Memories and Weeds

But they said to walk! Really, they did! The nurses said to walk so that she could practice walking on feet rather than toes....a rather novel idea for Sophie, the infamous tip-toe walker.....

But they didn't know Sophie. They didn't know that when they told her to walk and told her the more she practiced walking on her feet rather than her toes, the sooner she would see results and get those casts of that she would take them for their word and walk 2 -3 miles per day.

The result? Blisters, sores, and NEW casts. At least these are sort of creative, don't you think? And they match her skirt.

She wasn't at ALL happy about it when they told her to stay off of her feet all weekend to let the blisters and sores heal. SOOOO BORREEDDDD........

BUT THEN! God provided....in the McDonald's drive-thru.....picking up 49 cent cheeseburgers! Who should appear in my rear view mirror shouting my name? Mel-Mel-'s Mom! (Hi Laurie!).

So.....I kidnapped her daughter.........(I'll return her someday, Laurie, don't worry!)

Sophie was SOOO excited! So, in the last 24 hours, Laurie, we have introduced your daughter to Wii Fit.......



After you ever seen 3 tweens more engrossed in exercise?


Look at that concentration on that girl's face!

Sophie's in charge, cracking the electronic whip. Stretch Mel! STREtch!

Unfortunately all that hard exercise makes for some hungry kids. So, Laurie, we took your daughter to Steak and Shake for supper, Mrs. Curls for dessert (I think she had a large twist cone), Panera bagels for breakfast (with Hazelnut cream cheese), and NOW they are making cookies.... But hey, what 10 year old little girl sleepover is complete without a homemade batch of cookies?


The cookies are in the oven right now. I didn't stay there with them while they mixed up the batch...I figured it was time for them to follow a recipe and fly on their own. BUT, they decided to add some left over hazelnut coffee (ummm...did I tell you, Laurie, that I let them have coffee this morning? After only 1 hour of sleep last night I thought they might need it...), and hazelnut creamer, and hazelnut extract. I'm kind of worried about these cookies, they are really liquidity and aren't thickening up at all....ummmm....wonder why?

Oh, well...that's how they learn. They are having fun and making memories. That's what counts.

Meanwhile, some weed fairies have invaded my garden and in one night have completely taken over! (hee, hee!) I thought that when my sister said to EMBRACE THE WEEDS, she meant to learn to live with them. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

What a mess! Are there any vegetables in there? Please?












Ahhh....love the Zinnia's!

Ahhh!!! Green Beans! I knew there was something under all those weeds!

Hope everyone is having a great summer and making lots of sweet memories!

"HUGS"

Love in the air, dead plants, boring school

Love is in the air here at the zoo....

There is an air of romance here at the zoo. Someone is in love. She spends hours talking and flirting with her boyfriend. She plots how to spend time with him after we've told her no...she is too young to date. She goes so far as to sneak over to his house when we are not looking.

Opps, sorry there. Am I interrupting a private conversation?

Meet the object of Victoria's crush.....
Sebastian.

He's a younger man. Two weeks younger to be exact. I've let our neighbors know that if Victoria and Sebastian get married and have puppies, they get half. Sounds fair doesn't it?

I think she'll be paying a little visit to the vet soon. I don't think many people would be banging on our door for a 1/2 toy poodle, 1/2 sorta australian shepherd/blue-tick hound/whatever-else-is-in-there puppy.

Speaking of puppies....there's a new one in the family. This is Victora and Muncie's cousin, Lady Agnes of Laurelwood, pictured here with her mom and brother.

Mom is the "non-gardening" aunt. She's not that short, it's just her son is soo tall (yes - he is a football player. Thanks for asking. He just finished his sophomore year in college - offensive lineman. Yes, he does get a lot of playing time. Yes, I know. But I'm allowed to brag - it's my blog after all).

Aggie is a sweet, sweet dog. Her mom and dad are "those kind of parents." She follows a very strict schedule. I think she was getting ready to go home for scheduled naptime when this picture was taken.

Speaking of gardening, here is my "dead clematis". I killed it last year when I cut it to the ground. Prince Charming was so mad at me (as mad as he gets - LOL)


Doesn't it look just awful? I really damaged it didn't I?



Speaking of damage (I definitely am struggling with flight of ideas today), look what the cats brought in. Poor thing.


Have you ever looked at a dragonfly in the eye? They are such a beautiful blue. So blue they don't even look real.


Esther is so bored with this post.


Me too. We are boring today. Boring, boring, boring. When everyone else is winding down their school year, we wind ours up. We like to play in the spring and the fall, so we work hard in the summer and the winter. We've just started our new school year and are hitting the books pretty hard. Boring, boring, boring......
So boring that Victoria feels the need to eat the table to break up the monotony.

For gosh sake's, Victoria! Quit it! Are we really driving you that crazy?

Random ramblings

Why hello there, stranger!

It's been forever and a day or two since I posted, but when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there is actually green substance growing in the garden, I find it hard to sit still long enough to post anything. (Maybe a case of Spring ADHD?)

I've been productive though..

The first planting of the year....

The daffodils are in full bloom. Aren't they beautiful? I think Carol would call this one "Egg Yolks On Snow" (or something like that). She's very creative with her daffodil names.

