Holy Lawn Mowers

When we moved into this house, we didn't have a lawn mower. We had sold our last one when we moved out a few years ago, and we saw a bunch on Craigslist, but were so busy with moving that we decided to wait until things quieted down to get one. Then a week later, our lawn really needed to be mowed and there were no low priced lawn mowers to be found anywhere. So we borrowed one from Aaron's dad. It worked well, but it was only on loan and it has a huge hole in the side of it that spews oil out. So we kept looking, and found one from a guy in Albany (who happened to be Aaron's friend's dad, small world) that seemed ok. But it wasn't strong enough for our huge lawn. We happened upon a garage sale today that had a lawn mower (for $5 no less), but we decided we didn't want to mess with trying to sell the other one. So we went home and Aaron was moving the lawn, and got frustrated with our mower. We went back to the house to see if she still had the other one and she did, and it is better than the one we got for $35. This turned into a really long boring story, when really I just thought this was funny:



One will go back to Aaron's parents and the other will be sold.
Our new garden space:
So far it has onions, leeks, carrots, beets, potatoes, corn, eggplant and tomatoes. We have a little over twice this much room in the backyard too, I'm still waiting for my seedlings to get big enough to transplant, I got them started a little late.


We had a wonderful summer dinner: the best bbq'd chicken ever, rice and potato salad.


There were two shriveling nectarines on the counter. I was about to toss them in compost when Aaron said, mini crisps! So mini nectarine crisps we had. Sorry these pictures are blurry, I couldn't find my other camera, and I didn't mess with any settings on the other.


Summer is here!

World's Worst Blogger

I was recently called the world's worst blogger. I admit I have been doing a horrible job at keeping the cyber world updated. So what have I been doing? I know you are all burning to know. Well Memorial Day weekend we dug up half our lawn and converted it to garden space. So far I've planted corn, cilantro, potatoes, beets, carrots, eggplant and onions. I did take a before picture, I'll wait til I have a few spouts for the after. I'd love to show some pictures of the new house...but there are still like 10 half unpacked boxes, and 3 rooms that aren't put together. I've been wrapping up school by writing a lot of papers and driving too much. Aaron's internship has been going great, and they really like him, so fingers crossed they will hire him in February when his internship is done.
Basically I try to work on school all day, Aaron gets home, we go hiking/running/walking, make dinner, go to sleep, repeat. There never seems to be enough time in the day. And with that it's back to paper writing for me!
Oh! And how could I forget visiting Tuesday and Amber yesterday?? I didn't take any pictures, I think because I was too busy ooogling at her cute face the whole time. She is at the perfect age, interactive, well behaved, and did I mention cute? It was great seeing you guys Amber!

Hectic

Things have been busy and crazy and stressful over here. The move is almost complete. But here is a sample of my morning. My computer battery is running low. The cord is not where I left it and I have no idea where the other one is. Third box I check has the other cord. But it's a 3 prong. So I need to find a converter. After 3 minutes I found the converter, but now can't find where I set down the cord. Ok, maybe it doesn't sound that bad written down, but not knowing where anything is while being surrounded by crap starts to wear you down. Especially when you have homework, quizzes and papers you should be doing. I was going to post a picture...found the camera cord! This is what has been helping to keep me sane:



I love my little babies! And they are doing great in our new sun room. I had planted sugar snap peas at my last house and they just started blooming yesterday. We decided to dig them up, trellis and all, and attempt to relocate them here. I felt like we were digging a grave last night in the rain and dark, but we got them in the ground. I need to go check on them and make them a new trellis. They were a bit shocky once we got them here, no surprise. I have another busy day today...hopefully things slow down a little soon!

Megan's visit

Megan came to stay with me for a few days last week and we had a great time. She did a full report on her blog. I will just do a quick recap. We did a hike over by the hot springs that was pretty steep. It was a beautiful day and after we went and had a nice soak in the hot springs. I took Megan to Gen-X, an interesting clothing store specializing mainly catering to the Mexican population. She was loving this 3X shirt featuring and unsolicited advertisement for the "Air Force".

This is kind of a side note...this HUGE jumping spider had been living in the railing outside my door. He is on a 2 inch pipe in this picture. There have been wasps all over my yard trying to secure a nest location, and they keep trying to build one in his pipe. He seems to be afraid of them, and I think he may have been run off because I haven't seen him for a few days.


My lawn was getting out of control, and I had never mowed a lawn. Neither had Megan actually, but we teamworked it up and borrowed my neighbor's mower and powered through my jungle. It was quite satisfying to have an instant yard.


