Well, I mostly bought mums for under $2 each at Wally World. I also bought some pretty pinkish and ruffly coleus (I really like them this year) that I will but in a display with some ornament grass I just purchased. Got a container of Black-eyed Susans and one of Nicotiana in three shades-one is lime, my favorite. Bought some Asian lilies for my mom’s future lily garden for $1 each and in all colors, minus the flowers. I will also give mom a few mums. All the above plants were around $25, so a bargain indeed. We don’t get our first frost for a while, so I can enjoy the plants for about 2 more months.
I found a couple of pumpkins growing today in the patch! Woo-hoo! Now I think I better protect them from the beasties. Maybe I should get fine wire mesh to surround them in? LOL
Mom felt good enough to tidy up her room a bit today. I am still after her to take the herbal supplements. She said she would try them. I get misty-eyed when I think about her and me wanting to do things around her house to make her happy. I couldn’t find the sprayer thing at Walmart, so I guess I better go to the home & garden center. I have to make that green stuff on the shingles history!

I was down at my mom’s again yesterday to get her vacuum running. I knew it needed a belt. I rummaged around a drawer at her house and found one. I have the same vacuum (I helped her buy it), so I know how it works. It usually is a wonderful 12 amp (Bissell Powerglide) that gets all the crud out of your rugs. Well, after I reassembled the roller and belt, I tried it out. I’m doing all this tinkering in an room that isn’t air conditioned and the sweat was running down my face. The new belt broke within minutes! I took the assembly apart (again) and went to look for a belt in the drawer. Thank goodness there was an unopened package of the correct belts that I hadn’t seen before! Yeah! So I repeated the above and got it running, but the hose part had no suction. Uh-oh! I started to tap it on the floor and out popped all these little furry gremlins! The dog’s long blonde fur had clogged up the entire hose part. It must have been this way for a long time because as I vacuumed, I had to do the tapping and shooting of fur balls about 10 times. It’s noisy, but it’s working.
Sean and I had to take mom to the CVS to get her pills. She did really well walking around in there. It had been since the 11th of July that she was out of her house! This morning she called and said she was in terrible pain. I wish she would try the herbal supplements. I got them out for her and she defiantly said ‘not yet’! I told her I take herbs everyday of my life and they don’t bother me. I don’t know why she is afraid to take a capsule that has rosemary and other herbs in it.
I applied bleach to the green on my mom’s house shingles and it looks like it is fading it. I need one of those applicators that people use for Miracle-gro. I can’t reach the second floor area without a ladder. I figured I could put bleach where the fertilizer goes and shoot from ground level. I also plan to add topsoil to the side of the house under her dining room window and plant all kinds of daylilies (mom’s favorite flower) there. I am hoping to win an eBay auction for 20 daylily fans-10 varieties.
Sean and I went to the mall and had salad and pizza at a place called Carrabba’s. It was pretty good. We wanted to do some damage with our Macy’s gift cards. I got an Anne Klein watch for 40% off. It’s pretty with a two tone chain bracelet and mother of pearl face (with a diamond chip). I got a few pairs of earrings, 2 skirts, a poncho type thingie in aqua, tops for mom and me, and some shirts for Brian and his dad. His dad gets us the g.c.s at Caesars in Atlantic City.
I am trying to get my act together to go to a book sale down the road. I don’t need them, but I love to look.

Last night I was making turkey meatloaf (I sub turkey a lot for hamburger) and decided to have fried eggplant as the side dish. There was also a green tomato sitting there and I thought, what the heck, I’ll fry that up too! Did you know that tomatoes turn red from the inside out? All I did was slice the veggies up, dip them in an egg wash, then Italian style bread crumbs. I salted and peppered them (and threw on a little garlic powder) while they sauteed in olive oil (another staple of mine). I thought they were very good. The fellas said ‘they were all right’. Guess they like zucchini fritters a little better.
It’s a steam bath already. I have a package to mail to Lititz, PA (I could drive there too) for eBay. I may walk around Big Lots for a change of scenery.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the petunias are gettting a little leggy and I will probably take scissors to them. I finally got the pump in the pond to sit upright by replacing the container it was in. The water is crystal clear! It should be as it’s been replaced about 5 times. I could see and remove all the stringy algae.
I have raising some hibisicus that when mature will give me blooms the size of dinner plates.
The little seedlings are only about 2 inches tall and under the shade of the umbrella today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Above are a couple of bookmarks I made for my niece and nephew. They are stitched on a vinyl type of product, so fractional stitches aren’t used except for half stitches. Kenny plays guitar, so that was perfect for him. I made up both verses. Tori’s says, “Nemo likes finding Tori with a book”. Kenny’s says “It’s so cool to strum a chord, now open this book and you won’t be bored”. I like making bookmarks as they only take a few evenings to complete.

View from my family room. Those are my many African Violets in the foreground. The point of this photo was seeing how big the butterfly bush is!  

