Flags for Memorial Day! (One from Afghanistan!)

Marty sent this home to his wife (Samantha) from Afghanistan. We're not sure if it flew over his base or not, but it still means a great deal to Marty, and to us! (That's John holding it in the wind at our house last night!)

This is a little cemetery we passed on the way home last night, and the flags were so impressive we had to stop and take these pictures. (The pictures don't show that well--click on one to see it bigger.)

Ben's Graduation party!

Ben is my nephew, and his party was in Des Moines. This is a picture of him with his grandmother (my mom), and Izaac, my niece's son.

Congratulations, Ben!!

The last grandchild (of my mom and dad's grandchildren) graduated from Hoover High School last Tuesday evening.

Ben is on the far right, with his buddies, A.J., Austin, Zach, Jacob.

Noel on her walkabout in the yard.

Well, on May 5th, we had a sunny day! We've had only a couple others that were sunny and nice ALL day!

If you click on the picture above, you can see Noel's left eye (which was surgically removed) has healed nicely. She seems to have a little depth-perception problems sometimes (misses occasionally when she tries to jump too high, etc.).


These are just pictures of our yard/weeds/bushes/volunteer trees that need work!

The yard is even a darker, more lush green, today, and the weed-guy came on his little riding machine and sprayed for dandelions this morning! YEAH!!

Really good friends with 'toys'... Thanks, RON!!!

Yes, the neighbor was 'initiated' into smoothing out the rocks on the driveway, and came just before the thunderstorm hit our area Tuesday afternoon.



Here's Ron working his "bobcat" magic on the driveway (a 25=second video).

Miscellaneous Sunday Spring Pictures!

My neighbor said she'd seen Baltimore Orioles in her yard this spring, and I finally saw one at Little Wall Lake last night. This afternoon, as John and I were sitting on the patio, two Orioles were in the tree above us (it's the first NICE day without wind, etc., in a LONG time!!).

The rock guy came a delivered 15 tons of rocks/road remains, but did a poor job of spreading them on the driveway. Interesting.

View looking north over Little Wall Lake Sunday evening.

View of the clouds building to the north from near my house Sunday evening.

Queen's water fountain???

The cats apparently think we've placed the bird baths on the patio for themselves!

The 'old' lady of our furry bunch, Queen (who will be 12 in August) decided she needed a drink.

Bogie's bird bath??

John put both of the bird baths on the patio since he's finished the new patio fence (and painted the front--but ran out of paint).

The pretty bird bath on the left was a Mother's Day gift from Alex and Allison (definitely brings some class to the patio area!!).

(I told you he ran out of paint!)

Noel 'tries' to be tough!

That's actually the 'twins', George & Gracie trolling for small rodents.

Noel (safe on the inside) acting tough while Grace and Queen on the outside try to attack.

Killdeer baby/momma in our yard!

John took the camera outside and captured some cute pictures of this little killdeer who may have fallen out of his nest.

If you click on the picture, you can see its little face better.

It started running when John approached it (to get a closer picture).

(Ignore the dandelions--the weed guy was only here once last year--and will be back twice this year, thankfully! The clover was entirely gone in one treatment!)

Momma and daddy killdeer were trying to lead the baby back to the nest area (we have no idea where it is) and trying to distract us, too.

(Noel was outside at the time, but uninterested in the baby bird for some reason.)

Can't we just have a little SPRING???

On Tuesday, it was 98 degrees of hot wind here in the country. On Wednesday, it was 85.

Look closely (or click on any picture to see it bigger) and you can see Noel napping on the dash of the van.

On Thursday afternoon (when these pictures were taken) it went from 83 to 58 in a few hours when the storms passed through (mostly north and south of us, but it was a nice show).

It hasn't been above 58 degrees since then!

The "Wealthy" apple trees are blooming, as are the lilacs, finally! The clouds were really impressive behind them, though.

Marty & Sam visiting us yesterday...

Cute picture of Marty and John!

John had started 'the little red truck' a couple weeks after most of the snow vanished, and it started then. Today, it needed a 'pull' from the 'big red truck'.

But I WANT the little red truck! (Sam to Marty...)

John under the truck trying to figure out why it leans to the left.

Marty being funny, as usual.

Izaac's Great-Grandma b.d. party on Sunday

Even though it was Mother's Day on Sunday, we celebrated Izaac's b.d. (He had several parties last week!)

Izaac's new turtle sandbox.

Izaac emptying the gift bag from his grandma Shirley.

Izaac with his b.d. 'cookie' (he prefers them to cake...).

Marty & Samantha at Wrigley today (5/6/11)

A view from the walkway.

The view from their seats!


Yes, I'm jealous...

"Mighty Fine Shindig!"

Alex & Allison behind Marty & Samantha. Those smiles tell the whole story. Gheez- that's a good-looking bunch!!!