About a Bug

MIA

2012-02-05T11:19:00.004-06:00

I've been MIA here in blog land due to the fact that most of January I haven't felt too great. I probably still wouldn't, if it wasn't for the fact that my husband insisted that I go to the doctor. Thanks honey. It's been such a mild winter that we have only had a dusting of snow once. I did a picture walk last month and discovered...

...Trees and bushes are starting to bud out...

...spring bulbs are sprouting...

...beautiful sunsets...

...and we still have carrots growing!

Art Project...

2012-01-27T20:05:00.001-06:00

...gone totally awry.

Swim Trunks

2012-01-14T11:36:00.003-06:00

It's 42 degrees out. Matthew is wearing Spiderman swim trunks. He feels it's the perfect outfit for sidewalk chalk drawing. It might be a long day!

On Moms

2012-01-13T22:30:00.002-06:00

Matthew: ...but I want my mom.
Me: You want me? (said as I was teasing him.)
Matthew: (delivered as an adult would) Do I have another mom?

The kid kills me. He gets funnier every day.

Looking forward

2012-01-07T10:01:00.004-06:00

Matthew is already looking ahead to Valentine's Day and making a huge chain to decorate the whole house with. We've been talking together about making 70 valentines to give out at our various schools. And in my own head I've been wondering why it feels like everyone around me is pregnant. At least 2 moms at school and 3 people of blogs I read. I know that isn't close to everyone around me everyday, but it does touch on the biggest question in my mind. To get pregnant or to never be pregnant again, that's the question. One that I don't know if I'll ever get the bottom of.

Cotton Bowl

2012-01-06T21:16:00.000-06:00

Fight you K-State Wildcats, for alma mater fight!

Sigh

2012-01-04T21:06:00.000-06:00

Congratulations Jayhawks! You won this round.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

2012-01-03T19:05:00.004-06:00

At preschool this year they made thankful lists at Thanksgiving and lists of what Christmas was about. Here are the highlights or giggles.

Thanksgiving Thankful list:
Under "books, toys, and games": train with animals on it (he doesn't have one-saw a baby one in the store!)
Under "the best things about home": taking a nap (really that's the best part?)
Under "tv and movies": my poppas news I like alot of them (hehe)
Under "trips I've enjoyed": to Kansas City-we ate strawberry icecream (did you feed him icecream Auntie?)

About Christmas list:
It snows because it's Christmas
People play snowball fights which I've never played before
My favorite Christmas song-"Over the Rainbow"
I'll get my mom a star wars movie and my dad would like one too
Santa comes
He lives at the northpole and of course his elves make presents, they are busy

There was many more of course, but I thought these were some of the cutest.

Winter garden

2012-01-03T09:12:00.004-06:00

My assistant gardener is having many problems with his snout lately. I don't know how he manages such things. Cuts all the way up the snout, feet that he keeps slicing open (a whole paw pad sliced in half last spring), I just give up. I may have to hire a less accident prone assistant. Moving on to the real story...

Because I'm such an awesome dedicated gardener I always clean up the garden immediately in the fall. I wouldn't have soaker hoses still down or ornamental garden stakes all over the ground. I'd certainly never leave frost killed plants in the ground. *insert sound of clearing of the throat here*

Ok, so I hardly ever clean up the garden, but it might have finally paid off. I found a carrot yesterday! People laughed at how thickly Matthew sown them. By the end of the summer, they weren't even close to being ready, but now they are looking a little like carrots, 8 months later. We'll have to see if we till up full sized baby carrots in the spring.

Exercise, trains, and more excercise

2012-01-02T13:24:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday season

2011-12-28T09:20:00.008-06:00

It has been a long holiday season. One that ended up overwhelming me. There just wasn't enough time to get stuff done!

It started with hiking, when there was a spare moment.

Matthew played outside in the warm weather.

Dec. 20th we got our first snowfall that stuck. A dusting, but it gave Matthew an excuse to use his Spiderman snow boots.

Christmas Eve day Matthew had a great time hanging out with his Auntie. He got 2 pairs of overalls from her and they have been a huge hit. He wore a pair to Christmas Eve service!

Auntie, Matthew, and I went to Christmas Eve brunch where my Grandmom lives. She has been having a really rough time since the stroke. Probably a combo of the stress of surgery and stroke back to back, cold turkeying off depression meds, dementia, and lots of new meds. As they try to figure out what meds work and are needed, we never know what kind of a day she'll be having. Luckily, she had a good day Christmas Eve.

I realized I never took 1 picture of Phil being home or Christmas. The part of me that craves having photographic memories is very sad, but the part of me that feels I miss out on memories by spending some much time behind the lens, doesn't. We had Phil for 5 blissful days. Matthew and I took him to the airport yesterday morning. I was worn out by Christmas Day, but I rallied. My Mom was sick with the flu Thursday night till Monday. We all got tons of lovely things this year. I still have Christmas packages to send out. My motto this Christmas is, "A day late, dollar short." Sigh. One of Matthew's favorite gifts is this track set. It is out a significant amount of time every day!

Joy

2011-12-22T15:15:00.001-06:00

I'm excited to announce...

PHIL'S IN THA' HOUSE!!!

Nature walk

2011-12-12T20:23:00.006-06:00

Saturday, after a week of working to get Grandmom back on the road to recovery after a stroke (she's doing fine), I dragged Matthew and Mom on a family hike. Do you see anything is these weeds? I didn't.

But Matthew did and it was a lovely little nest.

Gotta do some stretching, or goofing.

Soak in the view.

Work out a little.

Look handsome.

Party.

Inspire others to new heights.

Rest a little.

Walk a little.

Admire the trees.

Investigate the trees.

It was the perfect 2 hour winter hike.

Finally getting into the Christmas spirit

2011-12-11T15:08:00.002-06:00

Matthew and I pulled out Mamaw and Poppa's 4 foot tree and I can't believe that he is basically as tall as it! He ran to be in this picture, I was just trying to get the tree. I mention this, as Auntie commented he must not like to be in the photos, but he was a good sport. He just loves this blank look right now!

That's my boy!

Matthew on eggs

2011-12-10T12:14:00.001-06:00

Setting: Watching an egg cooking product commercial.

Poppa: Um, those look good!
Matthew: Yeah, those look yummy for you and Mamaw and Mommy and me!
Me: Do you even like eggs? (So far, his whole life, he has not.)
Matthew: Um, n-, well, um, not with the shell off.
Me: Then you don't like eggs.
Matthew: I just don't like the shell peeled off and cooked and scrambled, but I like eggs! I do!

Star of the Week

2011-12-10T09:59:00.002-06:00

Every full week at preschool, a different child gets to be the star. This week, Matthew was the star. He loved it.

Yesterday, for his last day of being a star he wore his new ranching duds. (He looks like a photo I saw of his Dad around this age.)

Last Friday, on his snack day, he wore some of his other new duds.

And while I was trying to take photos of Matthew with his board, more of his little friends ran up to be in the photo. More the merrier.

On the last day of the star's week, they get to choice with letter goes up the coconut tree. This week is the letter S. Matthew chose the green S to go up the tree.

Twas our day to bring the snack...

2011-12-02T08:20:00.003-06:00

...so not a creature was stirring, not even our mice! Hopefully the kids like them, they ended up being a pain to make.

Boys

2011-12-01T08:46:00.003-06:00

Sooooo, when you have a boy you should really never turn your back on them, because who knows what mischief they will get themselves into.

Example 1: Bandaids.

Like rest of the box of bandaids wrapped around toes and other various parts of the body.

Example 2: Washing Machines

Last night I heard, "come bring your camera." As I enter the room I hear, "wash, wash, wash, wash. Mommy, I'm getting clean!" His own washing machine bathtub.

Example 3: Growing

I hear alot of, "Mommy I have to grow fast so I can drive a car!" Heaven help the mom of a boy!

As a side note, Grandmom made it her ball replacement surgery well yesterday. Thanks for the well wishes.

Thanksgiving break wrap-up

2011-11-29T08:31:00.007-06:00

All of us at About a Bug hope you had a truly happy Thanksgiving and counted your many blessings.

Our family, minus Phil who had to stay in TX and plus Angela, met at a local buffet for Thanksgiving lunch. That's my Mom's joy, no cooking and no dishes. I prepared a small feast for the evening meal. Our dessert was building our own turkeys. I know that a cooking magazine put out the official recipe, but I've took it and ran with stuff I could find and had on hand.

I convinced Mom to go on the trail with me and the dogs Friday.

We went again Sunday and it was a little chilly, but so beautiful.

Friday Auntie arrived and gave some new clothes. Here he is posing in some new duds, Saturday, before we went to meet some friends for the day.

On Thanksgiving day Angela and I went on the trail and were blessed to get within 10-15 ft of this lovely doe eating acorns. It was amazing.

