I knew my allergies were bothering me, but wow!  This is all pollen on my car - yuck!  The dew made it all icky on the windshield, and gross when I turned the wipers on to clear it.

The kids and I (yes, even AJ) went to Susanville over the weekend to visit Mom.  It was a nice trip - good weather, and I had a chance to catch up with Cindy for a bit.  Alli behaved herself, and AJ spent his time with Tyler - a friend from school that moved up there last year.  Poor AJ - he spent half a hour gathering all his 'stuff' to bring his gaming system up, and then found out he forgot the controllers.  They had to tough out the weekend talking and stuff.  They even went in to town and played tennis!  They said they actually played 'crazy ball' since neither of them are good tennis players, and just batted the ball around however they could.

I took Monday off as a vacation day, and spent some time getting my garden cleaned up (after the normal weekend chores - laundry, grocery shopping, etc.).  We are supposed to get a couple days of rain, so I pulled out what was there, fertilized it, and turned the soil a bit.  I should be ready to plant soon!  I picked up some seeds while I was in Walmart, so I'm set.  Here's what happens when you don't eat everything in your garden:

The kale, Swiss chard, and Brussels spouts all went to seed.  The peas never did much but grow up and then die (too cold for them, I think - we had a harder freeze this winter than we usually get).  I kept waiting to eat the Brussels spouts, and then...it was too late.  I pulled them all out!  And, I planted some petunias on the patio, and put in a new geranium, and a cosmos in a pot.  Go me!

I also checked out my flower bed up front - I have lots of flowers up there!

AJ had his meeting with the counselor about the study abroad program last week.  He has to apply by 4/21, but the counselor said he has a 100% placement rate if he endorses the student, so....it just might be a go!  I know AJ is excited.  I'm excited for him, but, I'm going to miss him.  He can do one full year of college there, so that is his plan, if he likes the first semester.  He is also planning on staying somewhere besides 'home' during the semester break.  He has heard that you can visit with other foreign students during that time, so he could go to  just about anywhere for the break.  Lucky kid!