Bits of This and That

Hi everyone!  How was your weekend?  Ours was very hot and very busy.  I just can't seem to get back to blogging on a regular basis these days.  It's not that I've lost interest, but life just keeps grabbing me and pulling me in other directions.  So many things to do around the house always; for example, I still haven't finished cleaning out the closet in our son's old bedroom, which is now our guest bedroom.

I had hoped to have the pots on our porch re-planted with summer flowers by now, but that hasn't happened either.  To be fair, I've been looking for my plants, but haven't found the ones I want.  I want to plant the same combinations I did last year, but have only managed to find the Lobelia so far.

 Geraniums abound, but not in salmon pink, it seems.  At least not at the places I've been looking.  I'm having the same problem finding some little Million Bells plants in white; at the Farmer's Market this weekend, they had every color under the sun, it seemed, but white.  Sigh.

In other news, Duncan will soon be one and a half years old.  Wow -- kind of hard to believe.  He's grown into quite a handsome fellow for sure.  He's been our most challenging Scottie so far, but I think our age may have a little something to do with that.  However, he's a handful and to quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."  ;)  He's now sporting a new tartan plaid collar which we think looks so spiffy on him.  I'll take a picture first chance I get and share on the blog.

Duncan is also a couch puppy now.  I had not intended for this to be the case; our first two Scotties weren't really allowed on the sofa unless they were in one of our laps.  But this dog can jump like a Jack Russell terrier, and once he discovered that, it became nigh impossible to keep him from jumping on the sofa.  So I did what any self-respecting dog owner would do -- I caved.  :)  He's a hard one to win an argument with.  We ordered a pet-protector for our sofa from the Improvements catalog, and we've been quite happy with it.  It actually looks nice on our sofa, and it's machine washable too.

I had a really lovely Mother's Day this year.  I visited my mom on Saturday afternoon; I had made teacup bird feeders like mine for mom and my sister, and they seemed to really like them.  On Sunday, we joined my mother and father-in-law for a family lunch at my brother and sister-in-law's home in Raleigh.  My sister-in-law had laid the prettiest table with her wedding china and crystal and pretty April Cornell napkins.  The meal was delicious and a good time was had by all.  I wish I had taken pictures of everything, but didn't get a chance to.

Speaking of mothers, I wanted to catch you up on how things are going with our son.  The last I had written of him, he had just gotten a new job with much better pay than the one he got after college graduation.  Wellll...that job didn't work out.  I mistakenly thought they had hired him permanently, and it turns out, they were hiring him on a trial basis.  He got the job through a temp. agency he'd been working with.  He had told us that it wouldn't be permanent for the first month, but I somehow misunderstood.

Anyway, after the fist week, the surgeon's office told the employment agency "they didn't think he fit in with the culture of their office," so they wouldn't be hiring him.  I was crushed and then angry.  How can you know something like that after five days?  I just couldn't stand to talk about this for awhile.  Obviously, I have a mother's prejudice, but I think our son is a good person and a good worker.  He gets along well with all kinds of people, dresses very professionally, and is a conscientious worker.  He's a normal 24-year old, so I can only assume they actually wanted a female or an older person for the position.

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After this, there ensued several weeks of applying for jobs, both online and in person, two interviews where he was actually called back for a second interview, but the jobs always went to someone else (someone with more experience).  It's the age-old conundrum of young people needing to get that crucial job experience, but they can't get hired, so they can't get the experience they need.

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I know he got tired of dealing with the unemployment offices, but I believe he acquired some good skills in interviewing for a job.  Long story short, he now has two-part time jobs, one of which looks to become full-time at some point.  I hesitate to even put this out there in case things don't work out again, but this is an important part of our life at the moment, so now you know.  ;)  If things continue to go well, I'll share more about the jobs a little later.  These are tough times for a lot of young people (and older people as well) and I'm very proud of our son.

In other news, we've got the vanity/dressing table that I mentioned in a previous post moved into the guest bedroom.

It has a lot more damage than I realized, probably from being stored for a long while in a building without climate control.  I've purchased some products from a local woodworking store that I'll be using to try and improve the looks of this piece of furniture --keeping my fingers crossed they help.  If not, I may have to look at painting this piece, since I know nothing about re-finishing furniture.  I've also been adding a few small tweaks to the kitchen which I'll share later, as well.

I want to thank all of you who take valuable time out of your day to visit my blog (one of the millions of blogs out there).  It means a lot to me that you continue to visit and read.  Please feel free to leave a comment -- I love to hear from you!  I hope you're having a terrific week; I love this time of the year and am trying to make the most of it.  I hope you'll come back for more updates.  :)

Hugs to you,

Denise