RVA GALA

Thursday night was Rape Victim Advocates Gala. It is their 35th year of existance, but their first ever gala! We were glad to be there and to have acouple of our friends come support the event as well. These things are never as much fun when you don't know so many people, but the important thing was to be there and show support for the workers and volunteers. We are truly thankful for all they do for the people of Chicago.

Our Weekly Edition

As my electronic scrapbook, I have been not posting as much as I should. Mostly becuase the backlog of posts on here to turn into a real scrapbook has been a bit daunting. In the interest of trying to get back to this and an old tradition, I have commited to putting out a "weekly edition" of our lives. At least one pic and post a week of something going on in our lives. The old tradition was an album called the Sunday Book (the Sunday Book was comprised of pictures which we took weekly, on Sunday), but this time we can't be held to one day a week. We want it to be more of a best of our week, even if it is just a haning in at home.

One week ago was the goodbye party of our pastor Trey Hall, I know already a week behind, but I wanted it to be the first post. He has been a major influence in our lives. He was with our church for five years and officiated our wedding. My favorite thing about Trey is his beautiful singing voice. He would cantor the blessing of the eucharist, which was just so lovely. Also I love his southern roots. His sense of hospitality and how he says "y'all" a lot. He is not leaving Chicago, even if he is leaving our church, so we hope that we will see him occassionally around town. He has been really lucky to get a commission to start a new church in the West Loop (which is also where Mike's building is!) and with how our church has grown since his arrival, I'm sure he will be building the new church in no time!

How does my garden grow?

Just thought I would take a slow hot summer night to catch up on some fun garden pics.

My garden in May:

I am so thankful to the old owners of my apartment building becuase they planted some beautiful perrenials. Two peony plants which almost took turns blooming.

They were so beautiful to look at.

And flowering bushes that smell as good as they look. This mystery plant started to bloom right about when the lilacs petered out.

And irises and chives and mint and so much more!

And our tomato plants are growing, although I was worried about them with the prolonged cold weather....

My Garden in June:

This little plant popped up, which I think might be a wild strawberry plant, but we'll see.
This tall cane-like grass is very prolific and the purple flowers are pretty!
Check out the gate, where's the fence you might ask? The land lord took it out, I think to put in...

...this huge storage unit. I wonder if it will ever leave. Luckily Stanley is mostly trained to stay in the yard.

And my tomato plants are HUGE!!! Although with the cold wet weather some started developing black spots on their leaves. So I quarenteened them to the other side of the yard, hoping that it would get warm and they would get better.

The rain also flattened some of that tall cane-grass!

Time also causes the flowers to lose their blooms...

But as one plant loses it's flowers, another one starts to bloom. My tomato plants are doing much better in the warmer weather and I am happy to say have started to bloom!

Look forward to eating them!!!