Some Gifts Actually Lead to Work

Don't you just love poppies?

Saturday I worked in the yard for most of the day.  I had to make a run to grab some compost for underneath one of our maple trees.  Nothing ever grows under that tree but grass.  As I removed grass for the third year in a row, this time by digging a few inches down...Naturally after removing the grass so many consecutive years, I decided I needed to fill in the hole.

So, I ran to the local material yard covered in dirt, then ran into Braum's for milk and some fresh fruit and veggies...

I hope nobody noticed the dirt under my fingernails.

Anyway, as soon as I pulled into our garage, Studmuffin told me to get myself down to our neighbors because they needed to thin out some plants.  My neighbors have a picture book garden with winding gravel paths, statues and fun surprises in every corner.  Basically it's the garden I fantasize about but have absolutely no time to maintain.

Let's see:  Iris, tulips, lilies and bridal wreath here.

One hour later I had more lilies, love in a mist, bridal wreath and iris than I knew what to do with!  Studmuffin tried to say that we could use the raised beds he built last year.  I am adamant that we WILL be successful with vegetables this year.  They certainly can't do any WORSE.

More iris and lilies.

And so Sunday afternoon I found myself doing the very thing I had said just the day before that I had no time for...Building new flower beds.  Ugh.  But what's a girl to do?  If you are going to GIVE me flowers I MUST plant them!

Love in a mist

So, here's a sneak peek of what I got accomplished...but this is only a very small peak mind you, as I actually started building a new flower bed. 

More iris and some sedum. 

Because I may possibly be insane.

She's Just Like Me: Only Prettier.

Last weekend my niece Molly got married.  I had the privilege of helping with set up and clean up.  The set up was great fun.  I was able to laugh and work and enjoy myself, because after all, I'm just the aunt and absolutely not one portion of that wedding was going to be a reflection on me...The clean up?  Well, let's just say that by that point some of the romance of the moment had worn off.

I had help the morning of with quiches and topping cheesecakes in the form of Molly's aunt on her father's side, and a lovely lady who puts my bossiness to shame...And that says a LOT!

Anyway, as the wedding reception began we helped to ensure that the hors d'oeuvres trays were well stocked as the bride and groom snapped a few more photos before coming to cut the cake...

As the cake began to be served I realized none of the servers had set out cups for the punch, and nobody was using their provided tea cup to get punch, so the bossy lady and I grabbed the extra clear plastic cups and began to ladle up some punch...And I MAY have gyrated a little to the love songs blaring through the sound system.

As I walked away from the serving line some time later I saw a very exuberant lady wave at me and give me a big thumbs up.  I smiled in a friendly sort of way and waved back...

She called out to me "You MUST be Dawn's sister!!!"

"Why yes, I am.  How could you tell?"  After all, there is very little family resemblance.  And it's not as if by some weird coincidence we all three sisters showed up in navy dresses...

"Oh my goodness!  You even sound like her!  How exciting!"  And she clapped some more and smiled even more exuberantly.  She turned to her daughter, "Look at her!  Doesn't she look JUST LIKE Dawn?"

Her daughter, appearing maybe 13 or 14, smiled and agreed.  Well, never one to pass up an opportunity to ham it up, I gave her daughter "the look" and they both burst out laughing and clapped some more.  Oh, do you know what the look is?  Well, sadly I don't have any self portraits of it, but I do have a picture I snapped of Popcorn having the nerve to mimic "the look."

Although, my real one may appear more like this:

Regardless, the lady at the wedding thought that was absolutely the coolest thing EVER.

At least, I'm guessing so, judging by her clapping and thumbs up and laughter...

Who knew that looking like my sister was such a cause for celebration?

Of course, with sister's like this just having them is cause for celebration!

Fever: Spring Fever, That Is.

Well, sadly today is a repeat of yesterday.  It's raining.  I slept in.  The girls are still at my folks.  I'm still swigging my morning coffee when I would normally be contemplating what to eat for lunch.

So, why that is blogworthy is rather a big mystery.

I DID actually develop photos yesterday.  And  just in case you're wondering:  Even if you have organized your photos in nice tidy labeled files on your hard drive, I would suggest allowing at least two hours just to decide what needs printed, and what doesn't.

And 135 photos later you will be able to scrap book the last 17 months worth of life events.

Give or take a few.

Last night Studmuffin got home about 3pm.  I realized I had never eaten lunch, so I made him take me to Freddy's Frozen Custard for a steak burger.

