Since we bought this house Dustin and I have contemplated a garden. This year we finally decided to give it a try.  Dustin has worked for many hours and finally this weekend we were able to plant.  We are growing onions, carrots, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, peppers and lettuce.  We’re looking forward to eating lots of yummy vegetables this summer!

The garden is 12′ x 20′.  Dustin tore out all the grass and added about 20 bags of composted manure and several bags of peat moss.

I’ve never seen zucchini and squash grown on mounds before but he read that they do better like that.  We’ll see I guess.

Dustin was talking to his Grandpa Fritschle about the garden and he offered him a tiller. After working on breaking up the ground by hand and renting a small tiller for a few hours, Dustin thought that sounded pretty good!  This tiller is around 50 years old and still works great! This thing was built to last. So, thanks Grandpa!

Had to get a picture of the girls! The fence is partly to keep rabbits out of the garden but also Violet.  She’s a digging fool!

The kids have really gotten into helping with the garden.  Mason even agreed to try every vegetable that we grow! That’s impressive coming from him!

Today was Mason’s first basketball practice.  We had to wait for his practice to start because there was a fourth and fifth grade game going on when it was supposed to start.  We got to watch about half of the game.  I forgot how fun it is to watch little kids play ball.  There were even cheerleaders!  They were all so cute.  Daniel Wertz won too! (The elementary schools play against each other.)

After the game, they lowered all the side baskets for the little kids to practice. Mason is practicing with other kindergarten kids and first graders.  You’ll notice that he’s the smallest kid in his group.  He’s wearing the black shirt and jeans.

The main focus today was dribbling.  He struggled at first but by the time the practice was over, he was doing better.

(Click the links to watch videos.)

Dribble

Then came time to practice shooting. Watch for him up by the basket.

Basket

Basket2

Definitely was fun to watch. Can’t wait to see how next week goes!

(Sorry for the poor quality. Next week I will take my camera and not just use my phone.)

The last year getting candy from Amy. She will be moving right before Christmas.

Don’t fear…we’re still alive.  It’s been awhile since my last update and I feel like I haven’t seen or talked to anyone in ages.  To say that I’ve been busy is a huge understatement.  And while I expected to be busy and all that, it still is a little overwhelming at times.

Mason is doing fantastic at school!  He loves going everyday so that makes it much easier on all of us.  When it comes time to wake him up, as soon as he hears that he’s going to school he hops out of bed and is ready to get dressed.  Since he’s not much of a morning eater, he usually eats breakfast at school.  That’s fine by me since none of us in this household are morning people and we like to get every last minute of sleep possible.    Mason is no exception there.  He rides the bus to school everyday and enjoys that as well.  I’m amazed at what all he’s learning and how fast he picks things up.  He is writing the alphabet now and counts to 50.  The class goal is to count to 100 by May so he’s halfway there!  They learn 2 new letters and 2 “popcorn” words per week.  Popcorn words are words that he should know on sight.  So far he knows: like, we, the, see, I, a, can, go.  He tells us that he never gets into trouble.  We should have parent teacher conferences within the next month or so so I guess we will find out if he’s telling the truth.

Avery is doing well also.  I swear that she is growing everyday.  She cracks me up with her clothing choices most of the time but I’ve learned that for daycare and around home I need to just go with it.  Her leotard is her most favorite article of clothing and she wears it all the time at home.  Dustin laughs that she can get the tightest, most restrictive piece of clothing on by herself but will throw a fit about a pair of sweatpants or socks!  That girl has drama let me tell you!

Both kids have adjusted to me being in school pretty well.  For the most part it hasn’t really changed their lifestyle.  I have all my classes while they’re in school and daycare and I work the same number of evenings I did before.  I usually wait to do any homework until after they’ve gone to bed.  I may be a little grumpier because I’m tired but they don’t seem to mind.  I need to take them out to USI’s campus sometime and show them around.  Mason doesn’t understand why I need an umbrella for school and he doesn’t.  He thinks that I just sit inside all day!  My walk from Math to Econ on Monday, Wednesday and Friday is a killer to do in 10 minutes!  Both kids are slowly learning that Mommy’s desk and all of her stuff is off limits.  The other evening I came home to a whole pad of post-it notes all over my desk with scribbles on them.  Avery was doing “homework” for me.

Classes are going…okay.  Let’s just say I’ve had my first round of tests in every class but one and I now know exactly what the instructors expect.  I’m trying not to worry too much about the first round of exams.  Chemistry was really rough but now that I know what her tests look like and the kind of things she asks about the next one will go better.  It’s been hard to get into a routine and I know I need to be better about keeping with it.

  It’s 11:10 pm and I will probably study until about 2 then go to bed.  I have math that is due Friday and I have an anatomy and physiology lab practical on Friday so I need to look over some of that before bed tonight too.  While I would love to push it off until tomorrow and go to bed, I work until 9 tomorrow night so that’s not a possibility.  I wish there was a way to put more hours into my day…