"Hike!" I mean "Ike!"

To: You From: Me and a little more on gardening

Letters already? Whenever people would say things like, "Jimmy knew how to write his name before he could walk..." I would kinda think, "Wow. That's really nice." How things change when it's your own child! A couple of days ago, Natalie comes running to me and says "I write my name, Mom!" So I walk with her to the chalkboard and sure enough, there's an "N" and a "T" so I show her an "A" "L" "I" "E" and she's not stopped since. She's really into writing notes to her friends and family. My favorite letters are the lower case "a" it looks like a "Q" (an O with a tail) and her over zealous "N" that looks more like a "M" or "W." Mostly her notes are squiggles and lines, but occasionally actual letters make an appearance. Here's a picture of her with a letter to her friend, Abbie, on her way to deliver it to her house. She's covering the "e" but the other letters are visible.


This year we have been sooo lucky to have two gardens. We have our same container garden from past years, but we also planted a garden with some friends who have a yard. Starting a garden plot from scratch sure is...fun? After renting a rototiller and spending a few hours of "fun" in the rain, we've harvested a handful of peas, 3 squash, 1 zucchini and some lettuce. Granted it's only July, but it's sure not the bumper crop to make our horticultural dreams come true! The irony is we actually want zucchini and the vast majority of zucchini growers of the world usually are up to their ears as well as all their friends, family, and neighbors (and any poor soul who leaves their doors unlocked) ears in zucchini. Not us. And, the main reason we planted a garden at their house was to have enough space for watermelons and pumpkins. The watermelons sprouted a few vines and withered away and the pumpkins were looking fantastic until some fungus or disease hit this past week. I'm super bummed. Hopefully we get at least one jack-o-lantern size pumpkin.
Jared's not surprised about the watermelons. Sad! This makes three unsuccessful years. Don't worry, we don't plan on giving up. We're even more determined to grow a watermelon next year. Last year, we did get a watermelon about the size of two softballs. Upon cutting it open I refused to eat it but Nat and Jared each took a few bites (that's all there was) and threw up for a day or two.

As far as our little container garden here at home goes, things are green and growing. Our herbs are fantastic! Our tomatoes look to be plentious. And the flowers are beautiful. There are also finally some blossoms on the vines of our mini sugar pumpkin plants.
After all the venting, here is how we truly feel about gardening. The best measure of the success of a garden: joy. She can't eat the peas fast enough.

The sweat and muck of rototilling in the rain was memorable and really, fun. Trying to figure out what is wrong with a plant, makes me feel like I'm using my brain again, and when will Natalie ever be a "yellow-zucchini-squash-3 peas-lettuce-leaf-and-a-spring-of-mint" long again?

Any Dog Walkers Out There?

I think someday I'd like to be a professional dog walker. Are there really people who walk around with 8 dogs at once? I wonder what job satisfaction is like? No matter, I'd still like to try it out.

Natalie and Jared returned from their vacation this past week and my glorious week at home by myself ended. If anyone doesn't think being alone for a week is "glorious" you need to read Gifts from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg.
Besides, I was hardly alone and had plenty to keep my mind off empty beds and other little reminders of my sweet family. This is one of my favorite "I was here" marks I discovered. It's a drawer in our kitchen, the one Natalie plays in with all the cooking utencils.


Highlights from Jared and Nat's vacation:
*seeing family, family, and more family---so much family she barfed at the airport. Just kidding, she did barf after getting off the plane, but that was before they even got to Utah. Seriously, we'd almost convinced ourselves we were OK without loved ones nearby, but after being with so many all at once, homesickness is seeping in...
*playing with grandma's cat, who has since been the subject of my drawings
*camping in a tent for multiple days and taking a bath consisted of taking a dip in the lake (there were no showers)
*camping in a mountain desert---no humidity, HOORAY!

This is a photo of Natalie asleep in the tent sporting her "Howie Hat" original made by Jared's brother and his family.

Wow! plane ride.

These are happy little mud medallion cookie things made by some of our cute nieces at the reunion. They made 50, one for each family member there.


Highlights from mine:
*Finally read/listened to The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm by Nancy Farmer. Here's what the cover looks like.


Loooved it! Full of everything weird a kid into sci-fi/fantasy would love.

*Scrubbed my house from top to bottom. Four+ magic erasers later it looks sparkling. Pulled out each closet in turn and ran a few trips to the "DI" with very little guilt from "someday we'll want this" syndrome.
*Got my first pedicure. I have nice pink toes for the delivery room. There is not a photo because my feet have swollen past recognition of feet except for the 10 pink toe nails.
*It was also my birthday and had a buncha friends over for Black Eye Susan cake.


Bad news this week. Tomato Horned Worms. I now am on a every other day THW hunt. They are the sickest things ever! THWs are the same color as tomato leaves and stems and are super tricky to see. Thank goodness for the extension service here in Ohio for helping me figure out what was eating my tomatoes. They look like horned caterpillars and can grow to be as big as your fingers and take such incredibly huge bites I serious thought there was a racoon feasting at night. If you don't want to glimpse the horror creature from the garden, don't look at the following photos.

This is the first signs of something underway.

Oh, the nightmares!

Can you spot the THW? Pretty ellusive, hun?

Well. That's all for this marathon Blog. No baby yet. Maybe the next blog will be all baby news!
Oh, and one more thing. There isn't a THW in the last picture. Just being funny. ha! :)

a step up or a step down

Guess what?! I'm on-line again. Oh, and...drum roll...we got a cell phone. Of sorts. I'm relieved and super excited to be up on technology, but that "up and up" feeling is fastly fading because we've had it all of 15 hours and I still can't figure out how to turn it off. I refuse to give it to Jared though, because knowing him, he'll have that thing all of two seconds and turn it off just like that. I'm determined to do it myself...I wonder how long the battery lasts...

In the mean time it's awfully fun and I've been punching in everyone's numbers, setting and re-setting the ring tones (and at various volumes), trying out the stop watch...hmmm...can you tell I'm killing time for this baby to come?