Being Productive

Here you can see our back yard and garden.  The zucchini is growing very fast behind the dog pen (the cage with the roof in the middle of the picture).  Emerson's Anaheim chiles look great and are in a pot on the top of the white shelf.  A few tomatoes have turned red (yippee!) and we've had some yellow squash and small bell peppers, too.  You may have already noticed the row of corn growing in front of the grapevine along the fence.  They're not very tall, so this has probably identified one more place that the corn doesn't grow well.  Keeping up with keeping the grass green has been a challenge with the scorching hot weather.

Back to the zucchini - no matter how hard I try, one zucchini will manage to slip by me and grow to gargantuan proportions.  Squash that large isn't the greatest to eat since you have to work around huge seeds.  I found one today and let the dogs have fun with it.  Scout was mildly amused (she's had some in past years), but Gambit really went to town on that zucchini.

I learned how to do a tatted rose and went a little crazy making them.  I made one in a variegated blue that I made into a hair clip for Dexter's girlfriend's birthday (she's 18 now).
Then I made a bunch of roses in red and white.  I turned some of them into earrings so I could sell them on Etsy.  I took a red rose, a white rose, and a red & white rose and put them on a hair clip.  After much thought, I've decided I want to keep the hair clip rather than sell it.  Then I made a few more roses that I will probably give as gifts.  Enough with that obsession, time to do a new project...

Fun Family Saturday Trip

Mirror Lake

Emerson and Dwayne have been doing some fishing lately and they made plans to visit Mirror Lake on Saturday.  Some of Dwayne's friends were planning on coming with us, but one had to change his plans and the other didn't get out of bed in time (in fact, he may still be there). 

Provo River Falls

The drive out there was pretty fun and it felt more like Wyoming or Montana than Utah with all the trees.  Definitely not Oregon trees, though.  It was only about a 1.5 hour drive from our house and absolutely worth it.  There are a series of lakes up there and campgrounds tucked in everywhere.  The biggest surprise for me was seeing signs for the Provo River Falls.  They are quite beautiful and I want to come back and explore them more some time.

cool stuff on the rocks because of the moisture from the falls

picnic in the trunk

Much fishing was done, but not much catching.  Emerson got a few "wiggles."  When our kids were really little, we used to go fishing with our friend (and their babysitter), Linda, and they would say they got a "wiggle" when a fish nibbled at their hook. (I miss those days!)  There were a lot of people around the lake who were fishing and a few out on the lake in boats and canoes. 
The people next to us were definitely lacking in fishing etiquette and managed to cast over and snag onto our fishing lines several times.  In what world does that seem okay?  I didn't actually fish.  I let the guys entertain me with their fishing while I did some tatting. 

My tatting projects

Just 10 minutes before we planned to leave, Emerson hooked a fish and reeled it in.  Watching Dwayne struggle to pick it up and get the hook out was very funny.  Since the fish managed to swallow the hook, we had no choice but to take it home with us.  We ended our time at the lake with a picnic out of the trunk of our car.
Dexter has taught me to notice interesting signs and take pictures of them, so I'm including one I found on this trip.  I don't know what was more amusing about the pit toilets - this sign or the woman who I heard come in and start yelling "Oh my gosh, oh no, oh my gosh" over and over and over because the smell had overwhelmed her.  Remember, everyone...help us keep this toilet clean....

A Small Dose of Heaven

I know this will sound utterly ridiculous, but there is something so amazing about gardening.  It feels like you are doing God's work.  I find myself talking to my plants, coaxing them to grow and demanding to know what is eating all my lettuce.  Our garden is doing well despite the late start.  We moved the corn to a different location so it would get more sun.  Unfortunately, that also made it more vulnerable to our dogs.  They have busted a lot of plants while chasing each other around the yard.  We've never had much luck with our corn, so it probably won't be worse than in previous years.  The tomato plants are growing well and I see tomatoes popping up in there and I hope it won't be too long til we have some ripe ones.  If you made a visit to our garden, you would probably laugh at seeing some of the tattered plants growing there.  We had cilantro grow spontaneously from last year's leftovers. They've gone to seed because of the heat, but I can't bear to get rid of them.  I've broken off pieces because they're getting too big, so they look really bad now.  The squash never disappoint, of course, and I was excited to have some ready to eat.  It's a little taste of heaven!

Relaxing Weekend

For those of us in Utah, it was a holiday weekend (Pioneer Day).  I welcomed the extra day off even though it was scorching hot.  Emerson and I have very different ideas of how to spend our weekends and time off.  He likes to have actual plans of things to do, even if it's just wandering around stores and malls.  I don't mind doing some of that, especially when I need to feel a little air conditioning, but my preference is to hang out at home and relax.  I may clean a little, organize a little, work on random projects, play with the dogs, do some gardening, read a little, write a little, and so on.  I can tell this drives Emerson crazy because he'll start pacing the house and looking for things to do.  Even though I am totally fine with him running off by himself, I guess it's just not very fun for him to run around alone.  Me, I could wander almost any store for hours all by myself.  Fortunately, Emerson and Dwayne went fishing a couple of times over the weekend and they had a really good time.  I got to hang out and do all the odds and ends.  I even created a new tatted necklace (for details, see my Etsy Madness blog).

