My babies

I have the darn cutest kittens that I have already posted about. But... they bring so much laughter and joy into this house that I have to post more about them. I'm really hoping that when they are ready to go out into the world that Rob will let me keep them. The really bad thing is that no one really wants them, so I guess I'll just have to keep them. So here are the cuties...

MOM and BABIES

CAPPUCCINO


LUNA


CRYBABY

The garden...

I will be the first to admit... I don't have a green thumb. It's not even lime-green or yellow. It's definitely brown. So this year, we started the garden and I think that I've been doing pretty well on keeping up on it, most importantly, watering it. Here's a couple of pictures of my progress...

The radishes are doing GREAT! And I can see parsnips coming up. The cucumber on the end.. only time will tell if that's going to make it or not. The lettuce... not so hot. It just might be because Ethan didn't plant it like I thought he had. I'll plant it tomorrow. And there is some kind of hot pepper in there. I thought that I had bought a bell pepper and that's not what it is. Oh well, I'm sure Rob will enjoy it anyway.

Here's "our" tomatoes, Cel! This picture was taken on Friday (the 19th). I have since staked them up and Rob is going to build me a cage for them in the next few weeks.



LOOK WHAT ROB DISCOVERED TODAY ON THE TOMATO PLANT!!!



And... we have corn up. I'm not sure that it will be "knee high by the fourth of July," as the old farmers (my dad and uncle) say. But then again, these are 2 men that, for fun, take lawn chairs about 10 rows into a field and listen to the corn grow. I won't be doing that. I am hoping I'll at least get some corn off them by the first frost.



Another shot of the garden... 2 zucchinis (one has a bloom), a tomato and another cucumber plant.



And last. Ethan found the biggest rolly polly (not sure how to spell that) I have ever seen while weeding the garden last night. It was so big, I had to get a shot of it! The baby kittens got a kick out of chasing it around on the deck. Til it fell through the crack.

This thing on my face...

So I have a very keen sense of smell. Abnormal, you might call it. I can sniff out things that the average person can't smell... but really, it's not a gift. I've always been this way. What a blessing I grew up on a dairy farm... lots of lovely smells there! I wanted to vomit every time my dad came in for the night. The smell was atrocious! I would go into details, but... yeah, I won't. And then when I got pregnant with Ethan, my sense of smell intensified with a vengeance and has never gone back to normal.

At this point I have to fill you in on the worst smell ever.... liquefied green pepper. Probably the only smell that actually made me vomit! There are several smells that make me gag and heave, but this one actually made me run for the toilet.

So this weekend we had soccer tournaments. Briyanna was playing and spent the entire weekend at the other Brianna's house. No change of clothes or anything. After the game on Saturday, every girl on the team headed out to the other Brianna's house for a hot tub party and just having fun. I showed up a little late and got the grand tour of the house. Downstairs where the girls undressed smelled like a locker room.. yes, I heaved, but not bad. While I was there, I got called by 3 of the other girl's moms and was asked to bring them home. Yeah, sure, no problem. When it was time to go, I rounded them all up and and picked up the van a little and noticed an awful smell. The other Brianna had several dogs and I had been petting them, walking through the yard... I had dogs on the brain for some reason. At first I thought it smelled like dog food, and then I changed to dog poop. But I couldn't find it and left. We had to drive in that hot van that has one window that won't roll down for 15 miles with that smell!! It was nauseating. I dropped of one girl and at that point, the smell got so bad to me that I was heaving and weaving all over the road. I had to pull over and do a shoe check on everyone and still I couldn't find it. AWFUL!!! We made it home without wrecking, amazingly!

Last night, several hours after we got home, I had to wash my hands after I touched chicken. And in the laundry room I found... the smell.



EDIT: It was pointed out to me that I need to clarify something here. Briyanna didn't step in dog poop... her feet/ shoes/ socks smell like dog poop after playing soccer for 2 days. She thinks its pretty funny.

The new tattoo

So I got a new tattoo 2 weeks ago. I think it really could be classified as 4 tattoos and as much as they hurt, I would like to think that. They are on the lower, right side of my back. The top one is an "E" that looks like a pitchfork, for Ethan. And then I have 3 bees. One for each of my "B's"- Briyanna, Brenna and Berlyn. Yep.. that "E" and the bottom bee hurt! BAD! Oh, well... it's done. Got them done at Imperial Body Art by Stephen.

Backyard Makeover

Make over might be pushing it... improvement tho, yes! So... it has been like forever since I blogged, and for good reason. I have been insanely busy. I will try to blog a few times in the next week to catch my life up. But for now, I will stick to the backyard and hopefully not stray from it too much. I'll start with the playground. It was SO bad that the kids haven't touched it much in over a year. It had really just become a glorified kitty litter box. Really, REALLY gross.

BEFORE PICTURE:

We cleaned out some of the bark, got rid of the weeds, leveled the ground a little, threw away broken toys, moved bikes, laid down weed block, and 3 yards of bark later....

AFTER PICTURE:

Yes... I am a very happy person now. And so are the kids... at least the 2 that have got to test it out so far are very happy!

PROJECT #2: My hostas... I love hostas!! Last year I made a hosta bed and it really has been the pride and joy of my backyard so far. I love, LOVE it! So today I cleaned it out... no big deal really. Just trimmed back some of the ivy. I will probably trim it back a little more in a few weeks, but I just love the green there. It is on the north side of my house so it does get hardly any sun. I call it my little piece of Oregon because it is so green.

Project #3: My bean planter. I got a wild hare this year... I had Rob build me a bean planter under my dining room bay window. So last night, that's what he did. We filled it with dirt, and the kids and I planted pole beans. In a few weeks when they sprout, I'm going to attach strings from the planter to the spot above the windows for the beans to trail up. Those windows face the west so in the evening when the sun is over there, our dining room and kitchen are so hot that it's uncomfortable to even walk through those 2 rooms. Unfortunately, they aren't going to grow fast enough for me! I'll keep you posted on how this works.

Project #4: My veggie garden: This project is far from done. The kids wanted a garden this year, and I just jumped on the band wagon. Ethan built the planter. The tire planters are from a few years ago and they seem to do really well, especially the tomatoes. This area was essentially a junk pile- an old van and boat. So Rob clean this out about a week ago and we were really debating what to do with it since. The kids decided that for us. We'll see who ends up weeding it. In the big planter, I planted a cucumber, courtesy of my mom, and also some lettuce, radishes and parsnips... and then there is something that Brenna got from church that you can supposedly (and hopefully, since I tried it yesterday.. thank God, I'm still alive) eat. We're also going to put in some peppers in a few days. We're seriously contemplating one more big planter. In the tire planters, there is another cucumber, a tomato and 2 zucchinis (all from my mom). I need to do one more tire planter for cherry tomatoes (the girl's and my personal favorites). Behind the tire planters is a little lot of sweet corn. This is the first time I've tried corn... nevermind I grew up on a corn/ dairy farm. I never was the one that planted/ took care of it. Anyhow.... if I'm honest, I don't have a green thumb, except for those hostas! So we will see how this whole garden thing goes. Wish me luck!

And last but not least... our adorable ittle backyard inhabitants... By the way, I will pay anyone who takes them $5 and a bag of food. :) I'm serious! They will be ready in about 4 weeks.