Happy Accident

Have you ever seen those tutus on etsy.com? Well, I am hooked to this website and have purchased several as gifts for friends. I decided that the tutus don't look that complicated and tried my hand at making one for Gigi. Georgia loved it and was bouncing on the couch because she was so happy. I was trying to take her photo and fell over while snapping due to her bouncing. The result was this fabulous photo. I love it so much! It is artistic and fluffy just like a tutu!!!! What a happy accident.

St. Rodolfo of Assisi

Monday morning Wally caught a bird and was torturing the poor creature. Rodolfo intervened and rescued him from certain death. He has been nursing the bird (maybe a dove) back to health ever since by feeding him some of my health-food grains (amaranth) and water. That same morning while driving to work Rodolfo also noticed a turtle crossing a busy street. I didn't get to see the turtle because he released it on the grounds of Chesapeake near their little river, but he said it was a nice turtle. I told Rodolfo his super-hero name should be St. Rodolfo of Assisi, inspired by Saint Francis himself, the patron saint of animals. :) Gigi has had a blast helping Rodolfo care for the bird. I think we need to name him. How about Flit?

Tomatoes are like candy

The tomatoes are nearly ripe. My mouth is watering as I type. I didn't stake my tomatoes too well so they are a jumbled mess, next year I will have to stake more strategically. However, I am happy that at least they have tomatoes growing on them! I've also had success with my jalepenos, my kung fu peppers and then some kind of other peppers, I don't know what they are because they are not what I thought I planted, but oh well, nice surprise I guess. My Bell Peppers grew and were so beautiful, but then some kind of ugly pest ate a really odd portion of each bell pepper top and they have not been the same since. We also had some delicious sweet peas and a couple of squash (my squash have also been attacked and are no longer producing). Overall I am very pleased with this experiment and need to clean up my beds to prepare for late summer/fall plantings.

Besos!

On this beautiful evening Gigi blew me a kiss (and I caught it here on film)!

Bubbles

What is summer without the bubbles? Not the same! We pulled out the bubbles that Gigi hadn't really played with since last summer. She had a good ol' time realizing that she is much more capabable in the bubble-blowing department than she was last year. Amazing what an entire year of growing and development can do for a toddler!!!!

Note, I am trying to figure out how to process images so that there is consistency. Each of these images have a different tone because I don't have a fluid process yet. The images were taken within a few minutes of each other but my processing lead me in several divergent directions.

Visiting the Sisters!

"A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost." -Marion C. Garretty. I found this quote in a recent library book. I love it because it is sooo true! We traveled down to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to visit Mindy and Rebecca and their fams. Gigi and Elle pretty much had these kind of blank stares the entire time. We tried taking them to the American Girl Doll store. What a fabulous place for young girls! Unfortunately ours were a little too young for the fun in store at this place. Mainly the bathroom interested Georgia as the floors leading too it were filled with sparkles. She didn't really seem to understand the fun of lunching with your favorite American Girl doll. We'll have to revisit this store in a few years. Elle-belle was under the weather with a cold but kept the smiles rolling none the less. Gigi and I did have a memorable swim at Auntie Rebecca's pool. We are slowly re-introducing Gigi to the water. I made the mistake at the beginning of the summer of not catching her properly when she jumped into the water and let her go under head and all... oops! Apparently learning by fire isn't the way to teach young ones to swim. So, we hung out mainly by the fountains at Bec's place and still had fun. Can't wait to see you two sisters again!

Lovely

As we were getting ready for church this morning I couldn't help but notice how pretty Gigi looked. Had to snap a few photos. What an angel!

A few days ago Gigi looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, God created flowers. God created butterflies." "Yes," I replied thinking how beautiful it is when little ones talk about God. And then she continued in her serious tone "And God created dunedees." "Dunedees?" I quizzically replied wondering what she meant. Then she burst out laughing as if she were being wildly tickled. I don't know exactly what the toddler joke was, but I think I fell for it. She pulled a fast one on me! :)

Lavender Blooms

My lavender is blooming (see above photo)! Hip hip hooray! I have never had the good luck of having this fragrant herb bloom. I feel like I am in Provence. Every time I glance towards the blooms I silently cheer and feel flat out giddy. There is certainly great joy in gardening. When other perennials come out, like these cone flowers, I feel like I am seeing old friends. Isn't their color gorgeous? I would love a dress with those colors! Lamentably, my hydrangeas, the most showy and fabulous of all blooms (in my opinion) have decided to sleep through this season. I think I need to fertilize them. Otherwise, we have been eating tons of lettuce, some sweet peas and one squash (so far) from the garden. My tomatoes are green and growing and I have lots of tomatillos that look to be on the way. Boy am I amazed at what comes from seeds, dirt, sun and water. Makes me really appreciate God's creativity and constant act of creation.

