Here’s a picture I took early one morning just before work.  I grabbed my company’s Canon point-and-shoot to get a photo of a pair of geese walking along the boardwalk next to the William A. Irvin in Canal Park.  Unfortunately, the geese didn’t make the cut as I liked this photo better.

Reflection

A month ago my brother was at our house inspecting our garden and trees in the backyard, offering some tips and advice.  We heard a number of different birds singing.  He said, “Did you hear that?  That was a cardinal”.  First off, I’m not sure why he knows what a cardinal sounds like and secondly, we don’t have nesting cardinals in Duluth.  Well, at least I didn’t think we did…until Sebastian and I saw this guy last week.

Mr. Cardinal

Mr. Cardinal II

I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see him in the sea of green grass on my lawn.  We have spotted him four times now and we also saw his lady friend.  We are fairly certain he and the Mrs. have a little family somewhere in our trees (or our neighbor’s).   I would love to see the kids, but so far we haven’t located the nest.

Guess who was back in the garden?  Seriously?

The Return Of Peter Rabbit

Too bad we spoiled his fun by planting the garden and putting up a fence around it last Saturday.  I’m hopeful that he’s too lazy to dig underneath.  There are plenty of other delicious things growing in the yard and in my flower bed to go through all that work.

I baked bread last Sunday.  Not like my Mom’s awesome bread that you want to slather with butter and homemade jam, but a more European loaf that is good with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh cracked pepper.  I made it to pair up with homemade broccoli cheese soup.  Too bad my timing was off and the bread came out of the oven an hour after we finished eating the soup.

Crusty Homemade Bread

I am looking forward to the long Memorial weekend.  I’m not so much looking forward to all of the rain in the forecast.  We already received 4 1/2 inches this week.  Baseball was canceled…twice.  Our backyard is like a big soggy sponge.  Keep your fingers crossed that the weatherman is wrong like he often is. 

On a beautiful, sunny evening the 2012 ELL Red Sox took the field against the league favorite Diamondbacks.  For the first time is his young baseball career, Sebastian was given the nod as starting pitcher.  With butterflies in many stomachs, the Red Sox gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning with a couple of walks and some fielding errors.  However, Sebastian relaxed and entered a zone recording 3 strikeouts to finish the inning.  He pitched the next two innings allowing no runs and recording 4 more strikeouts before his pitch count reached near maximum per league rules.  A solid first start.  Way to go Sebastian!

The Starter

Ready To Pitch

The Wind Up

The Pitch

On the batting side, the Red Sox were a bit overwhelmed by the best pitcher in the league…a 12 year old that can throw over 60 mph.  He breezed through our line up the first two rounds before Sebastian broke up his no hitter with a solid double to right center.

In the end the Diamondbacks were a bit too much, but the Red Sox battled hard and the season is young.

Beautiful Girl

Gathering Before Church Service

White Light

Left Side, Front Row

Dressed In White

With Grandpa And Grandma

With Nana And Papa

Both Sets Of Grandparents

With The Boy Cousins & Brother

Family Photo

Fancy Dress, Fancy Shoes

We went back to our house for lunch after the service.

Lunch Buffet

Sophia helped to make the fancy cookies.

1st Communion Cookies

A quick change into comfy clothes before opening gifts.

Opening Gifts

The Dress

Because it was so cold and windy on 1st communion day, I made her put the dress on again for some outdoor photos the next day.

In The Sunlight

A Sparkle In Her Eyes

Happy Face

Profile

Prayer Pose

She got a little bored with the serious photos, so she decided to do her own thing.

Getting Silly

Goofy Girl

What?

By this point it was obviously time to be done with photos, but I did snap one more after the veil was off and we were inside.

Sweet Girl

We are grateful that we had our family here to join us for this memorable event. Sophia received wonderful gifts that she will always cherish. Beautiful necklaces, a personalized bible, a cool book to guide her in her faith and a very special gift from her Grandma – a sterling silver rosary that she purchased over 60 years ago and wanted to pass on to her granddaughter. It was a very special day indeed.

• Trip #1 to vet after dog gets into something, has allergic reaction, needs several lab tests, steroid shot and prednisone prescription - $361.78
• Trip #2 to vet to pick up doxycycline antibiotic for positive Lymes disease test – $23.79
• Trip #3 to vet the next week because allergic reaction returns, needs another steroid shot and prednisone prescription – $79.17
• Trip #4 to vet because dog gets stung by insect, face swells, stops eating for three days, needs another steroid shot and prednisone prescription - $116.43
• Seeing your daughter with her (now healthy) dog after being gone for several days…priceless.

Girl's Best Friend

*All of the above events happened within the past three weeks.  Fingers crossed that we are done with the vet until next year’s check up.