My Garden & Flowers

Thought I'd share some pictures of my garden & flowers with you.

This is my whole garden.

This is one of my cucumber plants. Jamie calls it Sam.

This cucumber plant is Amanda.

These cucumbers are growing from Sam.

This is one of our Zucchini plants & is named Ava.

Ava has a little zucchini....

...and a big zucchini.

 This little zucchini plant is named David. It is loaded with blooms but no zucchini yet.

Here is one of my green bean plants.

Here is another one. As far as I know, the kids haven't named the bean plants. The beans are blooming!!

This is a newer tomato plant from Dad's compost pile.

This tomato plant is also from Dad's compost pile.

This is one of my cherry tomato plants from Joyce.

Here are some of its tomatoes.

Another Cherry tomato plant from Joyce.

and its tomatoes.

This is the last of my Cherry tomatoes from Joyce. It is my biggest one.

It is loaded with cherry tomatoes & here are just a few.

This is my Big Boy tomato plant.

It has one big tomato so far but has several little ones coming on.

Here are a couple potato plants.

These came from Dad's compost pile also.

My garden tour ends with some Kohlrabi.

This is my biggest kohlrabi plant. I think it's doing so well because it likes being next to my tomato plant.

Here are some of my flowers. 

This Rose is from my Mamaw Beeker's yard. It was a very tiny bush. My aunts laughed when my mom said she was bringing it to me. This little plant blooms off & on all summer & has beautiful petite pink roses!

These purple cone flowers came from Joyce earlier this spring. They are so pretty.

These are some Lilies from Joyce.

I love the way they curl up. I had to get under them to get this picture.

This is my flowering rose bush. It usually blooms in early spring & is loaded with blooms.

Then in the summer, it surprises me with a few extra blooms.

This is the back corner of my yard. As you can see my Black-eyed Susan's are doing wonderful this year. I will probably need to transplant some next year to thin them out.

Hiding in the midst of my black-eyed susan's is a butterfly bush that Joyce gave me last year. It has 1 on it this year.

I will leave you with a close up of some of my black eyed susan's that I dearly love!

Memories

This week, my wonderful Hubby made me 2 podcast. His podcasts for me are like a mix-tape. Each usually has a theme & he makes them when he's away from me. This week the theme was Memories. He would play a song & then recall a memory of an event or person. Some were about me, some about other people.

This got me thinking about some of my memories from different parts of my life. I have some good & bad memories from school time as well as memories from college & early married life. I wonder if the other people involved in the events in my memories even remember them.

I wonder if my neighborhood friends (Kim, Matt, Meagan, Adam & Sarah) remember all the fun we had riding bikes during the summer. We'd leave & be gone hours just riding around the countryside. Or if Kim & Meagan remember writing stories together.

I wonder if my band buddies (Don, Steve, Scot & others) remember all the fun we had during basketball games before & after the band played.

I wonder if Paula & Christi remember the fun we had being managers for the girls basketball team all during highschool.

I wonder if Steve, Ben, Scot, Danny and others remember all the fun we had at the fair every year. I wonder if Frankie, Randy, Daryl & others remember the fun we had showing goats.

I wonder if Cassie, Kim, Christina, Jeff, Doug & others remember all the fun we had at Schroon Lake. Wet sleeping bags because they fell in the lake, walking up the hill to get to cabins from the boat or freezing during the polar bear swim.

I wonder if my Hope Baptist youth group remembers the fun we had at GreenLake leading the conference and tubing down the hills (and wiping out!). Do my "little girls"(Christi, Megan & others)  remember hanging out with me in church & fighting over who was going to sit by me?

I wonder if Paula, Brent, Kevin & others remember playing basketball at lunchtime during high school. We skipped lunch many days so we could hangout on the basketball court.

I wonder if Danny, TJ & Don remember all the fun we had hanging out. Do they remember going hiking at Anderson falls? Does Danny remember coming over to pick up my bro, Scot & I so we could go get milkshakes? Does Don remember talking on the phone many nights till 1am?

I wonder if my Hubby, Michael & Kerry remember walking across the Purdue Mall singing the Unknown Soldier loudly late at night. Does Michael remember meeting for lunch at the dorms?

I wonder if my fellow Foundies (Hubby, Michael, Jeanna, Jo-Bear, Kerry, Big Ed, Chris & lots of others) remember hanging out till all hours of the night studying (or not studying). Do they remember cost suppers? Do they remember Howie making breakfast (all morning long) during finals?

I wonder if Jeanna remembers me living with her so I wouldn't have to stay in a bad situation at the dorms?

