I learned a valuable lesson yesterday which I thought I would share. A couple days ago, it was raining hard enough to soak my shoes when I went for my daily walk. The shoes were still wet yesterday so I wore an old pair of shoes. I now have three blisters and a bubble blister on my heel. YOUCH!

Moral of the story...stick with what you know when it comes to health. After running them through the dryer three times, the wet shoes are finally dry and I wore them today. I walked a little further today. The weather was perfect.

The kids have a half day of school today. Luke was excited when he learned he has less than two weeks of school left and then three months off for summer.

Pete and Bree have a Blizzard game tonight.

I planted more flowers today. Usually I have only one planter so all I have to do is worry about watering the one. THis year I have four planters on the ground, and four hanging plants. One side of the house is nothing but weeds so I put two planters there.

Bree and I walked around the house and looked the back part of the yard where there are trees to decide where we want to put a swinging wooden bench. We will make stepping stones leading to the bench.

I need my mom to come and tell me what is a weed and what is not.

The weather today is just right...sunny, a little windy, not to hot or cold.

It was hot today so I am going to talk about summer.

What is your favorite summer memory as a kid?
Picking buttercups for my mom, making forts out of blankets on the picinic table, and walking between the sheets hung on the clothes line.

A worst memory?
Every night as a kid when I went to bed, I could see what looked like a ghost in my parents bedroom door...finally figured out it was my dad's white shirt hanging on the door.

What was your bedroom like as a kid?
I had a comforter set from Penney's with loud pink floral print with matching curtains. I had shutters on my windows. I also had a Bambi painted on one side of the window on the wall and Flower the skunk on the other side.It made me want to grow up to be an artist. I also had a cool headboard that looked like a princess headboard and I had a ton of stuffed animals on it...my favorite was a Snoopy pillow.

Any major health issues as a kid?
I went into the hospital when I was 12 because of a form of anemia...the symptoms were awful...weakness, vomiting and the runs. I also had shots for allergies which never seemed to work.

Ever go on family vacations?
We would always go see my grandparents in Eau Claire and a small town about 25 miles southwest of Eau Claire called Mondovi. Sometimes we went camping on weekends.

Summer chores?
I had to dump the grass from the lawn mower into a bin out in the back yard. The bag was hard to carry because it was heavy and had holes in it. I also did all the trimming back in the days when they only made the hand clippers with out a pole so I had to get on my hands and knees. Picked up the crabapples and had to clean out the rocks around the trees. When we washed the car, my job was to clean the whites on the tires and clean the windows and wash the floor mats.

Payment for chores?
35 cents a week until I lobbied to make the same as my brother because I thought I did more work than he did. (I dried the dishes every night and he only did the garbage twice a week). I did get a raise to 50 cents a week. I also cleaned the basement every Saturday.This involved vacuuming the stairs, cleaning my dad's office, sweeping the gameroom floor and filling the ice cube trays in the fridge behind the bar.

Any other summer memories?
After a BBQ, I was in charge of making popcorn on the grill because I was the only one who would not burn it!

Lawn games?
We played darts, sometimes croquet and badminton.

Favorite summer meal?
Probably shish ka bob.(all steak)

What did you do for Fourth of July?
The neighborhood boys would do a show on our street and then we would walk to the hill where we could see the city fireworks going off at Bay Beach.

Worst thing about summer?
Mosquitoes!

Best thing about summer?
Flowers and butterflies. Swimming. Not having to wear a coat, hat, boots.

What is around now that you wish you had then?
Hmmmm...mp3 player. Cool water sprinklers.

What did you do as a kid your own kids do not do?
I rode my bike a lot to the store or to the pool. I had a cool blue Scwinn bike with a white banana seat. My kids do not like riding bikes. I also liked to roller skate.

flower power

Today my mom took me out to lunch...we both thought the servings sizes were double what they should have been (so was the price). Then we went to Steins and bought flowers. I bought a bunch of purple impatients and potting soil. Usually I only fill the barrel in front of the house with flowers but this year I am going to do two pots on the side of the house and three hanging baskets off the deck. My bleeding hearts are blooming nicely and mom said she looked at my lilac bush (the one I hacked down last summer) and there are blossoms coming so that it is a relief I did not kill it. I did notice I had more trouble seeing the plants at the store than I did when I was there last year but I keep going anyway.

Pete and I went and got some more of dad's papers out of his office. I found checks he wrote in 1966. He has labels for his labels (Christmas, patriotic, etc). He saved every referee rule book from 30 years ago...mint condition but I doubt anyone would want them. Maybe I'll see if I can sell them on ebay. Anyway, the office is almost cleared out.

Luke and I are watching Walle while Pete and Bree are at the Blizzard game. I can't believe I found all the remotes I needes to play the movie (can't believe we found the movie since it was not in its' case). Dad would shudder at our disorganization.

Mother's Day

It was a great Mother's Day. We all went to the Brewer/Cubs game. Even though we lost, in my mind we won. We went with my mom, my brother and his family (Cubs fans), Pete's mom and his brother and sister. All the moms got to be with their kids. I don't know if that has happened for awhile.

I finally felt it was ok to be happy since my dad passed away two weeks ago.