Does it work? Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter

I've been wanting to try the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter for quite some time. It's one of those As Seen on TV products that look like it might actually work. And who doesn't love fresh home-grown tomatoes.

This weekend, we were at Home Depot and they had some of these gadgets in the garden center. Mike saw them too and asked if I wanted to get one. Of course I do!

So we picked one up and I read on the box that you have to buy a tomato plant to put in it and some potting soil. We browsed the tomato selections and ended up picking a Better Boy tomato. This is a variety that my Granddaddy grew in his garden.


When we got home, Emily and I potted up the tomato plant in the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter. It was a very windy day and, unfortunately, Emily was sitting down-wind from the planter and all the potting mix. It ended up getting all over her and in her hair. Whoops!

So you take off the planter's cap and remove the split sponge that's in the bottom of the planter. I let Emily hold our sponge and she ended up breaking it in two pieces, but it worked okay anyway. You insert the tomato plant from the bottom and then put the split sponge around the stem. Then you push the sponge down into the bottom of the planter. This is how the plant is held into place.

After the plant and sponge were firmly plugging the bottom hole, we started adding potting soil to the planter. The directions said to fill it to within two inches of the top, but ours was not quite that full.
We hung the planter on a shepherd's hook in the backyard then added water to the top of the bag. Unfortunately, it was so so windy outside and our poor tomato plant was being whipped around. I hope it survives the night.

The instruction pamphlet says to water the plant often and to fertilize it every two weeks at first and then ever 10 days and then every few days.

I'll let you know how it goes ....

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I Love Shopping with My Husband

He picks out things that I love but I would never buy for myself.

And I love him for it.Can anyone identify this little tree that he bought for me? May be hard to tell what it is in this very wind-blown photo.

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Animal Instincts

On Friday afternoon, Dan the Eagle visited Emily's preschool. I believe Dan was a mascot for an insurance company, not entirely sure. All I know is that he brought cookies. More on that in a minute.

So according to the teacher, Emily started screaming and crying as soon as Dan the Eagle came into the room. The teacher eventually covered Emily's face with a folder and she settled down a bit.

The funny part is that Dan brought cookies as I mentiond earlier. Even though Emily screamed and cried at the Eagle, she still wanted to eat his cookies. Typical!!!

Speaking of Animals ...

Speaking of animals, Madison's class is going to the zoo on Wednesday. Nanny asked Emily if she wanted to go to the zoo too and Emily said "Okay but I'll wait in the car." Haha, and she also said that they would have to keep the windows closed.

Apparently Emily does not like animals - real or un-real.

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Video from Spring Program

As promised, here are a couple videos from Thursday nights performance of the Preschool Spring Program. Sorry the video is so bad. I did the best I could do, but I am always so torn between doing the video and watching my child on the stage. I think I miss so much by looking through the tiny lens.

Enjoy!

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Belated Beauties

You probably remember the 80 daffodil bulbs that I purchased on clearance last fall and planted in my garden in early February.



Earlier this week, these daffodils finally started blooming. Only three of the bulbs are blooming right now, but several more have buds on them and I'd say that well over half of them have sprouted and are growing larger every day.



The ones pictured below are growing in my daylily bed. Normally, the daffodils will bloom before the daylilys start coming up.

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Oklahoma: Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains

The other day, Emily and I decided to get out the Barbie kite that she got in her Easter basket. It was a perfectly windy day for kite flying ... or was it?

This particular Barbie kite was unlike anything I'd seen before. You inflate the kite using a small straw and then just tie on the string that's wound around a simple plastic handle ... no reel-type thing like kites had when I was a kid twenty years ago. *Gasp, I can't believe I just typed that!* Very simple, but an interesting concept.

So Emily carries it outside while I hold onto the string. You know, in case Emily accidentally lets go of the kite. We don't want it to blow away or anything.

We go out into a clear part of the yard and I let out a little of the string then tell Emily to throw the kite up into the air. She does this and "We're flying! We're flying!" The kite is up and twirling around. So I start unreeling a little more of the string to send the kite higher.

