The Garden: Half Way Into Summer

I've been avoiding writing about my garden...because it went so badly.   Every time we left the house for a longer than three days, we would lose something and we had a lot of death due to over feeding.

The green beans were doing wonderfully and I gave them something to climb on and they loved it.  And I over watered them and they all rooted and died.

But I replanted some and since it was so warm, they got to live outside.  But...it was a little too warm.

Yeah, we aren't going to get ANY beans this year.

*Take Home Lesson For Next Year:
Plant in late March and Don't Over Water!!  Provide them with something to climb on early on so that they will thrive!!

The only things that have survived from the original planting include:
The Zucchini:

The Parsley:

ONE Tomato:

Sad news....I took this picture the first day that I planted it in the ground about a week ago.  This plant is...like 3 and a half months old and is TINY!  And then....it DIED!  Yeah, dried up in the sun and died.

*Take Home Lesson For Next Year:
Buy a plant from the store and stick it in the ground as soon as possible.  It has NEVER been worth your time to plant tomatoes.  Get them at the store...I won't judge you....Katrina....

Other stuff going on...
The Basil that we bought is still alive!  YEAH!  I haven't killed this one!

The Tangerine plant that we got still has the fruit on it...and it is very slowly changing.

I have no idea what to expect from this tree....it is one giant free flying experiment.

Okay, we also planted more sunflower seeds, after they died when we went to California.  Well, I planted two seeds and got one.  Oh well.

*Take Home Lesson for Next Year:
Plant toward the end of March AND if you leave town...make sure to have someone water them.

Chives:  Totally awesome.  I've been eating these with my totally Paleo Egg Drop Soup.  So far, chives are one of my best investments.

Mint:
Still more or less alive.  It went under the raspberries because it needed some shade to protect it and keep it safe from the warm Utah sun.

 Oh...and my spearmint, I don't think that I ever showed it to you....but it was amazing and now it is dead.  Well...not dead but it needed some shade.  It fried while I was in Texas.  I put it under the raspberries to live as well.

See them hiding under my huge raspberry bush!

My favorite plants ever have got to be the Lucielle Raspberries (named because of the dear sweet woman who planted them).

I want it documented that I ate my first three raspberries today.  About 3 or 4 weeks ahead of last year!  It must be the warm weather!  I'm not going to complain.

Blueberry Bushes:
I've eaten NOTHING off of these ever.  And I've been working for berries for 2 years.  Last year we got them through the summer and I was hoping that this year they would be tougher.  Unfortunately the summer heat was tougher this year.

After two years, I know the signs of burning bushes.  Moses has got nothing on me!

Please ignore the crazy weeds.  I need to get our cub scouts back there to finish up the work for us.  But anyway, I put up a tent for the blueberry bushes so that they can have more sun protection.

A new addition....Garlic:
They started sprouting after I bought them so into the ground they went!  They are doing pretty good but I'm pretty bad with root vegetables.

And that is my garden.  Some good/some bad.  Some learning and some succeeding.  I will update you again at harvest time.

Texas: After Graduation

After graduation, we stayed up till 4 in the morning.  No joke.  We watched some movies very loosely while talking and catching glimpses of other shows.  So at 4 am, I went to bed and knew that I could sleep in as long as I wanted the next day.

At 9:30am, I heard my brothers talking right outside the bedroom.  I heard their voices and though, "Oh man....how late did I sleep in?"  Yeah....9:30am and they were up to go work out.  I'm too old for that crap.  I can't stay up till 4am and wake up to WORK OUT at 9:30am.  I probably got another hour of sleep before I had to pee so bad that I had to get up.  So yeah....about 6 hours of sleep.

Daniel and I decided to go to the beach!!!  He hadn't been to the beach for almost a year and wanted to get out there.  I had only been to one beach in the Gulf of Mexico and it looked like trash....so I wanted to see what these kids were swimming in all summer.