Monday, it was hard to get out the door, back in the swing of it. Not long after I arrived at work, we got a call that Grandmom fell and they were x-raying her hip. I took most of the afternoon off to help Mom to an out of town hospital to set up the arrangements for Grandmom's surgery. She did indeed break it and will need the ball replaced.

Hell hath froze over

2011-11-26T18:13:00.004-06:00

One of our family members is the proud owner of a John Deere.

He planted all morning.

And harvested in the dark.

Thanksgiving Happenings

2011-11-20T15:01:00.006-06:00

Last week at Afterschool we made these candy turkeys. I took mine home and shared it with Matthew.

Last Thursday there was a preschool Thanksgiving feast in the evening. Matthew invited us all to attend. Here are 2 of the "Indians."

And here is the last "Indian" with the "Pilgrim" that invited us to the feast. Sorry about the photo quality, they came from my phone.

Today was the Thanksgiving dinner where my Grandmom stays. Matthew wore his hat and got lots of comments on it.

We had a wonderful time. What a blessing to have another Thanksgiving with Grandmom. This past fall, Phil's last living grandparent passed away. Grandpa Ray was about 20 years younger then Grandmom, which reminds me even more that time is precious and fleeting.

Late fall activites

2011-11-14T20:07:00.005-06:00

This is a boy's dream come true and a mom's nightmare.

My best friend's boy is 2 weeks to the day older then Matthew, yet mine is so much taller! Cracks me up!

Art work he was so proud of, he gave it to the preschool.

And he now looks like his artwork!

4th Overtime

2011-11-12T18:37:00.002-06:00

Way to go Wildcats! GO ALL THE WAY!

Veteran's Day

2011-11-11T08:49:00.001-06:00

Thank you Daddy/Phil.

Red, white, and blue for school.

Rumblings from above and below

2011-11-07T18:46:00.007-06:00

Sunday was a beautiful day. Matthew and I had fun playing in the leaves.

He was building a leaf pile to have a bed in.

Monday Matthew finally got to use his umbrella the way it was intended. We got 2 1/2". The storm included some nice thunder and lightning. Rumblings above.

Saturday night I spent in bed sick with vertigo. Around 10 something I woke up to my bed shaking. In my foggy state, I thought that Matthew had got up and was playing under it. (I'm not even sure if he can get under it, it's such a low frame.) Grumpily I got up telling him to stop it. And he wasn't there. He has in bed. It was an extremely windy night, so I was trying to decide how the wind could have been blowing so hard that it was shaking my bed. As I was going downstairs I heard my Mom calling to my Dad, "I think we are having an earthquake!" And what we really had was aftershocks from OK's earthquake. Dad missed it.

Last night, Monday night around 8:30-ish I looked at Mom and said, "The house is shaking again." Sure enough, around that time OK had another earthquake. And Dad missed it again. Rumblings below.

Readjusting the carseat

2011-11-06T16:40:00.000-06:00

Only Matthew!

First very hard freeze

2011-11-05T16:03:00.004-05:00

Everything was sparkly white and the leaves on the black walnuts were falling like confetti. Another amazing sight in nature.

Look what we found under the porch 2 days ago!

2011-11-03T20:32:00.002-05:00

Here we go again...another beautiful loving cat.

The large dog stand off. Dad took the kitten to a new home because Hershey, the yappy yorkie, was going nuts. He said a adult cat would be ok. I guess God listened and sent another. We'll see what happens...

Halloween!

2011-11-01T19:18:00.005-05:00

Matthew got to preschool early so they could trick or treat at the businesses. Then we went to the Halloween parade and trick or treated at the businesses again, truck and treated, and finally went to the Halloween egg hunt. When we got home this is how much loot he had...

WOW, is the only word I can think of...other then cavity.

This is what happened tonight.
Me: Matthew, your Dad is eating all your good candy.
Matthew: Ok, I have to finish this airplane...

Here's hoping that everyone had a bewitchingly good Halloween!

Spooktacular

2011-11-01T18:52:00.006-05:00

Saturday was Dad's birthday. We decided to celebrate by taking him out to eat and taking Matthew to the nearby zoo to trick or treat.

Walking up.

Angry puss in boots or I have the sun in my eyes.

Watching the sloth bear.

He had a really good time. By time we got home it was supper time and we were all exhausted. I haven't felt good for a month, so I went to lay down for half an hour. About 30 minutes later,
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and decided I better get up and take care of the boy, cause he was probably into something. My jaw dropped because who I found in the hall was...

...Phil! He flew in just to surprise us and be here for Halloween. He even had a friend pick him up at the airport and made them swear not to tell, so we were all surprised. He was supposed to get in by noon, so he would have been able to be a the zoo with us, but the plane had problems. It was such a great surprise. It's been a quick trip, but wonderful!

Mr. Mugwort Pumpkin

2011-10-30T21:47:00.003-05:00

We decided that we better carve our pumpkin tonight. Tomorrow will be pretty busy for us. So I asked him to draw me a face to carve. This is what he drew.

Here he is, a mugwort pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!

Indian Summer

2011-10-27T07:46:00.002-05:00

I've been loving how our trees look this year! Normally they just fall off or turn brown. This year we have some really yellow yellows and other lovely shades. I guess all it takes is a drought and an Indian summer.

Pumpkin Fest 2011

2011-10-25T21:10:00.004-05:00

Tonight they had Pumpkin Fest at Matthew's preschool. The boy came home mega excited to go! Here he is with Holly making the ever crucial decisions on what silly bands to choose.

We became scarecrows.

We had cookies for dinner, after we had a bat and pumpkin painted on our face. One of his best friends, Bradley, in the background. They were attempting to share suckers and juice with each other. That's real friends.

Holding all our loot.

And decorating his pumpkin. He had the best time playing with his friends after dark, while listening to "scary" music!

We leave you this evening with a little movie showing what the boy was doing in the face painting line. He was cracking me up!

Early Morning

2011-10-24T21:36:00.001-05:00

Who knows where the day will take you?

7-0

2011-10-22T14:22:00.000-05:00

'Nuff said.

A House Divided

2011-10-22T09:42:00.003-05:00

My Auntie went to KU.
My Dad and I went to K-State.
Today is the 109th Sunflower Showdown.
All I can say is...SHAKE SOME TAIL FEATHERS LOOSE WILDCATS!
I mean...may the best team win.

Auntie, at preschool there is such passionate KU families that at least one child can sing the KU fight song. Matthew has started marching around saying, "Go KU! Go KU! Go KU!" This has led to me marching around singing, "Fight you K-State Wildcats, for alma mater fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Glory in the battle for the purple and the white..." But in all honesty, it all makes me smile.

Glad you are still with me

2011-10-21T19:57:00.004-05:00

After my rant yesterday, I didn't know what my few readers would think. Thank you for all the kind words, I wasn't looking for praise, just trying to make a point. And after talking about how Matthew is my priority, I dumped him off at preschool and went shopping since I didn't have to work. What a great Mom! But I really did ask him if he wanted to go, but he wanted to go to school instead. He hates shopping and he was in great need of longer pants, a new jacket and gloves.

So Mom and I shopped for the needed items and found a sucker he had to have!

And when we got home he was so excited with his new clothes. I could hardly believe it, but he's thrilled. Made the whole day worth it!

Most needed item on my list? A new memory card for my camera. Mine got lost when I posted the kitten post on my mom's computer. I'm seriously crushed, as I'd taken tons of pictures on the trail, some awesome ones of an asassin bug, and all the photos of Matthew playing with the kitten. I hadn't gotten them downloaded yet! Until I find it, if it ever turns up, they are gone with the wind. And to answer Auntie's question, Tuesday night the kitten caused the yappie yorkie to yap so much that Wednesday morning it moved to a new home. So I'm back in camera business and ready to snap some new favorites.

Momma Brag Day

2011-10-20T21:25:00.006-05:00

It's been a long time since I showed Matthew's art off, so I decided it was high time I did. He's done some cool stuff at school and home. Above: school, fall trees

Home: Columbus, moveable

School: I love the squirrel he drew!

Home: scarecrow project

Home: Columbus

Home: fall items-I love the colors he uses

School: L work, very very colorful

School: H work

Home: watercolor

As I was going through the stacks of Matthew's artwork, I realized something about myself. An old friend of mine told me once that I never give myself enough credit and I realized, she is right. I feel bad about myself sometimes for not being stylish enough, pretty enough, a good enough mom, driving an expensive car, having a high powered enough career, enough college degrees. And it's all for not, because I am enough. I work and pay my own bills-I don't need anyone else to do it for me, I make a difference in many lives-including my son's, I could drive expensive cars and wear designer labels-but I have my priorities in line, I AM a good mom-except for when I'm at work and he is at preschool I raise him and make him the priority, my career many not be high powered but it's growing and has some special things thrown in like being published, I have plenty of education-I don't have to pose or brag. And that is true Momma bragging.

