FAIL but Exciting News Anyway..... (not that)

 Hahahaha.

I was TOO BUSY to walk today.

But yesterday we walked for 2.5 miles

and over an hour including a trip inside

the grocery store to get the stuff for the

missionaries to come to dinner.

I did 2 pork loin roasts as pulled pork.

(Good thing too! They ate nearly all of it!)

We had all 4 of them.

Transfers are coming next week so we 

wanted to spend a little time with all of them

in case some of them have to leave us.

And then this morning I was SUPER busy!

I called and talked with a couple of CPAs

and an attorney.

And then I had to type for 4 hours!

My Louisiana class starts tomorrow and the

schedule shows the final 3 hours on Sunday

is supposed to be instructor guided quizzes 

utilizing our online study program.

Except when I log into it, it brings up KANSAS.

Which is not useful for them...

So I typed up 100 quiz questions and answers

for us to work on.

And if that doesn't take enough time we will

just play all the Kahoot games over again.

BUT.

The BIG NEWS IS.....

Rod got me (us) a new Yamaha keyboard for 

Mothers Day

Anniversary

Birthday... lol

It's beautiful!

A full 88 keys.

Touch sensitive like a real piano.

It has real pedals.

And it also has about a zillion other sounds (voices).

The guys have been having lots of fun

playing around with it.

I started a 7-day free trial for a virtual piano lesson

app that they have been enjoying.

I still need to find my books... so I'm playing the

short hymns using my tablet...

and I ordered a music book while I'm looking

for "the box" that has all my music in it.

But, it's EXCITING!!!

(I'm experimenting with various glasses... so far my prescription

ones work best, but not great. The music stand is much further

away than on a real piano because of all the buttons, etc... so I might

have to just buy some stronger cheaters.)

Anyhow.

We are having FUN playing it!

Ok.

Just finished teaching, gotta do something about dinner.

Tomorrow is SCHOOL!

Tuesday Plants!!!

 We walked again!

Ok, so twice in a row..... that's good, right?

This time we turned right and went

UP the street and then right again.

Ended up at the park and town swimming pool.

They got it all painted 2 weeks ago and 

this past week they filled it all up again.

Getting ready for school to let out this week

and then there will be children at the pool

every day, all day.

(Actually I think the mornings are reserved

for classes and teams... then there is

city swim in the afternoons and it's closed

and available for reservations in the evenings?)

Anyhow.

You can buy a summer pass or just pay to go.

Either way, it looked crystal clear and inviting.

(But I know it's COLD because ALL water

in Kansas is COLD... lol.)

Then we headed south on 7th St.

I don't think we have ever walked down 7th.

(Or maybe it was 6th... who knows...)

Anyhow.

It was a lovely walk.

Ended at Downtown, because all roads lead

to the downtown Main Street.

Back up 5th Street (Main) to our back alley

and in through the back door in time to

chat with Mom for our Tuesday chat.

And then Kyle showed up and we headed into

town to do the weekly shopping.

O'Reiley's (auto parts)

Harbor Freight (more auto a/c stuff)

Ace Hardware (plants!!!)

Home Depot (MORE plants, a wand sprayer

and 6 bags of dirt for Kyle's raised beds)

Tractor Supply (garden hose)

WalMart (food and toenail polish)

Taco Bell (lunch)

And then it was home to drop off all the stuff

and head up to the farm to put the dirt in the

raised beds and plant ALL the rest of the

stuff we grew from seed.

There are some blueberry bushes, 

the gooseberry bush,

and LOTS and LOTS of flower and herbs.

With a couple peppers thrown in.

And then I think Kyle put 4 strawberries

in each bed as well.

He calls it chaos gardening.

Just put stuff in any where, kind of like nature.

He's going to need to build 2 more beds

(at least) though for all the strawberries.

I'm even considering putting one in our backyard 

and filling it with strawberries too...

We'll see.

Anyhow.

It's time for today's walk!!!

Going to swing by the town hall and

pay the water bill.

And I need to go by the Sister's house and

drop off the tomato plants I bought for them

yesterday. I offered to give them some of the

ones we started, but then Kyle didn't get the

message and he planted all of them.

So I gave them 5 peppers on Sunday and I

bought a couple more tomatoes yesterday

at Ace and I'll take them by.

(Plus she has been looking for a pablano pepper

plant so I got one of those for her too.)

Anyhow

Gotta run! (walk)

Fun, Busy, Monday!

 Rod and I started our day with a new habit.

