I do still exist!

At least in real life, if I haven't existed online in this blog for quite some time. You see, having a little person to look after adds a lot of responsibilities that take a lot of time, and between that and looking after the paper, which was my other baby, something had to go - and it was this blog.

However, I am pleased to announce that the 'other' baby, the paper, no longer exists in my life. Therefore, perhaps this blog can have a space again. :-)

Currently it's 10:30 p.m., and Levi is asleep in his room downstairs. We got back in from the ranch, where we went to have dinner and visit, about an hour and a half ago. My husband Scott is still at the ranch because our branding will start first thing tomorrow morning. I have a rhubarb cobbler for tomorrow in the oven, and that is the only reason why I am not downstairs joining Levi in sound sleep.

It has been hot the last few days, and NOAA predicts it will be 100 tomorrow when all is said and done, so here's hoping we can get going with branding, and everything goes smoothly, so everything can be finished before the heat really hits.

Today I had our friend Jamie's kids with me here at the house, and we worked on staining the new porch that we built several weeks ago. The porch is a lot bigger, with room for furniture, and I love the color of the stain we picked out. It's perfect for the house, and ties in really nicely with the brick and terra cotta accents we already have going on. I will post photos as soon as the stain job is done - we had to quit at noon because it was just getting too hot outside to continue.

Oh, and for those of you who may not know yet, we are expecting another baby! I'm 18 weeks along, and feeling a lot of movement now. The due date is Nov. 14, with a scheduled c-section.

So, we continue to be very busy around here, and I look forward to what the rest of this year and the future hold for us as our little family begins to grow! Hopefully I will, indeed, have the time to keep the blog posted on the news.

Horses + Sunshine = Springtime?

As winter turns to spring here in Wyoming - and it's happening unusually early this year, and it's making some nervous - we've kept busy here in the Martinez household, as usual.

It's bull season for Wyoming's cattle industry, which keeps the Roundup office hopping. We are consistently running 20 percent larger this year, in terms of advertising, so business is on the upswing! That means, in addition to being bull season, it's nose-to-the-grindstone season to get everything done. There are three major deadlines this week, with our regular weekly running twice as big as usual, plus a special feature edition. Two of those deadlines were met early, and one more to go!

So far this year we've consistently received very positive feedback on the articles Saige and I have been running lately, which means we've been working hard but it's paying off.

In addition to all that's happening with the Roundup, I've also been putting more time and effort into building the photography business, C} Images. For more photos, check out C) Images on Facebook, and become a fan to keep up with the news and cash in on the giveaways!

Because I've been so busy with the paper, I haven't got my logo, labels and packaging finished, but I have a good start and I've been able to ship and deliver my recent prints in a more professional manner. So far, this endeavor has also had positive feedback. My husband has declared himself my business manager, and because of that I have a few opportunities I will follow up on within the month, before tourist season hits the state.

Our cutest little pride and joy, baby Levi, is six-and-a-half months old now, and learning new things every day. And, I swear he really is cuter every week. We're very much looking forward to our trip to Iowa in April to see Granddad and Nana.

Oh, you know how I said spring is coming? My bulbs that I planted last year are coming up in my flower garden, so it really must be here, right? I'm looking forward to daffodils and tulips in several weeks.

So, in case it's another couple weeks before I make the time for another post, I hope your weather and life in general is treating you as well!

Keeping track...

If I were Foxy, all I'd have to worry about is bounding through the grass on a sunny winter's day.

But I'm not. :-)

As usual, we're keeping busy with the many details of life. My birthday was over the weekend, and Scott and friend Jamie planned a very nice surprise party for me at Jamie's house. I also finished a sewing project, did some cleaning around the house and took a nap on the couch with Levi on Saturday morning.

It's obvious I don't take much time to relax when Scott asks me if I'm feeling ok when I lay on the couch. :-)

Aside from that, the paper continues to be a full workload, as we're into the weeks of more pages because of increased advertising for the customary spring bull sales.

And, Scott and I have a meeting set up with FSA today to put things in motion for financing for the purchase of either land or livestock. In addition to FSA, we're putting ourselves in position for further education on ranch financing and management, so there are several courses throughout 2012 that will keep us busy with continuing education.

