BLUE RIBBON ZUCCHINI BABY!

would you look at this thing? no, this picture doesn't really do it justice. let's see...

yep. check that sucker out. hallie took to rocking it like a baby.

and burping it.

all the while sporting some serious post-bath-didn't-dried-before-she-brushed-it hair.

this thing is a beast. a beast, i say! i can't decide what to do with it. bread? relish? fritters?

maybe put it to sleep with a bottle and a pat on the rump?

I GET FRIDAYS OFF AND WE EAT FOOD ON THE PORCH.

like literally, on the porch.

i'm serious.

we get fridays off in the summer and it has saved my soul.

there is nothing better than waking up on saturday and realizing you still have two full days of weekend. i'm grateful that TPTB recognized what a beautiful thing that is and lets us do it summer after summer.

i am so tired this morning i can barely type. my goal was to put more words and less pictures or whatever today and that won't happen unless i keep rambling.

sarah, i know you're reading and you must know that i miss you terribly. will you come for a visit? because i don't think i can come to chicago now (sad face). don't hate me.

coffee.

MAH GARDEN. YEAH BUDDY.

sweet corn, zucchini, cucumber, basil and a beast of a sunflower.



zucchini (with a blossom!)



Cukes!

my teeny tomatoes. remind me next year to buy them bigger. i bought the smallest and won't have tomatoes until sometime next year.



lettuce! romaine! remind me to plant lettuce every summer for the rest of my life. also, who needs lettuce?



again, the beast. hallie brought home a planted seed from kindergarten and this is what is has become. holy smokes.

it was a slooooow start for my garden this year. i planted late and the soil was already so warm, so things like my FOUR ROWS OF SPINACH never even came up. my tomatoes took forever to grow, my bell peppers are still...working on it. and last minute i decided to plant sweet corn.

but things are finally, FINALLY looking good. except for my strawberries, and what is up with that? i think i am going to transplant them back into rows (they are currently willy nilly) to make for easier weeding and also will straw the crap out of them this winter.

note for next year: lettuce, yes. plant spinach early. sweet corn, yes. peppers, no. tomatoes, cherry only and buy bigger plants. zukes and cukes, yes.

KERI VS WILDLIFE. AGAIN.

we found a snake in dave's truck.

and then hacked it to bits.

did you know that dave is terrified of snakes?

like, screams like a little girl, terrified.

and i hate them too. so it was pretty funny when we were dragging the seed bags out...one by one, one by one, waiting for this tiny snake to pop out. and at one point a walnut fell from the tree above the truck and made a loud BANG noise. and we both flipped out. it was hysterical in only-funny-after-the-fact sort of way.

KERI VS. WILDLIFE

keri vs the snake

dangit - forgot to take a picture.

i saw a snake slithering across our lane on saturday. so naturally i gunned it and managed to run it over. score! i sped to the house, yelled for hallie to get her shoes on so we could take a look. my mom grabbed henry in the stroller and we ran down to look at the dying snake. EXCITING.

it was writhing around and made me really sad to watch, so mom grabbed the hoe and hacked it in little pieces and flung it on the side of the road. SO GROSS.

score: keri 1, wildlife 0

keri vs the raccoon

i managed to shut a raccoon in our garage. don't ask me how - when i went to shut the garage doors at 7:30pm, i swear it wasn't in there. i heard banging and clanging around 9pm and when i opened the door there it was. and there it went. underneath dave's lawn mower in the corner of the garage AND I COULD NOT GET IT OUT.

at one point i was ready to throw in the towel. there's only so many times you can poke it with a fishing pole, the handle of the garden hoe (that hoe saw a lot of action this weekend!) and a baseball bat. and yet, it remained. under the lawn mower. not. cool.

i even tried to start the mower to move it and let me tell you what - have you ever tried to start a lawn mower knowing that there is a wild animal with possible diseases right underneath you? (probably not) my skin was crawling and my hair was standing on end. luckily it wouldn't start because oh my gosh can you imagine?

finally, at some point, i couldn't see it anymore. whew! it managed to escape. great.

score: keri 2, wildlife 0

WAIT A MINUTE. NOT SO FAST.

let's fast forward not to 1:40am. something is scratching at the door from the garage, like it's trying to turn the door handle. what the HECK? but i knew. RACCOOOOOOON.

sure enough, i crack open the door and it is literally sitting on the steps, looking at me. i screamed and made a shoo-ing motion and it ran away. directly underneath the lawn mower AGAIN. JUST KILL ME NOW.

