The first order in!

My order from Baker Creek Seeds arrived today.  I'm truly amazed.  I placed my order last Thursday night and it arrived the following Monday.  With- get this- a note apologizing for any delay.  That was a delay??  Impressive.
Here's the haul:
Tomato Ananas Noire- multicolored big tomato- 1 1/2 pounds!!
Melon Tigger advertised as small- 1 lb- fragrant melons- that and they look really cool!
Tomatillo Purple- Just what it says- supposedly sweet enough to eat raw from the garden... Mmm
Corn Chires Baby- we love baby corn in stir fry so we're going to try to grow our own.  It makes popcorn when mature!
Pepper Purple Beauty- nothing too exciting but I don't have purple bell seeds, just red and yellow
Swiss Chard Rainbow- because we love it.
And as a free gift they sent a pack of Carrot Parisienne- globe carrots- good thing because all I have are old carrot seeds that I was going to plant this year.

See, I showed some restraint.  I'm still waiting for my other order from Cook's Garden that shipped on Saturday so maybe tomorrow.....  then you can see how much restraint I didn't show

And speaking of tomorrow, I'm off work for the next two days.  Woo Hoo!  I just decided to take a couple of vacation days.  The weekend was so crazy that I didn't get much accomplished and next weekend will also be a bust since we will be traveling to my parent's farm for Dad's birthday.  I need a little down time for sanity and to do some laundry, sorting and organizing the back room to make a space for the kitchen counters to be stored when they are delivered.  Plus, I'm coming down with a cold and have a sore throat so I thought I'd keep my germs to myself and with the round of snow set to arrive, having Wednesday off will just reduce the pressure of having to get up and clear the driveway to try to get to work.  Maybe I can actually enjoy the snowfall now.
Hope you all stay safe and warm.  It's snowy out there already.

Thanks!!

Many thanks to Debbie at Happy Days for giving me this lovely award.  She seems to think I'm stylish.  Debbie is a wonderful lady and seems to keep herself always busy with her grandgirls, redecorating and living her life to the fullest.  If you haven't stopped by to visit her, I encourage you to do so.
So, apparently, I'm supposed to share 10 things that you may or may not know about me (or want to know). Here goes:
1.  I've been in 49/50 states of this lovely country of ours.  Somehow I've always managed to miss Louisiana in my travels.
2.  I'm allergic to lanolin, which makes keeping sheep out out of the question for us- I couldn't handle them without my skin falling off.  NOT pleasant.
3.  I'm also allergic to anise.  I love the flavor but a round of nausea and vomiting isn't worth it.
4.  I'm actually pretty disorganized.  My desk is organized chaos... but I know where things are.
5.  I could easily be a vegetarian but I live in a home with three avowed omnivores who won't give up their meat.
6.  I have three college degrees.  One undergrad degree and two graduate degrees. I'm also on my third career.
7.  I love to travel and have been to Europe and the Philippines when I was younger.
8.  I lived on a dairy farm in western New York (near Attica) for 6 months when I was in high school.
9.  I took 10 years of piano lessons and would LOVE to get a piano if I could just figure out where to put it.
10.   I waited until I was over 30 to have children. Even though our oldest is now 16 (almost 17!) we will celebrate out 25th anniversary in May.  My family had given up on us ever having children.  Then we had three.  Go figure.  We just waited until the time was right- well, at least better.

Now for the hard part.  I'm supposed to pass this on.  I always HATE having to choose because there are so many bloggers out there that deserve this.  But, if I have to choose one, I'm going to have to go with Erin at Garden Now, Think Later.  She demonstrates tremendous style and composure. I'm not sure I could have survived having a hubby deployed overseas and being left home with two active boys to tend house and garden on my own- at least not with my sanity still intact.  My hat is off to her.  Maybe some of her organizational skill will eventually rub off.

A little link love

I've had a couple people ask me, both here and IRL about J16's art work.  I thought I'd give you a link to her blog.  It has been inactive for a while but she just decided to restart it, as her 'business' website isn't done yet.
I hope you enjoy her life Inside the Box.
She is hoping to go to school for Graphic Design and is quite talented with computer graphics as well as drawing.

Girls day out

J16 and I ended up having a sort of girls day out today.  It started off as a trip to the DMV to get her replacement permit.  She needs to get in driving time so I let her drive on all the errands I had to run.  Bird seed at one store, dog and cat food and a few stock up items at the grocery store... the usual Saturday stuff. Then, when we were at the grocery store V calls.  He has been having trouble with 'winter legs'- you know - that horribly dry skin that happens in the winter.  Anyway, he asked us to go downtown to The Soap Opera, a small shop that specializes in bath and body needs, with many products made by/for them or locally made.  There is a lotion that we used to get often for his legs in the winter but he hasn't needed it in years- I can't touch it because it has lanolin in it which gives me dermatitis.
So, we went downtown.  While we were there, we stopped for lunch (Mmm, french onion soup..) and stopped in at the library so J16 could replace her library card.  We also checked out a couple of other shops and the newish bakery/health/grocery store downtown where we picked up some organic spinach, hummus and some tea.  All in all a lovely afternoon.
I am so thankful that at 16, she is still willing to be seen with me in public and actually enjoys having lunch and shopping together.  We have frightfully similar taste in many things so it isn't a chore for either of us.  I am well aware that our relationship is definitely among the minority of mother-daughter relationships and for that- I'm grateful.  I guess I've done something right along the way.