Look what we found in the basement this morning!

2011-10-17T21:10:00.002-05:00

It is so cute and lovey! It wants to live in the house, but he has to be an outside kitty, if it stays. Matthew was in heaven. It's not everyday you wake up to a surprise kitten. (Just to be clear, this really was a HUGE surprise. My parents don't have a cat. Our last one was 16 1/2 years old, a male, and past away this summer. So a kitten so little, out of the blue, big surprise.)

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go...

2011-10-12T08:05:00.003-05:00

The last 2 days I have had the joy of staying home because some little bugger gave me what we suspect to be hand, foot and mouth disease. Lovely. Mostly it has just been exhausting. But as I don't seem to have much new going on, I am going to try it. I slept most of yesterday and was able to snooze all night, so I don't know how well this is going to go, but we'll give it a try...It's days like this that I miss being home all day with Matthew. Can we move back to TX? Crikey, check me for a fever, I must be delirious!

K-state football

2011-10-09T13:11:00.004-05:00

If you haven't noticed by now, we are pretty passionate about all things K-State. Especially, K-State football, if you are my husband.

My parents and I have all been to KSU football and basketball games. My favorite was Nov. 2000, we beat Nebraska in the rain, sleet, and snow. I stormed the field with the rest of the fans, because hell had froze over. Such an exciting game. I wanted Phil and Matthew to experience the magic too.

So when Phil announced that he was coming home for a week visit in mid September, I ordered tickets right away for his birthday. I loved our seats! 7 rows up, on an end field, on an aisle.

We loved having Phil home period! My new favorite photo of my guys.

Only photo I have with my "feather" in.

It was KSU Band day that night. Our HS band was on the field somewhere...

And best of all, Matthew got Willie the Wildcat to sign his shirt! He was so excited! It was perfect!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: #5 Fall Tree Study and More Nature Study #5 Fall Color Walk

2011-10-09T09:28:00.013-05:00

Matthew and I realized yesterday, that it was a glorious fall day, and decided to get out and enjoy it. We decided that we could handle combining 2 challenges into one and went for it!

Fall Tree Study:
We reviewed (very quickly! a little one wanted to get out and paint ASP!) pgs 14 and 618-622 in the Handbook of Nature Study about trees.
We answered most of the questions from pg 623, Lesson 172, Tree Study-Autumn Work. The answers may not be as complete as they should be because the paper I wrote Matthew's answers on have gone missing. Maybe the strong breeze carried them away...We completed Winter and Spring Work, in TX on a peach tree, in the backyard. We neglected to do Summer Work here, but have decided to start Autumn Work on a hackberry tree in the side yard.

1. What is the color of the tree in its autumn foliage? green and yellow

2. Describe what you see of the tree's roots. They go up, up, up!
How far do you suppose the roots reach down? 20 miles
3. How high on the trunk from the ground do the lower branches come off? about 5 ft.
What color is the bark? whiteish-he stood firm on this

Is the bark smooth or rough? rough (he rubbed his back on it to tell)
Are the ridges fine or course? we decided course, after defining fine and course
Are the furrows between the ridges deep or shallow? deep
4. Describe a leaf from your tree. He had lots of trouble with that, he came up with yellow. We decided it was an oval shape.

Are the leaves set opposite or alternate upon the twigs? alternate
Can you find two fallen leaves the same size and shape? yes, pretty close
At what date do the leaves begin to fall from your tree? beginning of October
5. Do you find any fruit or seed upon your tree? no

Fall Color Walk:
After answering questions, I told Matthew that he could use his watercolors to paint what he saw outside, at this very moment. First Matthew painted painted 2 leaves he'd found on the ground.

Next time I looked, the paper was mostly blue, so I asked what he saw that looked like that, and he said, "It's a tree." I asked if he saw a blue tree anywhere, meanwhile thinking that if my painting instructor from college was around, he'd be agreeing with Matthew that he saw blue in ALL the trees around us. Matthew affirmed he did. Later, when the blue was bigger, he decided it was water, which was also not around.

Later in the evening, Matthew came up to me and declared, "At first I thought it was a tree and water, but I've decided it's the ocean." Obviously, this wasn't a picture of nature here, as we are hopelessly landlocked! At least he painted out in nature. We'll work on the content later.

While Matthew was painting, I asked him to look around and tell me what colors he saw. He not only saw the yellows and browns, but the light greens, greens, and dark greens as well. I was surprised that he didn't have to be coached on looking for the different greens. We noticed and talked about all the black walnuts and burr acorns that have fallen.

I know that we can collect and eat the black walnuts, but Matthew and I now want to learn if acorns are edible for people. We also talked out how to get to the edible nut.
*Matthew and I learned today that you can eat acorns, but you have to leach some tanneric acid out first, which probably why it's not more mainstream. Here's a great article to learn more and find recipes. http://www.californiaoaks.org/ExtAssets/acorns_and_eatem.pdf

In the late afternoon, we gathered leaves of different kinds. We used them for leaf rubbings. It turned out pretty well. Talking about light crayon pressure was very important for this project to turn out.

Spirit Week: wrapup

2011-10-07T19:13:00.005-05:00

Sunday we tie dyed shirts.

Wednesday turned out to be tie dye day, so he insisted that he be allowed to wear his new shirt.

Thursday was pajama day. He was soooo excited to wear his pj's to school. He drove me nuts, asking every 1o mins, "why am I wearing my pj's to school?" As if he didn't know!

Today, Homecoming, hence blue and gold day. So we donned our blue and gold shirts and beads.

All day the kids were impatient to walk to the parade. Matthew got to go with his preschool and then they went for icecream. He had an excellent time.

And he came home painted up and with a bag of candy! It's been an excellent day and week, but thank goodness it's Friday!

Spirit Week: Hat Day

2011-10-04T21:52:00.003-05:00

Friday is Homecoming. In anticipation, the preschool is having spirit week. Yesterday, which I failed to capture, was inside out day. Matthew was very excited to wear his clothes in such a novel way. Today was hat day. He was so proud to be treated like a star, in his hat, that his Dad bought him on the Riverwalk. Tomorrow's tie dye day! When did my little guy get so grown up?

kinderGARDEN Thursday: season wrap-up

2011-10-04T08:37:00.018-05:00

Well, it's been an long, interesting, journey this summer. We had small plans for a container garden in zone 8.

We'd even read up on it!

Life threw us a loop and we ended up in zone 5, right at the beginning of planting season. We changed gears again and planted a garden, in the ground. We started with heavy construction...

and ended up with a great garden space.

At first, we struggled to get seeds to sprout, probably because it was a cool spring.

Then right after we ordered more seeds, some of the seeds sprouted! Some of the garden was a month behind because of that. The garden further suffered, because as soon as it warmed up, it went straight into intense summer heat and drought.

Matthew and I struggled to keep the garden watered, but we managed to have some fun with it.

The beginning and end of the summer, found my Dad hospitalized with a very serious blood infection and gallbladder that should have come out 2 years before. That caused us to lose focus, as we had bigger things to do. Then, at the end, when most of the garden had burned up, I was blessed to get a full time job and we didn't have time to baby it along. I don't think the winter crop ever came up!

But we kept at it as we had time. Our first real problem with pests came with the radishes having aphids overrun them. We burned the leaves and plants totally infected and let the good bugs take over.

Next rabbits ate ALL the green beans for themselves. Nothing detered them, we tried it all, except human hair.

Then when my squash plants started to bloom, they became a magnet for squash bugs. Matthew and I spent a week picking them off by hand and drowning them, but the damage was done. We only got a baby pumpkin out of the deal!

Matthew did another photo tour of the garden this summer. My favorite photo was the coneflower closeup.

Although we had the joy of planting, we didn't reap many yummy rewards. We ended up with about 30 cherry tomatoes,

sunflowers,

marigolds and nasturisums,

10 strawberries,

some herbs, 15 peppers,

15 purple green beans and lots of rat tailed radishes,

as well as 3 Chinese red noodle beans.

All I can say is, I'm glad we didn't have to survive on what we planted, because it would be a very long hungry winter this year! It probably would have gone a little better if we hadn't gone into a severe drought. Thanks so much Kim, for once again hosting the kinderGARDENERS! I doubt Matthew and I would have made it as far as we did this year without it. Here's looking forward to a better growing season next year. :)

*edited to mention that as Matthew looked at this post with me, he turned to me and asked, "Can we go plant something?" Clearly planting seeds is his FAVORITE part!

Just a pirate and his dog

2011-09-12T08:46:00.003-05:00

9/11

2011-09-11T15:31:00.001-05:00

Gone, but not forgotten.

