Be Still a Minute...

Monday, July 8, 2013

Summer Rain

Our summer thus far has consisted of rain, rain, rain and a side dish of rain. Seriously. Did someone move North Carolina to the rain forest without notifying me? All that mulch we spent hours grueling over has now been washed out in several places and will have to be fixed. If it.ever.drys.out. And I am beginning to wonder.

The sky did manage to clear off (for a few hours) on the 4th so we headed to the minor league baseball game I had purchased advance tickets for because they do fireworks after the game. Once we finally got into the stadium after waiting for a ridiculous amount of time trying to get turned in with all the traffic and then being told to drive over the curb to park in the wet grass because there were no more parking spaces, the game had already started and we'd missed the singing of the national anthem.

But we had excellent seats and it wasn't raining. At least until the 7th inning...when the bottom.fell.out! Then we spent a good 40 minutes all crammed underneath the shelters around the concession stands getting way too up close and personal with total strangers. The rain finally subsided, the fireworks were shot off and we were promised more baseball. So we sat in our wet seats and watched them prepare the field for nearly an hour before they finally announced that it was not gonna be happenin' tonight.

But aside from all the rain...

Dracen has managed to get a little fishing in. He somehow conned (the night before) his way into his popaw's fishing trip to the Uwharrie River a few weeks ago, where they caught this...

Charlie and I (and the Darlings) enjoyed our anniversary weekend in this little cottage just outside of Asheville...

They were fascinated with the rushing mountain stream off the back deck.

Devin enjoyed that same weekend at Lake Junaluska with the youth group...

I was told they flipped the canoe...on purpose.
(Not my photo: I stole it from facebook.)

We settled on this teak bench as our anniversary gift...

It was, of course, raining when I took this shot through the window. Maybe one day it will dry out
enough so that we can actually sit and sip iced tea on it.

A couple of bluebirds has moved in and laid eggs in the birdhouse Dracen and Popaw built...

Best shot I've managed to get so far...through the rain and the window.

I think I see the sun peeking out today so fingers crossed that we won't have to leave town on the ark before the end of summer.

New 4th of July duds...I bribed them with cheese.

Trying to stay dry,

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Character-Building

Last Friday I got the boys up early to help me clean out and spread mulch in the area against the back of the house. (And by early I mean before 10 a.m.) There was a lot of bickering which I fully expected since, as Charlie would say, "those two get along like two sore-tailed cats".

Devin picks on Dracen for sport and Dracen thinks he is fully capable of doing anything a grown man can do...all 60-couple pounds of him. (When he was little, "I do it myself!" was his favorite phrase.) I still use it.

We were using the riding mower and trailer to haul the mulch into the fence and although Dracen does not have enough butt to keep it turned on, he still insists that he can drive it although it turns off on him fifteen times before he gets to his destination which thoroughly exhausts Devin.

We took a lunch break in the early afternoon and everything seemed to be going better. For a few minutes. And then all hell broke loose.

I was in the process of spreading mulch when I heard them going at it up at the mulch pile outside the fence. Devin was about to drive another load back into the fence, beating Dracen to the mower. So Dracen took the keys and claimed that he would not surrender them until Devin got off and turned the mower over to him. After threatening him within an inch of his life, he turned them over but decided he was done since we all treat him like he's useless (his words). Bring on the drama.

Devin and I were emptying the mulch out of the trailer when he realized he needed his gloves. Turns out, Dracen had the gloves and was sitting on the ground pouting outside the fence. The next thing I knew Dracen jumped on Devin so Devin slung him on the ground. And then he (Dracen) LOST IT. He came charging across the yard full speed ahead, determined to take Devin (twice his size) down to the ground.

And when I went in to stop him, he commenced to pitch the biggest conniption fit I have ever been witness to. God doesn't give us more than we can handle? That was close. That was real close. Things got worse before they got better. I half expected someone in the neighborhood to call 911 on us. In the end (after they calmed down), I sent them both in the house because I just wanted to work in peace.

Their entire Saturday was spent doing various character-building chores (supervised by Charlie) around the yard while I cleaned the air conditioned house. Alone. They both had a complete change of attitude from the day before so we decided to take a little trip up the mountain on Sunday where, I am happy to report, nobody tried to throw anybody off the side...

All's well that ends well.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Friday Favorites...Lazy Summer

It has been another lazy week of summer over here. I'm thinking I may need to stage an X-Box intervention with a certain teenager soon because I'm fairly certain he now qualifies as a full-fledged addict. Dracen went shopping with me yesterday and I was sort of thinking out loud as I wondered how anyone could spend that much time at something so unproductive and he (with all his nine and a half year old wisdom) said, "Ah, he's just going through a phase."

He's nine going on sixty-five. Sometimes. Other times, he's nine going on three. We had bought a twelve pack of Cokes when we were out yesterday, along with a new decorative metal bird stake for the yard which he absentmindedly stabbed into the box of Cokes, poking holes in two of them and spewing sticky all over the kitchen floor. I was livid. When I questioned him about why he did it, he had no good answer other than he just didn't think that would happen.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

So that's a pretty good example of what our summer has been like over here so far. Unless you count the yard work. Last Saturday we had a ginormous dump truck of mulch delivered and spent the entire day spreading it, after I trimmed the excessive amount of sticker bushes that came with this house. I have scabs on both thumbs from the rake rubbing the skin off. That was fun. And we still need another load or two for the rest of the yard since I'm still looking at that red mulch from last year in my shade garden. I guess, as Dracen would say, I was "just going through a phase" because I am so completely over that red mulch.

And speaking of the shade garden, Charlie and I decided to buy a teak bench as a five year wedding anniversary gift to ourselves. Our anniversary is the 28th of this month and we've always tried to stick with the traditional gifts. The five year gift is wood. I've never owned anything teak but I hear it is supposed to last a lifetime. I'm really liking the style of this one, my first "favorite" this week...

Teak Garden Bench