Blooming into Life

The 24th of May, John and I worked out butts off planting a butterfly garden on the south side of our house.
I did a lot of looking on line about butterfly gardens.
I found a really nice pattern on bhg.com.
Printed off the list of flowers suggested and we took off for Lincoln.
We knew with out a doubt that we would not find the flowers we would want for the bed here in Norfolk.
We did not purchase everything that was listed.
The butterfly bushes and the blue salvia I bought at a plant sale that the local Lutheran Elementary school has every year.
When I finally got the chance to get to the plant sale and pick up my order, there were 3 purple and 2 gold butterfly bushes left. I thought what a beautiful color combination they would make so I took them.
When we finally planted them, I took the time to read the tags.
The purple butterfly bushes will get 5 to 7 feet tall.
The gold butterfly bushes will get 10 to 12 feet tall.
Its a good thing we planted them on the wall that has no windows or doors on it.
I love to walk over there and see how much our hard work has grown.
Everything was so small when we planted it, and now, there is little or no room for anything else.
As you can see by the pictures I took, they are doing well and the butterfly garden is a hit with this Yellow Swallowtail. I'm not really sure that is the name of this butterfly, but it has been around since the bushes started blooming.
Right now, the bees are busy harvesting the pollen and tonight I noticed a Monarch butterfly feeding also.
John said once when we were sitting outside one evening watching all the activity in our garden, the bird feeders were full of birds, and the squirrels were runing about, that we had created a haven for the wildlife.

That is what I was hoping for.

What I love....

Today's Scraptown Challenge is....
"I love ____________ because it reminds me of _________________."

I love to walk into the dealership my husband works at.
He is the Service Manager and works in the back with the mechanics.
In the winter time he smells like a service garage and I just love it.
My grandpa who helped raise me was a mechanic so the smell always reminds me of him.
It reminds me of the times we "helped" him to clean the pistons or helped him lift out a motor.
He would let us roll around on the flat wheeled thingy with out care.
He taught us how well a vice works at smashing stuff or using it to hold a paint can to cut off the bottom to get the marble out.
To this day, the smell of gasoline invokes memories of being a "grease monkey" with my grandpa. My grandma calling from the house to come get cleaned up to eat and about fainting when she saw the three little "hoodlems" as she called us, covered in oil from our blond heads to our little feet.
"Ach-do-lebah" she would always say. It mean's "I can't believe it" or something like that in German.
So thanks to my husband having the job he has, I get to revisit my grandpa and all the happy memories he left me when John comes home.

"I love the smell of a mechanics garage because it reminds me of my Grandpa."

I've Been Tagged....

My friend from Scraptown tagged me.
I'll get you someday Amy! ~insert evil laugh here~
If you are reading this consider yourself tagged so get at it!
I will be checking. ;)

Here are my....
7 Things you don't know about me

1. I spent every summer until I was 13 in Oklahoma
2. I love to watch Nebraska college football
3. Ho-Ho's are my most favorite thing to snack on
4. I want to open my own scrapbooking store with a coffee shop/cafe attached
5. My biological parents divorced when I was 3
6. I chew my fingernails
7. I laugh out loud in Hallmark when I read the funny cards

There is a bit of me you all were wanting to know right???

YOUR TURN!

The pet that rules the house

This is our little queen of the house, MeMe.
She is actually Jordan's dog, but, she takes turns with each of us.
We have had her two months, and today is her 6 month birthday.
She has almost doubled in size since we got her.
Her ears no longer lay over and her coat is becoming nice and full the older she gets.
She is spoiled to say the least and picky.
She gets tired of her treats so potty training has been fun. I tried to do the "ring the bell to go outside" thing. She is afraid of the bell. I have just learned that when she comes over to me, sits down and stares at me, that is a clue she may need to go outside. She has me well trained. Now she has to get every one else trained.
She is the first lap dog I have ever had.
My dad is a big dog person, so the smallest dog we ever owned was a Syberian Huskie.
My husband was raised with all small dogs and doesn't understand the draw for big dogs.
He wasn't thrilled with getting little MeMe at first, but she has him wrapped just like her owner.
He draws the line at walking her.
I have a friend who is all into crating your dog until they are about 1 to 2 years old.
When we leave for work, MeMe has run of the bathroom. It has a tile floor and she knows what the puppy pad is.
She understands that this is home until someone come's home.
With the other members of the house not quite trained on her behaviors of having to go potty, I am not quite ready to let her have run of the house for 8 to 10 hours of the day. Maybe someday, but not today.
It is nice when you come home late, to have her greet you at the top of the stairs with her tiny tail wagging and her giving kisses all over.
She has completed our "nuclear family" and makes us whole.

