Gardener in Training... and Other Stuff

Basically I am too lazy to move the pictures to where they belong. So enjoy them where they are :). But I will definitely go in order of what's been going on in The Nilla Life.

I house-sat last week. That concluded yesterday.

Lea and I walked 3 days last week. And Sue and I walked 2 days. I lost my pedometer yesterday, so that's a bummer. Will have to buy another one. Anyway, Lea and I have decided we love food. And so about once a week, we are making plans to have a meal along with our walk. After Monday's experience, we learned that it is far better to walk before we eat. And so we will probably implement that plan :). But the chicken and veggie kabobs, pasta salad (using a cucumber from my garden), and the chocolate toffee bars (again, thank you Kira!) were so fabulous. Tomorrow we are doing a baked potato bar. I'm taking the mushrooms and black olives ('cuz I like those on my baked potato) and dessert. Anyone want to guess what I'm taking for dessert? Chocolate toffee bars! Because her family loves those things, and apparently Lea ate most of them last time and the rest of her family never really got over how few they got since she at them all. So I made a double batch to take tomorrow. They really are really really good. Anyway, and we also went out and ate at a little diner here on Friday after our walk. We had fun, singing at the table to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Saturday was another day of work. At the library. It was slooooooow. But Lea and I hit up a garage sale on the way back from the library. I got 2 new movies on DVD (Bed of Roses and Raising Helen) and a game called The Wrong Game that sounds kind of funny. And a couple of other odds and ends and Lea got some picture frames. And our grand total was $9. Woohoo! Gotta love a good garage sale! Then I dropped her off at home and went to Target to get several things and then to Lowe's to get dowels for my garden. Because my tomato plants are growing like gangbusters and some of the branches are getting top-heavy. So I had to stake them. And I'm not paying $8 for a bamboo stake when I can get a wooden dowel for 74 cents and do the same thing. And then I hurried home, because Christina was bringing over the kiddos for me and my mom to watch for the night. So I confess, I did buy Desiree a pair of pink Dora gardening gloves. And she was excited about them. And we all went out into the garden. Now, Emily didn't want to be left out, but she can't really understand the concept of pulling out grass. So she just sat on my lap. Which made it harder for me to move around and pull grass. So not a lot got done. Desiree pulled quite a bit of grass and made a grass nest. ? I don't know. It was her thing, not mine ;). After a while, my mom took Emily inside so I could water and also pick the cucumbers that were ready for picking. And Desiree was excited about that part. So you can see all the garden pictures above and the pictures of what we picked. It was like Christmas (red and green) ;)! And okay, so it's kind of sad that there is only one strawberry. But next year there will be more. And the 2 strawberries I've enjoyed from my garden this year have been delicious. In one of the pictures, you can see a few cucumbers on the ground behind Desiree. And those big monster plants behind the cucumbers? Those are acorn squash. They are seriously taking over! I have definitely learned a lesson about those! As for the tomatoes... I have about 75 now in various stages and sizes. I hope the majority of them ripen. Kristin told me to make salsa ;). Which sounds yummy. But I also intend to share. This has been a great experience for me. And what is really exciting is that I started the tomatoes from seed! A lot of people have been surprised to hear that. The lady that lives behind us commented today that I have the healthiest plants she has seen. So I'm excited. They had slow starts (and that's a blog post for another day), but they are producing like crazy!

Anyway, so after we played in the garden, I took the girls down the hill to a little park and then we went to the grocery store and got some stuff for dinner. Then it was bath time, followed by bed-time for Emily and Grandma. Desiree and I stayed up and watched Open Season on my laptop in bed and we laughed. She's such a big girl now. Emily actually wasn't feeling well it turned out. Poor thing would spike a fever here and there. We aren't sure if it's symptoms of teething or a cold. She wasn't fussy at all. But she didn't sleep well. Which meant my mom didn't sleep well. And I didn't sleep well, because Desiree is a mover. And a sleep-talker. Hahaha. At one point she said (totally asleep): "Wow!" When I did manage to drift off, I had some strange dreams. I was up at about 7:30 this morning (and for the record, Sunday is my big sleep-in day). I did manage to get stuff done, but with Emily still not feeling well, she was rather clingy. We did end up going to church, but she spiked a fever while we were there and slept through Sacrament. So I just took her to Sunday School with me, taught my lesson, and then we left after that to take them home. Poor baby. But overall, it went well.

After church, I walked with Sue, picked blackberries (they look soooo good!) and then watered my garden and picked up several of the apples that have fallen from the trees out back. And using the backyard neighbor's suggestion that those particular apples make delicious apple crisp... Well, that's precisely what I just finished doing (while watching episodes of Quantum Leap with my mom and grandma). And let me tell you... The house smells cinnamon-y good! I'm excited to try it out tomorrow. Meanwhile my mom also made arroz con pollo and flan to take to work for everyone for lunch. So tomorrow is going to be chock full of good food in Nilla-landia. And if that apple crisp turns out really well, I'm going to be excited. It's my first try. And we used apples out of the garden. Which means free. And you know I like free :).