day 254

Pouring the walls for the basement - they built the forms out of styrofoam bricks and it didn't take long at all to pump all the cement in.

day 253

Cecily is supposed to be a blonde-haired little girl with braids. At least, that's what I imagined whenever I thought I'd have a Cecily. Well, she broke her mother's heart this week by insisting she gets her hair cut so I don't have to put it in braids and ponytails anymore. So now its short, but not *too* short - just at her shoulders. It will be very nice and cool for the summer and it looks great on her - but I'm hoping she won't want it any shorter. I'm already starting to mix her up with her sister more often than usual.

day 252

We went shopping today - this is the first thing I've bought for baby #4. A sign of my acceptance of the possibility that it might be a boy this time. And that would be good, because how cute is this shirt??? Somebody needs to wear it!

day 251

I had to drive out of town to fit this whole rainbow in the lens.

day 250

She actually sat still long enough for me to get braids in her hair. We were having a movie night.

day 249

I've spent a lot of hours getting my flowerbeds in shape the past week or so - I still have a lot to do but most of the weeds are out and I'm starting to get a few annuals in there. This is the first year I've been able to do it without the mosquitos bothering me. SO FAR.

In the background you can see the styrofoam forms stacked for the basement that should be going in next week in the lot behind ours.

day 248

How Madeleine looks after hitting a Home Run.

day 247

We had a spa night for our Ladies' night out this month. I have purple toenails now.

day 246

The kitchen floor is clean. I don't even want to know what's going to land on it in the next week. A clean floor attracts disaster in this house.

day 245

$50 from Mother's Day spent on bedding plants! YAY! Nevermind the dandelions.

day 244

Just another beautiful sunset at the lake.

day 243

I couldn't decide what I liked more - the kids on the dock or the sun-bursty thing happening in the sky.

day 242

My mother, my aunt and I were taking pictures of eachother across the kitchen table at the lake. We were trying to get the settings adjusted on mom's camera because indoor pictures look dark. I think she finally figured it out with this one. Though the flash on my stark white knees is a little disturbing, I resisted the temptation to crop/edit.

Just for fun, a photo from my end:

day 241

I'm sponsoring my cousin at her Confirmation. The photographer (who will remain nameless) is actually supposed to be praying for the confirmant, not taking pictures. But, I'm really glad she did. :)

day 240

My daughter and my niece watching the older kids' T-ball practice.

day 239

The girls caught some frogs. Its never soon enough to let them go. Yuck.

day 238

Tip #1: If you're cutting up a sausage to make a sandwich, and its hard to cut, you MIGHT be slicing your finger.

Tip #2: Don't use a Barbie plate to eat your manly sandwich.

day 237

VICTORY!!! For the past few days I've barely been able to go in my kitchen because I can smell something in there. I didn't know what it was, not a *bad* smell, but a food smell and it just turned my stomach. My early months of pregnancy are an endless quest to eliminate smells - even good-smelling things like shampoo and laundry detergent can turn my stomach into knots.

Anyway, today I was bound and determined to find this smell if I had to tear my kitchen apart, and I finally isolated it to the half-wall between our kitchen and livingroom. A few days ago I lit candles to cover up the smell while I was boiling ribs for supper and I grabbed a lid to put under a tealight just in case the wax leaked out of the tealight. Today, I finally realized that metal lid was causing the problem - it was the lid that smelled! So, especially when the candles were lit, the whole kitchen stunk.

I forced my husband to smell the lid and agree that it was the problem and I'm not insane (well, I am, but it DID smell!!) - it wasn't long before I also solved the Case of the Bad Smell In the Fridge - which was that the bad-smelling lid came from sealer jar where I keep my garlic my double-jarred in the fridge. Because, don't you know that one jar is NOT enough to contain the smell of garlic? So, here you see me eliminating two problems at once - the garlic jar is once again safely contained in a sealer, and the offending lid is no longer stinking up my kitchen. YAY!!!

NEXT: Why does it smell like there's a lawnmower parked in my upstairs bathroom?