Argh.

Seriously, my hormones are all in a rage today. I hope there's not a repeat of that tomorrow. There's too much going on! We have Dream Dinners, and then after we come home to put the food away, I'll be heading to the airport to pick up my parents and then to my in-laws' to pick up the Kritter. During my trip to the airport, B will be mowing lawns (ours and a friend's). Then B and my Dad and one or two of B's friends will be going to the baseball game. Mom and I will most likely eat leftovers after a trip to the grocery store (although she might go for a sandwich or bowl of cereal instead... I know, so exciting, right?).

Sophie and I were sitting at the table earlier and she kept asking to sweep. I thought she was saying sleep and was so confused. When I figured it out, I had to laugh. She also asked me to sign thunder and I thought she said feather. I'm losing my touch here.

Speaking of which... she's started doing that within the past few days. She loves to ask me to sign words with her. She also loves to ask for help when trying to make certain signs. It's all very cute.

I cannot believe how quickly she's growing! I am just in awe of these past few weeks, seriously. She has started to read books to us (from the illustrations, not from the words... she's not a prodigy as far as we know) and it's absolutely awesome! She really seems to remember the story based on the pictures. I love it! She's also very polite right now. She says "Yes, Mom" or "Please, Mom" or "Thank you, Mommy" all the time now! I can't get over it! My favorite is, "Okay, Mommy!" It sounds so simple, but to hear it come out of her mouth in her tiny little voice just kills me!

I made quinoa tonight for the first time and I have to admit, it was pretty good. I like it because it cooks faster than rice and isn't as starchy. It's not quite as quick as couscous, but I just can't eat couscous all the time.

I still need to vacuum but that's not going to happen tonight. I ought to mop the floor but don't plan on doing that tonight either. I will probably put together a bag of toys for Sophie as well as gather some food for her.

Instead, I'm going to post pictures of the garden. B's pretty proud of it. I have no idea if we're doing anything right or wrong here. He was too hot to plant before I could really do some reading. I guess this will be a learning year. ;)

• I'm caught up with comments up until April. Sorry for the blast from the past. There are a few I would have responded to if I'd gotten to them earlier but the time lapse just made them seem inappropriate for some reason.


• My parents will be here on Saturday for a week. I will most likely be somewhat quiet then.


• .


• Not only did Sophie not cry at nap time today, she managed bedtime without tears as well! She also was able to fall asleep without me in the room both times!


• Wednesday morning (4/23/08) was another huge moment for Sophie. She managed to pee in her potty, and it wasn't just a few drops! She woke up with a dry diaper and as soon as I realized it was dry, I asked her if she wanted to use her potty. She said yes, so I grabbed the new potty books and we sat down to read. While I was reading, she managed to accomplish the task! Of course, we haven't had any other successful pees since then, but I'm unconcerned at this time since we're not working on potty learning hardcore or anything.


• Sophie likes chocolate pudding and managed to eat it today with a spoon without getting much on herself other than the mess she made on her face whenever she licked her lips (pudding was all over her tongue while she was licking).


• Parents of small children looking for good books. Check out Mo Willems. His books are full of awesome!


• Not only did our ladybugs survive the storm last night (not sure how many), but it appears as though some of them have already laid eggs and they seem to have survived as well! Our plants also seemed to have survived, even the tiny basil sprouts. We still have to plant the lantana and the other flowers I bought for the front yard.


• I need to make up a menu for this week and go grocery shopping. We have Dream Dinners Saturday morning, but I'll still need to pick up other food stuff for Mom and Dad.


• Update on the ball game this Saturday night: B is going to take my father and is going to ask his father and another friend to join them. We'll see what happens. Mom and I will stay home with Sophie. Yeah, it would be a good time and all, but I don't want to leave my parents alone the first night they're in town, nor do I want to leave Sophie with a sitter.


• Lots of cleaning and other fun things will be filling my day tomorrow.


• Ooh, almost forgot (and this is pretty huge). There are currently two possibilities of remote work in the pipeline. I'd have to choose one over the other, but it would be doing the same exact thing, which is exactly what I did for nearly the last four years I was working as well. I'm hoping at least one of these pans out. I'm hoping for the nine-to-five job over the super-insane-schedule job, but at this point, I'd honestly be happy with either.

