Tony strikes again

Tony's tank had been looking a little murky and the snail (was this one George?) didn't seem to be moving much.  You may remember from this blog entry that we moved the snail to another tank, then eventually decided that maybe he (she?) wasn't dying, so we put him (her?) back into the big tank.  I kept finding the snail half buried in the rocks or half under the plants, but when poked, s/he would move a little, and seemed to move occasionally during the day when we weren't home, so, maybe he was hibernating.  Snails hibernate, right? Right? Well, maybe not...eventually the snail "disappeared", but the water wasn't too gross, so I decided that maybe the snail really as hibernating or something.

Then, the other day, I noticed that the snail shell was back on top of the rocks.  And it was empty.  Hmm.
 Well, that sucks. It is still a pretty shell, though, right? So we are working under the theory that Tony da Fish, either killed or waited until the snail died....and ate him.  Ew.  So that brings Tony's grand total to two dead fish and two dead snails.

Probably due to the dead snail's decaying body, the tank built up a lot of algae, so today we went to the pet store to see if we could get a sucker fish to get rid of some of the yuck.  The pet store clerk talked us into a tool to clean instead...she also thought it sounds like Tony is a hazard to others.

 But, despite being a hazard to other living creatures in his tank...he is sort of entertaining.  Although he is way too big to flush, so we'll have a fish graveyard when he dies.  Sigh. Don't die anytime soon, Tony da Fish.

Does he or doesn't he? Otherwise known as a Holiday Boy-ism

Before Easter Mr. Ranch and I and The Girl and I had separate conversations about whether The Boy still believed in the Easter Bunny.  We came to the conclusion that he did, after some investigation  by The Girl, in fact, still believe.  So I dutifully helped "the bunny" get all the Easter eggs stuffed and the baskets ready and the eggs hidden, staying up after the children and the Mister went to bed to finish the projects without anyone interrupting me and the Bunny.  (Except Alice the Cat...she kept stealing eggs from the bunny and batting them around, thus hiding them in new places and making them hard for me, I mean the Bunny, to find).

When The Girl came downstairs on Easter Sunday morning she said to me something like "Gee, the Easter Bunny doesn't seem to try to hide the eggs as well as he used to."  I told her if she was lucky the Easter Bunny will have had his (her) coffee before "the bunny" had to process that statement and that she was lucky the Bunny still visited, given that she is almost a teenager....oh, and that an egg "hidden" on the tv cabinet is much harder to find when you are two and can't see the top...so it is less of the Bunny not trying and more of the kids being big and running out of "new" places to hide eggs.  Then I, I mean the Bunny, had more coffee.
Then on Easter afternoon, The Boy turns to me and says with a straight face "Hey, Mom, I really like how you put two half candy eggs in this whole plastic egg so it is like an egg in an egg."  The Girl says that I literally blinked twice at him, speechless, as she said, "What do you mean?!  It wasn't Mom, it was the Easter Bunny."  The Boy's responses?  "Yeah, whatever, same difference." Um, ok...just wait, Buddy...Santa's going to have something to say about this!

Alice, Alice, Alice....

Alice has always liked to sit strange places... this week we think she wants us to look at her, since her new haunt is right next to the tv.  We think maybe the CD player was warm, so she thought she might be able to curl up there, unnoticed....

 "No, no...I'm a statue, just like the other gargoyle cat"

 "Fine...I'll go"

"But I'm going to block some tv viewing as I go!"









Ha!  I was just reading the May issue of "Reader's Digest" and in the "Life in These United States" section it has this quote (attributed to "reddit.com")...
"If someone from the 1950's suddenly appeared, what would be the most difficult thing to explain about life today?  One answer: 'I possess a device in my pocket that is capable of accessing teh entirely of information known to man.  I use it to look at pictures of cats and get into arguments with strangers.'"  Enjoy looking at pictures of (my) cat(s)....

You can't make this stuff up...

Teaching at high school is always interesting.  One of my former co-teachers says, “You can’t make this stuff up!”.  For example, earlier this week,  a student told another one of our co-workers that she “smelled like a unicorn”. Ummmm…ok.  None of us are quite sure what a unicorn smells like, despite sniffing our co-worker repeatedly.  And yes, she thinks we are weird.  And yes, I think that whole thing is hilarious.

