3 weeks late, but hopefully better late than never. I couldn't plant it for the last three weeks because of snow first, then frost, then basically a gigantic cyclone and finally we got it tilled up this week. I'll post pics later. I think I might have over planted most of the garden.
We raked, weeded, smoothed, and did it all again before putting the seeds in and then wrestled with 250 feet of hose because the idgit that designed the house didn't think a spigot in the backyard might be important. All the kids helped in some way. Joshua, after getting yelled at to put the spade down came out with his own shovel: a plastic spoon. He helped plant the dill. Then Hannah painstakingly took all the empty packets and taped them to popscicle sticks so we'd know what was planted where. We installed them and then we turned around and Simeon had pulled every one of them out and was holding them like an odd, huge bouquet. The boys raked and weeded, planted and stomped, wrestled with the hoses and hoe, and lastly, learned not to throw dirt into the wind.
I can barely move tonight. Everything hurts. But, it's a good hurt and I'm soooo happy to have a garden in. It eases my mind.
We planted:
corn
dill
tomatoes (4 plants)
dill
peppers
herbs: chives, rosemary, marjorum, basil
cabbage
cauliflower
radishes
onions
carrots
beans
cucumbers
watermelon (not my choice at all)
pumpkins
Oh, and 2 strawberry plants and marigolds all the way around the border of the garden.
I'm so tired I can't sleep.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Life's Little Thrills
We got this page back up and added the link on the left. When this was up before we loved this section. Hope you come check things out.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
An Experience with Gum
Years ago I remember my mom telling me a story about my sister. She got us all cleaned up to go to a softball game of my dad's. We went over to play in the sand box and my sister found a wad of gum. She started playing with it until it was stretched and stringy all over her hands. Mom was appalled when one of the guys pointed her daughter out to her covered in gum. Good times...I'm sure she remembers those moments gleefully.
I don't usually have much gum in my house. For one, I can't really chew it having TMJ. That and the kids usually eat it well before I ever get around to chewing just one piece. A few weeks ago Hannah got a wad of gum stuck in her hair. I cut it out rather than doing all the remedies to get it out. I just didn't have the patience that day. I decided that that was the last pack of gum coming into the house.
Curtis came home from New York with a pack of gum half gone, so he slipped the rest of the pack in my purse. One of the kids sniffed it out and announced I had gum, then I found them stealing pieces and then I found them stashed in the couch. Today, there was just one piece left. Jesse was trying to be fair and asked if he and Isaac could split the last piece. I told him no, since that meant the 3 other kids would want some, so I snatched it and ate it myself. There, end of story. No more gum. We were waiting for Isaac to get in the car, so he missed this whole exchange.
I chewed it for about 2 miles.My jaw was burning, hurting and feeling inflamed. I decided I would quietly spit it out the window.
Let me back up here and tell you that we are driving a LaSabre Buick this week because our van's power steering went out. The poor car has 176,000 miles on it and then the A/C went out in it and the check engine light came on. Our van will be ready tomorrow, but we had to go exchange this car for the one other rental car they had (exact same model, only white). So, on the way to the shop to exchange the car we had all the windows down since we had a heat wave and now it's 85 degrees today (vs. 49 yesterday).
The windows are down, the gum gets spit out the window. Never to be thought of again. And then I hear...
"EEEEEWWWWWW!!!! What's on Simeon's shirt?! It's sticking to the seat too!!!"
What? It looks kind of like glue. A sticky glue. What the heck did he get into now, and in the car at that?
And then it dawned on me. The gum. After I spit it out the wind blew it back into the car, only into the back seat, directly onto the back of Simeon's shirt. Niiiicccceee. I feel like an idiot. See, in a van, this wouldn't happen. There aren't any other windows that can roll down.
Which now reminds me of another story my mom told me about an air freshener. I guess it was so powerful their eyes were watering so they threw it out the window only to later realize the smell just was not going away. And there it lay, right in the middle of the backseat. I don't know which would be worse: a smelly air freshener or gum on a hot day.
So, long story short. No gum will be allowed in the Salisbury household after this. NO GUM!!!!
I don't usually have much gum in my house. For one, I can't really chew it having TMJ. That and the kids usually eat it well before I ever get around to chewing just one piece. A few weeks ago Hannah got a wad of gum stuck in her hair. I cut it out rather than doing all the remedies to get it out. I just didn't have the patience that day. I decided that that was the last pack of gum coming into the house.
