Local Bounty: Sour Cherries

After our afternoon of cherry picking at Jackson's Orchard, these local beauties went from the tree...

to our house...
where the pits were removed...
and they were turned into my first cherry pie!
It's not so pretty and let's just say it's not too sweet either (soooo sour),
but it was fun to make.

Cherry Pickin'

Today we went cherry picking! Our trip to Jackson's Orchard was not a "let's go get some cute pictures at the local orchard and maybe get some cherries while we are there," it was more like "let's go pick some cherries during the hottest part of the day before they are all gone and we'll snap a few pictures here and there hoping to not capture the sweat and semi-grouchy state we all seemed to be in while there." So we didn't get any great pictures, but we did get some cherries. They only had sour cherries left and there weren't that many of them to be honest. But it was a fun "first" and one of the many trips we will make to Jackson's Orchard this year.

Seth sporting his sunglasses like daddy up in the cherry trees

Seth holding a cherry

When it comes to being outside, Seth is an observer and is very stoic.

Not First Tooth, But First Teeth

Last week our baby boy seemed to avoid putting things in his mouth and his drool increased in crazy amounts. Sure enough we were entering into the world of teething. After about three days of increased fussiness, the introduction of baby Orajel, and not sleeping well, Seth went from this...

to this...
That's right, folks. Not just a first tooth, but Seth has his first two teeth coming in!

A Bedroom Makeover in the Works

If you come to our house often, you might notice that I try to change the decor often. I love to change small things around the house for each season. I love not spending a lot of money to make a warm and inviting home. I am a sucker for rooms on the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel websites/catalogs and I use them for inspiration often. It's a flaw, I know, but that's who I am and I am slowly growing to be more content.
I try to restrain myself from looking, but a few weeks ago I spotted some bedding that I loved and I knew I just had to save up for it. There was just one problem. It wouldn't go with the current colors of our bedroom. There was only one solution, a wall needed to be painted. Let me explain.
When we moved into our house almost 3 and half years ago, we painted our bedroom a wicker color, the same color as our living room, the top half of our dining room, the hallways, and the bathroom. I love, love, love this color. It is a neutral that works with almost everything in the warm tones which Bryan and I tend to like. This color allows me to change accessories easily to appease my need for change. To try to add a burst of color on our bedroom walls, Bryan suggested that we add an accent wall and he wanted it to be a burgundy red. I thought it was a marvelous idea. He very rarely says something that he particularly wants, so we went with it. Finding the right bedding to go with it has been difficult. We went with a beige colored bedding since the wall color was so bold. I added red curtains and we called it good. It wasn't my dream bedroom, but since we didn't have a bed, that's right a bed (we have used only a mattress and box springs for a long time now) I was fine with it.
Why do we not have a bed, you ask? Good question. My unstable bed that I had before we got married finally collapsed shortly after we tied the knot. A new one would cost money that we didn't have back in the day,then it wasn't a priority for a long time, over time Bryan said we should just be fine with what we have, we couldn't find one that would fit, and so on. We made our own makeshift headboard a long time ago, but after falling off the wall so many times, we abandoned it when we moved here. So a box springs and mattress (not even a frame) has been what we have grown used to over the past 6 and a half years.
Recently, the urge to get a bed has been back on my mind. Now that we have most of the projects in our home done, other than the counter tops and the interior doors painted, I don't feel so bad about wanting a real bed. (We will leave out the fact that we still don't have a garage, since the little one came along and blew all the savings for that one.) The bed that I would love is way too much money at Pottery Barn. The bed that I am saving up for is actually a headboard at Target. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be able to get it. As for the bedding though, thanks to a sale, I had enough money saved from tutoring and from Bryan graciously selling his Playstation 2 on Ebay to buy it. It should come in next week. The red wall is now wicker colored like the rest of the walls after Bryan begrudgingly allowed me to paint (he still loved the red wall, but he is a wonderful husband and gave in to my nagging). So a frugal bedroom makeover is in the works and I am so excited.