The family update for this week:  Dwayne started his new job at Teleperformance and seems to be doing well.  Dexter reports to also be doing well despite misplacing his Cutco shears (scissors).  Emerson is still losing weight and may be the skinniest he's been since I've known him.  I'm trying to do more exercising and push through the weird popping, cracking, and pain going on in my foot (I've been told this is normal).  The dogs are getting used to sleeping in their pen outside again.  The brakes on the car (and the rotors) had to suddenly be replaced - bummer!  The truck is holding up despite all the miles Emerson has put on it for work.  Our mechanic is still looking for a used engine for it that's affordable and in decent shape.

All is....

Well?  Still working on my Etsy shop, but at a more reasonable pace.  Dwayne hopefully starts his new job tomorrow.  He had problems when Job Corps wouldn't answer their dang phone to verify that he had been there.  Things are worked out and he should be starting his tech support training tomorrow.  Dexter stopped by the house.  He is still busy doing his Cutco thing and even recruited some others to do sales.  It sounded like he was running out of referrals, though.  The garden is doing okay and some tiny bell peppers, squash and tomatoes are forming.  The 100 degree temperatures are frying the lawn right now.  Gambit's wound has healed up very nicely and he's happy to get outside more.  I thought it would be quieter with one less kid here, but Dwayne has had some friends over somewhat regularly, so there's no shortage of activity in our house.  Dwayne is also becoming a bit of a legend over at Dragon's Keep where he plays Magic the Gathering.  He wins the tournaments a lot, even when he drafts lousy cards.  He also manages to trade cards and basically never pay an entry fee for these tournaments.  You know he's serious when he's got a locker at the store!

Pulling Back

Emerson says that Etsy has become my new "crack" after giving up all my Facebook games.  That was more or less true.  I sent a lot of hours monitoring Etsy's Alchemy area and bidding on any job I thought I could do.  I bargained with people to do design things for them and would accept whatever they would offer in payment from cash to items in their shop.  The items I received in trade are sitting in my office and I will contribute them to our fundraising auction in October to raise scholarship money.  Some of these people were pretty demanding for paying only $5 for a logo design.  The family was getting pretty frustrated with all the hours I was putting into it and I really was only making a few dollars here and there.  Now I've decided to pull back some and stop bidding for awhile.  I'm finishing up some more tatted items and Emerson has more beaded items listed.  We'll just let the shop do it's thing for awhile.  Besides, Gambit is going stir crazy while his stitches heal and somebody has to entertain him...

This Year's Garden

All the wild and wacky weather we had this year caused us to plant later than we wanted.  Snails already ate through the cucumber starts (all of them) and we have cilantro popping up randomly everywhere.  Still, things are growing and I'm looking forward to eating some fresh produce.  I have a raspberry start and a strawberry plant out front and each has delivered a couple of pieces of fruit.  Slow, yes, but still rewarding.

Contacting Dexter

I just found out that Dexter has given up the phone we had for him.  If you need to contact him, I'm guessing that Facebook or email (his gmail address) is the best way.

Gambit

Gambit, our four month old beagle puppy, had an accident this morning.  We have our two dog kennels stacked one on top of each other inside the back room.  Gambit jumped out of the top kennel this morning, catching his leg on the door of the bottom kennel.  The resulting wound was technically "superficial," but quite long and gaping.

A trip to the vet's office first thing this morning introduced us to the reality of how expensive pet repair can be.  It wasn't like we could just glue his skin back together (although I was contemplating every possible solution)...

We left him in the doctor's capable hands and picked him up a few hours later after he'd been stitched up properly.  The big challenge now is trying to keep this very active puppy from being active and ripping his stitches during the next 14 days.  We have been advised that we may need to purchase a "cone of shame" to keep him from licking the wound or biting at the stitches.  I'm still feeling bad that this happened to him while he was in my care.  Puppies and kids......

AdultTeens

Emerson and I have often looked forward to the day when our kids would be all grown up.  After years of being focused on our children, their needs, and their activities, it's nice to be a couple again.  We've had glimpses of this over the years when the boys were at Scout camp or other places.  The last little bit has been tough as we have encouraged the boys to look for work and get frustrated when they sleep all day and then wake up just to watch TV and play on the computer.  They did make some job search efforts, but it wasn't quite what we expected.  Dexter turned 18 and graduated and that led to some interesting discussions of which rules still applied to him now that he was all grown up.

The challenge of dealing with your children once they turn into adults is well known by those who have raised their children.  Additional challenges we have faced have been about culture.  We did the best we could to raise the boys to appreciate their Navajo culture and respect their elders appropriately, but it doesn't sink in when they grow up away from the culture and surrounded by kids raised differently. 

Our latest adventure has begun. Dexter has now moved out of our house.  It's hard not to take it personally even though I have watched my friends go through this before.  When Dwayne went to Chicago last summer we had some of the same feelings, but we knew in advance that he was leaving.  Dexter didn't even give us 24 hour notice.  We're still trying to get used to him not being here and we hope he'll discover some appreciation for family during this adventure.