Long Weekend

I was excited to get the long week kicked off on Friday, so I started some laundry and paid bills.  I know…very exciting huh??  But I figured if I did some chores on Friday there would be less for the weekend.  While I was going through paperwork I found the flyer for a local blood drive.  I rushed to the local Veterans Hall so I would make it there before 7pm.  I was checked in by a guy that was singing along with the radio, so I joined in on a few words of the song.  Really, who can resist singing Prince:  “You don’t have to be rich to be my girl.  You don’t have to be cool to rule my world.  Ain’t no particular sign I’m more compatible with.  I just want your extra time and your kiss.”  I always remember Julie Roberts singing it in Pretty Woman.  The check in guy thought it was hysterical that I sang a few words and then we were cracking up singing every other line.  He left the “…extra time and your *smooch* *smooch* *smooch* KISS” up to me.  They guy mentioned he was surprised at the size of Prince and I asked, “Is he a tall guy?  I always thought he is a little guy.”  The check in guy said, “Oh yeah, he’s a little guy, you can still burp him.”  I laughed so hard!!  Then, I gave a Damon Wayans line from The Last Boyscout, “I like Prince, owweewwaaat” (there’s a hand movement that goes along with it too).  It was probably the funniest blood donation I’ve ever given.  Oh and I’m a few pints away from a total of 3 gallons donated.  That’s a lot of blood!

Saturday was exhausting.  I was out in the sunshine trying to garden and replant plants while trying not to pass out from giving blood.  I usually don’t have many issues from giving blood, but I didn’t drink enough water or eat well enough so my body was protesting my attempts at working hard.  I found where I wanted the first wine barrel, but I was very indecisive about where to put the second one.  The barrel on the left is from Minnesota: 

Here is Anastasia before and after.

 After very frustrating attempts at moving the hanger for our upside down tomato plants, we gave up and Doug came up with an idea to hang them in the fence corner by adding a piece of wood.  I like the second barrel where the tomato plants were, but I ran out of dirt.  I’ll post the strawberry picture when I get more dirt.  Here is the new tomato area:

I’ve had a wooden chipmunk carving thing for years and years and I’ve never put it up on a wall (it was made by a family member who has since passed).  It was mounted in a frame with a dark green velvet background (hence the reason I never hung it).  We had friends over and one said, “Why don’t you take it off the backing and out of the frame?”  OHHHH DUHHHH!  It didn’t even cross my mind.  I thought it would be cute on the shed, but Doug wasn’t too hot on the idea and didn’t want to put holes on the outside of the shed.  I hung it inside instead:

While figuring out our backyard over the last few years and getting so close to completing the project, we’ve ended up with a few piles of rocks.  I put some of them out as stepping stones throughout the orchard, but I didn’t like the way it looked.  I ended up placing them around a portion of the fence and what will be the garden area:

I realized that we are so close to finishing our backyard and we’ll just have to enjoy it soon!  I was getting rid of and putting random things away – like a camping BBQ that we used as our BBQ until we got a full size, composter, planting pots, large pieces of granite etc.  The last annoying piece we’ve been moving around for years was a metal corner piece that was about 4 feet tall.  While I was destroying it so it would fit in the trash can I kept saying, “HULK SMASH!!!”  It feels so good to get rid of the stupid thing.  I probably could have put in out front with a FREE sign, but it was satisfying breaking it apart.  I half expected to have to yell for Doug to take me to the ER because I was wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt while I was standing on and yanking on metal.  I showed Doug what I did and I said, “HULK SMASH!!”:

Then he broke some of the pieces even smaller.

I almost forgot to mention that we went to Doug’s Aunt/Uncle’s house on Sunday for a potluck dinner.  It was really fun to see everyone and get to know that side of his family a little more.  We usually only see each other at family events, like weddings.  I only took one picture while we were there – the kids and a cousin were outside creating a mini Zen rock garden on the patio.  It was pretty neat!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the 5 jets that flew over our house on Monday.  I couldn’t get my camera quick enough and Doug missed them while he was mowing the lawn.  It was amazing to hear the sound and know the jets were flying to a Memorial Day ceremony.  Thank you so much to those who lost their lives serving and protecting this country.  Thank you to those who have served and to those who are serving now.  Thank you Glenn and Jason!

OOOO, I Spilled!

I pretty much killed the aloe plant we have (so I learned that aloe is like a cactus - note to self, don't water it all the time!), so we got another one when we went to pick up wine barrels last night.  I was eyeballing these wine barrels for a while, then they ran out, but they just got another shipment.  YAY wine barrels!  Stay tuned for re-potting pictures!  One barrel we picked out is from Minnesota, don'cha'know!  I had to get it!

I knocked over the aloe plant TWICE!  OOOOO, I spilled dirt in Doug's truck!!!  The second time was in my lap, so I sat very still until we got home.  I was trying to eat Chipotle and wasn't paying enough attention to the top heavy little plant.  OOOPSSS!!

What the...

Becky and I took a trip to Lowe's to browse during lunch and to price check a few things.  We were walking through the garden department and I noticed this huge bumble bee.  I've never seen an all black bee, let alone a bee this HUGE!  I know you can't really tell size in a picture, but I swear it was about the size of my thumb.

