pollen storm.

i was in bed this morning watching the weather channel when i saw this video {you might have to click on the 'skip this ad' X at the top of the player}:


the video was taken on monday night. the pollen is from a {north carolina} loblolly pine. i'm pretty
sure that the pollen bombs pine trees in our front yard {all six of them & their 20+ feet tall glory} are loblolly pines.

no wonder i am such a puffy, stuffy mess. no wonder my green car is an eerie shade of ick yellow. no wonder the sea foam at willoughby spit was yellow {i noticed that while driving to work yesterday}. no wonder i walked through a layer of pollen just to get into the office door yesterday at work. no wonder i have become co-dependent on claritin & benadryl.

i like the spring time. i like the pretty flowers & chirping birds. i like the warmer weather. but, please, pollen storm, stop.

spring has sprung...

...and it's about damn time.

{don't i wish i had some gerbera daisies in my home right now...i took this pic last year.}

the sun is shining. the air is warm {and isn't quite polluted with pollen just yet}. the brick pavers in our patio feel lovely on my bare feet. our windows are open. the kids are playing outside. adam's pruning, raking & weeding. i'm jammin' to some dave matthews band. a grocery list is being made for a cookout tonight. flip-flops are being pulled out of the closet. the horseshoe pit has been raked. our ann magnolia is budding which mean pretty purple flowers are coming. our bama bound daylilies are shooting up. the birds are chirping. my toes are polished.

buh-bye winter weather & hello spring. fabulous, glorious spring.

THE THUNDER ROLLS...

Oh, boy...here we go again. The radar pic isn't quite the latest update, but it clearly shows the lovely big, red blob that is headed our way. The Weather Channel has a severe storm warning ticker at the bottom of their screen on television, but they just said this particular line of storms is not at the severe point just yet. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't dump grapefruit size hail on us like a storm did today in Texas. Could you imagine...chunks of ice the diameter of grapefruit falling from the sky?! Holy cow!

I guess I should take heed and head to bed and hope that I'll fall asleep well before the thunder and lighting arrives. I swear, I'm so tired of the summer-like nasty weather...can we just have spring back?

And just WHY am I not outside?!

Spring has finally sprung here in Southeastern Virginia and here I am inside the house with my face glued to the computer. Sad, isn't it?

I mean, the house is clean (aside from a bathroom to clean, laundry to wash, fold & put away and some light dusting in the bedrooms). The kids are out on the boat with the hubs. The cats are all snoozing (and no one has left me any nasty presents...thank goodness). I'm showered, dressed and I'm even sporting freshly exfoliated & shaved legs (gasp!).

But what am I doing? I'm sitting here like a lazy bum. It's actually kind of nice. The house is quiet. The windows are open and I can hear the birds...there's a breeze blowing.

Part of me wants to head to my FIL's to hang out by the pool while I wait for the hubs & the kids to get home from fishing (since that is where the boat gets parked...it's his boat anyways). Part of me wants to go to Target and wander around. Part of me just wants to stay parked on my butt in front of the computer. And, part of me just wants to take a nap.

*sigh*

I suppose I should get up and go to Target and then head to my FIL's house. I mean, it's very rare that I get an opportunity to head to a store alone...no whining, no begging for toys, no rush...the computer time and nap can wait, right?

DON'T WASH ME...LOVE ME INSTEAD

I walked outside yesterday afternoon and noticed that my car had been "vandalized" by my children:

You can barely make it out because of the glare, but it says
"I heart mom" across the hood.

So much for the $16 I spent washing my car on Saturday afternoon. I should have known better considering our pine trees (and just about every other plant or flower in our yard) are dropping pollen bombs all over the place. I could look on the bright side...at least my kids didn't write, "Wash me...again" all over the car.

GEARING UP FOR SPRING...

Old man winter has come and gone in Southeastern Virginia (or has it...I mean, it was freezing cold this morning and the ground was, dare I say, frozen??) and so our yearly yard clean up began a few weekends ago. It started off by getting the patio furniture cleaned off and sweeping the pavers. That led to weeding the flower bed and pruning the different bushes and trees in our backyard. The weeding and pruning led us to basically overhaul our flower beds so we laid down a weed barrier and mulched all of the flower beds in our backyard. It took two yards of mulch, but it was done (yesterday). And, during the process of all of this backyard business, we decided to move around a few plants and will soon start dividing some of the hostas we have back there because they are getting out of control! Oh, and did I mention that we got the garden ready and currently have red onions, rosemary, cauliflower, bok choy and brussel sprouts planted?

So, all of this backyard business is my toot for today because we did it. The backyard is ready for the spring weather, cookouts and horseshoe games that are sure to come once it warms up a bit.

WIN IT!

Spring is in the air and the gals over at Momlogic want to give you a chance to capture all of your favorite spring moments...



But don't wait -- this is a weekend-only contest and the winner will be chosen on Monday!