The Broken Road

Between soccer, softball and work, this is a busy home as of late. My softball team now has another win! While I have no serious injuries I did take a nasty hit while sliding into 3rd. That one ended with some dude trampling over and rolling me me and me scrambling to get my foot back on the base. Fail. But we still won!

Work has been extremely hectic. Business is starting to pick up with the cooling of the weather. There are only 3 employees that work at the store which means I usually work alone. Hopping between the deli, cash register and whatever else comes up can be draining sometimes. But I still enjoy it. 

My garden has been fab. I'm really super good at growing peppers. I'm also good at spotting tomato worms now lol. Turns out the best defense against them is simply pick and squish. Fire is fun, but time consuming, and the bug zapper was a no go (although I may try that one again). 

Now that it's starting to cool down, I'm ready for fall fun. I'm wanting to do some sewing this year. Wanting to, and that actually happening are two different things. The fall season is going to be a busy one for this little family.....

 

Misguided Children

What? Huh? Well that is the name of my softball team. The idea is that we are the leftovers, the ones who couldn't find placement on any other teams. Oddly at one point I had booked myself for up to 3 teams. Because the league is co-ed and on a Marine Corps base there have been great strides to make sure the teams are balanced fairly and evenly. Meaning? You gotta have 5 females on the team. If you have 4, they'll let the team play, however only 4 men can be on the field if they only have 4 females to play. My team consist of exactly 5 females and 5 males. Just like last year, I catch. No longer am I afraid to be right up behind the batter. I don't mind diving for a ball if the need arises. 

The first game went well. We won. I have a nice little battle wound to prove it. Next week I will be wearing my knee high socks though. Because what looks like a little scratch at the time of impact is a serious ouchie when it comes to having to clean it out, or move my leg, or even be under the covers in bed at night. The slightest touch and I'm in pain!!

Garden. Friend. Foes. Etc.

The heat has backed off slightly. When I say slightly I mean just that. Rather than 110 degree's on average, we're hovering around 102 degree's. But the mornings and evenings have been cooler, so I've been able to get out in the garden often. 

We discovered mites on our tomato plants this year. I remember battling these guys in Okinawa on my sunflowers. Since we eat from this garden, I decided to go for a natural pest control option. Ladybugs! 2,500 ladybugs to be exact! Where on earth does one find 2,500 ladybugs? On Ebay of course. $15 + tax free shipping. We released them at dusk, hoping to encourage many to just bed down in the garden for the night. It was crazy! The boys and I were wiping them from our faces, our clothes, everywhere. We rescued them from the pool we put them on the tomoto plants all over. It was fun. To date I'd say about 100 ladybugs decided to make our little garden their home. 

While I don't mind having ladybugs in our garden, I do mind tomato worms! Last year I remember having my sons friend capture them and relocate them very far from the house. I knew I should have killed them, but they are big, fat, green blobs and the idea of squishing them grossed me out. Last summer they did some damage to one tomato plant, and completely destroyed our habenaro pepper plant. This summer, with about 20 tomato plants in my garden, the worms are everywhere! I've pulled them and put them on the bird feeder, relocated them far away, and in one case encouraged my neighbor to snip one in half so Cody could see what was inside. Gross! I refuse to put anything powerful enough to kill a bug on my garden because we don't want to eat that crap. So the only method is removing them. 

While I appreciate nature, and the role every little life has in this world I can not stand by and watch the leaves of my plants be eaten so much that they no longer can collect the suns rays. I've researched my options, I understand that after turning into moths, they are wonderful for pollenating evening blooming plants. I however have no evening blooming plants, therefore each worm I find from here on out will be destroyed!

So the garden has it's happenings. I'm enjoying it. The discovery of a purple bell pepper yesterday was very exciting. I had planted them in March, and honestly forgot all about them because they were in the tomato cage (old chicken coop) but after having the tomato plants cut back, the peppers were able to get some much needed sunshine and well..... we've got lots of peppers these days!

The next couple weeks in the garden will be spent planting seedlings I have indoors, and perhaps more seeds, just to see what comes up. I'm so excited for fall!

