She Did It!!!

Much to my amazement on September 1st, my little girl got into the bathtub all by herself without being told to!!!  Maks will run and jump into the tub as soon as he sees me getting out his towels.  LillyAnn, on the other hand, hides under the bed and has to be coaxed out and then carried to the tub.  But, on Tuesday, she kept sneaking into the bathroom to  peek while Maks was taking his bath.  And then, to my complete shock, she came into the bathroom on her own as soon as Maks jumped out of the tub and sat beside the tub.  When I asked her if she wanted a bath, she got into the tub all by herself.  I'm soooo proud of my smart little girl!!! 

The Good, Bad, and Just Plain UGLY!

First the GOOD news:  My garden is awesome!  All of the veggies are growing nicely and it looks like I will be eating good this summer.  I picked my first snow peas yesterday and they were quite tasty.  I've got my eye on a couple of baby yellow crookneck squash, scallop squash, and zucchini squash that should all be big enough to pick and eat this weekend.  Yay!!!

And the even BETTER news is that I helped some clients write an offer on a property today. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that we are able to negotiate successfully and have a contract in place by this weekend.  

Now for the BAD news: The lawnmower has a broken wheel adjuster part.  It's kind of hard to mow the lawn with only three wheels. I went to three different tractor / small engine repair / equipment stores today and have essentially been told that the replacement part needed to properly keep the wheel on the lawn mower is a special order part that will take several weeks to arrive and cost me almost $30.00.  Needless to say, I'm quite frustrated!

And finally, the outright UGLY: I am suffering from an infestation of fleas at my house.  Said infestation was discovered last night.  Actually, it discovered me.  Evidently I taste good, because I am now covered in red ITCHY welts from the little devils biting me!  I bathed and sprayed both dogs and went through their fur hunting for my tormentors - found a grand total of ONE flea.  Tonight the cat gets a bath and flea spray - I'm sure he'll be all sorts of thrilled about that. (NOT) And tomorrow, the cat gets locked outside while the dogs and I go on a field trip for 5 hours so the house can stay closed up and let the bug foggers kill all of the little demons deader than dead.  And then, after I borrow a lawn mower from the neighbor down the street and actually mow my lawn, my yard will be sprayed with more bug spray to kill all fleas and ticks and mosquitoes that even dare to think about coming anywhere near my property.  Yup, I'm quite pissed off at bugs right now... therefore, THEY MUST DIE!!!  

Spring and Gardens and My Desire to STRANGLE the Neighborhood Cats!!!

Two weeks ago I got my raised garden beds all ready for seeds to be sown.  I tilled the soil, pulled the weeds out, added compost, raked it all even, planned the layout of where everything would grow, and put obelisks in the center of the beds for the pole beans to grow up.  Then I patiently waited a couple of days for the weather to co-operate and proceeded to plant my vegetable garden.   I put in two varieties of sweet corn, two varieties of peas, pickling and salad cucumbers, purple pole beans, blue lake pole beans, lima beans, carrots, onions, lettuce, turnip greens, cantaloupe, watermelon, eggplant, zucchini squash, yellow crookneck squash, white scallop squash, and tomatoes.  All started from seed.  It's a rather ambitious garden.  

The following day I went out to water my seeds.  Seeds don't grow without water.  As I walked toward my garden I was HORRIFIED -- the *$#%^@(*&^!!! neighborhood cats had been using it as a litter box!!!    Normally I don't harbor negative feelings toward cats.  BUT I am NOT going to allow my garden to be used as a shitter!  I have been battling those stupid cats for the past two weeks: turning the garden hose on them, throwing sticks at them, and letting the dogs chase them off (normally the dogs are not allowed to chase cats).  Two of the beds finally have enough veggies coming up that the cats no longer venture near them.  Now I only have to keep them away from the bed that contains the squash.  I am sooooooo FRUSTRATED!

Good news is that everything I planted has come up and it looks like I'll be up to my ears in veggies this summer.