Redoing the Flower Garden

I Want Flowers!

I pulled all the rock out a five years ago, and mulched but the Chickens kicked out all of it in about 2 years.  

So after 2 kids, a few years lots of thought and some planning The Green Thumb  and I pulled out 3 bushes, a dozen Iris' (which I will replant elsewhere) I weeded, layed railroad ties as a border along with landscape fabric.  

Now I need some flowering plants, shrubs, a climbing plant for my topiary and flowers for my window box.

I also need to finish pulling out the left over rock on this end of the flower garden, fix the siding and figure out a new way to drain the water from that area.

I also was given the FABULOUS hanging planters, which hang from the porch.  These kicked off my summer project list!  Thank God because I needed the motivation.

Miss Lulu Button Napped!

I had almost 50 uninterrupted minutes where I dug out a tunnel in my studio today! I can now get to the back wall now, and if I so chose I could actually get onto a wheel... but no place to dry bisque yet, which maybe is better since that would require at least 5 lbs of clay to get back into my grove since it's been at least 11 months! What you can't see in this picture is that except that 2 ft path to the shelves the entire floor has something on every square inch and I needed to glaze today.

I've also started a new pottery blog to motivate myself... much like this gardening blog! Ha, such big plans and then I got pregnant. DO NOT mistake that comment for a complaint I love Lulu and can't imagine life without her or Gerry but I really do wish that I had more time in the garden... soon, when she's a month or so older maybe.

BTW if anyone reads this and knows where I can get decorative fence for a flower garden that doesn't cost an arm and leg, is made out of something other than plastic or bendy wire... please comment!

I have taken a layer off the Lulu's mobile, now it's a little higher. She absolutely LOVES it! Always smiles as she watches Saturn, Wendell and Mazie circles around on the mobile (Wendell is the book worm, and Mazie is the monarch butterfly). I am so glad I made the mobile, I almost scrapped the idea when it didn't turn out like I was imagining.

BTW, another one of my favorite shirts... this is one of the couple things I wish I could tell someone who asks me 'What I do' Astronaut, Astronomer and Rocket Scientist are my top 3 answers. I wonder what she will want to be when she's older?

2 days ago Miss Lulu Button started losing her velvet hair... I am so sad about it and I think she was pretty upset too ( hence the crying hysterically). Ok well maybe she was crying because the frog outfit isn't going to fit again after today. Alright, alright, it was because she didn't want to be put in the bouncy chair for longer than 2 minutes! You got me, I have her attached to me... making my new Mommy job much more difficult. She likes to sleep anywhere as long as some part of me is touching her. Oh boy am I in trouble!

39 Weeks... The Final Countdown

Tradewinds... I've never seen them before but the most interesting flowers so I bought them. The garden is plowed and ready for planting thanks to The Cultivator* No help to me who walks around and does squats to pull thisles out of the yard, but that's about it. I suck!

I started knitting a hat for the Littl' Dub, to match his/her socks. Somehow I put a purl strip in it... but it seems ok, and I am not much of a ripper so will just live with the mistake.

I also bought 4 skeins of yarn since I wasn't sure when I would be back to Monika's next. I love knitting with the ladies on Wednesday's! The Sockina are self striping socks... they are sooooo cool I can't wait to start them! The other yarn next to it are for fingerless gloves, and the baby yarn... well I haven't decided.

With no job and just waiting for baby, I decided to enter the Headwaters Animal Shelter 2010 Photo Contest (for calendar)... I entered the two pictures above of my guys... vote if you live here!!!

I am 39 weeks along:
BPM 140-146 (baby)
60% effaced
1 cm dialated

Things that people say:
"Oh wait until you have heartburn" 9 mos and so far nothing, I am pretty sure the difference is our diets & lifestyle. It seems like everyone projects their least favorite pregnancy symptom on you as if you're pregnancy will be just like theirs was!?

"What have you been craving?" Not sure why it bothers me, I haven't been craving any one thing throughout the pregnancy. I seem to have less tollorance for things I normally enjoy like cauliflower, and for a few weeks I wanted Starbursts which is not my MO for candy... but nothing in particular.

"Is this your first?" Well, duh, do you see any little ones tagging along with me... hmmm, for the past 4 yrs? Ok, granted some people don't know me in this town still. I am just not sure what that question is leading up to, but guessing it's to hear about all their pregnancy/birthing experiences.

"Are you excited?" OMG - You don't get 9 mos pregnant and not be excited to have a baby! What kind of idiotic question is that! No, actually I am giving the child up for adoption to someone more excited! (Just kidding mom, don't pack your bags!). I am excited no one is going to ask me these questions after the baby comes.

"By how high you're carrying I think (or 'my mom would say') it's a girl." Why do people tell you these things? Because they're all experts? Everybody carries babies differently.

People keep telling me I haven't "dropped" but every doctor appointment since March when the baby WAS breech, the doctor has felt the baby's head and it's on my pelvic bone. Oh and trust me I feel it... and the pressure associated with moving my bones. I am not sure where people think the baby will drop to? How much lower than my cervix can it go before it pokes it's head out? Does anyone ever take into consideration the little one is probably LONG since both of us parents are tall? Or that when 'lightning'/'pelvic station' changes occur it may not be noticable since it's a matter of body type?

"Do you know what you're having?" Ok that's a common question, and one I would probably ask too... but I keep saying, only God knows! I think after you hit a certain number of months we just need to wear a pin that says, "I DON'T KNOW!" It answers it all! I don't know what the sex is, so no I haven't picked out a name either. I don't know much anymore because I get so little sleep and the baby is sucking all my glycogen stores. I don't know what I am going to do since I was laied off... I am guessing a lot of breastfeeding. I don't know if I should if I will stay in the technical field or make a career change.

No epidural for me! Found out Doctor said 'no can do' because medical concerns. I was planning natural but guess that really puts breaks on any alternatives. The only total bummer is if I have to have a C-section it means they have to put me completely out. No use worrying about it now, I have a "can do it natural" attitude and also an open mind knowing I will chose what is best for both baby and me... and so will Baby's Daddy*

NEXT project: In spite of having made the 4 baby rattles that I am selling on Etsy... I didn't want to give my baby any of those rattles but rather something more 'original' and my style if you will. I came up with it last night. Baby rattle will be an eyeball on the optic nerve... how neat will that be! Well I think so and so does Baby's Daddy* so guess that's all that matters.

Socks for Baby

My first knitted socks from the Jelly-Bean pattern. I think they turned out really cute, and can't wait to put them on Baby-Schermie... or course I can hardly wait for the little one at all!

My last day of work was today... it's all about baby for the next 3-4 months. Then we'll see what life has in store for the family. My goodness how things can be turned upside down in 1 hour.

Which brings me back to GARDENING... All the work I did last year to take out the rocks and put in mulch and pretty perenials was a wasted effort because the chickens enjoy the dirt baths and not so much the mulch. So they push all the mulch out into the grass, which means daily raking. So my answer to this is raised flower bed with a little fence around it. Planning on pulling the cedar bushes, I am allergic to them anyhow... and any other brush then moving some rail road ties into place this week. I'll slowly add rock and dirt, until I can find a little fence that isn't to spendy and will keep the chickens from sitting on top (so some little spikes would be nice). Then back to the planting!