And higher it went ... the plastic handle slipped right out of my hands and the kite went up, up and away into the clear blue sky! D'oh! This was not supposed to happen!

I rush Emily back into the house to "get another kite" that I just happened to have. Anything to get her mind off what just happened. The new kite was a colorful Dora kite. Not as fancy as the inflatable Barbie kite, but it would have to do. So I quickly assembled that one and we took it back outside.

Again, I held the string and Emily let the kite go. Up, up into the sky, the Dora kite flew higher and higher. It did some dip dives and some fancy swooping moves. Emily even got to hold the string all by herself a couple times.

The wind was so strong. It was really making that Dora kite dance in the sky. Emily was watching the kite from her teeter totter. Suddenly, the kite takes a nose dive right into the top of a tree! Not again! This is not how kite flying is supposed to turn out.

We had to wait until Daddy got home to get the kite down from the tree. It was stuck and I mean stuck good! Mike used a broom to get it down, but it had a big hole in the side of it.

I think that will be the end of kite flying for us this year.

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To sing or not to sing. That is the question.

Last night was Emily's spring program at her preschool. Before the program, we got together with Mike's family and went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant.

Side note about dinner: Mike and Emily and I went to this same restaurant recently and they made Emily a gingerbread man-shaped sopapilla. So last night, I asked our waiter if he could make her a gingerbread man-shaped sopapilla. And he looked at me like I was crazy. Like really crazy. Not just a little crazy. And Mike looked at me like I was a little crazay. But ... he ended up bringing her two gingerbread man-shaped sopapillas .. a boy and a girl. Nice!

So after the restaurant, we went over to the church and Emily changed clothes in the car while Nanny and Pops and Madison went to save us some seats. I know it's just a preschool program, but those seats fill up fast and people are not shy about saving all the prime seats for their friends and family.

I tried to get some pictures of Emily in the lobby before her program, but she was pretty distracted by all the kids and parents that were walking through there.


I can't believe I actually got a picture of her looking toward the camera.

I had a really hard time getting pictures or video during the actual program. Some of the teachers were standing in the way and some other heads were in my way.
Being a bunch of three-year-olds, everyone has to wave at their family and friends before they can perform. Of course.

This is not a good picture of Emily, but check out the little boy standing next to her. This is her little friend Brady. I keep hearing that he's recently taken a liking to Emily. I'm not sure what she thinks about him though

So did Emily sing with her class? What did they sing? Well I can tell you that one of the sings was "Jesus Loves the Little Children". But did Emily sing? You'll have to wait until I get the videos uploaded (on Monday, I hope.)
I will give you this hint .. Emily looked beautiful and she did a really good job. Her Daddy and I were very proud of her.

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Cubbies Countdown

The Cubbies Countdown has officially begun!

Only two more weeks of Cubbies club left, at least until next fall. I must admit that I will be glad when Cubbies is over. I like Cubbies and I like interacting with the kids, but sometimes the nights are long and hard.

This week was definitely better than last week. Last week was so bad that I couldn't even blog about it. This week was better even though we had a "major" accident in the bathroom. Not really a toilet accident, but someone hit their head really hard on the trashcan. Not really sure how this happened, but he was screaming really loud when he came out of there. Then when I was leaving tonight, I overhead one of our little girls telling her mother that something was hurting. I will admit that I hurried out of there without even stopping to ask.

Well, tomorrow night is Emily's program at preschool. I'm excited to see what they do and what songs they sing. I hope she is not too nervous, but I know the program will be cute. I wish everyone could come!

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What I've learned about Jon and Sherry Rivers

I've learned quite a few things about Jon and Sherry Rivers in the last few weeks. Some of them are shocking. Some of them are downright unbelievable.

Did you know that Sherry may not be married to Jon? She may be married to Jim. Or she may be married to Rick. But she may be married to Mike. AND no matter who she's married to, their last name might not be Rivers. In fact, it might be Smith! Or Jones! Oh the scandal!

