Crisis mode or maybe just the new normal!

my first iris....first of many!

So sorry for it being so long since the last update but I haven't really felt like blogging...mainly because it would all be negative as of late and I choose to try not to dwell on that stuff and really to not bring others down with me.  But it is time to update everyone so here goes.

As you know Wil left in April and you know how when your husband leaves, the garage door stops working and then he comes home and it works fine.  Well it has been  of that only Wil isn't coming home to get them working so I have been working on trying to get things fixed without breaking the bank.  So here is the list of the things I have had fixed, are fixing or will be fixing: brush hog, gas weed eater, lawn tractor, Trailblazer, computer server, computers, various lights and on and on.  Whew!  It has just been so steady of crisis management that when I clean up one mess, I just wait for the next thing to crash.  I am praying that soon things will smooth out because this is no fun.

We have had a lot of rain so that means a lot a lot a lot of mowing for me and with all the lawn items not working it has been a trick.  All my equipment is working now so I am excited to be able to use it all this weekend.  Well, excited is not the word...the 2.1 acres is kicking my butt.  I am just trying to keep it at bay right now.  It feels like a jungle that is alive and creeping forward and I stand with my machete...keeping it back.  Some days I win and some days I lose but I will not quit.

On a lighter note, my mom came to visit.  We had a lot of fun.  We went on a cruise around the 1000 Islands area.  That just makes me want to go on more cruises in that area...very cool.  We showed her around our area, and of course took her downtown to the Parliament buildings.  We rented a wheelchair because of all the walking around and the girls and I had fun pushing grandma around in a light rain.  Then we had lunch at the Hard Rock (Tiana has now eaten at Hard Rock in 3 countries) and did some shopping at a nearby market.

The dirt is moved...wow...10 cubic yard is a lot of dirt to move.  I can tell you my arms got a great work out, but it is done.  So now I get to start planting and, of course, weeding.  It will take a couple years for the rock garden to really come to life but the area is mapped, there is soil and now it is implementation time.  I have the antique plow and a garden flag (thanks mom) and the family memory "rock" that I brought from Colorado.  I am going to find a couple nice boulders to add in and a bunch of irises and we shall see where it goes from there.  I probably made too large of an area in retrospect...I should have started small and expanded as I had time but you know what they say about hind sight.

The girls are anxiously waiting the end of school.  The really only have full days through Thursday then a couple finals and they are out.  They have done really well but they are sooooooo done and ready for summer.  Now part of it could be that on the 28th we leave for a family reunion in Ohio.  I am ready to get away.  We haven't had a vacation since June of 2009 and no! moving is not a vacation.  This isn't my idea of a vacation per se ( I hate driving) but it will still be fun!  We are stopping at Niagara Falls, none of us have been there so it will be very cool.  Then on to Cedar Point (Tiana and my favorite amusement park).  Then on to the Cinci area for the reunion. 

This reunion is all about Legacy and I have been working on updating our family tree.  It was addictive when I started it many years ago and I have been just as obsessed this time.  I have found some very cool things and am really looking at things differently.  I challenge everyone to think...what legacy have I left.  In the simplest of thing...what stories have we passed on that will be lost with us.  I haven't left as much as I could so I am working to fix that.  Why OHIO, well that is where my dad's family grew up and we are going to go see some of the local haunts from his childhood.  I am very excited.

After the reunion, Tiana flies to Colorado and Tabitha and I drive back to Smiths Falls in time for Tabitha to leave for a visit with her mom and then I will go home and crash!  I will miss the girls but I am looking forward to some time to decompress and really process everything that has happened in this last year.  Then before I know it Tiana will be back and then Tabitha will be back and then school will start...but that is too far ahead to think.  Ok, not totally too far, I found out there is an African safari park a couple hours from here and I am thinking that is where I want to go for my birthday...I will have to look into it some more.  It won't be as exciting as the safari in Kenya I went on with my dad but I bet it will still be fun.

We still don't know where Wil is going...hopefully we will know soon.  He still thinks they are leaving in July sometime.  He is extremely stressed out and exhausted.  I don't get to talk to him as often as I would like and there has definitely been a HUGE time of adjustment but I am hoping we have settled in at this point into some sort of non routine routine...lol.  I spoke with him last night and he was very sick.  He could definitely use your prayers as could I.

On the good side, my birds are multiplying and my flowers are flourishing and I am now feeding squirrels and rabbits also which is fine except someone ate one of my plants  :(.    I will end with a pic of some of my flowers.

Thats all for now.

Brenda