13 weeks of happiness: busy holiday weekend

It has been a rushed past few days.  Starting with last Wednesday when we prepared for strong storms and even saw a stormchaser vehicle in town ahead of the storms, not that i had any idea what it was when I saw it.  It took someone else posting a picture on facebook to clue me in.  But we lucked out and we didn't get any storms nearly as severe as they had predicted.  Then Thursday was tee-ball.  Friday morning I took Gwendolyn to the surgery center to have warts removed from under both of her big toenails.  *gag*  They put her under general anesthesia and it took no time.  I expected her to need quite a bit of recovery time since they worked on both of her feet, but she was up and running by the afternoon.  I, on the other hand, required some recovery time in the form of an almost 3 hour nap.  

Our weekend was no less busy.  Gwendolyn occasionally complained of sore toes, but for the most part just wanted to go and do.  Good thing too, since we cooked out at home Saturday afternoon, then went to my brother's for a cookout that evening.  Sunday we went to a cookout at my cousin's house.  

In the 30ish years they have had that house, the pool has only been ready for swimming a handful of times on Memorial Day.  Normally Memorial day weekend is the weekend everyone works on getting it ready.  But it was ready and had pretty blue water this year.  And it was cold!  We didn't even take our suits.  we put our feet in a couple times, and in Maggie's case, she hung over the edge and splashed her hands around.  We think, weather permitting, the pool will be ready to swim by the weekend.

Even without getting to swim, we still had a good time at the cookout.  Lot of family, lots of food, homemade ice cream!, and a nice breeze.  My cousins brought my Grandy out for a little while and she enjoyed herself and I think I even got a couple decent pictures.    

Monday we went to another cookout at a friend's house and did some housework.  And today I guess we are trying to get back into the swing of regular days.  It is taking us a bit.  Maggie is clingy and wanting to be held, and I would much rather hold her than go to the grocery store like I need to.  I guess we can slowly get into the week since we don't have anything going on until this weekend's tee-ball tournament and another birthday party for Gwendolyn to attend. Even with a low start though, we need to get to the grocery store today or first thing tomorrow.  

How do you get back into the swing of things after a long busy weekend?

Linking up to 52 weeks of happiness and Sweet Shot Tuesday

I Heart Faces: People's Choice

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is People's Choice, favorite of May.  My favorite picture I took in May is one of my Grandy I have already shared.

Who's Clues? Blue's Clues

1.)  Maggie and Gwendolyn have found a new love of Blue's Clues thanks to Netflix.  They have watched a ridiculous amount of it over the past two weeks.  Maggie was playing with her cars and trucks the other day and got so excited and came to me holding her truck and screaming "Lou's Lues!! Lou's Lues!!" Yep, she found a clue!  I'm seriously considering hiding blue paw prints all over the house for her to find because she was so excited over the paw print she found.  I'm just trying to come up with what the clues might be cluing her into, but she is not quite 2 so she might not care to have the clues lead her to anything.
2.) I am also trying to come up with fun things to do this summer.  Gwendolyn got used to a more structured day when she was at school and I am afraid if I don't have ideas for us ready, she (we) will wind up watching way too much television.  We will, of course, be going to the library for story time and the summer reading program.  And we will be going to the pool as often as we can.  I'm thinking we will have special picnics, bubbles, run through the sprinklers, make snowcones days.  I have several lists saved to my Pinterest and will hopefully make my list for the refrigerator next week.
2b.) Does anyone need/ want a Pinterest invite?  Drop me your email if you'd like one and I'll get you one.
3.)  I have a tiny tomato growing in my garden!!  I am terribly excited, but now I am looking at any birds or squirrels in the backyard as potential enemies who want to eat my harvest.  3b.)  I'm starting to wonder if I need tomato cages.  I don't really know what they are or why you use them, but I saw them at Home Depot.3c.)  I also have a mystery plant growing in one of my squares.  I'm not sure how it got there either since it is a raised bed that I put new soil in.  It looks a little like my squash plants I have growing, but not exactly.  I'm trying to decide whether to pluck it out so it doesn't steal nutrients from plants I know I want to survive  or just let it grow and see what comes of it.  I should add that last spring/ summer my husband and I carefully transplanted a tree from our back yard to the front yard, only to find out at the end of summer we were caring for a weed.
4.)  I'm not entirely sure why I thought I needed to add that, but it seemed tangentially related to how I garden/ grow my plants.  
5.)  I almost went all "Office Space" on my computer this week while I was trying to install actions into my photoshop elements.  I got so frustrated I was tearing up, and finally handed over my computer to my husband and saw that it was actually a more involved process and not like anything I have had to do before so I didn't feel as bad.  It actually took my husband three times before we figured out exactly how to do it. I think it was a combination of I don't know how to use pse, never installed an action, am using a new, more touchy laptop.  But it is mostly done now so I can work learning how to use it.  You know, in my spare time.  ;) 
linking up to Company girl coffee and saturday confessions

Wordless Wednesday: Young Friends

Maggie sometimes finds going to ball games a huge bummer because Keary and I won't let her run wild, onto the field, and steal balls.  Luckily sometimes there are other kids Maggie's age that she can play with and I imagine them commiserating with each other, comparing their buzz-killing parents.  That satisfies her for a few minutes until the kids join forces.  Hopefully she will want to be on the field this much in a few years when she is old enough to play.

Linking up to Project Alicia, Live and Love Out Loud, And Then She Snapped