June 19 Mary's Garden

Friday morning:  My phone rang this morning as I was sitting at my computer trying to choose a few pictures to make a birthday card for Kaity ... I wasn't really in "the mood" to pick up, but then I saw that it was one of my neighbors (a few blocks over) who I haven't talked to in quite awhile. Gloria is a wonderful lady--but she talks 100 mph (!!) and it can be hard to end a call from her. BUT--as I said, she is a very nice person and a wonderful gardener. I haven't taken pictures yet this year of her flowers, but I will! She was calling to ask if I had seen Mary's garden yet; and since I had NOT, we decided to walk on over so that I could get pictures. Gloria said I would be amazed at the beauty. She was totally right!

Evidently, Mary "seeds" these flowers every year, but she got a surprise this year. She picked up some wildflower packets at the dollar store and just planted them here and there along the back of her fenced garden. She said she bought several packets and just planted them willy-nilly kind of (!!). What happened is that as they germinated, they also cross-pollinated and the poppies came out multi-colored, etched and bordered in another color, etc. They are stunning, absolutely. I love flowers. Perhaps if you are not inclined to admire flowers, you will not be impressed by these. Remember ... these started as tiny seeds ...

Naturally, I worked on making Mary a card last night after I had uploaded all of the pictures. I love this verse in Isaiah that speaks of righteousness and salvation sprouting up together--the LORD created them!

Look at this dainty little one! Etched in pale pink. Look at the detail inside!

This poppy has seen better days--Mary said that all of the wind and rain we've had the last few days damaged quite a bit of the poppies ... but I still think they are lovely.

Two kinds of pink on this one!

Mary was telling me all of the names of each different flower, and one day I will have to make myself actually LEARN them so that I don't appear so ignorant; but there were too many names for me to remember as I was listening to Mary.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Look at how GREEN the foliage is, how beautifully shaped the leaves, how intricate each plant is. How can anyone not worship God who made all of this?

Don't you love the climbing plant? I wonder if those "pods" bloom out into flowers, or if they just grow bigger and remain leaves?

In the background of this picture, you can see Mary's back porch/deck. She and her husband moved into Leisure in 2014. They changed many things on the house the year they bought it. The first thing was to put in a doorwall facing the rear of their "lot" because there was not a single window looking OUT to the beauty in their back yard. The next year, they added the deck. They have cool bird feeders that hang from the deck. Mary's husband has dementia. She finds that he sits on that porch most of the day watching the birds, squirrels, rabbits, and deer. I would too!

Behind the fence, Mary grows all manner of vegetables and cans them too. She has to have this fenced off because of the deer. She also has special caged enclosures to prevent the rabbits from gobbling up all of her veggies and flowers. 

There is an open field behind their lot. This is where they see most of the deer. Leisure Village has quite a difference in lots. MY lot has zero views that are beautiful. I can see next door in both directions ... almost INTO my neighbor's homes. I'm not complaining actually, but ... what a difference!

Do you see this blue leaf? Mary made it! Out of cement! Isn't that cool? She has a few others, but I don't think I photographed them.

This tree sits smack in front of Mary's house. This picture does not show how HUGE it is. Mary says it is a pain to clean up after. I DO have a lot of huge trees around my house too. I love every one of them.

This is Mary and Gloria--Mary is facing me. Mary is a dear lady, who not only takes care of her failing husband, but has had cancer four different times. In the past eight years or so, she has undergone more than 11 operations. She struggles a lot with pain. At the end of this month, she is evidently undergoing a very powerful chemo treatment that docs say might just knock the rest of the cancer out of her. She asked that we pray for her. My heart aches when I think of all she has experienced. Surely the Lord knows every single sickness she has faced and promises to be with her.

Believe it or not (!!!), I only posted a portion of all of the pictures I took. After all, one can only look at so many flower pictures in one post.

June 18 Erin's Card

This is the card I designed for dear Erin ...

This the cover of Erin's 8-page birthday card. This is the second sock puppet she made at my house at one of her overnights.

These are the inside pages 2 - 7:

Page 2   Things we did over at Erin's house after school on Tuesday afternoons.

Page 3  Pictures from "Altitude" and the Grand Rapids Public Museum 

Page 4 and 5 are from some of the sleepovers Erin had at my house

Page 6 is from Deer Tracks Junction (these were difficult to narrow down to just one page!)

Page 7 is from Schwallier's Country Basket, our favorite autumn place to visit, as well as some miscellaneous pictures ... the bottom right is from Holy Trinity's Christmas Pageant where Erin was ANGEL of the year ...

BACK of the card are three random pictures of Erin and I together.

I had hundreds of pictures to choose from to make this card, and I surely had fun making it for this little granddaughter!

June 18 EIGHT?????

Thursday:  Today is Erin's 8th birthday!!! She has been anticipating it since Christmas! I was invited to come and celebrate with her this evening. I came bearing gifts ...

Erin is very into AXOLOTLs, so a few months ago (at one of her sleepovers), we were looking online (most likely Amazon) and Erin picked out all of these items! The only non-Axolotl items is the little camera she ordered that has a cool blue dinosaur case (the whole thing was only $29). Anyway, before I wrapped them up the other night, I snapped this picture of everything laid out on my bed. Inbetween the legs of this stuffed animal is a bad full of axolotl "charms" that Erin was crazy about. It's difficult to see them in this photo. 

When I arrived over at their house, Erin and Kelly were out on a birthday shopping spree over at the mall. Erin loves shopping sprees with her mom! They have so much fun picking out things for Erin. While we waited for them to return, Aidan and Cal got wrestling around ... they reminded me of rascally kittens!

Soon, Erin arrived home with her stash of mall items. Erin's close friend, Emmy (who lives down the street) knocked on the door, and was invited to come in and watch the gift opening. Look at these two!

They are completely darling!

The gift she is opening (below) is a bath toy that brags this Axolotl will swim five different directions!

Erin's anticipation is so delightful ...

Brendan, watching the birthday girl opening her grandma presents ...

I bought a colorful little "bag" in which to keep the clothing that comes with the stuffed Axolotl ... I figured it was worth a try to at least have a place to keep all the small items that came with this gift instead of having them "lost in the sauce" of regular everyday life with four children, etc.

Erin really loved her gifts -- YAY!! And I LOVE HER so much. 

For each child's birthday, they are treated to dinner out. Erin chose "Fuji Buffet" and everyone coaxed me to come along. I surely hope they didn't feel obligated to have me come -- I couldn't say "no" to these guys, could I? Anyway, for the record, if I lived this close to a Chinese buffet, I would be in big FAT trouble (B I G  F A T). Yummy food. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ERIN LUCIA!