It took us 2 and half hours to get to Galveston beach.  Daniel's friend, Allen, shot this pictures a couple days earlier since he is working at the coast right now.

Photo Credit: Allen Vo

Yeah, it's a space ship.  Not THE space ship "Enterprise" that NASA Space Center wanted (Oh gosh....so much drama about that!  You can read about it here.) This is a replica but the traffic jam it caused getting to the Space Center was insane!  I think that they should have moved it at night but they didn't and it totally messed up traffic AND I didn't get to see it.  Lame!!!

But I had a icee!! Please enjoy this HORRIBLE photo of myself.  I was trying to show how weird it is that the top of the icee is blue but I had red coming out.  But this just looks like I have a red straw.

This is just of the icee to show the awesome-ness.  Wow....I suddenly realized that I'm very easily amused.

Anyway, we got to the beach!!!  It is insane to me that I haven't had my feet in the ocean since we went to California with my family a year ago!

Since there were only two of us and we had stuff, we took turns hopping in the water.  Daniel is one of those heads out there.

Daniel would dive under the water and then pop up and I would try to take a picture so I had no idea where he was going to pop up in the frame.  This was the best one.

While he was out there, I started taking pictures of the birds and the scenery since that is what I do...even if I just have a point and shoot.

As I was taking pictures of the birds around me, something hard hit my shoulder and bounced off.  I look down and see this NONSENSE!!!!!

Yeah, that's a chicken bone.  I looked around and there was NO ONE near me.  I was trying to figure out who could have dropped this one me when I look up and see all of these birds flying over me.  Then they dived down next to me to grab the bone.

I tried to scare them away because I wanted to show Daniel what happened!  I mean, who would believe me that a bird threw a chicken bone at me!

Anyway, then we went to the pier.  I like this picture of me because I look skinny.  It is the only picture all day that I look that slim so I'm totally going to make it HUGE so you can all admire me!  I've lost 15lbs since last time I was at a beach.

This is a picture to prove that Daniel and I were there together!

Look at that nerd!  Where is he from that he throws up a thumbs up in all his pictures?

YOLO!!!  We found this in the sand and it was funny because in one of the graduation speeches someone quoted "The Memorable Drake".

My turn in the water!!!  See?  I'm back to looking chunky.  Black is not slimming on me.  The water felt wonderful after walking around in the sun.

My favorite bird and I!  Seriously, these birds were EVERYWHERE and they were not scared of people at all.  I like it when animals have a healthy respect for humans.

Street art?  Yeah....we are going to go with street art.  I wish that I had had the time for some travel photography of this area.  It was a pretty interesting area.  Hurricane ripped but....still bustling.

Then I got a Sno Cone!!!  One reason why I LOVE being an adult!  If I want a cup of sugar and ice, I don't have to ask anyone for permission to get it!  It also came with that free lei!!  I felt like I was a little kid at a carnival!

A final shot of the beach.  We had to hurry back so that we could go to Markus' graduation dinner!

It was another 2 hours getting back to the house but we listened to music and talked.

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Markus' celebration dinner.  It wasn't a crawfish boil like the rest of us got but I guess it was still good.

I only got one picture.  And it isn't even of Markus.  It is Markus' friend while we were waiting to be seated, he went to sit on the birthday saddle.  Weird teenagers.  I was never this weird. ;)

I went to bed at 1am....you know, since there was church the next morning.  In my defense, I was talking to my loving husband.

My mom came in the room at 7:30am to tell me to get in the shower.  I asked her what time it was and she said 7:30am and I think that my exact words were, "Oh no.  That is not happening."  I got up at 8:20 and I still got to church on time.

It is so weird not teaching Primary.  Not necessarily bad but just weird.  That's the schedule of events that I'm use to and I like singing time.  Seriously, singing time and sharing time are awesome and so I missed that while I was in Relief Society.  But it was cool being in a class for grown-ups.

