Being An Aunt is Fun!

My little niece, Malia, is now over a year old and she's been walking for a few months now. She is getting to be so much fun!

Yesterday, Ray taught Malia a new game that made her squeal with excitement:


The dog, Phoebe, does not like this game nearly as much as Malia does. Lol!

On another exciting note, my second niece/nephew is on his/her way. We found out a couple of weeks ago that Ray's brother, Steve, and his wife, Keri, are expecting their first child! Yay!

New Shoe Shelf

I keep Ray's project list pretty full, so I think he was glad to cross this one off!

There was a shelf in the closet before, but the shelves were narrower and at a steeper angle, so all of my shoes were always sliding right off of it. The new shelves are still at an angle for easier viewing/grabbing, but it's just a slight angle. Nothing has fallen off, so I'm happy :)

Yay for handy husbands!

The Fruits of My (Lack of) Labor

Our raspberry bushes are ever-bearing, meaning that they give us berries twice a year. Our first crop of berries came pretty late this year, so I figured that our second crop would be really small. Boy was I wrong! This second crop of berries is bigger and more plentiful than the first crop. I'm guessing that some of it is the huge number of bees we've had buzzing around the bushes. For once, I'm glad to have bees around!


My cucumber plants never got very happy this year. I'm not sure exactly what the trouble is, but I've only gotten 4 or 5 cucumbers so far. There are a few more growing now, so they will definitely be worth the (small amount of) time invested, but I'm hoping for a better outcome next year.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, seem to be pretty content. I snapped a quick picture of what I picked this afternoon. They are now in my belly!


Delicious!

Work and Play

What I did Saturday morning:


What I did Saturday afternoon:


A good balance of work and play, I think!

My House is a Very Fine House

... with two cats in the sunroom ... sing it with me!

Sorry.

I do really love my house, though. Ray did an excellent job in picking it out :)

ANYway, I think I finally have annual flowers figured out. Last year, I planted petunias in the front yard by the driveway. I watered them well at the beginning of the summer, but then I thought they were "established" and I didn't have to water them as much. And then they died. :(

I have come to the realization that annuals need to be watered frequently through the entire summer. If you do that, by August a couple of tiny plants will look like this:


And your driveway will look like this:


And every time you pull out of your garage, you will smile at the beautiful flowers :)

A New Baby: Kaylee

Congrats to my friend Julie for her firstborn child, Kaylee, born last Monday on Julie's own birthday! So exciting and very cute :)

Little Kaylee is only about nine hours old in this picture, still exhausted from her big adventure!

A Horse and a Bathroom

A Horse
After some issues with an Amazon seller, I finally got Silky's grazing muzzle last week. Ray and I went out by Mom and Dad's on Saturday and put the muzzle on Silky. She was NOT impressed! She kept shaking her head up and down, trying to get it off. We fed her some carrots through the hole, so hopefully she'll figure it out.

As you can see from the picture, it looks like a torture device! The fly mask is not part of the torture, actually. She really likes to wear it and definitely needed it on Saturday - she had about 25 flies swarming around her eyes before we put it on - yuck! You can also see in this picture exactly why she needs the muzzle! That's quite a belly she has :)


A Bathroom
Ray has been slowly working on our main bathroom for over two years now! Since it's only the two of us, and we have another bathroom, this project always seems to get shoved to the bottom of the to-do list.

Ray and I both took the week after July 4th off, and Ray took the opportunity to get a little more done on the bathroom... well, a lot more done, actually. Prior to that week, the drywall was up and the tub in. During our week off, Ray got all of the mudding done - a very time-consuming process - and he and his dad got our shower surround cut out (it's Corian).

We've been trying to put some more time into this project lately, so since the week off, Ray and I have also sealed most of the walls and primed the whole room. I want to save before pictures until the project is complete, but here is what the room looks like with it's coat of primer:


It may not look like much to you, but we're pretty excited to be this far :)

The goal is to paint the room this summer and for Ray to get the surround and the glass blocks in this fall. Then, Ray can spend the winter making the cabinetry. He's really looking forward to that part since he loves woodworking!

After we're done painting the bathroom, I'd like to spend some of my days off starting to paint other rooms in the house. We're keeping busy!