National Smile Day

May 31 was National Smile Day.

Do you know what made me smile that day? 

Wishing a Happy 1st Anniversary to my brother and his wife and seeing that they are loving being married to each other. 

Do you know what also made me smile that day?

Seeing these two watering the plants together. 

So sweet to see and I love being married to my husband.

Rainy Adventures

Remember that rainy Saturday I mentioned when we planted our plants. The night before was also a rainy night... and a windy day. Garbage and recycling cans up and down the street kept getting blown over.

Jr. Jr. went on an overnight campout that he thought was so fun because it was miserable in the rain. All the Young Men were miserable together. 

Lucky went to a friend's "Summer Kickoff Party" that night where they were going to play outside games and watch an outdoor movie. When we went to pick up another friend to give him a ride, we used an umbrella. Yeah. The host decided to move the party indoors. 

 

Hey. As long as they had fun, right? 

Silent Book Club

Shhhh. 

Nichole and I went to a Silent Book Club at the new library courtyard with the new greenhouse at the Orem Library.

It was so nice. We had a dedicated time to quietly read our books outside. If we wanted to talk (you know me- love to chat with those Orem librarians), there was an indoor space dedicated to talking about books and whatever else. They also had snacks in there. 

It was part of the Adult Reading Challenge so we got another sticker to put in our junk journals. My junk journal is getting a lot of use this year. I love it! 

It was a relaxing evening. 

Water a Flower Day

We got a late start with our garden this year. It's been a weird year, weird Winter, etc. In April and May there were several freeze warnings even though it was a mild Winter.

So on a rainy Saturday, Jeremy and I headed out to buy some plant starts so we could have our vegetable garden. 

And it just so happened that May 30 was Water a Flower Day. Some of the starts actually had flowers on them already. Ta-da. Celebrated. 

 

Snuggles

May 28 was National Hamburger Day. We had spaghetti and meatballs.

Totally unrelated to that, early that morning while I was working on my blog, Jet got up and came to snuggle on my lap with me. Awwww. It's been so long since we've had our morning snuggles. It was so nice.

Towel Day 2026

May 24 was Escargot Day. Nichole celebrated observed when she did art the next day and drew a snail, as well as a bunch of other cool things.

The grackle drawing was based on this photo Nichole took when we were at Tonaquint Nature Center in St. George.

 

May 25 was Towel Day. It was also Memorial Day so I made sure to bring a towel to our Memorial Day breakfast by the church.

I made sure I had a towel around for everything that day... except when I forgot to grab my towel when going to pick Nichole up from her afternoon of art. I told myself, "Don't panic." The drive home was okay because Nichole did have a towel in her bag. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I encouraged the kids to use a towel for everything, too. :Oh, they were so enthusiastic. 

It was also Brown Bag It Day so I made sure to put some recycling in a brown bag. 

 

Celebrating My Birthday

My birthday was in May. A few days before, I got together with some friends who have birthdays in May and June and we had lunch together. That was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Stephanie had these pictures taken with her camera. 

 

On my actual birthday, I was going to take a nap but ended up finishing The Duke's Bargain by Megan Walker. 

I did an online book club with her for Lakeshire Park and Miss Newbury's List where she shared things about her writing of those books and I got to meet her and get a hug from her when she came to Utah in April. 

In May, I was part of a different online book club for The Duke's Bargain. Megan shared a few posts on there about her writing of this book. I love that the two main characters in this book were the antagonists in the first two books. I also love that the main characters from the first books made appearances. It was fun to see the growth of the "villains."

I got to participate in an online live event to finish out the month's book club and got to learn even more from Megan. 

 

Back to talking about my birthday- Jeremy made lots of pizza for me (and the family). I LOVE pizza!

 

We had cake and ice cream. Jeremy put the candles in the shape of a heart. He's so cute.

I opened my birthday present, which was a tea kettle! I wanted one. Since there's been so much herbal tea drinking with all the Seeking Persephone movie watching and Proper Romance book reading, this was perfect. 

 

P.S. Jeremy was so pleased with how this picture turned out- there was still a tiny amount of flame on the candles. Have I mentioned my husband is cute?

 

P.P.S. Jeremy texted me the day before our Southern Utah trip saying he wanted to give me my birthday present early because it would be helpful getting ready for our trip. He had previously told me he debated about giving me my Mother's Day present early because it might be useful while we were out celebrating our anniversary. I like to take selfies when Jeremy and I are out birding together. Ultimately he gave it to me on Mother's Day and you know I've definitely used it since. So he told me he decided to give me my birthday present early and had Nichole bring it to me unwrapped when I got home.

"Dad told me to give you this." As I was opening the box for the portable vacuum cleaner (to help clean out the van), she told me this, "Dad also told me to tell you he'd never give you a vacuum as a birthday present. You'll have a different one on [your birthday]." 

Ha Ha Ha Ha. He really is cute.