I haven't been taking pictures lately so I will share with you some flowers from my garden and from on a walk that we took.  I picked these two because it seems like very time I go to take a picture of a flower there is some kind of bug on it.  I guess the bugs like the best flowers like I do.

Not much going on other than now I need to get packing for our trip up north.  On my list is to call the kennel today to see if we can bring Sadie there Thursday night.  We plan to leave bright and early Friday morning.

It's been pretty quiet around here with Lauren gone.  The 3 adults living here are gone to work during the day, so it's just me in the house with the occasional entry of Jim and Josh coming to get something.  Erin likes her new job and is pretty tired when she gets home at 5:30.

Remember there is some wonderful news coming soon....and no Diane I am NOT pregnant  (LOL).  That one had my sister laughing.

You all have a great day today.

Judy

Today is the letter Z for ABC Wednesday over at Mrs Nesbitt's Place.  Head on over for more Z posts.

Zebra Mussels have invaded the Great Lakes and many other bodies of water.  Click on the two links to read more on the Zebra Mussels. 

Here are the Zebra Mussels in our area.

Here you can see the sand.

Now here the sand is getting less visible.

Now there is nothing but Zebra Mussel shells. 

Zebra Mussels are invading the Midwest, and can be quite devastating. Looking at these pictures you can really see the results of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

54 words

Speed test

Finally I made it to the flag shop.  I picked up three seasonal flags for my yard.  Here's one of them.  I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the other two.

Also we finally put in the electric fence.  It took them all day but the guys did it.  We are not going to start training Sadie yet until we get back.  I think starting and stopping would not be good.  It might just confuse her.

I found this growing in between the bricks on our patio.  Petunias sure do pop up in the most unusual places.

This morning was a much better morning starting out.  Phil has moved back home until the wedding.  We'll enjoy having him home again for a few short months. 

I realized with the summer months here I haven't really tried any new recipes.  I did make up a couple of new dishes myself last night though.  Sorry no pictures.  When I get to the end of my menu week before I make a new menu.  I start to lose ideas on what to make.  With Jim and I both trying to eat healthier I was really scrapping the bottom of the barrel in my fridge and pantry.  But....here's what I came up with.

I took chicken breasts and put them in a glass cake pan.  I found some fire roasted peppers in my pantry.  I drained them and layered the peppers over the chicken breast and baked the chicken covered until they were done.  I found the taste fine some may find it very bland.

I also found a bag of seasoned Ore-Ida hashbrowns in my freezer.  My dad bought them but didn't realize they were seasoned (I'm thinking they are a new product) so he gave them to me.

I made cheese-less cheesy potatoes.  At least my version of them.  They were actually very good.  They must have been the pan was empty.

I took the Hashbrowns and added 1/2 container of Fat-Free Sour Cream.  I then melted 1/2 stick of Margarine and stirred it into the hashbrowns and sour cream mixture.  I baked them about a 1/2 hour.

I'm thinking with the potatoes being seasoned that you really didn't need the cheese or anything else.  So those are my recipe shares for the week.

I hope you all have a wonderful day today.

Judy

That's what I'm feeling right about now.

Woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m. to a river flowing through my house.  Someone (who will remain nameless) left the hose to my washer hanging out of the laundry tub.  That someone needed to move it to wash his her their hands after working on cars this past weekend and DH who always puts a load of clothes going in the wee morning hours on his way up to the office did not notice that the hose would drain not in the laundry tub but on the floor when the washing machine goes into it's spin and rinse cycle and drain out....sigh. 

Well the good news is I don't have to wash that part of my floor today.  So something good does always come out of something bad.  Even if you have to stretch it a bit. :)

I'm thinking I need to be back here right about now.

Now that I've got that all off my chest. 

This is going to be a very busy week.  Friday we leave for the U.P. and Laurens Confirmation.  There are also a couple of weddings on Saturday that we are thinking of going to.  We'll either stay until Monday or leave back Sunday afternoon for home.  Then....on Saturday we will leave to see Jake who should be home.  We don't plan to get to North Carolina until Sunday night so we are going to have a little stopover in Nashville. YEAH!!!!  My utmost favorite place to visit.  If things go well we'll head out of Nashville towards Knoxville and maybe just maybe I'll get to meet Angie if the timing is right. 

I haven't been taking any pictures lately but I did take this one the other day when we went for our walk.

Today is office day so I'll be off and running.

You all have a great day today and I'll try to too.

Judy

I am so excited.  My utmost favorite flowers are starting to bloom.  Boy do I love this time of year.  I wish these could stay all year.

I know they don't look the best for being the first blooms of the season.  But I don't care.  I still love them.

This one is pretty good.  I can't wait until they are all in bloom.

Sadie loves to run around the yard when I'm weeding and yesterday was no different.  She'll run until she drops.  Of course she had to eat some grass while she was resting.

I sure hope your weekend is going well.  Summer is going by so fast.  I wish we could hang on to it somehow and slow it down. 

You all have a wonderful day today.

Judy

Julie from Jane's Apron did a mosaic on summer-y flickr photos and one of my pictures is in it.  Go and check it out. :)

Did I ever show you my Clematis?  Well I finally was able to get one to bloom.  I'm not sure if it's where I've been planting them or if it's our soil.  But this year I have finally gotten a Clematis plant to grow and bloom but with only one bloom so far.  That's okay though.  I'm just so thrilled that I finally got a Clematis plant to grow so I will just take one bloom at a time.

I guess I should read up on them.  Maybe that will help me to figure out how to get these to grow.  Usually I don't have a problem growing things but I do with this plant.

So I enjoyed my one bloom this year and I hope next year I have a few more.

Last night Jim and I met some friends for Dinner up in Milwaukee.  We really had a nice time visiting.  There's nothing like being able to get out and enjoy the evening with friends after a long week of working and dealing with the everyday things that go on in life.

Not much going on today.  It was raining when I woke up this morning so putting the electric fence in today will have to be put on hold for a few more days until it dries out some.

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday today.

Judy

Head on over to The Pink Potpourri for a chance to win an awesome painting.