Butterfly Eggs?

I found these eggs on my fuchsia plant yesterday. Does anyone know what type of eggs they are? I know butterflies like fuchsias. We have many butterflies around here, but the Monarch is the most popular. It'll be interesting to see if they hatch or not. I just love when God gives us gifts like this!!! :)

I know, I know…

I know it has been awhile since I've entered a post here and I really am sorry. It seems like "life" got in the way again and took over. ;)

Hmmm, I don't even know where to begin or where I left off! I think it all began one day when my dear, sweet son (Shayne) accidentally spilled coffee on the laptop I was borrowing from my sister (Mary Jane)...

I suppose I should have never, ever put my cup of coffee near the laptop to begin with, but that is beside the point. It was a complete accident, and he didn't mean it, but Shayne pulled a piece of paper that was under my coffee mug (he didn't know my coffee mug was on top of it) and it happened! Kyle thought quickly, thank the Lord, and he lifted the laptop right up into the air.

Now, I don't know much about laptops since this was the first one I've ever used, but I removed the ethernet card? (the thing the internet cable jack plugged into) and there was a small amount of coffee on there and I opened the door on the bottom of the laptop (because I thought that is where the battery went) but it wasn't...I think it is the hard drive? and it looked like there was a medium-sized drop of coffee on there too. Oh my goodness, I was so scared!

When I walked over to it (immediately as it happened), I noticed the computer lights were still on, but nothing was on the screen. I called Tim and he immediately looked it up on Google (smart thinking!) and told me to lean it on the side that the coffee got on and I kept it on it's side all day with the fan blowing on it to help dry whatever moisture might have gotten inside.

I was really beside myself!!! It is an older laptop (about 5-7 years old) but it isn't mine...it is my sister's and I always take such good care of things I'm borrowing from others. I was in total shock for the rest of the day!

I was thinking "How will we replace it if it doesn't turn on and work again?", not to mention I have TONS of pictures of my children on it and these pictures are irreplaceable! :( I just began to pray and pray and pray!

I also have ALL of my homeschool reports on there, my website images and site pages, hundreds of links/bookmarks, emails from our business (a few years worth), etc.

Well, after waiting 24 hours, I tried to turn it on but was unsuccessful. :( My heart sank! I started to cry all over again.

To make a long (very long) story short, I called Mary Jane to inform her of what happened and she was surprisingly ok with it. She works for a computer programming or engineering company (I'm really not sure which LOL) and she fixes computers for a living. She told me that when one of their clients (which are businesses not individuals) upgrades to new systems, they more or less just "throw out" their old systems and that is how she got the laptop. She also told me that when she acquired this one, she received not one, but two of the identical kind. So, she said she had another one just sitting there and her plan was to switch hard drives in them to see if we could recover all of my data.

Well, imagine my surprise and my delight to hear her say that! I immediately got a glimpse of hope that I might be able to get my pictures, reports, and data back. I then started to pray that my data would be able to get recovered.

Ok, fast forward...praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! She was able to remove the hard drive and put it in this other laptop and voila...all my stuff was right there like nothing ever happened! I was (and still am) so incredibly grateful that the Lord allowed my stuff to be recovered! :)

She said she didn't see very much coffee residue in the keyboard of the laptop whatsoever and was very encouraged. She said she will begin cleaning it, when she is in the right mood LOL, and see what happens. She also said that sometimes these things just aren't worth the trouble to try to fix. Wow, that just amazes me but I don't come across the systems and parts that she must see come and go in her line of work.

All in all, I am very grateful to have my stuff back! Thank you Lord so very much! :)

Last but not Least!

Low and behold, late this afternoon I looked out the window and saw the male Rose Breasted Grosbeak snacking on black oil sunflower seeds at my feeder. So there we have it, the Baltimore Oriole, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and the Rose Breasted Grosbeak all returned for the summer once again on the SAME day!

They’ve Arrived!

Today is the day! The Baltimore Oriole and Ruby Throated Hummingbird have both returned for the summer.

It was the male oriole that was the first to be seen, but my son and I both think the first hummingbird we saw today was a female, which seems unusual. I’ve always read the males are the first to arrive to “claim” their territory and then the females arrive within a few days. Oh well, it’s fine by me LOL! I don’t care which one shows up first as long as they come back to my yard year after year!

Working in the flower garden:)

Praise the Lord–He gave us yet ANOTHER sunny day!!! Wooohoooo, it has just been like the best weather around here lately. Oh how I wish every day of the summer could be like the last few days…not too hot or humid, not too cold, but just about perfect!

Well, after 7 1/2 years of living here and looking at the same yellow daylily year after year, I finally took the plunge and cut it in half/divided it! Oh, I just hope it lives LOL. I’ve always wanted to do divide this daylily and a couple of hostas that I have, but I’ve been too afraid to try for fear of killing them. I do not have a green thumb whatsoever and I seem to kill almost every plant I try to grow LOL.

I even got brave enough to prune my LARGE, overgrown Rhododendron. I really hope I did it correctly and that I didn’t damage it LOL. I researched it online and read several different articles on how to do it, so I do hope it’ll turn out alright.

