Sunday, August 27, 2006

A Special Day

Happy 7th Anniversary Mister!

We woke up this morning and went about our daily routine, and when I was writing a check, I realized that today is our anniversary. We both gave each other gifts a month ago (mostly so that the Mister could use his on the summer motorcycle rides), so we weren't really thinking about it.

The good news is, we're still not sick of each other. :)

I'm looking forward to many many more years of near-bliss.

I love you Mister.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Political Favors

Since Mayor Briggs is leaving, tonight at the city council meeting they will be interviewing the applicants for his replacement. I believe there are seven. Two of them are from the current city council.

I was given the idea that one of the city council members kind of thought that two of the others (thus making the majority) were going to support him for mayor in exchange for his support on the NSL name change issue.

It appears that may not be the case now.

It really bothers me that politics work that way. People shouldn't vote based on who can help them out the most later. People should vote based on what they really believe, and what the people they are supposed to be representing believe. A post on Woods Cross Citizens blog awhile back has some really good comments along those lines.

This post is about Senator Hatch's flag burning amendment that was not supported by Senator Bennett. Some interesting ideas there.

The day before the first day of Kindergarten

My 5-year-old said to me this morning, "Mom, guess what tomorrow is".

"It's the first day of Kindergarten."

"Yep."

"Are you excited?"

He hesitated. Every other time we've talked about it, he's been really excited, but this time he seemed nervous... "Are you nervous?"

"A little."

I reminded him that I got to stay with him on the first day, and that his teacher (who came over last week and brought him a balloon) is really nice. His worried look left and he ran off to play with his brother.

I'm excited for him. It's going to be weird to have him gone every morning, but hopefully it will be a good experience for all of us. I'm a little worried about the 2-year-old, because he kind of seems lost when his brother is gone. It will be fun to walk to the school to pick up his brother though.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Fallen Off the Face of the Earth

I haven't.

It's been one vacation after another, and I am grateful to be home (although the vacations were all fun).

Here are things that have been going on while I've been away:

My four-year-old became my five-year-old (and he starts Kindergarten on Wednesday).
My chickens are still doing the same things. Just one is laying (although I did get an egg with a double yolk the other day).
I completely slacked off on my running, but I went this morning (it was hard after not running for a couple of weeks).
My two-year-old started saying (very clearly) "Yes! instead of "uh" when you ask him a question.
No update on the worms because they're worms and they don't really do much.
The Mister starts his MBA program tomorrow with an all-day orientation. I'm excited for him, but I'm not looking forward to never seeing him for the next 2-3 years. That could be tough.

I'm sure there are other things, but I can't think of them right now.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Two little worms...

...can become a million little worms in just a year. I find that amazing. My worms (who live under the kitchen sink) will never reproduce at that rate because their home is much too confined. I do think that they have doubled since I got them this past spring though.

Here's an interesting article about how worms can do their part (if we let them) to keep the planet healthy...

Happy Worms

I know it sounds kind of crazy that I keep worms under my kitchen sink. The mister is not overly-pleased with the arrangement, but he puts up with it. It doesn't smell, except when you open the lid, and even then I think it's a nice earthy smell. I fill the worm bin (made out of a small rubbermaid tote) with food scraps and dampened shredded paper every month or so. It would be nice to have a much larger worm bin that would be able to handle all of the food scraps we produce, but anything bigger wouldn't fit under the sink.

Here are instructions for making your own bin. It's fun for kids (and educational), and it will make your garbage can smell better (no rotting food in there).

Worms make very quiet, unobtrusive pets. Plus, their poop will fertilize your house plants.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I'm sorry gromit, the problem is, I'm just crackers about...

Not cheese, well, I do like cheese quite a bit, but tonight I'm referring to corn on the cob right out of the garden, sliced tomatoes, and steak on the grill.

I don't think there's a meal I enjoy more all year long.

I LOVE corn from the garden. There is nothing like it, and I wish we had room for more. We currently have two children who can eat an ear of corn as fast as their dad, so the six ears of corn we had tonight didn't go very far (I did get two for myself though).

As an update on the egg/no egg, we did get one yesterday, and one again today.

Also, since I am talking about self-sufficiency (which only sounds like "efficiency" which this is really about), I looked up tankless water heaters online today. I had always assumed that you had to have one at each location in your house that you wanted to have hot water at. Apparently, you can just get one (or two depending on your hot water usage) and locate them in the typical hot-water-heater location. The kind I saw cost about $700 each. For the house we would like to build someday, we would want two just in case we happened to have two showers going at once.

Here's the link for them...

Tankless