There is probably not a single person in America, that was old enough to remember and watch what happened on 9/11, that can't tell you exactly where they were when they heard we were under attack. I remember that day vividly. Phil will tell you he was loaded on a plane to go to NTC. They finally had to get off the plane and fly out the next day. I was waking up in Phoenix, far from family and friends, to a new life, a new country. I watched the second plane hit, I watched the towers fall, and I couldn't believe it was happening. I was getting ready for work, like I did every Tuesday, at the NY&CO in the Fiesta Mall. When I got there, my manager and I were rattled, the reality settling in, and wondering if Phoenix would be hit and where. There was a message on the phone from the offices in New York that morning. They were screaming to get out, close all the stores, we have lost all our sister stores and our NY&CO in the Trade Center Towers. Go home, we don't want to lose anymore employees today. My first thought that day was is my Mom and Dad ok and my next, when is Phil going to war? Will he be safe? I haven't allowed myself to watch the reruns of the events in the last 10 years. It was too painful for me, even though I didn't know a single person who lost their life that day. Today I've watched and remembered and felt again the total disbelief that it could have possibly happened. Our country changed that day, and I hope it was for the better. My personal life changed the day Phil shipped out to Iraq, before the war even started. Too this day I haven't watched those imagines, because it was too scary for me. Phil has lost friends to the ensuing wars, started on 9/11. His company was the first of any American forces to cross into Iraq when the war started. Today I dressed for church in red, white and blue, hung the only flag I had on hand, and asked that we not forget about the troops we've already lost, their families and the troops that are still fighting and their families, as well as the fallen on 9/11. Gone, but definitely NOT forgotten. May God bless the family and friends of all the people we lost on 9/11.

Haute Couture

2011-09-05T21:28:00.002-05:00

The best part, I'd caught that he was wearing 2 tee shirts before we left the house, but didn't catch the double pants until we were going home. I have no idea what the preschool teachers thought. Sigh...

Matthew-isms:

In church, during children's service, he's been talking, so we have had several conversations.
"Don't talk during children's service today." "Ok!" chatters the whole time. after church, "Matthew did you forget not to talk during service today?" "Could you see me?" "Yes" "Don't look next time!" next week "Now Matthew during children's service today" "I know, I know, no talking!" and he didn't.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 16, 17, and 18

2011-09-05T20:57:00.006-05:00

Hello, all you kinderGARDENERS, we are still here, just overwhelmed with life and underwhelmed by the bounty of the garden.

Week 16 can be summed up by 2 words: squash bugs. I went out that week and it was like squash bug lovefest on the zucchini vines. I had a picture of about 100 drowned bugs, but I decided it was gross, so be thankful you don't have to see it. Matthew helped me for 3 days straight, night and day, pick off bugs to squish or drown.

Week 17 had a return to a bug less garden, beautiful flowers, as shown above, and...

watering in intense heat...

and a baby mini pumpkin. I actually stalked the bloom so that I could personally fertilize it, to be sure we got something!

It was also the week, Matthew and I replanted parts of the garden with winter crops.

Considering the creek behind the house as quit flowing, parts have completely dried up and it hasn't rained since mid August, I have started watering once a week. Week 18, most of the garden is dead or not producing no matter what I do anyway, so I have decided it doesn't matter. I keep telling myself to just pull it all, but I can't stomach it. But with the lack of watering and high temps, I doubt much of the newly seeded areas are going to grow let alone sprout.

So there you have it, crunchy-ville. We have gotten, 7 purple green beans, 5 Chinese red noodle beans, 25 cherry tomatoes, 15 peppers, 9 mammoth sunflowers, 1 mini pumpkin, and basil, mint, and sage leaves the entire summer. Not exactly worth the time so far.

Sailing

2011-09-05T20:47:00.002-05:00

To use up the last gasp of summer, the little man and his Mamaw, decided to journey out on the water. A good time was had by all.

First week of school

2011-08-30T07:42:00.002-05:00

I have no pictures to show, but I can tell you that Matthew rallied well after the first day and forever after did not want to leave. He was tired but time Saturday came, but refused to let a little thing like sleep hold him down. I am enjoying my work at school. I rallied after Monday as well, but was so tired by Sunday, that I took a 4 hour nap and probably could have slept longer.

Wednesday we had to leave the house by 7 am to rush to the hospital to get Matthew a school physical. Matthew is 43" tall and 38.4 lbs. He was proclaimed perfectly healthy.

Dad left the hospital Wednesday. After they examined the pint of fluid they drained, they determined that he hadn't experienced a blood clot after all, which is excellent news. No blood thinners for him! He has rallied well from all enforced bed rest.

Yesterday was Matthew's first day of gymnastics, for the fall session. He enjoyed himself and Mom was impressed with his concentration. She hasn't watched him since last year.

Hopefully I'll get some photos taken soon and write my tardy garden posts!

1st day of Pre-school!

2011-08-22T19:47:00.002-05:00

He was so excited to go this morning that he thought I took way too long to get him there. I doubt I needed to even hug him goodbye! I just wish by time I got off work he hadn't been so tired. About all I got was crying.

What will $5 get you?

2011-08-21T07:50:00.003-05:00

One manly stove. And I kept the perfect dishes and food to go with it.

And just for giggles...

First 2 days of school

2011-08-20T09:19:00.005-05:00

2 days of school down! The 1st 2 days of ASP went fine. Thursday Matthew and I started our day by visiting his new preschool. He wasn't too sure he wanted to be in a building separate from my school, until he saw his new playground. As I was parking in the parking lot, he was exclaiming, "This is a GREAT SCHOOL!" Nothing soothes the mom guilt like an excited kid! We stayed for 1 1/2 hours and he loved every minute. The boy is ready to fly. Even better, 4 of his friends from our school daycare (which is now closed) will be in his preschool class. He can't wait to start on Monday.

Thursday he stayed in Mom's classroom, katty corner across the hall from where I work in ASP. He brought some toys in his new school backpack.

Friday was supposed to be Mom and Matthew Fun Day, since it would be the last day we'd be home with each other all the time. The end of a chapter, if you will. Instead, we took Dad, at 8:30 am to his dr. appt to get the last staples out, and didn't leave till 2 pm. My Dad had developed a sharp pain in his right side, which prompted x-rays, which promoted more discussion, which promoted a CT scan, which led to more discussion, which led to more chest x-rays. Because they discovered that he had fluid build up around the rt. lung, which was starting to collapse it, they had to drain him. After that he was supposed to be released, but they decided he had had a blood clot end up in the lung, so now the poor man in stuck in the hospital for 5 days, on bed rest, while blood thinners get to work.

Since my ASP boss works in radiology, during the day, she knew that we'd been up at the hospital all day and insisted that Matthew stay, instead of going back to the hospital with Mom. Matthew was so good and had an awesome time. It was interesting because in the other ASP, it was the girls that felt the need to mother Matthew. Here, it was the older boys. Here he is playing soccer with them.

How August has been going!

2011-08-17T18:51:00.004-05:00

I absolutely can't believe that today is the 17th of August. This has been the craziest month of the summer, I swear. I guess the place to start is with the first of August. It was our first day home from TX. We thought it was going to be a pretty normal month. We started doing more sorting in anticipation of school starting soon. Friday we woke up and Dad didn't feel good again. All the symptoms he had, smacked of the blood infection he had in early June. So we got him a early afternoon dr. appointment. By 2pm he was in the hospital awaiting gallbladder surgery and possibly appendix surgery. Sunday, he had surgery the old fashion way, because the gallbladder was just that bad, with around 8 big gallstones. The surgeon said in 30 years he'd only seen 5 that bad. If Dad wasn't so tough it would have come out several years ago. He got released the next Friday, which was last Friday.

*photo by Mom

Around the last night Dad was in the hospital, Matthew has alot of fun in the hospital bed. *photo by Mom

The day after Dad's surgery, Matthew and I had doctors appointments. Matthew got his kindergarten shots. Tuesday, my Grandmom went in for x-rays to see what the mass in her breast was. It turned out to be where her bones healed a little out, from where she broke her collarbone around 22 years ago. Thank goodness!

Last Thurday, I interviewed for a job at the elementary school. Several hours later, I was offered an assistant position with the afterschool program. I accepted. This will be my 3rd year at afterschool, first at this particular school.

Saturday, Auntie brought Matthew's big boy bed and we were finally able to use his new bedding. He loves it! Finally he's sleeping through the night in his own bed!

This week Matthew and I ran into town, to run errands. The sun was shining at our house. We went 2 tenths of a mile, went around the corner and it was threateningly dark! We've been loving the showers we've been getting.

One night I was in the kitchen and heard the funniest sound on the back window. I discovered the hugest moth I've ever seen, beating the window with it's wings, as well as the poor tree frogs. They looked like they wished the moth would leave. If you've ever seen a swallowtail butterfly, this moth was just as big as one of them. The only bigger moth I've seen is a luna.

