“This is the smell of June ... honeysuckle, green hay, wet linen hung out to dry ...” ~Lisa Kleypas

June 1

Ella says there’s no such thing as too many Bandaids. Boo-boos are not required

She’s adept at applying them all by herself

She especially likes the Peppa Pig and Frozen characters

Knox is ready to play first base as the season winds down

Unfortunately, they lost this one 16-1

June 2

Dancing in the rain

June 4

If Neil had pushed them any harder they would’ve done a loop de loop

Cousin trampoline time

Shelby and Elijah having been doing trampoline jumps and flips

and hand stands since they were toddlers

Same trampoline

He didn’t land on her, in case you were wondering

Kelly bought this coconut cake from a new local baker

And we ate it

Delicious

June 6

On her way to Sunday school

with her trusty Bandaids

Picture by Kelly

Sunday mood

June 7

Let it go!

Watching the movie and listening to the storybook at the same time

She sings along with gusto

Ella plays in the dirt while her brother plays baseball

The Braves lost their last game of the season 11-12

but the team made it to the tournament

June 10

Good day to get wet

With more than 2100 miles between us, our visits are rare with our cousin Tom

who lives in California. He was here for a music department reunion at TTU.

We enjoyed our brief time catching up over a meal at Romo’s

From left: my brother Ken, cousin Tom, moi, my sister Jane, my sister Ann

and her hubby Terry

The Braves lost their tournament game

Good season.They played hard and deserve kudos 

for making it to the first round of the finals

June 12

Gratuitous picture of my cinnamon apple waffle

at Grandma’s Pancake House

And whipped cream clouds

I’ve got food on the brain

June 14

Feed me!

One of the three robin nestlings (I googled it) just outside our back door

Their mom freaks out when we stand on the porch watching her babies (nestlings)

But that’s what happens when you build your nest two feet away

from the humans’ back door

Sorry, mama, but we live here too

Nap time

Wings up!

June 15

That face you make when McDonald’s dining room finally opens

June 17

She’s got mouths to feed

Her job is relentless ...

June 18

… and they are always hungry

A few days after I took this picture, they flew away

Neil noticed them standing up in the nest

We got to see two of them fly away (and now they’re called fledglings)

Lots of calla lily blooms this year

June 19

That face you make when you take that first sip

of your favorite (limited time) peach shake at Chick-Fil-A

Happy Father’s Day

to my hubby Neil and sons-in-law Jerry and Kerry!

Dad and daughters Holly and Kelly

Grandpa with his grand peeps

Shelby, Elijah, Knox, and Ella

The Myers Family

Jerry and kids Shelby and Elijah

The Kimbrough Family

Ella did not want to pose for any more pictures

She started running circles around her brother and dad

and ended up taking a header into the grass

Wish I could post the video of this on here. It’s hilarious.

Kerry and kids Knox and Ella (who finally decided to cooperate)

The Grands

He enjoyed his cards and gifts

June 22

You probably know how ridiculously expensive lumber is right now

Neil replaced the bad wood, and the patches will have to do until

we can replace the whole deck

Someday. When wood doesn’t cost a small fortune.

June 25

Bubble blowing should be an Olympic sport

Our Friday night Mickey Ds supper tradition has returned 

Last time we did this was March, last year
Things are (almost) back to normal

June 30

Ralph’s Donut Shop makes cookies during the weeks leading up to two occasions:

Valentine’s Day and Christmas

Tuesday of this week, they announced they were making cookies

this week only for Independence Day

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

We love these rare treats!

It’s the little things

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

June is the gateway to summer.Jean Hersey

“The only thing we should scream into the world is love.” ― Jill Telford

February 1
Hey, look at that! Eatin' healthy on the first day of the month. Would be great if this was a trend. I'm not a salad person, but I do enjoy a Blue Coast salad. The chips, though .... I like those, too. Oh well.

February 2
I saw my shadow. You know what that means, don't you? Six more weeks of .... weather.

February 3
Birthday dinner with peeps. I skipped the cake and ice cream this year, just because, although I did get a complimentary dish of ice cream, thank you, Outback. Nobody sang to me. I'm good with that.