Curtis came home from New York with a pack of gum half gone, so he slipped the rest of the pack in my purse. One of the kids sniffed it out and announced I had gum, then I found them stealing pieces and then I found them stashed in the couch. Today, there was just one piece left. Jesse was trying to be fair and asked if he and Isaac could split the last piece. I told him no, since that meant the 3 other kids would want some, so I snatched it and ate it myself. There, end of story. No more gum. We were waiting for Isaac to get in the car, so he missed this whole exchange.
I chewed it for about 2 miles.My jaw was burning, hurting and feeling inflamed. I decided I would quietly spit it out the window.
Let me back up here and tell you that we are driving a LaSabre Buick this week because our van's power steering went out. The poor car has 176,000 miles on it and then the A/C went out in it and the check engine light came on. Our van will be ready tomorrow, but we had to go exchange this car for the one other rental car they had (exact same model, only white). So, on the way to the shop to exchange the car we had all the windows down since we had a heat wave and now it's 85 degrees today (vs. 49 yesterday).
The windows are down, the gum gets spit out the window. Never to be thought of again. And then I hear...
"EEEEEWWWWWW!!!! What's on Simeon's shirt?! It's sticking to the seat too!!!"
What? It looks kind of like glue. A sticky glue. What the heck did he get into now, and in the car at that?
And then it dawned on me. The gum. After I spit it out the wind blew it back into the car, only into the back seat, directly onto the back of Simeon's shirt. Niiiicccceee. I feel like an idiot. See, in a van, this wouldn't happen. There aren't any other windows that can roll down.
Which now reminds me of another story my mom told me about an air freshener. I guess it was so powerful their eyes were watering so they threw it out the window only to later realize the smell just was not going away. And there it lay, right in the middle of the backseat. I don't know which would be worse: a smelly air freshener or gum on a hot day.
So, long story short. No gum will be allowed in the Salisbury household after this. NO GUM!!!!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Passions
I was taking Isaac to an appointment today in North Platte, which gave us a good hour to talk on the way there. I was asking him what he really wants to do when he grows up. He drew a blank, so I asked him what he was interested in. He said he wants to be a detective...kinda like Monk but without the OCD. So, now I'm wondering if he is interested in Forensic Science/Investigating or just your run of the mill private detective. All that beside the point, I started thinking back to what my passions were.
I had two. Babies and Concentration Camps. Yeah, I know, how morbid is that?
I started really babysitting in Germany when I was 11-12 years old. Within a year, word had gotten around and people actually argued over having me as a babysitter. At one point I was watching 18 kids on various nights of the week. Once school let out, mom got me involved as a Red Cross Volunteer. I got to work in Pediatrics for the first two months, but my real interest was the Newborn Nursery. I went up there every day for lunch to ogle the babies. Finally the head nurse took pity on me and asked if I wanted to come volunteer the last two weeks of the summer. It was my dream job. I was in heaven! I got to watch a live birth (at 13 years old), give the babies baths and feedings, snuggle them, get their bassinets ready, take them to their mommies. In my spare time I read books on babies, caring for them, birthing them, how they grew as fetuses, and even read about birth defects. My mom told me one day I knew more about having babies than she did when she had her first at age 23. If I could have, I would have become a maternity nurse. I loved that job!
The other one was WWII Concentration camps. I don't know why this horrific and morbid subject interested me so much, it just did. I read Anne Frank and couldn't get this information out of my head, so I started reading about survivors and stories. Mom wouldn't let me take any tours or field trips to the camps that had been preserved as memorials. (Gee, I wonder why that was?) I guess I could grasp just how lucky I was not to have to grow up or even die during a war time. Even now, when the towns have Memorial Day to celebrate, my mind just drifts back to Anne Frank. Would we all have the courage she had to survive?
So, anyway, those were my two passions. I still love babies, but the concentration camp stuff? I think that was just a phase. What's your's?
I had two. Babies and Concentration Camps. Yeah, I know, how morbid is that?
I started really babysitting in Germany when I was 11-12 years old. Within a year, word had gotten around and people actually argued over having me as a babysitter. At one point I was watching 18 kids on various nights of the week. Once school let out, mom got me involved as a Red Cross Volunteer. I got to work in Pediatrics for the first two months, but my real interest was the Newborn Nursery. I went up there every day for lunch to ogle the babies. Finally the head nurse took pity on me and asked if I wanted to come volunteer the last two weeks of the summer. It was my dream job. I was in heaven! I got to watch a live birth (at 13 years old), give the babies baths and feedings, snuggle them, get their bassinets ready, take them to their mommies. In my spare time I read books on babies, caring for them, birthing them, how they grew as fetuses, and even read about birth defects. My mom told me one day I knew more about having babies than she did when she had her first at age 23. If I could have, I would have become a maternity nurse. I loved that job!
