What's Up

I don't know why I still feel the need to tell you every little thing, Blog.
Believe it or not, I do try to pare it down to the things that matter the most (except for that unbearably long 200th post).
So here is some of what's been happening over here lately.

 I spent an afternoon organizing all the crap in the garage. It was so messy after a winter of throwing everything we didn't want to deal with out there.

 But I pushed everything under the car  put everything away in its proper place, just in time for spring. I was getting to the point of feeling ashamed whenever the kids left the garage door open for the whole neighborhood to see. I'm pretty sure by now we've been dubbed the "subdivision slobs".

Our neighbors' fence broke and fell over a bunch of weeks ago (adjacent to our yard, but unmistakably their fence - it borders our front side yard and connects to their gate). Ryan took it upon himself to fix it. He rented a big hammer drill and extracted the rotted posts from the underground cement, bought new posts, concreted them in, reinforced the fence slats, and fastened them to the new posts. Now it's fixed. Who knows how long it would have remained undone if Ryan hadn't taken the time and effort on his days off work to take care of it himself. I was pretty impressed that he did it, and without complaint. And the neighbors didn't even acknowledge that he did it, nor did they reimburse him for any of it!  Like a good neighbor, Ryan is there.

Cora has been participating with her classmates in Y volleyball over the past hunk of weeks. Her friend was signing up and encouraged her to join, so she did. 

She likes to wear long socks. =)

This is the first time many of these girls has been on a v-ball team, but I think they've done pretty well. Cora is frustrated that they haven't won any of their games (they play best of 3). She is just a little too competitive. I'm trying to help her understand that it doesn't matter what the score is as long as the team is working hard, but she doesn't want to listen. Hopefully I can help her have a better attitude about "losing". Anyway, the games have been fun to watch. 

                                 The first Saturday of May we went shooting with Ryan's dad.

It was the first time for the kids and me. 

It was a fun family afternoon.

Here's a last look at my tulips. They have now gone the way of all the world.

But I'm getting excited about my summer flowers! I started planting them yesterday. It is such a calming activity. I don't feel the least bit like yelling or glowering when I am busy digging and placing pretty plants in the soil. Pictures to follow soon, I'm sure.

There are two nests by our front door this year. This one is in the tree. I noticed the babies in it a few weeks ago.

I couldn't see them very well and haven't seen them lately, so I guess they moved away. Also, the nest from last year above our porch was taken over by a new bird this year. I'm waiting to see if any new birdies emerge from the depths of the repurposed nest. None of these birds are the same type as the ones from last year. I miss those cuties.

Construction has begun for the new stop light at the entrance to our subdivision. This is good news for us; bad news for everyone else who has to drive down Eagle Rd. =/  Not my fault.

I just found out there will be a new Axiom next to Big Al's. I've been going to the one way the heck on Overland, so I'm glad that by early next year there will be one that is just a couple of minutes away from home. Anything that will save me 15 minutes of driving is a good thing. The only reason I joined this particular gym was because my neighbor talked me into it. After the first few weeks, she ditched me. =/ Was it something I said?

A few weeks ago, my friend Suzy proposed that all her female friends from our seminary class of '96 commit to reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days. She created a FB group for it and some of us accepted her invitation. Even me! I've never done a BofM reading challenge before, ever. Never read it from cover to cover. Sure, I've read it all; just not in an orderly fashion. I've always been more of an open-it-up-to-wherever-and-read type of girl. Or I've looked up certain topics and read that way. I thought this would be a great time for me to take on a goal of reading the entire book in two months. 19 days in, and I'm still right on track. Over a quarter of the way through! And we're currently in Mosiah, one of my favorite books.

Last thing for now... I made a plethora of flower cookies for Mother's Day. I kind of had a blast with this batch. =) 

 

Have a happy week!