tomatoes

I've never fertilized.

I've never watered by hand.

I forgot to put up tomato cages.

I've completely ignored my garden.

And still, I get this:

handsome jalapenos.

Basil that I planted from one of those "living herb" packages you buy at the grocery store. All of the leaves were stripped off this plant one month ago when I planted it, and I've taken leaves off several times since. And still, it grows....

Rosemary. This plant has grown and grown and grown. And I love rosemary.

Tomatoes. I planted 4 little plants a few months ago--beefstake, cherry, roma, and celebrity. One of them didn't make it, but the other three exploded. I had to take out the cherry tomato plant because I just couldn't eat them fast enough. And they were crowding out the other tomato plants (whose fruit I really did want to eat).

It looks like a jungle, doesn't it? The plants are really a mess, but the tomatoes are sooooo delish. We've had salsa, homemade tomato soup, tomato mozzarella salad, and chicken rice and black bean salad. And still, we can't keep up with these tomatoes. And the romas haven't even gone red yet. 

Not pictured is my greek oregano (that makes the most amazing souvlaki), my other pepper plant, and my peach tree (that has one lone peach on it this year). 

Since our yard is all front yard, I really struggled with if/how to have a vegetable and fruit garden. I really wanted to give it a shot, but was really nervous because I've killed every thing I've ever grown. This year was a real confidence booster because I've succeed and not really done anything. Wahoo!

I'm already jazzed for next year. I still don't have room to grow beans, corn, or squash. But I can do tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. And that tickles my toes. 

p.s. I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle right now. Anyone else read it? Did it change your life? 

they're here!!!

A new shipment of J Dawgs shirts arrived last week. We have sizes from 2T - adult 2X. Let me know if you need some.

pretty!

Mae loves the girly things--shopping, clothes, etc. A few weeks ago when we pulled up to the mall, she started yelling "yes, yes yes!"  Mercy, we're going to make a handsome (and expensive) duo.

She also loves makeup ("pretties"). If I am putting some on, she insists that she needs some as well. This is usually okay with me because I can give her stuff to put on that doesn't show up on her face. The problem we run into is when she finds my makeup by herself and decides to put it on. 

A few weeks ago it was mascara.

This week it was lip gloss.

Whenever I catch her in the act, she looks at me with that ridiculously cute grin and yells "pretty!" We laugh hysterically, take pictures, and then I have to pull myself together and try and help her understand that she can only do "pretties" with my help. Obviously our pep talk hasn't worked.

BTW, she figured out how to open both containers. And the lip gloss was much harder to get off.

hot dogs, anyone?

olympics are over, i don't have any more excuses, right? back to blogging?

ohhhhhhh....

we're just starting our slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am month with j dawgs. we have two months like this each year--april and september. they're ridiculously busy at the shack, as well as catering. we have a manager now at the shack, so its much better in that department. but the catering? oh the catering. this month is off. the. hook. we have more jobs schedule for these next 3 weeks than the rest of this year combined. and i get phone calls daily. can you cater 500 dawgs on friday? 400 dawgs on monday? 1700 next friday? people. seriously.

i'm not complaining. its amazing. but so tiring. and i am trying to pull myself together. and trying to figure out what to do with mae. i really feel strongly that if someone watches my child while i work, they need to be paid. i'm looking for a good babysitter. or daycare. or any place she can go. ideas, anyone?

hot dogs, anyone?

Don't bother me, I'm busy.

Don't call me. Don't write me. Don't come by my house. Don't bother me. I'm busy. Busy with this:


Or if you do call, write, or come by, please be warned that I may not hear a word you say.

I can't think of a word to describe how I feel about the Olympics. The best I can come up with is I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove the Olympics. Original, right?

I love the Olympics so much that:
1. I signed us up for cable after not having it for almost a year. And I had to get all 974 channels and DVR so I didn't miss a thing.
2. I woke up at 2:30 Friday morning to watch the rebroadcast of the opening ceremonies, because I missed it due to a catering job (cable wasn't installed until Sat AM).
3. I sobbed through the opening ceremonies.
4. Watching me tell you about the opening ceremonies is probably more entertaining than watching it yourself.
5. I spend every second that I'm not watching TV (which is few and far between) reading about the Olympics.
6. I only want to leave my house if I can go somewhere and watch the Olympics.
7. Jayson and I simultaneously yell at the TV "come on!" "move it" and "stick that landing" like we're there and the Olympians can hear us.
8. I want to know everyone's story. Like did you know there is a swimmer from Palestine who has not trained in an Olympic sized pool because they don't have one in Palestine?

I could go on and on....

I've always loved the Olympics, but I feel a special connection to them since I was a volunteer in 2002. I feel like I'm closer to them. Like I'm an insider, or expert, or OLYMPIAN myself.

I remember riding trax to SLC during the games in 2002 and hearing a lady describe herself as "an Olympic boob." I laughed at her. Now, I fear, I AM the Olympic boob.

So if you want to hear from me in the next 15 days, you may just have to come to my house and watch some Olympics with me. But I promise we'll have a good time. I'm totally emotional and giddy, and sometimes totally crazy. It's a blast.

Bring on the games!

Megan

Did you think I was kidding about standing on tables, chairs, etc and singing?

I love this girl.

miley cyrus!

Back in April, I went on a mission to find Megan tickets to see Stadium of Fire. Megan is, in her words, Miley's "number one fan." I believe that to be true.

I ended up emailing people on craigslist and found a guy my age named Dainon who agreed to sell me two tickets at cost. I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe it. I was so grateful to Dainon and his kindness toward Megan and I, especially since we had never met him and since he could easily get $250-$300 a piece for his tickets if he sold them to someone else. We met briefly so I could get the tickets, thanked him from the bottom of our hearts and thought that was that.

So can you imagine how we were all floored when he called me a few days before Stadium of Fire to let me know that he had arranged for Megan to get a BACKSTAGE PASS? Yes people, a backstage pass. Amy and I both cried when we found out. It was totally and completely unbelievable. While this may not seem like the most important thing in the world to most, I can promise you that to Megan, it pretty much was.




Megan was sooooo good at keeping it a secret (because she was asked to), but she let it out when she had her chance. I guess everyone was waiting pretty quietly for Miley to show up. When she walked in the room, it took a few minutes for Megan to notice, but when she did she started screaming "MILEY CYRUS! BOO-YAH! NUMBER ONE FAN! BOO-YAH!" Everyone started laughing--how could you not?

It's been all she's talked about since the 4th of July. If you spend more than 30 seconds with Megan, you'll hear about it. And if she starts talking about it, you better believe it will end in screaming and dancing on top of chairs or tables. (I'm trying to get a video up so you can see it in action).

And Dainon, the nice guy who did this for Megan? The president of the freedom festival found Amy just to tell her how lucky she was to be there. He said he had a list with hundreds of kids on it who wanted and deserved to be there, but because of Dainon's sheer persistence he let Megan be one of the 40 kids to have this privilege. Dainon evidentially called and emailed the president almost daily asking him if Megan could have this opportunity.

Dainon still has never met Megan. I don't know if he ever will. Amy looked for him at Stadium of Fire so they could give him Megan's thank you card, and she couldn't find him. We don't know how to tell him thank you enough. We don't know how to repay him, or really put into words how much this meant to Megan, Amy, the rest of their family and all of our extended family, friends, neighbors, and even to people who were at the event (who told Amy that Megan's reaction was the best part of the night). So, thank you again Dainon. We are eternally grateful.