The other one was WWII Concentration camps. I don't know why this horrific and morbid subject interested me so much, it just did. I read Anne Frank and couldn't get this information out of my head, so I started reading about survivors and stories. Mom wouldn't let me take any tours or field trips to the camps that had been preserved as memorials. (Gee, I wonder why that was?) I guess I could grasp just how lucky I was not to have to grow up or even die during a war time. Even now, when the towns have Memorial Day to celebrate, my mind just drifts back to Anne Frank. Would we all have the courage she had to survive?
So, anyway, those were my two passions. I still love babies, but the concentration camp stuff? I think that was just a phase. What's your's?
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Holy Mama Cow! Swimsuit Season Here We Come!
I've lost 18 pounds in the last two months. I was feeling pretty good about myself. That is when I went shopping for beachwear. Ever wanna feel like crap about yourself, just go swimsuit shopping! If the huge mirror showing off each fat roll isn't enough to set you over, then the florescent lighting sure is while it points out each skin flaw and cellulite bump.
Has anyone noticed that this year's swimsuits are super duper skimpy? I used to get all my suits at Target. I couldn't find anything. If it covered the torso it had a huge hole in the middle. If it covered the front, then the back dipped down enough to expose you to crack. We all know crack kills!
I think I'll wear my husband's trunks and a big, nasty t-shirt to the pool and beach this year! LOL Just kidding. Perhaps I'll find something eventually....
Has anyone noticed that this year's swimsuits are super duper skimpy? I used to get all my suits at Target. I couldn't find anything. If it covered the torso it had a huge hole in the middle. If it covered the front, then the back dipped down enough to expose you to crack. We all know crack kills!
I think I'll wear my husband's trunks and a big, nasty t-shirt to the pool and beach this year! LOL Just kidding. Perhaps I'll find something eventually....
City Mouse and the Country Mouse
This week Curtis left for a business trip in New York City. For the first three days he was gone I didn't get to talk to him for more than 6 minutes total. I'm wondering if his head was ready to explode with all there was to see and do there. Being at home alone with 6 kids and with little adult contact or that break in the day when Daddy comes home was starting to get to me and I found myself resentful of the fact he was having the time of his life and I was sitting at home in a little town in Nebraska. Ogallala vs. New York City is not exactly screaming "Come See ME!"
He was offered a job out there, an "anyone wants to move out here, let me know" sort of thing. Immediately, I put my guard up and refuse to budge, even though I complain all the time of being here with nothing to do. It's New York City! Hollywood hasn't done the best job of portraying it as a city you want to raise a large family in. So, I laid in bed with the wind blowing, tornado watches blaring and shaking with fear of the weather, thinking, NYC probably never has stuff like this to live through. What else does NYC not have that we have here?
A newspaper that only comes out on Monday and Wednesday.
Garage sale competitions. It's almost a sport out here. People actually come, buy an item, have their own sale next week and you'll find your item put out, marked up. So you buy your item back because, well, you remember all the things you did with it and how could you have parted with it in the first place? Next year, it's back out on the table and the whole process starts over again.
A traffic jam is 10 cars at a stop light. Rush hour means you can't turn onto the main road for a good 3 minutes.
Wind. Constantly. Maybe there are 10 days a year it doesn't seem to blow. The next day it's a blizzard.
Your doctor is everyone else's doctor. We all know his mannerisms, his usual regime of care, but we all stop and listen if someone tells us what advice was given to them, because that's good stuff. Wanna know his advice for weight loss? Stop drinking soda.
The librarians are your personal friends. They ogle your baby, ask about your kids in school, share their lives with you, tell you about who they are dating, what state of array their house is in.
You have two grocery stores to shop from and three discount stores. Save your money...no high dollar shopping sprees here. Well, unless you buy a BBQ grill or patio furniture. Toys R Us, Target, Barnes and Noble: 2.5 hours away. Walmart: 1 hour away.
You know to buy gas at the little gas station in the middle of town. Leave the highway gas stations and "end of town" station for the desperate tourists.
Hot Spot: Not the club, the bar, the diner. It is the lake at night. Apparently night fishing is the place to be...even on cold, windy, nasty nights. (Why?!)
Everyone knows you by the car you drive. I mean, they know you by name.
"Inner city" is the 6 blocks that make up downtown.
Open 24 hours? Only the truck stop. Everything else closes down at 10, and be prepared for Summer hours vs. Winter hours. Summer hours start in May and some restaurants, like Taco Bell or Wendy's might be open till 1 a.m. Certainly keeps the night life short lived.
