Seriously......

I decided to take Ben & Maggie to the botanical garden at the last minute today. Last minute, because you can get in free before noon if you are a St Louis county resident. We didn't leave the house until almost 11.30, but we got there just before noon. Well, I forgot it was Mothers Day tomorrow & the parking lot was full when we got there, probably everyone taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Luckily, I saw a couple walking through the parking lot & I asked them if they were leaving. They told me where their car was and I drove down & put on my left indicator to wait for them to pull out. As soon as they pulled out of the spot, someone drove round behind them and pulled in there right in front of me. I honked the horn and yelled at the driver. He just kept on going even though I know he saw me. As he got out, I yelled "you know I was going in there and you just pulled in front of me. His reply? "that happened to me 3 times already today". My only come back was "and so that's a reason to do it to me?" There were many other things I could have said, but I had children in the car. The worst thing about it is that he had an Illinois licence plate (don't have to pay personal property tax) and I would imagine he was going to claim he could get in free because he was a St Louis resident!!! There is no limit to what some people will do. Sam always assures me that eventually everyone gets what they deserve, I hope his comes soon.
We left and tried the zoo next, but the lines of cars were unreal. We ended up at the grocery store!!! I promised Ben & Maggie I'd make it up to them one day.....

Another car conversation

Maggie: Ben, what's this?
Ben: Chocolate
Maggie: Do I like it?
Ben: No, hand it over.....

Dress alert

It is hard to believe that Maggie will soon be leaving day care and going to kindergarten. She is essentially skipping a room at her day care because she will be young for her year at school, there are only 2 other children in her room that will be leaving with her. She is going to be graduating with the kids in the older room and they have been getting organized for graduation together. They had graduation photos taken on Tuesday and I had unknowingly put out a dress for her to wear that day. I got her dressed in the morning and I got the usual "Mum, what's this? It's a dress" conversation from her. I assured her that she could run around as usual (they have to wear shorts underneath dresses at her day care) and that she'd be very comfortable. I got her stock reply "Mum, but everyone's going to laugh at me". When I got home, Ben and Maggie were playing baseball in the front yard, she should be on Ben's team as she is probably better than Ben already (she's definitely got the batting stance). Obviously, she'd figured out how to keep going despite the dress. I asked her if anyone had laughed at her at school and she told me everyone said "Oh Maggie, you're wearing a dress, how cute". She didn't seem too impressed by that, but I guess it was marginally better than being laughed at!!!!

My garden in Spring

Spring is always the best time for gardens, and we have had a great one this year. It has been cooler than usual and we've had quite a bit of rain so you can almost sit and watch the plants grow. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much made it through the Winter as we had a pretty cold one, but things are gradually coming through. We are late getting any mulch down (hopefully this weekend) and I am hoping that the mulchers are careful about my plants when they mulch the beds. In the BC days, we used to mulch the beds ourselves, but we just don't have time, the inclination or the truck any more. Mum bought me one of these storks from Pier 1 while she was here, then she was so enamoured with it, that she took it home with her. We've subsequently been back to Pier 1 and we now both have two of them!!!! I am particularly fond of my English bluebells that are now growing in my third garden. Dad bought me this acer many years ago (we dug it up from our old house and moved it with us!!). It has survived much abuse and is spectacular this year.

Forest Park

I think that most people that live in St Louis don't take maximum advantage of Forest Park. We do go there quite often, but still don't take advantage of everything that the park has to offer. Luckily, when my parents are here, I tend to do a lot more around St Louis than I usually do & this week we went for a walk in Forest Park. It was a beautiful day & I got some great pictures of the park.

The Grand Basin

World's Fair Pavillion

The Art Museum

Zoo

Wildlife

Reliving a past life.....

Sam should really be writing this post as I don't have much of a clue what I am writing about here!!!! He served on the USS Plunger while he was in the Navy and has never lost his love of the sea or submarines. The USS Razorback is currently a museum in North Little Rock. Sam and Ben have been to see it before when it had just arrived in Little Rock, but this was the first time I had been to see it. I was interested to see what the inside of a submarine looked like and to get an idea of what living under the water for long lengths of time was like. Sam has told me lots of stories about submerged life, now I have more of an idea of things (but not much). The Razorback was built right at the end of WWII, so it's about 15 years older than the plunger, it was also built for a slightly smaller crew. There were approximately 80 people that sailed in the Razorback, there were only the 4 of us on there on Friday. My first impression was how big it looked from the outside, I'm not sure what I had been expecting, but not this. Of course, not an inch of space has been wasted inside. There were beds everywhere, with not much head room, Sam said that they slept in the bunks in shifts, so you shared with two other people. There was absolutely nowhere to store anything. The kitchen was tiny, I can't imagine cooking for 80 people in such a small space. The eating area was a decent size, but not when you consider how many you had to feed!!!! It was a great experience to see how resourceful man can be, but I'm glad I didn't have to be in there for months at a time with 80 other people, especially if there were depth charges going off outside.....

First swim of the year

We were in Little Rock for the first swim of the year. Even though we are further south than St Louis, it is still not all that warm here and the water had to be freezing. However, cold water has never seemed to stop kids swimming (even if they have to do it in their underwear)