Garden photojournal

It's been a while since I posted because life gets so busy I don't have time to just sit at the computer and think about things to - well, think about. But as I sit here today with the windows open, the birds singing, the green trees, grass and weeds extra fresh with the little rain that went through, I decided I need to keep a photo journal of our garden this year.

Last year, I have to brag, we had the best garden in the world. Our corn was fantastic, our tomatoes non-stop, beans coming out of our ears, spinach, onions, carrots, peppers (we actually got sick of salsa! :-0), potatoes - oh, the potatoes!, zucchini, cucumbers and well over a hundred pumpkins. It was incredible and we gave credit to the dump truck full of mink manure (4 inches thick over the entire garden), our new watering system, and the 15 minutes a day per child weeding.

This year we brought in more mink manure (not quite as much), have the same watering system(still finishing putting it back together) and expanded the garden a little. We moved the pumpkins to the front of the house, in the weed-ridden front circle that we haven't gotten around to landscaping in the last 9 years, so that they wouldn't take over the garden again. We added strawberry patches by the fence and several grapevines to grow on the fence. We made our garden map about the same as last year and it is planted and our fingers are crossed (except when weeding, of course). Now just add water, sun and time . . . and hope for the best.

Spring break

The weather this spring break has been a rollercoaster. Monday it was warm and beautiful and I took advantage of it by taking the 3 children I had (the rest were at the Cooks) to Thanksgiving Point. Pictures to follow. Then, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it snowed! By Saturday the weather had come full circle. Welcome to spring in Utah! It ended up being one of those kick-back, relax, play-video-and-computer-games week. It was a nice break from life. I think I got in the car twice all week.

Marin, Nicolas and Kate Cook at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum - oh, look, it does have a name. Good thing I got it in the picture! :-)

Marin, Nicolas and Kate Cook at the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.

Marin, Nicolas and Kate Cook enjoying the sun after the climb up the hill at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.

Marin, Nicolas and Kate feeding the fish. We remembered bread this time!

Marin and Nicolas and Kate Cook at the Gardens on Monday.

She can see!

Marin has been waiting for this day for months. She noticed earlier in the school year that she was having trouble seeing the board at school, but due to finances there wasn't much we could do. An angel paved the way for the glasses to be prescribed and made, and ta-da, Marin can see with the best of them! She is so excited!

He shoots, he scores!

Here is the picture that Jared was able to capture of a VERY happy Peter coming off the field after scoring his first ever goal in a lacrosse game. You can't tell with his helmet on and his mouthguard in, but he has a really goofy grin on his face! And here is the action shot of Peter heading for a shot in the game against Timpview yesterday. He played almost the whole game and was really ON his game in spite of the cold!

Lacrosse Mom

Lacrosse dominates my life every spring and usually fall (until Peter discovered cross country) and I figured I should write something about it . . .

Peter is the one with the hair in the center, not yet wearing his jersey

Before I had children I had decided that my boys would play hockey. I REALLY wanted hockey players. Then I had Peter and then Erik and I knew I would not have a hockey player. Both boys were, shall we say, cautious in the extreme. After Peter scraped his knee when he was 2 and screamed for what seemed like hours, I realized that he was not going to be cut out for a rough sport. We made sure that he was well protected from "owies" all of his childhood, though we didn't have to because he made sure of that himself.
Erik has also always been a cautious child, though not to the same extreme. He is a bit more adventurous, but still, not a hockey player. And Nicolas? Same as Peter. Not a hockey player.
I gave up my dream of being a hockey mom long ago and figured after a couple years of soccer (Peter was more interested in picking flowers and chatting with players), that sports were not in the cards.

Peter is #3

Then came lacrosse. I remember lacrosse. Lacrosse was cool in my high school. We had a good team at Cheshire High. But in UTAH? Unheard of! Peter came home in 7th grade saying that he wanted to play lacrosse and said that several boys in the neighborhood were playing. "Really?" I said. I wanted more information and he didn't get it and Peter didn't play that year. He learned his lesson and in the fall of 8th grade he made sure to give me all the information he could find. Lacrosse was just starting in our area and there wasn't much, but enough for me to get him registered. And we were hooked! It's not the cheapest sport, but not hockey-pricey either. But, man, it is fun to watch! I think it is one of the best spectator sports ever. Of course me, being me, can't just sit and watch. I had to get involved also. Team parent and score/time/statkeeper within one season. Now I eat, sleep, breathe lacrosse right along with the boys. Maybe I should learn how to play? Jared is just as bad - he's assistant coaching! I love the boys, the coaches and the excitement of the game. I hope Erik continues to play all through high school so I can continue to enjoy it since Peter only has one more year.

Now Marin wants to play also. Shall we make it the official family sport? Our hip-hopping Markee can be the official cheerleader.

The losing of the tooth

It finally happened. The day that we have all been waiting for for sooooo long. The day that we started worrying would never come. Nicolas finally lost his first tooth. Okay, so I'm a little late posting this since it was last week, but we are all still feeling the excitement. History: Nicolas' teeth started decaying when he was about 10 months old. He hadn't even started eating food yet, really. His front teeth seemed to be rotting right before our eyes. Because of all the financial difficulty we have had these years, though, I never took him to the dentist. I just knew that with how young he was it would require major anesthesia and hundreds of dollars. So we just watched his teeth get worse and worse (lovely school and family pictures!).

Then he turned 7, first grade, and not even a little wiggle! I finally took him in, concerned that perhaps he doesn't have permanent teeth. The dentist did an x-ray, confirming many large, crowded permanent teeth just waiting to burst forth and, as if the visit was magic, the next day Nicolas' bottom tooth was wiggling! It took him a few weeks (surprisingly with how often he worked at the thing) and finally, last Thursday, he came home from school with his tooth in a baggie! Yeah! The tooth fairy did pay him a visit that night (again, surprising as it usually takes her a few days to remember, I mean, get here) and he is on to the next one. He worked at the other bottom until it started to move yesterday. We will finally be on to the, hopefully, white clean fresh strong permanent teeth. And on to the orthodontist in another few years, looks like.

:-)

Lookin' good

I know it was a little untraditional - or maybe very traditional- but it was JARED's birthday and he is not the most traditional guy. What he really wanted, and had his eye on since December, was a kilt. Not just any kilt, mind you, but a bondage kilt that we saw at Hot Topic. He wanted it for Christmas, but it was expensive and we were scraping by. Fortunately for him, his wife remembered said kilt and was able to surprise him with it for his birthday! And I have to admit, he looks darn good in it! Now about those socks . . .