Developments

Last week, Claire had her three year old check-up. A little late, but it snowed the day we were supposed to go. The ONLY day it snowed. Anyway, it was a really good doctor's visit. The doctor said she was really healthy. She talked to her a lot about different things and really evaluated her. Her weight is 34 pounds (75%) and her height is 38 3/4" (80%). So I guess she eats enough, even though it seems like she doesn't eat anything most days. She knows her shapes really well but doesn't recognize letters yet. She also got three shots. Poor kid. They really hurt her legs. She limped for the next few days. We've got her signed up for tee-ball this spring. It's only 6 weeks with one or two games depending on weather. But I think she is excited for it. Definitely signing her up for soccer in the fall. Also this week, she has discovered music. It started with her humming a tune- repeatedly, for about an hour. It was the theme song to one of her shows. Then later she started singing a song but changed the words. I was so proud. It had the right tune, but different words. I wish I remembered what it was she was singing about. Since then, she's been singing and humming and writing little ditties quite a bit. It's been a musical few days.

Alex this week has learned how to say "no". He's been able to indicate no for a long time. Usually it's a nnnnn sound and sometimes he shakes his head. But he has just learned how to say the actual word. Unfortunately, it's really hard to take him seriously because he says it in such a cute way. He has a little lilt to it and usually sounds like he is teasing more than he means actual no. It's a momentous day, since no was Claire's first word, it was really strange for me to go so long without hearing it from him. This morning he also lined up all of his cars and then told me what sound each one made. Usually it was a fire truck sound. He does a really good fire truck sound.

As for me, I've finally felt well enough to get back to running/walking. I can only run for about 2 minutes before I'm way out of breath, but that's ok. I know I will get better again once the baby is born. I've started taking Tanner with me because Alann commented that he is REALLY fat. He is so out of shape that the first day I took him, he couldn't keep up with me. I thought he was going to just lay down and wait for me at one point. But he's been a trooper and has gotten better about it in the few days I've taken him out. He's really excited when we first go out and then slows down as we go. We did almost two miles this morning. We walked a lot though. I was hurting from gardening yesterday so it wasn't one of my better runs. Now I'm wondering if I should alternate taking Nicki. Tanner is nice because I can let him off leash and I don't have to worry about it. Nicki isn't so well behaved. Plus she has an annoying tendency to go the wrong way around poles and trees, which there are a lot of on the way. So I don't know. Maybe I will walk one day and run the next. We'll see.

I had another doctor's appointment this week. The doctor commented that I gained a lot of weight this last month. I'm not too worried though. I've hit 200 with both the kids, so I figure that's my number. (I'm not there yet.) Otherwise, she measured my uterus at 27, and I'm only at 25 weeks, but she didn't really mention it. I just noticed the discrepancy. (Usually the measurement equals the week number.)  I have another ultrasound scheduled for next month and the glucose test. The doctor wanted more heart pictures, so that's why we are doing another ultrasound. And even though I did the glucose test early on for symptoms, I get to do it again just in case.
I had a really good day earlier this week. I got a lot of projects done, a lot of work done. I made my own tinted moisturizer which I am really liking and was a lot less expensive than buying tinted moisturizer. It's really easy. You basically mix equal parts foundation and moisturizer. Or less foundation. I think mine is closer to a 60-40 mix. I had a little jar left from a face lotion so I just mixed it in there. I love that I can look put together without trying hard, and it lasts all day. I wish I could remember what else I did that day, but I just ended up feeling like a genius when I went to bed. I haven't had a good day like that in a long time.

I've gotten my office cleaned up pretty well. It's nowhere near done, but it's done enough to be encouraging. I've also started working on my garden. I planted some starts for tomatoes and peppers last week. Friday, I hand-dug my tiny garden plot from last fall and planted some kale, radishes, green onions and peas. And strawberry plants. After my failed attempt at strawberry plants (where there were no plants in the package), I was at a better walmart and they had actual plants in a pot with green leaves. So I bought 6 pots. After we planted them, it ended up being 9 plants. Some had two in them. Okay, I specifically looked for the pots with two. I'm a savvy shopper, what can I say? I am way excited and hope they actually grow and produce. The label said they should produce 60 days after transplant. And today (Saturday), Alann decided to till my 'garden for me. We enlarged it quite a bit. I've got 2 more 3'x4' and 2 3'x6' plots now. I'm way excited. I always thought that gardening, like puppies and kitties, was just a way to put off the desire to have kids. But now I know that I really just enjoy it. Come spring, I just get antsy to get something green going. I love to look through and pick new things to try to grow. This year I am trying leeks. It was a lot of hard work, mostly on Alann's part, but it looks good. I'm so proud. I can't wait until Monday until I can plant some cool-weather things. Maybe some lettuce, definitely need to get beets and turnips and carrots going. And I won't have any trouble keeping it watered, as long as I remember to let the kids do it. They LOVE to water. I'm surprised they didn't drown our poor strawberry plants.

This and that

I spent a much needed hour and a half in my garden this morning. It's been sorely neglected of late. The tomatoes hadn't been staked and were about 2 feet tall (when stretched. Since they weren't staked, they were sprawling on the ground). The broccoli needed to be pulled out, the basil was about to bolt, the chard was dead, the lettuce has been eaten alive by snails. It was a sad state. So I got my hands dirty and cleaned the place up. I set up the tomato trellis. I cleaned out the dead and dying stuff. I harvested the carrots. I actually have normal size carrots this year! I am so excited. My carrots have failed the last 4 years. But look:


Aren't they awesome. Of course, I also need to admit something. I hate to thin plants. I feel like I can't tell who will make the best plant, so who am I to say who lives and dies. Well, this is what happens when you don't thin your carrots:

Yes, they grew all around each other and most of them are the saddest looking bunch of carrots I have ever seen. Tasty, but ugly. So take this as a word of warning: thin your plants! They will grow better that way.

In other news, we have some auspicious omens of things to come with Claire:

She has started doing push ups and standing on her toes. I think I heard someone call it bear walking or something like that. Her little butt is in the air and she is standing on hands and feet. She didn't go anywhere, but she tries.


She is also getting really good at holding the bottle on her own. She can hold the plastic and the glass ones up. She usually gets so excited that she ends up pulling the bottle as close to her as possible, which makes it difficult to eat, but she is trying.


Look at her little pigtail!! She has this one little curl. Usually when it is more humid, but I wonder if it will turn into anything.

See how it sticks out, ain't it cute?

"Hey Mama, what are you doing? Quit taking pictures of the back of my head!"

She also kind of sounds like she says mama when she is really upset. It's probably mostly my imagination, but it is still cute. She sits up on her own really well now too.

