the trip we trip every summer

Spending time with Josh's family every summer gets better and better with each year. I love these people so much and I am so happy we started this tradition. Honestly, I don't love camping or even like it. It's all the feeling dirty constantly and smelling like campfire for five days straight that seems overrated, so our communal family cabin set-up is perfect. We each have our own space for naps and alone time snipits to get away while still enjoying each others company.

The best part every year for me is hanging around the campfire late at night after all the wee frakers are tucked in tight with the for Fraker brothers and wives. It makes for the best times.

Here's a whole lot of pictures from the trip courtesy of Lizzers.

We're excited for next year. Square business, dudes!

the day I ate popsicles like there was a shortage

Whoa! Just enjoying my first breath of life since being sick last night and this morning. I had forgotten how much it completely blows to be throwing up (which i haven't done in years) and useless to my family....DON'T LIKE IT! Luckily, Josh has the day off today so the kids won't be watching Phineas and Ferb the entire day. Luckily, that is, until Josh and I passed the barf bucket as he is now locked in our room doing what I did. I deem today the "day of television.". If you're looking for a party, keep driving, you won't find what you are looking for here.

beautiful things

Some church friends found out last week that their 4 year old daughter has acute myeloid leukemia. Her gums were bleeding for no reason so they took her to see the dentist and he recommended she have some tests done. Seeing our church family step in to help with their responsibilities around the house, with their other children, financially and emotionally reminds me how good hearted people are.

I am feeling grateful for simple, beautiful things in my life right now.

tuesdays like tomorrow are worth waiting for

Our carpet tiles for the basement project came home today and are now crushing on our hardwood flooring in the garage. Did you know that garages really weren't made for sheltering cars? But anyway, tomorrow is Tuesday and that means that it could possibly be the best day on the planet. Besides being my oldest sister's birthday and Emerson's second tennis practice, it's going to be 97 degrees while our heating and cooling fella installs our new air conditioner. Installs our new air conditioner is what I wrote. Oh, sweet meatballs, I am looking forward to that. I may pull a Ken Carty (my father) and fidget with the thermostat all night just because I can. And then I'll call and tell you all about it. YES!

P.S. Carpeting to be installed tentatively tomorrow, as well, while the hardwoods will join us inside the home the last week in June. BAM!

Weeded

Okay, the basement project has temporarily been put on hold seeing as the rest of our house blew up! I have learned the old lesson in home ownership.....house projects never go as planned. Once you get started on something, at least two other projects arise. It is the one part of my life that I have completely learned to go with the flow.

Last week we decided to clean up the bushes and mulch in the back of the house. The front is pretty and presentable. (So embarrassing to post these pictures of what the back looked like, but, it is what it is.)

I have wanted that rose bush By the air conditioner gone since the day we moved in but it was like 54th on the list of annoying things to pull or rip out of the ground. The scary eagle hanging pot thingy was first. SO happy we are on to projects in the 50s this year.

A Gardner snake bit my Hunters while I put down the mulch. Seriously, what is with the snakes around here?

So clean and easy to stare at.

Last Saterday after we finished our backyard project and on a 90 degree weekend, our central air conditioning unit, that was 23 years old, blew it's last cold air AND a section of our whole house water filtration system and pipes needed to be replaced. So their you have it, extra projects.

 

this vowel loves tennis

Back in April Emerson walked past the tennis rackets in the garage and asked me if I would play with him. He had never played before but knew what the game was about from way back in our Mason days. Josh and I would load the vowel kids in the double stroller and walk to the red park around the corner and play a few games while the kids chased the balls and picked at bugs on the court. And to purposefully digress, I will add that I won 90% of the time. Josh and I are obnoxiously competitive when we play sports against each other. You should hear the basketball stories from our early married days involving self disciplined suicide sprints to condition for our one-on-one games of 21 and Wednesday night basketball.

Emerson and tennis are a perfect harmony. He loves it and is really great at it. And the instant self esteem is priceless! And as coincidence would have it, just as I was researching his future through a school tennis program, Josh got an email for a community summer program. We signed him up, you bet we did.

He is the cutest member of team Racqueteer and after his first practice last night he was so happy and proud of himself for working through his nerves, "Today's a good day, Mom!" The younger vowels cheered him on and enjoyed being there for their big brother. I had so much fun that I'm looking forward to his next practice as much as he is.

Today was a super great day. His racquet, ball and racqueteer shirt are all sleeping on his dresser tonight. That's the special spot for things that are most important.

when trying to be a good gardener, do what helen does

We cut our old basement carpet into strips and put it in the garden between rows. That's always how Helen did it. She is the world's best gardener that it know of, so there you have it. I mean, Helen did grow the zennias for our wedding so I trust her opinion about gardening big time.

This was honestly not even the before-before shot of the garden. This is an after-before shot. The before-before garden was a weed filled mess that I dug up one by one until the garden looked like this. There were eight huge piles of compost weeds when I was finished. It took me three days of digging out one weed, sod or old plant at a time to get it to this point where Josh was able to roto till it.