There's a rumor going around that Jon and Sherry are getting a divorce. No, they're not getting divorced, they are divorced. But not only are they divorced, but they were also fired by Klove due to this. And not only were they fired from Klove because of this divorce, but Klove is also covering up their firing because of the sheer embarrassment.

And besides the divorce and the scandalous cover-up, they are also moving from their home/ranch deep in the heart of Texas (no, Colorado ... No, California ... No, Texas). And where are they moving to? Well, they're moving to Nashville. Why are they moving to Nashville, you may ask? Because, of course, Jon is recording the song(s) that he wrote. And he may have possibly joined a band. No, not joining a band. He's forming a band.

I know it's all so hard to believe, but that's what I've read on the internet in the past couple weeks. And you know the internet is always right. Right? Hello? *crickets chirping in the background*

********************************************

All insight was gleaned by analyzing web searches regarding Jon and Sherry Rivers. All or none of this may be factual. It is, in fact, all for fun and is fully intended to hurt noone. To Jon and Sherry Rivers: If you're reading this, lots of people miss hearing you every morning on Klove. We hope you all are well. I am, of course, only speaking for myself.

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You're Invited

You're invited to Emily's Spring Program

Date: Thursday, April 23rd

Time: 7:00 - 8:00pm

Location: Email me

Come join us! It should be a lot of fun.

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He is Risen Indeed

On Sunday morning, Emily got up and went to see if the Easter Bunny had been to her house. She was tickled that he ate all of his treats that she left for him. (And so was I!)

Then she saw her Easter basket over on the table. She first impressed with the bow on it and then everything that's inside.

"Oh My Goodness!"

So we opened her Easter Basket and checked out all the goodies - a kite, flip flops, paddle ball, sunglasses, jewelry, candy and more! Then we got dressed and went to church. Our church served a free breakfast - biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, pancake sticks. The church service was great. Lots of great music and a good message.

After church, we went to eat at Cheddars with the family. It was a rainy day, but we all had a nice time visiting and eating some good food.

Emily and Madison always like to sit by each other. They were both wearing purple dresses, too.

I thought this picture of Emily was really cute.

Mason looked really cute in his Captain Hook sweater vest.

When we got home, I tried to get some cute pictures of Emily in her Easter dress. She was being a goof. I quickly gave up and decided it was time for her nap.

I like to move it move it.

Doing the Bunny Hop Hop.

After nap, we hid (plastic) Easter eggs in the house. Daddy hides them really good. Emily and I had a hard time finding some of them and Daddy had a hard time remembering where he hid them.

A good time was had by all.

Happy Easter!!!

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Colorful Eggs

It's really nice to have something to talk about besides fires. I was going to post this on Saturday night, but the power kept flickering and I kept losing internet connection. It sorta loses the effect since Easter has already passed, but I'm still going to do this in two posts.

Read on ...

On Saturday night, Emily and I dyed Easter eggs. It's a little late, but we've had A LOT going on. We normally buy the basic PAAS egg coloring kit, but it has SO many color tablets and that just makes it a pain. This year, we got a very small dye kit that had 5 cups and 5 color tablets.

I read the directions carefully. Emily helped me measure out the vinegar and the warm water into each cup. Every color got the vinegar except the pink cup.

I let Emily drop the tablets into the cups. Blue goes in the blue cup. Yellow goes into to yellow cup. Green goes into the green cup. Pink goes into the light pink cup (with the water only). Red goes into the dark pink cup. Wait .. the water in the pink (water only) cup is turning orange .. and the water in the dark pink cup is ... doing nothing! This is when I realized my mistake. I obviously mixed up the tablets.

I took the light pink cup to the sink and dumped it out. The tablet was breaking apart but not coloring the water. I decided to use regular red food coloring to make pink water and hope .. HOPE that pink water would color the eggs pink.

Getting a close-up look

All beautiful!

Waiting is nerve-racking!