Olive Garden, Chili's, even Applebees? Nope. We have Golden Village, Mi Ranchito and the Golden Spur (steak house). 25 people fill them to capacity. Except maybe the steak house, which is next door to a bar. That pretty much makes up the nice, sit down restaurants. The rest are fast food.
Graffiti on the back wall of Safeway is enough to question if we have a gang problem.
Rent at 900.00 a month is considered outrageous. But, if you are paying 450.00 in rent, be prepared to pay 400.00 in gas to heat it.
So, take that NYC. But, I won't lie to you. I did look up housing in Connecticut (heard housing is cheaper there than in New York)last night. Just, you know, for information. Hey, we'd only be 9 hours vs. 16 hours from Shiloah!
He was offered a job out there, an "anyone wants to move out here, let me know" sort of thing. Immediately, I put my guard up and refuse to budge, even though I complain all the time of being here with nothing to do. It's New York City! Hollywood hasn't done the best job of portraying it as a city you want to raise a large family in. So, I laid in bed with the wind blowing, tornado watches blaring and shaking with fear of the weather, thinking, NYC probably never has stuff like this to live through. What else does NYC not have that we have here?
A newspaper that only comes out on Monday and Wednesday.
Garage sale competitions. It's almost a sport out here. People actually come, buy an item, have their own sale next week and you'll find your item put out, marked up. So you buy your item back because, well, you remember all the things you did with it and how could you have parted with it in the first place? Next year, it's back out on the table and the whole process starts over again.
A traffic jam is 10 cars at a stop light. Rush hour means you can't turn onto the main road for a good 3 minutes.
Wind. Constantly. Maybe there are 10 days a year it doesn't seem to blow. The next day it's a blizzard.
Your doctor is everyone else's doctor. We all know his mannerisms, his usual regime of care, but we all stop and listen if someone tells us what advice was given to them, because that's good stuff. Wanna know his advice for weight loss? Stop drinking soda.
The librarians are your personal friends. They ogle your baby, ask about your kids in school, share their lives with you, tell you about who they are dating, what state of array their house is in.
You have two grocery stores to shop from and three discount stores. Save your money...no high dollar shopping sprees here. Well, unless you buy a BBQ grill or patio furniture. Toys R Us, Target, Barnes and Noble: 2.5 hours away. Walmart: 1 hour away.
You know to buy gas at the little gas station in the middle of town. Leave the highway gas stations and "end of town" station for the desperate tourists.
Hot Spot: Not the club, the bar, the diner. It is the lake at night. Apparently night fishing is the place to be...even on cold, windy, nasty nights. (Why?!)
Everyone knows you by the car you drive. I mean, they know you by name.
"Inner city" is the 6 blocks that make up downtown.
Open 24 hours? Only the truck stop. Everything else closes down at 10, and be prepared for Summer hours vs. Winter hours. Summer hours start in May and some restaurants, like Taco Bell or Wendy's might be open till 1 a.m. Certainly keeps the night life short lived.
Olive Garden, Chili's, even Applebees? Nope. We have Golden Village, Mi Ranchito and the Golden Spur (steak house). 25 people fill them to capacity. Except maybe the steak house, which is next door to a bar. That pretty much makes up the nice, sit down restaurants. The rest are fast food.
Graffiti on the back wall of Safeway is enough to question if we have a gang problem.
Rent at 900.00 a month is considered outrageous. But, if you are paying 450.00 in rent, be prepared to pay 400.00 in gas to heat it.
So, take that NYC. But, I won't lie to you. I did look up housing in Connecticut (heard housing is cheaper there than in New York)last night. Just, you know, for information. Hey, we'd only be 9 hours vs. 16 hours from Shiloah!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Another "What Was I Thinking Moment"
See this "sand box"? I was at the store and saw colored sand. I figured I could make a sandbox inexpensively out of a baby pool and sand and that it would be so much fun! Visions of happily playing children ran through my mind. I wanted to be a "nice" mom.
What I should have remembered was doing these kinds of favors for the kids always seems to backfire. Guess what happened? (Insert little giggle)
They put colored sand all over my yard, in my pot plants, and anywhere else they could. Kids love to be creative. It was kind of funny watching Bella dig and dump the sand everywhere. She was being creative too.
Yet another "why did I buy this" moment....