 This morning our juniors took the state-mandated ACT test.  The test itself went very well and as we were releasing the juniors and welcoming the other classes (we held abbreviated classes after the test) someone called in some kind of threat so we went to a locked perimeter.  So…as kids got off the school buses and walked onto campus, we escorted all 1500 of them to the gym and held them for about 40 minutes. The “band kids” had just come from a picnic at the park, complete with picnic baskets and matching (I’m not kidding) blankets.  So they re-set up their picnic .  Then the (very nice) PE staff opened the “play closet” and released about 50 dodge balls to the general populace.  We made all our juniors wait in the cafeteria, where we were supposed to feed them lunch.  Unfortunately, some of our juniors, those who were wandering or who had extended time on their test, were ‘trapped” in other areas.  I think that eventually everyone who wanted lunch got something, but it was a little cra-cra for a few minutes. One of the band kids said to me, “Miss!  What’s going on?  Are we on the news?”  My response?  “ummm…I just came from ACT testing, so I don’t have my phone or my computer….so you probably know more than I do!”  In the end, the threat was not “real” and we sent everyone on their way after possibly the biggest unofficial dodgeball game ever held in the midst of a picnic.  

 Then I covered a co-workers class during which her students (who I have in other classes) tried to convince me that the illuminati controlled the music industry.  They had some very interesting points, but I’m not convinced, especially since their "evidence" consisted of several amateur movies on YouTube..  Just sayin.

 I made it back to my office and ate my breakfast muffin (at noon) and read my school email…rescheduled a couple meetings and wasted some time.  I went to class for a few minutes, tried to convince the girls in my class that "classy is better than trashy....let's all put on shirts with either straps or sleeves"..then left  my co-teacher and students to go supervise the last few minutes of extended time testing.  As they were finishing their test a man arrived at the classroom door (which was locked) and was trying to unlock it.  I walked over to say, “um….?” and he told me that he was “measuring the doors” and proceeded to shout the measurements to his helper down the hall, despite my repeated "Excuse me, these kids are taking the ACT".  Um, now?  Really?  Really?

 As I carried the Rubbermaid tub of completed tests back to test central (kind of like the Bat Cave), I happened upon one of my students speaking very loudly on his cell phone in the hall.  In response to my "um, why aren't you in class and why are you so loud in the hall?", he responded that he had called a classmate for the 4th or 5th time that day.  The classmate hadn't picked up, called back, or texted all morning, and this time when my student called a man who identified himself as a doctor answered the phone.   Turns out that the missing student had fallen ill in the community and been picked up by an ambulance and transported to a hospital.  Since he wasn't carrying any ID and his phone was locked, the hospital had no way of identifying him while he was incoherent.  Yikes!  (The lesson here is if you lock your phone then you should carry ID....or not lock your phone?)   I made sure my student got to the office, so an administrator could verify his story, call the hospital, and help contact the classmate's family.   Then I dropped off my bin of ACT materials and went to find my student.  He was in the dean's office with a secretary, who didn't have permission to give the hospital information and couldn't get a hold of anyone by radio or phone who could.  I sat in her chair and hoped that the dean's office phone wouldn't ring while she took my student and his phone to the principal to sort it all out. 

Finally(?) I stumbled to my last hour class (late...thankfully I have a team teacher who I had warned I might be late...thinking I'd be covering the extended time test longer) and helped my students work on their research projects.  My team teacher told me a story about helping a girl last week who passed out in the restroom...and I kept saying, "What?"....

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

Bow Hair? Seriously?

Apparently Bow Hair is a real thing.  According to "The Girl", "everyone" is doing ti to their hair at school....she has been trying to make it work for her hair but decided she needed more practice...enter me, the guinea pig.

 Um, interesting, I suppose....Not sure this is a look I'm going to be wearing to school or anything, however, it did turn out very much like the tutorial--she did a nice job.  She wasn't very happy with the results though and decided to just do a bun instead.  Much better!

