Tempus Fugit
Those benches are not going to take pictures of themselves. Time flies. It’s late. I better get on home. It’s late. I been gone too long. It’s late. I need to stop typing song lyrics and get the kids up. I am an hour behind in my “schedule”. Time to make the boy mad! There’s another bench below. Last year was “Music”. I think this years theme is “Fairytales” or “Fairytale Stories”. We did a preview/drive-by yesterday. It’s hot out there too already. And feels humid. I predict a lot of complaining in my near future. Oh FYI, I switched to Latin. It’s my favorite language. Valē! See you later!
Fleur Deux
Back from CPR. All renewed. Certified to save lives. Went to a late lunch with the kids. Bought a few groceries to make a dinner, but we’re all to full to eat anything else. Went to buy bird seed but they rearranged the Menard’s by our house and we couldn’t find any. Came home. Put cozy clothes on. Kids are lounging. The girl finished all of her thank you notes from the party last weekend-ago. 11 days. Not too bad. Will mail in the AM. Laundry is laundering. Will finish the extra chores tomorrow. That will be the last day off for me before the kids leave to go to Kentucky like they do every year for the Fourth of July. My number one thing to do tomorrow is…dunt dunt dunt….The Benches!!
My son hates hates HATES doing this yearly walkabout. Hates it. Hates it. I could never type it enough. But I make him go because I am creating memories. This is what I am talking about:
The Village of Tinley Park decorates park benches every year with a different theme then places them out on a main road in front of the businesses for all the people to see. We go every year and take pictures of them. We go every year. We walk. And take pictures. It was a free, and what I thought was a fun thing to do, with the kids when we were very poor. It’s still free. But now we get ice cream or some food after we walk. Even so, my son hates it. Hates doing it. Hates walking. Hates stopping to take pictures. He complained almost the entire time we were out last year. And I do mean, literally, complained and pissed and moaned for the ENTIRE time it took to walk up and down that main street. My daughter just goes along. And it’s only one time. When we are done, we’re done. It’s not like I go see them every week. Such hard lives. Lots of people walk the area to see them. It’s not like I am the only one, dragging listless, whiny, crying near-adult-teenagers along behind me. Anyway, these (above and below) are from last year:
It’s nice right? And HA! I just double-extra-bonus posted. Flowers/Nature AND The Benches. (They have their own category to the right there. Just click on “Big Benches” or here, and you can see all the different ones throughout the years.) It is additional credibility for my argument to continue our fine tradition, these pictures, posted online, for everyone to see and enjoy. In case you can’t get out or live too far away. It’s a public service we are providing. Now my kids can’t say that I, “never put them on the site anyway, mom, so what’s the point??” Ca c’est fin. That’s the end. Later.
Day Off (Yesterday) With The Kids
Imagine how many pictures I can take of nature type things. Now multiply by 2. My daughter and me taking pictures all day?? Oh yea. There’s a lot. A. LOT. Just waiting for their moment to shine via the internet. Plus storm debris from the nasty little burst we had roll through here yesterday at exactly 6pm. Gotta go to work right now though. I mean, I have to work some of these days or the BF is going to kill me. And I will be off again for the next 2. (Sorry honey–I’ll call in a bit to explain!! Don’t be mad!!) But, I have to do CPR Re-Cert, so it’s still like work. That’s a lot of italics in a short post. I better go. More later.
Daisy.
Full photo cred to Stevie. This is one quick post. Mostly for my cousins. They tell me that I never take enough pictures of flowers. Or the sky. Or the clouds. Or the moon. Guess what? I have all those and more! Let me just go to work today and I will post more on Sunday and Monday. Later!
Just One More Day…
We always want one more day. I wish I could win the lottery. I wish I was independently wealthy. I wish I had a rich uncle who left me a boatload of cash. I wish I was a housewife. Well, maybe not that last one. But we do always want just one more day off from work and life right? To go fishing and have long lunches. Today is Friday. Back to work for me. The BF is on his way home. The kids are now fully entrenched in The Walking Dead. The TV show. The girl just started watching it. The boy has been watching it. But now he’s watching it again with her. She is staying up late and having nightmares, but she won’t stop. She is stomping around the house, yelling at the TV when things are getting tense during an episode, but she won’t stop. My boy has to keep calling her back into the room so she doesn’t miss the next thing that is going to make her mad. She loves Daryll. She hates Rick. She hates Shane. But not really. She just doesn’t like them. But she loves loves loves Daryll. And Glen. And the blonde. It’s complicated. Apparently. I will say this show does inspire strong feelings. At least I know they will be fine when I leave. I think she is only at season 2. Plenty to keep them busy with. I have been up for a few hours and let me tell you, I think I got more done just this morning than I got done in the 2 days I was actually off. Why does it always work that way for me? Too much time and I do nothing. Not enough and I have it almost all done. Grass watered. Flowers revived (hopefully). Laundry nearly finished. That’s the surprising one. House is clean and I need to hop into the shower asap. At least I know that my house will stay clean because the kids probably won’t move now for the next 10 hours.
Alright. Let me wrap this up. I really got to go. I hope it rains just a little. My outdoor stuff needs that good rainwater. First day of summer. Do something fun. Here’s another pic from the fishing hole. FYI. We didn’t catch one darn fish. And, these are Stevie’s photos. All credit goes to her. Later.
Hey. At Least It’s Not A Flower.
