Stuck In The Mud

My mom comes each spring to see us. Well actually she comes for manual labor. She loves to garden, that's her form of relaxation, it's just what she does. I did not inherit this gene. She does "spring" cleaning in the flower beds, plants new things, and works on outdoor projects.

This year the plan was general clean-up, finish the new pebble planter on the North side of the house, and then the big back yard project; building the mound.

This year the spring cleaning was fairly easy. The weeds were minimal, the bulbs that we had planted last fall looked beautiful, and everything else was doing great. However we realized that we were going to have to work around the rain.

I love our front yard, the daffodils and the tulips are gorgeous.


I love these new iris, and the bright pink flock.

So we created a timeline:

Thursday--Get pebble rock for "sand"box and planter. Check! So glad we bought the truck this past fall, makes hauling things so much easier. The truck does mash down the grass at we drive it though the front yard to the back yard, but it looks OK, no permanent damage. Also dig hole for new crab apple tree.

Everyone helps unload the pea gravel.

It rains Thursday night

Friday morning, things are a little wet, but we can still get out and do some work to stay on task. Eddie has Friday afternoon off, so we send him out to get dirt for the mound. Eddie comes back with mulch? OK, we need mulch. Go back and get dirt. Comes back with hummus. Very pretty and rich, but not good for planting. There are now obvious tracks in the grass. Hopefully it will fluff back up? Too late for anymore trips, and the dirt place is closed on Saturday.

...Before

It rains Friday night.

Saturday morning, the sun is shining, things are wet, but we manage. Eddie is going to go by the dirt place to see if anyone is there. I go out to do a few errands. I return to find deep grooves in the grass. Yikes, that looks terrible! They are unloading dirt, great we got dirt, wet heavy dirt. But the truck looks funny. It is now stuck in the grass, I mean mud. After a few unsuccessful attempts to try to get it out, the neighbors across the street, help pull the truck out with their truck. We finish unloading the rest of the dirt/mud and try to fill in some of the holes left by the truck.

Carrying the rest of the dirt around back in the wheelbarrow

Sunday we go for a picnic and rock hunt (I must have native rocks with moss on them to put around my new mound) after church. We do find a few rocks and have a nice picnic at Wye Mountain, even though most of the daffodils are dead.

Brian helps unload the rocks, but his wheelbarrow breaks.

Monday we are able to finish the pebble planter, it is working just like we planned, the pebbles are staying in place even in heavy rains. We get the mound built, planted and the rocks put around the border. We are still in need of about 20 more rocks to finish the border around the mound. We plant the crab apple, and finish up all the other odds and ends.

Finished pebble planter.

Finished mound. We planted azaleas on the top, flocks around the trees, and lots of little perennials all around, and in the middle a very cute dogwood tree.

Missions accomplished, despite rain delays. Still very glad we have a truck, because as soon as it dries out we must go get another load of dirt to fix remaining holes and truck tracks, that flood when it rains.

The new mound looks so nice, I am now excited about the next project I have envisioned. The Rocky Mountain Wildflower Hill.

The Tree Of Life

Both Emily and Danielle were born at home, and one of the things that we were able to do was to keep their placentas. I wanted to bury them and plant a tree or something special in that spot. After they were born, we put the placenta in the freezer until we were ready to use them.

Emily Rose, we found the perfect pink rose bush that my mom thought would be nice for Emily's placenta. My mom was a little skeptical about the whole thing, but she went along with it, hoping it didn't kill her rose.

Brian is helping to plant the rose.

Today the rose is beautiful

Last Spring, when I was pregnant with Danielle, I saw these beautiful trees blooming on a hill near our house. I knew I must have one for the backyard. They have the most beautiful bright white flowers that change to pink. We figured out they were crab apple trees.





So we found one, picked out a spot in the backyard, and planted it this Spring with Danielle's placenta safely underneath.

It bloomed a couple of weeks after we planted it.

We didn't think about asking for Brian's placenta, but we did plant the beautiful Bradford Pear in the front yard in his honor.

