Beginning Our Garden....Way Late!

As promised, here are some photos of the garden that we have been working on this past month. 

Furiously. 

The weather had been too wet and cold to get started any sooner.

As I get older, I enjoy my garden more and more.  I never thought this would be the case back when I would weed the family garden for what seemed like hours and hours every day.  (Probably was, in reality, a whole lot less - right Mom and Dad?)

I am grateful to my parents who taught me how to weed, and more importantly, the value of hard work.

And the value of having a garden.

As an adult with my own garden, for years it had been more of a hobby than anything.

A place to escape to, where I knew my children would not follow....

For the past few years, the importance of having a garden has changed for me.  I have always believed that we should learn to be self-sufficient, but putting that into action is quite a different story. 

This year, I was hoping to have a really great garden.  One where we could harvest the bounty and enjoy it for much of the winter.  

Well, the weather certainly has NOT cooperated.  Too cold.  Or too wet.  Or too wet and cold.
We are at least a month behind, as my photos will attest to.

 Asparagus - have you ever had fresh asparagus, straight from the garden? 
Even if you don't think you like asparagus,  you will like it fresh. 
Promise!

Green Beans - just sprouting

 Blackberries - a lot less hearty than last year...

 Chives - The only thing that's doing great!

Green Peppers - starts from the Farmer's Market.

 Red curly lettuce - close-out starts from the garden center

 Rhubarb - So I lied - the rhubarb is doing great, too!

 Tomatoes - Garden Center as well...

Zucchini - have you ever seen a more pathetic plant?

 New rows of strawberries....

 A cluster of berries, ready to pick from last year's rows.

OK.  So call us optimists

(well, you can call my hubby an optimist, since he bought these plants from the garden center)

Do you know what kind of plant this is?

No?

This is a tomatilla plant.

I know....

OK, Got the New Background....

...now I am off to do some work in the garden.  And we are waaaay behind.

Will post photos soon!

. . . Where's Global Warming when you need it???

So anyone who's ever looked at my blog with any regularity (and I appreciate all three of you!) will know that I often change my backgrounds.  I like to match it to the season.   Anyone else out there like to do that, or is it just me?   Anyway, that's what I do.  Except I haven't changed it to a summertime background, with bright flowers and maybe a blue-sky background.  Why not, you ask? 


BECAUSE THERE IS NO STINKIN' SUMMER HERE YET!


There.


I feel just a bit better now.


The only other thing that will cheer me up right now is some SUMMER SUNSHINE!  With temps in the 70's and 80's, too, if you don't mind....


Yeah, I know the East Coast is experiencing record high temperatures.   


Gives new meaning to the phrase "average temperature across the country", doesn't it?


(Is that really too much to ask for? I mean, I really do need my garden to grow, and so do all of my friends around me!!)

Chad and Elena's Wedding . . .

The bride and groom. 

ready to get their (formal) photos taken... 

Outside of the Mesa, AZ temple:

The Bridal Shower, after the photos....

Luncheon, after the wedding.  

My daughter Kayla, and my new daughter, Elena!

Reception in Idaho

Beautiful couple!

Goofy groom and his sis...

My girls - Kayla, Rachel, Noelle, and my granddaughter Evalie

Taking photos, too!

Cutting the cake...

All the little mini-princesses...

Opening gifts....

More photos will be posted soon!

How to Make YoUr MoM HaPPy...

ThiS iS How to make yoUr MoM haPPy.  Frst, you maKe braakfaSt four yoUr MoM. Next, you clean The house. Then, you Make lunch foUr MoM.  
Last you give MoM flowers. 
That WaS How to Make your MoM haPPy. 

(from Tanner, my first-grader.  He and Isaac and Noelle are making breakfast for me right now....I'm betting the flowers will appear at dinnertime...I LOVE my kids!)

Card from Noelle:

I got all my good qualities from  you, Mom.

Isn't is lucky you had 

more than enough 

for both of us? :-)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! 

<3 Love, Noelle  

Card from Isaac (handmade, all of them!)

I Love You

with all my heart, 

If I keep it in, 

my heart can't take it

so I'm releasing it because I do 

Really Love You.

