More Kite-age.

Leif showing off the "new" fireplace the day I took all of those pictures a few posts back.

He had just woken up, his hair was growlby, and I just realized he's been wearing those jammies since we lived in Miami, and that was before he turned 1. He's now 3.5. :) We wear things out around here! Anyway, you can more clearly see the grey fireplace insert (and the dirty glass, too!)

A boy & his Kite. Leif (in orange at the bottom of the pic) flies his kite (at the top of the pic) off our dock. Photo by Jason.

Jason took this shot from our neighbor's dock.

Here he is, flying his kite and sporting his orange striped shirt and blue/red patchwork pants.

Gotta love tikes that dress themselves! :) Again, Photo by Jason.

We've been kinda quiet around here of late, filling our days with kite-flying and other adventures, which is wonderful.

We had a nice Mother's Day - went to a family shindig hosted by Jonny and Jenny. The guys did all the work: grilling and prepping the food, watching the kids...so that was nice. They just had a big swimming pool put in, so Jason and Leif spent the day swimmimg. Needless to say, they were both whooped at the end of the day. In fact, we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway before Leif's eyes were closed. By the end of their road, he was snoring soundly. Jason took us home the "long" way, going down roads we had never been down, which gave Leif the chance to sleep. It was a lovely drive for us, too! :)

In gardening news, the garden is doing splendidly - the squash are growing rather prolifically, which is wonderful. Hopefully, we'll have an abundant harvest this year! Everything that can flower - tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cukes, squash, beans, etc. is flowering, it seems. The only things not flowering are the edible flowers, which are still growing strong, but not full-size yet. The Luffa hasn't flowered, either, but it is growing well.

We have a volunteer squash of some sort growing in our compost pile - if he fruits...well, it might feel kinda like eating out of a trash bin! ;)

Yesterday, I went to the Dr. to see about a mole that had been growing on the back of my ear. He cut it off immediately and sent it out for biopsy (I always think "bibopsy" when I say/write/think biopsy...you know, from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? - so I sorta start laughing every time I say biopsy - it gets some strange looks, but oh well.)

Anyway, as I was sitting in the room waiting for the Doc to come in, I noticed a poster that had pretty much the exact same mole pictured as the one on my ear - irregular edges, multi-colored, etc. I looked more closely at the poster and found that the picture was of Melanoma, the big bad nasty skin cancer responsible for 75% of all skin cancer deaths.

Greeeeaaaaattt!

Today, I did a little more research on the topic and read about the attributes that normally cause melanoma. Nearly every single cause on the list, I said, "Check" because it fit me exactly.

Fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed? Check. Check. Check.
More than 3 blistering sunburns before the age of 18? Check.
Live in a southern state with strong sunlight? Check.

The list went on and on, and so did my "Check....Check...Check" so that was a tad scary.
It was kind of like Bingo with a not-so-fun prize.

So, it could be nothing, or it could be something really not good.

Say some prayers for us, please, that it is nothing.

We'll find out at the end of this week or sometime next week.

Either way, I'll be globbing gallons of sunscreen on my pasty skin, wearing long sleeves and pants in the raging heat, and donning my sun hat at all hours of the day (oh, and drinking lots of lemonade - that has nothing to do with the skin cancer, but it sure does taste good!)

Happy days!