Day 90 of 365 Days of Pictures

First yeah I made it to 90 days.  This project is a little harder than I thought.  It is hard to remember and decide what to take a picture of everyday.  I am jut happy that I am still at it.

I checked my lime tree today and yes I only have a few lime buds left and about ten flowers that have not bloomed.  Now we just wait and see if we get any limes.  Not sure how I missed it but the lemon tree that seems dead is now trying to come back AGAIN.  We lost the tree to a frost in 2009.  Last year a new tree started to grow and by the end of the year I was able to just break the old tree with my hand.  Again this past winter the tree didn't survive.  The branches are not snapping and I thought there was a chance but no leaves grew on the tree this year.  Now we have ANOTHER tree growing at the base.  This tree is determined to come back.

Here is the new tree

And a picture of the old and new tree

Day 89 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today I had to walk around the outside and see it there was any damage from yesterday's storm.  My main concern was my garden since hail can do a lot of damage to the plants.  There was some damage to some of the leaves and the lettuce, but not enough damage to kill anything.  The high winds blew almost every lime bud or flower off the lime tree.  The tree had tons of lime buds and flowers.  I was hoping to get some limes, but as the flowers died off there were very few that started to turn into limes.  From what I can see there are only a handful of limes left.  I will look at it more when it isn't raining.  My banana pepper plant has blooms and a pepper is starting to grow.  I can't wait to see what I can get out of the garden.  Building and maintaining the garden has been good for me.  I find it relaxing.

Today while Vivian was at school I decided it was time to clean, organize and box up some stuff.  It took me 3 hours but I was able to accomplish what I wanted to do and move ALL of her toys from the living room to her room.  Tonight she came into the living room with some toys and I told her to take them back to her room that my living room is now a toy free zone.  She just looked at me trying to figure out what I was saying.

Banana Pepper plant with the first pepper starting to grow

Day 88 of 365 Days of Pictures

That was a bad storm that came threw tonight.  There was lots of hail, street flooded and so was the backyard.  Vivian was scared of the thunder.  She has never been bothered by it before, but it was really loud tonight.  I jumped a few times because it sounded like it was very close to the house.  Not much else going on.  Kids in school and doing good.  Vivian well she is being a busy 2 year old and keeping me busy too.

Today I will post more than one picture.  Here are a few pictures from the aftermath of the storm.

Day 87 of 365 Days of Pictures

While everyone that has a full time job dreads Monday, there are time s when I look forward to Monday.  Why?  Because that is the day 2 of 3 kids go to school and I get a break from them.  I really hate when my weekends are full of fighting, yelling, screaming and slamming doors.  The joys of a preteen and a 10 year-old.  I am sure if they were both boys or both girls it wouldn't be so bad.  It also wouldn't be bad if they didn't know what exactly makes the other mad.  Most of the time it is Kirsten making Anthony mad and he screams which usually followed by a slamming door.  I am so tempted to take his door off the hinges.  The frame on the door is already coming loose and needs to be fixed.  I am NOT looking forward to when they are both teens unless they start going their own way and doing their own thing.  Right now they are still at the age where they need a playmate whether it be playing sports in the yard or just sitting around.  They always want the other to "play" with them.  Of course now play has a different meaning than when they were 2 and 4.  Now it is playing a video game, playing cards, catch, basketball, riding bikes or just sitting together to watch a movie.  I know one day I will miss seeing them spend time together and I am sure this time will end within the next few years when Kirsten starts high school.  Oh my did I just say that....high school.  Kirsten will be in 7th grade next year and Anthony will be in 5th.  The following year Vivian will be in Pre-K 4 and when she is in Kindergarten I will have a child in elementary, middle and high school.  Oh and when Vivian starts school full -time I will either got back to school for a photography degree or find a job at one of their schools or a private photography studio.

Now my picture of the day.  Moss growing on the fence.

