Sunday, July 31, 2011

My Dream Job In A Picture

I have never made it a secret how I wished I had gone to college for Education instead of Accounting.But be that as it may I still have my subbing and I had some wonderful children I babysat for over the years.Everything happens for a reason and I never would have traded staying home with my children all those years. I came across this picture and this would have been my dream job. Too bad I was born too late!


      
                                    Sigh........


So I'm thinking Big Dale should build this in our back woods complete with a kitchen and then I would be satisfied.


Saturday, July 23, 2011

Some More Summer

Even though I have been mumbling about these last several days of  grueling hot weather, I really am enjoying summer. My flowers have been doing fairly well and we have been using the pool a lot! Here's a few shots I took around the house. You can click any image to make it larger.

My favorite wildflower from the neighboring field.   I wanted to snag them before they hayed the field.



















Britt enjoying the pool.





                                                   
I never tire of the view in the background. Swimming on a hot day and looking at that view is like heaven on Earth!








                                     I hope everyone is having a  great summer!!


                                      Hugs,
                                      Cindy













Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hot, Hot Sizzling Summer !!

I'm not sure what the weather is like where you live but here we are having a heatwave! The temps are predicted to be in the 90's all week. I think Thursday they are saying 97 degrees! I can remember hardly being able to wait for summer to arrive when I was a child. We didn't have much growing up and how I longed for a pool to swim in on those hot hot days. The next best thing though was the sprinkler. I have so many memories of running through it. My mom would sometimes also bring out a piece of clear plastic(I'm sure that went over some window or door in winter) and we would have our own homemade slip and slide. Oh the fun we had putting that plastic on an incline! I can still feel that cold cold well water coming out of that hose.

 I remember too as a child swimming in creeks or brooks with slippery rocks covered with moss. We would dam up sections of the brook at our childhood home and make our own swimming hole.


I also have fond memories of swimming in my grandma's pond at her farm in Franklin. It's funny because I hear so many kids today say they would never swim in a pond. We loved it(and it was our only choice). I remember that deep squishy mud between my toes when you first went in and floating around on the huge black tractor tire tubes.I can also remember my grandma's voice calling us from the house telling us not to go out so far.

Other memories I have of summer long ago are mostly from my grandma's farm as that is where I would stay most summers. I can remember counting the days till summer break so that we could go spend the summer there. I'm telling you if there was a choice between Disney World or the farm(which there was no  choice) we would have chosen the farm! I can remember so many fun times! But we were also expected to work. I remember weeding grandma's huge garden, helping the guys "hay it" as we say here and milking chores.
I can remember my grandpa and dad at different times coming through the door on a hot summer day and saying things like"It's'hotter than the blazes out there" or " It's hot as the dickens" , "hotter than Hades" , "hot as all get out"or "I'm hotter than a hen in a wool blanket". Another expression I remember later on was "It's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk".

Besides swimming I recall vividly that sight and sound of the Good Humor Ice Cream truck barreling through our neighborhood. We would run real fast so as not to miss him and I remember "bomb pops " as being my favorite. They were red, white and blue popsicles.



Do you remember the old  Tupperware popsicle  makers?


These were another fond memory of summers gone by.Going to get ice cream was not a luxury we enjoyed as much as families do today. I think my favorite pop to make was cherry Kool-Aid. I still have a set of these in my own home today. My own kids loved these too.

There's no doubt there's no ignoring summer. It is definately a strong season. So whether we like it or not we must make the best of this hot spell. Here is a link for some ideas to stay cool. Some are very obvious.





I will leave you with some summery thoughts and quotes.

"What dreadful hot weather we have. It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance"~ Jane Austen


You know it is hot when you realize asphalt has a liquid state.


Ah, summer what power you have to make us suffer and like it~ Russel Baker

"Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin through the jasmine in my mind"~ Seals And Croft 1972





                               A life without love is like a year without summer.

                               -- Swedish Proverb


                             A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are
                             singing, and the lawn mower is broken.

                            -- James Dent


                              Celebrate Summer - Sun drenched days and starlit night -- Gooseberry Patch



Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.

-- Sam Keen



Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.

-- Sydney Smith


I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.

-- L. M. Montgomery

 
 
Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

-- Henry James



Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.

-- Ada Louise Huxtable


You can never appreciate the shade of a tree unless you sweat in the sun.-- Author Unknown
 
 
And finally we can't forget Nat King Cole
 
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer


Those days of soda and pretzels and beer

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer



Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies

Then lock the house up, now you're set

And on the beach you'll see the girls in their bikinis

As cute as ever but they never get 'em wet



Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Those days of soda and pretzels and beer

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

You'll wish that summer could always be here



Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Those days of soda and pretzels and beer

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer



Don't hafta tell a girl and fella about a drive-in

Or some romantic movie seen

Right from the moment that those lovers start arrivin'

You'll see more kissin' in the cars than on the screen



Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Those days of soda and pretzels and beer

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

You'll wish that summer could always be here



You'll wish that summer could always be here

You'll wish that summer could always be here








 


















Friday, July 15, 2011

Graduation Festivities

First of all hello everyone. I fear I may be writing this post to myself as I am sure many of you have given up that I would ever post again as it has been some time since I have been here. I am back and ready to write. Thank you for being so patient. My daughter Brittany recently graduated from high school as class valedictorian! We are so very proud of her accomplishments.Graduation was wonderful but sad too. An ending but a beginning. We wanted to throw her a nice graduation party and I think we were successful. The weather gods were in our corner. It turned out to be a glorious ,sunny, picture perfect day .
Here are some photos from graduation and the party. As you can see the party pics are actually more decoration pics rather then pictures from the actual party as I was so busy runing around during the party itself. You can click any picture to make it larger. They are actually much clearer that way.



At the house before heading to graduation at the school.

                                                       
                                                Britt and her brother LD(Little Dale) or Dale, Jr.






Britt and her dad, my DH
                                           

The happy graduate!


                                                           Britt delivering her valedictory speech.


                                            Britt and her close friends after graduation



                                                Britt walking out of the school for the last time.

                                              

       Britt's Kindergarten Graduation                                     
                                                 
An old scale my dad gave me with an ivy planted in an old strainer.
                                               This has the sun's glare on it but it is an old window frame I found at a yard sale  and I put Britt's school pictures in it.

                                           Purple and gold(our school colors )  planted in barrels at the sidewalk entrance.

                                               An antique chalkboard with school pictures (K-12)

                                            Purple and gold johnny jump ups in an antique box





     
Our pond out back
                                                                
                                       An info board about SUNY Geneseo (the college Britt is going to) and a graduation cap card box we made.

                                        
                                              Pics of Britt and a copy of her college acceptance letter in a frame.
                                             Under the vinyl which was on top of each colored tablecloth I put pictures of Brittany through the years.

                                                Our garage
                                              
                                            
                                              
                                             
                                             
                                               
                                                                    
                                                                                                                    





                                              
  

Wildflower arrangements my son's GF made and put into mason jars for me. She was a huge help with this party! She's a keeper!



Purple and gold sand pails for the silverware.
  


An old drinking thermos on the drink table with wildflowers.



A purple and gold cupcake liner garland . I stuck small doilies in between.

      
                       It was the 4th Of July weekend so I stuck red, white and blue around for affect.