just an update…

things have been pretty low-key around here lately.

I’ve been heading over to my parent’s house on Fridays (my day off) to help my mom do some things around the house. Last Friday was GORGEOUS and perfect for walking my mom’s gardens.

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the peeps are growingIMG_4797

a perfect day to hang laundry on the line

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peonies about to bloom

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the bees are buzzing

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a giant cabbage…er, just taking up space

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swiss chard

(I know, I know…it sounds like the name of a cheese or a wine. I said the same thing to my mom)IMG_4835

baby apples

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there will be a lot of cherries this year

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Also, I’ve started my own little garden.

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it makes me smile every time I come or go from our home

IMG_4866 really, I just ripped out a shrub and needed something to cover up the mess I made until I could get Chris to fix my ‘oops’.

please and thank you, hubby!

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The weather has been so nice here lately (following a sad snowy winter) and we have really enjoyed living so close to a nice park.

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This park is only about a 3 mile (roundtrip) walk from our house.

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Baxter enjoyed watching the pick-up basketball and football games

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of course he worked on gnawing on a stick

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and of course we brought a snack

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What do you like to do when the weather begins to get warm?

I can’t resist.

I really had no intentions of watching even a second of the Royal Wedding.

Fridays are my days off, which means I typically enjoy sleeping in until about 7am.

(I know right? Pretty awesome – 7am).

Though I was excited to see Kate’s dress, I knew there would be ten thousand bajillion photos circulating before things were even ‘official’ so I wasn’t worried about missing out.

However, my husband does have to work on Fridays (like most of the world) so he was up at the crack of dawn. He decided to wake me up at 6:30 with a cup of hot chocolate and asked me if I wanted to watch some of the wedding. I’m not sure if it was the way he asked me – so generously providing a peace offering for waking me 30 minutes before I was planning to – or if it was my innate need to never miss out on anything or be out of the loop that caused me to get up. Regardless, 2 minutes later I found myself snuggling a cup of hot chocolate in front of the tv and providing my own news commentary on the ceremony.

I didn’t plan on boring ya’ll with my own opinions, because – let’s face it – that can get annoying. HOWEVER (and that’s a big however)…that was until the camera panned over these two ladies in the crowd.

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um… WHAT?!

Let’s hope the Queen’s peripheral vision has long since deteriorated in her 85 years so she isn’t scarred by the fashion miss-sense that has appeared behind her.

Look at her eyes, I think the Queen senses something un-royal lurking in her presence.

God save the Queen!

Now I’m sure Princess Eugenie (wearing blue) and Princess Beatrice (wearing beige) are nice girls and meant well, but they were very distracting! I don’t know if that was their intention, but they definitely called attention to themselves.

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I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but these two reminded me of another pair of well known sisters.

Then finally, it came to me:image

Drizella and Anastasia, the stepsisters from Cinderella.

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Yup, complete with the dark eye makeup. Didn’t their mom do a wardrobe check on them before they left the house? Sheesh. Not the most flattering when you look all one color – pale beige. That’s the color of my kitchen wall.

imageAnd now I will never be able to watch the movie Cinderella without thinking of these two, nor see these two in this photo without thinking of the movie Cinderella.

Maybe these sisters struck a secret deal with Disney and planned the whole thing, using the royal wedding to burrow into our subconscious. Hmmmm. Curious.

 

One more photo,  just because this one always makes me laugh.

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What did you think? Do you sense a fashion trend surging it’s way to the states? Should I stock up on crazy hats before they really hit big? Or better yet, I’ve got a glue gun – I can make my own. That will be the next DIY trend on blogs, yes?

A graduate

 

yippee!

Baxter just graduated from puppy school.

I wish so badly that I could have attended his classes, but they began right around the time that I get off of work so I was never able to make it.

I’m pretty sure the boys enjoyed their ‘guy time’.

I don’t have any pictures from the class (which I regret), but here are a few from our ‘at home training’… which you apparently have to do regularly.

sometimes Baxter listens

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sometimes he doesn’tIMG_4545

It is really difficult for him to follow commands when he is outside (kind of like me, I guess… fresh air ADHD).

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We had to get a silly training leash, which I hated using because he kept leaping around and making it too tight and practically choking himself.

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I wish this picture had been more in focus on Baxter.

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um, does anyone else have fat knees?!

sheesh, where did those come from

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Yay, my little graduate!

He still doesn’t behave all the time – which, according to my newly converted pet owner’s mind, is unacceptable. Chris has to remind me daily that Baxter is still a puppy…and then I forgive him for being a dog.

a little late….

but here are some shots from our Easter Sunday.

The service was held out on our church property.

Remember this post – our ‘clean up day’?

There is always a lot of work that goes into setting up our church every Sunday morning, since we are sort of a ‘portable’ church (at the moment). Sundays that are held outside on our property, however, require even more work.

It’s totally worth it, though.

There’s just something awesome about worshipping God outside.

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I wish I had gotten more shots of the actual service (the shot above was just practice) but I was busy teaching these little kiddos…

…which was a job and a half.

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After the service there was a potluck (like you do) and some egg shenanigans.

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Once Chris and I thought we had spent enough time sweating with the eggs in the sun, we headed to my parent’s house. They weren’t able to attend their church’s Sunday service, seeing as how my mom recently had someone else’s organ stuffed into her body.

It was nice to see them and I was able to help my mom do a few things she’d been wanting to but couldn’t – mostly, put some plants and flowers into the ground. She is banned from gardening (more specifically, touching dirt) for a while because of her weakened immune system.

Let’s hope a green thumb is something you can learn, and not something you have to be born with…because I definitely didn’t get my parent’s gardening genes.