Day 86 of 365 Days of Pictures

This weather just can't get much better.  I love this season so much.  It is not cold and not hot.  We have all been enjoying this weather and spending a lot of time outside.  It is great to see the kids outside instead of in front of the TV.  Another wonderful part is watching everything grow.  My garden is coming along and I can't wait until I can actually see the veggies growing.  My roses are blossoming everyday and each one that opens looks more beautiful than the previous.

Day 85 of 365 Days of Pictures

What a wonderful day.  We went to the spring craft fair at Oak Alley plantation.  I went to find a chair for Vivian.  Several years ago we bought two chairs for our porch.  The guy that makes them also made small ones for kids.  At the time Kirsten and Anthony were too big for the child size chairs.  I see the guy at the craft fair every year.  This year he was there again, but no child size chairs.  I asked if he had any and he said all he had was the adult size.  He will not be making anymore chairs.  He is selling what he has made and once they are gone he will not be making anymore.  He is retiring.  Boo!!  I really wanted a chair for Vivian.  Now I must search for another type of chair for her.

I have always loved going to Oak Alley.  I love looking at the front of the plantation home.

Day 84 of 365 Days of Pictures

Not much going on in our life.  Another uneventful day.  It was a nice day so we got out the water table and Vivian has a blast.  It started with her just playing and end with her sitting in it.  It is always fun watching her.  At this age the smallest things make a child happy.

Day 83 of 365 Days of Pictures

Boring day.  Vivian play outside this morning and I picked up around house since I have neglected it while I waited for my ankle to heal.  I am finally able to walk pretty much normal although every once in a while I feel a pain and limp for a few steps.  I do have a weird feeling every once in while.  I hope it is nothing and just part of the healing process.

The rose I posted yesterday opened up tonight.

Day 82 of 365 Days of Pictures

Spring time is wonderful.  The rose bush I planted the year we moved in is starting to bloom.  There are about 6-7 unopened buds and I found one that already opened.  Too bad they only last a few days before the petals start to fall off.  These roses are not the same type you buy at the flower shop.  I forgot what type they are but they open up until they are almost flat.

The pain is almost completely gone from my ankle.  I can almost walk without a limp.  I will be glad when I can walk normal again.  I really want to start walking everyday again. I can't right now because I am only wearing flip flops and I will not walk 3 miles in them since i have been trying to walk faster.  I started walking last week and walked 2 days for about 45 minutes.  My goal is to get up to walking 45 minutes to 1 hour every day.

Day 81 of 365 Days of Pictures

Woke up and afraid to get out of bed, but I was not in s much pain.  It still hurt to walk but not nearly as bad as yesterday.  The area was still a little tender but I was able to function.  I still spent the day relaxing jus tot make sure I didn't aggravate the area and make it sore again.  Every once in a while when I would take a step or move the wrong way I immediately stopped due to the pain.  Vivian has been really good the past two days.  She kept saying "momma got a boo boo"  and kissing my foot.  She is so adorable.  While she napped I decided I would spend the time relaxing outside on the hammock.  We have been having beautiful weather with a nice breeze.   It was so nice to be able to do this and read a book with no interruptions.  Something that I will be doing more often because I really needed it.

My view from the hammock.

Day 80 of 365 Days of Pictures

Oh what a day.  After yesterday I was glad to start a new day.  That was until I got out of bed.  Oh my!!  I couldn't put any weight on my foot.  I guess I was making a lot of noise not screaming just hopping and trying to get down the hall to wake up the kids because Kirsten came running out her room to see what happened.  She looked at me and I guess she could tell I was in pain.  She told me to go back to bed and she would get everyone ready.  Instead of going back to bed I got ready.  It took me longer than normal because every time I tried to put weight on my foot I almost screamed.  By the time I was done getting ready and made it to the living room the kids were ready to walk out the door.  The rest of the day was spent sitting on the couch.  The best thing to do was to let my ankle heal.  I did check on my garden and flowers.  I am happy it is spring time.  This time of the year the neighborhood looks wonderful because almost every one has an Azalea bush and they are in full bloom right now.  I bought some last year and they are still small.  I bought 2 more this year and I may buy one more for the back yard since the bush I moved is not doing well.  I am pretty sure it will not survive and the rose bush I moved did not survive.  Oh well.

