Tomatoes

I went a little overboard on tomato plants this year. This is my first year of planting seeds instead of buying the plant ready to stick in the ground. I ordered seeds, planted them and hoped for the best. I thought maybe half of what I planted would take, but it all took, so I have 24 tomato plants that will be ready for the garden in a few more weeks. I have enjoyed seeing my seeds germinate and grow and I find it very refreshing to dig my hands in the dirt. Now I will know not to plant as many squash seeds this next week. Let me know if you need any tomato plants for your garden.

My initial contraption of seeds in a milk carton sitting on a heating pad with a plastic bag over it to create a greenhouse

Once the seeds germinated I transplanted them to larger containers

Roof Repairs

My life gets a little out of whack after being out of town. It usually takes a few days to unwind, unpack, do laundry, go grocery shopping, etc. Well this week has been even worse because we came home to a leak in our roof that manifest itself in the kitchen. We found a good roofer quickly and what he initially thought would be a $400 job quickly escalated to 5 times that much. It appears that our roof was not really "replaced" in 2005 like we thought, but instead was re shingled right over the old tar and gravel roof. Oh the joys of home ownership!

The crumbled mess under the new shingles

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

We have just returned from an over 1700 mile round trip to Oregon. The boys were great travelers, especially Boy #1 (thanks to a Spiderman decoder book and a 600 sticker book of animals) and Boy #2 only had one major meltdown. We visited with family and were able to hear entertaining stories about Grandpa Frank. We saw beautiful scenery and ate at one of my new favorite hamburger joints, Jaspers. We bought honey from a former prize fighter who now sells honey on the roadside and we bought my favorite chocolate covered strawberries from Harry and David. It was a great trip, but not one that I want to repeat anytime soon. It takes a long time to travel that far!

A rare moment when both boys were asleep

I love the evergreens that line the highway

Boy #1 wanted to help dad so he got to help carry Grandpa to the grave site

A quiet moment with Grandma Lucy

The over 2 lb tub of strawberries was on clearance for $4.99

Goodbye Grandpa Frank

My husband's grandpa passed away this morning. I was lucky enough to know him for the past nine years. He was funny, helpful, kind, loving, and so many other good things. This past summer we were able to visit with him and to record some of his stories. He was stationed in Cuba during World War II and he shared some great stories with us. Since my grandpas have been gone for over 15 years, I considered Grandpa Frank to be my grandpa. I loved to play games with him and to see him interact with the boys. He loved them so much. He will be missed by all of us.

Grandpa on his last visit to Utah

Grandpa and Boy #1 in 2006

Ready to chop wood

Boy #1 with Great Grandpa and dad

Boy #2 hanging out with Great Grandpa

Boy #1 with Great Grandpa and Grandma on our last visit

Sticker Boy

I received some stickers in a Boden catalog a few months ago and saved them for the boys to play with. Boy #2 found them and decided to put them all over his face.

Serious sticker boy
Happy sticker boy