Flip-flop tans and....sorry, no white sand

Life is soo good!! God is soo AMAZING!! The weather is just beautiful!!
The gardens continue to grow. I planted some pink petunias out front this week. They smell amazing when it is hot outside. I added some cilantro and dill to the herb garden as well. We also have a new bud or two on our new red climbing rose out front.
Mom brought the girls down for a visit this week. We are having so much fun. Having them here is helping the week go by nice and fast....I don't know how much longer I can hold out waiting for the GED results to come in...lol!! If it doesn't rain we are going to go swimming later today. Last night we stayed up late watching Avater. A very interesting movie.

I have four new babies!! A pair of robins are nesting in one of the fruit trees in the back yard. The little things are so perfect.
Woke up with a splitting headache this morning. When I start waking up with headaches is when it is time to see a chiropractor. I haven't located one in the area yet, so I guess I am going to have to get right on that now.
I tried a new recipe earlier this week....."Avacado Mango Salsa". It is AWESOME!!! The sourdough bread is still going strong. Speaking of strong, you should smell the starter. It will make you silly just sniffing the stuff....lol!!

Going On

I am sad...."my babies" are all grown and flying now :(. The little robins have left home now. They are still as cute as buttons though.

The front is looking amazing. We have added a birch tree and landscaped the area near the front of the house. Grandma wants to get some kind of statue to put out there. I think that we are also going to get some weeping pussy willow trees to put out front as well. Summer time is such an exciting time of year.

I took the first part of my GED test today..Math and Language Arts. I feel really good about it. Tomorrow will be the Reading, Social-Studies, and Science. All three of those subjects I am really strong in, So tomorrow should be a piece of cake. I have tried to do this for so long that it doesn't seem real yet that I am actually taking it. I keep having to pinch myself...LOL!! Not too hard though ;).

In the Good Ol' Summertime

Summer is here at last I think. We have had our share of bad weather....tornadoes, thunder, and rain. But the sun is shining today and the breeze is warm.....it tickles the wind-chimes and makes them laugh.

The corn and green-beans have finally peeked out and embraced the sun. The herb garden is absolutely gorgeous!! I love herbs. Grandma and I want to make pesto with the basil this summer...YUM!! Speaking of pesto, I made asparagus pesto the other day...pretty good stuff, but I have decided that I am allergic to asparagus. Every time I eat that stuff I get this metallic taste in my mouth and then I just don't feel right. From now on I will not be eating the stuff. I think that using the recipe that I used for this pesto I will use spinach in it some time. I am sure we are going to be overrun by the tomatoes this year. We will have to have a BLT party.

The day after tomorrow I start my GED tests. I should be freaking out about now, but I feel perfectly calm about it. It just amazes me. Maybe taking all those pre-GED tests were more helpful than I realized. I feel so ready for this. I am really excited about taking it finally. We shall see how it all goes, but my GED instructor is sure I am going to pass, as am I. All of my scores in my pre-GED tests were off the charts. My math is still a little on the weak side, but it the tests I took over the past couple of weeks I scored high enough to pass. So....let's do this!!!


Yesterday I was out taking pictures of the garden and the baby robins. Well, I am not sure if I bumped the fence where the nest is, or if the baby bird jumped out, but one of the babies ended up on the ground. I was just going to leave it because you are not supposed to touch baby birds, but Beau (the dog) saw it and, with tongue hanging wildly out, started to chase the poor thing down (pick on someone your own size, Gosh!!). I decided I had better put it back. Scooped it up....it was so cute and soft...and set it back in the nest. So far they are all doing alright. The parents have not rejected it so far. They are just so darling. Today it is hot and their little heads are poking out from under their mama...they look quite warm under there. I am glad my mom doesn't sit on me when it is hot outside...or any other time for that matter....LOL!!

The sourdough is growing rapidly. I feed it once a week...it is kind of like having a pet. It is starting to smell nice and sour. There was so much dough this weekend that I made a double batch and put two loaves in the freezer. They say you can actually freeze the dough for up to three months. When you get it out you let it thaw out and then feed it once and let it sit over night before you use it. The bread that I baked turned out really, really good this time. It is more sour, and the crust is chewier than last time....YUM!! It made wonderful toast this morning, but the best time to eat it is when it is right out of the oven, so hot that the butter becomes liquid and seeps through the entire piece of the delicious bread. This is when Grandma joins me in the bread-making process...lol!!

Well, not too much else to blog about I guess. Life is full around here....life is good. God is soo good to me.

Bread Test

Today I made my first batch of my sourdough bread from the the starter. Had lots of fun with it. I had to wash up in the middle of kneading it though to help the respiratory services guy unload grandma's oxygen tanks. He seems like a pretty nice guy. Anyway, back to the kneading...finished that up and then let it rise for an hour. Punched it down and let it rest 15 min and then shaped the loaves. After that they got to rise for another hour and then I set them in the oven for about 30 minutes. After they came out of the oven I ate the heel with some butter on top.....OMG!!! SOOO GOOD!!! Ya'll can go ahead and be jealous now. I also made hot wings for lunch. Made some nut-peanut-chip-choc-chip cookies for grandma, who is not feeling the greatest as of late. And then, this evening I made some veggie soup to go with the bread. We dipped our pieces in olive oil and herbs.

