whew! what a week! my parents, my sister, her husband and their two boys (my super-cute nephews) arrived last sunday evening and stayed through friday morning. it was a whirlwind of noise, chaos, love, laughter, hugs, tears and it scared my kitties (and possibly my husband) into their hidey-holes. my talented father spent time working on wood-working-type fixing projects around the house (just little things that were stumping mr. happy stuff and me into a state of perpetual procrastination) and my wonderful, gardening-guru of a sister helped whip my yard into shape. i just wish that i had taken a “before” picture so that you could really appreciate what she accomplished. but at least here’s the “after” photo:
before this weekend, the whole side yard pretty much looked like the sorry bit of dirt we call a “yard” that’s currently outside the flower bed. there were some saplings and some weeds and some rocks (95% buried in the ground) that used to be a border, and that was pretty much it. oh, there was also a sad-looking wooden deck chair with no seat cushions that used to hang out under the tree. someone had stuck a broom into the hole where an umbrella should go. it did not “class up” my yard. my clever sister took charge and removed the saplings, the sad chair and the weeds. then, she built a lovely border for free using the stones from the wall behind the flower bed (there’s no mortar) and then took me to the store where we bought some plants. she also moved some plants in from other parts of the yard. it may not look like a whole lot right now, but i have faith that, come spring, it will be fantastic. in the meantime, as mr. happy stuff pointed out, “it looks intentional now” and that’s more than you could have said about this part of our yard for the past 5 years.
i taught my mom how to make “wonky” quilt blocks. she was my sewing teacher when i was growing up, so it seems strange to teach her how to do something, but she’s more likely to sew using patterns and getting seams just right and somewhere along the way, i got lazy and began enjoying (or at least tolerating) my sewing projects slightly askew. and so i taught her how to fly by the seat of her pants and create a denyse-schmidt style potholder (the square kind) out of my scrap bag. maybe she’ll send me a photo i can post. i forgot to get a picture before she left.
we also ate lots of great food. i love when people come to visit–it’s a great excuse to eat at my favorite restaurants.
i got a few cute shots of my nephews too (of course):
check out those blue eyes!
and that mischievous grin….
and i kinda like the funky lighting in that last one.
his momma asked especially for a photo of him sleeping, so here he is, all snuggled up with bear, on top of a crazy quilt made long ago by our great aunt bes.
this little guy’s big brother loves any sport or activity, especially if there is a ball involved. we own a pool table and he would have been happy to play “pool” the entire week if someone would have played with him. (we needed breaks occasionally) since he’s a shorty, we made up some new rules for him. he wasn’t allowed to use a pool cue and he wasn’t allowed to stand on the table (or get his feet on the table). we did give him a step stool that he could push around the table if he wanted to. here’s an early morning photo of him the morning before he left to go home:
i love that he also learned the meaning of the term “scratch” and could use it correctly (as in, he found the white ball in one of the pockets at one point in our game and he declared, around his pacifier, “uh oh! scratch!”
we got a new little video camera, so i tried out a few videos this weekend. recording the videos is easy as pie, but i’m a little frustrated with the downloading/editing/sharing capabilities that i have right now. sighhhh….. so for now, click on the link below to see a (rather long, sorry i couldn’t edit it down) video of my nephew playing pool on his first morning here. i especially love the way he kicks his foot/feet up in the air to get a really good roll on the ball.
One Response to a visit from the family