Help All you Green Thumbs!!!

As I've mentioned many time before...I have NO green thumb whatsoever. Ironically, I LOVE gardening each Spring. My birthday present from my parents each year (Memorial Day Birthday) is plants for the yard and my present from Steve is the time to go plant them without little boys helping me..

Last year, I received two plants for Mother's Day and I planted them both. One of them died and one of them sort of survived. By the end of the summer it was looking pretty bad and I was going to pull it. Someone told me to leave it and see what happens this spring. I did.

As you can see, the branches all sticking up are TOTALLY DEAD. They snap when bent.
However, there is new growth underneath that actually looks really healthy.

I think it's either a hydrangea or an azalea. Those are the two I got but I don't know which one it is. Any guesses?

Here's the question, do I pull it or leave it? Do I cut off the dead branches down to the ground or leave them? I hope someone can help me. I need to make a decision before I spread mulch around that area.

Please help!

Spring Break Day 4

Nothing much exciting yesterday. I spent the day on the phone working out the "car thing". We visited a friend of a friend at a dealership last night and came to a decision. We got burned on our last car purchase so we will not make another car purchase until we both fell REALLY GOOD about the purchase. So, we drop our vacation savings into a new transmission, but then hopefully get the three years out of the van. My thinking is, the transmission is one of the biggest expenses in a car. If we replace it, then hopefully we can ride three more years out of the van. I feel good about the decision and so does Steve.

So you, my bloggy buddies, will hopefully not have to bear any more car stories for awhile.

My sister and I took the boys and her boys (and an extra little girl) to the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything yesterday. Have you seen it? It was sooooo cute. I loved the music and even Aaron sat somewhat still (He is NOT a movie person). I think even my brother would love this movie.

Today we are off to the zoo (if the rain holds off) so I hope to get a good Wordless Wednesday picture out of it. The rain plan is bowling.

I also started a new rewards system with the boys yesterday. I found it on The MotherLoad.
If you have not visited her site yet, it has amazing ideas and I have loved it since I discovered it last week. Anyway, I originally thought it would help to encourage Noah to say "Okay, Mom" more but it has turned into much more. We went to the party store yesterday to buy Noah some tickets (the carnival type) and created a earn and payment chart. Aaron wanted in on the action to so I figured, since he has been having accidents again, maybe I could use this for Aaron to stay dry too. They each got their own color of tickets and bucket to keep them in. Noah helped me come up with rewards. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off too soon. I think it will help Noah to "earn" what he wants rather than expect it. It should help with math as he is already trying to figure out ow many tickets he needs for things and what he has to do to get them. I imagine we will later the chart as we go, but this morning, I have already had two little boys clean up the legos on the floor, eat breakfast, and get their clothes for today without a single battle...WOO HOO!

I will keep you "posted." hahahhahahahahahahahaha :)

Have a great Tuesday.

Spring Break Day 3: More Outside

We thought about skipping church yesterday and sleeping in, but when it came down to it, we just couldn't bring ourselves to give in.

While waiting for time to go, Steve became ADDICTED to a game on WebKinz.












The congregation was about a quarter of the usual size because pretty much the entire town of Ada goes to Florida or Colorado for Spring Break.

However,

Noah's' Sunday School class was mixed with Aaron's and there were 13 kids. The teacher had planned beading and three year olds just weren't going to cut it. So I stayed in the room and helped with ironing. We ended up with four teachers in there for crowd control and I think it was actually fun.

Afterward, we headed to a park for lunch and playing.

When we got home, yet more bike riding, tree climbing,














and playing with the neighbor kids.
Steve wanted to do the first cookout of the season and he also cleaned out the fire pit because Steve wanted to roast marshmallows.