After church, NAPS!!!  Yes....I was so tired and I really needed to catch up on my sleep.  It was sad not having my favorite nap time snuggle buddies with me.  Namely Aaron (the most important of all snuggle buddies), Pippen, and Bambi.  I had a giant stuffed teddy bear but it just wasn't the same.  Still a good nap though.

We all slept for three hours!!!  Insanity!  I guess that we had all had a pretty long week/end.

When we finally got up from our naps there was a party for a kid on Markus' basketball team.  The food was pretty awesome.  I love me some country BBQ.  There was dancing and not to be racist, but I felt a little too intimidated to dance.  Besides my family, there was only 2 other white people and they weren't dancing either.  We just enjoyed watching this kid's family moving on the dance floor.  They were a really fun family and they seem to really like my parents, which isn't a huge surprise to me.

At home, I finally got to take some pictures of my dad.  I'm doing some work on my photography this summer and one of the exercises that I had to complete was making a meaningful portrait of someone you love and/or admire.

This one is of my dad's hands.  I love it because he has done so much good work for his family and people in his sphere of influence with his hands.  And they have blessed every one of his children many many times with those hands on our heads.

My dad has traveled all of over the world and collected so many things in his life.  But the most important things  he has acquired have been his children.

I'm so glad that I had such a good example of what a man should be in my life.  I know that his example is what lead me to Aaron.  My dad is such a great man and I'm so proud to be his daughter.

I hope that you enjoyed what you saw.

That was pretty much the end of my trip.  More visiting with family up until the moment that I got dropped off at the airport.  It was an awesome trip and it was great being able to spend time with my family and to celebrate Markus and all he has accomplished.  I can't wait to see them all again when they go on summer vacation to Utah.

Markus' Graduation!

Markus' is the youngest in our family and he has gotten jipped because of it.  You know, the normal stuff.  Less pictures of him in the photo album and less people on family summer vacations to keep him entertained.  I didn't want him to have the least amount of family at his graduation so even though Aaron couldn't come, I packed my bags and headed to the airport.

I haven't flown on a plane by myself in 5 years.  I don't really like it.  I LOVE to have a friend with me to hang out, but I guess Markus' is worth it.

Daniel picked me up from the airport and we got to hang out for a couple hours in traffic.  When we got home, there were hugs all around and dinner.  Immediately my mother informed me that we were going to the fabric store.  Yup...I was home.

I stayed up late that night talking to my mom and watching, "The Hatfields and the McCoys" on the history channel.  I love talking to my mom.  Then I talked with Aaron for as long as he could stay up.  When he went to sleep I went to the game room where my brother's were watching "Call of the Wildman".  Oh my goodness....the man on that show is INSANE.  LIVE ACTION!

We stayed up till 2am talking and watching shows.  Funny thing is, even though we were watching TV, we were talking as much as we were watching.

Thursday Markus didn't have school and so we got to hang out when we finally woke up.  There was a thunder storm and while we were taking our showers (same time, different bathrooms....to be clear), this crazy close thunder clap happened and it scared us so bad.  Apparently there was a TORNADO WARNING while we were in the shower!

Quote from my mom when we got out of the shower, "Yeah, there was a tornado warning but I didn't think that you guys would want to run naked and wet with me into the laundry room so I just ignored it."

When the storm stopped, Markus and I went to Target to get cards, food, and a bathing suit for me.  We were going to a party and we didn't know if there was going to be swimming.

The party was for Markus' girlfriend's graduation.  I had a good time socializing even though I didn't know anyone, except my family, there.  I got to meet some of Markus' friends and talk with them.  My dad got some pictures but I didn't.  Sorry.  Only little kids were swimming so I didn't get to wear my new swimsuit.

I stayed up late again talking to my mom.  We never seem to run out of things to say.  My father would probably agree with that statement.  Then I stayed up with my brothers again.  Markus was asleep on the futon in the game room but Daniel and I stayed up till about 2 again.