I took a picture of the stupid little bugs that we couldn't get rid of in our house plants.  There are quite a few in this cup of water (I put dish soap in the water and placed the cup near the plants to kill the bugs) and even more around it on the table.  We haven't noticed any little bugs since we took the plants outside.  Poor plants.  Stupid bugs.

New project....I'm sprouting lentils people!!

During the gardening class I mentioned a while back, they went over sprouting and it sounded so easy.  Well, it is really easy!  I figured I would give it a try.  I like alfalfa sprouts and these lentil sprouts are easy to munch on at work.

100k

Automobiles have been somewhat disposable for me since I started driving, so I've never had one long enough to see a mile milestone happen.  My car hit 100,000 the other day!

Doug's truck hit 15,000 almost the same day mine hit 100,000.

Vacation End

During our vacation we got to see Doug's parents, my parents, Dan & Lisa, Ben & Breanna, Matt & Jenn, Chris & Mel, Bonnie & the kids, and Jake (Doug also saw Paige).  It was wonderful to see our friends and family during vacation, but we were so exhausted most of the week.  It was a nice break from the housework while we were visiting with our loved ones.

Our Watermelon List (read a couple posts down for the explanation):

Make free photo book - gave it to my sister in law instead.

Pack up wedding scrapbook stuff - my sister in law is going to make it for me (I've only made one page in almost 5 years).

Oil change Tundra.

Oil change Hyundai.

Oil change Chevy.

Re-screen windows - Doug got a few done a couple weeks ago, but we didn't have much time to do more.

Cut back the rosemary bush - Doug also cut back the other bushes.

Buy shoes - I got rid of 4 old, icky pairs of shoes and got 2 pair to replace them and a fun pair that was only $15 (I almost paid $45+ for a pair just like them that I didn't like as much).

Go shooting - didn't have time.

Rock behind the retaining wall - we ended up rocking everything!

Spray Ground Clear - we did this twice and Ground Clear doesn't work nearly as good as Round Up, but it's supposed to last a year.

Sand & paint the patio cover pillars - not done.

Watch Avengers - Great movie.

Weatherstrip front door - Doug weatherstripped and created door extenders for the security door.

Rod & curtains for the bathroom.

De-bug plants or put them outside.

Buy household items.

Reseal gas pipe coming out of the house.

Rototill.

Finances.

Laundry.

Dishes.

We're pretty much ready for a vacation away from our vacation.  Now that all but 3 of those things are done, we are ready for vacation!!  We're not that lucky.  We head back to work tomorrow.

Our vacation finale was going to a baby shower for Matt & Jenn.  I'd like to say this was a private resort we were staying at for vacation, but it's Matt's Aunt's house where they baby shower was being held:

They played 3 games during the shower and both Doug and I won a game.  One prize was a bottle of wine, so we gave it to Chris & Mel.  Here are a few pictures of the YUMMY desserts Matt's Aunt made: 

Chocolate covered Oreos:

We got home around 5:30 and we haven't done anything this evening.  We reheated pizza for dinner, watered our plants/trees and took pictures of the eclipse.  That's it.  Our vacation has come to and end.  Sniffle sniffle.

Eclipse

I really wanted to get a picture of the eclipse this evening.  Obviously I need a filter for my camera...But if you look closely there's a reflection of the eclipse just below the bright sun:

We tried to get the picture using a couple lenses from sunglasses...no luck: 

Doug showed me a cool trick of looking through a CD or DVD to see the eclipse, so I tried to get a picture through the DVD.  It didn't work very well while taking a picture, but it was better than I was getting without it:

Then I was trying to get a picture of the eclipse on the DVD.  I was getting closer:

I don't really know what I was doing on my camera, but I changed it to a manual mode and turned the light all the way down and was finally able to get a picture through the DVD:

Fruits of Our Labors

Our tiny fruits so far.
Lemons:

 Mandarins:

 Tomatoes:

Woot Woot!!  Our orange tree is fruiting - they're the largest of our fruits so far:

More Rock Pictures

Because there was a lot of rock, you get to see a lot of pictures... Glenn - after we were done they told my mom and I that a little boy walking with his grandma asked Glenn why he didn't have a shirt on.  Glenn told him it's because it was hot outside and he's stupid.  Too funny:

Matt - When It Matt'R's is the name of his business: 

Jake was our prep guy for the bender boards.  We kept choking him out with Raid because we kept finding piles of ants, but he kept going.

Look!  I was working too!  Doug said it looks like I'm wearing a long pair of white socks because my legs are so white.  Thanks babe!  Very funny.  I have a shirt with sleeves on this time, so I didn't get a bad sunburn again.

Raking rocks sucks!!  There's no sugar coating it, it really sucks.

When we got home after the little league game I wanted to wet the rock down to get the dust off.  It looks even better when it's wet:

Yay little lime tree!

There is a ton of dust on these rocks.  We need it to rain now...please and thank you.

Little League

After shoveling rock Saturday morning, we headed down to watch our nephews' little league game.  I'm really glad we finally made it to one of their games.  Both Caleb and Aaron hit the ball a couple times and got on base.

They're a bunch of cuties!

Bonnie pointed out that they put Brian's initials on the sleeves of the jerseys, but they didn't use his middle initial.  It's BS. hahaha

They aren't there to win, they are there to learn how to play baseball.... but they won!!

The coaches are very encouraging.  Even if the other team was up to bat they were giving positive remarks to the other team.