Spring is almost here. I can actually smell it. I'm so impatient this year to get started on my landscaping and gardening. I want to finish the front yard's landscaping and I want to have the pine trees that line my back yard cut down. They actually shorten the yard by about 10 or 15 feet. I want to build a stone fence back there so that we still have some privacy. Probably will have more privacy than we do with the trees. Eventually I want to have climbing flowers going up the stone fence on both sides. I've got some plants ordered that will be shipped when it is time to put them into the ground. I want to do more outside this summer and get more exercise. I've been spending too much time doing my crafts in my basement.

You know, even though he doesn't really think much of plants that you can't eat, Rick helps me haul rocks, haul dirt and such for my gardens. My ex liked gardens and has made some since I moved out of his house and would have probably helped me with the gardens. But what I really appreciate about Rick is that when it comes to my crafts and trying to start a business with them, he is supportive. The ex would have looked down his nose at the idea. There isn't anything that I really want to do that Rick isn't supportive. I guess that's what relationships are supposed to be like. I'm not sure that I'm always so supportive of Rick. Need to make sure that I am in the future.

This fall I want to go back to school and get my RN degree. Even though we're not quite sure where we'll come up with the money for tuition and books, he hasn't discouraged me to do it. In the long run I'll make more money and will have better opportunities for advancement. If I don't get accepted into the BSN program at Northern, I'll try to do it online. I just wish I'd hear back from the Nursing Dept as to whether I've been accepted or not. It's very hard to not know how to plan. Waiting has never been one of my strong points.

I can't believe that summer is over already. Seems like it just got started. We are still hoping to get a couple more camping trips in before we have to pack the camper away for the winter. Hoping to get some photo taking trips in this fall, too.

Sales in my ebay store have started to pick up now that the summer is over. Hope that I can make some good business this fall as people get ready for Christmas. Have a couple of new kits that I'm listing this month for sure and maybe another one if I can get it finished soon. I'm going to list some of the slippers and such that I have knitted. Hopefully someone will be interested for Christmas presents. The smaller slippers would make good stocking stuffers. I also have several felted purses. I can't afford to do the Dome's Christmas Craft Fair this year and so won't have that to sell them at. Will do the craft fair at the Senior Center here in Negaunee with my mother-in-law.

Rick and I made it to another anniversary. Number 6. We had a nice meal at the new UP North Lodge and then some wine back at the house in my romantic bedroom. The weather was gorgeous. This past Saturday we went to a friend's wedding. It was also Jalyn's birthday.

I've been enjoying work a bit more late.y. I've gotten to work on the Substance Abuse Unit a lot. I like working there and there isn't the borderline's like on Psych. My heel with the bone spur hasn't bothered me as much there either as I'm not having to be on my feet as much. I think that I'm going to have to do something about the spur. When I'm working psych my left heel gets somewhat numb from the spur. Not good. Just really don't want to have to have surgery on it. The time off would be nice but the pain should be pretty bad. The risk fro permanent damage is pretty high, too. Will have to see what it would entail as far as what is done and what kind of time would be needed off. Gonna have to keep building up my sick time but also my vacation time.

It was hot here today. To some it probably wouldn't have seemed hot but for this part of the country it was hot. My hubby doesn't take the heat too well but I handle it a little better. My craft/computer room is in the basement so I get a break from the heat by going down there. We got a deluge of rain for about a half hour this afternoon which only put more humidity in the air. That's what is hard to take. I'll take this time of the year over the winter any day, though.

My gardens are starting to fill in. One of the nurses on day shift brought in two big vases of flowers from her garden. They are gorgeous. If I were to bring in that amount of flowers or even just cut them for here in the house, I'd not have any flowers left in the gardens. But that will change in a few years. Her garden is a bit older than mine. It takes time. They are looking good, though. I've been out taking pictures quite a bit. My yellow rhododendron bloomed this year. Not sure if it only blooms every other year or if it just needed to do some growing last year after being planted the year before. It was gorgeous. The purple coneflowers are blooming now. I also have dianthus' blooming. Delphiniums are blooming. There are blue, purple and white ones. Daylilies and the asiatic lilies are blooming in the front yard. It looks like the globe thistle is about to bloom. It's such fun checking the gardens each days and see if there's anything new blooming.

Ten years ago today my oldest daughter graduated from high school. It was a nice day but there were still ice bergs on Lake Superior. Today it was gorgeous and my gardens are well into bloom. Yesterday before work I stopped at Shopko and bought some pansies and moss roses. Today I planted them. I also got most of the vegetable garden planted. It was nice to be able to work outside today.

It's hard to believe that my oldest daughter is old enough to have graduated ten years ago. That also means that I graduated 30 years ago. Most of the time I don't feel old but more and more frequently my body reminds me that I'm getting older. For the most part I figure you're only as old as you feel and I am young at heart.

I had to stay over last night. Luckily I was able to get someone to come in early for me and I only had to stay until 0400. I was able to finish the hardanger project that I was working on. I took pictures of it today and listed it on ebay. I need to make another one and matching placemats. I'm going to give them to my niece as a wedding present. She's getting married next summer in July. The last I knew her favorite color was green. Same as both of my girls. My favorite color is purple. Which is why I used that color as the main color in my bedroom.