The rain

The rain has been especially kind to my garden. Thanks to the cool weather and the rain, I had a lot of harvesting to do today. I gathered 4 heads of broccoli, the earliest harvest yet I believe. It slows down when it gets warm. I also gathered about 15 pea pods. I always forget how much I like peas, until I eat them fresh in the garden. Then I am sad that I didn't plant more. I also thinned my carrots, so I have some real baby carrots to eat. They are tasty. I pulled the last of my radishes as well. I wish I could plant more, but it will probably be too hot for them. And then, I stood in an ant nest. Ugh. I hate ants. They attack our house every year. The only bugs I hate more are earwigs. I found one in my mail the other day. (shudder) Gross. I squished it. Luckily, I didn't want that Geico ad anyway. So I now have some lovely ant bites on my feet and hands. I hate ants because I am allergic to them. It's like MO mosquitoes, the bites swell up and get all gross. The rain has also been kind to the pests. I turned my composter today and found a colony of about 10 snails living on it. (that's where the ant nest was.) Yesterday, I took that lonely tomato plant to a neighbor, and on the way found both a baby snail and a baby slug on it. Ugh. So I spread some bait for them. I forget how, but somehow snails and earwigs are related. One of them feeds on the other one, so when I control one, I control the other. Also, there are some strange orange-yellow eggs near my pea plants. Research indicates they could be cabbage butterflies or potato beetles. Either way, I don't want them. I need to go back out and squish. I didn't want to squish right away in case it was something helpful. But I'm pretty sure it isn't.

Cleaning breakthrough?

One of the reasons that I have such a hard time keeping the house clean is that I am a spreader. I take one thing from one room to another room, then don't put it back where it belongs. I try valiently to overcome this tendency, but it is very hard. I read a long time ago a "quick clean" method, and I tried it yesterday. Basically, you make two circuits of your house. It doesn't matter where you start, though always find it easier to start cleaning in the least messy room and work my way to the worst room. Make sure you take an empty basket or box with you. In the first room, pick up and straighten and organize, and everything you find that doesn't belong in that room, toss in the basket. Go to the next room, do the same. If you know there is something in the basket that belongs in the second room, then fish it out. Proceed thusly throughout your house. When you get to the last room, you will have a basket full of odds and ends. Now, do another circuit through the house, depositing those odds and ends where they belong. Voila, magically clean house. Ok, not really clean because you didn't vacuum or dust, but definitely tidy. If you have a particular person or room that seems to errupt more items than others, take a box just for that person or room (for example, one basket for the kids stuff and one for everything else). I did this yesterday and I tidied my whole house in an hour and a half. And Claire wasn't even sleeping! Today, I clean the floors, tomorrow the surfaces. Thursday I start over with the pickup. Of course, you could do this every day too. This is my current plan for keeping the house more orderly. Let's see how well it works.

In other news, it's been raining an awful lot here lately. It's been great. I haven't had to water my garden much at all. Everytime I think it needs it, it rains again. And good long soakers, not sprinkles.

Our trip

Our trip to Phoenix over Memorial Day weekend was great. It wasn't as relaxing for Alann as we had hoped, since he got thrown back into class, but it was fun anyway. Above is Jersey, helping Alann pack. The flight out was great. It was pretty empty, so Claire got a free seat. We strapped in her car seat and she was content to sit there while we took off. She was actually laughing while we took off. It was great. After we were in the air, we took her out of the seat and played with her. She ate a little bit (that was the only time she really cried. She was hungry and impatient) and then she went back in the seat for the landing. She was a little upset during landing, but we managed to fight off a full-scale screaming fit. We met my mom and went to the house. I started the vacation off right by making potato salad as soon as we got Claire settled in the house. My sister came home, and then we went to Sunflower Market. I had seen a Sunflower Market here in Utah, but hadn't gone to it. I wasn't too sure what it was about. But it was pretty good. I'm signed up to receive the weekly ads now, so when they have good sales, we can go out there. They also have a GREAT bulk bin section, so next time we have a car trip, I know where to get Alann's granola (not to mention things like nuts at a great price anyway). The one here is located across the street from Fashion Place, if you are interested. Saturday (the day we arrived) we had some BBQ pork and potato salad for dinner. My and my big sister Teene made bread. I taught her how to do it. That was a lot of fun. I remember when she taught me how to make mac and cheese. Now I get to teach her something. I have a lot of fun cooking with my sisters. We teach each other a lot of things. And it is fun to see how much they have changed, eating wise. When I moved to college, my little sister ate mostly frozen pizza and corn dogs. Now she eats more "real" food. =) And Teene has started cooking a lot more, so I learn things from her too. Like sweet potato fries. She made those from a fresh sweet potato on Sunday. I had never thought to do it, but I really like sweet potatoes. They are my new favorite. So after we got home, I made a batch for dinner too. Score one for new easy side dish! Anyway, back to the story. Sunday, we went to church with the Woodses. (I never know how to pluralize that name.) I love visiting with them. I met James's wife for the second time and his baby. Weird to think he has one of those... We stayed for sacrament, but their schedule is "backwards" (ok, ours is the backwards one, but it is what we are used to for now) so Claire was unhappy and tired. We went home and she slept for two hours, then we went back to the Woodses to visit for a while. After that, we went home and had some really yummy steak for dinner. And we went swimming. I bought Claire this really cute swimsuit with a built in swim diaper. She was unsure about swimming.

But she warmed up to it after a while. She only hung out in the pool for a few minutes, then she went inside with Daddy.


Here she is playing with her aunties. On Monday we went to Wickenburg to visit with my grandmother. That was a lot of fun.


Here is Claire with her great-grandmother. This is the last one I really have. My mom's biological mother is still alive, but I've never met her, I just send her cards every now and then. My dad's parents are both gone, and my grandpa passed away a year ago. My sister has some pics with the four generations together, but I don't have any on my camera. Teene- send them my way or post em on facebook so I can steal???


Here is another cute one of her playing on the floor at Grandma's. When we got back to my mom's house, we went swimming again! It was fun. My big sister and I had a blast playing with the pool noodles and just acting silly. She is still a show off! She used to do hand stands all the time at the pool at my grandparent's place, and we could never do them. I had to laugh when she started doing them again this weekend. I also almost gave myself a black eye when a pool noodle shot out from underneath me and whacked me good. But it never turned into anything. I miss swimming whenever I want, but at the same time, I don't miss the pool maintenance. I should just go to the gym when I feel like swimming, but then I have to figure out what to do with Claire. (I keep writing Claite. Stupid T. Getting in my way.)
We came home on Tuesday after having lunch with Teene.