It’s a rite of summer around here to ‘go down the shur’. I’ve been doing it all my life. I love the beach areas. We’ve been to: Wildwood, NJ, Cape May, NJ, Ocean City, NJ, Atlantic City, NJ, Seaside Heights, NJ, Rehoboth, Delaware and Ocean City, MD. One of my first posts last year was about our trip to Atlantic City. This year we are headed for one of the best beach resorts in the area, Ocean City, MD. Love the inlet area, the bay, the shopping, but mostly the beach as it’s never really crowded as there is so much of it.
I was thinking about all the trips to Wildwood growing up. You have to pause several times before you get to the edge of the water as the beach is so wide. We got caught in a downpour when I was little and were not able to get under the boards before becoming drenched to the bone.
We stayed on the third floor of a place and my mom and grandmom brought too much stuff (sequins to play bingo?).It rained most of the time we were there and Don and I played ‘Movie Moguls’ 30 times. I also got a wicked sunburn and remember suffering from it.
I also went down there with my pals from junior college when we graduated. Three of us tried to sleep in a double bed. I ended up on a blow-up raft. I ate turkey hoagies for every meal it seems. We were also stuck in the rain and ended up in this seedy bar. I was so tired from that trip, I slept for almost 2 days.
Wildwood is also where I fell for Brian. We have a polaroid to prove it.

Found this on ‘The Daily Bitch’ (on the sidebar there—>)
What you do is Google your name “Dianne is” and see what comes up. There are some cool Diannes out there!

Dianne is a seminar leader who has many success stories.

Dianne is slow going.

Dianne is damp. (only in the shower or caught in a rainstorm)

Dianne is acknowledged to be one of Australia’s leading teachers. (never been there, but I did call someone in Aussy on the phone a few years ago).

…as this is still a fairly new area that Dianne is exploring.

The Transitional Services are great, but Dianne is what makes it the BEST!”

Dianne is the spark plug for a group of supportive and motivational people. …

Dianne is a gifted author and educator who has used her skills to address the destructive nature of anger and the healing power of love…. (so true! LOL)

Dianne is FABULOUS!!! (thanks Dahling!!!)

I haven’t posted for two days? Don’t faint now. I was down at my mom’s again yesterday trying to help her out again. I was doing the kitchen. I can’t get into how bad it was or I’ll get myself in a stew again. I spent 2 hours cleaning a small portion of it and wore myself out because it was warm in there and there was too much that needed cleaning. Mom vegetated on the sofa and didn’t have the air up all the way. I wanted to take her out in the car, but she said she’s too weak. I brought her down some breakfast, which she hardly touched and a hoagie. I did manage to get her to drink almost half a jug of green tea. I told her she is never going to feel stronger if she doesn’t eat.
Sean had dropped me off on his way to his math tutoring. He had to go a little longer to hopefully get into a higher level. So he’ll go up two levels! As a treat, we went to Ruby’s Diner. It’s looks like the 50s diners and we had burgers. I treated myself to a couple of books at Borders. My garden chums will appreciate this-I got a lovely big book called ‘Encyclopedia of Herbs’ the definitive guide to the identification, cultivation and used of herbs with over 1,000 herbs and 1,500 photographs-only $9.99. The garden lay-outs are beautiful. Lots of flowers are actually herbs. Well that makes sense doesn’t it? I purchased a wonderful magazine that Miracle-Gro put out called ‘Container Gardening’ (Zoey!). I was really enjoying it at 2 am when I couldn’t sleep. Some of the combos of plants are fantastic. I saw a ‘planter’ made out of various flowerpots that I want to make for mom and me. I actually saw those bowl shaped clay pots marked down at Value City a few weeks ago. I sure hope they still have them.
Speaking of making things, I bought some makings of a Christmas ‘alphabet block’ tree last year. I need a base for them. I had made one years ago and they are so adorable, I’d thought I’d make and sell a couple of them on eBay. I really love to make things and miss using that part of my brain when it’s been a while since I’ve gotten ‘down to brass tacks’ with my craft things.
It’s smoldering here again. I just love seeing the plants wilting everyday. I am wilting too. My sinuses are killing me. It’s a mixture of something outside, the air running all the time and cleaning at mom’s. Time for a cross stitching break!

I am getting tired, I swear. Stop shaking your heads at the late hour of this post. I was also overdoing it after dinner as it was the first ‘tolerable’ evening in many to go outside and weed.
We either need a new battery for the riding mower or a new mower. I am hoping it’s the first. Sean tried to cut the grass in the late afternoon and it wouldn’t turn over. Brian came home from work and jump started it. So we had a later dinner of Acme fried chicken, potato salad and steamed broccoli rabe (we haven’t been eating that many greens lately). The mower also dies if it overheats. If we could wait until September or so…end of the season sales then.
So first I weed whacked the back and up one side of the house and I pooped out. They I pulled out these long pieces of grass out of the middle of plants, along borders, it’s everywhere! I planted some white salvia in an almost all white garden. The poor cell pack sat there for a few weeks and even wilted a few times.
Going back to around 3, I did get to the post office to mail off a few eBay things. I sold a cute salt and pepper set of Pussyfoot and Marc Anthony (the Looney Tune characters) for
$42! Yippee. I made an excellent profit on it.
Brian’s cousin’s daughter waited on me in the Acme. She is 3 months older than Sean but is a Sophomore at Kutztown. We chatted a bit. Seems she was a little wild as a Freshman. (No, she didn’t tell me this, Sean did).
My Sean doesn’t want to drink at all. I even offered to have him try a beer at home and he said he’s not interested in drinking. He says why would people drink enough to make them pass out? I told him if he is afraid of people making fun of him for not drinking to say he’s either the designated driver or he’s allergic to alcohol. Peer pressure stinks. I am sure he’ll do fine though.

Pretty Rose of Sharon bush. Definitely worth having in your garden. This came with the house-lol! The bees love it. They go in one of the flowers and come out covered in snowy pollen.