Mother's Day

As I said, it has been a busy few weeks. On Mother's Day we had both of our families over for an afternoon of fun and food (remember the carrot cake). Some of you may know that the Mills are sporty, and the Greene's are... chatty. We may have found the perfect combination. We had a rousing game of kickball. A game of relatively low athletic ability, that allows for both competition and conversation.
a fancy plane flew by to get us started
Getting our kickball on!
Maybe if we space ourselves out a bit, people will actually think we are actually playing.
So you can't really see this picture very well, but in the center Jonathan is standing with his hands up because he is celebrating the fact that he just threw that giant blue ball!
The kids were climbing on the sandbox and the jungle gym.

Bob-O and Mary wiggling their toes in the sand.




Even Everette was in good spirits!
Like Father Like Son!
Grant the super-stud!
Yes mom, you can have a copy of this!
Synchronized baby crawling!Laura and Gramma Betty.Jonathan is not too sure about all of these festivities.
It's the Greene girls!What the heck! Get that thing outta my face!
Even Max got in on the fun, oh Max!
Watch out Elijah!
Oy!

this is a very dark picture of the mother's day presents we made for our mothers, Everette found this project in his Home Handyman, we worked together to frame up these four platform plant stands. They are made out of cedar and they smell delicious. THen our respective siblings bought pots and plants. Alright eeverybody, let's pack it up! Time for nye-nye!

Glee

I just finished watching Fox's series premiere, "Glee". It was delightful. The verdict is still out on the acting (I think its too early to tell). But the music, oh the music. It was a total throwback to high school . I won't deny it, it was awesome!! I am totally excited about the rest of the season next fall. If you are thinking it's high school musical, not quite, its a little more grown-up than that, and none of the music is original. If you are a high school music geek at heart, welcome home.

There is a new post way down on may 3rd. That is the day I started it, but I didn't finish until tonight, so scroll on down and read all about it. It has a bajillion pictures and lots of hilarious commentary by me... It is titled Weekend projects....

in the world of blogging (or at least in my world) my blog goes silent when life gets too full of living. Usually there is a lot going on, just no time to write about it. So here is my pathetic attempt to catch up.
Stay tuned for three week updates!

Quick Confession

I have so many things to tell you about.. but there is just so little time!
This will have to do for now.. . I just had the most divine lunch.
Yesterday we had mother's day at my house. More on the festivities later.
My grandmother made her world famous potato salad, my brother made delicious pork roast, and divine carrot cake.

so for lunch today, I ate potato salad right out of the tupperware container (trust me it is better that way). Then I polished it of with carrot cake.
But this carrot cake I must tell you about.
My brother made it (his kids helped) because he loves his wife.
In fact, they were packing up to go, Michelle asked if anyone else wanted more carrot cake, thinking she meant right now, I stupidly said no. Then later as we were divying up the rest of the leftovers i realized what she really meant. Then I grabbed some tupperware ad made a mad dash to the street to retrieve some out of the back of here van.
So today, I opened up the container, stuck in my fork and took a bite. It was amazing, but it was missing something. Milk. Fair Oaks Milk. Right out of the jug. There was no time for plates or glasses, I thought I was doing pretty good to be using a fork, instead of licking the icing of of the lid.

THere is something in drinking the milk straight from the jug when no one is around to watch that is so satisfying.
So Michelle, thank you for enduring three c-sections, countless hours of whining, sleepless nights, and an often times pain-in-the-butt husband (he's my brother-I can say these things), so that you could be a mother, so that he (Brian) could appreciate all the things you put up with, and love you so, as to make a deliciousl carrot cake, and take it to my house to celebrate mother's day, thus leaving several pieces at my house to enjoy.
p.s. I ate the snicker's salad last night otherwise I would have been posting about that!
God Bless summer.... and picnic food!

Happy Mother's Day

I came home from my Wednesday Play Group and this is what I found in the garage waiting for me...



Everette was sneaking around on craig's list and found this used jogger stroller (don't worry I am not going to start jogging). but I have been walking a great deal lately, and our stroller just doesn't cut the mustard. This one is so nice. So easy to push, and so easy to fold. He thought about waiting until Mother's Day, but then he thought we might get some good use out of it sooner. I also know that Everette is horrible about waiting to give people surprises. He can hardle contain himself. Don't let hiss cool disconnected aloof exterior fool you, inside he is all boy!

