Bountiful Harvest

So my mother-in-law was over and we were rummaging through the garden and found lots of goodies. Natalie had a lot of fun picking all the tomatoes and jalapenos...Salsa anyone? I think I planted cilantro, but I just have to find it!!

Then my friend Debbie came over and was able to reach quite a few pears from out of our trees (as she is a bit taller than me!) The grapes also came from our vines and are starting to sweeten up. Our concord grapes are starting to turn purple, but have a ways to go before they are ready to eat.

Summer Blooms

These sunflowers came as a tall surprise in my garden. I think they must be over 8 feet tall!

So many different colors...

These lilies are so fragrant.
I transplanted a bunch of them last fall and to my surprise, they came back!!!

The butterfly bush near our pool smells exactly like fresh honeycomb. I love walking under it...except there are so many bees buzzing around it. Yes this hydrangea really is that color. I tried growing a pink hydrangea in Troutdale, but it turned back to blue...there is something in the soil out here that plants just thrive on.

Those of you who are avid gardeners should probably turn away now...

(Dad, Sharon, Scott...I am warning you, this is not for the faint of heart).
Okay, I warned you...
Here is a view of my "Garden of Weedin" after I spent about 2 hours pulling weeds Saturday.

This is a better angle, at least now you can find the leeks and tomatoes!

So my dream of having a beautifully designed garden kind of fell short...well, let's just say I have already asked Dan to shoot me if I attempt to plant a garden next year. Something happens to me in the middle of winter, I get these wild ideas and plans for a garden...then spring comes and I have been cooped up for so long inside that the idea of a garden and all the work that it takes to tend to one sound GREAT!!! So I march myself over to the local garden center and buy everything I need to plant. I carefully plot my garden in a very nifty shape...no dull rows for this gardener! Now I have a garden.

It even gets watered daily, for well... about a month. Then school gets out for the summer, we go on vacation, play dates with friends, camping, gymnastics, swim lessons, birthday parties, pool parties...on and on and before you know it... the summer has gone by and I have not spent much time tending to my garden. I turn the sprinkler on once in a while for good measure, but pay no attention to the massive amount of weeds encroaching on my plants...In fact I couldn't even see my sprinkler through the jungle of weeds...just saw the water shooting up from beneath the tall over-grown leaves.

Weeds aren't the only problem. You see, these gigantic volunteer sunflower plants just showed up one day, along with volunteer pumpkins, tomatillos and California poppies. They pretty much crowded out everything the weeds didn't get to...if you see my herbs, can you tell them that help is on the way!

Would you like a tour? Would you?...come along...


My herbs are here somewhere near the obelisk. Zander planted this Zinnia plant on a field trip last spring. Zinnias are one of my favorite summer flowers. The purple flower is from an eggplant bush, followed up by a photo of an eggplant growing on the vine.




Pumpkin flower; green pumpkin has a ways to go before it turns orange;
mini Jack-be-little pumpkins



Tomatillos (for making salsa verde); Zander's cherry tomato plant; green tomatoes, still not red yet; green bell pepper (this is the first time I have successfully grown a pepper that actually looks like a pepper!


Ah yes...my cabbage patch. I thought I might have a problem with the bunnies snacking on this part of the garden. They got all my strawberries and left the cabbage to the slugs! Yuck! A few cucumbers I have yet to pick along with some jalapenos.

Here is an artichoke which I am hoping will get bigger; what's left of our broccoli (it was sooo good a few months ago; and then we have grapes. We have a grape vine near the garden that has attached itself to everything growing within the vicinity, so now I have to try and untangle all the vines and give this bad boy a trim!

We have a lot of pairs on our tree, I just hope the bugs leave them alone until they are ready to eat. Well, there you have it...my garden. Better luck next time! At least we are able to get some produce from our garden this year.

My busy week

I had such a busy week, I didn't get on the computer to blog much. I intended to post photos of our beach trip each day, but I was so busy and tired I haven't been on the computer much.

VBS
Starting Monday, Natalie and Zander enjoyed a week long VBS at our neighbor's church in Pleasant Valley. The theme was Avalanche Ranch and each day they got to bring home a "Bible Buddy" figurine with that day's memory verse written on the back. They also did fun crafts, ate yummy snacks, played games, sang songs, watched a movie and had TONS of fun. I was a little bit apprehensive dropping them off at a church they had never been to, where they didn't know anyone, but when I picked them up the first day, Natalie had her arms wrapped around a new friend she made and she was giggling and smiling and having so much fun. Zander, like always, jumped right in and didn't even look back. Every day this week after I picked them up, all they could talk about was Avalanche Ranch.

Natalie and Sarah had fun together at VBS.

Weeds vs. Allergies
My plan was to use the three hours each morning to clean up around the house and catch up on yard work. So for the first two days I was out in my vegetable garden pulling weeds. A few weeks of being ignored and the weeds literally took over. Unfortunately, my allergies were so bad that it became extremely difficult to remain outside at all, much less stirring up grass and weeds. I decided it wasn't worth it.

Broccoli, lettuce and leeks.
If anyone needs fresh lettuce, come on over...It's all coming up at once and I would hate for it to go to waste.

Here is the scary part of my garden...this is where I have not only weeds coming up, but pumpkins and sunflowers thanks to some seeds planted by our vast bird population around here. Anyone know if it's too late to transplant these things? I intended to have an orderly garden, but don't think it is turning out that way...oh, well...don't tell Martha Stewart on me!

