It's Finally Garden Time!

"The prophet said to plant a garden,
so that's what we'll do.
For God has given rich brown soil,
the rain and sunshine, too.
And if we plant the seeds just right
and tend them carefully,
before we know, good things will grow
to feed our family."


LDS Children's Songbook, #237




Tomorrow is the big day! We're getting a late start, but with the crazy winter weather we had, plus being gone the past three weekends, we haven't had a chance before now. We already have garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, and rhubarb growing. Garlic and onions were planted in the fall; leeks, asparagus and rhubarb are perennials. I'm looking forward to another year of yummy fresh veggies!

6th Folder, 6th Picture

Brooke tagged me with this:

1) go to your 6th folder
2) go to your 6th picture (no cheating!)
3) blog about it
4) tag 6 people

So here's my 6th picture on my 6th folder. Although this was a little tricky since my 6th folder is titled 2008, which in turn has folders labled by month, which has folders labeled by the day the pictures are taken. Just a weird way my camera organizes the pictures. So this is the 6th picture in the 1st folder of the 1st folder of 2008 (my 6th folder). Are you confused yet? I sure am! Maybe I should have just kept going with the 6th thing...but guess what, when I did that, the folder only had 5 pictures!

I didn't even take this picture. I think Kylie must have. The big yellow football was Matzo's Christmas present. He can fit three normal sized tennis balls into his mouth, so Kylie decided to give him a ball that was more his size. He loved it! I haven't seen it around for a while, though...it's probably buried in the bushes somewhere.

I tag Corey, Tif, Ashley F., Erika, Michelle, and Lorilee. Have fun!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

That 80s song has been going through my head as I'm back to doing laundry, cleaning house, cooking dinner and running kids around after our wonderful spring break in California. At least we came home to sun, so it wasn't a huge shock to our systems!

About two months ago, I decided for Spring Break this year I would venture out of my comfort zone and drive myself and the kids down to visit Scott & Elizabeth and the Olivers, a trip of 20 hours by car over two days. Fortunately, Brad was able to fly down on Tuesday evening to join us and we both shared the driving on the way back. I was amazed at how well everyone did in the car. We've never been a "road trip" family, but with our new van, we've discovered that we can do it!

We left early Saturday morning and stopped a little over 1/2 way at the Parke's beautiful home in Cottonwood. It was so nice to have a welcoming place to rest. After being cooped up in the car for 12 hours, Ben was in hyper-drive and ran around their house with Caleb until we finally got them to bed around 10:30.

Deb, Troy, Ryan, Patrick (their "adopted son"), Caleb, Sarah, and Jon

We left the Parke's Sunday morning and made it to Scott & Elizabeth's by dinner time that evening. Elizabeth had so many fun things planned for us. It was a little crazy at times with seven kids and four adults (the video below is a perfect example of the craziness!) but we had a wonderful time.

The weather was warm and sunny, such a relief after our crazy winter weather at home.

We went to the beach every day:

(a cliff at Gaviota Beach, the rocks broke off in sheets forming this cool "bulls-eye")

hiked to the Wind Caves:

visted the Santa Barbara Zoo:

rode an 11 person Surrey Bike down the Santa Barbara beach path:

saw the Beifus mansion under construction:

walked around Solvang (little Denmark):

and downtown Santa Barbara:

Even our van had a good time! Doesn't it fit right in?

We did have a few relaxing minutes, too. I really enjoyed seeing Scott and Elizabeth interact with the kids, and watching all the kids get a long so well together.

Wednesday evening, we headed to the Oliver's. They live in a big, beautiful house surrounded by orange groves. The smell of the orange blossoms was heavenly. Brad really wished we could have bottled the scent and brought it home with us.

Ben and Emma picked up right where they left off, playing in the big Lego bin.

On Friday, Brad and Charles took Kylie and Nathan O. to Magic Mountain. They rode all the crazy roller coasters. Elisa and I opted for more sane activities and took the kids to the beach and a movie.