Don't look a gift piano in the mouth?

A few weeks ago Mr. Ranch's law partner asked him if we would be interested in a free piano.  The partner is moving and the new house won't have room for the piano.  I keep asking for a piano but taking one without hearing it concerned me (a lot).  I hemmed and hawed, and then said, "ok".  After all, if I accept it as free, then someone else will in the future, right?

The piano apparently has quite a history--it has a stamp on it that says it was built in 1903. It also has a "I was tuned" sticker from 1976  in the small South Dakota town where my parents now live--weird! It is an upright grand and looks very pretty.  You can watch the innards if you play without sheet music and it has a harpsichord petal with makes it sound a lot like a really old harpsichord.

 Also in an interesting turn of events, The Girl has decided to teach herself to play the piano.  Every afternoon this week she has dutifully sat in front of the piano with the beginners book and practiced.  I think she has practiced piano more than drums this week.  Mr. Partner's daughters left all their books in the bench, so combined with all my books, The Girl has quite a selection to practice.  Alice  is helping by keeping the top from raising.

 Inside the piano--a 10 year guarantee that expired over 100 years ago if it was really built in 1903.  Crazy.

Some pretty interior details...









Now that we have it moved in, next on the agenda is to have it tuned--I should get to work on that this week!

I love technology, no really...

The scene:
My bedroom, Saturday, 6:57 am

Me, snuggled up under my fluffy comforter, thinking that I should wake up and get up...but why?
Mr. Ranch, downstairs eating breakfast, getting ready to go to triathlon practice.
The Girl, sound asleep in her room
Liberty downstairs, aggravating Mr. Ranch, Indy sleeping in "her" chair in our room, Tigger standing in the bathroom crying for his water dish to be refilled, Alice?  Well, who knows, probably somewhere nearby, plotting our deaths.

Enter The Boy, semi-hysterical, with Kindle in hand

The Boy:  "MOM!!!MOM!!!"
Me:  "Mmmm Blah?"
The Boy:  "MY KINDLE ISN'T WORKING!!!!"
Me:  "MmmmmBlah?"

After several minutes of this, I opened my eyes.  The Boy explained that he was trying to input the parental controls password (um, what?) so that he could buy something or do something (I'm still a little unclear on the details here) and his Kindle "locked". Yep...it was "locked" on a screen that said something like "reset to factory defaults or else".

Sooo.  I sat up, opened my Kindle (luckily it was on the night side stand, since I was reading a book way too late last night), contacted tech support, typed out a long message, hit send, saw that the tech had connected...and The Boy bounced on my bed, causing my finger to slip and the whole thing to disappear.  Ackgrrr.

Ok, fine it is now 7:05...I should get up.  The Boy and I proceed downstairs, I plug his Kindle into a charger and connect to Amazon again, using the laptop.  After 40 minutes of explaining, transfers, etc., I come to the conclusion that I know more at this point than Amazon. I say I'll call them back later, after I've had coffee, to see if anyone has a better idea. (At this point, the "best" idea is that we need to deregister the Kindle and start over, which I agree is the best choice right now, but was really hoping for another choice because I"m tired of "losing" movie downloads...but whatever).

Now, at 8:40, I have consumed two cups of coffee, started the washer and dryer and the Kindle is still showing the "Reset or else!" message...and still isn't giving me a way to do anything other than look at it.  Good times.

In other news, while I was dealing with Amazon online, I read some of the blogs I subscribe to and found this great article by Andrea Mowery on Mamalode about suddenly realizing she was the mom of "big kids"--I've had that feeling a lot lately, so I went to her blogs, About 100%  and  Stumbling Everyday.  Her writing really connected with my life this morning--enjoyed her writing and viewpoint.

On the agenda for today...get ready, it is especially ambitious...Hard boil and let the kids color eggs (ok, not bad), pay bills and balance the checkbook (blech), supervise homework (including tracing The Boy for some project he needs a life size tracing of himself for), laundry and dishes (duh, that's every day), buy a giant trash can and a screen door (trash can for potatoes in a bucket, screen door because Alice and Liberty have shredded the old one, including the frame), some other random gardening before it thunderstorms, and somehow make all the Easter Bunny magic happen, despite the children lurking everywhere. Questions of the day...do they really still believe in the Easter Bunny, and does it matter to how much "magic" must be created?

 Not too bad, now that I write, it, right?  No birthday parties...yay!  The Girl is begging to go see Divergent, so perhaps that will be our late afternoon activity...we'll see.  In the meantime, if you have any great ideas on fixing the dumb Kindle..let me know.  Happy Saturday!

A brief introduction to Spring

These are pictures from last Saturday morning..

My little concrete ducks frolicking near some budding plants

The apple tree, with some blossoms

A few more buds

A little bunny statue that didn't survive the winter, or maybe he is just napping.  The Boy and I had a whole conversation about the bunny shorty after I took this picture.  The bunny is actually a hide-a-key...we didn't buy it to hide a key, I bought it because it was a cute bunny and was on clearance.  He was fascinated by the idea of a Hide a key...saying things like "well, if everybody knows about them, why don't robbers just open them and use the key?"  Good point, Kid.

Hey, catnip!

My pretty little birdie and some shrubs...










A few sprouts inside

But, uh, oh...what is this?  Clouds?

Sunday morning we went to church in the rain and by mid afternoon it looked like this...

Liberty enjoyed it, though and by Monday afternoon spring was back...now to see what sprouts with all that extra moisture! Come on lettuce!

Sigh

I seem to put a lot of miles on my car--I do have an approximately 52 mile commute each day (26 each way, give or take a few miles) and this car has traveled to Seattle, South Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Arizona, and California since we bought it in 2009.  Last week the odometer rolled over--I now officially have a car with over 100,000 miles on it...eesh.

Reading, March 2014

Not a big reading month for me...I'm not sure what I was doing, but I sure wasn't reading books...perhaps playing too much Minion Rush....

1.  Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters  In the hopes that maybe that last Elizabeth Peters book really will be released I stared the Amelia series over at the beginning...so far no word on the final book, but I am entertained by re-reading some of my old favorites.  This book has one of my favorite quotes--"Cats cannot be held accountable for their actions, for they have no morals to speak of."

2.  The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson--A young reader's book about a cholera outbreak in London--many of you probably know about it--this was the "famous" outbreak involving the Broad Street pump.  It is greatly fictionalized and is a quick read.

3.  She's Not There by Marla Madison--a murder mystery, "purchased" for free on my Kindle a few months ago.  I needed a book to read in English class and it came up on my PC reader first.  It was entertaining, but I was glad that it was free--would be fun from the library as well.  The premise of the mystery is that women who are abused are disappearing and the abuser(s) don't seem  to be to blame.  The ending was a little too perfect--wrapped (almost) everything up neatly...but it was a good read for what it is.

4.  The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters--more Amelia adventures...

And that's all I read...amazing, I know...I did skim Hanging In: Strategies for the Students Who Challenge Us the Most and I suppose we got through a couple more Vespers vs. Cahills, perhaps numbers 3 and 4?, in the car.

Quick! Plant Stuff!

If you've been reading the blog for a couple weeks you know I've been itching to plant stuff in the garden, but knowing that it will most likely snow (and freeze) several more times before the end of May....despite it being in the 70's quite often...and that we can expect there to be hail in May and June...and maybe in July..

I really wanted to plant stuff this past Thursday--I didn't have anything planned (other than dishes and laundry) and figured it would be a good spring break activity.  But, hey, guess what?  It snowed on Thursday!  The snow melted quickly, but Thursday was a no-go for planting in the garden.

See my new cement duckies in the garden?  Well, you can see one of them...

This afternoon I gave in to the itch--carrots and onions will be fine, even in the snow and hail, and lettuce should be ok, too (or we'll plant more, right?)

Step one...turn the soil.  We don't own a rototiller, there isn't room in our garage and the garden just isn't that big.  My plan was to turn the soil, rake, and get a few things into the garden.

As I turned the soil I found some fun things---a carrot (pictured), some rogue garlic (not pictured), and

 a lot of worms (yay!)

 There!  All turned and ready to rake!

While I worked on the big garden, The Boy worked on a couple of the flower boxes--digging out the old plants and getting it ready for more seeds.  (See my ducks in the background again?)





Unfortunately, by the time we finished turning the soil, this is what the sky looked like...d'oh!

The Boy and I scooted inside...and checked on the indoor plants--check this out--we have growing plants!

 The dogs were not very excited...

We watched the rain turn into snow and figured we were done for the day.  But, we do live in Colorado, so about an hour later we were ready to (quickly) plant.

 The Boy was very excited to help--here he is planting onion seeds.  We also planted lettuce, carrots, scallions, and garlic.  We planted garlic and onions last fall as well, so that is some of the green pictured.  Near The Boy's feet are last year's asparagus plants...clearly we don't know how to take care of it, so we are just leaving it for now.

As Mr Ranch pointed out, we finally have some good soil--seven years of adding garden dirt from the store and composting everything possible has finally led to something other than clay in the garden.  Maybe our carrots will be longer than two inches this year!

There!  The first seeds are in before the second round of rain/snow!  Yay!  If all goes to plan we'll have fresh lettuce in a couple weeks.

How I spent my Spring Break, 2014

So if you've ever wondered how teachers spend their spring break when their kids have a different week of break..here you go--I seem to have done a lot of dishes and laundry.  And didn't grade the things I should have. Oh, well.

Friday afternoon--leave school an hour early (after arriving an hour early for a meeting, teaching two classes, doing two sets of IEP paperwork and grading a stack of essays), stop at grocery store, get home before house guests arrive, do "one last load of laundry" and vacuum one last time.  Grade some papers, look over an IEP.  Greet houseguests, play with baby nephew, cook and serve dinner, run dishwasher, run clothes washer and dryer, giggle too much, send children to bed, go to bed...

Saturday--Supervise The Boy making pancakes.  The Boy grew tired after the first batch (or maybe he was hungry) and wandered off.  Run dishwasher, do laundry, let dogs out and in and out and in.  Feed pets. Vacuum while everyone else showers.  Google  activities to do with two tweens, four adults, and a baby...decide both zoos nearby are ridiculously expensive.  Remember free historical museum, convince family to go...wait for Mr. Ranch to get home from track practice. Play with baby.  Pack cooler.  Lunch at Jimmy Johns.  Afternoon at historical museum then dinner at Hibachi restaurant.  Home....more giggling...watch Despicable Me, bed for all!

Sunday--Church with entire family followed by donuts.  Home to do more laundry and dishes while visitors went to outlet mall and to the Uncle's house for awhile.  Vacuum, again. Dinner from the grill (hamburgers, yum!) and early bed for the Ranch children.  Snacks packed, clothes laid out, bags arranged in "usual" spot.  Watch Sunday night tv shows while doing nothing. (Ahhh).

Monday--Up with the children and the house guests.  House guests leave for an 8 am appointment with the passport people, children and Mr. Ranch leave for school and work.  I sit at the kitchen table with my coffee and ponder what I should do this week (other than grade papers and work on IEP's).  Phone rings, house guests are done at passport office...what can they do free inside in town?  Ummm..how about the mall?
Shower, meet a friend to see Divergent.  Between her movie passes and coupons we see the movie, have a gigantic popcorn, a large water, a ginormous soda, and two candies for less than $6---score!!!!  Movie was good...still mad about the ending of the 3rd book though...but I'll get over it, right?  Find a sunny spot with car near kids' school, read a novel for an hour.  Pick up kids. Take Girl home, put her to bed to fight icky sickness.  Take Boy to guitar lesson.  Come home to find Girl eating cereal and doing homework.  Warm up leftovers, let dogs in and out, feed pets, do laundry, do dishes, put children to bed, watch Monday night tv shows while folding laundry.  Read book, fall asleep.

Tuesday--Up with kids again, shower, take car to shop for service.  Call Enterprise, get rental car.  Stop at library to pick up book that is on hold. Go home, read book, pay bills, (wait for it) do laundry and dishes (seriously...who keeps using dishes and wearing clothes?).  Start a bunch of seeds for the garden.  Lay out a bunch of seed packages that can be planted in the garden as soon as I turn the soil.  Decide I don't feel like turning the soil today, go inside, read a book for a few minutes. Drop rental car, pick up my car, pick up kids, go home, cook dinner, give dogs heart worm meds.  Supervise homework, supervise lunch packing, supervise bedtime, read a book...fall asleep.

Wednesday--Up with kids, shower, take Liberty to vet for bordatella booster.  Find out they now charge for an office visit, even if you were just there and even if all you need is a vaccination booster.  Grrr... Think about looking for a new vet.  Take dog home, load coolers with ice into car.  One is empty for Costco run, one with dinner food in it for dinner/snacks.  Go to Costco...get dog food, dog bones, dog treats, trail mix, and some really yummy pea pod chips.  Stop at grocery store, get sandwich meat for dinner.  Have lunch (chips and drinks) with another friend. Realize I'm "late" for volunteering at kids' school.  Arrive at school, navigate new security features (seem to be less stringent than old security features, but whatever).  Sell some used uniforms...children arrive at shop.  Supervise their homework and snacks--send The Girl to change for volleyball.  Meet a new family from the Chicago area--talk about Chicago, school uniforms, and little girls.  Load children into car.  Listen to book on tape in car....sigh that we are NEVER going to get to the end of this crazy story! Find school where volleyball game is happening...ask random person outside if this is the right place for volleyball (it is? yay!).  Make sandwiches in the parking lot.  Eat.  Supervise The Boy who is playing Avengers in the Peace Garden (I know, I know) while I read "Thrift Store Saints".  Find my coat because it is suddenly very cold.  Round up The Boy, find the other parents in the gym, watch the girls win! Drive home without getting lost (excellent!).  Supervise snacks and lunch packing.  Supervise The Girl starting laundry.  Watch the end of Revolution...wonder what happened in the first 20 minutes that meant I was so lost during the last 40.  Watch some other Wednesday night tv, send children to bed, read in bed until I realize I'm asleep.

Thursday--Woke up when Mr. Ranch's alarm went off.  Told him I'm sleeping in because it is snowing.  Drag myself out of bed long enough to tell kids to have good day.  Go back to bed until 8:23!!!!  Get up, make coffee and breakfast.  Let dogs in and out.  Watch the snow fall.  And fall.  And fall...Deal with some family videos on youtube (uploading, sharing, etc.)  Write a couple blog posts (including starting this one). Answer several phone calls for "Stacey".  Wonder who is using our home phone number and why.  Remind self to put number on do not call list again...apparently the list is not working. Open dishwasher...discover "clean dishes" are not so much.  Start dishwasher.  Start laundry.  Drink coffee.  Chat on messenger with Mr Ranch about a possible piano and what we would do with this piano if my parents give us theirs someday.  Decide we will take this piano for now and give it away or sell it or give it back to its current owner if my folks give us their piano.  Call music school, get recommendations for piano mover and tuner.  Take video of Liberty playing in the snow.  Decide maybe it was a good thing I didn't plant those seeds after all.  Worry about fruit trees. Do laundry. Read a book for a few minutes. Pick up kids, take The Girl to the orthodontist for a retainer check then home to do homework.  Take The Boy to Cub Scouts.  Home.  Pack lunches, do homework, clean kitty litter, empty trash cans.  Read...sleep...

Friday--Sit at kitchen table with cup of coffee after sleeping in until 6:45 am.  At 7:30, receive phone call from The Girl that she forgot her homework for a class that only had 3 grades last quarter.  Take a quick shower, take Girl her binder.  Take an old TV to the recycling bin at Mr. Ranch's office, pick up his paycheck, to to the bank. Shop for bday gifts for parties in next few weeks, pick up kids, meet friends for a movie (Winter Soldier, which by the way was very good!).  Eat more popcorn and soda..yum!

Saturday--Do laundry again, take kids to library, Subway, then Girl's volleyball game (they won again!).   Go home, everyone change clothes, take kids to a pool (indoor) birthday party, have dinner with Mr. Ranch and a friend, pick up kids, fall into bed...And that is all for my spring break this year...How long until summer?

Garden 2014 begins!!!!

The weather over the weekend when we had company was lovely--perfect weather to start the outdoor crops...but we had company so it didn't happen.  Since this is my spring break, I have a gigantic list of things "to do", including a car appointment today, so today was designated "do things at home day".  And what could be better to do at home than to start seeds inside!  Today is in the 40's and very windy...I'm am tempted to get the carrots and a couple other hardy things into the ground...but I will wait (until the weekend?).  I did give in and plant some indoor starts--Hopefully I have timed things well so they are not gigantic or tiny when it is time to move them outside!

 Lonely pepper plant...

 Seed pellets, all set up and ready to finish prepping

 Sad, winter, indoor crop of cilantro.

 Mystery plant that sprouted in the pot next to the cilantro...I think it is a flower.

 Tiny ID stakes for the tiny plants!

 A small selection of the seeds that are going to be started today!

 My garden notebook, where I write my secret plans for my garden.   I mean where I write things like "date of last frost...May 24".

 Here are the plant pellets, watered and ready for seeds!

 And the seeds are in!  This round includes:dahlias, bachelor buttons, banana peppers, jalapenos, zinnias, oregano, green peppers, tomatoes, and onions!  Do you think the HOA would notice if I dug up the rest of the front yard to plant vegetables and flowers?  It says that we don't need permission to create and plant a vegetable or flower garden....

The little red pot has strawberry seeds, next to it are seeds soaking to be started tomorrow--parsley and sweet pea.

More visitors!

We've had a busy few weeks here at the Ranch--My folks a few weekends, followed by Grandude the next week and finally,last weekend, Mr Ranch's sister, brother-in-law, and our little nephew came for a visit.  Little L is quite the traveler already and has multiple international trips planned for the next year.  We had a fun visit--our kids enjoyed being "the big kids" and traveled back and forth between entertaining themselves upstairs and entertaining the little guy downstairs.
There was a lot of playing in the living room and getting to know our pets and his cousins...

 "Try hugging the other end of the kitty, Buddy"

 Although the little guy has two cats at home, dogs are a relatively new idea to him.  Our older pets, Tigger and Indy, who have baby experience, audibly sighed when they realized there was a baby in the house, but cooperated nicely with the petting and loving.  Liberty, whose baby experience is unknown, was also a very good dog--letting the little guy pet her paws and give her hugs.

   "My goodness, what big paws you have, Liberty!"









One of the little guy's favorite toys at our house turned out to be the cat scratching post--we think that was just because it allowed him to stand and maneuver around the room more easily!

Indy declined to teach the little guy to walk, as she (Indy) taught Claudia so many years ago.  I think her tail was tired.  Or maybe she was just tired :)

 We enjoyed dinners at home on Friday night and Sunday night...The little guy ate a lot of everything--fish, rolls, potato, and cole slaw on Friday, and hamburgers and sweet potato fries on Sunday.

On Saturday we enjoyed the lovely weather by visiting a nearby  (free) historical museum with an extensive outdoor area. The Girl enjoyed riding around with her cousin and being the backseat helper. We had a little adventure on the way--the visitor's rental car died at a stop light!  Luckily, it started back up and there weren't any other problems!

 The Girl is nearly as tall as her aunt....

 Any of you who have seen Despicable Me 2, can imagine what The Boy was saying when we saw the sheep ("Ramsbottom...snort snort...Sheep's butt..giggle, giggle...")

 Our nephew had his first taste of homemade ice cream (it was "Celebrate cows day" or something--we had homemade cheese, butter, and ice cream during our exploring).

The rest of us enjoyed the sunshine!









On Saturday night, we took the  little guy (and his parents) for his first visit to a hibachi restaurant...
 He enjoyed the rice and eating all the veggies off his parents' plates.  The "show" was entertaining to him (as well as the rest of us, as always), too!

Doesn't everyone wear shades at dinner?








Sunday after church the visitors spent some time at the Outlet Mall and visited an uncle and aunt who live nearby before the end of their trip on Monday.
Everyone reports that they had a great time!