images from our backyard

our backyard is full of interesting things....these pictures are from this past spring. we love birds and have thoroughly enjoyed this bird feeder, left by our landlord. i finally was able to capture this chickadee coming for food. unfortunately, we haven't been able to afford birdseed since they will gothrough a 25 lb. bag in about a week! i miss our friends...i may break down soon to go buy some more. we also have a huge lilac tree that makes our whole yard smell heavenly! i took this picture just when the flowers were starting to bud. this little guy has been a visitor quite often. he's our bunny rabbit. Peter. we don't know where he lives, or if he (or she) has little ones around. but he lets us come pretty close, within a couple of feet. i think he's cute! these two birdhouses are our landlord's as well. they were both hanging in our lilac tree, but the chain on one of them broke, so now it just leans against the tree. we love our backyard, it is pretty spacious and we have a private little porch. i will have to take some pictures of that as well. our porch is our favorite place to hang out on the warm summer nights. i can't wait to use it more!

family

these pictures are a few months old...but i love them. my brother sam and his wife ashley and their 1 1/2 year old daughter emma-claire live in housten, texas. very very far away from us. we found out a few weeks ago that ashley is pregnant with their second child!!! we are so excited! they haven't found out if it's a boy or girl yet, but hopefully soon they will. she is due the day after thanksgiving...so i doubt we'll see them at christmas. maybe we will be able to fly down and visit them in their 80 degree weather at that time of year. we miss them. sam is just about 2 years younger than me, so we were always pretty close. emma looks alot like him when he was a baby. i wonder who the next one will look like? emma is our parents first grandchild, and they are proud grandparents! my dad loves being a grandpa. i wish they were able to spend more time with them too. that third picture is our cousin ava (3) trying to kiss emma. although emma isn't sure if she likes that! it was one of those sweet innocent kid moments, when you wonder why they are being so cute! i love my family!

vacation days with joe and ash

these past 2 days have been a blast! dave and i drove to Williamsport, PA to spend wed. night, thurs, and today with our best friends, joe and ash. ash's parents live here in williamsport, and they had a week vacation with them. we have not seen each other since last september when we went on our beach vacation in NJ. so it was a much needed visit! berry drove down thursday morning while we slept in. bummed around for a while, and then eventually went out to A.C. Moore and then to see MI:III, which was a great movie by the way. came back home where we took naps and then went to eat at an awesome italian deli with steve and dottie (ash's parents) and then to the trout run roller skating rink! yes...we went to the golden oldies skating night! what a riot! we had so much fun, although i had a difficult start. i'm so used to ice skating, that going on 4 wheels with no toe pick totally threw me off! but i managed to get the hang of it. we got tired and came back home and just hung out watching t.v. and playing video games. today, we slept in, had coffee and ash worked on painting some menu boards for the cafe. after a pancake breakfast, dottie, ash and i went out for some girl time. we walked around downtown williamsport and stopped in some jewelry and art stores. some of the things these local artists create are just amazing! we stopped by an italian bakery where ash used to work and picked up some cannoli's and had some coconut gelati and then to another new coffee shop for coffee. it was so nice to have good old-fashioned girl time. we felt so relaxed and refreshed.

right now, ash is outside cutting dave's hair. i don't want to watch. i like it long, but they've decided to buzz it. i'm cringing as i write this! i'm afraid of what it will turn out as! but, it can always grow back! well, that pretty much summed it up. we're going to be leaving here in a few hours, so i need to go get packed up. have a great weekend!

today has been a pretty good day. it's about 3:30...i'm done with work and waiting for dave to pick me up when he's done at 4. so i'm just trying to enjoy my time until then. i am pretty much over being sick, just a little stuffy still. but meg, you are right! it was wonderful to have a solid 3 days of rest! i actually feel a bit refreshed despite being sick. i really didn't do much at all except stay home, curled up on the couch with a blanket and movies. it was nice. and it was completely justified!! but back to the daily grind...since i missed work sat. night, i work tuesday, my normal day off. but that's ok, i think it will be kindof nice. my normal days i am baking food in the kitchen and doing random odd jobs, but tuesday i will be behind the counter making drinks and i really like that part of the job. so it will be a bit relaxing i think. this picture is similar to what we do for lattes. it's called latte art. it's not mine, but i will say, it could be! i like the artistic part of the job. i'm always learning, always creating. it's more than just serving coffee. there's theories and philosophies behind everything we do. and i like becoming better. there's a finesse to being a barista. sometime i will have to write more about it, but david just called and it's time to go!