Making it our own

For 7 years, we have been trying to work our way around the previous owner's concept of garden design and slowly changing it to meet our ideas and needs. We recently tackled one of the last confusions and made it our own. We used the existing pavers that were in an L-shaped flower garden to make a square raised vegetable garden in the sun. It needs some sod on the muddy parts around the outside, but the garden is ready to go.

Laura's garden has a tomato, some peas, carrots, zinnia, basil and dill. 

Adam's garden has a tomato, carrots, peas, black-eyed peas, marigold and lemon basil.

And I have tomatoes, peppers, dill, carrots, black-eyed peas, asparagus, nasturtium and a cucumber.

Now, if the sun would just come out, maybe we could get this growing season going!

Hi Ava! 

So far, she's been a very effective bunny deterrent and hasn't spent any time digging anywhere. Let's hope that keeps up!

Look who keeps growing!

 I tell you, these kids keep trying new things and growing and growing. 

By his own insistence, Adam is trying a 2 week trial of karate. He's doing pretty well, considering he's only 4 1/2. He gets pretty goofy sometimes, but the Mr. Quinn assured me that "I will always win" any discipline battle and I feel pretty sure of that. 

So far, he's been enjoying it. I think it might come down to the teacher's opinion of his maturity level. We may end up waiting a few months and trying again, but I hate to dash his enthusiasm if we don't have to.

Laura earned a new belt.

She moved on from white with 2 gold stripes to white with one green stripe. When she joins the youth classes at age 8 or 9, she will get a full green or blue or whatever belt, instead of the white with colored stripe. And she is still as enthusiastic as ever about karate.

She played her first piano recital on Monday. She did a marvelous job and I think she was impressed by the older players.

Welcome Home, Ava!

 Meet Ava!

I needed a dog. I can't explain it; I just did. Its been on my mind for a while, but it still seems like it was a super fast move. Luckily, we have found the perfect one first try. 

She's super easy going and loving. 

And too much of a licker for Adam. He's interested in her, but not really in petting her. Mostly, he wants to boss her around and close and open her kennel door. Or pretend to be a dog and do whatever she is doing. Whatever. 

Laura is interested and pets her a lot, but still not super comfortable with her. It makes sense, though. Neither kids have ever been comfortable with dogs and this will take time. 

Our fierce watchdog.

Oh, and she sleeps under blankets. She noses around until she's completely covered. Super cute!

And she came kennel trained! She loves it in there and goes in and out all day with the door open. Bonus!

Ava is 3 years old and was found as a stray in Wisconsin when she was about 1. The couple we got her from took her in and seem to have treated her very well. She is probably a beagle/boxer mix. The couple had to move houses and couldn't take her with them, so they put her on craigslist.org, where we found her. She has been very good at staying nearby the few times a kid didn't close the gate. Just call her back and she comes right along happily, so she doesn't seem to be a runner. Her only issues seem to be that she wants to lick the kids' faces and she will bark when a neighbor approaches our fence, which are pretty minor issues, especially since she is probably part beagle! Jim is tolerating her very nicely. This is definitely my dog, but I think we'll all end up fond of her. 

Another catch-up post

-Laura finally lost her first tooth! The one that was waiting behind it is quickly moving forward, and she still has 2 layers right next to it, so quite honestly, her teeth are looking pretty crazy right now. But she's so excited to join the club.

-Adam has a wart under his pinky toenail *cringe*

-I think I have arthritis in my thumb. *bah*

-I ran a 5K race last week on a whim. I have been doing tons of strength training and short bursts of cardio, but no endurance practice lately. My time wasn't my fastest or slowest, but right in the middle, which was OK with me. The fact that I can say I ran 3 miles "on a whim" makes me such a different person than I was 3 years ago. I like this me better.  I'm taking the Women's Running Boost class starting later this month and hope to get back in the habit of running.

-Jim's test is over. yippee! No word yet on the results. He's still traveling about every 2 weeks or so with work. We are getting used to that.

-We had planned a kitchen remodel, then backed off that and are just updating a few things. Saving our money for a rainy day. Too bad I already pulled out the pantry so that the drywall, floor, and countertop are seriously messed up where it used to be. I will have to replace it when we want to move, but I'm enjoying the openness on that wall.

