Ground cover

Some of our ground cover is in bloom and we have not finished cleaning up the winter mess yet :)

Looks like this one has decided to grow up our side fence and wall instead of across the ground like the rest of it's buddies.

Gotcha

So I transplanted plants last week to our old vegetable bed and came home one day to discover big holes. We have decided to do-over and put the grids back down. The plants are dug back up and waiting in pots. John bought topsoil today (the bags say top soil but it looks suspiciously like mulch to me). So what happens. Luuuuuucy get away from there !!!!!!! Aaaaargh !!!!!! We shall see how things go once we have finished the project.

We Testify of Jesus Christ

During this Easter season we hope you each can reaffirm your relationship with, and understanding of, this wonderful man know as Jesus Christ our Saviour. As a family we are looking forward to this Easter weekend as we plan to attend General Conference. Having the opportunity to be spiritually fed through the words of wise leaders is truly a blessing.
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/?cid=wpats1

We have visitors

Well actually they "followed us" home from the local garden center and are currently trying out what will be our new flower bed beside the peach tree :) These dear Dodo's are my "splurge" for the spring since we will be transplanting a lot of bulbs and flowers from other areas of the yard instead of buying.

 Kristina took photographs of all the different color Dodo's at the garden center amongst the pansies. Here's one of them :) 

John has bought some of the upside down growing containers for tomatoes and strawberries so we shall see how that works out. All we have to do is work out where to hang them :)

The flowers that bloom

We have sunshine and warmth. Lucy has been sitting on the back steps sunbathing :) Our peach tree is starting to bloom and as usual looks lovely.

Finally - the shutters

So we have been talking for the past couple of years about repainting the front shutters. Some of them are definitely in need. A couple of days ago I bought the paint. Yesterday I started scraping down the loose paint on one of them. Today I've been power sanding!!!!!! Yeh verily, hubbie showed me how to use the sander and wouldn't you know it it looks like there's 3 layers of paint to remove !!!!!! I'm trying to get this set done ASAP because we have some large hosta plants that grow up into the flower bed below the window. If you decide to tackle a project like this please remember to wear safety equipment i.e. proper clothing, goggles, mask AND ear protection.

Things are starting to emerge.

Parsley

Strawberries

Daffodils

Lavander

Forsythia

Lucy

Sedum

Nest building

Valentines week-end

We hope you all had a good week-end. Ours was enjoyable.
Watching the Olympic Games is proving interesting, at times jaw dropping and definitely great. I'm not sure I would have that kind of dedication and money draining ability to hone physical abilities to that high of a level. You definitely have to respect them all. We are enjoying the snowboarding events.
We celebrated our wedding anniversary by attending Jim Brickman and Friends in Concert with The Nashville Symphony. Very entertaining and fluffily romantic :) Anyone buying one of his CD's at the event received some free gifts - Valentine CD and recyled shopping bag.
The kids all got class reports back and are doing well. A's and B's.
Nik gave a talk in Sacrament on Sunday about how reading the scriptures and attending seminary helps him grow closer to God. He did well. It took a wee while for his talk to dry out after Kris's juice container sprung a leak all over everything on our way to church.

Kris is now back on seizure medication. Hopefully the dose will be high enough to be effective but low enough that she has no side effects. She has been spending the weekend working on a photography assignment. She is learning to use Corel Painter at home so she can do altered art. Very interesting. She is loving seeing how she can change some of her photographs to graphic art.
We are contemplating what to do with our truck. Some of our friends had a look at it last night and another suggested a person who might be able to work on it for us. Personally I think we should enter a demolition derby :)
Today we have more snow. School is out because of President's Day.

Life in the Bubble

This is what happened on Tuesday when I hit a patch of black ice, swerved to miss oncoming traffic, thought I had corrected, then slid again and ended up sideways in a stream bed/gulley facing the opposite direction of traffic flow. Fortunately I missed a truck that had already slid into the ditch not too far from where I landed.

Yeah for a stout seat belt that held me hanging in place till the firemen were able to cut the windshield out and retrieve me. I got a bit wet but was able to hold myself up out of the small amount of cold water flowing through the doors.

  I was able to climb up the muddy bank with a lot of help and fortunately did not suffer any serious injuries, which is more than can be said for those involved in another accident further up the street. The ambulance and paramedic from my accident went to them. Between us we closed of the road in both directions for a while.
Thanks to the lady from Cross Timbers who stayed with me till the emergency crews got there and to the gentleman who initially checked on me and tried to get my passenger side door open but was unable too. And a big thank you to my friends the Zurawski's who were passing the scene on their way home, were spotted by me, flagged down by the police and helped me get home and settled.
Why the title "Life in the bubble" ...... I firmly believe God protected me because as the truck was in flight I felt as if I was surrounded by a bubble and it cushioned my landing. I also received a priesthood blessing later that evening that indicated I was being protected.
Our truck was towed away from the scene by the wrecking company, then AAA brought it to our house the next day and it now sits in our garage till we decide what to do with it. Technically it is considered "totaled" by the wrecking company.

Creating a mini man

With all the snow did we make a snowman .... not exactly..... our young son likes to make miniature snowmen and yesterday was no exception :)
It was very carefully sculpted and deliberated over. The twigs were thoughtfully picked from our nearby bushes.
Just after the creation the last of our windows was put in. High drama for the installers. Their truck got stuck in the snow trying to get turned around in our neighbor's driveway. Took them about an hour to get dug out.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

We have been getting some decent snow for the first time in about 5 or 6 years. Started yesterday morning and stopped about an hour ago. There's supposed to be more coming. I am loving it, though I know it has got to be a hardship for many people living further north. So far we have about 3-4". It's crunchy, it's crispy, has some ice on the top, and Lucy cannot quite work out what to do with it all :)

Lucy and her snowball

So we had a little bit of snow. Just enough for Nik to make a nice size snowball which Lucy decided belonged to her. Then she and I played catch. I should really have had my camera at that point to get a picture of her racing round the back yard with a snowball in her mouth. We kept going till there was nothing left :)
We did get more snow after this picture was taken but what you see is what had the kids out of school for 2 days :)