Garden + Voting = unrelated

Remember this? The garden we planted what seems like a year ago? I took this picture at the end of April when it was about a month into the growing process. Well, in spite of the negligence of its caretaker and the fact that it spent several months completely covered in 5 foot trees weeds, the garden is still thriving. Don't ask me how.

The squash and zucchini basically spontaneously combusted because I planted about 12 plants in a 2x4 foot area. However, this was not before they spit out a few squash and zucchini for us to taste. Here are a couple of tidbits of info that I have taken away from this experience....

1. It is easier go ahead and put in your tomato cages and poles for the cukes before they are actually full grown plants. Some may think this is common sense... anyway...

2. Squash and zucchini plants get REALLY large so they each need at least a 2 foot area to grow in. If you plant them too close, one day you will walk outside and find that they have completely split and grown as far away from each other as possible (literally over night), smashing some of your other plants. Then they combust. It's very strange.

3. Herbs are the absolute easiest to grow. My basil, parsley, rosemary, and especially the mint have thrived and are all still kickin. I have used the basil and rosemary the most. I decided that I do not like the taste of parsley, so, easy as it was to grow, I will not grow it again.

4. Water actually works. Shocking isn't it? I was really really bad about keeping the garden watered, especially in the time of stifling heat. It is a miracle that we still have any plants left. However, Ben recently started regularly watering the garden and it even brought back a squash plant that is now flowering! We are getting more jalapeno and bell peppers than we know what to do with and some basil spontaneously sprouted in the yard next to the garden. The water also brought back some of our tomatoes and strawberries that I thought were a goner. It was honestly weird.

5. If anyone reads this who is actually successful at gardening, could you please email me and let me know what you do with all of your produce? We got more tomatoes and peppers than we could eat. We gave some away but others just went bad. I hated that part.... I would appreciate any tips on how to save, cook or store the produce so it all gets eaten.

The thing about the garden that never ceased to amaze me was that I planted those little plants in the ground and then they gave me food. Every time I would bring in a tomato or pepper or an herb, I would be baffled over the fact that it even existed. I couldn't physically make the plants grow and produce fruit, it was the way God made them and they just did their job! The whole thing has been a wonderful learning experience and maybe one day I will have the discipline and knowledge to keep a garden growing in every season!

And now on to the unrelated.....

Today is voting day! I hate politics. I don't say much about politics on this blog because I don't see the point. In fact, I feel that the less I know about politics the better off I am because the less angry and stressed I am. I hate personal agendas and greed and just plain stupidity. I love this country and I think that we are very blessed to live here. I also think that the founders of our country who worked so hard to establish our great government would be very disappointed if they saw how things were going today.

Ok, that's all I can stomach to say about my thoughts on politics. All I know is that we need to pray for our country and pray for our leaders and pray that God will put the right people in charge. So, please pray.

Happy voting everyone!

The Lame House and Other Things

Happy Halloween from the house who got 5 trick-or-treaters. Seriously. Ben and I bought 3 huge bags of candy because we had high hopes of handing out lots of it. However, a huge bowl now sits before me filled to the brim with Snickers, a variety of Reese's, and Sweet Tarts. I looked out the window of the front door and literally saw kids walking down the street past our house without even giving it a second glance. Is our lawn that unkept? Is it because I didn't carve a pumpkin this year? WHY ARE WE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU PEOPLE?!!!!

Next year I am going all out with fake spider webs, lifelike vampires, coffins, tombstones, etc. all over our pristinely manicured lawn. Then I'll bring back out this years candy and be like "There ya go suckers." I'm not bitter.

Moving on... FALL!! I love fall so much. I wish it would stay fall until December 20th and then it can be winter for 2 weeks and then fall can come back until Spring. I shall start praying this request now. Ok, check out this S'more....ahhhhh (that is a chorus of children (not snobby trick-or-treating children) singing in the background)

One of the lovely things that comes with this time of year is S'mores along with fires in the fire pit on our back porch. I love S'mores so much that I have been known to make them in the microwave when there is no fire around. It is easy... you just heat the mallow up for 10 seconds and when you take it out of the microwave, sandwich it between the other S'more parts and you are good to go. And, if you have never watched a marshmallow in the microwave then I suggest you do it now just for kicks. Except heat it for like 30 seconds. For an even bigger thrill, use Peeps.

