The Garden is LEAPING!

I am absolutely amazed at how well the garden is doing this year. I have no idea what the difference is, but many of my plants are much healthier and growing much more vigorously than they did last year. We put the garden in a little later last year, but the plants just never seemed to really be healthy. It seemed like they just couldn't get a good strong foothold (except for the squash that is...). I don't know if it's the aging of the manure in the soil or what (although it was safely old enough last year), but I'm gonna have to start freezing already!

I've posted pics of the garden along with the most recent harvests from the zucchini, squash, and salad bed (my spinach are doing well too!!! yeah!!!!!!).

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It's a BOY!

Well, I'm gonna post this on my blogspot blog but many of you may know this already, but I got a little bit o' bad news recently. They've put me on hospital monitoring twice a week & am under restrictions... nothing serious, but a bit of a bummer. THE GOOD NEWS IS, I have ultrasounds quite frequently now due to all this and.... the last ultrasound showed it clear as a bell... It's a boy! Finally, we know what we're having. And yes, Courtney agrees the nursery should be in camoflage. How cute! And yes again, Courtney is absolutely giddy.

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Hoover SteamVac Silver - The Before and Afters

Awhile back I had made a post on Facebook regarding my complete and total awe of the ability of the Hoover SteamVac Silver carpet steam cleaner vacuum... Well, here are my before and after photos. Some are more impressive than others... some drastic changes just couldn't be captured by the photos. I should also admit here that we're working with an older Berber carpet... about 10 years old now... and it's been through some rough stuff out here in the country!

Fireplace BeforeFireplace After

Couch Floor BeforeCouch Floor After

Grace's Door BeforeGrace's Door After

Living Room Entry BeforeLiving Room Entry After

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Camp Barnabas and Fun in the Sun

With our warmer Missouri temps, we decided to crack out the little pool before we set up the bigger one this Memorial weekend. Grace enjoyed getting wet in her suit and piling sand all over the place. And, of course, there was MUCH flower picking going on.

We also had the opportunity to visit the now famous Camp Barnabas... it was featured on Ty Pennington's Extreme Makeover show a few years back. It's a great place geared for kids with disabilities and other challenges - summer camp extreme if you ask me. They offer the typical things like canoeing, camping, horseback riding, petting/handling zoos, swimming, staying in cabins, etc. They also offer an extreme outdoor course that would have me peeing my pants! (I don't care for heights.) Anyway, it was neat to get to go there and check it all out... thanks to Jack Henry & Associates... my husband's employer (my ex-employer in my pre-Grace days...). I guess they sponsored the camp in building a new cabin or something along those lines, so the camp opened up the place for a JHA night. I'll posts some pics here of our activities... shoulda brought a suit!

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