(If you do it once, can you call it a habit??? lol)

We went for a WALK!

Our goal was to walk for an hour.

First we walked through town to the park where

the farmers market is held in the summer.

These little christmas trees are all over town.

This one had a little history and a cool

painting of buffaloes and a teepee.

SOMEBODY is a pretty good artist!

The town smells SO GOOD!

There are bearded iris EVERYWHERE!

Next we headed back "downtown" to the North Pole.

Rod got to be a snowman.

Isn't this a gorgeous home?
It was built in 1906 for $5,000.00

They are renovating it and bringing it back

to it's former historical glory.

No idea what this one is, but it's gorgeous!

People have these beautiful little beds in their front yards.

Lots of iris, lots of peonies, lots of just beautiful flowers.

And everything is SO GREEN!

And we ended up at our cute little house.

If you look REALLY closely in the left corner,

I borrowed Kyle's tin man until his patio / balcony is done.

He's adorable, and looks great with the buffaloe.

The big pot has sweet peas planted in it.

Fingers crossed!

Anyhow.

It was a fun way to start the day, and we DID make it for an hour.

Then Rod headed up to the farm to help Kyle make 

some raised beds to put strawberry plants in.

And I went through my new Louisiana manual and

highlighted and made notes since I teach my first

class this weekend.

And then I taught my night class.

And now it's dinner, bed, and start all over again tomorrow.

Have a GREAT NIGHT and a lovely Tuesday!

(Hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day!!!!

More on that tomorrow...)

Night!

Tomatoes, etc

 We planted "several" tomatoes.

(And by "we" I mean Kyle and Rod... lol)

We planted 'em deep.

So they look small.

But they are "indeterminate" so IF they don't get eaten

by deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc......

they will grow to the top of the panel and beyond!

And we will have .... a gazillion tomatoes.

There are probably 35 sun gold (yellow) (REALLY yummy)

cherry tomato plants.

We got 35 seeds.

Didn't actually expect all of them to germinate.

So we planted all of them.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Each row is approximately 50' long.

The first row is black cherry. 

(with 6 sun golds at the end.)

The next row is an Amish Paste - like a Roma tomato. 

(with 6 sun golds at the end)

The next row is Super Sweet 100, a VERY prolific cherry 

(with 2 extra sun golds)

and the final row is....... ALL SUN GOLD.

Yeah.

Everybody is getting freeze dried sun gold cherry tomatoes

for Christmas this year.

Hahahahahaha

(They actually make a fun crouton for salads!)

Speaking of which, Sunday is Linger Longer.

The ward, in all its wisdom, decided the theme

should be salad, because that's easy, right?

Just cut up some lettuce.

Or buy a tub of egg salad, tuna salad, potato salad, etc.

Since its also Mothers Day.

I'm bringing a jar of freeze dried cherry tomatoes

from last year's backyard harvest.

(Also I think I got some from Dave & Mary... I don't remember.)

Anyhow.

We are about to be DROWNING in cherry tomatoes.

As long as nothing happens.

See above.

Just finished my LAST morning class!!

Whew!

I'm glad THAT'S over.

And now to do some house chores and get

ready to teach the night class.

I made myself a smoothie before I started,

but it tasted kind of rancid? So I thought maybe

it was the jar I made it in... it had pickles in it before,

so maybe it was still kind of picking up that taste.

So on first break I made another one.

Nope. 

Different jar (and I re-washed it first)

but it still tasted funny.

So either the can of coconut milk I opened

was bad, or .... ???  

Anyhow. 

If I get dead, tell them it was the smoothie.

Hahahaha.

But now I'm STARVING!

So.... better get some food in me and then we need

to move everything BACK the way it was.

Kyle is moving home again.

He has been SOOOO busy, and then he moved,

and we are now just watering for 4 hours a day.

(After he does a bunch of seed planting today...)

He's doing 6 rows of corn, 4 rows of okra,

2? rows of green beans,

and a row or two of squash (zucchini, yellow, spaghetti...)

Then tomorrow we will plant the potatoes.

And the peppers. 

(They go on the opposite side of the cattle panels

from the tomatoes... fingers crossed that's not a dumb idea.)

And nothing else for a month or so.

And he's BORED out there all by himself.

So he's coming back into town...

he'll move again when it gets busier again

(and Jim is out there too, it's LONELY out there!)

Tired.....

 Whew!

It's been a busy week. 

Do I say that EVERY week?

Lol.

I probably do.

Because every week IS a busy week.

