Does anyone know if the Cricut message board went down? I was accessing a thread on the mb and suddenly I could no longer connect. Several tries later and I still can't access the site. Hmmm....

Easing into my day, I was enjoying this earlier this morning....

along with wind-scented breezes from the elusive "Sweet Annie"

that Don & I finally found this year

and a pot of Rosemary,

{that smells so heavenly, I cannot wait to cook with it!}

As I chilled, praising God, counting my blessing, I noticed new growth in

our newest planter with vibrant coleus growing within it;
{also, noticed I need to remove the weeds the yard once again!}

I noticed a "surprise" from Mother Nature!
A peony growing in a recently disturb pot...

and embrace these pretty pink petunias,

aiming straight at my heart...

so soul-soothing....

Update...

Our family is feeling better today...

we have grieved together and alone attempting to come to terms with the loss of life.

And together, we've realized how this loss has made us all so very thankful for the blessings that have been bestowed upon us and we hold one another a little more tighter and for a bit longer, saying, "I love you" a bit more often and truly meaning it!

Yesterday, I went along with Amber to sign consent forms for surgery; a D&C is scheduled to be performed early on Monday morning. We enjoyed a beautiful day together, talking about anything and everything, made it to the lab for blood work, cross type and match, etc. before running a few errands that needed to be accomplished before the closing of the house on Tuesday evening. I'm so thankful for this event, it provides something positive for Amber to keep her mind upon and the excitement of becoming a first-time homebuyer/owner.

After running errands and getting everything in order, we returned to Gma's Saunders and later, we all went for a family bike ride together before returning to take a dip in the pool. All in all we spent a wonderful, unplanned day together and enjoyed it to the fullest!

I want to say, "Thank you" to everyone who emailed me, posted a comment, sent their condolences, sent up a prayer/positive thoughts. Our family appreciates each and every one of them, so "Thank You!"

My heart is breaking as I write this post to ask for your positive thoughts and prayers for my little girl. Her heart and spirit are so broken. Unfortunately, Amber's 9 week ultrasound showed no fetal heartbeat; so we're waiting for mother nature to run its course. She is scheduled for a follow-up visit Monday morning. I know I probaby don't need to tell you how sadenned we are by this news, we were all so excited to be adding to our family. I was so looking forward to becoming a grandma again... It's tough... trying to understand it all, but somewhere along the line, we have to trust that God has his reasons, although we might not understand them.

{Just know that you were and are still loved "little one" and although we never got to meet you, we grieve for the loss of your life and what might have been.}

Spring Sprucing....

During the previous week, Don and I took advantage of the beautiful Ohio weather and continued working outside. We've either been out in the yard, in the garden or out on the rear deck. The only traffic the house seems to get is us running in and out for bathroom breaks, cold drinks, and a good night's sleep, LOL!

Earlier in the week, I had waterproofed and stained our rear deck; which in turn, lead us to dragging out and cleaning all of our patio furniture. Then, we were finally on to determining where to put what. A short road trip on Sunday to Richard's Garden for some flowers to fill a lot of empty pots really helped to spruce things up.

We purchased a few asparagus ferns to plant in the copper planter {although I'm not certain how long it will last outside; afterall, it is a houseplant and may just end up inside!}, a flat of pink petunias {since the deck receives a lot of sun} which filled the two huge terra cotta pots and three 6" pots in a hanger on the outside privacy fencing surrounding the jacuzzi, and a few pink begonias with a darker green vinca vine adorn a wall-mounted glazed urn.

I, also, purchased a box of Miracle Gro for Azealeas and gave it a good drink upon returning home. I've never attempted to grow an azealea before so its been sort of by trial and error but I've been attempting to do a bit research to learn more about them. I did learn that they prefer the morning sun and a filter afternoon/evening shade so I relocated the entire planter while I still struggle to determine where to place it within our landscape. {It still in its original pot; just placed in the urn planter shown above} I read a bit about pruning them, but without a visual guide of where exactly to prune, I'm lost! Especially when I read that you can actually prune back next year's blooms. I think I'll just leave it alone until I can ask more questions when visiting a garden center or nursery.