Day 79 of 365 Days of Pictures

I am so glad this day is over.  The kids woke up around 8:30am and they were fighting by 9:00am.  This continued throughout the day.  I am so glad they are all in bed now and this day is over.  During one of these fighting arguing matches I got injured and ended up with 6 stitches.  How?  We went to Home Depot to look at some stuff.  Vivian likes sitting int he race car baskets.  No problem.  Anthony wanted to push the basket. Sure why not.  Anthony gets tired of pushing the basket and wants to sit in it.  Now Kirsten wants to push him and Vivian around.  Again no problem.  Anthony gets mad because Kirsten is swerving with the basket.  Arguing begins.  I take over and push the basket.  Anthony accidentally pulls Vivian's hair while he tried to move her over to get more room.  She now wants me to carry her.  I ask Kirsten to push the basket and Mrs. Attitude comes out.  She doesn't want to push the basket anymore because it is too hard to push with Anthony in it.  Um you were just pushing both of them and didn't complain at all, but since Anthony no longer wants her to swerve the basket back and forth she doesn't want to push the basket.  I continue walking and tell her to push the basket so we can leave.  She is about 5 feet behind and next thing I know I am hit by the basket almost drop Vivian and I am in extreme pain.  I look down and see a scrape on my leg and part of my ankle.  Man it hurts really bad.  I can't even put weight on that foot.  I start trying to walk with a limp now.  A few steps later I feel dripping.  I look down and there is a lot of blood coming out.  Cashier gives me a paper towel ad I leave the store.  On the way to the car a worker stops to make sure I didn't get injured in the store.  I explain what happened and he looks at my ankle.  He says I may need stitches.  I get in the car and take a closer look.  Yep definitely going to need stitches.  It is about 2 inches wide and about 1/4" deep.  I go to urgent care and I walk out of there 30 minutes later with 6 stitches, a tetanus shot and antibiotics.  Now I am sitting here in pain unable to walk since the numbing medicine they used for the stitches has worn off.  I hope it is not as bad in the morning.

The Dr said any deeper and it may have hit a tendon requiring surgery.

Kirsten feels so bad about it, but not bad enough to get rid of her attitude until I finally blew up and made her clean the Kitchen and living room top to bottom

Day 78 of 365 Days of Pictures

I decided I need something else in the backyard for me since I am spending a lot of time out there with Vivian.  I got a hammock.  I need something to help me relax and enjoy the wonderful spring weather.  I am going to be so sad when it comes to an end.  We haven't had rain in almost 2 weeks.  It has been sunny and clear skies since the last store came through.  Did I say I love this weather?  I wish I could push the pause button on the weather and make every day like this.  What makes it more enjoyable is watching Vivian play around in the back yard.  She is so full of energy and she runs around doing so much.  She will run around with the dogs, ride her bike, slide, play with chalk, play in the dirt, get on the trampoline and anything else she can find to do.

Day 77 of 365 Days of Pictures

We woke up to some nice fog this morning.  We could barely see the houses on the other side of the golf course.  On the way to school I could only see about 1/4 of a mile.  Not much more than that happened today.  Just more tending to the garden, spraying the lime tree and putting some weed and feed on the yard.   I also spent time outside with Vivian.  She is really enjoying this weather and I can't keep her in the house. Maybe next week I will get out the water table.

Day 76 of 365 Days of Pictures

I finally got around to making the book sling to hang in Vivian's bed.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  I had to make some adjustments since the instructions I had were for one much bigger and for one that hangs on the wall.  I made it half the size in both length and width.  I also had to add some ties in order to hang it on the side of her crib.  I put it in and took all the books she has collected in her bed in the sling.

I am very happy to say my garden is growing nicely.  Everything has sprouted.  It is funny that I look at it every day, but I can tell how much it has grown in one day.  I can't wait until it actually starts growing veggies.