-Adam had a rough school conference last week. I'm only writing that down so that, someday, when he is the selfless CEO of some non-profit that improves the world in some profound way, we can look back and laugh about the time his preschool teacher said he was prone to behavior problems and lacked respect. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Wasn't that funny?", we'll say. Anyway, we have a game plan and are looking forward to seeing what he can do. He has a lot of potential.

-School is over in about a month. I'm looking forward to Laura being home and to breaking up school year monotony with summer camps/classes/parks/beaches/vacations/camping.

What a difference a day can make

Windows are open, shorts and t-shirts are on, sun is shining, crocuses are blooming, maple tree tap is out and last sap batch is boiled, school is out for a teacher development day, neighbor friend is playing on the tree swing with the kids, birds are chirping, grass is greening, last bit of snow in the shade is melting, iris, tulips, and day lilies are peeking up, Jenny is smiling and barefoot.

Lately...

I'll happily use an excuse to explain my absence from the blog. The computer was in the shop for a week getting a new optical temp. sensor. All better! So what's been up lately? Well, its possible that I was a bit optimistic with the hammock...

But that is only because just a few days ago, this happened...

Who can blame a girl for having hope?

What else? Adam is growing up. He's reading a few site words and showing more interest in putting pen to paper.

(tracing dot-to-dot)

We've been up and down with his separation anxiety. But we've had 2 good preschool drop-offs in a row! We've signed up for a different preschool next year due to schedule and teacher personality conflicts, but I hope it doesn't come back to bite us if he gets good at going to this one.

And he's still goofy.

Laura still has the shark teeth.

We've been to our regular dentist twice and a pediatric dentist once. The pediatric dentist finally took an x-ray and decided that she would pull the baby teeth if we want, but there really is no reason, contrary to what our regular dentist said. The baby teeth aren't hurting anything and will eventually fall out. Jim has tried to get them out the last 2 nights, but no luck. One is barely hanging on and the other is hardly loose.

I trimmed her bangs the other day, then (at her request) tried to cut the rest to chin length. After about 2 cuts, I realized it was getting much thicker and harder to get even, and we ended up at Fantastic Sams to get a professional cut. It ended well and she was quite easy going about the whole thing, even riding in the car with half her hair short and half long. :)

Other than that, she is loving piano lessons and still enjoying karate. School is going well. She's definitely a reader and asked to reread The Hobbit last night, this time her reading to me.

 For Easter, the kids and I went to Kim's in Madison. Jim stayed here to study for his test (tomorrow and Saturday, send him some happy thoughts). We stayed in a hotel one night on the way there with a fantastic pool area.

Laura is amazingly water safe.

Then explored the town of Sparta a bit. There's a bicycle and space museum ??? but it was closed because of Good Friday. We were disappointed and will probably stop there again.

We also stopped at an arcade in the Dells and the kids played the longest, most painful game of air hockey ever.

Kim's was so much fun. We dyed eggs, went to an egg hunt, watched a movie, played at a mall playground and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

When it was time to leave, Kim drove back to the Dells with us and ate at the train restaurant. 

Sap collecting is going pretty well this year.

I'm feeling quite wordly by using my wok to boil maple sap. 

I probably have about 1/2 quart of syrup so far. Of course, I'd have more if I hadn't forgotten a batch on the stove and set off the fire alarm last night. 

Jim has rejoined the land of the living now that his 6 day a week class is over, although he'll be even better after his test this weekend (see previous note about thoughts and prayers). 

And here's some very old pictures of the kids that I found on my phone. 

REI rock wall... 

And ice skating...

Fish-lets

We founds 6 baby orange fish while cleaning the tank yesterday! We recently bought 2 (insert name of fish that I have forgotten here), so either one came pregnant, or we have a mom and dad in the tank. Either way, we quickly put the babies in our nursery that we used the previous 2x this happened and they should now be safe. Is it normal to have babies so often? It seems like 3 times in 2 years is a pretty high rate of birth!

Happy 7th Birthday, Laura!

 It's true! She is seven! I'm amazed too. 

Gosh, she is growing up beautifully, inside and out.

Expecting a High of 16 on Wednesday

In case any of you Southerners out there think that spring has arrived...