I am not a gardener.

I do NOT have a green thumb.  In fact, I’m quite certain I have the “black” thumb of death.  However… when you first do not succeed, try, try again, right?  Is that how it goes?  I dunno.

Anyway.  Now that we’re all moved in, I’m trying to grow some food.

I LOVE fresh herbs so, here I’ve got some basil, thyme and sage.

Here, I’ve got cucumbers, yellow peppers and tomatoes.

I still have to get a lattice or ladder or whatever you call it for the cucumbers because I’d like to train it to grow “up”.

I’ve been told that these guys are easy to grow… or difficult to kill… or something. However, when I went out to water my new babies today, the tomato plant (who I’ve lovingly named “Bob”… as in the Tomato from VegeTales ) had some yellow leaves it didn’t have on it yesterday. I must have killed some of the roots in the transplant… BUT WAIT… a blossom has bloomed as well… so who the heck knows.

I also named the cucumber plant, “Larry”, duh… and the yellow pepper plant “Chinky”.  What???  I can do that ‘cuz I AM one!  And, NO, I didn’t name the herbs.  Come on now… it’s not like I’m crazy or something.

Anyway, I gave them some water and love.  Yes, I sang to them.

I’ll keep you updated.

Do you name your plants?  Come on… let’s hear ‘em!

About a month ago, Alli and I did THIS.
Apparently, that made Holly happy cuz she’s letting us go through the rest of the closets in her house.  Today, Alli and I got to organize Holly’s upstairs hall closet.
Again, I’m not posting “before” pictures, because I would lose this gig (and believe you me, I would [...]

Today was our second week of our Renegade Joy Series, focusing in on Philippians 2:12-30.
Matt talked about our tendencies to complain as humans.  We all have something to complain about… but God calls us to live in JOY.  I am SO guilty of this.  Not the “living in joy” part… the complaining part… in case [...]

Watch this sequence:

Yeah… he’s a trouble maker.

Our good friend, Angela, invited our family to join her and her kids at her family’s (her Mom’s, actually) beach house for the next few days.
We walked in to see THIS:

I can’t believe I got such good clarity of the sunbeams in this photo since I took it with my iPhone.
It’s been less than 24 [...]

For those of you who haven’t read this yet, here is the “obituary”-like write-up on Scott in last Sunday’s Oregonian.
CLICK HERE for the article.
I hope you are all doing well!!!

The last month (plus) has been pretty challenging for all of us.
Chance has definitely felt the tension, the sorrow (in Scott’s death), the busyness (of moving) and has at times acted out because of the inconsistency.  You may say he’s just being a normal 3 year-old… which is probably quite true.  Brian and I have [...]

Chance got to go to his friend, Zaeda’s, 4th birthday party on Saturday.
He had so much fun!  I thought I’d post some pictures (really… would you expect anything less?)

… to the Vandergiessen’s garage.
I don’t think the mouse has found us yet… and I’m hoping it never does.
I got a panicked phone call this morning from Laura.  I did find it odd that she was calling me since she usually just walks over.  Here’s how it went down:
Me:  Hello?
Laura: Um… hi… what’s Brian [...]

I’m not really sure why I forget “holidays”… but I do.  I’m known for not remembering birthdays, anniversaries… I’ve even at times forgotten it’s Christmas the morning of.  I’ve just never been a “holiday/tradition” kind of a person.
But I want to be.

The good thing is this:  I consistently remember the special day THE DAY BEFORE… [...]