I figure that I bought the house and got married in 2010, had Levi in 2011, so we had to do something red-letter for 2012, right?

I also bought a new 'Nifty Fifty' 50 mm camera lens with my birthday money, so I'm excited to get to know it and get some photos with the new addition. :-)

So that's the quick update. Hope your year is going well so far!

Updating my blog:

Obviously, being more consistent with blog posts was not one of my New Year's resolutions. :-)

Any of you who are mothers know that, when little babies come, suddenly things like blog posts are not all that important and fall far down on the list of priorities.

That being said, we've been busy this month! Here are just a few photos to demonstrate:

The first two weeks of the month we had company, with my mom arriving from Iowa on Jan. 2 and leaving to go home on the 16th. Mid-way through her stay she was joined by my dad and Grandma Hemken from Iowa, so we kept plenty busy. My mom helped with organizing and sewing projects around my house, which was very welcome, and my dad also did things like install a thermostat in the basement so we can run the furnace to heat the downstairs bedrooms, while using the wood stove upstairs.

If I ever get to it, I will post some photos of all the projects my mom and I accomplished.

The photo above is my mom and Levi playing dress-up once again. :-) The newborn-sized onesie she made at his Iowa baby shower last July, and she managed to stuff him back in it, although the snaps were about at his belly button.

We've also been cutting teeth! My mom found Levi's first one on Jan. 3, and the second one showed up the day after she left on Jan. 17. She gave him this crocheted cap for Christmas, along with a mini library of children's books and a box of clothing for him to grow into.

Speaking of the books, also while she was here we bought a bunch from the local Salvation Army, and with the two collections we've been enjoying the library. Either Scott or myself reads to him at least once a day, and usually it's twice because I read to him again at bedtime. He's at a stage where sometimes lala land is more interesting than looking at the books, but other times he does act really interested in the pictures. I plan to continue reading with him, covering five or six books every day at this stage.

And he's also started on solids since my last post. See why I haven't had time to write anything new? The fun never ends around here. :-) He's still at one meal a day, in the evening, but I need to start feeding him in the morning. He has a very healthy appetite, polishing off a bowl of rice cereal in no time, and hanging his mouth open, begging for more. We have some store-bought rice cereal I've been feeding that was given to us, but once that runs out I will begin making our own from brown rice. He's also had pears, peaches and apples, and doesn't seem to agree with banana yogurt - not sure yet if it's the bananas or yogurt that's causing the problem, but it does keep him up all night fussing.

Levi has been thoroughly enjoying the Bumbo seat that the Roundup office staff gave to us - except it's not the Bumbo brand, I always forget what it is. This toy that sticks in the tray is one of his favorites, and when I take it out to feed him I have to hide it otherwise it will distract him when he should be eating.

And in other news, this black Ford truck is no longer in our possession, as of last Saturday.

We now have this green Dodge - a diesel, with a lot more room in the back seat for Levi than the black one had.

So that's just a brief update on all that we've been up to! I could make promises about posting more frequently, but we all know that people shouldn't make promises they can't keep. :-)

Thanksgiving Setup

Because I have been promising my mom for quite some time now, this morning I take a break from my work on the paper to post some photos of Thanksgiving at our house. Yes, I know it was a week and a half ago, but that's how things are going around here these days. :-)

Setting up for our 16 guests started with rearranging the front room, bringing out my sewing table to extend the dining room table and setting up a card table to seat the extra four people. Scott's desk was cleared off, and an extra table was also set up under the window by the door.

Once we had a functional floor plan I started to set the tables and decorate a little.

But first, a break to point out my antelope, which we finally got back from being mounted. Isn't he pretty?

The tablecloth for the long table was a length of fabric from my stash. I've had it for quite some time, and recently used part of it to make curtains for the spare room, but I think I'll make the rest of it into a tablecloth for this table when I have it set for 12.

My drop-leaf pedestal table served as overflow for the food when we all sat down to eat.

