The tickets are booked :)

Our grand summer adventure is going to be ......... a trip to Britain :) We have our tickets booked, our first two days in London sorted out, new passports applied for for the kids, house/dog sitter taken care of. We are planning a stay in East Anglia, Scotland, maybe Wales & Ireland and then back to London to head home. We want to do cathedrals and beaches as part of that and I'm planning a day at the genealogy research center while the family does a tour of Edinburgh.

When I let my mother know a couple of days ago she was speechless. She had also just received a letter from a cousin in New Zealand asking if it would be possible to visit while they are doing their Europe travels :) We have been trying to track them down for years. He found my parents address in a book (?) and wrote to them.

So Nik and Kris will end up with a busyish summer. Between them they have the pioneer trek, Girls Camp, Scout camp and Britain plus some other stuff related to school and church.

Juliet has to stay late at work today. There is a company meeting. She is hoping it is not bad news.

Elisabeth is enjoying spring term. She spent the long week-end with a couple of friends in Idaho, via Montana (missed their exit.) 

Over the long weekend we got to celebrate John's birthday. Some friends had a surprise dinner for him which was very enjoyable.  We took a bundt cake :)

A bit of a mixture.

Today is such a contrast to the weather of the past few weeks. It is light, refreshing, slightly breezy and in the low 70's. I've been able to pull weeds, trim bushes, dead-head plants etc.

"O Jerusalem" finally showed up in the mail last week so I went out this morning to try and find a really nice frame. Not that easy when the picture itself has a lot of yellow and tan in it and you want a nice contrast. Darn !!! I did find something that might have worked as a second choice but the store did not have all the little important bits to keep everything together in the frame. Double darn !!!

Friday night John and I dragged ourselves off to the Nashville Symphony and surprise, surprise managed to stay alert enough to make it through the whole concert :) The visiting conductor was Hugh Wolff who reminds me of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower when he is in full tempo. (Not a criticism I might add.) The whole concert had a very light, delicate feel to it and worked well with the acoustics for the Schermerhorn. We were at the very back which for me is better than closer to the front.

1st half

"Turn the Key" composed by Steven Mackey. I think this is the first time we have heard this piece and we both loved it.

Concerto no.4 in G major for piano and orchestra, op. 58 composed by Beethoven. Haven't heard that one in a while and enjoyed it. The piano soloist was Horacio Gutterrez.

2nd. half

Symphonic Dances, op. 45 composed by Rachmaninoff. Loooooove his stuff. Need I say more.

Saturday was one of those very stormy days where we took our chances going anywhere. Nikolas and I loaded up the truck and took the re-cycling to the drop off point. We were very surprised to see the soccer games being played in the mud but that all ground to a halt a short while later. We got caught in the rain but it was fun :) Everyone else happily did their re-cycling as well. 

I decided to take Nik for a treat but the closest Sonic was full of soccer players so we went to the one on the other side of our town. Got there just in time for the heavens to open and the storm to hit. Given that we were sitting on a hill it was surprisingly calm. Lightening did strike and we saw smoke billowing not to far from us.

Later in the day Kristina decided she wanted to make a pie. She picked out what turned out to be a fabulous peanut butter cream pie. She also had help from John and Juliet making a chocolate and orange cheese cake. The latter needed to bake at 200 for 8 hours so John went to bed very late !!!!!!

We cleaned house big time as in tackled the bedrooms and bathrooms. The house felt so much fresher after airing everything out for the day and our washing machine worked overtime doing regular laundry and bedroom linens etc.

Sunday, as usual (if no-one is sick) found us at church. Juliet went with one of her friends to a different ward. One of our nursery workers has been asked to lead the Enrichment board in Relief Society. Mmmmmmm, wonder how long we will be able to keep her? John and I love being in the nursery. The kids are wonderful and we have such a good time with them. Some are moving, we have new ones coming and some are out sick. Each Sunday is a different combination. We enjoy seeing them grow and learn together. Yes they can get rambunctious but what 18 month to 3 year old does not? Highlight for everyone ...... blowing bubbles :)

While I am starting to feel much better than I was I'm still getting tired easily. Juliet felt much better after her week-end rest. Trying to work in a day-care when you are under the weather is nooo fun at all and by Friday she was dragging somewhat.

School is out for summer on Thursday. We think the 8th grade has a graduation ceremony either tonight or tomorrow. The info has not exactly been very forthcoming from the school and Nik does not know what is happening. Kris has exams most of this week and she has a reading assistant where needed. Tennessee State Board of Education is changing the way exams are done starting in August so we shall see what happens when the new school year rolls around.

  

A study in green :)

I grow a lot of our plants because of the leaves. Here's an example.

The only thing that should not be there is the ivy that's just starting to the left.

The little white flowers belong to a tiny mystery plant I bought years ago that turned out to be a lovely bush. I moved the original one to another section of the yard because it was growing through our ornamental christmas tree (which died last summer). The one here is a baby that sprouted up to replace everything and there are two more starting up that will probably be transplanted elsewhere.

The green bits on stalks are the seed pods from our grape hyacinths. I tried collecting some of them last year but they met with an unfortunate accident.

The succulents are part of our ever expanding collection. Once the bush takes up the space most of the plants will be moved to other areas of the yard. That will take about two years if the mother bush was anything to go by.