Here they are. Baby thinks Rubio's is stupid. I think it was tasty. The flight home was less fun than the flight out. It was packed. It didn't help that they canceled a flight to Salt Lake before ours was due to leave, so they rebooked people onto our flight. Then it was delayed FOREVER (okay, only an hour). All in all, probably the worst flight experience I've had in a while. But Claire was a trooper. She even endured a diaper change in the airplane potty with Daddy. Apparently, it was really hot in there. She really needed it though. Otherwise, I would have waited. It's NOT a long flight. But oh well. All in all, she was really good the whole time we were gone, but she was definitely worn out and ready to be back home, back on her regular schedule.
Oh, and that thing she was working on before we left? It was blowing raspberries. She got REALLY good during the trip, as all of my family can attest. Amy blew on her tummy for about 10 minutes, and each time she did, Claire would blow back. It was hilarious. Since we got back, we've been busy. I planted the rest of my garden. Here are the highlights.

This is the cherry tomato plant. I separated it from the others this year, since it always seems to take over everything. We will see how well this works.


Here we have (from back left, to right, then forward) carrots (far left pot), swiss chard, kale, lettuce, and radishes. The broccoli is peeking in the front of the picture. It is getting big already. There are also onions in the box with the broccoli. Let's hope we get some this year. I think I have it figured out.

And here is my "hot" box. It's all my hot loving plants. We have (back to front, left to right) three globe tomato plants (a globe tomato is basically what you buy in the store), 2 flowers from Mother's Day (I don't remember what they are. Debbie??), 7 bell peppers- 2 yellow, 2 purple, and 3 green, and 1 ancho chili plant (the lil guy in the corner). Apparently, there was a run on jalapenos. I went to two different nurseries and couldn't find any. (A word to Salt Lake people- go to Martin's nursery for bell pepper plants. These things are huge, some have peppers on them already, and they were only $1.25! The ones at Western Garden are $2 and not nearly as big.) I also have one leftover tomato plant I don't know what to do with. No more pots, no space in the box. Anyone want it?
In addition to this, I've got peas and cucumbers in the in-ground plot.


Here is Nicki in her cone. She smacks that thing into EVERYTHING. I think she does it on purpose, trying to break it. But, her eye is looking MUCH better. We have a vet appt tomorrow (will he charge for a followup? I hope not.) and then she can stop wearing the cone. Which makes me wonder- would it have gotten as better as quickly without the cone and eye drops? Did I drop $80 when it was getting better anyway? I hate those thoughts.


This is what Alann did most of the vacation. Poor guy.

I was going to post a video of Claire, but it is taking WAY too long to upload. Maybe later. Anyway, it was a fun trip. My mom is thinking of flying us back out for Labor Day (or they will come to visit us) so we might go down again. Alann doesn't know if he will be able to go, since he has school, but that is the price we pay for getting his masters done soon.

Garden!!!

I just had the very first "harvest" out of my garden: a radish. It was about the size of a peanut M&M, but very very tasty. When I saw it peeping out of the soil, I couldn't help it. I didn't even bother bringing it in. I washed it off in the hose, and ate it straight from the green. I love radishes. I grow them for the pure joy of (almost) instant gratification. They grow in about 21 days. They make me feel accomplished, and they make me more excited for the rest of the garden. And, I think they are tasty.

Evil ensues

Ok, so we all know my cat is evil. Basically, the worst part is, she is extremely selfish. Everything belongs to her, in her mind anyway. I can't tell you how many places I've found her, and how many times, after chastising, that I continue to find her there. Most of the time, it isn't a big deal. So she sits on top of the TV and in the sink in the bathroom and on any piece of furniture. Here are some more amusing examples:

This random stack of boxes is hers.

And the changing table, the instant we moved it into the baby's room, became hers. She still climbs on it.

The crib is definitely hers. She takes a good portion of her naps in there.

And Claire's dollhouse is actually a kitty house. She is quite thankful for it. (This is the dollhouse my grandfather built for us girls when we were young. My mom and sisters cleaned it up and brought it up for Claire. It will be a few years, but I am sure she will love it.)

Not even the car seat is safe from Queen Jersey.

But all of this selfishness gets really annoying when she decides that my garden transplants are hers. I bought some swiss chard and broccoli transplants for the garden. She has almost completely eaten the chard, no matter what I do to keep her away. This is quite frustrating because I have wanted to start seeds for the tomatoes and peppers, but with her around, she would eat them. But then, I had a genius idea. A bird cage! No, not for the cat. If I put the seedlings in the bird cage, then she can't get to them, but they can get the light they need. Now I just need to find a cage and plant the seeds. Anyone have a spare bird cage?

weekend

It was a somewhat crazy weekend. I went bowling with my company for Halloween, then went grocery shopping right after, then made dinner. My feet HURT after all that. But I bowled 136 and 140-something- pretty decent. Better than usual. We won't go back to that bowling alley again I don't think. They tried to charge us for 6 extra people, even after we explained what happened. They had set aside 5 lanes for us. We used 4, than about an hour in, we set up the 5th for others to rotate into if they wanted. The cashier came out and wanted us to pay for another 6 people because we had put that many names in. He never told us he wanted the lane. If we hadn't used it, it probably would have sat for the rest of the time we were there with no one using it. If he had told us not to use it, we wouldn't have. It was frustrating. We ended up paying for the extra games, not the shoes or pizza that were included in the original charge. I guess it was fair, but he could have saved us a lot of trouble if he had explained it the first time.

Saturday I did some errands, while Alann worked on the bathroom. I ran all over lots of places and spent lots of money. It wasn't as much fun as it sounds. Pets are expensive. Sheesh. I spent almost $100 on dog food, cat food, litter, toys, treats. The toys and treats were for the cat. She chews on EVERYTHING! So I tried to find some cat chew toys. They are not as interesting as the toaster, or boxes, or books, or anything else in the house. Tanner really likes the little rubber mouse. He carries that around. The cat won't have anything to do with it. This is why she doesn't have any toys. She prefers household items like straws. If you have a straw in your drink, she will stalk it until she sees an opportunity to take it. Then she bats it around, chews on it, and eventually loses it under a piece of furniture. She also likes twist ties. I am worried she will eat those, so I don't give them to her willingly. After I got back from my errands, I really don't remember what I did all day. I think I made bread. I babysat in the evening for Dav and Weston. That's always fun. The boys were good, but I am definitely a little more excited (ok, that isn't the right word, but the general connotation is the same) to make cloth diapers work after changing Dav's poopy diaper. I haven't changed many diapers, but I have never witnessed the diaper gel clinging to a bum before. That's one of the reasons I want to use cloth. I don't know that I trust all those chemicals on my baby's parts.