-Zeek

(posts about wedding and receptions to follow....eventually...)

What's been going on???

Lots of good things, for sure!  I will post all about it when we get through it all. In the meantime, if you want a little sneak peek, you can go over to my daughter's blog - click here.   She has some cute photos of what we have all been up to!

Shoe shopping....

With an upcoming wedding, a little shoe-shopping was necessary.

I was looking for a pair of flat walking-around shoes, and then I found these:

I texted a photo to my daughter Rachel, and she called them "scandalous".

So of course I had to pass on them....wouldn't want to embarrass anyone (especially myself!)

Then I spotted these babies:

These are exactly what I was looking for, to go with my dress for the wedding.

More wedding photos to follow  -

(and some crazy stories - like how my son Chad, the groom, called me Wednesday night and asked me if  I had his birth certificate so he can get his marriage license - the following Monday in Arizona, and I am in Idaho, and to get a copy of his OREGON birth certificate,  it's 3-5 days!  So you can imagine my panic when I couldn't find it....but it turns out, he doesn't need it after all...I hope...)  

Young Women's General Conference Session

The weekend before last, through the miracle of great friends and their generosity, my daughter Noelle and I were able to go with a group of lovely ladies from our ward.

 The mom's (plus a daughter or two...)

Our Young Women...

The view from the Garden Restaurant 

After lunch dessert....so good!

Sitting back after our cereal run...did you know they have an escalator in the Salt Lake WalMart?  Are you as amazed as we were?   But maybe it could've been the late hour...

Temple Square shot

PJ Party...

What a wonderful experience!  I hope that we can make a tradition of it!

My friend Missy and I also got to meet a lovely lady from the Salt Lake area, who we had both been friended by on Facebook, me through a friend of a friend, and Missy, because she thought that I knew her personally.  I didn't, but now we do!  Great to meet you Tammy!  (I'm just so sad that we didn't get a photo together.....but I had to make a mention anyway!)

Good Luck Everyone!

This is from an email that I received the other day:

This  year we experienced and are going to experience four  unusual dates  :  1/1/11,  1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11; that's  not  all  ... take  the last two digits of the year in which you were  born;  now add the age you will be this year, and  the result will be 111  for everyone!  For  example - Harry was born in 1957, and 57 + 54 =  111 
  
This is the year  of Money!!!  This  year October will have 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays.  

This happens only every 823 years.  

These particular years are known as 'Moneybags' - the  proverb goes that if you send this to eight 
good  friends, money will appear in the next four  days as  is explained in Chinese feng-shui. 

I was reading this email to my little smarty-pants Noelle, and she pointed out that the 111 idea happens every year, only last year the number was 110, (or 10 if you were born in 2000 or after) for everyone.  And the year before that, 109, etc.  It's just about the math.  Of course!

And that got me to wondering about the rest of it, and so I looked back and saw that last year, October had 5 Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  In fact, every month that has 31 days has 3 days of the week with 5 of them that month.  Not going to take the time, but pretty sure that every year the same hold true.   

Just sayin'.  

Goes to show that anything that is written in a sensationalized way seems more, well, sensational that it really is!  And so goes the news about anything, in general.  So we all, (myself included!) need to look past the "wow!" of the story to see what it all really means.  

It's NOT Hookey - it's a Field Trip!

Since my husband Mark has been out of town so much in the last few month, he looks for opportunities to spend extra time with his little boys.  (They ARE getting big - fast - but I call them the little boys as opposed to our BIG boys, who currently happen to be 22 and 27 years old . . . )

So, when some sort of Outdoorsman show happened to be in  the area (wow, I don't pay attention to the details much do I?)  he jumped at the chance to take them yesterday.  Yes, on a school day.  Let's call it a Field Trip, shall we?  At least, that's what I told my friend that works in the office of their elementary school.

Yes, a Field Trip.  Best one ever, I'd say!

 Tanner - so proud of the fish he caught.  And for the extra 3 bucks they were charged to catch it, the smile was worth every penny!

And what a great man/field trip-day is complete without a trip to their favorite buffet!?