Patiently Waiting

+++ Blogger has been having issues and removed all our posts from yesterday! Some seem to have them back but I don’t so I’m posting this again, because blogger seems to be back up (but my post is still missing)!

 

Well this week is running away from me yet again! Can’t believe it’s nearly Friday, not to mention that we’re already just about half way through May! Kristen and I have started counting down to ‘school’s out for Summer’ . . . . it’s only 3 weeks away :-)

So, what am I patiently waiting for, you’re wondering? Well, I got this on Monday . . .

Jason surprised me early for Mother’s Day and told me last week that he’d ordered the new Ipad2 for me :-) It was on back order from Apple for 2 weeks so he knew it wouldn’t get here in time, but he just couldn’t wait to tell me. I received the cover yesterday, and today they emailed Jason and said the Ipad has shipped :-) I am beyond excited!!!!  It’s not often I want a new toy/gadget. Remember we got the new Nexus One phones last year (I bugged Jason cos I thought I wanted a smart phone) but neither one of us used them much at all. I really don’t call anyone during the day (sad to say), and I had to keep putting my reading glasses on to read and send texts! After 5mths we sold them (thankfully getting back nearly what we paid for them, via Ebay), and I just use a basic Verizon phone for emergencies!

But the Ipad! Now there’s something I can play with – all day, EVERY day!  Kristen’s piano teacher has one and she’s been letting me play with it every week while Kristen does her lesson! I told Jason weeks ago that I’d made up my mind, I was getting an Ipad for Christmas (we’ve been really good with our spending lately and I couldn’t justify just going out and buying one, it had to be for a special occasion). A few weeks later I told him, it would actually be nicer for my birthday (cos that’s October and I wouldn’t have as long to wait – cos I really really couldn’t wait). Of course every time I saw the commercial for it on TV I would ooh and ahh over it. It was a few days after that, that Jason said he couldn’t keep a secret, he’d ordered the Ipad for me that day :-)

So, while I”m waiting, I’ll share the rest of my Mother’s Day pictures with you. Jason still wanted to give me something on Mother’s day, so he and Kristen went out shopping! I told him I didn’t need flowers, they will just wither and die, I’d rather have something that will last and we can plant in the garden . . . they came home with these:

We already have some grapes but we wanted more, and this one is actually a concord grape (hopefully it will ripen so we can eat the grapes), the others we have are all wine grapes – merlot, chardonnay and a pinot I think. We have yet to have ripe grapes off them!

This is a pretty Esperanza plant, I love these yellow flowers.

And, I didn’t take a full picture of this, but it’s a little fig tree :-) You know, I really don’t know what a fig tastes like. I’ve seen them in the store (not very often, they must be very seasonal), but never bought one. I’ve heard they’re an acquired taste, but I’d really like to have some and be able to put them on a cheese platter or something when they’re ripe.

And lastly,  more girly girl pictures from Sunday :-) Next to my lovely new grapevine of course!

Kristen sure is getting tall!

  

I wrote something else after this picture, but I can’t remember what it was and it isn’t showing up in my saved copy on Windows Live Writer!

Never mind, It’s FRIDAY – that makes everything better!

Have a great weekend.

My Wonderful Weekend

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. I certainly did. Although it wasn’t one of those Sunday’s where I just put my feet up and knit the afternoon away … I was busy in the kitchen making a lovely meal for my sweet little family – and it was exactly what I wanted to be doing! 

Trying to take pics of myself and me and Kiki together!

gifts for ‘Mom’ (that’s Jason’s Mom, not me!)

and here’s my Mother’s Day Lunch Menu!

I wanted to make something that I really liked and that I know my mil likes too…. one of the things we both enjoy is salmon and asparagus – but ‘our men’ don’t really like that (Jason doesn’t like fish AT ALL!) so I came up with the idea to make a salmon and asparagus quiche, and also a bacon and gruyere one for the men.

We started with Mimosas (which I forgot to take a picture of, with pretty pink ribbons wrapped round our glass!) Then we had cheese and crackers and bread and dipping oil.

 

Salmon and Asparagus Quiche

Pretty table with my plate!

 

Jason, his Mom and Kiki.

I’ll share more photos next time, and tell you what I got for Mother’s Day :-) Don’t want this post to get too long.

I have to head out to the ENT for a check up this morning. Last month he changed my meds as I was starting to get an infection. I’ve felt pretty good since then so I’m assuming he’ll keep me on the same stuff. Also got to go to the post office to mail some things I sold on Etsy!

Mother’s Day

It’s not Mother’s Day in England this weekend! That was a few weeks back at the beginning of April. Strange how we have a different day here in the US, and yet Father’s Day is often the same Sunday in June here and at home in the UK. 