Alann got the bathroom 99% completed. It is painted a lovely shade and all we need to do is caulk the tub, put in the baseboard, and put the vent back up. Oh, and get the stupid sink to stop leaking. It's getting annoying now. He has pulled it out two or three times and redone it and it is still leaking. Ugh.

Sunday, I got a new calling. I haven't been released from my stake YW calling. This is in addition. Yay for multiple callings. I will be teaching Relief Society the second Sunday of the month. This is a little frightening, because in the 2 years we have been here, my patriarchal blessing has been fulfilled in part. It said I would be blessed to teach the young, the middle aged, and those who are old. I have taught primary, young women, and now Relief Society. Am I going to die? (No, not until Claire is born at least. Actually my blessing says we will welcome sonS and daughterS into our lives, so I'm not worried yet.) My next door neighbor is our RS President, and she said that the minute she knew she needed a new teacher, she had no doubt that she wanted me. I'm looking forward to it, I think. She isn't making me teach this week, so my first lesson will be in December. I want to do something different than stand in front of the class and read the lesson, because that is what the other teachers do. It bores me. I guess I will just have to look at the lesson and see what comes up.

That's about our weekend in a nutshell. Oh I almost forgot. I rescued a doggie on Saturday. I was driving on 47th and came to the intersection for Bangerter and saw a dog on the sidewalk, alone. Bangerter is a big busy highway with stop lights in case you don't know. As I passed, he walked into the crosswalk, then he started going into the intersection itself. I started crying (stupid hormones) and parked in the church parking lot on the corner. I ran into the middle of Bangerter, where the left turning traffic was honking at the dog, who just stood there. As I picked him up, he barked and yipped at me, so I just held him away from anything vital and ran back to the car. He was quite happy to ride in the car. He didn't have a collar. So I took him home and freaked Alann out. I told him the dog was out front, and he said "no, the dogs are out back." Then he came to the door and I told him the story. He was relieved. He thought in my vulnerable state I had adopted a puppy. We called the pound and I cleared out the garden while we waited for them to come get the dog. He was nice enough. Our dogs played with him a little. He was older, and needed a bath and his teeth brushed. He kept wanting to come in the house. I draw the line at strange animals in the house though. The pound finally came and got him. He wasn't chipped. Hopefully his owner finds him or he will get adopted elsewhere. The animal control officers seemed hopeful. Though I doubt they would say "oh this dog isn't going anywhere".

As for the garden, it is done. Kaput. I pulled everything. We got 10 more red tomatoes, about 5 or so blushing ones (which are ripening), and 20 greens. Anyone have any suggestions for green tomatoes? I am hoping they might turn, but I don't know. I might just can some stewed tomatoes out of the red ones and say "thank you tomato plant for your bounty" and toss the greens. Next year, I am separating the cherry tomato plant from the other plants. It totally took over!

Oh no, I believe you.

I completely believe you doggie. We had a lovely early morning wake up today. The dogs went out at about 4:30, and just as they were coming in the door, Devil cat bolted. She had been all lovey and needy up until that point. Then, gone. I tried to catch her, but I'm not so spry these days. And she runs fast when she wants to. So I told Alann, and he went outside to try to get her. I tried to pretend I didn't care and laid back down, but I didn't really want her to be gone. So then Alann came back in and we went out back. She always goes from the front yard to the back yard for some reason. We managed to herd her/ catch her and bring her in. Of course after running around like that, we were both awake. Alann watched Clifford the big red dog on TV and I just kind of snoozed on the couch. So yeah, I believe you doggie. Don't worry.

In other news, I uncovered my tomatoes because it is supposed to be 70 today! Yay! I found 9 large, mostly ripe ones, most of which had fallen on the ground. I want to go out there again tonight and pick the rest. I don't know quite what to do with them. I can make spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, pizza sauce. They are so beautiful, I could just...well no, I couldn't eat them. Not raw. Ick. But they are so pretty. They make me want to like them. The peppers didn't fare so well. Most of the little ones have frostbite and the plants are thirsty. I gave them some water this morning, so maybe they will perk back up for the "unseasonably hot" weather we are supposed to be having. I hate how the media always makes everything seem awful. From the weather to the stock market, all you hear is "really really hot this weekend" (in the 70s this weekend) to "the market is plummeting!" (said in the big deep DOOM IS COMING voice). Maybe if you media type folk would put a positive spin on things, or at least use less sensational adjectives, the world wouldn't be so negative all the time. Sheesh. Why can't we enjoy the 70s without being made to feel like it is wrong? I know I will be enjoying it. Yes, the stock market has dropped, a lot. Yes, a lot of people have lost lots of money in their retirement funds. Me too, and I didn't have much to start with. But maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't have panicked if the media hadn't used such strong words. I listen to news radio in the morning and on the way home, and on the "bad market" days, that was all they talked about, every 5 minutes it seemed they were doing an update. "The market is now down 50 points!" "The market is now down 500 points!!!" "The market has plummeted by 7 million points!!?!?!?!?!?%K#@$@%^" Ok, I made that last one up, but that is the way they sounded. People need to be informed, but not panicked. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Otherwise, things are going good.

Some garden fun

My tomato Tent- after I took this picture, I fixed the front corner where it is blowing around.

Wow, look at the size of that pumpkin I grew!

Um ok, it isn't that big after all. But very pumpkin-like!

Like the wound on my hand? I got in a fight with the filing cabinet.

I also grew some popcorn this year. It was a fun experiment. The kernals are really small, so the popped corn is smallish, but it tastes good.

One of my tomatoes. Nice and big and plump.


So there you have it folks. I know you like to be kept up to date on all the wonderful things going on in my garden. It keeps me entertained anyway.

So much to talk about, so little time

I've been on a roll with new recipes lately. I've made two things that Alann "doesn't like" that he has asked me to keep the recipe for. Yay expanding our horizons! The first was a stuffed acorn squash. I think I mentioned it before. The second was a Sweet potato side dish that had bacon and onions and breadcrumbs. The sweet potatoes were boiled until mostly cooked, then breaded with flour and fried. The flour gave it a weird texture, next time I will just toss them in with the bacon etc and let them fry that way. But it was still very tasty, and right now, they are in season, so it is worth looking into. I couldn't resist the little pie pumpkins the other day. We will be having roasted pumpkin and shallot and some pumpkin chicken chowder in the coming weeks. I'm working on getting a menu list going, so that we can remember what we like, and choose a larger variety of meals. We get kind of stuck on the same things over and over. Plus by the time the new season rolls around, I have forgotten what it was we ate last year that I wanted to do again.

