Here Birdie Birdie

Our annual craft session of making bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed.

Finally, It's planted

After months of almost constant rain we finally got the garden planted. These pictures don't show it, but the fence is up now and we just planted the tomatoes today.

This years crop includes... Sweet Corn, Assorted Bell Peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Peas, Zucchini, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Peanuts, and Strawberries. Along with the wild blackberry bushes we have.

The tire houses the peanuts. I have an patient who is an avid gardener, his home garden puts mine and everyone I knows to shame!! He mentioned growing peanuts last year and when I showed some interest he brought me in some! How nice! They get harvested around October and he said it's a great plant for a kid to help with cause searching for the peanuts underground is like a treasure hunt! I'm excited to check that out!

This year we added some Russian Bore manure to the garden. We did that back in March and it took almost 3 months for the smell to disappear but we're hoping it will really help to build up the nutrients in our soil and therefore give us better results.

* Still pregnant. 40 weeks & 3 days. If I don't have her by next Tuesday (41weeks) I have to go in for another cervical check and an ultrasound, then they will discuss induction. I think I'll have Brad take a naked belly shot maybe tonight or tomorrow. It feels and I'm sure looks insanely large right now! Here's me hoping she's not a giant chubby monster of a baby.

Wow

I have the best patients ever!

I was so surprised when I came back from maternity leave from Dane and patients had left me some surprise gifts! This time I had a patient drop off these burp clothes that he had his wife make for me and "baby girl."

They have the cutest little sayings.

Egg Hunt

And he's off!

Elise & Dane with their egg loot.

Patsy is Claire's 5th birthday present. The cutest Boston Terrier pup. She broke her back leg (see the cast) but it doesn't seem to slow her down.




Preggo Update: 36 1/2 weeks. Getting "checked" at the Dr's this morning. Hopefully returning with some progress news. I'll keep ya posted.

So, I'm 1cm dilated, 30% effaced and -3 station. So the question is......Will or won't I make it to my due date of May 23rd??? I'm guessing not.

Note to self: Getting "checked" at the Dr. and then heading off to work for the day= A BAD IDEA. I'm ok sitting but I've had the worst menstrual-like cramps all day!

Happy Easter!

Dane coloring eggs for Easter Dinner @ our house. We've actually never done this with him before. You can tell he's taking it very seriously and really concentrating when he's got his tongue sticking out.

He was really proud of his creations and was not satisfied with just dunking it into 1 color, he needed to dunk it into several colors to see what would happen. Hence the above color being a sort of lavender color after he dunked it into both red and purple.

We celebrated Claire's 5th birthday party yesterday with an Easter Egg Hunt. Those pictures to come in a few days.

Have a

Happy Easter

Everyone!

Mother Earth

This post's title is dedicated to a couple of my favorite girlfriends

( You know who you are, love ya long time)

I'd been wanting a rain barrel forever. This is what I requested Brad make me for Mother's Day/Birthday. I've had it for about 3 weeks now and I love it. I've been watering all my potted flowers and the whole garden with it. Just one rain storm is all it takes and it's full! Actually, Kinda wish I had two of them.

Here's the latest pic of the garden. It's doing really well. We've had several handful of strawberries already with alot of green ones still on the plants. The green beans are lookin good at probably 7" tall. Both the summer and butternut squash are up. The onions are great, and the broccoli is finally lookin' good. The only things not doing ok right now is the spinach and really the lettuce is coming up but it's super tiny, can't see how we'll have lettuce any time soon.

Today is my birthday. No plans, just work. We're allegedly leaving on Friday to head to Tennesee. Brad is gonna do some work for his uncle down there (paid) and then we'll head up to Kentucky to visit his Gram and Tam. I'd been begging to go to Kentucky for months now to visit and just hang out. Love it there, great memories.

A storm's A Brewin'

We had a storm roll in Tuesday night. These were taken off the back deck. Not sure if I've ever seen a storm move in as fast as this one did, time lapsed in these series of photos is less than 5 minutes probably. You could hear the rumble of thunder, see the lightening strike off in the distance and feel the wind pick up. It had been such a nice day, really warm and sunny and it was sooo cold suddenly!

