A Good Thing...no wait, A GREAT Thing!

I was given a gift several weeks ago and let me tell you, it is fantastic! The Magic Bullet is a wonderful thing! The "official website" is infomercial cheesy but the product is actually handy.
As soon as we got it, out went the old antique blender brought to our marriage from Justin's bachelor days. It did an ok job, it chopped things, but it also smelled like car oil every time you turned it on. Not a healthy thing I'm sure. I love making smoothies with the bullet and I love that we can make our individual smoothies, more sugar for Justin, less for me, we're both happy.
Its clean, quick, light - no more 10 lb blender to lug off the shelf - quiet, and compact. Hmm...I should be paid for this post. And because the "lid" is actually the base, now I can no longer "help" stir while the blender is on and end up giving myself a heart attack when i stick the spoon into the blades every time! Come on, you know you've done it too!
Now, next on the list are a juicer and a dehydrator!

More Pictures

Since I figured out how to post pictures...I might be a little addicted. I took some new pictures of the garden this morning. Justin and I were away for the weekend and coudln't believe how much some things had grown in our 3 day absence. We've also noticed that everything in the center of the garden is noticably taller and greener. When we tilled it this spring there had been a compost pile in that spot...note to self. The best thing was finding raspberries ready to eat....mmmmm-mmmmm! So good.


These roses are picked from our yard.


And the baby's breath is from the jogging trail. There are literally fields of baby's breath.



My lovely little garden. Notice the real growth in the center of the garden!? That cold dark looking window is our livingroom. We shut all the blinds to keep the morning sun out which helps a lot but makes it look like we live in a black hole.



And from the side...


Now the herbs have had a harder time. The ground is much harder on this side of the garden and they've struggled quite a bit...except for the cilantro. It doesn't seem to mind at all.


The opposite end of the garden. See the pea rows on the left. Short short, cute rows. Growing up we had 15 pea rows, each a mile or two long and i HATED them. But mine I love...all 6 feet of them!


We are so looking forward to these ripening!



And last and definitely least, my flower garden. Flowers and me....don't get along. In the back center where it looks like nothing is growing are 3inch snap dragons. I think they've actually SHRUNK since I planted them!! The neighbor has snapdragons a foot high and in full bloom....what am I doing wrong? Seriously, i'm having terrible luck with the flowers. I've come very close to ripping them all out and filling it with wood chips...or compost. Argh! And because this is right beside the front door, every day it irritates me when i'm coming or going.

Tagged??!?

Seven Random Facts

I was recently "tagged" and have/had no idea what it meant so I did nothing. But tonight I decided to find out and discovered I'm supposed to give seven random facts about myself and then tag 7 more people. I'll give the facts and post the rules but I don't know 7 other bloggers so I'm skipping that part. I know, its sad.
Here goes...

1 I shower twice a day. I don't know....it just feels right.
2 All of my best friends (not counting my husband) live hours away and I rarely get to see them.
3 I live in a beautiful spot...I love our yard and I even have a little garden.
4 I was once made a deputy for a day.
5 This summer I'm taking up the sports climbing and longboarding....yikes, I know.
6 I am taking an online course in Nutrition and Herbs. The end goal is a diploma in Nutrition.Because of this I'm militant about Justin and I taking our vitamins and eating lots of fruits and veggies.
7 I've been blonde my whole life until last Christmas when I went brunette and now I want to go back to blonde (just for a change...again) but I'm afraid because I can't remember if I like what I look like....hehe...a little insecure?


Blonde???


Or brunette??? You'll have to forgive Grace's face...this is her "sexy" pose....

Here are the rules… Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

The Finished Product.

So this is the long board that was slaved over many late nights. We didn't get pictures of the "making of" process but the intention is to make one for myself sometime this summer as well so I'll try to do better with pictures at that time. Justin took me out on his board a few nights ago and I can see how it would actually be fun once you get the hang of it. I'm never gonna be the kind to look for bigger, longer hills to risk my life on but I'll push myself around. :)


The top of the board. The wave and symbol and outside edge are all wood burned in and the middle stripe, the "runner" is stained.




Everything always has a wave in it. Justin first penciled on the design and then sat for many hours with a tiny woodburning tool.


The 74 symbol has been a favorite for the Reimer and Wiebe brothers for several years now. It stands for "7 for heaven"....the four brothers and the trinity making up the 7. Note also the wave and the cross incorporated.


And the bottom.

RAIN!

For a week we had some really hot, really fantastic weather. Then our pastor commented on Sunday that he's really looking forward to some rain after all the heat and God heard him and sent us rain. Its been drizzling off and on since Monday which I haven't really minded because I've been working so it might as well rain. But our yard and garden are a different story altogether. It has LOVED the rain. Its almost a jungle out there. In the past 3 days everything (including the grass) has seriously grown about 6 inches. I've never seen potato plants that are taller than corn! The quail had originally done some serious damage to our broccoli but the combination of hot then wet weather has transformed these plants! They're huge! Our grape vines look like they're crawling toward the house. Grapes have got to be the fastest growing plant around.
All of this incredible growth has me pretty excited...except the grass. There is a lot of mowing out there to do!



The garden two weeks ago, right before the rain. I'll post "after" pictures in a few days.



The apricot tree in our yard. Justin is not terribly excited about the abundance of apricots we will have, he hates them.


There's a lot!


One of our grape vines. We have two and we've literally seen these vines grow like you wouldn't believe. Grape vines need to be pruned back to 90% every spring or they'll go out of control crazy. We've literally watched the 90% come back! Wow!


The other grape vine. This one actually has pea sized grapes on it....about 12,000!



One of our peach trees!