The studying for my GED test is going good. I studied so hard today that I am sure my brain was smoking....*cough,cough, gasp!!* Next week I go in GED class to start taking the pre-ged tests. The week after I will do the same. Only 17 days until the official test..YAY!!!

Our garden is doing well. Planted the herb garden yesterday. We are going to have tomotoes running out of our ears this year. The roses and peaches are going to be plentiful as well. I love this season :)

There is not much else to write about.....I am going to end for now. I hope to take pictures of the garden and such this weekdend. Maybe I will do some more studying. I also need to get back in to reading again. I borrowed a whole bunch of books from the library the other day but have had trouble starting any of them. I kinda sorta started one this evening. It is a biography about Winston Churchill. I will let ya'll know if it is any good...that is, if I finish it...lol!!

Cleaning Frenzies and Gardening Fevers

It has been a busy week. Grandma ordered some beautiful new chairs for the living room, so we spent the week getting ready for them to arrive. We took the rug out of the living room and clean it, cleaned the garage up, and put boxes on shelves out there. We have yet to sweep but other than that it looks a lot better out there. Then, when the chairs did come, we moved furniture all around the house trying to get the effect that suited us best. It was fun!! I love re-arranging furniture....I got that from my beloved mum <3 . So all of this put me in a cleaning frenzy and I totally cleaned and re-organized my room...organized my clothes according to color and length (I know...crazy, huh?). I didn't re-arrange the furniture in my bedroom because it is just a bit small for that...oh well! Freshening it up and getting things organized again made me feel lots better. I bet grandma thought that I was just nuts...lol!!! I also made a sourdough start...and lovingly named it "Susie", after all it is like having a pet...you have to feed or stir it every day. So "Susie" is growing. It looks like maybe this coming week I might be able to make my first batch of bread. I will include photos when that happens.

This morning, grandma and I planted the tomato plants...YAY!! I can't wait to eat them. Juicy, dripping beefsteak tomatoes, with turkey bacon, lettuce, and LOTS of mayo!!! YUMMY!!! I will be in heaven!!

The rose plants out on the patio have tons of buds on them now and there is some pink starting to peek through on a couple of them. I think that we are going to have bunches and bunches of beautiful roses this year. They are David Austen climbing roses, and grandma has them positioned to grow up the white lattice that surrounds the patio...talk about BEAUTIFUL!! I will have to take pictures once more color starts to show up.

My GED test is coming up on the 24th and 25th of May. I am so excited to take this thing finally. Between all the stress and illness it has taken me like two years to finally get down to business and get it done. Thankfully, my life and health have calmed down enough that I feel mentally and emotionally ready to take it now. I am just keeping my fingers crossed about the math part :D . I am believing that I will do REALLY well on it. If you all would...I would appreciate prayers on the topic, as tests kinda stress me out. Thinking positive about it all...and studying, studying, studying like mad.

If all goes as planned I am going to go to the "Y" and work out for a bit today. And then I am going to take myself on some sort of a "date". You know, just some "me time". I haven't decided whether to go to a movie, or go to Barnes and Noble and read a book...and maybe buy one...shhhh, don't tell any one..lol!!

Happy Meals

WOW!!! I am tired!! I spent the nearly the entire day in the emergency room again with Grandma. That chest pain just won't go away. Even though the doctor has me sleeping with my upper body elevated. Kind of weird sleeping sitting up, I know. It beats sitting up with the dead though...not that I ever have, lol!!! It does wonders for your neck..lol!! I also have this stupid boils thing going again. Stay away from me....I am dangerous....oooooohhhh!!! Be afraid, be VERY afraid!!! When the nurse tried getting the IV in to me today (they had to use a really BIG needle for the kind of tests that they were going to be doing)all of a sudden blood started squirting ALL OVER my pants!!! I don't know why it hit me so funny, but all of a sudden I was laughing and laughing. I guess waiting five plus hours in the waiting room can make you kind of hysterical...lol!! So anyway, I guess I am still dealing with acid reflux. It isn't a blood clot or heart problems thankfully. The doctor was even nice enough to lance my boil....it REALLY hurts!!! I am sure Grandma thought I was just the tiniest bit slap-happy (which I was :D) after all the morphine...lol!!! That stuff knocks me for a loop!!! After I got out Grandma and I got Happy Meals at McHeartattack. I got a pink crown and Grandma got a barbie mermaid...lol!! I don't remember the last time I had a Happy Meal. It was sort of a fun day....minus all the waiting.
This coming week Grandma and I are going to get our little garden put together in the back yard. We are also going to get a few flowers. I am so excited!! I love this time of year!

I'm Almost There

Another day....another wonderful day. I am feeling so much better!! I woke up yesterday morning feeling like a human being and the feeling has not left me yet.

This morning found me on my knees in front of the mailbox. I only went out there to put some things in there for Grandma and nearly got lost in the jungle that was surrounding the area. Nearly fighting for my life, I attempted subduing the monster weeds that nipped and snarled at my body, getting dirt under my fingernails, and grass stains on my jeans. One of the monsters had an extra dose of fight in it's weedy little heart and nearly sent me sprawling over backwards....I hope none of the neighbors saw...lol!! Anyway, it was wonderful to be so close to the earth. Everything was so alive...including the weeds....GRRR!!!