That's about all I've got for now. I must go to bed. I'm not tired (frustratingly enough), but Sophie wakes up awfully early and I need to be ready for it.

I plan to reply to the comments to the previous post individually (except those that are answered in this post), but am a bit behind on comments. Because I'm behind, I figured I might as well share the information here so people can go back to their regularly scheduled programs unruffled.

Cantaloupes do not exist in the USA. What most people know as a cantaloupe here in the United States (possibly Canada and Mexico as well, but I don't know for certain) is actually a muskmelon. I first learned of this (much to my surprise) while watching an episode of Good Eats recently (if it wasn't recent, I'd have forgotten it long ago and this wouldn't have even been brought up).

So, technically, I have two muskmelons in my garden and not two cantaloupes. Either way, I still love these and can't wait for them to be ready for picking. Most likely, I'll continue to call them cantaloupes the same as other people do.

I knew it would spark a few comments.... ;)

Yesterday, B and I ran around town picking up plants for our garden. We hit the organic nursery first, and then two other nurseries. We picked up quite a few plants but not everything I wanted. We also picked up a couple ladybugs and beneficial nematodes as well as stakes and fencing to go around the garden (to protect it from Chui Dawg and Sophie Kritter, of course).

We bought several sweet pepper plants (green, yellow, orange, red, lilac, chocolate), several tomatoes (sweet 100's, Celebrities, homely homers, and possibly others I don't remember since B picked those out), two bush bean plants, two cucumber plants (burpless hybrids), two crook-necked squash (we always called them summer squash), two zucchini, two carving pumpkins, two watermelons (don't remember what kind), two melons (Did you know there are no cantaloupes grown in the US? They're not even allowed in the US!), two everbearing strawberry plants, and two other type (forget which) of strawberry plants. I wanted some peas, carrots, celery, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and corn. Yeah, the garden needs to be double the size it currently is (which is 10' x 15'). Our backyard just isn't big enough for everything I want. I'd love to have asparagus and artichoke but I know absolutely nothing about how those grow, so I don't know if I can even grow them in my garden.

Tonight, after dinner, he went out and planted all of the vegetables and fruits while I washed up the Kritter and put her to bed (still takes us a while to get her down, but she's getting better). By the time I got back outside, B was already watering the garden. We released the ladybugs after that (we'll wait on the beneficial nematodes), and then he put the fencing around the garden and some netting over the top. My ladybugs are all over the place! I kept trying to put them back in the garden but they want to roam!

We both came back in and sat down to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and someone mentioned it was Earth Day. All of a sudden, B pipes up and exclaims, "Hey, that's cool!" I had to ask him what he was talking about. He said, "It's Earth Day!" I was shocked he didn't know! We hadn't planned to plant the garden today. It simply happened that way. I told him earlier it was Earth Day since we wound up with a newspaper delivered to us (we get Sundays and holidays/special days) and he was trying to figure out why the paper had been delivered.

I'm pretty excited and just hope and pray they survive. Grow, little plants, grow! I told the ladybugs to go forth and multiply tonight. I really hope they do. Did you know they can eat up to 50 bugs in a day! 50!!! That's a lot of bugs!

Pictures will be forthcoming, although I'm sure no one believes me. ;)

Lots going on right now. Need to make a list. Beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed and need to compartmentalize.

