Looking good....

Our garden is growing pretty well. Chris is out there watering once or twice a day because he likes to and he doesn't trust the drip system that we put in, so we're going to add another watering system of some kind for when it gets hot. Gabriel and Christopher are SO excited about things growing. Christopher just naturally gets excited about everything, but Gabe is just amazed that the things he planted are growing. His mystery beans are green beans and he can hardly wait to pick them.

We've added more stuff until we are out of space. We planted a pommegranate tree, a fig tree, peppers for salsa, green beans (before we knew that's what Gabe's were), garlic, more strawberries and more tomatoes...oh yeah, and artichokes. We'll be eating them all in about a month, I guess. Here are some pictures of some of the things that are growing. We are really going to have a lot of grapes!


Above is the fig Tree...those little green balls at the end of the stalk will be figs...

A Day of Fun

< Yesterday we went to the Zoo with 165 people from my child care center. If you go together you get in for $4...a huge savings. We took the opportunity to have a family outing. We had a great time. Valerie and John hadn't had much sleep the night before, being young adults and night owls, but they did really well getting up early and being on time. We hit all the spots we wanted to at the zoo and by 1230 most of the animals were hiding in the shade and difficult to find, so we went to lunch. We took the kids to a Tepanyaki Japanes Restaurant where they cook your food at the table. They don't do as many tricks for lunch as for dinner, but when we told the cook it was the kids first time he added extra stuff for the kids to see. They really liked the onion volcano. I have a video and I'll try to figure out how to add it. Here are some pictures from the day. ......waiting for everyone to gather ......Yvette rock climbing. The others did also.

.......Camel rides

......Valerie fading

......John to the rescue

......goin' home

Here's the onion volcano at the restaurant...


We had a really fun day. Chris and I had to work during spring break, so the kids just hung around and never complained about it. It was great to spend the day together...we have really great kids!

Planning ahead...

Last week I decided to can chicken. There was a pretty good sale on skinless, boneless chicken breasts and I had a pressure canner that I bought about 5 years ago sitting in the garage, so I tried it. It took about 10 hours to do 4 batches and I ended up with 28 pints of chicken from about 25 pounds of meat. So now when we get home and we want chicken enchiladas, or any chicken meal, instead of having to defrost the chicken and cook it all we have to do is open a jar and we're ready to go. I am going to do ground beef next and then stew meat. With both of us working and kids getting busy with activities, this is a real help and I always love a bargain.

We win!!!

We have been audited for the past two years for the years 2005 and 2006. I did the paperwork to prove our stuff for 2005 and the IRS didn't take any of my paperwork and we had to pay. Luckily our 2007 return was enough to cover the difference. I was expecting to be audited for 2006, but I was ready with all the paperwork I needed. I itemized everything on spread sheets and seperated each category and listed every check and receipt. All they had to do was turn the pages and I had justified every bit of what they questioned...to the penny. They sent us the response to our response and had the nerve to say they rejected everything because it was UNORGANIZED!! Our brother-in-law is a CPA and he helps everyone with their taxes and has a very busy business, so I hated to call him, but this was quite a bit of money that they were not allowing. Anyway, we brought him all our stuff and he took out his tax books and cited tax codes and responed to them and yesterday we got the letter that they are accepting our original tax return. So even though we are the winners, Steve made it all possible and we are so grateful to him. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

garden update

It took three weeks, but we finally finished the garden. Just about everyone in the house was sick last week so we didn't get anything done. We have a total of 4 barrels and 5 raised beds. We've got lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, canteloupe, bell peppers, basil, beans (we're not sure what kind...Gabe started them at school),strawberries, oregano, thyme and cilantro. Not bad...Chris also has some peppers to plant that will be used for salsa. You will notice the anti-Jax fencing around everything...the openings on the bottom are very small and they gradually get larger. We put it in with the large openings on the bottom of one of the beds. Of course, it was just enough space for Jax to stick in his nose and dig out all four corners. Last week I was home while Gabe was sick and he and I switched it so the small openings were on the bottom. A few days later I was out and called home and Chris told me he and Gabe had fixed the fencing to keep Jax out. I told him I had already done it...he said "you didn't tell me"...I thought to myself, I thought you'd notice. He was really sick and was trying to help out and didn't notice he had put it back so Jax could dig again. The next day he worked up the energy and changed it again. We were really careful today to make sure we had the fencing on right the first time.

Best Friends...

Our boys are best friends. They can play for hours together and never have an argument. They look out for each other and take care of each other. Gabe has been sick and he kept trying to suppress his cough during the night because he didn't want to wake up his brother. For Christmas the kids got gift cards for ToysRUs from Grandma Rosie. Christopher couldn't find anything he wanted to spend his card on and went home empty handed. During the week he came to me and said he knew what he wanted to buy. He wanted a video game for the DS Lite the kids all have. Christopher already had the game, Mario Kart, but Gabe didn't. He wanted to get Gabe a copy so they could play together. This is the picture of them playing. The game came in the mail and Gabriel held on to it until Christopher came home. They are so excited about it! I'm sure we won't see much of them tonight. I'm not a fan of video games and I usually limit their time, but how can I possibly stop the fun they are having together. I am so happy my boys are BFFs! Gabe is using Valerie's DS because his broke...I didn't get him a pink one.

Getting it done.....

So we decided to put in a garden this year. We've done a little bit in barrels, but this time we're doing lots of stuff, tomatoes, bell peppers, japanese eggplant, strawberries, beans,and herbs. It took us most of the day and we'll have to finish next weekend because we just don't have the stamina we used to have. The kids helped and our friend Jenna was over and pitched in too. The kids worked really hard digging out weeds, and spreading dirt, carrying the wood and running back and for the to the garage. I'm glad our kids are learning the value of working at a young age. We love having a garden and it's been too long since we done one, so I'm very happy about it. Here's the almost finished product.