goodbye 2011

I am ready for 2012 - another year of change and another year of doing great things for my family and myself!

Long Lost Me

So I have been MIA lately - reality is FaceBook took over. I still would like to keep this blog and post when I want to but overall FB is all I do most of the time. I still like to browse blogs so keep YOURS open for me to see OK?

OH and MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone!
I am sure I'll be sharing Christmas cheers here and there on this blog too.

TTFN

Darla

30 Days in the life....

Sept 3rd - Saturday!
Went to an appt this morning, then spent this afternoon at a BABY SHOWER! My good HS friends Suzy and David are having thier FIRST baby and her Mom was holding a shower. So fun to hang out and visit and eat and eat - her sis in law Dominique made the cutest shower cake with diapers and baby goodies - including this CUTE giraffe topper!

tales from the trails

OK time to laugh - I need to laugh, even if it is at myself...

I have made it a self goal to walk/jog at least once a day, even if it's only for 15 min I am going out and getting it done. AM or PM around the block out the country roads or in the neighborhood. Just go.

This week has been one funny day after another on the trail.

One evening while out walking I came across a couple small boys out riding bikes, the older one nudging on the younger to jump and skid and go faster... recipe for disaster. They were maybe 10 and 7 yrs old? I watched as the younger one skidded out sideways and took the majority of the crash on his tooshie! Poor kid! He tried to go fast, jump and turn on a speed bump in the school parking lot and took it hard. I jogged over and asked if he was ok and the older boy had that 'uh oh I am in trouble' look! LOL After calming the little guy down and convicing him he was not going to bleed to death from the elbow (which was MINOR compared to his leg and hip) and reassuring myself he hadn't hit his head or face they promised me they could get home and clean up ok. Ahhh Dr Darla done good!
A bit later in my walk n jog I encountered a stray dog. UGH! He followed me a couple of blocks, mostly breathing heavy and grumbly growling. He was not agressive but he was nipping a little, I think he wanted to play but still I hate that. One guy in his yard asked if he was mine bc he should be on a leash???!!!! Uhhh no dude, he should be IN A YARD thank you. I keep my dogs inside and in the yard. Always! Makes me so angry.
OK that was one day!
The next day I went for a short n sweet evening walk with my youngest son Micheal. It was getting dark and he was 'scared' bc of a scary movie he heard about last week. LOL Dork! We cut through the JHS track field and the sprinklers caught us by suprize - nice - cooled us off and soaked us wet then we had to manuever the mud puddles from the sprinkers on the other side of the fields! LOL We made it home narely scratched but a little soggy!
Today.
So my jogging has been weak. VERY weak. Nearly nothing really. So this morning I had time to go for a longer walk/jog and as I went through the High School parking lot I see the xcountry track kids warming up and feel inspired to do a little run. I actually waited till' I was well past them to take off and about 15 feet into it I notice the cheerleaders are practicing on the school front lawn - I have my music going feet a pounding and my eyes NOT on the road. KEY point there. I was NOT watching where I was running and instead watching the cheerleaders and I tripped!!!! I swear to you I was bouncing back up before I even hit the ground! I fell so hard I jammed my toe and threw my earphones outta my ears LOL It was so humiliating - I seriously don't think my hands even hit the ground?! All I know is that I am/was so embarrased but it gets better!
So a while later, as I am 'recovering' with a little swagger in my walk I pass by a few more kids coming or going from xcountry track - one of my kids friends approaches me and asks if I am ok?! UGH! LOL Yes, I am ok, my esteem is BEATEN TO A PULP! Dang kids DID see me trip and fall! FREAK!!!!!! I chuckeled at my own expense and agreed that yes I was fine and walked away with drip sweating down my back and my face beet beet red from the heat, the workout and the embarrasment! O M Gosh!
so
I am contemplating an evening stroll tonight but thinking I might need to take a rubber suit and a camera cuz' you just never know!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lots to say not much time to say it

it is past my bedtime and although i have a lot to share i want to go to bed so here is the condensed version...


went for a 2 mi walk tonight, felt great, wanted to run a little but Micheal was with me on his bike and somehow I was intimidated by my 10 yr old being with me? hm?

tiff got her heart broken yet again - dumb boys! UGH!

teenagers are making me nuts - all play no work makes for happy teens and miserable moms

Ed is SO CLOSE to graduating - WOOT

dogs are getting a grooming from a family friend tomorrow - excited!

i found a 5k race online that has obsacles and water and bubbles and things -looks so fun but WAY too hard for me - boo hoo

garden is thriving -- ready to start harvesting I am so excited

My Mom always said, if at first you don't sucseed try try again!