LOST Finale: Dinner and Dissatisfaction

LOST, a show we have been watching for five years now, ended last night. We got hooked on LOST after our friends Justin and Shelley loaned us Season 1 on DVD shortly after it came out. I remember watching Season 1 just about non-stop. I think we finished it in less than 3 days.We have been loyal fans ever since then. We have anxiously awaited each season and we have loved every minute of it, that is until last night. I am not sure what we expected, but the show ended and we were left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and disbelief. I don't want to get into specifics because it is too overwhelming for one, and two, I have thought about it for too long already. It was just a television show!
This season however Tuesday evenings became more than just a night watching a television show. We grew closer and closer to our friends and LOST watching buddies, Casey and Jo. We opened up our home (ours only because of a sleepy baby boy) each and every week. We ate, laughed, talked, and enjoyed time with each other before the show even aired. So although it wasn't the ending that any of our watching group wanted or even liked, I am thankful that we stuck with it until the end because we have much closer relationships with each other.
Now that it's all over, we no longer have a specific reason to get together on Tuesday evenings. But, I have a hunch, and I hope it's correct, that it's not the end for our weekly meals and get togethers.

As for last night's finale dinner, we had:

Sesame (Sayid) Chicken Kabobs

Vegetable Kabobs

Fish Biscuits (although they turned out more like blobs)
Casey and Jo brought:
Mango, Pineapple, and Kiwi Salad and

Dharma Sodas

which we drank out of our Dharma glasses
(given to us by Matt, Bryan's brother, a few Christmases ago)

...and of course, we had to have a cake with an Oceanic airliner crashing into it.

Get the Keys

We cannot believe how much Seth is learning each day. He went from crawling to pulling up to walking along the furniture in just a matter of days. Here is a video of Seth going for some plastic toy keys that are on the couch but that are a few steps away from him. His new favorite thing is to drop a toy and try to either bend down to get it or sit down to get it. This was shot right as he was learning to sit down successfully from a standing position.

Recorded 5/19/10

Playing with Blocks

Recorded 5/14/10

The Attempted Wave

As I was trying to capture Seth pulling up on his crib, I also caught him attempting to wave. We had been working on that for a couple of days, but he had not waved back. I couldn't believe I caught the first time on video!

Recorded 5/14/10

Walking with Daddy

Recorded 5/12/2010

Gardening Win (I Think): Yellow Crookneck Squash

After the devastation with the broccoli, I think the squash are on the right track. I find it surprising how completely giddy I get by seeing the formation of a familiar food. :)

Gardening FAIL: Broccoli

I feel like an idiot. The past couple of days I have been watching my broccoli flower and flower, but it was also falling over. It did not have a big thick stalk like you would see from broccoli at the store, so I thought maybe that was normal at first. But because the broccoli was falling over, I wondered if I should put a stake with it, to help support it. I turned to the internet for help. I learned the following from the University of Illinois Extension website:

1.Broccoli has edible parts that are compact clusters of UNOPENED flower buds.
2. A large central head will develop first and then later several smaller clusters will grow from the sides, if grown properly. You are supposed to cut the central head with 5 to 6 inches of stem, after the head is fully developed, but before it begins to open and start to show bright yellow flowers. Removing the central head stimulates the side shoots to develop for later pickings which means you can usually continue to harvest broccoli for several weeks.
3. The central head should grow to be 4 to 6 inches in diameter, maybe larger, when it is time to cut.
4. "Premature flower development could be caused by interrupted growth resulting from extended chilling of young plants, extremely early planting, holding plants in a garden center until they are too old or too dry, and severe drought conditions."
5. "Small heads that form soon after plants are set in the garden are called "buttons" and usually result from mistreated seedlings being held too long or improperly before sale or planting." (I believe this is the case for our two broccoli plants that have flowered already, or at least that is what I am telling myself.)