11 happy eggs. (One cracked)

Then we set out a plate of snacks for the Easter Bunny. Emily picked out a bunch of goodies that the Easter Bunny will surely love. (I was laughing. Dad is so in charge of eating that.)

Then we ready The Story of Easter. Grandaddy and Grandmother sent Emily this book in her Easter package and she loves it.

Then one little girl went to sleep and one bunny brought a big basket full of goodies.

It is seriously full of goodies!

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Is it over yet?

Mike and I are discussing who, if anyone, will stay up and stand watch for more fires tonight. The fire crews have been running up and down the road to different hot spots and flare ups.

Both of us had very little sleep last night so I don't know if either of us would be able to stay awake for long. I'm afraid my "watch" would be more like sleeping in my chair instead of sleeping in my bed.

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Wildfire Evacuation - Part 2

Mike and I went out to our house this morning to see if we could get to our house and see if we even had a house. We were one of the lucky ones. We DO have a house to come back to. The firefighters were able to contain the fire to the north of our house. We drove down the road to see what we could see and it looks like the firefighters did a pretty good job of keeping the fire away from homes. We only saw one home on our road that was destroyed. It looked like the fire went right up to the back door of some of the homes.

There are still some hot spots and flare ups in the area, but the firefighters are driving around trying to control those this morning. There is still quite a bit of smoke in the air behind our house so hopefully they will come take care of that one soon.

Mike's mom was telling us last night that Emily kept saying that she wanted to go home and she kept asking if the fire had come and gotten our house yet. So sad that she has to worry about things like that. We just told her that the firefighters were going to come and put the fires out so that it wouldn't get to our house.

Thank God that our house was spared but please say a prayer for the people in our area who lost their homes last night. There were wildfires all across the state of Oklahoma. The one near our house was one of many.

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Wildfire Evacuation

Just a quick post to let you all know what's going on with us.

In cause you didn't hear, we were evacuated from our house tonight because there were wildfires in the area. When I was on my way home, I saw a big smoke cloud and one of the roads near our home was blocked by a firetruck. I took a different road, but the smoke kept getting closer and closer as I went further south. When I was a couple miles from home, I called Mike to see if they were home yet and if they were watching the smoke. He didn't know anything about it but looked out the window and saw smoke west of our home.

I got home a few minutes later and we looked at the smoke and decided to go ahead and leave our house. We didn't know how close the fire was to our house and didn't want to chance it so we grabbed some important things and hopped into Mike's car and left. We went back into town and grabbed something to eat with Mike's parents. After we ate, we left Emily with Mike's parents and went back to see if we could get back to our house.

We got about a half mile away and then the road was blocked with police, a fire command station, and the red cross. We stood around waiting for information at the command station and talking to people who live in the area, but heard nothing. It became apparent that they were not going to let us back into the area tonight so we left and went back to Mike's parents house.

We're sitting here watching the news coverage on the TV. We have figured out that our house is still standing (and that we still have electricity) because our answering machine picks up. The TV news is saying that the wind has shifted to the south and they are trying to keep the flames from turning south on our street.

We will go back out there in the morning and assess the situation. At this point, we are hopeful that our house will be spared. If that turns out not to be the case, then we will be fine. What's most important to us - our family - is safe and sound. Everything else is just "stuff".

I'm sorry I didn't get to call anyone. My phone is literally broken in two pieces and held together with nothing more than a thin cord. I was able to send a few text message, but my phone died anyway.

I grabbed my camera on the way out the door this evening. I was able to snap a few pictures ...

The view from our backyard when we left our house this evening at about 5:30pm.

Another picture from our backyard.

This view is toward our house from where we were standing and waiting.

The mobile command post.

The red glow in the direction of our house.

This night has really been a difficult experience. It's so hard not knowing what's happening. Sometimes the waiting is really hard. You just want to KNOW what's happening. You want them to tell you SOMETHING. I need to try to go to sleep because I know it's going to be a long day tomorrow.

