square foot garden

Jeremy's sister Miranda told us about square foot gardening last summer, so we're giving it a whirl this year. I read Mel Bartholomew's book, and his ideas about a more compact garden to produce more produce seemed the perfect fit for our small backyard! We've been working on it for about a month in bits and pieces, and finally attached our nylon trellis material for our vertical plants (tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, etc.) this week. Here's the journey:

taking out the sod

building the boxes

placing the boxes, mixing the soil and building the vertical supports

planting

hanging the nylon trellis material (just in time for the peas)

watering

and more watering

So far, so good....that is, except the marigolds! Aren't marigolds supposed to be practically fool-proof? Why is it that in my garden they are either dead or seriously struggling, and they've been in the ground less than one month??? I always plant them to help keep the bugs out, but I can never seem to keep them alive!?

have my ice cream and eat it, too! (every day)

We had planned to have brownies and ice cream for dessert tonight. When we changed our mind and decided to go for caramel popcorn instead, Nolan threw a four-year-old fit! When I told him he could go without any dessert at all if he preferred, he protested, "But Karl Malonic gets to have ice cream every day!"

blogaholic

Okay...NOT good. I just realized I have been sitting at the computer much much longer than I care to admit! I am totally a blogaholic! (Thanks alot Shannon!) I can see this addiction growing! Yikes! Maybe I'll have to make myself earn my weekly blog time...you know, for every clean toilet or number of times I've swept the kitchen I can have five minutes??? Okay, maybe twenty!

breakfast dessert

This morning for breakfast we had a yummy smoothie with our "fronch toast" (name that movie). It was like having dessert for breakfast! I got the recipe from Dan's Foods; they make recipes then give out samples along with the recipe. Check out the sidebar for the recipe. Nolan said, "Hey, Mom, this takes just like a Jamba juice!" If you give it a try, let me know what combination you used and what you think.

karl malonic

Nolan just told me that he "just put on a blog...do you want to hear it? Karl Malonic went fishing and he got to ride on a turtle with me! Snort and hop and stinky trail! The end!"

For those of you who haven't been introduced to Karl Malonic (pronounced mah-LOHN-ik), he is Nolan's pretend friend that has all the adventures. This is what Nolan had to say about Karl Malonic just now. "He has lots of bad cats and a stinky ear and his whale is stinky, too. He broke his head. He lives in Park City." (He has lived by us in Layton, in Indiana, in Atlanta, in Hawaii, and California. He has lived in Disneyland and Disneyworld. FYI - He moves about every other week.) His sister likes princesses. He has a sister named Haley and Kara. Sometimes Karl Malonic is four, sometimes he is thirteen, and sometimes he is thirty. (Should I be concerned about my four-year-old playing with thirty-year-old friends!) Karl Malonic (never just Karl, always "Karl Malonic") has "sixty ninety" brothers. For a few weeks Nolan had to go to his house every other day to help him build his house again because it had burned down again. Oh, and sometimes Karl Malonic's family has to come over to our house because they have no food or beds at their house. Usually, though, they only need twenty beds, not "sixty ninety".

Crazy! Karl Malonic has been around for at least a year now...maybe two! At what point should I become concerned about this imaginary friend???

the chocolate curse

I did it! I conquered the curse of the chocolate frosty stain!!!! Chocolate frosties (that word looks really funny plural...I guess I've never seen it written out in the English language) are a regular reward treat at the Smith household. It's a great deal, for only $.49 + tax we can hit the drive-thru for a junior frosty...what an inexpensive prize for stellar behavior! Unfortunately for Mom, the curse of the chocolate frosty has visited our laundry almost as much as the frozen treats themselves! Usually we're lucky enough that it only affects Macy's bibs. However, last night we had a post-softball game stop at Wendy's for frosties with three cousins, two aunts, one uncle, Gammy and PawPaw, a brand new shirt on Macy and no bib! You guessed it...Macy was drowned in chocolate frosty drool. Well, it came out! Here's the secret: Spot Shot carpet cleaner, lots of rubbing, more Spot Spot, more rubbing, Spot Shot....you get the idea, then a healthy dose of Spray & Wash for good measure. Thanks to Jeremy's sister Alisa for introducing Spot Shot to us several months ago for laundry. I just never thought to try it on frosties!

go frenchie!