I replaced one of the four broccoli plants with cauliflower because it was puny from the get-go, and so out of the three that were left, two have already flowered. That leaves one that will hopefully grow correctly. It has not sprouted yet, and I am hoping that means that it is on the right track. So my blossom excitement has been stifled a little, but at least now I have learned what not to get excited about when it comes to growing broccoli. After all this rain passes, it looks like I will get to plant two new plants in place of the broccoli duds. I'm thinking maybe an eggplant transplant and maybe a pepper plant...

Local Bounty: Patty Pan Squash

Patty pan squash are this week's local bounty showcase. They are slightly sweeter than yellow crookneck squash, in my opinion, and oh so lovely sliced thin. They look like little vegetable flowers on your plate.

Saturday Equation

A little singing, a little laughing, a little dancing, a little shopping, plus LOTS of LOVE= 1 fun day with Nana and Pop!

Firsts

*It seems as if Bryan and I are always saying "Seth's first... and fill in the blank." We thought it would be fun to start a recurring firsts post. The funny thing is, sometimes we have new experiences and firsts of our own, so I thought I would try to include some of them, too.

**All of these have happened since the last "firsts" post.

Seth's Firsts:

• going to a storm shelter
• witnessing a flood
• riding an escalator (daddy helped him stand up)
• tried: spinach, beef, celery, rutabaga, potatoes, garlic, lentils, prunes, peaches, tomatoes, basil, and pasta in a pureed form and mixed with other ingredients
• ate apple and pear slices, cheese, bananas, and baby puffs as finger foods
• army crawling
• going from his belly to a sitting position and can do it very well
• can put a finger food in his mouth by himself
• had baby garlic breath from the homemade food (so cute, but also kind of weird)
• tried to stand up on his own
• pulled up to a standing position on his crib
• crawled across the living room floor

Stephanie's Firsts:

• breastfeeding in semi-public (the storm shelter with 15 other people) under a blanket of course
• witnessing a flood
• going to a storm shelter
• cooking and eating rutabaga (boy, those things are hard to chop or at least the one I had was)
• was told that I had a "mommy" haircut

Bryan's Firsts:

• shaving off all facial hair since he had grown a mustache and goatee
• driving in a flood
• asking for directions (during a flood) and not stopping for a second to contemplate having his wife go do it instead :)

Wooly Pests

These little fellas are wooly yellow bear caterpillars, I think. They appear cute and harmless, right? Well in one day, they destroyed most of my sage plant, and some of my basil leaves looked like this...

Thank goodness for insecticidal soap!

First Official Crawl

Tonight Seth moved beyond his army crawl and made his way across the living room on hands and knees...

Candyland Cobblestone Quilt

Right before our trip to Jackson a couple of weekends ago, I finished my last work in progress. I saw the idea and tutorial for this quilt at Moda Bake Shop, a wonderful quilting/sewing resource. I knew I wanted to give it a try. Luckily, I had enough fabric that I had bought right after Christmas to make this quilt. After I had cut all of my fabric and I started laying it out, I thought that I had bitten off more than I could chew. I worked diligently in the evenings and slowly over time, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I was working though, my cobblestones weren't turning out perfectly square and my rows were not perfect either. I didn't really plan on making the rows and cobblestones "wonky" as it is called in the quilting world, but after I saw how it was coming together I liked it better than if everything was perfectly square. I think that is one of the reasons I love to quilt, anything goes. I found the perfect orange sheet at Goodwill for the backing fabric and then I decided to go with a scrappy binding, just because it looked better from the back. I still haven't ventured into free motion quilting so I made it simple and just did straight line quilting along the rows. It was a lot of work! It was a lot of sewing and for my second real quilt (non-rag quilts) ever, it's not half bad.

(The colors remind me of the game Candyland, thus the name.)

There are days...