Yeah. I know.

It's been a long summer. I didn't blog like I said I would. My beloved husband is still far from home, I work weird hours, and well, I've been lazy. But hey, here I am. 

As I said, I've worked some weird bizarre hours over the past couple months. There are only 3 of us that work at the store so there is no formal schedule. It's really based on need at the moment. Summer brought out a variety of weird and interesting charactors. I've definately had some WTF moments working those shifts by myself. People are just weird!

The garden. Ugh. I tried. The heat took it's toll on many of my plants, then came the bugs and birds. But I am still trucking along. Harvesting tomatoes daily. Soon I'll be putting in the fall plants. Corn, beans, pumpkin, lettuce... I can't wait. 

School. School started! I'm looking forward to the days I don't have to work that I can spend time getting my home ready for my husband's return, getting the garden ready for a fall planting, and just having some quite time without the sounds of a video game or Beyblade crashing in the back round. 

I'll try to blog more. 

Soak City

We went to Knott's Soak City! I can not believe it took us a year of living here to finally go to this water filled fun house located less than an hour away. I think part of it is because I have worked at an amusement park, and ever since then I've never felt the "magic" that the average joe park goer feels when they go to a theme park, I've been behind the scenes, I know what they're thinking and doing lol... But I put all that aside, and the kids had a great time! 

I know it's highly unlikely, but that park doesn't close for the season until October and I super wish my husband returned before then so we could go with him. My man loves a good thrill and I wanna see him on some of those big crazy super waterslides!

 

Summer.

I can not believe the last time I made time to sit down and write was over a month ago! What can I say though, the kids, the dogs, the garden, the job...all without my hubs being here for me at the end of the day.... It's been tiresome. 

The Kids. Brianna is here! Only for a short time this summer. Cody is delighted to have his sister here, and the house certainly has more excitement and energy these days. My mom and sister have made several trips down here to the surface of the sun to visit with the kids. As a family we haven't been able to do a whole lot, my work schedule has me gone pretty much all weekend, but we've had our fun...

The Garden. I don't wanna talk about it! It's out of control. We've harvested tons of tomatos and peppers. Made a good amount of salsa and gave away a ton too. 

The job. It has it's up's and down's. On the plus side, it's close to home. On the down side, it's close to home. My hours range from hardly any one week, to a full work week the next. My customers. Some are great, and I enjoy being part of their daily lives, and someone they look forward to seeing and sharing their worlds with. But then sometimes shit gets down right scary. These are the times I wish my husband was home. Living in a small neighborhood, and working in that same neighborhood, sometimes it's all just too close for comfort. 

The deployment. It's nearly coming to an end. 3-4 more months maybe, hopefully. I can not wait until that man gets home. I want to cook side by side with him in our little kitchen, snuggle with him watching Netflix movies, and relax with a nice cold beer after a ridiculously long day. I also would very much like for him to be the one perched at the top of the ladder trying to change out an AC filter, and maybe a little help picking up after the dogs now and then LOL. But really I just want my friend home. I will miss driving that truck though LOL. 

I'm going to try to write more often. At least enough to justify paying monthly for the site LOL. 

Last day of school! Woot!

It's finally here. The last day of school. According to my little man "I've been waiting for this day for a long time". LOL. Cute. He claims he's been over the school year since about December. So far we have nothing planned more than a trip to the airport to pick up my daughter, and then the trip to drop her back off a month or so later. Other than that we will more than likely spend the Summer of 2012 here in sunny Twentynine Palms, or as I like to call it "The surface of the sun". 

As of now I'm still employeed, although it feels like that status could change at any given moment. While I do love my job, "management" has made things a bit difficult at times. The job in theory is a no brainer. Customer wants to buy smokes and booze, sell customer smokes and booze, end of story. But it doesn't always end there. You'd be surprised how much politics and drama goes into the daily operations of a liquer store! So these days I play it hour by hour, day by day. 

