Enjoying the Outdoors

I've been enjoying my backyard. It seems that I spend at least an hour outside on my porch swing reading my book. I've seen several birds and even a hummingbird. I'm getting my animals in my yard. I'm so excited about that.

I invited my folks to have a barbeque in my backyard tonight. We had grilled lemonade chicken, fresh bread, salad, and grilled carrots. The grilled carrots didn't turn out too well, but the lemonade chicken was good.

Update on Christian

Christian went to his cardiologist appointment on Friday. Luckily it was good news. Nothing is wrong with his heart. We are working on the fainting and it should go away soon. As a reward we went to see the new movie "Push". It was good. I liked it.

The other day Christian was bored. He came into my room and told me that he misses 'the kids'. In other words -- Brayden, Cambrie, and Addie. He said he always finds something to keep himself and them occupied. (He wouldn't go for anything I suggested...he just wanted to play with the kids.) Cheryl, say hi to them for Christian and tell them he misses them.

Landscaping Projects

I must be interested in doing projects since I did more yesterday. I decided I wanted more plants in my back yard. So my parents and I went to a nursery and got a bunch of plants. Of course I got more than they did. I'm glad they came as my Mom really knows plants - Dad too.

My new lime tree. I got a lime tree to replace the peach tree that died.

We planted oleander bushes down the side of the house so I have something pretty to look at out the windows of my living room and kitchen.

A pretty peach hibicus plant went against the wall between my bedroom windows. It needed something there.

There is honeysuckle on the wall. White lantana and lavendar near the grasss and a new sage bush in between. I want to get a bird bath to put in there as well. Hopefully these plants will bring birds and butterflies to my backyard.

I got my lilies! Lilies are my favorite plants but they don't last in the heat. The nursery guy said that these rain lilies should work if they are in the shade under a tree. Hopefully they do last as I would like to keep my lilies. There are also orange flowers that I don't remember the name of -- Mom suggested them.

Lastly, we planted a red yucca in the front yard. This spot is the 'danger zone'. No plant has ever survived there. I've tried several -- lantana, bush morning glory, ruella. Hopefully, this plant fares better.

Another good thing -- I learned how to add an emitter to the water line. Thanks Dad! Now I can do it all by myself. Of course Christian learned too and he can help me.

Day of Little Projects

Yesterday I did a lot of little projects that needed to get done -- of course all those little projects ended up taking most of the day. My new washer and dryer finally came -- yeah! That meant I ended up doing lots of laundry that had piled up.

List of little projects:

1. Mirror put above piano





2. Shelf put up in garage


3. Masks hung in hallway


4. New fan in Christian's room (Christian burned out his old one --Dad ended up switching the fan and light switches. When Christian goes to turn on the lights, he gets the fan instead.)


5. Trees pruned (thanks Mom!)


6. New patio table and chairs set up (thanks Cheryl -- I've claimed them for now)


7. Bird feeder up on back patio

Fun Week :(

This week has been an interesting one. First, on Wednesday I started my first class that I am teaching to my fellow teachers. It is a three week course and I have been a little stressed out about it.

Then on Thursday I got a call from Christian's school. He was feeling light-headed and was afraid he would pass out. So I had to arrange to leave school and pick him up. He went right to bed and after a few hours he seemed okay. I then had to leave to go to the dentist to check on a crack in a filling they had done a few months ago. They decided it would be better to go with a full crown then replace the filling. So...my mouth was killing me all day and part of Friday as well.

Since Christian hadn't felt good on Thursday and he had almost passed out at church a couple of weeks ago, I decided to have a doctor check him out to be on the safe side. They did a EKG on him and drew blood (of course he passed out when they took the blood). The doctor said Christian had a heart arrhythmia. He ordered a chest x-ray and told me to take him to a heart specialist at Phoenix Children's Hospital. What a thing to hear. It concerns me especially with my father's heart condition. I will be calling on Monday to make an appointment. Hopefully it is not something too big. And out life can go back to normal.

Back to School

I have survived the first week back at school. The first two days were HECTIC! We had a lot of students in the library all the time. Friday I spent all day teaching lessons teachers had signed up for. After one of them my principal came in and said that he had to have the lesson I just taught so he could send it out the other teachers. It's nice to get validation for what you do.

Moving Cheryl to Utah

I got to help Cheryl move to Utah. I was glad to do it as it let me see her house and help her get settled. We spent several days there helping organize and decorate her house.

Addie wanted to help too.

Of course we did take a little time to enjoy ourselves. Brayden decided he could get the games from the closet really easy -- he just climbed.
Ben and the kids got into a snowball fight. Brayden thinks he and Christian won against Ben -- I think it just became a free-for-all.

Brayden loves the snow. He built snowmen until they lost their heads (with a little help from Addie), then he decided he would make it into a snow wall for the next snowball fight.
On the last night we played games. It was a lot of fun and would have to make it last until we saw each other again.