getting my marilyn manson on

eye exams, stomach turning, scary. something i never gave much thought to before has now become quite the event. "so, will you let us dilate you today?" me? "uh, not today, too busy, got things to do... places to be, kids to pick up... i cant be bothered with that today." avoiding the doctors disappointed gaze... whatever. lets just say i am now a convert, can i please be dilated daily? whatever it takes to hear "it looks great, all healed, wonderful, 100%, fantastic, perfect" yes, music to my ears now. my sight, my vision, never to be taken for granted again. never.

the moment i have been waiting for

seeds at work

i knew it would be a once in a lifetime type feeling to see the first seeds poke through our garden plot, someday i will be so used to this it wont mean as much. sounds silly i know, but i have been visiting our plot daily just waiting for the first sign something is growing. like a kid in a candy store i just couldnt wait! oh how i love that feeling. i have always been the type of person who loves to stretch out the wait to something really good, love that anticipation. gets you up in the morning.

wish i knew how to cook these, anyone?

oh my god tomatoes, cant wait for you! i am beside myself!

a new park to explore

Tomatoes In

they say you need big tomato cages here at the community garden.

Happy Easter!

duck pond walk

lakes, ponds and wetlands taskforce

we have joined with our local city council woman (who is awesome by the way!!!) to organize a lakes, ponds and wetlands taskforce. i am sure her original plan was to bring awareness to saving los cerritos wetlands (she is a member) and is linking our local lakes and ponds to the wetlands brilliantly.

i grew up near this local duck pond which has become increasingly more polluted from people feeding the ducks, something everyone has done for generations. the problem is the ducks shouldnt be eating people food and the migrating birds who stop by (due to lack of proper wetlands in the area) eat it too. this makes the ducks sick and also keeps the migrating birds from moving on as they should be doing. when the ducks and birds are sick (this is icky stuff, beware) they get diarrhea (no other way of saying it) so you can imagine what happens to the duck pond water. also, there are more birds than this small man made pond can handle, it gets crowded. the city has politely put up signs but they are blatantly disregarded. what to do? well our camp fire group took an "informational walk" today to "gather data" on the duck pond situation.

armed with cameras and in uniform, we scoured the area for trash and "evidence"

the girls spoke to several families who were feeding the ducks, they bravely explained why they shouldnt and most everyone was polite. it is hard to tell people not to do something they consider a family tradition, but we are going to keep finding ways to get the message across in a positive way. stay tuned.

auction quilt, coming slowly along... planting progress

blocking these squares, trying to find a color theme here... hmmmm.....

these two are my twins, love how they see themselves!

even though it appears life is back to normal, i assure you it is not. i still have a blurry left eye which is freakin driving me nuts to say the least. every single day the improvement is so slight i can hardly believe i am getting better. i know i am a big whiney baby but man i need my eyes back! last night i worked a 3 hour shift and i felt tons better than last week (my poor patients probably thought i was whacked looking from side to side and up close and back, geez!!) so i know i am getting better. still, cant wait to be 100 percent (even with my severe nearsightedness i have been lucky to get 20/20 vision with contacts). so this week my garden plot has been major therapy for me. it is a short drive away and so far carrying manure and wood chips back and forth for hours at a time has kept me busy. my corn and carrots may be planted crooked, my dirt may not be level and just about everything planted incorrectly, but i FEEL better for having gotten out of the house. hoping for a huge harvest!

started planting the girls area... corn, carrots, swiss chard, sunflowers and a few flowers. i have one bed for yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantelope and cucumber. one bed will be red,green,yellow and orange bell peppers, several hot chili peppers (red and green), bush beans and hopefully some sugar snaps. last will be the tomatoes, spinach and basil. where that artichoke is will have more tomatoes around it. i went to the local city college plant sale and scored tomato plants for a dollar each (an orange called "tangerine" that is an heirloom) and a japanese tomato that is supposed to be pinkish (forgot the name off hand!) and then the balls beefstake, early girl, two cherries (one called sugar something and the other is that "100 best" or something... dont you love all the detail with the lack of detail mixed in?) yikes! last were the italian roma and some kind of plum tomato. is this enough plant talk for ya??? i have manure on my tennies and plants on the brain! i need a shower and then off to work.

pinewood derby, meet and greet, garden plot

let's cram it all together, this is just a tad of what we did this weekend:

pinewood derby

derby cars

pre race tree climbing

"creative car" award two years in a row?? cool stuff!

clean sweep for jessica, she won everything in the starflight class!

bear cubs + mascot

we have a collection started

today was our annual meet and greet to thank the church where we hold our camp fire meetings

some compromise on my fancy garden design ideas, i have learned its better to let the person who has to build it do what they want, it gets done a whole lot faster. thanks chris!!! can't wait to get planting!

weeding=carrots

we found more carrots while weeding the new garden plot. i have spent several hours every day this week weeding while i am waiting for my vision to come back. i still have a blurry spot and am getting soooo frustrated with how slow this process is. the only way i can explain it is that i feel like i am wearing glasses belonging to someone else. that strange feeling that overcomes you when you look through them? i have that 24/7. not fun. but getting better!

the girls really like the garden, so glad for that.

blurry eyed mish mash

i had enough "down time" to last a lifetime, but found a really great movie:

i am a movie freak, addict or whatever you may call it... just like my book reading, i love movies too. i used to be really fanatical about music, not as much now, slowing down i guess. this movie "once" just felt perfect to me on so many levels. no typical hollywood actors or storyline, just normal looking and acting people. the story was sweet and simple with fantastic music, just lovely. something to savor when you have a few quiet hours to yourself. i have to mention that jen felt mouse brought me the most amazing present made up of all the senses but sight... a cool cd, tea, chocolate, a rubber toy with a bumpy back, fig candle... thanks so much jen. so creative, so wonderful and sweet! totally unexpected as usual. xoxoxoxo

next we have my newest project, last week (of course the timing was horrid) i got the call that my long awaited community garden plot was available... could i come to the orientation pronto? well i stumbled through it one eyed and yes i got my plot! here is a before shot:

can you say WEEDS?? emily actually pulled up a few carrots while we were weeding, talk about a shocked kid (in a good way). here are a few favorite garden designs:

here is kelly bananaberry's super snazzy plot:

expect great things!

good news and a carnival birthday success!

finally some good news, my eye is healed from the original surgery. last week i had a scare about day 3 of my resting (did i mention my doctor CAME TO MY HOUSE to check on me??? amazing!) he said there was a small area that wasn't healing fast enough and he was worried about it... i would describe the whole process of what they do to treat retinal detachment and the recovery but so far no one can stomach my description... lets just say i had a window of opportunity to be healed and if that window closed i would need a second bigger procedure in the hospital.

the next day (after almost 24 hours laying down) the doctor said i had improved enough and was allowed to continue with emily's birthday party the following day, as long as i rested before and after. my parents and chris had to do 90 percent of the setup because i literally could not see out of my left eye the entire time. i am happy to say that yes, you can actually put on a rather large and complicated birthday party with only one eye! just in case you ever need to.





my mom made these clown tops for the girls, a nice touch

the carnies are ready for business

popcorn!

happy birthday emily!!! more pictures on flickr of our carnival. thanks to everyone for your get well wishes, means so much to me!