The centerpieces were simple - just glass pieces from my collection with artificial foliage from Hobby Lobby's fall sale last year.

Another fabric remnant graced the desk - this remnant is intended to recover the green stools in the tv area. But it sure made a good tablecloth, since that project is still on the list. The vinca vine is one of two I rescued from planters outside. I figured why let them just freeze and die, only to buy new ones next year?

Guess what? Another fabric remnant on the table by the door. This table served all the drinks, which included mostly whiskey and wine, as well as coffee mugs. The geranium in the window you can't see very well, but this is its second winter inside.

My Bourbon Pecan Pie had molasses in it instead of corn syrup, and people really liked it.

This cowboy fellow made of horseshoes was a gift for our wedding.

The milk bottle carrier was a find at Odds and Ends. ** moment of silence ** :-) I still miss that store.

As I was setting the tables I realized that I have exactly enough dishes and silverware to serve 16 people - that worked out well!

I kept the centerpieces on the long table scarce, as I knew we'd have plenty of dishes of food for which to make room.

This is how the card table ended up. I prefer not to iron, that way everything is evenly wrinkled, and it looks more casual. That's the style nowadays, didn't you know? Besides, that's just one less thing I have to get done when preparing for company.

I did have to scrounge a little for enough dessert plates. And, this table actually ended up being for appetizers instead of desserts.

The drinks table, with the glassware I selected for each beverage, and the yellow coffee pot my mom found me. I like putting whiskey in decanters - now I just need a few more of them. And then the problem will be remembering what kind is in what decanter....

So here's the front room on Thanksgiving morning, just about ready for guests to arrive.

It actually all fit together pretty well. With our small house, it will always be cozy with that many people, but it works. The key is to keep things minimal and as open as possible for people to move around and spread out.

And here it is, full of people! I just took the time to snap a few shots in the midst of dinner. By this point I was so tired from cleaning and cooking that I could have gone to bed as soon as the meal was done. :-)

On my menu was a turkey, sweet potato spoon bread, a green bean casserole, corn casserole, dinner rolls, cranberry bread pudding, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cream cheese dip for crackers, dill dip for vegetables and Velveeta/sausage dip for corn chips. Scott smoked a brisket, and his brother Rick brought pork loin. Others who attended brought salad along with them - then that was one aspect of the meal I didn't have to worry about - as well as desserts to fill in after the meal.

And now we're planning a Christmas party for Dec. 16, so there will be more photos of the front room transformed for that holiday. The furniture set up is quite a bit different now, and I rather like it. This morning Levi and I took a nap on the leather loveseat next to the wood stove before coming to work, and it was wonderful on a six-below morning.

Our Christmas tree this year is rather homely, but now that I've got the lights and decorations on it, it's growing on me. The point of hunting in the mountains for a Christmas tree is not to find a perfect one, but for the experience. If we wanted a perfect one it would be a lot easier to visit the nearest supermarket parking lot. :-) And, I figure this way we won't set the bar too high for Levi's first Christmas, and he won't expect too much next year...

In my absence

This is what I've been up to in the month since I last posted - Levi! He was born Aug. 29 at just after 2 a.m. by c-section here at the Casper hospital. I'd had mild contractions all day on Aug. 28 and didn't think anything of them - I assumed they'd stop, as they weren't getting any more frequent or intense, although some of them did last for a long time. 

It was about 9:30 that night, as Scott and I were thinking about going to bed, that we made the ultimate decision - to go the hospital or not to go to the hospital. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to go, since it's just a few blocks away, I was already all preregistered, and we figured that way they could send us home and we could sleep in peace, after being assured the baby wasn't coming anytime too soon.

Alas, we got to the hospital and I was three centimeters dilated, though my contractions still weren't very strong. They sent us away, telling me to walk around and come back in an hour. We got back to the hospital at 11 p.m., and my doctor was there seeing to another birth, so she came in to the exam room to talk to me, and that's when she did a quick ultrasound and discovered that our baby was, indeed, breech. 

Since I was already in labor, it was too late to try to do anything about it, and she simply said, "We'll have to do a c-section."