Later in the week, I believe some of my dilemna may have resolved itself when one of two of our 4x4 posts that once held my hammock came tumbling down. {Don't ask! It was a scary incident! with only a minor injury..which I believe tramatized me more than anything else...}

Now, the one lonely looking post remains so I'm thinking I could put the azealea in front of it with a bird house on top of the post since I had desired to create a spot for us to travel out into the yard... which was the original purpose of putting the posts in for the hammock there in the first place! Guess I'll be looking for a few chairs to put out there now...

Our Memorial Day Weekend was an enjoyable one. We didn't do much other than what I mentioned above, except for a small cookout for the two of us and long, leisurely soak in the jacuzzi before retiring for the night. The weather the last couple of days has cooled down considerably and the weatherman keeps telling me that rain is on the way! I certainly hope so, our garden could use a good sprinkling!

An overnight rain late Saturday night kept us out of the garden on Sunday so Don and I made a short road trip to pick up waterproofing materials for our rear deck. After leaving the home improvement store, we enjoyed a short ride and a very nice brunch at Cracker Barrel, followed by a wonderful visit to Oakland Nurseries! I was in heaven ! especially when I spotted the azealea bush featured in the photograph below!!! Isn't it pretty? Although I've no idea of where exactly to plant it into our landscaping at the moment....but, we spent an enjoyable evening at home considering where to plant it.

Today, however, was a much busier day! I got started on waterproofing around the jacuzzi area of our deck around 10 a.m. Stained and waterproofed our outdoor tea cart... can you believe that thing is nearly five/six years old now? After waterproofing a rather large area {well, enough for one day!}, I went about putting a few things back into place. The waterproofing of the deck will be completed over the course of several days.

After making things pretty, I set my sights on assisting Don who had been rototilling up the garden once again. Here he is after making a few rounds around the garden to throw any grass clippings the opposite way... well, out of the garden. I enjoyed this scenery for most of the day.

Late in the afternoon, I decided "if we're gonna do this, let's do it!" So, Don and I began planting the garden. We think we ended up with 14 rows: 4 rows of corn: 2 bi-color and 2 sweet; 4 rows of tomatoes: better boy hybrids; 400 cherry tomatoes; beefsteak; and ?; 2 rows of peppers: sweet Banana Peppers, habinero's, and jalepeno's; 2 rows of squash, cucumbers, cabbage, califlower, and broccoli; 1 row of watermelon and cantaloupe; 1 row of lettuce {with iceberg lettuce seeds sprinkled between plants and 9 celery stalks.

The Walla Walla onions are looking wonderful; although the red spanish onions didn't fair as well. The peas and the radishes are doing excellent! {I'll upload another pic of them.} We ran out of room for potatoes... so Don's considering rototilling up another bed for peas, potatoes, onions, radishes, and carrots.

While out in the yard today, I spotted one of the two robins that have been very protective of this nest and saw a beautiful blue jay!

Garden Herbs...

Although, I've never tried to grow herbs inside from seeds, I decided to try it this year. So I planted a few little pots with rosemary, thyme, and basil.

Hopefully, something will pop up!

Seeds & Seedlings...

Radishes... and

Sweet Marvel Peas... just starting to peek up out of the dirt!

In seeds, we purchased:

Sweet Corn {to add along with the Bi-color Corn}

Tomatoes - Better Boy Hybrid and some other - I'll check later, they're out getting some sun!

Pepino Cucumbers, Iceberg Lettuce, Half long Carrots, Potatoes {we'll be cutting and planting our own}, Black Beauty Squash {Zuchinni}, Snowball Califlower, Calabrese Broccoli,

Habanero Peppers, Cabbage, Contender Garden Green Beans, BeefMaster Hybrid Tomatoes,

Imperial Canaloupe, Sugar Baby Watermelon!

Hope to be planting all those real soon!!!!

Garden Veggies...

Some of the recently purchased plants are now mixed with some of the previously purchased plants but here's what I been taking care of. In this flat is Walla Walla Sweet onions {if you like Vidahlia's - you'll love these!}, a flat of Red Spanish Sweet onions, Bi-color Corn, and Better Boy Hybrid Tomatoes. Daily I am responsible for watering, controling the amount of sunlight {each require @ least 5 hours a day} and waiting...

and in these flats are Sweet Banana Peppers, Habinero's, and Jalepeno Chili,
some Celery, and another view of the Red Sweet onions.

Everbearing Strawberries..

planted in my Strawberry pot...

