Treasure Hunting in our own yard

Tonight we had a wiener roast in our back yard, Tansley had some friends over, and they were playing in their favourite climbing tree. They've climbed this tree a million times over the years.

There has always been this funny glob of duct tape way up in the tree, and I've always wondered why someone would use duct tape to hold a branch in place. Over the years as the duct tape has deteriorated, I have thought about just pulling it all down. Usually that thought comes while the girls who actually climb up in that tree are at school and I don't have anyone to climb up and pull it down. Tonight, while enjoying this beautiful May evening, Tansley and her friends saw something sticking out of the tape and started to pull it down, and low and behold, it wasn't holding a branch together at all. It was holding a ziploc bag with some notes written by a girl named Robyn, her brother(whose name we couldn't read) and her sister Kayli. The notes were written in August of 2006, and year and a half before we bought this house. The notes were wet and a little moldy, but for the most part we could read them. The kids think this is a great discovery.

The first thing I did was search for them on Facebook. They left us their last name too and enough information to narrow the search. And I'm pretty sure I've found them and have sent them a message letting them know that we have found their notes. I hope we hear back from them so that we can share with them the story on how we found their notes, and why it took us 6 years. I hope this isn't the end of this story. I hope there will be more to share in the near future.

Gardening in Stages

I've began making changes to our garden this year. First I made this new composter:

Now I've began working on transitioning to all raised beds. I had enough cinder block hanging around our yard to make one of the raised beds. We then headed to Lethbridge in a borrowed truck to bring home 2 cubic yards of topsoil and garden mix to fill it.

Now I've bought some pvc pipe and plastic sheeting to create a green house in hopes of having more successful tomatoes and finally cucumbers! I've just never been able to get cucumbers to grow well here in Milk River. We are even trying out some watermelon and a small little patch of pumpkins, and one zucchini plant.  We'll see how it all goes this year.

Next year I hope to add to the raised beds and maybe even finish them the way I want. Here is a sketch of the ideal finished garden.

Oh how I love playing in the dirt and growing my own veggies. It brings me so much joy and satisfaction. Here's hoping for a great gardening year!

The Change Up

So these past few days, Ella has been changing things up a bit. She's been napping earlier and for a shorter period of time in the mornings. And then unbearable in the late afternoon/evening which leads to a late nap. And that late nap leads to NOT going to bed at a reasonable time. Tonight at 6:30 she was sitting on my lap, whimpering. I couldn't get her to settle down. She hadn't had an afternoon nap, but I didn't really want to lay her down just yet. So I just held her...but then she started to drift off. So I thought I'd better get her in her jamas and put her down for the night. But I won't be surprised if she is up at 9 or so to play for awhile. Because she's a turkey, and that is what turkeys do.

I don't know why she's changing things up. We had a good thing going. I new what to expect. I had this thing down pat. And now we're going to have to figure it all out again.

Hmm...didn't even make it to 9, she's crying already, and it's not even 8pm.

Channeling my inner Teen

So last night I did something I have only done once before in my life...and that first time just happened on Friday. Last night I attended a boy band concert, again, but this time it was larger than life. Daniel's boss John Mcfadden gifted us some tickets to the Backstreet Boys concert, tickets for both Daniel and I and for the three oldest girls. It was really such an amazing gift. And we had an absolute blast. The funny thing is that I was never into the boy band craze when I was a teenager. I never really listened to the Backstreet Boys until I married Daniel. Now we listen to them all of the time in the van. The girls all love the music and sing along with Dad when we are driving.

The show was phenomenal. It was exciting and entertaining. At one point they began to sing Kymberly's favourite song "I want it that way" and then they stopped and made a joke about not being allowed to sing that song, and went on to sing other songs. It left Kymberly heartbroken. I could tell something was wrong because she got really quiet and I could tell she was trying not to cry. She was sitting way over on the other side of Dad, who thought she was just tired. I tried to pass a message along to tell her not to worry because they were still going to sing her favourite song, but it was just too loud and nobody could understand what I was trying to say. Finally when everyone was standing, I pulled Kymberly over to sit on my lap so I could talk in her ear and tell her that I could promise that they would sing her favourite song. Once she understood that, she perked up and could enjoy the concert until the moment came for them to sing "I want it that way". And when they did, she flipped out. It was awesome. The girls will be making a thank-you card or poster for John. It was really an awesome thing he did for them.

A Beyond 5 Experience

For Tansley's birthday party this year, I bought her tickets to go to the Beyond 5 concert in Lethbridge. There were enough tickets for her to take two friends, two cousins and Kathryn and I. 

The girls screamed and squealed through the whole concert. It was loud...mostly because of all the screaming coming from the room full of preteen girls screaming for they're favourite band member. But the music was fun, Tansley got to spend her birthday money on a new t-shirt, a CD and some posters that she was able to have the band sign. Tansley's favourtie band member is Zac.

If you haven't noticed, Tansley had this look on her face nearly the entire time. I guess that means that she had a good time and her birthday party was a success.