Those weren't the words I had been expecting to hear when we'd left for the hospital two hours earlier, but at that point there was no way around it, and they started prepping me for surgery. That included three tries at an IV, two in one hand and one in the other. That hurt. So there I was, getting attempts at an IV in one hand, blood drawn out of the other arm, and having labor pains on a very uncomfortable exam bed. It was awful, and made even worse by the fact that I had to lie there for about two-and-a-half hours, waiting for my turn in surgery. It wasn't the hospital's fault, as an emergency c-section came in shortly after they prepped me, and another girl also came in at eight centimeters dilated, so I ended up being third priority. Granted, I wasn't an emergency, and there was no harm in waiting, I just wish I'd asked to move to a more comfortable location. 

Finally, my doctor came back in and said it was my turn to go. They wheeled me out of the exam room in the labor and delivery unit to the operating room, which is on the same floor. On the way we passed my mother-in-law Shirley and sister-in-law Penny, who were patiently waiting in the hallway waiting area. 

After getting to the operating room things actually started to move along. It was freezing in there, and I only had one of their flimsy cotton garments on, so they layered me with warm towels while the anesthesiologist prepared me for a spinal block. Those warm towels were wonderful. I was sitting on the edge of the operating table when he did it, and by the time I got my legs swung up to lie down I was already going numb. 

I want to add a note here that all the doctors and nurses at the hospital were wonderful - the girls in the operating room were very good to me, and comforting, and I really liked the anesthesiologist, too. And, of course, I like my OB, and was very glad that she was the one on call and the one to do my c-section. 

After I got my spinal block and they got me all arranged, Scott came into the OR to sit at my head while they worked on getting our baby out. It was the strangest feeling, as I could feel everything that they were doing, but without any pain. There was lots of pulling and tugging, and the anesthesiologist said I'd feel some strong tugs up under my rib cage when they got ready to pull the baby out, and he wasn't joking. Those spinal blocks sure do work. 

Scott sat at my head the entire time, checking on me to make sure I was ok. I was. I was mostly just thankful that I was comfortable and that I wasn't lying on that exam room bed anymore. 

After they pulled the baby out, I heard them announce that it was a boy, and one of the nurses commented on his big hands and feet. I couldn't see him, because of the blue curtain that was near my face, but I heard him start to cry as they cleaned him all up and got him warm. When he was all clean and wrapped up, Scott picked him up and brought him to me so I could see him. He was wrapped tight in a flannel blanket, with a little knit white cap on. 

His name was Levi Frank Martinez as soon as we were sure he was a boy - that name had been decided since last January. We chose Frank for a middle name because that was Scott's dad's name, and my dad's middle name. To add even more meaning to the name, Levi was born 21 years to the day after Scott's dad passed away, and it was almost exactly to the minute, as well. Levi was born at 2:04 a.m., and Scott's dad passed away at 2:15 a.m. We are thankful that now the Martinez family has a new life to celebrate on Aug. 29, while still remembering their husband and father, who is still very much a part of their lives. 

After Scott went with Levi to the nursery, passing Shirley, Penny and Levi's cousin Kyle along the way, they finished putting me back together and sewing me up. I was transferred to a wheeled bed and taken to recovery, where another kind nurse looked after me while I regained feeling in my legs. More warm towels! I was so tired by that point that I kept dozing off, but the unfortunate thing was that, whenever I did, the monitor I was attached to started beeping because the oxygen in my blood would drop. So no sleep there!

I was in recovery for about two-and-a-half hours before being taken to the mother/baby unit, which is one floor down in the hospital. I was transferred again to the bed in the room, and soon after Levi and Scott arrived and I got to hold Levi for the first time. That wasn't my preference, as I would have loved to be able to hold him much sooner than several hours after his birth, but I was glad that Scott got to be with him in the nursery and observe as the nurses gave him a sponge bath and do all the things they do for newborns. Levi weighed eight pounds, 6.6 ounces at birth and was 20.5 inches long. 

