Vegetable Garden

I never thought I would be planting vegetables in February, let alone harvesting them. But, that is one of the nice things about Arizona.
This is our little garden that I planted back in October & November. I have Brussel sprouts and beets on the far left, peas on the top (only one snow pea plant and one sugar snap plant; I will have to try again and plant a lot more seeds next fall), Spinach on the next row, radishes and lettuce on the third row (only a couple of lettuce plants actually sprouted where they were planted. Most of them got washed all over the place.) The bottom row has more beets and carrots.






It is time to plant the summer veggies, like corn and tomatoes, so I had to expand my garden.



First I had to dig it all up and get out all of the weeds and grass. There were plenty of them.














Next I made hills so that I can flood irrigate and keep the water just in the garden.









Now the seeds have been planted and watered. Sweet corn in the two rows on the left, roma tomatoes in the next two rows and grape tomatoes in the row on the far right.






Josi and Hyrum both wanted to help, but Hyrum mostly squashed my beets and brussel sprouts. He walked right down the middle of the row. Such a stinker. I think they will be okay though.



Josi helped me build the hills and weed a little.

Here she is trying to dig up some weeds. This is how that whole patch looked before I dug it up.














This is my first real harvest. I have gotten a couple of peas and one radish at a time, but I actually can make a salad out of this for dinner tonight. Yeah! The regular sugar snap peas have been really tiny for some reason; only one or two peas per pod. That is two little pods between the lettuce and the radishes. They were really tasty though.

Bathtime

Hyrum had already gotten out of the tub this morning and was fully clothed. I heard him in the bathroom with Josi and went to investigate. Sure enough, he had stripped down and got back in the tub. That is his blankie he has. He didn't want me to take it out either.

A Tutu too

Today was mending day. I fixed several holes in Ben's shorts, a hole in his pants and a hole in his shirt, a pair of Josi's panties and I would have fixed a couple of other holes, but I didn't have the right color of thread. Afterward, since I had the sewing machine out, I decided to complete a project I had in mind. I found a remnant of tulle I paid 45 cents for that I thought I could make a tutu with for Josi. She is always dancing around the house, so I thought she should have the appropriate attire.
Here is her best ballerina pose. She isn't very steady yet, so she had to stand against the wall.

I realize now that she will need a leotard to wear under it 'cause it is see-through.

Screaming

My little Hyrum is so funny. Last night he was trying to scare Ben by roaring at him. Ben played along and pretended to be scared and hid in the pantry. Hyrum waited a little while for him to come back out and when he didn't, he headed for the door. Ben could tell he was near so he opened the door and roared back at Hyrum. From then on, it was a contest to see who could roar the loudest. I think Hyrum actually won, maybe just because his was higher pitched. The contest lasted for a couple of minutes both roaring/screaming as loud as they could. Out of the blue, on Hyrums turn, instead of a loud roar out came a tiny little "rar". Ben and I both busted up. It still makes me laugh as I sit here typing. His throat must have been getting sore, but he didn't want to forfeit his turn. I so wish we had had our video camera handy.
Today Hyrum had his 2 year check-up and after the doctor checked his mouth, he said he wanted to do a strep culture because his throat was a little red. I just laughed and told him about the screaming contest. He said is couldn't be from that and that there was a little puss in there too. The test came out negative :)

All better

Hyrum and I are both healing fine. Hyrum doesn't even complain about his arm anymore. I still have a little pain in my finger if I used it too much, but it is back to it's normal size. I don't have to wear the splint anymore and I haven't taped it in a couple of days now. Yeah! for cortizone. It was worth it after all.

Pain! Lots of Pain!

Anyone ever had a cortizone shot before? How about in one of the smallest joints in your body?

