Happy 4th of July to all!!!!

Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and wonderful holiday weekend! Please keep our Armed Forces members in your thoughts and prayers as it is because of them we are able to celebrate freely! Enjoy your family, friends and critters too!

Hello blog friends!

It seems like forever since I have had time to post, and I don't really now but am doing it anyway. What a hectic month this has been for sure. Lately, it is all a blur, literally. The above photo should show a small mountain that is normally visible directly over the large rose bush in my back yard. Well, instead all we have seen for a week now is thick, heavy smoke. Ironically, the fires were in California, but lucky us were caught in the wind currents that sucked it straight into our valley where it stayed. There were times I could not even see the house across the street it was so dense. I have had a raging headache for the last three days and mostly due to the smoke. Even the air filters in the air conditioner can't keep up. Today is finally clearing up, but unfortunately they are now forcasting thunderstorms which in this area only means dry lightening to start more fires! Not what we need. It is going to be a long hard summer at this rate.

On a better note, there is some signs of life in the garden which always makes me smile. The lilies are starting to bloom, my roses are trying to win the aphid war and blooming, the clematis is taking off. Unfortunately my peonies are finished, sob, they are my absolute favorite and so short lived. My radishes are also finished as the heat is on and they have gone to tops now. The tomatoes are still sleepy little stubs, but I am hoping they will take off soon.
Another lousy photo, but this is my favorite lantana that makes a riot of beautiful blooms and colors in my hanging planter. If you look closely you will see the Charlotte's web nestled in the chains. I hope they eat some of the darn bugs that seem to be winning my plant war!

Prince Charming is off again on an adventure to see his Mother for her 85th birthday. Plus install a new washer/dryer, finish the drywall in her bedroom, hang new ceiling fixtures, and who knows what else before he is able to come home. Poor guy is running himself ragged trying to be there and here. We are still trying to adjust his new cardiac medications, but we are in a bit of a hold pattern right now for his heart to try and adjust. Now he has bronchitis on top of it all! We also learned this week his brother has been diagnosed with bladder cancer, his uncle suffered a large stroke, and his cousin spent a week in the hospital with strange liver problems they have yet to resolve. Think good thoughts as when it rains it pours around here.

Princess is finally a high school graduate!!!!! I have never been so happy to be finished with anything in my life. Public school now just sucks. Sorry, folks, I have a family full of educators and they agree too. How she learned anything is beyond me. She is now trying hard to secure a full time job with benefits so she can move to an apartment with her finance. Slim pickins these days, but she had a promising interview with a print company this week so hopefully will have good news next week. I just hope they aren't jumping into something they can't afford with these tough times. Guess they have to try though like we all did. I will miss her terribly, but it may be a nice change to focus on my husband and my life for a change.

Wedding plans are kind of slow now as we have had too many other things to do. Have to get in gear and get invitations made, favors made, flower arrangements made, new deck where the pool hole currently is, figure out where to get chairs, hotel arrangements...........................you know. GGRRRR!!! Oh well, guess it gets done or it doesn't.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Work has been pure hell this week with end of month, so I am off for a tall Jack and Coke and a long, hot (well warmish) bath, and curl up in the air conditioning with a good movie!

Where do we get more hours for the day?

If someone knows the answer, please send it to me as soon as possible! Seems every time I think I will catch up I am farther behind. So much is going on at the same time it seems I don't have a second to myself. Makes me cranky and sad at the same time.

Will write more later with details, but a quick rundown includes helping hubby recouperate after minor surgery, getting the Princess thru the last month of school, graduation, company including my son for two whole days, SWAMPED at work, revamping the entire yard and garden, assembling variety of wedding invitations, buying decorations, tearing out the pool to make a platform/dance floor, trying to save my poor plants from massive aphid attack, hosting graduation party, moving and removing household full of furniture etc to get Princess ready to move to a apartment, fighting off a cold that I do not have time for right now. That is just the high points, seems rather lame now that I look at it. Oh well, just a slug I guess.

I do have a few rose blooms now, iris are almost done for since hubby buried most during the yard mess, scotch broom about done, columbine have taken over, apple trees are showing small apples, rhubarb crisp in the oven, and yes I HAVE A PEONY READY TO OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Afraid to look at it for fear it will disappear and crush me. Beans have froze once, everything kind of in a hold pattern with crazy weather. Wisteria has a few blooms in spite of it all.

Everythings going to come up-at least I hope so

I wanted to share what I finally got around to planting from my recent QVC purchases. The pictures aren't cooperating today, so some wouldn't load and some are a bit off. Anyway, first up are the peonies I got and I so hope they manage to survive. They rank right up there with my very favorite flowers. Too bad they only bloom such a short time, I could really have them around me every day.

Next is an indoor plant called a Totem Pole. Weirdest plant I have ever seen. They send you the bare trunk which has had the ends dipped in wax. You scrape off one end and soak for several weeks, and theory is you get a plant like this. Only time will tell if I can master this one!

Now comes one of 4 subzero roses I got. This is out of order, but oh well. The fourth one wouldn't upload and is a beautiful pink!

These are gloriosa lilies that climb. I had them a couple years ago and they didn't really do well, but we had crazy weather so wanted to try again. Can't wait to see what happens, although a couple of them arrived with mold and one was kind of mushy. Send an email to see if I can get a replacement for that one.

Here are 2 more of the rose collection. I had to put them all in pots as still have to haul more fill dirt to complete the front yard and couldn't wait any longer to get these babies planted. I will transplant them eventually as the yard gets done.

