These pictures were supposed to be posted on the previous post, but for some reason my blog wouldn't accept anymore photos. So you'll need to mentally attach these to the previous one. What a great day to be outside with friends! Andy putting a lot of muscle into his bocce ball toss. Can't remember how well he did on this toss, but one can see his concentration.



Lisa and Andy. It was great meeting Andy and getting to know these two....a lot of fun!!



Hilary. This girl knows EVERYBODY! In our dinner conversation, Andy figured out she actually used to be his babysitter!!! And everyone we brought up in conversation, Hilary knew!!! She's Kevin Bacon all over.

A great Memorial Day weekend so far. Today we had some friends over for a cookout and Bocce Ball. Kevin's student teacher from this last semester, Lisa and her husband, Andy, and Hilary, another teacher from Kevin's building. (Hilary was the Spanish student teacher when Jesse was taking Spanish in high school several years ago.) It was a great afternoon of fun.


l-r: Lisa, Andy, Hilary



Ok...who's closer? blue or red?



Kevin and his throwing style. Hilary strategizing.



And...just where is the ball???



Ok, now...I think this one may actually be mine!



We're trespassing in our neighbors' yard, but what an interesting view of our place. We never saw it from up the hill.



Kevin installing the bead board in the bathroom.



Deb gave me this start last summer. (Deb, what is this flower?) It's perfect in this spot where we planted it.


Same flower close up.

Finally....great weather after 2 wks of rain. We went to the Marion Art Festival this morning to drop off Kevin's students' work to sell, and then took a look around. Then upon returning home Kevin donned his new Discovery jersey for the first time.

Kevin in full kit


...with his Trek


And me getting ready to mow lawn. That's how I got my excercise in today...even if the mower is self-propelled.

We're painting in the basement :o) I went to my friend, Belinda's house today and saw what she did to her dining room walls. I absolutely loved it and asked Kevin to go look at it....because now I want to do that to some of our walls. She used tissue paper (ahhhhh, Julie...not what you're thinking). Belinda is so talented with decorating and she's not afraid to try new and unique ideas. (Thanks for sharing, Belinda)

The bathroom is Merlot (a deep red wine color). There will be white beaded board below the paint.


Below is the hallway (color: Martha Stewart's Pinion Seed) is kind of a coffee color and the bar sink area color on the left is called Submarine..it's kind of a forest green with a bit of blue.


The bar sink area

Kevin graciously offered to take me mushrooming one more time. Mushrooming season is pretty much over but we went anyway. We found maybe 3 that were too mushy to keep as they just fell apart and didn't look very good. But then we found 3 decent ones...2 of them were really nice.



Kevin found this 9 inch morel. (See below for proof!!) I've never seen one this long. Was pretty exciting for this New York native.




A bird's-eye view of a fern in the timber.

Well, it's been another fun Saturday in the old basement. The walls are primed and ready to paint. Below is the bathroom. The canned halogen lights will be directly above the sink and the toilet.



Penni is applying the first coat of Merlot. It went on like molasses. Kevin said it's going to take 3 coats. He's downstairs right now painting. But I'm working hard on this blog.



Yesterday was Mother's Day. The table was set fasual (that's fancy and casual) because, as you can see, we had candlelight, crystle stemware, place cards, paper plates, plastic forks (which broke with use and were replaced with real forks). I didn't want to spend all afternoon washing dishes. SOMEDAY I'll have a dishwasher. But until that day, we will serve our company in the fasual fashion.

Rats! I was so busy hosting that I forgot to take pictures of everyone sitting around the table. So, picture if you will, starting at the lower left corner and going clockwise, seated would be Mom (Gma), Penni (Mom), Kevin, Anna, Zeke, Steve, Marti, Beth, Maynard.



Kevin and Maynard diverted their attention from the Giro de Italia bike race momentarily while I took their photo. Team Discovery boasts a young new rider on their team from Iowa City.


Mom and I played Boggle while the men watched the race. After a few games Mom said she wasn't going to keep score anymore. Guess who was losing ;o) (I think she was using those made up words that one can find in the Scrabble so-called dictionary.) Where do they get those words anyway!!

Last Sunday Kevin and I went to watch Makenna and Andrew run in a race....a rainy day. By the time we left that afternoon to return home a storm was coming up. But the sky was fascinating. Here are some photos I took on our drive home.


See that small area of blue sky along the horizon?


A massive rain wall....it was in the direction we were heading...but we never did run into the storm.


You don't see this every day


This was getting a little creepy. But it made for an exciting ride home.

Oh happy day! Kevin has finished sanding the drywall in the basement. All done by hand, I might add. If you remember, I mentioned previously that the electric sander with the vacuum attachment was not available to rent due to needing repair. A lot of sweat equity in this basement.




Britt...this one's for you ;o)

Well...Kevin said this is the last time he's going mushrooming this year...there's just too much else to be done. He was a good sport, though. We went early this morning and found 10...of all sizes. So below you will see our harvest, plus I took advantage of some photo ops.



The morning sun shining through. I'm looking up the slope as I took this.



I like the black/white effect



Again...Kevin waiting patiently for his hummingbird



We saw many jack-in-the-pulpits. Still no dutchman's britches :o(



Kevin carefully cutting a yellow mushroom





Our precious 10 mushrooms soaking in salt water


Cutting a clump of 3





This is it, folks.