Why do things like this always happen to me?

So I cleaned the kitchen, repaired my guitar, started our new robot to cleaning my floors, took the boys to the basement to watch Sesame Street on this lovely rainy day, switched the laundry, and have discovered that somehow we are LOCKED IN THE BASEMENT! Yup, the knob turns, but the door doesn't budge. I have called in for reinforcements, but here we sit. Stuck.

And here I thought I was doing so well today.

Update: After another hour of waiting, I called my friend Corine to come and get us out. (Thanks for driving across town to save the day!) I guess when Gavin came down from getting a carrot to snack on the door slammed shut popping the dead bolt partially into place. Andrew is going to remove the dead bolt when he gets home tonight so it can't happen again. My neighbor and Andrew called not too long after we were rescued. We had snack time with Corine and her kiddos and all is well. (Charity asked her mom if they were going to be like Diego and come save the day!)

The bunnies have started snacking...

... on my MARIGOLDS!!! They are supposed to act as a bunny deterrant - I guess they didn't get the memo! AAAUUGGGG! :o)!

A day of hard work.

Andrew got to sleep in Monday (Happy Birthday early, Love!) while the boys and I went to work outside. I only had one section of the garden done and 3 to go. The boys played in the yard and with all their water toys (I think it was in the 80's). Andrew and the guys checked out the new Star Trek movie - said it was good. Then we went to Lowes and Andrew started a long to-do list of things he wanted to do for me before leaving. Here is my new screen door so we can get a cross breeze in the house and have to use the AC less this summer: I got a new toilet seat, a new crank on one of my windows... Thank you, Love, for repairing so many things for me! I feel like we are set for the summer. I have a robot to clean my floors, a girl from church to watch the boys on Friday nights (a HUGE answer to prayer!) so I can keep volunteering - and she will even do some cleaning for me, too, if I need it. And we have lots of people that care about us here. Well, I have spent the entire morning trying to load pictures on my blog since I got so far behind (sorry, I didn't have time to take any from my MN trip for Missy's shower - but it went GREAT, and I loved having breakfast on Saturday with my friend Erin, and on Sunday with my friend Valerie.) I need to go play with my boys!

Drumroll, please...

My GARDEN!!!! I now have a view out my picture window (what? the intersection isn't fun to look at?) I mixed flowers and edibles. This section has pea/nasturtium towers, herbs, irises, and some other flowers. The lilys in the corners of my garden are from the gardens that were already here and got transplanted. The stepping stone is from the Beam's farm in OH and has moved with us all over the country - it has sea shell fossils in it.

The corner section has drought tolerant plants and my new sour cherry tree. The middle section has 4 transplanted rose bushes (I hope they survive) and green peppers in the center. I am going to add onions, carrots, and lettuce to this section of the garden as well.

This section of the garden has blanket flowers, delphinium, glads, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, watermelon, butternut squash, and the stripe through the middle is going to be corn - 4 foot variety and maybe I will grow morning glories on it (heard that is good pest prevention for the corn.) I want to try growing my bush beans on the ends of the corn strip again (the bunnies ate a lot of stuff while I was gone, and a lot more died from no rain/water while I was gone, so A. bought me a bunch of new plants.) Mom, check out the bottom left corner - this is one of 2 spots where my Becky shasta daisies are - don't they look happy?!? Love them!

I have tomatoes and flowers in the half barrels. The tomatoes seem to be pretty happy and have started flowering. I have dianthus, lavendar, verbena, marigolds, moss roses, cone flowers, black-eyed susans... I feel so rich! I can't wait to start sharing the results of my garden. I also have raspberries planted along the side of the house. The strawberries didn't do anything, even being moved to pots in a sunny area, so I will have to try again with those next year. The mulch I put down is cocoa bean mulch, so my garden smells like chocolate! This whole week is supposed to be rainy and overcast, so hopefully all my babies will make it and be happy.

This is how I feel about my garden:

"we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression... He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey (read bunnies and great neighbors)...And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household." Deuteronomy 26:7,9,11

And yes, Abby, there will be pumpkins growing in my front yard. But I plan on sharing them with the neighbors instead of stealing them. :o)!

Sunglasses from Pookie!

Long Days.

These are pics from Monday night after a week of long days with the kids (and changes in time zones.) After a long late dinner Gavin and Audrey had had it.

Of course, Seth, my night owl was as happy as could be! :o)!

How many kids are in the van?

6? Ooopps, can't forget Hannah the explorer - that makes 7!

Idaho Springs

note on the above sign: he "attributed his good health to the fact that he never kissed women or took baths"

"You go, Audrey!" Greg, don't be mad at her - I made her do it! :o)!

Mountains.

