Summer Goings-On

Several things to report: 

First off, it's Friday. Which is usually very exciting, except that I had a job interview last week and they said they would definitely be getting back to me this week and they haven't. Grrr. I still have some hope that they want me, they are just busy. It would be teaching art at an after school program once a week.

In other news, it's been outrageously rainy here. It's been awful, because rain always drives bugs inside- I had gone a while without any indoor pest problems, but in the last 2 days, I have seen multiple cockroaches, ants and spiders, an earwig and even a big, wiggly earthworm. DISGUSTING! I had just spread diatomacheous earth around the perimeter of the carpet and as the latest rains began, the powder got wet in the sill of our floor-to-ceiling window beside the back door. So, now we know that water is getting in through that crack, and if water can get in, bugs can probably get in. So, once it dries out, we will caulk that baby up and hopefully diminish our bug issues in the future.Though, looking at the 10-day forecast, we won't have a day without showers until next Saturday, so it may take a while. So- all this rain- it's a bummer because we're stuck inside all the time. But it is keeping the temperatures very mild and doing great things for our plants. I just re-potted the rhododendron that Micah got me for mother's day and got a tomato plant for our patio. I know it's a bit late, but the first frost here may not be until December, so I'll bet I can still get some fruit out of it. If it ever gets sunshine, that is. We just collected basil last weekend from our little garden at Micah's parents' house and the zucchini plants were doing great, with a handful of flowers. My sisters' sentiments about her garden echoed true to me. I wish we had invested in greater variety, for sure.

I caught this pansy as the flower was just beginning to open and took a few nice pictures. I am thinking of submitting a print of this one to the non-curated art show next week instead of one of my paintings. What do you think?

So, her eyes look a little funny here because of the reflection of the camera in her eyes, but I love how you can see the little beauty mark by her bottom lip.

I always find it funny when I miserably fail to nurture a plant despite very deliberate effort (2 sweet peas, 6 creeping thyme and 1 lavender bush killed so far this year), then find something like THIS. Some clover had the audacity to grow right out of the brick on the side of our house.

As if to say, "Hey! It's not that hard for a plant to live! What are you doing wrong?" Urgh. And don't even get me started on all the grass that keeps popping up in our patio from fallen birdseed.

The saddest part about all this rain is that Natalie has been missing out on some major pool time.

Here she is all decked out in her gear. 

I recorded this because I thought she was going to climb in by herself- she does that some times. She is totally not afraid of the water. She loves to throw my flip flops in and then retrieve them. 

Here, Natalie examines a few fireflies that we caught.

Reading herself a book

Here's what I got on Thursday morning at Publix for $5.79:

1 bottle baby oil gel

1 bottle baby powder

1 bag tortilla chips

2 boxes of noodles

2 boxes of cereal

2 rolls of biscuits

4 packs of baking cup liners

3 pounds of bananas

On July 4, it was a very rainy, dreary day. We had lunch with Micah's friend who lives in the middle of nowhere southwest of Atlanta. Then, we hung around lazily while the storm waxed and waned outside. I kept checking the hourly forecast to see if fireworks would be on. At one point, it gave a 50% chance, then it went down to 30%, then up to 70%. At 5, it was 90% and I was pretty sure we weren't gonna go, but then by 7, the chance had decreased to 0%. Hmmmmm. Okay! So, we went to Buckhead to see the fireworks at Lenox Mall. We took Marta, which was AWESOME- no sitting in traffic afterwards. And I think the weather made it less crowded than it would have otherwise been, so it wasn't too packed.

 Here are Natalie and Micah looking at all the attractions set up at the mall.

And here are her feeling about the fireworks themselves:

You can see her grin at the very end, there. She mostly enjoyed it and liked pointing to it and clapping. Overall, very fun and totally worth $5 for a 2-way marta pass and keeping Natalie up really late.