We had a very productive weekend. I returned the belt that I bought for my car two months ago that still hasn't been installed, and the guy at Checker told me that it wouldn't fit anyway because the other store sold me the wrong part. Whatever. I finally broke down and ordered the belt from the dealer, which cost more than twice as much, but at least it will fit. So guess what Mark will be doing for us as payment for room and board during the deer hunt? (JK, we don't charge. He does it out of the goodness of his heart.) I needed a new rear windshield wiper blade anyway, and couldn't find them in the auto stores, so got that as well. Yay for spending $100 on car parts. At least we have the money saved, so it doesn't kill us financially. (I get reimbursed for miles at work, and 99% of the time, it goes to my "car maintenance fund" for car maintenance and registration and the like. Aren't I a genius? Before I thought of that, I was just using the money for whatever, which wasn't helpful when I needed to register my car last year.) And now Alann has a credit at AutoZone for next time he needs to change his oil. I lost the receipt for one of the three belts I have purchased for this stupid car, but they gave me store credit for it, so it worked out.

We also got supplies for Christmas cards, at the world's busiest Joann store EVER! The line was ridiculously long, but they had 10 cashiers, so it wasn't too bad actually. They were having a pattern sale. I really wanted to get a skirt pattern, but I had Alann with me, and he is patient about going to the craft store, but not THAT patient. There is only so much to keep him occupied there. But I did get a fabric remnant for an upcoming baby-related project that I will not bore the few men-folk with. Suffice it to say, we will not need to buy disposable nursing pads. I love my sewing machine. I finally finished recreating a pair of pajama pants I received um, August 2007. Our neighbor made them for me, and they are really cute. Pink pajamas penguins on the bottom (yes, it's a camp thing. don't ask.) Anyway, the crotch was down to my knees, the waist was WAY too small (flattering, but small) and Alann could have worn them they were so long. So I decided to hem them up, then take out the elastic and make it a drawstring pant instead. Obviously in retrospect, I should have done this in the opposite order. I cut off the bottom 6 inches of pants, hemmed it, then ripped out the waist and cut off about 2 inches to make a drawstring and then realized that um, when you adjust the rise (waist to crotch) of pants, you also adjust their length. I'm not a seamstress. I have no formal training. I can sew, and sometimes do it well, but I make it up as I go along. I'm getting better, but I learn the hard way, a lot. Someday, I want to take a clothing construction class, but for now, I make it up. I got stuck when I tried to make a button hole for the drawstring to exit from. My machine says it does it, but I couldn't make it work and got frustrated. Thus, they languished for 10 months. So the other day, I got motivated and finished them. I said "screw the button hole. I'll just sew a zig-zag box" and that worked. Then I sewed a new waistband, sewed the cut-off portion of pant legs back on (always save your scraps!), and they were magically the right length. Now it just looks like I have a special design on the bottom from the cut and sew. I have one more minor adjustment I want to make. The drawstring is a little short, and as my belly gets bigger, will probably get shorter. Plus I hate having to untie them to take them off, so I tied them loose, which means I have to adjust them every time I get out of bed. So I want to pull out the drawstring, cut it in half, and sew in about 6 inches of the original waistband elastic, so that it will be longer, and elasticy, so I can tie them tight enough to stay on my hips, and still be able to get them off. Plus they are so warm! I looked at them, and they look so easy. I am now tempted to go get some cute flannel fabric and make myself some pjs. I think the Christmas flannels are on sale......Guess what ya'll are getting for Christmas!

Um, so back to the weekend. We also traded out our DTV box for one with an analog pass-through, since the DTV stations suck most of the time. We visited with Alann's Aunt Julie and Uncle Laird. They are the ones I lived with, and they live nearby, and Julie had surgery, so we went to see them. That was fun. We need to visit more often, but it seems like there is always something else, huh?

Alann bought me a rice cooker and a waffle maker for my birthday. I scored on kitchen things this year. My sis bought me one of those crock pots with the three different inserts. It's awesome. Yes, I already had two crock pots, but I wanted a smaller one. The small ones are hard to find, but this works because it has a 2 qt, a 4 qt, and a 6 qt. Anyway, Saturday morning we had waffles for breakfast! I love Alton Brown (from Food Network, Good Eats). His waffle recipe is already half whole wheat flour! How awesome is that? (I usually try to find whole wheat or half whole wheat recipes, because it is better for us, and I don't like to buy a lot of AP flour. I grind my own whole wheat.) Alann doesn't like leftover pancakes, so I assumed the leftover waffles would be safe as well. I was wrong. I didn't get a single wedge. =( Oh well. I'll just have to start doubling the recipe.

I think that is about the excitement of our weekend. We went to Macaroni Grill on Friday night, and there was a hair in my chicken Parmesan, so we got my meal and dessert for free. That was not really exciting, but since I wasn't really digging the food anyway, it made it better. It seemed to be an off-night for them. I usually like their food, but it wasn't that great. Alann really liked his. Maybe I just picked the wrong dish. I don't like ordering something at a restaurant that I could make at home. It makes me feel like I should have stayed home and made it. So something like spaghetti and meatballs, I don't usually order in an Italian restaurant, since I can and do on occasion make it at home. And they have taken the sausage peppers rustica dish off the menu, which is one of my faves. Oh well. It was still a decent night.

The cat has been driving us crazy lately. She has been climbing under the bed and scratching at the boxspring in the middle of the night, so we have been locking her out of the bedroom. Unfortunately, then we have to decide what to do with the dogs. They usually roam back and forth. So last night, they went to bed with us (Tanner refused to get off the bed at first, bum.) and then at about 2 we all went potty. The dogs were thirsty, so I didn't wait and left them in the rest of the house with the cat. I haven't slept that well in ages! I woke up when the alarm went off and not at some dog-determined time. I wasn't sleepy or tired. It was great. Can you guess where the mutts will be sleeping from now on, at least after the midnight potty break? The other morning, they had been shut out for a while, and when we got up all three animals were sleeping together on the couch. It was a kodak moment. Tanner was on one end, Nicki on the other, and the cat in the middle, snuggled in a blanket. I am toying with getting her a warming kitty bed to see if that is her problem, but she moves around so much. She never really sleeps in the same place for very long. Maybe she just doesn't have "her" place. I don't know.

