One day there was this girl who won some dirt. She thought it was pretty cool to say that of all things she had won in past contests (she won pretty regularly), that her most recent win was a big bag of dirt. This win increased her motivation to grow a garden because what good is bag of dirt sitting around your house when you could be reaping the reward of planting in it. So she took several trips on her bike with her baby loaded in the bike trailer to Walmart in the middle of the sweltering heat to buy the seeds, pots, and plants she needed. She was kind of silly because she didn't realize how heavy the clay pots would be on her ride back home. But she made it! And drank a big ice cold bottle of water as her reward. Then after a few days she finally made the time to plant the seeds in her pots. But then, much to her dismay, some people saw her pots and told her that she had crammed too many plants in too few pots. They said they would fight and crowd each other out. She then had visions of plants wielding. swords and punching gloves followed by black and blue bruises on their tender leaves. It scared her so bad that she went on a ride to the store again despite the weight of the pots and bought some more. She also raided the clearance isle, which she never knew existed, but which turned out to be a bad idea. She got lots of killer deals, but when she went outside to put them in the bike trailer, she had a problem. Would it all fit in the trailer? There was an employee taking a smoke break by the bike rack and she just stared and stared at the impossible feat which the girl was about to attempt. Nobody knew, except her husband, that this girl was an awesome assesser of space and a super packer; she had proved it many times in the past when naysayers said that an item wouldn't fit in a said space and she got it to fit by packing it just so. She always felt great satisfaction and gratitude that her geometry skills paid off. So she put her baby in the bike trailer and carefully packed the back compartment. It fit like a glove. She had one package left to fit in the bike trailer (which was her gift for Mother's Day that year) but she had no fear. The employee just shook her head and said, "Are you crazy?" The girl said, "Maybe, but I don't think so." She gave a little laugh and put the box right under her daughter's feet in the front compartment. It proved to be a perfect foot rest. The girl stood back up and wiped her brow. What was she thinking, doing this in the middle of the day without having eaten any breakfast or lunch in the big melting city of Las Vegas? She nodded her head to admit to herself that she was crazy, but she had to follow through. So she hopped on her bike, pushed the pedals and wobbled a bit. The smoke breaker employee laughed out loud and the girl pedaled off. When she made it over the bridge and was coasting down the hill, all the thoughts of insanity were replaced by triumphant ones. You can always do more than you think you can.
At home again, she drank another ice cold bottle of water. Her baby went straight to bed for a nap, but the girl went out to tackle the green contenders before they could yell "knock out." She successfully quarantined the cucs in their own smaller pot and placed the zucs in timeout. They were separated by the maters who would serve as the bouncers in case there was any foul play. The cute docile melons were set to lounge in their own luxury suite. The girl decided nothing could be done about the squash, lettuce, onions and carrots in the other pot. She just wished she would have done a planter box instead, like a boxing ring which would have rules in place and keep everything fair. Stealing water would definitely be prevented! "Oh well," the girl said to herself and hoped for the best.
From that point on she carefully tended to her plants every morning and night. She had to endure the death of all but two of her lettuce leaves, the wimps, and then the onions died because they should have been thinned and hilled up more, too bad! But she carefully watched her remaining lettuce contenders, 3 stalwart onions, and the carrots as they buoyed each other up in one pot. The squash always wanted to over take them, but the girl protected the others from him. The melons grew and developed such lovely tendrils and curls of light green. One time they got in a nasty cat fight with the dainty flowers next door, but the girl intervened when she saw the melons' viny hands wrapped several times around their fragile necks. The girl showed the melons how to use their aggression wisely on the wood fence that she had given them to rule over. They were pretty good at following the counsel except for a few times when they forgot and went after the yellow beauties at the end of the fence. The girl also watched over the cucs which eventually grew some yellow mops on their heads, and the zucs which couldn't hold on to the yellow on their heads every time they came back. This was probably due to the heat which immediately turned it browned and crunchy. The girl still held on to hope for them while she dreamed of fried buttery zucchini slices, moist zucchini bread with butter, and chocolatey zucchini brownies. She would keep a prayer for them.
