Eggplant

It was a beautiful week here in lovely Southern Arizona. Felicity was home on spring break this week and was excited to spend a couple days with Nana and Papa. On Wednesday night, both Felicity and Helen spent the night over at my mom and dad’s and had a wonderful time at the children’s museum on Thursday. They came home Thursday night all sugared up and bouncing off the walls.

This week was my Friday off week and I had errands to run. I cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, and various other have-to tasks.

We had a great day on Saturday. We got up early and dropped the kids and our suburban off with the Bryson’s and Jeff and I took their little car and headed up to the Mesa temple. I love the flowers at the temple this time of year and the air smelled so sweet. We got finished at the perfect moment, just as the Bryson’s were arriving with all the kids. We swapped vehicles so they could go to the temple while we took all the kids to the park for lunch. We had a picnic lunch with five kids and then loaded them back up and headed to the Phoenix zoo. We have a membership and love it. For a little more than membership at the Reid Park zoo we have a membership to the Phoenix zoo that gets us into both zoos for free. The Phoenix zoo is much larger and has a far greater variety of animals. It is expensive, so the membership is perfect and if we only stay for a couple of hours it’s fine, we don’t feel like we have to see everything to get our money’s worth. The kids were great and seemed to really enjoy the zoo. They were disappointed that the water play area wasn’t open, but enjoyed a giant tree house, giant rope spider web, farm inspired play ground, and various other things to climb on; the animals were a pleasant side show. Five was a lot to keep an eye on at one time, especially since it was so busy, but it really was a good time. Jan and Victor met us there after finishing at the temple a couple hours before the zoo closed. After the zoo we had dinner at Organ Stop Pizza, one of our family favorites! Everyone was pretty exhausted after a long fun day that started pretty early.

I had a rough experience this week. I started a couch to 5K program in an effort to continue my weight loss goals. I ran this week, which is something I detest. Aside from running I also did Pilates, rode my bike, and walked/hiked. I avoided donuts at work, ate a salad instead of pizza on Saturday night, and made a healthy choice while eating out during a business meeting. Through all of the exercise and smart eating I only loss 0.9 pounds and to top it off I seriously compromised my milk supply. It’s been so frustrating! I’m trying to make healthy choices, but evidently it was too much for my body and I’m terribly worried about losing the ability to nurse the baby; it’s been hard enough trying to continue to breast feed while having to return to work full time. So I guess I’ll exercise a little less and eat more calories next week and hope for the best. We all have our trials; I sometimes wish this wasn’t mine.

We had dinner at my parent’s house on Sunday night and had a nice time. It was Jeff’s birthday and we celebrated with cake. Helen must have told Jeff happy birthday fifty or more times throughout the day.

My garden is coming along nicely and I’m excited that almost everything has sprouted. I do nearly all my veggies from seed with the exception of tomatoes, and peppers which I buy as seedlings. New this year, I’m trying potatoes, yams, yellow onions, and red onions. I also planted my pumpkin in a container so that I can move it when it tries to take over the entire garden like it did last year. We are also going to go ahead and get a couple of chickens. We’re not allowed to have barnyard fowl according to our HOA, but I’m going to take my chances (shhh!). I have my plans for the coop already drawn up and the supply list ready (Jeff is so used to my schemes by now). We hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful spring season as we are!

Leprechaun Green

We had such a lovely week. Jeff had spring break and thoroughly enjoyed himself I think. It was nice for me in that I didn't have to be home by 2:00 so I didn't have to go in to work so early. Its too bad that Felicity has spring break next week, otherwise we probably would have gone on a short trip.

Everyone is healthy and happy and for that I'm grateful. Work continues to go well for me and I'm appreciative for a job that allows us to live comfortably and is flexible. I put in some extra hours on Wednesday night and then on Thursday morning as well such that I was done with my day by 9 AM. We went to the Reid Park zoo on Thursday morning. Felicity was at school but we took Arlo and Helen, and also Vance and Emmett. We had a very nice time and the weather was perfect. It was nice to spend time with one another. After the zoo we took the kids to eat and play and then had to head home to get Felicity off of the bus.