OK so I spent a good 45 min last night downloading pix and then blogging them all - and it didn't save! UGH So here is attempt #2!

I am obsessed with my yard and garden this year (the inside of the house will tell the true tale) and thankfully Chris (my oldest son) has been my right hand farmer hand! LOL So here is the latest and greatest tales of the yard makeover, flowers and garden!!

So here you see Chris, telling me not to take his pix while working out back he hee! Over his head you will see behind the fence the neighbors freaking AWESOME holly hock flowers! They are beautiful! We awe and oogle over his yard, peaking and sneaking through the fence - peering over, poking our noses through the cracks. He is quite the gardener - however - he is older and somewhat 'weathered' as in his skin is like tanned leather and he has a habit of working out back half naked!!!!! The family joke is "Mom, your boyfriend is working out back" and the first person to look is CHRISTOPHER! LOL He keeps us inspired to say the least!






Here is a veiw around the tree of the 'whole' garden, the tree is great, gives an appropriate amount of shade out back and over the garden but is always dropping lil' leaves in everything! LOL
There is also my crazy punkin' patch - they are going CrAzY out there - hope we have a huge harvest! The zucchini and squash are going nuts too - flowering and getting ready to grow! There is a lil' pea pod - they are coming on slow but I hope they are hearty!!!





My transplanted raspberries are actually GROWING berries! So weird, just transplanted this spring!? I am lovin it! They are so awesome!! Hope to gather just enough to make at least ONE small batch of jam!


Here it is: THE WHOLE GARDEN! It's really rather small but a huge feat for Chris and I with what little knowledge we have! I am quite impressed!


So, up on the deck we have goodies growing too -- Chris got me the topsy turvey tomato plant for Mothers day - we put Beefsteak Tomato in there and they are blooming up all over! Also we planted 4 pots on the deck, 2 green peppers and 2 roma tomato plants that are all thriving too! Gonna be burried in tomato goodies soon! I see fresh salsa and I can't wait!



also by the deck is the rose bushes Kami left when the moved out - they bloom all summer and through the fall clear to my birthday the end of Sept - they are so pretty - who doesn't love roses???



I have been choosing small areas at a time to 'makeover' out back - one are seems like things just won't grow well in so I had planned to fill it with riverock and other goodies - Dani's boyfriend Den had family friends giving away some landscape slate and we lucked out (this is just one of three loads of it) so I am going to do some landscaping with the slate and I am SO excited! More photos to come!!


Last but not least, the front yard - thankfully it's pretty self sufficient! I LOVE the orange lily's that are poking up and the yellow cosmos we planted just popped up all over! The baby pink rose bush out front is about done, the petals are falling off fast but the light and bright pink blossoms are pretty and then I have my pots out by the front steps with TONS of petunias - pink, purple, white ane RED - I have never had such BRIGHT RED petunias! Lastly, the lil' purple flowers that Den got me for Mother's day - no idea WhAt? it is but it keeps reblooming and I ove the color purple so I am tickled with it!









There ya have it! Garden and garden and flowers! I am LOVING it and not ready for fall to come at all this year! I want a super long summer with tons of veggies to harvest and colors to bloom!

balancing my time

so I have been what *I* call a bad blogger so much going on, summer time is so busy
kids going, summer activities, work, house, yard
all that stuff that just keeps you going 101 mph with too much to do
and never seems like enough time to do it

OR IS THERE?
the kids have had fun, Dani started a job and
went to Oregon for a week to
visit Ed's sister and fam... Tiff spent 2 weeks in Boise
with Ed's other sister and fam ... Chris has been looking
for work and FINALLY found a great job at Smiths' Food
learning to become a butcher! Awesome! Lil' Micheal runs
and runs, bikes and toys and all that - Ed and I have just
been working - we did get a weekend campout a few weeks ago
with my work for Farmers but overall not a big fun summer
for Ed and I... but the time seems to slip away?

I feel like I cannot catch up on the house and laundry no
matter what. I feel like I struggle to squish in workout times.
I have gained so much weight and I feel like poo about myself. I know
I can do better than this - I KNOW I CAN!Just a lot of frustration but the reality is time management on
my part. The yardwork has been priority (for me) and Chris and I
are growing an awesome lil' garden which seems to take up time too.
There are always excuses. Always something. My friend Blake says:
"Excuses are like a-holes, we all have them and they are all full of shit"

He is right. I am the queen of excuses, especially with time management.

I make lists and to do lists and time planners. I give the kids lists.
I plan out my days off hour by hour. Never get it all done. I told Ed the
other day I dissapoint myself by NOT crossing off my lists. I may fill the
days too full or set too high expectations? I don't know but I am NOT fufulling
my personal expectations.

