Random thoughts/Update

Today, you get a list.

1. I turned 31 on Saturday. We had a fun day that involved working outside in the garden and making our version of pizza, and chocolate for dessert.

2. We used our backyard fire pit for the first time on Sunday night. We put the kids to bed and then sat outside watching the flames. Until the wind picked up and we put it out. I love living in the country. Things like that are why we live out here.

3. Yesterday Nick took the day off in honor of my birthday. I didn't feel that great so we spent most of the day picking up the house and doing laundry.

4. Last night my parents had a combined birthday party for Nick and me at their house. All my siblings and their families came. We grilled chicken, burgers and hot dogs. We ate outside on the deck, surrounded by the pine trees. Later, the kids played in the hot tub while the adults sat around chatting. They lit the fire pit. We blew out candles and had dessert on the patio. We got home at about 11pm. Fun times...

5. This weekend Nick's helping his sister move from Boulder to Santa Fe. Should be interesting...my first time alone with the kids overnight. I'm glad he's able to help her, but I'm also very glad that I figured out my supplements have been causing most of my nausea BEFORE this weekend. I'm in awe of military wives and those whose husbands travel frequently. Don't know how you do it. I'm making every attempt to not be a little whiney about it. ;)

6. We finally got the garden all planted and fenced this weekend. We're going to build a greenhouse over the top of it later this summer, so that our growing season will be lengthened a bit. I'm hopeful I'll get away with the late start that way. However, I have yet to see many seeds sprouting so far. Hopefully I'm not too out of practice for this to work... Our neighbor has informed us that we have voles out here, and that the voles will eat the bottoms off all the plants. The way to prevent this seems to be burying hardware cloth a foot deep, all the way around the garden. That was a lot of work. Hope it does the trick.

7. Sometime this week or next, we should FINALLY get a portion of the money our old landlord did not return when we moved out exactly a year ago. It was a very long road, but it was obvious in small claims court that he had no case. The judge actually told him, "Do you understand that court is not a game? We're not playing games here." It was quite the circus, actually, our final day in court. Incredible to me that someone can have such a lack of respect for the law. Even though it took a long time, I'm grateful for justice. I'm grateful that we have a system by which to pursue justice. I pray that Jesus will get ahold of that guy's heart.

8. I made these yesterday. It is my opinion that these are just as good, if not better, than "regular" brownies, and that even if you aren't gluten free or grain free or anything else-free, that you should still make them. Several of family (non-GF eaters) tried them at my parents' last night and thought they were pretty good. ;)

The end.