Walkin' Talkin' True Love

Every time I see Elysse toddling this chorus plays in my mind:

Here she comes a walkin', talkin' true love

Sayin' I've been lookin' for you love

Surprise your new love has arrived

Out of the blue clear sky

What We've Been Up To...

One morning I was looking out on the deck and noticed a bird that would come and take a rest on the deck with straw in its mouth. I figured he must be building a nest and then I noticed that the bird was indeed building a next as he worked to stuff himself and his mouth full of straw into the side of the grill. After working up courage (I was having flashes of Hitchcock's Birds) I used the broom handle to pop open the grill and this is what I found. The birds were mad (there were at least three that were bothered by this) and later that night Ryan and I decided to burn the nest. They haven't been back since.

A friend of ours encouraged me to get a tennis racket for Audrey as she has one for her little girl. So I finally got around to getting a racket and our rackets were brought up from Florida. I know that Nathan isn't interested in sports and I never push him to become interested. But, we wanted to get Audrey on the court so we asked Nathan to bring along a book and sit with Elysse as we worked with Audrey. Well, guess who said that he would like to give it a try? Nathan is very good at hitting the ball. He gets very proud of himself for hitting the ball and he really enjoys it. We are thrilled! We have played three times in the past week and he expects to go out again on Saturday.

Strawberries. We really enjoy picking strawberries. Audrey and I have been out twice with our friends the Tuckers to pick. Audrey declared that picking is, "the most fun I have ever had." She doesn't even like strawberries but she is a good sport when it comes to picking. This time I froze two gallon size bags of berries and I did another two batches of strawberry freezer jam. I think that makes 6 batches of jam. I gave some away as Mother's Day gifts and I hope to have a full year supply for our family. Ryan still takes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to work everyday and Nathan now likes jelly/jam.

A certain sister-in-law of mine had a birthday coming up but didn't want to have another birthday and didn't want to make a big deal about it. So, I threw her a non birthday party. She loves Olive Garden (mostly for the bread sticks) so I had Ryan pick up a lot of bread sticks and I looked up a recipe for her favorite thing to order from Olive Garden - Venetian Apricot Chicken. As I contemplated making a cake (I truly thought about just getting one from Ingles) I remembered that she loved the Chocolate Lasagna that Olive Garden stopped making - so I found a recipe for that too. Without ever having had the Chocolate Lasagna I think it turned out really well.
My little kitchen helper. She always want to help with whatever creation is being made in the kitchen!

Naming Things

I do not know where it all began but I have been naming things for quite some time. Often the things I name are alive, but there are times when I name things that aren't alive. The first thing I can remember naming was the first car I bought it was a Pontiac Sunbird sort of teal in color so I named it Tealy.

While in college my roommates and I bought a plant which we decided to name Jerry.

After I moved to Florida I named a three legged lizard - Hack. The hawk that sat in our Jacaranda tree was named Reggie.

Last year Audrey and I found a spider that lived between our window on the staircase and the screen - we named him Peter.

Ryan has a computer that sort of works, the brains work but the screen does not so I have named him Darth Vader.

Last night as I was reading a friend's blog my computer screen went funny and then went blank. All of my efforts to save it were in vain. Ryan tried to come to the rescue but nothing he did seemed to work either. Luckily Ryan is wonderful and so brilliant he had backed up all of our pictures on an online data system called Sugar Sync. I was really sad about it but that is the way technology goes- great the day you bring it home and out of date by the very next morning. I had the computer for four years. Anyway, I decided to try it again this evening, just for fun. It worked! My computer has now earned the name Lazarus.

Like I said I am not sure when I began to name things but I have fun doing it. I do not think tonight will be the last...