My father's plants

My dad came up twice before two graduations and worked diligently planting the stone walls we had built. The plants have gone through the summer season and they have really blossomed. But last weekend, we planted the wall that wasn't ready when he came to visit. Rockingham Acres is the nursery down the road, and Bill is a master at plotting out where bushes should go... second only to my dad. It was the last day the nursery was open and we got bushes buy one get one free. So we purchased 20, 17 of which went on our new wall that CJ built.

Of course the finish work is not done. I have to move some of these purple flowers over...

And we'll plant some marigolds like dad did on our bushes in the front ... this is a Rose of Sharon with marigolds around it:

Thanks for all your hard work on the plants dad.... my yard is the envy of the neighborhood!

It finally came

I was beginning to wonder if I truly graduated with my masters. I did get a letter saying the diploma would be late because they had to redo them. But finally last week it was hand delivered by my postman. Its amazing how good one stupid piece of paper can make you feel. And that piece of paper represents 40 hours a week of writing, reading, attending classes, and trying to manage the most important people in my life- my family for 2 years. I think it is the word "master" that describes it best....

I decided recently, after being bored out of my mind with no classes, (Kristin is gone, Jeff is working, and I'm on top of my game at school) that I need to enjoy the stress release. But I am a nutty, high achiever who loves school and am actually lamenting the fact I'm done. (I am enjoying the pay raise, however) I came to realize that I'm addicted to the stress. There is something that is addicting about constantly being in hypervigilant. So I have decided to put away any thought of taking another class, at least for this year, and work on my hobbies. Then I realized I am even hypervigilant about my hobbies... which include... fishing, shooting my bow, stamp collecting, scrapbooking, and quilting. Most people only have one or 2. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I think I will just have to wait for my sister to come so I can focus on one of them. ;)

New Hampshire boys are pyromaniacs

I don't know what it is about New Hampshire boys(men) but they all seem to love fires. I was thinking today about Jeffrey's comment about learning to make s'mores for Nichole just like dad does for mom. That seems to be one of those rites of passage in this family that causes the men to grunt because it is a manly thing.Even my niece Carly loves her Uncle Tim's s'mores... to bad you're not coming in Sept. Carly.
But we also love a great bonfire. The pile has been in place I think since March so it was very dry. And we are fortunate enough to get tropical storm Hanna coming through (as if we needed more rain this year) tonight. As usual, Tim made the fire and it must have gotten to be 20 feet high. These are the simple things that we enjoy and make life just a little sweeter.