Well, I almost forgot I was now a blogger!  So I'll do a little blog now and try not to forget again.  My first attempt at Topsy Turvy tomato growing didn't go as well as planned.  The setback resulted from forgetting to water daily.  We got it hanging and watered, and then left it for 4 days.  The instructions say to water every day, and now I really believe them.  :)  So we took it down, put in a new little tomato plant, and we're trying it again.  This time we will be more diligent.  When I was out shopping for a new plant, I stumbled on a sale of really large tomato plants, so I bought four of them for the garden.  Only really small plants fit through the hanging planter opening though, so that one has some catching up to do.  I hope they all do well.  We dug some good holes and put in good dirt and compost, so I have high hopes.

Michann and I dropped off a carload off items for the thrift store this morning and felt very proud of ourselves for making good progress in our garage organizing project.  Then I had lunch with two friends from church at a new restaurant in Stanwood, the Blackbird Cafe.  I had a delicious lunch and a strikingly delicious lemon bar.  Very nice to have a great new place in Stanwood.  It's owned by a couple, one of whom, Joanne Swanson, is a case manager at Housing Hope, in addition to helping run her new restaurant!  It looks like they are doing a booming lunch business already.  We got to roll the dice after lunch, and try to roll "7" to get a free lunch (the June grand opening promotion, very clever).  It must not have been our lucky day, but two of the ladies right behind us hit the jackpot!

I watched a video presentation Thursday night at a Relief Society get-together which really captured my attention.  Wendy DeWitt presented a 90 minute food storage/emergency preparedness seminar and it was great.  She had some novel new ideas I'd never heard.  I haven't checked yet, but I understand you can access her information online, so google her!  I know I'll be incorporating several of her ideas.

Michann made about $100 in tips at work on Saturday!  She worked all day and it was sunny... a great combination for a carwash job.  Now she's just hoping the good weather will continue so she can keep raking it in.

Magen missed the bus.  Not a good start to the afternoon.  That's all I am going to say!

Amber, Jeff and I had a cozy little family night on physical health/the Word of Wisdom.  A prelude to fall when her older sisters will be off to college and she'll be an "only child" for a while.  It was fun!  We had homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, yum!  but a bit rich.

I really will miss Magen and Michann when they leave.  I hope they have a great year at school.  I hope they are safe, make good friends, learn a lot, get good grades, go to church, strengthen their testimonies, stay single, and come home at the end of the year happy and even more wonderful than they are now.

Car trouble today... but Mike Miller came to the rescue again and will help us get back on the road as soon as possible.  He is a nice, nice person.  Jackie Lindblom picked Jeff up from work, and she also is a nice, nice person.  We are lucky to have great friends.

I spent a bit of time working on Readiness to Learn stuff today.  Hopefully the upcoming fundraiser will go well.

Major accomplishment:  I went through my two "children's books" book shelves which are in the hallway upstairs.  I never thought I'd be able to do it, but I decided to give away half of them.  One entire shelf was emptied and the books have all gone to good homes.  It feels so good to get that done.  And now that shelf will be used in the garage to help get things organized.

Major accomplishment:  I blocked off the non-carpetted areas of downstairs to imprison Daisy.  She's been wetting on the carpet and it has almost driven me over the edge.  Apparently, dachshunds are notorious for having difficulty breaking bad habits in that department.  She was practically perfect for years, and then she went rebellious on us.  But now she is going to have to be content to "live" in the kitchen floor area of the downstairs, which is fairly large thankfully.  Now I need to have the carpets professionally cleaned.  The first night she was forced to sleep downstairs I made a nice cozy bed for her and tucked her in.  She barked and barked, so I came down (3 times) to try to help her get settled, but finally just went to bed with ear plugs.  Unknown to me (until morning) Amber couldn't sleep through the noise and came down and slept on the kitchen floor with her!!!  So last night we brough in her dog crate and thoroughly washed it out, made a new soft bed for it, and put it in Amber's room.  She can only sleep upstairs if she's locked in the crate!  Hopefully we'll get all the kinks worked out with our new system, because I just can't deal with her messes anymore.

I picked up a "Walton's" TV DVD from the library on a whim.  I thought the girls might enjoy seeing what a very old-time TV show was like.  It was never really one of my favorites, but I always got a kick out of the end when their all say good night to each other from in bed in their separate rooms... "good night John Boy"... "good night Mary Ellen"...

Good night...