Then we ventured into Academy for lures.  You see, Brent, my dad and my brother are going fishing this weekend, and Brent has a very specific lure that he has luck with, and of course everyone needs their own lure.

Don't EVER let anyone tell you fishing is the poor man's sport.

I drug him with me into Lowes.  I was in a spring flower mood.  Of course, it was pouring down rain, so we weren't able to look at many flowers, but I did enjoy daydreaming about an endless budget for bird baths (pretending I don't have two dogs and three cats to chase away any birds who may be foolish enough to stop for a quick dip in the pool) and fantasizing about a walk lined with frog and turtle solar lanterns.

 

I left with a few perennial flowers and some spray bottles that Brent needed for something or other.  Perhaps he's using them to mix concrete stains so that he can secretly rip out our carpet and surprise me with newly stained concrete floors...

The only problem with growing perennials is that you have to WAIT for them to bloom.  The garden centers are all full of blooming flowers and mine are still just starting to peek out from the soil.  Speaking of blooming:

My daffodils are blooming!  I am sad that once again I didn't get tulips planted.  I am seriously considering buying some tulips in bloom so I can have instant gratification of them in bloom, then enjoy them next spring again.  Patience is NOT one of my virtues...And neither is anything that requires long foresight.  Which is why I never remember to plant tulips when it's time to plant them.

We had such a mild winter that my blanket flowers, which will bloom all summer long are already getting a few small blooms on them.

I have a tendency to pull the dead heads off of my zinnias and throw them on any bare patch of soil that catches my eye.

With this rain we've had they've decided to start proliferating.  The bad thing about zinnias is since they are all coming up from seed they won't really be in bloom until June.  The great thing is that they are a sight to behold when I'm frustrated and sweltering in the heat of summer.

I took this sweet picture the week after we moved into the house.  Look at my sweet little girls who were only 7 & 8 at the time.

Once again spring is upon me and I've failed to remove all of the grass from the patch I want to turn into a Victorian garden.  So, it seems as if for at LEAST one more summer I will content myself with the few flower beds that I can never keep up with anyway.

I snatched up a few seed packets.  One of them was forget me nots.  I used to have these all over in my beds on the north side of my house, but last year none of them came up.  I figure they just need a fresh start of seeds.  I bit the bullet and bought some lettuce seed.  I have grown lettuce a few times, and while it's easy, I tended to fall behind.  Then it went to seed.  Then I had lettuce all OVER my garden.  More than I could even THINK to eat.

Last year my vegetable garden was an epic disaster.  My tomatoes would bloom, but produced almost no fruit.  My squash would get maybe an inch long and rot off at the stem.  My peppers just plain never grew.  Of course we were in a drought with a terrible heat wave, and my watering was very strictly limited.  This year I plan to try the raised beds that Brent built me last year again.  I plan to do tomatoes, lettuce, and just a few squash or zucchini plants along with several different pepper plants.  Basically a repeat of last year, but with hopefully more success.

So, as I've just posted right up above this line a picture of Brent working diligently on the aforementioned raised beds, let's dissect this photo a bit, shall we?

See the round cylinder next to the air conditioner?  It's an old pool filter that a dog who shall not be mentioned destroyed.  Brent has plans to turn it into some kind of half submerged water fountain.  It's still in that exact spot.

See that lawn that's mostly grass?  Well, this year it is 98% weeds.  Apparently even when one is not allowed to water and all of the grass dies, the weeds proliferate.  Who knew?

Well, I really should get to stuffing pictures into the slots of the album I bought.  Yes, I've given up serious scrap booking.  Instead I've resorted to albums with lines out to the side of the photo sleeve where I can add my thoughts on each photo.  Even though I'm not committed to adding cute stickers and card stock to my scrap books anymore I'm still very determined to share my thoughts with any person who might peruse my scrap books.

And I'm sure my diligence in dumping my thoughts on unsuspecting readers is a surprise to each of you.

Well, happy Thursday!  I'm off to deal with photos and possibly do some couponing!

Sisters, Septics, Chicken Tractors and Weddings. (Not necessarily in that order.)

I slept in  until 9am....

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest I will continue my line of confession:

• It is 11:02 am.  I am still in my pajamas.
• I got home from five nights away from my husband and I acted like a shrew.  
• Because it has been raining.  
• And we didn't get our new septic put in this winter like I wanted.  
•  And now I am stressing about all of my castle issues.  
• And yes, all of those statements are deserving of individual bullet points.
• Instead of doing spring cleaning (after all it's hard to clean too terribly hard when you're limiting the water that goes into the septic) I've been reading blogs.
• And now I'm typing a blog instead of exercising.
• I just refilled my coffee cup.
• I am considering going to upload some photos to be developed as I haven't scrapbooked in over a year, and now my kids are gone for two more days, so I better make myself useful since I took the week off.
•  I read this blog, and was slapped in the face by this scripture:  Proverbs 27:15-16 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. 

