Friday morning I headed over to Park Meadows; Thursday was the last day of school for the kids, but I knew the teachers would all be there yesterday.  Vicki and Patti were way too swamped with paperwork to visit with me, but I did get to visit with Diane and pass along another packet chock-full of clippings.  It was her grandson Brayden's first birthday.  How time flies; obviously I need a more recent picture of him than this!  

Diane will be babysitting him on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays this summer, so the plan is to get together (often) and take care of him together.  (I've always thought that the year between one and two is one of the most difficult; the kids are mobile, but have NO clue about cause and effect, and are at risk of hurting themselves.  Between the two of us old folk, maybe we'll be able to keep up with him?) Diane doesn't have a pool at her house, so he can learn to love the water at ours! 

For kids and fun, 

In the afternoon I worked on finances, paying bills, etc.  In the stack was a bill from my April 4 chemo that I paid with a debit card that day; this is the second time I've been billed by them for services I'd already paid for.  Good thing I'm checking all bills.  Also needing attention are the payments for car insurance for all 4 vehicles.  Every month I think I'll get ahead a bit, and maybe make ends meet, and every month there's another surprise in the mail.  Could be worse (MUCH worse!) but I keep looking forward to that day when there are no surprises in outlay in my monthly budget.

I crashed around 9:00; Tom did the gates on 35th Ave. a little after midnight, and I got up at 2:30 this morning to let the water go.  Even after all those weeks of raking up cans and cans of leaves out back (thought to be impeding the flow of water into the front yard) the yard still doesn't seem to be getting as much water as it used to, which is a little worrisome.  We don't care about crunchy grass, but we definitely count heavily on those two huge Chinese elms to shade the house from the blistering southern sun exposure!

Here's a picture I took around 9:00 this morning, with the sun is coming from the southeast.  We really appreciate the shade in the afternoon, when the (much hotter!) sun comes from the southwest.  Love that tree!

There's another elm on the right side of the driveway, which basically shades the driveway and garage - and that's handy also!