Well, I did it again!

      Since I started blogging, I've had two cameras! Can you guess what I've done with them? Left them out in the rain! I'm so sad! At least I had a lot of pictures on the SD card that I can share with you! I'm actually using the first camera that I left out in the rain, and it's doing a fairly good job! I just can't see the photo I've just taken until I download it onto the computer. It's quite different than the Fuji I was using, but I like the size a lot better; and the fact that it only uses two batteries instead of four! Ran was wondering what to get me for our twenty-second anniversary this Friday, and you guessed it! A WATERPROOF camera! He actually found one on Amazon for under a $100! I can hardly wait to use it!

      As you can imagine, it's been raining here lately, A LOT! The girls came Thursday, the day I thought I would write a post, and I had the camera outside taking pictures of them in the pool. I placed it on the table outside to do something else. The next day, when I wanted to take pictures of the girls again, I couldn't find my camera! It occurred to me that I had left it outside on the table. And it had rained ALL NIGHT AND ALL DAY! Remember Tropical Storm Andrea last week? Well, it came through here and dumped a lot of rain on us. Now we are experiencing sun and high temps with extreme humidity! Have you ever felt like you just had a hot shower after walking around outside doing hardly anything, and when you went inside, you got cold? That's the way it feels here! Anyway, the camera will not work, so I found my old camera and now I can take photos until the new one gets here! Yay for Amazon! Walmart had waterproof cameras but they were over $200! Now why would I pay that much for a camera? I can buy several of these for that price! And they do the same thing! 

      With all the rain, everything is growing and getting greener by the day! The garden seems to be doing good, if the squash bugs will leave the squash plants alone! That happens every year! Something eats the summer squash! I even plant them in different beds, but with the same result! The beans are outgrowing their stakes and are blooming! They have pretty purple flowers on them! Speaking of purple, the wisteria is blooming again! I just adore wisteria! Day lilies are in full bloom as well! Looks like the nectarine tree has produced lots of nectarines again this year! And, I've been getting red plums from the plum tree! They are delicious! The raspberries are producing a handful at a time and are delicious, too! Before long, the blackberries will be producing! 

      I hope everything is going good for you in your gardens! From what little I read now-a-days, from ya'll's blogs, it sounds like ya'll are doing pretty good! I'm trying not to sit at the computer too much now! From all the sitting over the last few months, I seemed to have gained weight! It doesn't take much for me to gain weight; that's why I exercise so much! I don't even over-eat! Maybe it's my thyroid? Anyway, I'm trying to take authority over it now before it gets worse! It crept up on me, so I'll keep ya'll informed as to how I do over the next few months. With vacation coming up, it will probably not be easy to work it off! We eat way too much when we go on vacation! Oh well, I'll get back on it when we return home! 

      Enjoy your week and thanks for stopping by! Blessings from Bama!

This photo of the beans doesn't show how tall they've gotten or the purple flowers.

Rutgers tomato from Whole Foods.

Zucchini plant.

Straight neck squash.

Two crook neck squash. I need to separate them.

Another tomato plant from Whole Foods.

Aren't these lilies lovely?

I can't believe how dark this day lily is!

Oak leaf hydrangeas.

This yellow rose has grown all over the place!

Raspberries!

Blackberries!

Blackberry brambles.

The fennel has grown so tall!

Lovely little gardenia flowers! They smell fantastic!

Yasmine opening her birthday present.

Just what I need, a camera!

Lulu in the pool. She doesn't get far from the steps.

They had a fun time cleaning and swimming!

Win and Yas feeding the goat boys.

Randy and five little girls having fun in the pool!

One of the new roses I received for Mother's Day. Taken with the Kodak easy share.

Rubi in her pool!

Randy took the camera apart and it's now in the garbage!

There were three plums! The other was delicious!

Celebration and seeds!

      We had a very exciting weekend this past weekend! The girls came for a visit, and we celebrated my in-laws 50th. wedding anniversary! The celebration was a surprise to the happy couple, and boy, were they surprised! Everything turned out very nice, and we got to visit with family members we don't get to see very often.

      I also started the rest of the tomato and eggplant seeds. I see no growth yet from the other seeds, but it takes 7-14 days for germination. I really should have started them sooner so they'll be bigger going into the ground! I just hope they germinate! I also need to get outside and do the work mentioned before on the raised beds! Today it isn't raining, but the wind is quite gusty! It's rained a lot here and been windy and cold, so I couldn't get anything done outside. I hope to do something today since the temps are supposed to be in the mid-50's. Then it's supposed to turn cold with possible snow flurries this weekend. The weather usually changes before then, so we'll see.