Garden update...

Our garden is beginning to look really good after Don spent a couple hours on Wednesday morning getting it rototilled back up before the rain began again and kept us out of the garden for yet another couple of days. Although, together with friends we were able to take advantage of the day by measuring the garden {its 25'x25'}, determing how many rows we will have and what to plant within them before going and doing some shopping for more plants and seeds.

The photograph below was taken earlier this morning and as you can see we've quite a large area to fill! Once the ground dries up a bit more {hopefully, by tomorrow!} we will rototill it once more and the planting will begin. Come on, I'll show you some of the plants I've been nursing!

Several days of rain last week, followed by a partly cloudy, windy day may have

kept us out of the garden for a few days but assisted Mother Nature with doing her part of the job.

Do you see that shadow of a tree in our garden? {Don't worry! It only covers the garden area for approx. an hour in the late afternoon! The majority of the time its really a really sunny spot!} Anyway, that is created by one of many maple trees that we have on our property and I'm so very grateful to say that they are almost done tossing their seedlings everywhere!

I had the most beautiful Mother's Day day! Don helped me clean our neglected home from mid-morning to early afternoon. Then, Amber and Chris took Nancy {his mom} and I out to do some bowling. We were wonderfully surprised by a free Mother's Day dinner! {which I brought most of it home for lunch on Monday as we had company coming for dinner} Early in the evening our friends arrived and we enjoyed a wonderful grilled dinner, each others company, spent some time soaking in the jacuzzi and later, playing cards.

On Monday, I worked for hours raking to remove those "whirly-gigs" and then, spreaded the Garden soil mix out over the garden area that were hoping to rototill up today. I spent a good portion of the early afternoon planting a few plants like my Everbearing Strawberries in my strawberry pot and starting some seeds: Radishes, Carrots, Peas, and some Squash in the seed starter trays. An overnight warning of frost had us scrurrying in the evening to bring all of our plants inside. By Monday evening, I was so hungry and worn out, I feel asleep after eating in front of the TV, and waking before 11 to catch yet another weather report. I stopped to turn back up the heat before retiring to bed and sleeping for another eight hours! It must be all that fresh air, exercise, and sunshine! I feel great! but knowing my own tendencies to burn myself out quickly, I took the day off yesterday to just soak up some sun...

with my bathing suit on....

and just enjoyed the sunshine, the clouds floating softly by...
listening to music on my ipod...

After showering, making dinner, I fell asleep early again... knowing today will be another busy day! We'll be renting a rototiller and tilling up the soil once again. A trip to Richard's Garden for some more plants and hopefully, we'll be all set and ready to plant soon!

My FIRST Blog Award...

A few days ago, I received a surprise!

My friend, Christine, from http://junkitup.blogspot.com/ awarded me with

the Kreativ Blogger Award.

Can you believe I've been blogging for nearly five years

and this is the first award I have received? Thank you, my friend!

The rules are simple:

Place the award on your blog along with a link to the person who awarded it to you.

List Seven Things You Love:

{Here's my list:}

God

Family

Friends

Art

Creating

Animals

Nature

Then, List seven blogs you love and let those people know you’ve given them the award.

{Since I'm aware that this award has been around for a few years, I want to find some friends who haven't received this as of yet, and then, I'll edit this post to list them.}

Lianna @ http://llamatales.blogspot.com/

Linda @ http://redplaid3.blogspot.com/

Lisa Renea @ http://tatteredtiara.blogspot.com/

Sue @ http://ozzigirl.blogspot.com/

Dymphie @ http://papierenavonturen.blogspot.com/

{Okay, I've two to go and I'll post them at a later date...}

Annie @ http://wwwanniesponderings.blogspot.com/

Thank you, my friends!

Planning a Veggie Garden...

Don and I had been discussing planting a vegetable garden , so when our friend Jason telephoned us while we were visiting with friends to inform us he was sitting in our driveway with his equipment, Don rushed home and preparations were made to get us underway. Jason rototilled up a good 20'x20' area for us behind my studio.

Since we've not planned or planted a garden for many years and our lawn hasn't been treated for weeds, we decided to clear the area of all the sod, grass clippings, and weeds and relocate them to assist filling in a low-lying area in our rear acre.