Yesterday I took Dad back to the surgeon, to have half of his staples taken out. Friday he'll go back and get the rest out. We are so glad that he is recovering well. We believe the gallbladder caused all the problems in June. So hopefully he'll have a long time of good health now.

Today I got a call from the principal that hired me. She just got clearance to hire a teacher's aide for the 2 second grade classes, which are extra large this year. I got offered the position! I said I'd love to take it, if I could find a daycare/preschool placement for Matthew. I had been told basically all the daycares in town were full. And both I called were, but revised their positions. In an hour, I was able to get Matthew the very last preschool slot at the daycare in town. He starts Monday and can't wait. I start afterschool tomorrow and will start the aide position Monday. The neatest part is I will get to work with my Mom 2 1/2 hrs a day since she is one of the 2nd grade teachers!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 15

2011-08-14T17:36:00.005-05:00

This week as been about rain, which means we haven't watered the garden in a week now, and tomatoes.

Matthew's tomato bush got so big it dragged it's cage over, so I just left it there. That hasn't stopped it from producing and growing.

I believe we picked 22 tomatoes. Matthew has been encouraging us to eat tomatoes, not that he wants to eat them!

The only other garden news is that the luffa vines are taking over radish plants and starting to bloom. They better set fruit soon if we're going to get anything! For that matter, all the squash better start setting soon!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 14

2011-08-08T15:20:00.004-05:00

Finally, I have time to post and finally I can say that we got rain! Three nights in a row we got rain, amounting to 3.70" total. This morning we got another 1/2" so thing are looking happier!

That and the temps have dropped some. Now I have weeds to pull.

I believe my favorite marigold bloomed and the cinnamon basil has pretty blooms.

The one lone green that the rabbits haven't ate.

Matthew's tomato plant has had some ripe tomatoes this week. He actually ate half a tomato before he remembered he didn't like tomatoes, yea!

San Antonio trip days 3 & 4

2011-08-03T10:00:00.008-05:00

Friday, Phil took the day off, so we slept in. Then we got up and took Matthew to his first ever movie in the movie theater. We hoped to see Cars 2, but Matthew picked Winnie the Pooh. It was cute and short. After that we went home, ate, and relaxed. Then we took off to go bowling and have supper at the bowling alley.

*photo by Mom

It was the first time Mom had bowled in 36 years. Matthew looked so cute in his bowling shoes I wanted to take them home. He was so excited! He has obviously gotten that from his dad and Grandma Bev.

Then we went shopping for groceries for Phil and scored a kick board for Matthew. So of course we had to go swimming again.

Saturday was another slow start. Then we got into 2 movies on tv. After we tore ourselves away, we headed back downtown. Some of the architecture was just awesome.

We drove right by the Tower of the Americas, but we decided that it's restraurant was too expensive and Phil didn't want to go to the top just for the view, so we didn't go see it.

My Dad highly recommended going to see The Alamo, so we headed to find it. Turns out we drove by it the first night and didn't realize it.

These were the barracks. *photos by Mom

Mom and Matthew in front. They consider it a shrine, so we aren't allowed to take photos inside.

Here we are on the street side. *photo by Mom

After looking at The Alamo, we went looking around at stores and buildings in the area. I found a clothing store that had all it's clothes 50% off and got a couple things. I would have liked to get a ring too, but Phil wasn't springing for it. After that we cruised the Ripley's strip trying to figure out what we wanted to pay big bucks to see. We finally decided on the Ripley's Believe it or Not!, but Matthew was scared so he had to be carried in. He still calls it the weird museum. Today he called it the fake museum. Hmmmm....

While in Ripley's Believe It or Not! there was a couple spots for kids to play. Here is Matthew on the largest tire in the world. *photo by Mom

And here he is in a weird tunnel that I refused to go through. Good thing Phil was there! *photo by Mom

After that, we were tired and hungry, so we went and found the Brazil steakhouse Phil wanted to try, but it ended up being $42 a plate per person, so off we went to the Riverwalk again. This time, we decided to eat at a Tex-Mex restraurant, on it's balcony.

I was staring at the Tower of the Americas.

To my right was Coyote Ugly. We'd fallen in love with their huge flags.

To my left was the river and stores up and down. It's amazing maze of levels and buildings down there. A few minutes after our food came, a small storm fueled by the tropical depression at the coast, came through and we had to go in. We were supposed to take Mom to the beach, but weren't able to because of the storm.

Here is Phil and I going over one of the many bridges the first day. *photo by Mom

Somehow we got free tickets to the wax museum, so after we ate, we went through. I finally got to meet Sarah Jessica Parker. I don't think they did her justice. She looks a little scary. *photo by Phil

Then we walked back to the car and went home to, you guessed it, swim! Matthew would have been fine living in the pool, I think. And that is the whole trip in a nutshell!

San Antonio trip days 1 & 2

2011-08-02T09:31:00.008-05:00

Early last Tuesday, Matthew, Mom and I got in the car and headed south to visit Phil. We got there late in the evening and got sorted out for the evening.

Wednesday, Phil went to work and we sat around relaxing at the apartment. Mid afternoon Phil got home and we decided to go to the riverwalk. I managed to take off without my camera. Thankfully Mom packed hers.

The riverwalk is a beautiful blend of water, bridges, buildings, shops, and restraurants. *photo by Mom

But man was it hot. Matthew and Mom were dying and stopped for drinks. *photo by Mom

Matthew and I got to see the "knees" of swamp trees that we read about in one of his books. *photos by Mom

After this Mom's camera died, so we missed alot of photo opportunities. We found an icecream store, Justin's, that had gelato. It was good, but not nearly as special as I thought it would be. That stuffed me, so when we stopped at Mad Dogs, a British pub, for dinner, I really wasn't hungry. After that we were so tired and hot, we walked back to our parking garage and went home.

Thursday, in the late morning, we met Phil at his job at Brooke Army Medical Center. We ate in the cafeteria, which was yummy. Then we walked around with him, while he checked on things for work. We almost had to go home, because Matthew was walking on the little wall next to Phil in this photo and fell off. He skinned up his knee so bad, Matthew was convinced he couldn't walk. But he pulled it together. And thank goodness, because it's amazing the facilities they have for the soldiers and their families. It made me proud to be part of it. *photo by Mom

We went to Phil's favorite building, which is the Warrior and Family Support Center. It is amazingly beautiful and full of every convenience you could possibly want for the soldiers and families. And the most amazing part is that it was built totally from donations and is completely run by donation. If you are looking for a cause to support, this is the place folks. It is awesome. And very needed.

Above the fireplace, which is what you see when you walk in, is this beautiful butterfly art. It was designed by a recovering solider based on a story of something that happened to family members. The story goes that one particular unit had been hit hard and as a result, had many seriously wounded soldiers. There was a period of time, where some where dying. When the family members of the deceased would walk out of hospital, a butterfly would land on their shoulder. This happened every time someone died. Doesn't that make you smile and cry all at once? *photo by Mom

After our little tour, we went home and let Phil finish up stuff he needed to do.

After Phil got home from work, we traveled north out of town and arrived at Natural Bridge Caverns. We decided to take the Discovery Tour. This is a photo of the sink hole. Once upon a time, it was probably the upper room of the caverns.

Here is the natural bridge, the only thing really left on the surface.

Here is the beginning of the tour, where the tour guide announced that we should be wearing walking shoes and I'm in flip flops and a sundress. Lovely.

Descending down. We aren't allowed to touch the walls. It is so steep that we need to hang on and go slow. The path is wet and slippery as well, but Matthew only fell once and somehow I managed to stay up right in flipflops.

The formations were amazing. It was worth the steepness and fear from the wrong footwear. After we crawled up and out of the caverns, we headed back home and went to our favorite Mexican restraurant. Sadly they have a new cook, who doesn't cook to our taste, but it was ok. After we got home, we took Matthew to the pool and played in the water. Phil taught him more in one evening, then a whole week of swim lessons, last year. It was a great day!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 13

2011-08-01T18:06:00.004-05:00

WARNING! The following photos aren't for the faint of heart gardeners.

I'd also like to announce that we are late again, because we just got back from TX. I was going blog from down there, but I left the camera AT HOME!

This photo isn't bad, just some noodle beans that haven't been munched curling. The scary part is that all the green beans are gone and half of the noodle bean vines have been munched through at the ground and then left alone. If you are going to kill the plant, at least eat it!!!

This was the one bright spot, finally a baby female zucchini, but something went wrong with it while we were gone. Hopefully it's just the start, not the lone female blossom, like last year's pumpkin experiment.

It's so dry and so hot (most days over 100 which is extremely hot for here) that I am working overtime to try and keep everything going. Being gone only increased the problem, although Dad did keep most of the garden watered. Thanks Dad!

Isn't this sad? Only green grass is around the garden. Even the garden looks half dead.

Bright spot when we arrived home, Matthew's sunflowers are blooming!

Matthew was so thrilled he dragged Mamaw out to see.