It Pulled Through

Well the computer made it, with a little assistance from the guys at BizTekConnection, and a little $$. They were able to retrieve the documents and photos (very important) from the hard drive, and the Eddie was able to dump and restore. So it is working again, but will take a few days to get everything reloaded and back to 100%. We are going to invest in an online data backup system for the laptops and the computers at work. We have experienced this problem too many times, and we are just pushing our luck, and the next time we may not be able to get the data back, and that would be terrible.

Computer Troubles

I have a good reason for the lack of posts lately. My computer caught a bug, or a worm, or a virus, or a trojan or something equally as terrible. So it has been admitted to the hospital for further testing. In the process, we have been unable to find the recovery disc. I am so sad. We have ordered another one from Toshiba, but it will take about a week to arrive. I am in total limbo, I don't even know if it will pull through right now. All my pictures are on that computer. I will die if I lose them. So I have posts lined up ready to have the pictures added, and as soon as the computer recovers, we will be back in business. Until then, I am patiently waiting, well not so patiently, but I am still waiting.

Retraction?

I have thought about posting a retraction to the previous "First Tooth" story, because it may be just that; a story. So far no confirmation that there is indeed a tooth coming in. I will keep you posted as to when we are 100% sure that the tooth has arrived. Until then we will just keep checking, but it is OK because I really am not ready for my baby to be growing up and doing big girl things yet, like getting a tooth.

Self-Portraits

I gave my old camera to Brian, and of course the screen is working fine, and so far no "memory card errors." But I digress, the kid is very tech savvy. He has been changing batteries, fixing stuff, using the remote controls, and DVD players since he was about a year old. So I showed him the basic how-to's on the digital camera, and Eddie showed him how to use the timer feature, I didn't even know how to do that. Here's what we got so far.

Danielle, his favorite subject right now

Emily, captured doing typical things

Lots of pictures of stuff

Brian and Pooh

A very willing subject

An unwilling subject

and another.

Torture or Totally Cute?

Danielle has lots of hair. She has had lots of hair since she was born, but now it is getting longer and more crazy. The headbands don't stay in very well, and they look kinda silly with all the hair. Her hair is not thick enough to really hold a clippie yet. So today we tried this...

I think she looks adorable. She did cry a little when I put the ponies in, hence the torture. Eddie is calling her Cindy Lou Who. Now we need more mathing piggy tail holders.

Emily has a new style, little matching piggy tails too.

6 months

I look at her and think...it can't possibly be six months yet! But she can almost sit up by herself, she is making new noises. I think she is trying to say ma, ma, ma. Her eyes are still blue, I am hopeful they stay that way. She is growing out of the 3-6 month clothes. Another day another milestone. If I could just keep her little longer.

My New Toy

Eddie and I bought our first digital camera, shortly after Brian was born. It was a major purchase. It was also a Canon and was it a great camera at the time. But in the last 5 years technology has improved and prices have come down. So I got a brand new camera for a fraction of the price that I paid for my old one.


I really did need a new one too. The old one kept giving error messages, the battery doesn't hold a good charge and a new battery is about half the price of the new one, and just recently the viewfinder screen had wavy lines through it and so you couldn't see what you were taking pictures of. Sometimes this even messed up the actual pictures too.

A Tooth

I thought that maybe last week Danielle had her first tooth break through. She has been drooling for months, and I noticed that she was rubbing her tongue along her bottom gum. When I first felt, I was sure it was there, but then later on I couldn't feel it.

She has been sick this week, we have been passing around this icky cold/coughing thing. Emily and I had it...cough cough cough...all night long. So when Danielle started to get sick, I took her to the pediatrician. She said it was just a cold. She has been coughing, goopy green eyes, green snot, fever, runny nose. She is feeling a little better today.

I checked again for that tooth, thinking that maybe some of her symptoms were related to teething. All of the kids have gotten fever, and cold symptoms with teething. Sure enough, the first tooth has just emerged through her bottom gum. Daddy even verified that he could feel it too. This is also the earliest any of the kids have gotten teeth, she is not even 6 months old yet. I am sad, my baby is growing up too fast.

And now daddy is getting sick too! I think he may be a bigger baby when sick, than the babies.

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