Catch You Up

Wow, I tell you, it has been rather busy in my neck of the woods. Thankfully, I have a lighter week this week with committments after work.

The push is on to finish up the end of the school year. People keep asking me, "So Shelly, how many days left?" Honestly, I can't count the days remaining becuase that sort of puts me in panic mode of everything that needs to get tied up (and prepared for the next school year) before I turn in my keys. What I do know is when my last day is. Looking forward to Summer break. This summer I am taking a needed break from teaching swim lessons to the kids from my church. I have no real plans except to go to LA and SD to visit friends, go to Lassen, watch some Giants baseball, and meet my new nephew (and spend time with Jen, Joe and Trin). Baby Joey will no doubt be the highlight of my summer vacation.

This weekend I helped my parents paint a room in their house that we now call "the baby's room". I really like how it turned out. There is a crib in the room but you can't see it in the picture.

Today my pool transformed from a pond back to a pool. My pool was having a problem turning green in a very short time. This happened last spring too. You could not even see the bottom. There was chlorine in there but the algae was stronger and choked out the Cl2. The water got a massive shock. The pool store told me to put 4 gallons of liquid Cl2 in the pool and run the filter for 24 hours. I cleaned out the filters today too. This is a complete chore but it is helps the pool from turning green. What a difference, it is a beautiful pool now. Just getting the pool balanced has made some of the stress ease away.

As I was cleaning out the filter I noticed a bulb that a friend gave me was in bloom. Beautiful display of God's awesome creation. This flower is part of my friendship garden. There are several plants and things in my yard that came from other's yards or were gifts to me. What a joy to think of some of my friends in my garden. On a sad note, we had strong winds here last week and I discovered my plum tree, that is heavy ladden with fruit, took a heavy blow. The biggest and tallest branch (about 4 inches in diamater) broke down to the trunk of the tree. Poor tree.

A few weeks back Dawn and I went to Angel Island. On the ferry ride out there, you won't believe it but a sea gull landed a big bird poop right on my shoulder strap of my backpack. It reminded me of the old Gary Larsen Far Side Cartoon. I was grossed out yet still had to crack up. Thankfully, it was on the strap of my backpack. We had fun hiking to the summit. Here is a picture I took of an interesting flower that was a purplish blue and had red glow on the end of each flowerette.

One last photo for you. This was taken on Mother's Day, 4 generations strong of the women in my family. I love each and every one of you very much.