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Look What the Four Year Old Dragged In
Kitties!! I would post a picture of them, they were really cute, but Curtis is blowing up my computer at the moment and I can't get to the pictures. This morning Simeon got outside without our knowing. He made his happy way all the way to the neighbor's house, found a pile of kitties in a window well, and managed to haul all four of them back to our house. During this time their mother was eating breakfast inside the house. Imagine her grief when she came out to find all the babies gone. So, back to Simeon. He steps in the house holding some little furry creatures, their heads just barely popped up over his hands, and I freak out. These little kitties were only 2 weeks old! I freak out and so he drops them on the porch. We send the boys out to find out where he got them and came back in with two more. Everyone loved on them a bit, but we decided to put them back under the porch hoping the mother would find them. About 2 hours later the neighbor shows up with Pearl, the mother, in tow, frantic to find her babies. Simeon was really disappointed he had to give the kitties back. I think he was really proud of himself for finding them in a window well,just so easily accessible. I almost gave in to become the crazy cat family. Let's see, that would bring the total cat population in our house to 6.
I forgot how cute those kittens can be.
I forgot how cute those kittens can be.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Mother's Day Gifts
I'm not quite to this point yet, but I'm anticipating the day I get the slew of homemade kid gifts and cards for Mother's Day. I have a few sentimental things from my kids, like Isaac's first self portrait, and a drawing of Mommy at Work I framed. Hannah sends me letters with "words" on them. Usually I can spot my name and hers, but I don't understand anything else in there. But other than these few things and a few journal entries, my kids aren't quite old enough yet to get to the gift giving stage. But my sister is.
She called me Sunday night to wish me Happy Mother's Day and relay our activities for the day. Bless her heart, she had to work, as a waitress at Olive Garden, on Mother's Day. She pretty much worked the whole day and didn't get to do anything really special for that day. Her four kids though found the "awesome-est garage sale ever" and did a little shopping.
My sister arrived home. The gifts for her were proudly displayed on the table, sparkling and...garage sale new.
Before her lay:
A stuffed cross eyed sheep
A bag o' golf balls WITH a tray to keep them in
A stuffed boxing kangaroo complete with cape
1 Beanie Baby Simease cat
A Wilbert (their weiner/terrier mix dog) look-alike dog with a recorder that has a new message on it every time she arrives home
Homemade cards
Bouquet of flowers in a home made vase
Flowers
and
A really nice jewelry box, but when she opened the lid, found a bird had pooped in it. Kind of anti-climatic, I'd say.
Treasures!
One day, I hope I can come back here and record my children's gifts, which I hope are as wonderful as my sisters.
I'm coveting that cross eyed sheep.
She called me Sunday night to wish me Happy Mother's Day and relay our activities for the day. Bless her heart, she had to work, as a waitress at Olive Garden, on Mother's Day. She pretty much worked the whole day and didn't get to do anything really special for that day. Her four kids though found the "awesome-est garage sale ever" and did a little shopping.
My sister arrived home. The gifts for her were proudly displayed on the table, sparkling and...garage sale new.
Before her lay:
A stuffed cross eyed sheep
A bag o' golf balls WITH a tray to keep them in
A stuffed boxing kangaroo complete with cape
1 Beanie Baby Simease cat
A Wilbert (their weiner/terrier mix dog) look-alike dog with a recorder that has a new message on it every time she arrives home
Homemade cards
Bouquet of flowers in a home made vase
Flowers
and
A really nice jewelry box, but when she opened the lid, found a bird had pooped in it. Kind of anti-climatic, I'd say.
Treasures!
One day, I hope I can come back here and record my children's gifts, which I hope are as wonderful as my sisters.
I'm coveting that cross eyed sheep.
Monday, May 5, 2008
The Potty Dance
Simeon will turn 4 at the end of this month. He's resisted any kind of potty training up to this point, although I have to say the kid has some great control. Last night Curtis talked him into trying on undies. He did, and this time, he was happy about them. In the past he laid on the floor crying and immovable until we took pity on him and put on a diaper. After dinner, he had to go but wet on himself a bit, then ran in circles saying OH NO, OH NO, OH NO! Got him to the bathroom and after a few minutes of chit-chat, he finally peed, for the first time ever!! He didn't cry or scream or freak out! I'm so proud of him!
Then today after we got home from running errands, Isaac put some undies back on him. For whatever reason, he thinks if he is wearing undies, he cannot have any other clothes on. So he ran around most of the afternoon in some black Cars undies. At one point he made it outside and was running around in just those. That's probably not helping our image here in the neighborhood (only family with kids and they get accused of all kinds of things), but I don't care. My kid PEED in the toilet!!!
Then today after we got home from running errands, Isaac put some undies back on him. For whatever reason, he thinks if he is wearing undies, he cannot have any other clothes on. So he ran around most of the afternoon in some black Cars undies. At one point he made it outside and was running around in just those. That's probably not helping our image here in the neighborhood (only family with kids and they get accused of all kinds of things), but I don't care. My kid PEED in the toilet!!!
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