Oh My Gosh!

So I've often found myself wondering why they even offer Webdings as a font option when creating a new post. Well, I figured it out. It's so people like me can have a little fun now and then. Casey makes fun of me for using a different font every time I make a post. We'll see what he thinks of this one.

The title of this post may be a little misleading. There's nothing exciting in here. I just thought it would be fun to post in Webdings. This is the sort of day I've had ... that I think posting in Webdings will be the greatest thing ever! Ha ha!

Let's have a little more fun and see who figures this out. If you were smart enough to copy and paste this into something else and change the font so you can read it (or if you speak Webdings), way to go! You are a smarty-pants! Now please be so kind as to put a comment in. Write in the comment ... um ... your favorite Disney movie. I think that will be random enough. Just the title, like this:

Mary Poppins

Wow. That took me a long time to think of. I may have Cars and both Toy Story movies memorized (thank you, Evan), but that was the first one of my all-time favorites that popped into my head. Okay, now you go. Thanks for joining in my fun, everyone. I hope it was as exciting for you as it was for me. :) (Wow--I need a life!)

Strawberry Days Parade

In an effort to feel a little more integrated into the fair little city we call home and do more exciting/entertaining/fun things with the kids (see also: post below) we attended the Strawberry Days Parade last Saturday. It was HOT! And besides the police/firemen/etc., the beauty queen floats, the marching bands, and other school group floats, it was pretty much one big advertising fest. We got more fliers than Evan got candy. But we had fun, for the most part, and that's what counts. (Right?) Did I mention how hot it was, though? This "city of trees" we live in needs more trees! Anyway, here are a few pictures from the blessed event. I have to keep posting pictures so Casey can keep going with his bloggy-doodles.

Strawberry Days Carnival

Every year our great city of PG hosts Strawberry Days. It may not sound all that exciting, but I think it's better than the Steel Days, the Round-up Days, and possibly even the Fiesta Days of surrounding towns. I don't think they serve up strawberries and cream during those festivals.

Last year we were moving to this very house in PG during Strawberry Days. I remember driving down Main Street and seeing the little carnival and wishing we had time to attend. I can't believe that was a year ago. This year we braved the crowds (ahem ... okay, there aren't really any crowds on Thursday at noon) to take Evan to ride the rides at the carnival. I was afraid they would be stopping every ride to let the poor, crying, scared little kid off (which would not have been a big deal since he was the only kid on a couple of the rides), but he had a blast. He started out on the cars ...

Followed by the spaceships (the only ride he looked ever-so-slightly concerned on) ...

Look how cute he is waiting in line (er, being the only one in line) with his tickets ...

The carousel was a big hit with both of the boys ...

Owen really did enjoy it, despite the funny look on his face. He got so mad when we tried to put him back in the stroller.

The dismount ...

The train ... (Evan always steered throughout the entire ride every time he had the chance)

Waiting to get off ...

Owen taking it all in ...

The really exciting ducky boat ride ...

Owen getting a little bored with the ducky boat ride ...

It was a fun hour. Yup, that's all it took to make Evan the happiest little boy on earth ... for a while.

"Mom, I love the dentist!"

That is what I heard come out of Evan's mouth as we left the dentist's office yesterday. I almost cried. I did my best to prep him for the dentist yesterday, but I didn't think it would be enough. He was excited about the fish tank when we walked in--a good start. It took a lot of coaxing to get him to wear the lead vest so they could take pictures of his teeth with the big camera, but after I showed him it was okay, he let me put it on him and he bit down on the little "cookie" and let them stick that big scary thing in front of his nose and under his chin and take pictures. I was thrilled. (I should mention that when I took him the first time, almost 1 1/2 years ago [oops], he would not let them do a single thing!) Then he climbed up in the big purple chair and laid down and gave the hygienist a running commentary on "Finding Nemo" as she was polishing his teeth. He even let her floss. And he loved the water and vacuum. He grabbed the vacuum and kept "kissing" it so it would suck all the fluid out and then say "more water" and she'd give him more and then he would vacuum it out. So cute. And the dentist came to check out his teeth and Evan showed him the pictures of his teeth. By the way, he's a member of the No Cavity Club--hooray! (His teeth are super crowded, though ... which is why I'm thrilled to see all the space between Owen's teeth in the picture below.) After the dentist took a look, Evan laid right back down to let the hygienist paint his teeth with fluoride. He picked out a new Cars toothbrush and a little prize and was happy as a clam. He was so excited he had to show our friend Ashley (Mashry) :) what he got and tell her all about the dentist. I still feel like I'm beaming from the whole experience. Evan can be quite the wuss so I'm very proud of him and to hear him say he loves the dentist is just the icing on the cake.