My favorite spot in the garden, Matthew's space, looks pathetic. Last week it was full of blooms and clover and masses of carrots.

The last horror of the week, Matthew's tomato pushed it's self over, even with cage. But it has so tomatoes and they are starting to turn red. Hopefully the flavor is good.

I found a hornworm on one of the volunteer tomatoes and was very happy to find parasitic wasp larvae on it. I moved it and let nature do it's thing. The rabbits have not been stopped by the repellant I resorted to. For that matter, neither were the shrews that are digging up and eating our daffodil and grape hyacinth bulbs. I'm sooo discouraged about it all, that I'm seriously considering just not going out anymore and giving up. It's time to plant fall/winter crops, but with all the rabbit problems I say, why bother? But I bet tomorrow I'll be up watering anyway and planning where to place stuff. Here's hoping everyone else is having a more full-filling gardening week.

Munch, crunch, munch

2011-07-22T12:17:00.003-05:00

Day 3 of the Rabbit Wars. Epic fail. Moving on to Plan B.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 12

2011-07-21T18:42:00.005-05:00

Welcome to our garden on THURSDAY for a change. It's nice to chat on the right day and stuff has been happening around here.

Matthew saying, "Cheese."

Miracle of miracles, Matthew became interested in watering again.

I'd been so proud that in 100+ weather I was able to nurse my lettuce along and had high hopes of being able to pick a fresh tomato and harvest the lettuce finally. Those dreams are dead. Thank you rabbits, hope you feel better.

Matthew behind his tomato plant. I wish the tomatoes would hurry up and ripen. The leaves are curling, which I'm afraid is bad news.

Finally, a welcome visitor to our garden!!!

Nope, no blood has been shed here yet....for now it's just tabasico sauce. Hopefully it encourages the rabbits to not eat our beans. The blooming parts of the green beans have been pretty much munched off.

Except for a plant or 2, all the purple green beans have been mowed to the ground. And 3 of my noodle beans vine was munched through so now their vine is in a glass of water in hopes they can mature and be eaten.

And the best growing tomato volunteer has been heavily munched by a horned tomato worm. It was his misfortunate day to also take a nap on it.

Thankfully the red noodle beans are really blooming. If their vine doesn't get munched, we might have some beans. I picked these 2 and will eating them tomorrow. Yum!

Silver-ish tray

2011-07-21T10:46:00.005-05:00

Last Thursday we got up early and drove to KC so that we could be one of the first people in the doors at the Schlepp Sisters Antique Show. There was lots of pretty items, but very few I could justify buying. By there was one I was willing to buy...

This giant silver tray. I use silver loosely as I'm don't think it's truly sterling silver. Maybe plated very, very thinly on the top...

It has little legs, love that!

It even has a little rust in the corners. That makes me like it even more!

I can't wait to have a coffee table again. It will go right in the center to show off whatever it is I want to show off. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas will be particularly fun!

After shopping we got to see my aunt for a few hours which was fun! Well worth getting up for.

What we've been doing for the last month (cause it hasn't been blogging)

2011-07-18T08:15:00.005-05:00

Well, I'll tell you, we watched them harvest the wheat.

I've been running after beautiful butterflies trying to get the right shot.

We found the most precious, perfect blue egg. It lasted 3 days till Matthew grasp it too hard.

Taking photos of beautiful flowers.

Working on clearing out clutter and making Matthew's room, Matthew's.

Finally this month, I've started making the rounds to see friends. I've visited 3 cities and hung out with 7 of them now. This particular friend I haven't seen in over 7 years and by chance he was going in, as I was going out. I had to stop and take a photo, cause it's not everyday that some takes you out on the lake and whips you off a tube so hard that when you land you think you must have broken something. But that's another story.

One particular girl, I won't mention names, cough *ANGELA*, thought she could hide behind a shorter girl.

It's been a full month. One day I'll get the photos off my phone of Matthew and I's trip to see the Lego exhibit.

Summer Reading Program Party

2011-07-18T07:42:00.003-05:00

This year when the summer reading program was over, they decided to throw a party and announce the winners at that time.

Drumroll please...

"And for the 3-6 age group Matthew read the most minutes!" Over a 1000 in 6 weeks, but I don't remember the exact figures. He was speechless and looked confused. They gently dumped his bag at his feet. He won the bag, 3 hard back books and The Land Before Time movie. What a haul!

They painted and ate yummy foods and made balloon animals. This is Matthew's pink mouse.

They brought an author in to tell them a story. She acted out the story from her first book. Matthew was totally enchanted. It was a great party.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 11

2011-07-17T18:30:00.006-05:00

It has been truly hot and miserable around here. Matthew hasn't had any interest in the garden, except to add more dirt that he's dug out of the dog wallow.

Which has really made our participation a sham in this contest, but that's how it goes with high temps and 4 year olds.

I believe all the radish infestation is aphids, not that I've ever had them before. But it was truly gross. Many plants (10 at least) have said adiou and been burned, along with single leaves. I think we have the situation under control. Some squash plants have more light and I have seen good bugs like ladybug larve and ladybugs and assassin bugs tooling around, so things seem to be going along alright, for now.

The new variety of green bean is blooming prettily. The 1 plant of the old variety has given us some green beans. We might have enough to have a couple beans each now.

Boy, the garden really looks small with me in it. *photo by Matthew

Here he is doing the only other thing he likes to do in the garden right now, get wet.

We have yard long noodle beans growing. I should measure their growth, cause it's fast too.

Here's our macro shot. I can't wait for the 20+ tomatoes to mature.

We are getting sunflower heads growing. I'd say the sunflowers are around 6'5" tall. But that's a guess at this point.

Although aphids seem to love these plants, I love them too for their beauty and the fact that every time I find a squash bug, they are camping out on the radishes. Different plants have different bloom colors, white to dark purple.

I'm in love with the noodle beans blooms too.

I'm officially throwing up my hands with the strawberry seeds. I've gotten them all to sprout and grow and then try to burn up in the sun and heat and now I have a tree frog wallow in the pot. Obviously this isn't my year for strawberries!

To see what other families are doing in the garden go here.
To see our post from last week, that we didn't get linked in time, go here. It talks about the beginning of the aphid saga.

From our house to yours...

2011-07-12T09:07:00.002-05:00

Happy Belated 4th! We didn't do much this year, but we had fun anyway. I hope everyone had a marvelous 4th.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 10

2011-07-12T08:40:00.005-05:00

Well, we are almost a week late posting this week. It's been so hot out lately, we've been hiding out inside tackling projects. Chiggers have been out in full force causing me to avoid grass like the plague. I never had a single chigger bite until I was pregnant.
We do sneak out to the garden in the evening, after I've doused myself in bug spray from head to toe. This week we discovered some of our small squash plants have grown and are starting to flower.

Last week was my Mom's birthday. Our family bought her 2 kinds of morning glories and some beautiful dwarf zinnas. Matthew helped dig their holes.

This is my one closeup for the week. My camera was not cooperating.

So here is what it looks like now. The yard long beans are flowering. We harvested 7 purple green beans this week. The volunteer tomatoes are flowering. Matthew's tomato bush has over 17 green tomatoes on it. The peppers are flowering and have increased in number. The basil is big. The carrots are still crowded. Some of the radishes are nearing 5 ft tall. I had to pull and burn 5 radish plants because they were covered with little baby bugs. I've seen 2 squash bugs and both times they were on the radish plant (and then squished.) Since the squash all seems to be free of pests I guess the radishes are working out! I discovered I let some radishes go so long they set seed this week as well. Marigolds and nasturtiums are beginning to put on a color show. And last but not least, the sunflowers were 69" and are now taller then me!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 9

2011-07-01T09:09:00.004-05:00

This week our assignment was to send our kids out to the garden to snap photos. Well, except for the 1st 2 photos they are all Matthew's. The first 2 I took because we had our first harvest. Other then that, nothing much has changed in our garden. Things are still growing along, but not producing much yet!

Laying them out carefully for photographing.

Very proud of his tomatoes, that he still thinks are yucky. We have over 12 tomatoes growing. Maybe the lettuce and tomatoes are going to be ready to pick at the same time!

Very excited to call his Dad every few days to tell him how huge Daddy's salsa peppers are getting.

Beautiful butterfly visiting each and every radish bloom and his sunflowers. They were 37 1/2" last week (forgot to mention that.) This week they are 53 1/2". They grow fast!

Rosebush outside the garden.

Very closeup coneflower. Hope you enjoyed Matthew's tour. (He wasn't as into it week as last. He was more interested in dogs and yard and things not related to the garden. Oh well!)

To see more kids perspectives in the garden, go to Kim's post here.

7 years and counting

2011-06-26T21:18:00.001-05:00

Can't find your oatmeal?

2011-06-26T14:29:00.001-05:00

Try your boots.

