My garden spot was mounded fairly high to begin with and then I covered the entire garden with mulch to keep down the weeds.  This has worked out well with all the rain and I have only had to water one week.  God has taken care of the rest, thank you Lord!  My vegatables are doing great and Madi has been able to eat two ripened strawberries.  And she agreed that the things you grow yourself taste soooo much better that those that you buy in the store.  It must be the “labor of love” idea that makes everything taste a little sweeter.  This has been a good thing for Madi and I to enjoy together.  We both look at the garden first thing in the morning and as soon as we pull in the drive.
I have already written (at least I think I have) that I had two ripened tomatoes already this year.  The other night I came home and saw another one ready to be picked.  My neighbor came to the fence to greet me and complimented me on my gardening skills.  This is the same man that harassed me most of the spring while getting it ready.  He pulled up a chair on his side of the fence and had a great time telling me that I was doing it ALL WRONG!  This was all in fun and he did have some good advice for me because he is older than dirt!  So after he complimented me I gave him my third tomato of the season and you would have thought that I gave him a  brick of gold.  I made this mans day and in turn it made my day to share something out of my very own garden.  I can’t wait until I can load up my basket with fresh veggies to share with my friends and co-workers.  I actually found the perfect basket while cleaning Madi’s bedroom and I asked her if she thought it would be good for holding vegetables and she got the biggest smile on her face and said “Momma, that is the perfect job for that basket”.

So last night I was weeding the garden and thinking about next year.  What will I plant?  What will I do different?  And I started wishing that I had planted the cucumber seeds that I bought.  So as I was putting all my tools up for the evening I looked at the packet of seeds and realized that you can plant them all the way up until mid-summer.  So I grabbed the shovel and planted the entire packet of seeds against the trellis.  And now I am so excited because I have another vegetable in the garden!  I am hoping that the cucumbers take off like Madi’s gourds have.  They have already reached the very top.  I am looking forward to using them for craft projects this fall.  I have always wanted to try making birdhouses so we should have plenty to use for trial and error.  So guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year?

Summer 2008 rocks so far and I hope all of you are having just as much fun!

 

Maddie with our friend Jeff

 

Maddie waving the checkered flag

The Sprint cars are not my favorite to watch.  I prefer the bomber cars because you can keep track of who’s who and I always cheer for the car who has no sponsor who is usually the car being lapped by all the others.  The Sprint cars go way to fast and from the stands it is hard to tell what the hell is going on.  Plus the number of cautions in a 25 lap race is a little annoying.  I saw it through until the end because I know Chris really likes to watch a race of any kind and he gets pretty excited.  I am nice like that.  Maddie and I decided to race down the hill behind the stands and find other little ways of entertaining ourselves. 

 

Playing in the stands away from the flying debri 

 

Wearing my sunglasses to keep the dust out of her eyes

The race lasted until midnight and I couldn’t believe that Maddie was still full of energy.  I know that kids are supposed to have ten hours of sleep every night but I doubt Maddie will ever get that much until she is grown and out on her own.  There are just too many things to do and why should we stop when we are having so much fun?  She of course slept in a little this morning but she wasn’t too tired to go to garage sales with her Daddy this morning as this seems to be their new Saturday ritual.

 

Racing up and down this hill was a workout

I think Maddie crashed out before we left the parking lot and she slept all the way home.  But as soon I carried her in the house she woke up and was ready to go for another ten hours.  I have heard some people say that sugar does not make children hyper but I think the funnel cake, ring pop and soda definately increased her energy level.

 

My main concern about going was the noise and the possible damage it could inflict on Maddie’s tiny eardrums.  We stopped by Chris’ shop on the way out of town and picked up some ear muffs so I wouldn’t have to worry about Maddie’s ears ringing for the rest of her life. 

We met our friends at the track and it was already getting dark.  They begin the races with the street class (I am sure there is another term for this but I am not an expert in this area) and Maddie looked a little bored.  I can’t blame her, who wants to watch a Ford Escort go up against a Toyota Corolla?  But then the hot rods lined up and the sheer sound of it will rattle your teeth.  When they take off at the starting line you can feel the rumble in your chest.  I have always enjoyed the drag strip and I am constantly amazed at the rate of speed that these cars travel.  I would love to try it one time – 130 miles an hour on the strip must to be quite a rush.

We didn’t leave until 11:00 pm but Maddie behaved wonderfully.  We are lucky to have a child who can acclimate so easily to just about any enviroment.  We can take her to a theater to see a play and she will sit quietly through the entire production.  That is probably why we take her so many places.  She makes it easy for us and it wouldn’t be as much fun without her there.  One of the greatest things about being a parent is watching your child experience things for the first time. 

Does she like the races?  Check out the pictures and decide for yourself.

 

Starting Line with Dad

 

Giving Dad Bunny Ears

 

Me and Maddie

 

My Dream Car – Chevy Deuce

 

Maddie’s Favorite Car – The Yellow Bug

Since that night we have used that word in a million different ways.  It is her word and she is very proud to hear other people say it.  She loves the word and has now created a little game.  The game is very simple:  You say the word – “Hock-a-doe-doe” followed by whatever you see in the room.  Example:  Hock-a-doe-doe Book.  Hock-a-doe-doe Daddy.  Hock-a-doe-doe TV.  Hock-a-doe-doe Chair.

This is a game we play at least once a day and I have to admit it is fun.  So next time you see Maddie, say the word and be prepared to play the game for hours of fun.  It is sure to be the next cool thing so tell all your friends.  Hock-a-doe-doe Bye.

