The Garden of Eaten

Haha, witty, aren't I? This is my first year attempting to help with our yearly garden. Thad is quite a green thumb, and I hope that some of that rubs off on me as I assist in keeping things alive in our little plot of veggie heaven.

So I got to actually pick some things that we put into our garden this year, and we ended up with a total of 22 various varieties of tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, etc. Here's the run-down:
3 types of tomatoes
4 types of peppers
2 types of beans
2 types of corn (including a red sweet variety)
2 types of squash (including zucchini)
cantaloupe
onions
carrot
beets
fennel
cabbage
broccoli
cucumbers

So here is the garden now that all the work has been done. Thad laid out plastic to avoid weeds (it works really well at keeping moisture in the soil). He did nearly all the planting too, but I mapped out where everything would go.



We had a nice small bbq on Saturday night, nothing huge and only a few of Thad's work friends made it. Since we were making our bombastic ribs it worked out really well that only about 4 adults plus Thad and I were there. More ribs for us. And oh, they were good. Thad and I have discussed actually purchasing a dedicated smoker to continue our mastery of smoke and rub.

Here is a picture of our little bathing beauty. She put on her swimsuit and played in her little frog pool on Sunday.



Here is a picture of the hunter stalking her prey. Whenever either of us is eating anything that she considers yummy in any way she will climb on top of us and open her mouth really wide (as seen below) to indicate that she would like a bite.





Well, I have to go bathe my child and motivate myself to get some laundry done before I start my 3 day work week. I wish all weekends were 4 days long.

Oh, and in two weeks I'll officially be in the home stretch of Baby Swan 2009. The third trimester is almost here. That means that the panic to finish the baby's room and get the guest room in the basement finished will officially begin. It will all come together, but my nesting instinct may not be able handle the strain.

Peace out. Remember all those that have served our country for our freedom today!

I'm young and free and feeling fresh

Today was Monday, and Mondays for me aren't usually bad. Most of the time I feel highly productive on Mondays and today was no exception. I got a lot of work done, saw my mom a couple times, and at the end of the day opted out of Blizzards in exchange for homemade berry smoothies. So no feelings of guilt there.

My mom had back surgery last week, fusing multiple vertebrae together. Hopefully this alleviates a lot of the back pain she's suffered with for the last decade or so, but there was a metal plate installed in her back so I think feeling good is going to be just a little slow going. Keep Darla in your prayers, dear readers, as she deserves to start having a life again

On an internal note I'm starting to feel much harder kicks these days. I told Thad that this kid is getting strong and he made a "no duh, consider who his father is" comment. I can't say I disagree with him, but I was expecting that any man-child of mine would be a milque-toast. Yeah, look it up, it's a real word.

This coming weekend I have Sunday and Monday off, so I think we're planning to get our garden put in and as a reward for our efforts we're smoking RIBS. Last August Thad and I smoked a couple racks of ribs on our grill and his friend Jason has not quit talking about them. Honestly, they were quite freaking good, which is due to the amazing dry rub recipe I got from the Paupered Chef. I'd link it, but I'm lazy. I'm super excited at the prospect of these ribs, so if we end up following through on this plan there will be pictures to drool over.

In other news, the basement project is coming along. Thad is still mudding corners and edging, and once this is finished he will texture it with his dad's texture gun. We're probably going to go carpet shopping with our measurements and look at a nice piece of remnant carpet, or a couple pieces if we have to put it in as a two part deal. I told him the deadline for it being ready for guests is the end of June. His brother gets married on 7/3 so we're going to need to get it ready so we have two guest rooms to offer family that comes to town.

Elora has been officially diaper/pull up free for an entire week. She's going in the potty full time, and has not had a single night time accident. The day care provider has 3 year olds that are still not potty trained, so the fact that Elora is not even 2 1/2 is pretty awesome. She calls everything "pooping". She's even gone potty at Famous Dave's and Walmart, and I'm so happy to be done with diapers. Now she has an assortment of really cute little panties.

So now I'm working on getting her to quit telling me "NO" when I tell her to do something. She'll get it eventually, when she goes to her room EVERY TIME she does it. This is the age to break that habit before she gets older and thinks that it's ok to tell mama you aren't going to do what she tells you. I'd hate to see me come unleashed on her as a teenager, a la Darla, so it's better for her that we nip it in the bud.

Well, Elora has been wanting her father every night to snuggle with, but tonight apparently Her Majesty is requesting an audience with me. I'm going to go snuggle and head to bed. If I don't post again until after Memorial Day I hope everyone had a great weekend!

BOOM

Yes, my living room is filled with laundry baskets, but the main focal point of this picture is my ENORMOUS BELLY. Now, I don't know if anyone remembers when I was pregnant with Elora, but the battle between belly and boobs wasn't officially overtaken by the belly until I was a little further along (or at least I thought it wasn't). I don't know where else this kid is going to go, but I have a feeling he'll start creeping his way up behind my lungs.

Mother's Day 2009

Thad's dad needs some assistance with a home project he is working on this weekend, and so Thad is taking Elora to see her gammy and papa and Lacy (their teacup poodle) in Colstrip for the weekend. This leaves me at loose ends, and I'm thinking this will be nice for me, so I'm kind of excited to see what Saturday holds.

Tonight I'm meeting some girlfriends for tapas at Walker's, and then tomorrow I will probably just clean at a leisurely pace, do some laundry, watch Mad Men (fingers crossed Adrienne remembered to bring it with her for her training up here today), and maybe make a trip to the library. My mom is trying to keep herself germ-free so she can have surgery on her back next week, so we will celebrate in a couple weeks when she is up and running again.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all my motherly friends, and if you aren't a mama yet you better make sure you do something nice for yours.

Take care!

Work in Progress - Playlist for the Class of 99