One handled soup pots

2011-06-25T19:29:00.001-05:00

I went to an auction today. Soup anyone?

Can you dig it?

2011-06-24T21:52:00.003-05:00

At the end of the day, he had an awesome pit dug, a wonderful dog wallow, and he'd found a discarded indian spearhead that wasn't finished because it broke wrong. Awesome day.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 8

2011-06-23T17:53:00.005-05:00

Apparently we are ahead of the game this week, because I handed the camera to Matthew this morning and told him to take photos for today's post, before I saw that's our assignment for next week. Oh well. Each of our pepper plants has a big, probably full grown, pepper on it. *photo by Matthew

This guy and I played leapfrog in the garden today, he always manages to look wet, I wonder if he's a frog.

Matthew's tomato plant has a tiny tomato. It's that little blurry round thing up by the sun.

Sunflowers that are still alive. *photo by Matthew

All my other squash and gourds were pretty much duds this year, so I planted tons of luffa gourds on the hope that 1 would come up. I wasn't prepared for over 7 plants to come up! While watering, I transplanted some so they aren't so crowded. Crossing fingers in works. If not, oh well.

Marigolds are starting to bloom.

The radishes are light hogs. I pulled one today in the vain attempted to give a pattypan light and then just transplanted it instead. Then because only one 1 looked good, I went out and planted 3 more seeds. I'm only 2 months late, why stop replanting now???

Matthew got a mermaid last Friday. It lives in various areas of his garden patches.

His tomato plant is huge and doing great! It has tons of blooms, so we'll hope for alot of tomatoes.

Some of the tomato volunteers are getting big too.

Matthew has been learning the joy of picking your very own sun warmed strawberry, at the peak of yummy-ness. He wants us to start planting other fruit bushes. I can't wait to be home and do that myself.

Nastrisums are starting to bloom.

*photo by Matthew

I think our odd radishes are just about ready to pick. Apparently they need to be small, around a french green bean size. You can eat them raw, stir fried, or pickled. I wonder if a pickled radish would be yummy...

More random photos, some back from May...

2011-06-21T12:10:00.005-05:00

Peek a boo!

Blowing fruity bubbles.

Riding his Mamaw's childhood scooter back in May.

Multi-tasking! *photo by Matthew

The zoo brought animals, from around the world, for the kids to see, at last week's storytime. I fell in love with this silkie chicken. Look at those feet! And she was sooooooo soft.

So this past weekend was also our town's summer festival. It'd been such a week and so hot, humid, and stormy, we'd bypassed all the activities except for the flea market and the parade. At the parade, Matthew snagged some snakes from the fireworks float.

I think he is looking forward to the 4th.

Monday morning Matthew slipped outside and I caught him riding his new tricycle in his pjs and no shoes.

I forced him to at least put crocs on before he pulled his birthday wagon around. As usual, your gifts were a big hit Auntie!

We have 2 tree frogs that are loving the bugs that come to the window at night.

Finally, I think I'm caught up!

So off my schedule

2011-06-21T11:10:00.005-05:00

I have so many photos to share, but since Dad was in the hospital, I haven't been feeling like posting. Gotta get going!

So Sunday was a very busy day at our house. It was Father's Day. It was my parents 35th wedding anniversary. My aunt came to celebrate all the above and Matthew's birthday.

I started the day by going to out to check the rain gauge. But what is all the gunk at the bottom?

Oh, it's a little tree frog soaking up the rain in the gauge! And no it wasn't stuck, just soaking. So much for getting an accurate reading!

My aunt arrived with her large puppy, Sam. Scamp and Sam became fast friends. He had a great time being a real country boy.

After my aunt left, we went to one of Matthew's best friends, Piper's, birthday party. Yes, the 19th is a popular day for birthdates and anniversaries and stuff. Happy 4th birthday!

Then that night we had a big storm in the north of the county. I panicked a little when a tornado touched down and was headed right for our house up north. But this tornado didn't cause any damage thankfully. Although there was hail up there, it was small enough to not be a problem.

For 4 nights now we've had big storms. Last night we got hail, but thankful, it was pea sized. The way this day is looking, we may have day 5 on our hands!

Updating the look

2011-06-17T21:41:00.003-05:00

We are in the process of updating the bedroom. This wall still needs to be painted. But tonight we hung my great grandparents wedding photo with an old 48 star flag. I'm liking the direction it's going.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 7

2011-06-16T14:49:00.005-05:00

After we wrote our kinderGARDEN post on Sunday, we walked to the mailbox and discovered that the Saturday mail had brought us our seeds! Matthew thought we should plant right away, so we did. We now have 2 varieties of zucchini up 1 bush, 1 Italian Ribbed, 2 Ronde De Nice summer squash, 1 Jack Be Little, 4 pattypan squash, and 7 luffa plants! We replanted green beans for the 4th time and have 1 of the new ones coming up.

Things aren't looking so good in the sunflower world. 4 have bit the dust this week. The one above must have been eaten by a rabbit, the funny stalk one died, and another looked like it was snapped by the wind today.

Using the new watering can. I have to ask Matthew for permission to use it has he has claimed it as his.

Matthew was really scared of Granddaddy Longlegs, until we read about them and learned they eat some very nasty bugs. Now Matthew says, "Granddaddy's to the rescue!" Go eat some nasty bugs!

Everyone is interested in the rat-tail radishes. They are an asian variety that is supposed to be better at handling the heat than the traditional radish. Supposedly they set the radish above ground. In this picture, I believe is the beginning of our rat tail radishes growing.

Matthew pulled a carrot to see if it had become a mutant carrot yet. We discovered it wasn't really much of anything yet.

Another of the many visitors to the garden this week.

We found another strawberry by the sidewalk and it was heavenly!

The wind took out some beans, sigh.

Matthew's sunflowers have really grown this week. They are 32". That's 12 1/2" growth this week.

Matthew's plot really makes me happy. It's such a full cheerful spot. He lost a petunia, so we planted some of my new marigolds in it's place.

These carrots really need thinned...

4

2011-06-14T09:56:00.005-05:00

My day started at 7:10 am and didn't end till 10 pm. But it was worth every frantic moment because...

...it's not everyday your favorite boy turns 4! I wish I could have taken a photo of his expression when he saw the cake, but when you are the only other person home and you are holding the cake, you just have to burn it in your retina. It was pure joy at seeing exactly what he asked for made. Chocolate cake, chocolate icing with car decorations. (Hands down the best cake I've ever made, 100% homemade.)

We started the day by opening presents from Phil and I.

And eating chocolate cake for breakfast. Breakfast of champions right there!

After breakfast we got ready and made it to gymnastics on time. As soon as that was over, we zoomed to the new hospital, over an hour away, and saw the grandparents. His birthday lunch came from the hospital cafeteria, not what I had in mind, but a small price to pay for his Poppa getting fixed up.

After we left the hospital, we rushed home, grabbed cupcakes, and hurried to the park to meet his favorite little friends.

They had a great time!

Playing on the train, slides, and chasing each other around till red in the face.

His friends got him some awesome gifts. These bubbles smell like fruit, yum!

But I think the best present of all was late in the afternoon, the hospital released Poppa and we were able to eat supper as a family at home! It should be a memorable 4th birthday.

Bacteria

2011-06-12T15:46:00.006-05:00

Parents aren't supposed to get sick are they? Especially not sick enough to go to the hospital. For the first time since my Dad was a boy, he has landed in the hospital. We are all hoping it won't take 30 days for him to get out this time. The word is getting around here that he was in the hospital, so I'm going to go ahead and share. He was admitted Thursday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon our hospital felt he needed more care and he was sent to a bigger hospital, which caused us to start to panic. He has 3 different kinds of bacteria in his blood. The doctor thinks it came from an internal organ that is inflamed, like the gallbladder, kidneys ect, but won't know till they do an ultrasound tomorrow. On top of it, his heartbeat is irregular and just sitting on the side of the bed was making his heart beat double what it should. The doctor feels confident that they have caught it all in time and that the heart issue isn't as serious as it first seemed. We've all lost some sleep this week and have gotten behind on what we planned to do, but we are all ok. My Mom is out of town with my Dad, and Matthew and I are taking care of the house and pets. I just wanted to share why we haven't been around much this week. And perhaps next week as well.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 6

2011-06-12T12:54:00.006-05:00

After 3 days of long hours of work (and a little help from others) I managed to rescue the garden. Only about 8 onions got pulled up by mistake.

The beans are growing, along with everything else! The peppers have mini peppers. The lettuce is looking good. So is the basil and sage.

While weeding I found 7 volunteer pear tomato plants!

It's been hot and dry, so we've been watering alot. Mom bought us a big watering can, so now Matthew doesn't have to haul water in strange containers!

I planted rat tail radishes and they are getting huge! The one on the right is as tall as Matthew's tallest sunflower.

Some are crawling up the fence.