      My co-op order should be here by this weekend and I'm so excited to see what all I get! I kept adding to the order since January, so it will be quite a few items. Some weeks I have grocery money left over, so I save that and will pay for the order with the savings. I haven't been able to save any grocery money in the past two weeks, since it seems prices just keep going up! The order will help with that since buying in bulk is cheaper, and I'll save money in the long run. I've really been trying to be more frugal with food and have had very little to give to the dogs. They wait every morning for me to throw out something, but I only have a few crumbs for them. Good for us, bad for the dogs. They have their dog food, so they're not starving!

      Hope the weather is nice where you live! Just be thankful for moisture instead of drought! Have a good week! Blessings from Bama!

Layla and Yasmine love to swing!

Layla isn't afraid to let Delilah eat from her hand!

Yasmine is feeding Daisey from a cup.

So young and in love!

These photos hold many memories for the happy couple!

The wedding day. The two photos above are passport photos. They met and married in Germany!

The lovely cake.

The surprised couple and their son.

These glasses are too cute!

A framed puzzle put together by their daughter in only two days. Helen has visited the castle in Germany before.

The rest of the seeds I wanted to start.

A keeper recipe for baked chicken Parmesan!

Have you been to Trader Joe's?

      I keep reading on different blogs about items purchased from Trader Joe's. I finally did some research and found a Trader Joe's about two hours from here. That would be like driving to Atlanta, not a bad trip, so we went this past weekend. It is a much smaller store than the Whole Foods store I've been to. I don't know if all the Trader Joe's is that small, but this one was. They probably are, since there were several within a few miles. I like the items that I've tried, the Trader Joe's brand. They are good quality, and reasonably priced, maybe even cheaper than Whole Foods. I'm hoping we can make a Whole Foods run this coming weekend while the experience is still fresh. Would I make that drive again, just to go to Trader Joe's? Probably not. Unless we want to eat at Johnny's New York style Pizza! And go to Best Buy and Michaels. We don't have any of those stores here. They are in Birmingham; except for the pizza place, so it would be much closer for us to drive there. But, it was a very nice trip!

      I had no comments on the recipe I posted in the previous post, so recipes may not be my thing. If I post one again, I'll just type it in. I was really bummed out about not being able to use Ziplist! That is such an easy way to save or print out recipes! I don't plan on ever changing from Blogger, but if I do, Ziplist will be the first thing I add!

      I had Layla this past week for a few days while her sister had her tonsils removed. Then, her Momma was so sick, she had to go to the doctor and found out she had bronchitis! So I kept Layla and Yasmine Friday night! They were both good, and even though Yasmine was in a sickly state, she acted well. After their Momma got a shot and some medicine, she felt a lot better and they went home Saturday evening. I also got to see Riley, the now two month old! They grow up too fast! She's still little, though. 

      We have received a lot of rain over the past few days, which has helped to get us out of the drought. The temps have gone from the seventies to the forties! That's a big change! Just when I would love to get in the dirt! I know better than to plant anything now! Maybe Valentine's Day! Hope ya'll have a nice week! Blessings from Bama!

Sausage gravy, but where's the biscuits?

I have to cook enough sausage every week so Skylar can eat a sausage biscuit every morning for breakfast. I now know how to make a decent biscuit.

Layla pushing her baby in the swing. Love that little smirk! Can you keep a house clean with children around?

First cinnamon-raisin bread. Very thick and crusty.

Look Aunt FeFe, I'm wearing your blogs! The dog dug up that little brown bottle.

We had tuna salad. I put apples in it and it was good!

The new cinnamon-raisin bread is light and not so crusty. It tastes delicious!

Don't let Rubi get us!

Daisey and Delilah are growing!

She smiled at the camera! She was trying to take it away from me!

Yasmine riding the Jeep.

Riley about to smile.

You can see the effects of the medicine on Yasmine.

I want my passy!

This is the actual size of the store.

A beautiful church in Marietta, Georgia.

Some of the items we purchased at Trader Joe's. They gave us that bag since it was our first time there.

I love this lentil soup!

Oatmeal bread to go with the soup.

Got to have some chocolate chip cookies to go with everything!