DEATH BY CINNAMON!

#1 was out of town for summer school.

#2 went shopping with a friend and then to visit the BF2.

#3 was spending the night at my aunt's house.

The Man of the House was in DC chatting up some politicians and eating at nice restaurants. 

It was raining cats and dogs outside and inside.

So I baked these...

from scratch.

They were loaded with sugar and cinnamon....

 and the house smelled like Christmas.

I froze some, took some to my aunt (ten minutes away)

and ate some.

And then I ate some more.

And then I died.

DURING THE BACHELORETTE

When you get us girls together, 

we shamelessly are going to end up watching some really bad reality TV,

especially during the summer. 

We love all of the Housewives on Bravo, decorating shows, cooking shows, 

So You Think You Can Dance and of course we are on the edge of our seats during The Bachelorette.

We all have our eye on Roberto.

I hope he isn't the one that has a girlfriend and ends up being a jerk.

 Last night we were watching The Bachelorette together,

and can I just say, there were a lot of awkward moments that were hard to watch. 

If you saw it, did you cringe when Kasey broke out in song?

Brooke (#2) and Barrett (#3) had to turn away. 

They were embarrassed for him.

Thirteen year old girls don't do well with embarrassing  boy/girl moments....

neither do nineteen year old girls. 

And then The Weatherman had to break out in song......

We even had to fast-forward during that part.

Some things I heard while watching The Bachelorette:

"Please tell me he is not going to sing"

"Oh my God, he is singing."

"I fell so bad for him."

"Does anyone else feel awkward right now?"

"Oh my gosh, this is Soooooo awkward."

"Oh, I like Roberto."

"Is he wearing panties?"

"Why did they put Roberto in panties?"

"Oh no, he is flying with panties on!"

"It is not panties, it is a diaper."

"Wow, that was awkward."

"The Weatherman is weird."

"He is scary."

"Please tell me he isn't going to sing too."

"Don't do it, don't do it.....oh no he is singing."

"This is really awkward."

"I cannot watch this."

"HE is going home."

 "He better go home."

"Say good-bye to the Weatherman."

"Good-bye Weatherman."

(evidentially the word of the night was "awkward")

SASSY PANTS

I don't now what I was expecting when I called and made the appointment for Lola and Charlie to get groomed. I guess I had a mental image of my scruffy puppies still looking scruffy when it was all over with, but just a little neater and tidier. What I didn't want was for them to look like poodles - especially Charlie. He is our rough and rugged little guy. Lola is a prissy little thing so she can wear a fancy haircut well, but the prissy doesn't suit Charlie.

This is Lola Thursday night running some errands....

and this is Charlie on 

Thursday, proud of his new ability to jump on the couch and watch what is going on in the kitchen.

(This is a NO NO!)

The Rub a Dub van pulled up into our driveway on Friday afternoon and Miss Brenda worked her magic one at a time. I must say, she is a professional with the blow dryer and she takes that part of her job seriously. When all of the blow drying was finished, Lola and Charlie looked like they had fallen into a cotton candy machine. They were proud of their make over. You could see it in how they pranced, held their heads up and rolled their eyes.

I guess this is Charlie's "sexy eyes" look.

Brenda did a great job. Their cuts are so even. I just miss the messy bed head look. The girls took one look at Charlie's blowout and took him straight to the swimming pool for a swim. He needed the curls to come back into his life.

Lola took things into her own hands paws and ran through the sprinkler to get some of her curls back.

She is a kinky girl!

....fighting over who looks the best....

The "puff" shows up a little more in the profile pictures. 

I would be fighting mad too if I were them!

Speaking of puppies and haircuts. What would you do if your dog ended up looking like one of these?

I think I would choose the panda. 

I would feel a little more comfortable walking it over a buffalo, camel or over grown chicken. 

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

We have been plagued with 

gloomy skies and thunderstorms

for the longest time.

Yesterday afternoon the sun came out!

Finally!

We headed outside

and tried to pretend that it wasn't as humid as it was.

