It was 93 today! In all this heat Laura has been pressing rubber and getting ready for two shows that we are doing back to back. We will be at Novi in MI and Stampaway in Ohio. Check out our convention page on our web site at http://www.lasimppan.com/ to get a coupon for a discount for shopping in our booth at either of the conventions! Well the van is packed and we are almost ready to go! We have lots of new things and are excited about doing both of these shows.

I did some of my part of getting ready (cutting the rubber) outside. It is so nice to be able to spend some time in my yard enjoying all the flowers Bob has planted! Last year we were on the road most of the summer and I missed a lot of the blooms!

Here are a couple of photos of his flowers!

Where has the summer gone? I can't believe it is almost August! Bob and I did manage to get away for three days. We spent them in Maine. We mostly did exploring as the weather did not cooperate! It still was relaxing to get away from work for a few days! Laura and I spent the rest of the month trying to get ready for the Novi and Stampaway shows. We will be out in the mid West for two weeks so trying to press enough rubber and make enough of everything for two shows has taken us all of our off time. It will be nice to see some of you while we are traveling this summer. This is a picture of one of the light houses that Bob and I found when exploring. It has to be the smallest lighthouse I have ever seen, but I am sure it is not the smallest one out there! We also went to a light house museum and that was kewl! The other picture is a veiw from the hotel. Neat!

We spent all of this week getting ready for the Manchester, N.H. Rubber Stamp Convention. Laura pressed tons of new images and I spent a lot of the day outside on the patio cutting out the unmounteds and getting them ready for the show. Today we packed the van and tomorrow is set up. We are finally ready! My sister arrived today from NC with her two girls to visit with my dad at rehab and my mom at her house. On Sunday they are going to drive down to Manchester to see us. It will be nice to see them all.

Our yard has been a real delight this summer. We have many new families of birds making homes in our birdhouses. One of the families is a pair of Red Cardinals. So far we have only spotted two little ones with them. Laura and Bob were out and Laura spotted this baby one at the bird bath. He waited until she came back into the house to get her camera so she could snap this picture of him.

Father's Day

This is where we all went on Father's day. Laura took this picture of the Nubble Light House in York, Maine. It was the perfect stop after taking Bob out for seafood. The lighthouse sits on an Island, high on the cliff overlooking the ocean and the waves hitting the rocks. It is typical Maine. It is one of our favorite places to go when we want a outing that is fairly close to home. The other is a great picture of Laura together with Bob taken on the rocks.

Bob's Garden

Bob's garden is finally in bloom. We never thought that summer would get here! Last year was the first year he planted this type of flower. We loved them so much that he planted them in a couple other places in the garden for this year. These are Alliums. They are very large. We dried the ones he grew last year and they were awesome as dried flowers as well. Our roses have just started blooming on the trellises and lots of flowers are almost ready to open.

I know I have not posted on here for what seems forever. I am going to try to work harder at keeping this up and adding more post. This is Mattie! He has really grown and just turned 1 year old last week! Here he is doing one of the things he loves to do--crawling in under the covers. This time he is home, but we did take him on the road with us to a few conventions and he did this at all of the hotels. He just made himself right at home. His longest trip was to the Allentown Pa conventions. It was his first road trip and he was a real trooper! He loved traveling in the van. He got to meet lots of our vendor friends as well as our customers. He loves the way Amy makes barking noises and barks back at her and he loves to play with John. He has several dog friends at the conventions as well. For now he will be staying home, but we will be on the road to the Manchester NH convention this coming weekend. Hope to see some of you there!

My Dad will be 90 years old on March 22nd! Can you imagine all of the changes he has seen in his life. He is still married to his high school sweetheart, Polly! Together they have 3 children, 8 grandchildren, 7 greatgrandchildren! This is a old black and white picture I found of him when he was serving in WWII. He was a true hero and still is a hero, role model, protector and friend to me. I am proud to have him for my father and very lucky to have him in my life for so many years! Happy Birthday Dad!

Denyse

It is such a roller coaster of emotions here lately. Mattie was admitted back into the hospital last night. It has been very hard on Laura as one day he is acting like a typical puppy and the next day he is very ill. I know a lot of you have been emailing us privately to wish us the best with him, and Laura appreciates all of your good thoughts.

Mattie is finally home from the hospital! He is sleeping a great deal, but he looks better. Poor thing has had a real fight for his life these first few weeks! Laura is very happy to have him home. She has to be with him for a while as he has to be monitored and has to be feed every 4 hours, but here are some photos she took of the little sweetie!

We have been very quiet this month as Laura's new puppy has been very ill and Laura has had to be home with it for a lot of the month. This week everything has gone badly. He was hospitalized earlier this week, and then went back to his vet. Last night he had to be hospitalized again and he was very ill. Mattie did make it through the night, but his condition this morning is very grave. We are hoping for a postivie outcome, but each day brings poor Mattie a new challenge. He is such a sweetie and has been fighting to get well.