Beautiful Day

This is a strip of the quilt for Torsten, Meredith's youngest. His brother decided his favorite color is blue...I will be interested to know what he thinks it is when he is finally talking!! This is a view of the first quilt I made, it is for Eleanor, my friend Helen's daughter. I tried to use a heart theme, but I'm the only one who seems to see it. Oh, well. All the rain we've had was good for the zucchini I guess!! This is today's harvest. Jason's mom gave me a recipe for frozen pickles that I will be putting to use today!! So, the zucchini win. I'm always tempted to capitalize Zucchini....but really think that's just going to go straight to their heads!! I know bad bad bad. The tomatoes are very crowded and I'm thinking of taking one out...we won't be eating that many anyway.....Jason is going to try and restake them as I did a less than satisfactory job at that last week. I say it's less than satisfactory by the way. :) So, school sewing and making things with my friends. Life is pretty good this summer!!

Growing

Aiden with the Guano, chillin', There's a caterpillar in the dill and Serenity wants to keep it. That child is fearless with nature! This is a fraction of the collection, they went through all of them before it was over and Jason came up with a structured game for them to play, I'm so proud of him! Happy 4th of July! Iris looks SO MUCH like Joella, it blows me away. And she's become quite the adventurer, wanted to go as far in the cave as she could, further than Aiden! WOW, been a month, that's no good, no way to have a blog. LOL. OK, We had the children last weekend, pictures above, and are only just now getting caught up. Jason basically worked 10 days in a row, silly man. I am so lucky and blesses and all the rest to have him. He is so good for me. He makes me excited to live the rest of my life with him. This is a nice peace. Other good news, I've lost 19lbs!!! Lost it pretty fast, three weeks, so I'm thinking it will slow down soon, but I'm not giving up. I want to be able to enjoy the rest of my life with him, and to do that I must be healthy. Much healthier than I am now. It's hard. And stinks. I don't like being hungry and I don't like not making and eating cookies whenever I want, but the trade off for not doing those things is HUGE. So, here I go!! I've been doing a lot with the crazy quilts and am so grateful to Linda, Jason's mom, for the fabric and notions she was able to get for such a crazy discount! I will post about the sewing and some other things maybe even later today. School has been great. I switched teachers and am so much happier. I told Jason last week that every morning should begin with Dr. Murray. I guess it helps to love the subject too. Music history of the 19th cen. :) Heaven! You can KIND OF see the garden in the picture of the girls with their sparklers, it's huge!!! Overflowing actually. Need to post about that too. Would have taken pictures this morning, but the rain nixed that. It was great to work out there in the rain. Ah, life is very good. :)

I Might Be Crazy

This is what I walk into and away from while gardening...when the windows were all open he'd sit in one and meow at me. He doesn't want outside as much as just wants to be where the awake one is. As you can see, we've experienced some growth. Jason thinned the onions a bit and we ate the yummie little ones with a fish and rice dish he made. It was delicious! I like to do companion planting to cut down on the bad bugs and such, it's a very organic way to garden. (On a side note, when I first heard of organic gardening I about flipped. Isn't gardening organic by nature? But then I learned more about the pesticides and plant foods used and how they are so bad for everyone....it always helps to try and get the WHOLE story before getting all up in arms about a thing.) One of the things about companion planting is the use of marigolds. I used to HATE them. Mostly their scent. It's harsh, and there was a time when I thought orange was about the ugliest color ever.....times change, there are 30 marigolds in our garden. They are edible, the flowers taste peppery, or so I've heard. Jason's folks came for a visit earlier and I went to my first baseball game! I've been to basketball games and played softball--sort of-- and volleyball, but this was a real first. We had a great time, Jason, Joe and Linda were great about making sure I knew what was going on and we had a very nice time....even if the local team was having it's ass rather thoroughly kicked. HA! So, why I might be crazy. I'm in a graduate level course for five weeks. I'm liking it so far, and excited about the projects, just nervous that there won't be enough time in the day. I know school comes first, but there are so many projects I want to work on!!! So I'm working out an hourly schedule for the four days a week I'll be in class and babysitting. I think that will help. Below is a picture Jason took. I guess he couldn't resist. I hadn't even brushed my hair! But the dough needed to start rising, we do what we need to do!

Garden

This is the garden the first day we planted, which was the day after it was built. One week later... you can kind of see the radishes and zucchini that have sprouted! Tomatoes, Basil, Eggplant, Okra and some peppers. Everything is even bigger now, but the Eggplant has some kind of bug, so we need to get after it and do some more companion planting! There are also some weeds. So this is my big plan for today, house chores and Gardening. :) I want to post some pictures of the things I've been making as well, so there is another post in the near future.