Yesterday while I was loafing around,

(teaching)

the men got the cattle panels in the ground

and the tomatoes planted!

I'm going to head out there in a few to bring

some more things Kyle forgot.

(Like his TOOTH BRUSH!)

In the evening, Kyle took Bear for a walk

down the road, down a BIG hill.

I guess it was a little too far... 

Lol.

I'm tired!

Carry me!

But DON'T PICK ME UP!

Whew!

I have LITTLE legs...

Like my impression of a dead dog?

The tongue peaking out really sells it, I think...

This morning, after a nice phone chat with Soni,

we set up our "new office"...

Rod says "You didn't even let me comb my hair!"

Anyhow.

Variety is the spice of life.

And now, speaking of spice,

I'm going to have some dandelion tea and head to the farm.

MOVED!!!

 Kyle officially MOVED on Monday.

Then yesterday he and I went into town

and spent a gazillion dollars (hahaha) on

all the little things you forget you need when

you move into a new house.

He has a LOT of stuff from when he lived at

Linda's ranch, but he was living a VERY minimalistic

lifestyle then (and continues to do so now) but there

are just some things you need.

Like throw rugs.

And a vegetable peeler.

And a garbage can.

And FOOD.

Hahahahaha.

We also bought him a baby meyer lemon tree.

It already had 3 little lemons on it!

So we got it for him as a house warming gift.

Along with a GIANT pot to put it in.

And a couple of bags of dirt to fill said pot.

(Bear is still pretty small, so that pot is HUGE!)

Speaking of Bear.....

This is the view Kyle wakes up to in the morning.

(Bear sleeps in his crate in the bathroom, but once

everybody is "up" and has used the bathroom,

they all head back to bed. Kyle watches videos

on his phone and Bear watches Kyle.)

(Ok, he sleeps...)

I'm STILL teaching doubles... this might be my last day.

Won't know for sure until tomorrow.

Beth's cruise will be over, but they will be in a hotel

and it will depend on the WiFi (and if she WANTS to teach...)

so I might teach Friday. 

Or not.

Meanwhile, it rained overnight, and for much of the morning,

but it has stopped now, so Kyle is putting up the 

cattle panels in the farm garden so we can transplant

the tomatoes (which are getting really big and NEED to be

in the ground, but need support...)

Rod took his 4-wheel drive truck up there an hour or so ago

so he could help him out with those.

Hopefully it's not too muddy!

Yesterday, Rod got the bathroom all tiled!

I LOVE IT!

It looks a gazillion times better!

I like it even better than the kitchen.

It's so nice to have a retired (and handy) husband!

Happy Tuesday!

 It's a little overcast and looks like we might

get a little rain...

They are forecasting some, but it's always 

hit or miss...

This morning I got the tomatoes and peppers

in the raised bed in the backyard.

Yes, our grass looks sad in that part of the yard.

It's never grown well there.

Last summer we seeded it.

TWICE.

And it still looked like that.

So I kind of gave up.

The rest of the yard isn't too bad.

While chatting with Mom on the phone,

I took a walk down the alley.

Here are the big yellow bearded iris...

just growing wild.

And the neighbor's peony bush LOADED with buds. 

Another neighbor's iris are just getting started.

Our rhubarb bolted, but it turned out to be green rhubarb.

so I don't plan to harvest it anyway.

I'll buy some red ones next year for our new yard.

(The bed behind it is planted in green beans...

just waiting for them to start popping up!)

Our heritage roses behind the garage are also

covered in buds!

These are the BEST smelling roses!

I'm excited to see them come back this spring.

(Our rose I planted out front is dead as a doornail...)

The bush under our bedroom window is going nuts too!

These are pretty, but don't have much smell...

They are all mixed in with another bush but I wasn't

brave enough to prune it back.

So it's just messy, but should be pretty anyway.

Anyhow.

I'm sure enjoying SPRING!

Kyle is heading into town in a bit for our

Tuesday grocery shopping.

(He and Bear had their inaugural sleep there last night...)

We have a LIST of stuff he needs for his house.

(Like a garbage can, throw rugs, and a rice cooker...)

We got an official "no" from the local bank yesterday.

But he said he spoke with the other loan board members

and while it was "our of our wheelhouse", they thought

it was a great project and were very encouraging

that another larger bank would be happy to snap it up.

So Jim and I will be carpet bombing all the Kansas

banks this week with our proposal.

SOMEBODY is going to see the potential.

I have faith.

(And lots of prayers.)

Time for breakfast.

Happy Tuesday!