I ask you:  Who wanted a conviction this morning?

My niece got married this weekend.  At the reception we had a tea party for roughly 300 people.  It was really fun.  I came to the conclusion over the weekend as I spent time with my sisters and watched my niece Sarah help her sister Molly get ready for the wedding while fretting on behalf of her sister that all things go off beautifully that sisters are the best thing.  EVER.  Brothers are all well and good, but sisters are just about the best gift God could give a girl! Anyway I certainly have tons of fun with my sisters.  And I know my mom does too.  Speaking of fun:

Here's my mom and her sister and sister in law at the photo booth for the wedding:

 And here's me with my sisters at the photo booth:

And here's my Grandma Irene and my dad's cousin Loretta!

Grandma decided she needs a  photo booth because she thinks she looks so young in that picture!  And I would have to agree.  I hope I'm half as fun as she is at nearly 92 years old!


Oh, and here's us with Grandma:

Oh! Would you like to see a photo of the bride and groom?  Well, venture on over to Dawn's blog for a peek at the lovely bride and groom!

Anyway, I'm off to be productive. I'm feeling the itch to buy some flowers or perhaps build a chicken tractor, as I happen to know baby chicks are at Atwoods...Because I'm just not convinced that I have enough animals cluttering up my life.

What sort of spring plans are you building  in your mind?

So Take THAT!!

I have a phobia of closets.

It all began when I was in preschool.  My best friend was Janet.  She lived in this awesome two story house and she had a giant dollhouse that her granddad had made her.  It had working lights and everything!  Janet's mom, Peggy, was my babysitter while my mom worked at the soil conservation office in town.

Oh!  In a total aside, I saw a sign the other day.  It said, "Behind every successful rancher is a wife who works in town."  And I laughed at how true that statement really is...

Anyway, Peggy was my babysitter, Janet was my best friend, and Janet lived in an old awesome two story house.  You climbed up the stairs and there was a little landing, then on the right side was her brother Ward's room, and to the left was Janet's room.  I thought having an upstairs room must certainly be the coolest thing ever.  Especially when the room had built in book shelves where Janet arranged her Little Golden Books by number. 

They even had one of those big red barns complete with a hay loft and stalls that had ladders leading up to the hay loft.  Our brothers had a secret hideout in one of those stalls.  The door could not be opened from the outside...I actually kind of think it was a grain bin of some sort.  Regardless, the boys could get to their hideout from the hay loft.  Janet and I were quite certain that it was the coolest thing EVER.  I mean, seriously people.  It had a dart board and certainly all of the very best hideouts had dart boards!

All Janet and I had was a little play area in the trees where we made mud pies and plotted the downfall of our obviously evil older brothers...

But this story is not about the fact that Janet had an awesome house with a giant tree house and a POOL.  It is not about the tree in their front yard that we used to climb, and Janet told me, "Daddy told me not to climb out on that limb.  He said it's too small and it will break."  Of course, I was two years younger and quite certain that I could climb out on that limb.  And so I did.  And then it broke, and it made a giant scratch all the way up the middle of my belly, and I landed very hard on my bottom on the ground...

So Janet and I ran to the house, she to get her mommy, the fixer of all things, and me with big tears running down my face and snot running out my nose...

Peggy took me into their bathroom and cleaned the scrape and doctored it with monkey blood and gently inquired as to what exactly lead to my having a giant scratch running the length of my torso...and of course being the stoic gal that I am I spilled the whole story.  And Peggy scolded me for foolishly climbing out on the limb.

And then she painted a little smiley face on my belly with the monkey blood.

So that made everything all right.

I stayed the night with Janet quite often.  We had a little game that lead to my fear of closets.  I can remember lying in Janet's bed and her closet door was not quite closed.  And we argued about who had to get up and close the door, because obviously the door NEEDED to be closed.  Otherwise we would lie there half the night (or at the very least 15 minutes, whichever happened to come first) and discuss what could possibly be IN the closet peeking OUT at us... 

Neither of us would dare leave the safety of the covers tucked in firmly all the way around us to deal with the ominous closet.

Not even when we began to imagine SOMETHING looking out the closet out at us.  I was pretty certain it was either a monster or one of her dolls.  She thought perhaps it was the devil's face...

