Getting Back to Normal

We officially survived the first week of school!  Normally I'd say, what's the big deal, but this year we set ourselves up for a bit more chaos.  We went on vacation the week before school started.  I did have the good sense to fly us back in on Saturday so we could at least have Sunday, but looking back that was not enough!  Volleyball tryouts started the second day, and the 8th Graders get the privilege of the 6:30 a.m. practices for the week!  Thank God for my husband who doesn't mind leaving the house at 6:15 in the morning; I'd never make it! The great news is that she ended the week knowing that she was for sure on either the A or B team, and that is AWESOME!!!!

Next week her practices are after school since they rotate weekly with 7th Grade and I get the pick up duty...much more to my liking! 

I've never grown vegetables before, but we're trying cucumbers and orange bell peppers for the guinea girls.  I went out yesterday and noticed the cucumber plant had the prettiest little yellow blooms.  Does this mean I'm closer to seeing cucumbers?  This is all new to me, so I'm a little excited that they're even growing. 

One of the other things I noticed when we came back from our trip was that it gets the same little curly-q things that my Passiflora has, and that added to it's whimsy.  I had to move it though, because it was trying to wrap around a succulent...not very nice!

Daughter #2 also put some red bell pepper seeds in a little pot in a window sill right before we left.  They've sprouted as well, so we might have a plentiful bell pepper season...yikes!  I'll share a photo of that one later as I haven't gotten to getting that one yet, but I need to...they're really growing quickly. 

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Mandy

Going Through Withdrawls!

Oh my...never again!  Almost two weeks without my beloved laptop was almost too much for me! She's been running slow and the week before we left on vaction it would infuriate me to navigate from blog to blog to anything else for that matter.  Since we were leaving for vacation, I took all four computers...yes, you read right...all four computers went to the computer doctor.  My parent's have spoiled our girls with laptops over the years, so between the three of us we have three laptops and then the main computer for whoever's laptop happens to be dead!  Bob says he's on the computer enough during the day and has no desire to be on it at night.  All of them had viruses on them, needless to say I've switched to a different protector...this was ridiculous!  A week in Ohio with only my husband's iPhone was a test for all of us...wahoo for 3G service though!!  So, that would be why I haven't been on for a while...just in case you were wondering!

While I was gone, my Plumeria bloomed...I was so happy that the bloom held on until I got home.

She smelled WONDERFUL too!

Everything else held up really nice, of course it didn't hurt that my neighbor friend took excellent care of them in the 100 + temps that graced our city while we were gone.  My Bougainvilleas finally decided to bloom too...maybe I should leave them more often!

The week away was nice.  We didn't do anything terribly exciting, but we did get to spend time with Bob's mother and his brothers and their wives.  I have to admit though, it was pretty cool going for a jog at 11:30 in the morning and not breaking a sweat until the jog was almost to an end.  No way would I even consider doing that here, much less lace up and hit the road!  The most exciting part of the trip for the girls was the plane ride home, we paid the $6 for each of them to watch tv on the 2 1/2 hour plane ride from Cleveland to Houston.  We make this trip every other summer, and this wasn't an option the last time we flew.  They thought that was very cool...ok, their mother thought it was pretty awesome, but I opted for a nap instead!

Mandy

Quiet Equals Boring

My girls have been gone for three days now, and this is going to be a long five weeks!  It's not that I don't enjoy the break; I do, but I like noise and they make lots of it! 

They're enjoying themselves though, although they both claim to be bored at the moment! They're so used to being on the go here, that even with everything available to them there they don't "go" as much.  This morning, they both helped my dad with the horses and the little one got a kick out of how big the horses were compared to her!

My husband went fishing this weekend because my sister, who just moved to town, was supposed to stay over, but she ended up not needing to come over.  He'd already made plans and so I was looking forward to a nice quiet weekend by myself...you think I'd know myself better than that by now!  I have enjoyed having full control of the thermostat, menu and remote control, but it's so darn quiet!  My neighbor friend (our husbands are off fishing together) and I spent the day returning things that didn't work out from last weekend's shopping adventure and discussing our plants.  I decided that the Chocolate Mint that I have hanging by my front door is not going to survive the heat/sun combo if they're wilting daily this early in the summer, so I've decided to make succulent hanging baskets.  We stopped by a nursery and I got the plants for the center of each basket and some other little clumping/spreading thing that I thought I had to have!  No pictures yet, but hopefully by the end of the long weekend coming up, I'll have two new creations hanging in my door way.  Looking forward to putting them togehter!  I also made a delicious cheesecake like dessert called Sopapilla Cheesecake and took some over to my friend. 

Had some more blooms on Friday as well...

This is one of my mother's that I'm "succulent sitting".

And one of my Echeveria's blooming...love it! The only thing that bugs me is that they don't open up big and showey...they tease you!

I suppose I should call it a night...haven't even read yet today and I have no one here keeping me from it...crazy!

Mandy

Succulent Blooms

I thought I was done for the night, but I went outside to make sure nothing was waterlogged and found that two of my succulents had bloomed.  The first is the best...one of my Graptosedum's 'Vera Higgins' has the prettiest cream colored star shaped blooms!  For whatever reason, she looks a little purplish in this picture, but is really more of a burgandy shade.

The other one is my Crassula Nudicaulis Platyphylla.  These blooms aren't as showy, actually pretty understated, but I don't think they're going to get any bigger.  I saw them a few days ago, but thought there might be more...guess not, but they are a nice shade dark pink. 

Now, I think I'm done for the night...have a wonderful week!!

Mandy

A Bloom

For months, my Chocolate Soldier has had bloom stalks waving around with bloom buds.  All winter in the little greenhouse cover more stalks came up with nothing but buds.  Last week I noticed that they looked like they were trying to open, but nothing.  Until this morning...this morning one was opened up and it's the prettiest little thing.  I hope the others follow suite now and open up.