Garden secrets

Yesterday while visiting my grandparetns I learned some gardening secrets from their neighbor, Willie. He is a fascinating man who, along with his wife Lena, escaped from Nazi Germany in a motorcycle chase. I can't remember the details of the story, although I have heard it periodically throughout my life. I should get the scoop and edit this entry later.

Anyway, he has a BEAUTIFUL yard and garden. Yesterday he gave me the recipe/formula for how he treats his plants and grass. I guess it is organic. He mixes it up and then attaches a hose to a bottle and sprays away. Thought I would share it with all you other gardners out there.

SUMMER SPRAY (for grass):

1 cup epsom salt

1 cup listerine

1 cup liquid soap (like Ivory)

1 cup amonia

1 can beer

1 can coca cola

FALL

2 cup Epsom salt

2 cup liquid soap

3 Tablespoons of baking powder

3 cups of Tobasco (willie never uses tobasco)

TREE SPRAY (apply 2-3 times per year)

2 cups liquid soap (ivory)

2 cups listerine

TOMATOES

2 Tablespoons of Molasses

2 Tablespoons of liquid soap (ivory)

At the Park

Rodolfo, Gigi and I went to the park around noon. I didn't realize that we have a splash park just down the street from us until a couple of months ago. It really is a great park, Gigi had a blast! Unfortunately, this park is also a fine example of the racial divide in Oklahoma City. The park is smack dab in the middle of an area that has a great mix of ethnicities-- Asian, Hispanic, African American AND Caucasian. But, for the most part, the only people that frequent this park are African Americans. A long time ago when I worked for Senator Nickles, a co-worker of mine, who happens to be African American, explained to me that in Oklahoma she feels very segregated from the white population. She said that when she travels to DC or to other parts of the country she doesn't feel the tension and the attitude of prejudice that she feels here. I never really paid attention to these things until she mentioned this to me. And I have to say, when Rodolfo and I moved to Houston I COULD see a huge difference. The African American population was much more a part of the mainstream activities of the community. Although tensions still exist in Houston (as I learned from teaching high school in Houston ISD) the dividing line is much more blurred than it is in OK. Moving back to Oklahoma from Houston made the picture even clearer-- restaurants, the mall, the parks, movie theaters-- there are the places white people go and there are the places black people go. It is unfortunate that in 2009 Oklahoma is still so segregated. I don't know what the solution is, but by crossing the lines today I felt like a rebel and I was a bit scared, even though Rodolfo was with me. The people there, especially the men, looked at me like I was an alien. I don't think I will return to that park, which is unfortunate since it has such a great splash park. But I did not feel safe there. I felt like I was treading on someone else's territory and that I was an unwanted presence. Having prejudice reversed is enlightening, but also disheartening since most prejudice stems from ignorance. When will we all just decide to be friends, embrace our differences and move on to become equal citizens of a beautiful country? Isn't that how it is supposed to work? Isn't that what the school books teach? And while I am on the subject, I wish we didn't have to differentiate between African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, and Caucasian. Why can't we be like they are in Canada? The citizens of that country are from all over the globe, but they simply call themselves Canadian. When are we just going to start calling ourselves simply "American"? And I ask this question not to ignore the diversity of races here but wondering when will we make peace with the past, embrace each other as brothers and sisters and look forward to moving on to greater good as a united citizenship of people. Oh no, now I am having flashes of the French revolution when people called each other "citoyens" and no trace of social or political hierarchy was allowed. I certainly don't mean that type of equality to the masses Sovient Union-Fidel Castro mentality. I am a firm believer in capitalism. But damn these lines. They sure do make teaching your child about love and equality of all people difficult.

color correcting

Love photoshop. I'm taking old photos and correcting color. It is rather subjective work. I can see a million different ways to go. Here are a couple I did today. Doesn't Elle look so happy! Mindy, you are doing a great job with that adorable cutie-pie. I can't wait to see her!

What's old is new again!

Well, since we have been cleaning out closets and spiffying up our house to prepare to show it I have come across lots of old things we don't need. It is amazing how much junk collects. I've been having Habitat come by at least once a month for an entire year and we still have more stuff to give away! Some of it I hang onto for sentimental reasons, like old place mats given to us for our wedding that are well worn out but I like them anyway and can't part with them. But other stuff, like stuffed animals!! that are just little dust bunnies, those I am tossing. Gigi found her birthday hat that we used on her first birthday. She had fun putting it on and had me and my mom sing Happy Birthday to her. She loves that song. I snapped a few pictures while she had it on. The bottom picture is of her in her white dress that she wore last year when we were at Seaside. It still fits! So she will get to wear it again this summer!! Yea!