For the last month the middle knuckle on my little finger on my right hand has been swollen and hurting. I don't know why. I just woke up with it that way. I thought I would just let it get better by itself, but it has only gotten worse, despite my homemade, getto little popcicle stick splint (Karin has seen it). Today I finally decided that it wasn't getting better and I made an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor. They had an appointment for today, so I found a babysitter and went in. They took an x-ray and it was fine. The doctor (who looked a little like Harry Connick, Jr.) didn't know why it wasn't getting any better with anti-inflammitories and rest. As far as he could tell, the joint is just swollen, which is what is causing the pain. He suggested I go see a hand specialist, but first I could try a cortizone shot to help the swelling go down. I thought, sure it beats paying more to go see another doctor.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! Let me tell you what, I will never make that decision so lightly, ever again! That is probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced, even having had two babies via c-section, although this didn't make me cry like I have at various points of the c-section process. Maybe fewer hormones are in play now.
Currently my hand feels worse than it did before. It isn't just the one knuckle; my whole finger aches, especially the injection site. And it aches all the way up about halfway between my finger and my wrist. At first I could feel it half-way up my arm. Thankfully the doctor had the nurse put a numbing agent in with the cortizone (one shot), which is good and bad. It was a whole 1/2 cc. more liquid that he put into my knuckle, but it also took away some of the extra pain for a little while.
Here is my new splint, which really is just a glorified, metal popcicle stick.
I think it will help me not use it though. Ben will just have to do the dishes now, 'sigh' ;)
And here you can kind of see that my pinky is fatter than my ring finger (which it usually isn't).

The doc said in a couple of days the swelling from the cortizone should go down and the initial swelling should go with it. If not I am supposed to call and they will refer me to a hand specialist. I really hope that the cortizone works, 'cause otherwise this pain is definatley not worth it.

My Little Man

My little boy is growing up so fast. Too fast! You may remember a few months back I kind of started potty training Hyrum. I would put him in training underwear with plastic pants over them (so he didn't ruin my new carpet) but I just ended up washing a lot of underwear and he would end up in a diaper pretty quick because he didn't have anymore clean underwear. Well, he just wasn't ready then, I guess, so I mostly gave up. Occasionally I would ask him if he needed to go and I would put him on the toilet before he got in the bath, but mostly we stopped. I think he is finally ready! Just yesterday he told me before he messed in his diaper that he needed to go potty, and he did go in the toilet. Then today we were shopping and I found these totally cute boxer briefs on clearance in his size so I got them for him. He is so scrawny though, they almost fall off of him.

After we got home he wanted to put them on and I let him, but I told him that if he want potty in them, he couldn't put on the other pair, he would have to put a diaper back on. About an hour later he came upstair naked from the waist down and he told me he peed. So I sent him to get a diaper while I nervously went down to check what he had peed on. To my surprise, I found his dry underwear and pants on the floor. However, in the bathroom I found a puddle on the floor by the toilet and smears on the toilet seat (#2 :). He had gotten on the toilet himself, and gone potty, just overshot the toilet seat. He hasn't learned to wipe himself yet so when he got down he left streaks. Despite the big mess, I was so proud of him. He finally gets it! Let's hope it sticks now.

