I Still Love Summer, I Swear

I love summer. I do. I like warm days. This summer it seems we either have super hot or it's rainy. No much middle ground there.

So my big project yesterday was starting a little landscaping before it got hot. And it was even in our yard.

There's a beautiful flat rock landing along the river that I like to take senior photos at. But when I checked its status last week, I found that bushes had grown so much it was unsafe to navigate around them without falling in. So armed with my yard shears (I don't even know what tools are called), I went down to the river.

Here's the before picture. See what I mean by precarious?

And here's after my Edward Scissorhands stint. So much safer!

The before of the other direction was even worse!

And after. I felt so accomplished when I was done and hoped the evidence would float away. Ha.

Of course, I didn't even get to reap the rewards of my hard work today because we postponed tonight's senior photo session. I didn't want the poor girl to melt! 

Naturally, the AC is cranked in the house so you know me, I'll probably go outside to warm up!

Be careful out there!

My "Adoptive" Daughter Weds

Today was a glorious day for my friend Becky's daughter Sierra to wed. The relatively new Pike Lake venue was amazing – and just across the lake from where I've spent time at their family cabin.

Mother of the bride Becky looked great and I was thrilled to share this moment with her for the girl I'd known for decades. It seems.

Father of the bride was smiling as he escorted his "hurricane" of a daughter down the aisle.

I'd say the amazing moments we realize as parents is that our children are capable of making smart decisions. Thank goodness, right?

I'm so happy the girl I consider an "adopted daughter" had the best day ever with her new husband and father to her daughter. Congrats Taylor and Sierra!!

Friday FORE! Some Fun

We had our annual summer golf round with our friends Scott and Sandy. They come from the Green Bay area so we often find a new course to try that's somewhere between us. Today we took the day off and traveled down to the boujee town of Green Lake to golf Tuscumbia.

It was a gorgeous day with temps in the low 80s. A tad sticky at times, but when the clouds were out or there was a breeze, we did OK.

This was a pretty straightforward course. And I mean straight! Pretty much a back-and-forth hole layout. You might not see it in this photo but this is the middle of many parallel fairways. 

There were a lot of huge, old trees. This one gave shade to two little fawns. You have to look close. Ha.

And look at the size of this trunk!

Sandy and I took our usual selfie. I need to find all the ones we taken the last 15 summers!

On the way home, hubby and I stopped at Two Lakes Supper Club. There's water in both lakes this summer! That isn't always the case.

So we had dinner with a view.

That was topped only by our meal. We both had our favorites. Jim had their shrimp pizza and I had their delicious coconut shrimp with cranberry-apricot dipping sauce. So good!

Did not have room for dessert but had another treat on the drive home with this unusually wispy sunset. I see a bird in there. And the whole view is like a rising phoenix. Love it!

All in all, a great day out of the office! Which is usually the case, isn't it?

Have a good weekend, everyone. Hydrate and be careful!

I Hate Song Lyrics

For the record, I hate some song lyrics because they mean one thing when they write them... but another thing when you experience them. 

Today's example from Def Leppard: I'm hot, sticky sweet... From my head to my feet.

That was Foxy Ladies Golf League in a nutshell.

We did manage to somehow escape all the thunderstorm (and thunderhead cloud) predictions, but when we teed off, the air stopped moving and we're pretty sure humidity ramped up to 300%. It was totally ewww.

My new partner Molly was out of state on vacation so my old partner Marigene subbed in. It wasn't the worst round. But I had no pars. Dang. Still, despite the icky salty sweat in my eyes half the time, we had fun.

To continue the lyrics from above, instead of pour some sugar on me, it's definitely "pour some cold water in the shower on me"... that's how I vibe (and survive) with '80s song lyrics.

The Short Life of Precious Blooms

As I mentioned last night, thanks to recent rain and heat, then more rain and more heat, all the blooms at SentryWorld are in peak condition. And so beautiful. It was amazing. 

As I also mentioned, before we had league, a handful of us took our 4 Marketing interns to the driving range so they would be more comfortable for their upcoming intern scramble. So fun!

But I share this picture because I want you to look at these young faces of 19- and 20-year-olds. This is basically how young two girls in southwest Wisconsin were when they lost their lives in the past few days. Both a 22-year-old from La Crosse (where I went to college) and one from Platteville (where Carter went) had disappeared – and both were found dead today. No causes of death have been confirmed.