I made Urban some makeshift boots seeing as he loved being in the garden with me. Using his shovel while lying flat on his stomach was his favorite part.

I hope to get a large yield this summer so we doubled the size of the garden. One of Josh's coworkers gave us 18 tomatoe plants she grew from seeds. We also planted green beans, cucumbers, dill, green onion, carrots, corn, basil, green peppers, and a sunflower. I would love to can some pickles and tomatoes this year. I will freeze the beans.

To my absolute unliking, we found the same blue racer(?) snake in the garden twice. It freaked me out of my boots the first time we saw it as I almost picked it up unknowingly because it was hiding in a huge weed I was pulling out. Then a painted turtle friend we named Fiona has been in the garden nearly every day. Emerson is beyond obsessed with her, who could easily be a him.

I am hoping it will be a great gardening year, and I make an oath that next year I WILL find Brandywine tomatoes to plant. They are my favorites.

school's out!

 

This is the best I could do this morning at taking a picture of the vowel's going to school the last day this school year. The sun was too bright, the sun was TOO BRIGHT! And even on the last day of school, when the world seems to tick on a slower, carefree summer clock, our Frakers #1 and #2 were needing reassurance that stopping for a morning photo would not make us late. Consistency and predictability can be found in abundance on the Frakers acres.

Ida walked in her kindergarten graduation. Urban and I were in the audience cheering for her in the typical Carty fashion...hooting and making lots of rambunctious noise. I did my peeps proud! And, Urban paid no mind to not even one hairy eye, throwing in his own shrill squeaks for his sister. I was a proud mama all around.

Do you see the little boy with the green sailors hat and boutonnière? That is Ida's friend Justin....he loves her. They have been best friends since the beginning of the year and they are still going strong. His mom(who I absolutely love) worked with Josh last year. It was pure luck that our kids ended up at the same school(both school of choice) and in the same class.....let alone actually getting along. ANYWAY.......

Justin brought Ida a corsage for graduation. She almost blew up with excitement. It made her feel so special. I thanked Natalie over and over for being so thoughtful.

Urban and I decorated the garage door. Last year I cut letters out of poster board and taped them all on the garage door....this year my thinking brain was doing it's job and I used chalk to leave the message, smart.

Saying that we were excited for the kids to get off the bus would be the biggest understatement.

In general, the kids are very happy to be out of school for the summer. Emerson did shed some tears when I got him off the bus. He said he will miss Mrs. W and school, but by the time we got home his system was clean of any sadness and he said, "I'm pretty happy it's summer now.".

Emerson hugging summer.

teacher gifts

We could not be more ready for summer vacation after a wonderful school year. We were very blessed to have caring, hardworking teachers and helpers who made each day something special for Emerson and Ida when they were away from home, and giving them little gifts was the least we could do to show our appreciation.

Ida's school year we filled with wonderful people who loved and cared for her. She started the year with the same teacher Emerson had last year but unfortunately Mrs. R struggled with some personal and health issues and in February she decided it would be best to take the rest of the year off. Mrs. L became Ida's permanent sub and finished the year out with the kids. I was very nervous about the change seeing as Ida has such a love/hate relationship with school, but everything workedout inthe end. We gave Mrs. L a blueberry bush to thank her for her hard work in such a tough situation. I got thinking afterwards that it would have been awesome to give her the book Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey along with it. Then I got thinking about all the awesome books you could give a teacher with an amazing plant attached! Here are ideas for Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and peach, pear or plum. I am sure there would be something out there for lemon and lime, as well.

Ms. B has known Ida for two years seeing as she was Mr. R's helper last year when Emerson was in their class. She is rough and sweet, an ironic combination. She and Ida get along well. For her gift we got a monogrammed leather keychain from jeeta.

Emerson's teacher is amazing. Absolutely, hands down the perfect teacher for his personality. We love Mrs. W. I could never write enough wonderful things about her. She is a dog lover and calls her class the Wolf Pack playing off her German shepherd, Miranda "Moo". She loves her dog so much. We wanted to do something very special for such a awesome teacher and ordered her a custom made dog tag for her dog. The idea came from my sister after seeing a custom tag she had made for her dog, Edie. We ordered the tag from The Copper Poppy. She loved it so much it brought her to tears.

Mrs. T stopped traffic for us every morning rain, snow, raging puddles or shine so we couls safely cross the street. She holds the elementary school together.

We got Mr. T a basket of fresh peaches. She was so grateful. Seeing the kids smile after giving them to her made my morning. Watching the kids do special things for others makes me feel so good.

Our bus stop is the very last one on the route making for a long day. Ms. C makes the long ride enjoyable for the kids. One day she was running quite early so she parked the bus with the kids at the farm before our bus stop and went with them to see the new baby calfs. She treats them so well. We got her a monogrammed leather keychain from jeeta, as well, so she will have organized bus keys.

P.S. I unendorse this blog. It has gotten to be kinda ridiculous, which is too bad. I thought it was really great starting out, but it seems to have strayed from what I thought it was.