I wonder if Hubby, Jeff, Scooter & Jeri remember the dance at University church and that only a few people showed up but we still had fun. I wonder if anyone remembers the dances at the Found.

I wonder if Hubby remembers the night I knew I was going to marry him. It was the night He sat me down under the tree by the dorm & played "our song" for me for the 1st time.

I wonder if anyone else remembers these things and others as fondly as I do. I don't want to go back to the past, but I do have warm spots in my heart for people & times from my past. Some of these people have stayed my friends, others I've just recently reconnected with because of Facebook. Yet others I rarely see & if I do, don't seem to care anymore.

Do you have fond memories of your past? Do any involve me? If so, I'd love to hear them.....

A Surprise for Jamie

Last year, we cleaned out our spare room & let Jamie have it for a bedroom so all 3 kids could have their own room.

Because it was a room we planned on using for storage when we moved in, my Dad had built shelves on 2 walls. As you can see to the right, it gave us a lot of shelves, but it didn't make for a very nice room. So, I moved school stuff off the shelves & put all her books on one section. I emptied the other section for her stuff. I then put any other books we wouldn't need frequently on the other 2 sections.

Then today, my Dad & I installed white board (like you use in bathrooms) to the front of the other 2 sections. So now Jamie has a big wall to create on. I found a border at United Art & Education that I love to cover the seams.

I also bought her washable dry erase markers. I put her name in the middle.

I wrote Provers 31:30 on one side.

I wrote her favorite verse, John 3:16 on the other side.

This is a close up of the border. It has 4 pictures & verses that go across.

These verses are then repeated.

I love the pictures.

And the verses.

Then there are 4 more pictures that are repeated on the sides.

I love these & hope Jamie will too.

I can't wait for her to see her surprise when she gets home from her Grandparents tomorrow. I hope she really likes it.

Project living room update

It took over 2 weeks, but project living room is pretty much done. Hubby has a few boxes yet to go through before we can put them in the "hole". But I finally have it set up the way I like it & most stuff has found a home.

View from the kitchen. The TV is sitting on the bottom half of the old projector TV with the top board of it nailed to it

This is the fireplace, game chairs & drum set.

Couch is now in the same half of the room as the TV. First time we've done that since we moved in here 8 1/2 yrs ago.

Looking through the "window" into the back half of the living room which is now the computer area.

Hubby's computer desk. As you can tell he still has a few boxes to go through.

Behind Hubby's desk, he has a big book shelf & 2 small shelves to put all his CDs & DVDs & other computer stuff.

This is the kids' computer area. The 2 girls' desks are on the left & the boy's is straight in front of you. This way Hubby can monitor their computer use.

This is the front entry way. My china hutch is full of elephants that I've collected since I was a teenager.

This is our reading area. Excuse the mess of the book shelf. The kids tend to stick books in anyway they can get them to fit.

This is the front coat closet. My Dad cut a hole & put a door on it so we could use the area under the stairs.

As you can see, the area or "hole" is being used to store boxes. There is enough room in the front of the area for us to go if we have a tornado.

We even utilized the small area under the bottom steps to put old TiVos & computers.

This is another view of Hubby's area.

This is looking at the "living" room area from the computer area.

As you can see, my living room is full of tech, but we love it. I'll never have a fancy living room, but that's ok. This works for us. I'm loving the new set up & the new wall color. Hope you all enjoyed this little tour!

Independence Day

Since my wonderful Hubby was home all week, we went to Kokomo after church on the 3rd & stayed in a hotel Sunday & Monday nights. We visited with Hubby's parents & swam in the hotel pool. Just a little time away. We didn't go see fireworks which disappointed the kids a little.




We went to a park with Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Neal & let the kids play for awhile. Jamie at the top of the playground.

Jessica climbing to the top. 

 Daddy pushing David.

 All 3 swinging.

Grandma getting ready to swing Jessica.

Grandpa & Uncle Neal

Then we went swimming at the hotel. This pool was pretty shallow, only 5 feet. Here's Jamie in the pool.

David in mid-jump. He kept trying to do belly flops.

 All my kids enjoying the pool!

And lastly, Jessica learned to float by herself. She'd always had to have us help her get laid out. But figured out how to do it on her own!

We had a great time on our little getaway. Then on Wednesday, the kids & I went to Hope for the day because Hubby had webinars all day. We went to see Mamaw Beeker. Then we just hung out at my parents.It was a great time. I helped Dad in the garden & came home with Zucchini, Yellow Squash & a mess of green beans.

We spent rest of the week running errands & working on getting the downstairs put back in order. I will take pictures of my living room tomorrow & post them soon. I'm really liking the new setup & the new color.

So how did you spend your Holiday week??