Losing pictures ...

I am so dejected. As I was preparing to (finally!) update by blog today, I was transferring pictures from my camera to computer. Before checking to see that they had transferred okay (why would I check??! They ALWAYS transfer!) I *gulp* deleted the pictures from my camera. Yep, you guessed it - they didn't transfer. :( :( I'm SO sad. While there weren't too many pictures, I did lose some great ones of Phoebe Mae from a few weekends ago, including one REALLY cute one of Alison and Phoebe. :( Guess I will have to go visit them and get some more pics! So, to update without pictures - we have had a great few weeks, including a visit from Pam and Doug, Alison and Phoebe and Mom and Dad. It was a great relaxing weekend with looks of cooking out and yard games. Good times. Did any of the rest of you get some pictures from the weekend? If so, I would love to have them! Other than visits from the fam, Gage and I have been busy busy in the garden and with the farmers market. Last weekend I hid away two flats of tomatoes from the locavores at the farmers market so that I could finally make some salsa! I forgot how much I love making salsa. If my tomato crop holds up (which it looks like it will), maybe I will make more this weekend. Last weekend I made 15 pints - yea! Gage starts back to work on Monday (already?). I can't believe the summer is already over. We have been spending a lot of time over the past month searching for a new (used) car, so that Gage won't have to drive the poor buick any longer. The ol' park avenue is barely limping along. I don't think it could make many more trips to Cedar Vale and back! We finally found a car that we like, a hyundai tucson, and are now anxiously waiting for the dealership to finish detailing and inspecting it. We hope be able to pick it up on Friday - so exciting!! Since my pictures of recent activities are lost forever, I will share a funny tidbit from a number of weeks ago. On a Sunday morning, I got up right before dawn to head to the bathroom once again (you preggos understand). As I walked by the doors leading to our deck, I had the strangest feeling that something was out there. I quickly shrugged it off. I mean, there is no way to get to the deck but through our bedroom - there couldn't possibly be something out there. As I lay back down in bed, I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was out there. As I peered more closely into the darkness outside, sure enough I saw two eyes looking back in at me. I screeched and hit Gage before realizing it was only a little raccoon. But still, how did he get there???

We could tell that he wasn't sick or disoriented, but most definitely scared (especially after my shrieking). We left the poor little guy alone, and as it got lighter outside, he became more and more scared and was determined to find a way down. After watching him try to climb down, we were certain that he had NOT climbed up. The poor little fellow finally ending up falling down, but luckily wasn't hurt. He quickly scampered to the nearest tree and ran back up. As we watched to make sure he was okay, we discovered THREE little raccoons up in that tree, and quickly ascertained how our visitor came to be on our deck. That particular tree in which the three raccoons chose to play has a few very large limbs that dangle right over our deck. Our little raccoon must have either jumped or fallen from the limb and then found that he was stuck!

Note to self: always check for falling raccoons when on the deck.