Catching Up

Wow! I'm not sure where the time has gone. Apparently, I haven't posted a new entry since June 30th... Well, I know for certain that we have been extremely busy... Not sure where to start.

We had a splendid Fourth of July weekend. On the Fourth, we spent some time with two awesome families. We had a lunchtime cookout with my friend, Lowell, and his family. We hadn't seen them for probably close to a year. Well, Doug sees Lowell every week at golf... but, anyway. We went over, had a great meal and got to visit and catch up a lot. The kids had a fun time playing together, also, James was in seventh heaven, as he was the only boy. At one point, the girls picked him up and were carrying him around. He loved it! Later that day, we met up with our neighbors and went to our local parade... then back home to chat and sit around the campfire... and then off to our local fireworks (which were a huge bust).

On the fifth, we hosted a cookout at our place. Mendi, Dean and Anzie were in town, so they were able to attend along with Dean's Mom. My Mom and Dad came... and our aforementioned neighbors came over also. It was a house full! But, boy was it fun. We really do need to host get-togethers more often. At nightfall, the neighbor boys put on quite a fireworks display for us. It was the end to a wonderful celebration.

Our new neighbors moved in on the fifth. We've talked with the mom and daughter a couple of times. They seem like very nice folks. I thank God for bringing us nice neighbors. I know that he had a hand in it, since the mom is a Methodist minister. LOL!

The past week has been one of ups and downs. Mom went to her doctor for a checkup and got a good report... However, she had to do an overnight oxygen test, and it seems as though it didn't go as well as she had thought... She'll find out more today when she goes in for another test - this one a walking/oxygen test.

Darwin the duck flew the coop early in the week. We were all saddened by his disappearance. We all kind of expected him to leave sometime, just not so soon. Well, yesterday morning we received a call from the neighbors... and Darwin had returned! He spent the day sleeping in his pool. He must have had quite the adventure. As if that part of the story (his departure and return) wasn't neat enough... there is more to it! Our neighbor was at work yesterday and was chatting with her previous boss. She told him the whole story about Darwin's adventure. When she got done, he looked at her and said, "Your duck has been at my house." This man has a home on a large pond not far from where we live. He has a flock of ducks... and the last couple of days, there had been one extra. Low and behold, when he went home for lunch yesterday, he did a head count... and the extra duck wasn't there anymore. Miss B (our neighbor) and her sons banded Darwin last evening so that if he did fly away to her boss's home again, they would be able to tell for sure. As we were over there visiting last night, Darwin enjoyed some fresh worms and double-impatiens blooms from James and Amanda. After his snack, he took a bath in his pool... and all of a sudden hopped out, looked around, stretched his legs... and took off flying to the East (where the boss lives). It will be interesting to get a follow-up report to see if Darwin arrived there... It was a bittersweet event to see him fly off... kinda sad, but really kinda cool. Amanda was able to see him depart. I think that it helped her put all the pieces together, too...

I called the "Call Before You Dig" folks yesterday. They should be arriving any day to spray-paint nice little dots all over our backyard. As soon as that gets taken care of, Doug can begin digging the big hole for our little pond! I'm sure that he's excited about that...