Snake Count

Oh- the snake count is up to 7 now. I found 1/2 of one after the guys mowed yesterday. And my poor toad got caught too. I have mixed feelings about his passing. I believe is one mission in life was to give me a heart attack. I swear he almost succeeded a few times. He would jump out at me when I was turning on the water sometimes but then I got used to that and he moved down to the corner of the house and would jump out of my way just as I was about to step on him. But he was the one welcome animal in my backyard! Oh well! His brother lives in the front yard and as far as I know he is still jumping around somewhere.

I just realized that I needed to ammend what I just wrote. Peyton is hilarious when he is A LITTLE tired. When he is a lot tired, there is nothing funny about it. In fact he throws fits so terrible that the dogs don't even want to be around. They line up at the door and want out of the house when he throws a tired fit! Its funny that the dogs rush out of the house but the fits themselves are no where near funny! Just had to clarify that one!

Peyton's Tired Talking

Right now I'm waiting on Peyton to settle down for his nap. He's in his room now talking to me. He's saying (sometimes yelling) 'Mama Done!' over and over. Which I'm pretty sure translates to "mama, I'm done with my nap'. Its pretty funny. He's not upset, he's just telling me that he's done! (lately he's 'done' with everything! He just learned to say it last week)

This morning I listened to him on the monitor for about an hour just talking and singing to himself!

Last night I went in to check on him before I went to bed and he'd been asleep for a while but I thought I woke him up. I think I did a little bit but not really. When I opened the door he sat right up in bed, eyes open and started looking around and said 'ball... ball... ball...' like he was looking for his ball. Then I told him to lay back down and go back to sleep and he did. but then he raised his head back up and smiled and said 'da-deee, da-deee!' (thats how he says daddy) and then layed back down and went back to sleep! I'm pretty sure he was asleep the whole time and was kind of talking in his sleep but it was really funny! He is hilarious when he's tired! I"m just glad he can entertain himself!

Garden update

Peyton is enamoured with Nemo right now so I'll take another minute to update about the garden. When last I wrote Brandon had come out and said it 'wasn't cutting it'. Well since then it has been thriving. I actually found a watermelon vine! I know, you're thinking, 'how could you lose it?' Well, I'm not sure, really. I thought they all had died but this one was growing along the grass line and I couldnt see it until I almost pulled it up as a weed. It's doing great now! The corn is almost as tall as me but, of course, just the one stalk! We are about to have more jalapenos than we know what to do with! We don't actually eat jalapenos... I think Brandon just wanted to see how much stuff we could grow. So I dont know what we're going to do with them all but I"m sure we'll find some takers! The cayenne peppers are right behind the jalapenos just growing and growing. we'll have a bunch of those too but at least we'll eat those. I planted some new onions and the little babies are doing well. The one is getting pretty big. The lettuce plants are still growing. They seem to take forever! But as long as they don't get eaten by something I"ll be happy. The tomato plants are just huge! I have a bunch of little green romas all over. SOO happy about those!! And then my sweet peppers are taking their sweet time. Still no little buds on them. But they were also the last to sprout so we'll see what they do. I think it will be winter before I get a whole bell pepper!

The lawn guy was just here so I think we probably better fill up the baby pool and get to some garden maintenance before the weeds start to take.

Our tax dollars hard at work!

I forgot to tell you the story of how the giant tree branch pile got picked up by the city. I've been neglecting all of my blogging lately. Sounds like tonight I better spend some quality time writing! (Really, it's called work for me!)

But about the debris pile. It was kind of a funny day... We diligently moved our enormous pile of branches from the backyard (where it had been for about two weeks) out to the curb. While we were at it brandon cut down some more from the front tree. (A whole other funny story) So the pile on the sidewalk ended up higher than the mail box and longer than the Yukon. That was Sunday afternoon. Big trash day is on Monday. So Monday rolled around and no trash truck came which is pretty typical. The only day they've ever come on Monday is the one month I forgot to put my stuff out until Monday night. So I figured they'd just come on Tuesday. And they did! I excitedly watched them pick up a refrigerator, old bicycles, chairs and other large items. And then I watched them drive right by my house... I thought they must have needed to come at our house at a different angle so they were going around the block or something to come back. (our house is at a funny angle to the rest of the street) But they never came back. I was so sad!!! Our huge pile of branches was just sitting there on the side of the road! They couldn't have possibly missed it! AND a storm was coming so the wind was blowing small branches all over the place. Then I was mad! I pulled up the number for the city and was all ready to call them and demand that they come back but it was lunch time and Peyton was more demanding at the time. So I decided I'd call after lunch. Well then Brandon came home and when I told him what happened he was madder than me! So we were sitting at the table steaming and eating lunch and he looked up (and out the window), smiled and said 'they're here!'. And were they ever! They hadn't neglected us! They had to go back for reinforcements! Just for us, they came back with a second truck that had a huge retrieving arm and stabilizers for the truck itself! I wish I had taken a picture! The one with the arm pulled up next to the pile and these stabilizing feet came out of the side. Then the regular trash truck pulled up next to that one. The crane arm picked up the branches and deposited them into the regular truck. I think it took three scoops to get it all. Then the legs retracted back into the truck, the guys hopped back in and they were off! The whole thing probably took three minutes. It was hilarious! Mostly because we were in disbelief that all of that was just for our pile of branches!

Really, I wish I had a picture or a video or something. It was very comical. But it was even better because we were so sure our lazy trash men had seen our big pile and said 'nah, we'll get it next month.' (Or something to that effect!) (and no, I don't REALLY think they are lazy. I'm very glad they are willing to pick up our disgusting trash!)

Baby peppers

So Blogger is just another outlet for my procrastinating... I have a million things I need to get done tonight but I'm just sitting here eating popcorn and reading other people's blogs. And now I'm going to brag about my little peppers!

I found 3 (I think) teeny little jalapenos today and one itty bitty cayenne pepper!! I'm so excited! I just love it when I raise little plants! I kept forgetting to take the camera out so pictures will have to come later. They had better not get eaten by rodents tonight! (or any other night)

AND I think I found a living watermelon plant! I thought they all had died but I found a long vine hiding on the side of the garden when I was pulling weeds today. Woo hoo!

I have to brag on my garden because Brandon came out and inspected it yesterday and said that it wasn't cutting it!!! ... I know!!! I was offended!! Pretty much all that lived were peppers and tomatoes. We'll have one lonely onion and two lettuce plants but that's it. The one corn stalk is just growing and growing but it's by itself so it won't produce anything. He said that a local grow shop sells vegetable plants for a dollar when they get to be a foot high. So I guess I"m going to go by once a week and see if I can replace some of the ones we lost.

Not cutting it.... I think it's doing pretty awesome!

Its Summertime!

The covers on outdoor garden lights are very versatile! They make great hats and bowls for transporting weeds, rocks or anything else Peyton finds! The garden. Its hard to see everything but the close up pictures dont seem to do it justice, either!

This one pretty much speaks for itself!

Peyton thought the bucket on the head was about the funniest thing ever!

His Hawaiian shirt from Grammy and Pa

Picking 'yellow flowers' (dandelions) in the yard.