It snowed this weekend for the first time this season. We got maybe an inch or less, mostly on the grass. It all burned off before noon. Actually it was gone before Alann got out of bed. Anyway, I bought a bag of spring clamps at Lowes for $10 to help keep the plastic covering on the tomatoes. Best $10 I ever spent on the garden. The clamps don't rip the plastic, and there was an assortment, so I could use the big ones and little ones. The plastic has never been so impermeable to the wind and cold. I'll post a pic tomorrow I think. It looks like a little tent in our garden. It's funny. Since then it has been frosting every morning, so I am hoping that the beets make it. They like cold. I think they will be fine, they just need to get a move on with the growth. It is going to warm up again, so I am hoping my little "greenhouse" on the tomatoes will allow them to ripen.

I guess I'll end now. I know it's long.

Yard

See, we did improve the condition of our yard.

Close up, plus cat

Oooo green

As a reminder, this is what it looked like when we tore it up.

Nice Long Post (for Alann)

So Alann says that my blog posts are too long and don’t have enough breaks. =P to that. But I’ll try to make them more user friendly.

This morning:
I had a rough time getting dressed this morning. I picked out what I wanted to wear. Then I decided I didn’t like the pants. So I picked another pair of pants. I still didn’t like it. So I picked out my new maternity jeans (yay!) and decided that those would work. I put on the shirt I had picked out and went to brush my teeth. As I brushed my teeth, I decided that there was WAY too much cleavage showing, so I would have to put on an undershirt. This isn’t a problem since Debbie so kindly bought me two spaghetti-strap camisoles. I went to put on the cami and the stupid strap broke! I stared at it, and realized it wasn’t a big deal, I could fix it. So I took it out to my sewing machine which happened to be set up and threaded (a miracle with devil cat around) and sewed the strap back on. Then I sewed the other strap, just in case it was thinking of the same thing. Then I went to put the shirt on, and I had sewed the stupid strap twisted! By this point, I had to leave, so I decided I must need to not wear this shirt today for some reason, so I picked a new one and managed to get myself out the door. But tonight, I will be fixing the strap once and for all, and probably will reinforce the other cami straps too just in case.

Claire
Claire is doing well, at least as far as I can tell. We are at 21 weeks and about halfway to my weight gain goal. I don’t feel her kicking and moving all the time yet, but I do feel her more often every day. (Though it still isn’t uncommon to go a day without hearing from her.) But the exciting part is, when I AM aware of her, you can feel her moving from outside too. It’s strange how different the two feels are. When I feel her squirming around inside, it’s almost like “oh it’s just another body part moving” or “I shouldn’t have eaten that taco” feeling. But when I put my hand on my belly and feel her move that way, it is so exciting. If I’m talking to Alann in person (so she can hear his voice), she usually starts kicking around, like she wants to say hi. Last night he put his hand on my belly and she gave him a good hard kick. It kind of startled him I think. I think feeling her move from outside is just another indication that this is real. We have our anatomy scan ultrasound this Friday. I am trying not to worry about it too much. This is the scan where they will be able to tell us if something is wrong, not that I have any reason to think there is, but I think I will be a little more relaxed afterwards. They did the triple screen blood test at my last appointment. That is the test where they can see if the baby has one of several fatal conditions that they may or may not be able to detect on ultrasound. That came back fine, so chances are everything is good. And I know that the Lord will not give us challenges we cannot overcome, so I am really trying hard not to worry. (I guess that is my job as mommy though.) I love my doctor because he always gives me a straight answer. He doesn’t try to influence me one way or another. He says “These are the facts. This is what I would suggest, but you need to make the decision.” Like when we talked about the blood test. He said that Utah is not a “wrongful life” state, which means that I can’t sue him if my baby is born with some condition that had it been found by a test, I would have aborted it. So he couldn’t and wouldn’t make me take the test. But he thought it was a good idea, and after I thought about it, I decided I would rather know ahead of time. Whether or not we would make that choice aside, I would rather know. And everything came back fine. Oh, and she has taken up residence on top of my bladder. I haven't had any problems yet with having to go to the bathroom a lot more, but suddenly this weekend, it started. Like every hour I have to go. It's seriously annoying. Get off my bladder child! There is still plenty of room in there for you!

Weekend stuff
This weekend was quite busy for me. I had a lot of things to do with the church.
Saturday, Alann went up to his scout camp, so I had the morning to myself. After wearing myself out by working on my rose boxes, which I intend to finish before it snows, I went to Kohl’s to return some maternity pants. Then I went to Target. I did our baby registry there, and then wandered the maternity section. I found the most awesome pair of jeans. They actually fit, they don’t fall down, they don’t bug my belly, and they were the right length! If only they had been on sale, but I was not terribly upset to pay full price, since I know that I will wear these quite a bit. I also found a few more shirts. All in all, it was a rather fulfilling morning and afternoon. Saturday evening I went to the Relief Society General Broadcast. I was glad I watched it. It was awesome.
Sunday I had to visit our new Samoan ward’s Young Women and give them a message. Then I sat through the YW class. It was...interesting. The girls are nice, they are just rowdy. I am not used to having so many girls in one age-group class. Our poor ward has two girls, sometimes three, that come regularly. So having 30 total, and 10 in a class, was awesome. Loud, but awesome. Then we had a meeting with the leaders of YW. Then I had to go to my own ward because a family that had moved away last year came back for their son’s mission farewell. I wanted to see them. Then after all that, I had a youth (teenager) fireside (talk) to go to. It was a pretty awesome presentation. The speaker was an internationally known speaker / psychologist who focuses mostly on addictions, especially pornography. He talked about how different brain chemicals work and how that affects our decisions. The focus was “protecting youth from inappropriate media” specifically pornography. He told us how President Hinckley fulfilled a prophecy by announcing that pornography is the “desolating scourge and disease” that will fill the whole world. And my, isn’t that right. It’s everywhere. Overall, I’m glad I went, even if I did go by myself because someone refused to go with me, and I had to sit by some really obnoxious boys who obviously didn’t want to be there.

