I am not lazy. The blog just wasn't high up on my priority list the past couple weeks. But I am grateful to Paige for being my guest blogger when I couldn't write.

This week started out with Memorial Day. We had such beautiful weather the entire holiday weekend and Monday was no different. Both Bryn and Paige participated in our village parade: Bryn rode in a convertible as she will be going to Badger Girls State in a few weeks and Paige marched with her junior high school band. Jeff and I were invited to a friends' home along the parade route to watch and picnic afterwards. Had a great time. Abby went off with her friends. Jeff and I were back by 1:30 to meet our first Craig's List buyer! Some of the better quality items that didn't sell at our rummage sale, I've put up on Craig's List. We'll see how that goes. Then I went off to purchase a few flowers to fill in around our terrace and some vegetables. The girls mentioned that they wanted to grow a garden. I decided to plant them in containers on our deck because I think they'll be easier to maintain and we've discovered a bunny family has taken up residence below our deck. We'll be growing red, yellow and green peppers and 4 varieties of tomatoes.

Bryn ran in the 300M hurdles, the 4x800M relay and the 4x400M relay in Regionals for track out at Oconomowoc Tuesday. Jeff and Abby drove out to cheer her on. Bryn did not qualify to go on to Sectionals and is very disappointed. Then Paige had her final Conference Relays track meet on Thursday. Paige was the 3rd leg of the 4x100M hurdle relay and their team finished 2nd!! Unfortunately a referee disqualified the team for one person starting too early.

Hallmark welcomed Abby back for the summer. She basically is available to take anybody and everybody's hours who needs to take off. She's acquired quite a few dates already. She's also been filling out job applications like crazy. Now that track's over, Bryn will be doing the same thing. Again.

Bryn went to Mequon to watch the Sectionals meet and root for those girls and boys from the high school who did move on. Some of the boys team qualified for state, but none of our girls. Jeff and I enjoyed a peaceful evening out of the patio when suddenly Jeff thought he spotted a skunk behind my chair. When he got up, we saw it was a cat: black and white, small and really fast! It took off down by the creek and ran up a tree. We put a little cup of dogfood near the base of the tree to coax it down and watched til it got dark. We saw it maneuver around onto various branches, but never all the way down. When we checked again Saturday morning it was nowhere to be found.

Bright and early Saturday morning was Paige's first softball game. She had to be there to warm up at 7:15am! The game started at 8:00am and Jeff saw a good game! Paige got to pitch 4 innings and struck out 7 batters. It all ended with Paige was on third base, the batter hit to 1st, the ball bounced off the first baseman's glove, bounced off, and Paige ran into home and scored! But the umpire called it a foul, they had to replay and the batter struck out ending the game in a tie. Paige's run would've won the game. Today she played again and it wasn't so pretty. The game ended after 3 innings due to the slaughter rule. Paige's team lost 21-2 - but Paige was one of the runs!!!

Abby, Bryn and I participated in the bike ride for Bryn's mission trip with St. James Saturday morning. Bryn and Abby rode and I helped with registration, taking pictures (of course) and acting as crossing guard for the bikers. Great day to ride! I'm hoping to recruit more helpers next year so that I can ride the trail! They start at the church in Sussex and follow the Bugline Trail 7 miles out to Fireman's Park out in Merton. There we serve them lunch (hot dog/brat, chips, soda/water and cookies). Then they turn around and ride back.

We ended the day with the Jazz N Java concert where all the jazz bands from all the Menomonee Falls schools play. I think it was the best ever! Bryn's brass section did a Java Jolt (intermission song between bands) and we got to hear an excellent performance repeated from Band Revue last winter.

Today is Paige's 14th birthday!!! Baked her a cake and we'll be having her favorite tonight: spaghetti and meatballs.