Reality is, no matter how BUSY I am I can't seem to get my ducks
in a row. There is a good 12-14 hours a day to complete all I need
to do - I luckily only work part time so 6 hours a day - yet I cannot
manage to squish everything in that I want and need to do. I have taken
my day off (Wed each week) the past two weeks to go play at Rigby Lake
with our friends. Weekends are full of go go going and work work working
to catch up on everything so I don't get much "fun" and I also feel
like Micheal gets the bump all week so I enjoy taking him to the lake to play!

So, I am home sick today (tummy is yuck!!) and I am re-evaluating what I
do with my time. I need to 'schedule' myself so much better. I need to
balance family time and work and home and chores and personal and health and
relationships and my marriage and my friends and my BLOG and my hobbies and all the things
I "want" to do.

Reality is, 12-14 hours a day I SHOULD be able to do it all?

Shouldn't I?

More Yard Stuff....

So who knew I loved the yard so much? Gardening and mowing and playing in the sun - what a fun thing! I am finally seeing progress out back so I had to take adv of the sunshine and get some shots....

This is some FUNKY bush out on the back fence line - there are actually two of them and the flowers are pink and yellow as they open. Really cool looking!


Then we have TWO trellis' on the side of the yard along the fence that have wild rose bushes growing up them - love the little baby yellow roses the most!




I still have a HUGE area of backyard to work on -- but it will get there....


and here are our pumpking/watermelon patch in the tires and a start of the groundcover I put in weeks ago that is FINALLY starting to green up!


MY GARDEN! So woebegone as it is, I love the little area to death! LOTS of TLC put in that dirt!! Better yeild me some yummies!


Micheal and I have been building this little corner rock garden where there is ivy curling around - it's pretty cute!


And this is the MAMMOTH Topsy Turvey tomato plant Chris got me for Mothers' Day - we put a beef steak tomato plant in there - it's gonna be HUGE!!!!!


then we have a few fun pots of yummies - we put in two roma tomato plants and two green pepper plants (funny bc my 16 cups of seedings finally sprouted) and they are being 'babied' up on the deck ... speaking of the deck



...I had to get one last photo of the deck 'as is' because this week it's getting a makeover! Chris is going to fix it up a bit, secure some boards and get it re-finished! Hooray! Nothing like a BIG facelift for the backyard to perk EVERYTHING up!

Work Work Working in the backyard

So here in the front yard I have these amazing beautiful colorful and well groomed flowers all over. The yard is green and fresh and crisp! The flowers are blooming, I have pots of petunias perking up all over!


...and then we go to the backyard. *sigh* I have spent every weekend for over a month working in the back. It is SO MUCH WORK! Thankfully Chris and Micheal have been helping. The grass is greening up for me, the beds are clearing out and cleaning up. Some flowers are blooming and I am digging through everything and getting it in order. A little each weekend and then some on my days off. I will admit, the INSIDE of the house is neglected now! LOL
So, I worked through this side bed, it is sort of a modpodge of things, there are a couple of rasp plants in there, I dont' know why? but they are so I left them. I transplanted some bishops weed (ground cover) and hope they will take and spread. We also started a little decorative rock garden in one end too.

Then there are the rasp starts Chris got from his friends grandparents that we transplanted - I think most are taking, but a couple died. MAYBE we'll get berries off them this summer??

On one side of the deck there are some amazing (overgrown) roses - yellow-purple- pink that bloomed late last fall - I cleaned out that bed (it was full of crazy stuff, toys, socks, spoons, and other misc things) and added a few petunias too.

HERE is our amazing veggie garden spot. Before:

Micheal mixing manure to spread:

and after:

That garden spot was WEEKS of work! HUGE help from Chris and Micheal!!

Then we got a couple of Roma tomato plants last weekend that Chris planted in pots for me so we can 'protect' them from the weather on the deck. We also have a HUGE beef steak tomato plant in a "topsy turvey" planter on the deck too! LOVE it!!!



So, I have a ton more to work on out there but slow and sure it is coming along. I am getting happier by the week! This weekend we have BIG plans and then next weekend we'll have a BBQ and share all our pretties!!!!!
!!!
Whew! Tired just talking about it!!!

Idaho Falls Shootout Soccer Tourney May 2011

SOCCER! Go team Odessey U18 Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Beat those Rapids! :O)









This was the last game of the tourney, we played our toughest team *again* and the ref was a ninny-head! It was a rough tough hard game and our girls played thier hearts out. Dani is #9 and had an amazing season!