Day 75 of 365 Days of Pictures

I guess I better be glad I am not scared of bees or allergic to them because they were all over the lime tree again today.   More and more flowers are opening every day.  I have been checking the tree daily because in the past there has been something eating the leaves and the lime skin looks like it was scrapped.   I have been reading about fruit trees and pests.  I am determined to get rid of the ones that have already started attacking the leaves and prevent more from appearing.  Today I noticed a HUGE bee.  After looking at it more I realized it is not a normal bee.  It is about 2-3 times the size of the rest of the bees.  After much Google image searches I think I have figured out what type it is.  I think it is a Carpenter bee.

Day 74 of 365 Days of Pictures

We have been experiencing some wonderful weather.  I decided to spend the day outside with Vivian.  I sat on the back porch while she ran around the back yard.  It was so much fun seeing her playing and having a good time.  After lunch it took her forever to fall asleep.  She kept saying she woke up and wanted to go outside.  After about 1 hour 45 minutes she finally fell asleep and slept for about 2 hours.

While playing the yard with Vivian, I decided to check on the lime tree.  There were a lot of bees swarming around it going from flower to flower.  I was excited to see this.  It means the bees are pollinating my tree and hopefully we will see some good limes this year.

Kirsten had a softball game tonight and they won again.  The girls are getting really good.  The final score was 33-11.

Day 73 of 365 Days of Pictures

Vivian spent the morning playing in the back yard.  I couldn't keep her in the house.  I am really liking this nice spring weather.  It is giving us plenty of time to enjoy outside.  We are trying to adjust to the time change.  Vivian was awake early, but I got her to bed at our normal 8pm time, but our nap time was late, but on time for the old time.

While we were in the back yard I went to check on my lime tree since I sprayed it yesterday.  I found the flower I took a picture of last week has fallen off and we have the start of our first lime.  YEAH!!!

Day 72 of 365 Days of Pictures

Loving this weather.  Another nice day and I didn't have to force the kids out of the house today.  They got up ate and ran outside.  This gave me some time to do laundry and clean up a little around the house.  I checked on my garden and flowers I planted.  Every thing seems to be doing well and some things have begun to sprout.  I am hoping that I actually have a green thumb.  I usually kill anything I plant, but that is usually because I don't take care of them.  I sprayed down the Lime tree.  I saw some small bugs and some of the leaves were curling.  I want to get some good limes this year.  I got some fertilizer spikes for the lime and lemon tree.  I am hoping this will give the lemon tree a boost and it will come back.  If not I will dig it up and get a new one.

Here is another picture of the flowers I planted yesterday.  They are so vibrant and fill of color.  Each pot I planted also has 2-3 different color flowers in it.

Day 71 of 365 Days of Pictures

This morning I made another trip to Home Depot to get some stuff for my Lime tree.  It has some thing eating the leaves. Some of the leaves are curling and look like something is taking bites out of them.  I found a spray and got some fertilizer spikes.  I also got two more azalea bushes and a few flowers for the front yard.  I noticed when I was leaving the house one of the azalea I planted last year had flowers.  The other one has not flowers and only a few leaves.  I am hoping to revive it.  I spent the afternoon weeding and clearing the flower bed and under the bushes in the front yard.  The sun was out and I am pretty sure I got a sunburn.  As I sit here I can feel the tingling on my back and shoulders.  I was wearing a tank top and I knew it would probably happen but I hate getting a farmers tan.

Here are the flowers I got from Home Depot.  I wanted something different this year.  This flower blossomed as I was clearing the weeds.  It was only opened a tiny bit when I bought it this morning.

