Why My Life is Better than Malott's

Yesterday, the staff over at Malott's Blog wrote a post entitled, "Why My Life is Better Than Yours". While Malott was busy bragging about his life, I was busy with this:

Yes folks, that is homemade vanilla ice cream...an entire gallon!

Above is the finished product of my very first attempt at making ice cream. I must say, with all due respect to Malott, if I have to choose between tomatoes and homemade ice cream...well, is there really even a choice there? Next to try....chocolate!

And finally, here is a creature whose life is quite possibly better than mine or Malott's. Lazy beast!

The New Back Garden: A month later

My cherry tree in the corner seems to be thriving. The two new plantings are the tall spider flowers against the back wall. I hope they are perennials, but no one seems to know!

Closer views of the spider flowers. They look better now, after a couple of days of heavy watering.

My daylillies, bucket geraniums and one of the new hostas. Also note the new mulch and edging!

The long view...a better looks at the edging.

The Garden in Front

The growing hostas and the new white/pink rosebush

A close up of the beautiful new roses

The other end of the front garden. My huge hosta, the hydrangea behind the rock, and my lilies in front, which are almost ready to bloom.

Now this is one gorgeous hydrangea bloom if I do say so myself!

The new dark brown mulch and one of my massive clumps of daylillies.

Gardening Update

Well, it's been quite a while since I updated my faithful readers on my gardening projects, so here goes. We have done quite a bit of work on the two main flower gardens, including the all-new garden in the backyard and more revamping of the huge monstrosity in the front of the house.

I am proud to say that after more than a month, my new garden in the back looks great. Everything seems to be thriving, though some plants are done blooming, and it now has mulch and edging, with a few new plantings and geraniums in the metal buckets along the wall.

The front garden got some pruning, two old stumps removed (man, that's hard work!) and a new white/pink rose bush. I have another rose bush that will have yellow roses edged with pink, but I haven't planted it yet. It is just getting ready to bloom any day now. My hostas that I planted 3 years ago finally look healthy and larger, my hydrangea bush is still small, but it has gorgeous pink blooms all over it. I still have 6 hostas to plant in various areas, one rose bush, two spider plants (nasty named things, but very lovely), two more stumps to pull and more mulch to spread, but all in all, things are shaping up very nicely!

And now the pictures, which will probably take up two posts above this....

Must See Tv?

Very quickly, may I just say that someone finally took my suggestion.

There is a show that debuted this even on NBC called "Baby Borrowers". It is all about teens who think they are ready to be parents who get that exact opportunity.

It was brilliant. Watch it an judge for yourself next week.

Their logo is something like "it's not t.v - it's birth control!"

Very interesting and so far, well done.

Potty Training...Number 2

Okay, so I have to admit our dirty little secret. We have what appears to be the oldest child we know who is still not fully potty trained.

Yes, it stinks!

I am tired of changing diapers. I am tired of buying diapers or pull-ups or "nighttime undies" as we've taken to calling them. You see, Emily is now three and three-quarters years old. She is our "little" Amazon woman which also provides an interesting challenge...diapers are not made for almost-4 year olds who are built more like 5 year olds. So we have resorted to the only thing left which fits, only at night and naptime...diapers for older children who have bedwetting issues. If possible, they might even be more expensive than regular diapers because they cannot be bought in bulk.

Our problem is with number 2. Yep...poop. Em has been peeing in the potty for at least 6 months now with almost no problem. She can even stay dry during her nap. But she absolutely stubbornly refuses to poop on the potty. She waits until I put her diaper on at night to poop.

So this week, I determined that enough was enough. It was time to get down to business. I took away the diapers. I wasn't too worried about naptime, because from time to time, Em would take a suprise nap with her big girl undies on and keep them dry. She was okay with naptime being in regular undies, but nighttime is a different story. She really wants her diaper. She wants it to poop. And I'm not giving in...and neither is she. I have a feeling she will have a little trouble with bedwetting, so I'm not opposed to giving her a diaper to sleep in at night only, but if all she wants it for is to poop in, then all bets are off. The time has come to take a stand.

Except, how do you make a kid poop if they are destermined not to?

We're now going on day 3 and still nothing. I have told her that if she doesn't go, it will make her tummy hurt. I've explained how the whole thing works. I've bribed. I've taken away her precious princess dresses (nightgowns that she would wear all day and night) until she gives in. So far, nothing is moving.

So now what? I don't want to scare her. I don't want to make it a terrible experience, but at the same time, when is enough enough? She is supposed to be fully potty trained before preschool. I know she will be fine and I really haven't pressured up until this point, but at almost four years old, this is ridiculous.

Any suggestions, help, advice, tips or encouragement is completely begged, solicited and welcome at this point!

(And all puns, fully intended...hey you gotta laugh, right?)

The Butterfly Garden

Our local zoo has a new butterfly pavillion exhibit this year, so we had to check it out. Some of the butterflies were still hatching from their cocoons, but there were still many flying all around. They were all from South America and most were rather large.

The butterfly below was my favorite. I loved the colors. This one stayed resting on a rock the entire time we visited.

