1994-2009

As much as I grumbled about the cat in recent years, today was a sad day. Cody had to be put to sleep. We're still not sure how we'll break it to McKenna.

No title is forthcoming

I was cleaning the kitchen this morning and decided it was time to wipe down the fridge. Look for yourself:

McKenna has been practicing her smiley faces on our black fridge using Chalk Ink, one of the greatest inventions ever! I use it to make my shopping and to-do lists:

Generally getting to draw here keeps her occupied when I'm in the kitchen, and it can be wiped off pretty easily so she can start fresh each day. She often practices her name here as well, but clearly smiley faces were the them of this week. We're thrilled because she has not really seemed to like coloring in general.

The practice of letting our daughter doodle all over our fridge, however, has backfired. Twice. Once she took a permanent marker and wrote all over my mom's white fridge door. A few weeks later, she used crayon on her bedroom wall next to her bed. Both times, while we generally shook our heads in dismay and scrubbed like crazy, she cried in great distress because, in her words, we were erasing her "decorations." Oh, make that three time: she also "decorated" her pants with an ink pen.

Since then, though, she has learned to limit her decorations to the fridge, and we get to enjoy new colorful patterns and to watch her grow artistically.

Green Thumb

I do not have a green thumb. I have two houseplants I've kept alive for at least five years and one I've had for a little over a month (thanks, Jenyo). Today, however, with the help of the in-laws, we have a little garden patch in one corner of our backyard, tucked behind the hot tub. We have 20 strawberry plants, a row of corn, a row of carrots, 7 pepper plants, 4 or so cucumber plants, lil' pumpkins, a couple of beans, peas and tomato plants. We also planted a about a dozen perennials around the flowerbeds (2 sides of house anyways). The tulips on the south side are in bloom. We now only need to add wood chips to the beds and some under the tree by the garage, and that should be it for planting and landscaping this year. The weather was absolutely gorgeous as you know if you live in the F-M area. I hope you all got to soak up some rays today.

Front flower bed:

North side:

South side:

garden shot 1 (strawberries take up most of corner; start of corn and carrot rows that run along the fence are marked by the short trellis):

garden shot 2 (beans, peas, pepper, pumpkin and my clematis vines):

Part II

Tootsie under the lilac bushes. I love how they create a shaded archway for my old girl:
I have no idea what these are. It is the only surviving plant from the previous owners. It looks like a mini Vietnamese jungle, assuming I know what that might plausibly look like based on extensive movie viewing.

This is a snowball something or other shrub. I hope it perks up.

I love hostas. Low maintenance. Big Leaves. Simple.

Garish. That's why I picked this one: