The garden

For Christmas by sister Sue bought me this great bbq cookbook with wonderful marinates in it. Most of the marinates require fresh herbs. After one trip to the grocery store to buy herbs I decided I could grow my own. All I do is fight the deer with my flowers anyway, so I turned my flower bed into a herb and salsa garden.

This wasn't exactly the best year to start a garden considering the weather has been extremely cool. The high today is 71 and that is pretty warm for what we have been having. I had a little frost issue on June 4 and lost a few plants, but Kaleb and I replanted. Mark put up wire cow panels to keep the deer out. Of course I haven't seen a deer within two miles of the house since the April blizzard. It's a little 'rednecky'. Then Kaleb and I decided we better get the tomatoes and peppers staked because we have two tomatoes on one plant. We went to the shop to see what we could turn up and sure enough we found some wood stakes that were about 18" so they were perfect for the peppers. We dug around and turned up some electric fence poles that have spikes you can push in the ground with your foot, they looked perfect to me, so we put them in and staked the tomatoes. I'm pretty sure better homes and garden will not be visiting us.

These are the two tomatoes that we have growing. They are on the worst looking plant that has some frost damage, but they are getting bigger every day.

I can't remember what these flowers are called, but they are perennials that I couldn't bring myself to pull up. They must like the cool weather because they are in full bloom and growing.

Kids

This picture is from last spring's "Crazy Hair Day" at school. Kaleb won the 2nd grade class. These two children got themselves locked in Kalen's bedroom Saturday night. I had sent them up there to wrap Mark's fathers day present. The door knob jammed up and they couldn't get out. Mark had them open one of the windows and he throw the cordless screwdriver up to them with the thought that Kaleb could take the screws out of the door knob. Keep in mind that from the age of two, Kaleb has stripped many things in our house of the screws. We have tried to use this talent for good and not evil, but sometimes things are missing the screws. Anyway, Kaleb gave it a shot and he could not get the screws out of the door. Go figure. It was time for plan B. There was no other choice but for Mark to get a ladder and climb up thru the window. So up he went and in thru the window and he took the hinges off the door and got them out. Kalen told him that he was her hero.

Sometimes the wisdom from this child will stop and make you think about things. Today Kaleb was reading to me and the word 'dumb' was in his story. He pronounced the 'b', so I stopped him and explained to him that the 'b' was silent. He said "that doesn't make sense to put the 'b' on there if it doesn't make a sound." Then he put his finger over the 'b' and said "that's how it should be spelled." There was nothing that I could say other than to agree with him.

BBQ in the rain

I sat outside with ribs on the charcoal grill and watched the rain storm move through. At one point I had to move the grill into the garage. I have complained about the wet and cold this spring, but it was sure a beautiful view. The kids put on their raincoats and played in the rain.

It's been forever.................

It's been forever since I've posted. I keep thinking that I need to get things updated, but I never get that far. But that's the story of my life.

Here are some pictures of my entertainment this spring.

This is Beau. He was born March 18. He has provided a lot of entertainment for us.







This is Tara, she is Tari's baby. She was born April 13. She is a sweetheart. Sometimes we call her TJ, which is short for Tari Junior. Mark and I think Tari cloned herself in Tara.

The kids are finally out of school. This is our first week or no school and no activities. Next week we will do Vacation Bible School and after that we are free for the summer. We have no real plans for the summer other than going to some horse shows.

The Wedding

This is Kalen and Harper

This is nephew Jeff and his wife Sarah and my great niece Harper Joy. Harper is 11 weeks old in this picture. She was born on August 28, 2008

Along with Kaleb and Kalen this is my nephew's Wes & Jeff and my niece Lacey. Wes and Lacey are brother and sister. Jeff's sister Rhonda was unable to make it to the wedding.












This is my nephew Wes and his new wife Nikki on at their
wedding on November 15, 2008 in Waco, TX.









The kids and I went to my nephew Wes's wedding in Waco on November 15, 2008. Mom flew down with us and we hooked up with my sister Sue (from Oregon) in Denver and went on to Dallas together. We rented a car and successfully made it to Waco without too many wrong turns.

We arrived on Thursday evening so we were able to spend most Friday with my sister Jeannette (Wes's mom) and Lacey and Wyatt. The wedding took place on Saturday afternoon. My other nephew Jeff and his wife Sarah and their new baby Harper only live 2 1/2 hrs away. They came down and spent most of Saturday with us.

The weather had been warm until Saturday and it turned out to be a little chilly. The wedding was held at a beautiful old mansion that had a huge yard with gazebo (where the wedding took place) and then a big cement area that was covered with a tent for the reception. Do to the chilly weather the ceremony went quite quickly. It is the only wedding that I have been to that was shorter than mine and Marks (ours was 19:56). It was all over in 9 minutes. We were afraid the wind was going to blow over the glass around the unity candle. It was to windy for them to even try and light it.

The reception was true Texas style. Nikki's family did the whole thing. Her dad and uncle started at 3 that morning putting meat on the bbq pit. Her mom and aunt made slaw, potato salad and beans. It was some of the best bbq I have ever had. It was a great. Then one of Nikki's bridesmaids made the cake and not only was it beautiful but it was delicious. All in all we had a wonderful time.

The trip home was something else. Kalen ate a little to much bbq and too much cake and made herself sick. Of course she didn't start throwing up until we were on the road Sunday morning headed to Dallas. I don't recommend flying with a vomiting child. It was kind of rough.

This is my great nephew Wyatt, he just turned two and he was one of the ring bearers in my nephew Wes's wedding.

Mark & Annie

Back to blogging

Well, I kind of dropped the ball of my blogging. Life gets away from me at times. We had the house torn up, school started which meant soccer started and dance started, soccer ended and Kaleb went right to basketball, plus I go to the school to volunteer every Tuesday and some Thursday and I could just keep going.

We have most of the remodeling done. The living room/dining room area is completely finished and so in the bathroom on the main floor. It turned out very nice and we are happy with it. I already had quite a few western painting hung up (I'm a big Tim Cox fan) but with the remodel we decided to go total western decor. I even made horse curtains for the bathroom.

When we got that finished with that we took a break so Mark could get ready for the WRCHA (Wyoming Reined Cow Horse Assn.) Futurity and Derby in mid October. He rode his mare Annie in the derby. He did really well in the reining part, but not as good as he hoped in the cow work.

So, we are finally getting the momentum back to finish the laundry room. Part of the problem in getting the laundry room done is that we aren't really sure what we want to do with it as far as organizing it. We need storage room plus a place to hang coats and put shoes. We have made several trips to Home Depot and have come up with several ideas but haven't figured out the magic combo of cabinets and what not. So far everything is stripped out of there except the washer and dryer. It needed some drywall patches and Mark has that done. He had to put a partial coat of texture to make things blend so he did that and has primed. It is ready for paint, which will probably happen tomorrow. Then the carpet needs to be pulled up. We are putting that off because it is glued to the floor. The last carpet that we pulled up that was glued was a nightmare. So we are not looking forward dealing with it.