I don't remember if we finally cried out for help and Peggy swooped in to save the day (or night as it were), but I do know for a fact that my fear of closets is directly linked to that fateful night...

Even as an adult, I am unable to go to sleep with the closet door open.  I remember being pregnant and trying to use the excuse of "finally getting comfortable" so that Brent would have to close it.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  Closets in the day time, or with the lights on are completely harmless and innocuous.  The only thing to fear about a well lit closet is the light exposing all of the clutter from the rest of my life that I've crammed into my closet to be dealt with at a time in the unforeseen future.  However, a closet after dark, when I'm tucked into bed, and trying to sleep?

FORGET ABOUT IT.  It is as if thousands of eyes are boring into my sole, and the monsters that live in the closet are surely to burst forth if I'm foolish enough to close my eyes, or...shudder, turn my back.

Excuse me for a minute while I go collect myself.  Is anyone else experience cold chills right now?

Well, fortunately for Brent and his desire to get in bed and STAY there, our last two houses have had the master closets in the bathroom.  Our nights are so much more peaceful now...

We shared a closet until we moved into our current house.  And that means that the first twelve years of our marriage my husband blamed our messy closet on me.  I tried to defend myself and say that he was equally responsible for any messiness that might ensue, but he was steadfast in casting all guilt onto my meager shoulders.

But now we have separate closets.  And our counseling bills have decreased considerably since we no longer have the "who trashes the closet" argument.

Speaking of messy closets:

This would be BRENT's closet.  He claims it is impossible to get his closet clean because the luggage is in that back right hand corner, clearly making any attempts at organization utterly pointless.  And I can absolutely back him up in that.  I mean what would be the point in putting anything in an orderly fashion if there will always just be a big pile of luggage cluttering the place up?  Not me!

Guess who cleaned her closet out today?

 I began by dragging every single item OUT.  I then swept and dusted.  Then I assembled two new shelves to organize my sweaters, then I finally put away our Halloween costumes (and not a moment to soon, might I add), and then I weeded out some clothes that I had not worn since we moved here, and finally ended by disposing of...

Oh, wait.  Before I admit to the final disposal, I must make you PROMISE to never tell my mother.  You see, I am getting rid of several bunches of silk flowers.  Yes, yes, I know.  Silk flowers are FOREVER, and believe me, I've had these silks darn near that long.  I bought most of them the first year we were married.  I had planned to use them for decorating graves over Memorial Weekend.  However, when I arrived at my in laws house (we were living out of state at the time) I was very firmly informed that my flowers would NOT be going on any graves, and my mother in law proceeded to make arrangements out of HER flowers that were supposedly "from Brent" to place on his dad's grave.

So, clearly it was time to say goodbye to the unworthy silk flowers I ignorantly purchased nearly 16 years ago...I bagged them up and am delivering them along with my clothes that are still decent to our local crisis center...

Because surely someone in a crisis will appreciate my poorly chosen silk flowers?

Anyway, after four solid hours, my closet now looks like this:

Please pardon the small pile of workout bands and weights on top of my new shelves.  I plan to get a cute basket to put them in and complete the organized look.  Notice that the scrubs are all together, right at the front.  And the few dresses I own are all the way to the BACK...

If that is not a reflection of real life, I don't know what is.

So now the spring cleaning ball is rolling.

What shall I tackle next?  I want to tackle our floors, and by that I mean rip out the carpet in the living areas, the tile in the kitchen, laundry and front areas, then learn how to stain concrete on our very own floors...However, my husband who has been taking classes on treating concrete is not nearly so gungho as I am.  He claims that other men do not have to make their wives promise to not rip out the flooring before leaving town.  I think that other wives don't make the mistake of asking before doing, so therefore a job begun has to be done!  And, please refrain from all of the voices of reasons talking about how this won't be as easy as I think.  That voice of reason lives with me, and I hear enough from him.  However, after living with the voice of reason for over fifteen years, I do know that it is capable of finishing all of the lovely jobs I begin.  Like our kitchen:

Surely the man capable of rescuing the debacle I'd begun in our kitchen can manage a concrete floor!

Proud Parenting Moment #187

This past week had all sorts of fun and excitement.

The biggest of which was that my brother's kids stayed the night with us after a concert on Tuesday, then took a college day to OU.  They got in late Tuesday night, then joined us for breakfast and a quick chat before heading to the campus to get the grand tour...

They got back to our house just in time to go with me to grab the girls from school.

WAIT!  I forgot to mention that as I dropped Popcorn off at school I noticed the book fair sign.

