Busy Weekend!

My mother-in-law arrived last Sunday and stayed all week. Her sister in Louisville called us Friday night and said she and her husband were thinking about driving down Saturday morning, spending the night and going back home the next day. I said, "Come on!"

Aunt Doris loves the upstairs balcony off of her guest room. Marian has one off her room, too. But they are a real challenge to keep clean and we hardly use the upstairs, let alone the balconies. So I don't mess with them unless I'm having overnight guests whom I know will want to use them. There are no hose outlets and they get pretty dirty from the elements. So Friday Marian and I got a ladder and pulled the hose up from below (Marian's idea). Fortunately, it was long enough (I wasn't sure it would be). And that method sure was easier than mopping the balconies as I have previously done. Why am I not an industrious thinker? I mopped and mopped and mopped last year (just about killing my back) and I didn't even think to fill my bucket in the upstairs bathroom! I carried it from the laundry room! Oh well...

Anyway, we got the back patio areas spotlessly clean, I worked out, and we still had time to go to Target in the afternoon. It was quite a productive day. Aunt Doris and Uncle Tom arrived at 1:00 on Saturday. Tom settled in for some Olympic coverage and we girls went to Stein Mart. And later on John and I took everyone to Milano's (one of our favorite restaurants) for dinner. Notice who has both desserts in front of her. (We all shared. I promise.)

Marian, Doris and Tom are a lively bunch (especially when you get all three of them together). After dinner we sat outside until we were all getting sleepy. Sunday morning we had coffee and breakfast on the patio. John and I were outside all morning trying to get pictures of the humming birds. There were five buzzing around at the same time. But they're hard to capture with a camera. While we were doing that, Marian and Doris were making poached eggs, toast and cutting up fresh fruit. I didn't have to do a thing. They were all gone before noon.

Because we spent so much time outside, I took a lot of pictures yesterday. When it comes to flower pots, I have come a long way in the last five years. For most of my life, I've never had a strong desire to dig in the dirt or plant anything. But I started experimenting with flower pots on my back patio the first year John and I were married. My friends teased me when I bought something for a pot that only bloomed once and is normally planted in the ground. I had no idea. They were red and they were pretty. That was all I knew. I have since learned a thing or two. And through trial and error, I have learned what I like and what lasts (and what doesn't). This is the best my pots have ever looked in late August. If you knew me back when I could only name flowers by their colors, you will be impressed with how far I have come. I can actually name every flower on my patio. Ha Ha. Here are a few pictures. And if you'd like to come over for a glass of iced tea before it gets cold, just let me know.

In many ways, I am the same old Shari I've always been. But I have to say that a part of me was born in Murfreesboro. If you had asked me ten years ago if I would ever enjoy planting flower pots or sitting outside watching humming birds or having my dear husband bring tree frogs to the back door at night ("Look, darling!"), I would have laughed pretty hard. But I've discovered an interest and enjoyment of so many new things in the last five years. I still have a way to go before anyone calls me Nature Girl. But John has brought so many things out in me I never knew were even there. Great food will always be my main obsession, but you might say I am branching out. I remember a time when a friend laughed and pointed out to me how I could describe a meal down to the finest detail, but I described flowers (in Buschart Gardens no less) only as "yellow ones," "pink ones," and so on. Somebody tell Pam how much I've grown as a human being. This is the man I owe my growth to...