While looking for parts to change my bike over to a 30 speed, I found this bike at a nice price. It will arrive next Monday at Kristin's house while I'm on vacation in Indy.

The forecast for today was "hot with gusty winds". I got up at 6 AM and headed for the bike trail. I rode into the wind and uphill for the first half and had a wonderful ride downhill and with the wind for the second half. After day 3 of the weekend at home, I had this nice arrangement of pots all planted and on the deck. They look pretty nice now so I'm hoping they will look great in a few weeks! I also made a ceramic pot of mixed flowers and vines for Becky & Denny in memory of Cynthia. Rich and I took it to them today and they insisted that we stay for lunch made on the grill.

It was raining this morning and when it finally quit, I headed to the bike trail for a ride. Plenty of flowers were out blooming but my favorite were the wild irises. I rode about 13 miles and took some photos of the Middle River about as high as I've ever seen it. Hopefully, it will stop raining for a few days and give all the rivers a chance to go down. This was day 2 of my 3 day weekend and I spent the rest of the day planting more flowers.

Day 1 of the holiday weekend was spent weeding, tilling and then covering this area with landscape fabric in the hopes of not having to weed around the tomato plants this year! Don't the hostas look nice?

The cabbage plants are coming along very nicely. They are about 2 feet across right now. They look great and I'm hoping they stay that way since last year's crop just rotted in the garden because of all the rain.

Sierra sent me some photos today. She spent the day on a field trip to the Children's Museum with her students. I think she was more excited than they were!

I finally got to move my garden lizards outside. They both came from a shop at the east gate of Zion National Park. Mother gave me the rust colored one in September and I got the turquoise one when I was there in March.

What a silly dog! I brought Thule home with me for a couple of weeks.

I don't know what kind of ducks these are but they sure are cute! I only had my little camera and didn't think that this photo would come out very good because they were quite a way out on the canal.

Kristin, Sierra, and I along with Charlie and Thule (Chase stayed in the truck because there was a distant sound of thunder) went on the Walk for Dreams. It was held on the Downtown Canal in Indianapolis. We represented The Jackson Center for Conductive Education. After the walk, The Jackson Center received the award for the most dollars raised for the year!

Today was Piper's 13th birthday! We went to Montana Mike's for dinner last night. She got just what she wanted from Mom & Dad - a Kindle. I gave her an iTunes card - always a hit! I left the lake this morning on my way to Indianapolis, about a 10 hour drive. Sierra had a pizza waiting when I arrived.

The goal was to get all of these plants in the ground and watered today. It got done with time to spare!

What a great idea! This wheelbarrow had seen better days until the garden center gave it new life. This arrangement even had lettuce in it for a nice lime green color addition.

For the third time in four weeks, I am on my way to Indianapolis with a load of goodies. This time, I am going to Kansas first to do some gardening and then over to Indy and home. We had to leave room for the dogs this time so the load isn't quite as big as the last 2.

I didn't really want to buy a new car but after stomping my feet and pouting for a couple of weeks, I gave in. I'm happy with the new mocha steel metallic Equinox.

Rich saw this lily today and brought it home for me. He knew that I didn't have anything that was similar to it, beautiful!

I was working on my bikes today and went down to the storage shed to get a repair stand. I found this little snake trying to warm up on the bricks. He was coiled up so perfectly that I had to go back inside to get my camera.

Today, we went to Kansas City to see "Dralion". Mother was supposed to go with us as a Mother's Day celebration but she didn't feel up to it. We almost didn't go but I am glad we did. The show was great as usual!

Here's my Friday the 13th bad luck story: Rich came home and asked me if the truck drove OK for me. I said yes and why? He said the rear tire is flat. I said it wasn't flat when I got home. There was a piece of metal sticking out out the tread near the sidewall. Luckily for us, they were able to "plug" it. So our good luck story is that we didn't have to buy an expensive tire!

Kristin gave me these plants for Mother's Day. I've been wanting to plant them but it has been raining everyday that I could plant. Maybe Sunday afternoon - the forecast says the sun may appear.

It was hot today, Rich must have left work a little earlier than usual and had been doing yard work. This is the scene when I arrived. The other animals were scattered about the yard napping while Camo appeared to be keeping watch!

Can you smell them?

Sierra made a huge batch of monster cookies and they were so yummy! Today, I am wishing that I remembered to bring some home with us as she had suggested.

Happy Mother's Day! Sierra made us all Grandma Dot's famous French Toast. She even kept up the smoke in the kitchen tradition by having a little fire on the stove and heating up the oil a bit too hot! Like I said earlier this week, fond memories don't fade away!

Sierra chose the Mongolian Grill for her graduation dinner. She loves calamari, I cannot bring myself to even try it!

GRADUATION!

Rich and I drove to Indianapolis last night. We met Kristin & Sierra for breakfast and then went to Tyler's new shop and unloaded what we brought. Sierra headed to work and Kristin and I went for a bike ride on the Monon trail. We stopped for a drink at one of the local shops. She had a green river and I had a cream soda. It was a perfect day for bike riding!

Chase never forgets to remind us how much he loves the water!

While at the races last Friday, Sierra and I saw a male mallard hanging around a building. We looked closer and sure enough, there was Momma duck on her nest behind an air conditioner. She could barely be seen.

I just got around to taking a photo of Sierra's 2011 sports award. She has quite a collection of these plaques and is especially very proud of this one!

Unhappy things are part of life, so I will document this day also, even though we would like to forget it. Sierra totaled her car this morning. We are VERY thankful that she was not hurt. We also know that unhappy memories will fade and the joyful moments will remain with us always. I love you Sierra!

The Broad Ripple Criterium was delayed this morning for about one hour mostly because of the need to pump some water off of the tight turns. Sierra raced at about 10:30 after the juniors and masters. Here she is on her way to the win! She has that huge grin on her face because this is her very first win in a criterium. She pointed that out to me-adding that it was the first win not counting the races she was in that she won because she was the only one in her age category when she was a teenager! She also won the omnium for the weekend's race series, the prize being enough $$ to cover her entry fees and then some. Needless to say, she was very excited!