Aurora's Blog

Storm number 7 since 3pm is rolling in. This is beginning to get really old. No sooner does one leave, and I get the dogs outside, the next one hits.

At least we're getting lots of rain LOL!

We never did get any rain yesterday. It sure looked like it was going to though- really dark clouds, and the wind picked up, and then nothing. The kids actually got much better as the day progressed, thankfully :)

This morning we went to my parents to go swimming. I took over some of my tomatoes. Had a very enjoyable couple of hours swimming, then it was back to their apartment for lunch. They had stopped at a farmer's market in the morning and bought corn and cucumbers. Lunch was corn on the cob, and tomato and cucumber sandwiches. YUMMY!!

We got back home about 30 minutes ahead of a severe thunderstorm. Boy did it move slow, we had horrible rain and wind and lightening for an hour! Went out after it was gone to survey the garden- no damage. Managed to gather about 15 seeds from my Four O'Clocks before the next storm got here. Still is here, raining like crazy. We're under a flood watch until tomorrow morning, with a severe thunderstorm watch until 8pm. We're getting the storms and rain we didn't get yesterday and then some! The storms are just lined up- gonna be a long night. Don't think we'll be going to play with the neighbor this evening.

Well, my coffee's done brewing and I have to go start dinner (first I have to figure out what we're going to have LOL!) Then I think I'll make chocolate chip cookies with the kids.

Have fun gardening :)

Boy is it a hot one! At 9am it was already 93 degrees! We are currently at 95 with a heat index of 103. Needless to say we are under a heat advisory, and also a Severe thunderstorm watch until 4. Can anyone say miserable? LOL!

The kids are driving me insane! Constant fighting, whining, and Logan has gotten into talking back. Factor in it's too hot for them to play outside ARRGGHHH!

Watered last night- drained the rain barrel watering just 2 beds. Also managed to clog up my spray nozzle. *sigh* I really hope we get some rain from the storms we are supposed to get, I just don't want the severe damaging part!

Have to think of something to keep the kids occupied and out of trouble today.

Until later. Have fun gardening :)

Spent the evening last night collecting Four O'Clock seeds. Also found another wonderful surprise- the red daylilly that I thought was gone forever after the backhoe was blooming. It is now hidden back behind a bunch of orange daylillies, so I am going to move it this fall to a much more visible spot. Wish I had the camera, but Steve took it with him to Japan.

It's gonna be a hot week, today high in the mid-90's, tomorrow about 100! I think I'll get completely caught up on the housework LOL!

Tomorrow we're going to go over to my parent's place for swimming and dinner. I'll be bringing a bunch of tomatoes with us.

Well, I have to go hit the grocery store. Until later

Have fun gardening :)

Yesterday evening I decided I had enough of the algael science experiment in the pool- drained the whole thing, cleaned it with the kids help, and am now refilling it. It was so bad that even with only 6 inches of water you still couldn't see the bottom!! YUCK! I have no idea what caused it to be so bad- I keep it chlorinated, and was putting in algeacide....

Steve got to Japan just fine- Poor guy spending an entire day in an airplane.

Kids are out playing in the now clean pool. It is humid as all get out- I was standing talking to my neighbor and I felt like I had been in the pool too! I think I'll spend today cleaning up the house in the nice AC...

Have fun gardening :)

Woke up bright and early (for me anyway LOL) to take Steve to the airport. He's off to Japan and Guam for a week on business. Just me and the kids. Wonder who won't be here at the end of  week LOL! I'm all screwed up now because I got the errands done on the way home from the airport, and now have nothing to do and it's only 10 am!

Last evening Steve and the kids got into a huge water gun fight with the hose and Steve's water launcher. They all looked like they had jumped into the pool with their clothes on. What a riot. Of course they just had to come into the house to re-fill, so now I have grass clippings and dirt all over the floors- at least they are washable :)

Spent another nice afternoon yesterday with the neighbor's and their kids. At one point the 3 moms were on Melinda's front porch talking while all the kids (5) were in Christa's house playing with no one there. Amazing that they were good....

Megan's arm is healing great after being hooked. She didn't complain about it hurting even once yesterday!

Well, I better go find something to keep me and the kids occupied today, without spending any money. Maybe we can give the smelly dogs a bath....

Have fun gardening :)

Let me start by saying that I wasn't planning on a blog entry today because I didn't do anything at all worthy of writing about.

Then we went fishing...