20 Years Together

Tomorrow, August 8th, my husband and I will celebrate 20 years together.
What a mile stone for us.
We were teenagers when we got married and a lot of people didn't think we were grown up enough to work thru all that we have.
As I reflect on the last 20 years, I cannot believe all we have done.
Had Steven in November fo 1987.
Moved to a low income apartment.
Opened a successful pizza business, that we sold to our partner and watched him take down the drain.
Told my family I was pregnant with Jordan.
Listened to the moans and groans of, oh my gosh, they are going to be so close together.
This from a man who has his own children less than a year apart!
Had Jordan in June of 1989.
Bought a home.
Opened a restaurant in my hubbies home town, with 9 other's already going.
Sold the house to help fund the restaurant.
Sold everything from the restaurant a year later.
Continued to live in hubbies home town.
Almost got divorced over living there and mother in law being a little to invasive.
Became a stay at home mom to the kiddies while hubbie worked at a hospital.
Then he got the job with Schwans.
Moved to a small small town in the middle of no-where Northeastern Nebraska, where they know when you flush the toilet.
He did that for 5 years and loved it.
Then he got the job he has now and we moved to Norfolk, where I got my job.
That was 8 years ago already.

Time has marched on.
That is always one for sure in life, that fortunately or unfortunatly, life goes forward and so must we.
I have pictures of us in most stages of our lives around my house and they bring back the memories of the last 20 years.

We joke that it feels like 200 years, but in truth, it has gone by in the blink of God's eye.
We aren't doing anything fancy to mark this mile stone.
Like my dear hubbie pointed out. 25 years in way more significant.
I am just happy to have my both my kids around for this one.
Who know's where they will be in 5 years or us for that matter.

I just know we will be together and looking forward to celebrating another 50 together.
We will only be 89 and 90 years young by then.

Soulful Sunday

There is nothing like a lazy Sunday to make you wish you didn't have to go to work tomorrow.

For the last 3 days we have enjoyed 3-19 year old "men" moving in and out of the house again.

The are my "sons", well actually, the one in the center is the one I gave birth to. The other two are his best friends in life.
They call themselves "The TriPod".

They talk to us about every thing. Most of which I have to stop them on. To much info!

Steven, my son, has been enlisted in the Army for over a year now and the one to his left has been also. Steven came home on July 28th for his two week furlow. The other was home the beginning of July, but flew in Friday, August 3rd, and surprised the other two. He leaves in September for Iraq and Steven was put on stand by 3 weeks ago. The other is playing baseball for a Junior College in Colby Kansas with hopes to one day play for the majors. He jokes that the two Army buddies can act as his body guards.

Today is their last full day together in Norfolk then Ben flies back to Kentucky at 2 p.m. on Monday, August 6th.

Steven will be home until August 12th and then he heads back to Texas.

Nick heads down to Kansas on the same day.

Watching them over the weekend, you see how when the three of them get together, they are still the same as they were in high school.

From left to right.

The ladies man, who is now stuck in a controlling relationship.

The thinker, who still goes outside on the deck to have a smoke and clear his head.

And the funny man, who told Jordan, my daughter, they were flying to Vegas tonight to get married so he could get extra money at each pay period.

They have a friendship that has stood strong for the last year and will continue even while two of the three legs of the TriPod are off serving their country and seeing the world.

So on this lazy Sunday evening, when I should be washing clothes for work tomorrow, I look back at the last 3 days and know that the memories of this weekend will be etched in our minds forever, and the laundry will always be there tomorrow.

Challenge #9 ~ Summer Veggies ~ Yum!

I love fresh vegetables.
There is nothing like the taste of a fresh ear of sweet corn, a tomato or a cucumber that were just picked.
If I had to pick a favorite though, it would be the tomato, or maybe Okra.
I just love fresh, corn bread covered and fried Okra.
My mouth is watering!
I grew up on an acrage, and I think the garden my folks had when there were 5 teenages storming thru their house, was an acre in itself.
I remember pulling the weeds.
Laying down the straw to prevent the weeds.
Picking the cucumbers and zucchini and feeling my arms just being all itchy.
These memories are probably pretty fresh because I was down to my folk's house yesterday and was doing just that.
Picking fresh produce from the "Farmer's Garden" as my mom called it.
There are some distint differences from my parents garden now from when there were 5 extra bodies at home.
The tomatoes were still green and overgrown with grasses and long viney stalks.
The zucchini had families of potato beatles crawling all over them.
The green peppers I got were huge! At minimum 6 inches long.
That is from years of spreading horse manure on the garden too.
I know there were potatoes in the ground somewhere, but couldn't tell them apart from the weeds.
My parents both work very hard and I know they plant the garden just to be able to share with others, so I am grateful for the 3 bags of produce I was to bring home.
I don't garden. I can't make a houseplant live, so a garden would be a total waste of time.
I guess I'm lucky to have the tomato plants and the pepper plants I put in pots still living.
That's only because my dear husband (dh) goes out and waters them for me.

