sat, 6/26...day 177

Our garden is planted! We got the garden beds topped up with dirt (and still have a BIG pile in the driveway), and then set to work putting in zuchinni, white pumpkin, baby gourds, carrots (two kinds!), spinach, broccoli, bush beans, forget-me-nots, and jalepeno peppers (Niall's favorite plant to grow).

We'll plant our little herb garden on the deck tomorrow, along with the tomato plant and the other two jalepenos (they only came in packs of four).

I also took an emergency trip to Home Depot this evening to get chicken wire and fence posts for a quick bunny-deterrent fence. We'll see if it keeps them out. Need to think about slug-prevention too. Probably soon (!)

fri, 6/25...day 176

We stopped by Yakima Fruit Market today for fruits and veggies (fresh local strawberries - yum!), on the way home from Carissa time. While we were there, I decided we'd pick up some vegetable starts and seeds for our garden. The beds are almost ready, so it's time!

I'd never seen this "bubble throne" there before, but Cory and Niall had fun blowing bubbles and chasing after them.

thu, 6/24...day 175

My longtime friend and (for many years) co-worker Stan has just a few more days of his vendor editing gig before he and his wife head off on new adventures. They're moving to Michigan at the end of the month so Stan can start ministerial school. A big change from working at Microsoft!

We met for an afternoon break over in Building 99 - about halfway between our offices. The sun was out, and we saw these cool reflections in the atrium where we were visiting. Both he and I wanted to take photos - grateful to have my fabulous pocket camera! :D

wed, 6/23...day 174

Niall and Cory have camp at the gymnastics center this week, and boy, are they sweaty and tuckered out by the time I pick them up at 5:00. It's a long day, but good for them to be getting a workout and having lots of fun too.

Their favorite activities are the trampoline, the foam pit, the inflated slide, and this enormous swing. (That's Shannon, their extended day "coach," watching Cory from the sidelines.)

tue, 6/22...day 173

The garden dirt was delivered today!

Three yards of "vegetable garden mix," and boy, does it look fertile. Can't wait to get it hauled back to the garden beds and start planting. I'll be enlisting some Tynor-assistance for this, for sure. :D

Late June...hmm...hopefully there's still time to grow the veggies we want to grow!

mon, 6/21...day 172

I love red California poppies. They were unusual to spot when I lived in California, though orange California poppies were everywhere. And I remember a single red poppy that bloomed along a trail in Seattle that I used to walk along on my lunch hour, back when I worked down by the Ship Canal.

This swath of red poppies cropped up alongside the highway near my mom's house, and I finally stopped the other day to take a photo. I don't want to end up wishing - long after they've bloomed and died away- that I'd taken time to stop, and just never doing it. That happens all too often, and I'm on a mission to "just stop" when I'm inspired or moved by something and want to capture it in a photograph.

sun, 6/20...day 171

It was a chilly, rainy Sunday - perfect for going to the movies!

Happily for us, Toy Story 3 just came out, to very good reviews too. Niall, Cory and I headed down to the Woodinville Loews theater and caught the 11:30 showing. It was crowded, but we lucked out into three seats right behind the handicap seating area so Cory had a great view - and somewhere to rest his feet. :-)

It was a lot of fun, though Cory was a bit freaked out by the daycare scenes with the mildly-evil purple scented bear. He's pretty averse to scary movies, especially in the theater with the big screen and big sound. But he sat on my lap and I covered his ears, and he made it through okay.