Bird Visitors

I love watching the birds at our bird feeder in the front yard. 

Here is Mr. Goldfinch coming to visit.

I am also very excited that we have a Cardinal pair who come by regularly!

More Garden Pictures

I am so happy with our garden this year - we have really had good production so far and should get lots more before the season is over!  Here are some new pictures of our garden:

A beautiful okra flower.

Some okra pods growing.

Lima beans growing.

Pie pumpkins starting.

Our neighbor's cat Harley likes to hang out in our garden in the mornings.

Harley sleeping in the garden.

Cuddling Cats

Here are Roxy and Sandy cuddling on the ottoman!

July Birthdays

Both Chad and my brother Fielding's birthdays are in July.  Our friends Becca and Jason's son Braden's birthday is in July too, so we had lots of celebrations this month!  First we celebrated Fielding's birthday - here are some pictures from our dinner at Carrabbas:

Next we celebrated Braden's 2nd birthday:

Chad's birthday is the 24th and we spent the day together just hanging out and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Here are a few pictures from our day:

New Cat Pictures

This is Roxy's favorite spot - on the back of the chair on a blanket.

Sandy sleeping in front of the coffee table.

This is one of our neighbor's cats, Harley, he loves to come visit us and occasionally peeks in the door!

Another library reassignment

Back in April I was reassigned to the Freedom Regional branch, which I was NOT happy about.  But, I knew things would change again at the beginning of the next fiscal year in July.  Thankfully at Freedom I had two great co-workers - Kate and Brittani - who made my 3 months there much, much better.  At the end of June I got another call that I was being reassigned to the University City branch.  University was my second choice all along, so I was MUCH happier with this reassignment.  I would still love to go back to Mint Hill some day, but I like University so far.  It's close to home for me and I know a few of the staff already, so I think it will be a good fit for me.  Also, about 7 years ago my Mom worked at University, so now we'll have both worked here.  PLCMC still laid off over 60 people at the end of June, but that was much less than anticipated, so hopefully we'll be OK until the end of this fiscal year.  We closed 4 locations and reduced our hours again - now all libraries are only open 4 days a week.  But, it's better than closing half or more of the total branches and hopefully this will be the lowest point and it will only get better from here.  Either way I'm much happier now being at University!

4th of July

The 4th of July is becoming one of my favorite holidays!  Harrisburg has so much to offer so Chad and I have started a few 4th of July traditions.  We can walk to the start of the parade route from our house, so we do that every year and usually meet up with some friends to watch the parade.  This year the weather was absolutely perfect!  It was cool in the morning and the walk to the parade was very pleasant.  Here are some pictures from the Harrisburg 4th of July parade:

We also usually have a cookout at our house one night around the 4th to have friends over and then we go watch the fireworks.  Harrisburg offers fireworks two nights, so this year they were on Saturday and Sunday nights.  We had our cookout on Saturday, but still went back Sunday night again to see the fireworks.  The weather couldn't have been better the whole weekend- I actually needed a jacket during the fireworks!  Here are the rest of our 4th of July pictures:

Roses from Chad

Chad got me these beautiful roses just because!  He knows I love roses, so he tries to surprise me every once in awhile.  Here are some pictures of them:

See How Our Garden Grows!

Our garden has really taken off this year - I've never seen such huge plants!  We've already gotten quite a few squash, zucchini and cucumbers too.  Here are some pictures to show the growing process:

All three raised beds.

The pumpkin starting to go up the trellis.

One of the zucchini flowers.

The garden after Chad added the trellises.

Chad extending the pumpkin trellis to the roof!

The huge pumpkin plant - almost up to the roof!

One of our many bee friends.

A zucchini growing.

Some of the cucumbers growing.