Oops! I didn't mean to say that to you!

I get tons of email every day. To the tune of at least 100 emails each day. Understandably, I have scads of email addresses saved in my contact list. That makes it so much easier when I'm composing emails - to just simply type in the first letter or two of a person's name and my email pulls up the names that fit the criteria, then I click the correct one and I'm set to send.

Well, I'll warn you - make darned sure you choose the right email address and the right person. It's a little embarrassing to send a message to the wrong person. It happened once already to me this morning, then it almost happened again.

The first time was a little embarrassing but no big deal. I was sending an email to someone, when I typed in the first two letters of their first name, it pulled up their email address and the addresses for two other friends. I clicked on the wrong address. About half an hour later I realized my mistake and send an apologetic email to the friend who got the first email.

A little while later I went to send another email to another friend - whose first name happened to contain the same first two letters as the person I emailed earlier. As a matter of fact, this friend has the same first name as the friend I ACCIDENTALLY emailed.

I almost did the same darn thing - and sent the wrong email - again - to the same person that I mis-emailed earlier.

The first email was embarrassing because it was a silly mistake, the second email would have been embarrassing because it was a funny blog that was specifically meant for the person I was intending to email.

It would have been mortifying for the other friend to receive it! Honestly!

So the moral of the story: Double and triple check email addresses before you hit send!

Butterflies, bees and birds - oh my!

Every summer I look forward to my butterfly garden and the birds, bees, and butterflies that come to visit. This year's May 8 storm did some damage to my butterfly garden, and to be honest - with the heat, I haven't had as much motivation to get out and do much work in it.

Thankfully, nature takes over and my butterfly garden is doing well despite my lack of care. It is sprinkled with bright colors - orange from Butterfly Weeds and Daylilies, yellow from Yarrow, Daylilies and Blackeyed Susan, red from Bee Balm, and my rosebushes, purple from Catmint and Salvia.

Apparently the critters don't mind that I haven't been as vigilant with the weeds or as motivated with cleaning up and caring for my garden as in years past. In truth, the heat and rain that have been a constant part of the summer thus far have sapped my motivation. It doesn't seem to matter though - I just stepped out into my garden this morning and found a few Monarch caterpillars (they're going into the butterfly habitat today!), and was greeted by a Monarch butterfly and a hummingbird. Two Carolina Wrens have built a nest in one of the birdhouses I built last summer and several frogs have set up housekeeping in my little garden pond (which alas, desperately needs some work done on it).

While I haven't seen as many butterflies and birds and other critters as I have in the past couple of years, they are still there - enjoying the butterfly garden. Standing out there this morning reminded me why I enjoy my butterfly garden so much - because of the peace it brings me. When I'm feeling stressed or sad or just in need of a quiet moment to refocus myself, my butterfly garden is the perfect spot - and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I do need to do some weeding though!

Dairy Queen saved my baby

Since yesterday was my baby's, ummm, I mean my daughter's 8th birthday, I'll share the story of the night she was born. She loves for me to tell her this and every year starting with her first birthday, I have cuddled with her while telling her about going to the hospital.

Since Ruby has two older siblings, making the trip to the hospital meant my son and daughter needed to go with my parents. The only problem was, we couldn't find my parents!

It was a Wednesday night and they had went to church. Church was already over, but we couldn't find them (this was before they had cell phones). I had a sudden inspiration: People are here go to the local Dairy Queen to hang out after church on Wednesday nights.

We drove into town, hoping that we'd find them at Dairy Queen - and yep, there they were - snarfing on some ice cream.

The end of the story is, of course, a new baby born later that evening!