Summer...not lazy or hazy!

I can't believe it's the last day of June and this is one of the first days I haven't had much on my plate. Today is just a regular day of doing laundry, grocery shopping, cooking a meal, and making sure everyone gets where they are supposed to be. I've also had time for reading blogs while the washer's going, looking at Facebook, and paying my bills on-line. A good day, and a nice change compared to the rest of our month. June has definitely been a month of ups and downs, crazy schedules, and a lot of work, little of it paid. When I've been an absent blogger for a week, I tend to do the asterisked checklist of what I've been doing. That might be a little hard for a month, but I'll give it a try (mostly for my own use as a journal) and then I promise to get back to what I hope might stand a chance of being an interesting blog.
*Graduation- SD made it through with flying colors
*Last day of school- I was so ready!
*Baseball games sprinkled throughout the month- Ups and downs there also, but mostly good although I've had to miss a few games.
*College orientation- SD got registered for fall classes and stayed overnight on campus.
*Brief "vacation"- While SD had orientation, I hung out with CS, slept on a cot at his house. We went to see "Up" which I loved, went to eat at an outdoor restaurant, and enjoyed part of the riverwalk in Minneapolis on a perfect MN evening. It was a nice break even though it made preparing for the
*graduation party a little more hectic. The party went well, the weather was still great, and we had a pretty good turn out.
*SD had her 18th birthday the day after her party. We didn't do much, but had a nice dinner and ate leftover graduation cake.
*Our "rent to own gone bad" people moved into another house leaving us with a house and no renter. We were fortunate to find new renters in a short time, but have practically killed ourselves getting the place cleaned and repaired. A learning experience.
*DH's parents both broke their hips in separate incidents on the same day and both had surgery the next day which happened to be their 62nd wedding anniversary. We spent one weekend at the hospital, they've moved to a nursing home now and are slowly recovering.
*My mom is still in a nursing home recovering from her broken neck, hopes to get home soon.
*Nephew's wedding in Iowa- was the shortest wedding in history, but it was nice and all of the cousins were there. On our way home from the wedding, we visited both nursing homes to see our parents.
Now sprinkle in a few car repairs, a sibling relationship that is difficult(mine), a poor financial outlook, I've had just a tiny bit of stress. It's funny how I've just been too busy to notice, but I'm tired and I hope to have some time to recoup before I start working at summer school next week. I'm thankful that my back has been somewhat better and none of us have had any health issues at least. Hopefully July will be a better and easier month and I hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis. Thanks for listening!!

Graduation!!

It has been quite a whirlwind of activity around here this past week. SD had her graduation on Friday night. They were able to have it outside and it was the only nice night we had all weekend. It got a little chilly towards the end, after 7!! speakers, but not too bad. The rest of the weekend was cold and rainy and windy, so I felt bad for those who were having their grad parties. Ours is next weekend, so I hope the weather will be nice. I feels a little surreal that she has finished high school, it may not sink in for awhile. She and I have a road trip to do her college orientation and get her registered for classes later this week, so it will probably start to feel real then.

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The rest of the week has been/will be filled with baseball games, end of the school year activities, house cleaning, and party preparation. It helped in a way to have the rainy weekend to get some of those inside projects done. I'll be infrequent with my blogging for the next week or so. I hope to spend more time with that this summer and get back to visiting and commenting on my favorite blogs.

A better fox picture

Here's some better pictures of Mrs. Fox. I did a lot of yard work over the weekend, so I heard her kits arguing again and saw her running around. Another neighbor said that there are 5 of them, so she probably has to spend quite a bit of time hunting food for them. The last picture shows her sauntering away. I didn't have the camera on zoom at all, I was pretty close to her and she didn't seem to mind.


I've got my yard looking pretty good and powerwashed the patio and patio furniture last night. We had a beautiful weekend, so I was able to get a lot done. Tonight we have a baseball game, so not much will happen at home. I spent a long time on the phone with my sister this morning. She had been to Iowa to see our mother and said she seems to be doing okay. Time will tell if she'll be able to return to her home. Today is SD's last day of high school. She graduates Friday night, but her party isn't until the 14th. They have an all night party for the grads, so I think I may have some of my friends over after graduation. I have a feeling I might be a little sad that night, we'll see.