Digging!

This morning we started digging up the grass to make room for the garden. Thanks to Ed, Todd, Kevin, Melissa, Steve and Mark for all of your hard work. Thanks Krista for watching the girls! By 2:00 we had a garden full of beautiful topsoil ready for plants. I spent another couple hours outside planting before finally calling it quits. It still needs a lot more work but I already love it. We have an area for vegetables and then in the corner under the tree we have picked child friendly flowers and shrubs. They will all bloom in pink or white. I think that Georgie would like it, especially all of the soft Lamb's Ears around the edge. There is now a bird bath and I am still looking for the perfect little chair. In the end, everyone was filthy, a little sweaty, and pretty hungry but everyone seemed pleased.

I did take a couple of pictures including one of Maya in her princess dress raking the topsoil. It reminded me of Cinderella. I will post them soon as I continue to fill the garden and it starts to bloom.

Thank you to Mark and Jenn for the gift certificate. It will definitely come in handy. Thank you Shannon and Colin for the angels and the gift certificate, another one that will come in especially handy with all of the planting. We continue to overwhelmed by everyone's kindness and generosity. As I have stated before, we will pay it forward and are forever grateful.

Love to you all,

Kristen

The Birdfeeder

Today Calla graduated! That's right, she's entering the real world now, kindergarten! It was so cute to watch those little ones accepting their diplomas and singing their songs. It was also great to see many faces that I haven't seen in over two months. The last day that I walked into preschool was March 12th. It seems like a lifetime ago. For all of the parents still following the blog I want you all to know that it really was fun seeing all of you and I am looking forward to the many summertime play dates.

After school I took Calla and Maya to the Preferred Pirch to pick out a birdfeeder. It was actually quite funny because I had no idea how many types of birdfeeders there are and walked around in circles before the nice lady offered to help me. It was an amusing conversation. "Can I help you with something?" "Hmmm, yeah we just want some birds in our back yard." At which point she quided me to something appropriate. She went on describing all kinds of houses and why I should pick certain things as I nodded along and pretended that I had a clue. In the end we bought the feeder, the tray and the food of course, everything that she told us to buy.

Calla and Maya insisted on helping me fill it when we got home. After several seed spilling incidents in our kitchen I finally had the brilliant idea to fill it outside!! Never claimed I was Einstein! : )

We also found out that Mike's claim was denied today. We are trying not to dwell on it and just move forward. He will be returning to work some time next week and that's okay. We will make it work.

One last thing. I was standing in my friend's house last night reading one of the quotes on her wall. I've probably read it dozens of times because I know that she has had it for years but last night it stuck with me. "What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are nothing compared to what lies within us." That is now my motto as I continue to put one step in front of the other (sometimes on that treadmill).

Love to you all,

Kristen

PS Today marks the one month mark that Georgie left this earthly plain. We visited her and all of the geese tonight. It was really nice. Thanks for the butterfly Ana and Kalina. I am sure that Georgie loves it.

Garden

It's raining again today and it didn't even get close to the predicted 19 degrees but the we are still having a good day. June came out today to help come up with a design for the backyard. I am quite excited as she actually helped me to picture it and I know that it will be beautiful. We are hoping to welcome the birds with a bird feeder in the tree and a birdbath. The garden will be as child friendly as possible. The design takes it right up to the kids' sandbox and I was a little bit worried at first about the mud. The plan however, is to plant Lamb's Ear along the edge so that it will be soft for all of those little feet. We are hoping to incorporate a small wicker chair as well, and of course the stepping stones. We are hoping to get started this weekend but we'll see what the weather is doing.

Of course, I have a few thank yous. Thank you to the person that passed on our info to the Tiny Handprints co. We have received a couple of books from them. Thank you to Tammy who has posted the SMA petition link onto her blog and to the many people signing it. If you have an email address you can sign the petition. That means that even young people like teens can sign it too. It will take about 30 seconds. Thank you to Tanya Lynn for her fabulous idea. I am looking forward to hearing more about it. And of course, thank you to all of you that continue to think of us and pray for us.

I haven't been writing as much lately as I find that I am struggling with anger. I have found that the most effective way for me to vent my anger right now is running at the gym. I do like blogging however. I know that many of you wonder how we are doing and what we are up to and this is an easy way to let you know. Hopefully, as I continue to run and maybe get this garden started I will be able to let go of some of my anger and write a little bit more often.

Still waiting on the appeal,

Love to you all,

Kristen



Still waiting to hear about the appeal.

Love to you all,

Kristen