Hi.
(Sheepishly)
It's been a long several months since I blogged. This was supposed to be an at least once a week thing.
Stuff happened, I lost control of my pictures and life for a while. But Things are doing ok now.
I really want my blog to be an image rich experience for people to visit and feel uplifted or be able to relate to - or at the very least relate to escape to. But life is very fickle sometimes, and when ever I aspire to do something, challenges most assuredly show up.  I have had many health challenges to deal with as well and as a result of years of these health problems I've come up with a hybrid of 2 old sayings that goes "that which does not kill us - will most likely try and try again."
We don't always get stronger, sometimes just humbler and maybe...MAYbe wiser and more patient if we accept what we cannot change...at least not right now.
I have SO many photos of what's been going on around here for the last several months, I don't even know where to begin...so we'll begin where we left off in April I guess. If a  picture is worth a thousand words, how much are a thousand pictures worth?
That's about how many I have to share. Where to begin....hmmm.
well, lets start here.....in the garden.

 Spring had sprung and the air was a mixed boquet of beautiful scents. Most of which I cannot identify because we did not plant most of this garden. The previous owners of the property did.
                                         Bless them!

 This boquet is a little more pungent but just as beautiful. It's fresh matured manure from our very own Little Cow.

 We put it in our grow boxes and get planting our veggies....

That was a fun day and I have to thank our dear friends the Mike and Andrea Saunders for helping us for the second year in a row to put in a garden. I'm not a green thumb, I'm a black thumb, so this was a big deal for me. I do believe Andrea is the plant whisperer. She could grow bananas in Antarctica. She is my gardening super hero!


Next up....in May,

Stella and I took a trip to Utah to visit my daughter at school and lots and lots of family!!
We love to visit family and friends whenever we can, we are pretty isolated out here in Connecticut, all our families live in the west. So we had a great time and it looked like this..

 Fist thing I did was go have a Mother's day treatment at Carly's cosmetology school. She did a nice job on my hair and nails. We had a good time.

Stella good timed herself right out!

Then we went to my Brothers and hung out and had a good dinner and good times like always. His kids are so funny. Stella had her first pickle and loved it! Didn't give it any thought, just another yummy food!

Mmmmmm, pickles! 

Tyson decided that they should have an awkward faces photo contest. 

Kenny won.  

We also made camp at Steve and Terressa's.....and Fender's...home.

 Stella and Fender have a "special" relationship.
They always have since their first meeting when she was newborn. He has always been very interested and protective of her. She thinks he's pretty awesome too.











Here, Stella is saying....."Fender, you're such a great host but I have to go soon. But  I'll be back, I promise, I'll be back!  Please don't cry buddy...then I'll cry too, it will be messy & slobbery & hairy. "

We also loved watching Fender capture evil balloons!! 

Stella was having trouble deciding what to wear one day......Then later at cousins she had her first strawberry! 

More please!!

Cousins are the mostest funnest !!

 Stella is a great traveller and .....

Had a nice visit and cuddle with Gramama while I had all the mercury removed from my old fillings. 

Then we got to go to Cousin Teressa's studio so I could get my hair cut. Stella was a good girl! Or maybe she was probably a little tipsy from all the product odors in there!

Either way we had a good time with cousins!Also of note PROPS to cousin Tress for sprucing up the awesome little Emmaljunga stroller. It's called the Dennis and I had bought if when Billy, my oldest son was a baby...22 years ag...o. Wow, was it that long ago??? Whoa. Anyway, she did a bang up job and everywhere we went people were begging to know where we got this cute little buggy! Sadly these are no longer available anywhere anymore. That's why I was so thrilled that Teressa did such a great job breathing new life into this sweet little ride! BRAVO TRESS!

Then later we did a little late night shopping with cousin Tress. As you can see Stella is shocked to still be aloud to be awake so late!!

 

She was very ...very helpful and inspected every piece of produce scrupulously before it was aloud in the cart. 

This of course can be exhausting.....

..but we still managed a little more fun with big sis, Carly

And then, after a good nights sleep we ended our tour back at Aunt Marialice's house, crawling EVERYWHERE and investigating EVERYTHING!!

 They had great conversations and ....

 Played some seriously FUN games!

That Aunt Marialice sure knows how to show a baby a good time!!

Then suddenly we were home, in our bed, well, in my bed. Relaxing in the familiar sights, smells and sounds that only home can provide. Even after a great trip to visit loved ones, it's good to be home.We both had a nice long snoooze, well at least I did. : )    Next up...Mothers Day post. Stay tuned!