Not Too Shabby

Just cleared up a HUGE mishap with my grades for this spring. I thought I'd have 5 A's and a B, but when I checked I had the 5 A's, but the B was an F? So I double checked my math and the website the professor used for the class which had my grades for everything and my attendance...sure enough, should be a B. I emailed him immediately and he told me he'd fix it and was very sorry. YAY!!!

I have had a computer, math or science class every semester prior and therefore had at least one C in each semester. This is the best so far and I'm very proud. And I managed to do this while planning a wedding and moving and getting married....doesn't seem possible. That is, it doesn't seem possible until I think about all the wonderful loving support I had from family and friends and especially my wonderful husband. He gets all A's in my grade book!

I've been wondering why I feel so brain dead this week. Perhaps this has something to do with it. So I'll ease up on myself and get busy next week.

Who am I kidding? I don't even sit still well when I'm sick! HaHaHa

BABIES!!!

So these go in reverse, this is one of our babies just 10 days after we could see their little beaks above the nest! Jason took this one, he got on the grass for a close up. I think this was 7 days after we could first see their beaks. They grow SO FAST!! Feed Me! This is three days after first seeing their beaks. Adorable! I am completely smitten. And sad that they aren't in the nest anymore. But yesterday the mama brought one in the back yard while I was out there. The baby got very close to me, just hop, hop hopped up to me like he knew me! Mom was close at hand and making sure I didn't do anything dangerous. So I just said hi and told him I was so happy he was doing well and learning to fly and feed himself. Jason wants to get a birdbath out there and set up a feeding station. I have some of Grammy's bird feeders, thinking about continuing the birdhouse collecting tradition too, we shall see. We also got our garden started. We have 4 tomatoes, 8 peppers, 4 eggplants, a bunch of onions, carrots, radishes, spinach, beans and peas, zucchini and okra. Also rosemary, 3 kinds of basil, 2 kinds of thyme, dill, tarragon, savory, oregano and sage. I don't think I left anything out. And of course, lavender and peppermint. And I want more herbs, hopefully soon. :) Jason was happy that all it takes is some dirt and plants and I'm ecstatic! He is so wonderful. And his back is so much better, still not 100%, but he worked so hard out there with me, and we took turns mowing. Life is pretty great.

I think I'll add a photo from the wedding, this is my sis, me and my cousin. This photo is a lot like one taken about 9 years ago for my Grammy's 80th birthday. Her 89th is Tuesday. My Cousin David took this photo. He took over 300! So awesome.

I miss Grammy, she always said she would dance at my wedding every time I stated that I would never marry. But she has been bed ridden for a few years now. The first time she met Jason, he hadn't proposed, I wasn't even thinking marriage, but she pulled me down close and asked if "we'd set a date". When I told her no, we're not engaged, she said, "you should". I was so relieved when Jason hadn't heard that! She is suffering from dementia, one time when I went to see her I think she thought I was her younger sister, I told her my mom would be there it a while and she was acting like a little kid and telling me we wouldn't tell "her", mom, about "it". I'm not sure what "it" was, but she figured things out once mom and I were both there in the room. So when Jason and I went to see her and give her an invitation to the wedding,

(she was the first to receive one) it was incredible that she remembered him! Even his name and how he was connected to me.

She has had such an impact on my life. There are so many things about me that she always knew and would talk about with me without my having told her about them in the first place. She was constantly telling me she was proud of me, that she loved me and that she was praying for me daily. I was always worried that I didn't/don't deserve that kind of love, that I'm not worthy of her pride, but I've come to realize that she was giving me something to strive for while at the same time assuring me that I as I am at anytime am loved and treasured beyond measure. I know she feels that way about all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is a treasure, a blessing. I'm so grateful to my Aunt and Uncle in Joplin for making sure she is well cared for and as comfortable as possible in these last years.

Speaking of pride, I got 100% on the final exam in one of my music classes and that secured as A in that class. I'm always temped when I get 100% to think that they were being nice and gave it to everyone. But I know that I would never do that as a teacher, so I hope no one does it for me. I'm now very motivated to hit the books and finish this semester right!

And one more thing. Vicky asked our friend Jen to bring the DVD of last falls Hips Noir over so I could watch my solo. It was my first belly dance solo and I have this memory of just standing up there twirling my veil around like a lasso.....but that only happen for a few seconds toward the end, and whereas the preceding stuff wasn't exactly what I'd practised, it wasn't BAD. And I know what I want to do this year, and have the motivation to do it! Good times.