I found this on another blog called ‘The Happy Homemaker’. : )
1) I must have a cup of hot tea with lemon and artificial sweetener first thing in the morning.
2)I need to wash my face every night-some people don’t and that’s nasty.
3) I usually apply anti-bacterial lotion on my hands after church (I’ve seen the priest really sick and you know why).
4)I have a bedtime routine-must stem from not having a real one as a kid, but mine entails the use of beauty products and it gets more complex the older I get.
5)If something I read or see on tv really bothers or interests me, even an image or song, I can’t get it out of my head for several hours.
6)And if I hear a song I like, sometimes I’ll just hum or sing it for several days. Guess that’s why Sean bought me the latest Mariah Carey CD and I only liked the title track.
7)I like dogs, but I think most of them smell even when the owner says they bath them regularly.
8)I dream about pulling out weeds. That’s a gardener for you.
9) I think I have ESP.
10) I smell everything!

The first photo is a little garden next to the driveway with mostly marigolds and geraniums that mom’s neighbor was nice enough to plant for her. I planted a pink butterfly bush to the left. The yucca was from our yard and blooms nicely.
Next-what’s left of the hydrangeas.
The daylily bed in progress. I left the hosta there as it seemed to do well. In the far corner are 3 mums-two yellow and a burgundy that are out of range. I bought some Autumn Red mulch-phase 3 in a few weeks once the daylilies get established.

Sean and Bri decided to take the bus to Atlantic City with Pop pop before school starts. That is where I draw the line traveling. No bus for me. I like the car. Anyway, thank goodness there is a little more to do down there than there was say 5 yrs ago. The big mall is getting revamped and I don’t think that is opened again. There is some decent outlet shopping. Sean of course can’t gamble at 18. They may go on the beach a bit and play miniature golf. It’s about a 5 hour excursion. Please bring me home some fudge! ; )
I was just tidying up in here since we will be out of town for a few days next week. I have a doctor’s appt that I am getting nervous about (the dreaded gyn yearly). I don’t know why I am this way, but I had a few weird problems this summer which I think is from overdoing it in the garden/digging dept. Wish me well.

Hey, did you hear about the woman who was brain dead and was pregnant? I think it was down in Virginia. A lovely 26 yr old woman had a brain hemorrhage from a reoccurance of melanoma which sounds scary to me. They kept Susan alive so the little girl she was carrying had a chance. She did and was delivered by c-section at 20 something weeks. And she was named after her mom.
I was watching a rerun of Oprah and saw the lady with the 200 pound tumor. Now how in the world did that poor woman function before her surgery? After they removed it, she only weighed 98 pounds. It took her 2 years to recover, but she looks really good now. I couldn’t help get misty eyed when I say her.

My baby hibiscus raised from seed and newly planted near my coreopsis and zinnias

My own little Kermit. He rules my pond. I’ve watched him grow from a little guy if he is fact the same leopard frog whose been hanging around all summer. ; )

This doesn’t look like much, but I just planted 14 lilies in the circle area along with a few I already had.

Thanks to Abby for this:

A Real Live Meme

Where I was ten years ago
Our house was robbed in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon. The neighbors were home, but didn’t see anything. Most of my jewelry was taken including my high school and college rings plus an amethyst piece that belonged to my great grandmom. They also took our camcorder, VCR and little 8 yr old Sean’s gameboy.
Where I was five years ago
I was doing the domestic goddess thing as usual. eBay was consuming a lot of my time as was looking for stuff to sell on it. I still do eBay, but not to the extent that I did it 5 years ago. My maternal grandmom who helped to raise me and my 3 brothers had just passed away at age 97.
Where I was one year ago
About to go to Atlantic City for a few days. I talk about it in one of my first blogger posts.
Where I was yesterday
At my mom’s house with Sean (seen previous post)
Where I am today
I was mainly doing nothing. I sat outside and read and stitched, planted four baby hibiscus plants and made homemade chili with our garden tomatoes.
Where I will be tomorrow
My son has promised me a lunch at Olive Garden all summer. Maybe he’ll take me tomorrow.

Five snacks I enjoy
Honey wheat pretzel twists
M&MS
Chex mix
soft serve ice cream
Jordan almonds

Five singers (or bands) for whom I know the lyrics to most of their songs: James Taylor, Kenny Loggins, Hall & Oates, the Beatles, Heart.