Day 70 of 365 Days of Pictures

The garden boxes are in place and filled.  I had to find a way to keep the dogs out of them.  I had some wire garden fence in the shed.  It works perfect.  I think it is high enough that the dogs will not be jumping into the garden.  I am very happy with the way it turned out and am excited to watch some stuff grow.  It was hard to pick out the veggies to plant since most of the family is anti-veggie.  I can get Vivian to eat anything.  Kirsten will eat most veggies, but Pablo and Anthony will only eat 2-3 veggies.  Pablo will only eat corn and potatoes.  I can get Anthony to eat corn, potatoes, raw carrots and one time I got him to eat fried zucchini.

This is the completed project.  The bush was moved to the left (not sure if it will survive) and I bought a Jasmine plant.  I have adjusted and straightened the fence since I took this picture.

Day 69 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today Anthony stayed home from school because wasn't feeling well he woke up at 3:30am throwing up.   I decided to move the garden beds over which meant I had to move a bush.  It was easy to do since the bush has shallow roots.  I was able to pull the bush up with out the need for a shovel.  By the time I decided to move it and had the bush moved Kirsten got home from school.  She wanted to help with the garden so she helped me get them in place and fill them up with the soil mixture.  That was a great help it would have taken me twice as long to fill the boxes.  As I filled the boxes she measured the different parts of the mix so I could keep filling.  We finished the last box just as we ran out of light.

I turned around saw Vivian helping us secure the boxes.

Day 68 of 365 Days of Pictures

Wow that was a bad storm that came through at 5:30am.  It woke every one but Vivian.  I was laying in bed hoping she would sleep through it and she did.  Once the storm passed I fell back to sleep.  It was raining really hard, very loud thunder and lightening the lit up the entire sky.  Lucky for us it was not as bad as it was north of us.  There were tornado and the winds were worse.  Cities on the east of us experienced power outages, flooding and downed trees.  The news reported they had not seen anything like it since hurricane Katrina.

I went to get all the mixes needed for my garden.  I am now reading to mix it all together and fill the boxes.  Hopefully the sun is out tomorrow and I can make sure there is adequate sun where I placed them.  I checked on the lime tree again.  I found a bud has blossomed.  I love it when the tree has flowers the smell from the flowers is so fragrant and smells up the whole yard.  If I would have known this when I panted the tree I would have put it closer to the porch.

I noticed after I downloaded this picture that there was an ant crawling on the flower.  I guess I need to figure out what I can do to keep the pests off the tree.

Day 67 of 365 Days of Pictures

Happy Mardi Gras!!!  I am not leaving the house today.  Most places will be closing early and I am not going to any parades.  There is no way I would survive alone with 3 kids.  I also want to keep Vivian and Kirsten at home.  So far they are doing good.  Kirsten hasn't gotten sick since yesterday and Vivian hasn't gotten sick since Sunday.   Anthony and I have managed to avoid what ever they had.  Today I was getting something out of the shed when I noticed my lime tree has a ton of buds on it.  I have never seen this many on it.  I can't wait to see what it produces this year.  Unfortunately I am afraid my lemon tree is a loss.  The lemon tree has never produced a lemon.  I think it may have been a bad tree.  Last winter it died in a freeze, but last spring a new tree sprouted with a few limbs and leave.  Well now those new limbs have no leaves and look like they are dying, but I see a few little sprouts appearing on the trunk of the tree.  I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

You can see the poor lemon tree in the background.

Day 66 of 365 Days of Pictures

What a day.  It started with waking to Kirsten throwing up.  I was already planning on taking Vivian to the doctor because she had been sick for a few days.  What did we find out?  There is a bad stomach virus going around.  Luckily Anthony and I are showing no signs of it.  The last time there was a stomach virus going around only Kirsten and Vivian got it then.  I guess that is what happens when Vivian is attached to Kirsten and must spend most her time with her when she is home.

I have decided to do a garden this year.  After a friend recommended it I am going to do a square foot garden.  I have bought the raised bed kits.  I found them on clearance for $14.  They are regularly priced at $60.  Yeah!!  I figured out where I wanted to place them after talking to a few people.  I did have to do some cleaning up and move some bushes to place them where I wanted them, but they are in their place.  I moved a bush over a foot and moved a rose bush to another spot int he yard.  I haven't cleared where the boxes are because I am waiting for the sun to come back to make sure they will get 6-8 hours of sunlight first.