Lots of discussion on the car front. We really are torn at what to do now that BOTH cars are a mess. We have to make a decision and we really don't have a clue. We heard the gamut of ideas at church yesterday, so now we just have to figure out the best solution for us. We don't want to make a hasty decision this time...just the right one.
Noah said yesterday "Mommy, why can't we be on Spring Break, too and do fun things." How do I tell him we're stuck simply because our cars don't work? Hopefully we can get some of this figured out today and then we will have a fun day at the zoo tomorrow with my sister and her kids.

While we were outside and I was raking, the boys noticed the bulbs that I planted last fall are turning into something pretty. Both of them wanted to use their spray toys to water them.














I found this cool toy at Target for the boys. Noah likes it because it "looks like Saturn." Both of the boys love playing ball and frisbee, but neither one can catch a regular one. This silly thing was less than $5 and both of them can catch it and Noah is somewhat good at throwing it (like a frisbee). We actually played for a LONG time with it and Steve had fun chasing it down the street. It was the most fun I have ever had playing ball with the boys. Probably because everyone could actually play with it.



















It was a beautiful weekend to be outside. I think it's supposed to continue most of the week.

Have a great Monday.

Spring Break Day 2 Bikes and Bread

Wow...beautiful weather for the first "official" day of Spring Break. Sunny and 52. We knew we needed to get outside today.

Steve got home late from work because he had to go clean out the un-drivable minivan over at the transmission place. When he got home, we finally headed to Noodles and Company for lunch.

If you remember this post, I destroyed all of Steve's work pants a couple of weeks back and Steve is desperate. Is anyone familiar with Steve and Barry's? A store with actually pretty decent clothes with nothing over $8.89. So we headed over to Holland where they have a very large store at West Shore Mall so Steve could buy some replacement pants for work.

While we there, we had brought some bread for the kids to go over to the outlet center on the bridge and feed the ducks. The ducks weren't all that interested in eating, but the boys had a great time anyway with the novelty of throwing food into the water. Noah did start eating as much as he was throwing after awhile.















On the way home, Aaron and Steve both fell asleep when I looked down and, lo and behold, the "back-up" car's "Service Engine Soon" light came on. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

So Steve took it over to the same diagnostic place he took the van, less than 24 hours before, and had it hooked up. this time they couldn't find anything so he drove it home. The light still hasn't gone off.

Now, the week is even starting to look a little more interesting with both cars out of commission.

We still had a fun afternoon of playing outside. Noah climbed the neighbors' tree for the first time and I didn't catch him until he was PAST the phone lines. He actually argued with me when I told him he to stay under the phone lines he was hitting as he was climbing.

Aaron is getting better at maneuvering the bike. Noah even set up an obstacle course for them to ride through (three buckets, that is)














We watched the rest of "Enchanted" and got the kids to bed early.

Steve's ulterior motive...watching two basketball games.

Have a great Lord's Day tomorrow. I know we will be heading to the park right after church and Steve is planning to clean out the grill tomorrow night for the first cook out of the year.

Why Do I Blog?

In recent weeks, I have come to feel like I can't be honest in my blog. Because of this, I would like to address the purpose of this blog.

I started this blog as a way to write out my daily events of my life. A way to help sort out things that we are going through. It has also served the purpose of meeting some wonderful people that I have come to feel like I know, even if it is simply through the computer. I have treasured meeting you all.

It has also served as a way to keep family members up to date on how things are going with our children.

I have related struggles about my weight, my parenting, our finances, and our health. Those whom I have met through the blogosphere have been wonderfully supportive and I have felt blessed by their comments.

I have a right to express my views in any way I choose. They are NOT meant for a specific person or group of persons. They are meant mainly for myself as a way to write about things and sort things out.

This being said, I have been honored to meet people who have commented in ways that are supportive and understanding. I love getting comments and emailing responses to all of you who are sharing your thoughts. However, I am now closing comments to anonymous commentors. I feel like if you are writing with integrity, then you should be comfortable signing your name to a comment. It seems like common courtesy.

Thank you for letting me voice my opinions. None of us have a right to make others feel bad until they have walked a mile in their shoes.

Have a great weekend.