And since we are talking about mothers. I was looking online for info about robin's nest. And I found that Mama birds almost always lay four. THey also only lay one egg per day. The site I found says that if you keep taking an egg out, they will lay another, because they have to "feel" the four underneath them. WHich made me think, I only saw three the other day. At that moment the FedEx man left a package on my front door. So I grabbed my camera, went over to the front door. Banged around, made some noise, tried to calm my pounding heart. I unlocked both locks on the door, creaked open the door slowly, peered up as high as I could to make sure there was no mama bird. Took a breath opened the door, stuck my camera over the top and sure enough....

Speaking of Mother's Day.....
I'm not saying I wouldn't like more, but if he's all I get, I'll take it!If he reads like his dad, We're going to have to move next door to the Library.

Score one for the evil empire/bird update

I have several friends and loved ones with strong convictions about Wal-Mart, while I share some of their feelings, there are also other reasons I avoid wal-mart.
1. Their produce is TERRIBLE
2. The store is almost always packed.
3. It gives me a headache.
however, there are some days when I find myself there. Such was the case a few days ago. I was stopping in to grab some milk and a few other essentials.
Imagine my surprise when I strolled down the milk aisle and found Fair Oaks Milk.
A local Indiana dairy that produces milk without anitbiotics and growth hormones. I know that there are other stores in town that carry it, but even Meijer who claims to carry local food from local growers, doesn't have Fair Oaks Milk.



Also.... for those tiny few of you who care about the bird's nest, it is still on my front door. Where it might actually stay. A decision has yet to be made. We did however have a confirmed mama bird sighting, when my mom tried to peek into the nest.
For now our front door is barred shut.

Surprise for Michelle!!!

So don't get me wrong. I LOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE my son. I mean I LOVE him. He is adorable, and charming, and amazing, and mine. But he is a boy, which means he wears boys clothes. Which are cute, but they are not ADORABLE (generally speaking). I do have, however, two neices, and they wear girl clothes. ADORABLE girl clothes. What is more, they are close enough in age that sometimes they can wear MATCHING girl clothes. I am not so sure that their mom is big into matching clothes but their Auntie sure is!
I am sure in about ten years I would happily settle for boy clothes to avoid teenage girl drama.
Anyway back to my story.
I was out shopping today and I happened upon two super cute matching dresses that happened to be the the exact same size as my two adorable nieces! Very hard to resist...


What!?! Did you think I was going to show you all before Michelle got to see? Get real!

Nature

Imagine my surprise...uhhh...shock...dismay...fright...horror...sheer terror. Yeah, that sounds about right.

This morning I remembered that the dry cleaners were dropping off Everette's suit (stay tuned to find out how we managed to score free dry cleaning delivery service)... So I swung open the front door to hang the hook next to my new wreath ( I got only two weeks ago)
The pretty yellow one in the middle!!!!
I noticed that there was some mud above the wreath.
"that's odd", I thought, but it blows like the prairie out here so I didn't think it was too strange. Then I took a second look, and this is what I saw...."yes, Megan, there are branches on the wreath, and we see your pretty white dry cleaning hook. maybe you need to get out more."
Look again....
If you'll remember I said I have only had this for two weeks. So I knew that this nest was new, it had not been abandoned. It was just above my height so I couldn't see in (not that I wanted to). At that moment I realized that I was standing inside my house, holding open my front door (that opens in). With a serious case of "the willies", I quickly (but carefully) slammed the door shut. My first thought was to begin screaming hysterically (I was already doing that on the inside). My curiosity to see what was in it began to grow. I was definitely not interested in peeking over the top, I considered going to get Everette. Then I remembered that Everette was actually working, and if he wasn't here I would have to be a big girl and do things for myself.
Then I remembered my phone was in my pocket. Thank GOD for modern technology. I flipped open my phone, tentatively stuck my hand over the nest and snapped a photo.Three perfect little robin's eggs. Armed with digital proof, I ran upstairs to Everette's office, busted breathless through the door saying, "EVERETTE, guess what is hanging on our front door!?!" Even Everette was impressed.
Me:"What are we gonna do? Do we move it?"
E: "Well if you don't want bird crap all over our front porch. You can just pick it up and ..."
M:"WHOA! What do you mean "me"? I'm not moving that thing! YOU'RE moving it!"
E: "Oh, Just get some gloves..."
M:"No freakin' way. If ever there was a "man job" this is it!!! I AM NOT TOUCHING THAT THING!"
I left before he had a chance to throw down "the Man Card."

So feeling a little braver I got out my real camera and took a few more pictures.

So for now a bird's nest sits on my front door.
I would now like a chance to defend myself. If this nest were on my porch or even in the porch light, or anywhere else in our yard. I would be all for this! I remember we had a robin's nest on our deck growing up. It was super cool and a great science lesson.
But we are talking my front door, people!!! Which means at any moment a bird could fly IN my house. I am NOT down with that!!!