So, now all I need is some nice weather to get these babies growing! Our area has been hit with over 100 earthquakes in less than 24 hours! Lucky for me I only felt 5 and no damage although I thought a lot of stuff was coming off shelves with the first couple. How anyone can live where there are big ones is beyond me! Weird stuff.

Prince Charming is still with his mom, and the whole family has been hit with the serious flu bug. He is now too sick to drive home so staying a couple more days. Poor baby! I'll never finish my "honey-do" projects at this rate.

I have TONS of work to finish this weekend, so no fun for me. Hope everyone has a great weekend with nice weather.

TGIF

Oh my, what a exhausting week! My business trip yesterday was rather non-productive and totally wore me out. Guess I'm getting too old for these 20 hour days. To top it all off, the crazy man on the plane next to me dropped his rolling suitcase on my toe. Didn't hurt too bad at the time (by then my feet were so sore from walking and standing all day they just hurt all over), but this morning I woke up to find my little toe is huge and turning rather unattractive shades of purple and black. I don't believe my luck most of the time.

The Princess did very well in the competition considering the chaos. She came in 6th place from about 40 people in her division. Not too shabby considering it wasn't even the skills she practiced or knew anything about for that matter. None of the students who were chosen for the cooking and baking competitions even came close to the top ten finishers. Her teacher is now groveling what a huge mistake she made by not putting Princess in the cooking portion like they had discussed. Especially when they were allowed to taste all of the students dishes from her school and Princess was able to tell them all what they had done wrong and right with the recipes before the teacher even had a chance to do it. Makes me so proud! She is even now considering a college degree for culinary from this experience. Pretty funny from the girl who turned up her nose at me last week for serving my best friends birthday dinner of hot dogs (hey, that's what the gal wanted-go figure) on my fine china with candles and the whole nine yards!

I also arrived home late to find two smashed boxes that said, "Live perishable plants enclosed" on my step. I had ordered peonies and roses (among other things) from QVC, and they were sitting on the porch. Now, they need to be planted and of course the weather this weekend is doomed to wind and cold. I seriously need spring here now!

Competition continues

Well, the Princess is off to the official day of skills competition. Instead of competing for all the things we actually practiced, they have now placed her in the food and beverage service contest. All our slicing, dicing, recipe creating, blood, sweat, and tears was for nothing!!! Now she has to be judged on serving a formal dinner to a group including table set up, proper utensils, serving, plate clearing, order taking, proper wine glass selections, and menu memorization. This should be interesting to say the least. This kid counts Dixie cups and paper plates as her friends as they don't require her to wash them! Oh, and did I mention fancy napkin folding too?
Yesterday she was "forced" (meaning the teacher was counting on her and she didn't WANT to do it) participate in the Quiz Bowl competition. Basically glorified "Who wants to be a millionaire" deal with a group of students competing against another group. Whoever buzzed in with the right answer first won the point. Well, apparently her team was winning until two kids on her team buzzed in with wrong answers to two questions so they came in last. Ironically the two questions were concerning geometry and spelling which are not even close to the top of her mastery of subjects. Anyone know what a direct line through the center of a circle is? The other was spell "chronological". One she got that not a single other person even attempted was What is the top selling cosmetic product purchased by teenage girls?
So, should be another interesting story to hear about the day today. Tomorrow is the award ceremony, but unfortunately I have to fly out of town on business so I won't be able to attend. Sometimes being the adult here really sucks!

Exciting week

Wow, what a jam packed week our house is going to have. Princess is entered in a state wide cooking competition that begins tomorrow and goes thru Thursday. We have been slicing, dicing, tourning, sauting, braising, deboning, baking, saucing, and otherwise wrecking my tiny kitchen for the last week in preparation. Unfortunately, this competition is geared toward students with several years experience in high school cooking classes. Princess is only half way thru her second semester and is going to go against kids ready to head to Chef school! Some days I would give anything to turn public education in America on its damn head. Her food class hasn't even cooked a complete meal, and here she goes to not only demonstrate skill, but be required to tweak a recipe to make "comfort food" ready for a table at a fine dining establishment. Good grief!
Lucky for her I raised her with a no fear attitude to go out and try anything. Let's just hope she comes home with her dignity and 10 fingers still intact. The girl can cook, but when it comes to gourmet meals, deboning a chicken, or fancy shaped veggies, look out.
We ain't in Kansas anymore Toto, we have done arrived in the Land of Oz! If that isn't bad enough, the damn teacher made her an alternate for the food service comp and the baking one too! How much more pressure can a girl take I ask you!? She has only baked one cake in her life, and has great difficulty frosting a Christmas cookie let alone a cake. Her brother and I took a cake decorating class many years ago, but she was too young and never did care to learn. They ask her to create a butter cream rose she may just have a royal fit!
Now, to make matters even worse, I won't be there to offer moral support in the audience. For the first time in her 18 years, she is going to have to go it alone. Gotta work and support this whole mess and can't take 3 days off to sit and hold my breath for this deal. So, what does the Princess do? Plays the guilt card, the big guilt card. So, I officially suck this week. Not only did I not teach her from birth how to create gourmet cuisine, I won't even go to watch the biggest competition of her life. That's right. I suck. Just go for the jugular with the damn Chef knife already and get it over with will ya?
Off to eat the second pan of apple bread pudding with cream anglaise..............good eats!