Grandson Knox made me a birthday card on Minecraft. Pretty cool.

My great-nephew, Finn, also celebrated his birthday on the 3rd. He enjoyed a pool party at the Y. Can't believe he's 4 already. He and Knox are buddies. My nephew, Alex, also shares this birthdate. 

February 4
Target practice. If I fire enough bullets, I will eventually hit the center. Eventually.

February 5
Different day. More rain. Another flood.

February 7
Snow day!

February 7
Ella loves building with her blocks. How 'bout that tower? It was listing to the right and finally submitted to gravity.

February 7
Snow day for Knox means Fortnite either solo or with friends.

February 7
I'd never heard of a Snow Moon until now--first full moon in February. Not quite full until the 8th.

February 8
Slow drip. Icicles are just the coolest. 

Let it go!

February 10
And we're back to rain .....

February 13
Kelly and Ella on Snapchat--too cute not to share.

February 13
Hanging with the grand peeps while Kelly and Kerry enjoyed an early Valentine dinner

Shelby loves to read. Ella loves books. I hope one day Ella will be a bookworm, too.

February 14
We enjoyed Knox's 2nd grade Valentine's Day play. They sang songs, told jokes, and read poems. Knox got to read one of the Valentine poems. 

A valentine in a bowl--I couldn't believe all the heart-shaped Cheerios in my bowl of cereal this morning and wondered why until I noticed this was a special edition box of Cheerios. They should have these all the time.

Valentine dinner at the golden arches. Of course, Valentine's Day landed on a Friday this year, and more often than not, this is where we end up every Friday night with Kelly, Knox, and Ella. So it was Happy Clog-Your-Arteries-Heart-Day for us. 

February 17
What is that big ball of blazing light in the wester sky? Oh yeah. I remember. They call it the Sun. A rare sighting this month.

February 19
She's got the bed head

February 19
I had no idea this is a thing. Did you? Was tempted to check it out .....

February 19
Neil has been working hard on our deck furniture, sanding and painting it all black. 

February 19
As I took this pic, I wondered if it would snow on the buttercups this winter .....

February 20
.... was there any doubt? ..... I meant to get an actual pic of it snowing on the buttercups but I totally forgot.

Cardinal couple watching it snow. The squirrels had already dumped all the birdseed on the ground below the feeder. 

February 21
Another Friday. Another dinner at MickeyD's. Is this a creepy picture or what? Kelly had Knox's Spiderman lunch bag sitting on top of Ella's diaper bag on their seat. Looks like Spidey is trying to snatch some of Knox's ranch sauce.

February 21
She knows how to chill

February 22
Who needs toys when you've got a pile of rocks to play with?

There's that big ball of blazing light again. Sunshine (almost) on my shoulder. Makes me happy.

February 23
Sunday after worship brunch with Shelby, Holly, Knox, Ella, and Kelly

February 24

February 25

February 25
Elijah got to attend Faze Atlanta. If you're a fan of gamers on You Tube, then you'll know exactly what this is. He got to watch some of his favorites play in a tournament. He was very excited to get to meet some of them and talk to them and have his picture made with them. 

February 28
Snow day!

My hubby Neil celebrated his 69th today with a giant chocolate chip cookie cake (not a cake really).

He is the official birthday party punch maker in the family, so yes, he made his own birthday party punch.

Happy 69th!

Party peeps! From left: Jane, Sarah, Julia, Holly, birthday boy, Knox, Ella, Kelly, Shelby, and Don...

...and Elijah (who ended up getting his picture taken anyway, thanks, Jane😉)

February 29
Leap Year Day
This extra day every four years might make up for some of the hours taken away by daylight saving time (next Sunday--boo!!)
What did you do with your extra day?
I cleaned house.
And made this blog post.
Thanks for looking!

+I found this quote (below) that is really neat about leap year+

“Today is an ephemeral ghost...

A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not "exist."

In mundane terms, it marks a "leap" in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up!

But this day holds another secret—it contains one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light uncertainty that only exist on the razor edge of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability...

A day of unlocked potential.

Will you or won't you? Should you or shouldn't you?

Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability!”

― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration