Beyond Random ...

The past few days have been FULL ...

not much time to get it all down, so here goes a rather quick review:


GARDENING

We have put in three square foot gardens, the first is my favorite despite the concrete jungle nature of it. The border of marigolds was just the thing to brighten things up, and, as they are a natural pest repellant - wahoo - two birds, one stone!

We are going to have the kids tend these gardens and hopefully learn a bit about caring for plants and growing veggies ... this should be a fun summer project for them!

SUNBURN

Would someone PLEASE remind me that I am a redhead with fair skin and should not leave the house without a proper application of sunblock???

(I am considering changing my name from Jenny in Utah to Jenny the Redneck!)

Really, three days out in the sun for extended periods of time ...

what was I thinking?

HAND HOLDING

The King spent some time meeting his darling second cousin, from San Diego. They were cute together, babies are so silly. They mostly just poked at each other, but, for one brief second they held hands, and I was ready and waiting. She is a few weeks older than him, but he seems to have a few pounds on her, as it should be! We are so glad Abbey and Bailey came up for a visit, now if we could just arrange for a little jaunt down their way!

And, my sincere apologies to whomever's bum has been captured in this photo!

SUZE ORMAN I'M NOT

And that's okay!

But I totally had the same thought as her ...

today I caught the last few minutes of Oprah

(yes, I know I'm not a fan, but sometimes it just happens)

and Suze Orman presented a bit of an action plan.

It consists of taking on the following three challenges:

1. Don't spend money for one full day. (Done)

2. Don't use your credit card for one full week. (Done)

3. Don't eat out for one full month. .... (Would have been done, but...)

Wait, what was that? I was totally going to do that in May, just on my own. However, May 1st was our little weekend getaway celebrating our 10th Anniversary and, of course we went out to eat! So, how could I take on a challenge after breaking it on the very first day of the month???

These were the culprits of my discretion:

Doesn't that Bleu Cheese Burger look tasty?

How about the Calamari Rings with Aioli Sauce???

So ... June it is ... anyone else going to do this???



I am thinking of sweetening the deal and offering an apron to anyone who will join in on this with me, I will need some moral support!

Now, if I could just get a gig like Suze's!




PEONIES

Aren't they lovely?



I had to gather a few to enjoy inside the house, ahhhh!




RECONNECTING

I have recently reconnected with an old mission companion of mine ... here we are in Lerida, Spain, up in a watchtower of the old castle. We only served together for a month, but it was a fun one. I guess since we didn't have to work hard to get along we needed to go out and meet others that would be more of a challenge ... HA!

I ♥ IKEA

I have been trying and trying to figure out what to do with the large window in the front of our home. We finished the room up about 2 years ago and the window has just sat there, unadorned and open as can be. And we have been exposing ourselves to the world a bit too much. Despite my openness on this blog, there is some need for privacy in our home.

That is where IKEA has come to our rescue. I have tried and tried to come up with a suitable window covering and nothing has come together for me, until we stopped in at IKEA. Today I made the purchase and will get to work covering the window once and for all, and, with all due respect, reestablishing some bit of dignity to our home again.

(and yes, I purchased the 59 cent bag to bring home my goodies, as they were MANY)

WAITING


We have been so busy in the yard, that we have completely neglected our current home project. We were all fired up to get this done when we hit a bit of a snafu. We hired a man to texture the walls and, how do I say this, it was AWFUL! He came back and "fixed" his mistakes, but we are still not very pleased. So, it is up to us to sand down the walls until we can live with what is left and, truth be said, we are not very motivated to do this. Sanding is such a messy, thankless job. But, I really want this room back, so it really needs to happen!





LOST IN AUSTEN


And, finally, if I sound a little funny it is probably because I have spent the last two nights watching Lost in Austen on YouTube ... Thanks Linsey, for suggesting this, I just finished it up while I was downloading the videos that follow! Check it out if you are an Austen fan, it is kind of fun!

SURPRISES



And finally, as I went to download the photos for this post, I noticed a few little surprises from the kids. They made my day.



Thing 1 Yodels:






Thing 2 Directs the Show ...

and I was a bit embarrassed to put this on as it shows what our house looked like for a few days after The Boy's birthday party
(please remember, we were busy in the garden, not in the home)
... but it is just so Thing 2, it had to go up!





The Boy Does His Thing:

And since there was no surprise video of The King,

I am adding my own that I took today ... really, how cute is he?

There you have it, no rhyme or reason, just a bunch of jibberish.

And, I feel much better!