This post is for Jeremy, who was lucky enough to be able to hit (I know, nice pun) the Braves baseball game tonight, since he's overnighting in Atlanta. Instead of spending Friday night alone in a hotel room, probably located in a business park close to the airport (ie. not even within walking distance of a WalMart, let alone something remotely entertaining), Jer got to cheer on his favorite player, #7 Jeff Francouer (aka "Frenchie"), who, by the way, just happens to be teammates with one of his little league buddies from gradeschool, Brian McCann. I might not be the avid baseball fanatic, but since I live with one, I am privy to all sorts of useful trivia like this! Go Frenchie! (Next time you happen upon a Braves game on t.v., if you listen carefully, you'll hear Bobby Cox yelling this from the dugout.)

stinky elevators

One of Nolan's favorite past-times is packing up his suitcase and pretending he's going on a trip. Sometimes he goes wherever Jeremy happens to be spending the night, sometimes he goes to Hawaii or another place he's heard of, sometimes he goes to "Atwanta" and rides on the stinky elevators. Yep, that's right, stinky elevators. Last summer we took a family trip to Atlanta, and rode the train from the airport to the subway to the stop near our downtown hotel. Since we had all our luggage and Macy in the stroller, we took the subway elevator. I have never experienced anything like that elevator before....hot, humid, enclosed space that reaked of urine! Apparently the subway elevators serve a dual purpose: transport and water closet! The first thing Nolan said when we got in was "This elevator stinks!" He still remembers the stinky elevators and talks about them regularly.

"say aaaaaah"

Dentist appointments for Nolan and Macy today. We have found the best pediatric dentist....Dr. Steve (Hibbert) in Syracuse. (Side note - I think it's great that he uses his first name!)

Since Nolan has been to Dr. Steve before, he knows the routine and was a stellar patient. We were thrilled that he was so cooperative! (If you read my previous post about baseball and his anxiety for something that is supposed to be fun, you can imagine what we may have anticipated for a visit to the dentist.) Macy surprised all of us, including the hygienist and Dr. Steve.

Macy is only 20 months old, but she sat in the chair willingly, opened her mouth every time she was asked, let them clean her teeth with the fancy shmancy electric cleaner (not sure what the technical name is...you know, the one that goes sszzzze sszzze ssszzzzzze), rinse her mouth with the spray-in water then suck it out with the vacuum, apply fluoride with a swab, AND take x-rays all while holding incredibly still. Then she opened wide for the dentist to check out all of her sixteen pearly whites. She is all about being BIG, and wants to do everything everyone else does. We're happy that means going to the dentist, too!

play ball!

Today was Nolan's first day of baseball ever. He's been talking about it for weeks now, but you never would have guessed by his reaction today: fear to the point of panic. He was crying, kicking and screaming to go home!

After severe coaxing and reassuring, a bribe for a Wendy' frosty (an ENORMOUS frosty, in Nolan's words), and three attempts to make it to home plate before running away, Nolan was brave enough to hit! This was a big step! (Not sure why he was so afraid...his coach is the friendliest-looking person I've ever seen!)

Unfortunately, I know exactly how Nolan feels. I remember being his age, all dressed-up in my dance costume, standing back-stage and watching the rest of my dance class perform my number in the dance recital. Although completely panic-stricken, I did eventually make it out on stage...not sure how much of the routine I missed, however. Now I have a glimpse of what my mom must have gone through trying to help me to overcome my fear to the point of moving forward.

so now what?

Well, folks, it's official...we have jumped on the blogger bandwagon. I've been thinking about doing this for some time now, but the only reason it actually came to fruition at all is because Jeremy took the initiative to set up the site for our fam. (Thanks, Jer! Thank heavens we have your motivation to get things done!) Only trouble is, I'm not quite sure what to blog about now. Perhaps that's because I've never been a night person, but here I am sitting at the computer at 11:29 p.m. (way past my preferred bedtime), and not thinking so clearly. I'm sure something will come to mind eventually, so check back often, and maybe, just maybe, we'll eventually post again!