Because I love you

I cut the grass!!!!


I also scooped the poop...but let's not talk about how our love life is better cause I shoveled the sh*t:)

RED TOMATOES!!

We have red tomatoes! We have red tomatoes! We have red tomatoes!

3 red tomatoes sitting in my window.

These tomatoes are the first of what looks like 100s.

I am sure by the end of tomato season I will be sick of them and ready to go tomato free until next season.

What family of 5,
only 2 people that eat tomatoes,
needs 9 plants?

After all the salsas, ketchups, sauces, and (veggie)BLTs have been made
I will need many many more ideas on what to do with all these tomatoes.

After giving them out to all of our family and friends
I will need more people to give them to

We are soon to be sick of tomatoes

BUT

right now

WE HAVE RED TOMATOES!

Does Poison Control make fun of me after I hang up?

hmmm....uh, where to start so I don't sound like a dink? uh. um. I am pretty sure dinkdom is coming no matter what I try to say to cover my stupidness so I'll just lay it all out there...

I just ate Sevin Bug Killer.
Well not directly, but it was still ingested by me and me alone. If my husband comes home to find me foaming at the mouth and in a puddle of my own vomit please let him know what happened.
There is something strangely ironic about this, too. I have used the Japanese beetle killer very very little this year. I have said "WASH YOUR HANDS AS SOON AS YOU GET INSIDE, SOAP AND WATER!" a good 500 times. The kids don't even have to touch the garden and I say "I sprayed Sevin to kill the bugs we need to be careful and wash our hands when we go in."
I gave some shriveling beans to JR's lizard, I washed them and washed them again, told Janey to make sure JR washes them because they were sprayed with Sevin.
I am sending some beans to my mom's friend this weekend. I will tell her "WASH THE BEANS! THEY HAVE SEVIN ON THEM!"
Then I will say to Steve "We should really go organic" I want to be organic in the next 5 years-also need to tackle that fear of creepy crawlies, but its all good.
Then we will start tying up the tomatoes and I will say "WASH YOUR HANDS"
If you haven't figured it out, yet,
Sevin haunts me.
OMG I would never ever forgive myself if I poisoned my family. I couldn't bear to be the one responsible. So with all this danger lurking around every weed in the garden, how in the hell is it that I am the one who just ate half a pepper and never thought "Wash the pepper, wash your hands?" Does this mean I want to be responsible for my own poisoning? I can't believe I was dumb enough to not wash the pepper. DUMBDUHDUMBDUH!!!
Lucky for you and me I don't think the pepper is going to cause my demise. Since it has been, oh I don't know, lets say a month+ since I have sprayed and I have only sprayed, maybe 3 times(as a precaution) more than likely I won't have any kind of near death experience.
This was a test only a test....In the event of an actual death by Sevin I will go to the ER before I blog.

Moon Flowers

Don't look at the dead flower!!!

Since they are prettiest at dusk the pictures are kinda dark but it doesn't take away from their beauty.

I was all prepared for a boring week at home

I had planned to blog about vacation, all week. All the fun we had. All the swimming we did. All the movies the kids watched at bedtime(insert bad mom comments). All the cool stuff in Nashville. All the alone time I had with Steve. AND, of course, ALL the love and admiration I have for my in-laws. I still plan to post all the pictures and share the stories BUT it is becoming clear it won't be in a timely manner.

I also need to share the bounty of my garden!(I have pictures!)

We have tomatoes, more than we will know what to do with. PLEASE SEND FRESH TOMATO RECIPES!
We have peppers, 2 varieties, Chocolate Sensation and I don't remember the other. I picked a green one the other night. Still need to taste it.
The beans are plump and ready to be picked. I have made 2 family size servings already and there are MANY MANY MANY more waiting to be picked.
We have potatoes. This is a big surprise. I planted half a potato to prove that I could get potatoes from a potato. It was inadvertently dug up and replanted and now we have plants. Still waiting for flowers. How do you know when a potato is ready to be picked?
Then there is the mysterious gourd plant in the front of the house. We thought it was pumpkin but then we saw the gourds growing on it. LOTS and LOTS of gourds. The only thing I know to do with a gourd is set them around in the fall. SEND GOURD CRAFT IDEAS!
We have a pumpkin plant, which killed the clematis, it has lots of blossoms but no sign of pumpkins. Aunt Shel thinks the pumpkin isn't going to produce. Steve thinks there is still hope for a pumpkin or two. There are lots of blossoms, my fingers are crossed.
I think I covered all of the great things growing here.


Hopefully I will be sharing the Nashville trip soon. We had a great time.
Ady says the entire trip was her favorite part.
If I had to guess on Jaden's favorite part, I would guess, the airplanes flying over when we were outside. Nashville International Airport is a really busy place. We were close enough to the airport that the planes were low enough for him to find on his own. He got really excited when he saw them. Most of the time we were in the pool and he was fussy(didn't like swimming) as soon as I asked him "where's the plane, Do you see an airplane" he would stop fussing and say "ahplane".
Jonas said he liked swimming the best. HOWEVER Jonas also said "It's really easy having kids" and hung his puppy from the clothes hanger in the car so I wouldn't trust him:)
I loved the entire trip but if I had to pick one thing it would be the day Steve and I went on a date. I got a new Sandra Brown book, found some awesome deals at The Disney Store and had the oh-so-good Orange Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks MMMMMMMMMM!