My mom had already been planning to drive out from Iowa on the 29th, so we kept her posted on all the happenings through the night and she headed west first thing Monday morning, arriving at the hospital that evening to see her first-ever, brand-new grandson. On Monday we had many visitors, and it was great to see everyone who came to wish us well, but by mid-afternoon I was wondering if my conversations were coherent or not, I was so tired. Levi and I received many flowers and nice gifts, and we sincerely appreciate all our friends and family.

We were in the hospital for two full days, and got to go home the following Wednesday. While still in the hospital Levi and I got started on breastfeeding, which took some practice, but he's four weeks old today and things are going along just fine now. He's had two visits to his pediatrician - at two weeks old he'd regained the four ounces he lost after birth and we've been on an upward trend ever since. I went in at two weeks to get my incision checked, and I also received a passing grade. 

The week after he was born we had two baby showers, one hosted by the wonderful girls I work with at the Roundup, and another at Alcova, hosted and attended by the community women whom Scott grew up around. 

My mom was able to stay for two weeks - a stay that was extended by a day because of an additional surgery I had to have on my leg where I'd been stepped on by a horse at 37 weeks pregnant, but that's another story for another post. :-) My dad also came to visit for a couple days, and it worked out so that my brother Nathan also came by when Levi was a week old, and my sister Melissa came over for the Roundup baby shower. 

So, hopefully blog posts will become more regular and timely once again. Today Levi and I are getting ready to head into the Roundup office for a little while, so hopefully that goes as well as I hope it will. :-)

The Good Life

We officially made it through State Fair week! From Wednesday through yesterday was pretty full, with our Cattlemen's Conference and Ag Hall of Fame Picnic on Wednesday, Kendra's senior pictures, attending the Wyoming Beef Council meeting and writing five articles on Thursday, then putting the paper out and going back down to State Fair Friday afternoon for the Wyoming Dept. of Ag Director's Reception and the rodeo on Friday evening.

But I made it through all that, and the baby did not come during the busy week, and that's all I was asking for! Paula, Kendra and I had fun taking senior photos on Thursday, and I am very pleased with how they turned out.

In fact, I don't think they could have turned out better! The lighting was fabulous, the locations were pretty and Kendra made my job very easy.

I'm still working on sorting and editing the 500-and-some images that I took. There are about 50 that I chose that I really like, which is usually about the percentage that I end up liking when I go out to take photos. Paula and Kendra are also very happy with them, which is all that matters. :-)

Also, I sold my first prints to the stock contractor this week, and I plan to start putting money away from photography income to start purchasing camera equipment. Scott also got a raise this week at work, so things are looking pretty good around here.

Now all we need is a painless delivery and a healthy baby! Many people were surprised to see me roaming State Fair, but almost just as many people have predicted that the baby will come late. I guess I still don't look like I'm over 38 weeks pregnant and they don't believe my due date, even though I'm absolutely positive it's accurate as far as the 40-week timetable goes.

In sad news, though, my summer intern Tressa has left for school in Texas, and Saige and I are now on our own with the editorial again. It was a delight to work with Tressa over the summer, and we wish her nothing but the best as she continues her ag communicaitons education in the south!

Fair, Photography... Busy!

And I was doing so good in posting consistently! This week is state fair week in Wyoming, which means we at the paper are busy making sure we've got all our bases covered, and today is our big day, with the Cattlemen's Conference this afternoon, which we sponsor with a feeder from Wheatland, and our Wyoming Ag Hall of Fame Picnic this evening, which we sponsor with Farm Credit Services and Encana Oil and Gas.

The above picture was taken at opening weekend of State Fair, at the Wyoming State Fair Ranch Rodeo Finals. That's Tami Larsen on her Redneck stud - the one that would have been April's colt's grandfather, had she taken the time I bred her to Bob's stud colt.

During the ranch rodeo I spent some time taking photos, until my camera battery died. My camera battery's kind of like some cell phone batteries... It'll last forever on full bars, and when it starts getting down even one bar, there really isn't all that much power left.

I came up with some ok ranch bronc photos - nothing brilliant, but I've still stumbled into an opportunity to sell prints to the stock contractor to whom they belong.