Getting into Shape
Later in the week, instead of gardening, I used the 3 hours (while the kids were at VBS) to go to the gym. Earlier in the week I was going on walks down our road, but again, my allergies wouldn't have it, so I had to do my work-outs indoors. I have done about an hour of cardio each day along with some light weights and let me just say it practically knocked me out. It took all of my reserve energy and by the end of the day I could barely load the dishwasher. Dan has been so helpful, knowing how much time I was spending at the gym. I think he put the kids to bed more days than I did so I could just crash.

Blazer Draft Party
Our friends CJ and Cathy Gish and their three kids are in town from Idaho, so on Thursday Dan and CJ headed over to the Blazer's Draft Party at the Rose Garden Arena. They got to meet The Shonz (Bill Schonely) and saw first hand, along with 6,000 other Blazer fans, the Blazermania that erupted when the crowd rushed the court after Greg Oden was selected as our #1 draft pick! Am I kicking myself that I didn't send my camera with Dan?...um, Yeah!!! I know my dad, who was quoted in last Sunday's Oregonian (about the draft), should be pleased with our pick too. He is an Ohio State alumni and a big fan of Oden's. That about covers my week until Friday.

Greg Oden, our new guy.

They're Baaaack...
During our recent beach trip, I began to experience some "flank" tenderness, which made me think something was going on in my kidneys again. I didn't think much of it because the dull ache was nothing compared to the agony and pain of passing a kidney stone, so I just upped my water intake and went about my day. Due to my mother's recent kidney stone problem, I was prompted to finally (after about 6 months of on again off again soreness) make an appointment to see what was up with my kidneys. Since moving out to the sticks, I didn't really want to drive all the way out to Emanuel Hosp., so I decided to make an appointment with my Mom (and Dad's) urologist at Portland Adventist. He was all booked up, so I was assigned to a different doctor. Friday morning I woke up at O-dark-hundred hours because I had to get an X-ray before my 8 am appointment. I took the X-rays to my car and decided to go on a walk as I had 30 minutes to kill before my appointment. After waiting FOREVER, the doctor finally saw me around 9 am. (Hey, I was on time...why couldn't she be!!!) After discussing my medical history, she took me to see the X-ray...there, way up in the upper section of my right kidney, was a HUGE spot. Yep! I got a monster kidney stone. I just shook my head in disbelief. For those of you who know anything about kidney stones, this was over 1 cm. My last one from 2 years ago, which was also considered large, was between 6-7 mm.

Due to the location, my doctor ordered a CT scan to get a better look at what we're dealing with. She said there is a small chance it could be a gall stone, but I am going to assume it's a kidney stone for now. So the bad news is...I have another kidney stone to deal with. The good news is...this sucker is way to big to pass (or even fit in my ureter), so I am almost guaranteed that it won't cause me any excruciating pain! Unfortunately, I will have to undergo one, maybe two procedures to break it up. This part I am not worried about, but the stent that is put in for a month afterward is what I dread. UGGG!

So, with this lovely news weighing on my mind, I drive home just in time to get Dan and Hayden and drive to the VBS program and hear all the songs Natalie and Zander have learned all week. Afterwards we rushed home to clean up for our friends who were coming over for dinner.Zander, 4th from the left, shows us all the motions that go with the songs.

Dinner Party
Dan had arranged a small reunion of sorts with our friends CJ and Cathy and our former college journalism advisor Bob Watkins and his wife Patty. Dan has been working with Bob for the past 3 years at the college, but CJ had not seen him for over 10 years. We had such a good time talking and catching up over dinner. I brought out my college scrapbook (done the old-school way with those horrible magnetic pages...yea, I know bad, bad, bad) and they loved seeing the photos of the old newspaper staff. Some really, really great memories were made during our newspaper production down time. In fact, the camaraderie that was established during that time is largely responsible for Dan and I getting together and it's also where CJ and Cathy met. After lots of laughs and funny stories it was time to call it a night. After everyone left I crashed on the couch...which is where I slept all night, as Dan didn't have the heart to wake me up.

Bob, scoring some points with Hayden, then looking through some old photos. CJ and Cathy, our long-time friends from college.

Picture of the Day 05-10

Last fall I transplanted some iris tubers my dad gave me from his garden. Since they were still establishing themselves I wasn't expecting to see any flowers this year...but just today when I was out doing yard work I was surprised by this beauty!

Let the planting begin

Last fall I researched potager gardens and decided I would give it a try. Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and started digging the borders for my vegetable garden. Instead of planting everything in rows, I am planting my plants in shaped beds...It was a lot of work...two days worth of digging, but today I finally got to get vegetable starts. I took Natalie to our local garden center after school and we picked out lots of good things to plant. Here is an idea of what's in store for us if the bunnies don't eat them first...

Strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, leeks, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, artichokes, eggplant, turnips, peas, green beans, broccoli, 3 sizes of pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, dill, 3 kinds of thyme, rosemary, parsley, 2 kinds of basil and chives.
Hayden and Zander had fun digging in the dirt and "helping" mommy. After spending about 4 hours in the garden, I only got about half of the plants in the ground. Boy are my arms sore...and sun burnt. It's been downright hot here, well hot for May in Oregon anyway.
While I was busy planting, our cat Harley was having fun swatting at a snake!!! YIKES!