Blame it on the Rain

Since I planted my garden last month, I haven't really done much with it. I've weeded about a dozen times, but that's about it. I blame it on the rain. First off, it's rained almost every day since I planted. Second, I just wanted to say that because I liked that song.

But beside that, look how well it's going. The peas are shooting up (some are over six inches). I think the two bottom middle squares are spinach and they look just great. The two on the end next to the spinach are beets and there are quite a few (still really small though). I believe the two top middle are lettuce and the two top corner are carrots. The carrots aren't coming up but I have some of everything else.
I also have four tomato plants that still need to be planted. I'm a little scared about that because of how cold it's been. Maybe next weekend I'll risk it.

But I'm proud of my garden. Hopefully this year I'll actually get a harvest. Good luck to me.

Joseph's Room

So I was laying awake in bed a few nights ago (dealing with a mild case of insomnia right now. So much fun) and I realized I had never posted pics of Joseph's new bedroom. These pictures were all taken before his dresser got put in there, but it still gives a pretty good idea of what it's like.


He's now sleeping in a toddler bed. We haven't had any problems with that. Except now he thinks "the sun is up, I need to be up" Not so fun at 5:30 Saturday mornings.

I love that he has a place for his toys that isn't in my living room. And he even plays in here some times.

The inversion table and big exercise ball going in this corner. Only because it's the only place in the whole house where there is room.

He loves his books (and his bookshelf).


His dresser is now along this wall and the chair is next to his bed. And that window in the kitchen? It's what reminds him the sun is up (it faces east) and wakes him up and unnatural hours of the morning. Needless to say, I'm not a morning person.

It's been great having him in his own room. He goes to be so well (most of the time) and he hasn't fallen out once (okay, only once, but I think he was partially awake and was trying to get out of bed at the time).

How does your garden grow?

Growing up we had a garden. We lived on a small lot, but my dad dedicated half of our backyard to a garden. Here you can see the different boxes where we planted vegetables. Against the garage we had strawberries (usually).

I remember Saturday mornings spent weeding. Late summer mornings spent picking, and afternoons spent canning and freezing. I love that we always had a freezer full of vegetables and cans of fruits. Not all did we get from our garden. My mom's brother-in-law owns a farm and we got corn, peas, peaches, melons etc. from them. But we had so many that came from our own labors. I know that my parents were so pleased with that.

I just know I hated weeding. I don't like the figuring out where everything goes, making sure it has enough water, and keeping it alive until harvest time. I do love knowing that I am growing my own food. So I planted a garden again this year. Last year I didn't get anything. I had some beets, but they froze before they got big enough. My peas died while I was at girl's camp. And my tomatoes never got bigger than a grape (no, they were not grape tomatoes).

So this year I talked to a few people in my ward. One of the blessings of living out in the boonies, everyone plants a garden. And we have quite a few gardening geniuses in our ward. (Thank you so much). I went pretty small. Right now I only have five things planted. I learned that some things do better if they are planted when it is colder out. So I have peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, and spinach.
The racks are for my peas. In the box you see in the background I want to plant tomatoes (when it gets warmer) and melons. Hopefully I can get a harvest this year. I don't like pulling weeds any more than I did when I was a child. But I do like taking a bag of peas out of my freezer and knowing that I planted and weeded and harvested it.

Now, if only I could have a desire to do the same thing with flowers.

Joseph's birthday

So for Joseph's birthday (back in February) we went ice skating. We went over the summer and he had a really fun time. During the month of December, almost every show on PBS kept showing people (or animals) ice skating in an episode. Joseph kept asking to go ice skating, so I told him we could go for his birthday.

He had a blast. He fell down a bazillion times, but mostly he just laughed and tried to get up again. We did get him to skate by himself a few times, but he was very insecure about that. We invited all his aunts and uncles and cousins, but the only person who showed up at the rink was Josh's sister Melanee. Joseph didn't care, he was having fun.

Here he is trying to stay upright.

Here we are (me, Joseph, and Melanee)

Believe it or not, he's laughing so hard he can't get up.

Trying to teach him he needs to put his weight on his feet, not on Daddy.

After skating, we went back to our church to have cake and ice cream. We would have done it at our house, but we don't have enough room for more than 6 people. My sister Kirsten, my brother Jeff, his wife and their girls came up for this part. Also, Josh's parents and his sister April made it too.

Sadly, this is about the best picture of the cake. I wanted a good pic of it, but left that up to Josh, He was photographing Joseph. Joseph is making a funny face at Grandpa. Luckily he had fallen asleep in the car on the way back from the ice rink. He was ready to have fun again. If you could really see the cake you could tell it's lopsided. I saw this online and I fell in love with it. It didn't lean the way I wanted it to, but it still turned out really well.


