It's hot!!!  We are forecast for high temps for the next week - and have had a week of high temps.  Thank goodness for air conditioning and fans!

The bed is here!  I do like sleeping on it - especially the adjustable head.  I haven't played much with the level of support, but I like it!

I got new AJ pictures!  This last weekend, he climbed Mt. Fuji with the CSU students.  Mt Fuji is higher than Lassen, and doesn't have the nice trail that Lassen does - but he made it!

His host mom and dad got him a special kimono and shoes - and he had help showing them off.....

I decorated the heads for 4th of July - sort of.....  My original plan included "Uncle Sam" hats in red white and blue, streamers, etc.  What I actually did - red, white, and blue pinwheels.  So close!  I do think I need to work on something for them for Thanksgiving though....maybe feathered headbands?

One of my new plants this spring is blooming on the fountain!  I panted a canna lily at the back of the fountain, and it seems to e thriving.  The only plant that isn't doing well this year is a hosta, and I thing it's because the dogs keep stepping on it.  Poor thing!

Ralph and I just spent a ton of money yesterday - in a very short period of time.  We've been talking about upgrading our bedroom for years, and actually getting a bedroom suite of furniture.  You know, things that match?  Our bedroom set was put together of his and hers things when we got married (1987), and I just never spent the money to upgrade (I mean, who sees your bedroom but you???).  We have a great mattress, so we kept the important things upgraded, it was just the furniture that is mis-matched and old.  Our end tables were ones we bought for $70.00 to just get us by until we found ones we liked.....in 1990. The bed frame is a waterbed frame the Willy built for Ralph in high school shop class (and he graduated in....1972??).  It was time!

The big push came because Ralph is doing dialysis at home, and we needed a table for the foot of the bed to put his machine on.  We used a coffee table that we had on hand, but it's too tall.  We started out the morning thinking we were just going to go shopping for a new end table.  By 4:00 yesterday, we had bought a Sleep Number 8i bed (California King split mattresses) AND new dressers, end tables, chest of drawers, and bed frame.  Today, we are going shopping for new flooring and paint......I love them all, but that was a ton of cash to drop all at one time!  I think I'm still hyperventilating.

Happy 4th of July!!!  We are actually scheduled for a cooler day today!  We've been running in triple digits for the last week (107 last weekend!) so today with a forecast of 90 degrees sounds wonderful!  Now, since it was 107 last weekend, I didn't do any yard work - saving it for today.  That means that today I get to mow, weed-eat, plant some flowers, blow off all the sidewalks and patio, etc.  Larry, Pat, Pixie and Dan are coming over tonight for a BBQ.  Larry and Pat are family, but Pixie and Dan haven't been to the house before, so I'd like it to look "nice" for their first visit (after that, they are family too....)....we'll see how far I get on that project!

Ralph officially started his at home dialysis last night.  He brought home his machine yesterday, got it all hooked up, and it's official - he's on dialysis.  He'll hook himself up every night, and do 8 hours while he sleeps.  Luckily, the machine isn't noisy - except for some loud beeps during the night, I hardly heard it.  Maybe we can turn those down???? I'm hoping so, but if not, it's a small price to pay for his dialysis.  

Our crepe myrtles trees are gorgeous this year.  The first couple of years they didn't have much in the way of blooms, but this year, they are making up for it!

I have another set of block cut out, ready to piece for my quilt.  I had another set almost pieced together....but it's a 'do-over' now.  When I when to do the final piecing, I found I have flipped some blocks around, and need to start over again.  That block is going back to the corner for a while while I sulk.

Margene met up with Dallas and Gabs in South Carolina this last weekend - they are all looking great!

Finished!  I got a quilt finished!!!  It's been sitting in my to-do drawer for a while.  I started the quilt in June, 2015, and finished it probably by December, 2015.  I really, really love the way Ann quilted it.  I took it in, and when she asked what I wanted, I told her to go for it.  I don't have a good eye (yet) for how to finish a quilt, and she did such a great job!  (We did talk about what I wanted, I just wasn't set on any one thing in particular....and she has been finishing quilts for a very long time.)