Five things I would do with $100,000,000
Pay off debts and possibly revamp house to sell
Help mom fix up her house
Go to the west coast on a long vacation
Maybe fix some things on this bod
Donate to charity
Five locations I would like to run away to
Really any seaside resort or high on a mountain.
Maybe the Bahamas, Bermuda and then across the sea to Ireland, Greece and England.
Five bad habits I have
Smelling things
leaving tissues lying around
squirming in my seat at church
sneezing into my shoulder
cleaning out the cat’s ears

Five things I like doing
Baking
Surfing the web
Gardening
Cross stitching
Travel

Five TV shows I like
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Any TLC show
Conan or Craig’s late shows
Survivor
The Amazing Race

Five famous people I’d like to meet
Dare I say Jesus? ; )
James Taylor
Jimmy Carter
Carter Osterhouse (met Frank Bielec from Trading Spaces)
Any of thos English chaps from ‘Cash in the Attic’
Martha Stewart-just to say I met her? She is my mentor (BP-before prison)

My biggest joys
Sean my handsome only child
Brian my husband of over 21 yrs
My cats esp Cosmo
My love of nature
To be able to create things
To make my mom happy

My favorite toys
PC
Digital camera
DVD player
TV
eBay?

So Sean and I couldn’t wait until today when it was cooler outside to move about 50 pounds of weeds out of my mom’s side garden. I haven’t seen weeds like that for a long time. We had to borrow the neighbor’s wheelbarrow to move what we pulled out, and we almost pulled our guts out. Thank goodness for a strong, young man to help his achy middle-aged mom. It took a few hours, but we transformed an ugly area into a daylily bed with about 16 different kinds of daylilies scattered about (most came from an eBay seller in Utah-I think that is neat). I just need to find some mulch somewhere to finish it off. Of course there had to be some sticky weed amongst the grass and honeysuckle. I also applied more Tilex on the house shingles where I could reach and it is whitening them up.
Mom just told me my younger brother is replacing her rain gutters for her! One had completely fallen down in the back. So gradually we are helping her out. I even put her name in to win $5k of flooring from the HGTV site. If she could win that! Wow! Cross your fingers for Jeanne. No one else is more deserving.

Sean and I were going to go to my mom’s today to do that side garden where I have the 14 assorted daylilies to plant. A few places are going to take some muscle work, but I don’t think it will be too bad if the two of us are working. Sean and I work good together. We are starting to clean out the room in the basement (did you feel the earth move?) and we are good sorters (trash, Goodwill and save).
We didn’t get to mom’s as the heavens opened up! I am glad for the rain for all the plants and my well water. ; ) I ran to the post office to mail a book off priority for an eBay customer in Seattle who needed it by Saturday. I also got my auction of Harry Potter things sent to Vermont. I use to never have that many customers from New England, but I have been getting more and more.
I planted my 10 daylilies (plus the Stargazers I had) a few at a time yesterday. It was nicer earlier in the day and right when I wanted to get these in the ground, it heated up. I was all sweaty and red-faced, but I wanted to make sure I got at least half of what I bought planted.
Off to make dinner-really easy-chicken tenders-mayonnaise with parmesan and oregano added and spread on the chicken then baked. Easy and tasty.
PS-I got some of that Sheer Cover make-up and I think it looks nice. I’ll have to take a photo of me with it on.

Still not quite up to par today. I asked Sean to watch some almost browned grilled cheese sandwiches because I had to run to the bathroom for like the 6th time. When I came out a few minutes later, he had gone away from the stove thus burning the sandwiches on one side! Someone who is almost 19 and has made grilled cheese before should know better. I ate about half of what wasn’t burnt. He ate all of his-good luck there!
To calm myself down I went out and took a few more photos. Top photos: I have a huge portuluca bonus plant next to my brick sidewalk out front. The salmon color is really pretty next to the brick. Shasta daisies are blooming around back. I planted these in late June. That’s a photo of my front border under my big evergreen. The marigolds are looking just dandy next to the blue salvias and yellow celosia. And the last photo is of my huge planter that I am using for waterlilies. Though it could be deeper, the one plant has bloomed about 5 times. That’s the cute little duck spitter I bought from Collectibles, Inc.