For some reason, I didn't take many pictures when we were with the Olivers. It seemed like old times, hanging out with friends, I guess I just forgot.

I was amazed at the beauty of California. I haven't driven through since I was in high school, and I know I wasn't paying attention to the natural surroundings then. This is the Ojai valley, most of the trees are orange trees.

Here's Mt. Shasta at sunset:

We left the Oliver's on Saturday morning and decided to drive straight through. It worked out pretty well since one of us could sleep while the other drove. We arrived home at 4am Sunday morning. It was good to be home after all that time in the car, except for the fact that Brad turned the furnace off when he left on Tuesday. The house was 50 degrees and our beds definitely weren't warm and cozy!

And now we're back to life, back to reality. But I'm definitely up for another trip soon!

San Juan Islands Adventure

Every Spring for the past three years, our ward has journeyed to Shaw Island in the San Juans to work with the Benedictine Nuns at Our Lady of the Rock Monastery. The seven Mothers run a 300 acre farm with sheep, llamas, alpacas, cattle, pigs, and chickens. They grow food, flowers and herbs, and sell the products of the animals to support themselves.

Friday afternoon we set out with the Wise family for Orcas Island so we wouldn't have to leave Bainbridge on the 5:20 AM ferry Saturday morning. We drove up to Anacortes and took the ferry to Orcas. It was nice to get up there in the evening and still have time to play games and visit.

Saturday morning we caught the ferry from Oracs to Shaw, meeting up with the rest of our group.

It was a perfect day for working on the farm; it definitely felt like Spring was finally here. Jillian, Ben and I were assigned to work in the herb garden with Mother Felicitas.

Brad and Jimmy Wise repaired windows in the barn. Nathan and his friend Casey stacked firewood. Other groups started bonfires, repaired the compost shed, drove the tractor, cut up firewood, cleared brush, and worked on other odd jobs that needed to be done.

After our work was done, we watched the sheep being sheared. I'd never seen it done before and was amazed at how by holding the ewe a certain way, she is unable to move and submits patiently to being shaved.

Mother Hildegard is in charge of the sheep and she names every one. Brad enjoyed talking with her about taking care of them.

Ben and Jillian loved the lambs. There were so many! The trick to getting the ewes to the sheering area was to lead their lambs into the holding pen. The ewes would follow their lambs and then didn't put up a fuss.

We cooked lunch in dutch ovens and enjoyed a feast after our hard labor.

Then we caught the 2:20 ferry from Shaw back to Anacortes, drove to Edmonds, ferried to Kingston and were home by 7:00.
Except I left my key for our dog-sitters and accidently locked us out! Fortunately Nate sleeps with his window open a crack and was able to climb up on the roof and pry his window open.

Excuse Me, Your Roots are Showing

As a result of yesterday's snow/wind/rain storm, one of our trees uprooted. It was close enough to the road that we were scared it would hurt someone or take out the power lines if it fell. We called a tree service and had someone come out yesterday evening. He reassured us that it wouldn't fall on its own, but it still made us uncomfortable, so we had him take it down today.

I had to stand out in the road and stop traffic. A few neighbors came out to watch and stopped the cars coming the other way. Then they helped clean the branches off the road so the cars could get by.

This is looking towards the road after the tree is down, obviously. You can see the power lines in the background, still in tact, thank goodness. We had a 12 hour power-outage yesterday and I really didn't want to be the cause of another one. And no one got hurt, double thank goodness!

"But I thought it was almost Spring!"

"So did I, Ben, so did I!"

That's the conversation Ben and I had when we woke up to ANOTHER snowy day Sunday morning. We've had so many snowfalls this winter, I've lost count.

Ben enjoyed playing in the snow, although from his snowman's face, it doesn't look like the snowman was having much fun!

And I don't think my poor flowers were either!

Tyler's a Daddy!