Day 62 of 365 Days of Pictures

Another missed day.  Oh well.  Glad I caught these now instead in December when my number of pictures and days do not match.

Day 55 of 365 Days of Pictures

Going through my pictures I missed this day.  I guess that is what happens when you are slacking and posting more than one day at a time.  I need to get better and start posting every night again

Day 65 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today we went to the local Mardi Gras parade.  We had a better tie at this parade than we did at the parade in Metairie.  I enjoy this parade more and more every year.   The people on the floats are more willing to throw things than the Metairie parades.  We came home with a ton of beads and stuffed animals.  We got about triple what we got from the Metairie parade.  We found a great spot too that was not crowded.  The closest people were about 6 feet away from us.  Vivian was doing fine until we were on the way back home.  She again got sick in the car.

The kids enjoying the beautiful weather and the parade.

Day 64 of 365 Days of Pictures

Saturday should be a day of fun, but after the day we had yesterday I really didn't want to leave the house in fear that Vivian would get sick again.  By the afternoon Vivian was fine and I decided to go to Hobby Lobby and then stop to eat on the way home.  I went to Hobby Lobby to pass some time and to look for a few things.  I was hoping they would have some sewing supplies since they have material.  Nope.  I was looking for a sewing table or craft table with wheels.  The only thing they had was drawing tables.  So my search continued until I remembered an ABC Distributing catalog that had one similar to what I was looking for.  I will look at some other stores and if I can't find what I am looking for I will buy that one.  On the way home we stopped by Middendorf's for some fish.  Yummy!!  We are 5 minutes from the house when Vivian gets sick again.  Great.  Get home and proceed to clean the car seat and Vivian again.

Taken with my phone since I forgot my camera at home

Day 63 of 365 Days of Pictures

What a wonderful day.  I went to get Vivian up to take he kids to school and as I walked into her room I knew it was going to be a bad day.  She had gotten sick.  I proceed to clean her bed and Kirsten gives her bath.  Hoping that she was find I decided to run some errands before lunch and nap time.  As we are on the way home, Vivian gets sick in the car.  We get home I get the car seat out and throw it in the washer then give Vivian another bath.  This would happen one more time today.  What a day.

Here is a sign at our park.

Day 61 of 365 Days of Pictures

Woohoo!!  I have managed to take a picture every day for 60 days although the past two weeks I have been posting 2-3 days worth of pictures at a time.  I was doing so good blogging and posting the pictures every night, but lately I haven't felt like getting on my computer at night.

I have started walking before lunch.  Today I waited to walk until after dinner and the kids rode their bikes while I walked.  I waited because today Vivian was at "school" and I had some errands to run in Metairie.  It is nice to be able to window shop without kids in tow.  I am able to actually look at things without distractions.

Day 60 of 365 Days of Pictures

Another boring day, but it was a beautiful day outside.  I am so happy the weather has been so nice lately.  Vivian has really been enjoyed playing out int he back yard.  Anthony was not feeling well today so I picked him up from school early.  I made him spend the rest of the day resting.  He did not like that.  I explained if you are too sick to stay at school then you are too sick to do anything at home too.  He tried to go outside to play with Vivian and I told him if he felt good now I could take him back to school.  Kirsten had another softball game tonight.  They won again.  They are doing so well.  They are currently 4-1.

Across the road from the sports complex is a oil refinery.  One of the joys of living in an area where oil refineries are every where.  We have 3 within 10 minutes of our house.  As you can see he refinery can clearly be seen from the baseball field.

Day 59 of 365 Days of Pictures

Not much going on today.  Spent the morning grocery shopping.  Came home cleaned the house and finished laundry.  Tonight Kirsten had a softball game.  They have won 3 in a row now.

Here is Anthony.  I very rarely get a picture of him because he runs from me when I get the camera out.