A long 3 day weekend of baseball

We enjoyed a 3 day weekend of baseball. 7 games in all.

The first 2 games dear son played with his 8th grade team. They had a great day and won both games.

After those games were were off to Des Moines for the USSSA state tournament.





It was fun to spend a weekend in DSM watching our son play ball. The team had a rough day on Saturday but dear son played pretty well.

We enjoyed seeing family. On Saturday my sweet brother, his lovely wife and cute little grandson, also my loving sister and dear brother-in-law, came to the game but we were so busy visiting I didn't get my camera out. On Sunday I was sure to snap a few pictures because along with my loving sister and hubby, my niece, her hubby and her adorable 3 kids came to the game.

Wrigley came with us to DSM. We found a great hotel that allows dogs. The two labs and kitty had to stay home. Wrigley was pretty well behaved and by the end of the tournament he was one pooped pup!

Here is sweet daughter with Wrigley, don't they make a cute pair!?

movie review

We found time to watch a couple movies in the last week or two. Gran Torino was really good. We really like Clint Eastwood. There was some racist language and some violence but it was really good. I would give it an A-.

Taken was another really good movie. I would give it a B+. Makes you never want to let your kids out of your sight.

1700 + hits on my blog

When I started the counter on my blog I started at 1,000 just to make it look like I wasn't a total amateur at blogging, now I am at 2700 hits! Wow! I get very few comments and I am wondering why that might be. Do I need to give away prizes like many of the blogs I read to get comments? I have a few friends, my sweet sister and sometimes my nieces leave comments but that is it. Do I have more readers or are just the few of us logging all of these hits? Is it worth my time to keep blogging?

From what I understand this is the usual anxiety of a blogger so I am not the first person to wonder if I should continue. If you see my blog please let me know! Maybe I will do a prize after hit 3000!

to heck with the diet for a day

We had a wonderful meal for Father's day. I bought some wonderful steaks from Nelson's meat market, served with Spinach salad, smashed potatoes and garlic bread. We still have cherry pie (bought from the bakery) to finish off for dessert. We are all stuffed and feel guilty for blowing my diet but I think a few times a year it is worth it to splurge! Two of the recipes came from the Pioneer Woman's blog, she has great recipes and a really cool blog. I think dear husband enjoyed his meal fit for a king.

Garden, quilts and knitting

I worked on this quilt for my niece's new baby girl (born 2 days ago!). hey sis, if you are checking out my blog, let me know if your new grandbaby will like this one.

I love this pattern, it is my go-to pattern. Thanks to my Rockwell pal, Laurie for telling me about this great pattern.

I finished a sleeve on my sweater! Whew-hew! one more sleeve to go. I found the perfect buttons on etsy too! The thing is I added a design element without knowing, I increased at about the elbow and I love the way it looks but I nervous of whether I can duplicate this "mistake" gone right in the 2nd sleeve.

here a few pictures of my garden. I love Hydrangeas! Look at this color! I wish my whole garden was as nice but about 3/4 of my back yard could be dubbed the garden of weeden, it is truly a mess and now the heat is going up to the 90's and I am not interested in gardening in the heat, so it will humble me to see how awful my yard can look.

This sweet angel was a gift from my dad, I just love it.

Dear hubby and I went to the Cedar Rapids farmers market Saturday morning and I bought this cute pot holder. I had no idea the Cedar farmers market was as big or as nice as it is, it rivals Des Moines, just about 1/2 the size but still very nice. Wrigley went too and he behaved pretty well.

Father's Day

Rain seemed to be the theme this weekend. It cancelled several activities that we were hoping to enjoy but we were still able to get some fun in between showers. Here are our furry kids waiting to come inside. I didn't realize how well Labs repel the rain until we got our little spaniel Wrigley, he must be wiped off whenever he comes in from the rain.





I think dear hubby had a good fathers day. We bought him a trolling motor for his boat. He has a big motor but this will allow him to get to smaller lakes and back waters when fishing and hunting.


Dear son found some fishing tackle and sweet daughter found a funny t-shirt that only a sweet daughter could get away with. Something about Old Farts Fishing club.

Here are the kids with dear hubby. I am so blessed. Today is the first Fathers day that my Dad hasn't been on earth. It has been a tough weekend for me. I sure do miss him.

weekend in Eastern Iowa

We spent Saturday in the Eastern most part of Iowa. We went to Preston first to watch my little nephew play baseball. It was fun to watch him play, it brings back memories of when my dear son was 10 years old. After the ball game we went to Dubuque to a graduation party for Dear husband's cousin's son. It was really a fun time. I took a three day weekend and spent all day Friday running errands, I hate it when I take a vacation day that is errands and work instead of fun but by running those errands on Friday I was able to just goof off all weekend, which was fun!

Kolache Fest

Sweet daughter and I volunteered at our church's festival. They make a treat, kind of like a danish, called a Kolache. We worked in the kiddy tent for a couple hours to finish off our Saturday.

Master Gardener Garden Tour

Sweet daughter and I went on a morning garden tour yesterday. Wow, we saw wonderful gardens. We went to 4 gardens.

This one was in the outskirts with a lot of land.

Look at all of these hostas. I love the way the outside border is one type surrounding all of the different varieties.




Note to self, plant more Salvia May night, it was dynamite in this garden!

This is in town, an English garden and it was my favorite. oh it was wonderful! If only I had an estate, I would have a garden like this.

Do you think they do this all themselves or do you think they have a gardener? I didn't have the nerve to ask!

I love this herb garden! Maybe I can do this at home, with a white picket fence?

This was at a different house and I only took pictures of the urns, they were lovely!

What a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Hmmm, for some reason I think I need to get my hands dirty!

Lots of baseball

Baseball is in "full swing" at our house. If we aren't watching dear son play we are watching some other team play.

Dear son is with a new team now and is enjoying the extra games this allows him.

They came in 2nd place this weekend, however last weekend they came in first but didn't get trophy until this weekend due to weather.

So here they are with last weekend's trophy



My sweet father-in-law drove in to watch today's games. it was great to have grandpa at the ball diamonds with us!










Dear son pitched in his school ball game on Friday. I am fortunate to be able to take a few vacation days on Friday's so I can watch him play.

Last Sunday we went to watch an I-Cubs game. We had great seats and really enjoyed the game. It made me homesick for my hometown Des Moines.

Movie reviews

We haven't been watching as many movies now that the weather is nice here in Iowa. In the last month we've only found time (barely) to watch two.

New in Town was really cute. It is city girl goes to Minnesota town to make improvements to a factory. The accents were a little much but the movie was entertaining. I would give it a B.







Australia was really good but it was sooooo long! We didn't have time to watch the whole thing, however this winter when we have more time I will rent it again and finish it because it was really good. B+