Flamingos and Butterflies: Totally Missing You

Whew.... don't look now, but I think summer has totally slipped by me. I cannot believe this is my first post in FOREVER.

The thought has crossed my mind many times, "Oh...you need to blog that!"

But did I do that?

Well, no...I didn't.

So I must start with I have missed all my blogging friends, and I am so glad to carve out a few minutes of this crazy busy summer to say hello.

Much of my time has been spent in tons of great professional development. This is the super fun workshop that I went to today. Just how can you go wrong with So Many Books, So Little Time?

I'll tell you....you CAN"T!

Earlier this summer, Mrs. Hitchcock and I made it to So Many Picture Books, So Little Time as well....and oh my, will I have some great picture book recommendations for you soon!

Joshua and I have spent much of our time trying to reclaim our yard from the amazingly aggressive trumpet and wisteria vines. There have been times I haven't been able to move for a couple of days after putting up a valiant fight, but slowly we have taken back some of my favorite places. It's not much but this little corner of the world makes me happy...and I could sit here for hours.

And while I am sitting there, I have plenty of time to enjoy the sounds of all the chimes I had to remove from my classroom...darn fire marshall...

I am sure my neighbors are wondering about my sudden infatuation with wind-chimes, but I had to find new homes for the dozens (upon dozens ;) of beautiful and sweet chimes given to me over the last nine years or so. As much as I moaned about removing them from my room, I must admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed them outside where they belong.

There have been a few interruptions to our yard work these past few weeks... this little fellow put a break on things for a bit. When we're not watching our steps for random venomous creatures, we are corralling this crazy fence climber....

Last week a pretty strong storm rolled through Vilonia, and I am pretty sure my beautiful River Birch trees were still tired from the last round of tornadoes that plowed through our little town. One of them just couldn't take the heavy storm a moment longer and gave up the good fight. I walked out after the storm to see it perched upon our neighbors fence and just barely tipping their roof. After my heart jumped in my throat for a second, I could see there was very little damage, and our sweet neighbors were very understanding.