Still can't get those video's uploaded. Super irritating! I try again tomorrow. I thought maybe it was because they were too long, so I went in and cut them both down to maybe 1 minute long and they still won't upload! WHY?!? Uggg.

S.O.S. I need some tech support!

Flowering Bush

Headed to Lowe's yesterday morning to purchase 6 new fence posts for the garden. Since the expansion the fencing needed some reinforcing. While I was there I got distracted by the flowers, I can't wait to plant flowers in my pots. Another week or so and it should be safe to do so. I saw several carts of these bushes for sale and fell in love with the cascading white bell-shaped flowers......and I was in luck............50% off. Sweet! Only $9.99. That's a steal in my opinion. Had to have it.

"Red Head Pieris"

Isn't it adorable!?

*Veggie garden is doing well. Onions, spinach and corn already sprouting up. About 1/2 the strawberries are doing well but the broccoli is a no show so far :( Everything else could be planted in another week or so. Gotta wait till the threat of frost is over and in Ohio that's usually 1/2 through May. I can never wait that long though, I'll probably chance it next weekend. I'm a rebel like that! Ha!

Planted & Protected

Started working on the garden last week. We've expanded! Never did get Brad talked into raised beds, but that's ok, he really helped out alot this year. He tilled the garden up twice and it's probably doubled in size from last year. It's a nice L shape.

Brad's cousin Breanna was tearing out a bunch of strawberry plants at her new house and she was giving them away so I took 4 BIG bags full. I transplanted them into the new portion of the garden. Some of them really took off but others are looking kinda sad :( Hope they make it, would be great to have fresh strawberries. Wondering if they will have transplant shock and not produce any fruit this season. We'll see I guess!

Got 2 rows of yellow onion planted.



Also planted are 2 rows of spinach and 2 rows of Broccoli. Brad also got the fencing put up, hoping to keep the animals at bay. Also to keep Dane out, he loves to cut, dig, saw, stomp, etc (not good for the plants)

New this year is the sweet corn. Brad has planted 1 row with the intent of planting 1 row every 2 weeks to total 5 rows or so. We'll see how it does and whether we can keep the deer/coons out!

Dig! Dig! Dig!

Brad's been doing some dirt work for a friend of his who's building a barn. Many thanks for thinking of him and asking him to help out. Really needed since Brad hasn't gotten called back to work yet. Dane and I met up with him on Monday for lunch and alittle tractor riding. Ok Ok, I know Brad it's not a tractor, it's a bulldozer. Whatever :)

When we pulled up to the site and Dane saw Brad in the tractor he started giggling with excitement. We bribed him with a tractor ride for eating a good lunch. It worked he ate the whole sandwich :) Ya do whatcha gotta do.

Oh, The excitment!

I tried to upload a video of the ride but it was taking too long and I don't have the patience this morning. (That doesn't bode well for the rest of the day!)


*On another note, I just saw a bird eating off one of the birdfeeder's Dane made!! Finally! I was thinking the coons would get to them first.

.

A Messy Mess

I came up with the idea to do a craft project Saturday morning and asked my mom if she wanted to help. I thought Dane would really enjoy making peanut butter/bird seed coated pine cones for the birds.

He did a great job. He took the job of painting the pine cones with peanut butter very seriously!

He also did alittle quality control on the peanut butter. Don't want the birds to get sick ya know :)

Rolling the pinecones in birdseed.



Examining the work


We hung them in some trees around Momo's house and took some home to hang in ours. I hope the birds like them, but truthfully they haven't touched them yet :(

Hmmmmm, wonder why?

I Heart Bubbles

Easter Sunday's weather was so nice and warm. I had gotten Dane these cute little plaid shorts to wear to church and I'd been so nervous that it was going to be too chilly to wear them. We went to church that morning and since we'd done our family get togethers the day before we got to just hang out together and enjoy the day.

