The new cherry tree--planted by two really hardworking teenagers. Good work guys!

Jeremy on the soon to be replaced back deck of our house. I am looking forward to the eventual new deck! Excuse the mess on the back patio downstairs. It is in a little bit of disarray at the moment...
Sugar Baby, protector of all... intimidator of none..

It has been a pretty enjoyable weekend.

On Saturday the twins,DH and I decided we were going to explore some of the used bookstores in Wichita. I found three books I had been looking for and the boys found some for their summer reading bucket too. I found a really cool church cookbook. I love community and church cookbooks---I collect them like some people collect china and other things...I knew this one was going to be great when I saw a jello salad recipe that contained SOUTHERN COMFORT! The other recipes in the book looked really great too, but that one amused me that it was in a church cookbook. Having grown up in the South, I can attest that any cookbook and church gathering is rated by the quality and quantity of the jello salads---or also known as congealed salads...they are made fun of almost as much as fruitcake, but like fruitcake, I'm here to tell you, if you don't like it, you just haven't had a good one!...



After we went to the bookstores, we went to the Wichita Art Museum http://www.wichitaartmuseum.org/. They are free on Saturdays, so that it a blessing to the family budget. Unfortunately the top floor was closed for remodeling, but the bottom floor had an incredible exhibit of photographs by Eudora Welty and her contemporaries from the 1930's. since I am fascinated with that time period, it was fascinating to me. If you are in Wichita and have a chance to go, take advantage of the opportunity to see some really interesting photos. It was really a good day. We also got to wander through one of the nurseries here in town. The boys decided they wanted a fruit tree of their own. Jeremy wanted a cherry tree, which I bought Friday after work. I bought a dwarf tree that only gets to about 12 feet tall. This will help when it comes time to put nets over the tree to keep the birds from eating and disfiguring the fruit. I figured Mark would want an apple tree, but he is fixated on getting a pear tree. With Jeremy's sour cherry tree, we don't need another cherry tree as a pollinator ( you have to have a sour cherry tree to pollinate a sweet cherry tree though), but all the pear trees will require another type to pollinate. So next Saturday we will be looking for 2 dwarf pear trees...It will be nice to have fruit from our own trees, but we are definitely going to be maxed out on tree space after we get the pear trees.

DH and I went to brunch this afternoon with a friend and then to Barnes and Noble. I love that place. I found a good decorating book that was not only on sale, it has lots of really good ideas and inspiration. Our house is quite a bit larger than we had before and I am not quite sure where to go with the decorating. The book had some ideas I'm going to try--a lot of this I can make myself with fabric and a little sewing...

Oldest sounds like he is enjoying Iowa. It is still hard to have him so far away, but I guess they have to leave the nest sometime. I do think the reality of how much things cost has started to sink in though. We are sending a care package this coming weekend. We will be going to Iowa for a visit before the summer ends, so I have to get cranking on the quilt I am going to make for them.

The twins head off to a three day camp sponsored by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's department this week. The boys are really looking forward to it. There is supposed to be a SWAT simulation, so you know they are really excited. Jeremy is into anything law enforcement. He always has been.