Challenge #8 ~ Stuff that pisses me off

How much time do you have?
Just kidding! (wink)

My biggest is one I have going on right now in my life.
My sister trying to be mom to my daughter.
People "giving advice" on how to raise my kids just pisses me off.
If you have kids, have you ever noticed that most people cannot wait to tell you something they think you don't already know about them. Something they think or know will get them into trouble.
I for one know that mine were not born with wings and a halo.
So back to my sister...
Every few years I have to remind her that I am on the one who went thru the pain of bringing her into this world.
I am the one she calls when she has something horrible, happy or just wants to blab about in her day.
My teenage daughter is a different breed than when she was younger.
Yelling at her and saying mean things does not get any kind of good response other than mad.
She is like her mother in that way. We tend to share A LOT of traits.
I always tell my family, the one thing my biological mother gave me and I have passed to my kids, was the ability to walk away and not look back.
You piss on me or my kids, you had best be prepared to spend some alone time, because we don't appoligize for your actions.
She had a certain mold she thought Jordan should be and when Jordan shattered her mold, she went crazy.
My sister learned quick that buying her gifts doesn't cut it any more.
That cloak is see thru.
This will take a long time to heal, but, for both of them it was an important life lesson.
And I will leave it at that.

Challenge #7 ~ July 4th traditions

We don't have any traditions when it comes to the fourth.
The town we live in does a fireworks celebration that we are 1/2 a block away from, so we usually just walk to the top of the hill and watch.

Catching up

WOW! How time has flown by.
2 months, almost 3, since I sat at home and worked on my blog.
I have tried to work on it during the slower times at work, but cannot access it. I'm not sure why.
As August flew in and the end of summer and the last 3rd of the year rang in my head, I thought, what significant have I accomplished in my life or in someone else's life so far?
Nothing.

So instead of dwelling on what I have not accomplished great in my little life, I thought, I have a challenge that I have slacked on also. So here I am. Catching up on my blog challenge's all in one morning, or most of them anyway.

Challenge #6
1. What age woul you like to be for the rest of your life?
Inside I feel like I am 24, but if I had to choose one age to be, it would be 40. I am coming up on it soon. I have an exercise program and weight loss program in place in my life, well, most of the time. My kids are at wonderful ages. I see the kid and the adult in both of them. They are fun to be around and don't mind hanging out with mom and dad. I feel healthy. I look healthy so 40 is my magical number.

2. If you could own the world's largest collection of anything, what would it be?
This is a hard one. I don't collect anything but dust bunnies at my house.
I am not a collector of any one thing. The reason why?
My grandma used to make my sister and I dust her "fancy" bottle collection that she so lovingly kept colored water in and proudly displayed them in her windows.
To this day I still remember her saying "Don't you dare drop one of those."
UGH!
That probably explains my collection of dust bunnies too.

3. What three wishes would you ask of a genie in a bottle?
Wish #1 ~ For my children to live long and healthy lives with someone they love and who loves them.
Wish #2 ~ For my dh and I to live long and healthy too.
Wish #3 ~ To be able to travel anywhere at any time without worry about cost.
Wish #4 ~ To have my own thriving scrapbooking store where I could sit and create and teach others how fun it is to scrapbook.

4. What are the secrets to a longer, healthier life?
Finding someone who loves you just as much as you love them.
At the beginning of each day to thank the Lord above for allowing you to stay and make your mark on some thing or in some one's life.
As your head hits the pillow, looking back thru your day and recalling all the blessings He has given you and finding the positives in the bad.
And in between the beginning and the end to love with all our hearts.
To make someone smile and have them leave you smiling.
To not care if your house looks like a bomb went off in it and the kids, or the 6 month old puppy, wants to play.
To make each day a memory in your life because we only get one change to ride the merry go round.

5. What is something you feel too young to do?
Go on a "tour group" trip.
Most of the people on these kind of trips are old enough or older than my parents.

6. What are three things you need in order to be happy?
My husband, who keeps me centered.
My children, who keep me on my toes.
And my puppy, who sits and listens to me bitch about certain crap and then covers me in kisses when I am done.

7. If you had an extra day each month that no one else had, what would you do with it?
More than likely I would be cleaning. It seems to be what I do when I have the time.

8. What is something you'd like to do that you're not allowed?
As I think on this question, I don't have an answer.
I pretty much do what ever I want at home and at work.
I tend to curb my tounge a lot, probably to much, at work and with extended family matters, so maybe that is what I would do.
Tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

9. What superhero powers would you like to have?
To go be able to time travel.
I would go back to when my grandparents were alive and thank them for making me the woman I am today. Then take them to the future and introduce them to Steven and Jordan.
However, I believe they can see me and see how well the kids are turning out being born to two teenagers themselves.

10. What is something you wish you never had to worry about again?
How my kids are going to be.
That Steven will come home safe and sound from his tour in Iraq.
That Jordan will decide on her life's goals and make her dreams come true.