Failure or Learning Experience?

My garden failed :( I watered it almost every day and I thought I had prepared the soil enough, but the hot Arizona sun took some casualties.



I don't know what happened to my tomatoes. I'm sad about them the most. The ones I tried to eat were sour. Some of them split at the stem and two of my plants' leaves just shriveled up.


This strange thing happened to a lot of my tomatoes. This one wasn't even sitting on the ground, it was hanging deceivingly luscious, and then I turned it over. I didn't even try to eat those. I don't want to make myself sick.


Poor droopy tomato plants!

My corn never grew very high. The cobs started growing anyway and didn't turn out either.

The kernels were sporadic and strange looking. That made me sad too, I was looking forward to some good ole corn on the cob right out of my own back yard.

My jalapenos didn't grow very big. I was afraid they would be too hot, so I didn't even try them. I was really looking forward to some great salsa too.

When my parents were here, my mom helped me try to save my garden. We put some mulch down to try to protect the roots of my plants. It seemed to help my jalapenos because the plants grew twice as big and they are flowering again.

I'm not sure if it will help my tomatoes at all, but its worth a try.

I started my own mulch pile with my failed crops and other fruit and veggie remnants from my kitchen. I know it needs some help. I would love to find a mulch container for it and I need some manure to break it down, but Walmart is out. Hopefully next year will be better and Ill have learned from all my mistakes. Its just too bad that Ill have to wait another year to try again.

Recycle

I recycled today. That might sound funny to some of you because you do it all the time, but here in little old Coolidge, we don't have recycle pick up. Ive been wanting to do it for a while, but I never got around to finding where I could take it. Its been piling up out in my garage making my husband mad. Finally I looked up drop off locations on the Internet and I went and did it.

I found out some things, they don't take glass and you have to sort it yourself. I got pretty lazy with the ease of recycling in Mesa. Its really hot here, so if you don't have it presorted, you have to stand out in the sweltering heat and do it. Now I need to get different bins for everything so I don't have to do that.

Im a big kid now

My baby is getting so big! While auntie Nadine was here, she took care of Taryn's "mullet". It was her first official hair cut. She has had her bangs trimmed before, but never inches off the back. It wasn't as hard for me to let go as it was with Auralee, but I was still a little sad. Her hair isn't as curly as it used to be.

She did pretty good. She didn't cry at all, and she barely fussed. She also didn't wiggle as much as I thought she might. She was a little apprehensive, but it didn't take too long, so everything was alright.

They grow up so fast. Just this weekend we moved her into Auralee's room to the bottom bunk. She rolled off a couple times onto a pillow I put on the floor, so I put another one on the edge of the bed and she was fine the rest of the night. Auralee is gone to my moms house for three weeks, so we took this opportunity to get Taryn used to sleeping in a big girl bed. Man, it seems like just yesterday that we did the same thing with Auralee, and now she'll be starting kindergarten next month!

Karma

If you'll remember an earlier post, Auralee had put Taryn under the toy bin and in a dress up trunk and locked her in. This time Auralee was playing in the bin and Taryn took the opportunity to climb on top and rest a while :) Its not so fun when the shoe is on the other foot.

Water Babies

This summer my girls had swim lessons. Because of such a great price I was able to sign them up for two sessions. It was really great for them. At first they were both scared, but they gained a lot of confidence and ended up enjoying themselves.

It wasnt until the end of the four weeks that Auralee was brave enough to jump off the diving board. After some practice at grandmas and some bribery from her instructor, she finally did it. Then she wanted to do it over and over again. I am so proud of her!

For the first couple of weeks, Taryn clung to me with her head pressed into my neck. After a while I was able to get her to relax her arms and then later her legs. By the fourth week, she was doing the monky crawl (along the side of the pool) by herself and wanting our instructor more than me. It was great to see her improvement.


The first time Auralee went off the diving board, her instructor dropped her off, but after that she did it all by herself every time.

Taryn loved her instructor Amanda. They had lots of fun together. When Amanda asked Taryn if she wanted to go see mommy, Taryn would push me away and say "NO!" It was pretty funny.

My Brothers

A couple weeks ago, my brothers came to visit for a couple days. It was so fun to have them around. The visit was definitely too short. They both stayed a night at my house and we had lots of fun visiting and playing games.

We all got together at my house for dinner and took a few pictures. All of my siblings were there except Brianne. She was definitely missed. From L to R is Mechelle holding her new baby Raeleigh, Marc, Me, Alisha and Brant. As you can see, my brothers are mutants. Brant is 6'4" and Marc is 6'8". None of us girls are over 5'6". Crazy.

This is Marc with my girls. Hes a nuclear engineer. Most kids love Marc. Hes very funny and hes lots of fun to climb on and he can put kids up to the ceiling. Even so, he couldn't even get close to Taryn until about 10 min before he left, and she was still a little wary. Marc came without his wonderful wife Candace, sob. She had to work and didn't have the time off. Shes a special ed teacher specializing in autism.

My brother Brant is great. Hes one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and hes got male model looks and style to go along with it. Hes going to school to become a counselor for kids. He married one of the best girls out there. Nadine is fabulous and shes a great hairstylist. They have two of the cutest kids ever!

This is Eli. Hes very shy, but you can tell hes really smart! I think it runs in the family :)

This is LillyAnne. She is one of the prettiest babies Ive ever seen. She is so cuddly and she'll let anyone hold her.