The flowers are all DEAD!

They really are. The rose bushes are probably still alive, but everything else is dead except for my asparagus fern and the lantana. Even the hybrid, heat-resistant plants died. It just got too hot this summer.

So it's been three months since I last posted anything. But I've been gone. In May Jennie and Ken invited David and I to come stay with them in Las Vegas where they were taking Ryan and Britni for an extra wedding gift trip. We had fun being with Jennie and family and they weather was nice, but I really dislike Las Vegas. It just seems so sleazy and degenerate to me.

In June I went to New York. I bought a ticket to be there for Anna's jaw surgery and then the surgery got postponed. I missed Anna so much and was so stressed out about other unsettling things that I just decided to go anyway. Joel went too and we had a great time, but I was gone for 10 whole days!

Three days after returning from NYC, I left for Utah, driving up with the duPonts (all but Jason). We were gone the 7th of July through the 17th. David flew up the evening of the 10th and drove back to Arizona with us.

Anna came out to Arizona on July 21st and stayed until August 5th.
On August 6th we had planned to go to Las Vegas again for David's 46th year high school class reunion. David's mom, Eilene, had gone to stay in a private home where she could have companionship and nursing care (as needed) and no one was living in her house. Vicki said that we could come stay in her home. We asked her if it was okay if Jennie and Ken came and stayed with us while we were there and she said it was fine. So Jennie and Ken met us in Las Vegas for a quick four-day vacation without kids. (The first time Jennie left without Kasia since she was diagnosed with diabetes.)

Hey! This one never got posted. I guess because I never finished it. Oh well. I'll just post this much and tell you about the rest of my summer later. Let's see how these photos diplay.

Just Photos (mostly flowers)

So here are my photos of my flowers. I have no idea why this text is underlined. The older I get the less I know.

De-junking! Clean it out! Toss it!

The garage is about half-way done here. The dirt and junk doesn't really show up too well.

I still have a lot to do. I guess we are going to have a garage sale next Saturday. We are getting rid of lots of stuff. Stuff that has been sitting around gathering dust for 30 years or so. I appreciate the help received by Cecily, Leslie, Christian, Joel, Arinda, Britt, Annika, Kaisa and of course Sofia and Tressa who supplied the diversion and entertainment.

More pictures will follow.

Sunday Dinners

I love the monthly Sunday dinner tradition and I don't think we would be doing it without Leslie really pushing it. Actually, she started talking about doing it ten or more years ago but we never really did anything about it. She got a little more aggressive about doing it and we finally got it going. I think the first one was at Joel's last labor day, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it is really good. It makes me more grateful for my family every time we get together. Let's see if I have any photos from past get-togethers.

Some of these photos look like they kind of need some explanation. But I'm not explaining. We just had a lot of fun. Some Sunday dinners it is just the Woolf extended family and sometimes it includes the Russells or some of the Parkers or some of Joel's roommates or other people. Our family never was quite big enough so we just kept adding to it. Sometimes permanently and sometimes temporarily - mostly depending on the inclinations of the "additions."

Oh, and we have to include the photos of Jennie and Chica's wardrobe. They were kind of interesting too.

Grandma's crappy but important videos

About two weeks ago Hana invited me to come to her track and field day at Franklin School on March 7th. She told me that it started at 12:30. It turns out that Madison's class had track and field in the morning and Hana had hers in the afternoon (if I understood right). Hana was kind of bummed that Greg was able to be there in the morning to see Madison perform but had to go to work and couldn't stay to see Hana, so she was quite pleased that I came.

The volleyball was pretty boring because they weren't really rotating like they were supposed to and the high jump was almost too easy. But Hana really shone in the hurdles and especially in the long jump. She took 1st place in the long jump! So look at the videos that I took and see how well Hana did.

Okay, so they were really short videos, but you can play them over and over again!

I love growing things

I love to plant flowers in my yard. I didn't for many years when my kids were small because I didn't think we could afford bedding plants. But then I started to think about my mom and how she always planted pansies, mums, violets, bleeding hearts, honeysuckle, bachelor buttons, gladiolas, etc., etc. I decided that I wanted my kids to remember me for flowers too. But it took me a long time to figure out what would grow in Arizona and when. The ones my mom planted in Utah that will grow here - grow in an entirely different season.
Here are some from my front yard. Oh yeah! And roses. We both love roses.
The Gerber Daisies are for Anna. They are some of her favorites. I haven't figured out how to arrange the pictures on my blog the way I want them to appear and put the notes about my photos next to them. Oh, I'm SO computer illiterate!


I like my
petunias and snapdragons too. They are much prettier this year than they were last year. I guess I'd better quit with the photos. It is going to take forever to load.

I'll show you more flowers later.