I intentionally did not write about Mother's Day yesterday, because although it was my first official Mother's Day ever, I feel like every day as a mother is a blessing. Sure there are days that I would like to sleep late without any interruptions. There are days when I wish the dishes from making lots and lots of baby food would magically be clean. There are days when I wish the loads of laundry and diapers would not be piled high. It would be nice if every piece of clothing that I put on would not be stained or dirtied within a few minutes of wearing it. There are some days that it would be swell if I could sew, or read, or work in the garden without rushing to finish a task during a nap or before I go to bed. But those days are few and far between and even on those days I take one look at my little guy and everything becomes right in my little world.

Growing Blossoms

In the backyard, the garden is thriving! I am so excited and I am extremely proud that this whole endeavor has not been a failure, at least so far. I am learning so much about how plants grow and the whole growing process. For instance, maybe it is just me, but I didn't realize that broccoli florets have little yellow flowers where they grow into more florets. It is just so fascinating. Maybe I should already know these things, but I am enjoying the learning process. The whole growing process is just beautiful too. I just love going out to check on the plants each day and seeing the changes. Bryan helped me capture some of the blossoming today.

broccoli...

patio tomato plant...

zucchini (the crookneck squash looks very similar)...

...from the birds

Maybe it's payback for not allowing the birds to nest on our porch this year, but they sure destroyed the planter full of pansies and dusty millers this morning. I think they even stole a few flowers!

Local Bounty: Asparagus & Butterhead Lettuce

This morning Seth and I headed to the Farmer's Market and we picked up several vegetables and even some beef patties. I thought I would showcase two foods, asparagus and a huge, huge head of butterhead lettuce. I am thinking an asparagus omelet would be simply delicious tomorrow morning. As for some of the lettuce, it was lovely on my burger this evening.

(I waited too late to get a photo of the lettuce in outdoor lighting. In case you haven't noticed I like to try my hand at some photography practice during these local bounty posts.)

The Trip to Jackson, Part 4: Getting Back to BG in a Flood

*The final post highlighting the events of this past weekend, and boy, it was one crazy weekend!

Sunday's Highlights:

• Left Jackson at 11:10 a.m. to head back to BG
• Saw detour signs because of horrible flooding
• Decided to take detour route sooner to bypass all the traffic
• Drove for a while
• Figured we had traveled past the detour area and headed to Interstate
• Reached the Dickson exit and saw all traffic stopped
• Stopped at a Shell station to figure out where we were going to go and to take a break for a few minutes
• Came up with a plan to head south and try to make it past the Cumberland River
• Saw an entire shopping center under water
• Almost had a nervous breakdown from hectic traveling and a baby that had been crying for over an hour
  
• Made our way back to a different Interstate exit and was directed to a different Shell station at the Kingston Springs exit
• Discovered we could not get back to BG and were told to camp out at the Shell station for at least a day and a half
• Developed a possible alternate route and exchanged numbers with some fellow stranded folks
• Received a call from fellow stranded folks saying they made it north
• Figured we should give it a shot
• Saw lots of homes flooded
  
• Drove and drove and drove and finally crossed over the Harpeth River and Cumberland River before it was completely covered with water (yay!)
• Ran into another road closure but was able to take another alternate route
• Drove some more
• Reached I-65 which put us about 30 minutes from home
• Pulled into the driveway 9 and 1/2 hours after leaving Jackson

The End

Clean Shaven

For the first time in almost 11 years Bryan shaved off his mustache and goatee. He was clean shaven for one day and he is already on his way to growing it back out. It could very well be another 11 years before we see him like this again...

The Trip to Jackson, Part 3: 50 and Fabulous Surprise Party

*The next few posts are going to be highlighting the events of this past weekend, and boy, it was one crazy weekend!

After we packed up all of our things and left Nana and Pop's house, we headed into town to prepare for Bryan's mom's surprise birthday party.