The kids were bouncing off the walls this evening, so I decided I would take them fishing at the river. Now that's a few blocks away so we rode bikes, with me carrying the fishing poles and tackle box along with riding my bike. Had an enjoyable time not catching anything, and watching a pair of what I believe to be Kestrels flying around (makes me wish I had brought the camera too).

The trouble began on the ride home. Megan is not so good at riding her bike in a straight line. I am still getting used to my new bike, which is a little tall for me. Plus I was also carrying all the fishing gear. Right after we got across the only dangerous intersection Megan drifted toward me. In so doing she ran into the fishing poles that I was holding across the handlebars. Yep, you guessed it, she got a hook embedded into the underside of her arm right above the elbow.

We are in the middle of the road just on the other side of the intersection, she's screaming bloody murder, and I'm whipped around because I just caught my daughter! I stood in the middle of the road for about 2 mins trying to get the hook out of her arm- no luck as it was one of the new hooks that I had NOT de-barbed yet. I try calling steve who was 2 blocks away at a meeting and of course he doesn't pick up his phone. Right then a nice neighbor came over to see what was wrong and helped me get the bikes, children, and fishing gear to the front yard (which was only 25 yards away). Got everyone into the car to get to the ER (actually Patient's First, which is sort of like an ER for those without life-threatening injuries). Stop at the meeting to run in and get Steve and off we went. I am sure we are the talk of the neighborhood tonight after the way I ran in telling him that Megan has a fishook embedded in her arm and we have to go LOL

Poor Meg- she's going through all of this with a fish hook attached to a large yellow lure with jangly things attached to that embedded in her arm. Every single nurse just had to come take a look at her. The doctor was wonderful, she numbed up her arm, removed the jangly thing and cut off the lure. Then used a pair of Craftsman pliers and wire cutters to remove the hook. Cleaned the whole thing really well with Betadine and hydrogen peroxide and put a giant Band-Aide on.  She also faxed the prescription for antibiotics ahead too (considering that the hook was in the Elizabeth River that's a good thing) Said it was her 10th hook in the past month.

After that whole ordeal it was off to Sonic for the kids to get some much deserved milkshakes and me dinner (it was 9:30 at this point. Finally pick up the antibiotics after having to endure 2 bridgelifts (another story) and here I am writing the story of the evening I caught my Megan :)

Had a wonderful afternoon visiting with the neighbor while the kids played in the pool. We could talk for 2 days straight it seems. I am so happy that a developer decided to buy and build on all the empty lots back here. Before last August there were no children under the age of 12, now there are at least 10 ages 4-10! Not to mention people you actually want to talk to! The existing residents were not very sociable, if you catch my drift LOL!

Didn't really do much else today. The Civic League has a meeting tomorrow evening. This may be interesting as one neighbor doesn't like the fact that her new next door neighbor has their camper parked in their back yard. We do NOT have a homeowner's association with all the attached "No, you can't...." rules, so she really has no "right" to make them remove it.

Enough gossiping- I have to get the kids in bed.

Have fun gardening :)

I was lazy today!  Another day where I managed to be "busy" without doing a thing LOL!

The kids went over to a friend's house for a little while. While they were gone I took more cuttings of my brugmansia- the little stems that I know won't bloom. Seems like about the time I was done with that, they were back with their friend with them. I really like her, but she can be a little whiney. And she's afraid of the dogs and cats. Not a big deal as I am more than happy to put Marley in her crate and Ziggy and the cats in my bedroom. The problem comes when Marley barks- she freaks out. It can get a little annoying at times.

The kiddos have a playdate tomorrow to go swimming with another friend in the afternoon. I am really looking forward to it as his mom and I are great friends, and despite living a block away we don't get to spend time together that often. Hopefully I'll be able to get her fabric and start on her curtains soon.

Tomorrow's playdate was just the motivation I needed to get the kids to clean up the playroom. I think I'll be able to actually vacuum in there tomorrow! First time I have been able to see the floor in a week!

Until tomorrow- Have fun gardening :)

As per Bill's request, I have posted some pics of us autocrossing, and some general pics of our Porsche, whom I have affectionately named Adelle, into my album :)

Me waiting my turn at my first Autocross:

More photos in my album :)

On Saturday I gave the one wisteria a pretty big haircut. It was beginning to grow too close to the house, plus all that new growth was shading my Cardinal flower too much. The end product looks really nice.