Another Fall must have is Apple Cider. I have tweaked and perfected my own recipe from others and it goes something like this:

1 half gallon of apple cider

1-2 cups orange juice

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

4 cinnamon sticks

8 whole cloves

a squeeze of honey to taste

A few thinly sliced lemons and or oranges (for looks mainly)

Bring all ingredients to a boil (I am guessing on the quantities here... I just throw it all in there so you can add more or less as you like) and then let simmer for about 30 minutes. Store left overs in the fridge.

So, the news is pretty much out now that Ben and I are having a baby in April!! I mean, it is on facebook so that basically makes it official. Anyway, we are really excited! However, I think my parents are more excited. The week after we told them the news I found a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my front porch steps with this card attached....

I think mom and dad actually meant for the card to say "ThankS for making us grandparents," but apparently this was the last card the florist shop had. :) Their flower arranging skills far outweighed their card-writing skills. Anyway, Ben's parents are excited too even though this baby will be grand baby #5 on their side. The newest addition, Neely, was born just over a month ago! I am ashamed that the only pictures I have of her are on my cell phone but she is such a cutie! She and our baby may end up being in the same grade!

Here is my first "pregnancy" picture. I finally bit the bullet to pose for it. I am 13 weeks here.

Ben and I actually made it to Auburn for a ball game last weekend! Our friends Josh and Shelley came and stayed with us for the game and they inspired us to make the long 45 minute drive to campus. I am sad to say that we have only been to 1 game since we graduated! This past weekend we didn't actually go to the game because we didn't have tickets, but we did go and hang out on campus for tailgating. We had the best time and all of the new additions on campus have made it even more beautiful!

Before we came back to Montgomery to watch the game from the comfort of our couch, we grabbed lunch at one of my favorite Auburn places, Pita Pit. I love it!!!! While I was there I found this hanging on the cork board near the coke machine:

If you can't tell what that is, it is little pieces "strips" of paper with pictures of chickens on them. I laughed out loud for like 5 minutes when I saw it. It was sort of awkward because the game was starting so the only people in Pita Pit were me and Ben and the people making the pitas. The pita guy did not acknowledge me but I was laughing so hard AND taking pictures of the sign. I went to take my own chicken strip but then I saw what looked like a spot of blood on one of the strips and I changed my mind.

So, Auburn killed LSU which was AWESOME because the LSU fans are possibly the rudest and most obnoxious I have ever encountered. They were yelling at Ben and me all day long (on our own campus!) and it got old fast. We would just smile and wave or ignore them. (I'm sure there are some very sweet LSU fans somewhere out there.)

In other news...

I traveled to Mobile a couple of weekends ago for a baby shower for my friend and old roommate, Allison. The shower was great and it was fun to get to spend time with Allison. She is going to be a wonderful mom! I am very excited that our children will be close to the same age!

Ben and I got to keep our nieces Adalyn and Bentley for a little while one Saturday night while their parents went out. They are so good and we had a great time getting to play with them. They are just growing up so fast!

And lastly I leave you with a picture of my silly poodle. He is always into something! Lately he has been digging in the yard, not only with his paws, but also with his face, as you can tell from the picture. I open the door to let him back inside and this is how he greets me. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. He is going to be so jealous when the baby gets here!

Disclaimers:

1. I am not seriously praying "please let us only have 2 weeks of winter."

2. I am not really handing out this year's Halloween candy next year. That was a joke.

3. I have no intention of spending more than 50 dollars on Halloween lawn decorations such as coffins, tombstones, fake lifesize vampires, etc. Ever.

4. My lawn will likely never be pristinely manicured.

5. I am not responsible if you try to heat a Peep or marshmallow of any kind in your microwave and it explodes. (The marshmallow, not the microwave is at risk of exploding.)