What I Loved About Last Week 14th Ed.

Here's what I loved about June 18-24:

1. Swimming Lessons: Ira is taking swimming lessons for 2 weeks.  I don't love the time, as it's kinda smack in the middle of the morning, but I do love the skills he's learning.  It's so amazing to see him grow and develop as a swimmer.  (He's going to pass his mama before long!  Although I'm plenty comfortable in the water, I never took lessons past level 2 or 3 - so I never learned any strokes or anything.  I can tread water and do a mean dog paddle though!)  Ruby has lots of fun playing in the baby pool while Ira has "blessins" each day too.

Wearing the swimsuit that I wore when I was her age.

Ira jumping in at 5 foot.

2. You probably didn't notice in that photo of Ruby in the baby pool that she didn't have a swim diaper on.  That is because little Miss Ruby potty trained herself last week.  I can take absolutely no credit because it wasn't even really on my radar for her.  On Saturday the 16th, while at our nephew's swimming party, she said she needed to go potty (which she's said before, but never does.)  Regardless, I took her inside and sure enough, she went potty on the toilet.  On Sunday, during dinner, she again said she needed to go potty.  So I took her and again she went.  So Monday morning, I asked her if she wanted to wear underpants.  She answered with an enthusiastic YES! and has been wearing them ever since (except for naps and night time.)  I didn't want to "jinx" it last week, but since it's been over a week now, I think we really are done with diapers!  She's stayed dry at naps since last Monday and has even woken up a couple times during the night to go potty.  Absolutely blows my mind!  I am so thrilled!

Riding the Plasma car with her cousin on a nice evening last week.

3. Weeded the garden.  It looks so nice now and I am so impressed with how easy it is to pull weeds.  We are also very impressed with the results.  We have about half of the potatoes dug and have been pulling beets as well.  The lettuce is on it's way out with the heat, but we picked 2 cucumbers on Saturday, so I'm sure they'll be in full swing soon.  We also started picking jalapenos and green peppers this week - hooray!!  There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines right now, I'm sure they'll be ripening up over the couple weeks.  Let's see, what else?  The green beans are tiny, but coming soon I'm sure, as are the watermelons.  I LOVE the garden, that's for sure!

4. Beds.  With the addition of bunk beds, we needed to do the "bed shuffle" at our house.  So last week, here's how it went down: queen bed moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", crib moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", twin bed taken down in spare room and moved box spring to the storage room.  Mind you, I did all this while Andy was at work.  He never seems that surprised though when he gets home and the furniture isn't where it used to be.  Does anyone else hate bed frames as much as I do?  Good lord I can't stand those dumb metal things.  They are such a pain to get set up just right and then they fall apart after you get the bed on them, and then you pinch your finger trying to get them back together... maybe it's just me?

5. Pictures framed and up.  I had prints made of the Old Time photos we had taken in Galveston and hung them up in a collage in our living room.  I also had updated photos printed for our dining room wall photo collage.  It was a project that was long overdue and I'm thrilled to be done with it.

This one's for you, Karen.  You asked to see a picture of this grouping like a bajillion years ago.

6. Rubyisms: "I need a dam-baid" (bandaid).  And in response to one of the lines in the Litany for Liberty (join us in prayer!!)- "Give us your flowers."

7. Family Reunion.  We hosted my dad's side of the family who live nearby, but who we never manage to see throughout the year, at our house on Saturday for a reunion.  It was wonderful to see everyone and amazing to see how much the kids had grown/matured/changed since last year.  We had to play our traditional game of "Annie, Annie Over" which was lots of fun.  It seems as though there is always a twist in the game (like the year a plastic yard duck got thrown over my Grandma's house.)  This year, our team sent two balls around the block in a car to get "points."  Never a dull moment 'round here.

Waiting for another ball to come over the roof.

Look here comes another one!

8. Devil pepper.  Picked this pepper Sunday night and just thought it was too funny not to share.

Look at the horns on that thing!