For the last two days I have stayed at home with Maddie because she has a virus of some sort.  I won’t go into details but this virus is hanging on for dear life and shows no signs of subsiding anytime soon.  Other than the horribly disgusting symptoms, she has remained her delightful self and has wanted to play every second that we were together.  I decided that I owed her that much after weeks of neglect.  I am sorry that she is sick but I am also thankful for the time we had this week for the simple things:

Play Dough Faces

Indoor Slide (The smile on her face is worth the $10 garage sale purchase)

Tea Party with her Teddy Bear (I was not invited to this party but she did allow me to take pictures)

 

When we went to bed on Saturday I told Chris that I wanted to wake up in the morning and leave the house for most of the day. I didn’t care where we went as long as there was water near by and somewhere safe for Maddie to play. Chris was in charge of deciding where we would go and I was in charge of packing what we needed. It was a great day – Truman Lake, sandwiches, water, fishing, reading – perfect! It didn’t even phase us that the canoe fell off the truck on the drive up and could have totally ruined the day. And it didn’t bother us that we had to pull over 4 different times to adjust the canoe so that it wouldn’t fall off again. Maddie and I also napped all the way home (Thank you Chris!)

 

 

 

 

]]> http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/04/23/sunday-getaway/feed/ 0 http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/04/05/this-week-in-pictures/ http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/04/05/this-week-in-pictures/#comments Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:54:04 +0000 CrazyForHer http://www.crazyforher.com/?p=126 I don’t have a lot of time to write so I thought I would post some pictures instead. I had a long weekend (5 days off) and we were on the go! So here is the week in pictures.

The first thing we did was pay a quick visit to the car wash. I know, quite exciting…

I think we all know who this is. If you don’t? You either have no children or you are not the cool Mom like me.

Riding the rides at the “Cheese”.

The Next Day….

Breakfast with the geese at the park. We were having a great time until it turned into the newest reality show “When Geese Attack!”.

Feeding the geese our stale hotdog buns.

Oh how she loves the play place at McDonalds. I always feel like we need to sanitize after playing there. That probably explains the horrible cough she has.

Waiting for Kylie and Clayton to meet us. She is telling me that she is SO excited!

I didn’t get too many pictures of the zoo trip. I was busy pulling the girls in the wagon and catching Clayton as he bailed out of his stroller. Hats off to all the Moms out there with multiple children.

A lucky boy who was surrounded by four beautiful women for an entire day. He is pretty darn cute himself.

The days that followed involved a lot of playing outside and scraping paint on the front porch. As a matter of fact, my hands hurt so bad that I believe this will be the end of the post. Peace Out!

]]> http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/04/05/this-week-in-pictures/feed/ 0 http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/18/dicks-five-dime/ http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/18/dicks-five-dime/#comments Sun, 19 Mar 2006 04:25:31 +0000 CrazyForHer http://www.crazyforher.com/?p=123 We visited a place that holds many happy memories of my childhood. Downtown Branson, Dick’s Five and Dime. Est. 1926, isles packed with wonderful things like the clapping monkey, marbles, shot glasses and hillbilly crafts. My parents took us there a few times, gave us a dollar and let us loose. We spent at least an hour trying to decide how we would spend that dollar. Inevitably, we would change our minds 10 times and come out of the store with a sack full of candy. So today, Maddie left the store the same way. Candy in hand and a smile on her face. We spent $1.30 and by the look on her face you would have thought we spent $100.

]]> http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/18/dicks-five-dime/feed/ 0 http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/17/the-greatest-show-on-earth/ http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/17/the-greatest-show-on-earth/#comments Sat, 18 Mar 2006 04:24:45 +0000 CrazyForHer http://www.crazyforher.com/?p=122 The Circus is in town! Woo-Hoo! I took Maddie tonight even though I swore last year would be our last trip to the Circus. I forgot about how expensive it is and how sad it makes me to see dogs wearing dresses. Not to mention the sad look in the Elephants eyes as they are being led around in a circle with a load of 6 kids on their backs.

I took Maddie because I knew that she would love it and she is young enough that she does not experience the sadness that I do at my age. I am old enough to know that those animals are treated poorly and yet I went anyway and supported the Circus with my hard earned cash. And man! The cash I left behind, never again. At least that is what I say this year.

There is a sticker in my cubicle at work that reads “The Circus is no fun for Elephants”. Oh, the hypocrisy. The one thing that Maddie was really excited about was riding an Elephant. Why? Because when I picked her up at Daycare, her favorite teacher said “Maddie, make sure you ride the Elephant!” Thank you Miss Kristy! My morals were tested and I failed miserably. Of course I purchased the ticket and Maddie rode the Elephant. Her face was beaming, she was scared at first but then bravery kicked in and she climbed those steps and rode the sad Elephant.

We left at intermission because I could not take another hour of torture. Maddie thought the Circus was over so she had no idea that her Mother cheated her out of the grand event which probably involved bears riding bicycles and that leads me to the next moral dilema. The other sticker in my cubicle reads “Bears do not belong on bikes!” At least I was able to leave with my head held high knowing that I would not be clapping for the poor bears with thier muzzles on and their paws strapped to the pedals.

So I leave you with this image: Maddie and the Elephant ride that cost $7.00

]]> http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/17/the-greatest-show-on-earth/feed/ 0 http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/06/picture-monday/ http://www.crazyforher.com/2006/03/06/picture-monday/#comments Tue, 07 Mar 2006 02:36:27 +0000 CrazyForHer http://www.crazyforher.com/?p=119

I am only posting pictures today because I would like to pretend that this was how I spent my entire day. When in reality this was just a small portion of the day and the only good part. I took Maddie to the park as soon as we came home. I love this weather and it was a perfect day for the park.

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