"Hey, today is book fair!"

"Yeah, but I'm out of money, so I'm not going." 

"Well, I have ten dollars in my purse.  If you promise to buy books with it, and not JUNK, you can have that."

"Thanks!"  And she hopped out of the car and ran to her friends to chat about the injustice of a mom who would not allow her to wear shorts to school on February 29, when it was going to be a blistering 70 degrees Fahrenheit...

Okay, now back to picking the kiddos up.  I had Brook and Kris with me.  Popcorn skipped to the car and climbed in.  "How was school?"

"Great!  I went to the book fair!"

"What did you get?"

And THIS is what she pulled out of her bag, Gentle Reader:

"SERIOUSLY???  I am going to BEAT you with that thing when we get home!  I TOLD you to buy a book!"

"But Mooooommm-uh!  I did buy a book!  A Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days book.  But I had three dollars left, so I bought this too!"

"What on earth are you going to do with that thing?"  This from Kris, thankfully.  I'd already shown my joy over the purchase with the first words from my mouth.

When we got home, I found the situation hilarious.  I decided that she MUST keep that stupid cat paw pointer for the rest of her LIFE.  And I decided that she must move it every single time she moves, and every time she moves, she must tell the tale of how she promised her mom to buy books, but she had three dollars left, that she absolutely HAD to spend, and obviously a cat paw pointer was the obvious choice...

In hindsight I wish we'd gone around taking photos of her pointing at stuff...But we were in a rush to get this quick picture done so she could leave for school Thursday morning.

 As you can see, she wore shorts on Thursday, because I'm a total sap.

What is your favorite, most ridiculous "why on earth did I buy THAT" purchase?

Softball is Here: Which Means We're Hungry

Thursday officially kicked off softball practice.  Being the super organized person that I am, I forgot to move Popcorn's gymnastics, so we missed the first thirty minutes of softball practice...

Guess what?  Brent gets to coach their team.  Here's how that went down:  Two weeks before practices were set to begin, the director of the league called and asked him if our kids planned to play.  When he answered in the affirmative (the deadline to register was two days away), she replied, "Great!  You can coach the twelve and under team!"

And thus he was Bookworm's coach.

And then I began to whine and complain that having two girls on two different teams was just impossible, and therefore I MUST stop working IMMEDIATELY!

And then one of my coworkers had the audacity it ask how quitting work would help the situation since softball practice and games are all in the evenings or Saturdays.

Needless to say, I threw my coffee in his face and walked off....

(Okay, that last part didn't really happen)

Alas, I'm still gainfully employed.   But God answered my prayer in the sense that Popcorn absolutely refused to play if her dad couldn't coach her too...Even if it meant playing with girls two years older than her.

So I gave a big "HOORAY!"  And I'm officially not responsible for one single portion of softball, other than attending games!  Go ahead, congratulate me on my sheer luck in such matters.

ANYHOO, the point is that Thursday I had to pick the girls up from school, run Popcorn to gymnastics, then to softball, and I knew from past experience that they would come home weeping with hunger.  Especially considering Popcorn finished her school day with a very intense PE class where they did a boot camp type of workout, then did a forty minute bike ride with me before jumping in the car to head to gymnastics where she goes nonstop for an hour, then went to softball...

So, on my way home from work I was chatting with my Grandma Irene, and we were discussing what I could throw in the crock pot to cook until we walked in the door who knows when...

Grandma is good at many, many things, but crock pots are a foreign idea for her.  Therefore, I get to claim total credit for this bit of loveliness.  I haven't decided what to call it.

Cut up cooked chicken breast (Brent had grilled some bourbon chicken earlier in the week)
1 can Ranch Style beans, with most of liquid drained
1 can chopped green chiles
1 can cream of chicken
1 cup of wild rice
1 cup of water
Generously sprinkle with pinto bean seasoning (or taco, or fajita, whatever you want)
Shredded cheddar cheese

Stir all together and turn crock pot to low for 3 hours.   Bookworm sprinkled it with cheddar cheese about an hour before we ate it...

I ended up leaving practice as soon as it was over, but Brent and the girls stayed behind to do the social meet and greet.  Since I knew I had at least ten minutes, I whipped up some salsa to be served with it.

 
I may or may not have eaten entirely TOO MUCH of that before they got home.

So, what shall I call my newest crock pot creation?  And when do you plan to try it?  I promise you will love it.  Bookworm doesn't like rice.  However, on her FOURTH serving, I pointed out that it had rice in it...She was surprised, but still loved it.  Let me know how it works for you!