One Whole Jake Year

Tomorrow is Jake's first birthday. One year old. Yep, it's been an entire year since he was born. Pretty hard to believe! It has been incredibly wonderful to have been able to participate in his life... and a true lifesaver to have him in mine. Jake has given me more than the past year of medications and therapy provided by the medical professionals in my life. Not that I discount everything my doctors have done for me, quite the contrary. But competing with the miracle known as Jake is a tough job.

I daily give my heartfelt thanks to Steve & Amy, and to God for bringing this miracle into my life.

Jake - Down on the Farm

After Amy's interview, it was such a nice day we decided to take Jake for a ride. I gave Lori a quick call to see if we could stop by for a visit. As you can see, Jake dressed in his bib overalls for the day. Lori gave us a personal tour of her gardens and yard. The highlight for Jake was sitting in the cab of a big John Deere tractor and pretend he was driving it. He wasn't too happy when we left the tractor. But then he perked up when we visited Lori's pumpkin patch. He had a great time... and as you can see, we wore him out!

Shoppin' with Jake

Amy and Jake took me along when they went shopping last week. We had a great time. Jake decided he wanted a new hat. Of course he didn't like the way I put it on his head and needed to adjust it for his own 'look'.

A New Addiction... yikes

OK I've succumbed to the lure of Facebook. Holy cow... reconnecting with people is fun, but you can sure lose hours of your life doing so. So in honor of my new addition I thought I'd share a pic of my reaction when I looked at the clock and realized how much time I'd been online... now mind you, I'm in my pj's and NO makeup... so I'm really going out on a limb here....

A New Bloom!

My first hibiscus bloom. I'm pretty excited about it, but then it doesn't take much to entertain me anymore.

Did I mention before that I have one lonely hummingbird feasting at my feeder? Well at least it's one more than I had a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I left the hummingbird chow out in the sun too long and the rest of the gang got a little lupey and are nursing a birdie-hangover!

But then it could also have something to do with Mr. Blink on bird patrol. He's 20 years old, but still enjoys catching and eating birds. You can't fight Mother Nature.

Name That Flower...

My grandmother grew these bushes when they built this house in the 1930's. I've always thought they were hydrangeas, but have also been told they're snowballs. They bushes and the flowers are beautiful, and obviously very hardy having thrived here for about 80 years!

So let me know what you think...

Hydrangea

Snowball

Snowball Hydrangea

Something Else

I Guess I'm Getting Old!

I've been 'out of pocket' lately and remiss in updating my blog... oopsie.

However, I recently made a personal observation; is it a sign that I'm becoming one of "those" old people when the first item on my shopping list is bird seed??? I've never really been much of a bird-person until recently. Now I find myself with three bird feeders along with a 4th bird feeder just for hummingbirds! Oh, and I have two bird baths and a solar powered fountain.

Where has this sudden interest in wild birds come from? Have I undergone some hormonal metamorphasis that changed my brain patterns? Now mind you I haven't gone so far as feeding squirrels (I still think of them as rodents with fluffy tails), and hope I don't get to the point of naming them (like my much beloved grandmother did)!

I've enjoyed watching hummingbirds in the past, and actually went so far as to plant specific flowers in my garden to attract them. But have never actually installed feeders in my yard for them. And as noted in a previous blog... having much less success with the feeder than with the flowers!

Another concern I have that I'm aging is that I tend to forget things. (big surprise there, right?) I was walking out to get my mail yesterday, and remembered ordering 2 banana trees for my garden, but concluded that I'd never received them. Then during my sleeplessness last night I suddenly remembered that I did receive them, but left them in my handy garden wagon, which I absent-mindedly left parked out in my garden!

Geez... or should I say "geezer"?!