July 4th

We had a great 4th of July! The weather was perfect, not too hot, no thunderstorms. We had good friends and good food! There were no pictures during the party- too busy and camera shy bathing beauties! This is the kudzu wreath I made (decorated with burlap strips for coffee bags and 90% off patriotic ribbon from last summer)!

The Grand Opening of Captain Jack's Pirate Bar!

Estate sale pirate chest - great to store napkins and paper plates.

Random bar customer..............

We stayed out by the pool and enjoyed the Red, White and Blue sky after all the guests were gone! What a beautiful day!

The Boy

The Boy or Son #4 turned 14 this week. He celebrated by taking some friends to a movie and eating a lot of cake. I saw this giant cupcake pan (as seen on TV!) for 75% off at CVS. He never wants a birthday cake...says he doesn't like cake. Over the years he has had birthday brownies and ice cream cakes. He does like strawberry shortcake and cream cheese frosting so he did get a birthday cake this year!

It was SO good! We have each gained 5 pounds! It takes 2 boxes of cake mix! There was a little too much batter so you can make a few little cupcakes, too. When you bake the bottom of the cake there is an insert to make a hole. You can fill it with ice cream or anything you want.
In other news he also went fishing this week and brought home dinner. I have never cooked a fresh fish.....but I am going to try!

Lord, help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Green Monster

Sandy has blogged about a Green Monster drink. I was doubtful that I could swallow a drink made of spinach, almond milk and banana! But, it kept popping up around Blogland and I was curious. The benefits range from more energy to less sugar cravings. So when our new Earthfare opened last week and almond milk was $.14 I decided to take the test.

It is good! I like spinach but you really can't taste it. I"ll try it for a while for breakfast and see if I see any benefits. Eli must inspect all food and he was not impressed!

Wordless Wednesday

Random Weekend Photos

Most weekends we are happy to go to the backyard and putter around. Ever since we moved into the Swamp my Hubby has worked to make the backyard our refuge. I wish I had a before picture to show how desolate it was when we moved in. Just picture a large yard with big trees and 3 years of leaves and weeds covering everything. It has come a long way!

This summer he has added this walkway from the "grilling" patio to the pool. We had some temporary stepping stones that were not wide enough.

The stepping stones have been repurposed to make a place for the ferns. The ferns started out near the gate on the cement until they grew so big!

Last year's project was a raised planter that is still not filled up. But it is coming along. The hostas will fill in and we put some saliva and coleus in the empty spots.

This little fountain is the focal spot. It needs some more plants to fill around it.

This plant stand is a piece of "road kill" I found . It looked like a tree had fallen on it! Hubby just bent it back into place and it is as good as new! I really like the bright green coleus and sweet potato vine this year.

The pond plants have been abundant this year. We added the pond one summer when we had two teenagers that were grounded for something long forgotten. They got to dig a pond while they served out their ssentence.

The waterfall is completely covered in this water plant this year. We can still hear the water trickling but can't see it.

Speaking of covering.....this is the ENEMY.....covering the trees....KUDZU! We battle it daily! It is rooted in the neighbor's yard and grows over on to our trees. It does provide privacy for the pool! Every time a vine gets to the pool fence I hack it off.

Here is the ENEMY. I take out my frustrations by twisting it into this basket. I have also made a wreath.

Finally, the outside dog, Big Jeff, does not get much blog time. Here he is hiding under the table! Have you ever heard of a lab that is afraid of the water? He is a big baby! We do have a plastic baby pool for him.

Just to show you how big this baby is.....his paws are bigger than my hands!

Father's Day

My Hubby just got the best Father's Day gift ever! A positive pregnancy test from our daughter and son-in-law! We are beyond excited!!!!!

Flag Day

The Swamp House is decked out in Red, White and Blue for Flag Day. We are proud of Son#3 as he prepares for deployment. He will leave Thursday for NJ, then his National Guard Unit will be sent to Iraq. God Bless the USA!