Ta da!!

Zach took his first day (out of two) of SATs today. He thinks he did well. We'll see.

Chris bought him a dirt bike for his birthday, and that is exciting, but the kickstand was welded on, and it doesn't stay running. ARGH!

I went with Jessie on her field trip a week ago to the Washington History Museum. It was quite exhausting. And I found out yesterday that one of the other moms that went actually PASSED AWAY within the last few days!!! I don't know how yet, but isn't that SHOCKING!?? She looked not much older than me, I spent a number of hours chaperoning a field trip with her there, she had like 3 kids, and now she's gone forever!!! Yikes!!!

On a brighter note, I got some more stuff planted in the front yard today. It started out muggy and dry, and I was positively inspired to get petunias, large yellow marigolds, snapdragons, alyssum, and geraniums. I got done just as the rain started. My raised bed full of veggies is really coming along nicely. I took a picture, but it doesn't do it justice, plus it takes 6 and a half weeks to upload. My Mum stopped by for lunch today, where we ate on the front porch. The two chairs out there plus my old white "shabby chic" nightstand(with potted alyssum in yellow tin bucket and a small candle lantern as accessories) from my teen years are a recent addition, and tre cute, if I do say so myself.

Happiness is getting cool stuff for cheap at Ross and Goodwill! Yay!! I got several new outfits at Ross and this antique looking green colander and red jello/cake mold at Goodwill (.99 each!). Those 2 items are now resting on the wall above the stove looking like I paid 24.00 each at an antique store!!! Smug, glib, and smart are feelings that come to mind.

Need a new quick dinner idea? Here's what we had tonight: pasta salad with canned salmon, ranch, quartered cherry tomatoes, fresh parsley, green onions, cooked broccoli. It could have used some extra zing from, like, flavored salt, but it was quick and healthy.

"I had long realized that she [my mother] was no longer my most powerful amulet against danger........And I suppose the reality of no amulet at all against the great, killing wounds of life was simply too awful for me to deal with." --Anne Rivers Siddons,in King's Oak