Today I won't have a whole lot of time to take photos at fair, as I'll be busy with the Wyoming Livestock Board meeting this morning, and I will take some at the picnic tonight. After the picnic a bunch of us from the Roundup are going to the Darryl Worley/Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers concert in the grandstand, which should be a good show, and it should be a gorgeous summer evening.

Then tomorrow morning I'm headed to Esterbrook, which is just beneath Laramie Peak in the Laramie Mountains south of Douglas, where State Fair is held, to take senior pictures for a coworker's daughter.

So, with all this coming up today and tomorrow, I need to get going to gather all my things together, but I wanted to put up a quick post to touch base. :-)

Also, last night I finished the hardest part of my slipcover project for my upholstered rocker, and it turned out way better than I thought it might! Now I just have to finish the dust ruffle on the bottom, and make a case for the seat cushion. Then I can move on down to the other simpler sewing projects on my list for the baby room.

Weekend: Checking Off the To-Do List

This weekend was a good one for finishing and starting on projects around the house. It included finishing the binding on the baby quilt, starting the slipcover project pictured above, grocery shopping, a trip to Pathfinder Ranch for Pathfinder Days and a night spent at the Association, watering the whole yard, cleaning up some spent potted plants (it hasn't been a good year for me and flowers), exchanging our blueray player (this is our third one. maybe the charm?) and spending 30 minutes on the phone with an Indian man to figure out how to get it to connect to our router, taking a couple naps, cleaning both bathrooms, vacuuming, and lots more things along those lines...

I was going to do some riding with the menfolk Sunday up at the ranch, but turns out their Saturday cow-moving task turned into two days, so I skipped out, as I didn't know for sure how long Sunday's portion would take, and I didn't want to ride more than a couple hours. Instead, I woke up with them at 4, had breakfast and headed into town, where cat Link and I got all kinds of things done.

I also worked quite a bit on sorting and folding the baby laundry and getting it organized in the armoire, along with the other baby supplies I have, like toys, feeding essentials, diapers, etc. The drawer pulls I want at Hobby Lobby still haven't gone on sale, so opening the drawers on the dresser/changing table is still a trick. :-)

This is the baby quilt - the blocks of red and green fabric are parts of the table runners I used at our wedding party in May.

And I used dropcloth canvas for the backing.

Yesterday I started on the puzzle that is cutting pieces for a slipcover for my rocking chair. This is the first try ever at a slipcover, so we'll see if it ends up fitting the chair, with no glaring mistakes. I thought about piping the edges, but then decided to keep it simple...

I didn't get much farther than this yesterday - I did get these pieces all pinned together and started stitching, but then headed over to publisher Dennis's house to pick raspberries and never went back to this project yesterday evening - I wrote all my thank-you notes for the baby gifts from Iowa, instead. I have yet to cut out the rest of the pieces. The chair is sitting up on 2x4's because I'd like to cut some blocks to raise the chair up a couple inches - right now it's kind of a low-rider.

So, a few more things were finished, or at least started, over the weekend. Just a few short weeks until baby gets here!

Weekend: Thrifting and House Projects

Foxy is my little plant-eater, so I try to keep pots up off the ground at least a little bit, hoping it will discourage her somewhat. I'm not sure it works...

This last weekend we spent in town, but that doesn't mean we had our feet up! From Friday evening through last night we kept busy with house projects and with other activities around town, whether or not Scott wanted to. :-)

Friday evening started out with cleaning out the garage - throwing some things away, making a garage sale pile for the next day's sales in Paradise Valley, pulling all the previous owners' junk from the garage loft and replacing it with our own, and generally getting ready to move some big pieces of furniture out on Saturday. When it was all said and done, we didn't really gain all that much space, but I like to think we at least accomplished a little bit.

Then Saturday morning we headed out first thing to take our garage sale stuff to friend Jamie's and then to start scoping out the community's sales, and we met with success!

After painting the thrift frames for our wedding party, and liking how they looked, I was excited to find this box of assorted wooden picture frames to use for similar projects. None of them have glass, which is easily enough picked up at Hobby Lobby for cheap. For two dollars I took the box home with me, and at the same garage sale we purchased a set of vintage tv trays, which I've just remembered, and now I'm not sure where we put them when we got home. :-) They're gold right now, but my plan is spray paint and spray enamel to protect them from chips, and they also all have a little wheeled cart on which they fit.