Garden
The tomatoes got the message. The big ones have started ripening. I made bruschetta last night with one huge red tomato, and that was enough for both of us to have what we wanted. (It went with a salad, so we didn’t eat just bruschetta.) My love-hate relationship with tomatoes just gets stranger. The bruschetta I made was completely my own creation. I looked in all of our cookbooks, which is a lot, and couldn’t find a single recipe. So I threw some olive oil, salt, garlic, tomato, and dried basil together and called it good (though I am STILL tasting garlic, two teeth brushings and 15 hours later). I should have added a little balsamic vinegar. But it was pretty good, even though it was mostly tomato. I won’t eat them plain or as a topping, but make them into something and suddenly I love it. Weird.
I am hoping to make some canned salsa this evening or maybe next. Alann refuses to come home on time (something about a new job and needing to study. Yeah right.) so I have a lot of free time lately. And since Alann could eat his weight in salsa (seriously, we buy a huge jar of Pace almost every month), this is something that I intend to learn how to do well before the need arises (as in I have 12 bushels of ripe tomatoes and no idea how to make canned salsa). I should have enough tomatoes to make at least 3 pints, maybe more. I’ll have to go raid the pepper plants again, but there are still at least 10 bells and 5 hots out there in varying degrees of ripeness. Last night I picked one that had a really deep well in the bottom, and some spider had taken up residence (on the outside, not the inside). So I politely asked him to leave (with a sharp pointy stick) and then took my lovely bell pepper inside. I don’t mind the spiders one bit. They have quite a web system set up in the tomatoes. But you know, I haven’t had a single bug problem and I haven’t sprayed anything. I like this mostly organic gardening. I put out snail bait, because those buggers are nasty and mean and don’t care about anything, but other than that, the bugs handle themselves.
I had the most amazing idea for the perfect way to grow tomatoes. If we had a second story deck, I would build nice deep flower boxes up there and plant the tomatoes there. Then I would just let the vines hang over the side. No trellising, no tying, no pain. I hate having to get underneath the tomatoes’ skirts to find anything. If you just go in from the top or side, you miss most of them. So I think this might be a good way to grow them. Just walk over and pick. Of course it might be a while before I try this idea, since I don’t have a second story, or a deck, or any other means of planting the tomatoes up high, except maybe on the roof and the neighbors might think I have lost it at that point. Plus with the winds we get sometimes, that might not work out well. But it’s a thought.

I keep meaning to take a picture of our front yard, since I bored you all with pics from when we tore it up. Maybe once I open my birthday presents, if I get a camera, I will take the pictures. =)
The yard looks really nice though. I am impressed every time I see it, especially when I think about how it looked before.

The fruits of my labor

So apparently I can't count. I said in my other post that we got 16 jars of pear stuffs. I lied. It is obviously 12. We have 2 pints of pearsauce, 5 pints of pears, and 4 half-pints of pear butter.

Up close view of pears on the left and pear butter on the right.

ok, 9 peppers. Except then I found another one in the fridge after I took the picture,

which made 10.

A close up so you can see how big and pretty they are. That is my hand. And the picture is blurry. I never was good at taking pictures one handed.

Weekend warriors

My what a weekend we had. (The rest of my week is pretty typical. Go to work, go home, clean, ignore the dirty house, you know, normal things. It's the weekends that are more interesting.)

My coworker sent me home with about 10 pounds of super-ripe pears from her neighbor's pear tree (who didn't want them. She didn't steal them.), and another 10 pounds of just about perfect pears. So I decided I was going to make and can pear sauce and pear butter, because I like both apple versions and I like pears. What could be better? So Friday night, I chopped and seeded the pears. I didn't bother peeling them because pear skin has never bothered me, and these were really lightly skinned anyway. I make pear sauce first, and burned myself. Then I put half in the fridge and half in the crock pot to make the pear butter. It cooked all night by itself and was done in the morning.
Saturday morning I started working on my talk for Sunday, and then started peeling the perfect 10 pounds of pears. I decided to make these into canned pear slices (in juice. Aren't I healthy?). It took me about an hour to peel, quarter, and seed the stupid things. And we do not have an ergo-friendly peeler. My hand hurt so bad. Then I got ready to can the sauce, butter, and slices. But the water took too long to boil, and we had an appointment, so I set them aside and went to the appointment after everything was sealed in the hot clean jars. We went to the chiropractor and then spent almost two hours at the BabiesRUs, setting up our registry. It was fun, but my feet were so tired. We finally got home, and I put the canner on to boil again. It took about an hour to boil, and it was hot tap water to begin with. Sheesh. Note to self- in the canning kitchen in our grown up house, make sure there is an industrial strength/ size stove. Then I processed everything, and everything sealed! I was so shocked, this being the first time I canned by myself. I had one pear sauce jar that didn't look convinced about sealing, so I put it back in the water for another processing time, and that time it sealed. I know have 16 jars of pear related products (ok, 14, I gave 2 to my coworker who gave me the pears to begin with). It was fun and I was proud of myself.
While I was waiting for the water to boil, I went out to harvest and tend the garden. I picked 10 bell peppers. We are talking "did you buy those at the store?" quality bell peppers. And of course, another 30 cherry tomatoes. I have about 20 nice fat green tomatoes, and I just want them to ripen! A friend told me to start cutting back on the water, and that will make them ripen, so that's what I am doing. Starting tomorrow, because it is raining today. (Stupid me, I just realized we could have had stuffed peppers for dinner. Duh. Oh well, there are still more on the plants. We will have to have that next week sometime. Alann cut and froze all of the bell peppers for me last night while I was making dinner. We won't have to buy peppers at the store for quite a while.)
Then Saturday night I had a youth dance to chaperone / host. My feet already hurt so bad, but I went and did my part. I sat most of the time, with my feet up, but they were still swollen when I went home. But I did score some yummy brownies. I cut them into smaller pieces and froze them so that I can have a yummy dessert, since Claire apparently really likes sweets. (My sweet tooth is out of control!)
I slept with a bunch of pillows under my legs so that the swelling would go down. It was ridiculous. Sunday my feet still hurt, but it was mostly my heels. So as long as I walked on my toes, I was fine. I had a talk to give, so I tried to fire up my laptop to go over the last little bit and get it printed. Laptop gives me a boot error. I tried to start it again. Laptop gives me a disk read error. It can't boot at all. It can't access the hard drive. I am so sad. I knew this day was coming. I was actually wondering what would go wrong first. I think it may have overheated. I've had the thing for almost 5 years. The first 3 years my mom was kind enough to purchase "oh crap I broke it" protection, so no matter what I did to it, Dell would fix it. The summer between junior and senior year, it started overheating. They came out and replaced the motherboard 3 times. It still overheated, so I gave up, because it was a pain to get them out there. I should have had them replace the battery, but I didn't think about it. Recently, the battery lasted about 2.5 minutes. (ok, I may be exaggerating, but it is definitely no more than an hour, usually less.) And about 6 months ago, the power cord mysteriously got broken (cat, I blame you...). The part that is attached to the big boxy thing needs to be folded in just the right configuration to make the power go through. Dell power cords do not = cheap. So I have been just dealing with it. So I should have started a betting pool on which part would give out first- the battery, the power cord, or the fact that it gets hot enough to burn people (mostly myself, because no one else ever used it. Alann shunned it). I am currently hopeful that our IT guy at work can at least get it to boot long enough to get what I need off of it. He isn't so hopeful. It is probably dead. Luckily, I haven't used it too much lately, and usually when I do use it, I save everything to my stick. (So my talk wasn't lost!) And when Alann and family got me a desktop for my graduation, I backed up all of my files to my external hard drive, so there shouldn't be much on there. It was just so convenient to use. I am sad for it's loss. If anyone has an old laptop, I'll be happy to take it off your hands. I really only used it for Internet and word processing. And my borrowed copy of Photoshop for photo editing. That part really makes me sad. But none of my theater work is lost, so that is good. There are probably a few pics on there that weren't ever put on the external, but nothing I can think of that is devastating.