Hudson Michael Swolgaard was born today at 1:30 PM, weighing in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and measuring 20 1/2" long!

It freaks me out just a bit that my little brother who used to race dirt bikes in the woods and crash into trees on purpose is now a DAD!

My kids have affectionately nick-named their new cousin
"Little Hud".
Way to go, Tyler and Rachael! We love you guys and can't wait to meet our newest cousin.

Midnight Doctor Visit

I love my family doctor. What other doctor would meet me at 11:30 PM in his office because my six year old son was having symptoms of a bladder infection?

Last night after we put all the kids to bed, Ben came running down the hallway to our bedroom at breakneck speeds to use our bathroom (never mind there's one 5 feet from his bedroom door, ours is his toilet of choice!) He was in there for a while and came out crying, saying he couldn't go. We calmed him down and sent him back to bed. Two minutes later he's tearing down the hall again, same thing happens. This goes on for about an hour and half, to the point he's worked himself into a fit and can't calm down. Brad suggested we call Dr. Keyes, which I was reluctant to do; it was 11:00 PM after all, but I couldn't think of a better idea.

After talking over Ben's symptoms, Dr. Keyes said he would meet us in his office in 20 minutes. Wow. I was expecting him to suggest going to the ER if I thought it was necessary. So off we go to the doctor's office. At this point, I'm practically praying that there is something wrong since I would feel like a fool to have it all be nothing! Of course Ben falls asleep in the car on the way there and when I wake him up once we arrive, he's acting pretty normal. Dr. Keyes checked him over and had him pee in a cup and gave him some antibiotics. He didn't see anything in the rapid test, but is sending it off to the lab. Ben did use the bathroom four times while we were there, so at least Dr. Keyes got to see that symptom for himself.

Dr. Keyes has been our family doctor for 16 years, and Brad's doctor for 10 years before that. He has always been willing to go out of his way to provide care for our family. He's such a gentle, kind man and a wonderful doctor.

Color Test

OK, maybe I'm not as brain dead as I think I am! My mom just sent me this Color Test, a brain game kind of thing, and it only took me two tries to get 100%. Give it a try, it will give your brain cells a work out.

Read Across America Day

Yesterday, March 2, was Read Across America Day. Jack Prelutsky, Children's Poet Laureate, came to Wilkes for an assembly. Jillian is one of the "junior librarians" at Wilkes, and she and her friend Mara were chosen to be the MCs of the event. They explained the origins of Read Across America Day, then led the junior librarians in this poem:

I love to read. Brad enjoys reading. So do Nathan, Kylie and Jillian (all three have been junior librarians at Wilkes) and Ben is so excited that he's learning. I think Read Across America Day is wonderful!

Jack Prelutsky was clever, engaging, and has a great singing voice. He told the kids how most of his poems are inspired by real life experiences. "Rat for Lunch" was born after a dining experience gone wrong at a restaurant on Lake Union. "I Wonder Why Dad is So Terribly Mad" tells about the mischievous things he did as a child. Jillian came home singing, "Rat for lunch! Rat for lunch! Yum! Delicious! Munch munch munch! One by one or by the bunch—Rat, oh rat, oh rat for lunch! " And Ben was full of tales of painting dad's underwear with finger paints, then pinning them to the wall, and glueing the toilet seat shut.

Here's a snippet of Jack singing "I'm Building a Bridge of Bananas":

I love to hear writers talk about how they write. Jack told the kids that he always carries around in the pocket of his cargo pants a little notebook and "two pens, just in case one runs out of ink." He said he has so many little notebooks that if he stacked them all up they would reach from the floor up to the ceiling and he still hasn't used all the ideas in them. He also said "sometimes I tell the poem what to do, but most of the time it tells me what it wants to do." That's one of the things I love about writing. Often I have no idea what is going to happen in the story I'm writing. It develops as I write and shows me where to go.

At the end of the assembly, Jillian and Mara shared a poem with Jack (although not one of their own, which would have been really great).