Life at the Harlows

Well it has been a while since I blogged. Not much has gone on here that Karin hasn't blogged. Sorry for anyone that can't see her blog. Maybe someday I will blog it too. For a quick update; Ben's dad came to visit us, it was supposed to be for Christmas, but the combination of snowy weather and a shortage of de-icer delayed his arrival by several days. He didn't get here until the day after Christmas, but we still had a great time and managed to fit in everything we had planned for the longer stay. For New Years we hung out with the Clarks (my sister-in-law's 'in-laws) who have so wonderfully welcomed us into their family. They are really great! Then we have been to a few birthday parties at the Bryan and Karin's house in Surprise. (Ben's, Noah's, and Karin's).
Currently the kids and I are all fighting colds. The kids got it first, but I think I have ended up with it the worst. My voice is on it's way out and I have a killer sinus headache that no painkiller will vanquish.
Hyrum also has a possibly fractured wrist. He and Josi both wanted to help me make dinner on Wednesday night. I had the step stool out for Josi and while she was getting something for me, Hyrum snuck up in her place. She came back and climbed up there too. Hyrum didn't want her there so he pushed her. Josi lost her balance so she grabbed onto Hyrum for support and they both went down; right onto the tile floor. Josi just landed on her bottom (which, thankfully, in this case she got my genes and has plenty of padding) so it more scared her than hurt her. But poor little Hyrum went down head first and I was sure he was going to, at least, have a huge goose-egg. Fortunately he got his hands up in time to protect his head, but the impact hurt his arm. I could tell he was really hurt because he just doesn't cry like that usually. I had Josi get out an ice pack and after a little comforting I tried to assess the damage and didn't find any bumps on his head, but he kept saying that his arm hurt. So I put the ice on his arm instead and gave him some tylenol. I put off dinner while I let him lay with his head in my lap and I rubbed his head and he fell asleep watching Dumbo with Josi.
He didn't sleep well that night and the next morning he was still complaining that his arm hurt, but it wasn't really swollen and with a gentle examination I couldn't feel any thing wrong. I decided to wrap it with an ace-bandage to keep it still, gave him some more tylenol and he resumed his usual play with a little adjustment for the unusable arm. That night we went to Bryan and Karin's for Noah's birthday and I took the bandage off to see how he was doing. He whimpered a little, but I thought he might just be stiff from having it stationary all day. He ran off to play and even fell down once without any more trouble. Then he started to jump over Brandon who was lying on the floor. The last time he stumbled on his landing, fell down and caught himself with his hands and hurt the same wrist again. All the next day his little fingers were all puffy. He has had the bandage on since, except for baths and clothes changes. He seems to be getting better, but still wakes up a few times at night because the bandage is bothering him. He is a tough little guy.

Early Christmas

Christmas came a little early for me this year. Ben decided that he wanted to buy the car I have wanted since I was in highschool for me. He went and bought it on Monday and was going to surprise me on Christmas day. Then he got a little nervous about what my reaction would be, so he tried to feel it out a little and got the opposite reaction he was hoping for. I was trying to be the responsible adult by saying I would rather just pay off the car we have, rather than start all over with another one. Of course, that is easy to say when I think that the possibility of getting the car of my dreams is years in the future. So, then he showed me the keys and said, I guess I will take these back then. I quickly started to back-peddle on my earlier declarations of not wanting to get a new car, especially when I learned it was a Toyota 4Runner.

I LOVE IT!!

So, last night we went to pick it up and traded-in our Lancer. What a sweet husband I have! Now I don't feel so bad going over our budget for his gift :)

And the winner is . . .

AMY!!!!!!!!!  Congratulations Amy!  You were the closest in the "guess what in the world Josi is saying" contest.  For those of you that want the answer to this crazy contest; here it is . . . (Press pause on the christmas music and play on the blog entitled "Josi reading scriptures" - 3 blogs back)

" . . . and that’s because everybody and everybody wants to go, everybody and sometimes then Jesus told the any things and sometimes then they wanted to do and only sometimes when they get to go they really really and that’s because they’re really old and that’s because they’re really old and really old and really old and that’s because it’s really old and everybody goes because anything is to go and not or yes and does or not because it’s really happy and that’s because everybody’s happy in the world and that’s because it’s so happy and so smiling and they can do that with Jesus likes to do that but all those things just become and then they everyday and Jesus does that and that’s because it’s not fair and that’s when and then when you do it or not there’s something out there doing then and that’s because everybody wants to go because Jesus is only dead and everybody wants to go because everybody . . ."

Only the true parents of kids can tell what they say 100% and even then sometimes we have to guess but with this one we're pretty sure that's what she said and that's because we know her all so well and that's because she's really really happy and that's because . . .

Anyways, the true winner is the one that can interpret this mess and tell us what the MEANING of it all is.  Good Luck!