Today, my Mom, sister and I visited Schreiner's Iris Gardens. It is off of I-5 just less than an hour from here. I have seen the iris blooming every year as I drove past, but this was the first time I actually stopped to see them. I don't know what took me so long! It was so beautiful, I think I will go back every year! So many colors, your eyes kept looking and looking to take it all in. And they smelled so fantastic too. There was more there than iris, there were lupine and poppies and many other kinds of flowers...

I think the blue ones were my favorite, which I didn't realize until I got home and took a look at the pictures and realized that most of them were a shade of blue, so they must have been my favorite, or I would have had other colors there too, right? Did you know that there is a BLACK iris? and a BROWN one? I can't believe the color combinations that have been created. I could have taken pictures all day, but will just plan on going back again for more.

They have gardens that you can walk all over in or just sit and look or you can see them in rows growing in the fields...either way is amazing to take in the colors. (and the scent!)

We have had such gorgeous weather! Record heat for two days and then two days of summer like weather. It started to rain again yesterday, but the few nice days gave us hope that summer really is on its way! Lindy Mom and Dad and I took advantage of it and took our first bike ride down the Springwater Trail into Gresham, had lunch and rode home.

WE HAVE BATS!!!

Yesterday when I was mowing the field, I noticed something moving in one of the rotten holes of the tree. I stopped to get a look and it was a BAT! He was crawling upside down, going from the top to the bottom and I got a good look at him.

So, get my daughter home for a visit and what do I do? Put her to work! The plan for yesterday was, go shopping, have lunch with Grandma and Grandpa McCool and Aunt Cyndi, then get home and mow while the sun was still out, just in case it starts raining for the next few days. But right after we got home, I got called from the Red Cross to go out to a fire and while I was gone, she decided to hop on the mower and had it almost done when I got back. Thanks JESSI!!!

Last week we got a new computer and I still had the box around. Since they were spending the night, Joshua decided it would make the perfect bed for him, so packed it up with pillows and blankets and his pet Nacho. Now what kind of a Grandmother would let their grandkid sleep curled up in a box? He was in his little box beside my bed. The lights went off, and it was silent, I didn't hear him move at all...I gave him about fifteen minutes and then said..."Ready to get up here?" He was out of his box bed and into mine in less than a minute!

Jessi is home!!! She arrived in late on Friday night and gets to stay for 10 days. Last week she attened a Kids Alive missionary conference in Wisconsin. John and Rachel and the kids came up to help us welcome her home. Last night, Jessi cooked us some Dominican rice to go with the pupusas that I made for dinner.

In case you don't know what a pupusa is, it is a filled tortilla. They are made from the masa mixture that you would normally pat out a tortilla from, but before you pat it out, you put in a little ball of cream cheese and mozzarella that has been mixed together and also a little ball of refried beans. They make their beans from scratch, but I use the kind from a can. The cheese that is normally used is hard to find in the states, but cream cheese is a pretty close substitute. You put the cheeses and beans in, then cover with the masa dough and pat it out flat. It is hard to do without the beans leaking back out. Then you just cook them on a griddle like a pancake. I learned how to make them from one of the students that was here from El Salvador. These don't look very good, but they tasted ok. The ones I have had in Central America are perfectly rounded and nothing leaking through.

Today I took my Mom with me to the Red Cross Volunteer Celebration. It was a breakfast cruise on the Spirit of Portland. We had a really good time and Mom ended up winning a door prize for two nights stay at the Cannon Beach Hotel and a $50 dinner!

Dandelions have such a bad reputation, but just look at them.

From that bright sunny yellow flower, the tight bud and the fuzz ball...now that is a pretty interesting plant.

Not only is it pretty, how many times have you made a wish and blown all the buff away?

I used to make chain necklaces from the stems. Somehow, they used to look better than this. one.