Poor Sweetie

Poor J16.  What a horrible day.  Of course, being hormonal didn't help but she really did have a crappy day.  First and foremost, she has apparently lost her wallet.  She knows she had it yesterday afternoon as they have to show their permits to the driver's education instructor before they can drive.  But, somehow, it has vanished.  She has searched her book bag and room.  We searched the living room, the car and the garage.  We even drove back to the school at 530 pm to check it out.  Fortunately since there was an event at school tonight, it was open.  She didn't find it in the room where she was waiting for us to pick her up from driver's ed and a janitor was even nice enough to let her into the main office to check the lost and found.  No luck.
Of course, the DMV is closed on Mondays and she is set to drive again on Tuesday.  Fortunately, they are open for a few hours tomorrow morning so guess where we will most likely be.  In addition to her permit, she had her school ID, several gift cards, her international black belt certification card and some cash.  sigh....  The gift cards she had at least registered online already so there is hope for those.  But really, we aren't holding out much hope.
To top off the day, we went to refill her birth control prescription (yes, I know, I cover my ears and say LALALALALA- although she uses it for regulation as much- or more- than anything else) and they told us they didn't have any.  Of course- all this got put off until the last minute and she needs it TOMORROW. Fortunately, the store in Coralville (maybe 10 miles?) had some and was able to fill her prescription.  We ended up driving all over town this evening but got her prescription and the few groceries we needed (and a really great deal on grapefruit- 18 lb for $5!).  The whole wallet thing was discovered because I was initially going to have her drive to the drug store.  At least it was discovered tonight rather than Tuesday, right as she was to produce her permit for the teacher before she drives for class.  She is a bit calmer.  We had time to talk in the car and I think I was able to convince her that it isn't the end of the world.  Not much anyway.
I hope your day went better.  Mine was great before all this happened.
Oh, and J16 was also complaining that she had an ink splot on a drawing she is working on for class and had to work on salvaging the piece.  It's one that she is hoping to enter in a juried art show and potentially sell so she was a bit upset about that to start the day.

But tomorrow is another day.

Orders are in

I finalized my lists and ordered my seeds this evening. I ordered from Baker Creek and Cook's Garden A few new things... but I'll keep you guessing until planting time ;-)
Not much going on here.  We have entered the mid-winter doldrums.  Blah.
The weather has been cold and kind of dank but not much snow- not like folks in the eastern US.
Justine and I started belly dancing classes again.  This time on Sunday afternoons (much better since she has driver's ed on Thursdays)  We are taking the level one class- like we did last time- and- get this- the instructor asked us both if we would like to take the level 2 class as well.  She seems to think that we're up for it.  The level 2 choreography is quite challenging.  I'm definitely going to have to practice!  There will be a recital in April for us to 'strut our stuff'.
I13 is working on selecting his classes for his freshman year of High school.  Ack!  That just drives home that J16 will be a senior!!!!  I don't know if I'm ready for that one.  She brought home the information about registering for the ACT in April and has started to bring home college financial aid packets as well.  She is looking at schools in Minneapolis, Boston and in Pennsylvania (Kutztown University- where V's sister is a professor).  Nowhere close to home.
Our friend Mike will be coming up to visit from Missouri sometime in the next month or so. He has told V that he will bring along his laser transit/level for us to use when installing cabinets.  Of course- after using one, V will probably want one of his own.  Men and their toys.
It seems to me that there was something else I was going to say but now it totally escapes me.  Oh well, it must have not been that important.

Oh, Phooey

I had some disappointing news today.  I got news about my request to reduce my work hours.  It wasn't exactly a no... but it was a "While we understand and support your request... blah, blah, blah".  The upshot is that I will be able to reduce my hours at some point in the future, for now, I have to wait.   With one of our therapists set to retire at the end of May, administration is unwilling to let me reduce my hours until her replacement has been hired.  They are worried that my reduction in hours will jeopardize patient care if we are unable to fill her position in a timely manner.
So, I have to wait, and the likelihood of this happening by spring planting is slim to none.  But, one bonus, they are now able to advertise the new position as a 60% position instead of the 50% that will be vacant.  We are trying to advocate for hiring a full time therapist, which would allow us to expand the services we offer as well as provide service on holidays- not that I WANT to work holidays but we know it's coming...
However, we aren't holding our breath on that one in these times of budget crunches.
sigh...

But, in better news.  V mailed in his book contract today.  He has to get on the ball now.  He has to have the photos and illustrations ready by the end of May and the finished manuscript in June.  He was whining a bit about having to set up a calendar/schedule for himself so he can keep on top of all his projects.  Poor guy- he has to actually live by deadlines.