Comedy of errors

I had meant to do homework tonight.  Really.  Jon was going to be out until at least ten (he is directing "Into the Woods" this month), the dogs had been fed and I was sitting down to get a lot of work done.  That's when the doorbell rang and our new neighbors (also friends from church) needed air conditioning while their own home suffered a power outage (during our 10o degree heat wave), so I introduced them to the kids and gave them the general tour.  After they left to go shopping and get dinner I finished making my own meal and sat down to do that homework I was talking about.  That, of course, was when the kid from the University called to collect money for some campaign drive.  Right.  He must not have noticed that we only graduated in the last couple of years, because he thought we were going to bave a thousand dollars to give him for a chair in an auditorium.  He should have called the med student who graduated in 1980.  It did, however, take me almost 10 minutes to convice him that we were not going to donate for said chair and by that time the phone was ringing again.  My mom wanted me to go look at the beautiful red ball of setting sun, which I really thank her for and I really enjoyed... until the front lawn sprinkler (yes, you remember sprinkler system 2?) came on, shooting straight up my shorts.  I had finally opened a book (remember my homework?) after drying off and changing into my pajamas when Jon called to say he was on the way home, and not 10 seconds later, the doorbell rang again - Kristen and Matt were still without power, and me still in my pajamas with soggy hair.  Then Jon came home, we all chatted until nearly eleven, they went home to try and sleep, Jon and I caught up on the goings on of the day and now we are headed to bed.   Homework?  What homework?  But it was a really fun evening.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

We went for a walk in the neighborhood tonight and finally met some neighbors. The people on the corner have lots of rescued animals. Hmmm, kind of like us. The people next to them have a brand new baby. We'd like to be a combination of the two. On the same walk we met lots of bunnies (they're eating our flowers more than anyone else's), ducks, and a muskrat in the nearby pond. Finally this year, our lawn is catching up with the others. Now if only our hot tub would do the same (read: we need to get one). It may not be summer down home on the farm, but it is friendly and full of wildlife.

The arrival

Who knew that furniture companies delivered on Sundays?  The scheduled delivery for our new set was between 8 and 11  today, but we couldn't be here because of church, (and church was especially important and long this morning because it was all-church picnic day and "good-bye" Lloyd day, a wonderful man who we will all miss).  We were all set to have Cortney's parents come and hang out during the delivery hours as a special favor (and because Cortney's mom loves the dogs) but low and behold, the delivery guys called at 7:10 am and wondered if they could come early—they were right around the corner.  Worked for us...although we were almost late for the 8:00 service.
But the furniture is great. It is bigger than what we had before so it makes the space seem a little smaller, but we were expecting that and it still looks great and is really comfortable!  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time sitting on it.  Instead we tried out the weed whacker and mowed the lawn in sprinkles of rain, and we cleaned the bathrooms and our offices, and even some of the basement.  We always keep a clean house, but it has to be spotless this week;  Steve and Rachel (our best friends) are visiting from Seattle Wednesday and Thursday.  We are really looking forward to seeing them, but I'm not sure they were worth the lawn mowing in the 86 degree heat. Finally, after finishing the above and grabbing a shower we were able to sit on the new furniture...but it was 6:00 by that time!  We want to point out that even the animals look pooped in this picutre, and they sat inside in the air conditioning all day!

Spring showers, May flowers

We didn't have a whole lot of April showers, mostly snow, so I just call them spring showers.  We did get a lot of flowers, though.  This was only our second spring in the house so it was our first try with planting tulips in the fall.  A lot of them came up, and then a lot of them fed a lot of hungry baby bunnies, so only a few made it to adulthood.  Poor tulips.
With the nice weather returning the whole family is enjoying neighborhood walks.  The dogs get really riled up whenever you mention "walk" or "cart" (Diamond's wheelchair) or "OUTside," and then all bets are off.  We should probably know better than to try and take a family photo when the kids are in their walk paraphernalia.  It took about fifty tries to get a decent one, and this is it, thanks to the "attention getting device" that we tossed towards the camera (read: a rock).