Pete and Sarah said that if they were making a cross country trip to Denver than they needed to make it to the mountains at least once. We squeezed a trip in on Monday afternoon. What we did was visit a gold mine and learn how to pan for gold. Now for those of you who are not from Colorado that may seem like a normal thing to do, but it isn't. Not for someone who has been raised in the mountains. See, only the tourists do goofy things like visit the gold mines and try panning for gold at the tourist traps. And we are not tourists. I grew up with this goofy mentality that I was not a tourist (as though tourism was bad). I had a tough time when I visited Chile after college - I couldn't even pretend to be local there and had to deal with my issues. :o) Anyhow, we were trying to find something to do with 8 children ages 5 and under, and evidently in May most of Colorado is shut down - no trains running, nothing. So we ended up going to visit the Argo mine in Idaho Springs. We got to see some great stones, see the equipment demonstrated, take a bus up the hill, tour a little mine shaft, see the opening where the tunnel is (now collapsed) that drained water from the hundreds of mines in this particular mountain and brought out their ore, tour the gold mill/museum, and learn how to pan for gold (or if you are little - play in the trough of water and dirt). We had a great time. For several of the kids their favorite thing was the bus ride. My cousins, Andy, Debra and Ethan all came along. Afterwards we climbed on a train and walked around a little bit before having a late dinner at Beau Jo's pizza (good food, slower than slow service - not good w/ 8 little ones, found out we can order ahead next time). Here are a pictures from our trip:

We had good friends of Abby's host us (Thank you, Jamie and JK), but some nights we got in so late that we just put all the kids to bed at Abby's house anyway. The 2 boys slept on the same bed:

Greg and Audrey hanging out at Aunt Dottie's on Mother's Day:Just minutes later:Isn't Audrey a cutie!

The bus ride at the mine: Abby and AudreySarah trying to get Anna to smile at her. (You're welcome, Sarah!)Pete, Greg, Anna, Hannah, Andy, Gavin.Seth, Leah and Beth.

Gavin panning for gold - this kid LOVES playing in water!

Our "take":Jail in the gift shop:

A real bar of gold:
The big cousins on the train:

Kissing Cousins.

I took Seth and Gavin to Colorado for my Granddaddy's funeral. We spent most of the week keeping the 8 cousins who were there busy. As you can see, Gavin loves him some baby cousins, and it looks like Anna loves him right back. We spent a lot of time at Abby's house, we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom and aunts. On Monday we were up early and went to the military funeral. My cousins Bill and Becky were there, and it was so good to see them as I had lost touch with them for quite a while. It was also to see my other cousins. I sang at the funeral - There is a Balm in Gilead. I had to learn the song for the funeral, but it is one my mom and her siblings remember Granddaddy singing often as they were growing up. My brother Pete accompanied me on the guitar (unfortunately one of the pegs was broken and we discovered it late the night before when he was changing out my strings - I still have to get a new peg, fortunately we were able to borrow a nice guitar from a neighbor of Abby and Greg.) The kids all did well with the military ceremonies, even the 21 gun salute. After we drove from the cemetary chapel to see the gravesite where my grandmother is already buried. The church my grandparents attended hosted a meal for the family, which was really nice (and yummy, too.) The meal was in the same room my aunt's wedding reception was in (when I was a kindergartener), and I realized that that will probably be the last time I will be at that church as no one in my family still attends there. I have a lot of memories of visiting there. Because so much of the trip was spent with the little kiddos, and not with people who knew and loved my granddaddy I am still struggling with closure (he was cremated and the boys thought that they were going to get to help bury the urn after the funeral service.) I am thankful for the people here who have let me talk about things with them, even though they didn't know him.

7 Years.

Andrew - I love you. Thank you for choosing me. You ground me and help me be a better person. I know the last couple of years have been really tough for us. Thank you for sticking it out and having faith in me. (And thank you for funding my garden projects!) :o)! You are my favorite.

We got to go out to eat and shopping for our anniversary. The boys got to stay home with Gramma Nana and Grampa Guido (and GrandMama) who were visiting from MN before Andrew has to leave. Thanks for giving us a great night out.

Lovely Busy Day

Sorry it has been so long since I posted last. I have a few pictures and updates about everything that has happened in the last few weeks, but for now just a bit about our day. This morning my amazing husband let me sleep in, then we got everyone cleaned up and dressed for church. We were introduced as members this morning. I caught up with a few people after church (it has been 3 weeks since I was at church because of trips to CO and MN.) Then we ate lunch. While the boys napped I ran across town to dig up some free black eyed susans (and I got tons of them and can go back for more if I want!) Then got home and started putting in and mulching more of my garden. Then we had lots of people over for a cookout - neighbors, friends from church, and friends from the A.F. There were kids playing and having fun all over the back yard, yummy food, lovely friends, and I got to tryout my new outdoor fireplace and roast a few marshmallows. We even had a "Happy Birthday and Father's Day" w/ a flag on it ice cream cake for Andrew since he is leaving and missing special time with the family. YUM. Then we put the boys to bed and stayed up late playing Settlers with Stephen (Amber and kiddos are traveling). Good busy day. More busy times tomorrow getting the house ready for A to leave and spending time together.

Oh my!

Well, we made it back safely and I have been busily getting ready for my trip to MN for Missy's weddig shower. This morning Gavin had a fever. This afternoon he puked. Andrew got home early and we are getting ready for him to take over. Slowing down my takeoff to MN. So hard to leave my little guy while he is sick. Praying Seth doesn't get sick also. There will be a bunch of posts when I get back beginning of next week. Pray that Daddy and the boys are okay while I am gone. Thanks!

Garden of the Gods

The boys decided they liked hiking and climbing on rocks.  We even found a lizard right by the trail.  We are having a great trip, but can you say tired boys?  :o)!  Maybe we will get a good nights' sleep tonight.