We are now officially half way through this deployment thing my husband has going on. This means I could potentially have the man of my dreams, the love of my life in my arms in less than 4 months! Just knowing we are so close makes me smile. I miss my husband so much. Knowing that I'll be able to watch that silly dance of his soon, cook with him, garden with him, and snuggle up next to him at the end of a the day... Like I said, makes me smile. 

The garden. We have squirrels. They are hungry, they have eaten my tiny tim tomatos, 3 pepper plants, 3 tomato plants, my squash plant, and I do believe my pumpkin plant simply gave up producing potential fruit because of those little jerks. But, even all that is only a fraction of what's in my garden. In fact just yesterday I harvested 3 large bell peppers and had stuffed bell peppers for dinner. It is so satisfying to pluck something from your garden and plop it on your dinner table. I can not wait until my hubby gets home with all his awesome kitchen skills so he can advise me better on how to prepare all the garden goodies. That man and I make such a wonderful team on so many levels. 

And now, lets recap the last few weeks with pictures! Please excuse the one unedited indoor picture. I am not typically a point and shoot girl. I use my camera's features to adjust the lighting to capture the subject in the best way possible, but in all honesty I just wanted to eat those darn peppers and didn't have time to fuss with all that nonsense. 

The first harvest of the 2012 planting season. The plan was to make salsa, but 3 bell peppers, a jalepeno, a cerrono and a tomato do not equal a salsa.

This works though.

Snap peas I picked, steamed and had for lunch.

This picture is from last year on the boardwalk in Laughlin, it has nothing to do with the last couple weeks other than I happen to love this picture and love the man in this picture. We were meant to be together.

I know I say pictures of flowers are cliche, but my pictures are not just of the flowers. These pretty little ones are growing from a 2 liter soda bottle, which makes them not cliche, but awesome!

Not much.

Not much happening in our little desert world. Work, home, clean, cook, garden, repeat. That's how the days go by. Could be worse I could always be home. 

The husband is doing well in Afghanistan. Although packages takes about a month or so to reach him, he is receiving the care packages his lovely wife and Stepson have put together for him. He knows where he is missed and loved. I can not wait until he comes back from this deployment. I miss my husband so very much, but I know he needs to do his job, with as little distraction as possible so I stay positive and busy so he can too. 

The job has been blah. I mean it's great to have somewhere to go, and talk to people all day long. I have met many wonderful people on the job, I have met many terrifying people on the job. I think I'm too nice sometimes and have recently started to speak up a little about things that weren't vibing with me . 

The garden. I wish I could find other garden people in the area. I had no problem meeting chicken people. But garden people in the desert seem to be few and far. I just want to know if I'm doing something different, or if I'm that freaking awesome that I can have 25 pepper plants, 18 tomato plants, roses, onions, herbs, pumpkin, strawberry and so on growing so wonderfully in the hot high desert. My husband would just say I am that awesome, he would be right, but seriously I would love to know what is working for me, what am I doing so darn right?

Well I shall wrap this up for now. For my final photo I bring you Wildflowers. They were part of a mix to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. With all the lush green in the garden, they stood out and caught my attention..

Another weekend.

A pictureless blog entry. Sorry. After what felt like a long week, the weekend was fast and over before I had a chance to get some rest. I didn't actually work at my job much during the week, although it sure felt like I was there the whole time. Saturday was busy as usual with the nice weather, the campers and day hikers, plus all the locals were out and about. 

Sunday was Mother's Day. My son and I took a morning drive to Palm Springs for a nice breakfast. We then walked off all that food at Target and Old Navy. We were back in 29 Palms with enough time for me to tidy up the house, then head to work. Bummer. And that was our weekend. 

Now it's the beginning of another week. A weekend closer to my husband coming home. I've got a couple hours this morning to troll around my garden and do the dishes then it's off to work. As much as my work drives me bonkers sometimes, it is delightful to have somewhere to be on a near daily basis. 

More garden.

Yeah yeah, more garden pics from me. I know it seems like overkill but my love of photography, and my need to document what I planted where so I will be able to make sense of it all when it's a full blown jungle out there leaves me with lots of wonderful pictures to share. 

So. Look look look at my garden!