The picture below is of a huge butterfly that hitched a ride on my mom's back for about 10 minutes.

Another very colorful butterfly checking out the plants.

I just thought this little guy was very photogenic.

"Lion" Around

So I mentioned before that the lions were my favorite animals at the zoo. First, they are cats, and everyone here knows I am a fan of cats. I mean, how can anyone not admire these beautiful creatures? Sure, they are imensely lazy for the most part, but would you tangle with one? I think not?

The picture below is a bit blurry because this big fella was on the prowl with a lot to say. Until a couple years ago, I had never heard a real lion roar. It's an awesome sound, very different from the way I imagined it. There is a resonance that fills the air. It is fierce, in charge and awe-inspiring. It cannot be ignored. I have no doubt that this is part of why one of the names of God is "the Lion of Judah".

This lion has such a wise and understanding face. (Not so understanding that I would put my hand near it, however!)

Basking in the sun....what a life.

All that roaring and sleeping really wears a lion out, I guess.

To Tide You Over....

It's been a very busy few weeks around here. My family came for a visit last week and, since gas prices stayed above $4.00/gal., we tried to find local things to do.

We went to the local zoo on Tuesday. It was a cool sunny day and ideal for viewing the animals. I have more pictures to post, but that will have to wait until another day when Blogger is cooperating better. Until then, these will have to suffice. Here are just a few of the more photogenic animals we saw:

This white tiger was close enough to touch (if the glass weren't there!) He was beautiful and his paws were enormous. I thought this was a nice picture.

I think this crazy camel had an itch. He kept rubbing his belly and "boohind" (as Em calls it) on this tree stump. The best part is that I have a picture almost identical to this one from a visit a couple of years ago.

This peacock was all over the place. He even came within a foot of our picnic table.

This wallaby was munching on some grass and weeds. Cute little rodent, isn't he?

I have more pictures of these lions that I will post later, but they are my favorite animals at the zoo. So majestic and beautiful...and cats!

Oh the Humidity!

Ugh!

That's probably the best word for this week thus far. It's very hot and humid all of the sudden, after a rather short, cool spring. A couple of weeks ago, we were still under the threat of frost at night, now it is 90 degrees, windy, hot and humid for the forseeable future. What happened to spring?

Then, to make matters worse, Emily is sick. Tuesday afternoon, she fell while jumping on the bed and hit her head on her rocking chair...hard. She was fine the rest of the day and night, but woke up at 6:00 am Wednesday morning complaining of a headache and neckpain...and then her tummy hurt. We hurried downstairs into the usual "sick day" headquarters (the couch in the living room), popped in a video and grabbed a trashcan....just in time for the vomitting to begin. That lasted every 10-20 minutes until around 11:00, then I thought we were in the clear.

Thursday morning rolled around and after a quiet night, I thought all would be well, but it wasn't to be. Em was pretty lethargic and feverish, and then there was diarrhea and then more vomitting. Fun, fun stuff. So I started wondering if all this could possibly be the result of her hitting her head. The nurse at the doctor's office didn't think so, but she wanted to play it safe as did the doctor. So we went to the doctor's office, where they ordered a CT scan of Em's head. Let's just say that it was quite the experience. She was fine with the idea of the doctor taking a picture of the inside of her head...until she saw the scanning machine. Then she said, very quickly, "I think I'm feeling gooder now. I don't think I'm sick anymore!"

Three people later (myself included) we had wrangled Emily to a reclining position on the special "ride" (the table that moves up and down). She was not amused. But she was fine, so that's all that really mattered.

So all this to say, it's probably yet another tummy bug (most likely acquired during one of our numerous trips to each and every public restroom Emily sees, and then, must use.)

That's been our week in a nutshell.

A Visit to the Butterfly Garden

Emily and I visited a local garden center yesterday for the purpose of visiting their butterfly pavillion. (Or as Emily calls them..."buttflies") We've tried to see the butterflies for about 2 years now, but missed them everytime. This year, someone told us that they usually appear at the end of May, so off we went.

Still no butterflies.

But there were frogs in the two ponds. Miss Em is currently rather fascinated with frogs. She's found a couple of frogs in the backyard and has named them Mr. Tumnus (we were reading the Chronicles of Narnia at the time) and The Robinsons. (Yes, one frog, plural name!) So instead of "buttflies" we watched the frogs jump in and out of the water and peek at us.

Above, Emily trying to spot some frogs in the pond.

Emily, posing for a cute picture.

One lone frog, peeking out from the water, just slightly above the middle of the picture . Look close! (Or click on the picture to enlarge it a bit)

Things No One Should Ever Have To See

I saw this on a Popeye's sign while driving through a parking lot yesterday.

YUCK!

I saw this when I finished filling up the tank of my Ford Windstar minivan which averages about 15.8 mpg.

TRIPLE YUCK!!!

I especially like the note at the bottom, telling me to "have a nice day". Okay, I will when I get over the sticker shock!