So if anyone has any ideas on how to move the nest without disturbing the nest and the possibility of the mother coming back, I would be glad to hear them.
I really do not want a real life version of, Are You My Mother?

Weekend projects

*****************I started this post three weeks ago, but it just got too long and I ran out of steam, so I have no idea where this will post, (I can't always figure out when my blog decides to post things--it has a mind of it's own). Anyway, here's the scoop...

Things have been busy here at the Mills. Last week we dug trenches and planted asparagus then dug three post holes to put up lattice to screen our ugly compost pile. That way the neighbors don't have to watch our Christmas tree decay.
We finished planting our garden. We'll see how it goes, this year. Every year we learn a little more than we did the year before.

This weekend we spent working on a more "fun" project. When Everette was little his dad and his grandfather built a sandbox. It had benches and swinging doors that kept the critters out and doubled as a ramp to launch trucks, army men, and little boys off of. So once we found out we were pregnant Everette began plotting the sand box. This was the weekend. We started the morning with a good breakfast. Waffles, bacon and eggs at Everette's parents house. Then Everette, his brother, and his dad headed off to Menard's.
Things started off really smoothly.Luckily they had me to capture the entire process on film (so to speak).

What an impressive team. One thing you can say about those Mills' boys-they work hard, and the work well together. (oops that's two.)
They framed up the box in the garage, but quickly realized that their childhood sandbox may have "seemed" a bit bigger than it was in actuality. Everette had consulted with his dad beforehand and they decided that the box must have been 8x8 (which made sense-because there would have been little cutting involved. Once we all got a good look at the 8x8 frame in the garage, we decided it must have been 4x4 or 5x5. Oops. Oh well---onward.Everette and his dad consulting about how to address the monstrosity that is the sandbox.
As the grandfather it is your right to frequently take on a more supervisory role. You know, give fatherly advice from a seated position.

The next task was the doors. Must be heavy enough to keep critters out, as well as little boys when their mommy doesn't want them sandy (like before church, perhaps). As I looked at the decking Everette chose for the lid, I was concerned. I voiced my concern, "If I can't open these doors by myself, I am going to be mad."
My concern was quickly dismissed by eternal optimism. I went about making lunch, and when I came out, Everette said, "ok honey open the doors."
I looked down at the door, or what was in reality, a 4x8 deck. I bent down wrapped my hands around the board, and pulled.
Three ruptured discs, a hernia, and a burst cesarean scar later (sorry that was gross, I know), there was still no air between the lid and the box. Eternally optimistic, I asked them to tie a rope so I could pull it over (or harness a team of sled dogs to lift it). When I watched my strapping young husband, and his ultra ripped younger brother (you're welcome Grant) have an anurism lifting the doors together, I was beginning to realize my worst fears.Grant-charming, handsome, hilarious, delightful, available (seriously-get 'em while you can--he is hoping to go to Spain next year.)See he's so awesome he's glowing.

Then my ultra ripped, genius, and conveniently single brother-in-law said, "what if we made four doors?" A light, at the end of this long dark tunnel. This required a third and final trip to the hardware store, but a few hours later we had four doors.
You're welcome single ladies.
When the doors were only two, this was ONE of the two doors. They were made out of 1x4's, are you getting the picture?
Grant tests the strength of the first door--so brave.
Once Grant determined it was safe-we sent in Jonathan, he was just excited because he got a stick.
Jonathan LOVES to sit on the mower--he has never ridden it, but he loves to "drive"it. I am guessing he won't love it so much on Saturdays when he is in high school.
Look at him with the kiddos, what a catch! Look at that face! Melts you like butter!
Yes, I am the mom that lets my kid stand up in the wagon.


I forgot to mention this project began at 9 AM, bu the time 6 PM rolls around, the doors were finished and we were ready for the barn raising... I mean moving the sandbox. In anticipation of moving this monstrosity, we had invited my parents over under the guise of having dinner.
Once we moved it to the back, they had to dig out the yard so the sandbox could be level. Young men hard at work.Old Men supervising.
Now lifting it into it's final position.
All together now...One...Two...Three. And finally, reattaching the doors...

And the test subject was brought back in.



Ramps are good.
We finally ate dinner and finished everything around 8:30 (did I mention this quick little project was originally scheduled for Mother's Day? I am so glad that didn't happen!)
Thanks Daddy, for my super awesome sandbox, that mommy can open!!!