Operaton: The Grass Is Greener - The Popular House!

Well, after much deliberation, weeping, wailing, and nashing of teeth, we went ahead and had dirt brought in and the backyard raked and leveled. Consequently, our house was every little boys' dream home for a couple of days. In fact, the first day every single boy 12 and under were at our house watching what was going on. It was hillarious!

Notice the gaggle of boys to the left of the big machine. The little boy in the right bottem corner and another little boy from next door sat with Little Man and I on a blanket to watch the work. They would get so excited every time the front loader would come back from the backyard to get more dirt. They also kept hinting that they REALLY, R-E-A-L-L-Y wanted to go play in the dirt pile but I told them no.

And here is the end result. One step closer!

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers . . .

Today I went out to our garden to see where things were at and I found:

Several cantaloupe growing, (This was the largest one.),

a couple of watermelon,

our crazy tomato plants that are almost as tall as me (now if we can just get the tomatoes to turn red before the first freeze),

the carrots that I grew from seed growing,

the onions are getting really large (They love the extra dirt and room we gave them this year,),

and I even picked green peppers (So much better than last years!)

and a large bowl full of jalapenos that are making my hands burn just by picking them. I think the salsa will be extra hot this year!

We already harvested all of the Romaine lettuce and peas. There are also a few cucumbers growing and one looks like it will be ready to be picked by next week. (I also grew that from seed!) So all in all, it is growing. Just hopefully the rest holds out before our first freeze, especially the corn. We re-planted so late due to the late frost in June that we are definitely in a race against time.

Operation: Grass Is Greener - A HUGE Glitch!

Well, I finally threw up the white flag, and told my husband enough with the stupid backyard. Once we got all the grass removed and started working on the dirt little did we ever imagine just how bad the rock situation would be! It's REALLY bad and way too much of an issue for us to take on on our own. So we contacted a couple of landscapers and had them look over what was needed to just get it ready for seeding and give us an estimate. Long story a little bit shorter . . . we are looking about $1000!!! For a stupid backyard of a house that we hate! (That tells you just how bad our backyard is.) Grrrrrrrrrr!

We have now officially dubbed this house the Money Pit! I have no idea what we are going to do, but we have to do something since there is no grass. However between child support, the things that HAVE to be fixed on the inside of the house, my husband's tuition/books, and other various and assundry expenses (Including try to figure out a way to save up money for a down payment for another house so that we can get the heck out of here.), $1000 may as well be $1,000,000 right now.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

Oh the Things Kids Say

Yesterday, I had to teach the lesson for the Beehive girls, since their regular teacher is in the process of moving. The lesson was on "The Sacred Power of Procreation", not my ideal topic for a lesson, but that's what was assigned. When I let the girls know what we would be talking about, one immediately gave me a look and said, "Oh my gosh! This isn't the sex talk is it? I already got it in great detail and I don't want to hear about it ever again." It gave me a good chuckle.

FYI - Safety Issue!

Did you know that with the newest phones (i.e. Smartphones) if you take a picture with your phone and post it on a blog, Facebook, or other social network, that someone could "geotag" your picture and find out where exactly it was taken. i.e. Take a picture of kid at home, post online, very bad people now know where exactly you live.

There is a way to turn off this feature on your phone. Good Morning America just did a story on this, yesterday. You can find it at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/celebrity-stalking-online-photos-videos-give-location/story?id=11443038

Just thought you might find it interesting!

And So It Begins . . . . Again!

Yep, it's that time of year again when my husband begins to register for school; I search for "deals" on textbooks; we cringe as we wait for the tuition bill; I mournfully count the days until he starts up classes again and quickly count off how many days left until the semester ends.

The good news: He might be actually graduating in May 2011 with his Master's instead of December of 2011.

The bad news: It doesn't shorten the time it will take to get his doctorate. Just gives him longer to work on it.

I'll just be glad when it is all done. However, that means Little Man will be starting kindergarten, since that is how long it will be when my hubby has his doctorate. Oh well.

Where Does the Time Go?

Isn't it crazy how fast time flies at times? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing a newborn home and now he has started crawling, talking, and trying to feed himself! It's just amazing how much change occurs during the first year. And yet, he hasn't been born longer than I was pregnant with him! This part goes by sooooooooo much quicker than pregnancy!