Our garden is coming along nicely and the grass is really starting to green. We have sprouts in a majority of the vegetable bed and many more in the flower bed. I love being out there and working in the yard. We had talked seriously about getting 2-4 chickens to raise for eggs, but alas our Home Owners Association rules won't permit it. We have found so far that the HOA has been a serious annoyance and we feel we don't get any benefit from it. I'm looking forward to one day having a house on property where we can garden and have animals. Our own little desert homestead. It's in the ten year plan, so we'll just have to see how things turn out, but for now, I'll just have to enjoy our little backyard paradise.

The children are doing well. Felicity loves school and is doing so well. Her reading is simply inspiring. Last week she gave a talk in primary; I helped her write it and then we worked on memorizing it so that she could give it herself without help. This is how we've approached speaking assignments in the past, but this time she became frustrated. I typed the talk in large print and handed it to her. She immediately was able to read most of it on her own. There were a few words she didn't know, so we drew a picture next to the word to remind her (like an ear next to the word 'listen'). When Sunday came she did a great job and gave her talk with confidence all by herself. Her teacher let us know that a parent teacher conference was not necessary this quarter as she has no concerns about Felicity's performance. Helen is one of the most vivacious people I have ever known and she speaks her mind. She is her own person, but is for the most part obedient and kind. We're working on the subtleties of politeness with her. Recently, one of her favorite announcements is "hey, I'm talking here" instead of "excuse me please" when she wants to be heard. Little Arlo continues to grow and learn new things everyday. His smile brightens the cloudiest day.

On Saturday we worked on a small project refurbishing an old bench I got at an estate sale last year. Jeff cut and sanded the new wood and I stained it. We re-painted the frame. It's not quite finished, but it doesn't have much more to do. Jeff wanted to make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's day. I had never had it, much less eaten it (I'm not Irish and quite honestly couldn't care less about St. Patrick's day) so he got it started in the crock pot in the morning and it was finished by early evening; it was pretty tasty.

Felicity is looking forward to spending some of her spring break this coming week with Nana and Papa. I'm hoping that the week goes smoothly.

Beige

Blog, blog, what to put in my blog...

Just one of those regular weeks. Work, school, life happened.

I received a bonus this week, but it looks like we're going to have to fix some plumbing upstairs instead of doing something super awesome.

Arlo is three months now. I don't know that he's doing anything all that new. He enjoys scooting all over his crib and away from me when I try to change his diaper. He rolls over if we lay him on is elbows. He's a wonderful delight. He tried a little taste of cookies and cream ice cream just for fun, and he loved it!

I think that was it.

Olive

The week went by quickly; luckily we were all relatively healthy, no body missed any work or school. Helen's new school opened this week and she was excited to go. The school district built a new building for the preschool across from the high school. It's very nice and Helen enjoyed the new stimuli. Arlo got to stay with Nana on Monday and Friday (thanks Mom!) while I was at work. Nothing quite like the spoiling of grandparents.

We worked on completing the brick work of the north raised flower bed. I did a little work on Wednesday afternoon, and Jeff finished it up on Thursday morning. It turned out pretty well, I'm happy with it. Our yards slants down from west to east to help with drainage, so it makes the wall appear to get shorter as you move west. Saturday morning Jeff and his friend Alan went to get fill dirt to back fill the bed about 1/2 way. Then Jeff got the remaining garden soil we needed and he mixed the soil and mulch and finished filling the remaining 9 inches of bed. I planted a few dozen cana bulbs. We had some red bulbs and I bought some yellow and Picasso bulbs to add some variety. I also planted some hollyhock, sunflower, four o'clock, and wildflower seeds. I'm happy to have the vegetable and now the flower beds planted. I'll take some pictures in a few months for anyone that doubts that you can garden in Arizona.

Nana picked up both Helen and Felicity on Friday afternoon to spend the night. When Jeff got home he and I took Arlo to Wal-Mart. It was so funny, when Felicity was born it was a huge adjustment and we thought it was a challenge to go out with a little baby, now going out with just the baby was a breeze. We were in and out relatively quickly and with no drama.

Saturday evening we met the Bryson's at Peter Piper Pizza to help celebrate their daughter's birthday. I made a beach scene cake and we took it with us. It was so crowded and noisy. The girls had a fun time; Jeff gave them some coins to play games with and they really enjoyed themselves. It was a nice week and I'm grateful we were all healthy and happy.
(FHE this week)