Bryan and Seth dropped me off at Amy's house to help her decorate while they went to help distract Granna until it was party time.

Amy did such a good job making dinner and getting all the Hawaiian decorations. We went with a Hawaiian theme because Matt requested it. After all, you should always listen to a Marine or else they might get a little crazy...

Things will all be ok if you let them help decorate the cake.
It is bursting open from all the fabulousness.

Kim arrived and was indeed surprised.

Seth wanted to be like Uncle Matt and give a scary Marine stare.

We ate a lovely dinner, ate delicious cake, and watched Kim open her birthday gifts.

It was a lovely 50 and Fabulous Surprise Party!

The Trip to Jackson, Part 2: Crazy Weather

*The next few posts are going to be highlighting the events of this past weekend, and boy, it was one crazy weekend!

Friday evening, we went to bed knowing that there could be some severe weather throughout the night. Sure enough the weather rolled in and the chaos began.

The 1st Half of Saturday's Highlights:

• Woke up at 3 a.m because of tornado sirens
• Watched the news, listened to the thunder, hail, rain, and sirens from 3 a.m until 5 a.m.
• Slept from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m.
• Woke up again to tornado sirens
• Saw on the news the possible tornado heading to the community where my parents live and where we were staying
• Packed a bag and we all headed to the neighbor's storm shelter
• Exited storm shelter after 30 minutes of being in very close quarters with 15 other people, 2 dogs, and one unhappy baby boy
• Drove a few feet down the road where we reached a ton of water gushing over the road so we couldn't make it back to my parent's house
• Headed to the neighbor's house to wait out the storm and the flooding waters
• Enjoyed a big breakfast at the neighbor's house that was cooked before the electricity went out (I can only hope that I have a chance to be as hospitible as these neighbors one day.)
• Returned to my parent's house 3 hours later once we were able to drive on the road again

The rain continued for the rest of the day. We had to get to a surprise party! We didn't know if we would be able to make it back to my parent's house due to flooding, so we packed up all of our things and took them with us into town...

The Trip to Jackson, Part 1: Matt the Marine

*The next few posts are going to be highlighting the events of this past weekend, and boy, it was one crazy weekend!

We had two very specific reasons for going to Jackson, TN this past weekend. One we were going to see Matt while he was on his ten day leave in between Marine Bootcamp and School of Infantry, and second we were celebrating Bryan's mom's 50th birthday although she didn't know that. We headed from BG late Thursday evening after Bryan returned from a Big Brothers/Big Sisters Awards dinner. (He and Morgan won the Best New Match of the Year Award. Yay!)

Friday's Highlights:

• Spent time with Matt while he ate his breakfast
• Bryan and I got haircuts from Amy
• Ate lunch with Matt at Los Portales (our favorite Mexican restaurant ever)
• Visited Mom's kids at the daycare where she works. I read them a book and Seth got introduced to everyone by a very proud Nana.
• Consignment store shopping and spending time with family
• Dinner with the entire Tillery family at the Old Town Spaghetti store to celebrate Matt's Marine Boot Camp graduation
• Returned to my parent's house to console one very upset baby boy who wouldn't stay asleep for his Nana and Pop while we were out to dinner

After getting to spend some time with Matt, he still had the same old hilarious, fun loving, and considerate qualities, but he had definitely been transformed into a MARINE. When in uniform, every inch of his being was in Marine mode. Out of uniform he told us stories of boot camp like eating 8 hard boiled eggs a day and being attacked by fire ants and sand fleas. We witnessed his horrible blisters on his feet, we were told about his gratefulness of having a root canal because he got to rest for two hours, and we learned that a Marine can never, ever wear flip flops (even at the beach, they have to wear their "go fasters" or running shoes). We are so proud of Matt and his willingness to serve our country.
We didn't manage to take any pictures of Matt in his uniform the entire trip. I know it is shocking but it is true, because from the very early hours into Saturday things got very interesting...