Blackberry season!  The local strawberry fields have blackberries ready, and since Dave was coming down, I picked up some baskets of blackberries, and made a crisp.  Not too bad!

And my first harvest of the season......

Cindy has started taking Alli for a walk when she's here, assuming it isn't 100+ degrees, that is.  

Ralph did two weeks of dialysis training, and was gone from noon to 4:00, so Cindy was here 11:30 to 4:30.  Too hot to walk lately!  Ralph is done with training, but Cindy is still coming in a few hours to give him a break, and so he can do his 'in home' dialysis.  (He gets his machine next week - this week his dialysis is manual and take a while to do....)

Indy thought he was hiding under the bed in my room.....So close!

My newest yarn club shipment included the cutest little sheep charms.....

And just because - some flowers I picked up at Walmart....

Dave was down the first of June, and I put him to work - not only did he mow for me, he helped me move furniture around.  I've had furniture from Mom's place out in the garage, just waiting for me to rearrange and move it in.  Somehow, it just never got done.....until now.  I moved the pie safe and the buffet in.  I still have her kitchen table in the garage, but that will take more work to get in - I have two in the house already.....I have to get rid of one.

Here's the pie safe - it's empty unless Ralph started hiding things in it.....

The buffet - it has my crochet/crafting thing in it.

Dad's quilt rack got moved to the other side of the TV.

And the piece that held my crafting supplies before has been moved out to the patio to hold swim/yard stuff.

Even better, Dave is coming back this weekend.  What can I have him do this trip?????

Meredith and Emma came over for dinner Saturday night - pretty normal.  We even went for a quick swim before dinner - also pretty normal.  What wasn't normal was the weather.  It had been over 100 degrees that day (while I was mowing, weed-eating, etc.) and then some clouds blew in, cooling it down a bit.  It was coolish when we went swimming, and then....this happened:

Emma got this great panoramic shot:

We decided that swimming was a bad idea when the lighting and thunder started.  It was a fast moving storm though - this was sunset later that evening....and it was cool enough we sat outside for dinner - unusual for this time of year.

Alex got to be Dad for a day for the youngest in his host family.  Dad couldn't make it to kindergarten for Father's Day, so AJ went in his place.  

Allison's classroom made a yearbook this year, and some of the photos and captions with Allison are great!  

Here's pictures from her birthday - they went to Anderson Park that day....

And from the Coleman Fish Hatchery visit

And some random shots.

Kolby got married Friday - a beautiful wedding at Chardonnay Golf Club in Napa.  Kolby and Andrea met there 4 years ago at work.  She still works there as an even coordinator.  Dave and I drove down to Jeff's and then Jeff, Kirby, Dave and I went down together.  A fun trip - it was fun to hang out together again.  I didn't take a lot of pictures - my phone just isn't up to taking good pictures at events like that.

We've been having plumbing problems for going on two weeks now.  I went out to the garage on the 24th, and saw this.....water running out of the water heater closet (and whatever you do, don't say "hot water heater" around Jeff - ...it's not a "hot water heater, there is no need to heat hot water, it's already hot!"  Dave and I got a kick out his lecture....."Hot water heater" and "tuna fish sandwich"....)

We had the plumbing people in - they took a look, ordered a new water heater, and then didn't show up for a while.  They called, and said they would be here, but then would call later and push it off to the next day.  They finally got it fixed Thursday night (over a week after I found the leak) at 10:20 (you can't say they weren't busy!).  The good news was that we had hot water - it was just leaking into the garage.

Dave came in Thursday night so we could leave Friday mid-morning for the wedding, and had no cold water to the guesthouse - meaning no toilet or shower!  The plumbers were supposed to come back Friday late, and then pushed it back to Saturday, but no call or plumbers on Saturday.   What a hassle!!!