Well, it's been a year, give or take a few days, since I last posted a new entry on Pleo. I figure it's about time.

Things are going really well. Dan and Dogs and I are quite happy and healthy (minus the possibility that I'm getting vertigo again.) We've both been working a lot. Dan travels installing software for medical labs. Except for holiday weeks, he is typically out of the state from Monday am to Friday pm. He's been doing this for about a year now, and we are fairly well adjusted to it. It is always a challenge for the first little bit when he comes home or leaves to re-adjust, but we manage. I'm working at Petco (started last September) and I love it! I just became a dog trainer there and have 3-4 classes per week that I'm teaching. Aside from that, they have me working on becoming the Aquatics Specialist and I'm a Customer Advisor. I enjoy it all thoroughly. And they just made me full time. So Busy, Busy!

My nephew Tucker is 19 Months old now, and quite a handful. (But also quite adorable!) He seems to already have reached the Terrible Twos. B and A are also expecting another one in December. They'll be kept on their toes for sure!!

That's enough of an update for now... As always, any questions, just ask!

Happy July, all!

We're trying to rescue a puppy from an abusive home where he gets beaten almost daily. We need a large/extra large crate for him. Anyone have a used one?

Thanks!

Even the conceited, condescending man in the Kroger parking lot that was treating his woman like trash can be forgiven.

What a gift of love and sacrifice that God sent his Son to rescue even the most vile of us from our sins and certain death. Praise to You, oh Christ! :)

Mowing: It's not as easy as it looks.

Working in the garden on a beautiful day with Hubby = happiness.

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Update:
We got so much done today! The garden had all kinds of dead stalks and such in it from last summer... okra, corn, green beans, various and sundry peppers... you get the idea. Plus, there was a lot of support material out there for the plants... bamboo poles, large wooden stakes, stringwork for the beans to attach... again, you get the idea. Daniel and I took out all of the dead plants (and discovered we have radishes growing... too bad we neither like radishes) and supports. We have a large burn pile now (just dead plants. We're keeping the stakes and such). There was straw covering the entire garden, and we raked all of that down to one end. We ended up with enough straw to make probably 4 rectangular bales of hay. We had no gardening tools, so we had to borrow a couple of rakes from Aunt Amazing. She had two old ones she gave us to keep, plus an old fire pit. We had hoped to burn all of the dead stalks today, but the fire pit doesn't have a screen of any sort, and it was too windy today (welcome to Indiana, ha) to burn without one. I shall have to fashion one out of chicken wire or something. I'm not above "ghetto rigging." The eye-sore of a garden now looks great. Just need to break up the soil and we'll (or I should probably say "I'll") be ready to plant. We'll decide later how said breaking-up of the soil will be accomplished. Have to compare pricing of renting a tiller to buying a hoe and then compare with our budget.


Once we finished working outside (I'm glad we did it early... it's cloudy now), I came back in and started some plants in my kitchen. Last week we went to Big Lots and found all kinds of seeds. Also found some 2" diameter peat pots to start some plants and then move them outside into the garden when it's warmer. 12 of those for $1.00 wasn't bad at all! I took 2 muffin pans and put about 5 glass stones (the kind you'd keep in a fish bowl or flower arrangement) in the bottom of each muffin cup (I just found a new pet name for Daniel. He'll love "muffin cup." haha) so the peat pots wouldn't have to sit in their drainage water. Then each of the 24 cups got a peat pot with a different plant. I used small print-and-stick labels to keep track of what seed was in which cup. I now have 3 tomato, 3 banana pepper, 3 pumpkin, 3 watermelon, 4 iceberg lettuce, 1 spinach, 1 grand rapids lettuce, and 6 coleus plants set up to grow. The rest is up to them, I guess.

I wish there was a way to keep fresh lettuce and spinach around all year. I'm going to try growing some indoors, but it takes so long to grow that one flower pot dedicated to 1 plant all the time won't work very well...

I love productive days!