Day 340

Snow was in the forecast last night. Becca was really hoping for the 2" they originally thought would hit. We got a dusting instead. Oh well, plenty more time for snow days ahead!

Day 310

Getting to be a little too late in the year for much color on the bluffs. Driving to stamp camp!!! Yea!!

Day 279

"fake" pumpkin on my front porch. Spooky!?!?

Day 250

Happy Labor Day!! Trees are already turning here. WEIRD. I wonder how "fall" will progress. Will it be early & quick? I LOVE FALL!!!

Day 218

Scott had a morning audit today so I dropped him off, went back to the hotel, packed the room, checked out of the hotel, dropped a package off at the library & drove back to Scott's audit. Being the wonderful supporting spouse that I am (ok, stop laughing, I have occasional supportive moments!), I told Scott that I would drive. He had to drive so much this week getting to audits that it only seemed fair for me to let him rest a bit. We stopped for lunch, I drove after. We stopped for gas, I drove after. We got home, unloaded everything and, as there was no food in the house, I drove to Edwardsville (20 minutes away) for Pasta House. YUM!!!

When we got back from dinner, I realized that we had library stuff due TODAY!! back in the van, out to the mall and we got the stuff returned before $1 a day fines for videos kicked in. Vacation is truly over!

Day 188

Day 3 of the Stay-Cation: StL Science Center. For the price of gas to Forest Park, we got 3 hours in the A/C and some interesting exhibits. And, as they were running a special on Omnimax tickets, we decided to go see the Grand Canyon Adventure, River at Risk. I was hoping the Scott & the kids would see how majestic & wonderful the GC was and maybe we could work a future vacation there (I went when I was a kid but our family RARELY took pics!!) Well, I used to get sick at in-the-round type theaters and I have NOT grown out of it. I was so dizzy & had a sick headache all afternoon.

We persevered and saw a few more exhibits but the kids have outgrown most of the things (the cyber are would have been a great thing for them to check out but, since I was feeling icky, I couldn't deal w/the video games & funky lights & stuff). We did luck into the Science Center Peep Show. No, marshmallow peeps!! They heated, boiled, vacuumed and froze them. I like that kind of science!!!

Day 158

I'll be the first to admit it; Nick's just plain WEIRD!!! This is him, sitting on his floor w/the comforter over the a/c vent. Why?? Who knows. Clearly not him!! Fruit-ball!

Day 127

I spent all morning out in the "garden". We have beds on 3 sides of the house. And, in the front, is the funky landscaping our builder put in & we haven't completely redone. Yet. Someday when I get the energy & a wheelbarrow......

Anyway, Scott decided to put veggies in again this year. We'd taken a 2 year break from them. Why? 1) we weren't in town much last summer so weren't able to take care of the plants and 2) the last year we planted, our soil got funky & killed the plants from the ground up. It was weird. So, we mulched the crap out of the ground for the last 2 years & let it lay w/o plantings. Hopefully, these will grow this year.

I found out yesterday that Scott will not be traveling AT ALL (not even to StL) in June. We were looking forward to going with him for "vacation" this year. Well, here's hoping for some place good in July or Aug!

Here are some more garden pics:

Peppers planted right next to the tomatoes (Scott's the only one who eats either tomatoes or peppers, that's why there are so few plants!

Gladiolas planted on the other side of the house. This sided needed some HEAVY weeding this year!

Strawberries planted at the end of the gladiolas. These were originally planted as a ground cover & a "bribe" for the bunnies et al to eat THESE strawberries and not the "good" ones on the other side of the house. Never worked. And, apparently, this year the moles must have gotten to the good strawberries (along w/my tulips?) 'cause they never came back :( But, I don't eat strawberries either so, no big loss to me :P

The newest floral member of our yard, a Hydrangea. I've always liked these bushes. Especially when they have different colors on the same bush! Hope it grows! (Eventually, the rain will wash the dirt away from the rocks & the display will look better!)

The azaleas we planted 3-4 years ago. They are so pretty but bloom for such a short period of time.

Scott's hibiscus. He picked this plant out & I like it when it's outside (but I would have chosen a pink variety) but, since it's not hardy, it has to come in every fall. It's too big to fit anywhere & the cat keeps eating it. I almost wish it would die. Almost!!

Day 97

Bad Suzi!! I didn't take any pics yesterday. I spent the day shopping w/Becca and didn't find anything picture worthy. Well, I actually did want to take pics of the tulips planted between the driveways at the mall but I couldn't stop to take the pic for fear of being killed by the drivers behind me. I did get stopped for the light leaving the mall but, as luck would have it, I wasn't far enough back to be able to take the pic :(

Anyway, to make sure I had an entry, I found a random pic in my stash. This is Nick on Jan. 20, 2007 at the Science Fair. I really loved this project! I hate science and Scott's no good at it either so we were really panicked when we found out Nick had to have a project. This idea hit Scott & I ran it past the teacher & she said that yes, it was science. Nick rolled 3 different weight balls w/the same velocity down the lane center of the lane to see which ball would knock over more pins. It was the middle weight one.

Nick's favorite part? Having his grandpa cut a bowling ball in half to see what was inside it. COOL!!!

I promise cool pics for tomorrow. We're going to the zoo!!

Day 66

Today's pics is compliments of my 14yo DD Becca. We went to Apple bees for dinner and sat in the bar area. (The state of IL is now smoke free so you can sit in the bar w/o getting immediate lung cancer!) Of course, in the bar, you have all the TVs tuned to whatever sporting events are on but you can't hear them. Applebees has solved this dilemma. Each table gets a wireless speaker system. You look around, see which TV has what you want to hear & then push that button on your little box. Unfortunately, it makes a little brrrrrrrrp sound as it tunes in that sounds like someone has broken wind. Becca, EXCUSE YOURSELF!!! LOL

Day 38

Pre Sunset. It was overcast all day. The sun peaked out for a few minutes before noon but the temps were FABULOUS!! Of course, I spent the whole day in the house. Until I went out to get the mail & saw these cool clouds. Once again, the trees at the Holman's.