A good summer nothing day

My summer teaching is done, finishing the day before gas hit $3.09, so I'm glad I'm not driving up to Big Rapids anymore. It was a fun six weeks. I enjoyed teaching calculus again.

Here's the kind of summer day I had, and it made me happy: slept until 8:30 and then helped Lisa get the girls ready for a play date at Long Lake near our house. While they were gone I picked up and vacuumed the basement, cleaned up the "cat room" (the basement bathroom where they have a litter box and where they eat, which sounds like a gross combo, but it's the biggest bathroom in the house), all whilst listening to U2 and R.E.M., loudly. When that was done I had leftovers for lunch, prepared the yard for mowing, randomly picked weeds out of the landscaping as I went around the house, mowed a little (with my new ear-protectors), and then helped get the girls into bed for naps after they came home. Then I put Miracle-Gro on some flowers, folded some laundry, took a short nap with Tate, read the newspaper, finished mowing after the girls woke-up, and then took a shower.

In the end, nothing special happened today, but I just got to be home and do stuff. No driving, no real obligations, and soon we're going to head to the Duimstra's for pizza. Yaa-HOOO-oo-OO!

Dancing, and weird garden problems

Annika's dance recital was last Saturday. The picture pretty much says it all.

In bizarre garden news:

First, the normal stuff: We are making a good effort, I think. Things are growing well, despite the fact that we've replaced some of the tomato plants twice after the cutworms ate them. We resorted to chemicals. In addition, we've put up strings to keep us and the girls from walking on the plants, we're watering well and Lisa's weeding frequently. Fortunately, we're pretty far from the woods, so we don't have many worries about critters getting in the garden. One of our neighbors has seen deer tracks in her garden.

Then the bizarre stuff: I came home today, and two neighbor girls met me in the garage, almost anxious to talk to me (which is not normal). They informed me that today we had cows - cows! - in our garden. COWS!! Sure enough, there were deep hoofprints all over the garden, and near the swingset. Somehow, they didn't do too much damage, although they apparently tried to eat some strawberries. There's a pasture with cows about a quarter mile from our house. They got out. I wish I could've seen it.

How do you prepare for cows in your garden?

A and A

Amazingly enough, the girls continue to grow. We had them in matching dresses last Sunday, but it was impossible to get them in a decent picture together, which is why there are two pictures here. Annika finished a great year of preschool and gets to be a kindergardener next year at Millbrook. Her dance recital is tonight, and maybe I'll get a picture up from that soon. It's nice to have some warm weather so the girls can play outside.
Speaking of the outdoors, here are the recent highlights: today Annika found a snapping turtle in the yard, about a foot or more long. There's a killdeer nest in our neighbor's garden that we keep tabs on. I saw a pileated woodpecker across the street for sure (it's bigger than a crow). Our garden is doing pretty well, although we already replaced the tomato plants once, and the second set aren't doing so well either (cutworms). Our sunflowers are sprouting like mad, as is the lettuce, whose seeds we got from Rebecca (thanks!). I planted almost 150 annuals last weekend, and put some zinnias around the house today. It's all good out there.