Poor Peony

This one actually looks fairly decent. The rest however are looking somewhat sorry for themselves. The white ones are the worst. The flowers are bent over and some are shredded from a recent thunderstorm.

Wild plants taking over

Between all the rain and being sick I've not been able to get out and do any weeding in the garden for the past 10 days or so.

The ivy in this particular flower bed came with the house and I have been trying to keep it under control without too much success. It is growing up through everything.

I'm not entirely sure what the ground cover on the left is but I actually like it. It has very pretty little yellow flowers and the leaves look very delicate. However its growing up through my lilies and heading toward my potted plants.

I have to say though that I do like the different leaf shapes together.

Evening Primrose?

I love this flower. It's growing in a planter beside the back steps. I used to have two planters of it but the other one died.

Beats me how two plants from the same place, in exactly the same potting soil and planters and only spaced about 2 feet apart can have totally different outcomes. One is flourishing the other was fine to begin with but did not survive the winter.

Anyone for fungii

This is what's happening over by the tree stump. They look okay when they first appear but once they have gotten older and rained on a lot they look pretty disgusting.

Our Peach tree

We have peaches growing and some of them have their color already. These ones look like they are growing well.

When I was taking a closer look at the tree this morning I noticed that a lot of the emerging peaches are splitting and dripping from too much rain. We shall see how things develop but it looks like we will get a small crop this year.

recent Hansen happenings

John has taken over the sun-room with a variety of Lego/Technix's pieces. He's building projects for his new book. Juliet has been helping him. All looks very interesting. He has a deadline which is drawing closer.

Juliet started work at the day-care center down the street from us. She worked there last summer and they asked her to come back. With all the rain we have had over the past couple of weeks the kids have been confined to indoors all day. Some of them have been sick so J is starting to sound like she is coming down with something.

Elisabeth is enjoying spring term at BYU. She is taking 2 Economics classes and History of the Modern Prophets. She is really enjoying the new apartment she is living in. At the moment she has not been able to find a summer job so we are "feeding her" so to speak.

School finishes for Kris and Nik at the end of next week. Good grief where has the time gone? Nik just finished his end of year exams and Kris does hers next week. She got a certificate for Math which she is thrilled about.

I've been feeling like an very old version of Sleeping Beauty. Started feeling sick last Thursday and slept through most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm starting to function a bit better now but still feel a bit cruddy. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal "obnoxious" self in a couple of days. I don't bounce back as quickly as I used too now that I'm "over the hill" :)

It has rained almost every day for the past two weeks. We have an ongoing science experiment in the back yard i.e. a Bell jar with a ruler attached. According to that we have had somewhere between 10-12". Everything is greening up nicely but a lot of the flowers have lost their petals fairly quickly. I took a walk round the fence line this morning and the grape vines are growing nicely as are a few other mystery vines. (One of the joys of living near a nature reserve and having visiting birds.)

Another by product of the heavy rains is ants,ants, ants everywhere. They had been showing up in our bathroom which had never happened before so eventually John sprayed. Then they showed up in the sun room so I sprayed. Then they showed up in our family room - so John sprayed. Then at the weekend they showed up in the kitchen big time. We are still trying to get rid of them !!!!! While I greaty admire ants and their single minded dedication to accomplishing their assigned tasks I really don't want to share my cereal with them. John thinks there might be an ant colony in the old tree stump we are trying to burn out. They are not the same kind as those seeking temporary refuge in the house.

We are mulling over where, if anywhere, we want to go for our family vacation this year. We have to wait till after Elisabeth gets home and make sure everyone has up to date passports ... just in case we decide to wander off outside the US.

I was somewhat spoiled by the family, present wise, for Mother's Day.

I had requested an iron, which I got. John is a Black & Decker kind of guy so I now have one of their ones with a retractable cord no less. Juliet asked if I would like a family type game or something related to crafts. I was presented with "In A Pickle" which is quite fun, especially when you think outside the box. They also got me a large cutting mat. John was somewhat shocked at how expensive those things are.

A couple of what some people might consider "odd" gifts. A hot water bottle and hot/cold pads. I have a migraine disorder and my trusty hot water bottle (that I had had most of my life) sprung a leak and could not be fixed. When my head hurts I like to "boil my brain" i.e. put a hot bottle under a towel and lay my head on it. The hot/cold pad was something John thought I should try out.

Rain Stops Play

Hardly; but it has stopped a number of the gardening activities till things dry up a bit :)

Kristina has the Gateway Algebra exam next week and is doing some games and tests over the weekend that John found on-line. Turns out the previous Gateway at school was a pre-test and her case worker realised that the test requirements for her IEP were missing so they had to be written in again. She sits the English Gateway next school year and we are going to look into some things for her to do over the summer break.

We are in the middle of adding links to our side bar that are more reflective of the family as a whole. Some you may find interesting, others not. They are related to work, study, religion, hobbies, activities, general living etc.

Well I am off the the basement to take care of the necessary but more mundane aspects of home management.........the laundry and sorting out the re-cycling. We've already done a good chunk of the housework this morning. Then it's on to menus for the next couple of weeks/groceries and church meetings this evening.

I keep eyeballing one of the quilts I want to get finished but it's Saturday and we have to get household things done first :)