Notice anything wrong with this picture?

Notice how there isn't anything green peeking through the dirt?

Well, that's just sick and wrong because 3 weeks ago (or there abouts..before we travelled to paradise) we planted cold crops in this bed. Lettuce, turnips, radishes, and a tiny bit of spinach.

NONE of it has taken. So....

Is it because

A. I have a brown thumb (mainly because my sister Carol stole all the green thumb genes before I was born)

B. There was too much rain right after we planted so everything rotted.

C. The seeds were bad.

or

D. It's too soon. (But I really don't think that is the case here. They really should be showing SOME signs of life).

Tomorrow we replant if the rain holds off or unless I hear screams echoing through cyberspace telling me not to replant yet (I trust you garden bloggers immensely. I'm depending on you to help me be a successful gardener in spite of my brown thumb).

On a brighter note, Prince Charming bought some new "stuff" for the gazebo.

I don't think Sam has left this spot since.

As you can see, he is now taking his meals outside as well. He only comes in to get a new book upon occasion. Well, and to sleep of course. It does get nippy at night.
He just finished The Door Within series, and is now reading Penrod by Booth Tarkington.

Seth lost his other front tooth finally.

For those of you who have read my blog for awhile, you might remember that Seth feels the need to name his teeth after he loses them.

Meet Bob.

He had another tooth he named Bob as well. But he has an uncle named Bob whom he really likes, so maybe that's why he is focused on that name. Bob watched Victoria while we were travelling, that may be a reason he won the honor of having another tooth named after him. I wonder if Bob thinks it was worth it?

Speaking of puppies......

Here are four tired puppies.

Shhh........We don't want to wake them. They look so comfy.

In our house it's against the law to take a nap without a dog to cuddle.

Well, hugs to you all.

I've missed you this week, but when the wild spring calls, it's against the laws of nature to disobey, don't you think?

My First Garden Blogger's Bloom Day Post

Being younger than my sister Carol has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that by the time I was born, all the available green thumb genes in the family had been dispersed, and there were none left for me.

But the advantage is that my sister freely shares her horticultural expertise and is quite generous in sharing her garden excesses. So, when my gardening instinct kicked in much later in life, I turned to Carol to guide me and help me get started. And despite my brown thumb, I have found that I really do enjoy digging in the dirt and gardening.

In fact, one of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was so that I could share in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Seriously.

So here it is. My very first Garden Blogger's Bloom Day Post. I'm so proud (excuse me while I wipe that tear away, ok?)

Yesterday evening, the 13th, was a beautiful evening and I was very excited to set off with my camera in search of all my beautiful blooms. I really haven't been out much this spring as we've had some other distractions of late in our household and I wasn't quite sure what all I'd find.

Ummmm......BLOOMS? Where are you???



Oh...here is one....

Three little crocus buds by the Scarlet Oak Tree in our front yard.

I'm sure I have other plants blooming. Surely I do.....

OK. More crocuses. But get a load of this!


WHITE......crocuses.....

Ok. So now I'm getting a little more desperate....

Isn't there ANYTHING else alive in my garden?

I'm looking.....here are some fish that made it through the winter.

HI FISHEYS! Here's your first meal of springtime.

Here is something alive under something green, although it's not a bloom, at least it's green.

It's an Alberta spruce.....Carol has posted about these particular alberta spruces. They attract big, ugly spiders for some reason....and apparently cats as well.

Is there anything green under here trying to peak it's way through?

Nope. Just a camouflaged cat waiting to pounce. But we spoiled her attack plans.


Sighh.....next month. Next month I'll have lots of blooms to share, I'm sure. And next fall, I'm going to plant more and more bulbs so I'll have lots of laughter coming up in my garden for March 2009 Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Think About This Instead of the Forecast

With a winter forecast of upteen inches of snow, I needed something to brighten my day.....















I sure feel better now, reminding myself that I have this to look forward to after a dab of planning, a little work (OK, make that alot of work). It will be here in a blink of an eye....if we can just get through this snow. It's the last big snow of the year. I can feel it. How about you?

Waiting.................

I was waiting this morning.....

Waiting for an idea to pop into my head to post, when i happend over to May Dreams Gardens and noted that the gardening sister is waiting also.

We vary diffently on what we are waiting for. She's not known as "the gardening aunt' for nothing.....


Here's what I'm waiting for.......


Someone to clean up these dishes.

Hey! I've been sick all weekend with a bad cold! Don't be too hard on me.

I'm also waiting for someone to clean out the rabbit cage.

If there was "smell-a-vision" on blogger you would get my point.


I'm waiting for the laundry fairy to come and do my laundry.

The laundry fairy did visit me once a while back.


If the gardening sister/aunt is reading this, she needs to turn her head. She would be mortified......

I really, REALLY need someone to put these pots away for the winter. After all, it is January. They've waited a long time.


I'm waiting for someone to empty the catboxes. This is one of 6 that we have. It really smells.



I'm waiting for dear daughter to wake up.....
Do you think she can breathe under all those blankets?

And dear sons.......

So they can complete these LONG lists that are waiting for them.

The wait is over...it's back to reality.