They have beautiful delicate purple blooms.

Last weekend I gave up on squash ever growing and ordered more seed (5 varieties) as well as more green beans and my favorite marigold. Yeah, they were faking me out. The very next day the first one popped up. I have 5 pattypan's up, 1 zucchini, and 1 Baby Boo or Jack Be Little. I guess I'll have plenty of seed for next year!

Matthew took time out to haul rocks in his big truck and beautify the front shade garden.

We've found lots of caterpillars (that we did away with), various little beetles, butterflies, and this beauty in the garden. Although things have been munched, we don't seem to have significant damage.

Well, insect damage that is. While Mom was trying to weed the sunflowers, it started to thunder. That's enough to panic Simba, their outside dog. He trampled one of Matthew's sunflowers. That led us to planted more to fill the holes in the line.

Then today we discovered this one has fallen over and that it has a very odd place on the stem. What is it? Anyone know?

This one also has a strange stem. Over all, most of them are doing ok. They grew 6 1/2" this week to top out at 19 1/2".

And finally, Matthew's strawberry plant is doing 10 times better then the ones we bought. I can't wait for these strawberries to ripen! I hope he shares.

Oh and Faith, Matthew wasn't scared by your carrot warning, he laughed!

To see how The Inadvertent Farmer deals with things like slugs, go here. :)

Beating the heat

2011-06-07T19:24:00.003-05:00

Boy is it hot. The summer heat has started, but we are finding ways to have fun anyway.

Everyday we've been watering, it's just that hot and dry.

We found a luna moth and had a wonderful time watching it.

Matthew turned off the soggy doggy so the moth would quit getting wet.

The iris are done for the season and the lilies are starting.

The purple clover and the strawberries are intermingling.

What have the rest of you been up to this week?

Salty water

2011-06-04T18:06:00.004-05:00

We went to Corpus Christi, to play at the beach, one day of our vacation. Entering town, there was American flags flying from equipment all over.

Some kids are scared of the ocean, but not this boy. He ran right in.

It was extremely windy, bringing big waves, so he needed a little help to stay upright.

While we were driving around we saw the USS Lexington, but we didn't visit it. We had a great time. The biggest thing Matthew had to say about it was that there was salty water that hurt his eyes! But he's ready to go back!

Without further adu...

2011-06-04T10:38:00.005-05:00

...RODEO!

It's getting hard to take a photo without the tongue hanging out!

Typical walking in shot.

Just like the big cowboys.

Old glory in the distance.

The crowd was visited by the "Miss Rodeo Universe" and boy was "she" something.

They informed her, she couldn't drive a car, she had to ride a horse.

Oh boy.

Anyone that has photos of Phil when he was young, will instantly recognize this expression. I believe there isn't a shadow of a doubt that he is Phil's son!

Matthew's 5th rodeo (if you count the time he was a week away from being born) was a rip roaring success!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 5

2011-06-03T17:15:00.005-05:00

While one of us was seeing the ocean for the first time (that would be Matthew) and enjoying a week with Daddy... (For those of you that are new, I am married to a man in the Army. He is in a "deployment" position, which means we aren't able to live with him, but we are able to visit!)

...our garden was growing. Lots and lots of grass that is. I have alot of tedious weeding to do. Tedious because I've already pulled up 2 cinnamon basil seedling while trying to free them from the weeds.

After our 12 hour drive back from TX yesterday, I'm still a little tired, so I only got the peppers and the basils freed so far.

Matthew measured his sunflowers and found that they have really grown. They are 13" this week.

Matthew has a thick carpet of carrots! He is very proud of that as well. But after 2 mins of weeding, he was done. Oh well!

A side note about our strawberries. Our strawberry pampering is going well, as I found a sprout today. They made their trip to and fro well. Matthew's strawberries, although they say that they are same kind as the ones Mom and I bought, they have white flowers and are growing faster. Same kind, I think not! The ones in the flower beds have some small strawberries growing.

To hear Kim's exciting news about the author of Sunflower Houses, Sharon Lovejoy, go here.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 4

2011-05-26T18:44:00.005-05:00

It's been a very slow week. We've had such lovely rain, that we only had to water 1 time this week. And my great helper took it upon himself to water what needed to be watered. His watering can is in TX, so we have to use what we can find.

He had so much fun that he watered some plants that didn't. All the same stuff is growing as last week. We did some weeding in between showers. The carrots are starting to get their real leaves and Matthew is refusing to thin at this time. The squash is steadfastly refusing to sprout. I have even planted more. I might order some more in case the seed is too old.

We started the great strawberry experiment again. We water from below and mist on top. I want to keep the varieties in their sections. I'm so protective of them, this pot is already packed in the car to head south tomorrow. I know, there's something wrong with me!

And the biggest news around here is that we've have hummingbirds! We saw them buzzing our iris and peonies Monday, and then when they were buzzing the red coleus at the end of the walk, we knew we needed to make sugar water pronto! So far, this is the best shot I've managed to get. I'm going to keep stalking them.

Hopefully the garden can take care of itself because we're going to be gone till next Thursday. Beach, here we come!

To read Kim's post, go here.

Cowboy

2011-05-25T16:25:00.003-05:00

The store called yesterday and said the boots were in. Well, we had the hat, the shirt, the belt, and now the boots, so I figure we better get the real Wrangler rodeo jeans.

I think I might have created a real cowboy.

The guys were pretty proud.

And then the boy was so proud, he insisted I start a photo shoot.

They make the boy, I mean cowboy. And just in time for the rodeo.

Track and Rain

2011-05-25T08:31:00.003-05:00

We got up early yesterday morning to walk with the second graders to and from their track and field day. Boy have track and field day changed from my youth. In my day, there was events like the relay race, potato sack race, high jump, long jump, and 50, 100 yard dash. Today there is some running but more events like foxtail, softball throw, tin can race, shuffle run, and hitting the ball of the T-ball stand. I miss the old events. Dare I say they were better? Now it lasts 2 hours, back when I was little, it was an all day event. At least they still get ribbons.

15 minutes after we got the second graders back to the school, it started to rain. It stopped and then in the evening we had storm after storm hit. Luckily, no tornadoes or hail, but the wind was wild. I'm sure the garden is happy for the over 2" it received! The toad certainly seemed to like it.

Icecream and chores

2011-05-23T21:00:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy day. We visited my Grandmom, stopped at the library to find out when storytime ends and summer reading programs begins, and came home for lunch. After lunch we napped, played, scared a wild turkey in the woods, watched a hummingbird fly around our flowers, watched goldfinches eating in the yard, sprayed our strawberries seeds, watered various plants and...

went for an afternoon treat. After supper we watched the cottonwood fuzz aka seeds float around the yard. It's been a pretty good day.

Getting back on track

2011-05-22T12:53:00.006-05:00

It's been noticed by some that I haven't been posting as much as usual. I apologize, I have every intention to, but I do so much here that by time I can start blogging, around 9 pm, I'm so tired I don't. But have no fear, we'll try to squeeze it into the daytime routine!

Above and below fun with the 2 snails we talked about in the week 3 kinderGARDEN post.

They sure tickle as they slime along. One tried to go up Matthew's shirt sleeve! Today we had to go look for more. We found 3 more where we left the other 2. Matthew was delighted. He really wants to keep them for pets. I had to take the 3 out today as he pouted.

With the recent rains, came lovely deep puddles to blast through.

My favorite peony bloomed! It smells heavenly.

Yesterday we decided to take the lawn mower tire back up to our house and try and get it put back on so that we could mow. As I was preparing to leave, Matthew came running around the house with a baby bunny. He was so proud because he had gotten it away from Scamp. We took it 1/4 of a mile south of our house to a field we own and left it there. That field is not in Scamp's daily routine, so we hope it does well. We checked on it when we got home and it was gone. Matthew was most unhappy as he wanted to keep it, but no one I know has ever been able to keep a wild bunny alive at home. Finally he decided that it's mommy bunny found it and took it back to our house. All was well.

I suppose it was a matter of time till the Tonka's were introduced to the deep mud pit.

Baby birds we've been watching.

I think the Tonka's need a bath!

Last night, 30 miles away as the crow flies, this storm that I took photos of, produced a monster storm that involved a tornado hitting a small town. I'm glad that we've missed the wild weather so far. The turkey vulture didn't mind the wild clouds rolling by.

A Matthew update moment: For about a month now Matthew has been telling the education cartoons what letters and numbers are on the screen. He can recognize the alphabet with almost 100% accuracy. He can recognize to 10 with the same accuracy. In calendar form, he can count to 31. He can count to 12 on a clock correctly and it starting to understand how to tell time slightly. He can count backwards from 5 and possibly 10. He is memorizing short simple books faster. His cause and effect and reasoning skills improve all the time. He is trying to use hypothesis correctly and make hypotheses. I think he's an amazing little guy.