Day Two Hundred Twenty One

Daughter Kelly sent me this picture a few days ago, helping to feed my obsession with mushrooms this summer. Huge mushrooms growing out of a tree somewhere near her house--that is weird wild stuff. We have a Maple tree in our front yard that has mushrooms growing out of it, but nothing this good. Thanks for the picture, Kelly!

Day Two Hundred Twenty

Haircut

Elijah stayed with us for a while this morning while his mom and sister were out of town and his dad was at work. At his mom's request, we took him to the Village Barber Shop to get a haircut. Lots of boys, all ages, getting haircuts there today, too. School starts next week. You have to look your best. Elijah is never thrilled by the process, especially the buzz clippers around his ears. But he didn't complain and patiently endured, because he was promised a handful of M&M's out of the candy machine when it was all over.

Happy days are here again! Love that face and the new buzz cut!!

Day Two Hundred Nineteen

In The Mood For Sepia


The yellow striped kitten named Eddie. He's too quick for my camera shutter. He's also a sweet cat who likes to get in your face.

No new sidewalk today. Maybe Monday....

They weren't here today, so my day was pretty quiet and no where near as much fun.

Day Two Hundred Eighteen

Rock Art, Bubbles and Backhoes


Shelby fashions some colorful rock art this morning with felt tip markers.

Elijah makes some rock art of his own using a big chunk of cement from the broken up sidewalk in the front yard.

Skin art is even more fun!

A day with blowing some bubbles is a day with fun and sun.

Elijah got up close and personal with the big backhoe the Public Works guy used to dig up the sidewalk. Our old sidewalks are gone now in front of our house. Our street looks like a war zone. Elijah had the best time watching the big machine do its digging, lifting and dumping--the stuff little boy's dreams are made of.

Day Two Hundred Seventeen

Public Works Saves The Sidewalk Hand Prints


In my opinion, these city employees went above and beyond the job description to save the childhood hand prints of my two daughters who each pressed one small hand into cement that was freshly poured probably twenty years ago.

The concrete was about three inches thick. They started with this big circular saw and were really careful cutting around the prints.

Then they brought in the jackhammer to help dig underneath to loosen it up. At this point, I figured Here we go, it's gonna crack into a thousand pieces.

It didn't crack at all. This is the hole that was left after they extracted the cut out prints I'm happy to say in one solid piece.

I know you can't see the hand prints in this picture. They're covered with cement dust, but they are still there after a couple of decades, and I'm very happy to have this memento of my kids' childhood. I'm also very thankful to the guys who took the time to do this for me. They didn't have to. I'm still amazed they remembered I had asked about having this done almost two weeks ago.

By tomorrow, they'll be tearing up the sidewalks in front of our house and later on pouring another round of fresh cement. I'll miss our old bumpy sidewalks, like I miss our old wavy glass windows in our house. But I'll get over it. I'm hoping the grand kids will be here the day they pour the cement so we can begin a whole new generation of sidewalk hand prints.

Every neighborhood deserves a sidewalk.