Tonight K cleaned off and set the table all by herself! She was so proud of herself. Isn't she pretty good for a 28 month old? She's definitely my little momma. She is going to be amazing when she grows up!

I also got my front garden planted. We'll see if anything comes up. I had very good intentions when I started, making every little hole to drop the 2-3 seeds in and covering them very nicely with 1/4 inch of soil. By about the 10th hole (and only being finished with a VERY small area in the garden, I got tired. I ended up scraping the top of the soil off, sprinkling some seeds haphazardly around and pushing the soil back over. I did see a lot of seeds still sitting on the top of the soil. I never realized how big (relatively) that garden is! I'm tempted to cover the whole garden with shade cloth for a week or two, so it stays moist until things sprout. Hopefully I didn't waste all of the seed on the garden just to have none of it come up.

Hopefully the next garden I plant will turn out to be easier. Let's pray it's done by next week before it starts to get REALLY hot!

Oh, and I almost forgot- my baby isn't a baby anymore! J FINALLY has a loose tooth! One month away from being 6 1/2 yrs and my baby's baby teeth are starting to fall out! They grow up so fast! Before I know it, he'll be bringing girls home to meet the family.

Progress!

Here is my garden so far. I was just experimenting and buried some sprouting potatoes from my pantry. I didn't cut them into individual 'seeds' like you're supposed to. I would have taken me too much time. :-) I just took the whole potato and put it in the ground. Each 'plant' has about 2-4 individual plants. I was really amazed at how fast they grew. They have only been in the ground for a month and they are 12-18" above the original soil level. I have no idea how long they take to grow or how big they will get. Anyone have experience with potatoes that can help enlighten me? I have been burying the stems like everyone says to do. On the biggest plant (in front) I think I have added about 9 inches of soil and the other two about 6 inches. I'm actually just happy to have something green to look at, even if they don't produce much.

I should have my front garden planted by this weekend, if all goes well. We have the waterline for the sprinkler system piped to the backyard and capped off (it goes right under my front garden and I didn't want to dig it up later to put sprinklers in). We're waiting for a miracle and hoping the miracle is in the form of cash so we can actually afford to put sprinklers in the backyard. In the front garden, we are trying onions, garlic, carrots, and broccoli. I know it is too late to plant most of these things, as they should have been planted in the fall, but we're going to try them anyway.

I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to plant my corn patch. I read about companion planting a while ago and I'm determined to try it out this year. We will have corn, soybeans, and squash. They are supposed to help each other grow by providing structure/shade or nutrients for the other plants. We'll see how it goes. I was going to do it on the south side of my house, but after touching the soil and realizing it is sun-baked SOLID, I decided I wouldn't even try there. I'm thinking about putting it next to my south fence, but that's where I'm planting my blackberries. Maybe it won't harm the blackberries too much to have other plants surrounding them. I'm hoping to get some citrus trees in, too, but we'll see how the budget goes...

We just inherited an old trampoline from our neighbors that just foreclosed. We cut it in half and are trying to make a garden shade out of it. (Kinda like Dad's chicken coop.) Only, I'm not sure we have enough pipe to hold it together. I just can't remember exactly what Dad's looks like, so I'm just trying to fudge it. I hope by next year we will have some yummy strawberries growing underneath it!

It just feels nice to actually accomplish something! I feel like a plump balloon, but I can still move when I need to (barely)!

I love my husband and baby prep

Last night, Ryan stayed up all night making tamales. We've been trying to master the skill for a couple years now, but could never get it just right. I was always the one trying to do it.

This time it was Ryan's project.
I let him make the dough, spread it and fill it, and roll the tamale up. I stood there and watched in awe as my husband did all of this in less time than I could have ever done it. After he had assembled all of them, I took strips of corn husks and tied a cute little knot on all of them to hold them together.

Yes, that's ALL I did. Ryan did all the rest of the work. He seasoned the meat with green chilies and tomatillos rather than the typical red chilies. These tamales turned out better than ANY I have EVER tasted before. It must be in his blood (and obviously not mine). And anyone that knows Ryan, knows that any food he cooks has FLAVOR! Ooh, these were so good!

We ended up with about 50 tamales. Some of these haven't been eaten yet and are being frozen for easy meals after the baby's born.

The only thing I have done to prepare meals is make a few pot pies (thanks Celia for the recipe)

and tonight I froze some extra cookie dough. (Are cookies good enough for dinner?) I did make some granola for an easy breakfast, but K and E decided to dump THE ENTIRE CONTAINER on the floor Sunday night. I was a little upset! I'm hoping to have plenty of easy freezer meals for when I don't feel like cooking after the baby's born. Most of my meals can't be frozen, though, so I don't know what I'm going to do for most of them. Maybe just make a seasoning packet for them and dump it in when I need it? Has anyone frozen homemade corn tortillas? The tortillas are probably the most 'difficult' part of my meals, even though they aren't difficult at all.

I just hope I recover as easily/quickly with this one as I did with Kate! I was bringing other new moms meals just 2 weeks after Kate was born.

Just 11 more weeks to go...if I make it to my due date. Hopefully she doesn't spoil Ryan's graduation ceremony!

I'm finished!

I just finished filing our personal and corporate taxes!

Ok, so not completely. The forms are all filled out, I just need to organize them and put them in the mail.

Our federal IS already e-filed, though.

I am so tired of reading IRS-I'm glad I can start reading things written in English again!

Phew! Now I can actually breathe again. I HATE TAXES!

Back from the doc

We just finished E's yearly allergy test. He still screamed and had an incredibly itchy back, but it actually turned out better than previous years. It looks like he is reacting to things less than the other tests. Normally, the nut and peanut bumps are bigger than the egg. This year, they were smaller than normal. The egg, on the other hand, was bigger than I remember. It was almost 1/2 dollar size. HUGE! Most everything else was smaller than 3mm. We won't have official results until his follow-up appointment in a week or so. We need to get blood tests done and then the Dr. will compare results from both tests. That's when we'll get the 'official' results. I'm just hoping we can expand his diet a little more this year!

When we were in the office waiting for his Dr. to come in, E drew a picture of himself getting the skin prick test done. He was laying down on the bed with the 'poker thing' and the 'needles' and he was crying. It was so cute. He said he wanted to give it to his dr. When she saw it, she acted so excited and asked him to have his mom write his name on it so they could hang it up. I had E write his own name. When he gave it to her, she was really surprised that he could write his own name and he wasn't even in kinder yet. I just thought it was cute that he drew a picture showing how he felt about getting his allergy test done.

When we were getting ready to leave, the nurse was giving me the lab order for the blood test. I explained to E what it was- that he would have to have the blood taken out of his arm. All he said was, 'oh, that's not so bad! That's the easy one.' Poor little kid! I can't even imagine how bad the skin prick must itch him!

I'll give a better update on his status when we have the follow-up appt in a week or two.