Creating Life... and then eating it. Part Two

Subtitled: my own personal backyard oasis.

So, the last time I posted about my amateur gardening efforts, I showed you a nice picture of my 70 something sprouts that I was planning to transplant into my garden. I'm not so proud to announce that despite what I thought were my best efforts, the vast majority of those seedlings have since withered away into oblivion. Shoot.

As a result, I'm moving onto what I am referring to as "Plan B."

Plan B consists of mooching off of the starters that my mother has been able to produce using her super awesome greenhouse and buying the rest from a nursery.

I bought a voucher for plants from a nursery at less than half price (thank you City Deals) and went to collect the other day. I gave half of it to my sister because I might have been responsible for killing her starters. And she made Jane a jean skirt. And I kinda like her.

I have successfully sprouted some Sugar Snap Peas. Hooray for me! These are in one of the kid's pots where we're planting things that they'll like to watch grow and pick themselves later. I have visions of my well behaved children frolicking in our lush garden and joyfully harvesting the fruits of their labors in coordinating outfits. Methinks I might end up being disappointed.

I'm totally ready to get planting, but it keeps snowing! And my backyard is sort of a work in progress at the moment. Mostly, it looks like a junk yard.

Lots of junk back there right now. And very little grass. And no sprinklers. And a large pad with rebar sticking out of it every couple of feet. But we DO have a nice, new, expanded patio....

a very large driveway,

a rockin' playground,

and several cubic yards of manure that literally steams when the sun hits it right. (not pictured)

So perhaps, by the end of the season, it will be something worth looking at. Wish us luck, though, we're gunna need it.

I'm A Phoenix

Brent has graduated from MBA school. Yup. It's official.

I mean, he's got one more night of class that he's got to go to on Thursday, and a huge paper, and a test, but if you don't count those things, he's totally, completely finished with MBA school.

Since the students at the good ol' U of P all graduate at different times, they seem to just pick a day to hold their commencement and anyone with their own, personal end in sight is permitted to walk. Brent debated whether or not he should walk - for about 5 seconds - and then told me that he'd like to. I told him that I would be disappointed if he didn't since I'd had my title for this post picked out for about a year. I knew he'd walk. He's fancy and formal like that.

I know, I wore this dress in the last picture I posted, but in all fairness, I'm kinda short on summer-y dresses at the moment.

Jane and Lizzy came to the ceremony and they held in there until after Brent walked. Then they got restless, so we ran around outside until the graduates emerged.

They were so happy to be with him.

It would be better if you couldn't see up my nose in this photo, but I'll take what I can get.

You'd better believe it. Class of 2022, here she comes!

Brent's been amazing the last couple years. I can't believe how well he manages work, school, church and us.

Congrats Grad.

Dese my keys.

"dese my keys, mommy. dese my keys."

"Ya? Those are your keys?"

"yaaaaa. day doan work."

Several photos that weird me out.

I took this photo yesterday before dance photos. This is a photo of my 6 year old. She's six. Not to be confused with 10 or 12 or any age other than 6. Is this a glimpse of things to come?

Yes, I realize that I have created this. It isn't as though she's capable of accurately applying liquid eyeliner to herself. In my weak, shameful defense, I was trying to bribe her younger sister into cleaning her room and getting her pictures taken by offering to do a full makeup on her when Jane jumped on the offer and cleaned her room up lickety split. Lizzy never did. She didn't even get her pictures done. I guess that is just one of the many differences between my two girls. When makeup is calling, Jane answers.

Actually, Lizzy answers too, but she's more interested in applying it herself...

Nice lipstick, Biz.

We took a lot of pictures. In part because Jane is never opposed to having her likeness taken, but mostly because every time I looked at her, I had to make sure that I got a picture of her all dolled up.

She's growing up WAY too fast.

And I'm totally weirded out.

Happy Easter!

I figured that it was about time I posted some family photos, even if they leave something to be desired...

Hope that everyone had a delightful Easter Sunday!

Lizzy's Birthweekend

Let it be known, that I actually sat down to post this on Sunday night, but then I got sick. Literally. It was really weird. I spent the weekend making all of Lizzy's birthday dreams come true and on Sunday night, I tucked the kids in bed, Brent and I cleaned the kitchen, I sighed and big sigh and then... I sat. Within about 30 minutes, I got all shaky and feverish, my head started to ache, I got congested and achy. I believe I was in tears by the time I snuggled in under my 50 blankets. It was a lot to process all at once. My family has been really good taking care of me, and I'm finally feeling like I can re-enter the living world, but that is my excuse for not posting.

Anyway... It was Lizzy's 4th birthday over the weekend. See?

FOUR!

And in all of the 4 years that my darling has been alive, I don't feel like she's ever had a legitimate birthday celebration. She's my forgotten child. When she was blessed, we had no celebration because we were remodeling our kitchen. On her first birthday, we were moving. For her second and third birthdays, I don't remember what we did, so it wasn't much. In the grand scheme of things, I know it doesn't really matter, but the perceived neglect has been weighing heavily on my mind and my heart and I was determined to rectify the situation this year. So celebrate, we did!

We had a princess party on Friday, because, when your 4, is there any other kind of party? We did have a couple princes come too, which was really cute.

Miss Biz chose this outfit, which looks kinda more like a flapper to me than a princess, but it was her party.

We decorated with my favorite paper chains...

We made crowns, which turned out to be a little more complicated than I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was obviously unreasonable.

And there were lots of hugs. We made it through the the party with relatively few tears, lots of smiling little kids and one extra happy Lizzy.

But we were just getting going because her birthday wasn't actually until Sunday. We had Brent's parents and Leslie and her family for dinner, where Lizzy got round two of cake and presents.

See? She's 4 again. And she got a new bike because she left her old one under the rear wheel of Jaime's van last fall and, well, it's no longer with us. Even Jaime couldn't fix it.

But her favorite thing was actually her new swim suit. And the "paper money" her Grammy gave her.

So those two celebrations, plus her special day at preschool and her special day at church left her feeling very much the star of the weekend. And apparently I gave myself the flu over it. I hope she doesn't expect me to do this again for her next year.

Creating Life... and then eating it. Part One

Let's face it. I've been married for 9 years in May. I've owned a home with a sizable back yard for 8. I have 3 children, a cat, a dog and a minivan. I make crafts and sell them at local markets for some extra pocket cash. I cook all our meals gluten free and from scratch.

It's about time I figured out how to grow a successful garden.

Funny how overwhelming it can be. But I'm trying. I've got all the goods ready to go, waiting for the snow to stop snowing and in the meantime, I've got all my seeds a-growing in my sunny, warm laundry room. Sow far, sow good. HA! (it's getting late. sorry)

I spent all morning transferring my 72 seedlings and half of Leslie's seedlings into larger pots. Leslie foolishly left her precious sprouts with me for the week while she went gallivanting around Disneyland. She told me to treat her plants like my plants, so when I started replanting mine, I started on hers too. Unfortunately, I realized about half way through that she labeled her tray differently than I did and therefore, her pots are marked wrong. Oops. Instead of a victory garden this year, she'll have a mystery garden. HA! (again, did i mention how tired i am?)

Come on, sweet basil, you can do it! Eat well and get lots of sun so that you can grow big and plump... so that I can eat you.