As I told my son, I'd just die (probably literally) if that happened at this young stage of life. Let's be honest, any age and any stage if our kids go before us. All of you parents KNOW this! So please pray for the families and friends of Eliotte and Emma, who weren't given a full season of life to bloom.

And think of them – and your current blessings – while you view a few more flowers.

Thank God for the colorful, beautiful people you are blessed to still have in your life today!

Full of Bloomin' Excuses

As someone in this house has reminded me many times, if I skip a blog the sun will still rise. So that becomes my inner thoughts when I get home after golf league around 9 p.m.

Naturally, the famous Flower Hole at SentryWorld is at peak right now and beautiful... but we golfed the front 9 and I took pix from a distance. There are more shots coming but the most enjoyable part of the evening was driving range time with our marketing interns we have this summer. 

I'l fill you in tomorrow when I have night off from anything and everything. 

For now, just enjoy a few blooms!

Not Quite Extreme Makeover

While I love "before and after" comparisons, I couldn't find a ton of BEFORE pictures in recent years of our house. But you can tell above that we had vertical siding and what you might not see is that is was some type of wood that included holes and was prime territory for bees and wasps to make nests. Also note we had 2 lights on either side of the front door to serve as yard lights and that the trim around the windows and doors matched the light-colored siding.

While we pretty much stuck with the same color for our new "smart" siding we also agreed on a contrast color for the borders and as previously mentioned, our sexy soffits. Here's a few of the final results...

It's a clean horizontal siding look with some amazing accent frames around windows and doors that bring out the darker brick colors in the bottom half of the front of our house.

Maybe every builder is this meticulous, but I appreciate how everything lines up perfectly around every corner!

We did have two garage windows on the west side that never closed completely and were definitely not weather-proof by any means. Now we have siding on that full side of the garage but lighting x3 on the inside to make up for it. They thought of everything.

We not only have new siding on the backside of the house but new matching doors in the garage (at right) and on the deck door outside our living room. They are so much more "snug" to ward off the elements. We love them already!!

As for the sexy soffits and new lighting scheme... I can't love it enough. Wow. Makes our house seem way cooler than it is. And after living here 20+ years, we couldn't agree more! And we deserve it!

Side note of advice: If you're just THINKING about some home improvement project, get after it now. With all the tariffs and ones that might be coming, it's only get to get way more expensive. So do it now.

Second side note of advice: As we learned while remodeling our kitchen, don't just make improvements to improve the value when you want to sell your house – do them now so you can enjoy them and your house!

Beach Day

Spent several hours at the beach today. And didn't get into the water once! 

As I mentioned the other day, this was Wisconsin State Water Ski Show tournament weekend. And it all takes place a mile and a half away! Today was "my" team's turn to compete.

After seeing several of their Saturday evening shows this summer, I was amazed how far they've come with throwing a bunch of entertainment in with the already great skiing. They did amazing. After winning the Division 2 title a few years ago, they got bumped up into Division 1 so they're competing against some big cities like Madison. But our town of Rome crew held their own. They ended up taking 6th place. I didn't see all the competitors so I can't say why it wasn't a higher ranking. I was hoping for it, though!

Got home from there then spent the afternoon sifting through my 600 photos and editing about 240 to post online for the team. Not the best photos since the lake is small and I was getting people on the opposite shore in focus instead of our jumpers. Gah! Oh well. There were a few good ones if you want to check them out. I think this link will work even if you aren't on Facebook.

I got the pictures uploaded just in time for Jim and I to meet our friends Craig and Sara for a late-afternoon round at TriCity. I was actually exhausted before we even started. Too much eye strain, I think! Only got one par, but still it was fun of course. And the weather was pleasant. No melting!

The building is coming tomorrow to do a few finishing touches and then I'll hopefully have some "before and after" pictures to share. 

For now, I need to put in some weekend relaxation time before it's gone! Have a great week!

Went to a Garden Party...

Even a girl with two black thumbs appreciates a pretty garden – and creative yard decorations. Today, since we had friends showcasing their garden/yard, I embarked on my first Garden Walk sponsored by the Wood County Master Gardeners.

I'm 99% sure I can't duplicate anything I saw today, but it was inspiring nonetheless. And it wasn't just a garden tour. It was an art tour, too, with music and beauty. Here's a photo blog of some of the highlights for me, anyway...