Garden: We'll be going to a few nurseries in the area to find plants, hopefully some of them (or all of them?) organic. I got out the Texas gardening books today and need to dig up the websites so we can figure out what we're going to do. I know B is mainly focusing on the vegetable garden, but I really want to fix the front flower bed as well.
Guests: My parents might be here starting this Saturday for a week. They won't know until about mid-week when my mother's coworker is supposed to return to work after surgery.
.
Minnow Minnow Pea: I need to work on cutting out material to have saved up for sewing sessions. I also need to work on a design for a website, finding a graphic for the logo, deciding on a font for the logo, and laying out the pages I want to have. I'm trying to decide if I want to forward the blog there and lock this one down to friends only. If I do that, I'm trying to decide if I should bother putting the recipes over there as well. I will definitely have the crafts blog over there and then just dump ChaCha. I really need to get the tags/labels ordered, too.
Crafts: On a related note, I need to complete the boat blanket for Maddy (one cable panel left, and then whip stitching it together and knitting the border). I also have plenty of bibs to finish. They're just needing snaps. Gifts need to be given!
House: Lots of cleaning I want to get done. Our bedroom still has piles of artwork from when we moved... two years ago. I also want to make a final decision on the color in the bedroom and the dining room. We'll probably paint the dining room next since it's so easy, and I'm pretty sure we're sticking with the brown chip we picked out last year. I thought we had finally decided on red for the bedroom, but now I'm torn. I love the blue in the guest room so much I think I might want that in the room back there. I'm so frustrated now.
Job Hunt: I am still rather beat down about this whole job hunt. I have my fingers crossed on one position, but it isn't even open yet. I also received an email from a recruiter in Georgia for a remote position and I keep forgetting to call him back. I get a few minutes when Sophie is sleeping and my brain just shuts down and I forget about all the other things I need to do until she gets up again. I hate that.
Craigslist: I was able to get a few things sold from the last big listing I did, but not much. I took more pictures of items today and will be posting those soon. This stuff needs to be gone!
Weight Loss: I have been overweight my entire life. I am tired of being overweight. Unfortunately, I like food. My portion control isn't bad, nor are the foods I eat, normally. However, my metabolism is in the toilet and I really need to work on giving it a good jump start. I need to focus on drinking more water, getting better sleep at night, and cutting out the things I eat/drink on a regular basis that are detrimental to my overall health. I also need to figure out an exercise plan that I can manage with Sophie around.
LJ: This is low priority, but still something I want to work on. I changed the layout and it's okay, but I think I'd like to find a different one. I really like the three column layout, so I don't want to give that up. That limits the layouts that work for me, of course. I also really want to work on my user icons and setting up various mood themes. Of course, I'm fairly behind on comments right now, so I'd like to get those cleared up as well.
Future posts: I have a few ideas running around in my head regarding future posts. Some of these are posts I have said I'd be writing for over a year now, some of these are newer. I am horrible about writing these down or actually getting around to writing them. Meh. Some of these ideas include posts on children's books, working from home, various movie and music reviews, various tips and tricks in the kitchen (such as how I store my bacon, exciting I know), as well as the picture and video posts I keep promising.


I think that's about it for now...

B and I have plans to start a garden. We were hoping to start it this year, but we have a little too much prep work to do. Because of all the fence repairs that have had to be done lately, B has been able to gather up enough landscape timbers to put together the area for the garden. It's likely not going to stay where it is, but this is a rough idea. I can't wait to get our little garden started!

Last night, B finally ordered our Nature Mill. I can't wait to get started composting! We plan to have a garden next summer (probably should have done it this summer with all the rain) and I'm so excited that he's on board with composting. He even wants to compost inside the house!

We contemplated vermicomposting but couldn't really think of a place to keep it that would work best for the worms other than in the pantry. Even though there shouldn't be a smell with vermicomposting if it's done correctly, I just don't care to have worm poop in my pantry. I also don't cherish the idea of stirring worm poop.

The Nature Mill is supposed to not have any smell at all and I really hope that is the case. It will certainly make composting that much easier considering there is no bucket to take out back after all is said and done in the kitchen. We'll see how it goes after a few weeks.

Now we just have to wait for the composter so we can get started. Then we will need to rent a rototiller and build up a little garden area and get the ground ready. Probably the most difficult part of the project will be to plan what actually goes in the garden.

I am so excited I can barely stand myself. :)

I've never been incredibly good at gardening, but this year, things seem to have changed a bit. My tomato plants are going wild. My rosemary is still growing. Flowers are lasting much longer than I expected. Plants I thought were near death have made amazing turn-arounds.

Sadly, last year I lost the most beautiful spider plant. It was so balanced. I was fortunate enough to get a few babies out of it. One is in our kitchen (not pictured) doing quite well (no babies yet) and the other is hanging outside with a tiny baby starting to sprout (I believe it's on the patio ground in some of the photos)! I bought a new large spider plant this year because I missed my old one so much.