The Cardinal flower is beginning to get flower buds- I can't wait until it blooms. The Tithonias are beginning to bllom too. Such pretty, happy looking flowers :) My bell peppers are finally growing some peppers woohoo! Gathered lots more parsley seed too. My butterfly bush is looking pretty awful. I may end up pulling it out and replacing it with a new one.

Yesterday was spent racing the Porsche. I was pretty happy with my results- I was faster than many novices and even some experienced drivers. Also, I didn't go off-course once, usually I do that at least once LOL! I was about 4 seconds behind hubby though- I just couldn't seem to catch up to him... For some reason I was having trouble with the one slalom (sp?) I just couldn't get through it without hitting cones, or I was way too slow. First time I ever had trouble like that.  Oh well, maybe next time :)

I got some great deals today at the nearest nursery :) I bought the passion flower vine- it's a tropical in a 10" pot and must be 3 ft tall- for $17!! I also got a large container tomato plant with about 15 tomatoes on it for $5!!

Unfortunately the Elephant Ear I had my eye on yesterday was sold- it was the only one :( I also passed on the caladiums. I just don't want to have to deal with a plant I have to store for the winter LOL!

We then went to Wally World. Had to get a new lawn-mower battery. I'm just tired of having to recharge it everytime I want to mow the grass- usually my motivation to mow is gone by the time it's charged LOL.

Steve dropped me with the bombshell that he's probably going to be going to Japan for a week next weekend, and that he'll need to go to Bahrain too *sigh* It wouldn't be too bad if he got paid OVERTIME for these trips, but instead he get's "Comp" time. He needs more leave like he needs his arm cut off- he already has 2 months worth!

Off to take a nap while hubby and kids are out roller-blading

Have fun gardening :)

Went to Lowe's today. Absolutely none of their plants were on sale.  So after buying the toilet do-hicky I went there for, I decided to head to one my local nurseries...

They have stuff on sale!!!  50% off of Passionflower vines (large vine for $15!!), a HUGE elephant ear, caladiums for $1.99/ea. Large tubs of geraniums $4.99/ea, the list goes on! I will definitely be going back tomorrow, payday, to buy some stuff :)

Maybe I'll head out to my other fave nursery too...

Discovered another 8 tomatoes hiding among the leaves, and 4 jalepenos!  Now if only the bell peppers would actually grow some peppers LOL!

Have fun gardening :)

Last evening while sitting outside, I saw the vanguard flyer of the soon to be squadrons of the large dragonflies that patrol my yard and the neighbors' hunting mosquitos and other small insects. They are so much fun to watch. Amazing that an insect that is about 6 inches long with a wingspan even larger can fly so fast and be so graceful.

This evening I watched a bat join the as yet lone dragonfly on patrol. I am always happy to see the bats out feeding and love to watchthem flit around too.

 Happy hunting to you both, I appreciate the dent you make in the mosquito population :)

Thanks to an evening thunderstorm I was able to make a huge dent on the bermuda grass in the daylilly bed, in addition to all the other beds I weeded earlier in the day. Since the ground is so moist many of the roots just slid right out making it so much easier. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to work clearing out the weeds to prepare the new beds....

I must say, that storm was pretty impressive to watch come in. The western sky turned such a dark, ominous gray. Then the wind picked up!!! It was blowing dirt and grit and all sorts of other stuff all over. At first I thought it was a tornado and was about to yell for the kids to get in the bathroom (we don't have a basement). Other than that, the storm wasn't bad at all and we received a nice steady rain for about an hour.  Needless to say, I didn't get the mowing done because it was raining pretty hard when Steve got home. Tomorrow it will really need it!

Yesterday Steve was able to fix the power out back!!!! Apparently whatever caused the GFCI outlet to trip also destroyed it. Thankfully we have a few of those laying around from when we built the addition so it was a simple matter of him replacing it with the new one. Now the pool filter is working, and so is my fountain.

My parents came over for dinner last evening. We had a wonderful time.

Today the in-laws left. I'm always sad after they go- we get along great and they are such a big help around the house.

We're under a Severe Thunderstorm watch until 9pm. I hope we get the rain since I planted some of the datura seed I traded for. Kept the majority of it until next spring. I also got caught up on the weeding, thankfully there wasn't much- only took 2 hours to weed all 10 of my beds. I still really need to mow the grass. After 3 days of rain it has really grown LOL! That will have to wait until Steve gets home from work though.