Look at that. Stevie took those picture perfect mushrooms (?) toadstools (?) fungi (!) in the backyard at her grandpa’s house. Nice huh? They look like they should be in the deep woods or something instead of the middle of suburbia. Makes my fungi look so sad. Mine were taken off of the tree that was cut down last year and left to lay on the ground. These grew out of the stump:
I had some ground mushrooms that I took pictures of after it rained last week, but they are pathetic comparatively and not even worth your viewing time here. Believe me, I didn’t get down on the ground and really get in there, to capture their earthy essence, so they just look like brown spots in the tall grass that kind of-sort of look like mushrooms. You can see a domed cap and that’s about it. I think I am sensing a new feature, or at least a new tag and category. Mushrooms. I’m going to keep it simple. Also, FYI, full photo creds need to be given to Stevie for the picture of the white flowers in the next post. She reminded me, and wanted me to be sure and point out that she is the one who took the picture. NOT me. She took the white flower pic. She took the tall, yellow mushroom pic. I have to go to work. Later.
Pictures.
I wanted the sunset. I got 50 pictures of the same 2 girls standing in front of the sunset. Or kneeling in a field. Or standing or bending or posing in some way. I totally want to do one of those multiple-picture-boxes-in-one type things, so you can see that I am not exaggerating. But according to Stevie, I don’t have the app or the time to get this together in the next 20 minutes. Bummer. I will work on that. I could probably save a lot of time posting all the pictures at one time in one big picture. And FYI, that’s the underwater pictures I have. A collage type shot. Still coming. Not forgotten. Then you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, these two are my favorites, one above, one below.
And then I threw in the only, single, un-peopled picture of the sunset taken.
And after talking to some of my cousins at the party, they requested that I post MORE flower pictures. I guess they really love them. So I will get on that for you guys! There is an entire summer of blooming beauties to be found! Thanks for all the feedback and creative input! I have to get in the shower and get out of here. But here is a shot of the flowers in front of my house to keep you busy with until I get back. Love you guys. XO. Later.
And Now For The Really Important Postings! All About Stevie!
The party on Saturday was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came out (and reads this) and represented for the family. The party was at her dad’s house, which is way out South in the cornfields of Illinois. As is illustrated by the graduation girl and the 25 pictures she took of herself in said cornfields. It was a hike for some, so the extra effort was appreciated. The rain held off out there it seems, or it was just like, forget it, we ARE not going that far down 57, because it was torrential as we were driving north at 11:30 that night. It stopped once we got near home, and it’s all good for the sod. The sod. The sod. All we can concentrate on is that grass and keeping it alive everyday. But I digress. Here is the cake:
And here’s the girl. She doesn’t like this picture, but it is the only one I have of her actually doing a party thing. So I will bury it at the bottom of this cake post. The rest of the pics are all of her in the corn and against the sunset with her cousin. I will give those the next headline post (actually above this one because that’s how they fall unless I backward time them and I’m just not) so she can look at herself if she wants to for the rest of the day when I go to work.
Stevie #8. But I’m Going To Stop Numbering These Now To Save Brain Power.
Four Leaf Clover! Looking a bit mangled up here because she had already been carrying it around for awhile after she picked it. Then we had to photograph it. Then she made her wish and let it go into the wind. Or at least into the backyard grass somewhere. I don’t know what the wish was because, you know, you can’t tell anyone or it won’t come true. I told her to be smart though. (Yes, I gave practical, helpful, “wishing” advice.) Don’t wish for something stupid like a billion dollars, because that would never come true. Don’t be greedy. Wish for good health or happiness or something like that. You make your own luck. But it can’t hurt to enlist the help of a random weed in the garden every now and then. Later.
Stevie #7 Mosquito Attack!
The white flower with purple veins. I asked her to go take another picture but with my phone and she said NO.
MOM! You don’t even know how long it took to get that picture! Like, 20 shots and then she was getting attacked by bugs and mosquitoes the whole time. BUT she persevered. And now you may enjoy the fruits of all her hard labor. This was also right before the big storm. And it was a big storm actually. We didn’t lose power (although it did its best to flicker and threaten) and we did not flood (although that water was rising and pooling dangerously close to the top of our foundation), but it was windy and the sky was green and the rain poured down from every direction. We also had hail chips at one point. Not balls. These were shaped like small potato chips. Stevie said they looked like small icy flowers. Because of course she kept running outside to make sure it was still “really” raining. She’s a free spirit. Dancing in the rain. She called it “temperature control”. I don’t know.
Anyway, I have some various pictures to put up later, but it’s a work day. Awww. Major sad face. So I have to shower blah blah and go. On a plus note, the village people (haha) are here laying the sod. It’s actually just one guy. And according to Stevie, he’s cute! So far it looks good. Nice and dark green without weeds in it. Apparently it has to be watered. A lot. I know the BF will be all over that this weekend, so that’s one less thing I have to. Also, more are storms a’ comin’ I hear. Free water!! I hope work is fast and quiet as I always do. I am off tomorrow and the weekend so I can really get some pictures and words up here. I mean, if you have to stay inside anyway, spend the time with me. You can’t go out or you’ll get electrocuted! We had real reports of lightening strikes and tornadoes last night so it’s best if you just curl up with the internet and call it an evening.
FYI follow up note: The sod guy was cute. Too bad I am in the invisible stage of my attractiveness/attention portion of life. Too old for the young hotties and too young for the old settlers. Although in this day and age I am too young all around. Those old guys are always going for the young ones too. Gotta go for real now. Time waits for no man. Plus the oven timer is beeping me off. Later.
just shy of pretty 