it took me a half an hour. A HALF OF AN HOUR to get that stupid thing out of the garage. i poked it and poked it and POKED that stupid thing a million times with the end of a fishing pole and it wouldn't budge. i was out for blood by this point and if i had a gun there would have been bullet holes in the walls and dave's lawn mower would have never been the same again.

near the end, it took off like it was going to finally exit the garage. but noooo, at the last minute it changed direction, hopped up on my gardening cart and scaled THE WALL until it was ON TOP OF THE OPEN GARAGE DOOR I KID YOU NOT.

and that is when i ran to grab my camera.

but you really can't tell - but it's up there!

i pushed the button to close the garage door, it fell and ran off with zoey hot on its heels. i hope zoey ripped it to shreds and i don't feel one tiny bit bad about that.

especially when i woke up and realized it had taken a dump in the stroller and also on the bench.

keri 1, wildlife ONE MILLION.

DA WEEKEND.

mr. henry got a haircut!

and a new tooth!

he now as four on the top and the bottom! and working on those molars too, dangit.

and hallie got a trim!

we also got a new dog. sort of. we basically run a half-way house for dogs. they show up all hungry, so we feed them and they stay the night. and then usually they are gone again the next day.

not millie. i think she's here to stay and i'm cool with that. and so is hallie.

and...

a happy mother's day to me!

yesterday was...church, a bike ride that ended in tears (for both kids), nap (for one kid), two hours of weeding the garden, a rockin' sunburn, supper at barb's and sorting through 18 million pieces of baby clothes for a garage sale sunday.

it was a good-ish day!

LET'S BACK THINGS UP A BIT.

i am a teensy bit back-logged with my pictures. and since this blog is like one giant photo album for me, i need to get them posted asap.

last week (thursday? wednesday?) we fished.

and got chigger bites, but mostly fished.

the little neighbor came over and they had a great time. it's soooo nice living on a pond. now i just want a dock and a paddle boat and i will be all set :)

real men fish with a spiderman fishing pole.

THIS IS HOW WE ROLL IN THE COUNTRY.

we don't have normal streets and sidewalks to ride our bikes on.

instead, we have looooooong stretches of roads, gorgeous scenery and grandmas to drive us back home and/or ride bikes with us.

mile to lucille's!

hitchin' a ride home!

  

hallie loves riding her bike now and so we make lots of trips to lucille's.

it's a mile there, exactly, so her little legs are pretty tired when we get there.

nothing that a popsicle, some tv time and a ride home can't cure.

we also rode bikes with grandma barb sunday night. it was a beautiful evening and i couldn't get enough pictures of her and hallie.

hal looked precious with her dress billowing out behind her.

love it.

and now everyone say it with me:

pooooooooor henry!

this kid is a champ. we dragged him all over the place all weekend in st. louis, missing naps, late bedtimes, etc. and then we get home and just continue dragging him places.

this picture was just about past his bedtime and you can barely see barb's house in the distance.

he is a total trooper though. no tears. just lots of resting his head on the ground.

precious.

A (LITERAL) GOOSE EGG AND AN UN-RELATED RED SOLO CUP.

more easter. sorry, but i love the story of the egg.

easter sunday. at dave's uncle tim's house, fishing. hallie was off hunting eggs when dave found a REAL goose egg in the shallow water of the pond. he got it out and we called hallie over, knowing she would be all over that business.

and she was, of course. she craddled the egg, named it goosie and her and mackenzie took turns taking care of the goose egg.

weird kids, yes.

hallie has it at home, in her bedroom, in a little nest she made up for it. we told her she could keep it until it starts stinking...or hatches. HAHAHAHA.

right?

it can't hatch...right? (i washed it with dishsoap, btw, so quit judging).

she really thinks it's going to hatch. dave looked at me that night and said - what if it really hatches, i mean, can you imagine? we would just die. HONK.

anytime we hear a goose honking, we tell hallie it's the mother goose coming to get her egg. hee hee.

****

the ride home after easter was long. we had to stop for gas and the kids were exhausted. henry had a red cup from the easter lunch and it was both thrilling him and upsetting him. it was pretty cute. and funny.

I THINK I'LL GO FOR A WALK OUTSIDE NOW.

a few sundays ago we decided to take a walk up to the mailbox. it was a gorgeous day and my dad was visiting.

our kitties followed us and it turned into quite the pet parade.

hallie, with annie on the leash
me
dad
henry (in the moby)
zoey
billy (the new name for blackie, maybe)
lucky (not pictured)

we didn't want to turn around, so we kept walking. we would have walked all the way to lucille's, but she wasn't home.

if you look at the very first picture, you can see our house in the background. we went a long way!