I talked the woman down from five dollars to three for this leather case, which I plan to use for my laptop and other work accessories. This was the only sale where I ran into reluctance at my lower offer, but she took it. :-)

These wooden boxes were at a yard sale with a lot of really neat things. I could have picked up several more things, including one of the old-style cast iron tea kettles and a jar full of the large-sized glass marbles, but I refrained. The boxes were a good enough find.

I love the stamps and writing that's still on the bottom of the shallow box. It was originally used to ship film reels from New York City to movie theaters across the nation. A friend of mine says the two-cent stamp looks like it's from 1908.

Vintage glass ornaments for 50 cents for the box, anyone? I know not all of them are truly vintage, but I'd say three-quarters of them are, and I love the colors. They're in really good shape, too, with few scratches and nicks.

"There goes Grandma's skilled for 25 cents." - That's what the girl said when I purchased the red enamelware piece for the baby room. I sure wouldn't have sold such a pretty piece for a quarter, especially if it was sentimental!

There was a sticker for 75 cents on one of these baskets, and I asked if that was for one or both, and I was told both, so they came home with me, too. :-) The lid on one of them isn't in very good shape, so I think I will remove it and the hinges and use it for an open basket.

After garage sales Melissa arrived in town from Lander, and we began moving furniture around. She took a loveseat and coffee table from downstairs, and when Jamie arrived to help she, Melissa and Scott moved the armoire from the garage to its proper place in the baby room downstairs. I was glad I hadn't worked on it at all, as it did end up with a gouge from the steps, but all in all it went pretty well.

We tried to take the crib downstairs, but it wouldn't fit so we ended up taking it apart, and I'll paint it outside in pieces before reassembly downstairs.

Because of all the other things we were getting done, I didn't get to start on painting the crib, but my chalk paint and wax is still waiting!

When we were done with furniture moving Melissa and I went out for ice cream, stopped by the new camera shop here in town and went to Salvation Army, where she purchased these chairs that I had seen a couple weeks earlier. She also got the neatest folding chairs, which were made in Connecticut and have to have been one of the first prototypes for modern folding chairs - it took us a few minutes to figure out how to get the contraptions to fold up.

Melissa headed back to Lander shortly after five, and Scott and I went to Old Chicago for dinner with the Martinez family.

On Sunday, much to Scott's delight, I had him help me with more projects around the house, including edging the front flower bed, spraying weeds, cleaning the patio and moving our extra firewood around to the north yard.

That's when I also swept the patio and rearranged, using some of the firewood stumps to elevate some of my pots. Although it's nothing spectacular, it looks a lot better than it did! Most of the planters pictured are in full sun all afternoon, so they have my spinach, lettuce and herbs, which can take the heat. The few pots that don't have anything growing yet I planted with the last leftovers from my seed packets.

This concrete pad next to the driveway was filled with firewood, but now I've turned it into a plant center. I'm not entirely happy with it, but will continue to tweak it, I'm sure. It's in part shade, so my more particular flowers should do well and not burn up.

After cleaning the office, Scott made me take a nap, which actually felt pretty good, and then we went out to check on the fillies, who are doing well. Cindy Lou's crooked knee has straightened up quite a bit in the last two weeks.

When we got home this gentleman tom turkey was getting ready for night in a neighbor's tree.

Several days ago I first saw him in another neighbor's front yard, and Scott told me I must be crazy. But ever since then he's been hanging out in the neighborhood, and seems quite content.

So that was our weekend. Busy, but we got a lot done. I was glad to come to work today, to take a break. :-) Tressa and I have a photo shoot planned for this evening for our July 4th cover this weekend, and hopefully we get a nice sunshiney sunset with gorgeous light... We've had a lot of thunderstorms go through in the afternoon/evening, so I'm hoping for the best. Today I also go to the baby doctor - on a three-week schedule now, as we count down the last 10 weeks!