Garden growing

We're finally reaping some sort of a "harvest" in the garden! The plants are actually a little bit out of control... I think next year we may have to 1) bump out that box another foot, and 2) plant fewer things. :) First, a shot of just half the plants--from left to right, squash, pea pods, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and corn!

Our first squash... we ate it for dinner last night.

Green beans... we need to stop eating these off the vine or there won't ever be any to bring inside and cook. I think we both prefer them raw anyway. They are soooo good.

Corn... I didn't realize corn grew like this. The plants are only about 4' tall, so I'm anxious to see whether this actually becomes real corn on the cob.

And finally, the crown glory of the garden... our first little teeny tomatoes. I literally cannot wait for these to ripen. It makes me think of the summer I lived with Gayle Flanigan and Her Fabulous Garden--often she would go out of town and tell me to help myself to anything growing. You should know that Gayle is a wonderful, diligent gardener and had more vegetables than I can ever hope to grow... but anyway, I'm telling you, I would pack quart-sized ziploc baggies with cherry tomatoes, take them to work, and eat them until my mouth burned from the acid. Who does that? And why do I tell these stories online? I sound insane. Either way, I can't wait to do the same thing here... fingers are still crossed that we'll get more than just these four.

Anyway, that's about it for us... Justin's been in the middle of an Extreme Makeover: Garage Edition, so once that's finished I'll post some pictures. 

Looking back on a good weekend

No, I don't mean this one, although it was pretty good. Justin came home from a week at MCYC on Friday and it triggered a memory of this same weekend last summer. Since that was pre-blog, I thought I'd give a little recap of one of our best weekends of 2007. Brace yourselves... 

Justin and I love LOVE Harry Potter. We got into the books much later than the rest of the world, but quickly became crazy analytic fans... they are just that good and we couldn't help ourselves. Especially me--because, if you know me well, you know that I do not merely like my favorite things in life. When something touches my core, it becomes a near obsession and I want to learn every detail about it. I like to think I just love passionately, and it applies to everything in my life... other people probably think I'm a little overboard. Anyway, I could go on, but you get the idea. With the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series looming last summer, we were beside ourselves.

Justin spent the week prior at camp. I went out on Thursday and bought all our favorite snacks. We'd made a plan not to leave the house until we finished reading, to avoid potential spoilers, so I knew we'd need sustinence! Friday morning I went to Barnes and Noble to get wristbands, which marked our places in line... #77 and #78 (yes, we pre-ordered two books). Went to work for the day, then came home to meet Justin, who I think had just enough time for a shower before jumping in the car to go to the Tigers game (side note: in addition to it being the Summer of HP, it was also the Summer of the Tigers--Justin had season tickets for the first time and went to nearly all 27 games in the plan). I actually cannot believe I'm posting this, but I made a sign for the occasion:

Before you judge too harshly, I did NOT hold it up during the game... I was too embarrased. Truthfully, I only made it because I thought it might get us on TV. Anyway, I still insisted that we take a picture before we left, although Justin didn't want to be seen with it (or me, probably, at that point). We drove from Comerica to Barnes and Noble, where we found all kinds of cool things going on as everyone waited for midnight.

After that, things happened pretty fast... we were out of the store with our books by ten minutes past midnight, and managed to get home spoiler-free (I may or may not have been listening to my iPod as we walked to the car). Read a couple of chapters before going to sleep, then had a reading marathon on Saturday with Chubby Hubby, chips and salsa, etc. We both finished the book late that night and then were able to have a nice, relaxing Sunday going back over our favorite parts.

Anyway, that's about it... as I started by saying, all those memories just came back to me as I waited for Justin to get home from camp on Friday. Unlike last year, it didn't turn out to be a very exciting night... just some grilling, Tigers game on TV, and then a very tired husband passed out on the couch. Still, a relaxing Friday is not bad at all.

Oh, and as for the book itself? I loved it.

Last couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks have just flown right by, full of all kinds of summer fun. First there was our trip up north to Higgins Lake... it was wonderful. We were so thankful (and somewhat surprised) to have PERFECT weather the entire time we were there, because prior to the 4th, as any of you Michiganders know, there'd been a lot of rain and not a lot of summer. We drove through a pretty torrential storm on the way up, which actually was incredibly scary--for me--Justin never seems scared--but hydroplaning on I-75 is not my idea of a super safe ride! Thursday morning dawned clear and bright, and our morning bike ride convinced us that it was going to be a beautiful day! We got right out on the boat and enjoyed a lot of sun before heading for West Branch and dinner at G's... mmm... pocket pizza. :)

Friday, the 4th, was another great day and even warmer. It again started with a bike ride and then an afternoon on the boat. Steve and Amber surprised everyone by coming in for the weekend, bringing with them with about $100 worth of illegal fireworks... which led to a couple of loud nights. Here is the fearless captain manning his boat:

Friday night we went to the fireworks in Roscommon. I love up north fireworks because they're much less crowded, which means you can sit much closer to the action. This year we saw fireworks in Livonia, Rochester, and Roscommon, and these were by far the closest--the explosions are right overhead! Here we are before the show:

And Justin with his mom:

We came home late on Saturday after another perfect day. Only three and a half weeks till we go back... not that I'm counting. :) That trip will be for Justin's 10th high school reunion... crazy!

And speaking of things that make me feel old, last Monday was my birthday. Justin planned a trip to the shipwreck exhibit at the Science Center because I kind of have a thing for shipwrecks. It was a great exhibit, not crowded at all... just a fun way to spend the day! 

This glass wall behind us in this next picture is filled with bottles from the S.S. Republic, a ship that wrecked off the coast of Georgia in 1865. In fact, the exhibit focused mainly on this ship and had tons of artifacts, but the bottle wall was my favorite because it was next to a kiosk where you could select each and every bottle and listen to a narrative about what type it was, what it contained, where it was found, etc. Some still had their stoppers intact, which have preserved the contents for all these years! I'm probably starting to sound pretty nerdy.

On Saturday afternoon we went to a Tigers game with the Locks. We've gone to a game with Chuck and Kylie every year since 2002, followed by dinner at Pizza Papalis in Greektown... and the last couple of years have been extra fun with Gloria in tow. We got rained on a bit at the beginning, which led to a pretty sticky and uncomfortable day... but it was still a blast.

Justin loves Gloria soooo much. She is completely full of energy and life, and I love to watch them play together! Anyway, another long post... it's harder to keep up than I anticipated... I forgive all you bloggers for wondering why you never update! :)

Hitting the open road

Tonight we're leaving for Higgins Lake straight after church. For weeks I've been so excitedto take this trip--4th of July has been our first Higgins trip of the summer the last couple of years, so there's a lot of anticipation for the biking, boating, ice cream, fireworks, G's Pizza... relaxing... etc. There will be pictures to share in a few days--but right now I'm not thinking about the coming-home part... just the going-up part.

Our outdoor life is progressing well as the flowers continue to blossom and the plants in the garden grow higher and higher. I've been meaning to post pictures but just haven't had a chance to upload and sort lately. Yesterday I thinned out a few more tomato plants and was excited to notice that the vines actually smell like cherry tomatoes! Soon, hopefully, we'll have something to eat. :)

Well... that's it for now... just a short little hello. Oh, and I do have a short amendment to the previous post when I said tomatoes are my #1 favorite food... I must have been confused by all the gardening. In actuality, bread is my #1 favorite food and tomatoes are #2. Justin says he has too many to list. Happy 4th of July!