Why I Missed It

Below, you can be in awe of the reason I have done so little this summer. I have been madly knitting on this afghan to finish it by tonight, and low and behold, it's done. Still a little damp from it's final wash, but put in the gift bag anyway. The bride-to-be knows me. She will understand. Also, all outsiders are now banned from my house until I can forge a path through the mountains of dirt, grime and dirty dishes that have accumulated on my shores during the final days of this project. I really did have to push to finish it, but also, this project gave me an excellent reason to ignore all adult responsibilities and knit instead. "Sorry honey, you'll have to buy some new socks, I don't have time to wash some for you. I have the knit." "Sure dear, you can have a pop tart for dinner. I don't have time to cook. I have to knit." You get the idea.

 

 

What else I missed

So this summer kinda flew past me. Early in August, we went on our second annual Pymatuning Vacation with my husband's whole family and my parents. It was a little less stressful for me this year, as the Bug was a whole year older, but as a family, we added two infants to the roster, so it was kinda nuts. Kate and her cousins (also 3) had tons of fun. We swam in the lake. (By we I mean that I totally let my sisters-in-law go in the cold water with the kids while I sat in a beach chair and took pictures.) We took everyone up to Linesville to feed the fish. If you don't know about this, it's a huge deal at Pymatuning. These carp are born in fishery waters, and therefore can't be fished. There are millions of them, and the gather at the spillway where people throw them bread. It's actually kinda freaky, but a tradition, so we had to do it.

We took the kids to a little festival where they got to go in a bounce house.

And down a big slide.
This was my first experience with letting my kid go into something without me and actually trusting her to behave and not to freak out. It would not be the last time this summer, and she did very well. (Yes I have let her play at the McDonald's Play Place, and yes, I did have to climb in there and get her the first time, so it doesn't count.)
We also visited the Pymatuning Deer Park where she enjoyed her second pony ride, something she really seems to like, but always wears a very serious face for. We also took the kids on a train ride where Bug enjoyed everything but the noise.

The biggest hit of the trip was the water park. I really didn't want to do this, as I assumed she would be too scared to participate, and there would be a big fight, and tears and lots of public embarrassment. Instead she watched her cousins go down the slide one time, and decided there was nothing bad about that, and all three of them didn't stop sliding for about an hour and a half. They LOVED it, and since there were 5 adults with them at all times, we didn't have to worry about anybody being out of sight or getting hurt. It was great, and I think the thing that cost us the least on the whole trip. Definitely worth every penny. However I was not stupid enough to take my camera to the water park, so there is no photographic evidence.
Then we did something she didn't enjoy quite so much:

Last year we rented a nice slow pontoon boat and puttered around the lake. This year the daddies decided that was boring and rented these little boats with outboard motors and took us all the way to the dam. Granted it would have taken a week to get there on the pontoon boat, but the ride in these little boats was not what you would call smooth. Bug and I had to sit in the front to balance out the boat, and we felt it hit every single wave. Trust me when I tell you that I was making the same face she is in the picture.
Despite the teeth jarring boat ride, we had a lovely vacation, and Kate got to spend lots of time with her cousins. What could be better.

Here it is...

Quite some time ago, in my last post, I promised to show you something else that was hiding in my jungle of a garden. So, first the story: Last spring, when we first put in this flower bed, my grandmother gave me some Asiatic Lily bulbs, and I planted them. I didn't however, tell my husband where I planted them, so he tilled up that spot and planted basil. So, goodbye lily bulbs. I didn't really forget about them, but the package they came in was gone, so I did forget what they were supposed to be. Then, this year out of the blue, 4 plant spikes came out of the ground, odd because only three bulbs got planted last year. I guess the hubby divided one of them with the tiller. Anyway, they got these giant buds on them and then apparently entered a time warp, because they froze like that for at least a month. We'd been having a rather cool summer, and apparently they didn't like it. The weeds however, loved it, and I didn't have the time, the energy or the will to clean them out, so the flower bed became a feral jungle, full of weeds trying valiantly to strangle out everything else. Then one day it got warm, and from my living room window I noticed some white and pinkish color in the garden. I thought, "man that clover's out of hand, I should really get out there and weed." And I walked out and found this...

And this...

Holy crap, those are stargazer lilies. The same things my grandmother adores so much she frogmarches the whole family out to see every bloom. And they were just hiding there in my garden. I can't wait to tell her I grew them. I'll leave out the part where I didn't even know they were there. If I pretend to be a real gardener, she might give me some more bulbs like that.