So after all that stress and work, it was a pretty rough weekend. My feet feel mostly better today, but I still wore comfy sandals, despite the rain, because heels were definitely out. I took some pics of all the stuff I did, so I will post them, maybe tomorrow?

I am fairly satisfied with my garden in general. The bell peppers have done amazingly well. I have about 20 little beet seedlings popping up. I'm hoping to get enough to make a big huge pot of borscht and can it, so that Alann won't bug me about making borscht. He can say "honey I want borscht" and I can say "so open some." Won't life be grand then? Not that it is hard to make, it just doesn't interest me much. I've only made it once or twice, and I can't say what I didn't enjoy about it. But he likes it. The corn didn't pollinate very well. All the male parts came out way before the silks. If I grow anything there next year, it will have to be peas or beans, so that it can refresh the soil. I have one little pumpkin, about the size of a softball. It won't make much pie, so I don't know what to do with it. The cherry tomatoes produce like a weed, as usual. And we have had grand success with the peppers. The cucumbers I wrote off a long time ago. So all in all, a semi successful year. I don't know if I will plant anything next year or not, what with the new baby. That may be all the nurturing I can stand. So we will see.

Water water everywhere

Sometimes, I wish we had a really big problem to fix, instead of all these little ones. I know it wasn't fun for Shannon and Ian when their pipes were broken, but at least it was a specific problem with a specific solution, and it was readily identifiable what both of those were. Our water heater has taken up the fight now. It's leaking. From nowhere. At least no where we can see. And it is only 5 years old. Is that old for a water heater? I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if it rusted out, considering the state of most of our other pipes. At least the home warranty will cover this. So even if it is totally broken, at least it will only cost $55 to replace it. We extended the home warranty because of the 20+ year furnace, but if we get a new water heater out of it, that's ok too.
In other news, I harvested all the rest of the broccoli and the swiss chard. Alann didn't bag the chard, so it is wilty. I guess if I just blanch it and freeze it, it won't matter if it is wilty. I'm still a little bugged though. I know I know, I should have just done it myself, but he knows the reason I didn't. I harvested some of the peas. They are some fatty peas. I am way excited for the rest of them to be done so I can make some fresh peas for dinner. And the sugar snaps are doing good. A lot of them are ready too. We are having stir fry one of these nights, and I am going to harvest the sugars for those. I dont really remember if I planted snow peas or sugar snaps.....crap. I better check the packages. That makes a big difference in harvesting.
The beans are a little leggy. They honestly don't look any different then they did last year, and last year I got like 5 green beans off of them. Since I pulled the chard and broccoli though, they should get more sun, which will help. (I learned shortly after I removed the chard that I could have just harvested the big leaves and left the stubs and roots and they would have grown new leaves. Oh well. The chard was an impulse buy anyway.) Now I don't know what to plant behind the beans where the broccoli was. Maybe carrots. But my carrots don't grow. Maybe I'll just wait a month or so and plant more beets. We have yet to harvest a good size beet. (In a book about root cellaring that I got, there is a picture of a guy holding a basket of beets, and each beet is the size of his head!) The beets we get are usually about the size of a golf ball. Maybe I am impatient (likely). I have a hard time thinning out the beets to the proper spacing too. I worry that I will thin the one that would have grown better. I'm getting over it. Slowly.
The tomatoes have taken off. The cherry, which was never frozen as much as the romas, already has little green tomatoes on it. I really really hope the romas come through for me. I could use some salsa. MMM, salsa. Still warm from the sun salsa- even better. I built a little trellis for the tomatoes this year. The stakes worked ok last year, but some of them broke and the tomatoes outgrew the stakes, so I ended up tying the tomatoes to the frame for the plastic when it is cold. This year we try the trellis. It was a relatively cheap investment, so if it doesnt work out, I wont be too bummed. I guess if it doesnt work, next year we will try the metal tomato cages. I don't like them though. Maybe we could get some of the metal fencing that we used to make the garden, and we could use that to make little cages. Maybe I just need to find a new place for the tomatoes. I don't know where else they could go though. Of course we might not have time for or want to do a garden next year anyway. I assume we will, but if we might move, then we will have to do only quick growing stuff- no drawn out harvests like corn and tomatoes and peppers.
Otherwise, things are good. Nothing much else to report...

The side yard and some garden

The side yard. It was cloudy, which is why the light quality sucks.
A close up. Aren't those shrubs cute??

Garden box one. From left to right:

column1: Peas (shelling at bottom and sugar snap at top)

Column 2: Bell peppers (you can't see the hot pepper at the bottom. It might not produce anything.)

Column 3: bell peppers at top, cherry tomato at bottom. The empty space has since been planted by a new hot pepper plant. The hot pepper and the tiny bell pepper both froze right after I planted them. I planted the new hot pepper where the bell was because the old hot pepper was bigger than the bell pepper. Make sense?

Column 4: TOMATOES! They live! The cherry is doing MUCH better than the others, but it was always bigger. I am so excited that they made it.

Box # 2, from top to bottom. (different orientation of myself when I took the picture. Just to confuse you.)
Row 1: broccoli. They are HUGE! They are shading the carrots and the beans. And they keep leaning forward. Every time I go out there, I push the stems straight and mound up more dirt, to no avail. Note to self: Broccoli likes sun, and will lean to get more (greedy buggers!).

Row 2: Carrots on the left half, green beans on the right. We only got a handful of green beans last year, but they sure were tasty. That's why I couldn't avoid planting them again.

Row 3: Onions on the right half, more green beans on the left. I took these pictures sometime over the weekend. The onions have almost doubled in size since then. Maybe I will get onions this year!

Row 4: Green onions in right corner, then two onions that somehow weathered the winter unprotected, got transplanted twice, and still insist on growing. Then radishes and beets (really small green things. Then in the left corner, swiss chard. I thought they were done for. They also froze. But look at them. They are huge!

To the right of the box you can just make out the cucumbers.

I love gardening.

More garden

Garlic I planted in fall.

Garlic I planted in spring. See the difference?

My cucmbers. One is a pickler and one is a slicer. I think the bigger one is the pickler.

The monstrous broccoli.

my swiss chard. I didn't think it would make it.