My own container garden

I decided that I wanted to grow my own bell peppers and strawberries this summer. The plants we bought are doing quite well. I have already gotten 10 strawberries and a pepper is growing as we speak from my little garden. Container gardening is nice because it is weed free.

Busy visitor

Nathan has been visiting with us for the past month. He came to help us remove some very large spiny Agave plants and look for a job. Not only has he accomplished helping us with our difficult plants but has also helped Brian's parents with getting their front yard looking better. Brian and Nathan managed to trim a hedge, worked on the sprinkler system, reseeded the lawn, trimmed some fruit trees, and weeded a small garden. He has also been helping the local landscaper for our complex with some yard work. While doing all this yard work Nathan has also sent out dozens of job applications. I think Nathan has been busier then either Brian or I for the past month.

A new breed of bird watcher

We have been watching and identifying the different birds that visit our bird feeder this year. Mostly we see sparrows but occasionally a mourning dove visits. We have also seen a red-wing blackbird who sang us a pretty song. One day we saw a visitor at the feeder that just didn't match any bird in the bird book.




Our feline friend was watching the birds at the feeder too but for a very different reason then Brian and I. We still see the cat wandering around the area and have caught her watching the birds from lower vantage points since that day.

The month of March

Brian and I started making a dessert for his family once a month last year. The idea, and desserts, were received so well that we decided to continue. This year however is a little different. We make not only a dessert but an entree as well. For March this year we chose to make Scallop potatoes and Key lime pie. We ended up making two different recipes for each one, one simple and one more difficult and time consuming. Not surprisingly the more difficult time consuming recipes were the favorites and disappeared first. Apparently Lion House Key Lime pie and Cheesy scallop potatoes with a dash of garlic are delicious. There were a lot of family around to enjoy the meal and dessert, more then we expected, and we enjoyed sharing.








In other news, Brian and I have just about reached the two year mark in the adoption route. Recently we learned that Hoping to Adopt is allowing profiles to be placed for free. This is a site we had be thinking about utilizing since we attended the conference last July. The news about the recent change was just the push we needed. We are excited to see what happens now.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day! Brian and I have celebrated 6 February 14th's together now. Our first Valentines together was the most memorable. Brian brought me roses at work and then had dinner ready when I got home. We had a steak dinner by candlelight with a dozen roses sitting in the middle of the table between us. Brian made me a special card with Spanish sayings one year. He made it while he was subbing for a Spanish elementary class. I still have the card. Sometimes it's hard to spend the day together because one of us is working but we try to do something special.

NASCAR

Brian has his own version of "game night". He has some friends that live in Cedar City that he gets together with to play games. They use to play Lord of the Rings but the little shop they played at closed down. Now they play all sorts of board games and different card games. Every so often they play a game I know so I join in. Last Saturday Hardcourt and his son Peter brought down their "slot cars". The guys had a lot of fun racing the cars around the electronic track. It was a miniature version of NASCAR. Watching cars speed around and then have a massive crash is so much fun!

To a New Year

Now that the holidays are over and things are settling back into the usual routine, I have time to update the blog. I get to update on my fancy new mini laptop, one of my Christmas gifts this year. It is quite fast and does everything a full size laptop does but with the small disadvantage of no disc drive. No problem. Brian got it for me so that on the days that not much is happening at work I have something to entertain myself with. This makes our total computer count at three.
Brian is working on his last semester of classes to get his level III math certification. If he does one more semester (3 classes) he will have a level IV and his Bachelors degree for math. He plans on getting that degree but would like to get a full time teaching position for the new school year. We are hoping for local but Brian is willing to expand his horizons and apply just about everywhere now. I think we will try the Utah area first though.
We are still waiting for new developments on our adoption. So far we have had 783 people view our profile message but only 4 have looked at our contact information. We expanded and updated our criteria and are hoping this will bring more "hits" to our page. Brian says we will look at posting on other adoption web sites and see what other recommendation our case worker can make when the summer comes. It will be two years at that point that we have been waiting. They tell us at the agency that the more people we tell that we are trying to adopt the better chances we have.
So as you can tell, not much has changed for us. Now we have a new year and some big resolutions to accomplish.