad set.

Do you know Real Simple? This magazine has happily filled the gap in my reading material since we outgrew Family Fun. While I love it, the thing is gigantic and chuck full of ads. I can't just flip through it, because it's too easy to miss the articles buried in all the ads. In response to this, I have to read the magazine in the nerdiest fashion ever, front to back, using a bookmark. I get about halfway through it when the next month's issue shows up. The result will be that it will take me two years to read my one year subscription.

If you've ever been in our backyard you know we have the granddaddy of all oak trees out there. Last fall, for the first time since we lived here, that tree dropped billions of acorns. They were small, marble sized, but the entire yard was carpeted with acorns. It was unreal. We were slipping and sliding on them all over the place. Now, as nature intended, there are baby oak trees growing EVERYWHERE. In the grass, in the ivy, right in the center of the roses, in flower pots, every sidewalk crack... anywhere a little acorn could have rolled, it did and now is growing. You could spend all day out there (and I have lost many days) pulling up little trees and it still looks the same. Even sitting here typing about them is getting me all worked up. I've got to go pull up some trees right now!

Spring colors, part two

I know what you're thinking. If only we could see a picture of J's house everyday on this blog, then my life would be complete!

Well, I can't take a new picture everyday, but here's another post about my yard just for you!

The little shrub by the front porch suddenly bloomed brilliant pink over the weekend. The rest of the year it is completely unremarkable, but for a few short weeks it looks like this.

The little shrub bloomed before the dogwood's drooped, just like I hoped, but rarely get to see. Here's the whole scene with a little bit of neighbor's lilac sneaking in front.

Unfortunately, we had to mow the yard so the violets are gone. The purple lawn would really compliment the rest of it right now.

But I'm sorry, that's it for yard pictures for awhile. You'll just have go on without for awhile or at least until my roses come in.

Our Spring Colors

The Girl went to student council state conference and is now back again, safe and sound. She had a wonderful time. That little white sweater that we had to have lasted about 10 minutes into the dance before she got too hot and had to take it off. As for the shoes, she ended up taking a pair a mine; A nice benefit to having the same size feet right now. The shoes lasted only a little longer than the sweater before getting kicked to the side. I'm glad now we didn't go out anymore than we did to look for shoes! The purse we finally found was perfect. Now that she's home, I might take it for myself!

Spring has more than sprung around here. All the trees are in full leaf already. The baby trees are sprouting baby leaves which pleases us all to no end. A sure sign of spring is when I put my hammock up, which I did over the weekend. The Man cleaned out the gutters and The Boy had a big fire going in the fireplace. It was a very productive yard-sy weekend and probably the most we'll do outside for the rest of the season!

Spring is when our front yard is the prettiest. Here are some shots for you.

Here's the white dogwood. The rest of the year it's pretty plain, but right now it is awfully lovely. If you think my grass looks purple, it is. We actually don't have grass anymore. It's all violets. I'm not sure what our neighbors think about it, but we love how it looks this time of year. You can see it all the way down the street, the house with the purple lawn.

The Chem Lawn guy should be coming soon. Every year he looks at our lawn like it's a carpet of gold. I'm all ready for him this year...

Evil Chemical Grass Man: Good afternoon!

Me: (scowl)

Satan with Spray Gun: It looks like you've got a bit of violet problem here.

Me: I'd say that's a matter of opinion.

Earth Hating Grass Painter: How's that?

Me: I think everyone else has a grass problem.

It's not that I like weeds. Dandelions are enemy number one around here. The Man says that since I am so tyrannical on the dandelions, I've just opened the door to the violets. Maybe so, but violets are pretty!

Here's the pink dogwood. It's grown a lot since we've lived here. That "bush" in front of it used to twice as tall and was crowding it out. I have no love for that bush, which I refer to as the Pampered Weed. But our neighbors have a picture of their house when it was first built. Our house isn't there, but the Pampered Weed is. That makes The Weed over 100 years old. So I guess it can stay.

Around the Weed are tulips that planted the first fall we lived here. Last year they didn't bloom and I kept meaning to dig up the bulbs, but I didn't get to it. I guess I didn't need to anyway because this year they bloomed just fine. Some of them actually came up orange, which was new but a definite improvement over the ketchup and mustard ones.

There's also a little shrub by the front porch that turns bright, bright red right around the time the dogwoods lose their blossoms. A little better timing on everyones part would really be nice!

The pictures, yes, I know (with updates!)

I promised pictures, so here they are. (Thanks Sandi for these great shots!)

Here's the girl getting some instructions on how to surf at Kalahari last week. She asked lots of questions and even got a demonstration.

It all paid off. She did great. The only thing she wasn't sure how to do was get off. Eventually she ended up on the side and just walked off, no wipe out.

Now the boy is getting his instructions.

He must be a good listener as well, because he also did great. His ride did end up as a wipe out, but most do. At least he didn't get hurt.

Here's the van all put back together and running fine.

For the family who came to the birthday brunch, here's the puzzle finally finished. There's a piece missing. Do any of you have any information about that maybe? This was a much more difficult puzzle then I like to do. It's one of those made up of all little pictures that form a big image.

The new baby trees are not very photogenic just yet. Actually they are almost impossible to see. But here's the maple, which looks like a stick stuck in the ground...

And here's the oak, which looks like a stick decorated with dead leaves stuck in the ground. Everything I've read says if we get them through the first summer, then we won't have to worry about them anymore. We'll have to wait and see.