Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow, because Darrin and I need some advice. We were working outside this morning in the yard, and Darrin was trimming our shrub. This is definitely not something he enjoys doing, but he hates picking up the trimmings from the ground more, so that's my job. We've never been fond of this shrub, and every time we trim it, I mention digging it out (because it really is an ugly shrub). Today, he finally got sick of it and took me up on my offer.

Getting the small stuff wasn't too bad, but getting the root system out was a pain! At one point, we joked about just leaving it like it was (short little sticks shooting into the air). Little did we know that the digging part would be easier than picking up all the trimmings from the ground. Six lawn bags and two bundles later, we were finished and exhausted.

So, now we have this bare spot in our front flower bed. I'm not sure whether I should just wait til next spring and extend my tulips, irises, and calla lillies all the way to the end of the bed, or if I should put in another type of bush. We want something that will look nice, but does not require one to have a green thumb or require multiple trimmings a year (oh, and I hate evergreen, so that's out). Any ideas?

Ian had fun playing in the dirt that was left. He kept calling the clumps of dirt "poo-poo" until we corrected him multiple times. He was having more fun throwing the clumps of dirt out of the flower bed. Then we put him in the flower bed and the correlation between boys and dirt became apparent. He loved picking the dirt up and putting it on the brick, but in being true his hated of things on his hands/feet, he immediately had to rub his hands off on his shirt. Still, I think he would have been content to sleep in the flower bed if we would have let him.
(please disregard his cuffed pants/rolled down waistband, as 24-months clothes are proving too big for him right now).

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Now, I'm off to hopefully finish the scrapbooking pages I started last night.

Go Pack Go

Ian has just one thing to say: Get a touchdown Pack!

Recapping this week, I joined the quilt guild Marlena and Sara belong to on Monday. The meetings are the 3rd Monday of the month, so hopefully they won't correspond to staff meetings too often. Thursday was Open House at work. I had a couple of students show up with their parents. It's always nice when they do, since we go to a lot of work setting up for the parents.

Saturday night we spent over at Marlena and Noah's cooking hot dogs, smores, and hot sandwiches in their fire pit. Ian got marshmallow all over his clothes and face. He wanted to eat it, but didn't want to touch it.

I spent sometime this weekend sewing. I only have about 10 more green ocean waves blocks left. It will feel good to get them all done and move on to the purple squares.

A Break in the Action

Life's been busy, what can I say. There's been little time to post, much less do anything else I really enjoy. The posts would mainly all be about school, anyway, because the school year has started up and the time I'm home is now filled with Ian while he's awake, and working on lesson plans, grading papers, and writing IEPs when he's asleep. We've been in school for 4 weeks now, and I think things are starting to work themselves out and I finally have things in order enough to take some time out for myself and update everyone on our lives.

We went home to see our parents Labor Day weekend. First time Darrin had been home since spring break in April. Darrin's parents had a fish fry and we took my dad to see The Dark Knight (mom had to work). It was such a relaxing weekend. I didn't touch a computer the whole time I was there. I did try to trim Ian's hair around his ears. I did such a terrible job my sister took the shears to it and gave him a summer haircut just in time for the weather to turn fall-like. It took a few days to get used to, but I love it now, and the best part is I don't have to worry about getting him a haircut for a long time now.

This past weekend it was rainy and cool here; perfect quilting weather. I made some progress on my Shadow Play Ocean Waves quilt, getting all the green/tan center strips completed. Now I just need to sew the big triangles on. I've got only 4 of those done, but at least it's a start. I'm glad there's a bunch of colors in the quilt, because these tans look a bit funny together. I'll be able to play with it more. This weekend is Quilting Sunday so I'll be able to make more progress.

That's really about it from here. Work will be interesting this year. I love my 4th graders. I had them last year in 3rd grade, so they're used to me and we picked up right where we left out. Still working on the relationships with the 3rd graders and trying to determine exactly what each needs to be the best student. They're a very interesting bunch- and there's only 4 of them. I'm sure by May I'll love 'em like I love my 4th graders.

Darrin's busy working on a school project for me, too. He always sits at home and programs at night (even though he does it all day long at work!). I decided if he was going to do that, might as well program something I can use for school, so he's making something to help my students with sight words. Can't wait for that to be done, except for I promised a batch of cookies when he finished...