One of my co-workers left and moved to another town recently. She admired the felted purse that I have so I offered to make her one. She wanted one that was black and pink and had the fun fur at the bottom. So off to the yarn store I went and found the colors that she wanted and made her the purse. I didn't see her again before she left but she did get her purse and others say that she was happy with it. It only took me a couple of days to knit. She didn't want the big flower that I put on mine. I'm hoping to be able to sell some of these at the craft fair this fall and maybe in some of the local gift shops. I'm also making a smaller version of this style for little girls. I have two just about done and then I can felt them. I've also made a couple of others in different styles but they aren't quite done. One needs the strap sewn on and the other needs some embellishments of some sort. Kind of bland right now. When I get them so I'm happy with them, I'll put their pictures on here, too.

I'm also hoping to be able to get some of my blank note cards into some of the local gift shops. Especially the red hat ones. I sold a few at work the other day. Didn't go through the ones that I have there to know which ones sold but the lady bought $10. Perfect for me to go and get some wool yarn with to make a purse.

I was bummed to find out none of my pictures won anything in the employee photo contest at work. There were a lot of gorgeous pictures there, of course, but one always go into those things hoping to win.

The weather is gorgeous here today. I have one of those old-fashioned lawnmowers that doesn't have a motor and I was out there using it today. I think it needs to be sharpened. It's so nice to not have oil fumes polluting the air. Just the smell of cut grass wafing across my nostrils as I mowed. My columbine in front of the house are blooming already and I got some pictures of them. The double ones under the trees to the side of the house are not blooming yet. And my Iceland Poppies are blooming, too. Tulips and daffodils are done. Giant Hyacinths are done. Grape hyacinths are still blooming and the Irises are about to bloom. I even have a pansy from last year with two flowers on it and the violets have flowers on them. We had an early spring this year and even though we got some snow later, it was still much warmer than usual and things are early this year. I've got to finish working up my vegetable garden this weekend so that I can get it planted. I just love summer. I love the flowers, the smells and the warm weather. Someday I am going to live where the gardening season is much longer.

Tomorrow my husband and I leave to go to my youngest daughter's college graduation. She went to school to learn to repair stringed instruments. Last Saturday we attended my son's graduation from Northern as a math teacher. After tomorrow all of my kids will be done with school. It looks like my son will be moving to Florida at the end of the summer where he will be teaching. Not sure where my daughter will be moving to. She's still looking for a job. When my oldest daughter came home for the graduations, she informed me that she, too, will probably be moving later this summer. She's going to follow her boyfriend to wherever he can get a full-time job. My son is following his girlfriend to Florida. She has a job there and so they are moving there. Hopefully, this all means that soon there will be in-laws and possibly grandchildren. I don't want to be an older first-time grandmother. I want to be able to enjoy them and keep up with them.

During the winter I took some pictures of my husband's niece with a red hat to make blank note cards of red hats. I used my bedroom window as the backdrop. They turned out really cute. I even managed to sell some on Ebay. I'm hoping this summer to get some more with his other two nieces. I'd also like to get my Mother-in-law to pose for some for me. I want to put her in an old Victorian era outfit. I'm hoping my backyard and flowerbeds will make a good backdrop for those pictures. Will have to see how my gardens do this summer. Hubby's niece had a fun time. Uncle Rick bought her some donut holes and chocolate stars to have with her tea while I took pictures. She didn't get tired at all. I want to take the best picture, have it enlarged and framed so that she can hang it on the wall in her bedroom and, along with a scrapbook of all the pictures taken, give it to her for Christmas. I'm hoping that I can talk my mother-in-law to do some selling for me this summer now that she is retired. I'm hoping I can get her to take my cards around to different shops as she travels around this summer and convince them to sell them in their stores. I'll need to do the same thing locally. I'm just not very good at doing that. It's one area that I'm not very comfortable. It's like selling myself. Need to get over it or I won't be able to make much money with my cards.

Wednesday was my birthday. I threw myself a birthday brunch. It meant that I had to do some work on my birthday but it was worth it to have friends from work over. We had a good time and I got to show off my bedroom and my cooking. The rest of the day I vegetated in front of the computer here. I put up the fabric on the ceiling of my bedroom the night before the brunch. Earlier in the day when I was stapling the velcro strips onto the ceiling I took a tumble off from the stool and gave myself several bruises on both legs and a dandy one on my back. Luckily that was all I was hurt. When I landed I was a bit apprehensive about moving, afraid that I'd really hurt myself.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the finality of my divorce. I didn't do anything to celebrate it but I'm often amazed at how much time has passed since then and how normal it feels to not be in that marriage anymore. We were married for 22 1/2 years and I never really thought I'd be in any other relationship during those years. When we first split, I didn't think I'd want to be in another marriage. Figured I'd probably like having a boyfriend but didn't think I'd want to be married again. Sometimes I wish that I'd not gotten married again but lately that has decreased in frequency. Living with another person can be very difficult and exhausting. Trying to not step on any feelings and to be fair takes work. Many days I don't feel that I have that energy but there isn't much choice so it is done.

Next is Valentine's Day. I like to plan something romantic for that day. I want to keep this marriage a bit more alive than I did with the last one. Haven't completely decided what I'm going to do yet but I am doing the 14 days of Valentines with a small gift and a card each of the first 14 days of February.