Dane loves bubbles but who doesn't. Good fun :)

As usual Dane is having a blast chasing the dog, poor Zoey. I get the best smile pictures out of him when he's in torture mode, here he's chasing her with the bubble wand.

Hello Gorgeous

My favorite tree bloomed a few days ago! Not really sure what kind of tree it is, but it explodes with these little clusters of pink flowers and smells sweet. Bugs must like it too, the tree just buzzes with energy as they swarm around the flowers.

Easter

Happy Easter!!!

Happy 4th Birthday to my niece Claire! Love you so much.

We had a Easter/birthday bash on Saturday.

Here's Dane and The Easter Bunny aka Grandpa Longshore :)


Dane hunting eggs

Later, We went over to The Peterson's for Easter dinner.
Here's Breanna (nina) and Dane blowing bubbles.




Dane had a strange little episode at the Easter egg hunt. This is the 2nd time something like this has happened so we're alittle concerned. Brad will be taking Dane to the Dr. this week to talk to him about it, but here's what happened. Dane was fine, running around, laughing, hunting eggs and then we saw him bend down to pick up a egg and he fell over. He couldn't get back up, he would get to his knees and then fall over again. As Brad got closer he could tell something wasn't right as Dane again face planted in the grass. When Brad got over to him Dane said "I'm spinning." and Brad said Dane's eyes were darting all over like he was dizzy. Brad picked him up and carried him into the garage where we got him something to drink and held him for awhile. He was pale, cold and clammy to the touch. He never did have a fever. The whole thing probably lasted 20 minutes or so. It was scary but he was fine afterwards. He fell asleep on the way home and slept for about 2 hours. Brad and I checked on him every 10 minutes during the nap and he woke up acting like his normal self.



Any thoughts on what would have caused that to happen?

Fun in the "Bud"

I may have mentioned this before but Dane calls mud "Bud". I have no idea why. He can say words that begin with Mm just fine, but not the word mud. It's so cute to hear him talk about getting all "buddy" :)

I knew that this may be problem from the start. We have a small "pond" (mud hole) that only fills up if we get ALOT of rain or 30" of melting snow. Needless to say, it's full right now. Zoey led Dane out there yest (which I'm certain she did on purpose) and he followed her right in. He loved every minute of it! Luckily he had on the rainboots I'd bought him the weekend prior. He stomped and splashed and I just clicked away. He was soooooo happy.

Look at that smile! :)

and then of course he had to pee.......

Well, It's a good thing we live in the country. The bad thing about this mud hole is never being able to just leave Dane outside to run inside real fast. Seems like a good spot for a child to drown. Going to have to keep my eye on him till he understands and speaking of which, I ran inside to throw some laundry in and when I got back out, Dane was soaking wet from the knees down! Oh, Geez.

It's about time!

A little green for Saint Patrick's Day and little spring renewal! So happy to see these little guys pop up every Spring but I get to nervous for them. They seem to pop up so early and I worry that one last frost will come and nip them. They always seem to make it though, I guess they know when it's safe to peek-out. Daffodils have the power to make any day better, these guys are the bright yellow color :)

These ones will be the creamy yellow color with bright yellow centers. We have sporadic clumps of these that line the drive and they seem to send you off with hope and welcome you when you return.

Have a happy Saint Patty's Day!

Dress-up and Spring Thoughts

Dane wearing Brad's hat and boots and my gloves.

What a beautiful day today. Blue skies, sunshine, 40degrees. Only one thing could make it better........no snow! Hoping that the weather continues to improve and that the snow is gone soon. Yeah, I realize it's only March and that it'll probably snow again but I'm choosing to be optimistic for now.

Can't wait to start my garden and play outside in the dirt with Dane.

In regards to the garden this year, I'll be moving it closer to the garage so watering is easier and I'm working on Brad about building me some raised beds. We have to add some good soil and peat moss into the ground anyway, we have too much clay in the soil here to grow what I want to so we might as well build up some beds right? I plan on growing tomatoes, potatoes, onions, green beans, squash, broccoli, jalapeno peppers, lettuce and maybe corn. We'll see. Can't wait!