surviving, gardening and haircuts

Okay, so I know it's been a while. I'm sorry! I hate to make excuses, but that's all I have for you.....I have been sick......like ALL the time. And super tired too. I haven't actually thrown up or anything, but I feel thisclose to hurling all the time, and it has been sooo hard to keep my eyes open all day long.....almost all of my free time is spent sleeping. How do other people with more kids do this? I can barely survive this first trimester pregnancy and I only have two kids......I'm turning into a bad mother and it's not my fault. lol Well, at the very least I'm turning into a bad blogger. It'll get better......right?!?

Spring is in the air. Well, not really since it snowed a little today and tomorrow we're supposed to get some more. But it feel like spring in our hearts.....at least while looking through seed catalogs and getting ready for our spring/summer garden! Dan has been a busy bee working on garden boxes for me outside in the backyard......So far he is almost done with one 8x4 box and he has about 4 more boxes of varying sizes to make. He is using pickets around the perimeter of them to make them more decorative and I think they look lovely! I bought a few lettuce, broccoli and Brussels sprout plants that I can plant straight into the boxes and as soon as Dan is done making my portable hanging grow light I'll be starting a few veggies from seed. Today I ordered 3 blueberry bushes, 50 strawberry plants, 6 bush cherry trees, sugar snap pea seeds, and some natural slug bait.....we had a problem with those little dudes in my tomatoes last summer. I still have a ton of seeds left over from my monster garden last year that I can't wait to plant and watch grow. I can't tell you how excited I am that spring is approaching and garden time is getting close! I'm even more excited by the fact that Maddie is all over the idea of gardening. We've been pouring through seed catalogs and talking about what we want to grow and she is stoked! Hopefully I'll have a good little garden elf this year!



My most favorite camera lens is broken which makes me so terribly sad! Right now I am using a 28-105 mm slightly macro lens and I just don't know how to use it very well. The aperture doesn't go as low as my beloved 50 mm and I find that I have to use the flash to get inside pictures in focus.....and I loathe using my flash! What's a girl to do? As soon as I get my butt in gear, I'm going to ship my nifty fifty back to Canon since it's still under warranty and they said it should only take 5-7 business days to get it back to me. For now I'll keep using this less wonderful lens and hopefully find the time to get better at it. Boo.

In case you didn't notice in the above pictures, Maddie got her haircut! Her first haircut actually. I've trimmed her bangs a few times and I trimmed up some funky un even weird growth back when she was 2, but this was her first real big girl hair cut at a salon. She did so great! Sat still, listened when she was told to move her head.....she was really proud of herself! Her hair was so crazy and all over the place before, more often than not it was in her face and covering her eyes. We cut it to her shoulders which took off about 4-5 inches and now it's even and thick and stays away from her face. I really like the cut and I think she looks like such a big girl! She may have a new haircut, but she's the same ol' Maddie through and through! :o)

Maddie before

Maddie after

I thought I'd leave you with a short list of things that make me feel sick.....

Hamburgers
Cherry cough drops
Poop (which makes it tough to change diapers!)
Chapstick (or at least my Burts Bees chapstick)
Coffee
lavender aromatherapy lotion
Seafood at Asian supermarket

Enjoy hump day tomorrow!