The girl watched day after day as she fought away the bugs and bathed the plants in cold water daily to get them prepared for the heat. One time she came home from church and found all the leaves of one of her bouncer tomato plants were missing. He was naked. Even the little green tomatoes were picked off and half missing. The girl never found out if the neighbor kids pulled them off, or if bugs conquered them, or if they got burned off by the sun. But the mater kept standing tall and strong. The girl hoped that she could be like that Mater when the time came for her next challenge, standing tall, strong, brave, and unwavering. She hoped the Mater could still bear some fruit but didn't know for sure.
Finally, one morning, the girl got a first taste of her labors. There were 5 RED tomatoes hanging on for dear life to the second bouncer mater. They looked so juicy and delicious. The girl looked closely at the prizes and selected one to taste, leaving the others for tomorrow and the next day and the next and one more for the next. She nestled the precious baby tomato right between her palate and her expectant tongue and gently applied pressure. The sweet juice tantalized her taste buds and played a game on her tongue. Sooo good! The game ended almost just as it had begun and the juice went down the "wet n' wild" shoot to the black hole. The girl thought about the precious tomato baby as she pictured herself riding on a the waterslide at Downetta Hot Springs heading for the pitch black underground drop and waiting to see the light again as she plunged into the cold water at the end. The girl shook her head crazily because she couldn't believe that one little baby tomato could make her daydream about a waterslide. That must have been one special tomato. Probably because of the challenges it went through out there in the heat and fighting for room in the pot. BUT... it made it and that was the difference. The girl was so delighted that she got to taste the fruit of her labors, that she knew the rest of her day was going to be good no matter what happened. It was a magic tomato baby. She could not wait to see what the next one tasted like tomorrow.
I love this picture of Luke. You can really see both his mom and dad in him really well.
Luke wanted a cheesecake so I made a cooked one for the first time instead of just the easy fridge kind. BTW, homemade graham cracker crust is much better than the store bought if you have the extra time. We have plenty of crackers because of Gracie. That was her contribution to dad's birthday.
We surprised Luke with these push-up bars too, but the day before he had decided he wanted different ones. Back to the store these will go.
Luke finally got his select-tech dumb bells he was wanted for quite some time. It was a splurge but he found some used ones on Craigslist with some other workout stuff that the owner wouldn't split. So we bought it all for $400 but now we can sell the rest of it and only end up paying like $50 for the dumb bells and the stand instead of the full $550 you would pay to go buy it brand new at the store. The only sad part is that I had this whole day planned around his surprise, that I had already bought the stuff at Sports Authority. He was planning to make a trip downtown to get them but I already had them for a week. But then when Luke found these on Craigslist and was adamant about getting them that night and putting off dinner and everything else. All in all, it turned out a good funny day, even though my whole plan to surprise him that I had worked out with my friends and a babysitter etc. were kaboshed. I did get a little emotional (crying of course), but then when Luke locked himself in the car and I had to go rescue him, and we didn't eat dinner till 8:30, well by then we were both laughing. Crazy fun day. We got a deal even though it wasn't how I had planned it. I am not sure if I will ever go to all that effort to surprise Luke again. Just kidding. I probably will cause I will forget how it feels when it doesn't go as planned and get excited in the planning again. Sorry we couldn't surprise you Luke!
My soon to be even more muscular man!
You're getting up there Luke but you still act like a kid! That is a good thing... I love you.
We were able to surprise Luke at work with some cupcakes. Gracie walked in first and Luke couldn't see anyone in the door. He looked own and there she was. I am glad that surprise worked. It was fun.
Surprise!!! We even did a speech and language session based around the cupcakes. That was fun for me cause I miss doing therapy with the kids.
