Anyone here love the idea of going to the grocery store and spending your money on food that seems to be rising all the time? Well, with a new house and being counseled to be able to provide for yourself come economic hard times, Shannon and I wanted to plant a garden. For the preparation of the garden, see the below post of Shannon's. We also went to my mom and got 5 blueberry bushes. This was last Saturday so we have had plenty of time to kill them if we turn out to have a black thumb. After constant vigilance of watering them blue berry bushes and the garden, we are beginning to see the fruits of our (mostly Shannon's) labor. First picture is a redbud tree my mom gave us. The rest are blueberry and garden pictures.

Things you remembered as a child

When I got home today and we were about to eat, I asked Jed if he could go tell Alyson it's time to eat. He proceeded to stand there and yell at the top of his lungs, "ALYSON, IT'S TIME TO EAT!" In my mind I am hearing my mom say the same words that I said to him. "If I wanted to yell I could do that, go upstairs and tell your sister it's time to eat." Then I recalled my brilliant response so long ago when I was probably approaching my teenage years - "Then why didn't you?" Oh the joys of being a parent and remembering what your parents told you and you did the exact same things your kids are doing.

One of those days...

So, has anyone else had one of those "Okay, I don't know that this one will MAKE it to puberty..." moments? Okay, so this week I've been working on my garden. I dug it, I put the walls together, I hauled the dirt and filled it in. Woo Hoo. In the course of all of this, I pulled a muscle in my neck and back. It's bad enough that I went to the doctor this morning. Not so good when he feels your neck and says Ow. Anyway, so that's where we start. I went to my parents to take the truck back, thinking "No sweat, I'll rinse it out and we'll be good." Well, it rained yesterday. So the remaining dirt basically turned into black cement like sludge in the bed of the truck. I had to dig it all out, then sweep what I could out, then I took it down to rinse it. Again, sludge. Well, the last step is the only one I had to do in the driveway, and the driveway was all black, (just the bottom. I did it so that I would get as little as possible dirty) and at the end, I'm thinking... okay, this water is working so good. The landscape guy had been using a leaf blower before for this kind of job, mom and dad have one, bingo! So, the "shed" has things packed very tightly against the walls. You have to be very careful to get things up and down. I got it down (It's on pegs above my head.) and then I call to see how to turn it on, and they say not to worry about it. (that's another story I won't go into right now. :-) So, I go back in. Well, in order to get around the other stuff to the pegs, you have to kinda do what looks like a pirouette move. So picture me, stiff arms, neck and back, holding up this huge leaf blower over my head, in the pirouette move, and trying to get it back on. Enter Jed, scream in that "my-sisters-hair-is-on-fire-and-the-world-is-ending type scream. "Mommy Mommy!!!!" Of course, I'm thinking something must be wrong, so I freeze in that pirouette stance, blower in mid air, "what's the matter, honey? what's wrong??!!?!?!" He stops, and says "Can I have some candy?" And that's when the moment happened. I think if I weren't hurting so bad, that leaf blower might have left my hands. Good thing. ;-)
Anyway, I hope it gave you a chuckle.

The escuela

For all my Spanish speaking amigos...

I had my advisement today and it turns out I need 7 more classes to graduate. I am taking four classes in the fall and three in the spring. My senior seminar will be in the Spring. I am excited beyond all words and just wanted to let the 3, er, 5 people that read this blog know. Cheers!

Alyson's Two!

Well, it's official! Alyson is two years old. We had presents, and cake and ice cream. I made a Princess Blanket for her, and she got her first barbies. It was a very fun evening. And we got to spend the day together doing fun things at home, which was nice. Here are a few pics.

Okay, so this is our new house! They are in the middle of putting up our fence now. When we finish getting the rooms inside put together, I'll add more of those. Enjoy!

30 days in...

I'm amazed... More than 3! So, we've been here for a whole month now, with no more big disasters (knocking on wood now) and we're getting ready to have our meeting with them to give them our list of things that need to be fixed. Yay! We're doing pretty well. Alyson is going to be turning 2 on Saturday, and we're going to just have a nice dinner, cake and icecream here at home. I'm making her a blanket for her new big girl bed (we took apart the bunk beds and put one in each of their rooms.) She loves Jed's and tried to "borrow" it regularly, so I'm making her one of her own. It has pink, purple, yellow, polkadot, and arguyle squares, and a panel in the middle with Belle (who is her current favorite princess), Aurora, and Cinderella. (I just finished the front. I'm planning to get the back pieced together today.) The back has blue polka dot, blue princess print with Cinderella, aurora, belle, snow white, and jasmine, and then I have leftover of the other fabrics from the front to put throughout. Anyway, I'll post pictures of that and the house when I'm done. I'm so excited! I think I'll have some material left over, and I might make some little blankets with it. Haven't totally decided that one, but I'm thinking about it. Anyway, I hope that ya'll have a great day!
Shannon