Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary....

We're hoping we have a little bit of Mary's luck with our very first garden!

(However, we would prefer vegetables over silver bells and cockle-shells)

This is something we've been excited about since we first bought our house...growing our very own vegetables! We've planted yellow squash, peas, onions, tomatoes ("big beef" and cherry), jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and cucumbers. Now we're hoping that Washington gets enough sunshine to help these little seeds fill the measure of their creation -getting enough rain isn't really an issue!

We planted on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon I found Tyler out back looking at where we had planted our little seeds. He was disappointed not to see anything sprouting up and declared our vegetables doomed to failure. He was joking, of course, but I made him pray for our vegetables last night anyway and I won't let him say anything negative about our garden. :)

Here are a few shots of our front yard. The backyard still needs a lot of work, but we love the front! It's been fun to see what's sprouted up this spring since there has been a lot of planting that has gone on before us. We've ripped out a few things, but really love most of it. The only thing I really want to add (besides the vegetable garden) are some tulips.

Some pretty trees in the backyard....a blossoming cherry tree and some other nice tree with obnoxious roots :)

Keep on the lookout for pictures to be posted soon of our abundant vegetable garden!

So I entered a contest....

It's hard for me to post this knowing that Mark is going to read it! :) I am not that great of a writer (although I really love to write), but I clicked on my friend Veeda's blog and saw this:

Have you heard about the Mother's Day writing competition? You can win a trip to New York to be on The Early Show on CBS. Meet Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Oh, and there's also a cruise prize involved.

I read her very inspiring story which brought to mind an inspiring experience from my youth and made me want to write an inspiring story of my own. Now, I don't know if it will inspire any of you, but I thought that since I shared it with people I don't know on some web site for a competition, I could also share it with my friends and family.

Only leave your comments if they're nice... :)

Our Little Secret...a time my mom stood up for me in an unexpected way

I came home from school in a flurry of excitement. I threw open the the front door of our little 3 bedroom house that always seemed so big to my little 8-year-old eyes and went looking for my mom. I was always excited to come home and tell her everything about my day at school. And she was always there to listen.

I was in the third grade and I loved school! I didn't love to do the work or learn new things - you know, the school part - nearly as much as I loved recess and talking. Almost every report card came home with good grades and a note on the side from my teacher, "Talks a little too much" or "Needs to talk less".

I was a "Chatty Cathy" and I loved my friends. My mom had taught me to be kind to everyone, so I felt like everyone I met was - or wanted to be - my friend. And so it was that everyone in the 3rd grade loved me and I loved them. I was happy to live in this oblivious world. I never knew that kids could be mean or cruel; it never occurred to me to treat anyone that way and I was certainly never treated that way by anyone else.

On this particular day after school I made an announcement to my mom, "Mom, I am the most popular girl in the third grade!" I knew that it was true. Everyone wanted to sit by me, every boy wanted to chase me at recess, every boy who didn't take to chasing me came instead to my rescue. My wise mother who didn't want to squash my self-confidence, who knew that I would repeat this announcement if she agreed with me, who did not want others to laugh or treat me unkindly for saying something so brash, responded with this simple statement, "That's wonderful, Dana! Why don't we keep that a secret between you and me?"

A secret! A secret to be kept between me and my mom! I will never forget the joy that swelled in my little girl heart so much that I thought my chest would pop. So much joy because my mom agreed with me! She thought that I was the most popular girl in the third grade too! And if she thought it, I knew it had to be true. I went to school the next day and looked around at everyone, wanting so much to tell them what I knew...but it was a secret. So I smiled to myself and only said it in my head. I never said it aloud.

I've always felt that was the perfect way for my mom to quietly stand up for me. She stood up for me to keep anyone from standing up to this belief that continued on for several years (you know, until high school and hormones and cliques) and helped me to be the kind of friend and person that I am today. And I think I'm well-loved and pretty popular these days too!

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So that's it - that's the story! I just want to add that I am so thankful for a wise and wonderful Momma. I included that picture at the top because I hope that Max also is blessed by some of your wisdom, Mom. Love ya, lady!

Spring! and Easter in Spokane

Well, we have returned from Eastern Washington where we spent Max's first Easter Sunday. It wasn't what we had planned, but turned out to be a really fun day! Tyler got off of work early (he had to work on some "emergency" situation in Spokane on Easter Sunday and the two days that followed...kind of a bummer) unexpectedly and came to Riverfront Park where he found Max and I blowing some bubbles on the grass. We were so happy to see him! We walked the park, played on some playground toys, rode the carousel (really cool carousel built in I think 1909 - Max was lovin' it!), rode down a cool slide, watched the birds for a long time...Max was really tuckered out after all of that activity. It was fun to get away from our normal routine for a bit, even if Ty did have to work. We ate out enough that I won't want to eat out again for a long while. Great Easter overall! I gave my guys their easter baskets on Saturday night since we thought Ty would have to work all day Sunday and the camera was far away in the car and we were tired....so no pictures of that. So sad! Oh well...

I'll start off with some recent pictures from home first and then get to our Spokane trip.


A thoughtful pose...










Nope, not oreos...bona fide dirt!










I came in to check on him during a nap and found him in this position...booty to the sky!












First day in shorts! I love his little legs...I took a lot more pictures than this!













Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington! Such a cool place! I'm so glad the weather was nice.