I was so surprised at the first stop when I saw art on display with the garden. I'm sure it's not always like that with the weird unpredictable weather, but it was such a nice touch. I really enjoyed it!

Lots of water fountains of sorts with tiny ponds. I'm not sure we're engineers enough to pull this off.

Art on the deck? Nice touch!

This place had artwork for sale with some windows painted with some sponge-painting background a la 1998 that I connect with!

Lots of American flags whether part of the gardens or in the background added a nice touch.

When I saw the first bee "bonding" with a flower, I realized it was quite smart that my bee-allergic hubby didn't accompany me.

Loved that all the featured gardens had a 2025 Garden Walk stone on display.

Our friends Les and Pam had a "geranium tree."

I learned today that this funky spiky flower is called Bee Balm. Thus, the many bee visitors "hanging out" today.

Another fountain surrounded by prettiness.

This is the Assumption Royal Blue flower. I call it that, anyway.

And oh my, the first of many purple flowers you will have the purple pride pleasure (or not) to see.

Pam's niece and friends provided live music here. A few other "acts" had sets too.

For my friends with flower gardens, you are used to this. I just loved flowers that were pretty with lots of layers.

I have loved the different possible colors of hydrangeas since Jim's aunt grew them. Never tried, but I'd love some purple ones like this in our yard somewhere!

Gorgeous window display! 

What a great idea! Make some "flower rocks" to pay tribute to your lovely granddaughters!

I want to use this idea somewhere, somehow – even without granddaughters!

Another garden with art to accompany the colors. Love it.

I was impressed with how these people didn't necessarily find relaxing/sitting places, they created them. And it was beautiful.

Say hello to my favorite gate ever created. Hands down the most creative thing I saw all day – and there were a lot.

Live music here, too. It was fun to see and hear the variety.

What I call the Popcorn Ball flower!

What the cluck? The owner Bonnie definitely has creative ways to display her artwork.

I was fascinated by these stained glass type yard ornaments on a stick. Apparently I need to get to more garden stores. They were everywhere and I could use a few to class up my messy garden areas!

And so many cool decorations. I mean why not throw in a sun dial by some purple flowers?!

And the favorite thing I hope to grow in my garden – a Rocky Rococo pizza truck! Give me the seeds, man!

Just like our nearby farmer ladies, we don't need scary scarecrows to be, well, scary!

When I saw this, I thought, dang, we could've used our mother's old kitchenware to be creative after all!

Just a cool backyard setup.

Loved the attention to detail and seeing the lights there, I was bummed to view it during the day. Inspiring, though!

As a person with a milk can in front of her house to represent parts of both my hubby's and my heritage, I appreciated this display with all the tractor wheels and various gears. Very cool.

Unlikely a real rain barrel, but with the fountain there, it caught my eye.

And speaking of catching my eye... a pond with PURPLE flowers???

Beautiful, am I right?

As I saw throughout the day, there are so many cool planters and alternative metal methods of displaying flowers. This bird and 2 matching friends were awesome.

This place had a lovely gazebo on the pond with live music as well.

Me taking pictures of what I would call a Tiger Lily but have never seen in this pretty pink color. Don't correct me. I want to pretend I know one thing about flowers.

A country girl can't resist weather vanes among flowers...

Or on top of She Sheds.

Nice garden and flag stand display.

Another purple flower. You don't say?

Ope! Another one I can't name!

I could sit here and relax, couldn't you?

Not part of the official tour, but I guess this unique tree is a Variegated Maple.

The surprise at my last stop was that they combined the garden tour with a quilt show and it somehow worked.

And to my delight... more varieties of purple flowers!

And artwork? What a cool idea!! Love this!

Most creative She Shed interior.

Who wants to sit here and spend an afternoon with me? I told the owners this was my most captivating view all day. Wow.

And idea it you have a bunch of vintage heart-shaped cookie cutters. Seriously.

Again, what I think is a Tiger Lily but I have never seen this color combo. Pretty!

I should know this one, but I still appreciate and admire it even if it escapes me right now.

So many She Sheds.

Super idea for an old "stump"!

Love this. Old door with a few quilting squares and flowers.

And a few quilts on display with a bottle tree!

What a fun few hours admiring what people with green thumbs – and apparently lots of time on their hands – can create! Could I do the same? Nope. I admit I am too lazy to put in the time it would take for that. But I am inspired nonetheless. Hope you are too! 

Thanks for joining me for the garden party!