Friday started all kinds of weird.  At 8 in the morning Daniel came into my bedroom (yeah, I say "My" because in the last 6 months, I've slept in it the most) looking for his wallet.  He had given it to me the night before to hold onto but I gave it back.  Anyway, he was in my room for about 5 minutes trying to find it and taking everything out of my purse.  It was pretty funny...it was weird because it made me feel like I had never stopped living with these people.

My dad stayed home from work on Friday so that he could spend time with me so at 10am, he came into the room to check on me and see if I was ready to wake up.  We talked for about 5 minutes before I decided that it was probably time to get out of bed and hang out with people.

 When Markus' got up, we went to take his Senior pictures.  I'm going to have to warn you, these are some of the pictures that I took and Markus is a total heart throb.

I actually can't wait to take pictures of him again.  We had so much fun and I got so many great pictures thanks to his good looks and relaxed manner.  I love this boy so much!!

Besides my husband and my dad, my brothers are seriously, the best guys that I've ever met.  If you want to meet 4 kind, generous, valiant men, I highly recommend that meet my family.  Only one of them is available right now though....and he is about to go on a mission.  Sorry ladies.

Anyway, after that, Markus hurried off to graduation.  And by that I mean, he looked at all the pictures that I took and then went upstairs to nap.  Then at the last possible moment, he left for graduation.

We left once Daniel got home from work and made our way over to the event center.  At one point, my dad and mom were ahead of us and tons of people  started getting in front of Daniel and I.  My mom came back to where we were.  I thought that she was coming back to get us or so that she didn't lose us.  NOPE.

She came back to tell us that there was a 16-20 year old girl with the bottom of her short skirt tucked into her underpants.  She didn't want us to miss it.  Real mature mom.  Don't worry, someone told the girl and she fixed it.

We found good seats where we could stare at Markus the whole time.  It was either that or the other side of the building where we would have been lucky to see the back of his head.

Anyway, seeing Markus graduate was amazing.  I was so proud of him!  He graduated with honors.  He would have gotten an extra cord if he had turned in his service hours.  If you do 60+ hours of community service in the 4 years of high school, you get an extra cord.  Markus did 400+ but didn't turn in the paper work because, "It isn't volunteering if you get something for it."  Yeah...that is the kind of guy we're talking about.

The girl standing next to him talked the whole time while the other students were filing in.  Seriously...she wouldn't stop talking...we were laughing watching it happen.

(Check out the guy behind Markus to the left...what is happening to him?)

The famous Anderson smirk.

Markus must have farted....or something.

Going his hand dance.

About to announce his name!  Markus Christian Anderson!

Probably the best part of graduation is when you get to throw the hat.  Here is a little "Where's Waldo" for you...except "Waldo" is dressed like everyone else.

I'm so proud of Markus and I can't believe that we are all old enough to be out of high school.  It is craziness.  I've been graduated for 5 years now.  Now all my parents have to do is get those boys out of the house!!

Friday was a great day for our family!  I'll have to fill you in on the rest of the trip in another post.  I think this one is long enough.  Don't you?

Anyway, congratulations Markus!!  I love you and I can't wait to get frequent visits from you while you are up at BYU-I.

A Year of Blogging!

It has been an entire year since I started this blog!  So much stuff has happened in the last year!  I love looking back at all 165 blog posts(!) and seeing all the fun that we have had in the last year.

A trip to Mexico, California, Texas, California again!!  A wedding!  A couple's getaway to Eden!  Scout day camp! Tons of posts about scouting!  Working on the roof!  Working on the flower bed!  Leo's baby blessing all the way to Leo's first birthday! 4th of July party!  Thanksgiving with Aaron's family here! 3rd Annual Songkran Party!

I have loved this year and I can't wait to have another year of recorded memories!!  I'm excited to see what this next year of blogging will hold!

Thanks to all the people who read along with our life!