For my 38th birthday, Christie picked out a nice Belgian Waffle maker. This is the first waffle I made. Sweet potato waffles with bananas and maple syrup. Very tasty. I also got a cool new memory card for my camera that breaks the ties to the computer except to write about the pictures. The memory card has built in wireless connectivity to my home network and automatically uploads any pictures on my card even as I take them directly to my computer. No more taking the card out or making sure I have a cable to connect to the camera. Just turn on the camera and away they go.

Thank you to everybody who sent me birthday wishes and cards. I had a great birthday!

I went out to Christie's old house a couple weeks back and took some photos. It was fun to imagine Christie as a little girl running and playing out here in the rural part of Fountain Inn.





This is one of the big old trees that Christie used to play under when she was a girl. It was so big, the only way to fully capture all of it in one frame was to turn the camera on angle. I thought it made the tree even more interesting.













The other cool find was Christie's old tricycle parked under one of the other old trees. Sometimes our memories fade, but generally there are things like this tricycle even though tarnished is still highlighted in color. The joy that simple things bring...

These are Christie's edible Snowmen craft for the kids on their last day of school.
We like the hat on the last picture best. He looks like he has hair coming out from under the toboggan.

Carlson Family Thanksgiving 2009 at Dave and Rachael's new house.

Best part about carving a pumpkin is the roasting of the seeds after you scrape out its innards. A little Kosher salt, a little shaking to mix and roast at 350 for 20 minutes or so. Turn off the oven and let the seeds cool off with the oven. Remove when cool and enjoy!

Here is the 2009 Halloween pumpkin carving. Came out pretty nice and the kids loved it.

Charlotte has been busy since her last laying of eggs. This is one of the times I was fortunate enough to capture her in action. This insect was unfortunate. The images you are seeing were taken within a 10 second time frame. She quickly wrapped him up and set him aside for a tasty snack. After this, she proceeded to rebuild the web where he damaged it.

Hey Mom, this is the Swedish Rye bread I called you about. It turned out good, but not as good as what you made at home. We froze one loaf and have been snacking on it this week. I would like for you to send your recipe to me again. I apparently don't have a copy anymore.

With Fall just around the corner, memories of Grampie's pies have been coming to mind. Just the other day, I was able to make a pumpkin pie. A little nutmeg sprinkled on top and it felt like Thanksgiving. This was from the last Thanksgiving in Florida.

Sure enough, about 2 weeks ago, she built a sac one night and attached it quite securely to the glass and door frame. The egg sac is about 3-4 feet off center of the main web, but still very accessible by Charlotte. The heavy concentrations of silk that look like small cotton balls are attaching points to the glass. She reinforced each guideline with a strong footing. Ultimately, the sac is suspended in the middle of an intricate network. In approximately 150 days from the first of August, the little ones will find their way out of an overcrowded temporary apartment. Instinctively, by throwing out a single strand of silk they will take flight in the wind to a new home of their own beginning the process their mother did the season before.

It has been a while since we last spoke, but life has been full. One of the things we have been experiencing together is the growth of another life. A couple months ago we had a squatter come to make her home on our glass door leading out to the back deck. If you don't recognize her, she is a writing spider just like Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. True to the story, she has been eating well and growing in size.
Christie researched her and found out that she will rebuild the web every night and eventually an egg sac that holds approximately 1000 baby spiders. She potentially could produce 4 of these before the Summer wanes to Fall. First frost will typically take her life, but a legacy of hundreds will be protected in the sealed igloo so meticulously built 5 months prior. Their father will never be known by them. He is only in the web long enough to mate and then head off in search of another Charlotte. In his pursuit of other Charlotte's, he forgets to eat and usually dies of starvation. Occasionally, this makes for the meal of his last partnership.

to be continued ...

I am switching back to the simplistic ways of blogger. Shame on me for trying something different and expecting it to be simpler. So now my website is just that, a website. My blog will be the family side of me. News and photography and home and ...

Who doesn't love a nice Iris now and again? A whole patch of these showed up in the front landscaping last week. Very pretty. Every 2-3 years, iris bulbs can be split apart to produce even more the following year. I only uploaded one variety, but it looks like we have two varieties growing. The other one is solid purple and a little smaller flower although the stem is about 6-12 inches taller than these.

Three generations! We took Nanny to an assisted living center. She siad she was ready to go home to see her mom and dad and husband, but if she had stay here a little longer, this place would be nice. She will miss her home, but she seemed to enjoy the new place too. Lots of new faces and activities. Pray for her as she settles in and gets to know some new routines. Up until last week she was driving her car. Pretty good for a 91 year old.

God creates so many neat and interesting textures.

This is the Easter cross at Christie's parents church.

The phlox is creeping nicely, too. Soon we will have some iris blooming. They are currently in bud stage. Interestingly, our iris is several weeks behind the rest of the neighborhood. Maybe, the shady area has slowed them down.

The laurel is flowering and smells great. It brings the bumblebees in full force though. This is one of 5-10 at any given time during the afternoon. They hover for long periods in zones. Occasionally, one will enter the next bees area and they fight or transfer pollen and then split back to their zones. Fun to watch and hard to catch on camera.

And this is a pound cake fresh off the cooling rack that we made for our neighbors. We topped this off with fresh cut strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Our new neighbors invited us over for dinner last Saturday night for steaks. We contributed dessert. Very nice couple. Great conversation. Hopefully, we didn't wear out our welcome. Before we knew it, the clock was showing almost midnight.

Here are the cabinet doors minus the knobs with the countertop.

Here are the cabinets with and without the accenting stain. I'll publish more with the complete look after this. What a difference the cabinets and countertops make for the kitchen. I only have the baseboard and drawerfronts left to finish now. Closer every week!