I took off my Iron Man boot and swam laps for thirty minutes, 

thumbed through a few magazines will sitting in the sun

and had an all out war with some horseflies.

I sure hope Home Depot has something to get rid of them

because they are annoying.

Here are a some pictures I took of our backyard yesterday.

Our pool is three years old now and all of the landscaping around it is starting to fill 

in nicely. I haven't planted as many flowers as normally do

 because of the deer.

It is so heart breaking to work so hard on something and then wake up one morning and

see that it was a midnight snack for them. 

That is what happened to this planter full of Sun Coleus. 

back patio

pool to the right up the steps and house to the left of the patio

Knock Out Roses

I am standing in the same spot as I was in the first picture but I just turned toward the pool.

Caladiums are my all time favorite thing to plant in planters.

I have a few of these planters inside the pool area.

I went with a lot of Vinca this year even though I don't think they are very exciting.

The deer tend to leave it alone.

This is Skeeter.

He sits on top of the column going into the pool and welcomes everyone.

The frog with a broken elbow.

Charlie and Lola are trying to decide what to do with one of those pesky horseflies!

looking across the patio from the other direction

There is a walkway and back steps to the front porch.

Here is a peak at my new cushions for the furniture up there.

LOVE THEM!

This is some kind of Lily.

This plant is very special to me.

It was in my grandparent's yard and I remember smelling the flowers when I used to 

play outside while I was at their house.

My dad dug it up for me after they died.

I love when it blooms every summer.

I can not believe it, but the sun is out again today! 

With all of the rain we have had, I know that the weeds will be growing like crazy.

That is one thing about a yard.... it is constant work. 

Thank goodness this is not Father's Day Weekend.

HE's got a lot of work to do!

509

AT THIS MOMENT

There is not much going on this week.

 We are trying to establish our summer schedule

and get into a productive routine. 

So far the productivity had been very low!

#3 has her award ceremony at school of Friday morning

and after that she officially finished. 

She gets an extra week of summer

because she was exempt from all of her exams and they are all this week at school.

Last week she had soccer tryouts every afternoon and all weekend long we 

jumped every time the phone rang.

She finally got her phone call on Sunday and 

we found out she was placed on a team and was also moved up another level. 

She was so excited and we were so proud. 

Only two of her other teammates were moved up, so it was a big deal.

• There are three TVs on in our house tuned to the Stanley Cup finals. The Man of the House cannot walk into a room without turning on a television even if he is only in a room for a minute or two. When he leaves the room he leaves them on. 
• There is a load of clothes in dryer. I will "fluff"  and fold them tomorrow.
• My bed and the area underneath is the cleanest it will be in a long long time. We had new mattresses delivered today and when the delivery men took our old mattresses out, I vacuumed and wiped the areas where the sun doesn't ever shine. On top is a new mattress pad and freshly laundered sheets. YUM!
• The desk in the office is piled high with unused school supplies that were brought home by #3 on Friday. I recall spending over $250 and making several trips to different office supply stores back in August just to find everything required on the list. I would bet only half of it was used, the rest was sent home.  Now someone has the task of sorting and getting it all put away for the summer.
• #3 is sitting in a chair downstairs reading. She has been on summer break for five days and has read two (big) books already. I told her she is not allowed to read tomorrow until the sun goes down and that she will get some sort of physical exercise. With intense soccer tryouts last week, we were letting her take a couple of weeks off, but I cannot stand to see her sit around all day.
• There are brand new cushions on my front porch furniture and that makes me happy!
• Charlie is going from one air conditioning vent to another trying to decide which one will cool him off the quickest. 
• Lola is asleep on her back with all four legs in the air. 
• There are several pairs of clean underwear on the floor downstairs. Someone left their underwear drawer opened and two naughty puppies had a field day with them. I hope nobody is expecting company tonight!
• We have had thunderstorms everyday since Sunday and have barely seen the sun. It is so humid here tonight that there is condensation on some of the windows. 

Tomorrow is another day! 

We will rejoice and be glad in it.