It's June.....

I find it hard to believe that it is already June. We celebrated my oldest girl's birthday. We had the girl's annual birthday picnic. We celebrated my oldest girl's 8th birthday, my middle girl's 7th birthday and for those who just can't get around to it, my youngest girl's 5 1/2 birthday. Everyone seemed to have a good time. My friend and I had dueling cameras (that is where we took pictures of each other while taking each other's picture). I was so glad to see all my friends who made it up to celebrate with us. Had a nice visit with my cousin, who came to the party. Visited with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. My mother-in-law had just had surgery and was recuperating at home, but my father-in-law made it to the party. My parents made it....but my sisters (one of whom likes to state that we live too far away) and my brother didn't attend. But then they don't want to make the effort. This is where my friends, who are more like sisters, come in....they take the place of my sisters who like people to think they are good aunts, but really don't make the effort. I love being an aunt, but was never given the opportunity to be an aunt to my neices. When I married my husband, I inherited a nephew. A great guy. I was allowed to take him places, spoil him and take a real interest in him. I will be grateful to my sister-in-law for letting me be the aunt that I wanted to be. My brother-in-law is also allowing me to be an aunt to his child. I love that little girl, but I refuse to dictated to by her. Reason: I have three girls and it would be anarchy if I let her do it and they saw me let her do it. I do love her and I love the time I have been allowed to be around her. We wish we could see her more often, but she lives pretty far away and when she comes to town we go to see her at my in-laws. I am looking forward to July, because I will get to see my neice again and we want to take her swimming or playing at a park. My girls are also looking forward to her visit. They have so much fun together.

Now, I finished a prayer shawl today, took a picture (haven't downloaded the photo yet) and put in a box to be wrapped to give to my friend for a gift when she needs one most. She has been down a lot lately. People are crashing in her front yard and in front of her house and her lilac bush has been seriously hit more than a few times. You add in that her health hasn't been the greatest, (I have no room to talk) it really weighs her down. I miss seeing her and hanging out with her, but we do try to talk whenever we can.

I started working on a blanket for another friend's child. She gave me all this yarn that had been intended for her to make a baby blanket with, but she couldn't motivate to make the blanket. So I told her I would see what I could do for her. It is acrylic yarn and I am using two strands at once. I will be curious to see how this turns out.

Backyard wildlife has been blossoming. We have big black rat snakes....Saw one with my own eyes and where there is one there are two. We have lots of bunnies - adults and babies. Got to love that. We have chipmunks (I wonder if that is what drew the snakes to us). Birds, lots and lots of colorful birds. But there is a noticeable absence of cats...in the past we have had lots of strays in our backyard. We always took care of them, but they seemed to have backed off recently. It must be the neighbors evil dogs. Yes, I still have my lazy neighbor and her evil dogs. Over the winter it came to brass tacks. I take photos of the dogs in my yard, call the police and the dog catcher. Then they (the idiot neighbors) go to court and have to pay fines for their dogs. I noticed something one day. I was walking to church and when I was walking on the sidewalk, she would scold the dogs for going on the attack, but let us go out our back door to our backyard, she lets them continue the attack. I had a friend and her children over one day, I was telling her children where the yard ended so they stayed in our yard. Then I let the children out into the backyard and her dogs were out. My friend got to see first hand what I have been dealing with. She let them continue to charge barking and growling at the children (3 of whom were not mine). We watched the dogs and made sure that the children were safe, but she is getting even for our calling the police on her. But then her dogs should not be allowed to chase my children (has happened twice) or run in my yard (happened at least 4 times that I know of). The thing that is most gross is that she doesn't clean up after her dogs and it smells like a sewer next door. I know eventually there will be repercussions from that. That will have to come from the HOA.

I should be finishing a dishcloth and a hat real soon, plus I really want to finish some afghans. We will see where I end up on these projects. Have a good week.