June Happenings

I can hardly believe that June is almost over, and next week will be the 4th of July!!  It seems like summer was very slow in coming this year--I still can hardly believe this but we actually had the HEAT on at one point in JUNE!!  It really went against all my principles, but when Dad was sitting in his chair with a fleece on, hood up, and a blanket around him.....well, I figured I'd better give in. We are having summer temps now, but we are still getting an amazing amount of rain.  I heard on TV yesterday that in Chicago they have already had more rain this year than they had all of last year.  And the year is only half over.  And in spite of all the rain, our basement has stayed dry, for which we are VERY thankful!!

The first week or so of the month we had some school-related events.  We had a couple of graduation parties to attend the first week-end, then on the 5th we went to Chicago to attend the retirement dinner for Uncle Roger.  That was a very nice evening, and we were so happy to be included.  All three of the Wiers guys and their wives were there---no grandkids, though. Uncle Roger was "roasted" by one of his colleagues and that was very entertaining. There were 2 other retirees who were honored that evening as well.

June 7 was graduation at BCS, and Dad was the graduation speaker.  He did a great job, and I think it was very nice for the 8th graders, one in particular, who felt that he had sort of deserted them just before their final year of school.  Uncle John and Aunt Judy were there for Maddy's graduation, so it was nice to have a chance to see them. 

On June 14 we hit the road for a trip to Michigan for an Open House for Justin and Hilary Brasser.  But we took a bit of a side trip, to Geneseo, IL, where we met up with the Wissinks so that we could take Molly with us and take care of her while they were gone to Disney World.  We each had about a 3 hour drive to get to Geneseo, and we found it to be a very nice little town.  We picked up some sandwiches at Subway and then found a park, where we ate our lunch.  And Jeremiah and Molly had a chance to run around a bit before getting back in the car.

At the Geneseo City Park

So Molly accompanied us on our trip to Michigan---it was about a 5 hour drive to get to Diekemas, where we were staying for the week-end.  Aunt Jeanie graciously welcomed Molly along with us.  We got to their house in time to join them for pizza at Fricano's, which was a treat. 

Saturday was the Open House at Bob and Lynda's house.  There were quite a few Waanders relatives there, as well as some of Lynda's family and a lot of their friends. Abby and Neil drove up from Chicago for the Open House, too, and they also stayed out at the Diekemas' house Saturday night. I took a few random pictures at the Open House, so I'll post those.

They had a tent set up, because the weather forecast was a bit 'iffy' but no rain dampened this party.

I really did a bad job as photographer--I didn't even get a good picture of the guests of honor. But they are on this picture--barely recognizable between Uncle Tony and Paul.

And Jane took this pic of the 4 Waanders sisters. You can tell we're sisters because we all have the same hair. :)

We all went to church with Diekemas on Sunday morning, and then had a delicious Father's Day lunch before we headed home.  We left at the same time as Neil and Abby, and we joined them at Sherman's for some ice cream! We hadn't been there for a long time.  The ice cream is still just as good and the servings are just as big, if not bigger! I ordered a baby-size cone, and there must have been 3 big scoops of ice cream on it.  I could barely eat it all before it melted!

Molly was a very good little traveler for us--she only barked once or twice when she felt the need to scare a couple of motorcyclists off the road. And her time with us went very well.  We did have one little unexpected adventure---we had to give her a bath after she rolled around in a some deer poop in the yard.  That was on Monday, and after that we were much more careful about where we took her in the yard. 

Of course, this was her favorite spot to hang out, so that she could warn us about any dangers in the neighborhood. 

Last Saturday, the 22nd, we went down to Ravinia, near Chicago, for the Prairie Home Companion live radio broadcast.  I think this was maybe the 5th time that we have seen this at Ravinia, and we love it every time. The Brassers went with us again this year--last year was the first time for them.  And Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat also joined us again.  We picked them up at their hotel on our way, and all rode together to Ravinia.  It's a real advantage to have Uncle Lew with us, because he has a permit for handicap parking!  (and no, that's not the only reason we like to have him with us!)  After the show, we went back to the hotel where Bill and Pat were staying and had dinner at the restaurant there.  Karen drove up and joined us for dinner, too, which was nice.

The only picture I took on this outing. Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat had seats in a different area because they decided later to join us.

And now....it's been a quiet week in Brookfield. I'm not babysitting at all because the Dooyemas are on vacation this week. Dad has been fighting a cold, but I think it's getting a bit better.  I had a dental appointment yesterday, and had to bid farewell to Dr. Theis who is retiring---yesterday was his last day. And I've been pulling a lot of weeds---boy oh boy, those weeds really grow fast with all the rain we've had!

That's about it for the month of June!  Looking forward to some fun times in July!

Botany 101....or The Lilac Bush adventure....or Bob the Lumberman

One of my favorite things about spring in Wisconsin (and I use the term "spring" very loosely) is enjoying all the trees and bushes that blossom. And among those, lilacs are probably my very favorite.

It seemed like all the blossoming trees were especially pretty this year, or maybe it was just because we waited so long for them.  Our lilac bushes were also very pretty, but I noticed something kind of strange about our larger lilac bush. Almost all the blossoms were around the lower edge with a few way at the top.  But the whole middle section was just green--no lilacs.  On closer inspection, we discovered that there was a totally different bush or tree growing up right in the middle of the lilac bush and pretty much crowding the lilac bush out.  So we figured that we needed to do something about that....but as we were checking things out we discovered this:

It doesn't show up real well on the picture, but there is a mama robin sitting on a nest, and she was not at all happy that we were poking around in her tree.  So we left the tree alone until the eggs had hatched and the babies had left the next.

Then began the project of trying to get the invading tree out of  there.  It was no small project--and Dad did all the grunt work while I supervised. :) The leaves of the 2 different trees were not all that different, and some of the branches were twisting around each other, so it wasn't real easy to tell which branches needed to be removed. And unfortunately  we did lose a few lilac branches by mistake.

The good news is that there were no injuries sustained during this project, and we were still on speaking terms when it was finished. The last picture shows Dad contemplating the last part of the job---the trunk of the invading tree, which was probably about 8 feet tall and about 4 inches in diameter. All his years of experience cutting down Christmas trees certainly helped here, although I think a better saw would have been even more helpful.

The bad news is that we now have a very strange looking lilac bush.

We're waiting for another nice day to do some final trimming of the tall branches. And we're hoping that there will be some new growth by next spring to fill in the bare spots.