The photo above was taken after the first day of working to remove the sod...

and on day two, Don rose a little earlier than me to get started once again.

and after day two... approx. a 6'x8' to clear out yet.



We purchased eight 1.5 cubic foot bags of garden soil to mix with several bags of top soil we previously purchased and will be mixing it and spreading into the soil by rototilling it again. We also, purchased few flats of veggies: some bi-colored corn, some Better Boy tomatoes, and some Everbearing Strawberry plants and I've been going through the pages of some of seed catalogs for ideas of what else we may desire to plant. I'm thinking a trip to Richard's Garden is in the near future... it's going to take more plantings than that to fill this thing!

Our family and friends have been excellent in answering our questions, providing us with their knowledge, and advice, and we even enjoyed a good home-cooked meal for us at the end of a long day of working on Day 2. {Thank you! [you know who you are!] Don and I so appreciated the gesture!}

On Day 3, I stayed out of the garden! Gotta give these old muscles and blisters a rest and time to heal up} so after removing all the dirt we've dragged in over the past several days, I've began Spring cleaning inside our home. I'm happy to say it's clean and I can soon get to tackling some of those small jobs like ..... packing those winter clothes away! Yeah!!!!

Alexxis' 3rd B-day

I'm playing "catch up" today...

trying to update with some photos of some of our recent events.

Amber & Chris made an excellent choice to have Alexxis' Birthday Party at a nearby local park. The weather turned out perfectly; a little on the cool side, but the kids didn't seem to notice while playing at a nearby playground. We utilized the grill, the shelter house, and the trash cans! It was a nice change from all the house cleaning, party preparations, and clean up once the celebration event was over.

I couldn't help but giggle as Alexxis sang, "Happy Birthday, dear Alexxis..."

along with the other children, as she blew out the candles on her Tinkerbelle cake...

Here's the birthday girl with some of her friends and cousins,
{and of course, her partner in crime, Alex}

Alexxis' grandma, Nancy or Saunders, made both of the birthday cakes
and her talent with frosting just blows me away!


{the path through the forest is crumbled oreo's}

and here's Tinkerbelle... the belle of the ball...

look at all the detail!!!

Didn't she do a fabulous job?

Timing is Every Thing!

I'm certin that we've all heard at one time or another, that parents are people who carry pictures where their money used to be. Well, now it seems that not only is it the wallet that they have the ability to effect, but times and dates on the calendar as well.

Everyone who knows me knows that I've been preparing for a May 2nd

Craft Show for well over 3 weeks to a month now. I've talked to or at least mentioned it

once to every one I know. {Yes! It is even posted on my blog!} But let's leave it to our children NOT to get the message!

So, what happened?

I believe John Lennon said it best , "Life is what happens while you're making other plans."

It seems Amber scheduled Alexxis' 3rd Birthday Party on May 2nd @ 1:00

and Kayla's, our oldest dgd, Senior Prom was in the evening of May 2nd!

Anyone want to guess when our "loving" children informed us of these facts?

{If you guessed "last minute"; Ding! Ding! You're a Winner!}

So, Don and I have spent the past week going back and forth, trying to decide what the heck we're going to try to do. We considered setting up my Craft booth @ 9 a,m.,

both of us working the booth until 12:45 p.m. Then, perhaps, I'd be able to leave to attend Alexxis' b-day party, and he'd stay to attend to my booth until I returned at 3 p.m.

to assist with tear down or we would not to attend the party at all.

At 4:00 p.m., Don would need to go into relieve his son, Shawn,

{Kayla's dad} so he could be with his dd, and dh would stay until closing @ 7 p.m.

Just when we thought we had everything figured out, the telephone rings...

{I won't bore you with those details, but if you've read this far, are you seeing a pattern here yet?}

To further throw a wrench into our plans, during the last week of preparation time

for the Craft show, the packaging and printed materials never arrived. So rather than attending and appearing "non-professional' and 'unprepared' I opted not to attend.

I cannot even begin to tell you how disappointed I was with that decision.

I felt as if I'd let myself and all my blog readers and friends down.

But please know this.....

I'm not throwing in the towel on this idea just yet!

I am going to continue creating

and I'm going to find a way to sell my creations yet.

There's always the possibility of opening an Etsy store, and I've access to a few other possibilities. So if I learned anything, it was that "Timing is EveryThing!" and "to be prepared for the unexpected!"