Hi!

Just thought I'd check in....not much going on in the way of prepping for our trip yet.  Although I did purchase a couple of audio lessons on speaking Italian.  Will be great to listen to on my drive to and from work everyday!  Need to locate our birth certificates this week so we can apply for our passports.

We have 2 more trips coming up BEFORE our Tuscan trip.  My fabulous daughter bought me an airline ticket to visit her in California...Dave and I will be going from May 31st to June 5th.  Very excited :)

And then in July we will be driving to New York for Dave's niece's graduation party.  They live about an hour south of Buffalo.  Very beautiful there.

I need to start thinking about what clothes/shoes/etc we need for all of these trips.  Too bad I have no money to spend on such things...oh well, just the fact that we can go is pretty awesome :)

I've been slowly trying to get things at home organized....haha...not an easy task for us....on Mother's Day when I went into the garage to try and find my gardening tools and couldnt find...or get to...ANYTHING...I decided right then and there it was time to clean the garage...re-organize...Well, we got about 2/3 of the stuff moved out into the driveway...and were EXHAUSTED...we have been working on it bit by bit since then....probably would have finished this past weekend if the temp hadnt jumped up to 95 degrees (I dont do well in extreme heat!)  But it is definitely looking much better!  I know I'll feel mentally better once everything is organized!

You may or may not know this about me, but I consider the Great Blue Heron my lucky charm...if I had been native american I suppose it would be my totem...I see GBH's flying all the time...everyday they fly across the road/s I am driving...to work, shopping, anywhere...I decided I'm gonna start keeping a tally...just out of curiosity....

This morning I saw 2
     1 was flying west over Hwy 16 on my way out of Oconomowoc
     1 was flying north over Hwy K just east of Hartland

I know I've seen at least 10 in the 3 days before today, I dont ever remember seeing so many!  And in places I havent seen them in previous years...like flying over the park across the street from our house!

:)  Enough babbling for now....

Have a great day!

 P.S.  I took this picture last year at Lac La Belle, near my  house.  I have yet to get a good picture of a flying heron...one of my photography goals for this year!