Baby Owen ~11 Months Old~

No sign this time. He won't hold still long enough to get a picture with even a portion of the piece of paper. Notice I had to trap him with my legs to get this picture.
Highlights in the life of Owen include:

• He eats anything and everything (good when he's in the highchair, bad when he's on the floor)
• He has started sleeping through the night every few nights (all that teasing makes the rest of our nights really unpleasant)
• He stands up for little bits of time, then collapses to the floor in laughter because he thinks it's so funny
• Come to think of it, he thinks a lot of things are funny and laughs a lot and it's this funny little "eh-eh-eh-eh-eh" laugh
• He's still on the move, all over everywhere, crawling like crazy, including up the stairs if they aren't blocked off
• He loves throwing balls, especially on the wood floor, crawling after them, throwing them again, crawling after them ...
• He loves pushing cars around on the floor (I don't know why, but I'm surprised he gets this concept already)
• He is quite the musician; he still shakes everything and hits things together until they make the loudest noise possible; he has added the alligator xylophone to his repertoire and he can play the kazoo like nobody's business (seriously!)
• He babbles a little, but still doesn't talk much; he'll say "ma-ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da-da" and try to copy some sounds he hears; he coos along sweetly when you sing and he'll copy Putty when he meows with a little "ow"
• He's the sweetest, cuddliest (when he wants to be) little kid and I love him to pieces
  

Tomato Diseases/Pests

Does anyone know what is wrong with my tomato plants? The leaves have these ugly brown areas. Blight? Rot? Curl? I hate diagnosing plant diseases and pests. The newer leaves seem to be healthier so maybe it's nothing to worry about.It's on my basil, too.
Also, as long as we're on the subject of pests, does anyone know how to get rid of those pesky little baby grasshoppers before they become big, disgusting, hungry grasshoppers? Any help is greatly appreciated.

We're Half Way There

No, more like a quarter of the way there. It still has to be stained (still looking for a "professional" stainer--if I do it myself I'll notice all the flaws and Casey just has too many other "projects" to do), and there's a lot of patching and painting to be done with the walls and molding and such, and then the carpet runner can be installed and THEN we will be done with the stairs. I'm really thrilled with the results so far, though. Just in case you're wondering ... we do have more balusters on the way. They forgot to order them. But I'm proud of myself for not settling for any old thing in the catalog. I insisted on getting what we wanted in the first place.

Never Say Never

(It's only almost a year later ...)

For those of you who thought it would never happen (everyone, that is), here is the beginning of our new stairs. Our custom newel posts are up (but the tops aren't on) and I'm very excited about them. Anyone up for a job doing some staining?

The Great Outdoors

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. It's not that it's been boring around here; it's been absolutely crazy. All 3 boys have been sick since Friday and we've had lots going on. The craziness continues through Thursday, but I need a break. So here are a couple updates ...

This is Evan with his new obsession, the umbrella.

This is the beautiful rainbow that appeared after the lovely little rain showers that kept Evan entertained for so long.

This is my pride and joy. My square foot garden (er, the start of it). I was going to say that this is Phase 1 of my square foot garden project, but it's more like Phase 3 or 5 or so. This large area started out as a big, hilly mess of weeds and rocks (LOTS of rocks) and trash. The people before us used this area for RV parking with a dog run in one corner. I picked up rocks (LOTS of rocks), Casey tilled it up, I picked up more rocks (LOTS more rocks), then started leveling it out ... not a fun task! Thanks to the sandbox (partially seen on the right), the dirt/sand/grass was built up incredibly high on that one side and I had a very difficult time leveling it out. It's still not completely level, but good enough. Oh yeah, and that's our new peach tree. YEA!

After all that, I got to work building my square foot gardening boxes (kinda time-consuming). I rolled out that garden cloth stuff and staked it down, then filled the boxes with the special mixture of compost, peat moss and vermiculite (also kinda time-consuming). Then Evan helped me plant seeds and a few starts (very time consuming, but he enjoyed it and loves to see the "planets" growing). Within a few short days, seeds were germinating.

I know, I know, I don't have this box marked out in square feet, but we all know how tomatoes get crazy big and I don't mind have a box devoted purely to tomatoes--Celebrity, Early Girl and a variety of cherry tomatoes--and one basil plant (1 died before I transplanted ... not a good start).

Here is what is planted in the box below:
1 watermelon (transplant)
2 corn
2 cucumbers (1 is transplant)
9 peas
1 cauliflower
18 beans
1 broccoli
4 lettuce (2 varieties)
1 cantaloupe (transplant)
1 zucchini
16(?) carrots
1 squash
various radishes interspersed
several garlic chives (pest control ... and eating, I suppose)
several nasturtiums (also for pest control)
Can you believe that? I'm so excited about this. And the best part ... virtually NO weeding! Yea, serious. This may be as far as I get this year, but I'm surprised I got even this much done. It was hard work, but I look forward to wondrous results. And in the next few years I'll finish up this garden area. Eventually I'll have more boxes. I'm planning some skinnier ones that will be devoted solely to raspberries (if I can get them to live) and strawberries since they both spread so much. And a couple more so I can do more canning and freezing and such. And I'll be putting some sort of bricks or square paving stones around each box, adding a path of bricks or paving stones from the lawn to the gate (which will someday be a wooden fence) and then filling in all the spaces with small river rocks or something. The vision is beautiful. Hopefully I'll be able to realize it and do so within a year or two.

10 Years

No pictures today ... they didn't have digital cameras way back when we got married. Just wanted to tell Casey "Happy Anniversary," thanks for putting up with me for so long, and here's to eternity! :) Love ya, babe!