Other purchases made this year include a wandering jew/ivy combination plant that can be seen hanging at one end of the patio (not a great photo), some lantana, the miniature roses (which almost died inside but are doing amazingly well outside), some day lilies, and multiple other plants. Most of the plants outside are new.

Inside, I have a collection of succulents: the kalanchoe pictured here, along with two cacti, an aloe vera plant, a Christmas cactus, and a mini cactus on my refrigerator. I also have several african violets and a couple hanging plants that are damn near impossible to kill (no clue what they're called - no photo, either).

The pecan tree that is pictured (we currently have two potted) was actually a "weed" pulled out of the flower bed by dantex. He was pretty proud of himself for finding it. I was pretty thankful, since it will be perfect for when we move. I love having pecans, as do the squirrels and the dog. The squirrels will hide pecans anywhere and everywhere. I've found some in my hanging planters before! Chui likes to hunt down the pecans the squirrels hide. He'll eat them all year round if he finds them.

I have more plants than pictured here. Some are doing better than in the photos, some are not doing as well. This has certainly been a time of learning.

B bought two birdhouses this spring. Unfortunately, the second purchase was mounted too late for the birds to take advantage of it (although one really fat bird did happen to get stuck in the hole). The first house, however, is the home to a chickadee family (I even heard the babies chirping one night while standing under it!).

In our yard, we have several pecan trees and one bald cypress. We love the pecan trees (as do the squirrels) but aren't so fond of the bald cypress. It is a sappy mess of a tree at times. It drops horrible pod type seeds that stick to everything. In autumn, the leaves turn a rust color and fall off the tree, getting stuck in Chui's coat all the time. We have turned the bald cypress into our bird tree. This is the best use for the worst tree.

I love having all the birdfeeders hanging everywhere. We've had so many different types of birds in our yard because of them. I've seen a mockingbird and some robins, but they never stop to eat when I'm looking. The birds that hang around most often are the chickadees along with a blue jay or two, a few crows, three different types of doves, and some finches. We've had a couple woodpeckers and a pair of cardinals as well. I love being able to watch these birds because they're all so beautiful (minus the crows, they're just noisy). Thankfully, we were able to sneak a few snapshots of some of the birds, but the woodpeckers and cardinals never hand around long enough.


( Image heavy cut )

1. ( Results.... )

2. I've been a cleaning fool the past two days. I still have lots to do, though. I actually bleached in between the tiles on the kitchen counter today. The kitchen looked great, at least until we had dinner.

3. Move along... nothing to see here...

4. I think I've made it past the Atkins hump (either that or I still have yet to hit it, and that scares me). Today I had more energy than I have in a long time. That makes me happy, and somewhat excited.

5. I go back to work tomorrow. I must admit, three days off in a row is nice, especially during the week. I've missed that a little. I was spoiled when I first started Aloha and was able to work 4x10's all the time.

6. We went to the Home Depot tonight. Thank you, AmEx, for the $100 gift card that paid for all my flowers and birdseed. I am so loving our back yard right now. I bought six sets of petunias, two day lilies, a fuchsia, two small cacti of some sort, two kalanchoe (which will need to be kept far from Chui), three African violets, two huge bags of bird seed, a hummingbird feeder, another wild bird feeder, and probably more stuff I'm forgetting. I love the HD almost as much as I love our back yard.

7. I just stumbled across this site. I'm a little concerned about some of the plants I have now, but I also know that we grew up with cats and dogs around many of the plants listed here and never had any issues. Unfortunately, Chui is the type of dog (the brainless type, that is) who likes to chase after weeds when I'm gardening. He's a strange one. He's been known to chase flowers I've plucked as well as dirt and other such things. I'll have to be more careful with my gardening now.

8. B and I went to the Dallas Auto Show last Saturday. We had a pretty good time. We avoided most of the Ford section, and breezed by Hyundai and most of the Chrysler products. I will have a difficult time decided what I want for my next car, especially now that Saturn has decided to stop making new cars with polymer panels. I can see myself going with a VW, Saab, or maybe even an Acura. Such decisions. I'm rather glad I have nearly two years left on this loan.

9. I have fallen in love with the art of Katie Cook. Check her out. She can draw.


That's about all I've got in my bag other than a mess of yarn and a few pecans Chui dug up in the yard. I don't even have a rock.