The details...

I haven't updated in a while, because I couldn't think of anything profound to write about. Lots of little things, though - so maybe I'll give a smattering of our minutiae.

We've LOVED having Dean home for a couple of weeks now. We could get used to that! Of course, last night he remembered to mention that he was leaving tonight (Sunday) for a "military conference" at Ft Bragg, a couple of hours from here. He'll come back on Wednesday. He's there now, and still doesn't have any idea what it's all about. They'll find out tomorrow. Welcome to the army! He's been sick on and off this week with some bizarre fever/infection. We're wondering if it's not related to whatever unknown injury he's had in his ankle region since he was in Texas. He's scheduled for a bone scan at the end of the week.

He took the boys to the stake fathers and sons outing/campout on Friday night. He was still sick, but more or less masking the fever with ibuprofen. The boys had a blast, of course, jumping in the water, rolling in dirt, canoeing and playing with the other kids. Kyler came home so tired that after sleeping all the way home and a shower to clean up, he slept on the sofa all afternoon.

Hunter has been memorizing the Articles of Faith, which are basically a summation of our religious beliefs - http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1. He has completed numbers one, two and three so far. Kyler is even picking up on them as he hears us go over and over them. I was at the store the other day, and have been on the lookout for new dress pants for Hunter as he only has one pair for church. I actually found suits marked down (I assume after Easter) for $15, so I bought him a nice pinstriped one. It's a little big now, but he wore it today and looked handsome.

I'll take a picture soon, but Kyler, at 3 1/2, has mastered a two-wheeled bike! He's been riding one with training wheels for some time now, and last week the neighbors gave him a slightly bigger model, without training wheels, and low and behold he can ride it like a champ! He took a tumble or two initially, but is doing great now. He is speaking better all the time, as well. He still likes to cuddle and be our baby. Hopefully he won't feel too dethroned when a real baby comes next month!

I am doing well incubating baby. Some days are better than others, but overall I can't complain too much. My nose is noticeably bigger, and my face oozes oil, but some of my other usual pregnancy maladies haven't appeared yet. We still don't have a name yet, but are getting closer. I had a very nice Mothers Day. Dean made me a scrumptious breakfast of a bagel sandwich with eggs, ham and cheese. Hunter had made a dozen "gifts" for me at school, and even wrapped them all himself with newspaper at home. Dean gave me a GPS, a Garmin Nuvi. I am somewhat technology shy, but I'm getting tired of printing out google maps every time I need to go anywhere new, not to mention that I'm often getting lost. We tried it out going to church today, and it's great so far!

My square foot gardens are coming along nicely. (see http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ for more info - I even bought the book to learn how to do it right). I have three 4x4 boxes, all with lots of growing things in them. It is a bit of an investment initially, but I realized today, that what I've spent so far still wouldn't nearly add up to the cost of a small tiller (like a Mantis), so comparatively it's really not that much, and hopefully it will pay for itself with what it produces, and we should be here next summer for sure, and at least part of the summer after that...

I bought six packs of several vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower). Only one of each of those is supposed to go in a single square foot (one tomato plant, one pepper plant, etc.), but then that would take up most of the three boxes, so I put more than one in a lot of the squares. Dean always chides me when I don't do things how they are supposed to be done, but we'll see what happens. If I didn't want to take up the entire gardens with them, I might as well have just thrown the extras out, which I couldn't bring myself to do. I also bought a package of small gladiolus bulbs a while back at the dollar store, and put them in one square foot. They have shot right up. I bought some onion sets as well, and put probably 16 in another square foot, and they have also come right up. I've planted beans, peas, squash, carrots, beets, radishes, pumpkins, dahlia seeds (perennials used as annuals), honey dew, watermelon, etc. The big plants and vines are supposed to grow vertically up a trellis, which the book details how to most easily build, so that is still on the to-do list. I had a more traditional garden last summer in Oregon, but kind of got depressed by August when we knew we would be leaving, and just left it there, with broccoli and peppers growing... I do as much as I can with the energy I have, then leave it alone. With the Square Foot Gardening, after the initial work of building the boxes and making the soil mix, it's pretty darn easy (no weeds, fertilizing, hoeing, digging, irrigating, etc).

This picture is from a month or so ago. It looks much different now; I'll take more pictures soon.