After church, Payge and I went to a local floral nursery and bought some flowers! I bought one “flat” each of annuals and periannuals, but oh how I wanted to buy more, more, more! LOL, it really is hard to limit yourself! If it weren’t for the money, I would have bought a lot more LOL. I really like to grow flowers that hummingbirds and butterflies are attracted to. We even got them all planted and boy was I surprised at how long it took!

I want to share a tip that my mother taught me about container gardening. If this tip is not new to you, please forgive me. I’m still new to flower gardening and never thought of this and wanted to pass it along, but some of you more “experienced” gardeners may already know about it. You know those Styrofoam Peanuts that are used for packaging? Well, use those as a “filler” mixed with your potting soil when filling a container. I have two of those plastic swan plant holders that sit in your garden and they are so deep and it would take a lot of soil to fill them up. So, she mixed some of the Styrofoam Peanuts with the soil and it really reduced the amount of soil needed. They still allow the water to drain through too!

You know, I am shocked year after year as to how much a pretty hanging basket costs! Yikes, I mean they are gorgeous and I’d love to have a few of them hanging in my yard, but not at $20-25 each! I wouldn’t mind trying to make my own, but I don’t believe our summers are long enough to achieve the same length and fullness that these baskets have. A few years ago I did “attempt” to make my first hanging basket and it was just pathetic LOL. My friend came over and took one look at it and burst out laughing. Sigh, maybe someday.

I planted my divided yellow daylily and hostas in my small, front flower garden which gets about 80% shade, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

The Chipping Sparrows and a few other types of sparrows have returned for the summer, but still no hummingbirds, orioles, or rose-breasted grosbeaks yet. They should be appearing any day now. My feeders, oranges, and grape jelly are out and waiting for them.

Busy Saturday

We usually stay at home and clean, clean, clean on Saturdays. Today was much different though. We went to a wedding at church and then to my great nephew’s (David's) First Communion party.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today too. I was able to spend a few minutes outside to weed a small area of my flower garden. I’m always amazed that year after year, there are so many weeds! I don’t mind weeding though…to me, it is actually therapeutic. I love to feel the sun shining down on my body as I listen to the birds in the trees and on the bird feeders which are also in my flower garden. As long as I don’t come across any snakes, I don’t mind weeding LOL.

The wedding was lovely. It amazes me to see this couple get married so young. The bride is 19 and I believe the groom is 22 or 23. Funny though, when Tim and I got married, I was 19 and he was 24. Somehow, this couple just seemed so much younger. The bride is the only daughter in her family and it was kind of sad to think about as I watched her father walk her down the aisle ever so SLOWLY. She, on the other hand, was walking about 3 steps ahead of him, almost pulling HIM down the aisle LOL. As I watched them, I thought about my one and only daughter and how Tim may be walking HER down the aisle someday. What a bitter-sweet thought!!! The bride and groom are the children of friends of ours from church and I think it is great that they both grew up in this church and today they were married in it. I certainly hope they’ll enjoy a long marriage filled with God’s blessings!

The kids had a great time at my Terri’s house. There were lots of kids to play with, mostly other boys. My boys enjoyed having other boys to play sports with. Terri also has a paved driveway (which we do not have so the kids really enjoyed skateboarding, riding bikes, and playing street hockey on it. As I said, the weather was perfect and we all enjoyed the time outdoors!

Before we went home, we hit the mall which was right around the corner from my Terri’s house. The store where Payge got her ears pierced at had a sale…buy 2 pairs of earrings, get 1 pair FREE. So, since it has been about 2 or 2 1/2 months since she had her ears pierced, I figured it was time to get her another pair of earrings. LOL, decisions, decisions…it can be such a difficult task for a 9 year old girl to pick out just a few pairs of earrings and leave the rest for another time!

So Glad!

Well, I went to the orthopedic doctor yesterday. He said I still have fluid/blood around the joint, but it should go away gradually. After examining my knee, he actually doesn’t think I tore a ligament afterall. Instead, he thinks I dislocated my kneecap! LOL, I didn’t even know that was possible! He thinks it must have popped out of place and then popped right back in again. He said he is crossing his fingers that it’ll heal all by itself. He still wants me to wear the immobilizer leg brace and use the crutches, but gradually wean myself from using them a little bit each day.

Oh, he also told me to start doing leg lifts to strengthen my upper thigh muscle (which will help strengthen the knee) and I should do these exercises until I can do 100 of them at once. Well, it has been YEARS since I’ve been able to do 100 of anything LOL!. I’m supposed to go back to see him again in a week.

So, praise God, because this is fabulous news!!! I was really nervous since Tim said he had heard most torn ligament injuries require surgery to repair. I’m so glad for this new news!

Today was a beeeeautiful day with a pretty blue sky and lots of SUNSHINE! It was perfect. I put out the bird bath, some garden stones/decorations, and decorative little flags.

We also put out the hummingbird and oriole feeders. I cannot believe they will be here in just a day or two (or three)! The time goes by so quickly.

My mom sent over some sunflower seeds, potting soil, and little planter trays. The kids enjoyed themselves as they planted and watered their seeds. I just hope they grow!!!