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Pretty Girl with Sneaky Hands

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Self-Inflicted Earache

The other week, I bought an earwax removal kit. (If ears or wax or anything related to either topic grosses you out, feel free to stop reading here.)

I wasn't really having an problem, but I always have quite a bit of ear wax. And besides that, we have recently figured out that we're going to end up with quite a bit of money left in our flexible spending account when the plan year ends in June. So I noticed an earwax removal kit was on the FSA-eligible list and I went out and bought one.

That very night, I decided to try out that earwax removal kit. I read the directions carefully ...

• Tilt head sideways and place 5 to 10 drops into ear. Fine, no big deal. Mom did this to me quite a few times as a kid so it's nothing new.




• Keep drops in ear for several minutes by keeping head tilted or placing cotton in the ear. Okay, tilting ... feels weird and kinda cloggy but I can handle this.

I do this on the first ear and then waaaait for several minutes ... then I hold a piece of tissue over my ear and let it drain as I do the same to the other ear. I waaaait again and then drain the second ear. That wasn't so bad ... a little oily feeling, but no big deal.

I go to bed about an hour after this, but wake up a few hours later with a really bad earache in one ear. I turn over to the other side, hoping that will ease the pain. No such luck. I spend the rest of the time tossing and turning from side to side, trying to find a comfortable position.

When I woke up the next morning, I still had the earache. It was mostly better by the end of the day, but then I followed the rest of the directions ...

• Use twice daily for up to 4 days if needed... Sheesh!

I just hope this works because I don't want to have to do the final direction ...

• Any wax remaining after the 4-day treatment may be removed by gently flushing the ear with warm (body temperature-water, using a soft bulb syringe. Gulp!

So .. does it work? I guess we'll see in 2 more days.

Here's to hoping I don't wake up with another self-inflicted earache tonight.

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The Tale of the Pantyho

Note: I promise this is a clean story. If you were expecting something else, I'm sorry but you won't find that here.

Last night, Emily spent the night with her Nanny and Pops. On the way to their house, we stopped by McD's to get her a Happy Meal for supper. As we were waiting in the drive-through, I was talking to Emily in the mirror from the passenger seat. I noticed she had her feet propped up on the back of the seat and something was on one foot. I said "Emily, what's that on your foot?" She said "It's my PANTYHO! It's not YOUR pantyho. It's MY pantyho!" I turned to look and she had on one of my knee-high stockings!

Mike and I were both cracking up. How clever ... if you have 'em on both legs, they're pantyhose. If you only have 'em on one leg, it's obviously a pantyho.

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.

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What was this Dixie Chick thinking?

Have you seen this picture of the Dixie Chicks lead singer, Natalie Maines?

1. Is this picture really her?



2. If so, what was she thinking with that haircut? Wow, it is really short! Looks more like a boy haircut than a girl haircut. She used to have gorgeous, long hair but now it's apparently all gone. [Luckily] it's just hair and it will grow back.

What do YOU think? Love it or leave it?

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Pink: The Color of the Day

Today, Emily and I helped with a baby shower for Mike's cousin, Kim. She's having a girl in a few weeks and she got a lot of really nice things. I think tiny baby clothes are just getting cuter and cuter.

Mom-to-be and the hostesses

Mom-to-be and the Junior Hostesses

Three Generations (Three and a half?) The Yummy Cake with all that Ooey Gooey Icing

Diaper Cake and the super cute cookies

Hand-dipped Chocolate Strawberries

Crackers/cheese/fruit tray

Party Favors

Squeeeeeezed!
Lots of sweet presents for Mom and Baby

Basket on the welcome table

Kim, Mom-to-be

I have lots of other pictures. It was hard to pick just a few to share tonight. But I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all.

(And we won't name names, but one party attendee went INTO a house with the same house number, but on a different street where ANOTHER party was being held. The little boy at the other birthday party sure would have been disappointed if he opened up that gift with all the cute little girly clothes in it though. Hi-lar-ious!)

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