Blossoms Abound!

I love this time of year when everything starts blooming. Here are some shots of my gardens. The Black-eyed Susans are coming back up (they did last year but didn't bloom, but buds are forming this year).

Before the flower pictures, I wanted to share one that I took of a beautiful rainbow I took from the sliding glass door to the backyard on April 26th. Isn't it beautiful - it was sooooo vibrant!



Front yard:

Purple Cone flowers (Echinacea)

Canna Lilies

Backyard:

Athena bush

Jacob's roses

Red Hot Pokers

All the greenery around the birdbath are my Black-eyed Susans.

Can't wait for them to start blooming.

The Master Bath Renovation has begun! Day 1

Yesterday, they started on the renovation of our master bathroom. We have not been able to use the shower for over a year now. I am so glad to finally be getting it done. The shower is being retiledand we are having the tile replaced around the tub to match and new vinyl flooring and the wals painted. Should take about 2 weeks. They were unable to come today as their truck broke down and he is getting it repaired today and they will be back tomorrow and then working Sat. to make up for today. We wanted to get the front bathroom flooring replaced and walls painted, but that won't fit into the budget with the upcoming trip to KS and TX.

Here are some before and after shots of Day 1.

Well, I didn't realize I had not taken before pics until he started demoing,

so here is one of him while he is bashing out the walls.

No more tile!

Tub before

Tub after

Memorial Weekend

Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson. Harold has been wanting to go there for some time now, so we finally went. Jacob and I went some years back with my mom and dad, but it was overcast and cold when we went. This time it was sunny, but not too hot (hot, but tolerable) and the flowers were in full bloom, it was beautiful.

This is where you enter the home for the tour.

This is part of the vegetable and herb garden to the left of the house, below the row where all of the slave cabins were (only footings left of some of those).

This is the gate to the family cemetary and the monument that has been erected at Thomas Jefferson's gravesite. The original marker was a plain stone, as he thought putting a plane stone on his grave would stop people from taking pieces of it as souveniers, but that proved not to be the case and it was finally removed and is a museum somewhere (can't remember where) and this one was erected and the fence put around the family cemetary.

This is the back of the house (which to me looks more like the front would) and below are some of the flowers along the drive leading up to it.

For Memorial Day we had Margarethe, Andy, Mary, Bobbie and her daughter Judy over for BBQ and Mary brought me these flowers for the table. Aren't they perfect! We had a great time, enjoying each others company and stuffing ourselves with hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, baked beans and more. Margarethe made us some delicious made-from-scratch cupcakes for dessert. Everything was YUMMY!

It's gonna be a BOY!

I just realized that I never posted about my future grandbaby! Mandy had her appt. on April 8th and her first sonogram....It's a BOY! I am so excited. Her due date is July 18th. We are taking a poll on when everyone thinks she will actually deliver. If you haven't all ready e-mailed me with your guess, you can leave a comment with it. Here are a couple of the sonogram pics. I love the one of just the foot - looks like he will have George's pontoons - I mean feet - LOL!

Mandy had another appt. on May 6th and she and baby are doing well, no sonograms this time, but they did listen to the heartbeat.

Mother's Day 2010

Well, I got to start celebrating early. First I received a cute, soft and squishy Eeyore in the mail from Jacob earlier in the week and Fri. evening I received a Spring flower arrangement (my fav) and 2 ballons from him and then Sat. Harold also gave me a beautiful Rose arrangement.

Today, Harold and I went to the new Cinema complex at the mall to see "Ironman 2". We paid the extra to sit up in the balcony in the premium seats (Harold liked them as they rocked). Won't do that often as the price was a bit much, but we decided to treat ourselves. When you pay for the upstairs tickets - it is for 21 and above - you have access to the bar and a restaurant and can take your food into the theatre if desired. Your ticket also includes a small bag of popcorn. Can't see a movie without popcorn in my opinion - LOL! The movie was very good. Afterwards we went to Bob Evan's for dinner. I tried their new Caramel Mocha coffee drink - Yum! - I was glad I could also get free refills on it - but those calories are gonna kill me. Next time I will save it for dessert and only have one. Tomorrow we will go out for my Mother's Day dinner, haven't decided where I want to go yet. Thinkin' about Red Lobster.

Cinco De Mayo Celebrations

For Cinco De Mayo, I had two red hat events to attend. The first was lunch with my Busy Bee group. We went to "The Green Turtle", so we didn't really celebrate it. This restaurant just recently opened so it was our first time there. The food was excellent.

The Busy Bees

L-R: Carolyn, Jane, Katrina, Sandy, Mary Ellen, Oneida, Maryln

The second was a dinner with my Scarlet Sophisticates group up in Woodbridge at the Los Toltecos Mexican Restaurant. Where we did celebrate it. There were 24 of us in attendance. We always have fun when we get together. I even indulged and got myself a Strawberry Frozen Margarita - Yummy!

The young man that served our food to us came out loaded up like this 5-6 times at least (had to manuever thru a very crowded restaurant to get to the room where we were located and he managed to only drop one plate while serving. I thought that was pretty good myself.

We also had lots of door prizes!

I was the last winner and won a rubber ducky with a sombero on his head - LOL!

Roaring 20's Party

On April 24th, I attended a Roaring 20's Party in Richmond with my Scarlet Sophisticates group. We had a blast! Some of the costumes were amazing. Lots of dancing and door prizes.

The Scarlet Sophisticates

?, Sibbie, Pat (Party Hostesses)

Stephanie, Kathi, ?

Our table. L-R: Kathi, Cindy (me), Arlene, ?, Sue (in back), Kathy

Joann, Kathy

Kathi, Kathy, Ann

Kathi, Cindy (me), Ann

Me with my new feather hairpiece from one of the attending vendors.

The contest winners

L-R: 3rd place, 2nd place, 1st place winner

This lady had on the oldest costume, she made it 62 years ago out of a parachute.

Don't you love the stockings - too cute!

Now these were 2 of my favorite costumes!

Dancin'

Sibbie, Pat, Sharon (one of the vendors - Love her hat!)