A School-Year Completed

Emily's last official day of preschool (she still likes to call it "pretty school") was today. All the preschool speech programs had a celebration in the school's courtyard with snacks, crafts and games. Em had a lot of fun. I, on the other hand, was relegated to the birdhouse-making table which involved the used of yarn, toilet paper rolls, peanut butter and bird seeds....and preschoolers. I'm going to be smelling peanut butter for a long time.

Anyhow, I thought I'd post the first-day-of-school photos and the last-day photos to compare.

Above is Em's first day of preschool on September 18, 2007.

Above and below are Em's pictures from this morning. Notice the difference in height. She's going to be sooooo tall.

A close-up of Miss Em, who insists on correcting us if we call her sweetie pie (or anything else) and reminding us that her name is (in her own special pronunciation) "Emiwee Ewivef ". This of course, is Emily Elizabeth, for those who don't speak Emily!

A Walk in the Park

These pictures are a couple weeks old, but since nothing interesting has happened today, I thought I'd share them.

Above, Emily is watching her first kite fly.

Of course, this is the kite, complete with a picture of Cinderella.

Em, flying solo. She enjoyed the new experience for about 5 minutes, then it was on to something else.

Above is a picture of the river from our nature trail walk. This is the same basic angle as the picture on the header of this blog. That one was taken in the fall with all the colorful leaves still on the trees. This one was taken in late April/early May with no leaves and a noticeably high water level. (Note the absence of the rocks at the base of the trees.) It was a long, wet, snowy winter!

Garden Update: Day 4

So far, so good. Everything looks like it did when we planted it, meaning it is still alive and thriving after 4 whole days under my care.

Today, we planted a few more flowers to fill in everything.

I thought we needed a bit more color, so we planted a couple Gerber daisies in a dark pink/red, which I really like.

The daisies are on either side of the grassy-looking day lily plants,

The yellow flower is one-of-a-kind. It belongs to Emily and she picked it our herself and helped me plant and water it. It's not a great picture, but it is a yellow dahlia (which I also really like).

Nothing too special here. Just a closer view of some of my flowers, since the first set of pictures from 3 days ago weren't very close because it was raining.

So there you have it. That's my story!

Em's First Baseball Game

Okay, so I think Miss Em has may have gone to a game here once before, but she was too young to know if she did. So I present the pictures from her first trip to see the local minor league team. Andrew's employer has a box at the stadium, so we were able to enjoy nice seats on a very nice Friday night a couple weeks ago. "Our" team lost 9-1, but still it was a nice evening.

Daddy and Emily at the beginning of the game.

Em, watching the game with great focus.

Em, realizing that clapping your hands really hard makes them sort of hurt!

Emily, cheering on "her" team, which was pretty much everyone that did anything. But she did it with gusto~!

Uh...Daddy...Am I supposed to clap now?

Sweet Sounds

I love the sound of:

* Wind chimes ringing in the gentle breeze

* Birds chirping while the wind chimes ring
* Water trickling from a fountain

* Emily giggling uncontrollably while daddy "crushes" the "bug" (Emily)

* Emily saying "I love you and have a 'dood' night"

* Emily saying, after receiving a much-loved frozen coke, "Oh mommy, you are my favorite mommy in the whole world!"

My Rookie Garden

So I've mentioned before that I'm not really into gardening. I don't know the first thing about it except that I hated pulling weeds as a kid and I still do. I also don't really care to get hot, sweaty and dirty. And then there are the bugs....and spiders - need I say more?

But this year, after a very long, cold winter, the gardening bug hit. Well, maybe it was more of determination to beat something that has, up until this point, completely defeated me. That something...making plants live and grow and maybe, dare I hope it?...flourish into something beautiful and lasting. And so, I present to you my first, all-my-own-design, flower garden.

The above picture shows most of the thirty-foot long area that sits behind our pool and deck. The retaining wall was already there when we bought the house, but up until last fall, was completely covered with overgrown ivy and a few ugly holly bushes and weeds. The entire area was covered, even the vertical wall. Andrew cleared most of it out last fall and I finished yesterday. (Oh, the buckets will eventually be filled with live plants, but it's rainy and cold today.)

The tree is my Mother's Day gift from Emily and Andrew. It is an ornamental cherry tree. It looked bigger in the store. I've never attempted to plant a tree before, so this should be interesting. It should turn pretty colors in the fall and have showy white blossoms in the spring. We'll see about that! This sits at the corner of our property.

This is the view from the property line toward the cul-de-sac. Eventually there will be some type of border /edging, but I'm not sure what to use. I bought some black edging that goes in the ground, but I don't know. Until yesterday, it was roughly edged with river rocks, but it had become quite over-grown. Oh and the ugly plant between the two pinkish flowers and below the left bucket is one of the remaining holly bushes. I don't really like it, but I didn't feel like digging it up either, so we'll see how it looks. Right now, it's just ugly.

And finally, the long view. The complete garden...all thirty long feet of it. It looks pretty empty right now, but hopefully there will soon be mulch and in a couple of years, the perrenials should all spread, so it should fill out nicely. That is, if the curse of my black thumb doesn't make an appearance!