Clean freak?!

Tomorrow is the day. the big day.

Our adoption specialist, Dianna, is coming to our house! It's an unofficial homestudy visit. And the first time I'm going to meet her! AH!!

At first the whole idea made me so nervous, and I still am a little bit, but to be honest I think most of my nerves are nerves of excitement. I know that most people go all clean freak before a specialist comes to the house, but I'm not.

which is weird. so weird.

i am a perfectionist. i love things to be a certain way. my house to be a certain level of clean. and it's not like that and hasn't been for two months. between being a "single mom", a homeowner, school, dentist appointments to start invisalign again, doctor appointments to diagnosis which autoimmune disease I have, adoption process and spending all the time that is required with a deployment for/with my husband I just don't have to stick with my high standards.

if bubba was here he wouldn't find it acceptable. he is more anal and more of a perfectionist than i am. that's our downfall. we balance each other out in almost everything else except for out perfectionism.

ha. sometimes its torture.

so my feelings going into tomorrow are excitement. scared. and a bit nervous.

i'm so excited to get this process moving forward, as slowly as we are being as he is deployed and all, but it's another step closer. to getting our baby..

i think about that day. the day that we will get to meet our new child. it makes me so excited i could just dance!! and cry. and throw up all at the same time.

so anxious. will my hubby come home already!?!?

As I blog

I am writing or talking to nobody.

nobody. at all.

While making this blog is a little risky for me. you see...

no one knows about my blog. yet. just my hubby. but being as he's in Afghanistan he doesn't even read it.

The thing is. We have told very select people that we are adopting. My mom. my sister and brother. I have also told my two besties.. Tarah and Josh (aka Christopher).

We have sworn them to secrecy. Bubba and I both feel that we don't want to share the news with people until our homestudy is done and approved. We feel like we will get through the process fine and we believe we will be approved, but many things could happen and we feel like it's announcing that you are trying to have a baby.. and then never actually pregnant. or maybe it takes a long time to get pregnant. and then you have everybody asking you all the time about it and wondering what takes so long. Being as even with the few people we have told, not a lot of people understand the process, the paperwork, all the training, and the time and all the PATIENCE involved with adoption.

So as I blog... to NO ONE.. I take a bit of a risk, with someone stumbling upon my blog that knows us. The odds are almost NIL, but you never know.. weirder things have happened.

But this is my out. my journal. my experiences. my life. I don't want to forget the feelings, trials, and process of the whole adoption. It's a new thing to us and I find there is very little on the open and honestness that goes into the feelings during the whole process. So that's me. Recording it for ALL..or no one.. or just me..  to read.

adios!

Lilac Season

Are you enjoying lilac season?! I sure am!!

Tour of my Garden

This is only my second year at gardening. To see if I even have a pale green thumb has been quite the experiment. Last year I planted some things and my best growers were tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and lettuce!

So I'm trying my hand again this year. Trying a few new things, learning from last years mistakes (like planting too early because I'm so excited!) and Bubba built a new raised bed. Although he won't be here this year, so we will have a lot of extra produce this year to share with friends!

I apologize for any pictures sthat turned sideways, I'm still learning this whole blogger thing from my phone. I took them with my phone and uploaded them onto the Blogger app, but some of them turned sideways? Hmm... maybe it's me. most likely is. :)

  

Here are our 2 strawberry plants. We planted these last year and they did pretty well. the hardest part was waiting to get a strawberry to eat. I think the most we were able to eat at one time was three. Hoping for a few more this year.

Celery- this is a new one to me. I actually cut the bottom off of a stalk that I bought from the store. And I just shoved it into the ground by my tulips. It started growing rather quickly!

{Excuse the weeds}

These are 5 strawberry plants that I bought this year at Fred Meyers on one of their sales. I think they were .50 a plant. You can also see the mint that I planted last year (to the right of the photo) and it has started expanding. It smells so amazing! Although it's an invasive plant I'm kind of hoping the strawberries will co-mingle with the mint ok. But it should stay contained being in a "planter" style area. I'm hoping when I get enough that I can make my own mint extract!! :)

Here are my onions!! And my zuccinis. I had way too many zuccinis and I just decided to plant them all. Even though they are too close together, but oh well. We'll see what happens. I also have a couple of pumpkins in there too.

These are my beans. These are new this year. I made 2 bamboo teepees. And as I was making them I was wishing that my husband was here to do them. None of my sticks were the same length and I wasn't about to whip out the saw and cut them myself, I'm a bit accident prone. And then one of my teepees didn't last more than 3 days. so until I get it fixed I have a little cage thing set up around them.

Do you see that? Do ya?? It's a little flower bud!! On my tomato plant! woo hoo! I bought this cherry tomato plant as a start. Last year I did all my tomatoes form starts after all but one of my seeds died off. They grew amazingly! So this year I ought a cherry tomato and a yellow pear tomato plant. I've never even seen or heard or tasted a yellow pear tomato, but I'm excited to try it. So crossing my fingers it survives!

My sugar snap peas! These are what I'm most excited about. Last year we only had 3 plants from starts and they grew wonderfully. My dauhgter just loved going out and looking to see the peas and to pick them off and eat them right there. LOVE IT!

This year, I've started much more and all from seeds.

I also have carrots seeds planted in here.

Sideways picture - carrots and spinach. I've never grown spinach and WOW.. it sure grows quickly. When watering it tonight I saw those little tiny round leaves coming out. I'm so excited! Also I'm growing a different kind of carrots, some regular long orange ones and the pretty rainbow ones.

This is Rowan's garden. She planted sunflowers and lettuce. The sunflowers we started inside because last year the little birdies decided to eat them as a snack.

This is bubba's garden. rowan said she was going to plant seeds in there for daddys this year being as he isn't here to do it. She decided on pease and spinach! They are all growing already.

Another celery. This is my second one - pot planted. Also if you see those little tiny worm looking things, those are my cayenne sprouts. ha. i tried them last year too.. no success. I don't think they will last this year either.

Lastly, these are where my tomatoes will be going. I have the two already and I need to get a few more regular red tomato plants.. hoping for the .50 sale at lowe's again, like last year! also some cayenne and carrots are planted in here. I am hoping to get some radishes, lettuce or kale planted in here as well.

That's it! My little garden... well not so little for only a sophomore gardener. But it sure is fun to try all of this! Hoping for some good crops and an abudance of produce this year!!