Megan's Happy Birthday shirt:


Megan's first attempt at batik, she did great! Here is the orchid on the front bottom corner:


A fairy on the back shoulder


Megan, Ashlee and I finally all got together at the same time and it was wonderful. It's so nice when everyone just clicks!

Batik Mania!!

Well you can see I've been busy...I wanted to post these here first to see if any of my blog readers wanted to buy these before I post on Etsy. They are $15 unless otherwise noted. There are some seconds at the end for less. Shipping would be $2 for one, and I will work out what it would be for more.


Orange peace baby, Gerber 12 month t-shirt


Orange Buddha baby, Gerber 18 month t-shirt


Sweet Cupcake, Circo 9-12 month onesie

Veggie baby, Gerber 18 month t-shirt SOLD

Earth baby, Circo 0-3 month onesie SOLD


Dahlia baby, Gerber 24 month onesie

Space baby, Gerber 18 month t-shirt

Earth toddler, miniwear 3T onesie SOLD


Bird baby, Gerber 12 month t-shirt


Steam boat baby, Circo 9-12 month onesie


Hawaiian baby, Circo 9-12 month onesie

Rainbow baby, Circo 9-12 month onesie SOLD

Seconds:
Strawberry baby, Circo 9-12 month onesie, $7



Giraffe baby, Gerber 24 month onesie, $7, stain looks less obvious in person SOLD

Rocket baby, Gerber 12 month t-shirt, $4

Overdue Redwood Post

I'm not sure why I didn't do this post when I got home...but here it is now. Ashlee and I drove to the Redwoods for spring break. The weather was fabulous on our drive down. We stopped in Kerby, Oregon...a must see if you are on this road. It's off 199, and I didn't even try to do it justice in pictures, you can't. Several men (from what I've gathered) have a few wood working shops and they carve and build these wonderful things from burls. It's expanded since I was last there 6 years ago. Tree houses, yurts, you name it. It is a tree wonderland.

This is our original camp set up. Our first night there we had great weather.

Mmmm melty s'mores!

The Smith river...super pretty


Our first morning it started raining about 6 am. It was not a big deal. We proceeded on a 6 mile hike. By mile 3 I was soaked through. Hey Megan remember that free Costa Rican rain jacket? Yeah it's not so waterproof. And it was the only one I brought. Which was stupid, we were car camping and rain was predicted. I did bring two umbrellas though and I daresay they were a godsend.
This is after the second night. As the sun was going down there was heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Like, torrential rain. So we hung out in the car and played travel Scrabble. When we went to go to bed around 10, I checked all around the tent for standing water, since there was a lot of that around the campsite that hadn't been there previously. I didn't see anything, so we got in the tent. I knew I hadn't placed the tarp under the tent very well, and I needed to fix it, it was raining really hard. So I am out (under my umbrella) and pretty soon I hear Ashlee say we have a problem. There was at least 2 inches of standing water under the tent and the inside was starting to get wet. We quickly scouted for another spot on higher ground, pulled the stakes and moved the tent. We grabbed towels and mopped down the inside of the tent, it wasn't too wet...but wet enough to make you pretty cold since it was around 40 degrees. We did sleep, but we were both cold since everything was damp. New tent site:

We packed up the next morning, and threw the wet tent in the back. I managed to get everything else dry while rotating them on the hot air vents as we drove. We headed to the Avenue of the Giants to see the big guys. Of course we did this:


The guy collecting the money was so stoned...and there was this poorly made collage of this cat on the side of the building as we walked up. We were thrilled to actually get to see the cat later on and get its picture. At about 3pm we decided to weigh our options, it was sunny, then rainy, then sunny. After the ordeal the night before we really weren't looking forward to sleeping in a wet tent in the rain. So we hit the road. We chose the "shortest" distance on the map. Man were we wrong. This was the never ending road. I think we were on it for 4 hours. I'm not kidding. We were in the car 13 hours that day I think.

Finally we hit I-5 and had plans to stay in Medford with some friends. We got there around 11pm. Jon in his safety first uniform, and Kayla:

Ashlee and I checked out Ashland in the morning and later Kayla showed us around Jacksonville, we found a neat old cemetery there.

So that, in a nutshell was our crazy adventure. I think I can handle cold camping. Or wet camping. But not cold, wet camping.

Spring Term

Well Spring term is in full force. Today I was at school from 8:30 til 6 with a 10 minute lunch break. Needless to say I am exhausted. And ready for my four day weekend! We learned how to place sealants in children...our first patient today was fantastic. The second one not so much. Open your mouth, please open your mouth, more, keep it open. Please open your mouth. You get the picture. He was also a gagger. Super fun. Ok, I am off to veg and maybe get a walk in before it gets dark.