I’m planning a lovely Mother’s Day lunch for my mil (and me) on Sunday. I’ll share my menu with you next time. Today I thought I’d share some of my favorite photos of my sweet Mam. I wish I could share this special day with her, like the rest of my family got to do back in April :-)

 

 

 

80th Birthday (2005)

   

And of course my ALL TIME Favorite . . .

. . . . her wedding day!

Garden Update

It’s midweek already! I’m busy planning my Mother’s Day lunch menu, and I think I’ve finally decided on a menu (which I will share later).  But I told you I’d show pictures of the garden, so I will do that in this post . . . . come see how things are growing!

First of all, remember the ‘pizza garden’ I planted while the work was still being done on the yard? I forgot how small it looked until I went looking for the picture. . . .

  What a difference huh?! I’ve had a few snips of basil and cilantro from this pot. I love that it’s just outside the back door and I can pop out and ‘snip’ whenever I like :-)

 

 

We’ve had our first harvest of the season . . .  of course it was radish. These little guys are fully grown in about 25 days! We just pick a few each day and chop them up on our salads.

 

Beets are coming along nicely, next to the radishes.

Corn is getting big too!

Squash! These ones are Acorn (the two larger ones on the right) and the one at the bottom (smallest one) is zucchini, and the one next to that is a Patty Pan Squash. I had two Patty Pan but one didn’t make it so I put a zucchini one in it’s place.

The Acorn Squash already has flowers on and tiny little ‘acorns’

 

We planted potatoes! It may have been a little late, but they’re growing well. Jason is thinking of pulling them out though as the bed is infested with ‘Morning Glory’ weeds!!!!!! I love this flower but it is evil in vegetable beds

Trees are starting to bear fruit :-) We have a ton of peaches on two trees. I hope the manage to ripen.  I hope they all ripen.

   

Plums!

Pears!

This is MY grapevine that I DIDN’T cut back last year!! It looks great but the grapes are tiny!

 

Jason is training this vine‘the right way’, and I must say the grapes are much bigger because of it!

So, there you have it! Things are growing well for the most part, although we are having some issues with the soil. Jason tested it and it was deficient in nitrogen still AND the acidity is high. Our peppers aren’t growing well at all. We’ve added fertilizer and we have some lime to add this weekend.

How is YOUR garden growing?

Spot the difference!

Not completely the same photo (or angle) but focus in on the house behind our fence….. spot the difference?

I’ll give you a clue! In the second photo, can you see their back porch?  Ha! Spot the difference now?  We bought a new tree :-) A whopping 20 ft Elm tree. We ended up buying it because the guy that’s been doing our back yard was delivering this to Cheryl next door to replace some trees that had died in her backyard. Only, this tree cost nearly double the quote he gave Cheryl, and she didn’t want to purchase something so big at this time.  We want big trees out back, 1) for shade and 2), to hide the other houses behind us, SO I called Jason that day and asked if he thought we should get it? After all, it was sitting right there on our doorstep – more or less! So we got it.  We love it. . . .  BUT, we just wish we’d asked them to place it a few more feet to the left! To block out there upstairs game room (their house is the same model as ours, so I know that’s the game room) ;-)

Brrrrr, it is so cold today. I can’t believe it was about 85 degrees here yesterday and today is only 50! Thankfully the cold front won’t last long, in fact tomorrow we are supposed to get back up to 75 and by Friday, high 80’s.

Here’s a close up of the tree, although a little blurry. I’ll try to get better pictures of it next time.

  

Things are growing in the garden! I’ve been out and snapped some pictures. . . .  I’ll be back tomorrow with an update.

Spring Garden

Well, not the kinda ‘garden’ pictures you were probably expecting to see – I need to get back out in the veggie garden and take some pictures this weekend! Things have been growing a little slow out there so I haven’t blogged about it for a week or so.

These ‘garden’ pictures are the Spring Garden Tee that I finished knitting a few weeks ago and wore for mil’s birthday lunch. I just wanted to share them with you but as you can see it was really very sunny and the lighting is terrible. Anyway, I’ll still share them with you, cos this is one top that I think turned out really cute. I’m seriously considering knitting another one, I like it that much :-)

     

 

The pretty little flower was a gift from my friend Sadie a few years ago. She makes the prettiest felt roses :-)

I’ve been doing really good with my healthy eating and exercising. Hope to post more about it next week… and update you on the garden too.

Have a great weekend!

My Healthy Den

I’ve posted over at my ‘healthy blog’ this morning. I still like to post there so I can look back and review what worked for me and what didn’t!  I’ve decided to try Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred again!!!

I must be crazy. It is pretty hard. I did day one yesterday and my legs feel like jelly this morning! You can read my full post HERE.