I promise there are pictures and I will get them posted. I am sure things will slow down eventually...right?

TACKLE IT TUESDAY

This is my first Tackle It Tuesday so we are starting small. I was given a wicker planter for my front porch 2 weeks ago(THANKS MOM!)




it needs some TLC and flowers. I have spray painted it white and put the soil into it. Now it just needs some flowers. Red Geraniums and Sweet Potato Vine is the plan, right now.



Hopefully the planter will look wonderful on the porch. I already have 2 flower pots full of wave petunias(and weeds) on the porch. The colors may not look great together but some color is better than no color. I hope...



UPDATE-Didn't get the Sweet Potato Vine I wanted and the Geraniums are pink not red. Everything goes much better this way! Here is the finished product and I am happy my first Tackle It Tuesday went so well!




Tackle It Tuesday by 5 Minutes for Mom.

My Lovely Peas!

PEAS! PEAS! PEAS!

WOO HOO! We have 3 pea pods! 2 are looking kinda flat but 1 is ready for the picking. I can't wait! I will take pictures before I pick. Share with you just how tasty my peas look. Of, course it will have to be an up close and personal look at my peas-cause the rest of the garden looks pretty icky. The peppers are still in fair condition-could go either way on the remaining ones that haven't shriveled up and died. After fixing my bean plants they have vined out everywhere but have yet to see any sign of crop. Planted 6 tomato plants last weekend and have some jelly bean tomatoes growing in peat pots(Yes I know it is late-but can't blame me for trying) still to early to tell on those. We got a new fence put up, hopefully the dog will not be able to find a way through this one. My handy hubby is going to build a gate for the fence after he gets some wood.

I worked on digging out the nasty bushes on the east side of the house. Bushes to dig out-4. Bushes left to dig out-4. Currently they are winning but not for long. If I can kill yucca then I can dig out bushes! Oh yeah---
FINALLY!
APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!
It is safe to say:
I HAVE KILLED THE YUCCA! WOO HOO!
I am beyond overjoyed! I will be planting a lilac and before you know it(like 8 years) I will have a big beautiful lilac bush. I will be able to open the bedroom window and let the sweet smell of lilac fill the room. AHHHH......I can smell it now. MMMMMM.....soooooo niiiiiiiiice! Aroma therapy at its finest.

Do you garden? Do you plan to garden?

Steve got me a gardening book some time ago and just remembered he had it this weekend. When he discovered it he walked into the living room tossed it at me and said "here I got this for you a while ago"

I started skimming the pages and I really like the author's style. There isn't any "NO you can't have that because...." She explains the different ways that you can garden. Short on space but still want tomatoes? She has the answer to that. Love flowers but live in an apartment? She has some neat ideas on containers, window boxes, and more.
I especially like the carnivorous plant bog. Maybe next year I will plant one. Steve immediately said no, so he needs some persuading. Maybe he thinks Little Shop of Horrors was a true story. He hasn't mentioned a fear of venus fly traps, or butterworts.

Carnivorous plants aside, this book is chocked full of ideas. Easy do-it-yourself projects. Lots and lots of earth friendly natural remedies and barriers to protect your plants from animals, insects, and other environmental hazards that can get your plants. I love this book! I love it so much that I went to the website--guess what---I love this website too! AHHHH LOVE!

Gardening Woes

I want to say "DING DONG THE YUCCA IS DEAD" but the sad sad sad sad truth is I have managed to kill 1/4 of all the plants I have gotten this year but still have yet to kill the yucca!
DAMN YUCCA!

I have no green thumb.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning planting, watering and caring for some very delicate seedlings that we had hoped would feed our family later in the summer. Yesterday afternoon a hail storm came through, beating my poor defenseless seedlings up and over watering them. I blame the YUCCA-it is the YUCCA'S fault!

I AM A WIMPY WIMP

I thought I would spend my morning alone(more on that in another post) tilling the garden, mowing the knee high grass, and planting the totally, doing ever so awesome, (before Saturday that is)(more to come on that) strawberry plant that Jonas so desperately wanted for the garden...but no luck! No luck with the tiller-no luck with the mower for I am a wimp! I can not pull hard enough to get either started. My head is hung in shame-I feel like I have let all of the Sparkers around the world down. I am a wimpy wimp with little to no upper body strength.

On the plus my veggie are doing quite well and I planted the strawberries and peas before call it quits on the yard this morning. I sure hope the strawberry will pull out of it. It was doing great look good had even fruited out but in my emergency to leave on Saturday I left in out on the deck and it is now fried. Maybe Jonas will like dried strawberries? Probably not...we wouldn't have been able to eat fruit from it until next year anyway so maybe I will just go buy him a replacement plant:( I have also managed to kill some pansies and some cool impatients but the yucca from HELL is still DESPERATELY TRYING TO LIVE- UGH! I will need to keep a running tally on how many plants I kill this year--the numbers will be shocking, I'm sure.