{ sunshine and frozen lollipops }

photos snapped on my late spring adventure, yesterday

I attempted to make the most of my day yesterday. Friends and family members were otherwise occupied, which left little old me to amuse myself. In free-verse, here are my adventures of yesterday:

hop in the car, drive aim-less-ly,
wheels meandering round and round,
beating a track to nowhere.

nowhere starts in the parking lot of a mormon church--
those latter day saints have a nice view--
overlooking a manmade lake.
in the mini-shore park, a man performs martial arts with a found stick,
his reclined girlfriend's eyes and smile cheer him on;
i park elsewhere.
turning my back on the romancing couple, i romance a blossoming bush, instead.
pink blossoms greet me and show off their colors against the
clean sky, green grass, glassy lake.

i duck and dance, snapping my pictures. the blossoms blush, just enough.

back in the car, i glide along, and
finding more pinks, pull over once again.
cousined pinks, deeper, more mature, with a pink popcorn feel,
saluting the gods. they are proud, and show off, and pay no heed to me
as they welcome all kinds of bees.

i've had my fill of pink and am craving something cold to combat the sun--
just a few doors down, i find a fudgsicle, with its gorgeous taste of my teenage years.
i stand for a while and lick the chocolatey cream, watching young boy skateboarders in their park,
some shirtless, some revved up on energy cola, taking their boyish turns on the half pipe.
in my car i finish my icy treat to the stick,
sucking s-l-o-w-l-y,
because, after all, i'm alone, and i don't like to hurry.
my window's down and my radio's up, playing appropriately sunny tunes.

a man comes to fix a gas pump,
someone reads a magazine,
a woman wears too-short shorts,
two boys ride bikes, handless, drinking slushies,
two women gossip about their jobs, seated on the trunk of their car,
most people wear sunglasses,
one guy doesn't wear a shirt.

we all came out like zombies, for the sun.

{ everything is fine and dandy }

a photo from my dandelion series, taken yesterday

Well, I had a little fun by myself yesterday. It was holiday Monday, there didn't seem much to do, and I was bored. The day started out dismally, with slow, spitting rain, and over-crowded stores. I wandered in to a used book store around three o'clock and picked up an old Thomas Hardy classic for $2.50. I intend to read it soon, but around 5:00 I was not in the mood for quiet reading.

Our original plan for holiday Monday had been to go to the Rockies for the day, but the forecast for them was snow or pouring rain, so we backed out. Nevertheless, I needed to have the feeling of getting away from it all somehow. As we drove home on the freeway, I commented to Derek that I have not seen so many dandelions in a long time--they just seem to be everywhere; they are not just rogue wandering weeds, either, but huge fields of seemingly intentionally-planted flowers. In some areas they nearly resembled the glowing yellow canola fields that I love so much in late August.

I have been missing taking photos lately, and I was determined to find something to catch on my memory card and to tinker with late into the night. I was curious if my favorite walking spot, the abandoned farmer's field by my house, might be filled up with dandelions now that the sun was poking out. On our way home, I asked Derek to drive by the walking spot, so I could see it from a distant overpass. I needed only a short glance to know that I had hit the flower jackpot; the place near the hay bales where I usually love to sit and watch the sky was filled with the yellow gems. I didn't even help Derek carry the groceries up to our condo; instead, I took off walking straight from the car, camera in hand.

I played in the dandelions, all alone, for about an hour. I let them flirt with my camera as I snapped off over a hundred photos. The wind foiled some of my plans, but I did end up with a handful of ones that I really loved. The photo above is number 1 of 4 in my new dandelion series on flickr (please see the entire series here). I was so happy when I returned home, pollen covering my jeans.

Who knew a weed could make someone so happy! I guess I really am a simpleton!

{ home sweet home }

our house's foundation

So ... did I mention we bought a house and are having it built? That all took place sometime back in March, and we've been busy concentrating on tying up many loose ends regarding that for the past two months.

We periodically drive by our house site to check up on how things are going. Within a week they had dug the hole, measured and poured the foundation, put up all the retaining walls, weatherproofed them, pumped rainwater out of the hole, and installed a sump pump. The photo above is from last month, and the house already looks a lot different. They tell us they are getting ready to frame soon. I am very excited!!

It has been stressful taking care of all the house stuff. We had to plan ahead to think about where we will be living up until then, and we decided that since we are carrying a lot of interest on bank loans, etc, we would sell our condo early. We don't get our house until next winter, but we wanted to move out of the condo before the snow comes; that way we will be able to extract our equity and pay off all our student loans, etc.

We were told by many realtors that the best time to sell a property is in the spring. We decided to list our condo with a realtor on Monday, May 7th. He took care of all the paperwork and legalities and our condo posted to the market on Friday, May 11th. We had several people come and view it on Saturday, throughout the day. By Sunday night at 11:00 pm we had two serious offers. A bidding war ensued, and we closed the deal at 11:30 pm, getting $7000 more than we had even listed for. Needless to say, we were very happy.

So, the deal was done, we were happy with our buyers, and we agreed that the possession date will be August 15th. That gives us roughly three months left in the condo. From here we will move out to a family-owned trailer home in the country. By doing this, we will be able to save a great deal of money while they finish building our house--we will not only pay off all our debts, but we will also be able to save more money to put down on our house, as well as having to buy a kitchen table (we currently don't own one), and a washer/dryer set (we have to leave ours behind). I can tell it will be a whirlwind of a year!!!

I know I will miss this 880 square foot condo--it has served us well these past three years. We put so much of ourselves into decorating it and keeping it clean and maintained. I thought it would be a tearful goodbye, but at this point, I really just can't wait to get into our new house--a two-storey, three bedroom, two and a half bath, 1400 square foot home. We will have our own little yard and a full porch on the front. We can get a dog and start thinking about having a family. I feel so grown up, yet giddy as a little kid, too.

Other than the house deal, school has been keeping me on my toes these days (I could blog about the insanity that is my students in another post, later). Warm weather has come to town, and the kids have gone absolutely loopy (and so have I!). This weekend I have a four day weekend, and I am trying to make the most of it in every way possible. I've been getting all my chores done (paying bills, cleaning house), getting out with friends, inviting guests over for dinner, taking walks, and buying little treats for myself (tender nectarines! mmm!). It is Sunday evening, and I still have two days of holidays left!! Terrific! I would like to try and do a photo journey tomorrow ... I've fallen so out of the loop with this hobby of mine and would like to get back into it.

I hope to update once more before Tuesday ... hopefully someone out there still READS this decrepit blog of mine! Drop me a hello if you're out there ...

{ i'm still alive }

Whew, okay, okay, please don't remind me; I AM aware that I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth. Updates are coming ... our life has undergone many changes ... you will know all about it very, very soon ...