LOVE

 
Without a doubt, my husband can be more loving and considerate than I could ever imagine. This blog can only be dedicated to the wonderfulness I came home to; as there is not enough room after I've listed everything.

Since we were both gone for more than a week, I lost almost all of my much-loved and nurtured plants. Knowing this, Steve started all of these seeds for me (note the snap dragon hand illustration!) He also went out and poached 2 more pots of ferns for me, since those had been the pride of my patio. And, it's not quite enough to say he just went out and dug up new ferns for me... he braved raging floods to dig them up. In fact, the car still has muddy splashes all the way up to the roof from the literal waterfall that was raging down the hill from where the ferns grow. On top of all that, he cleaned and vacuumed the whole house. Cleaned out the fridge. Put up and reorganized the bedroom closet. Poached more flowers out of someone else's yard to fill in ours (they had moved out - it wasn't really thieving). Cleaned up the whole patio. Dusted all the ceiling fans, top of fridge, armoire, and everything else that is so far out of my reach it's been growing fur for the past 1.5 years. Had a BAG of new swimsuits from Victoria's Secret waiting for me. Mowed the yard. Weeded the garden. Vacuumed sand out of floorboards of car. Plugged in new airfreshners. Scheduled me a massage for the following day. Picked me up at the airport at 2 am. Went to work the next day at 8am.

I was happy enough just to see his smiling face. The rest is pretty amazing.

Thank you so much Steve, for being so good to me. You are, without a doubt, my lobster. <3

Steve's new Ghee

 
Looks amazing on him! Now, if I can just keep the blood stains out of it, we'll be in business.

Maggie and Mo

 
 
 
The two best cats that ever were. Well, ok. Mo = the best cat there ever was. Maggie = the most entertaining cat there ever was

Pretty leaves, pretty sky

 
 
Pictures of Dad's tree, against a beautiful azure sky.

Scarab beetles

 
These things kept coming out of Mom's fireplace - they're too big to be real! That's beside a size 13 foot, btw.

Fireworks at Jennifer and Ryan's

 
 
 
 
And, there were great fireworks and a really nice party at Jennifer and Ryan's house on July 3rd. Actually, the fireworks were just as good, if not better than the ones the city fired off, imho. Well done!

Fireworks over Berea High

 
 
I especially like the second one - it looks like the smoke of one is a big ole sea creature about to eat the little one.

Fourth of July

 
 
 
 
Steve and I went to my ole alma mater to participate in the Extravaganzza... I gotta say I was disappointed. No greased pig contest, no egg tosses or water baloons, or sky jumpers; just a bunch of bouncy houses for the kids. However, Damon's sand sculpture was quite nice, the Beatles cover band was a lot of fun, and it was fun watching the fireworks with Mom and Aunt Jean and Uncle Bob

Kentucky Arboretum

 
 
 
 

Lexington Arboretum

 
 
 
 

Trip Home to KY - Arboretum

 
 
 
 
Unfortunately, Johanna's week of Abney Swim Camp was cut short when I found out that Moses, the best cat in the whole wide world, was sick. So, Steve and I hopped on an airplane, and spent some time in KY with family and critters.

On one of the first days back in town, we went to the Lexington Arboretum, which was just spectacular. The weather was more than cooperative too - 75 degrees and almost no humidity.

More of Johanna Swimming

 
 
 
I forgot to warn her about fire coral, and sure enough, we ended up in a couple of tight spots in the waves and it banged her pretty good. She was cracking me up, cause she wanted me to take a picture of what she said was her "first ever sports-related injury"! Fire coral burns quite a bit if you just brush up against it; she hit it hard enough to break the skin, so it had to have hurt like a bugger.

Johanna Becomes a Mermaid

 
 
 
 
One of the reasons Johanna came to stay for a while was because she wanted me to teach her how to swim. It's been a long time since my college days of being a swim instructor, but we decided to give it a go and have fun in the process. I can't brag enough about how well Johanna did - not to mention how much of a trooper she is. I was worried about freaking her out as we swam across some of the deeper water, but she took right off and did it herself! In fact, after a couple of hours of paddling around and exploring, she wanted to swim into the Blue Hole... something that got my heart pounding a bit the first time I did it! In case you can't tell from the pictures, she might weigh 85 pounds, soaking wet, and she got goose bumps about 20 mintues in... but she wasn't about to stop to warm up on the beach. I think we stayed in the ocean for about 3 hours that day, and THEN she wanted to go to the pool to work on her technique a little more! What a machine! :-)