Jeff, Michelle and their girls enjoying cake and ice cream.

Michelle and my beautiful sister Kirsten. (all my sisters are beautiful. I sure lucked out)

This is his sneaky smile so you know he's up to something. My little boy is 3. I'm glad he had a happy day. He still talks about it. We'll see what happens next year.

Singing with the "Chickens"

So we've started watching "The Partridge Family" on Antenna TV. Joseph loves it. He loves the song at the beginning and will come and sing along with them. He calls them the chickens because of the birds hatching during the theme song. I've tried to explain they are partridges but he says "no, they're chickens"
Now there are two different versions of the song. One starts "Come on now and meet everybody, and hear us singing" and the other says "Come on now there's a song that we're singing. Come on get happy." Well, Joseph has heard the first version the most and he knows most of the words. It's so cute to see him singing along.
Anyway, a couple days ago they started airing episodes with the second version of the song. Joseph came in to sing with them but when the singing started he looked at me and said "Mom, this isn't the Chickens. They're singing the wrong song." I wonder if I should call David Cassidy and tell him he's singing the wrong song.

Changes, always changes

So a couple of months ago they changed the Young Women organization in our ward. They released the whole presidency and then the next week got new advisers (except for me). I asked to be left in and the bishopric was more than happy to accommodate me. I was excited to stay in. I love the girls and I've loved teaching them. Plus, our girl's camps are always so much fun. I love it.

Last night a member of the bishopric called and asked if we could come in this morning before church. They asked if I would be the new primary chorister. This releases me from being the laurel adviser. I will miss those girls so much. They have taught me so much about myself, the gospel and life in general.

I'm excited to be the primary chorister. The last time I had this calling we had between 2 and 10 kids in our primary. We have over 40 in this ward, so it will be quite different. Now I need to learn how to speak to children again. I've gotten used to talking to teenagers, I need to learn how to talk to 4-11 year olds. And our primary meets all together. So no junior/senior primary. That will be interesting. I know that just as I received help from Heavenly Father for my previous calling, I will receive help for this one.

One thing I find funny, We've been in this ward for almost three years (May makes it 3). During that time I've been to Relief Society for about a month. We got called into Primary in June and were there for a year when I got called to YW. I've been in YW for almost two years and now I'm back in primary. When I finally get back to Relief Society, I won't know how to talk to adult women.


Anyway, I'm excited. Next year Joseph will be in primary and if he doesn't do well in singing time, I'll beat him up after church ;) Speaking of the little imp, here he is with one of his best smiles.

Cold, cold go away...

So we've been dealing with sickness at our house. I have been in bed with the flu for over a week. Joseph has been sick too (not that you would know with the energy he has), Josh has even started coughing the last couple days.

Speaking of my wonderful husband. Here are his graduation pics I've been promising.



His graduation was a busy day. I wish I could have had a better seat to get pictures of when he got his diploma. But I was wrestling with a two year old who wanted to go home and see his daddy. So he's all graduated and we are excited. Although, we are hoping for two more graduations in the next five years. I will graduate with my bachelor's (hopefully before my 40th birthday) and Josh will graduate with his master's in Social Work. Then we can work on getting Joseph to high school.

But back to being sick. So I have been incapacitated for the last week. I've gone to church to teach my lesson, and we had New Beginnings last week so I went to that. But other than that I've been in bed. (okay, so I took Joseph to the doctor last week but whatever). We keep our house at 69 degrees (trying to cut costs on that dreadful gas bill) but it's felt about 49 degrees to me. In our bathroom we have a "dream wall". It has pics of tropical areas, nice rooms, etc. We got the idea from "The Secret" (about the only thing I liked from that show). Every time I'm in the bathroom (been downing water to get me over my flu) I look at those pictures and imagine I'm sitting on the beach there. I need a tropical vacation. We are planning on going to California this summer, but man oh man, I need heat right now.

Josh took Joseph to run some errands with him today (thank you MLK for giving us a holiday today) So I can rest and relax a little. I love my boys, and I love where I live (not the house, but the area), but I would give almost anything to be alone on a beach with a good book right now. I'd also need someone who would bring me food and virgin daiquiris. I can't wait for summer to come. Usually I don't mind the winter. But this year I need spring. Maybe because my parents come home this summer. I don't know. Maybe I'm getting old.

Anyone know how I can get to the Caribbean on $10?