Wordless Wednesday - blueberry picking

This was my view for about an hour and a half on Saturday.   My dad and I went blueberry picking.  Kevin and my mom went with us, but left the picking to us.    We went earlier in the day than I'd planned (about 4:30) and I think it was a good thing we did - we had the place to ourselves since it was the hotter part of the day.    As we got closer to finished we heard more and more voices - when we first got there all we heard were birds, and an occasional far off voice.   All together we picked over 12 lbs of berries!  They are much larger than last year - the rain did the plants good.

Its a fun outing, and the price can't be beat - $2/lb for what you pick and bring out and no limit on what you eat while you pick.   The farm, Moorhead's, is open daily in June until the crop is picked out.   It is so popular that they ran out of buckets in the morning!!

Memorial Day weekend

Happy Friday!

I have been excited for this weekend all week!  At work people would mention putting a meeting next Monday and I'd remind them it was a holiday - at least once, someone told me I looked giddy about the holiday..  What can I say? I love a 3-day weekend. 

We don't have big plans, I'm just excited to have the day off Monday and am actually glad we DON'T have many plans.   Its been a busy month of celebrations for us, and June is shaping up to be pretty busy with some trips so a weekend at home is just what I want.

We will host my parents for the weekend.  I'm looking forward to spending time with them, showing them our backyard, and going to pick blueberries (the original purpose for their trip).

Enjoy the long weekend, take time to think of those brave people that Memorial Day is dedicated to and all that they gave so I could enjoy my freedom and have the biggest plans for the weekend be out picking blue fruit off bushes...

I'll leave you with a funny story from this morning.

Smokey wanted to go out when I got up (a rare occurrence, he usually won't budge until K gets up or later).  I let him out and almost immediately he starts barking up a storm.   Its just after 6 in the morning and I don't want our neighbors to hate us so I go see what he's doing - barking at the pond....ok....I go to investigate (praying  there is not a snake) and its a FROG going for a morning swim. Our big bad dog is going nuts over a FROG...thank goodness he isn't trying to eat it (he did that once at the old house - disgusting!).     I finally had to grab him by the collar and bring him back in.  He's trying to be ferocious and yet I see his leg quivering when he's standing and barking at it....

Wordless Wednesday*

Remember the tv show "America's Next Great Restaurant"? (aired in 2011)   The runner up on the show is opening his meatball restaurant in Houston!    We were in the food court for a birthday, and I saw that a new restaurant is opening - Brooklyn Meatball Co.   They have TVs showing images, and i realized it was one of his, then i look into the restaurant and there he is.  I was thinking it was a franchise, had no idea he'd be there.    The restaurant wasn't open yet, but they were giving out samples - meatball and later tiramisu (worked well as individual birthday cakes!)  the food that I had was very good!  He was busy with the food, but happy to take a moment to take photos with people.

*I'm not good at being wordless, oh well - my blog, my rules :)

Graduation Party

We had a great time celebrating K's graduation this past weekend. We had the party the weekend after his actual graduation so that we could have it in the afternoon - the graduation ceremonies made for a full day, we didn't get open until after 7 and were tired.   We also waited so that we weren't trying to have it on  Mother's Day, we know better than to try to have a party on Motehr's day - that is a day to celebrate mothers!

Many family and friends were able to join us, and many others who couldn't come sent their congratulations.   The party also served as an 'unveiling' of our backyard.  Everyone loved it and most of the party took place outside.   We have pretty casual parties, mostly just everyone hanging out and visiting, which is just what we wanted.   We also had blongo ball set up in the backyard.

We had some great food.  To make it easy on ourselves we had the main dish (brisket, sausage, turkey) and a few sides catered from Spring Creek BBQ, and we made some additional food ourselves.   I may've overdone it on the dips - Greek dip, hummus - but they taste good and I love an opportunity to make them when there are others coming who will eat them (K isn't a fan of either dish).

For drinks we had beer, soda, water and  jello shots (not really a drink, but with alcohol in it thats how I'll count it).  It was the first time for K and several others at the party to have them.   They were nice and cool in the Houston heat, and quite a novelty for everyone.   K picked out orange which worked well with his alma mater's colors.

We also made homemade peanut butter ice cream for dessert.
 

Everyone had a great time.I had to laugh that with all the food we had, a couple of the little kids just wanted to eat hot dog buns, we really did have something for everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Graduation!!

Congrats to Kevin!! He worked hard for this degree and I was so happy to get to see him walk across the stage on Saturday.

swing

This is a late Wordless Wednesday, I'm a day late and not so good at being wordless...eh, my blog my rules :)

Our swing is installed!  This is a photo that K sent to me on the day it was set up (last Thursday), we both had plans that night so we didn't really get to enjoy it until Friday, but we'll enjoy it for many nights to come.   We've already spent more time in the backyard than in any previous spring.    Recently, we've been out there until the bugs made us come inside...

Happy May!

The weather is warming up way too fast, summer will be here before we know it.  Kevin is ready for it, he's writing his last papers now... I think the students around me at work are ready for it too, the semester is wrapping up - even my workout class ended today.   I will actually miss it, and have to keep pushing myself to workout.   Morning workouts are definitely the way to go, I just need to find a way to cool off completely before getting into my work clothes and then back outside and into the elevator...

While the evenings are nice we're really enjoying our improvements to the backyard.  Sitting back there with the fountain in the pond bubbling away is really relaxing.   This week we'll get the swing put up and then it will be even better....definitely the best backyard I've ever had.  We've come a long way from the last house, where the backyard was always windy and with the houses close together and the short fences (you know they are short when I can see over them at 5'2") you hardly had any privacy.   At this house, we have only one direct neighbor and can hear the birds and see lizards - making Smokey crazy!

This will be a fun month - we have a housewarming, baptism, graduation, and graduation party to attend. I love having fun things filling up my calendar!
 
Congrats to my sister who ROCKED her certification test this past weekend!    April was very busy for her, finding a place and moving, while attending class and studying for her test and she passed with flying colors!   She is now a "CPP" - certified payroll professional.   Every time I think of that abbreviation I also think of 'down with OPP yeah you know me!' and of course I had to look up OPP, no I am NOT down with OPP.  I did not know what that stood for back in 1991.....